Seriously... Why?

Why start an Olympic style weightlifting program?

I will break this down into 2 parts.  The first part being for the person thinking about getting into weightlifting competitively, the 2nd being for the person with no interest in competition, but maybe looking to get better at Crossfit, or maybe just wanting to look better naked.

Why do I love weightlifting competitively

For me personally, I really like laying my training out on the line.  A weightlifting meet isn't about making a heroic adrenaline fueled PR.  Its not Kevin James as a fat Math teacher who some how heroically beats up a profession MMA fighter despite his lack of experience, training and physical fitness.

(at least Rocky was a boxer before he took on Apollo, and he didn't even win in Rocky I... oops, spoiler alert)

 What a meet really is about is saying look at the training and hours I have put into these 2 movements.  It is saying, I am so confident in my training I can get in front of a crowd and hit these lifts.  I have prepared, and and adjusted, and prepared some more.  It isn't about the last ditch workouts you put in during your taper week (seriously don't do this) it is about the last 6 weeks you have been building up intensity from volume.

Another highlight for competing is that it truly is you against gravity.  Yes it is a "competition" and there are usually medals for the top 3 in each class, but the truth is you aren't lifting against anyone else.  You are doing your best and letting the chips fall where they fall.  You don't need to stress about anyone else.  You get to take care of you.

In the end, if you choose to compete, it truly is just you testing you.  I love the feeling.  Some people don't and that is okay.  Not everyone has to test themselves to feel validated in their training.  I like it, and I am willing to bet that if you sign up and give it a try, you might like it too.

Now on to the non weightlifting competitors, the... I wanna get better at crossfitters. 

Rudy from Outlaw Crossfit has summed it up really well on why crossfitters should perform the Olympic lifts and learn them well.  Sometime he is a jack ass, but he got it right on this particular essay. Just click here to read his essay "why olympic lifting". But if you want the short and sweet of it, it basically says there is a lot of olympic weightlifting in any sort of competitive crossfit realm and if you aren't good at it you are leaving results on the table.
Moving your body and a loaded barbell simultaneously through space to make them both do what your brain wants will make you a better athlete.  Both spatial awareness, and  force production will improve after making your competition lifts better.

That's a lot of force production. 

Learning to perform the classic lifts well will also make you a safer crossfitter.  The rate of injury in this sport is very low.  Lower than soccer... seriously, the sport where if they get close to each other, they lay down on the pitch and cry has a much much higher injury rate than weightlifting.

He got REALLY REALLY close to me!

The big caveat to the above statement though is you have to put in the effort to learning how to move properly.  I still have to concentrate on my squat and moving properly.  It takes effort, but strengthening good positions under heavy weight is really really good for you.  You have to be willing to watch yourself on video, take cues from your coach, and most importantly temporarily sacrifice heavy weight now, for good movement and heavier weight down the road.

Athletes of other sports have successfully implemented weightlifting into their programs.  A high bar close stance squat translates incredibly well into most other athletic endeavors.  Sports that require hip extension (see: everything ever) will benefit from a weightlifting program.  I personally know Olympic caliber runners (both steeple chase, marathon distance, and milers) who now use olympic weightlifting to supplement their training.  They have reported less knee pain and faster recovery after starting the weightlifting training.   I now this is anecdotal evidence, but if an athlete training for the Olympics tells me something is working for her, then I am inclined to listen.

My last point comes from the Eleiko slogan.... "strong is happy".  Humans were meant to run, jump, wrestle, throw, and lift.  If you make your body stronger, your body will be happier. There is even research that shows stronger muscles actually help with hormonal balance in the body, but I don't know enough on the subject to make any sort of claim here.  I will say there is a very strong feeling of satisfaction knowing you worked to make yourself better and seeing results.  I want everyone to know the feeling of hoisting a weight over your head that you previously couldn't do.

So to sum up:
A weightlifting program gives you a plan to follow with an end goal in mind.  There is no guesswork on whether or not you should be doing something.  You can move better, you can make your body stronger, you can prove yourself in a meet...... or you can just look better naked. 

Sir mix Alot knows the benefits of  weightlifting

Pick a reason and get on the platform.

A beginners guide to weightlifting meets. Or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the singlet

Hi newly minted weightlifters. So you have put in some time at the gym, cleaned up your technique, hit a PR or two, and have decided to take the next step on your weightlifting journey. SO what comes next? The only logical answer would be to put on form fitting clothes and try to get as close to your pr's as possible in front of a crowd within several imposing regulations on how you can and can't perform your lifts..... a Meet!

  But what will we do next?

First off, go register.  I'll wait.....

Now thats out of the way you need to pick a weight class.  Now unless you are 1 or 2 lbs over your class and have been meaning to get into "summer shape" for the last 3 months (it's October, get your shit together!), pick the weight class that you already comfortably fall into.  My first meet I weighed in at 89 kilos.  Could I have cut weight and tried to make 85? sure... Would that have let me lift better? Absolutely not.  Best case scenario for cutting weight is to not sap your strength.  It is done in a very cautious calculated manner and if done poorly will leave you miserable and hating weightlifting.  So for this first meet DON'T CUT WEIGHT.  When you are trying to qualify for national level stuff then we can talk about which weight class best suits you (but that would require you to buy a singlet too).

This one should do nicely!

And then?...

Alright you gave someone 40 bucks and you picked a weight-class.  Pretty much all of the stress is gone now.  You just simply have to show up and follow some programming.  We will be incorporating 1 weightlifting day a week at the gym, also having saturday weightlifting class (which will start becoming slightly more of a strength program built into the technique work we already do) and then you will have an optional open gym workout that you can complete if you want as well.  2-3 days a week of lifting depending on how much time you want to dedicate to this.

This is the easy part.  Just keep showing up.  There will be good days, there will be bad days.  Consistency is what will make you a better weightlifter. Every day you are under the bar swings the pendulum in the positive direction.

Week before the meet

This will be taper week.  You will be tempted to try your prs, or see how many warm ups you need, or think you will magically get stronger by sneaking in a few extra reps.  Don't do it  If it isn't programmed, don't do it.  If the coach writing the program thought a few extra reps will get you better numbers in a weightlifting meet, THEN HE WOULD PROGRAM THOSE EXTRA REPS!  Just follow the prescribed reps and then chill.  The more relaxed you are the few days before the meet, the better you are gonna be.

Seriously.... Chill out.

Day of the meet

Have a bag packed with your shoes, tape, belt, wrist wraps, singlet (or other tight fitting clothes that don't cover the elbows or knees but if you can find me something better then I would love to see it.)  Also have something to eat packed.  I usually bring a sandwich or two, and a protein bar, some fruit, and some sort of hydration mix (skratch labs is good stuff for this, but gatorade works too). After weigh ins you must stay hydrated and full but not stuffed.  Basically you want to feel ready to work out.  Don't make it more complicated than it is.  Just as important, bring something to eat between snatch and clean and jerk.  That is where my protein bar and fruit come into play.  Easy rapidly digesting carbs between the events is huge.  

After weigh in, eat something, drink something, and then once again, Chillax homie.  Take a nap, listen to music, read a book, but relax is the key.  No sense in starting a 2 hour warm up process and burning all of your energy.  It is at this point your coach will look at the starting cards and make a determination as to when you should start warming up.  Then we will time your warm ups to finish at your opening weight about 2-3 minutes before you go out and lift.  We will determine what weight you want to open at, and how many reps you need to get there.  I usually aim for 8-10 warm up lifts (not including stretching and dynamic warm up) before I go out on stage for snatch.  Clean and jerk is closer to 7-8 warm ups.  It is heavier so less reps means more for the contest.  Again we will determine what you want to do and where you want to start.

On the platform

Uhhh, go lift the weight.  The hard part was showing up at the gym all those days.  Today you are rested, you are relaxed, your technique is better than ever, just go trust yourself to perform. 

You have 1 minute to start your lift.  You can start as heavy as you want but the weight cannot go down.  That is important to know.  If you try it and it feels super heavy then we just gotta try again.  No taking weight off the bar.  Every time you take the bar off the platform (past the knees) it counts as an "attempt" whether it was successful or not.  You get 3 attempts at Snatch and 3 attempts at Clean and Jerk.  If you happen to be trying a weight that no-one else is attempting then you might have to "follow yourself" in which case you will get two minutes instead of 1 minute for the attempt. 

Just pick the weights you wanna lift and do what your coach says to do.

All done

What happens next.  Well you eat a pizza, drink a beer (as long as you are the required 21 years of age in the state of colorado) get on the podium if you finished top 3 in your weight class, you celebrate your prs, or celebrate simply posting a total (snatch + C/J).  You might have bombed out  (not completed a snatch or a clean and jerk) in which case you pick your chin up and get ready for the next one.  After all this is important to exactly one person.  That is you.  Congrats to signing up for your first meet and I can't wait to see all the hard work people are gonna put into this.

JT

I will leave you with this, if you feel the need to be a little showy out there.

15.1 and 15.1A Strategery.

First, let me get this out of the way early.  WHY IS IT NOT 15.1A and 15.1B.  Is Castro trying to give OCD sufferers an anxiety attack?  Maybe it bothers me more than it should, but seriously.  Lets have some uniformity.


Okay with that out of the way:

I will preface this little strategy guide by saying I am going for broke on the Clean and Jerk, The first part of the workout, the "amrap", I don't think there is a good way to do that workout, other than use hook grip on the snatch to save your grip, and tape up those thumbs so you don't pass out from blood loss mid workout.  Also on the deadlift, either hook grip or reverse grip.  Either one will save your grip somewhat. Don't get me wrong, it will still burn your fore arms like the fires of hell, It will just take slightly longer to get there. :)


Warm Up:
Start warming up your Clean and jerk BEFORE the amrap.  WHAT?  Yes, you want to work up to a heavy single before the amrap portion of the workout.  If you have a relatively heavy clean and jerk and want to get anywhere close to that, you will need more than 6 minutes to get there.  Even more so if you just gassed yourself for 9 minutes.

So take 4-5 singles warming up to about 80% of your max (or the max you are planning to attempt).  Let yourself fully recover between singles and before the amrap.  This means 3-4 minutes between attempts.  So doing some math, you need to start warming up your clean and jerk about 15-20 minutes before you start 15.1A  the amrap (seriously A and B would make so much sense).

15.1:
This is just gonna suck.  Get over it.  I will say that there are 3 strategies for the entirety of the workouts.
Strategy 1: If you are a cardio bunny and can't lift to save your life, then push the pace here.
You max weight probably won't matter.

Pictured: cardio bunny.... just keep going

strategy 2 for the amrap is my cup of tea.  Take it pretty easy here and go for gusto on the C&J. 

Not gonna do a lot of toes to bar

Strategy 3: keep it at 90% on the Amrap and hope to get somewhere close to 90% on the C&J.  This will get you the best overall standings.  It will give you the best possible outcome on both workouts, but it requires some mental gymnastics in knowing exactly how hard you can push and when.  I am not gonna tell you how to do that here.  I am probably not the best person to do so and this blog post is already getting wordy.

Finally the C&J:

It is pretty simple.  Remember when you warmed up to about 80% before the amrap?  Well, great job because now you have 3 attempts to get to your daily max.  I would rest 1 minute, attempt 80%, rest 1-2 minutes, 85-90% depending on feel, rest 1-2 minute 90-100% is your final attempt, again depending on feel.   Also depending on rest, you might have time for one more hero's last ditch effort, but don't plan on it.  Plan on 3 attempts at C&J and anything else is bonus.  

Last step, but most important is Have a beer. 

I've got your "Post workout recovery drink" right here.

Good luck and remember to have fun. 

Here is some motivation for you.  A 532# C&J.