Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Master a Skill


Recently a colleague of mine wrote an article called “The Jack”.  It was a fantastic article referencing being a “jack of all trades, master of none”.  He was writing of his account of current firearms instruction in law enforcement.  His points all ring true across the spectrum of skill building.  While reading it I couldn’t help but to think of a current trend in fitness.

There is a trend abound of becoming a jack of all trades, and not focusing in on any one discipline.  Such disciplines might include running, weightlifting, swimming, powerlifting, gymnastics, etc.  The broad focus includes still a full time-range and strength range.  By the way, before CrossFitters start throwing fruit and gluten free snacks at me for knocking their training regimen, I am not.  I think that CrossFit’s philosophy is wonderful for building overall fitness (GPP).  I was a full time Greg Glassman adherent for five or six years, starting in 2004.  I counted my almonds and weighed my bacon on an electronic scale for a couple of years.  I have the figurative and literal t-shirt.  I read all of the journals, when the founder wrote them all.  Glassman, early on, regularly encouraged participants to gain competency in the lifts, gymnastics, etc.  Competency… proficiency, expertise, skill, aptitude.  How do you gain competency in a skill?  Trust me, it is not in the middle of a 40 minute, all out, seeing stars, conditioning session.  Kelly Starrett of The Mobility Wod, said practice makes permanent.  The colleague, I mentioned earlier, gave me an analogy, or metaphor, or something apropos of this subject.  I will adapt the story for my needs here.  He said, imagine that every time you performed a good repetition of the snatch that you wrote on a card “good rep”.  Every time you did a bad one, you wrote, “bad rep”.  Now put yourself in the middle of a 30 repetition for time snatch workout.  How many cards of each will you put in the pile?  If you predominantly train this way, what kind of cards are you placing in the pile over the long haul? The next time you train, what cards will you pull out?  You will extract the ones you have trained yourself to.

There should be a time set aside to build competency.  It takes hundreds of GOOD repetitions to make good solid habits.  Once the heart rate elevates or the weight gets heavy, you will sink to the level of your training.  You will not rise to the occasion.

Take the time to master your craft.  Have a long-term training plan… 5, 10, 15, 20-year plan.  Get really good at the movements.  It will improve your performance and keep injuries away from your doorstep.  

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Things you should read/watch



Some weightlifters will find this article a bit controversial.  This blogpost Donny Shankle advocates a bending of the arms in the pull.  In many circles this is a giant no-no.  What am I going to say to a five-time national champ and world team member? 


Cool weightlifting documentary that Greg Everett and Catalyst Athletics is producing.  Even is you aren’t a weightlifter, you will enjoy it.  It will give you a look into what these athletes’ lives are like in the US.  There isn’t much glamour for these unknown coaches and athletes. 


To be perfectly honest, you could read any of these articles as a weightlifter and get something out of it.  They are succinct and full of gems of knowledge. 


Great article answering this question:

John, I’m heading to nationals for weightlifting and, before big meets, I tend to get nervous.  As a former NFL player, I imagine you felt similar.  My question is: how do you deal with anxiety and nervousness? Thanks for the help.


Who cares what you think about workouts with 30 snatches for time.  The women are hot and the workouts are pretty cool.  Besides, CrossFit has done more for the sport of weightlifting than USA Weightlifting has.  

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Beard Update #2


I somehow feel like I have been lied to, like I have been misled in some fashion.  I feel like I pulled the car over and asked for directions and the person intentionally told me to go the wrong way.  As we all know, James Tatum of Team MuscleDriver USA was the proud owner of the best beard in all of weightlifting… WAS!  Recently Tatum has gone from this:



To this (first guy in video):


Well I was on a quest to match his majestic beard, but he seemed to shave it off mid competition.  Never mind that he knew nothing of our contest.  The most dangerous of enemies is the one you don’t know about.  Well with that being said, I am going to continue until December 31 of 2013, to prove to the world that I can grow the best beard in USA Weightlifting!

FIVE WEEKS IN





Saturday, August 17, 2013

I Am a Human Catapult


As I have said in the past, I am my own coach.  With that being the case I do occasionally look outside for help (which I need desperately).  This past Saturday I attended about a four-hour weightlifting seminar featuring Don McCauley of CrossFit Savannah.  The training was hosted by Old School Weightlifting in Brunswick, GA.  Mr. McCauley set up his high tech equipment, which included three pre-printed placards taped to the wall.  The laminated posters detailed why the catapult method of teaching weightlifting was superior to the “jump and shrug” version touted by USA Weightlifting.  To be fair, I have been attempting to lift in this manner for months now.  It was however, great to hear it straight from the McCauley’s mouth and clean up what I had been attempting on my own. 


The 30-minute lecture/theory portion seemed to make sense, but who knows how the actual application of the theory would go.  Mr. McCauley pulled out more high tech equipment from his proverbial sleeves… plywood slabs.  We worked a couple of drills with unique names from atop the plywood:  the dirty dancing drill and the rock and roll drill.  The drills applied to both the snatch and the clean pulls.  We performed these drills and most of the others with our toes hanging off the edge of the flat plywood.  This was to ensure we stayed on our heals during the pulls… and it worked wonders!  We next moved on to the jerk.  Coach McCauley had an interesting approach.  He had us all tape an “X” closely behind our rearward moving foot.  His instructions were to jerk the weight and have the rear foot land on the tape.  This felt very awkward, yet like lightning.  The split seemed very narrow, but seemed much quicker, which is the name of the game.  The afternoon concluded with a little discussion of miscellaneous topics.  They ranged from programming to athletes to fun anecdotes. 

 











I can’t wait to employ some of these drills and ideas into training the next several weeks and months leading up to the American Championships.  I will let you know how things progress.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Train Discipline


I hate school.  I always hated school.  My mother will attest to the fact that waking up every morning, going to school, and behaving while I was there, was like pulling teeth.  The only things I liked about school were sports and girls.  Why did I go?  She told me to.  In addition to my hatred of school when I was young, like a lot of other kids, I hated doing work.  I grew up with a two acre yard.  I had to help mow it with a push mower.  During the spring and summer, by the time we mowed it all, it was time to mow again.  I hated it.  Why did I do it?  My step dad said to, and he was bigger than me.  When I got a little older I started thinking about the freedom of a car.  I had no money, but I was fortunate enough that my father would allow me to work for him.  I started off at the top… of a broom.  I swept, I painted, I cleaned toilets… things that dreams are made of.  Why did I do it?  I did it for the money.  Money meant freedom.  All of these things, plus countless others, taught me some things.  If you do things that are uncomfortable, over and over, it makes doing uncomfortable things easier.  This is called discipline.  You have to practice discipline.  Doing uncomfortable things generally makes you happy and successful.  My mother made me go to school, I was made to mow, and money made me work.  These things were uncomfortable, but they improved my discipline.  Discipline has made me successful in many areas.  It has helped in my nutrition… food is just fuel.  It has helped in my in my training, I study and train hard.  It has helped in my profession as well.  I am not that bright, but I am doing pretty well.  The take away is that you must practice discipline, because it has carryover from area to area.  So quite possibly, if you floss your teeth every night, you might make more money and snatch more weight.  

Friday, August 9, 2013

Stuff You Should Read/Watch

This article lays out the Musts of weightlifting technique.  It contrasts the musts regarding technique and  what is allowable to demonstrate your own style.  It is a rather long post and is just for those interested in the three lifts: snatch, clean, and jerk.

Every time you Ice a puppy dies.  It doesn't decrease inflammation and will actually set you up to have a less stable joint and more likely to become re-injured.  This is the claim of the video where Kelly Starrett interviews Dick Hartzell for a second time on the evils of icing injuries.  The claim is that the research is flimsy if not non-existant on the benefits of icing. 

America stinks in Weightlifting.   This is the ongoing theme of Louie Simmons of, the well marketed, Westside Barbell.  His (and others) recurring theme is that American lifters are just not strong enough to compete with the lifters overseas.  Try to follow the name dropping and hyperbolic claims of this renowned powerlifting coach and athlete.  Parenthetically, I didn't see any Westside Barbell athletes at the Weightlifting National Championships a couple of weeks ago.

The Strongest Man of All Time


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Luck is for Losers


How important is luck in life?  I would say that it can be of significance.  But how significant, is the question.  Another question is can you affect your luck, or are you just at the mercy of life’s roulette wheel?  Let’s handle these questions separately shall we, YES WE SHALL!

Is luck important in life?  Yes, of course luck is important.  If you have ever had the sprinkler system in your apartment explode at midnight and dump thousands of gallons per minute on top of your bed, you would know luck is important.  It is especially so, if it happens twice in a 30 day period.  I digress.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, and bad girlfriends are also proof that luck is important.  However, is luck determinative?  I would say it rarely is.  There are some rare cases, but let’s put those aside.  If your financial plan is the lottery, you will be broke.  If your training plan for your weightlifting meet is that the other guy will not show up, you will lose.

Can you affect this roulette wheel of luck?  Of course you can.  Aside from the minuscule outliers, we are all in control (in this country) of our own destiny.  Hard work will beat the life out of luck any day.  As the cliché goes, the harder I work, the luckier I get.  When I work technique and strength, my snatch and clean and jerk go up.  Few people “rise to the occasion” (get lucky), but rather sink to their level of training.

Forget luck.  You can’t work on it, so why concern yourself with it anyway.  In weightlifting, I can always work on my technique, strength, and mobility.  I have a whole bunch of room for improvement in each.  Once my technique is world class, I can snatch 170 kg, and clean and jerk 200 kg, I might start concerning myself with luck.  Until then, back to the squat rack.

Having ADD is Lucky!


Monday, August 5, 2013

James Tatum Look a Like


I have an incredibly important project… grow a beard that weightlifter James Tatum would be proud of.  I am growing it until January 1st, and will give regular updates.  I would consider growing it longer, but I might have to deal with that whole divorce issue, because my wife isn’t a fan of it.  Why, you might ask am I growing a beard, but then again you probably wouldn’t.  If you did, I would just say why not.  I have been skydiving, I have seen Haley’s Comet, and I saw Jaws 3D in the theater in 1983.  This is about the only thing left for a man to accomplish.  Not to mention, I am sure it will make me a better weightlifter.

The best beard in all of weightlifting… James Tatum



This is a photo about 3 weeks in…



Not too shabby, huh?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Chad Vaughn Program Follow up #2


I am two weeks in to a new four-week program.  My portion of the programming was a bit simple and crude.  I had reached my back squat goals so I have moved on to moving my front squat up.  My goal is to front squat 300 for a triple.  I am snatching and clean and jerking up to maximum on two separate days.  Based on Chad Vaughn’s feedback, I had added in jerk and pressing work to improve my stability in the overhead position.  This included behind the neck jerks for triples, strict behind the neck presses for fives, and high elbow strict presses for five reps also.  Each rep was to be held overhead for a three count.  Aside from a lack of overhead stability in the jerk, I was also getting out of position a bit in my pull from the floor.  Chad’s remedy for this was a boat-load of Romanian Dead Lifts. 

Clean Grip RDL




 Snatch Grip RDL



RDLs with a snatch and clean grip were programmed to keep my back strong and make me feel the correct positions for each pull.  I love the RDLs.  The first week, my numbers were very low, mainly because of the novelty of the movements.  But week two the numbers moved up drastically and week three even more. 

A bit of a setback after week two, fell upon me.  I am no stranger to training pain, or injuries even, but the my shoulder is giving me fits.  My AC joint (acromioclavicular) feels like a honey badger is gnawing on it.  To get very technical, the AC joint is the pointy little boney thingy on the top of your shoulder where the shoulder blade and collarbone connect.  When inflamed, which mine is, it causes difficulty raising your arm overhead… quite the problem.  I don’t mind pain, but I am concerned that it may progress over the next few months and limit my improvement.  As a result, I had to put any overhead stuff on hold.  Enough complaining.  I have just finished up a deload week and can’t wait to snatch and jerk again.  I will check back later for more updates on my progress.