A Successful WinterLift

On Saturday I competed at Winterlift in Sarnia. Here is a summary of what worked out to be a third placed finish in the 77kg weight class. BWT 76.1kg; Snatch: 1-84kg, 2-89kg(miss), 3-90kg; Clean&Jerk: 1-109, 2-115, 3-119; Total: 209kg. Big thanks to Bryan Marshall and Hani Kanama from Toronto Weightlifting for all their help, tips and great advice. I would also like to thank Larry, Miel, Stella, Jeff, Glenn, Rick, Justin, Robyn, and everyone else for the cheers and support.

The First Pull

First off, the snatch and the clean are not like the deadlift, technique for one is not the same for the other. The basic principle applies to both the snatch and clean but for simplicity I will only discuss the snatch, for which the setup is obviously different from the clean. To setup for the snatch first walk up to bar so it touches your shins, with feet hip width apart. Grip the bar so that it will pop right out of your hip crease during the second pull (about 2" below the belly button when standing). you can point the toes out and flair your knees out slightly to allow you to get closer to the bar with a more upright back position. Make sure you breathe in deeply and hold it in your belly when you get into this position so your core is tight. The first pull must be initiated with leg drive. From the setup you use only your legs to lift the bar, maintaining your original back angle until the bar reaches the top of your knees (legs will straighten continuously). It is a common mistake to initiate the lift by elevating the butt causing the legs to straighten and the back to become horizontal as the bar reaches the knees. The problem with this alignment is that the butt must drop and tension released in the hamstring (huge power loss) so that "rebend" of the knees may occur to get the bar in the correct position for the second pull.

What not to do-


What to do -

Workouts

Keep lean and mean over the holidays!

Workouts can now be found at:
www.4horsemenweightlifting.blogspot.com

or alternatively at
www.crossfit.com or www.crossfitfootball.com
www.performancemenu.com
www.optimumperformancetraining.blogspot.com/
www.coachrut.blogspot.com

Training at Powerplay

I have become tired of working out at campus rec. as it is too busy, too crowded and lacks proper equipment. I will now be doing Crossfit, O-lifting and strength workouts at Power Play Training Centre (865 Florence street, London, ON N6G 5W5). They have all the equipment I need to do any workout I wish (2 full O-lift sets/platforms/racks, GHD, Back ext, pullup station, kettlebells dumbbells, barbells and weights a plenty, box jumps, a 40 yrd indoor track, treadmills, bikes, med-balls, etc. and I'm bringing a C2 rower, some rings and a few other goodies that I will leave at the gym for general use). I have a deal setup with the manager Ryan for anyone that is interested it's $50/month and you can come by whenever they are open but they do run training sessions throughout the day so it can be a little busy at times especially 6-8:30pm (though the O-lifting platforms are usually free at this time) . I train at lunch time 12:30-1:30pm since that is their slow time (we had the whole place to ourselves today), so if you want to join me and Brad for a workout drop on by or give us a shout and we can car pool from Western.

*Additional Note* - Winterlift is in Sarnia on February 13th, 2010 and Crossfit Sectionals are in Toronto March 20-21st, 2010. It's never too late to start preparing so get out and work hard!

The Warm-up!

A good warm up is the key to a successful workout. In general, the shorter the workout the longer the warm-up! The quicker or more explosive you are while doing something under load the higher the potential for disaster/injury. High acceleration = High Force (F=m*a) especially at high mass/weight. So if you are going for a slow jog you probably don't need to warm up the muscles because the jogging is such a low stress/shock on the system that it will essentially be your warm-up. However if you are going to hit 6x50m sprints then you are probably going to want to do some amount of warm-up - like a light jog, then a faster jog, then a slow run, then a fast run and finally a sprint at ~90%. The same goes for heavy lifting do a few reps at 45% (5reps), 65% (3reps), 85% (2reps) before attempting your first lift (100%). The warm-up should not be too hard and essentially just there to get your muscles full of blood and loose, allowing you to move all your joints/limbs through the full ranges of motion needed in the exercises you will be doing. Do the warm-up at a comfortable pace but don't take to long, save some time for the actual workout!

My favourite way to warm-up is as follows:
1.) 2 minutes skipping - singles (so easy to do, very little range of motion, very low effort but get the heart pumping)
2.) dynamic movement (arm and leg circles, toe touches etc. just get those limbs moving in a full range of motion)
3.) basic body movements (air squats, pushups, situps, pullups, back extensions - pretty basic stuff, nothing fancy but it warms up the muscles in a large range of motion)
4.) the sticking points. I only use static stretching on anything that is super tight - hips, and ankles are the big ones here. The preferred method to loosening up the hamstrings, glutes and quads and pretty much everything else is PNF. *Note* most static stretching should be done post-workout as it can have a detrimental effect on performance if done pre-workout (hips are usually only exception to the rule).
5.) If needed foam roller on the sore areas
6.) raise the heart rate a bit (all that stretching can lower the heart rate and you start to get cold, you should have a slight sweat on before you start the workout) I like to do skipping -Double Unders.
7.) Practise - go through any movements which you are unsure of or rusty that are in your workout. If it is a lift do reps with the bar and then 45%, 65%, 85%.
8.) Mentally focus on the task at hand - take a minute or two to rest and think about how you will complete the workout, close your eyes and image yourself doing each exercise to completion until you are finished
9.) Grab some water to rehydrate, and chalk up.
10.) Kick butt on the workout.

Competitive O-lift training.

The training protocol for O-lifting can be found at 4 Horsemen Weightlifting Club (posted hopefully at 7pm the day before) so for all those interested in competing you can follow along. Each day there is an AM lift and a PM workout, you are expected to complete all the AM lifts and at least 3 out of 5 PM workouts, additionally you must take at least 1 full rest day (the other may be an active rest day). The AM lift classes will be from at 6:45 or 7:30am and the PM classes are the usual 2pm, 6pm and 7pm times. For those interested the Blue Mountain Open is Aug. 22nd in Collingwood - registration ends August 8th!

2009 Variety Village Open

Jeremy - 3rd attempt - 122kg C&J

Saturday, July 4th was the debut of the 4 Horsemen Weightlifting Club at the 2009 Variety Village Open. Jeremy and I trained long and hard for the competition in hopes of placing. We both experimented with cutting weight and weighed in at 83.4kg and 75.5kg respectively. I lifted in the morning and after making 85kg back stage decided to open with it for my 1st attempt in the snatch. I got very nervous and missed my 1st attempt (I caught it, but wasn't focused on anything so I had no balance and lost it forward) but hit the 2nd attempt easily after refocusing. With the 85kg snatch I was already ahead by 10kg so I decided to attempt 92kg for my final attempt hoping the adrenaline would help. I had them brush the bar to get a little more rest but it proved to be too big of a jump in such a short period of time and I missed my 3rd attempt. In the future I will definitely need to train with smaller rest periods because I found it very difficult to follow myself for 3 heavy lifts. For the Clean and Jerk I opened at 110kg and hit it easily as expected. My second attempt was 116kg and I recieved 1 white and 2 red lights (so a failed attempt). Apparently there was a bit too much rebend or press out in my right elbow on the jerk. I decided to attempt 118kg for my final lift and was so focused on the jerk that I missed the clean. I ended up with a 195kg total. This was about 15kg off what I had hoped for, but a good first competition as this proved to be enough for 1st place in the 77kg class. A few hours later Jeremy weighted in and began the rehydration process. For the snatch he opened at 80 kg which went up super easy. He followed himself with 84kg, but missed. In order to get him some more rest he jumped to 86kg for his 3rd attempt (there were a few big boys lifting 85kg). Jeremy threw the 86kg up and pulled it so hard there was just a bit too much swing in the bar path that he lost it backward. For the Clean and Jerk he opened with 110kg, which he dominated. His second attempt was 116kg. He was well rested for this one since I had them change the weight to 114kg then I increased it to 116kg as there was another lifter doing 115kg. J hit 116kg easily with a very nice looking textbook jerk. His final lift was 122kg which looked very heavy but he managed to hit it giving him a total of 202kg which was good enough for 2nd in the 85kg class. All in all a great experience and first showing for the club, with hopefully more medals to come.

Me - 1st attempt - 110kg C&J

The Four!!! Part D - O-lifts

Olympic lifts (O-lifts) or Weightlifting the one word version not weight lifting to two word version describing the recreational activity of a 1/3 of the population in which they move some dumbbells in a futile effort to get in shape. I'm talking about weightlifting which is all about the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk (2 of the original 3 Olympic lifts - they removed the clean and press) and any of the hanging- (prefix - start just below knee) or power- (prefix - catch in 1/4-1/2 squat) versions. There is no better way to develop pure POWER than the O-lifts. They are a true power movement in that they move enormous loads from ground to overhead in a very short amount of time. For all those scientists like myself that can do the math Power = Work/time where Work = Force(load) x distance. So if you move the same load faster you create more power even though you are doing the same amount of work. Basically power is all about speed or explosiveness in an exercise. This speed/explosiveness is generated in the "seat of power" basically from all the muscles that attach to the pelvis mainly the back, quads, hams, glutes and hips. The tremendous power generated by the opening of the hips can transfer directly from weightlifting into other activities of daily life such as running and jumping. Thus O-lift are extremely functional and should be an active part of any program. The down side to the O-lifts is that they are very technical in nature when trying to move the load from the floor to overhead. Although not as beneficial, simpler versions (smaller range of motion) can be employed rather easily so that one may gain from using such a lift. The simplest form of the clean is a standing two feet jump. Instead of the full squat clean which starts with the weight on the floor, one could start with the weight just above the knee on the thighs - then "explode" or "Jump" with the weight while keeping the arms straight, to full hips, legs, back extension, shrugging at the top of the "pull". The lifter should come up onto their toes without actively engaging the calves and the lifter and the bar(load) should feel weightless for a fraction of a second. This sort of bastardized version of the clean simplifies the movement but still allows for someone with no understanding of what they are doing to benefit from the lift. In all honesty, a knowledgeable and certified coach is needed to learn the full versions of the lift. O-lifts are all about the "jump" as this is where the power comes from. So please do not let me see you trying to reverse curl 225lbs in a heaving motion that is all back in a poor attempt at a power clean. I would rather see you doing jumps with two 40# dumbbells in your hands. I love the O-lifts so more detailed rants are on the way!