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.