Seems like there is a trend in blogging whereby bloggers will do a weekly round-up of all the stuff they were reading that fits into the scope of their own blogs, and then list them out for their own readers.  Bret Crontreras does something like this at his blog, and in the evolution blogging world we have NeuroAnthropology’s Wednesday Round Up.

Well, it’s high time there was something similar for the Olympic weightlifting slash Zen Meditating crowd! So, here’s your first installment of what I’ll call your Monday Moment of Zen.  Since I’m reading this stuff all week anyway, it seems only cordial to let you in on it!

The topics I’ll link to are the same things we discuss here with a heavy focus on Olympic weightlifting, Strength training, and Zen tips and tricks, and a bit of nutrition here are there.  I hope you find this stuff as interesting and helpful as I do.

Like to hear it?  Here it go …

Glenn Pendlay has an article up entitled, “A Russian Perspective on the Bulgarian System.”

His last paragraph is something for most Oly coaches to think about:

If the preceding has closed one mystery, it has certainly opened another.  If the sets and reps, and time per week we go to maximum aren’t what is holding us back, then what is?  If we don’t do enough pulls, or do too many…  if this is not the problem, then what is?

For my money, the problem is a combo of (1) a lack of athletes, and (2) a lack of “medication”.

Bob Takano feels the hit from the upcoming High School volleyball season and muses about the changes that are happening in our profession.

Can’t find a gym? Need to do some heavy leg exercises?  Here’s an option: how to do Pistols.

Obesity Panacea has a tongue in cheek post about the “natural” way to “heal” your obesity!

Brad Warner, of Hardcore Zen, discusses his time at the Great Sky sesshin – a Zen meditation “retreat”.  Here’s a good line:

There’s an old Zen saying, “When it’s hot let the heat kill you. When it’s cold let the cold kill you.” Good advice, to be sure. But gosh dang it was hot!

Mal Irwin has an article on how to Market Olympic weightlifting.  This is a major area of focus for me, as I am a huge believer that USAW has been a failure in this regard, and we club coaches have to pick up the slack and work together to get the word out.  His approach is unique and different than mine, but hey, more lines in the river, right …

James Ure, of The Buddhist Blog, replaces his statue of the Buddha with a Robot.

Here’s a video interview with an up and coming star of weightlifting, Jon North of Cal Strength.  My favorite line is when he was asked what his favorite part of the sport is, “It’s hard, it’s real hard … I like that it’s hard.” Very Zen, my brother.

Nick Horton (that’s me!) has a crazy-assed article about dinosaurs (not old people, real dinosaurs) and the nature of strength vs size.

A great article over at Lost Batallion Weightlifting is in the form of an open letter to USA Weightlifting asking the question of whether or not their policies are helping or hurting us as a sport.  (Hint:  they ain’t helpin’.)

Zen Under the Skin relays her conversation about happiness and cleaning the bathroom that she had with her kid in Dharma Combat with a 12 Year Old.

Here’s a 2-part podcast from Buddhist Geeks about Unlearning Meditation: Part 1; part 2. Truly interesting stuff and quite relevant to the type of mental training required to advance in weightlifting.

Some seriously freaky forearm strength in this vid:

Glenn Pendlay also has a whole series of kick-ass video’s on the Cal Strength site, including a few detailing his own clean progression technique.  Great stuff.  He’s one of the top coaches in the country at this stuff, and it ain’t a bad idea to listen.  I foresee Cal Strength as being a viable alternative to the Olympic Training Center for promising athletes in the future if Glenn keeps it going in this direction.

One of my athletes is a PT, not a personal trainer, a physical therapist.  She laments that both of these fields have the same acronym.  The general public has a hard time understanding the enormous difference in education required – she has a PhD, most personal trainers have barely graduated high school.  Coach Dos, in his latest addition of Snatches and Bear, discusses the difference it makes when a strength coach has a science education – then he goes off on using the TRX for training surfers.

Dan John writes up one of Norb Schemansky’s training routines.  For those without a solid grasp on their American weightlifting history, “Skee” was one of our top lifters for a long time, and was one of the last great split snatchers (I’m a split snatcher, so I’ve got a special place in my heart for this monster).  His approach is decidedly different than the Bulgarian (or any of the modern national teams for that matter).

And finally, the strongman competitor (and police officer) Derek Poundstone trains his ass off in preparation for the 2010 Arnold Strongman C lassic:

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.

–Sheng-yen

Gary Snyder:

It is hard to even begin to gauge how much a complication of possessions, the notions of “my and mine,” stand between us and a true, clear, liberated way of seeing the world.  To live lightly on the earth, to be aware and alive, to be free of egotism, to be in contact with plants and animals, starts with simple concrete acts.  The inner principle is the insight that we are interdependent energy-fields of great potential wisdom and compassion – expressed in each person as a superb mind, a handsome and complex body and the almost magical capacity of language.  To these potentials and capacities, “owning things” can add nothing of authenticity.  “Clad in the sky, with the earth for a pillow.”

From the Dalai Lama

When you entertain evil thoughts like hostility and hatred, there is no joy in your heart and you are a nuisance to others.  On the other hand, if you develop kindness, patience and understanding, then the whole atmosphere changes.

From the great Japanese Haiku poet Basho:

“I hear the unblown flute, In the deep summer shadows, Of the Temple of Suma.”

From the Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo:

In one’s life, there are levels in the pursuit of study.  In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it, and he feels that both he and others are unskillful.  At this point he is worthless.  In the middle level he is still useless but is aware of his own insufficiencies and can also see the insufficiencies of others.  In a higher level he has pride concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and laments the lack of ability in his fellows.  This man has worth.  In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing.

These are the levels in general.  But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all.  This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished.  he truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded.  he has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end.  It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, “I do not know that way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself.”

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today.  This is never ending.