Friday, March 28, 2014

Old Gold's Greatest Hits

While I am no Stephen King or John Grisham, I have written a few blogs that I am particularly proud of.  If I can modestly say this, some of the messages, if taken to heart, can be life changing.  Some of the concepts were certainly big for me to wrap my head around.  So with that being said here are, to date, a few of my favorite posts.  Enjoy.


Loser Talk
If you are tired of listening to the pathetic sour-mouthed blathering of some in your circle, this is the post for you.  If you are busting your rear, and losers from the proverbial bleachers of life are booing you, you will enjoy this read.


Failure is Worth It
Get in the game without fear.  If you are really going to be successful, you are going to have to try a bunch and fail a bunch.  Study, work very hard, and be a free thinker that is not afraid to look foolish.  This is what makes a winner.


Pull the Trigger
This post is a good addition to the the Failure post above.  Those of you that are frozen by fear of making the wrong decision should definitely give this one a read.


Gratuitous Weightlifting Video


Saturday, March 22, 2014

Thing You Should Read/Watch


The CrossFit Open started several weeks ago, and if you like to see fit people in board shorts and tattoos do some amazing physical feats, tune in.  After a few weeks of online competition, they whittle down the field to each region's best men and women.  From there to southern California to find the fittest male and female on Earth.  

Dan Bell is a technical weightlifting coach.  His latest post is entitled Jerk Dip and Drive.  It is well worth a read if you are having trouble with the last movement in weightlifting.   

For all of you Donny Shankle fans, he recently began a Youtube channel of his own.  He is coming back from a freak accident.  He dislocated his shoulder during a snatch (extremely rare).  The series of videos is in essence the story of his ongoing climb back up the hill toward heavy weight.  These are certainly not the type of videos that you watch, unless you are a weightlifting fan... they are not the most exciting.  However, they are educational. 

Lastly, after coming out of retirement and putting on a show at the Arnold Classic, Jon North just hit 160 kg in the snatch for the first time in quite some time.  (352 pounds!!!)  This is how a competition should look.

Jon at the Arnold



Jon hitting 160


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Why Me?


If you have been alive for more than a few minutes, you have probably either uttered or thought these words: “why me?”  It usually follows some form of “bad luck” or unfortunate occurrence. You are driving back from a friend’s house in the rain and your tire goes flat.  Why me?!  What about that Christmas-time flu?  Gifts are being opened and you are trying to keep your eggnog down.  Why me?!  Since this blog is dedicated to things related to training, I feel compelled to provide an example from that facet of life.  Last November, I was poised to lift in a weightlifting meet that I had been exclusively training for, for almost a year.  Six days out I was doing some light lifts and strained my hamstring and had to sit it out.  Why me?!  I think you get the point, so I will move on.  There are some fundamental flaws in this line of thinking.  The first mistaken notion is that you have it worse than everyone else… wrong.  We are all engaged in this relentless push through life.  Do some have it worse than others through no fault of their own, sure.  But it is not you.  You were probably not born in the concentration camp that is North Korea, or had to fight off sharks in the Pacific with just a toothbrush.  Someone always has it worse than you.  The second flaw in this mindset is that it is typically used as a one-way street.  Have you ever had something that is “too good” for you?  Have you ever gotten the lucky parking spot, or just missed being in a wreck, or caught Smokey and the Bandit right at the beginning?  Upon seeing Burt Reynolds lying in the hammock, or swerving out of a car accident, did you ask, why me?  You probably did not.  Most of us don’t think this way, but it is a good practice.  You see, in this life (to use a cliché) you have to take the good with the bad.  Unfortunately we all get to share both of them.  Do you deserve the good stuff more than the bad stuff?  Probably not.  So try it on for size, the next time you don’t get a flat tire in the rain, or don’t get the flu, or do get to lift in the big meet, try asking the question: why me, why am I so lucky?  

Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Back Squat Conundrum (High bar vs Low Bar)


There is a huge argument about why the US doesn’t compete that well at the world level in weightlifting.  This is a broad subject that I will wade into another time.  In the meantime, I will touch on one aspect of the equation.

Weightlifting, like other strength sports, requires technique proficiency and… strength.  Arguably the best strength building movement for weightlifting, aside from the movements themselves, is the back squat.  This is where, for some reason, controversy begins.  How should I squat?  For those that don’t know, there are typically a couple of different bar placements that are used: the high bar and low bar positions. 

Low Bar Back Squat


 High Bar Back Squat



As you can see, the high bar version allows for a more upright torso and more depth.  So why back squat?  Answer… to get the hips strong for the snatch, and more so the clean, and to some extent, the jerk.  The easy way to examine which version of the back squat more closely mimics the positions of the lifts.

Snatch




Clean



The dip of the Jerk



As you can see, an upright torso is a must to lift maximum weight in weightlifting.  Therefore, if you have to spend precious time and energy squatting, it makes a lot of sense to work similar positions to those of your barbell sport.  There is no question that low bar back squatting with its limited knee flexion will make your hips stronger.  Its limitations are its lack of depth and upright posture.  This is why the high bar version, with its depth and upright posture will carryover better to the sport of weightlifting.  

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Things You Should Watch

Rich Froning looks like a guy that has worked on his technique.  He is also the fittest man on Earth two years in a row.




This is two great minds in the world of human movement: Gray Cook and Kelly Starrett.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Goals vs Expectations


So there I was, February 2013, looking over the Masters Weightlifting website and I see it.  The American Masters Weightlifting Championships are to be held in Savannah, GA in November of that year!  Sweet, I hadn’t been able to really compete the last couple of years because of my schedule.  But this year was going to be my year.  I have months to train for one competition.  I counted the number of days; I built a training program for the time period, dusted off the blender bottle and bought the protein powder from Sam’s Club.  I wrote out goals for the competition in the snatch, clean and jerk, and back squat.  I even broke them down into quarterly numbers that I needed to reach in order to achieve these “long range goals” in November.  I really geeked out!  I stalked potential competitors and found their best lifts to see how mine might stack up.  I not only expected to compete, but I expected to be as strong as I had ever been, and expected to win.

This was faulty thinking on my part.  The goal setting was great.  The preparations that I made were right on.  I scoped out the competition, I calculated squat numbers that I needed to be strong enough to achieve the kind of numbers I needed.  My flawed thinking came in the form of having expectations.  I EXPECTED to compete, I EXPECTED to get strong, and I EXPECTED to win.  Bad idea.  You see, goals and expectations are different.  Goals are something to plan out and shoot for while expectations are arrogant assumptions about how life will turn out just by crossing the fingers.  A set of goals is a step-by-step process to reach a milestone.  An expectation is really just a hope and a prayer based on life’s current layout.

As it turns out, I was unable to compete because of a hamstring injury that I didn’t EXPECT, four days out from the competition, using relatively light weight.   I was completely bummed for a couple of weeks.  I could not believe that I had worked so hard, I had planned, I had force-fed myself, and four days out it was all gone.  I wasn’t upset about failed goals; I was upset because of failed expectations.  So the moral to the story is, goals are for planning and expectations are for dreaming.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Major in the Major, not the Minor


I am going to pick on this idea of randomized training just a bit.  I have fallen prey to its allure before myself.  It sounds good, that if I train hundreds of things randomly I will get overall, more fit in the long run.  The idea that I can train jumprope one day, back squat another day, snatch, run, swim…. and keep going down the nearly infinite list of skills to be perfected, that I will eventually get good at them all.  The truth is I will still be terrible at each.  The problem with this approach is that I never really practice anything enough to become proficient at it.  It takes thousands of quality reps to really master something or even perform it fairly well at least.  I think that this “practice it all” approach is too much to handle.  Most of these skills are just arbitrary trivial tasks to some extent, until you have built your engine.  You are majoring in the minor to some extent.  I would prefer to major in the major.  Really get good at the proverbial “meat and potatoes” before concerning yourself with how many one-legged overhead squats you can perform with the barbell.  How about learning to squat way below parallel without your knees caving in?  So below is a list of minors you need not concern yourself with until years of good eating, sleeping, and training:

-Carbohydrate timing (morning, post workout, before 5pm?)
-Is the workout the perfect one?
-Supplements
-Heart rate during training

Major things to major in instead:

Sleep 8 hours per night uninterrupted
Eat primarily meat, veggies, and fruit
Don’t eat until you are stuffed
“Earn” your carbs with activity
Make your training point toward your goals
Have goals
Major movements in your training (squat, press, pull)