Reflections After a Horrible “Strength Training” Workshop: Women, Weightlifting, and The Coach as Scientist
A few months back, my friend Beth asked if I’d like to go to a continuing education conference/workshop on Strength Training with her. Beth is a PhD, a researcher in Physical Therapy, and has a background as a clinician. She and I often have great discussions about all kinds of things, strength training among them. Of course, I said yes. Any chance to hang out with a close friend, talk shop, and learn new things is something I am always down with!
The program was aimed at Physical Therapists (as far as I could tell), and I was excited that I might learn something from a perspective that I wouldn’t normally get in a room full of nothing but strength coaches.
Two days ago, Wednesday, was the day. We met for coffee outside the place at 7:30am, and Beth said in a positive tone, “I’m feeling optimistic about this.” I felt the same way …
Holy Hell were we wrong!
It turned out to be one of the absolute worst Strength Training related conferences or workshops that either of us has ever seen.
It did start out promising for the first 45 minutes. The speaker went over some interesting data concerning muscle loss as we age and how masters athletes are able to mitigate this substantially. She talked about the importance of keeping your training programs “functional”. For example, if your client is very old and has a hard time getting in and out of a chair, you should actually practice getting in and out of chairs. And, just as importantly, this should be done daily. Great!
Unfortunately, at about the 45 minute mark, things started to go downhill something fast. Among the erroneous things being spouted off by the speaker were the admonition of squatting below 90 degrees, the standard placating of women who don’t want to “lift heavy” and “bulk up”, a totally incoherent point of view (saying things like, “women are more likely to get knee injuries than men, so they need more work on their lower bodies,” and following that with, “women should focus on upper body training.”), and then about 4 hours of slides that were nothing but images of her demonstrating exercises (an amazing amount of which were of the curl variety).
Needless to say, Beth and I were disgusted. We broke for lunch, commiserated, went back in for about 30 minutes and said, “Potato” (our code-word for, “let’s blow this joint!”).
Below are two things that came up in our conversations that day, and that I kept reflecting on afterward. The first part is about how I believe coaches should think of themselves as being a part of the scientific process, not antagonistic to it.
The second part is about women in weightlifting and the cultural barriers that are still in place keeping them out.
Part I – The Coach as Researcher
I’ve spent nearly my entire adult life attached to Universities. The culture of them feels like “my” culture. Most of my friends have advanced degrees. Many work in Universities or are finishing PhD’s so that they can in the future. And, I’ve been studying mathematics now for so long I can’t even remember why I started in the first place.
So, I suppose it’s little wonder that I approach the career of a strength coach as though I am a professor at a University. As I see it, any coach who truly believes in what they are doing should think of themselves this way.
Part of the job of a coach is the practical act of teaching in the classroom/gym. That’s the part that is most obvious. Another part of the job is educational outreach (like this blog). Another is research and experimentation (which for a coach, while done informally, is often done on a large scale – I’ll get into this in a bit).
However, huge part of the job is hidden from public view: It’s time spent continuing to educate yourself so that you can better serve your students/athletes in the future and can stay on top of, and be a driver of the most cutting edge changes in your field.
While going to a conference/workshop like the one Beth and I were subjected to may have turned out badly this time, it isn’t always that way. And going to these things is part of my job.
Reading, researching, and going around to educational events takes time and money. And it is time and money that does NOT easily translate back into my business. When you work for a University, this time spent making you better at your job is considered a part of what they are paying you for. They will often reimburse your expenses (not always). But, for me … I’m my own boss. I either make money and keep the doors open, or I don’t make money and we shut down. Improving my skills as a coach will have long term benefits, but the short term ones are pretty meager.
Sadly, the cost-benefit analysis among many coaches (most!) leads them to not spend the time (and money) required to really keep up. That is too bad, especially for their athletes. And, it has led to a field full of trainers who are totally clueless.
The Science of Coaching
Beth, being from both the clinical and the research side of Physical Therapy, has a unique perspective most researchers in her field just don’t have (she is also an avid CrossFitter and the current State Champion in her weight class in weightlifting). Unfortunately, in both Physical Therapy and exercise science, people like Beth are rare. That would be OK if there was more interaction between researchers and practitioners. As it stands now, there isn’t. And it is even worse in Exercise Science than in Physical Therapy.
Generally, coaches feel like the scientists are off in left field studying things are are either totally unimportant, or only tangentially related to what matters in the gym. Scientists feel, rightly, that most coaches are undereducated idiots who couldn’t understand good science even if they wanted to.
This is a sad state of affairs. And, it is part of the reason that Exercise Science, as a field of study, is so far behind other sciences. It should be that researchers have real-world practical connections to the things they study (seems so obvious, doesn’t it!), and it should be that coaches are able to think more scientifically and take their education more seriously.
Hypothesis Generation
Coaches are not scientists. But, the better ones do something that is an informal kind of research that leads to what might be called “Hypothesis Generation”. They end up collecting huge storehouses of data over time, and are able to see trends and correlations that lead them to hypotheses about what may or may not be the causes of such trends. They make decisions based upon those hypotheses and then end up with a new set of data. This process is a bit like evolution in that the better ideas tend to stay around and the worse ones don’t.
That said, this isn’t done strictly scientifically. And sometimes good ideas get swept aside wrongly and vice versa. There is no control group, no isolating of variables. Trends and correlations are often highly misleading! (Read Karl Popper if you want a primer on what is and is not good science.)
But, coaches are ahead of the curve most of the time. They are, and should be, the drivers of future research in the field. Some of the best research that is done by exercise scientists is trying to test these hypotheses that were generated in the “real world” lab of the gym with the coach. That is, they try to formally understand the details of why something seems to be working.
Some coaches like to use the idea of the Black Box. They say, “we don’t know why our system works for so many people, we just know it works.” The Black Box is like a function, you put something in one end, and out pops something else on the other. But, you have no idea what happened inside.
A scientists job is to take that and try and figure out what is going on in the box.
I’ve always Hated that Black Box mentality. I want to know why!
The presenter at the workshop did not have the mindset of a scientist. I think good coaches should. We are not actually scientists, but we should be trying to find ways to partner with them as much as possible, and think as critically as possible. There is no place for an “I don’t know why it works, it just works” mentality. The modern coach needs to get beyond that.
Part II – Women and Weightlifting
Most of my best friends all of my life have been female. So, if I get a bit “peved” and defensive here, that may be why.
I’ve had the sad experience about 6 times where I was training a female client for some time and then had her leave because her boyfriend was getting worried that she was getting “too bulky”. Sometimes the guy trained with me too, sometimes not. But, in every case, the claim was idiotic. The women were never bulky. In fact, they were often unusually small, and quite a bit smaller than some of the other women in the gym, including my own fiancé!
This kind of crap really pisses me off!
Here I was seeing great progress in a woman who was feeling great about her ability to accomplish something and improve at something she never would have originally believed she could do, and it all gets ripped away because of some moronic idea of what “sexy” is. One of the reasons I love my job is because I get to help facilitate a change in someone that really does make their lives better. For these women, they lost out on that.
In contrast to these weirdo dudes, and as an illustration, here are a few of the qualities I find desirable in a woman.
- Strong. I hate when women whine and cry about something being “too heavy”, or say things like, “you’re a guy, can you lift that for me?” No. I will not lift that for you. If you are too lazy to put in the work that it takes to be able to move something that only weighs 50 pounds, that is your problem. Imagine how a guy would sound if he asked me the same question.
- Goal orientated. My favorite women are those that are working hard at pursuing something for themselves in life. This doesn’t make them “cold” or “unfeminine”. It makes them like me! And it means we’ll have a lot to talk about.
- Intellectually curious. Similar to #2, I want a woman who likes to learn. In my experience, the more intelligent a woman is, the more level headed she is, and the better her sense of humor. I’m a mellow guy who likes to constantly blab about fun and interesting topics, joke around, and talk long into the night about anything and everything. I want women around who do too.
Now, I’m rather lucky. My fiancé, Leslie, is all of those things and much more. In fact, I’m surrounded by a lot of women who have these qualities. It’s one of the great things about women who do weightlifting and similar things like CrossFit. They tend to be just as hard working in the mental department as they are in the physical. I like well rounded people. Crazy, I know.
The men out there who dislike what they perceive as “bulky” muscles on a woman are really just projecting their fear that these women are exhibiting too much of #2 and #3 above. They worry that if they have a woman that is both physically and mentally strong and powerful, that will somehow negatively reflect on their own “masculinity”. They are afraid they won’t measure up. And they blame the women for it.
Well … if you are really that concerned, dude, you probably don’t measure up!
It goes deeper, however. The women who allow their men to decide these kinds of things for them are to be taken to task, also. They are free to tell the guy to F-off. But, they don’t. They tacitly condone his point of view that their accomplishments in the gym make them less “feminine”. And that’s some bullshit!
My Point
We should not placate women who say they don’t want to lift weights, who say they are afraid of looking bulky, who say they don’t “like the feeling” of lifting, etc. We are doing them a disservice. Sadly, in the fitness profession, there is still quite a lot of this type of placating going on. Beth and I had to hear some of it during the workshop.
The Speaker should have said, “I know that you have some fears regarding lifting weights, but those fears are unfounded. You need to do resistance training for your long term health. Period.” And then she could have gone over the reasons why the fears are unfounded.
Instead, she just let it go and encouraged the woman to do interval training on the elliptical, instead! Think about it, here we were in the middle of a workshop on strength training and she’s telling the women in the audience that they don’t need to strength train!!
Our culture is clearly messed up. We’ve got young men who are so insecure in their manhood that they force their girlfriends to stop lifting weights and we’ve got female strength trainers telling women that they don’t need to lift weights at all. While I know that we’ve come far, relative to where we were 30 years ago, we obviously have a long way still to go.
Are Females Ideal Olympic Weightlifters?
I’ve had a theory rattling around in my head for a number of years that I think has at least some merit: I think women may be better suited to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting than men are. I’m not saying that some men won’t make fantastic weightlifters. I’m just saying that statistically, women are more likely to be good at it than men are.
My friend Mighty Kat asked me to write a “proper” article about it a while ago, and I plan to, but I want to quickly lay out my reasons for believe this here.
Women are often far more patient than men when it comes to learning proper technique. This is especially true of young people. As we age, we all start to mellow out a bit. But, young men are a pain in ass. Not all of them! I’m blessed to have two great young dudes at my club: Brandon Tovey and Riley Charlish. But, these guys are the exception that prove the rule.
Weightlifting requires years of hard work on minutia to be truly great at. Most young men are just too hot headed and impatient for that. In a 3rd world country where the boys have no other way out of poverty, the incentive keeps them in. But, here in the states, you have to rely on the inner dedication of the athlete to keep them going.
In my opinion, you are more likely to be able to take a high school age female and keep her in the game for the required 7 to 10 years to reach the world level than you will a high school age male. This may be evidenced by the fact that most of the best lifters in the country right now are women. There are some great guys, but I think the talent is weighted on the female side.
They also have a physical advantage.
Females are more likely to be wide hipped, for instance. Wide hips suck for running (for most sports, actually), but they are GREAT for weightlifting. If you did measurements, you’d notice that the best male weightlifters have a wider than average hip-to-height ratio. That is, men who have this body type are not the average. It IS the average for females.
Putting this together, then, means that if we took 20 random young women and 20 random young men, more of the women would end up good at the sport than the men.
The sad thing is that because of the aforementioned cultural bias against females lifting weights we have artificially favored a male domination of weightlifting at the local high school and college level. Young girls, some of whom have a lot of potential, are avoiding the weight room because of a stupid fear of “bulking up” and not looking pretty to their idiot boyfriends.
Increasing the number of female lifters who become national and world champions is a good goal. But, more importantly, we need to make sure females in general can feel confident in the gym, and know that they are beautiful in part because of the weightlifting, not in spite of it.
It is incumbent upon fitness professionals to take the lead on this issue. The Presenter at the workshop, a female, was stuck in the past. It’s time to look toward the future: A future full of strong bad-ass ladies!
By the way, Beth and I ditched out early on that stupid workshop and went straight to the gym to do squats … well below parallel!
An Olympic Weightlifting Peaking Program – Our 4-Week Training Leading Up to the Oregon State Championships
The state championships this year went really well for us. Beth and Amy won their weight classes. Brandon set 2 Jr. State Records (Clean and Jerk and Total, the snatch record was already his, and he matched it). Chris hit life-time PR’s in the Snatch, Clean and Jerk, and Total. Jake hit PR’s so big that he added 17.5k to his total(!). And Dave and I both matched our best-ever contest lifts.
In other words: not too shabby!
Sure, most of us (other than Chris and Jake!) feel like there are things we could have done better. That is always the case. But, clearly the work we all put in paid off.
That begs the question, “what was the work we put in?!”
Below I’ve posted a (rough) template of the routines that I wrote on the white board every day in the gym for the last 4 weeks before the contest. (I’ve also posted a video of some highlights of May’s Training at the bottom of the page).
Not everyone did every workout as written, but most came close. (It is also the work done by a number of lifters who didn’t compete this time, but who have been making a lot of PR’s. Aaron, the blonde dude at the beginning of the video has been hitting PR’s almost every week!)
Now, of course, a few lifters didn’t touch this routine. Beth (in the pic above), for instance, was coming in about 3 or 4 times a week and doing her normal CrossFit work on the other days. (See my article on combining Oly lifting and CrossFit here.) She was training every day (like she usually does), but not always on Oly lifts. For her, the work she did with me was totally focused on getting as many good singles in as possible on the snatch, clean and jerk, and front squat, and shoring up a few technical issues. That’s it. And it paid off.
The day of the Contest she was “off” a bit, and quite nervous to start. But, the training kicked in. While she wasn’t hitting things perfectly, she was able to make both her openers solidly (in fact, she powered them both – albeit on her second attempts). That was enough to beat out the other women she was up against. And she won, and is now the State Champion.
The point of the training is to make sure that on your “bad” days (contest are almost always bad days!), you still get on the board and do well. She put in the work and was rewarded for it.
Now … Most of my lifters do the PM workouts only (and the AM on Saturdays). Brandon and I do twice-a-days because we can. It’s the PM workouts that matter, they are the real meat-and-potatoes of the program. If you want to try this, ignore the AM workouts unless you have a ton of time on your hands. I’m just putting it in there because I think it is important to show it all. I personally am the ONLY lifter who did AM workouts on nearly every occasion (Brandon has 2 jobs, so he can’t always do them). For me, being in the gym IS my job, so I might as well lift.
At 33 years old, I’m proof that you don’t have to be a teenager to work your ass off.
Special Treat
One last thing before we dive in. I make a lot of adjustments to all of my routines for masters lifters and lifters who have busy lives and couldn’t possibly do the maniacal routine you are about to read. These lifters do very well. It would be way too complicated for me to explain every little adjustment and routine that I make for each and every lifter on a blog … but, don’t worry! If you find yourself wanting to know all the details, the ins and outs, and the methods behind it all, then you are in luck.
Dr. Michael Hartman and I are working on a BIG project together that will compile a massive storehouse of detailed routines and templates that the two of us have used over the years training real athletes in the real world (not just the routines used by high-level super talented freaks who can do anything and succeed, but also the programs used by real people like YOU). To keep up to date on when this project will be released, make sure to sign up for my newsletter to the right of this page (and also to Dr. Hartman’s newsletter on his blog here.)
OK … without further ado … the workouts:
Week One – Squat Focus
Monday
AM
Front squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Back Squat: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 90% (do sets of 2 or 3 reps with what you made for your 1RM)
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core. (This is always optional, and should not be taken too seriously. Just do “stuff”.)
Tuesday
AM
Front Squat: 1RM
PM
Front Squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
Power Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Wednesday
AM
Front Squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Back Squats: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 90%
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core.
Thursday
AM
Front Squat: 1RM
PM
Front Squat: 1RM
Weak Link Training. (Work on what you suck at most. Could be snatch, cleans, or jerks. Don’t go heavy, focus on technical details.)
Friday
PM – only
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Back Squat: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 90%
Saturday
AM – only
Front Squats: 1RM
Weak Link Training
RDL’s: Hvy 5 (this should be heavy, but NOT a true max.)
Sunday
AM – only
Back Squats: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 90%
Week Two – Oly Focus
Monday
AM
Front squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 80%+
Back Squats: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core.
Tuesday
AM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Front Squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
Power Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Wednesday
AM
Front Squat: 1RM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Snatch: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 80%
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Back Squats: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core.
Thursday
AM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Front Squat: 1RM
Weak Link Training.
Friday
PM – only
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Back Squat: 1RM
Saturday
AM – only
Front Squats: 1RM
Weak Link Training
RDL’s: Hvy 5
Sunday
AM – only
Back Squats: 1RM + 3×2 or 3 @ 90%
Week Three – Peaking
Monday
AM
Snatch: 1RM
PM
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Front Squats: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core.
Tuesday
AM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Power Snatch: 1RM
Power Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Wednesday
AM
Snatch: 1RM
PM
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Front Squats: 1RM
-Bodybuilding and core.
Thursday
AM
Power Snatch: 1RM
PM
Weak Link Training.
Friday
PM – only
Snatch: 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 1RM
Front Squat: 1RM
Saturday
AM – only
Front Squats: 1RM
Weak Link Training
Sunday – OFF
Week Four – Pre-Contest
Monday
AM
Snatch: 90% of opener
PM
Snatch: Openers
Clean and Jerk: Openers
Tuesday
PM – only
Power Snatch: 80% of openers
Power Clean and Jerk: 80% of openers
Wednesday
AM
Snatch: 80% of opener
PM
Snatch: 90% of Opener
Clean and Jerk: 90% of Opener
Thursday
PM – only
Power Snatch: 80% of opener
Power Clean and Jerk: 80% of openers
Friday
PM – only
Bar only, maybe up to 40% or so of your openers. Roll out and stretch a lot. Warm up as though your are about to lift heavy. Screw around, then go home. The point is to keep the body going, NOT to “workout”.
Saturday
CONTEST!!
Here’s the video I promised. (Yes, for those in the know, the music is the background is my own.)
Zen Quote of the Week:
“There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.” – Ghost Dog
This Week in the World of Weightlifting:
The Shankle Shuffle, ‘nuff said:
Sarah Robles is profiled in a video by Cronkite News Online. She’s the #1 ranked weightlifter in America (male or female), and is looking like a strong contender for a spot on the Olympic team in 2012. Oh, and she’s also one cool lady. Here’s a link to her blog and a post on the recent Collegiate Nationals. Here’s a video of her at the same meet:
Glenn Pendlay is interviewed by Jon North in a 20-questions format. What’s fun is that none of the questions have anything to do with weightlifting!
Bret Contreras has some advice on how to train when you don’t want to.
Adam Stoffa has a great post on the duplicity of Sports Organizations that say they want to clean up drug use, but really don’t. It isn’t just Lance or the Baseball guys. It’s ALL sports. Drugs are rampant, and the biggest gainers are the organizations themselves. Here’s a quote from his article:
Once upon a time, I wrote a paper (Betrayal of Trust) on the regulation (or lack thereof)of performance enhancing drugs in horse racing. My take then and now is that the promoters (and this includes sponsors) have the greatest interest in maintaining the façade of regulating the sport and keeping its participants clean, while allowing (read as tacitly encouraging) a culture of secret use and abuse of performance enhancing drugs.
Michael Hartman has 2 posts that can help you to increase your training frequency. Part I and Part II. Here’s a sneak peak:
Example: Workout A and Workout B (I know, clever name…)
Workout A - Snatch 1×1 @ 75, 80, 85, 90, 92-95%
Clean & Jerk 1×1 @ 75, 80, 85, 90, 92-95%
Squat 1×3 @ 87, 90, 92%; 1×2 @ 87, 90, 92%
Workout B - Squat 5×3 @ 80%
Snatch 8×1 @ 75%
Clean & Jerk 6×1 @ 75%
*Exercise Sets x Reps @ % of max
Donny Shankle has a tasty lookin’ recipe for BBQ Tri-Tip.
That’s right, not only can he shuffle, but he can cook.
70’s Big via Spencer Mormon on how to not give a shit … like a man.
Marilou Dozois-Prevost does a near double-bodyweight clean and jerk and makes it look easy:
Roger Lawson has a guest post on JC Deen’s blog about improving your Bootay.
Bret Contreras takes a particularly Zen-like approach to dealing with ones attitude. Here’s his inner dialogue with Clint Eastwood:
Clint: Are you paralyzed?
Bret: No
Clint: Do you have cancer?
Bret: No
Clint: Do you have AIDS?
Bret: No
Clint: Did any of your friends or family recently die?
Bret: No
Clint: Are they safe and healthy?
Bret: Yes
Clint: Then man the hell up son! Your life is going pretty well.
AMEN.
Brad Pilon is interviewed by Mike T. Nelson about his version of intermittent fasting and his take on sports supplements.
Ben Claridad. There’s something about this drawing of Ben’s that I really like:
Ben’s a weightlifter and an artist. I like that, since I’m a weightlifter and a musician. I think there are connections between working hard on your body to make it into something beyond what most think is possible, and in creating art – something many people find impossible.
Peter Roselli has an article on Pendlay.com about using the Medvedyev system to train beginners that I think is quite interesting. It’s very different than the methods used by we neo-Bulgarian types.
USA Weightlifting has finally decided to join the modern world and start posting some of their training to Youtube! Thank the lord above. Here’s a vid of Zack Krych and Jessica Gallagher
Ian Wilson, Silver Medal winner at the Jr. World Championships in the 94k class, gets profiled in USA Today! as the USA Today Olympic Athlete of the Week. Congrat’s Ian!
He had the second-heaviest opening lift (376.2l pounds) in the clean-and-jerk and lifted 396 pounds in his final attempt. Wilson won silver medals in both the snatch and the total (704 pounds).
Risto Sports Training Center relays some success stories regarding their open house for their new facility.
Coffee and Prostate Cancer. A new study suggests that drinking higher amounts of coffee is correlated with lower risk of the worst kinds of prostate cancer.
A Harvard School of Public Health study of nearly 48,000 men found that those who drank more than six cups of coffee per day had a 60% reduced risk of developing lethal prostate cancer compared with nondrinkers.
The reduction in lethal prostate cancer risk was similar between decaf and regular coffee drinkers. Thus, the researchers conclude, caffeine isn’t the wonder element — good news for those who already consume far too much caffeine (you know who you are).
While this study needs to be repeated, I’ll use it as a post-facto justification of my over-the-top coffee drinking habits regardless 
(By the way, in the study, the people who drank the most coffee were also the ones who were most likely to smoke and drink a lot. So, that muddies up the study quite a bit. However, that actually makes it even more interesting. If the smokers and drinkers were at higher risk because of those behaviors, but the coffee dropped their risk even lower than the average, then that is really something. I’d love to see a follow up study.)
Pretty Strong Blog on the hands-free clean. Hannah Crowe does it this way on purpose:
I remember when i first cleaned with no hands at juniors 09 everyone gasped, i think they thought it was an accident and they applauded really loud when i got my hands back on the bar. People that have never seen me do it tend to have that same reaction the first time around. I’ve even been at a local meet and the announcer mentioned something about it after my last clean in the effect of " well i guess she meant to do that"
Finally if you want to get a serious workout in, you gotta make your Cooter Sweat!
Becoming an Olympic Weightlifter is like becoming a Samurai. CrossFit is like hunting dinosaurs with a canon. Both are awesome, but in totally different ways! Despite this, the two groups seem to find themselves in bed together quite often. And, increasingly, CrossFit athletes are become ever hungrier for knowledge about how they can train to compete in the sport of Weightlifting (or at least get much better at the snatch and clean and jerk) while staying true to CrossFit.
My CrossFit friends, this is for you.
The Background
In spite of their successful attempts to work together (including the first combo CrossFit/USA Weightlifting competition) Olympic Weightlifters and CrossFitters still have a love-hate relationship.
CrossFitters can find Weightlifters myopic, arrogant, and elitist. Weightlifters can find CrossFitters to be undisciplined, hot-headed, and impatient. And, they both have good reason to feel this way. Their descriptions of one another are surprisingly accurate! They don’t tell the whole story, of course, and they are gross generalizations that don’t apply across the board, but they represent a side of the truth that is correct more often than either of us would like to admit.
Olympic Weightlifters have a long history of believing themselves to be the chosen few. They believe their sport to be comprised of some of the most complex and difficult tasks of any sport on earth. They believe the type of training required to get to the top of the sport to be among the hardest (both physically, and even more so, psychologically) in existence. And they are correct.
Weightlifting is brutal, but in a truly unique way. If you are content with rudimentary skill levels and below average strength, then it is easy! But, to break the near infinite number of glass ceilings that exist in this sport, you have to spend years and years battling with a powerful amount of monotony and mental fatigue.
Combining high levels of technical mastery with huge weights is a stupid idea! But, that’s the sport.
The few people who stick with it, and do well, are a breed in themselves. They share certain odd-ball characteristics that are highly unusual in the general public. Among those traits are determinism and focus combined with patience and a “roll with the punches” attitude toward failure. These characteristics are not often found together. Usually you get someone who is determined but hot-headed and impatient, or you get a patient person who is so lax that they don’t care to try very hard (the classic Beach-Bum type). Olympic lifters need to be the best of both worlds. That is VERY rare.
But the key trait is patience. Unerring, amazing amounts of patience. It takes upwards of 10 years to get to the top in this sport, sometimes 15 or more. And the workouts are often frustrating and mind-numbingly repetitive. If nothing else, a potential weightlifter MUST be patient.
The people who have these traits will find it down-right shocking to see that others don’t. Other people will appear to be much too impatient and emotional in comparison. Weightlifters can, over the years, easily develop a sense of superiority without even realizing it. As nice as most weightlifters are, hearing them talk about other athletes (especially Powerlifters, endurance athletes, and CrossFitters) is telling.
When taken too far, they can become arrogant and elitist which leads to a belief that no other types of training have any value what-so-ever; and that everyone, regardless of their goals, should train like weightlifters to the exclusion of everything else. That is idiotic.
CrossFitters have their own issues. Just as the sport of weightlifting selects for a certain personality type, so does CrossFit.
CrossFit clubs don’t have workouts. They have mini-competitions, everyday! Nearly every “workout” is timed; the workouts are all done in the “endurance-range” (5 minutes for a round is considered short); and, the culture is aggressive. These combine to lure-in the same types of people who otherwise might have become Tri-Athletes: The classic Type-A person. (The pop-psychology term “Type-A” is useful in a conversational sense, but we should be careful not to take it too literally.)
These people have the general belief that more is always better, and that if they push harder good things will happen. Lucky for them, in the world of CrossFit, this belief system turns out to be true! (Especially in the first year or two.) If you are someone who has gone from a life of doing very little physically to full-bore CrossFit for two years, then your body is going to change dramatically, and for the better.
The success CrossFit folk get in the first couple of years is so palpable that it will confirm their initial theory that going all out, all the time, is the right way to live your life. For the same reasons, it isn’t uncommon for CrossFit athletes to be highly successful in their careers and other areas of life. They work hard, all the time, non-stop. You might call this the Uber American personality type.
The downside of such a personality is that they flat-out can’t understand how you can make progress without killing yourself. After all, so much of the success they’ve experienced in all of the areas of their life came through a “nose to the grindstone” form of hard work.
If you aren’t exhausted and dead at the end of a workout, was it really a workout? Did I elicit a training effect? Or, did I waste my time?
These questions are rattling around in the mind of CrossFit athletes every time they come in to see an Olympic lifting coach like me who makes them stick with lighter weights to work technique for an hour and then tells them to go home. WHAT?!!
I’ve always felt like it would have made more intuitive sense to have CrossFit combined with Strongman. CrossFit is really the endurance cousin of Strongman, anyway. In both sports, you take some random heavy crap and then you do a round of lifting with it for a set length of time, distance, or reps. The only real difference is the length of time, distance, or amount of weight that is on the bar/log/car.
In Strongman, the weights are stupid-heavy, the distances are short-ish, and the time over-which you’re asked to lift it is fairly short. (Anything over one minute would be considered long.) In CrossFit, they do similar “workouts”, they just do them with significantly lighter weight, for much longer distances, and for way higher reps. But, the underlying principles are the same.
Grab something with weight on it, do stuff for a while, lay on the ground to recover.
Also, in both sports, there is a wide margin of error when it comes to technique. You don’t have to spend years and years teaching your body the finer details of the log press in Strongman. You just pick the heavy son-of-bitch off the ground and press it! Similarly, kipping pull-ups, in CrossFit, have some technique, but it’s mostly just flailing around a bar as fast as you can.
The key factor in both sports is how hard you are willing to push, and for how long.
Contrast this with Olympic Weightlifting (or any other “skill” sport).
If you are off in your technique for a nanosecond during a heavy attempt, you will miss it. Period. There is no recovering from that (unless it honestly wasn’t heavy enough for you). There is the tiniest margin for error. While every lifter will have maybe one thing they do wrong consistently, they are consistent about it and have found a way to compensate for it. And they compensate in the same way every time.
Consistency is everything because in a contest you MUST do things exactly as you trained to do it. You have no time to recover. An attempt on the snatch takes less than one second from the time it leaves the ground to the time it is overhead. A clean and jerk takes longer, but most of that time is in the mid-position after the clean and before you jerk it … breathing. The actual clean and jerk each take no time at all.
No time. No room for error.
Putting the Odd-Balls Together
Most people believe the reason that there is a split between CrossFit athletes and Olympic weightlifters is because CrossFit is an endurance sport and Olympic Weightlifting is a strength sport. That is the minor reason. The REAL reason is because of the personality type that it takes to be good at one is in direct contrast to the personality type it takes to be good at the other.
Olympic weightlifters fundamentally don’t have the “go go go” attitude that is required to excel in a tough endurance sport like CrossFit or a Triathlon. They don’t even see the point. Why in the Hell would anyone find that fun?
CrossFit athletes don’t understand why Olympic lifters find it fun to go in every damned day and fail over and over again because of the tiniest of finicky details. How is that compelling?
But … here we are.
CrossFit and Olympic Weightlifting have decided to hop into bed together. Opposites attract, I guess. And there are a lot of CrossFit athletes who are genuinely interested in competing in the sport of weightlifting.
Sometimes, odd pairings make for the most fun!
Preliminary Advice
I’ve found that when working with someone who does CrossFit, it is best to structure their program around their CrossFit schedule and not the other way around. CrossFit comes first.
The primary reason for this is that I only have control over the weightlifting side! But, just as importantly, CrossFit athletes love CrossFit and when they go in to workout at their CrossFit club, they are going to go all out. It will inevitably be the most recovery-taxing workouts that they do in the week. I can’t give them something equally as taxing on their recovery or I will drive them into the ground. (I know that you CrossFit folk HATE to hear that you have limits … but you do.)
Instead, let’s just assume that you will be doing at minimum 3 CrossFit workouts per week. We have no idea what these will be, so we’ll assume the worst: hard as hell, hitting the entire body, taxing every muscle, and causing substantial fatigue. We are going to have to find a way to keep you progressing in your weightlifting IN SPITE of this. It isn’t easy, but it is possible.
A lot of the training options available to people who do Olympic weightlifting and nothing else are not available to you: Russian-like periodization, Texas Method squatting, ultra high frequency training, etc. They will tap into recovery too much when combined with CrossFit. Instead, I believe the more “Bulgarian” (read: intuitive) your approach to weightlifting, the better. You will do what you can, when you can, and that’s it.
Your focus is on getting in as many good quality singles and doubles as you can, at as high a weight as you can, while keeping your technique as pretty as you can.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it isn’t.
Because of the previous days CrossFit workout, your body will not respond like you want it to most of the time. You will rarely have a “good” workout. You have to accept this. It is impossible for your muscles to fire at maximum the day after you beat the crap out of them doing high reps. It doesn’t matter how hard you push, or how determined you are. It isn’t going to happen.
Be cool with that.
The key to being a good weightlifter is motor learning. Your body’s nervous system must be taught a series of highly specific motor patterns via rep after rep of a movement done in exactly the same way every time. And, every time you add weight to the bar, the movement changes just a bit, meaning you have to RELEARN it all over again! This process is frustrating.
Again, you have to be cool with that.
What I’m getting at is that your weightlifting workouts will involve much less physical fatigue than they will mental fatigue. That isn’t to say, though, that there won’t be hard work. It’s just a different kind of hard work.
The biggest physical problem facing someone who comes from an endurance sport background, like CrossFit, is that their body doesn’t know HOW to recruit enough motor units to lift heavy weight. The body’s tendency to only use the minimum number of motor units makes sense for endurance sports where the weights just aren’t that heavy. Using fewer motor units conserves energy. That’s good for endurance, but it’s bad for strength.
A long-time strength athlete, on the other hand, has taught their body to use all (or as many as possible) available motor units at once on demand. If you want to lift more weight, you have to teach your body to do this. That means lots of heavy reps, moved fast, with long rest periods.
The Program
Let’s say you will be able to do at least 2, maybe 3 Olympic weightlifting workouts per week. These are them:
Day 1
Snatch: 10 to 20 Singles
(Optional) Clean and Jerk: 10 Singles
Front Squat: Max Single
Day 2
Clean and Jerk: 10 to 20 singles
(Optional) Snatch: 10 singles
Front Squat: Max Single
You are going to cycle these back and forth either 2 or 3 days per week. Sometimes you can “change it up” by doing a heavy double or triple on the squat. But, remember that part of the point here is to teach your body the skill of motor recruitment. This skill is best developed with low reps. Don’t fall into the bodybuilder habit of trying to “fatigue” the muscle, or “feel the burn”. That has NO place in weightlifting. The squats can be done with reps of 3 just as well as singles, but I have found that CrossFit folk need a good couple month period of heavy singles to break some of their bad habits. It’s a good learning tool. Move the weight fast, keep it heavy, and then move on.
NOTE: Keep in mind that this is a Technical sport. If you don’t have a coach to keep an eye on you when you are lifting, you will almost surely develop bad habits. These habits will come back to haunt you. At the very least, hit up a more experienced training partner to watch your lifts. I know that Olympic lifting coaches are hard to find (and it’s even harder to find ones who know what they are doing), but if you are lucky enough to live in an area with a good one, get on that! In my experience, lifters with a good coach make progress at double the pace of self-taught lifters. That is conservative. (Try learning Kung Fu on your own …)
The 10 to 20 singles of the main lift for the day are NOT all max lifts, for heavens sake!
Some will be heavy, others will be medium. Start counting once the weight is such that you have to really try hard to make it a pretty lift. Increase the weight VERY slowly on each set. If you miss a weight, or if you make it with bad form, count the lift. Then drop the weight by 10 or 20% and start over.
In the beginning, it can be useful to stick with a medium-heavy weight for ALL of your sets, keeping the weight the same trying to perfect that one lift at that one weight. But, after a few months of this, start waving the weight up and down as described above. Doing so teaches you better how to deal with the way real competitions work: You increase weight on every lift.
Take as much rest in between lifts as you can. A tendency among CrossFit lifters is to take VERY short rest periods between attempts. Sitting around for 2 or even 5 minutes between sets will feel wrong to you. It is not wrong, it is right. You are not trying to “tax” yourself, or “workout” in the way that you would be in your CrossFit club. The training here is a totally different animal.
The second Olympic lift of the day is optional. Decide on the day whether you have the energy to handle it, or if it is better to move on to the squat rack. Some days, when the previous days CrossFit workout wasn’t so bad, you’ll be able to get it all in. Other days, you won’t. Don’t feel bad about having to dump it. Learning to chill out about these kinds of things is part of your training.
When you get to the squats, the goal is to get stronger and learn how to lift in such a way that you CAN get stronger. Start with an empty bar, and slowly increase the weight on every set until you can’t move the bar fast anymore. You can “grind out” the last rep, but that’s it. All other reps must be moved as fast as you possibly can. You should move so fast that you end up on your toes at the top! I’m serious. Moving lighter weights fast increases your body’s ability to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers. You want to be fast and strong, not weak and slow.
That’s It
Don’t start adding in other things!
I know that from the point of view of a CrossFit athlete the above program looks mighty boring. You do at most 3 lifts, over and over again, every week, in basically the same way, for months on end. Boring!
Well … too bad.
Learning to get good at a lift like the snatch is like learning a good golf swing. It takes a lot of practice paying close attention to detail. Part of your goal is to develop a Zen-like patience and acceptance that the journey is the thing. Channel your inner Yoda.
You can do it!
CrossFit and Olympic Weightlifting are wholly different activities. And maybe that is a good thing. A person who can develop the physical and mental skills necessary to do both will possess a remarkably rare combination of skill-sets.
Combining them isn’t easy, but then, if it was easy, you wouldn’t do it.
The above photo is of Tokyo From Atajo-Yama, Japan during the rebuilding period after the 1923 earthquake that resulted in massive fires that destroyed the city. You can read more about it at Flicker, where I got the picture from the Oregon State University archives.
Zen Quote of the Week:
“Achievement has everything to do with creating a failure-resistant brain and thinking your way to success…you can take charge of the process…Winner’s brains actually operate differently than the average brain.” – Mark Fenske, Neuroscientist
This Week In the World of Weightlifting:
Anthony Ditillo has an article about Adaptability and how to use it in your favor.
Charles Poliquin. Along the same lines is this article by Poliquin designed to bury you into the ground for 2 weeks, take 5 days off, then come back and be stonger than before. This is similar to how many Olympic weightlifters train, including some of us at PDX Weightlifting. His version is a bit more hardcore than most of ours, but it’s worth looking into. Here’s a quote:
Let’s review: By the end of the first two weeks of this program, if you’re doing it right, you will . . .
1. Lose strength
2. Lose muscle
3. Be chronically overtrained
4. Experience aching tendons and joints
5. Be brutally sore (and train right through it)
6. Experience depression
Now I know you’re enticed!
PDX Weightlifting. You can see an example of how to do something similar to Poliquin’s method above, but as a weightlifter by looking at our 2 week “loading” phase here, and then our 2 week “unloading” phase that we did heading into a local meet on April 16th that resulted in most of us hitting PR’s.
Doctor Hartman is interviewed by Cedric Unholz. Here’s an excerpt:
I view all strength training for athletes as general preparation so I really try to stick to the basics in the weight room. In my opinion, all training can fit into one of three broad categories: strength, endurance, and mobility.
These three areas must be addressed in all athletes but to varying degrees based on the needs and classification of the athlete or team, and during different times of an athlete’s career. Most workouts contain a dynamic warm-up, 3-4 basic compound exercises, and then some remedial or corrective pre/rehab exercises.
I tend to focus on technique and quality of the lifts being performed and only bump up the training load when the athlete has demonstrated they are capable of handling the work load. I am a huge proponent of the Olympic lifts and their variations in training so technique is taught and reinforced everyday.
Let that be a lesson to you.
Mark Young is interviewed by Bret Contreras about his new product, “How to Read Fitness Research.” Here’s a quote:
Let me just say this; I recently saw a fitness product released that was based on a specific fiber type and its effects on fat loss. The claims were pretty far out there and anyone one a reasonably sound research background should have had their BS detectors going off like crazy. But guess what? Based on the statistics on Clickbank (and talking to other people who participated in the launch) I’d say they’ve probably sold THOUSANDS of copies. And get this…the product is almost $100!!! So someone out there is making hundreds of thousands of dollars off of a scientific theory that doesn’t hold water.
Now that doesn’t mean that the program doesn’t work. It might work because of mechanisms that are different from what the creators think they are. And it certainly doesn’t mean that anyone who creates a product that isn’t evidence based is trying to rip you off. Maybe they don’t know any better either. What it does mean though, is that you should know whether the theory behind what you’re buying has any merit before breaking out your wallet and spending your hard earned money.
My product will help you do that. So yes, I think weekend warriors should consider purchasing this product.
I’m pretty sure I know who he’s talking about, and I’m also fairly sure this person has no idea that their ideas (about why their program may work) are unsound. This person may need to buy Mark’s product!
Doctor Hartman gives you a primer on transitioning from the Power Clean/Snatch to the Full Clean/Snatch.
The transition from the performing of a Power Clean to a full Clean (or Squat Clean) can be a hard adjustment. Novice lifters, without a ton of practice performing the lifts, will often spread their legs, in an attempt to lower their body in the catch position. Spreading the legs, rather than squatting under the bar, works somewhat in the short term but long term delays progress. When the legs are spread, meaning outside of normal hip-width or shoulder-width position used when squatting, puts you in a position where you are unable to go under the bar.
Mighty Kat reminds us that the “Artist vs Athlete” dichotomy is Bull Shit.
When internationally renowned double bass soloist and Eastman School of Music Professor James VanDemark took up boxing two years ago, he saw immediate crossover benefits to his playing. VanDemark, a "lightweight" at only 5’6" and 138 pounds, immediately thought of the impact boxing could have on his students, so he sent some of his women students for a conditioning and strength-building session. They, too, came back with greater bow control, more confidence and stamina, and more energy, producing an even bigger and more focused sound from their big instrument.
Maybe as a weightlifting coach AND a musician, I should be marketing to the local music schools … Hmm. Speaking of weightlifting musicians …
Mikhail Koklyaev continues to show us that having a good time is mandatory!
Julie Rohde vs Maria De La Puente at the European Championships 2008. Tell me again that weightlifting makes you look manly?
Julia Rohde vs. Maria De La Puente EC 2008 by Maitolasi
Intermittent Fasting. I’ve been doing some experimenting with Intermittent Fasting recently. I’m not ready to discuss any conclusions I have, since I haven’t come to any! In a few months, I’ll post up a full review of my experience. But, until then, for those of you who are interested, here’s Martin Berkhan’s “Top 10 Fasting Myths Debunked.”
Efficient adaptation to famine was important for survival during rough times in our evolution. Lowering metabolic rate during starvation allowed us to live longer, increasing the possibility that we might come across something to eat. Starvation literally means starvation. It doesn’t mean skipping a meal not eating for 24 hours. Or not eating for three days even. The belief that meal skipping or short-term fasting causes "starvation mode" is so completely ridiculous and absurd that it makes me want to jump out the window.
Looking at the numerous studies I’ve read, the earliest evidence for lowered metabolic rate in response to fasting occurred after 60 hours (-8% in resting metabolic rate). Other studies show metabolic rate is not impacted until 72-96 hours have passed (George Cahill has contributed a lot on this topic).
Alan Aragon has a guest post on Martin Berkhan’s site reviewing a position paper in the ISSN journal on meal frequency. (In the post, Martin also looks to be spoiling for a fight with John Berardi … mud or jello?).
The authors go on to assert that data on the eating habits of competitive athletes (in primarily endurance-based sports) shows a range of roughly 5-10 eating occasions per day. They suggest that this is optimal because it enables athletes to consume a culturally normal meal pattern in addition to meals proximal to the training bout. In response to this, I’d say that this range of frequencies is fine for this population. But, I’d also contend that the energy needs of competitive athletes in endurance-based sports can be 2-4 times greater than that of recreationally active individuals (who make up the bulk of the nonsedentary adult population). Therefore, applying the meal frequency of competitive athletes to less active populations is unnecessary & impractical, at best. In my private practice, I’ve seen recreational athletes succeed long-term with as little as 2 meals per day. The most common meal frequency range I’ve observed in physically active clients with long-term success is rather broad (3-6 meals per day). Whether individuals choose the higher or lower end of that range is based solely on personal preference and tolerance.
Jon North does some lifting at the Seminars Glenn and he did with East Coast Barbell and the Edinburgh Center for Sport and Exercise over yonder across the water.
K-Star has two mobility workouts for the clean and jerk: one for the upper body, one for the lower body. These are, of course, in honor of the recent CrossFit Games WOD that was Clean and Jerk (110#’s for ladies, 165#’s for dudes), as many reps as possible in 5 minutes … ouch! Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this high rep bonanza to benefit from K-Star’s MOB. Any self respecting Olympic lifter with tight shoulders, T-spine, hips, etc will get hours of painful enjoyment out of these!
Crappy College Majors. This isn’t weightlifting related, but it’s funny. It’s a top 10 list of the college majors sure to make you jobless.
Richard Williams decided that Strongman was a better choice for him than the NFL. Less money, less women, more iron.
Even as the younger Williams excelled on both sides of the line in high school, football was a means to another end, a way to earn a free ride to college. At Gardner-Webb, his ambivalence over the sport gave way to hatred. He felt like he had little control of his situation, and he questioned the motives of agents and scouts. But he couldn’t afford to quit. And he didn’t want to let his teammates down. "In a way," says Williams, "I was doing what my family and friends kept telling me was in my best interest. That was why I got an agent, set up meetings with teams. But in my heart, I knew I wanted out. My playing football made everybody else happy. Not me."
Children and Weightlifting is the topic of a great article on the Queensland Weightlifting website.
A retrospective review of injuries associated with weight lifting and weight training in preadolescents and adolescents found that weight lifting and weight training are safer than many other sports and activities (see the statistics listed below). In fact, the rate of injury for Olympic weight lifting was even lower than for weight training.
Kendrick Farris is profiled in The Almagest. Bless the gym, indeed.
Finally, I don’t care how bad your form is, I am NOT going to spot you on your power cleans! It’s all you, bro … pinkies …
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated” – Confucius
Americans are obsessed with diet and exercise. Everywhere we look, there are new diets and exercise routines being pushed by overly-skinny celebrities, the Biggest Loser is still one of the hottest shows on TV, and we all seem to have that same overweight aunt who is always talking our ears off about all the latest fitness and health information and yet can’t seem to get healthy herself. The irony is, for all of the obsession with exercise and diet, we’re an oddly unhealthy nation.
This irony isn’t left to the “others” out there who don’t lift (and don’t read this blog!), but is also a real problem for athletes. They are obsessive-types by nature, and this obsession often leads them to want to try and do everything just in case the next thing could be the key to their future success. The problem is that all of this over thinking leads to them failing to do the one thing that actually works: sticking to the basics, and being consistent with the basics.
I believe part of the reason for this dichotomy between obsession with programs and diets on one end and a lack of results on the other (for both the “average” American and the average athlete) is that the way in which people approach the subjects of exercise and diet is all wrong. Instead of exercise becoming a part of them, background noise in their lives, something that just is, it becomes the center of neurotic obsessions and fanaticism. When this happens, everything backfires.
You can’t work a plan if that plan is always changing. And, you can’t have a plan if you’re always second guessing the principles upon which that plan was laid. At some point, you have to shut your brain off and do it.
Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done. This is why I’m a fan of I call “Habit Breaker Protocols”.
Habit Breaker Protocols
I define a Habit Breaker Protocol as a routine that you do to alter a behavior pattern that ain’t good for you. For instance, if I were having this conversation with a person who never works out, my advice would be to spend 10 minutes every day for three weeks doing something physically active. Don’t put pressure on yourself to work hard or do anything extraordinary. All you need to do is anything. That’s enough. You win.
It tends to take people about 3 weeks of consistently doing the new positive behavior pattern to replace the old negative one. (That assumes, of course, that the bad habit wasn’t that bad. Alcoholics can’t be “cured” in three weeks!!) You have to ride out the entire three weeks for it to work. It won’t be comfortable. You’ll dislike it. You may even believe you are doing something bad! (When most people who have never worked out lift weights for the first time they often believe they have literally damaged themselves.)
I believe any real habit breaker protocol must be done daily. If it isn’t done everyday, then it isn’t likely to become a habit. Remember, the point isn’t just to create a new habitual pattern, but to replace an old one. That takes work.
I’ve advised in the past that if you want to start meditating that you do something similar. Everyday, for five minutes only, count your breaths moving in and out. That’s it. If you can do that everyday for five minutes a day for three weeks, you’ll be getting somewhere. Doing this helps to break the habit of letting your mind get overactive, even hyper, without your being able to calm it down. Calming yourself down is a skill that must be developed (much like Happiness).
Applications to Weightlifting
One of the most important parts of my job is finding ways to keep people coming back, workout after workout, week after week, for the long haul. It does me no good to encourage someone to have a great lifting session today if they don’t come back in to the gym for 2 weeks, or worse, quit all together. No one makes any progress by being hopelessly haphazard.
One of my many “tricks” is not making a big deal of any particular session. This is in stark contrast to a great many coaches. There is this tendency in the coaching profession to switch into drill sergeant mode every time an athlete grabs the bar. They believe that if you yell louder, then the athlete will work harder. And if they work harder, then they will get better results.
The problem with this theory is that it only works on a tiny minority of athletes. Generally, the athletes it works on are (ironically) already highly motivated and would have done the work anyway. Oddly, these folks often want to be yelled at. They like the extra energy that the coach provides and (being rather “type-A”) prefer an environment that appears to be the most hardcore and “serious”, whether it actually is or not. They have the nasty habit of confusing angry with serious.
It’s true that many great athletes have come from coaching environments like this. But, these athletes would likely have done well in any system, so I will ignore them.
The rest of the worlds athletes will, in my opinion, do poorly under a coach (read: teacher) who is always yelling and being negative. I think we can further split this group into two parts.
The first group actually believe that having a coach or trainer that yells at them will work for them. After all, Jillian Michaels screams and yells at all of those poor souls on The Biggest Loser, and they get great results, right! These are people who would never have pushed themselves as hard without such a mega personality on their ass all day.
Wrong.
In reality, what happens with these people is that they use the coach as a drug. When they are “on” the drug (in the gym with the coach) they work hard because if they don’t they get punished. But, when they are “off” the drug (the coach isn’t there), they have no motivation. They’ve never had to learn how to motivate themselves. So, they don’t.
The second group that doesn’t do well with a yeller are the people who find the yelling flat-out offensive. These folks will basically just say, “F-U”, and walk out. That’s a failure on the part of the coach to meet the needs of someone who came to them for help.
Coaches are important. But, I DO NOT believe that importance is confined to the role of in-workout motivator.
My entire point here is that you have to find internal methods of motivation that are “all you, bro”. And in order to develop this ability, you need to break yourself of the habit of quitting when things get tough.
Here’s my suggestion: Stop caring about what you’re going to do when you get to the gym!
Just go and have fun. No pressure; no guilt if things don’t go as well as you’d hoped; in fact, you shouldn’t hope for anything!
I try hard to create an environment of relaxed (or even exuberant) nonchalance. I know that sounds odd. How can a gym function to get people motivated enough to do truly hard things, over and over again, by encouraging its members to not care if they have a good workout on any given day? Seriously?
Because I’ve found this method to create a situation where athletes are almost forced to become self-motivated, and hungry, for hard and heavy workouts by a form of reverse psychology. Humans are quite susceptible to reverse psychology, after all. (Don’t think of a pink elephant in spandex and heels. I dare you.)
Create a situation where someone feels safe enough to fail, and they will become less risk-averse.
Dictators and Libertarians
I think humans tend to thrive in only one of two types of environments.
The first is a dictatorship where they do absolutely no thinking on their own. Athletes who live under dictatorial systems do well, because they just have to shut up and do every last little thing that the coach tells them. So long as you have faith in the coach, you never have to worry. It can be liberating to not have control. Many a political dictator has come to power with full backing of the public because of our inherent need to feel safe under the guidance of someone other than ourselves.
The second system under which humans can thrive is one that gives everyone enough rope to hang themselves. That doesn’t mean you are off the leash. But, you have a heck of a lot of slack. Here, you can fail by making the wrong choices. But, those choices were yours to make. On the flip side, you can also do amazing things because with freedom comes the potential for great creativity, and the unique intelligence that only exists in an organic collective.
If my system was a political system, I’d call it Libertarian. (Note that I used the word “Libertarian”, not “Anarchist”.) Every person has near-total freedom to do whatever they like, whenever they like. I provide guidance, programs, and all the structure you could want … but only if you want. But, I reserve the right to set up certain rules that must be abided. These are, however, quite minimal. (My primary rules come down to you not being a jack-ass and dragging the mood and attitudes of those around you down.)
In practice, this means that athletes never have to feel like I’m going to jump down their throats if they are having a bad day in the gym. Some days are good, some ain’t. So be it. What matters is that you show up.
Why this matters is that in most weightlifting routines you are going to have light days and heavy days. On the heavy days you are supposed to go … heavy! And on the light days, you go light. But, this presents a problem for the mind.
Anticipation is a killer. It can lead to fear. Fear that you won’t perform as expected on your heavy days. Over time, this can lead many lifters to slowly be less and less motivated to come to the gym on those days. And even when they do, they are so anxious that they have a worse workout than they could have had.
Worse, if the body just isn’t doing what the mind wants that day (this is quite common) then the failure to live up to expectations can be devastating.
A Simple Routine to Break the Habit of Weightlifting Obsession
OK, here’s the simplest way break your obsessive habits that are killing your workouts. Ready?
Everyday you go to the gym, all you have to do is Snatch.
Nothing else. Not even heavy. Just go in and see how it feels.
If it feels like you can go heavier, then by all means do so. Strike while the iron is hot. You can spend a full hour and a half just doing snatches. Work up to a max, maybe a few misses, then drop down to 70% and work your way back up, or do some doubles at 80%, raising the weight higher if you can. Sometimes you’ll walk in the gym thinking you are going to do horribly but actually you’ll have a great lifting session. You never know till you try. No matter what, go in and try. See what happens.
But, if you don’t feel it that day and the snatches are going terribly, stop. Move on to the next thing. Maybe Clean and Jerks will go better. Do some of those and see how it goes. If they go well, hang out on them for a while.
Or, maybe you’d rather squat. Do those. It doesn’t matter. And that is the point. So long as you went in and attempted to do some snatches, you win. That’s the entire “Program”.
The most important thing is that you don’t go into the gym expecting anything. Don’t go in hoping for a PR or convinced that you’re going to fail. Learn to distance your mind from the outcomes.
If you can do this “routine” daily, I would (at least for three weeks). But, even just committing to two days a week will do wonders. If you know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays of every week, you go in and attempt some snatches, no matter what (and you know that if you do this, you succeeded), then very quickly you will find that you are doubly motivated to come in and attack the weights. This should be a positive motivation, one that drives you toward attempts, the journey of lifting, not the possible outcomes of those attempts: makes or misses.
The Art of Weightlifting is about attempts, not about making all your lifts. This pattern of going in and attempting to do some snatching has to become habitual, a background reality of your life that doesn’t increase your stress. Don’t think, just do. It’s no big deal.
Yes, goal setting is great. Writing up routines that are designed to help you to reach those goals is often a good idea. But, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. You only get better if you keep moving forward. Even if you fail, you’ve moved forward, because you’ve attempted it (my friend Maria and I call this “Failing Forward”).
Stop obsessing, start doing. And, over time, you’ll be shocked to find out that you are actually doing more and progressing faster all while keeping a relaxed and positive attitude about it all.
In short: Keep it fun, my people, keep it fun.
EDIT: Here’s a video brought to my attention by a reader, Kincain, that discusses the psychology of motivation and the recent research in the area. It confirms exactly what I’m seeing happen in the gym.
Zen quote of the week:
“The word “Dinner” actually comes from the Latin disjejunare, meaning "to un-fast” or break the fast of the evening. Remarkably, the word was contracted in the Romance languages to ‘disnare’ or ‘disner’ in Olde French, or dinner in English. Thus the word dinner actually means ‘breakfast’.” – Brad Pillon
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Sean Waxman has a post on the mechanics of the various phases of the Olympic weightlifting movements. Here’s an important quote:
It’s important to note, mechanics are not the same as one’s technique. Mechanics of Weightlifting are the forces involved with lifting a barbell and the causes behind them. Technique is the visual manifestation of these forces. Causes behind force production such as gravity, mass, and distance can be measured with precision. Using the aforementioned constants, variables involved with the mechanics of force production such as joint angles, bar trajectories, and balance are manipulated in order to establish the most efficient pulling mechanics.
The observable differences in “technique” have to do with an individual’s peculiarities such as anthropometry or leg/torso strength distribution. These peculiarities will dictate actions, which will suit an individual lifter’s needs. Simply mimicking a particular athletes pulling technique without possessing their anthropometry or peculiarities will often lead to poor pulling mechanics.
It’s for this reason that my own advice is to find elite lifters who have the same bone structure as yourself (ignoring gender, height, weight) and mimic them. It does you no good to mimic the technique of lifters who are shaped totally different than you are.
Don McCauley on Sweeping the Bar In during the pull:
Since the starting balance at the Set is on the forefeet and the push upward in the 1st pull is upward through the rear half of the feet; that shift and maintaining correct torso position will help us keep the bar closer. But, what if the arms, which are hanging vertically at the start, do nothing but stay vertical? Well, they’re just not doing their part, that’s what.
Donny Shankle on the Jerk. He tells a story where a pretty girl offered to kiss him if he made a 205k clean and jerk. He tried hard, and he failed:
My head has never in my life hung so low. All I could think about was getting out of there. I never even got the girl’s name much less the kiss I tried so hard to fight for. If I do ever see her again, I will ask her if her offer is still on the table. The moral of this true story is, “Don’t miss the jerk!” If you do, then you will not enter paradise.
It’s hard to argue with that!
Chad Waterbury has an interesting Veggie-heavy take on a 7-day rapid fatloss diet. I’m not generally for people doing extreme things with their diets. But, Dan John does have a point, “fat loss is war.” This line I find disturbing:
“Yuck. Vegetables. Who likes them, anyway? Not me. If I never had another one again it’d be too soon.”
Seriously? How can you call yourself an adult if you hate vegetables. What has our country turned into. Even the fitness guru’s don’t like them? Veggies are awesome. If you don’t like vegetables, my guess is that you don’t know how to cook. Maybe you don’t like raw veggies, but that’s only one of many ways to get them. My own favorite? Pickled and slathered in vinegar! Or better yet, fermented. Kim Chee, baby!
Tim Ferris on 7 reasons you should eat more saturated fat.
Adam Stoffa on how Lamaze breathing can be used by anyone in a stressful situation, like he was during his child’s birth … when the babies heart stopped:
No one can control how their body reacts to a high stress incident, but we can learn to manage our physical response. Controlled breathing, is an effective way to consciously bridge the mind body connection. Slow deep breaths helped me recover, but I didn’t have a plan or a breathing pattern to follow. At the end of this post, you will be much better prepared than I was to manage a high stress incident. Learning about and practicing tactical breathing will give you a tool that keeps you in the game during a high stress event…so that you can help yourself and your loved ones.
Jared Enderton. Ever wondered what Jared Enderton does for recovery from his many many workouts every week? Here is one of many ways:
After my first training session of course I drink a protein shake immediately, along with some type of fruit (banana usually). You have to refuel your body ASAP after working out! Then, I head over to the cold pool and hot tub. I then alternate for about 15-20 minutes. I’ll go about 3-4 minutes in each throughout the whole time, always ending in the cold pool. I don’t like to sit in the hot tub TOO much, as it can make you feel drained and zap your energy. So the time in the hot tub is usually only about 6-7 min compared to 13-14 in the cold pool.
Fred Lowe. Here’s a great collection of photo’s of Fred Lowe in the early days. He’s had a long and distinguished career that is still in progress. In addition to him being an 8-time senior national champion, and a member of 3 Olympic teams, he also holds a total of EIGHTEEN National Masters Records! (If I counted right, I might have missed a few, you can check here.) He also set 3 Masters World records, 5 Masters Pan Am records, 2 IWF Masters records, and 6 American Masters records … holy heavens!
Jon North has a new blog with links to his new T-shirts for sale. Yes, the shirt DID add 100 pounds of freaky mass to his body. His shirts can be found HERE. So far, he’s only got the above model for sale. But, soon it looks like he’ll have one that simply says, “Shankle”. I may need that one.
Jr. World Championships is being held in Penang Malaysia, and they’ve got a spiffy new website to go with it.
Weightlifting Events is a new website that hopes to promote the sport of weightlifting by making it easier for lifters to find and register for competitions. I think this is a GREAT idea. I never understood why USA Weightlifting hasn’t done something similar.
Doctor Hartman on Training Theory. Ever wondered what the best training program is? Or, if there is such a thing?
Successful training programs can take on many forms and I would argue that any program will produce results given the right attitude, consistency, and work ethic of the athlete. As long as the training program is used to improve strength and technique simultaneously, and does not favor one quality at the expense of the other, and takes into account the individual needs of the athlete, any program can be successful.
Well said. In my opinion, the most important part of any program is your ability to actually do it! If you’re consistent on a routine that fits your life, you work technique, you work strength, and you do these things with a serious amount of effort, you’ll make progress. Now … get to it!
Greek Weightlifting. Here’s a video of the Greek national team sometime around 2002 (ish). The music is rather rocking …
Weightlifting Epiphanies on the recent trip to Ireland by the Cal Strength crew.
On the Thursday, most of our ECB lifters trained with Jon and Glenn. They gym was buzzing to say the least. I was tired from the week’s exertions and from the very little sleep the night before, but if you can’t get up for training with these boys, you deserve to be shot! I Snatched 114kg and then missed 116 twice. I tried to hit a double with 110kg four times, but I missed the second rep each time. There was simply not enough in the tank. This was the most I have ever hit during the week, though, so I was happy. I then Clean and Jerked up to 136kg and I was proper spent. Happy, but wrecked. Everyone trained really well and watching Jon Power Clean and then Full Clean and Jerk 160kg is always inspiring to watch.
Ben Claridad uses a metaphor for how he is planning his attack on the Collegiate Nationals:
Art imitates life. So does weightlifting. Example: Earlier this week, you and your buddies decided to go hit the dance floor at your nearest indie/electro dance party this Friday night. Your training partners have since been subjected to you practicing your trademark “Wyatt Earp, mothafuckah! Six shooters blazin’ towards the sky!” dance move for the past 3 days and are fast growing tired of you slow-mo shooting your imaginary pistols at them. Friday night finally rolls around and you have just finished your obligatory pre-pump (accomplished remarkably fast, due to your knowledge of ancient Benbata techniques). You throw on the V-neck whilst checking your image in the mirror. And after seducing your mirror self with an intricate display of your six-shooter prowess, you’re out the door and on your way to your buddy’s house. Wait. Your buddy’s house? I thought you were going to da’ club!
Bob Takano on the Zones of Intensity:
Zone 4 is the 80 to 89% range and 25% of the repetitions are going to go here and there will actually be a shift into more repetitions in this zone during the pre-competition cycle than there was during the preparation cycle. The vast bulk of the repetitions are going to be in zones three and four.
He defines Zone 3 as between 70% and 79%.
Glenn Pendlay on Making Weight:
The two biggest mistakes made are leaving too much weight loss for the day before and day of the competition and ending up spending hours in the sauna sapping your strength before you lift, or, making weight too early through dehydration, then maintaining your weight and dehydrated state for too long before lifting. You should not be in a sauna for hours and hours directly before competing, and you should not be in one at all the day before or two days before competing! The biggest trick to making weight is timing it right, and the following outline will tell you how to do that.
Finally, here’s Mikhail Koklyaev, who has a new blog … with the most bad-ass header of all time! He’s got a picture up that was taken by Arnold, himself, and sent to Russian president Medvedev with the caption, “Your Russian strongman just lifted this 111kg weight, twice.” I think he’s ‘made it’.
Here he is with a friend partying in the gym. Now THIS is my kind of workout music:
I was approached recently by a representative of the company Harbinger, the one that makes workout gear, about doing a review of some of their products. She asked me if I’d like to grab a cup of coffee so we could talk about it, and so that she could “pick my brain” about this weirdo weightlifting culture of ours. Harbinger is a pretty big company, so I didn’t expect that She’d be as nice and receptive as she was. In fact, we ended up sitting there and blabbing for a good number of hours!
We had coffee, and I explained to her that there is indeed a difference between a bodybuilder, a weightlifter, a powerlifter, a Highland Games Thrower, etc! I explained what CrossFit was (if that is even possible). And I found that for a woman without a background in weightlifting of any kind, she was surprisingly interested in what I had to say.
Honestly, at first, I wasn’t sure that there was much in Harbinger’s product line that weightlifters would get much use out of. After all, Harbinger is probably best known for their weightlifting gloves, and lord knows we aren’t going to wear those! Luckily I was wrong.
When I got home, I searched the Harbinger website, and picked the most basic things I could find that I KNOW a weightlifter will likely end up using (since I and most of my own lifters already do), and that I already use, so that it would make the review more “true to life” from my end. Here they are:
- 4’’ Nylon Belt with Velcro.
- Lifting Straps
- Wrist Wraps
I sent her the links to the 3 items I wanted to try out, and included a bunch of links to Youtube vids depicting the different strength sports in action that we had talked about during coffee (what? I’m an evangelist). And she got to work sending me the items.
I’ve now been using all three for a couple of weeks. All in all, I like them (especially the belt). Here’s the details:
Harbinger Weightlifting Belt
The Velcro weightlifting belt was the most important item. It’s the most universal (everyone from Olympic Weightlifters to CrossFitters to Throwers has use of them). And, I’d been in the market for a new one anyway. Keep in mind that Harbinger does not sell (currently) any Powerlifting belts. Sorry folks.
Harbinger’s belt sizing runs a bit smaller than Valeo (the brand of these types of belts that most weightlifters use, currently). I wear a small in Valeo, but the small that was sent to me by Harbinger was WAY too small. I emailed the rep, and she had them send me out a medium and it fit perfectly. Keep this sizing difference in mind if you buy one and you’re used to the Valeo’s.
The first thing to notice is that the belt is 4 inches wide. Why do I care? Because in Olympic weightlifting competitions you can’t wear any belt that is wider than that. You should never train in a belt that is illegal in competition.
Second, the belt is very strong and durable feeling, meaning it will likely last a long time. The downside here is that it takes a good 6 or 7 workouts to work in. But, once it mellowed out, I really started to like the feeling.
The “buckle”, which is only a steel roller, lays flat enough that you don’t hit it on the way up during snatches. While I really enjoyed the cam buckle on my Valeo that allowed me to snap/lock it into place, it was so big that I had to wear the belt sideways! (Many lifters wear the belts backwards, but I’ve always found that to be hard to buckle.)
I instinctively wore the Harbinger belt sideways at first, too. However, once I realized it was unnecessary, it made me like the belt even more. The added security of having the buckle isn’t really necessary, of course, we’re not Powerlifters. The belt isn’t going to pop off! The Velcro is very sturdy all on its own.
I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about it. If you want a buckle, this doesn’t have one. So, there’s that. But, otherwise, I think this is a great belt for a weightlifter, and at only $13.50 at Bodybuilding.com, it’s hard to pass up.
SUMMARY:
Pros:
- Legal size for Olympic Weightlifting competition.
- Strong and durable material.
- Front metal roller-buckle doesn’t get in the way during snatches.
- Once broken in, feels very comfortable to wear.
- Affordable price.
Cons:
- No cam buckle for added security while lifting. I really don’t think the belt will ever pop off you, but I’m just saying …
- Won’t magically add 100 pounds to your squats. Sorry, that’ll take work on your part!
Price: $13.50 at Bodybuilding.com
Harbinger Padded Lifting Straps
The Harbinger Padded Lifting Straps were rather standard in most ways. Stiff and sturdy feeling (too stiff at first until you work them in, then they were great). However, they had a little bonus for those of us who aren’t too concerned about always playing the ‘tough guy’ … padding.
Yep, right on the part that touches the top part of your hand/wrist, there is foam padding. And on a heavy deadlift, this turned out to be kinda nice. Not necessary, by any means, but nice.
WARNING: Do NOT use these straps for snatches. I’m serious. They are, like most brands of straps, designed to lock you onto the bar. They are a heavy weight cotton which will grip the knurling on the bar so much that there is no way you’ll bail out of a snatch safely. If you want to snatch with straps, always always use the “slick” variety like the Iron Mind straps, or even a converted seatbelt (many clubs do this). The Harbinger straps are strictly for deadlifts, pulls, heavy shrugs, and other exercises that you WANT to be locked into.
Pros:
- Strong grip on the bar.
- Padding for extra wrist comfort during heavy deadlifts.
- Reasonable Price
Cons:
- Can’t be used for snatches.
- Padding may cause other lifters to make fun of you. But, if it gets you to endure another rep, you’ll be stronger than them anyways, so who cares!
Price: $6.95 at Bodybuilding.com
Harbinger Pro Thumb Loop Wrist Wraps
I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the Pro Thumb Loop Wrist Wraps. They are rather flimsy. If you’ve had any type of previous injury, I’d get something more durable. Harbinger DOES have other, stronger wraps, but they aren’t competition legal for Olympic weightlifting, so I didn’t review them. If you are not a competitive lifter, then try out their Leather Wraps which I’m sure would be pretty darn good. (They also look cool!)
For a wrap to be legal in a contest, I’m fairly sure that it can’t have a loop around the thumb. So, even the elastic loop on the Pro Thumbs would need to be released before you got on the platform. That said, if I’m right about that rule, it is never enforced with wraps of this type. But, you would not get away with the leather ones that have a leather strap around your thumb … besides, that would likely get in the way of your ability to hook-grip, anyway.
I jammed my right wrist this last summer on a failed clean attempt, and ever since, without my heavier wraps, I’m worthless. It takes a lot of stretching before every workout before I can even rack the bar in the clean position. I was able to snatch with the Pro Loop wraps, but cleans were out of the question. Just not enough support.
I think if you are only using the wraps for minimal support, as a way to keep your wrists warm, these will be just fine. They’re only $8.99 at Bodybuilding.com, so they ain’t breaking the bank. But, if you hurt (like I do), get something heavier like the Schiek’s. These are both strong AND legal in competition. Or, if you’re totally adventurous, you can go with the leather “gauntlet” style at Risto.
There was a second problem I had with Harbinger’s wrist wraps. They were both right handed! I thought this was a problem with the particular pair sent to me, but one of my lifters bought a pair and they were the same way. I can only assume (by the flawed logic of induction!) that this is the way they come on purpose. If that is true, it is a design flaw. The thumb loop needs to be hand-specific.
Pro’s
- Competition legal.
- Easy to take on and off.
Con’s
- Very lightweight, so won’t provide protection for previously injured wrists.
Price: $8.99 at Bodybuilding.com
Conclusion
(This guy knows how to wrap up before a meet!)
Harbinger’s reputation is that it caters to the “big box” gym crowd (24-hour, LA Fitness, etc), only. And it is true that most of their products don’t reflect the needs of a serious strength athlete or CrossFitter. That said, it turns out that their 4’’ Nylon Weightlifting Belt is down-right nice for a competitive weightlifter. And I found I preferred it to the old Valeo I had been wearing for years.
Their straps do what they are supposed to do, but can’t replace your Iron Mind straps. The Pro Loop wraps are a bit light, but Harbinger has a Roman-looking pair of leather wraps if you want to get really hard-core – just bear in mind that the leather ones are not competition legal.
Good products over all, and I like the fact that they are easy on the wallet.
Appendix: Makin’ Money
During our coffee conversation, the Harbinger representative and I talked a lot about what Harbinger could do if they wanted to break into the market of strength athletes and CrossFit athletes. Some of the points I touched on were these:
Strength athletes and CrossFitters are “hardcore” by nature. They will never wear gloves, and the padding will get you laughed at (never mind that the padding isn’t functional). If Harbinger is making good money selling this stuff to people, then they should just stick with what they are doing. But, if they want to break into this market, they’ll need to offer a few items with us in mind. If they did that, they could end up making even more money.
What we in the strength sport and CrossFit community want is the best, and we’ll pay a pretty penny for it. If you offer a few very well designed products, we’ll buy them, even if they cost us more. Performance is everything.
Case in point: Our shoes …
Weightlifters and CrossFitters spend upwards of $200 or more for their Olympic lifting shoes, and do so gladly. In the last few years, the small company, Risto, has EXPLODED on the market of strength athletes and CrossFit athletes by simply making a good shoe that actually met our needs AND was truly fun (you can customize colors, designs, etc). They made sure that what they made was something we really did want. And now their shoes sell very very well. (I own a pair, as do a number of my lifters, and I fully plan on making my next pair a pair of Risto’s – purple!)
For years, every pair of olympic lifting shoes looked like boring bowling shoes. Then Risto comes along and provides a HAND MADE shoe, with real wood heel, and leather upper (read: quality) AND it comes in all kinds of fun colors. The pink Risto’s are now immensely popular. Anyone who watched the CrossFit/USAW live-feed would have noticed how many of those pink Risto’s were on the feet of CrossFit athletes.
If Harbinger wanted to, they could focus on just a couple of “high-end” products that were designed with us in mind. If they did that, we’d buy them.
The market here is pretty open still and waiting for innovators. For instance, there is only ONE serious brand of neoprene knee sleeves, Rehband. Everyone wears Rehband sleeves. Yes, they are great sleeves. But, that’s all there is, and they only come in blue or grey. If we had options with lots of fun colors, and the sleeves were just as good or better than Rehband’s, we’d eat them up!
The same could be said about belts. Make the SAME 4’’ Nylon Belt, but make it in a variety of colors … it would sell through the roof. (Make sure one is Pink, companies often drastically underestimate how many women do this kind of stuff. It’s AT LEAST 50%, probably more. Treat them right. Give them a serious hardcore product … in pink.)
Same with the wrist wraps. Make something heavy duty and in fun colors. Even if they cost 50% more, we’d buy them.
The important thing to remember about “cultish” groups (all strength athletes, CrossFitters, and other people in niche sports are at least a little cultish) is that once you get a few of them on board, the whole herd gets on board. That’s a marketing advantage.
It wouldn’t take much to add an entire new group of buyers to Harbinger’s client list.
At any rate, the products I got were all good quality. And I am going to continue using the belt for some time. And if in the future they come out with a purple belt with a green stripe … I’d be all over it!
Zen quote of the Week:
“It’s hard, it’s hard as hell. I like that it’s hard … It makes football a joke.” – John North, on the training he does for Olympic Weightlifting.
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Tamara “T-Bone” has a great write up of her experience watching this years 2011 Arnold Weightlifting Classic:
“I missed the morning Friday sessions because I was still hoping that God would intervene and allow me to drive to Atlanta to hang with Real Men With Facial Hair Who Weigh Over 200 Pounds. Sadly, God was not on my side, reaffirming my belief that there is a special place in hell for me.
…
Vaughn was the winner of the Men’s Open Division as a 77 lifter with a 147 snatch and 183 jerk. He makes me want to try harder to like men who weigh less than 200 lbs. Kinda.”
Tamara is my kind of woman!
David Boffa has his own write up of his experience at the show.
[Disclaimer: most of this was written in a sleep-deprived haze following a hellish 20-hour drive back from Columbus, OH, which is over double the amount of time the trip should have taken. I therefore make no claims to the quality, coherence, or veracity of anything written below, as I am hesitant to edit it or even reread it. All I can really say for certain is that the Arnold Sports Festival happened this past weekend, and I was there for it.]
Here’s a vid of the Women’s Elite Session from the Arnold:
Notice the starting positions of most of these women. Hips low, driving back through the heels, the bar a bit farther forward to start with. I’ve been pushing for more of this position with my own lifters (and myself – channeling my inner Natalie) and it’s been quite successful. (You can read more about it in Don McCauley’s great book, Power Trip)
Now, here’s the Men’s Session:
Yes … Kendrick Ferris is still alive!!
No … Pat Mendes did not break the Jr. World Record. He suffered a shoulder injury (when he did that great vid for Youtube, ironically) and didn’t do any serious lifting on the O-lifts till 4 days before the meet, from what I understand. Given that, his performance was AMAZING. Here’s a 20 year old kid blowing up numbers that most lifters take over a decade to lift, and he did them while injured! Once he’s all healed up, we’re gonna see some amazing things.
Doctor Hartman has been writing a series of posts on the “Transfer Effect” in weightlifting. The first two articles are here: Part I, Part II. In this new one, he goes over the continuum of important exercises, and has this to say about pulls (which I very much agree with):
Pulls – Not a huge fan of pulls (snatch pull and clean pull), but I believe they serve a purpose. During periods of planned overreaching they allow you to cheaply add some volume to your program, and when training in a fatigued state allow you to pull hard without worrying about the technicalities of completing the lifts. They are, however, at the end of the list for good reason. There are 100s of lifters who can perform a fast, complete clean pull with 200kg, but currently there are only a handful of lifters in the US who can actually clean that weight. They serve a purpose, but they typically have very little carryover to the competition lifts.
I only allow lifters who have been doing it for a while to touch pulls. Even then, they make up a pretty tiny part of the work load. If you need work for the hammies, then RDL’s and back extensions provide a great amount of work, without messing with the movement pattern.
Sarah Robles, one of America’s most bad-ass lifters, shares her story about what it was like growing up as an overweight kid, and how even elite athletes deal with the same stuff as you.
In my 8th grade year, a P.E. teacher encouraged me to improve my mile time, and our version of cross country time. After I did, I was excited. I was never motivated to exercise nor thought I could do anything. We had an award called "Husky Elite" This award was given to hard workers who improved a lot and showed leadership skills. I worked my butt off getting better. I wasn’t the best at anything but, I did MY best. I earned the award! The award is a plaque they put up in the locker room for everyone to see and you got to have a special white shirt with gold on it vs. everyone’s regular gray and green and they got to be in front of the line and lead the students through their exercises. Of all of the things I’ve accomplished, this and my state championship title in discus were my most prized awards.
There’s a second lesson here: Good teachers MATTER! They change lives. (As does a solid P.E. class.)
Here’s Sarah hitting a 135k clean and jerk at a local meet. Yes, 135k!
Glenn Pendlay on the various recovery methods available to the “garage gym” lifter or “weekend warrior” or whatever you want to call those of us who aren’t living in Colorado Springs or at Cal Strength.
But you, you’re working 40 hours a week and overtime when you can get it. Money is short cause the oldest needs braces and the youngest still needs new diapers ever time your turn around. The wife wants a bigger house, but you really NEED that new truck. Whether you want to add 10kg to your clean and jerk, or push your arms from 16 to 17 inches, you need to keep it down and dirty, with minimum investment of time and money.
…
I guarantee you, you will not recover as well on a bowl of cocoa puffs in the morning as you will on scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, or spinach mixed in, ham, and an orange or apple or some berries.
Donny Shankle has a new blog and a new blog post about recounting a story from his time as a soldier in Iraq, and an unintentional sandbag workout he got:
The sergeant called to his marines who scampered about to get into formation for an ammo inspection check. About an hour ago there was a miss fire which released a three round discharge somewhere off into the distance of the Kuwaiti desert not too far from a highway. As I was standing in formation I couldn’t help but laugh inside. I knew the rounds hadn’t hit anyone or anything but the dirt because my buddy Blake told me he saw the impact point. No, I was laughing because the machine gun which discharged was right above me when I heard it go off. I abruptly got inside the make shift plywood guard shack thinking it would provide me cover. The only problem was the guard shack hadn’t been reinforced with any sandbags yet. I would have received about as much cover as an umbrella in a category 5 hurricane.
Hypertrophy Training vs Strength Training – Rethinking the paradigm. This article-review helps explain why bodybuilders and gymnasts (and CrossFitters, for that matter) can look so buff, even though they don’t train as heavy as weightlifters and powerlifters. That fact seems contradictory when you take on faith that muscles can only be built with heavy weights. Yes, some have accepted that lighter weights with high volume will result in sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, but even that is thinking too small (pun fully intended, of course!):
Why’s this happening? The Heavy approach says that motor units are recruited with heavy weights. This result (as shown in the study) seems contradictory. No need to panic; this is easily explained. As I find myself saying when this discussion comes up, recruiting a motor unit isn’t the same as training it. Recruitment of the motor unit causes the attached fibers to contract, bringing them into the movement. Recruitment generates tension and creates strain on the working muscle fibers.
If you’re after strength gains, this is what you need to happen. Being able to voluntarily switch on your muscle fibers, learning to strain and grind through heavy and slow exercises, is largely neurological. Motor learning is sensitive to conditions. Squatting at 70% might as well be an entirely different movement from squatting at 95%, for all the brain is concerned. Levers change, mechanics of the lift change, and the patterns of neurological activity change.
Stress on the muscle, however, is different. Hypertrophy is work-induced. Work, contrary to common belief, is not merely a function of weight lifted or force applied or tension created. Work is done when that force is used to move things. Maximum work doesn’t mean maximum weight — it means using a heavy-enough weight and moving it around a lot.
Dairy: Devil or Panacea? Chris Kresser saves milk from the Paleo myths. Very important:
Another study found that people with the highest levels of milk fat biomarkers, suggesting they consumed the most dairy fat, were actually at lower risk of heart attack; for women, the risk was reduced by 26 percent, while for men risk was 9 percent lower.
Another study showed that people who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of cardiovascular death than those who ate the least.
Finally, this literature review of 10 studies found that milk drinking is associated with a small but significant reduction in heart disease and stroke risk.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. Which is this: evidence of what happens when people actually consume dairy products is a lot more convincing to me than proposed mechanisms of how dairy may effect humans.
70’s Big on the importance of carbs relative to your insulin levels and strength goals. Funny quote:
I Socratically asked (Glenn) Pendlay, “Do any of your lifters eat paleo?” I knew what the answer was, and he said something like, “Are you fucking serious?” to which I replied, “Fuck no, but that’s the point.” Nobody is going to get strong — and I mean fucking above average strong, not deadlifting 400 — by eating tree bark.
Long Arms messing with your ability to do the clean? The higher the bar is on your thighs at the top of the 2nd pull, the more explosive and powerful will be your clean. The problem is that many lifters (I’m one of them) have arms that are too ape-like (long for their body type) to get the bar up very high during the pull. There are a lot of novel approaches used to mitigate this problem (the “Dimas Shrug” where you shrug up before you get to the second pull position, or “rowing” the bar into your hip by intentionally bending the arms). But, this trick is amazing:
I’ve started playing with this myself, and I have to say, I love it! I don’t start as wide as she does, but I like to live by the theory that the more I can be like a Chinese Woman … the stronger I’ll be.
Steroid Era. The biggest weights lifted in the history of the world in the snatch and clean and jerk were lifted in the 80’s era. Part of the reason was because steroid testing was a joke. (The bigger joke is that today’s top elite world-level lifters are clean … right! But, I digress.) You can’t take anything away from these guys: Taranenko, Krastev, and Kurlovich.
Finally, are you going to the gym? Need a healthy, protein-heavy snack? This should do it:
(Riley’s the kid with the ball … and the guns.)
PDX Weightlifting member, Riley Charlish, helped take his high school Basketball team to the final-four with a stellar performance (among many this season!) that went into double overtime. Riley ended up with 12 points and three 3 pointers.
See the game report here, and the stats here.
Riley’s strength and conditioning program includes lots of heavy snatches, cleans, squats, and deadlifts. He’s taking a college-level approach to his strength training that many high school kids don’t take advantage of when they’re still young enough to make this kind of rapid progress. And it shows. He doesn’t have the height of some of the other kids, and certainly less than his future college rivals. So, he’s making up for it by being stronger and faster.
Most people just don’t realize how physical basketball is. It’s a contact sport where the athletes don’t get the luxury of pads and helmets. It’s only been in recent years that Basketball players have gotten wise to the benefits of serious strength training. NBA stars like Kobe Briant and Shaq have long known the immense importance of lifting serious weight, and this knowledge is starting to “trickle down” to the high school level. The state of the game is improving, and the competition is getting more fierce.
This season has been a huge one for Riley, who has scored upwards of 27 points in a single game! But, getting to be one of the top High School Basketball players in his league didn’t happen by magic or by accident. He’s had to work his tail off, often doing multiple hours of basketball practice a day before coming in to lift with me, all the while maintaining a high GPA in school. Where other kids make excuses, he just gets fired up and does what has to be done. I’ve never gotten any whining out of him, despite his being dead-tired when I ask him to do an all out on a set of Clean and Jerks.
It’s rare to meet kids his age who have the dedication and mature commitment levels that he does – the mind of a champion. This is his senior year, next year he’ll be off to college playing with the big boys. He’s gonna be ready.
Trust me, we’re going to see some great stuff from this guy. Not just in B-ball, but in life.
If you’re a Portland-area athlete (or a parent of one), then you can’t afford not to get serious about your strength training program. Now’s a great time to join us, as we’re opening our new facility the first week of April! Sign up now, and save big! Once we open, the prices are going UP
