This week in the world of Weightlifting:
Nick Horton is interviewed by Cedric Unholz.
Risto Sports Blog outlines Bulgarian lifter, Stefan Georgiev’s training. Note the high number of smoke breaks!!
They’ve also go a great post on the Chinese team. They make the point that while the Chinese system has produced some remarkable results in weightlifting, there is a dark side:
Statistics show that in China there are around 300,000.00 former star athletes living in extreme poverty and a lot are homeless. The good thing I herad is that the goverment is starting programs to help them.
USA Weightlifting is combining their Olympic trials with USA Wrestling. Whole-lotta singlets!
USA Weightlifting is also offering a $500 award to anyone who can clean and jerk over 500 pounds in a sanctioned meet. This is nice, I suppose, but it’s a bit silly, as the time and effort (and money!) it takes to get to the point of doing such an extraordinary feat of strength is far in excess of $500 bucks … but, hey, they’re trying, and for that, I give them credit.
Lift Up! has an interview with David Rigert, you know who he is … if not, here’s the baddest-ass video of him ever:
Alan Aragon is a guest on The Fit Cast along with Dan John and Lou Schuler. His interview is the middle one. At one point he discusses the odd tendency of the Bodybuilder crowd to have a deep underlying philosophical belief that the more you suffer, the better you’ll look. This reminded me of a Bodybuilder friend of mine who’s mantra was, “Flavor kills muscle.” He ate only plain boiled chicken breast, plain rice, and plain broccoli for every meal … except breakfast where he ate plain oatmeal.
He also talks a bit about the Burden of Proof and the Paleo Diet. So many people seem to not understand a fundamental tenet of science which is that the burden of proof is on those who develop theories. One must show that ones theory actually holds water if one wants others to buy into their shit. The Paleo Diet is basically a theory stating that it is the optimal way for humans to eat for health and longevity. That is a testable theory. Sadly, they have yet to show much in the way of evidence to support such a claim. It is NOT on the backs of detractors to show that it DOESN’T work. In this way, Science is the opposite of the American legal system: A theory is guilty until proven innocent.
Alan Aragon has a post about the “Wild West” nature of the Fitness Industry. In it he mentions some cats who have had great careers in spite of not being “credentialed” in any formal way, including Lyle McDonald and Dan Duchane (who apparently got his degree in Theater!). This field is wide open in that regard. You don’t have to be “licensed” to get a job in some arbitrary way. There is a downside, of course:
The fitness industry is famous for being chock-full of quacks and charlatans. There are heaps of people running their mouths online and off, pontificating about this nutrient or that, this way of training or that — without having learned the physiological basis for such recommendations or protocols. The fact that this field has so many wackos makes it difficult for the consumer to discern whose material is scientifically based, and whose material is a lot of hot air. This is the unfortunate side of the picture, but it’s also part of my point — you can be devoid of scientific knowledge (or you can create your own brand of pseudoscience), and still become successful in the fitness industry.
Still, I’m a big believer that one should always give others enough rope to hang themselves. After all, most people will surprise you, and use that rope for something interesting. Would we really have wanted to block Lyle McDonald from entering into our field? No. How about Dan John or Mark Rippetoe (his degree is in Geology)? Dealing with the hordes of Wackos is worth it.
Pat Mendez of Average Joe’s Gym does a 330 kilo deadlift for 4 reps!
John Broz’s blog on CNS Recovery/Adaptation during massively high-frequency/high-intensity training for Olympic weightlifting. Good quote:
The main chemical in muscle contraction is SEROTONIN. It actually regulates how HARD the muscle contracts, which is why only the heaviest weights seem to effect our mood, the reason why people shy away from maximal lifting and cower from the imaginary symptoms of overtraining.
A Week of Training at East Coast Barbell in Ireland:
Jim Wendler goes Paleo … sort of
I am into Paleo now, but it’s a little different. I eat the foods that a caveman would eat now if he were alive. Which would be Twinkies and doughnuts and pizza.
But NO fruits.
Too many pesticides. And too much sugar.
The best thing about my diet is that I talk about it all the time around family and friends, make sure they all know about what/when I’m eating and how poor they are eating and then make a HUGE deal when we all go out and have to order off a menu.
I will also pout and frown when the restaurant we picked doesn’t exactly support my dieting and make sure everyone feels bad that they don’t support every little part of my pathetic, self-absorbed life.
Basically, I am a shallow pain in the ass. NO matter what I look like on the outside, I will be the most unattractive, annoying piece of shit you’ve ever met. You want to hear about how much cardio I’m doing now?
Jon North on the Strength Coach as Life Coach.
Joh North does 5 reps in the squat with 210 kilos! You can here his coach Glenn Pendlay in the background.
Planks getting too easy? Try this variation from Joe DeFranco:
Cedric Unholz interviews me over on his blog, you can read it here (… Surprise, surprise, among other things, I don’t advocate that coaches should scream and yell at their athletes.)
This week in the world of weightlifting:
Peter Curcio, one of my own lifters, snatches bodyweight for the first time … after some EPIC misses. Luckily, we got it all on video. (And, yes, that silly laugh in the background is me – read my happiness article on that topic). On the first miss, he kills himself dead, and is reborn as a snatch-vampire, hell-bent on throwing heavy weight above his head! This all happened in about 15 minutes.
Some important points about the above video. When he nearly dropped it on his head, that was a function of not keeping his arms locked out! At the last second, he let his arms bend, and then the bar just collapsed on top of him! If you keep your arms locked out – no matter what – then you create a safety zone around your body. On the rest of his misses, he kept locked. Nothing like dropping the bar on you to teach you a lesson!
The second point is that the ONLY reason that he ended up making that lift is because he maintained a totally positive attitude. At any point, he could have given up, or gotten down on himself. But, to his credit, he didn’t. Staying positive is a BIG deal here. It’s supposed to be fun. That means all of it – the successes and the misses.
Bob Takano posted an audio interview he did with Jim Schmitz. Among the topics are:
- Are the snatch and clean and jerk really THAT hard to learn?
- Is CrossFit good for weightlifting as a sport? (Hint: yes … ok, that’s more than a hint!)
- The ‘84 Olympics and what it did to save the Olympic movement.
- The progress of Female weightlifting
- What does USA Weightlifting need to do to do well?
- Does USAW need a Director of Marketing? Yes!!!!
Bret Contreras outlines one of the best ways to tell if a coach (or trainer) is any good: Their athletes have good form. He points out that there is a balance, here. You want to make sure that your girls and guys are doing the exercises right, in a safe and performance enhancing way, but you don’t want to be such a ‘form nazi” that you prevent them from ever pushing themselves and getting stronger. He critiques one of his own lifters videos as a case in point.
One of the things I love about the Oly lifts (as exemplified by Peter’s video above) is that you have to fix your form issues before you’ll even be able to lift anything heavy. You can’t just muscle the weight up. His form in those lifts went from bad to good. And lo and behold, when the form cleaned up, he got it.
Jim Radcliffe, the U of O football Strength and Conditioning coach is highlighted at the Oregonian. One interesting tid bit is that he has them doing a heavy day on Fridays before Saturday games. Interesting approach.
Glenn Pendlay has a training routine for those of you chasing the Super Total (a combo of the Powerlifts and the Oly lifts).
Sara and Jessica from Pretty Strong Blog discuss the steroid issue at the international level in Oly lifting.
Sage Burgener reminds you that it’s OK to video your snatch!
She also has a rap for you that WILL help your lifting. And then is so kind as to explain the details. Here’s a particularly good quote:
Elbows turn around the same time that the feet hit the ground. I don’t mean turn them around in a T-Rex/reverse curl kind of way. I mean getting the elbows high and outside (which is happening as you pull yourself down. Read on, and this will make sense), and down and around REALLY fracking fast. The faster the elbows, the more comfortable you will feel receiving that barbell. Elbows can be EVERYTHING on a clean. Every time you have slow elbows on a clean, God kills a kitten.
Patrick Ward discusses the Female Athlete Triad – which is not a division of the Chinese mafia! It’s sad that so many women are so obsessed with body image that they can lead themselves down this path. Shout out to female athletes: eat! … I wish it was that simple, but, of course, we’re talking about a psychological disorder. These girls/women are over-training and under-eating because they believe that that’s what they need to do in order to get the body they want … and no amount of rational arguments on our side are going to help them. Sad.
Exercise Biology has a post on why you shouldn’t go around switching up exercises all the time. I tend to agree with this. I think most coaches switch the exercises of their athletes so often simply to combat psychological boredom. But, I believe this to be to the detriment of the physiological progress of the athlete. If an athlete is bored, too bad! Part of learning to deal with monotony is one of the things that separates great athletes from the mediocre ones. I’d rather just tell some more bad jokes to keep them from being bored!
Dr. Michael Hartman relays Glenn Pendlay’s observations about what the Chinese Jr. lifters did at Worlds. You think you do a lot of volume in your workouts? I don’t think so.
Tom Venuto goes into the Twinky Diet. A Kansas State U. Professor did a 10 week experiment on himself where he ate a low calorie diet consisting exclusively of junk he could by at the convenience store. Not only did he lose weight, but his blood work came back better. Conclusion, calories in/calories out cannot be ignored. Sure, he would likely be healthier if he stuck to healthy food (especially long term). But, if you keep your calories where they should be (given your activity level), you don’t need to feel bad about that bowl of ice cream.
Donny Shankle finishes his 20 tips for the weightlifter. Here are a few last quotes:
“Every miss and your reaction to it will shape your character.”
“Sometimes the smallest of changes result in big differences”
“Working up to maximal weights quickly should be practiced to conserve energy and to take as many attempts at maximum weights as possible.”
“Recovery means absolutely nothing during this time and the word itself is for the hopeless neophytes. A true weightlifter is the picturesque example of adaptation and commitment.”
“Save the high rep sets for the beginners and gyms with mirrors, a weightlifter lifts heavy weights.
“Get used to living in a squat rack. The site of a squat rack should give you a nauseous feeling in your gut at first but pull up a chair when you get done snatching and clean & jerking because you are not going anywhere.”
“The clean & jerk is the “ king of lifts,” and the weightlifter who refines this lift to the last detail will walk king amongst men.”
“Give the good people what they came for and leave nothing on the table for the pygmies who think they stand a chance against you.”
Finally, Kotooshu (the Bulgarian Sumo wrestler) kicks butt:
There’s a Powerlifter I know, who will remain nameless, who is very funny to watch when he works out. Like all strength athletes, he knows the importance of “hyping” himself up to get ready for a big lift. His preferred method: blast “Eye of the Tiger” on the stereo, run around the gym hitting himself, and yell like a banshee! Does it work? How’s a 1000 pound squat sound?
Anyone who’s chased higher levels of strength knows that you can’t lift maximum weights while in a meditative state. You have to get hyped up. You need the adrenaline (and other hormones) to perform at maximum. (How do you think Grandma was able to lift the car off of her trapped grandson.) The trouble is that doing this is double-edged sword … maybe a quadruple-edged sword.
For me, the need to “hype up” has always presented a problem. I’m a very mellow dude by nature. I’m not the kind of guy who transforms into the incredible Hulk every time I get angry or stressed … because I am almost NEVER angry or stressed. I know this sounds like a good thing – and, in fact, it is in every area of life other than on the platform where you are trying to break a PR (personal record, if you’re new to this kind of thing). Without the ability to get emotionally aroused and harness the associated hormones (or at least the inability to do so easily) will inhibit your ability to gain strength.
You can be physically fueled in a workout by the same hormones that are released when your “fight or flight” reflexes are activated. Great athletes have a near magical ability to turn these emotions on and off at will. When they need it, they turn it on and become super heroes. When they are done, they turn them off and go back to normal.
I’ve always had a hard time doing this. I can turn them off, no problem, but turning them on is very hard for me. As a coach, my mellow tendencies are a huge plus. As an athlete, they’ve always held me back. Most us fall into one of two camps: Those that get hyped easily; and those that don’t. While much of this can be dealt with via training – you can learn to control it – there is no doubt that we all have our natural tendencies and starting points.
The Downside
When you go out of your way to emotionally arouse yourself, and reap the benefits of those elevated hormone levels, you are taxing your body more than you normally would. Part of this is simply because you have lifted more weight. But, the other part is that the body is taxed by emotional stress as though it were physical stress. Putting yourself into “fight or flight” mode is going to drain you, even if you don’t do any training at all!
So, while you have done a good thing by elevating your hormones so that you can lift more weight, and thereby force your body to respond by adapting and getting stronger, you’ve also caused a substantial amount damage that has to be dealt with. You simply can’t train like this as often as you’d like.
Therein lies the dilemma. You HAVE TO get hyped up to lift maximal poundage, and you need to lift maximal poundage’s often to reap the rewards of higher strength levels. However, doing so often is going to beat you down so hard that you won’t be able to lift maximal poundage! You’re walking a fine line.
Walk the Line?
You may be thinking that all of this just begs the question: Where is the fine line that we’re supposed to be walking?
Sadly, I can’t tell you that. The jury is still out, research wise. It’s tough because it isn’t clear how we would even test such things.
First is the problem of determining which part of the fatigue was caused by the training itself, and what was caused by the emotional stress of an elevated arousal state.
Second, people are different. Some guys, like me, don’t get hyped up much, even when we’re hyped up! One of my strongest lifters is like his. He’s a mellow dude, doesn’t scream and yell when lifting, no running around the gym smacking his head, no “Eye of the Tiger”. He certainly does get emotionally aroused for a big lift, but the difference between his relaxed state and his aroused state would be imperceptible to most people. I can tell, because I’ve been watching him lift for a long time, but most people wouldn’t see it.
Another lifter of ours is fun to watch. He puts on a show. When he gets into, he gets into it! There is a wide gulf between his relaxed state and his hyped up state.
So … does the second lifter stress his body more, because he is hyped up more? OR, does the absolute amount of emotional arousal matter less than the relative difference between their relaxed state and their psyched up state?
OR, Does the first lifter stress his body more because his body is not as adapted to heightened emotional states? That is, do people who naturally get psyched up easily have a concurrent ability to tolerate such behavior?
There are plenty of unanswered questions, here. All that is clear is that emotional stress takes its toll (how much?), and you are better off not overdoing it (what does that mean?).
Recommendations:
Given all of that, I’ll still go out on a limb and make some small recommendations with the competitive Olympic weightlifter in mind.
1 – Make It Look Easy Most of the Time. While you do need to get hyped up to lift near maximal poundages (95%+), you should never do that with any weights that are lower. If you are hitting 85% for singles or doubles, stay cool-headed and mellow. The easier you can make 90% look, the better and better you’ll get.
2 – Autoregulate via Technical Failure. Try to hit maximal attempts only as long as the form is still good. If you keep going after a weight, but the technique is looking worse and worse, then stop! Going after heavy lifts only makes sense when your form is staying good (or even improving) on every miss. I am OK with you hitting 6 to 10 misses once in a while in a workout (in fact I support it!), if on each miss the form looks better and you’re getting closer to making it. But, I’d stop you after your second attempt if the form was worse than on the first.
3 – Make it Consistent. Learning to hype yourself up for a big lift is a skill. You want to be able to turn it on when you need it. But, it is just as important to be able to turn it off. In a contest, getting over-hyped is a serious problem that often results in anxiety, technical breakdown, and missed lifts. Be calm at all moments until you are just about to lift. Most great lifters are controlled right up until the time their hands touch the bar (or just slightly before). Get into a groove, make it a habit, a skill. If you do it the same way every time, then you’ll control it, and it won’t control you.
(HAT TIP: Doctor Hartman.)
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
The origins of the 5×5 Texas method in the early 21’st century.
The main stream media gives a nod to Oly Lifting and CrossFit.
Francis Brebner relays what happened at the Ventura Seaside Highland Games – Rusty Price wins:
In the pro division it was practically a clean sweep for Rusty Price, who was on fire. Winning the first event, the 22-lb. Braemar stone, proved a breeze with a dominating put of 42’ 2”
For anyone who’s ever tried this, you know that’s pretty awesome.
Glenn Pendlay has a whole new way of training top weightlifters:
Clearly it’s working, as here’s John hitting a 160k snatch!
Bret Contreras goes medieval in his defense of squats and other exercises … in a good way!
A nice read on the Paleo Diet: Fad, Religion, or Solution. Here’s her 11 point conclusion:
In the end, the following remains:
1. Extremely small amounts of information are known about the actual Paleolithic Period.
2. Our closes counterparts existed towards the Upper end of the Paleolithic Period.
3. Contrary to popular belief, grains were apart of the Upper Paleolithic Diet.
4. Today, our average lifespan is over double of that of Paleolithic man.
5. Diseases and our bodies evolve quickly from century to century, let alone over the course of 40,000+ years.
6. Obesity and self afflicting diseases are not going to be solved by a fad diet, but by looking at the physical and psychological effects of life we live now, not 40,000+ years ago.
7. Even though there is speculation, literature points to carbohydrates making up at least 50-55% of the Paleolithic Diet.
8. Popular writers and marketers of the Paleolithic Diet do not use proper research and data and commonly seem to cherry pick research. This is likely going to lead to a large base of followers falling off in a few years leaving only a small set of loyalists. This has been seen time again with diets like Ketogenic or Atkins.
9. There are extremely beneficial, researched, health benefits to whole grains and their use in the large population. This is not limited to digestion and diabetes. Excess should not be confused with consumption.
10. While the dogma behind the Paleo Diet is not healthy, the basic nutritional principles seem to be sound, but could lead to problems of improper energy fueling or eating disorders.
11. Using the term Paleo in regards to grain or carbohydrate restriction appears to be factually incorrect.
Point number 5 is one I wish more people understood. Evolution isn’t something that happened in the past, it is happening now.
A great response is the new T-shirt design by Alan Aragon, The Jurassic Diet!
Speaking of diet, here’s an article from the NY Times about US cheese consumption and the conflict of interest that the USDA has in having duel roles as a promoter of agricultural products and an arbiter of what is healthy for us to eat. Now, let me make clear that I love cheese, eat more than most, and ain’t gonna stop. But, since most Americans are lazy-asses who refuse to workout under any circumstance, they probably could use a lowered dose of cheese in their diets.
Like taking Ice Baths after your heavy training? The English Institute of Sport says that might not be such a good idea. Sadly, the article doesn’t really say why. The theoretical reason is that inflammation of the muscle cells after intense training is one of the reasons your body responds to training by increasing both sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and increasing the number of contractile proteins. If you don’t allow the inflammation to hang on long enough, you won’t get the same effect. This idea isn’t actually new, but it is something to think about. Maybe wait a few hours after the workout before you dunk.
Here’s a totally wild missed jerk, but the enthusiasm gets a 10!
Donny Shankle has been writing a series of blog posts on his thoughts about the key mistakes that weightlifters make. Here are a series of quotes I’ve picked out so far (try to read them out loud to yourself in a deep southern preacher drawl):
“Auxiliary lifts are only important for the inattentive and impatient beginner.”
“All thought must be established prior to training and your thoughts have to be positive. Once your shoes are on the platform and the hands touch the bar your time for thinking is over.”
“I will let you know right now you will have more bad days in training than good. Learning bad days are of no importance will help you stay positive and keep you coming back. What matters is how much you lift on competition day.”
“Give to the people what they came for and no matter how embarrassed you may feel getting back up on that stage or what kind of condition you are in go and finish the fight. I only made one clean & jerk that day but I gave that little boy 420.”
“When you are lifting in competition keep the sad frowny faces at home. If you miss an elbow lock out at least try to play it off and look like you made it.”
“Leonardo went through countless rough drafts and portraits for hire before he painted his Mona Lisa. You in turn will compete many times before you display something the world will never forget.”
“Weightlifting is the greatest display of an athlete’s confidence and discipline, no other sport presents a challenge in strength so radical as weightlifting.”
“No matter how many attempts you take at a lighter weight this will not prepare you mentally for the heavier weight”
“If you think you are eating enough you are wrong. In fact, if you are a weightlifter reading this now without food in your hand you are wrong.”
“Great competition breeds uncommon results and you should strive to surround yourself with weightlifters just as interested in becoming stronger and more skilled as you are.”
“Genetic disposition for this sport means absolutely nothing. The hard working weightlifter who has the charisma to positively deal with struggle and be consistent in showing up for training everyday will improve his or her performance.”
Finally, if you haven’t used THIS cologne, you’re missing out:
I’m an extremely loyal man. I’m loyal to women, to friends, to gyms, and most especially to coffee shops! So, as I always do, on my way to class this morning I stopped by my favorite coffee shop on the Portland State campus to grab a cup. I ordered my coffee and in the process said, “hi,” to the owners (a husband and wife of Asian decent) who always work in the mornings.
I’ve been going in there multiple times a week for years now. Every time, it’s all smiles – especially on my end. Apparently, they noticed something that is hardly a secret about me.
“You are always happy!” said the wife in a thick Asian accent with a smile.
“Always,” I responded authoritatively, “Happiness is a choice.”
We all laughed – me very loudly. I took my coffee and a lox bagel sandwich (with capers) and sat down. I then realized that my statement was only partly accurate. I do believe that happiness is a choice. But, it is a choice in the way that riding a bike or developing strong muscles are choices. You choose to do what it takes to make it happen.
A better way to say it is, “Happiness is a Skill.” You can learn the steps needed to acquire it, you can cultivate it, and you can get better at it. All it takes is practice and determination. It is NOT something that just “happens” to you. And it is not out of your control.
I know what you’re going to say. “What if my wife leaves me?”, “What if I get shot?”, “What if a giant asteroid starts plummeting toward the earth and we’re all going to be dead in 3 days?!” … “Happiness isn’t a choice then, is it?”
Shit happens. Some of it is horribly bad. But, for most of us (and certainly anyone actually reading this) that shit is few and far between. Most of the time, if you are unhappy, it isn’t because the thing you are unhappy about is worth you being unhappy about it.
Instead, you’re unhappy because you’ve never learned that negative emotions can (and should) be controlled most of the time – I’d say nearly all of the time.
Except in rare cases, our emotions are a function of our hormone levels. Throw those out of whack, and we get loopy! (A woman’s period is only one of the many ways humans can have their entire personalities change on a dime. It happens to both dudes and ladies, and more often than we’d like.)
Some of the ways you can help to control negative hormone fluctuations are macro in nature: exercise, proper diet, good sleep. If any of those are not adequate, you will be more … “pissy”.
Other ways of keeping yourself in check are more subtle – these are the skill components of happiness.
We’ve all heard that if you find yourself getting mad, you should count to 10. I’m sure it’s not a mystery as to why? Spending as little as ten seconds being quite before you react allows your spiked hormone levels to drop (ie. calm down), which, in turn, allows your mind to get back into “rational mode”.
But, if we all know this, why don’t we tend to do it?
Because it’s hard.
Happiness takes practice
If you put a little boy on a bike, who’s never ridden one, he’ll fall off. Should we conclude that riding a bike is impossible? Of course not. It does, however, take time to get down. Happiness is no different.
The first time you try to stop yourself from getting mad, attempting to wait out the 10 seconds, it will be impossible, and you will fail. However, the mere act of attempting to do so was a type of practice. If done enough times, you will be amazed at how much better at it you will become. In fact, over time, you will not need to wait 10 seconds.
You’re body is amazing, but your mind is even more amazing.
One of the things that competitive weightlifters learn to do (often without realizing it) is the ability to “access” or control their adrenaline. They get “amped up” for a lift so that they can thrive off of the additional power that adrenaline gives you when it is released in large doses.
There is a down side. Adrenaline will also cause you to get overly nervous, irrational, and stressed out. So, we use it sparingly in our sport. It is (quite literally) a drug.
The important point, is that good lifters learn how to both turn on, and turn off, the adrenaline as they need it. You can do the same with many other hormones that affect your levels of happiness.
Another way to get control of yourself is to meditate regularly. I don’t mean in some froo froo hippy way, I mean just sit there, shut your eyes, and start counting your breath. In and out, that’s one rep. Don’t think about anything else at all. Just counting. If you start thinking of something else, that’s OK. Adjust, and go back to where you left off. Start out by counting up to 10 every day. Once that is easy, add 10 more. Keep going till you can go all the way to 100. At this point, you can stop counting all together and just focus on the breath itself.
Doing this, at least a few times a week has a remarkable effect on how able you are to control your mental states. It is exactly like exercise. At first, you suck. Eventually, through practice, you get better. And one day, you find it just isn’t that hard anymore.
A False Duality
Many people model themselves after hero’s: their parents, presidents, comic book characters, Napoleon, Captain Kirk, etc. I model myself after those little laughing Buddha statues.
Somewhere in Western culture we tricked ourselves into believing that wisdom is correlated with a stoic seriousness (think Gandolf). We place a hard brick wall between our time for play and our time for work. Laughing and joking is what children do, not what adults do.
Buddhists learned a long time ago that that was crap. It is unwise to spend your one and only (short) life in a perpetual avoidance of laughter and smiling.
There are precious few situations that don’t call for a laugh. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but they are rare.
Practice laughing more often, and you’ll be finding more things funny. Intentionally put a smile on your face (even when you don’t see the point) and you’ll feel happier.
Let’s take my Olympic weightlifters.
Of all the people I train, they (by far) work the hardest in the weight room. Why? Because it’s their sport, and that is the only way they are going to get better at it. This involves upwards of 6 to 10 hours or more of actual lifting time per week for my top guys/girls. They lift near (or at) maximum multiple times a week, do heavy squatting sometimes every day, and otherwise do everything in their power to kick their own ass.
This is “serious” business. But, you’d never know it if you came in to watch a training session. Yes, when they grab the bar, they “click on” and lift hard. They are very meticulous about learning proper technique, drilling the finer points, and enduring the massive redundancies that are at the heart of our sport. But, through it all, between sets, they are joking around, laughing, and seemingly goofing off.
They don’t whine and cry about all the work they “have” to do. They don’t get overly down on themselves when they miss a lift. They don’t allow the externalities of the training to take over their minds. They are in control. And because of this, they keep getting better – at a rate that far outpaces the average lifter who does allow these things to get them down.
I set up this happy atmosphere on purpose. I think it is the most important part of what I do as a coach. I provide a setting, an atmosphere, in which athletes can beat the hell out of themselves and yet somehow maintain a constantly positive attitude about it. I have no tolerance for negativity in my “house”. Negativity is just as (if not more) contagious as laughter is. It is insidious. It can destroy the progress of not only the lifter that is releasing it, but the progress of everyone around them.
The idea of “getting back on the horse” is the corner stone of all success, both in sports and in life. The only way you can get back on the horse – after it’s bucked you off for the 7th time today – is if you have the right attitude.
Thankfully, as I’ve said, this happy (determined) attitude can be taught and cultivated.
Meditate, intentionally smile and laugh (even when it makes no sense), get good sleep, eat good food, workout hard (and often), and surround yourself with people who do the same. Then maybe someone will accuse you of always being happy.
One of my lifters is doing the 100 rep burpee challenge just for fun. Here’s how it goes (as told to me). The program lasts 100 days. On the first day, you do 1 burpee. The second day, you do two burpees. The third day, you do three …
This continues on up to the 100th day on which you do 100 reps.
I know what you’re thinking. This is nuts. Well, hold on cowgirl! He decided to make it harder.
The first thing he did was he added in Chin ups. He does those along with the burpees in exactly the same manner. But, he didn’t stop there.
He decided to make it like a bad credit card.
Every day, you must complete ALL the proscribed reps on both exercises, or else the next day you have to do both the current days work and ALL of the proscribed work from the day before. You can’t “roll over” any reps.
So, if you are on day 50, you have to do ALL 50 burpees and all 50 chins. If you miss it by only 1 rep, then on day 51, you have to do 101 burpees and 101 chins. If you don’t get ALL 101 of each on this day, then next day, all 101 reps carry over and you’re stuck doing 50 + 51 + 52 = 153 reps!
While I wouldn’t normally tell someone that this workout is a good idea from a pure strength and conditioning point of view, it has a clear application in high school economic classes! If this doesn’t teach kids about how not to let credit card debt get out of control, I don’t know what will!
Alan Aragon goes after Chris Shugart and defends dieticians.
Here’s a vid of the Chinese College University teams training hall. It helps to support the theory that the Chinese team has never met an exercise they didn’t like:
Makoto Nagano does some wild acrobatics.
John Broz tells you how to transition from doing the power versions to the full versions.
Progressive Buddhism discusses Picasso:
I do not seek. I find.
The Diesel Crew gets you ready for Max Effort Attempts.
Guest Blog by Mike Boyle over at Bret’s blog on Foot Speed and Agility. Quote:
That begs the larger question, “Does foot speed have anything to do with agility?” I know coaches or parents reading this are asking, “Is this guy crazy?” How many times have we heard that speed kills? I think the problem is that coaches and parents equate fast feet with fast and quick feet with agile. However, fast feet don’t equal fast any more than quick feet equal agile. In some cases, fast feet might actually make an athlete slow–often I see fast feet as a detriment to speed. In fact, some of our quick turnover guys, those who would be described as having fast feet, are very slow off the start.
Doctor Hartman on Weightlifting Meet Preparation.
Bob Takano on the Jump Serve in Volleyball. Here’s a quote:
Most coaches will be disappointed after a match in which so many jump serves went into the net and will probably schedule a practice to work on jump serve skills. What is needed is strength and conditioning where the athletes can work on developing more vertical jump height, and to be able to jump well when fatigued. This is a good example of the coach not realizing the factor that is in need of remediation.
Cassandra Forsythe asks What is a Beautiful Female Body? My Answer: One with lots of muscle!
Bret Contreras has a great vid explaining how to help prevent ACL tears. Basketball players, listen up!
Joe Defranco on Football Conditioning. Quote:
Call me a nerd, but on numerous occasions I’ve watched an entire football game with my trusty stopwatch in hand and I’ve timed everything — average length of a play, average rest between plays, length of TV timeouts during NFL & NCAA games, average rest between each series, length of halftime, etc. Just for shits and giggles, I did this again today while watching the Giants game in preparation of writing this blog post. Here are the highlights:
Average play = 5.5 seconds
Average rest between plays = 32 seconds
Average rest between each series for an individual player = 7 minutes
(This obviously wouldn’t apply to a high school player that goes both ways.)
Time between last play of 1st Half and first play of 2nd Half = 18 minutes
Here’s the first of 10 videos on the training methods of the Polish Olympic lifting team back in the day (way back in the day). Yes, it includes skiing!
The first ever CrossFit/USA Weightlifting Open event is now over; my Athlete, Beth, who competed in it, is home; and I’ve spent a fair amount of time watching the replays over on the CrossFit site. Now it’s time to review what I think (and hope) the impact of this groundbreaking event will be.
The contest was a strange hybrid of the strength/power sport of Olympic weightlifting and the middle to long distance sport of CrossFit. (Yes, CrossFit has become a sport. It is not just a fitness “system” anymore. Depending on your proclivities, that can be seen as good or bad.)
They started the contest just like a normal USA Weightlifting meet: Snatch, then Clean and Jerk. Then, in comes the CrossFit. For the 3rd and final event, athletes had to complete in what was called “The Triplet” which (not surprisingly) is a combo of three events rolled into one.
The Triplet consisted of 12 pull ups, 6 cleans (different weight for men and women), and 24 “double unders” (jump roping with a double spin on each hop). You complete as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes.
As most of you know, I already made myself clear about what I thought the value of this contest was going to be before it happened. In my previous post, I asked two questions. We’re now in a position to answer them more fully. I’ll start with the second one:
2. Who is going to go to this event in the first place?
Nearly every last person at the contest was someone you can classify as primarily a CrossFit athlete – not a weightlifter. For over 80%, this was their first time EVER competing in a USAW sanctioned event. Yes, there were some token weightlifters there, but not many.
Some might assume that this turnout demographic is bad for USAW. After all, if the majority of the people there have loyalties first and foremost to CrossFit, then they aren’t likely to do weightlifting contests that don’t involve CrossFit.
I would disagree with that on multiple grounds. I am always wary of “preaching to the converted”. The entire reason USAW got into this was to increase exposure to people who wouldn’t have otherwise given it a shot. For these CrossFit athletes, the environment of the CrossFit/USAW Open was a safe one.
The fact that these people have loyalties first and foremost to CrossFit isn’t really an issue. The goal is to increase the number of recreational lifters in this country. By definition, a recreational lifter has many priorities that supersede their lifting: job, school, family, bowling league … Who cares if CrossFit is one more of those loyalties? At least CrossFit is an activity that is, well, active!
Finally, it doesn’t matter if a solid chunk of these competitors don’t ever compete in a USAW event again. We only need SOME of them to do so. If even just a small number decided that, “hey, this weightlifting thing is pretty rad!”, who wouldn’t otherwise have ever had the experience, then we’ve gotten somewhere.
1. Is this new move going to help USA Weightlifting – as a business – or is it just another bad business decision on their part?
Part of the answer is above. Yes, the event is good for both the organization, USAW, and for American weightlifting in general. And, I even think it’s good for USAW’s bottom line.
Money
There were over 160 competitors at this thing. They had to sign up with USAW in order to compete and have their totals count for USAW. This means that they had to PAY the associated fees. Since these dues are good for a full year, it is likely at least some of the competitors will make use of that and compete locally. These local competitions have fees, and some of that money goes back to USAW.
At the very least, USAW has increased its membership for the next year.
More importantly, however, is now there’s a whole new crop of people that the sponsors of USAW can advertise to, through USAW. The more people that get involved with the organization, the more money sponsors are willing to hand over in exchange for more exposure to the athletes.
CrossFit is phenomenal at doing this, by the way. USAW can learn a thing or two there about how to make money.
Exposure
CrossFit did a great job streaming the entire contest online, and then archiving it all so that you can rewatch anything that you missed – over and over and over. USA Weightlifting will often stream their events, but they don’t have a good archive system. There are thousands of people at home who watched this. For many, it was their first time ever seeing a weightlifting contest.
As a side note, I’ve been disgusted with the total lack of videos online by USA Weightlifting. They have a YouTube page with only 3 videos on it! (Last time I checked.) They have a very hard to navigate website. And they make participation (as an athlete, and as a coach) very hard.
In contrast, CrossFit is everywhere online. They are very aggressive with online video, blogging, etc. And their main site is easy to understand and follow. Trust me, the online exposure of this meet (after the fact) will be almost solely accomplished by the CrossFit side of the alliance. That’s particularly sad, since USAW has the most to gain.
In the end, if this contest becomes a yearly event, USAW will benefit greatly in terms of exposure which will eventually translate into more money. If I were running the organization, I’d be on the prowl to find other groups to ally with in a similar way.
Now for a complaint:
The Scoring System was “Rigged” – Especially for Women.
I only have 1 large complaint about the contest. They screwed over weightlifters.
The way they set up scoring this odd hybrid contest strongly favored people who are primarily CrossFitters and handicapped weightlifters something fierce. This means that in the future, weightlifters will continue to avoid competing here.
Here’s how it worked. You get 1 point for every kilo lifted and you get 1 point for every rep in the triplet. Sounds fair? It isn’t.
Let’s look at it from a female perspective:
It only takes 4 rounds on the triplet to total 168 points. Completing 4 would make you about average to slightly above average as a female CrossFit athlete. (Keep in mind that the best females were getting in 6 to 7 rounds).
In contrast, a 168 kilo total in weightlifting puts you well into the bad-ass category for most female weight classes. In fact, 168 kilos is 8 kilos ABOVE the 2010 qualifying total for Nationals in the female SUPER HEAVY class! If you’re in the smaller classes, 168 puts you in the running to join our world team.
So, you can be only average at CrossFit and MATCH a national total in weightlifting in terms of points. That means, in terms of the points at the end of the hybrid contest, you have a much greater likelihood of winning if you can get your CrossFit skills up than you will working on your weightlifting skills.
In fact, If I knew someone (especially a woman) who’s only goal in life was to do well at the CrossFit/USAW Open (and we knew they’d score it the same next year), my advice would be to dump weightlifting all together and focus on CrossFit. Adding two rounds on your Triplet is something you CAN do in 1 year, which would add 84 points to your total.
Adding 84 kilos to your weightlifting total is NOT something you can do in 1, 2, or even 3 years for most females – not even with steroids!
The only women who I’d advise a different strategy to are the few who were already getting 7 rounds on the triplet. They aren’t likely to add much more. So, adding weight to the bar is their only option.
I hope they change the scoring next year to make it more even.
Conclusion
On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this event an 8. That’s high praise coming from me, since I have a lot of negative things to say about BOTH organizations at the top level (At the grassroots level, I think CrossFitters and Weightlifters are great, but the organizations that run both groups leave a lot to be desired – though, in totally different ways).
The reason they don’t get 10 is because of the CrossFit-centered scoring, and the fact that USAW won’t do anything with regard to post-contest promotion to keep the flame burning.
But, in the end, these two groups pulled off a great event. It was a bit wonky, but it worked. And it was obvious that the competitors had a fantastic time.
I really hope this catches on, gets refined (especially the scoring), and happens every year. Who knows, maybe we can run mini-versions at the local level.
Don’t forget to check out the videos of the meet, here!
