The Barbell Club lives again!

If you are new to this blog (and lets face it, most of you are, in fact I haven't posted here for so long, I am new to this blog) I use it to try to convey some useful tips and tricks for weightlifting.  (From here on out weightlifting refers to the sport of the snatch and clean and jerk.  Nothing else).  I am not a good writer.  I barely have a grasp on the English language so any grammatical errors I am not too interested in hearing about.  That being said I hope I have something useful to share with you.

We are in week 1.5 of the lifting camp at NoCoast.  So far we have maxed out, and gone over some of the beginning cues of the snatch.  Next will be the clean and jerk.  The progression for the clean will be very similar to the snatch because they are very similar lifts. The jerk we will have a little more specialized work for you.  Before we move on though, lets talk about the snatch last Thursday.


I reviewed the videos that Dan took of most of the lifters and there was 1 mistake that every single person made during the hang snatch.  There was never an active 3rd pull.

But Jason, I don't know what the 3rd pull is? or even the 1st or 2nd pull for that matter.

Well lets lay down some definitions for you.

First pull: From the floor to about the mid thighs.  Shins will finish the 1st pull vertical.  Shoulders are still over the bar.
2nd pull: Starts when the hips start to come back to the bar.  You will also hear this referred to as the scoop.  You finish the 2nd pull by driving the bar upward through the heels and extending everything (knees, hips, ankles).
3rd pull: is an active pull under the bar.

For the 3rd pull, I like this quote from Greg Everett: "The snatch, clean and jerk should be active movements from start to finish. There should never be a moment when things are simply happening; you have to make them happen at all times."

The bar shouldn't ever be floating up and you hoping to be in the right position to catch it.  You should be driving yourself down under the bar and as soon as the arms are locked out, the 3rd pull is over.  Lets take a look at Lu Xiaoxun, the world's best 77kg lifter.  

* The First pull finishes at the 1st picture of the 2nd line.  
* The 2nd pull finishes and the end of the 2nd line.
* The 3rd pull is and active finish through its entirety.  Core is always engaged, shoulders are always active, and in the bottom he is driving up with all of it.

Also just as a bonus, you might here me say "power position" and I am talking about the very middle picture of the 2nd line.  Bar is in the hips, weight is still in the heels, chest is over the bar, and the back is vertical.  That is why he can snatch 370# while weighing in at a stout 169#.  It is all about positioning..... and speed...... and strength helps a lot too, but mainly positioning.  

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And finally an easily correctable mistake that most people are making is to look above the horizon in both the pulls and the catch.  You don't want to look at your feet when you squat, so why would you want to when you snatch?  

Alright know that I have dropped some major knowledge on you, looking forward to some good training sessions tomorrow and Thursday.  Here is a video Lu being f***king smooth with a world record, clean and jerk.

Carpe Ferrum my friends

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all of you fellow barbell enthusiasts.  I am currently in El Paso, TX on the 2nd leg of a Holiday road trip seeing family all across the Lone Star State.  In El Paso is one of my favorite Crossfit Gyms.  Crossfit 915 (east).  Excellent weightlifting equipment.  Great people.  If you are ever in the area I hope you check them out.

So with the new year come time to look over your goals you set last year and see if you completed any of them.  Take a second to celebrate any victory you had.  After you celebrate take an honest look at your shortcomings and ask yourself why you fell short of that goal.  Most of the time a goal fails because it is too vague and can't force you to be accountable.  Too often I hear "I want to be fit" or " I want to be healthier" or "I want to improve my lifts."  Well, what does healthy or fit mean to you?  What does improve your lift mean?  There is no definitive end to these goals therefore you can't look back and say " yes I accomplished this".  With these vague goals you are basing your success or failure on how you feel.  Well if you evaluate a goal on a day you are feeling great, you might have a false sense of success.  Or just the opposite can happen, despite a year of crushing workouts, and relationships, and jobs, if you evaluate on a particularly crappy day, you might think of yourself as a failure.

So the point of all this.  Make sure a goal is measurable.  Then make sure your goal has a time limit.  Then get out there and do it.

Today it is easy to say you are gonna accomplish your goal, but tomorrow and the next day are when you have to get under the barbell and make it happen.  Pr's don't come from wanting it.  Pr's come from slogging away, doing one more set of squats, one more snatch despite torn hands.  Pr's come when you get to the gym at 5:30 in the morning so you can go work 40 hours afterward and tuck your kids in at night.  It is going to bed at 9 pm instead of staying up and watching the new tv show that everyone is talking about.  Most of you will say that you want to snatch and clean more weight, but few of you will make it happen.

So now that you are all motivated and have the Rocky them blasting in your head, go eat some black eyed peas or menudo or whatever else you might eat for good luck in the year, and find a place to put your goals that you wrote down. Some place you can look at every once in a while to make sure that you are on track.

Happy New Year.

JT