Here’s a link (pdf file) of a great interview Glenn Pendlay did on Strength training for sports.

For me, as a strength coach, this was the key quote:

If you really want to know how to get people stronger, train yourself like a madman, learn all you can from that, seek out people who know more than you do and learn from them. Learn all you can about track and field training and Olympic lifting and powerlifting. Learn from the people in those sports that are actually producing athletes, and not the ones who are simply famous. Compete in those sports yourself even if you suck. Bookmark Medline and read all the research you can. Develop an affinity for the local university library where you can photocopy the full articles you saw on Medline. Call foreign coaches and talk to them. Read all the books available on training. Never assume that any one person has all the answers or get so carried away on one thing that you never learn or adapt your ideas again. Train or assist in the training of any athlete you can lay hands on, and then repeat each of the above steps consistently for somewhere between 10 and 20 years and you’ll probably be there. I’m currently involved in this very program that I am recommending, I figure I have about 5 more years to go and ill actually know something useful.

I, myself, have been on that program for about 5 years.  I did personal training before that, and was training myself hard, but only got serious about training athletes 5 years ago.  In that time I can’t tell you the radical shifts my own philosophy has taken. 

I figure if you aren’t changing something major every year, you aren’t continuing to learn.  In each year, I have to evaluate what worked in the previous year (and keep that), and what didn’t.  But, even more important, figure out what I need to replace what didn’t work and how to fit that into the stuff I’m keeping around that did. 

With every new athlete I train, I learn something new.  Each person responds to different things and learns in different ways.  And, on the flip side, there are constants that seem to be similar in nearly every athlete, and finding what those things are is just as important as highlighting the differences. 

Here are just 5 things I’ve learned in the last 5 years that I wasn’t as solid about previously:

1.  Keep it Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.).  It’s easy to get caught up with all the fancy-pantsy methods of training because those are fun, exciting, and new-age.  But, the fact is, most of what works turns out to be the same old stuff that has worked for years: heavy, hard lifting on basic movements like cleans, snatches, squats, and deadlifts.

2. Teaching Beginners the Olympic Lifts isn’t THAT Hard.  Becoming a world-class Olympic weightlifter IS hard. But, having decent technique that will make you more explosive, stronger, and powerful and to do so in a way that is safe is not at all as hard as its made out to be.  I can take ANY athlete and have them doing solid power snatches, power cleans, jerks, front squats, etc in less than 2 months – easy.  If they have talent and drive, even faster.

3.  More Upper Body Work.  I’m an Olympic weightlifter.  I became one after first being a powerlifter.  So, I don’t come from a Brotastic arm-day loving background.  When I first started coaching I spent so much time on squats and cleans, that I ran into some joint problems with some of my lifters in their upper bodies.  Mike Boyle is right, lower body injuries are often because of something you DID.  Upper body injuries are usually from something you DIDN’T do.  Adding in chins, push ups, and rows will make a huge difference in keeping people off the injured list.

4. LESS Core Work.  This might sound outright insane, but most athletes spend too much time on their “core” and not enough time getting truly strong.  By core work I mean crunches, side bends, leg lifts, etc.  Stabilization is a good thing, but much of that will come naturally through heavy work on overhead squats, push ups, weighted chin ups, etc.  All of my lifters can do planks for days … and they never do planks except in the very early stages of development.

5. The Olympic Lifts are Strength Lifts.  Most strength coaches (outside of Oly lifting) approach the olympic lifts primarily as something to increase speed and power.  The lifts do this, of course, but they are more than that.  If I could do only one lift, I’d do heavy clean and jerks.  Learning how to do these lifts efficiently allows you to use massive weights you could never get up without proper form.  In turn, you develop even greater strength.  I’ve found that one of the fastest ways to increase someones squat and deadlift is to teach them to clean and snatch heavy weights.  A bigger clean = stronger body.

If you’d like to find out more about what my athletes are doing, make sure to check out our website:  www.PDXWeightlifting.com

You’ve heard it before, and maybe you’ve even tried it.  Carbs and Fat should be kept apart in each meal.

Well … too bad that isn’t backed up by science.  Here’s an article by Alan Aragon going over the issue:

More proof that having fat with carbs won’t hinder fat loss

A relatively recent
trial examined the effects of 3 diets consisting of roughly 1400 kcals
each for 8 weeks, followed by 4 weeks of maintenance [3]. The diets had
the following macronutrient proportions: a) very low fat  (70% carb,
10% fat, 20% protein), b) high unsaturated fat (50% carb, 30% fat, 20%
protein), and c) very low carb (4% carb, 61% fat, 35% protein). Since
none of the groups were told to separate their fat and carb intake, the
high unsaturated fat group should have lost the least amount of fat
because of all that dreadful mixing, right? On the contrary, no
significant differences were seen in total weight loss, or loss of
bodyfat percent. And here’s the kicker: this lack of difference in
bodyfat reduction was seen despite the distinctly different effects
each diet had on fasting insulin levels.

Another recent trial compared
two 1500 calorie diets, a non-ketogenic diet and a ketogenic one [4].
Insulin sensitivity was equally improved between the groups. No
inhibition of fat loss was seen in the non-ketogenic diet despite the
fact that it was moderate in both fat (30%) and carbs (40%). In fact,
the non-keto group lost more bodyweight and bodyfat than the keto
group, although neither of these effects was statistically significant.
It appears that any threat of fat/carb combining slowing fat loss is
imagination-based.

Nails in the coffin, anyone?

The current body of research
focuses on obese, deconditioned, or untrained subjects. And still, the
moderate-carb/fat-combining fails to show a fat loss disadvantage over
carb-restricted or carb-separated conditions. Putting athletic subjects
through the same conditions would show even LESS of a difference. Since
fit folks have far better glucose and insulin metabolisms than the
unconditioned obese, nit-picky combination or separation would be a
nonfactor for fat loss.

The bottom line is that as
long as you’re aware of your macronutrient targets for the day, go
ahead and sludge that peanut butter into your oatmeal if your little
heart desires it. Leave the neurotic eating behaviors for those with a
lot of faith in fairy tales.

Check out this Zen-like story/joke that Roy sent me. 

A student goes to the dojo and asks how long it will take to become a master. 

The master replies “There is no answer to that, my son. First you must learn patience.” 

The student replies “Yeah, yeah, patience. How long is that going to take?”

The picture above is of Snake River Canyon in Idaho.  How long did THAT take!
Answer:  Over 14,000 years.

Nia Shanks hardly looks like she works out … but boy does she!!

Here’s her sumo deadlifting 315:

And here she is doing 275 for 3 reps!

I was posting an ad on Craigslist this morning, and when it came time to type the “gotcha” image letters (you know the ones that help keep down spam posts), this is what I was asked to type:

Jaundiced Flatland

I don’t know what it means, but it’s very “pop” Zen.  Deep, man … deep.

One of my lifters, Beth, tipped me off to this new development at USA Weightlifting:  A new hybrid USAW/CrossFit competition:

The event will join weightlifting – one of the oldest Olympic sports – with CrossFit – one of the most popular strength and conditioning programs in the nation that combines weightlifting, sprinting and gymnastics.

Yep, USA Weightlifting is finally thinking outside the box.  Now … it’s true that a lot of weightlifting coaches behind closed doors have a lot of negative things to say about CrossFit.  Some of these complaints are well founded, most are not.  But …

The REAL question is, “is this new move going to help USA Weightlifting – as a business – or is it just another bad business decision on their part?”

Here are the facts.  CrossFIt is THE most popular fitness system in the world that includes the Olympic lifts.  Period.

Most people (the general public) don’t even know that Olympic weightlifting exists as a sport – at all.  They think we oil ourselves up and pose in panties.

And the few who might not be that clueless, still think we’re Powerlifters who compete in the Bench.  We’re an extremely underground sport.  How is it that an obscure sport like Bobsledding has top of mind awareness (everyone knows what it is), but weightlifting – a sport anyone with a bar can do – doesn’t?

CrossFitters may be the only people on earth who actually know what it is that we do.  More over, they have respect for us, and actively seek us out to help them with their technique on the lifts.

I’ve had LOADS of local CrossFitters here in Portland come to me to improve their technique.  I currently have a few CrossFit practitioners on my competitive team.

USA Weightlifting embracing CrossFit is (in my opinion) a great move.  It may ruffle some feathers.  But, if USA Weightlifting doesn’t start making some changes – soon – there won’t be a USAW.

One might also ask, “who is going to go to this contest?”

I admit, my first response to seeing this new hybrid competition was, “No weightlifter is going to do that.”

Weightlifters don’t do reps.  And certainly not for time!

But, who cares?  We don’t need to have a new contest for people who are ALREADY members of USAW and compete regularly – we’ve already converted them!

We need something (a lot of something’s) to inspire new blood to give weightlifting – as a sport – a go.  This is a middle ground, opening a door, wetting an appetite.

CrossFit has a reach that USA Weightlifting can only dream about.  It has a cult following (that admittedly turns off many non-CrossFitters) that is easy to move en masse.  If you get loads of CrossFitters excited about lifting competitively, you have a whole new market of potential lifters who already know about the lifts and are excited about them.

We call those “highly qualified leads” in business.  USA Weightlifting is a business.  I’m glad to see a step in the direction of it being run like one.

Check out this ESPN article on the rise and the development of the Strength Coach’s role in sports.  Click here.

“It used to be that it almost was a boutique thing if you had a
strength coach, a luxury,” Kelly said. “It’s now become a leadership
position. The strength and conditioning coordinator is on parallel with
the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator.

This goes for Sports performance coaches, personal trainers, and anybody in the profession.  Even just 10 years ago, most people were relatively unaware of the level to which their performance would suffer if they didn’t have a rock-solid strength and conditioning program.  And consequently, there were few private sports performance coaches out there (like me). 

Now there is a real market of hungry athletes who know damned well that if they don’t get themselves under a bar with some weight on it, they’re at a far greater risk of injury, and they’ll never reach their full potential. 

The times they are a changin’ …

I love these old-school vids!

Check out this video of coach Tara slamming a sledgehammer.  Often you’ll see people doing these on a big tractor tire.  The tire gives you a bit of a bounce, which makes it easier on each rep to get it back into position..

She’s slamming it into a gravel pile, which means she has to drag it back up on every rep!  Cardio never felt so good!

These 105k (16 and a half stones, or 235ish pounds) lifters are some big boys.  As is usually the case, 105′s look the most like bodybuilders of any of the male weight classes. 

At my club we’ve yet to have a 105, but that’s about to change as Chris is moving up.  He’s already known as the big guy, so lord knows how massive he’s gonna look when he packs on another 20 pounds.