Get Out of Your Own Way

I am a fairly young fellow.  I am still hanging onto the decade of the thirties.  Each decade that comes along, I think, “you know what, twenty isn’t that old”, “thirty isn’t that old”, “forty isn’t that old”.  Back to the topic at hand.  I want to talk briefly about the wisdom of teenagers.  They are stupid.  I know, I was the club leader of stupid teens.  As with any teenager, along with being stupid, I was constantly defeated and victimized by the world.  It was amazing, as a teenager, I was the smartest thing on two legs, yet I was too incompetent to accomplish anything of any merit because the world was keeping me down.  I knew that if the world  would ever just let me have a chance, I would do great things.  This way of thinking from a teen is dangerous, but to be expected.  More troubling is that actual adults have this misguided approach to life.  While there are those tragic events that the outside world throws at you, they usually pale in comparison to what is really going on between your ears.  While we are all victims at some time or another, the danger is living like a perpetual victim.  You know the type:

1. “All of the traffic lights are red when I am late for work.”

2. “Rich people are lucky”

3. “There aren’t any jobs out there”

4. “Obama/Bush ruined the economy”

5. “I would have been promoted, but the other guy is connected”

This is loser, victim, life-happens-to-me, wimp talk.  No one wants to hear how bad you have it.  Welcome to the real world, where winning requires work.  Your beef is not with the world, it is with YOU!  You are the problem, not the outside world.  Once you decide that getting out of your own way is your first step to success, things will start to move in a positive direction.  If you are wearing a permanent victim hat, then shift your focus.  Forget about fighting the world, fight yourself.  This is where the real battle lies.  Once you conquer yourself, the world is easy.  

Everything in Moderation?

I have heard the cliché “everything in moderation” for decades now.  I have heard it applied to a bunch of different things.  I will fully admit, that approaching things moderately in life, for me, has always been difficult. I, at one time, was the low/no-fat guy.  Trim the fat from the chicken breast, nothing fried, drain the fat from the ground beef, etc.  I have been the low carb guy also.  I have been the CrossFit guy, the “bodybuilding guy”, the bodyweight guy, and now the last few years, the weightlifting guy.  Each time I am given the whole moderation line.  Maybe they were right, maybe not. I have some issues with this idea of the moderate approach.  It may be OK, if the goal is mediocrity.  It seems to me that moderation and greatness, however, are not exactly two peas in a pod.  One cannot lead to the other.  But then on the other hand, few people (if any) cannot sustain a constant hard charging pace indefinately.  It would be difficult to keep a completely “clean” diet for years.  It would be very difficult to keep the same mundane, heavy squatting routine week after week, year after year.  These approaches usually start off very intensely and flame out and ultimately sink the participant.  However, I am not sure that multibillionaire Bill Gates approached business with the mindset of moderation.  The same goes for Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, Peyton Manning, or any other extremely successful person.  After some deliberation, I have decided that moderation alone won’t make greatness, but neither will all - out effort in perpetuity.  I believe that in order to remain on track AND pursue greatness, the ideal is to approach your given task “in moderation” with bouts of “excess”.  From a nutritional approach, eat “cleanish” for 3 months and eat super clean for 1 month.  Train moderately for 6 months and train like an animal for 3 months.  Work your 40 hours for a month, then try to kill it for a couple of weeks.  Good luck!

Reward Results, Not Effort

When I was a young, brilliant teenager (all sarcasm intended) I had a bunch of after school and summer jobs.  I worked for my father quite a bit at his used car dealership.  I would wash cars, change batteries, clean the building, paint, and any other odd job he could come up with to teach me how to work.  I worked there so I could save up for that sweet 1984 Mazda 626 which became my first car.  I continued to work there afterwards so I could put gas in it.  During the school year, I obviously didn’t work as much, as my main “job” according to my Dad was school.  I was not exactly excited about school as a teen.  The school was even less excited about me.  I spent a bunch of time in detention, suspension, and in the principal’s office and zero time on the honor roll.  As a result of my scholastic underachievement, I was regularly asked to come back to my father’s office for a closed-door session.  The closing of the door meant the butt chewing was about to commence.  The conversation went something like this:

Dad:  Did you get your report card?

Lazy Teen (me): yes

Dad: How were your grades?

Lazy Teen: OK

Dad: What were your grades?

*I don’t know why I didn’t just get to the point and say my grades sucked and I was an idiot.

Lazy Teen: Math – C, English – D, History – C, PE…. – A!!!

Dad: You know school is your job, right?

Lazy Teen:  Yeah Dad, but I am trying hard.

At this Point things always took the same predictable turn out of my favor.  For some reason, I always tried with the lame “I am trying hard” bit.  Epic fail every time.  This was the usual moment my dad would point to the framed piece of paper behind him on the wood paneled wall, and ask me, “What does that say?”  I would read the words once again:

Reward Results, Not Effort

Giving a great effort in a given activity does count for something.  It can be character building to some degree, but that is about it.  A gerbil works extremely hard running in that little wheel in his cage, but he doesn’t really accomplish anything except probably sweaty fur.  So hard work alone won’t cut it.  Success comes from combining hard work with responsible decisions.  People that work the hardest and make the most responsible decisions over the long haul become the most successful.  Watching six hours of TV per day doesn’t fit into either category: hard working or responsible decisions.  So in actuality, no one really cares how hard you work, if you don’t produce something of value, and nor should they.  So let’s all save the “but I worked soooooo hard on my Women’s Studies PhD in college, but I can’t find a job that doesn’t involve draining a french fry bin.”  Your effort is irrelevant; it is results that matter in the grownup world.  Results emanate from effort, coupled with good decisions.    

So What?!!!

A friend of mine, just the other day asked me for some fitness/nutrition advice.  It was not the kind of in depth, technical stuff that I really geek out on, but rather a more common problem for most gym-goers.  She said, “I have a problem.  I am not really feeling the gym thing right now.  I don’t feel motivated to go in and train.”  I paused for a moment to gather some wisdom from the recesses of my mind… didn’t happen.  I warned her in advance that this was a total man answer, and there would be more of a follow-up comment to the seemingly callous response.  I responded, “so what?”  Her face spoke volumes.  Sensing that she was not happy with my response, I elaborated.  I asked if she ever wanted to just get into her car and drive for the mountains to escape her two whining children?  She responded honestly, with a yes.  I said, so what?  We both agreed that running for the hills might feel good in that moment, but it was not ultimately happiness or progress inducing.  That is what GROWNUPS do... we don't primarily rely on our emotions to make decisions.  Reliance on just emotions to make good decisions is like relying on low bar back squats to make you stronger, or like relying on Miley Cyrus to make a good role model for your daughter, or politicians to make your life better, or garlic to freshen your breath, or ice cream to help you lose weight... it doesn't work.  

All of us face things daily that we would just rather not do, yet we press through like adults.  I love my job, but I would rather stay home and lift all day… so what?  So below is a good starter list of easily solvable problems with that magic phrase.

1. I know that you would rather not hold the door for the person behind you… so what?  Don’t be a hateful troll.
2. You want to drive in the fast lane, below the speed limit… so what?  Move!
3. You don’t want to take a job that is “below you” because you have a Masters degree in Bulgarian Polka and you are waiting for the right opportunity to pop up… so what?  You chose a stupid degree and listened to your idiotic professors.  Start flippin’ burgers Polka boy.
4. Oh, you were dealt a bad hand in life, so you just want to lie down and blame the world for your problems… so what?  I am so sorry that your idea of a setback is that harder working people make more money than you.  Maybe you should make better life choices and stop playing with Pokemon cards in your spare time… you are thirty for God’s sake!!

If you are a weightlifter, or have interest in strength training at all, these are two great projects coming out.

AMERICAN WEIGHTLIFTING

Greg Everett

THE ARTIST & THE OLYMPIAN

Things to Read / Watch

American Weightlifting is the story of a sport in turmoil and the athletes and coaches whose passion drives them to succeed despite the odds. Amateur athletes and coaches with little or no financial support struggle to compete with the professionals who dominate the sport internationally. Training in garages, working full time jobs, ignored by the public and the media, American weightlifters strive to compete with the best in the world. (Greg Everett)

Strength, Bands and Staying in Your Lane is Greg Everett's take on a recent interview with the well known powerlifting icon, Louie Simmons.  Though the takedown of Louie's weightlifting critique is not difficult, Greg dissects it thoroughly nevertheless.

Donny Shankle's blog is a must read almost every time he updates.  Read it all whether you are a weightlifter or not.  

If you care anything about movement, or athletic performance, you have to invest 90 minutes in this audio piece.  Power Athlete Radio 29 is an absolute must listen.  I am very well steeped in exercise physiology, nutrition, and strength and conditioning, and I felt like an absolute rookie listening to Kelly Starrett and John Welbourn talk mobility, posture and position and training.  (Beware of language)

The Attitude Nation - Enjoy the bar slamming, techno music playing, coffee drinking freak athletes!

(Beware of language)

I Can't Gain Weight

I hear this a lot… “I can’t gain weight” (you should read the previous line in a really whiny, annoying voice).  I fully realize that this issue is for a minority of those exercising, but it bears covering.  Besides losing weight is really easy, eat less and control insulin… that about covers it.  I know, I know, you have a gland problem or some sort of condition that prohibits weight loss… it is called eating.  I digress.  Gaining weight is pretty easy too.  There are some interesting ways out there to accomplish a weight gain.  I once tried one popularized decades ago, called GOMAD (gallon of milk a day).  I couldn’t quite manage the whole gallon of WHOLE milk, but I was drinking around three gallons per week.  I will skip to the end of the story… I got really fat.  I went from 165 lbs to 190 in a very brief time frame.  I got a bunch stronger, but checking the mailbox felt like I was running a 5k.  I don’t recommend it.  My latest endeavor into the world of weight gain has progressed a bit slower and with more thought. I went from 175ish lbs to 185ish in about 6 months.  In light of my latest success, I have some practical suggestions if you want to get stronger and put on some quality weight.

Back squat.  I am a big believer that eating will follow training.  If you kill it in the gym, you will get hungry.  This is one of the problems with exercising to lose weight.  I say instead back squat to gain weight!  If you back squat 5 sets of 5 and end the session with blood vessels bursting in your eyes (also not recommended) you will be hungry, and this heavy compound movement leads to a large hormonal release.

Eat lots of meat (or Tofu beast… this is for one of my favorite readers).  If you want to put on muscle, the body needs protein.  This shouldn’t be a shocking.  I suggest at least one gram of protein per lb of bodyweight minimum.

Eat a bunch more.  This doesn’t sound very technical, but it is still useful advice.  Do your best to stick with whole foods such as veggies, fruit and the more dense potatoes. 

Drink whole milk.  This natural concoction helps babies grow as well as adults.  It is full of a great balance of macronutrients and has a big insulin affect.  It also is the perfect thing to mix your protein powder and coffee with for a workout shake. 

Forget the abs.  It is very difficult to gain strength and muscle (unless you are a beginner) without gaining a bit bodyfat.  Relax… that stuff is easy to lose, just reverse the above list.  

Sleep, Eat, Train

I have touched on this concept in the past, but I am as big a believer in it now as I have ever been.  Sleep, eat, train... there is no way around this equation.  This is where the myth of overtraining has gained so much traction. If you are training, this is the order of priority. Each of these (and in this order) must be attacked fiercely.  While there are individual variations in everyone, I will give a general guideline.

Sleep
1. Completely dark room - Cover the clock and throw out the television.  If you have a night light, no judging here, but for God's sake, my two year old son doesn't need a night light.

2. Minimum of eight hours - Please don't tell me how tough you are because you can get by on five hours of sleep.  No one admires your studliness because you watch reruns of Deadliest Catch until midnight, then wake up at 5:00 AM, chug $10 worth of coffee, slam a Monster in the afternoon before you cry at your desk.  Trust me, you are not missing that much: they swear, they catch some crabs, the waves are bad, it is cold... that is about it.

Eat
This is the TP Food Guide

1. Eat breakfast every day

2. Eat something with a face at each meal (Robb Wolf)

3. Eat veggies or fruit at each meal

4. Earn your starches through exercise

Exercise
Train for a goal with these priorities.

1. Learn movement - running gate, squat, swimming stroke, snatch, clean & jerk, etc.

2. Get strong

3. Add work capacity - cardio / mileage / more volume of work (sets and reps)

These are very easy to understand, but very hard to follow.  Good luck!

Quest for Greatest Beard in Weightlifting Update

Things to Read / Watch

I love reading Donny Shankle.  You may not agree with everything he writes, but it always seems as though he has put thought into it.  In Complacency Kills (link), Donny explains his approach to training, “be miserable and love it”.

Barbell Shrugged is a podcast / Youtube series.  They are CrossFit based, but are very Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting oriented.  They have interviewed top CrossFit competitors such as Rich Froning and Dan Bailey as well as weightlifters Jon North and Kendrick Farris.  The question them about their training, nutrition, as well as less pertinent topics.  

“Don’t call it a comeback”.  The Champ is back… Jon North comes out of his brief, Brett Favre-like retirement. 

Why the US Doesn’t Dominate Weightlifting Internationally

The U.S.’s best lifter in 2011 (arguably) was Kendrick Farris.  At the World Championships that year he placed 19^th in the 85kg class with a total of 349 kg.  Iranian Klanoush Rastami won gold that year with a total of 382 kg.  This is a 33kg (72 lb) difference between the two lifters.  That same year Kendrick won nationals pretty convincingly with a better total.  Even if he had the lower total, he would have won gold by 19 kg (41 lbs).  That is a dominant performance!  Yet on the world stage he gets crushed.  Why?

Rastami

This is Kendrick a little heavier

This is the third rail of weightlifting.  Everyone that has heard of the sport has an opinion.  I will attempt to share my rookie opinion on the matter.  There are a few reasons for our lackluster performances as compared to other countries.

Show me the money!!!

Weightlifting pays nothing, relatively speaking.  Great professional American weightlifters become hundredaires, while their football, baseball, basketball counterparts become millionaires.  That is just how the free market cookie crumbles.  Freak athletes in Iran, Russia, or Turkey become weightlifters because they will be well taken care of.  In the US, that same freak athlete plays two years in college and signs a 3-year, $10 million contract to be a backup running back for the New England Patriots. 

Kendrick Who?

Becoming a Hall of Fame weightlifter in the US is like entering the witness protection program.  There are no $75 jerseys bearing your name.  People are still talking about Babe Ruth, but Kendrick Farris… soon to be three  time Olympian… pound for pound one of America’s greatest lifters… (cricket noises).

Drugs… allegedly.

Countries that dominate strength sports use lots of drugs… allegedly.  They allegedly use and use and use and come time for the Olympics, their team tests their athletes.  If they test “hot”, the athlete has to pull out of the competition for an injured knee… allegedly.  By pulling out, the International Olympic Committee can’t test them… so no cheating… allegedly.  

Goals for American Masters Championship

Starting back in March, The American Masters Championship was posted online for 2013.  I started training with full focus on that one competition.  This will be the first meet I have lifted in since this very one back in 2011.   It was time to assess where I stood strength-wise.  Below was where I stood and the quarterly goals I had set for the future.  I had about 7 months or so to train.  The back squat went very well, improving from 315 lbs up to 350 lbs.  The snatch improved much more quickly than planned from 185 lbs up to 210 lbs almost three months early.  The clean and jerk is another story altogether.  By this time, all I have been able to clean is 253 lbs which is about 25 lbs under where I wanted to be by now.  I have jerked behind the neck 285 lbs so it is not the issue at all.  I still have some timing issues that I have to get worked out on the clean portion.  I seem the pull the bar too high and it just crashes on me.  With a hair over five weeks to go, I hope it all falls into place.  As it stands now I hope to have these as my attempts on November 3:

Snatch - 90kg, 95kg, 100kg (220 lbs)

Clean and Jerk - 110kg, 115kg, 120kg (264 lbs)

Total - 220 kg (484 lbs)

Gratuitous Weightlifting Videos

Below is the set of goals that I drew up.  Some were achieved way ahead of schedule, while some are still waiting on me to catch them.  

3/23/13

Back Squat – 315 (143kg)

Clean and Jerk – 240 (109kg)

Snatch – 185 (84kg)

Total – 193kg

Goals

May 14 (1^st quarter)

Back Squat – 325 (148kg) - Accomplished

Clean and Jerk – 253 (115kg) Accomplished

Snatch – 191 (87kg) – Accomplished

Total – 202kg Accomplished

July 6 (2^nd quarter)

Back Squat – 336 (153kg) accomplished

Clean and Jerk – 264 (120kg)

Snatch – 196 (89kg) accomplished

Total – 209kg accomplished

August 27 (3^rd quarter)

Back Squat – 347 (158kg) accomplished

Clean and Jerk – 275 (125kg)

Snatch – 202 (92kg) accomplished

Total – 217kg

October 20 (211 days away)

Back Squat – 360 (163kg)

Clean and Jerk – 286 (130kg)

Snatch – 209 (95kg) accomplished

Total – 225kg

Beginner's Guide to Watching a Weightlifting Meet

Rarely will you see a weightlifting meet on television, even during the Olympic Games.  But just in case you do find your self watching ESPN at 3 am and there are no ping pong matches to televise, here is a quick guide to understanding a meet.

Weight Classes

 A wonderful thing about weightlifting is that it has weight classes.  In a sport where the goal is to lift heavy weight over your head, it would be discouraging to compete against people much heavier. There are eight male divisions and seven female divisions for adults. The men's classes are:

• 56 kg (123 lb)
• 62 kg (137 lb)
• 69 kg (152 lb)
• 77 kg (170 lb)
• 85 kg (187 lb)
• 94 kg (207 lb)
• 105 kg (231 lb)
• and over 105 kg;

And the women's are:

• 48 kg (106 lb)
• 53 kg (117 lb)
• 58 kg (128 lb)
• 63 kg (139 lb)
• 69 kg (152 lb)
• 75 kg (165 lb)
• and over 75 kg

Age Groups

In order to encourage more people to compete there are multiple age groups classifications.  They can be rather confusing because they tend to overlap a bit.  Youth is from ages 13-17, Junior is 15-20, Senior is greater than 15, and Masters level is age 35 and up.  Within the Masters division, participants are divided every 5 years. 

Ascending bar weight

During a lifter’s weigh in, he will supply the judge with his opening attempts for the two lifts.  Once the competition or session begins, the bar is set at the lowest projected snatch weight for all lifters in that session.  From this point on, the weight on the bar never goes back down, but rather keeps rising. 

What you will see on the platform

In most cases, each lifter in the meet is given three attempts at the snatch and three at the clean and jerk.  The heaviest successful lift from each will be combined for your meet total.  If your best snatch of all three attempted is 100 kg, and your best clean and jerk is 120 kg, then your total of course is 220 kg. 

Warm-up room

Backstage from the main platform(s) is often a whole slough of platforms, bars, weights for the lifters to warm-up with.  Sometimes you will have your own and sometimes you will have to share equipment.  I can’t speak for big time meets, but the ones I have lifted in, most people are very nice and helpful.  I have even traded training advice with other lifters backstage. 

A few rules to watch for

This is the Cliff Notes version of what to look for in the lifts.  In the snatch, the barbell must be taken from the floor to overhead in one quick motion.  As it arrives overhead, it must be caught with completely straight elbows.  If a lifter fails to catch the weight overhead with locked elbows and must “press it out”, at least a majority of the three judges will discount the lift.  The clean is usually not discounted unless an elbow touches a knee or the athlete’s rear end touches the platform at the bottom position.  The same rules apply in the jerk as in the snatch concerning a “press out”.

It Takes a Year

If you have ever stayed up and watched late night television, you have heard the promises.  The promise of a flatter stomach in just thirty days.  The promise of weight loss in one week.  In just two weeks you will have abs ripping through your tactical girth.  I have never tried one of them, but I am guessing that they don’t work well.  If they did, the Wal Mart shoppers I see would look distinctly different.

Physical gains are like finances.  Real quality in both realms, takes time.  There are very few two-week financial plans worth doing.  Rarely will 60 days of financial planning, change your retirement outlook.  The same is true for improving your strength, physique, or technique.  No real quality changes can be had quickly, except in the very beginning.  Then what?  You do your sixty-day crash diet, or squat program… then what?  Do you go back to your normal eating pattern, or stop squatting?  This type of habit leads to a yo-yo affect:  improvement, relapse, improvement, relapse, etc.  You end up with no net gain in the long run.

The next challenge you decide to take on, take it on for one year.  That’s correct, one year.  This will do a couple of things for you.  If you commit to this type of time frame, you will make the “challenge” more manageable.  Thirty-day diets are thirty days for a reason.  You can only do them for thirty freakin’ days!  You will also begin to build habits that can be long lasting.  These habits become ingrained into your routine.  Every morning that you wake up, you brush your teeth.  You do this because it is part of your daily schedule, and because you don’t want to be a social outcast.

So here is the plan.  Commit to your diet, lifting routine, or learning a foreign language for one year.  Make it manageable over the long haul and you will be astonished at the progress that you make.

Speaking of a year, I could not do this workout given an entire year.  Spencer Moorman does 30 clean and jerks with 303 lbs.

A Typical Training Session

I publish, in my training log on this blog, every training session.  I sometimes video PR attempts or my best lifts, like a lot of lifters do, and post them to the web.  I decided to video about 90 % of my session just for the heck of it.  The 10% I left out is the boring stuff: warm-up, mobility, lighter lifts, etc.  Few people would really be interested in seeing me or any other lifter sling the empty barbell around, a bunch of times, or watch me stretch.  The workout today was to go up to 90% in the snatch and the clean and jerk and attempt three sets of one rep with that weight.  The top snatch weight was 190 lbs (86 kg) and the top clean and jerk weight was 225 lbs (102 kg).  I finished off with a new movement for me.  The new lift was one and a quarter front squats.  Front squat the weight down to the bottom, rise to above parallel, then back down and bounce out as fast as possible.  I topped out at 265 lbs (120 kg).  This hour and a half session shows the good, the bad, and the beard.  It also features the power gut, which adds 10 kilos to both lifts.  Enjoy!

PR Updates

In the last few weeks some PR (personal records) have been creeping in.  Some I have recorded, and some I have not.  I did however get a bunch of misses on video.  Current gym PRs stand at:

Snatch - 210 lbs (95kg) - don't have it on video but here is a miss at 205

Clean and Jerk - 250 lbs (113kg)

Here is a near PR of 245 lbs (111 kg)

Jerk behind the neck - 275 lbs (125kg)

How about more misses... 255 lb (116 kg) clean and jerk miss?  Pulling the bar WAY too high and it just collapses on me.  When I get my timing on, watch out 275 lbs (125 kg)!!!

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.  

Things you should read/watch

The Lion Killer - Keep Pulling

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? 

American Weightlifter Trailers

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. 

Coach Dan Bell

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. 

The Hay is in the Barn

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.

The CrossFit Games

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.  

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):

Team MDUSA Weightlifting Practice

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

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.

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.  

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