A little while ago, Strength Plus magazine posted a question asking whether you would ever try, or coach someone on, the squat jerk. The question is likely to be raised again given that at the resent 2011 Arnold Classic, during the “Island vs Mainland” competition, Kedrick Ferris bombed out using the squat jerk and Pat Mendes missed his final two attempts using the power jerk (Pat’s recovering from an injury, so he wasn’t in top form, and considering that, he did remarkably well). Contrary to the beliefs of some, I don’t think they’d have done any better with the split jerk. They found a style that works for them, and they’re best of doing what feels natural.
It wasn’t that long ago (given the timeline of the earth!) that people believed that the squat snatch was a stupid idea. It used to be that everyone used the split style for both the snatch and the clean and the jerk. But, a few bold experimenters showed that the naysayers were wrong. The squat clean and the squat snatch proved to be more efficient. Bottom line: lifters could lift more weight if they squatted.
(The transition took a while. First people switched to the squat clean, but still split snatched – like Bill Starr. It wasn’t until the early 70’s before the last serious split snatchers left the building … I’m one of the only lifters under 50 who still split snatches in the country – world? – in competition.)
Sports are a lot like “real” life in at least one important way: they evolve by way of natural selection. In weightlifting, inefficient styles die and fall by the way side in favor of styles that promise the lifter more weight on the bar. More weight on the bar means a greater chance at winning. In sports, winning IS life.
For most of us, that attitude is stupid, of course. The sport we play is a vehicle through which we actively improve on ourselves, making us stronger, healthier, better people. But, at the elite level, winning really is everything to these folks. That attitude drives a kind of evolutionary process that is quite efficient at pushing a sport forward toward greater and greater heights.
The Split Jerk: Old Faithful
(The lifter in the photo is Victor Kanygin (USSR) during the European Championships, 1972. Thanks to Fred Lowe for the information about this photo!)
What has made the split jerk so popular, and why is it still around, despite the fact that the split snatch and the split clean have gone the way of the Brontosaurus?
In any split variation, the primary benefit is fore and aft control. Because of your legs being split, you’re very stable forward and back. In practice, what this means is that if you throw the bar a bit too far forward during the drive, it’s savable, you just jump into it more. (I’ve saved many snatches this way that would have been lost if I was a squat snatcher.) When weights are as heavy as they are in a clean and jerk, this added measure of control is a huge plus.
Another bonus is that the split jerk doesn’t require as much flexibility. If you didn’t come to weightlifting at the age of 12, you may not be as flexible as you’d like to be in the shoulders and hips. A split takes this concern out of the equation. You still have to be flexible, just not AS flexible as you would for a squat jerk. (The only reason this is true is because you are only splitting down to a “power” position. The old-time split snatchers and cleaners split to a “full” position which requires massive flexibility.)
The downside of any split version is that you can’t drive into the ground as long, because you need time to split your feet all the way out before you catch the bar. The split takes time, and you have to cut short the foot contact with the ground in order to get it. It may seem imperceptible to the naked eye, but that extra split second can be crucial. It is one of the primary reasons people switched to the squat snatch/clean. The bar simply cannot get as high when you are a splitter without doing extra work to make it happen.
I am of the opinion that the “triple extension” is a hold-over from the splitting days. Forcefully getting up on the toes, and shrugging at the top, gave splitters the extra height they needed to split under the bar. Now that everyone squats, the triple extension is dying away in favor of a flat-footed “super” drive.
The Power Jerk: A Transitional Form?
The power jerk solves the problem of the split jerk, and allows you to drive into the ground for longer, thereby imparting more force onto the bar resulting in more height. The second advantage of not having to split your feet is that they can land in the receiving position much faster. Like the split, in the power jerk you don’t go down to “rock bottom”. The depth of a power jerk is similar to that of a split jerk. (By the way, some folk call the power jerk a “push jerk”. They are the same thing.)
The downside is that you’ve given up your fore and aft control. Losing the bar in front or behind is much more likely in this style. You also need to be more flexible in the shoulders. While in the ideal world of unicorns and ballet slippers all lifters should catch their jerks right above the back of their heads (or farther behind if you lean your torso forward), in the real world, many lifters with less than optimal flexibility will catch the bar a bit farther forward. With the split jerk, this position is recoverable. In a power jerk, it is not. The bar MUST be in the right spot, or you will miss.
The Squat Jerk: Enter the Dragon
The last (teleological?) phase of the evolution of the Olympic weightlifter in its quest towards perfection is the squat jerk. The lifter is able to handle the heaviest of weights, get maximum drive-time onto the bar, and can land in the receiving position faster than in the split.
The downside is a near total loss of stability. Being a deep overhead squat, with your hands in a narrower grip than you have in the snatch, with a weight that was hard enough to front squat up with makes this style brutal, to say the least. But, if you can hit it just right, the rewards are a bigger jerk.
WARNING! A mistake often made with the squat jerk is one that is also made with the snatch: the lifter dives too fast under the bar! You never want to be in a position in this sport where the bar lands ON you. You must be in control at all times. Drive the bar up and catch it exactly where it ends up. If the bar is very heavy, you may need to squat under it to stay in control. This is how squat jerking came about. The weights are very heavy, once you catch the bar in the power position, you may not have any choice but to ride it down. But, there is never a case when you will have to CATCH the bar in the bottom position.
Conclusion: Which is “Best”?
I currently have 5 lifters doing some variant of the Power/Squat jerk. Brandon and Roy do so exclusively, Amy uses it when she wants to lay off an injured knee, and Dave and Peter are giving it the old college try (I expect Dave to use it at Masters Nationals this year). But, the rest of us all split.
I see this as a simple matter of choice, and doing what “feels” right for you. For many lifters, the split position feels very natural, but squatting doesn’t. Some lifters are the opposite. If you’ve been struggling in your split jerks, you might give the power jerk a try. If you feel great with it at light weights, see if you can squat down lower once you catch it.
You’ll need a ton of flexibility to do the squat jerk. Don’t even attempt it if you’re already struggling with flexibility in the snatch! Stick to the power jerk, if you don’t want to split. But, for those of you with great mobility, who feel awkward splitting, and have a fearless personality, the squat jerk may be right up your alley. Don’t let the naysayers dissuade you.
Sorry, I know I’m putting this out on a Tuesday! … oops!
Zen quote of the Week:
“Those who are special … are specific” – Ivan Abadjiev
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Doctor Hartman discusses the “Transfer Effect” in weightlifting:
When selecting exercises it is necessary to choose those that have the highest degree of positive transfer potential. To maximize the potential for transfer effect a training exercise must use reasonable levels of movement-pattern specificity and overload. Positive transfer only occurs when the athlete uses exercises that are similar, in terms of load, performance, tempo, and structure, to the competition movements.
Kendrick Ferris has a new fan page with a video of him killing some 200k jerks. He’s closing down his facebook page in favor of the new website, so make sure you check it out … he’s still on Twitter, though … a lot!
Strength Plus Magazine is no longer affiliated with USA Weightlifting … at all. They severed ties over an article that editor Rachel Crass did on international doping in the sport of Olympic weightlifting. WTF?!! The powers that be actually think that it’s a secret that lifters across the world take steroids! Really? A secret …
The bottom line is that, now more than ever, the magazine needs our support. Make sure to head over to the website and get your year-long subscription. It’s totally awesome. It reminds me of the old-school Strength and Health magazines from the early days of our sport. Rachel is very passionate about the promotion of this great sport in our country, and like me, thinks the only way that will happen is if WE (the lifters, coaches, and enthusiasts) take up the reigns. One way to do that is to become a subscriber to her magazine and tell your friends about it.
Donny Shankle has some advice for young lifters … do your chores! There’s something very “Karate Kid” about this.
Caleb Ward and John North. Does Olympic Weightlifting make you explosive? Uh … check this out. It’s Caleb and John just messing around. Remember, Caleb is a big boy.
Adam Stoffa on the importance of variety in your diet. I always find my self cycling through the same few meals over and over again. Hard habit to break! (He also mentions Greg Downey’s blog, Neuroanthropology, which is a great science blog focused on the intersection of Neuroscience and Anthropology, if you’re into that kind of thing … which you should be!)
Don Johnson. All y’all baseball/softball players out there take heed. Apparently adding that donut to the end of your bat to warm up before you get up to swing may be negatively affecting your performance. I posted this on don’s facebook wall when he linked to the article:
Good stuff. I suspect it comes down to throwing off the batters motor patterns. Technical efficiency is the most important part of batting/golfing. By changing the weight of the bat, your muscles and nervous system have to work differently to make the bat move in the same way. I’ll bet the body begins the process of trying to adapt to the new heavier bat. Then, you go and change it on the body again, going down to a lower weight bat, but the body at this point is confused.
In Sports, Specificity is King.
The same is true for weightlifters. Unfortunately for us, we have no choice but to have an ever changing sports “implement” = the bar. A full snatch is just as complex as a golf swing or a baseball swing. But, unlike in those sports where you can get very specific in your motor learning with an implement that never changes, in weightlifting, you are constantly adding weight to the bar. Every time you add weight (even if it is just a single kilo) your body has to adjust in order to move the bar with the same efficiency, and in the same pattern.
In my opinion, it’s what makes weightlifting one of the hardest sports around. You never fully adapt. And that is why we have to train (read: practice) so damned often to be good at it. If you don’t lift very heavy on the snatch and clean and jerk VERY often (whatever that means for you: could be 2 days a week, could be 12) then you are lagging behind the adaptation curve.
Don MCauley gives a tutorial on a very interesting drill he uses with all of his beginners that he calls the “Rock and Roll” 
You can buy his very good book here.
Bret Contreras on low testosterone and muscle growth. It ain’t so simple. A point he makes is that it often depends on WHY your T levels are low, not whether they are low.
Bret Contreras has arrived in New Zealand to begin his PhD program, and had some thoughts about commercial gyms on his way over there. Good luck Bret on your new adventure! On another post, he added this awesome video of a Rugby team preparing themselves by doing the “Haka!” … seriously, I need to start doing this before every contest with my team (yes, in singlets and heels).
50 Year Anniversary of Sr. Nationals. Here’s a great old article about the battle between Tommy Kono and Louis Rieke (my split-snatching progenitor!) at the Senior Nationals in 1961.
Glenn Pendlay on Retreating the Hips. (A la, Don McCauley)
Ben Claridad takes his workout to the big box gym to get his “Functional Bro” on. Also, the pic above is one he drew of Conan the Barbarian. He reminds us that:
“He doesn’t have a CNS. But if he did, it would be made of fucking Steel.”
Sean Waxman interviews Legendary coach Bob Takano.
Here’s another video by Sean Waxman teaching you a drill that will help get you to dive under the bar faster. He makes a VERY important point. Weightlifters are not just dropping under the bar and letting the bar crash down on top of them. They are actively pulling and driving themselves into the squatting position. I think this drill could be very beneficial, and I plan on trying it out on a few of my guinea pigs (I mean, lifters!).
Ben Bruno does a 300 pound Bulgarian Split Squat (also known as a Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat – RFESS), and discusses how he evolved to do such a freaky-deaky thing.
Adam Glass on manning up about your fatloss goals.
Joe Meglio on Box Squats vs Back Squats. He makes a case for the Oly squat over the box squat as your primary training tool if you’re an athlete. I’m all for that. But, personally, I’m in favor of dumping box squats all together (we never do them), as the idea of spinal compression from BOTH ends is scary to say the least. You should never sit down when heavy weight is on your back, IMO (powerlifters start throwing stones at me … now). The potential benefits do NOT outweigh the risks.
Still, he’s dead right about Oly squats kicking the butt of box squats. And, that you should squat if you have any interest in not being wimpy.
Finally, Monty Python-esque Olympic Weightlifting:
Today’s my Birthday, I just turned 33. And as we are all wont to do, it got me thinkin’ on things. In my case, those things that are related to lifting and coaching. (I really could have split this into two parts, easily … but what the hell!)
I’ll start with the lifting.
One of the best things about our sport of weightlifting is that it is a relative sport. It has sex, weight, AND age classes so that you only compete against people who are basically just like you. While the super heavy men in the open weight class will always lift the most absolute amount of weight, what matters is how much you lift relative to those who have the same 3 characteristics that you do: same weight, same sex, and same age.
This system works great for everyone, except for one small group. I call this group the “pre-masters” class. If you’re someone who didn’t start Olympic weightlifting until your late 20’s or early 30’s, and you aren’t already massively strong and explosive, then you are in a no-mans land as far as the sport is concerned. Below you are those who started when they were in their teens or early twenties and got a good chunk of training years while their hormones were still at their peak. Above you are folks who started in their mid thirties and are already in the first maters age group, the 35 to 39 year olds.
There are 5 of us here at PDX Weightlifting who are in the Pre-Masters class: Me, Chris, Beth, Peter, and Arron.
All four of us guys are lifting right around the same weights, give or take. Beth, as the lone female in this group, is actually one of the better lifters of all of us (great technique, tenacity, and is very explosive). If she stays with it, I have no doubt that when she hits the 35 age class, she’ll be world class.
As of now, however, we’re all still technically in the Open class. That means that among people who have the same training age (the amount of years you’ve been Olympic lifting specifically), we’re up against kids who are a decade or more younger than we are! And the folks that are our age are way beyond us because they began as teenagers and had a good chunk of years lifting while on the God’s all-natural steroid: youth.
In most of the classes, within about a year or two of training, you can head off to a big national meet. If your 19, you can do Jr. Nationals (My lifter Brandon qualified for Jr. Nationals after only 4 months of training!). If you’re in the open class, but you’re young, then you can make amazingly fast progress and be there in 2 to 5 years. And if you’re a Master, then you’re set, because there are NO qualifiers for the Nationals.
But, if your a pre-masters lifter, your rate of progress is going to be about HALF of what it would be for your decade younger competitors. But, you still have the same totals to qualify for, meaning it will take you twice as long to get to the same place.
Don’t fret, however, if this is you!
There is still some relativity to be relied on! It may take you a good 4 or 5 years (or more) to hit the qualifying total for Open Nationals, and if you go, you’ll get your butt kicked by much younger lifters, you’ll have also AGED 4 or 5 years in the process, making you close to, or at, the 35 year Masters mark. If you are strong enough to qualify for open nationals as a 35 year old lifter, then you’ll be in the top 5 to 10 strongest people in your age class in the country!
My friend Mike Cook is a good example of this. He is in the 40-44 age class, and totals enough in the 62k class to qualify for some big national meets in the Open Class. Sure, the kids whip him good, but he WON Masters Nationals last year.
Most people just don’t have what it takes to stick with hard training after the age of 30. They start to wimp out, and make excuses, and cry about what they “used” to be able to do … that’s a waste of air. You can do amazing things if you work hard and are consistent.
Case in point – My Bulgarian Experiment (a la John Broz)
Brandon Tovey is a promising young 69k (19 year old) lifter of mine. He’s very hard working and is determined to be the best. At 19, he’s got a work ethic that you just don’t see often. He’s the kind of kid who makes me look good as a coach without me even trying.
10 weeks ago, we decided it was time for him to start really ramping up his training to a higher level Bulgarian model. But, the problem was that most of my lifters can’t realistically be in the gym 7 days a week maxing out all the time! They have jobs, school, a life, etc.
But, Brandon couldn’t do it on his own. He had to have a training partner to keep him motivated and training at his fullest. He’d been training with Peter most of the time up until then, which was going great, but Peter is finishing up his graduate work to be a Dietician, so he’s one busy busy dude right now.
That left me. I was the only person who was going to be in the gym at every session of his anyway. So, I sucked it up, and I started training right along side him, set for set, lift for lift to keep him motivated.
We maxed on the full lifts and squats on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and maxed on the Power versions and front squats on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, then maxed on squats on Sunday.
No days off for 8 weeks!
During this period we started doing back off sets on the M/W/F workouts dropping down to 80% and doing doubles or triples and trying to slowly work back up in weight. We’d do that on all three lifts. We also ended up doing full lifts on 2 of the original power days sometimes going heavier than we were able to the day before. Lot’s of lifting, all the time. Finally, we tapered down for 2 weeks leading into the contest that we had this last Saturday.
Results? I made PR’s in every single one of the 6 major lifts (snatch, clean and jerk, power snatch, power clean, front squats, and back squats), and I hit that PR snatch in the contest which gave me a new PR total! (Actually, when I weighed 15 pounds heavier ,my squats were a bit higher – not much. But, now that I’m back down at 85k, I’m stronger than I was at 94k on the Oly lifts. Give me a few months and the squats will be back there too!) Brandon’s results were even better, given his youth.
Conventional wisdom states that a 33 year old just can’t possibly keep up with a kid who is 14 years younger than he is. And while it was harder for me, and I had to be more diligent about diet, foam rolling, sleep, stretching, etc. The fact is, I did it! And I’m still doing it right now.
We’re about to start doing twice a day training on two days, then work up to more by March. I LOVE training like this. It is hard as living hell sometimes. But, it is the most fun I’ve had in a long time! For a gym-rat like me who likes to lift heavy, this is heaven.
Now … let’s be clear. I’ve done twice a day training before, and I’ve done a lot of Bulgarian influenced training as well. But, I was always more timid about it. Three days truly heavy in a classic Bulgarian fashion (work up to a heavy single, then do back off sets), and then all of the other workouts during the week were “light” or “technique” days, where you do the power versions up to about 80% of what you did the day before and maybe some light front squats.
In other words, I’d gotten up to a certain level of progression toward a “Full” Bulgarian-esque program, but never pushed it any farther. Why? Well, some of it is simply logistic. I’ve spent the last 7 years working on my undergrad degree in Math and then my Masters. So, I was busy. Often, 3 days a week was all I could swing. But, the other part was the natural defeatist attitude that you can acquire as you get older. There’s a tendency to believe that because something is hard, it is impossible. Not true.
Disclaimer!
I don’t advise anyone to go with this level of frequency unless:
- Your life supports it. Unless you’re 18 and determined to be an Olympian, your training should bend around your life, not the other way around.
- You REALLY want to. It’s hard, if you don’t find it fun, why do it?
You can, and will, make amazing strides lifting only 3 days a week. And I do believe that a 3-day per week Bulgarian inspired program is great stuff, even ideal for some. Especially for Masters lifters who have a life!
But, it’s important to realize that it is possible to train like a maniac and survive! I feel like I can be an example to all the other average joe/jane lifters out there. Most of the limits you believe exist are all in your head.
I’ll keep you updated on the Bulgarian Shenagans that Brandon and I are up to as we keep progressing forward. I have a goal of hitting a 250 total by the time I’m 35, and then to break the 85k/35y-age-class American snatch record of 131k sometime before I turn 40. I think I can do it. But, it’s gonna take a bunch of hard training to get there. I’ll have to add 40k to my snatch in the next 5 years. But, I’ve done that already (I really did do about 50k in my first contest … at that time, a 90k snatch seemed an impossibility).
Little by little you improve, and if you stick with it, you’re patient, and you work your tail off, you can do amazing things.
Now the Coaching … 7 Things I’ve Learned in 5 Years
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the last 5 years. I’ll do this part in a list format, ‘cause who doesn’t like lists?
1. The devil is in the details.
When I started, I wasn’t finicky enough about the stuff that mattered most. Part of the reason for that is because I didn’t KNOW what mattered most! The other part was because it’s not my natural personality to be a “nag” about every little thing: I’m not a micro-manager. But … sometimes you need to micro-manage.
There are some key things that have to be dealt with early, or they will plague a lifter for years to come (I know, it happened to me!). Fix the big problems right from the get go, and it makes your future life a lot easier.
2. Don’t over-coach.
This one is the converse of the above.
Some athletes need you to tell them every little thing in every moment, to call all their weights, and to basically do all the thinking for them. But, I find that to be rare – especially for older lifters!
Most athletes do better if they are able to be their own “assistant” coach. Once we’ve gotten past the initial few-month technique learning phase I don’t harp on them on every lift. I only make suggestions here and there where it seems like they need it. The reason is that at this point, they KNOW where they fucked up, and me jumping on their backs isn’t going to help the situation. What they need is encouragement to keep trying until they fix what they are trying to fix.
When it appears there’s a problem that keeps happening, that isn’t being fixed, then I step in since in those cases they don’t know what the problem is. And, of course, if they ask me what I think, I tell them. But, if they usually do something right, but for some reason today they do it wrong, there is no reason to tell them about it … they know. I work hard to create smart lifters, not drones.
3. One thing at a time.
The Olympic lifts are hard … too hard. And for each problem you are fixing, you are sometimes creating another. What is imperative in the learning process is a systematic approach to learning and error correction that focuses on only ONE thing at a time. The lifter likely has many things wrong going on, but a coach has to be able to know which one (and only one!) of those to attack first.
A sure sign of someone who doesn’t really understand coaching is someone who just blurts out, every five seconds, the problems with someone’s lifting.
“This is wrong, and that is wrong, and you should really fix that …”
That doesn’t help anybody. You have to hone in on the one thing that is causing the worst problems and fix that … even if, in the short term, it exacerbates one of the lesser problems. You’ll get to that next. Knowing which problem is the one that needs the most attention is something that you can only learn by coaching lots of different people over time.
4. Humble thyself.
This is a BIG one.
Nobody knows everything – especially not me. I live by the principle, “The more I learn, the dumber I get.” Which is a funnier way of describing the Zen principle of “Beginners Mind.” (I think it was Oscar Wilde who said, “I’m not young enough to know everything.”) You should always approach the things you do as though you are still a beginner and have a long way still to go. No one is ever truly an expert.
Every year, I feel like I’m starting from scratch. I bring with me what I think worked before, but I try to check my pride at the door. This is going to be a big year for me and my club. We’re finally at the point where we’re moving into our own facility (rather than working out of the commercial gym we’ve been at for a long long time). This is uncharted territory for me, and so I’m trying to devour as much info as I can from those who know more than I do.
I think where people get themselves into trouble is when they start believing they have all the answers, and aren’t able to simply ask questions for fear of no longer appearing to be the expert, or for fear that they’ll look dumb.
It’s no secret that I’m a big admirer of a lot of big-name Oly coaches around the country. Guys like Glenn Pendlay, Tom Hirtz, Bob Takano, Sean Waxman, John Broz, Mike Hartman, Steve Gough, Don McCauley, Jim Smitz, Tommy Kono, Mike Burgener, and many others who have far more years of experience than I do. I have a long way to go before I’ll reach that level.
There are many different approaches and most of the guys on that list will disagree on A LOT of things, but it is telling to learn what they DO agree on. Even if you find that, over time, you want to do things differently than one of your idols does, it is very helpful to know what they were doing and why because it will improve your own approach.
A great example is that when I first started my club 5 years ago, I was supported a lot by Tom Hirtz. He went out of his way to help me and answer all my questions and make sure that I got off doing things the right way. Over the years, he’s never ceased to be there when I or one of my lifters needed help. And I can honestly say that I’m not sure there would be a PDX Weightlifting if he wasn’t there in the beginning. I will be forever grateful.
But, over that time, I’ve developed a coaching style that is almost the polar opposite of Tom’s! Not in the fundamentals, mind you, but in some of the more obvious details. He’s a very aggressive drill-sergeant-like man, who is detail oriented and hard-driving. The people who respond well to his style do VERY well (Sarah Bertram and Jessica Gee are classic examples).
I, on the other hand, am like a court jester! I’m light hearted, goofy, and try to be rather hands off. My lifters have more freedom under my system than his do. When I started, I basically tried to emulate Tom. But, I found that it just didn’t suit my personality very well.
Segue …
5. Be Yourself.
No matter what, you got to be yourself. At first it’s easy to try and adopt what someone else is doing outright. At first, this is a good strategy since you don’t know what the hell you are doing! But, over time you’ll be best off if you can develop your own style and approach to coaching. You are who you are. Play up your strengths, and try to improve on your weaknesses. It doesn’t do your lifters any good if you are trying to be someone you aren’t.
Athletes will gravitate eventually to coaches who’s styles fit their needs. Some people need a drill sergeant, some need a friend. Be who you are, and the right athletes will find you.
6. Hard work trumps everything else.
Ever wondered why CrossFit has such a good track record for getting people into shape? Because while they do a lot of things wrong, they do one thing very very right: They work their butts OFF. There is no denying that the CrossFit community is a group of hard training mo-fo’s.
Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the technical side of coaching (technique, programming, diet, etc). But, fundamentally, if you can inspire your athletes to kick their own asses in the gym and to do so consistently, they will improve no matter what else is going on.
7. Make it fun.
One of my biggest goals is to dramatically increase the participation rate in our sport among recreational athletes in this country. At the grass-roots level, that means my own club. Nothing keeps people coming back through the door than the knowledge that when they do it’s gonna be fun. Fun is the most important thing. We work hard, we stay consistent, but in my opinion, you can’t do those things if you are miserable. In my club, we are constantly laughing and joking around. It’s a big part of the atmosphere. Everyone is encouraging of everyone else. And we have a strong family-like vibe. It is my job to see that it stays that way.
OK, that’s enough musing for one Birthday! On to another year of lifting shit above my head!
We just got back from a local contest here in Oregon. It was all kinds of fun. Lot’s of PR’s set, had some funny misses, and laughed our asses off. Basically, that’s what it’s all about for me. (Video’s are below, but first, the talkin’).
A couple friends I hadn’t seen in a long while showed up and lifted big (shoutout to Justin Devereux and Joe Farmer!). Also, Jessica Gee and Sarah Bertram (of Heavy Athletics, coached by Tom Hirz) broke some Oregon records, and Sarah hit her first 200k total!! Not a lot of women in the United States can say they total 200k.
It was my lifter Dave’s first contest and he did awesome. It was Patrick’s second meet and he is lifting better all the time. Amy needed this meet to qualify for Masters worlds since she hasn’t competed in a while and killed that. Beth hit a PR total, and Chris hit a PR Clean and Jerk, then hits a PR 125k clean and barely missed the jerk (sadly, the last one didn’t make it on the vid, since the camera ran out of batteries!!). I fully expect that in a number of years when Chris turns 35 that he’ll be one of the strongest dudes in his age/weight class in the country. He’s got a killer work ethic. Brandon also qualifies for Jr. Nationals, even though he isn’t going this year – this kids gonna be something, watch out!
A sad fact is that when most people get to about 30, they start developing a defeatist attitude about all things physical. With the exception of Brandon (who’s 19), every lifter in these videos is (at the youngest) around the 30’s, some are in their 40’s. They all work very hard, and have to do so alongside their careers and family obligations (Dave’s girlfriend just had a baby on Friday!). They don’t make excuses, or cry that they can only do 2 or 3 days a week of training. They work hard, they make progress, and they get to have a lot of fun competing in an inspiring sport.
The video’s below are all from the side-view and were taken by my fiancé, Leslie. The side view is great because you get to see where we f%cked up on our misses! I strongly advise that you record yourself from the side once in a while to see if your pull looks like it should.
For instance, there are two shots of me on the clean and jerk (I’m the guy with the ponytail … of course!). The first one on the video I miss the clean (at about 3:01). You can see that I do two key things wrong. I get up off my heels during the pull, and I don’t get the bar up high enough on my thigh (that is, I don’t finish the second pull). These are the two things that I do OFTEN when I miss my cleans. We’re all like this, generally. There are a couple things we do a lot that we have to always hammer away on to improve. Video makes things easier. Someone else can tell you a million times, but until you see yourself do it, it doesn’t always click.
OK … the vids. I split them into the snatch portion, then the clean and jerk. They go in order of weight on the bar.
The snatch vid music is by Daniel Lanois (with my man Aaron Neville singing). Seems appropriate for a lift that is all about finesse. The clean and jerk is a more “dirty” lift (dare I say, “sexy”), so I used Maxwell for that one. 
OH, and if you look close, on the right side of the video, the (stage) right judge is Jimmy Radcliff (gray sweatsuit), the head Strength and Conditioning coach of the University of Oregon Ducks. He’s a huge supporter of Weightlifting in the state, and puts on our State Championships every year.
Snatch:
Clean and Jerks:
Zen Quote of the Week:
“You can’t run to get fit, you need to be fit to run"– Diane Lee
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl. Ya, we all know that. But, what you might not know is how they are organized as the only publicly owned professional team in the country.
Mike Tomlin. While I didn’t have much stake in either team this year, I was a bit sad to see the Steelers lose. Mainly because of Mike Tomlin. He’s the kind of coach I really can look up to. To paraphrase his philosophy:
“Football is an emotional sport played by emotional men. They need someone like me with a clear head to guide them.”
I can respect that. We live in an odd country that devalues anyone who doesn’t win first place. There is no silver medal in football, baseball, basketball, etc … But, in the real world, if you’ve worked hard and come far, even if you lose, you deserve respect.
Sean Waxman is running an Olympic Weightlifting Essentials seminar on February 20th. If you are in the Southern California area (or plan to be by then), make sure you sign up!
Steve Gough 2-part interview (PDF file). Gough is a great American coach who also coaches in the Bulgarian-influenced style. In this interview he talks about his training methods, his history, the lifters he’s coached, and how he feels about the OTC (hint: he ain’t a fan).
Donny Shankle on the Benefits of Auxiliary work. Notice he said “auxiliary” not “supplemental”. While in the normal world these terms are synonymous, in the world of weightlifting, Supplemental exercises are things like squats, pulls, rack pulls, Push Presses, Rows, etc. Those exercises that are themselves serious strength exercises and are supposed to help you directly with the Snatch and Clean and Jerk. Auxiliary exercises are more like “prehab” work – the small stuff – that is there to keep your body healthy, your shoulders mobile, your “core” up to snuff, and so on.
While there is much argument over how much supplemental work is necessary for the weightlifter, and whether these exercises carry over as much as they are purported to do (Ivan Abadjiev has even said that he was considering dropping all squatting!!), there is little argument over the importance of doing the “little” stuff to keep your body running smoothly. Adding in back extensions, face pulls, planks, and push ups (for instance) WILL make you a better lifter, because they will keep you from suffering from repetitive use injuries and getting “all banged up” from all that heavy-ass lifting you are doing.
Of course … I switch the words up all the time!
Vasiliy Alexeev. Ever wondered how the baddest super-heavy of the 70’s trained leading up to the 1974 world championships? Well, wonder no more, here’s the details!
Doctor Michael Hartman has a post on the clean and JERK. The purpose of his post is to focus on what those of you who suffer from a poor jerk (relative to your clean) can do to fix it. This post focuses on the drive portion, which is generally where people screw up the worst. One of the points he mentions is this little tid-bit:
No need for a ruler, but a general rule of thumb suggests the dip should occur by lowering the bar, through hip and knee flexion, a distance equal to about 10 percent of the athlete’s overall height. (5’8” lifter = a little less than 7 inches; a 6’0” lifter a little more than 7 inches). Any drastic difference may cause a problem.
This point could bring up an interesting discussion about the use of the “short dip” in the drive portion of the jerk …
70’s Big on not training when sick.
Jim Smitz has a post up at Iron Mind about the Overhead Squat: “America’s Favorite Exercise”
Bob Takano writes about the American Record Breakers meet in LA where 85k lifter Anthony Pomponio hits a 272k total in only his second ever meet winning him a big $1,000 bucks!! On the ladies side, Lindsey Valenzuela, a woman he’s been coaching wins herself a $1000 for first place. Great job both of you, and to all the other lifters!!
NSCA. The National Strength and Conditioning Association has published an article suggesting that Resistance Bands, when added to your back squats, may increase Rate of Force Development. (PDF here) But, the authors were still skeptical.
East Coast Barbell Bray has a new video inviting you to join them (below). These folks are in Dublin, Ireland. If you’re out their way and you aren’t training with them … God help you!
Barry Kinsella details his after-contest training.
Florida Weightlifting. Bodybuilding weekly has a story on the women in the Florida High School Weightlifting Program:
What they’ve found is a sport where 90-pound girls are able to compete — and girls who weigh 250 pounds are also valued — and both can feel good about their bodies. And along the way, they’ve discovered another plus: growing self-esteem.
"Just doing something that they didn’t think they could do helps their confidence," says Lonnie Beckel, a former football coach and now the girls weightlifting coach at St. Cloud High School.
Beckel says girls pick up good techniques quickly because they’re not embarrassed to lift a light weight and to learn the correct form. Boys, on the other hand, want to prove how macho they are and usually start with weights that are too heavy.
That last statement definitely jives with my experience. I’ve found females (as a rule) much easier to teach technique to initially. In the long run it all evens out, but at first, young men (teens) worry that if they aren’t lifting enough weight, then they look unmanly.
Ultimate Athlete. Brock Leggins’ has a great quote for athletes:
“Entitlement is for the worthless and weak”
The sad fact is that many young athletes just don’t understand the importance of good sportsman-like (or sportswoman-like!) behavior. You don’t ever DESERVE to win. First place is not going to just be handed to you. And sometimes, even if you did everything right, you will still lose! Deal with it. You’re ability to deal with this is one of the things that defines you as an athlete.
A sports-coaches job is to make sure their athletes can WIN. But, my job as a Strength Coach is first and foremost to help develop the athlete into a better person (both physically and mentally). The Greek Ideal: a Strong Mind in a Strong Body.
Conor Collins has a post on fixin’ them IT Bands .
Antonio Krastev. Just incase you’ve forgotten, it’s been 24 years and STILL no one has beaten Krastev’s snatch record of 216 kilos. Blame it on steroids all you want, but every lifter is on drugs at that level. That is one powerful feat of superhuman power!
Jim Wendler on building up your Press.
Mike Reinhold on the Front Squat vs. The Back Squat and Back Extensor Muscle Activity. I’m having a hard time buying his argument that (based on the EMG data of only one study), that the back squat may actually be a BETTER choice for sufferers of low back pain than the front squat because it produces less back extensor muscle activity which is correlated with more back pain.
I’ve never had an athlete tell me that back squats made their low back feel better than front squats do. And this is likely because of the factors that EMG doesn’t tell you, namely the torque and shear forces involved in back squatting. I don’t care how good your form is, the back squat will cause you to lean farther forward than the front squat will and this will increase the shear force on the spine. Back squats also allow you to go heavier which causes it’s own problems. I’d need to see a lot of solid research to back up this claim before I’d change my mind that Front Squat are safer than Back Squats.
None of this is to say that one shouldn’t do back squats. But, if you have low back pain already, there’s a good case to be made that front squats will be less painful, not more painful, than backs squats … and this bears out in most coaches experience.
California Strength. The guys at Cal Strength have another video up, this time with a fantastic title that rings soooo true: “The Monotony that Builds Champions.” If you want to get great at anything, you have to learn to love the boredom. Not just endure it … Love it!
Great Basketball players shoot free throws, lots and lots of free throws. Great weightlifters snatch and clean and jerk all the damned time.
Elsbeth Viano has a post on Grey Cook’s Functional Movement Screen (FMS).
There is some argument among strength coaches about whether one should: (1) screen every athlete at the beginning to make sure you are not missing any weak links; or, (2) use (FMS based) progressions combined with good intuitive coaching that fixes weak links “on the fly” as you notice them allowing you to avoid specific testing at the beginning.
I tend to go with the latter. I will “screen” on the fly during the beginning of my time with an athlete (during their 2-week free trial). I always start out by finding out if they can overhead squat and front squat with correct mechanics. If not, why not? And we go from there. The point being that in the end, all my athletes need to eventually be able to do the motions of the FMS, and my programs are designed to make sure they can.
In point of fact, Olympic lifting coaches like me have it easier. Other strength coaches don’t teach the full lifts so they can end up with athletes who have serious mobility and stability issues that never get fixed unless you catch them with the FMS. For instance, while other gyms let you get away with a half-squat (just to parallel – which they’ll call a full squat) we go ass-to-grass which requires far more flexibility.
The Olympic lifts are like their own FMS. Teach a person to do full snatches and full clean and jerks with proper form and no pain, and you have someone who can pass the FMS with flying colors.
Here’s a cartoon about the over-doing-it type of trainers:
Finally, the most intense 1 rep max lift of all time:
Doctor Michael Hartman has just released a new eBook called, “The Next 8-Weeks” all about preparing you to be a better Olympic Weightlifter. It’s actually a bit of a misnomer, as the book has THREE full 8-week programs (math: 8×3 = … ) giving you 24 full weeks of serious training.
While I always advocate that potential Oly lifters go and get themselves a coach, the fact is, for many of you that just isn’t realistic. MOST of the cities in the US don’t even have ONE Olympic lifting coach … not one. Now, if you are young and you want to make lifting your life, then you should move to a city that does have one, since there is no other way to be serious in the sport without a coach to speed your progress (Portland is nice, btw). But, for the rest of y’all, having access to rock-solid routines written by someone like Dr. Hartman (who has over a decades worth of experience with high level lifters) is the next-best thing.
(Even if you DO have a coach, the more you learn, the better you’ll be as an athlete. I always encourage my own athletes to be my “assistant” coaches with themselves. In my experience, athletes who invest in learning as much as they can make the fastest progress.)
The book is divided into three 8-week routines, each focused on a different goal. The first is STRENGTH, then second is TECHNIQUE, and the third is a HYBRID training system. I whole-heartedly back these routines. These are quite similar to the kinds of routines I put my lifters on here at PDX Weightlifting, and are based on the kinds of routines that the top lifters in the world have done to get to where they are today.
You would do quite well for yourself to work through these routines exactly as written for the full 24 weeks and then do a contest. You’ll be amazed at what you will have accomplished in such a short time. After that, you could very easily just repeat the process.
A word of Advice:
One thing a lot of trainees do that messes them up is that they go around trying little bits of one routine here, and bits of another there, never sticking to any one program for long enough to reap the benefits.
That is huge mistake, and it will cost you YEARS of progress. Trust me, I know!!! I’m the king of “average joe” lifters. I grew up without a coach and had to figure it all out on my own. I have tried EVERYTHING. I’m not being hyperbolic. I’ve done it all. That may have helped me as a coach, fine (I know what doesn’t work), but you will NEVER be a great athlete (reaching your OWN potential is my definition of great) unless you hunker down and stick to the plan.
It’s been said that while there are many paths out there that do work, and each coach has their own style, it is the athletes job is to fully invest in their coaches plan and just do it. You can’t mix them. If your coach is a “Russian” inspired coach, then go with it. If he’s Bulgarian, then go with that. If he does the Tommy Kono-like Classic Americana stuff, then do it. What matters is that you follow the program and don’t get all side tracked trying to be a little of everything.
It doesn’t matter what Kendrick Ferris does, you do what your coach tells you to do.
Buy this book, and Dr. Hartman becomes your coach. He’s written the routines. Put them into practice and go through the entire program front to back. Your future-self will thank you.
In my opinion, he’s charging too little. So, before he figures this out, you’d better rush your butt over to buy it!
Charisa Gump does the demonstrations of technique while Kono talks through a powerpoint presentation. I think in some ways the best part about any talk given by Tommy Kono is just him jaw-jackin’. He has such a mellow demeanor and is clearly a genuinely nice guy. He’s a great ambassador for the sport.
NOTE: Not all high level coaches agree on every little point about technique. The reason is that Olympic lifting isn’t something for which there is a set/determined/orthodox technique that is right for everyone, because of the variances of human physiology. There are some points made in this presentation that fall into this category. But, that said, if you are starting out, it is best to do things as close to traditional as possible. For all of our differences, we’re still human, and the laws of physics still apply. MOST technical points will remain the same across individuals. (READ: You ain’t that special.)
I went ahead and pointed out a key idea in each video that I think are things every (or at least most) coaches would agree with and that you should focus on when perfecting your own technique.
But first, a quote from the series that has an oddly “Bulgarian” ring to it:
“When you do Olympic lifting, you gotta do Olympic lifting. There is no substitute for Olympic Weightlifting.” – Tommy Kono
In Part I – Key Point: The hips are king. Drive with the hips.
In Part II – Key Point: Constantly Accelerate the bar, don’t go super fast right off the floor.
Part III – Key Point: The back has gotta be as arched as possible.
Part IV – Key Point: Start with the legs, not the back. Push the platform down.
Part V – Key Points: Don’t swing the bar around you. Use the arms to pull yourself down.
Part VI – Key Point: Be the anvil (very Zen!)
Hat-tip to PDX-Weightlifting member Arron for finding these.
Want to join us and watch Arron lift some big ‘ole heavy weights above his head and get your own body stronger in the process? Of course you do! So, click the banner below and get started today on your FREE 2-week trial membership.
There’s a story over on Slate.com about the possibility that Facebook is contributing to people feeling bad about themselves. In the piece they quote a number of studies suggesting that the more you underestimate how bad others feel, the more you feel bad. So … when going on Facebook, you see the pretty pics of your friends and the funny lines they put down for status updates and whamo! You feel worse, because you assume their lives are perfect in comparison to yours.
From the story:
The researchers found that their subjects consistently underestimated how dejected others were–and likely wound up feeling more dejected as a result. Jordan got the idea for the inquiry after observing his friends’ reactions to Facebook: He noticed that they seemed to feel particularly crummy about themselves after logging onto the site and scrolling through others’ attractive photos, accomplished bios, and chipper status updates. "They were convinced that everyone else was leading a perfect life," he told me.
The problem I have with the story is that it’s focusing only on the proximate causes of why you (presumably) feel like dirt so often, and not the ultimate cause. The proximate cause is that Facebook and other media present us with fabricated lives that don’t tell the whole truth, and that can make our own real lives seem crappy by comparison.
What’s the ultimate cause? You believe it. Or, more generally: Humans are stupid.
Hang in there with me …
The Theory of Everything
I have a theory that most of the seriously horrible things that humans have ever done to one another, along with most of the reasons that you and I have ever been mad/angry/sad, are because of only 1 thing: Humans are stupid. Not just the “other” humans (where you and I are the few “special” smart ones). ALL humans.
Sure, you may have an area of specialization or two in which you’ve amassed a level of knowledge that makes you, in that area, relatively “smarter” than most people. Maybe you have an unusually high IQ. But, that isn’t the point.
You are not a robot, you are an animal (a primate, specifically). And like all animals, your emotions cloud your ability to reason. Emotions are powerful sons-a-bitches, and try as we might, they kick our butt.
In a push-comes-to-shove fight, emotions always win. When they do, you get dumber.
Hitler was bad, but what made the Holocaust wasn’t Hitler, it was all the absolute morons who followed him and thought that what he was saying made sense! If no one agreed with him, he’d have just been one more whacko in history. Instead, he went down as one of the most evil men the world’s ever seen. The difference was simply the followers – after all, they’re the ones that did all the truly dirty work.
We can say the same about the Roman armies that massacred millions, or the Viking and Mongolian hordes, or Slavery, or the Crusades, or the massacre of the Native Americans, or Religious wars of all kinds, or the Salem witch trials … the list could take me months to finish.
In every last case humans let their emotions win-out over their reason, and millions upon millions of people died violent deaths because of it. We love to pretend that we are in control of ourselves, that our decisions are our own. But, in the throws of emotion, that is rarely the case. Yet, we’ll still be convinced that we’re right!
Of course, this isn’t confined to situations that result in death. We end up being driven by emotions all the time, and not even knowing it until it’s too late. I’d argue that most, if not all, of the serious regrets we have in life are related to a situation in which we allowed our deep emotions in the moment to cloud our minds ability to reason. Maybe we hurt someone we love deeply by saying or doing something we KNEW (at least later) was a mistake. Maybe we went down a path that could have been avoided by simply taking the time to clear our heads and think it through.
Our lives are filled to the brim with moments of shear idiocy driven by our emotions.
Here’s another quote from the Slate article specifically about women:
If you’re already inclined to compare your own decisions to those of other women and to find yours wanting, believing that others are happier with their choices than they actually are is likely to increase your own sense of inadequacy. And women may be particularly susceptible to the Facebook illusion. For one thing, the site is inhabited by more women than men, and women users tend to be more active on the site, as Forbes has reported. According to a recent study out of the University of Texas at Austin, while men are more likely to use the site to share items related to the news or current events, women tend to use it to engage in personal communication (posting photos, sharing content "related to friends and family"). This may make it especially hard for women to avoid comparisons that make them miserable. (Last fall, for example, the Washington Post ran a piece about the difficulties of infertile women in shielding themselves from the Facebook crowings of pregnant friends.)
Again, the underlying point here is not that Facebook is bad, or that going onto Facebook necessarily makes people feel bad about themselves. It’s that humans are so stupid, they believe the hype.
This isn’t that much different than the hoopla about how the media is out to get us all. Both men’s and women’s groups constantly complain about the unrealistic body images presented in magazines. Women complain that the images of women in magazines are unrealistically skinny, and men complain that the images of men are unrealistically muscular.
The are right! They are unrealistic. But, so are the drawings in comic books.
Again, the proximate problem is the images, but the ultimate problem is that people believe them to be real. No one believes that an Incredible Hulk comic is depicting reality, so no one complains about it. But, when it comes to photos of people in the popular magazines, people allow their negative emotions and fear about themselves and their own inadequacies to cloud their judgment.
We all KNOW that the pics are fake in those magazines. They have been photo-shopped to hell and back – every single picture in every single magazine is a lie. All of them. We know this. But, we’re so riddle with emotion that we trick ourselves into believing it anyway!
Men: Those muscular guys only look that way because of photo-shop and steroids.
Women: Even MORE Photo-shop, tons and tons of it.
Facebook is no different. It tells only part of the story. If you allow yourself to believe that it is the whole truth, you’re being an emotional idiot. Point blank.
What to do?
I suppose there are (at least) three ways we can deal with this fact of our ingrained biologically-given stupidity.
- We can deny it, do nothing about it, and continue to suffer as we have always suffered.
- We can accept it, but become depressed by it (another way of allowing your emotions to win over your brain) presuming that we can’t do anything about it.
- We can accept it, and take proactive steps to mitigate the worst of its effects.
Obviously, I’m all for number three!
One thing you can do is simply get better at the skill of happiness since negative emotions are the ones that cause us the most trouble. You can start by reading my article: Happiness is a Skill.
But, if you want to be able to continue rocking-out on Facebook 35 hours a day, 8 days a week (don’t forget to “like” MY Facebook page!) without it dragging you down into the doldrums of emotional turmoil (too dramatic?), you’ll have to start convincing yourself of some basic facts that (apparently) we find hard to swallow. Your emotions are strong, but as they say, knowledge is power.
If you can take this list of 5 things about Facebook (and life) to heart (or to brain, more like it), then you WILL feel better. The key is, you have to actually convince yourself that they are true. Your emotions are causing you to believe that they are false, that you are alone, and that everything you feel is totally unique to you.
You’re wrong, sucka!
1) Everyone else is just as much of a whimpy, emotional basket case as you are.
2) Their lives are NOT perfect. They live real lives, just like you.
3) Those awesome pictures showing how much hotter than you your friends are were photo-shopped, cropped, taken in great lighting, at the right angle, and with a nice camera. Besides, they were both younger and thinner when the pictures were taken, anyway!
4) Your friends “info” section (full of their degrees, profession, and hobbies) is like a resume: It’s padded! I’m not saying they are lying, but it’s only telling you the stuff that makes them look good and it’s leaving out the rest of real life that muddies it all up.
(For instance, my section says I have a math degree and am finishing a Masters in math. It DOESN’T say that I was 26 years old before I finally went back to START my undergrad degree. It doesn’t say that I went to college for 4 years right out of high school and then dropped out not earning a degree and spent most of my time then on academic probation. I’m not unique, we ALL have stories like this that surround our accomplishments. It’s what makes us real people and not robots … unfortunately, a blurb on Facebook doesn’t tell you the whole story.)
5) Your friends witty status updates are there to make YOU happy, and are not a reflection of their deepest inner psychological state. The shocking thing here, is that your friends like you and want to make you laugh. Just go with it and have fun.
Bottom line, don’t take things so seriously.
Negative emotions plague humans. We’re full of all kinds of hormones that play tricks on our minds. Don’t just accept these states as inevitable. Take control and be proactive. If something seems too good to be true, it is. There are no exceptions.
Now … get back to Facebook and change your status to something peppy.
Zen Quote of the Week:
“Your age is the sum total of your physical condition, the condition of your mind, and how you feel.” – Jack Lalanne
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Jack Lalanne dies at the age of 96 (New York Times piece, NPR piece and here’s Mike T. Nelson’s 5 things he learned from the man). It’s hard to imagine the world of fitness without him. He’s been lifting weights for about double the years that many of us have even been alive! And, he’s one of the major reasons that lifting weights no longer has the stigmas that it did back when he was young. Here he is fighting the good fight:
Dumb Jocks? I don’t think so:
(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – For the second straight semester, the USA Weightlifting Team led the U.S. Olympic Education Center with the highest Grade Point Average of any USOEC program atNorthern Michigan University in Marquette,Mich.
The 18 student athletes in the program maintained a 3.26 GPA during the fall semester with 14 athletes earning at least a 3.0, placing the lifters ahead of the speedskating, wrestling and boxing programs.
70’s Big posts part 1 of a series on the Texas Method.
Sean Waxman posts about the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association), its rise, its fall, and its rebirth as a voice for serious strength training.
Sean Waxman on the 9 reasons that Endurance training sucks for Power Athletes. This quote is hillarious:
I received an email this morning from a high school football coach who wanted me to evaluate his off-season conditioning program. He felt that his teams performance dropped off towards the end of the year. The program was filled with 1,2, and 3 mile runs! When I mentioned to him that this type of training was likely the cause of his teams demise, he got insulted and told me that I am not even qualified to train an animal.
Normally, I would have given him the verbal equivalent of a Donkey Punch, but as irony would have it, I have to take my animal to the dog park for some training. So there, Mr. Coach!
K-Star has three vids on mobility for Olympic Weightlifters. The first is all about your groin!
The second is thorasic and shoulder mob:
Finally, externally rotate that shite:
Alan Aragon on Milk consumption … Paleo folks beware:
I love it when I hear folks say that human adults weren’t meant to consume milk, much less the milk derived from a different animal species. Are you kidding me? So who gets to decide which parts of the cow we should consume? Let me get this straight–we can eat the cow’s muscles, but not the milk that laid the foundation for the growth of those same muscles? Huh? The logic is just too rock-solid for me. Folks who carry the torch against milk consumption typically will have some degree of allergy or digestive intolerance to it, and they take the liberty to project their personal problems onto the world around them. Many of these same “health-minded” people consume whey protein by the tubload –and this is not only a milk product, but an engineered refined milk product to boot. I suggest you raise a salute to cow’s teats the next time you flex your muscles, and let the rest of us enjoy our milk in peace.
Leucine. ABC Bodybuilding has a report on the effects of Leucine (the amino acid) on protein synthesis (it’s a PDF file). Much of the new (last 5 to 10 years) research on Leucine has been vindicating the Bodybuilders obsession with BCAA’s. It isn’t so much the other Branched Chain Amino Acids that were doing the ‘heavy lifting’, it was the Leucine. (Btw, Charles Poloquin – a major supporter of Olympic Weightlifting – has also been pushing BCAA’s for years.)
That said, Alan Aragon has reviewed a few Leucine studies in his Research Review and calls into question the need to take it if you’re getting the total daily amount of protein that you’re supposed to. For instance, the paper above calls for about 20 to 30 grams a day for a male athlete. I’m at just under 200 pounds, so my daily protein requirements should be around 200 grams. Assuming (big assumption) that it all came from high quality sources (read: animal products like meat, milk, and eggs), then I’d be already getting about 20 grams of Leucine a day. (This is because most animal sources of protein are about 10% Leucine.)
My feeling is that it is unlikely most athletes are getting adequate protein in a day in practice. So, if you can improve their rate of protein synthesis with added Leucine directly, then it is worth a shot. I’ll go ahead and try it out for a few months and get back to you.
Ben Claridad shows you a breakfast of champions. Does it work? Check this out:
He kinda looks like a tall Danzig, don’t he?
Chad Waterbury has a great 3-part series on maximizing Motor Unit Recruitment in your workouts: part 1, part 2, and part 3. Basically he’s justifying the Olympic weightlifters way of training:
Lift heavy, lift fast, keep the sets short, and avoid failure.
Bret Contreras talks about the role of genetics in Strength and Muscle building, and how to overcome them:
First, we all have issues with genetics that we have to work around. Some of us are predisposed to carrying excess fat, some of us are lean but have stubborn areas of fat deposition, some have trouble building muscle, and some are muscular but have weak body parts. Some of us have all of this combined, and nobody has perfect genetics!
Bret Contreras on how he overcame back and spinal pain:
Around 17 years ago I spent the weekend with my Dad and stepmom. We were driving home late one night in the rain in our Volkswagen bug and some guy fell asleep at the wheel, ran a red light, and T-boned us. The VW was demolished, and the passenger seat that I was sitting in ended up positioned directly behind the driver’s seat where my Dad was positioned. I was secured to a backboard and rushed to a level I trauma center.
Sarah Robles does a 135K power clean and jerk. Seriously, this woman is something special:
Depressed Fish? A river in Quebec is loaded with anti-depressants which ain’t so good for the fish population.
Research during the last two decades has revealed that pharmaceutical drugs and personal care products are a major source of pollution in the marine environment. Even in very low concentrations, they have altered the ecosystems.
…
It’s very hard,” Sauve said. “The question itself is quite interesting. You can’t ask a fish whether it is happier or not. One of things they can do is use cameras to look at the male behaviour. Will it have the same behaviour in mating or feeding? Then you have to go back and look at its normal behaviour. It’s quite tedious work and difficult.”
…
Residue from antidepressants leaves through bodily waste and ends up in our waterways. Sauve said that his study indicates that the problem of antidepressants contaminating marine animals is probably global.
Seriously, people. Our obsession with using drugs to solve all of our problems is now screwing with other animals. I’m not saying there aren’t people who DO need drugs to compensate for the abnormal dysfunction of their brains. But, most don’t. They just need to do with their brain what we all know more people need to do with their body: work it out. Happiness is a skill.
Bar Loading. Ever had trouble loading a bar properly (ala at a contest)? Worry no more! This webpage has come to the rescue.
John North does a 180k clean and jerk in training that looks borderline easy. He only weighs 90k, so … yep, that’s double bodyweight!
Finally, you think your workouts are intense? The guys from 70’s Big catch a pump:
Here’s a video that was filmed (apparently) by Kolecki’s (above pic) father of the Polish Olympic Weightlifting team in their training hall. There are some awesome lifts here, and lots of examples of impeccable form. Also, for you tall guys (6 feet plus) who worry that Oly lifting may be tough for you, Kolecki is reported to be about 6’3’’ or so.
Interesting side note, it looks as though the Polish word for “part” is “poty” … yep, Polish and English are indeed different languages!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
