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)!!!