Your Instep, your heel, and pulling to the knee

Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 3:42 PM
One of the constants in my lifting since 1993 has been focusing on driving through the midline of my foot; I remember lifting in the Bob at the University of Delaware and putting my foot on the line in the platform and trying to always push through that line.   In 2010, I heard Mark Cameron describe that line as "where the heel meets your instep", and that's exactly, in my opinion, the line through which all force must be directed on the pull.  Now, I understand that as the bar changes position, the lifters weight shifts forward.  But we, as lifters, want to keep our weight over that line of force as long as we can.  

Why that point of the body, you ask?  That line is sort of the midline of your body in the vertical plane as soon as you bend at the hips.  When you stand up straight, your shoulders are right behind that line of your foot, and therefore the bar in lifting will be, at the top of the pull, right over that line.  If the bar is right over that line at the top of the pull, you are able to get yourself under the bar better.  And, usually , when you catch the bar in a front squat the bar will be over that line, and when you snatch and jerk well, the overhead position of that bar is over that line between your feet where the heel meets the instep.  Check out Anatomy Bob, as I call him, and look at the heel/instep line and how it intersects the hip and is just in front of the shoulder joint (the point where the instep meets the heel is right in front of where the leg bone meets the foot bone, or the ankle).  Now, go to Hookgrip.com and check out some pictures of the lifters at the Olympics and see where the bar is when they pull and finish their lifts.  Always for the best lifters that bar is right above, or damn near, that spot- over the CENTER OF BASE.  

In order to get that bar to the center of base, we need to start with the bar in the right spot, which is the first metotarsal-phalangeal joint, or where the big toe meets the foot.  In some folks, you'll be sightly in front, some will be behind, but that' spot is more or less where the bar should go. 

Wait- hold on- some people say to start with perpendicular shins, some say to start with the bar in front of the toes, some people say to eat Froot Loops every day because Mickey Tettleton did and said he hit home runs because he did.

I don't really give a bunch of ducks where you are when you grab the bar.  Just grab it. When that bar breaks contact with the ground-- at the point where you, the organism, must break the inertia of the bar-- the most effective place for that bar to be is right over that toe joint.  Check out Lu Yong over here; the bar is off the floor a bit and it's right over his big toe joint!  Holy Crap!  He's about to snatch as much as I've cleaned!  Maybe I should do more burpees. 

When we break the bar off the floor, our body will naturally put us in the strongest position, which is like Lu Yong above.  Your body finds it when you're highly trained, or when you simply breathe. But for many of us, we cannot use a dynamic start, we cannot start with our hips low and let our body bring us into this position off the floor.  So we start in this position and try to maintain it as we lift.  Some of us can start with low hips and get the bar in this position as we pull from the ground; that's my preferred start, in fact.  

So, let's review, sum up, and move along:  You put the bar right above your big toe joint, your feet are comfortably pointed outwards, and you grab the bar.  I prefer your hips to be low, how low depends on your levers and strength.  Your back must be arched and tight.  A tight arched back is more important than low hips.  if your hips are lower, as you get into position to break the bar from the floor, your shoulders move toward the bar and you drive through that line.  DRIVE through it, push on it as if it's the only point under your feet.  

Okay, now we're good.  We've all got the bar off the floor, and at some later point I'll talk about dynamic starts, high vs. low hips, and why you should just read my old blogs because I already did talk about all this stuff.  

What do we do with our body as we break the bar off the floor?  Well, that depends on where you want the bar to go.  

I want the bar to end up in the snatch at your patella tendon (knee or just below) with your shins perpendicular to the ground (more or less), but they can be flared out at an angle (check out the pictures of Zelyx Rivera and her 90 kg snatch in my multi media section, or the picture above of Lu Yong).  In the clean, I want the bar just above your knee when your shins are perpendicular to the ground.  Let's simplify this desire, though:  shins perpendicular to the ground when the bar is around your knee.  We're going to end today's blog at the knee, so let's focus on how the bar gets there and where else it might go.

To get the bar to the position I want:  shins perpendicular to the ground, bar at the knee, and directly OVER the midline of your foot (yep, where the heel and instep meet), you must BRING THE BAR TOWARD YOU WHEN IT BREAKS FROM THE FLOOR.  

Let me say that again:  BRING THE BAR TOWARD YOUR BODY WHEN IT COMES OFF THE FLOOR.

I'm glad you heard me that time.  Never did a coach say to the lifter "Let that bar get really far away from you off the floor, it'll be okay when you can't receive it and drop the lift."  Well, I may have said that, but only because I'm a smart ass.  

Sometimes a coach says to keep the bar close; sometimes they say to sweep it in, sometimes I say create tension, sometimes I say to push your knees out and back, your butt out, and keep your chest up (I need to talk about the triangles of tension in a blog, too).  No matter what the coach says, the idea is for the bar to move toward the lifter and toward the point over the midline of the foot.  The lifter moves the bar there in an incredibly efficient movement called standing up safely.  Seriously people, this is lifting.  Lift the bar efficiently and you'll do it right.  Don't confuse your body.  So, here we are again to debate the start position and why the bar shouldn't move in a vertical line off the floor.  

The bar can move in a vertical line off the floor and be a great pull IF the lifter is flexible enough and fast enough to get their ass back out of the way and pop their hips through the bar before falling.  In this case, the lifter can start with the bar closer to her shins.  

If the lifter is like most of us, though, the pull must bring the bar towards us.  I don't care if it's a straight line, or a curved line, or whatever, but the bar is going to come toward the lifter.   Here's a video Glenn Pendlay posted of Jon North bringing the bar toward him in the snatch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQo8QdrNFl0  (I would like you to notice where the bar is located when Jon snaps his hips into it; it's right over the midline of his foot, the center of his base, the line through which we must push).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7XnDuXqubo  Here's Jared Fleming snatching 160 at the 2012 Nationals.  (I've known Jared since he was 10, which is why I showed his 160 and not Jon's).  Notice that, as he pulls from the floor, the bar is over his big toe joint, it comes into him (no, his shins aren't perpendicular to the ground when the bar is at his knees, but hey, it's a guideline and not a rule) and he finishes his pull with the bar right over the midline of his foot.  I think if his shins were perp to the floor at the knee he would have had a smoother finish.  But this is 160, under pressure, and the kid did well.

One point of discussion in the initial phase of pulling the bar from the floor is if the bar should move up in a straight line.  This point is only for discussion because good lifters know the bar, which starts over your toes, shouldn't go straight up; the bar should move into you off the floor.  

But why not?  

If the bar starts over your toes, and rises in a vertical line, it will be in front of your center of base when it reaches the knee, causing you to chase after the bar, to lose your balance, and causing the bar to finish in front of your body and causing you to drop the bar.

If the bar starts against your shins and rises in a vertical line, the bar could reach the center of base as it passes the knee; but what most people do if the bar starts against their shins is to move the bar away from their center of base as they lift it, causing it to move away from the body past the knee rather than towards the body.  If the bar moves away past the knee, the bar has a big loop when you finish the lift, and you lose the lift or work way too hard to finish it and squat up.  

The third option is to start the bar over your center of base and have your knees over the bar.  This might be okay, it all depends on your levers.  But what happens in this case is that either the bar moves forward continuously off the floor, or the bar goes forward than comes back even for those with the most advantageous of levers.  You want to lift the bar as efficiently as possible; the bar moving forward then back means the lift is harder than it has to be.  

I'd like to address one major flaw in people's online discussion of the pull.  That flaw is that the bar position is often dissociated from the center of base.  The bar doesn't just have to end up at a specific point above the thigh or on the thigh; it has to be above the midline of the foot when on the hips'high on the thigh.  Many times people will say that the bar "hits them" in the correct spot, but I then tell them that their correct spot isn't in the right place.  

My cues to my lifters off the floor are as follows:  spread the bar with your hands to create tension (spreading the bar will ensure that all the strength from you pushing with your feet is transferred to the bar), squeeze your back tight, push through your heel (midline of the foot), push your knees out and butt back at the same time, and keep your chest up.  I often simplify all these cues into "knees out, create tension off the floor".  Or, even better, "Stay Tight, sweep the bar in". 

In a future blog, maybe the next one or maybe not, we'll talk about what happens to the bar after it goes past your knees.  

The German Snatch and Clean

Originally Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 5:09 PM

German Clean

A quick update today, and a short story.  The lift I put in this week's workout called 'German Cleans" is a lift with 3-5 pauses in it; if I just say do a "German" Snatch/clean/jerk I want all five pauses.  Here's what the lifts looks like :

German Snatch

German Jerk

A jerk drill with five pauses

Here's the story behind these lifts:  Joe Fondale told me that Joe Hanson came up with these after speaking to Coach Mantek from Germany.  Apparently, Germany pays a lot of attention to the transition areas of the lifts, where the lifts are most frequently missed.  Lacking the sophisticated computer system the Germans used to analyze the lifter, Coach Hansen has his lifters do a "German" lift, with between three to five pauses in key areas.  The pauses for the clean and snatch:  knee, mid thigh, catch, bottom of the squat, and halfway up from the bottom ; in the jerk, pause: at the bottom of the dip; at the catch, front foot, back foot, at the top

How to Spend Less Time at the Chiro

Originally Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 12:06 PM

Watch this video first (it's PG13 for Language):  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHDdqubE7zQ

I love a good chiropractor.  I had one in New Jersey, Dr. Eric Nelson; here's his website: http://www.nelsonpilates.com/ I recommend Eric with no reservations; he will help you get better.  If not for him, I wouldn't have gone to the American Open in 2007.  Unfortunately, not everybody has access to a good Chiro within driving distance, nor do we have the cash to go as often as we'd like. In order to productively lengthen the time between our visits to the Chiro, I have a group of exercises and stretches I recommend to keep you together on your own.  Please be advised that this recommendation does not replace a qualified medical examination, and you should not do these exercises without being evaluated by a good PT, Chiro, or Doctor. Also, a good Chiro will get you set up physically to get the most from doing these exercises.  If your back is out, these won't get you to 100%; if your back is in, these exercises will help you stay there.

Number 1:  Turkish Get-Ups with a Kettlebell 

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ymPDhyPxg

We're not reinventing the wheel, people.  This is pretty simple.  Don't buy the DVD, watch this video.  The most important things in the video which will keep your back together are the DRIVING THROUGH YOUR HEELS.  Yep, magically, driving with your heels will keep your hips and back in place.  I like to initiate the drive off the ground (the "punch and crunch" at about 2:10 or so in the video) with a hard heel drive from the straight leg.  That little heel drive there really locks your SI joint into action, but you can only do it for an instant.  You can see the whole get-up on video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-MMnltV1h8&feature=related

Number 2:  Kettlebell Arm-bar

         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-t2PWHXvls

At weightlifting camp this year, John Filippini and I were talking about KB use for lifters, and he's happened to be doing these.  He does them with his legs right next to each other and turns all the way around to the floor.  I, personally, like to get a good stretch and use the KB to counterbalance my legs as I stretch.  You can sometimes get a good pop in the back here.

These next two are courtesy of Christine Petty, who won't be doing these until Jack is about a month older than he is now.  She just now informed me that she got them from the Mobility WOD Website, and specifically this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INBY84sqrR0&feature=player_embedded

Number 3:  Double Knee to Chest Stretch push/pull  

This stretch is oddly difficult to explain.  The first part is easy, though.  Lay on your back and bring both knees to your chest, as far up as possible.  This is the first part of the stretch.  Note how your should use both hands to pull your knees down to your chest.  For the second part, I want you to use only one hand to pull your knee to your chest, and use the other hand to push your knee away.   Watch about minute 4:10 of the video to see this stretch.  

Yes, here's the confusion:  one hand pushes, one hand pulls, BUT the knees STAY TOGETHER.  You should get almost an isometric sort of contraction.  You want to make the push/pull happen not with your quads and hamstrings, but with your lower back.

Number 4:  Squeeze the Knees

This is the easiest and most effective of all these movements.  You lay in the knees to chest position and put your foam roller, or towel, or whatever you have between your knees.  You want something you won't crush, though you should be able to get some slight compression.  Then you squeeze that object as hard as you can for about 15-30 seconds.  Squeeze with your hips and back, not your adductors.  

I would do the last two stretches every day after you lift.  A couple or three days a week do the get-ups and the KB Arm Bars after the training session and then the stretches.  Maybe come to the gym, or stay home, and do them all as an extra workout on a recovery day.  
   

The importance of a deload

Originally Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012 11:30 AM
I read my first technical training book when I was 14.  It was a total training program for bringing a wrestler from nothing to the Olympics.  Like many of the old Eastern Block books, it assumed you had a candidate who was gifted physically and given all possible assistance for an outstanding career.  One part of the book strikes me to this day:  That the wrestler would take a month off every year or so.  Off, totally off.  And in reading the Russian lifting texts, they, too, took time off where they only goofed around, swam, did other stuff.  In an Olympic year, that month might be a week or two, and after an Olympic year, that time might be two or three months depending on your age and background.  

This LBEB post talks about deloading, and briefly explains why it's needed:  
http://www.liftbigeatbig.com/2012/05/deload-week.html

In my programming, we generally do three work weeks followed by a deload week.  Sometimes we extend the work to five to six weeks on an individual basis, followed by a longer deload.  usually, though, the deload is every four weeks.  In a year-long plan, we deload right after the major meet of the year.  I tell the lifters to train 2-3 days a week and do whatever they want to do; we'll try some strongman stuff, some fun lifting. generally some more conditioning and bodyweight stuff that month.  Then, we spend a month doing no lifts over 80%.  After that month, we start back in on the year long plan.  

I mention this deload now because some new folks have decided to jump into my programs.  You MUST deload when it's planned, otherwise you will not peak when it's planned.  We hit 90% two or more days a week in a four day a week program, and the program beats you up.  You squat three or four days a week.  take the break when it's built in.  if you max or test during a deload week, you won't be able to do the volume the weeks you need to.  I know you feel better during the deload week, that's the reason we do them.  

Another, often overlooked, reason to deload is to learn to handle the emotional and intellectual difficulty of lifting heavy weights.  Most of us come to the gym because we enjoy it, and those of us who compete like to lift heavy things.  Lifting heavy is a difficult psychological task.  The deload week allows you to come to the gym fully confident you'll make the lifts, and you'll let yourself feel good about what happens that week.  

If you have a stressful work day or week, or your personal life interrupts your training, and you have to miss a day or tow of lifting, or you miss lifts because you don't sleep because of personal stress, those weeks are NOT a deload.  Those weeks suck, and you need to get into training again easy.  Lifting is only one of the stresses in our lives, and we need to learn that life stress is a valid reason to take it easy for a week in the weight room, and then we need to take it easy for a week in the weight room so we can get prepped for taking it hard.  

Here are some more articles on the deload how and why:

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/how-to-properly-deload/

http://thethinkingstrongman.blogspot.com/2012/06/deload-week-new-approach.html

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/get_bigger_by_doing_less

Seriously, people, you're not going to like my answer

Originally Posted on Tuesday, July 03, 2012 9:43 PM
A friend of mine was asked during one of her weightlifting classes at her local gym:

"What do I need to do to do really well in this meet in four weeks?"

"You're not going to like my answer."

"I have to stop conditioning, right?"

"Yep"

Why, though?  Why can't we do well at a weightlifting meet and still do crazy conditioning workouts?  Well, you can, provided you're satisfied with going to a meet, having a good time, and competing to see where you stand against your everyday goals and training.  That's awesome, everyone should do a meet like this, be it weightlifting, strongman, powerlifting, or running a 5k.  Heck, I do that for Highland Games, because the games are fun.

But if you expect to go to a meet, and just because it's a meet hit a PR and increase your total by 10-20 kg, you need to serve one master, and that master is lifting.  Even for four weeks, your lifting will improve enough that you get better and hit a good total.  I would prefer you plan for the meet 12 weeks out (12 out of 52 weeks... maybe you could do that, even if engaged in another sport in which you are, technically, in the offseason).  

Why, though, can't you engage in hard conditioning and expect to improve drastically in a power sport?

There are a few reasons.  Suprisingly, one of them is not strictly technique.  Technique is improved through practice, and good practice can be done in many ways, even if you do train for muscular endurance rather than power output.  

Here, then, is our first reason:  Power output.  In order to do well in lifting weights, you use fast twitch muscle fibers.  

Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers are one of the two basic types of muscle fibers (fast and slow, though there are subcategories which we won't bring up) which contract to produce force in a muscle.  Fast twitch fibers fire quickly and powerfully and need an extended period of recovery before firing again.  Slow Twitch fibers fire less powerfully but can fire again without as much down time.  Very simple reasoning shows that fast twitch fibers are used in the snatch, clean and jerk, and the dancing following a good lift.  Since your body essentially adapts to whatever kind of exercise you're doing, doing an exercise routine which develops slow twitch fibers over fast twitch means that a fast twitch sport like lifting will suffer.  Similarly, expecting to kick ass in a marathon after doing nothing but squats and cleans for a year is poorly thought out.

The other reasons that mid-level conditioning will inhibit your performance in lifting is in the energy systems used to power your body in these situations. Homo sapiens sapiens have three basic energy systems for work:  ATP PCR and Glycolisis, Glycolisis and Oxidative, and Oxidative.  A conditioned weightlifter makes the most of her ATP PCR Glycolisis system when they lift, giving them much more available energy than an individual focused on another energy system, like the Glycolisis and Oxidative System.  If you focus on exercise activities lasting more than a few seconds, you prepare your non-weightlifting energy systems to be more efficient, and you lose the efficiency of the ATP PCR Glycolisis system.  Basically, if you train to move for a while, your body gets used to moving for a while.  Moving for a while means you're better at moving for a while using 70% of your strength than moving very quickly and using 100% of your strength.  
 
The third reason you can't engage in hard conditioning and expect to be awesome at lifting is that lifting a limit weight is one of the most difficult things a human can do.  

Seriously:  I can train for six months and run a 5k in 25 minutes or less weighing over 270 pounds.  Why?  I'm a human, and we're really more designed for running than lifting a heavy weight.  However, I can train for six months and come not even close to my PRs in lifting.  I've done this recently; I can get back to 80% or so quickly, but that last 20%  is a cruel master requiring another 18 months to conquer.  Since humans are designed for long, slow things, testing the organism with a limit weight takes a psychological and emotional toll. Getting used to that toll through training helps you on the platform day.  

Expect out of your training what you put into it:  if you train for endurance, you're going to be better at endurance.  That's fine, there is nothing wrong with that.  Just expect to to better at endurance events.  You just need to have a good mindset on competition day.  I know many lifters who run a mile for fun, but they don't get upset when the run isn't blazing fast.  They run for the heck of it once every month or two because they want to challenge themselves that way.  It's the challenge which is important, after all, and not beating everyone at their own sport.  

Seriously, people, it isn't rocket science

Originally Posted on Monday, June 04, 2012 10:43 AM
I've seen and heard so many stupid things about weightlifting in the last month that i don't know where to begin today's rant.  

But why not begin with Mike Boyle's explanation of the clean technique he advocates:  http://strengthcoachblog.com/2012/03/03/why-the-rock/  yes, dude, you are wrong.  

This is about the stupidest crap I've ever heard in my life.  Almost as stupid as the thought that I should be able to do a one leg squat with half of my back squat max. To tell the truth, I wouldn't know, as I wouldn't ever load up 300+ pounds on my back and try to do a one leg squat with it.  The injury potential is tremendous.  

This explanation proves to me the following:

*300 pounds in a hang clean isn't heavy for a professional or college athlete
*famous strength coaches aren't necessarily good strength coaches
*never use your own kid in a video to prove your point

The scoop is NOT an intentional action caused by forcing the knees out under the bar. It is an unintentional reaction caused by extending the hips powerfully.  Purposefully throwing the bar in a horizontal plane is counter productive and WILL lead to injury.  

The scoop, people, happens by keeping the bar close and extending the hips violently.  Even in the vertical jump, used as an example in the article, the hips extend and knees extend then the ankles.  Doing some intentional rocking or shuffling is poor form and potentially dangerous.  

I also spoke to the owner of a new local(ish) gym few months ago about lifting.  He talked about how to really drive to the toes and then jump up with the lifts.  Okay, yeah, whatever. Good luck, Dude. Again, more proof that strength training is so good for athletes that even stupid strength training gives you benefits.  

Many people choose to O lift as an intellectual pursuit.  Seriously people, just because you're smart doesn't mean you can't train heavy.  You must train HEAVY to get better and to improve technique. Never challenging your strength will NOT make you a better lifter. I want to hit you with a 25 kilo plate, but they're all getting used by people who want to be good rather than snotty about their lifts.  It's time you looked at yourself and realized you don't know how to be hard.  Now, shut up and just start lifting more.  Stop talking about knee angles and hip placement and triple extension and lift.  Once you lift heavy- and 110 kilos is NOT HEAVY in either lift if you weigh more than 165 pounds- then come back and talk about lifting. 

The Olympic lifts are simple.  I can teach almost anyone to do them competently in one session.  They'll do them from the hang, but they'll do them.  And they'll get better and stronger and move to the floor and to full versions.  If they can't learn how to do them, then they have a physical problem which prevents them from doing them properly.  I won't try to teach these people the lifts in any form.  Why?  because I'm a trainer,and it's my job to assess the people who come to me and make them better. 

Here's the simple way to do the clean:
Hold the bar about shoulder width apart (double overhand grip.  No one has ever grabbed the bar in an underhand grip, but hey, someone might)
Stand up as tall as you can while staying on your heels.  Squeeze your legs and butt and hips into the bar.
Relax that position, then push your knees out and then drive your legs straight as fast as you can and pull the bar up as high as you can.  Do it faster.
Now, punch your elbows through when the bar gets high.  Move your arms around the bar.
 Once you've done that a few times, simply shuffle your feet out and down when you pull the bar from your hips. 
Now, go back to step 4 and push your butt back before you drive your legs.  Follow the above steps.

Now you can clean the bar.  This explanation isn't in depth, I have no pictures, and I really add much more to it when I teach it in person.  But anyone can do it.  Really, they can.  

Things About the Meet

Originally Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 7:53 AM

WOG (Sally), Lucy, and I spent the last weekend at the East Coast Classic in Moorestown, NJ.  Sally announced all but two of the sessions and sat in the official's chair for another.  Her voice is holding up well.  She's a great announcer.  Lucy played the entire weekend; she's learning to not just grab kids by the back of the shirt to get them to play, and she's also learning to ask before holding hands with kids.  Victor Gallego reinforced my coaching style, and Leo, though he shook his head once or twice, still approved of most of my coaching choices (I know he opened at a meet PR, but that's because his previous meet PR is now 75% of his lift).  As usual, Joe Delago was a gracious host who reminds me that I haven't always been useless on the platform.  

Some observations from the meet include the future of our sport in the form of our youngsters.  We had some very good younger kids lifting.  The technique exhibited by several kids, four or five of whom stand out (two of whom lifted Saturday), bodes well for the future.  The coaches doing a great job with these kids are Victor Gallego, Joanne Musa, Pete Roselli, and some guy from Virginia.  However, there were also many crap lifts with horrible technique.  A lot of these kids will be hurt or injured soon if they keep lifting like this.  Coaches, please, tell your kids to keep their backs tight, to let go of a bad lift, and to squat and learn to move correctly.

Now, time for the adults.  One comment right at the top here is that just because someone lifts big doesn't mean they're good.  Do NOT try to emulate the lifting style of everyone who puts up big weight.  People who are athletic often get away with stuff the normal person never will.  Look for the people who do the following:  control their start and have an explosive, smooth finish and who keep the bar close to their body the entire time, especially brushing the bar (contacting the bar) high on the thigh or better yet right in the hip.   

Also, when you're a 200 pound guy who's been lifting for over a year and you're trying to total my best snatch, you should probably at least give a thought to my comments about your technique, rather than dismissing them outright and ignoring me.  Perhaps had you listened before missing all your lifts in the snatch you'd feel better about yourself today.  

I liked to see 140 people competing.  There still need to be more, but this was great.  Remember, though, that of the 140 people who competed and the hundreds of supporters who came out, that only about 30 folks helped clean up.  These meets are thrown for two reasons:  to raise funds for the team to send people to meets, and to give lifters the chance to compete.  Please give back by cleaning up a bit.  

If you're a new competitor, feel free to ask someone for help.  Most people in the sport are nice and will help others out.  If you're hesitant, ask the meet director if there's a coach who could help you; usually she'll know someone and get you hooked up.

Beards make you a better lifter.  Tattoos don't.  Go figure.  

Retro singlets are fine, provided the singlets are clean and presentable.  Faded, stained, french cut are all bad ideas.  If the singlet is ugly but clean, rock it out. 

The discussion between a high hip and a low hip start is fine and valid.  Initiating the pull with your legs and brushing the bar as high on the hips as possible is good technique.  A high hip brush with a vertical displacement of the center of gravity- not horizontal- means you get under the bar fast and easy.  When you horizontally move the center of gravity, failure and injury occur.  

People, seriously, find your adductors and use them.  They're the big muscles on the inside of your thighs; if you can't use them as handles to turn someone over then the muscles aren't strong enough.  Most of the strength imbalances I see these days are a result of people forgetting that their legs are round and have muscles on the inside and outside as well as the front and back.  

For the love of mankind, PULL WITH YOUR FISTS AND ELBOWS WHEN THE BAR IS AT YOUR HIPS!  Leo's always called this "pressing yourself under the bar".  Victor says "More finish".  You can't just let the bar go away after the second pull.  Finishing the lift means securing the bar overhead.  

Shoes, people, shoes.  You won't regret spending $200 on a decent pair of shoes in five years when you need a new pair.  You will regret spending $140 on a crappy pair of shoes next year when you need a new pair.  

Coaches:  know what the next attempt for your lifter will be before he goes to the platform for this attempt.  You should have all scenarios prepared in your head before hand to avoid making emotional judgements.  Don't make the marshall or announcer wait around, you hold up the competition.  

Fans, especially parents:  don't come to the warm-up area and tell your kid/ friend it's time to lift.  They have a coach and you bring anxiety.  Go enjoy the competition.

I'm sure I have many other observations, but I'll share them when I can.  I want to have an extended tirade about coaches who can't get their lifters to use their legs.  

Making Time for it All, or the Secret SnatchVolume Workout with a Jerk

originally Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:46 AM

Sally, the Wife of the Gym (WOG), starting training regularly again a couple weeks ago.  She's doing great, and she's going to train again today when she gets back from her latest business trip.  She trains, with another client of mine, at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She'll also do another weekend day, and that day is easy to work in since she's already doing the other two.  In that limited amount of time, how can I, the erstwhile trainer-mate (or trainer/mate?), ensure she 1. Gets good benefits from her workout, 2. Enjoys her training, and 3. isn't too annoyed by me telling her to keep her pelvis neutral?

In order to get the good benefits from training only three hours/ week (admittedly, the third workout goes a bit linger), we need to make sure we do the following:  1. Power/ Speed movement (usually a snatch, clean, Jerk, or jump); 2.  A squat movement complementing the fast lift:  overheads or back squats with the snatch; Front Squats or goblet squats with the clean; 3. A pressing movement (Kb, bar, axle, etc.), 4. A single leg movement, and 5.  Conditioning.   I'd like to actually throw a bodyweight movement in as well.  My key to success with the limited training time is hidden volume; we do complex movements which make the body work harder.

These things can be integrated together rather than treating all 5 separately (one leg barbell squat snatches with a burpee to recover from the depth, AMRAP in 45 minutes, for instance). An actual sample workout looks like this:  Snatches, 6 sets of 3; Back Squats, 5,5,5,3,3; one-arm KB presses, 4x6; single leg dl 4x6; kb swings 5x20.  That's a good 45 minute session, and add in another 15 for warming up and stretching and rolling, in an hour she's had her workout and feels better about the world.  Then she's really hungry.  

In a group, I can use the snatch (or cleans) as an exercise with little worry, because some people will be able to snatch form the floor, some can squat snatch, some can only muscle snatch, some will snatch dumbbells, etc.  This exercise allows for me to individualize the plan while having a group do the same basic movement; that way, the group gets the benefit of seeing others succeed and struggle, and the group also offers support to others while they train.   

What do you do if you have limited time and are trying to compete in O lifting?  The answer is easy.   In a three day week, you have a snatch day, a clean and jerk day, and and a total day.  The total day is the easiest to plan:  You snatch heavy, clean and jerk heavy, and BS heavy.  Do some pull-ups and swings to finish the day off, or some sprints or sled drags.  

The individual lift days focus on technical needs: Maybe snatch with a pause at the knee, then add in an extra overhead squat or even a push press behind the neck, or maybe all three.  or just snatch with a pause at the knee, then do your squats, etc.  See what time allows that day.  If you have only twenty minutes to workout, accept that fact and get the work in rather than taking the time off.  A snatch complex will give you everything you need for a 20 minute workout (start at 40% of your snatch, go up 5% at a time, and do the following:  Snatchx3, Overhead squatx3, behind the neck push jerkx3).  Go until you miss the snatches.  You should be able to get to around 70%, you have your conditioning in, and you did technical work AND mobility work.   

On the other end of the spectrum, what do you do if you are just starting out and need to get into shape?  Well, I'm a big proponent of two things to get people in shape:  squatting and moving.  If you want to start getting strong/losing weight/being better at eating bacon, start out by walking for 20 minutes, then doing box squats or goblet squats.  Make sure you keep the good form.  The walk should be crisp.  then do some basic stretches: cat stretches, arms across the chest, behind the head, etc.  

If you get stuck without equipment and need a workout, do this:  push ups, get to 100 anyway you can; crunches, get to 200; bodyweight squats, get to your age.  Mix this order up, figure it out somehow, substitute inchworms for the crunches, whatever. You have 2 minutes and will get good stuff in.  Burpees, as much as I hate them and think they're stupid, work well in a simple program, too. Try five sets of 10 to start with and work around that number.  

When you want to workout, anything you do is vital.  Take that 20 minutes and make something happen.  

Pride, Hope, and Focus

Originally Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:38 AM

The USA Weightlifting community has been obsessed the last few days with rumor, innuendo, and now confirmation of drug use in our sport.  While some are shocked, some are bitter, and some are happy about the drug positives, few people have mentioned the two women who made our US Olympic Weightlfiting Team:  Sarah Robles and Holley Mangold.  Sarah and Holley represent our best chance at Olympic medals not simply because they're the only ones going, but because they're actually good and competitive on the world stage.  Either of these women would have placed fourth at the European Championships with their results from nationals, and based on the number of competitors other countries can send, both Sara and Holley have a good chance to be A Session lifters in London.  Another quick fact about this weight class:  these women would have been fourth and fifth at Europeans, and Russia had the two top spots. In no other weight class would America have had two of the top five competitors.  

Sara is a lifter from Arizona who trains with Joe Micela in Mesa.  Her facebook fan page is here:  https://www.facebook.com/sarahroblesfanpage.  Notice her lifts in training, which are, in fact, world class. Yet no one fawns over her the way they fawn over our male lifters whose lifts, while strong, may or may not be world class.  

Holley is perhaps a bit more famous than Sarah because of MTV and her brother.  Offensive Lineman, though, aren't really household names, and their younger sisters who lift weights aren't likely to be household names, either. Here's Holley's fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/holleymangold.  Again, notice that Holley's lifts (few of which are shown on her page) are pretty damn good.  And yet no one gets all hyper about her cleaning over 300 pounds.

We should be ashamed of how our culture avoids these women.  In Ironmind, rarely do pictures of female lifters appear.  Most other female lifters who appear in print journals or on facebook are idolized for their beauty rather than ability to lift, and others are idolized for the combination of the two.   What we've done in our weightlifting community is ignore the performances of these two women so that we can sensationalize the failures of our men.  I'm guilty of doing this, too.  I've clicked- and contributed to- the thread on www.pendlayforum.com about the drug testing failures.  I didn't start a thread over there saying that Sarah and Holley kick ass, made the Olympic team, and are drug free. But what I do is to think these women are damn fine lifters, and they deserve more of our attention and respect than the drug failures do.  And this blog is my own little attempt at recognizing these women.  

I would like to add a few little things here:  

1.  Holey has a fansite where, when you buy t-shirts, she gets the proceeds.  It's here:  http://www.cafepress.com/columbusweightlifting  You should go there and buy a T-shirt for her. 

2.  Sarah could use some support, too.  Contact her Coach, Joe Micela, on facebook for ways to support her.  Also, check out this special on her:  http://www.teamusa.org/Hidden-Pages/Road-to-London-2012-Home.aspx

3.  Once a week until the Olympics, mention to these young women that you're proud of them.  Seriously, stop trying to watch the CalStrength guys snatch with their shirts off and go tell these chicks they rock. 

If you're one of the 30,000 views the pendlay.com thread on Broz' announcement, but you aren't a fan of Holley or Sarah on facebook, go fan them now.  Sarah has 221 likes on her fan page, and Holley has 921.  You're a bunch of hypocrites if you don't.

Everything is Always the Same

Posted on Monday, April 16, 2012 3:03 PM

“ At the peak of tremendous and victorious effort…while the blood is pounding in your head, all suddenly becomes quiet within you. Everything seems clearer and whiter than ever before, as if great spotlights had been turned on. At that moment you have the conviction that you contain all the power in the world, that you are capable of everything, that you have wings. There is no more precious moment in life than this, the white moment, and you will work very hard for years just to taste it again.”

-Yuri Vlasov

In all honesty, working out/ training is no longer the sole focus of my life.  It hasn't been for years, if ever.  But there was time when It meant more to me than anything else except being a Father.  Now, I have financial concerns, family concerns, property concerns, etc. and my personal gym time is at a premium.  As a result, I need to make the most out of that gym time.  A large part of optimizing my training is being in the right mindset for my work outs.  When I started training again back in November, I realized that I couldn't focus on my lifting like I wanted to.  I was, literally, just working out and going through the motions in the weight room.  I was having fun in there, and getting in there three days a week, and that was good enough.  But I realized how difficult it was going to be to get back to my old ways of always being ready to lift and getting the focus required for good performances.  This is how I felt:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHDdqubE7zQ

I started to think about my thinking.  I remembered working at the online bank and thinking about lifting all day- feeling the movements in my body, twitching while I visualized them, imagining what the heavy sets would feel like.  So I tried to think this way, to remind myself to think about lifting during my day.  Sometimes, I'd give myself a few minutes and just think about my training that night, about how it would feel.  Gradually, I've gotten back to the point now where lifting is often, if not always, int he back of my mind.  My next workout is always there, my next meet, and more importantly, my next PR- I've started feeling able to lift heavy again, even if that day is in the future.  

Before I describe ways to start getting into this mindset, I'll describe what this mindset feels like.  The zone, after all, is a delicate place:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjBVQ6Kk4E&feature=share.  And to get there, you must always live close to the zone.  The zone is one of confidence, self-assuredness; you can show off without being cocky.  When you approach the bar, your approach is standardized and you know you can make the lift; you know by the way the bar feels you can make the lift, and you know when you start you can make the lift.  And the self-assuredness conveys to you confidence in making minor adjustments to fix the bar if the lift is wrong.  The zone also feels like you're apart from the others lifting with you.  Even on a  crowded platform, you have your own space, where the distractions don't reach you.  furthermore, there's a trust between your mind and body, knowing that one will back the other one up.  and having success in a zoned workout makes getting in the zone easier and makes extending the zone easier.  It's cool shit:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM&ob=av3n

So how do you get to this state of performance, to this state of emotional excitation but not emotional chaos?  Well, the answer is to make everything the same.  If each workout is, in the Platonic tradition, merely an echo of the perfect workout, and if each lift is an echo of the perfect lift, then how do we, as lifters, find the internal resources to have good workouts on an extended basis?  Simple- and the answer is always simple- we extract from the workouts and the lifts those qualities which most closely resemble the ideal.  Once you do a good lift, take a moment to yourself, just a moment.  let that lift sink in, let the PHYSICAL MEMORY of the lift hit you.  And find in that physical memory one or two cues that you can make your body do to remind you of your good lift.  Whether those cues are the feeling of openness in your shoulders, whether it's the contraction of your adductors, or whether it's the speed of the turnover, or whatever you did that you can remember and replicate.  And before you do your next lift, sit down and use your mind/imagination to make that feeling happen again.  You'll feel more confident going into the next lift.  

Once you have that feeling, start thinking about it during the day.  Schedule it on your iPod or whatever, but as often as you can, shut the world out except for that feeling and make yourself feel it.  For me, it's the lower back being tight and able to fire, and my shoulders feeling fast and loose.  

Now, here's the hard part- once you make yourself have that feeling, and you have sense of emotional attachment to that feeling, don't let that emotion go.  Make yourself carry it around, and if you lose it, stop and find it again. The emotional attachment to the physical cue and memory will help you get into the zone again.  As you practice this skill, it'll be easier to do and to achieve.  

Let's take a moment to talk about visualization.  Visualization, even for those of us who are visual learners, isn't effective because I can see the movie of a lift I'm going to do in my mind.  In fact, I can rarely see the lifts I dream of making or focus on making or even plan to make.  What happens when I successfully visualize is to feel the moment of success.  When I first started watching videos of lifters (throwers/ wrestlers, etc.) I would try to envision myself doing the moves or lifts, etc.  transferring that image into a productive lift was fruitless.  What helped me improve by watching videos was imagining what it felt like to hit those positions.  Too often I work with people who insist that they must know precisely what happens before they can do it, but they refuse to understand how that knowledge is actually transferred.  I hear "I don't know" but what they mean is "I don't understand".  Successful visualization is an exercise in empathy, not sympathy. Anyone with a degree in biomechanics can tell you the components of a good lift.  But just because you know what the angles are doesn't mean you can lift well.  What you need to understand as an athlete is how the lift feels, how those biomechanics work to create tension in the first pull and smoothness in the transitions.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P16QYhc3Aw0 (one of my first experiences in visualization and a good take on how visualization affects production).  

Again, practicing this type of visualization makes it easier.  And transferring this visualization to the platform occurs by doing the movement and remembering what you visualized when watching the video.  "Yeah, this pull from the ground is exactly what I think Zelyx Rivera feels like when she snatches" is the thought to have in the bottom, not "I wonder how I can do what Zelyx does, she's stronger than me."  Zelyx, Alexyev, Rigert- they all do the same thing you do.  They do it with more weight because of practice and genetics.  This sport is about the movements, not about the weight.  The weight is a by product of the efficient movement.  

What, though, do we do to get the nasty thoughts out of our head?  First, let me tell you the truth:  everyone gets nervous about some lifting.  Doing well matters to all of us who do compete, it's in our nature.  How you avoid those nasty thoughts is what we need to focus on.  Here's a take on sports and spirituality which starts to help:  http://www.ru.org/sports/spirituality-the-hidden-side-of-sports.html

And here's an interesting take from this week's This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/462/own-worst-enemy  Listen to  "Act One: Aces Are Wild".

The analysis portion of "Aces Are Wild" gives insight into why I don't want you to visualize technical aspects of lifting.  Just feel good.

So, to push the fears out of your head, I'd like to simply say don't have them in the first place.  But there are also ways to keep them from coming up.  Reduce outside, especially verbal, anxiety.  reading or writing too much seems to mess up my head.  Detach yourself, too, from chatter in the gym.  These people are your friends, they like you, go have some wings with them afterwards.  Sit around and have a beer.  But lifting is for lifting.  Chatter increases outside influences.  Also, when you approach the bar, remember the visualize the physical.  What you do rives the bar up, focus on the feeling good.  

Some other practices I recommend are meditating or napping right before the workout.  Relax, take a 10 minute nap.  You'll feel better.  Get yourself into the zone by having a clear line between your day and the gym time.  Arden Cogar, Jr. does Tai Chi and Meditates before he trains.  http://www.practicalstrengthfortrainers.com/2012/04/interview-with-Arden-Cogar-jr.html

The point of this meditation is to demarcate your gym and your life.  When you go into the gym, everything every day must be the same.  every lift, every competition lift, every stretch.  it's all a shadow of the goal, and if you keep emphasizing the good shadows, you'll find the white.  

Alternatives to Smolov

Originally Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:23 AM
Back in the 1990s, a friend of mine talked to me about the Russian Squat Cycle.  He said it would add pounds to your Squat if you did it correctly, and he swore by it.  But, he then added, he did the program based off a max less than what he could squat.  

*Incredulous stare*

Dude, how can a program work if you don't follow the program?  

I've also heard of many people modifying the Russian or Smolov Squat program by stretching it out and doing it over an extended time period.  But many of these people swear by the Smolov, say it works, etc.  

For Olympic Lifters, and for throwers or other athletes in power or speed sports, using a program which makes you modify your power training is less than the ideal program.  I like to train my Olympic lifts as often and as heavy as I can.  To do this, I cannot be wiped out by a Smolov Squat Cycle.  Furthermore, any program which requires you to put aside your lifting, running, jumping, or throwing so you can focus on one lift is, in my opinion, a flawed program.  And, as logic dictates, anytime you modify a program you don't, in fact, follow that program.  You may follow the spirit of the program, but the spirit and the actual are not the same. 

The spirit of these programs is volume.  Squat heavy and often.  If you don't think you can squat that day, go heavier and do more reps.  If your day at work sucked, squat heavier and do more reps.  When you do this for a few weeks, back off to just heavy and for reps.  If your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend became a zombie and tried to eat your face this morning, just go squat heavier and for more reps.  This bold dedication is the spirit of these programs, and it works.  It doesn't work because it has a Russian name, it works because volume makes you stronger.  

Naming something, though, often takes away its power (thank you, Dumbledore, for that wonderful bit of advice).  Saying that you can do the Smolov routine often makes you able to do the Smolov because it's a written, well-structured, goal-oriented program.  When an athlete sees these goals in front of them, that athlete can strive for them, accomplish them, and then claim that achievement.  I understand the power of claiming an achievement.  The possession of an accomplished goal is vital to the development, psychologically and emotionally, of an athlete.  But if you throw, jump, or weightlift, then  shouldn't farther and heavier be the goal you want to achieve?

If doing Smolov or the Russian Squat routine interferes with your performing the lifts or your other speed practices, then what should you do instead?  Is there a program to follow which will make your legs stronger quickly while allowing you to do the speed things your sport requires?

Yes, Padawan, there is a solution.  A program which allows you to squat heavy and often, perform your speed training and olympic lifting, and which you can follow to the letter without making up BS qualifiers about your actual accomplishments.  That answer is the ladder.   http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5756&highlight=primer

This link is to Shaf's original post on Power and Bulk back in 2005, about two months after I got married.  Sally, I swear that, as a newlywed, I didn't spend my time at home looking up lifting programs.  I spent my time at work looking up lifting programs.

http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/06/ladders/ 70s Big sent up this post about a year and half ago.  I just saw it today researching my blog post.  Oh well.  But the point of my blog post is actually that "Smolov will kill your real sport, do ladders instead".  I think 70s big merely says that "ladders will work".  So, I'm adding to the intellectual discussion about ladders and not just wasting precious intrawebz space.

To implement the ladder for a thrower or Olympic Lifter, I suggest starting with one day a week and making another 2-3 days a week sets of 5 or 3 for the squats.  I also suggest doing the ladder with Back Squats, but Front Squats are fine, too.  Any big, multi-joint exercise works well with the ladder.  I start with one day a week because the ladders I start with are 5-3-1.  We do two ladders one week, three ladders the next, then four ladders and we rest from them the fourth week. Our other squat days look like this:  3x10 at 60/70/80% and 5x3 in the FS to 80-90%. What I've seen ladders do is the following:  build work capacity; take squats up 5-10% in a month; build confidence under the bar; and increase the sales of the double baconator at the nearest Wendy's (I recommend two double baconators after ladders).  This upcoming cycle, we'll do ladders twice a week.  

Since ladders are done with weight the body can easily handle, you have the confidence in knowing you'll make a weight whenever you get under the bar.  Since the weight is heavy enough to make you work for it, you'll need to explore the depths of your psyche and, as a result, get stronger.

I also wouldn't do any of the Russian/ Smolov programs unless have hit a relative stagnation with your max lift, and can do that max lift with good form (yes, all you people out there who can squat more with bad form than you can with good form:  you need remediation. Go back to the beginning and learn from the bottom up; your pride is hurting you and holding you back).  Ladders could be done with a beginner who has good form and decent muscle balance.  I also wouldn't do the ladders for more than 4-5 weeks in a row.  Let your body recover, do relatively few squats the next week or two but keep the intensity up.  

Not all my lifters will do this.  Greg and Stephen will; Andrea and Caprice will not.  They need to learn to let their body squat properly.  They will do lots of volume.  

I've also used ladders since college in the Olympic Lifts.  I really dig them.  Whet I commonly do looks like this:  Snatch 87, 90, 93%; repeat two to three times.  Sometimes it's 80, 85, 90%.  In the clean, I don't find the ladder as effective.  Once you do a heavy clean or two, going down and coming back up isn't as effective.  Perhaps doing 80-90 then 80-90 works once in a while, but doing it in the snatch works great.  

If you're injured and cannot do the Olympic Lifts, or if you don't do any Olympic lifts and  don;t throw, give the Russian or Smolov a shot.  Just use your real max and follow the program.  You can do it.  The program's greatest benefit is giving you confidence under the bar, not just the ability to lift more.  Here's some resources on the Russian and Smolov:

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-add-100-pounds-to-your-squat-smolov/

http://www.ontariostrongman.ca/resources/training/smolovsquatcycle.htm

http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_strength/smolov_experience_thread_for_all

http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_strength/russian_squat_routine_vs_smolov_squat_cycle

http://www.allthingsgym.com/2011/08/smolov-jr-531-excel-spreadsheet/ Smolov jr.

Responsible Training and Coaching

Originally Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2012 1:51 PM

I know some people who train at other gyms.  One of these people comes by and lifts with me once every three to six months.  Every time he comes by, he has the same problem:  he cannot keep his back arched when he lifts. 

Yep, he pulls from the floor and looks like this cat.  His back hump is literally that bad.  I tell him, and he never properly addresses the problem.  When you load the spine in this position, your spine will, sooner or later, get FUBAR.  Seriously dude, learn to keep your back tight.  You're really messing yourself up.  Now, the back issue isn't entirely his fault.  As I said, he trains at another gym, and there is a coach/trainer at that gym who should be telling this guy to keep his back tight.  Not just telling him, but requiring it by lowering the weight, giving specific exercises (rdl/good morning/ rack pulls/ hypers) to correct the problem before ever allowing this guy to lift heavy.  That coach has failed in his responsibility to his athlete.  The athlete will get seriously injured.

As a coach, your responsibility it to teach your athletes to train safely and with good form.  Never let the form go bad.  Bad form leads to injury; good form leads to heavier weight lifted; good form leads to faster sprinting and running; good form reduces injury; reduced injury leads to increased recovery; faster recovery leads to greater stimulus, which leads to greater adaption. At times, on heavy attempts, weak points fail and form falters:  on heavy back squats, my hips often lag behind and I need to bring them through faster. But I work on this problem.  I train to get my hips through faster.  I don't shrug my shoulders and just keep squatting badly.  A responsible coach addresses athletes weaknesses and improves them to the point where the athlete can improve overall.

Responsible coaching also extends to programming.  Doing stupid crap will not make you better.  Making your athletes tired, or putting them in pain, is useless unless there is a point to your coaching and purpose.  When you program for your athletes, look at your goals for them, and then use sound strategies to plan a way to reach those goals.  Some days, your programming might not work.  Change the programming that day.  See how the crowd is responding, and fix it.  If you're working with one individual, and something isn't going right, change the programming.  Results are always your goal, not killing your client.  If the clients think that being tired at the end of the workout is all that matters, send them to Planet Fitness and tell them stay on the treadmill.  

And look what we have here:  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/02/19/vogelsong.hurt.ap/index.html

A friend of mine just posted this story.  Dumbbell squats on a Bosu ball, huh?  Vogelsong says it was just a little too much weight?  It's a little too much Bosu.  Look, there is no research that says your stability is increased by using a Bosu ball.  Just use heavier weight off the ball.  The weight and proper form increases your stability and balance.  This exercise, too, is an example of irresponsible training.  The guy, first off, is making $8M over the next two years to throw a ball.  Why is he using a Bosu?  Did he have surgery that limits his rang of motion?  Did he have a stroke or other neurological condition requiring him to learn to balance again?  I doubt it.  And what backs up my assertion?  Well, mainly that 70 pound dumbbells on a Bosu ball aren't standard protocol for training stroke patients.  

Another area of responsible coaching is keeping yourself, as a coach, informed of what really works and what doesn't.  Keep educating yourself and questioning the exercises you choose and why you choose them.  Change the rep scheme up occasionally.  Get better somehow.  Make a plan for yourself to fill  in the gaps in your knowledge. Apply the new knowledge to your trainees.

Patience, Axl Rose, and Comebacks

Originally Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 10:17 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErvgV4P6Fzc

My only barely musical talent is whistling, and Guns 'n Roses "Patience" is my favorite song to badly whistle too  I can get the melody, but I have yet to ever know if the notes I hit- in singing or anything- are ever right or wrong.  I've compensated for that with my enthusiasm.  Sometimes, you just do what you can as good as you can, and hope everything else falls into place

I'm doing that now with my snatch.  I still have those visions of snatching 300+ pounds, doing a power snatch with 140, generally being what I would consider a strong human being.  I entered a meet yesterday at Ironsport (Steve Pulcinella's place in Gleinlden, PA: www.ironsport.com)to tune me up for Master's Nationals in April; I've been training more or less seriously for a few months now, and thought I should go into a meet and have some fun and see what I can bring to a platform outside my home.

All things considered, I did well.  I've been sick with a nasty cold all week, my diet has been crap all week, and I drove 110 miles through four Pennsylvania counties and one in Delaware to get to the meet.  And my real purpose at the meet was to help my athlete Stephen set some State records.  He did that, set some PRs, and more than hit the qualifying total for next year's Junior Nationals.  So all we have to focus on the rest of this year is having fun, lifting more, and getting him ready to medal one of these days.

As for me, I power snatched 105 pretty easily.  I would hesitate to say impressively; I nailed it and caught it extremely high and tight; I should be able to hit 115-120 in a month or two.  If I can figure out how to catch progressively heavy snatches deeper the way I did that 105, I'll Snatch 140+ in 2013.  And I know I'll be able to do it if I keep pushing.  And that push is where the need for patience comes in.  I've had so many comebacks, times I've qualified for Americans or Nationals after not doing any lifting, blah blah blah that I know I can do it again with serious training.  But there's a humility I have to embrace; people who couldn't hold a candle to me a few years ago are close, or even better, than me now.  I feel a deep emotional need to beat them. But I can't let that need control my focus.  What I need to do is to Keep the Main thing the Main thing.  And the Main thing is to train, day in and day out, and stay healthy.  I do those things and I will achieve my goals, eventually, and I will win the things I want to win (winning is pretty fun, I'll admit).  But all in all, winning isn't why i train.

I train because it's an essential part of me.  The challenge physically, the need to have a goal, the drive of competition are what I want in life.  When I haven't had the crucible of training, my self isn't complete.  And that's where I need to humbly accept my age, lack of training the last few years, and the differences in my goals now versus when I was 27.  For me now, every day I lift is a good day, better than the days I don't lift.  I have a family and a business to run, and the business relies on my ability to teach and create a community, not my ability to squat heavy.  And my family needs my business to be successful.  So, all in all, my goals have changed.  And still, the basic driving force behind it all is that desire to have trained today, to have worked smart and hard.  And if I'm patient, it'll pay off.  

Maintaining that patience and controlling my pride isn't as difficult as it seems.  While I'm very good at showing off, I'm also very good at not giving a crap about what others think.  

Of Course It's Heavy, it's Weightlifting

originally Posted on Monday, February 13, 2012 3:32 PM
In The Odyssey, Odysseus is the only sailor from his ship who makes it home.  now, barring the years of distraction caused by hot women, he generally made it through some pretty hard times.  He didn't take it easy and just keep doing what he knew he could.  Odysseus challenged his limits, he overcame the intellectual and physical riddles, and he resisted the ease of the Lotus flower. We all have that pesky little flower in front of us, trying to let us accept the life of light weights and certainty of what is to come at the end of each lift.  But not Odysseus.  He did the heavy lifting.  

Heavy means it's hard to pick up and put overhead.  Not just difficult to do physically, but hard, struggling, things may fall out of your body to make it happen.  I don't do heavy cleans anymore, because it's difficult to get my body into position to do them, and it's hard for my CNS to react quickly enough for me to get under the bar.  I'm getting close to heavy lifts, but it's going to take me another few months before I do them regularly.  So yes, the 140 cleans I'm doing now are light.  They are NOT easy for my body to do, but they also don't tax me the way a truly heavy lift would.  Heavy also means the bar doesn't magically fly into the air and stay overhead.  The weight should be so heavy to you that you MUST move quickly under the bar to succeed. Do this, often, and weights that were once heavy are so no longer.  

Many people say that heavy is a relative term.  It is; people are stronger than others.  Therefore, what is heavy for one person may not be heavy for another.  However, big weights are not relative.  Just because it's a heavy lift for you doesn't mean it's big weight.  Not lifting big weight doesn't negate your struggle triumphs, or efforts.  It just means you won't be chilling out with this chick on the medal platform come July: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlifter/5059547171/

"This is a waist the spirit breaks its arm on.
The gods themselves, against you, struggle in vain.
This broad low strong-boned brow; these heavy eyes;
These calves, grown muscular with certainties;
This nose, three medium-sized pink strawberries                   
---But I exaggerate. In a little you will leave"   Randall Jarrell, "A Girl In a Library"

(Sorry, back to my point know.  36-24-36 makes some guys crazy, but 5'10" and 200 pounds makes me pay special attention.)

Though she's snatching 145 kg, or 317 pounds, I guarantee you she thinks its heavy.   How do I know that?  BECAUSE IT"S WEIGHTLIFTING, and IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HEAVY.  Snatching isn't supposed to be some magical transportation of your body which puts a bar overhead; the bar isn't supposed to feel weightless in your hands when you pull it.  However, you are expected to move your butt in an athletic manner and get under the weight.  If you don't try to do this, and if you don't start succeeding, you won't be able to lift heavy.  Conversely, if you just pull on the weight and move like it's heavy, you won't be able to athletically get under it.  You need to understand the movement to succeed.  To understand the movement, you must sacrifice yourself to it.  

Sacrificing yourself to the movement doesn't involve candles and burning bushes.  Sacrificing yourself to the movement means focusing on it and making your body do what is necessary.  At the point where you, as a lifter, try to move from being a beginner to being truly competitive, you must be willing to both fail and to radically change how you interact with others.  You must make your lift the center of your universe.  The platform, your shoes, the audience-- nothing matters but you and your body.  That bar will do what you make it do.  

I get that turning this corner is difficult.  I did it, and I continue to do it.  I struggle with this many workouts.  There's an ease in your mind when you know you will make a weight.  I stand on record here with these words:  always lifting a weight you feel psychologically comfortable with is cheap and crass.  It's the twinkie of the workout world.  It's sacharine, easy, and you know you can always get it.  However, it leaves you unprepared and unfullfilled.  But there's more flavor to heavy lifting.  And only by doing it, by going through the HEAVY motions, will you get better.  Some days you need the easy lifts- they are and will always be there.  Going heavy, though, is different from making an easy lift often.  It's challenging psychologically.  But the payoff is huge.  Those lifts which are difficult, which require 100% technique just be be barely made with all your strength, striving for years to achieve that level of perfection, that desire and sacrifice is the obsession of the artist and the true competitor.   

ULYSSES

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king, 
By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole 
Unequal laws unto a savage race, 
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink 
life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed 
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those 
that loved me, and alone; on shore, and when 
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 
Vexed the dim sea. I am become a name; 
For always roaming with a hungry heart 
Much have I seen and known---cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments, 
Myself not least, but honored of them all--- 
And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 
I am part of all that I have met; 
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough 
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades 
Forever and forever when I move. 
How dull it is to pause, to make an end. 
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! 
As though to breathe were life! Life piled on life 
Were all too little, and of one to me 
Little remains; but every hour is saved 
From that eternal silence, something more, 
A bringer of new things; and vile it were 
For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 
And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, my own Telemachus, 
To whom I leave the scepter and the isle--- 
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill 
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild 
A rugged people, and through soft degrees 
Subdue them to the useful and the good. 
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere 
Of common duties, decent not to fail 
In offices of tenderness, and pay 
Meet adoration to my household gods, 
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail; 
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, 
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me--- 
That ever with a frolic welcome took 
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 
Free hearts, free foreheads---you and I are old; 
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. 
Death closes all; but something ere the end, 
Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. 
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks; 
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep 
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends. 
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
the sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; 
It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles, 
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 
Though much is taken, much abides; and though 
We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--- 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 

Competing Well

Originally Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012 1:06 PM
I learned a lesson in High School that I carry with me to this day.  That lesson  is that to compete with the best, you must compete against the best.  My wrestling career was marked by disappointment at the end of each season simply because I didn't know how to wrestle tough matches.  Ever since those days, I've found myself- and placed myself- in the most difficult competitive situations I can find. In each situation, my goals are different, but my objectives are the same:  to lift well, to make lifts, to succeed under pressure, and to take advantage of opportunities which present themselves.  My goals differ from meet to meet; at times the goal is simply to win.  Other times, the goal is to total.  And at other times, it's to beat the obnoxious people.  

Competition, however, is the primary goal of my lifting.  If you lift to just get in shape, or even if you just enjoy the training, then go ahead and chill out for the rest of this post.  No worries at all.  However, if you claim to want to compete, or if you do compete, please get settled in and dig deep into what I'll say.  Competition is not about winning, competition is about testing yourself.  

When you enter competitions, you should consider three types:  ones which will challenge you, ones which you can win, and ones where you might get your butt handed to you.  Why enter all three?  Well, an easy competition does a few things for you.  First of all, it lets you focus on yourself, and it allows you to help others and build a community around your lifting.  Better yet, you're able to focus on the rhythm of a meet without worrying about your performance in the face of external stress.  Please, however, don't do what Kramer does:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2CTihQy_XE

Yes, that's right.  Don't go and think big, cool things about yourself because you beat people much worse than you.  Just show up, handle yourself with honor and dignity, and be cool.  

I know many people who will only enter meets which are easy.  For some, they do it because the meet is local and they have fun seeing people.  others are just too nervous to go lift on a big stage.   If you're one of the latter people, then you MUST challenge yourself with difficult meets.

A difficult meet is one in which you have to fight for position or to get a medal.  In the last year, I've seen two people come through big in their competitions and get a medal when they had to.  Pat Rawle did so at the East Coast Classic in October by nailing his third clean and jerk after missing his first few, and in the Maryland State Championships, Ross Burkholder hit some PRs to win the meet on bodyweight.  Both these guys did well in these meets due to the competitive drive.  They'll have easy meets down the road, and they'll have meets where they don;t have a chance at all.  But they went to the competition, and faced it, and won.  Sometimes we don't win in the face of adversity.  I've certainly faced tough situations and lost or not come through, but I've done the comps and learned from them.

My third argument is to always go to the big meets you qualify for.  I've heard people say they "aren't ready yet".  Bullshit.  You qualify, you're ready. It isn't your fault the qualifying total was set so low.  if you're competing, and you qualify for a big meet, go.  When I qualified for the State Wrestling Tournament, did I decide to not wrestle because I wasn't going to win it all?  Nope.   Going to the big meets is an honor to you, your coach, and the sport.  Honor them with your presence (financial difficulties and family engagements often prevent your going to the big meets, but that's a different story). Standing on the platform with the best in the country or the world measures you against those people- you are there for a reason.  No, I wasn't going to beat Shane Hamman at USAW Nationals, but did I give a crap?  Nope, I went.  And I did well, hit some PRs, represented myself well.  and looking back on my career, I competed twice against a national coaching and strength guru and beat him both times.  Was I a better lifter?  No, I was a better competitor.  

Being that better competitor is what going to these meets is about.  Handling myself well and knowing what to do when I needed to do it enabled me to win some medals, and knowing I could stand up to the test helps me in the gym every day. getting hammered by the competition, being faced with others, in front of a crowd, having people strive for you and root against you, changes you as a person.  It also changes your training in light of that moment. The continuum of training and competing complement each other and enhance each other, and you become a stronger person for it.  

In order to prepare yourself for the competition, especially if you have severe anxiety, you must compete often enough that you have an easy routine; you must also have a support network around yourself to take away the external distractions, and you must train and compete with the same mindset.

Since we talked above about competing often, I'll address the need for a support network to take away external distractions.  Having a coach and a team help you at a meet is vital, since distractions will occur.  You'll forget tape, food, your uniform might be illegal, whatever.  But you need to know that your only concern is lifting.  In order to ensure your focus, get your lifting bag ready a day in advance of traveling , and double check it.  Always carry your singlet and shoes in a carry-on if you're flying.  Bring some food and snacks in your bag, and some extra cash.  And most of all, just listen and focus.  let someone else do the worrying and thinking. Also, be single-minded.  Smile, be nice, but you are there to lift, not to worry about other people's lifting.  Once you're done your session, you can help others.  Before your session, help out a bit, but don't worry too much about others.  During and before your session, make your lifting the focus of why you're at the meet.  

Training the way you compete is a simple concept.  You always approach the bar the same way, have the same simple cues in your head, and you always focus on what will be the one constant in your competitions:  your feet and your body.  Take the cues form how you feel, not what you see.  Lift with intensity in training, and lift with confidence in the meet.  Training in a busy gym is awesome for meet prep, as people will walk in front of you, there's going to be noise, and you will be confronted with sensory distractions.  learning to focus only on your body in the face of these distractions will help you in a competition.  Also, train on different platforms, turn yourself around on a  platform, go to other gyms and train.  

What the brain doesn't stop, the body will do

originally Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 1:29 PM

Over the last month, I've had some of my trainees experience a common but perplexing phenomenon.  When a person isn't aware of what weight is on the bar, they can lift it pretty easily, provided it's within their strength and technical capacity.  When they are aware of what's on the bar, they often screw the lift up.  

For example, last night someone was doing cleans and jerks and nailed 90% of his best.  he went to 95% and fell apart.  His words to me:  "I just kept thinking to myself that this was 95% of my best."  Conversely, a woman came to train yesterday and she hit a PR in the clean four times.  She usually trains in pounds and didn't worry about the weight on the bar, and she was working hard on her technique.  That focus on technique shut off her conscious awareness of the weight on the bar, and she did a great job.

We've each experienced those scenarios.  A more unusual one occured before Christmas when one of the College kids came down.  He struggled on a Monday to clean and jerk 105; one of his issues is his flexibility.  I had him, on that following Thursday, start cleans at 40 and do one power clean plus two front squats x 2 reps and told him to not rest between sets unless he had to; he was to go up by 5 kilos each  set.  He got to 80 and at 85 I had him start cleaning plus one front squat.  He nailed 105 and the total work took less than 10 minutes.

What is it about each of these scenarios and the brain?  Well, largely it's a conscious awareness of the weight and your perceived ability. when our first subject got to rest and consider the weight, he perceived that it was heavy.  And that thought- that the clean was heavy and almost his PR- ruined him.  Somehow, his mind clicked from just doing the work to being unable to do the work.  His consciousness turned him off.

In the second scenario, our friend was focused on her technique to the point that the weight didn't matter.  She moved quickly through her sets and did doubles at every weight, focusing on keeping her chest up on pushing her knees back when she pulled, then driving through her heels and pulling herself under the bar.  At no point did she stop because the weights looked like they were getting heavy.  Since she's used to working with pound plates, the green bumpers had little meaning to her and wouldn't interfere.  Instead of putting on the yellows, I just added 5s to the bar and had her keep going.  

With the final subject, I simply made him tired enough that he had to become efficient to keep lifting.  He moved so fast that his nervous system adjusted and his consciousness of the heaviness wasn't an issue; he had tuned his nervous system so that he did what was normal:  clean and squat.  

How do you organize your training so that your consciousness gets put aside?  A while ago, I addressed how to focus on doing positive things to overcome the stress of competition and approaching heavy weights.  In organizing your training, there are several steps you can take to overcome the "big weight" anxiety.  

Most important of all things you do is to focus on your body and not the weight you lift.  Your technique gets you where you want to be, not the other way around. So, when you snatch, start off with a pause at the knee to feel the position, then power snatch the light weight, then drop into an overhead squat.  By the time you get to 60-70%, you'll be squat snatching naturally and automatically.  a key here is to reduce your rest periods until you get to the heavier weights.  When I start working on the snatch, I'll do sets of four, then sets of 2, with little to no rest; I also take my time going up in weight- 10 kilo jumps (a little less than 10% for me right now).  I'll get to 90 kilos or so and be able to take a little longer rest and still have my psyche dialed in to the keys of the lift.

Other things to do are to always train with the biggest plates you have.  Use reds whenever you can; they will be there in competition and you should get used to them.  the time will come when you can load the bar funkily and not worry too much (yellow, blue, green to get to 110, for instance); until your technique becomes automatic, use the biggest bumpers practical to your purposes.  

One other thing I preach around my gym is "No missed lifts".  Make the lifts you're supposed to make, and the ones that are difficult will get made, too.  This mantra doesn't mean don't push yourself, it means push yourself and make the lift.  If you miss a lift, repeat it AND MAKE IT.  

Perhaps the biggest concern of all is to train with other people of like mindset.  You lift better when people are watching, and when they care about their own training.  It may be a bunch of guys on the platform doing the same weight you do and pushing you, or it may be a dedicated friend who just wants to push you.  At The Training Center in Delaware, I often didn't have other weightlifters training when I did, but very often there were serious powerlifters or bodybuilders.  Their seriousness helps your focus, and they're good to have around.  Be sure to not poison your environment with people who train badly, or people who don't want to improve.  Just because someone says they're serious doesn't mean they are.  

Your training should reinforce technique and reduce anxiety about performance by making the movements automatic.  Once the movements are the focus of your training, and once your body is used to moving, the weights will start going up and staying up. here are some keys for how you should behave in the room to ensure that your body is in charge of your lifting:

1.  Train with the biggest bumpers you can to mimic what you see in competition.

2.  Reduce your rest time to only what is necessary;  70% and lower lifts need :30-1:00 rest; 85%+ need 2-3 minutes or more.  Taking little rest at lower weights will help you make the heavier weights.

3.  Make your lifts.

4.   Lift with others who care about lifting and who strive to improve.

Lift Big.

To Boom, or Not to Boom

Originally Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 3:38 PM
I've got a lifter named Hamlet.  He's a bit weird, dresses in black, hangs out with some hipster graduate students, but he's got potential (already an outstanding fencer, he decided to change sports to impress some young chick; having been to his house, I think she'd be more impressed if he cleaned up that smell under his stairs).  He seems to just not be able to complete the second pull.  I'm sure if he did all his lifts would be great.  He hesitates past his knees, seemingly torn between holding the perfect positions and hitting the top of the pull as fast as he can.  This moment of hesitation is where he misses the mark of the lift. Without speed, his technical perfection is useless.  Unless he maintains his positions, all the speed is merely random explosion and the bar flies everywhere.

Here's what we're doing so that he can fix the problems.  He 's working on maintaining good position over the by pulling his shoulders back, sticking his chest out, and flaring his lats. I tell him that that position is the key to a good lift; if he maintains it, he'll be fine.  Sometimes his shoulders round, but generally he can hold that position.  However, he lacks the confidence in it, and instead of attacking the finish by driving with his legs until his hips snap and he can shuffle his feet out quickly to the ground, he goes slowly to ensure that position is tight.  I told him that, unless he goes fast, that position won't do him any good.  So we're doing some pulls from the blocks for him to get confidence in his speed and ability to produce speed and hold the positions.  That confidence, that desire to just go for it, is what will make him a champion.  

Something that seemed to help him was watching some YouTube videos the other day.  We got some take-out crab claws and peaches from The Silent Sea, sat on some prufrocks outside the restaurant, and watched videos of a European lifter named King Denmark.

"One thing you'll notice about King", I told Hamlet, "is that he pulls those shoulders back and goes like hell toward the top of the pull.  He doesn't hesitate.  He doesn't always hit the lift perfectly, but he gets under the bar and makes a few minor adjustments.  His key to being a good lifter isn't hitting the perfect lift 1 out of 10 times, it's hitting an 8/10 or 9/10 lift every time.  Worrying about the position too much would interfere with the ultimate goal of maximally accelerating the bar; otherwise, he'd never make a good lift and just be some dude rolling his pants up and hitting on the women in the gym, talking about artists he doesn't know anything about."

Hamlet replied to me: "That guys a quintessence of boom; he seems so full of confidence and success that of course he makes the lift.  I'm just not that good yet."

Me, facepalming: "Dude, he's that good because he makes it happen.  No hesitation.  Going fast is what enables those positions to stay tight, and going fast every lift makes you a little bit faster every time.  King knows he's going to make those lifts because he goes for the speed and positions, not because he worries about the bar getting overhead.  The bar getting overhead is a by product of doing things right.  You have to act on what you know and what you have.  You can't wait for the one perfect position and hope to get a good lift once in your life.  Hitting that pull will get you under the bar, punching through at the end will hold that bar overhead now matter what the weight is.  You just keep adding weight little by little and it will come together. You can never just have that bar overhead magically, but acting on what you know and maximizing your positions by going fast at the top will lead to a good lift.  One more thing:  you have to accelerate the bar at the top.  If it's going fast but slowing down, you'll miss the lift.  You need that bar to hit your hips like it's breaking the sound barrier.  Feel the need for speed, kid; hot nasty bad ass speed."

A yellow fog started to creep about our feet, so we went home.  He said he had to hang out with the hipsters and relax a bit; they were going to see a play about a movie, or a movie about making a play.  I don't remember which; I had to go home and empty the mousetrap.

Our next training session had the regular crew there, including Matt Laertes, Hamlet's friendly nemesis.  Matt often trained a little earlier than Hamlet, and Hamlet only ever saw Matt's heavier lifts.  Although they had been training about the same length of time and were about the same size (they even back squatted the same amount), Matt's lifts were better, and this fact frustrated Hamlet.  No matter how many times I tried to get Hamlet to focus on his own technique and problems, he always seemed obsessed with how others lift and paid little attention to changing his own errors.  Over the next few workouts, Hamlet got better.  He started to focus on his own lifting rather than working out and worrying about others.  He just kept focusing on things he could control:  back tight, feet flat, bring the bar in off the floor, drive through the heels and shuffle the feet hard to the ground when they come off the floor. He seemed to be able to hit the top of the second pull with speed about half the time, and his heavier lifts became more consistent; the other half of his heavy lifts ended in disaster.  He went flying, or the bar went flying, or he slammed the bar into his throat, or he simply lost a position and got frustrated.  Hamlet felt good, and knew he could attack the second pull.  His next meet was our big meet of the year, the Fort Inbrah open.  Not only was Matt lifting in his weight class, some big Nordic guy was going to lift; his Dad was an Olympian.

The day of the meet, everyone made weight; Hamlet was relaxed after taking his girlfriend to the water park the night before.  Hamlet made his first two snatches and needed a PR on his third to tie the Nordic guy and take the lead on bodyweight.  Hamlet got up to the platform, and muttered to himself:

To boom, or not to boom; that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the 
Perfection of position or to make 
Speed, and with speed make the lift; Speed and Focus,
They're the keys; and by speed and focus
We mean to accelerate the bar, increase the velocity,
Not let the bar be burdened by our doubts and weaknesses
But to let the bar rise above ourselves 
without that worry--that worry which we constantly bear;
To worry, that's the rub; worry about the lift, to want to succeed 
When we have shuffled and popped our hips and 
Lifted the weight Overhead and to our 
Shoulders; That worry makes us pause at the top
There's the issue with the lifts:  who wouldn't speed
Up if they could when faced with the desire to lift?
Who would face the loss, the falling back, the Clark;
Who would bear the no total, the failed PR, the
Fourth place the unworthy take when speed lay
At your heels and the position in your back?
Who would squat and clean, snatch and pull,
Jerk and press day after day for the elusive glory
Which comes only to the bold, only to those who
Feel the need for speed.  Are we so afraid of 
Lifting the bar wrong that we don't lift the bar at all?
Thus worry makes us all slow.  and thus the hesitation 
Causes the bar to slow for everyone. And this worry causes 
Us to miss the Boom and to lower the bar in defeat.
Quiet now, the announcer's spoken, the lift is upon us.

After the meet, we talked about the legendary Beowulf, and how the legends do extraordinary things for glory, and how they don't hesitate at that moment of decision.  And we sat with legends and champions at dinner, and they were ourselves.

Bodyweight

originally Posted on Monday, January 09, 2012 2:16 PM
I've tried to avoid posting about bodyweight and weight classes for many reasons.  As a former wrestling coach, I realize the difficulty in finding a good, sustainable weight for an individual and what a difficult decision making that weight can be.  As a trainer, I tell my trainees to eat healthy, lift, and do conditioning.  I don't offer much advice on eating beyond this: eat lean meats, lots of vegetables, avoid bread and pasta, and drink more water; I also tell them to eat as much protein as they can.  That's all the advice I believe I'm professionally qualified to give.  I have several athletes who are Paleo, Paleo Plus, Gluten free, etc. and I let them talk and share their experiences, but not too often do I get into prescribing a diet for someone.  For instance, two of my Junior lifters (they're brothers, and one is a 105 and one a 105+) are starting their yearly cycle and we're doing a lot of GPP.  My advice to them is to eat as much meat as they can several times a day, drink water and milk, and have some ice cream.

When you're finding that ideal weight class for lifting or strongman, here are the things to consider:

1.  Can I make the wight fairly easily without losing strength?
2.  Am I lean in the weight class?
3.  Will I truly be better and more competitive at a lighter weight class?
4.  Will I be best at a heavier weight class even if I can't fill it out?
5.  Be honest with yourself.  You may want to go to the Olympics one day, and that is an awesome goal.  But until you start hitting weights that will place you in the top 5 at any national meet, don't plan on going down a weight class by leaning up to be top 2.  Going from 10th in the nation to 9th in the nation in a particular class isn't much of a difference.  But if losing, or gaining, weight makes you feel good and is done in a healthy manner, go for it.  

If you're a beginner lifter, don't try to make weight for a meet.  Heck, don't try to make weight for a meet until you're close to qualifying for Nationals or the American Open.  Meets are fun and should be just that for most people.  If you come in at 87 kilos and hit PRs, that's great.  if you need to make 85 and those same PRs will get you to the American Open or Nationals, then plan on losing a couple pounds and start a month out. If you suck the weight off in a couple days, feel like crap, and miss the PRs, then what's the point of losing weight?  D0 things smart, feel good and confident in your body,  That's why 99% of us really do this stuff.

Let's talk about leanness here.  For general health, I'd like to see 20 something male lifters anywhere from 8-15% bodyfat, women anywhere from 12-25%. Those are big generalizations, I know; some people perform better at different levels.  And please don't let the indications of a "six pack" determine your BF%.  I've known men with 15% who've had a six pack, and when I was at 8% and 227 pounds back in 1994 I didn't have one.  A six pack is not relevant to performance.  
 
As for light supers who want to drop weight, I normally advise against it, especially women.  By light I mean women in the 190 pound range or men in the 250 pound range.  If a woman weighs 180, she needs to decide if she's losing or staying at Super.  generally, I'd like her to be hitting good lifts while maintaining a healthy bodyfat with good blood pressure and heart rate before she considers going down.  When she's totaling 160 or so, we can talk about the BW loss and see what happens; I rarely see a trained up 180 lbs woman lose 10-15 pounds and lift much better; I have seen women go from 180 to 165 and completely lose their strength and become a worse lifter.  I'd much rather see someone eat healthy and not worry about "leaning out" while hitting good lifts.  Usually, I'd say stay at a healthy 180 and lift a few kilos more. For men, a fat 250 means you're a 105.  A lean 250 means you're going to gain some weight or just compete as a super.  If you're 242 and have 8% bodyfat, eat more and lift more.  
 
The decision for Supers, especially women, to lose weight and become too thin or lose leg strength occurs because our upper limit weight class is too low.  I'd love to see the old 83 kilo class brought back, and a 110 for men.  Hopefully these changes will happen in 2013, but they may not.  I honestly think if the 110 class were around when I started training again and weighing 290 I would have lost the weight; getting my body to 105 was just too far.  
 
If you are a strength athlete, how do you lose weight and change your body compostiion?  I'll tell you a dirty little secret;  you get your heart rate up for an extended period of time.  Tabata intervals, sprints, all that good stuff for an extended period of time works.  An extended period of time is not a 20 minute AMRAP, or even a 12 minute AMRAP.  An extended period of time is maybe an 8 minute tabata, which will kill you if done correctly.  A set of 10-15 sprints at about 80% of your top speed will pull fat off your body if your diet is good. 
 
Also, do the hardest conditioning on the heaviest lifting day.  Tonight, I'll do KB swings because it'll be too cold to sprint.  So I'll do swings with my 32 for sets of 20; I do one hand and usually switch after 10 reps.  I might load up the core blaster, though, and do sets of 20 at 100-150 pounds with two hands.  But either way, I'll do five sets.  These work for me to lose some weight and get my heart healthier.  I also like jump rope ladders, stone lifts, and strongman variations.  Here's a little suggested five day conditioning program which includes the stuff I do in the winter.  I do the hard stuff on the lifting days after I lift.
 
Day 1
Heavy KB swings, 100-150 total reps (I use a 32 kg bell for one hand or the core blaster with 2 hands loaded to 150); I do sets of 20.
 
Day 2
Concept 2 2000 meter row
 
Day 3
Jump rope Ladder:  25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 125, 100, 75, 50, 25 or Tabata Jump rope for 8 minutes.  If you do the ladder, time your sets and rest for 1/2 the time the previous set took.  If the 125 jumps takes 60 seconds or so, then rest 30 seconds.
 
Day 4
Barbell Complex
Thick bar, start with 60 kilos (less than 50% of my clean):  deadlift, clean, front squat, press, back squat, press; add 5 kilos and repeat.  I can get to 100 kilos or so before my body doesn't like me.  I avoid the continental clean on this complex.
 
Day 5
Tire flips, sprints, or stone loads.  Tire flips:  My heavy tire for sets of 3, five sets.  Or the light tire for sets of 5 sets of 10 (I can do my heavy tire for a set of five at about 90% of my best; my light tire for a set of 15 is about 90% of what I have).  Sprints:  I usually use the speed ladder and do 40 drills; if I sprint on the grass, I do 10-15 sprints, usually jogging the first couple to warm up and the last few because I'm tired.  Sprints 5-8 are usually the only full speed ones, the others are at 80% or so.  Stone loads are my 135 pound stone for 10 sets of 10 or my 240 for sets of five.  I don't have a number for the sets of five I'll do, as sometimes 2 is enough and sometimes five is no problem.  
 
Something to remember about conditioning is this:  Strength for Time is a bad idea.  Notice I'm not doing my 240 pound stone AMRAP in 10 minutes.  Also notice that the loads are, for me, light to medium and the goal is to get my heart rate up and then to let it go back down.
 
PLEASE make sure you prepare your body for all this stuff; don't just do it because you think it's cool, and make sure you have a coach; also make sure that coach or trainer knows WTF he or she is talking about. Don't just look at what I do and think to yourself that you can do it, too; also don't think that I suck because I use lighter stones, etc.  We all do what we can do.  It's better to save some for tomorrow than not to be able to walk for a week.   As always, this blog is just me and what I do and think, and is not a prescription, challenge, or even a suggestion.  You undertake any workout at your own risk.  

Cleaning Up, Random Status Updates, and New Tear's Thoughts

Originally Posted on Thursday, January 05, 2012 11:13 AM
My first post of 2012 is a mixture of thoughts based on my recent experiences and some reactions to older blog posts.  Let's start with my recent post on Volume.  I'd like to clarify that in order to become truly competitive in the Olympic lifts, you need to do them as often as possible.  However, you can still use the movements to your benefit even doing them only one day a week.  If you mix the lifts in with other lifts, or use them as an accessory, I suggest a variation of them, usually the lifts from the hang or blocks.  Snatching from the hang one day a week will do wonders for your speed and quickness.  My friend and Highland Games Pro and WSM Competitor Steve Pulcinella usually only snatches from the hang, if I remember our talks correctly.  So, please use the lifts, but don't expect to be able to squat snatch 300 pounds if you only snatch one day a week.

I would also like to address smart volume now.  Doing things just to do them is stupid and will get you hurt.  Increasing your GPP is vital to fitness and strength, and you can do so in a smart and enjoyable way.  High rep squats are okay, up to sets of 20.  If you want to turn a clean workout into a conditioning one to increase your GPP, then do a complex rather than 20 cleans.  I had a College lifter of mine do this last week:  power clean +2 front squats x2 reps at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80 kilos; he then did a clean and a front squat at 85, 90, 85, 100, 105- his current max.  I did this to get him some good GPP, but also to help him relax and lift; he is strong enough to clean 120. 

I would like to add here that you cannot train for endurance and maximize your strength.  You can get stronger than you were, but you will not get as strong as you can.   If you don't understand periodization and conditioning, please read as much as you can from respected authors, including Yuri Verkoshansky, Mell Siff, and Tudor Bompa.  Dan John does a lot to make this material accessible to the non-geek, so check him out, too.  If you don't have the time to do this, find someone who has and ask them to program for you.  The follow up to this point is that you can train for strength and power and still get good results for body composition and endurance.  

Another good topic here is exercise selection.  When planning what to do, there are some basic, sound principles to follow.  Most among these is to avoid circus tricks and stupid crap.  If your movement is an explosive or plyometric movement, and you add something to slow you down at the top of it, then it's stupid crap.  Slowing you down throughout the whole movement isn't too bad, but adding a band to a jump or a clean is dumb.  Adding weight in the form of weights on the bar or a weight vest is not dumb.  

My second "stupid crap" test is to changing your form so you can do things faster.  If you can't do it with good form, don't do it with bad.  Trying to deadlift with a rounded back has taught many people this lesson.  Compromising sound body mechanics for weight will lead to injury.

And, since this is a new year, I'd like to throw out some goals I want for this year:

1.  Lose weight and get to around 300 pounds as a walking around weight.  
2.  BS 405 or so for a set of 20 (um, this will probably be sooner than later)
3.  Deadlift 315 pounds 125 times in half an hour (again, this challenge is for January, so this will be sooner than later)
4. Compete in a Highland Games
5. Compete in a Track meet or two
6.  Total 300 in the Olympic lifts again.  
7.  BS 272.5 kg before December 31.  

Of these goals, number one and six will be the hardest to achieve.  Weight loss at my age will take precedence over strength.  I'll be 38 in two weeks and I promised myself 10 years ago that I wouldn't go into my 40s weighing over 300.  If I get to 300, I'll evaluate my body and get my numbers and see where I go from there.  I don't want to go into my 50s weighing over 260.  

Turn it up to 11

Originally Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 1:06 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7IZZXQ89Oc

I was talking to my friend Chris last night.  He's an adult with a good full time job; he's also a 77 kg lifter who snatched 111 this week.  That's not too bad for a grown up with a job and other responsibilities.  That same day he snatched 104 eight times.  "It was a pretty good workout'" he told me.  He then said that, while he can't do tons of volume all the time, his best lifting and best gains happen when he lifts more and lifts heavier.  This experience totally makes sense.  In order to succeed at Olympic lifting, an athlete must lift often and heavy.  In fact, an athlete must lift as heavy as possible as often as possible.  

What do i consider appropriate volumes for which levels of lifters?  Let's start from the beginning.  Someone who just starts Olympic lifting, no matter what their background, can lift every day to a max lift with no ill effects.  I like using sets of 2 in the lifts, or two cleans and one jerk, for three to six months.  Lifters obviously use variations on the lifts, usually starting from the hang.  Since most people who train have school or work, usually a beginner can go three days a week doing six-eight sets of 2 in the both the snatch and clean and jerk.  I also have beginners do squats, 5x5 in the back squat, 5x3 in the front squat, and one day at 3x8 or 3x10.  We'll press one day at 5x5 and we'll do heavy snatch or clean deadlifts another day for 5x5.  That takes care of the early work for the lifters who have never done anything before.  For people who have lifted but not focused on the Olympic lifts, I add more squats and pulls.  We can add a day here or there, but I like to add volume by doing triples or two sets of two at each weight.  Usually, this stage lasts three to six months, and during this stage, we need to increase work capacity (GPP).  I like to increase work capacity by doing specific conditioning:  sprints, strongman workouts, barbell complexes, boydweight complexes.  I have a blog on these elsewhere.  Check it out.  

An intermediate lifter can do more volume depending on their work capacity.  I use technique to determine the skills of an intermediate lifter, but I also use pure ability.  Someone who has qualified for Nationals but has bad technique can still handle significant volume.  What I look for is a consistent, sound technique through all percentages of lifting. When a lifter is more efficient- and an intermediate lifter should be efficient- they can handle more volume.  The simplest things I look for in efficiency are consistency of technique across percentage ranges; little wasted motion, and the ability of the lifter to correct themselves from lift to lift when an error is made.  At the intermediate level, the athlete can also make quick gains, but not weekly in their lifts.  Also, some lifts may outgain others; their squats may go up fast or stagnate while their clean slowly creeps up.  At this level, the lifter needs to increase their GPP and volume.  So, how do we do this?  I like to hit the lifter with hard squats at this level.  extra conditioning is limited to one or two days/ week; usually a quick finisher or an easy workout on the days off, maybe 7-10 sprints.  The squats, though, kick their butt,  5x5, 6x5, 5,5,5, 3,2,1,3,2,1 etc.  I like to take the total number of squats at this stage up to  40-75 reps per week.  Supers can do more, many more, squats.  But we do the extra leg work lighter for the big folk, sets of 10-20 at 70% after the heavy low rep work.  The lifts themselves at the intermediate level are done every day, or nearly; if we only clean one day we will do snatch pulls that day and vice versa.  If the lifter has a tight or weak back, then the pulls can be done from the blocks.   The pulls can also easily be turned into the actual lift, though usually lighter.  My favorite way to build GPP at this level is triples, and to hit low weight:  50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80% for triples done three days/ week will get you in shape.  But then we add singles to the mix for the big folk, and doubles for small people (under 94 kilos):  85x2, 85 x2, 90 x1, 90 x1, 90 x1.  I like to do more snatches than cleans in a week, and more cleans than jerks.  

As a coach and lifter you must know that cannot just walk into this volume.  For example, we're just starting to ramp up the volume for our lifts.  In another two cycles the volume for our intermediate lifters will be pretty heavy.  They may become debilitated by it, but then we'll back down and wave back up.  If a lifter cannot stay crisp, then immediately lower the work load.  Good lifts are more important than a lot of lifts, and keeping the technique sharp is what matters.  I work up to the heavy volume, which occurs at the intermediate level about four-six cycles per year, by doing doubles into triples and triples into two sets of two.  It's better to be patient here, as less now will lead to more later.  Don't force a prescribed number of lifts on someone who is not ready for it.  I just dropped in half the volume for one of my lifters because she was losing her technique.  I'm still convinced she will get better.  

For the advanced lifter, someone who has qualified for Nationals or, perhaps, the American Open, volume is paramount.  Intensity follows volume, and at this level, a lifter will snatch 90% or more 2-6 times a week and clean and jerk 90% or above 3-5 times a week.  Yes folks, every week you hit 90%.  There is periodization here, but I'll talk about how that works in a later post.  The periodization isn't your traditional American Peridoization.  Volume as expressed in terms of total lifts done each week will be 250-350 lifts.  If I figure out volume like this, I count every rep.  One day a week lifts only go to about 70%, and are doubles; other days the lifts go to 90% and 85%.  Squats will be heavy here, for sets of five or three (and still big sets of 10-20 for supers).  A day will look like this:  Snatches 50,55,60,65,70 x2x2; 80 x2x2, 90 x2 or 90 x1, 90x1, 90x1, 80 x1, 80 x1, 70 x2, 70x2.  That workout should take about 45 minutes or so.  Take a break, do some cleans, then squats, then pulls, then presses.  One of my favorite squat workouts when I was at this level is 70 x5, 120x5, 170 x5, 210x2, 250x2 (5 sets).  Another day that week I did a whopping 70 x10 for three sets.  Lifters at this level should train 5-6 days a week and take 6-10 workouts per week depending on their work schedule.  

I also think lifter should add volume as they can.  I have a Junior lifter who's been training for 10 months now.  He's slowly adding a double one or two days a week; his workouts for those doubles are one lift and then some bodybuilding stuff, which he needs at his age.  I hope to write a whole blog entry about him in early January.