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.

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

I apologize

Sorry for the No post last Monday, I was traveling and the blogger website doesn't play well with Safari I suppose.  Anyways, moving on.


Today I am going to be blatantly lazy and direct you to someone else's page.  The page is Wil Fleming's.  He writes links articles/videos from Eric Cressey who is a pretty renowned shoulder guy.  So read the words and more importantly watch the videos and determine if you can even train over head yet, and if not, what to do to fix it (hint: mobility work).

Click Here for Wilfleming.com and the Eric Cressey article.

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Strength Wod 10/24/13

Power Clean and Jerk 5x2 @ 75%
Squats 3x8 AHAP
Clean 1st Pull (same as snatch last week) AHAP
Mobility work as deemed necessary from the Cressey videos.

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Carpe Ferrum.

Hooray for PR's

Hola my iron friends.  Today we will get our next strength workout and post an analysis of a new C&J pr I got yesterday.  It could have been prettier.  The because of the problems I had in the jerk, we will go over some jerk problems and fixes.  So here we go.


C&J analysis.

The most common problem you see in the jerk is exactly what just happened in the video above.  Most people tend to miss jerks forward.  This is either because they have never felt a proper overhead position and have just conditioned themselves to catch the bar a little bit forward, or because you lack the should mobility to put your arms over your head in a good position.

Luckily both can be fixed.

1st, you need to work on the dip and drive.  It needs to be on the heels and through a vertical plane.
I made and incredibly detailed painting on the subject.

You should look like the guy on the left, not the guy on the right.

Second, you need to start practicing some BTN Jerks.  But Jason WTF is a BTN Jerk? Well I am glad you asked.  It is a Behind the Neck Jerk.  You start with the bar sitting on your neck (like a high bar squat), and you do the exact same jerk dip and drive to finish the jerk.  The advantage is the bar doesn't have to move around your big head.  It naturally puts the bar behind your head which is where you want it to be for a regular jerk as well.  Do this for a couple warm ups and it will start to "grease the groove" as to where a jerk should finish.  Also if you want to do this as an overload workout, most people can go over their max jerk weight with a btn jerk.  Here is a video explaining the movement.  You can skip the recovery drill at the 2nd half of the video.

Finally if your problem is mobility then K starr to the rescue.

The key to the above stretch is that you don't hyper extend the back.  He keeps talking about the rib cage, but really he is meaning don't let the back extend, because that is keeping the tension off the system you are trying to stretch.  Keep the torso rigid (just like of you were dipping and driving.... oh shit, you mean all of this is connected somehow..... mind=blown).

Another good one

Same thing don't hyper extend the back, the stretch should be through the lats.

Alright, this should be enough material to improve your jerk for a little while.  Onto your 1st strength wod for the week.

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Strength:

Snatch Complex, 1 rep =  1 power snatch, 3 behind the neck push press. (3 reps AHAP)

Behind the neck jerk (from rack or jerk blocks): 3x3 @ 80% of max jerk. (looking for technique and good overhead position).

Squats: 3x8 AHAP

Snatch Lift off: 3x8 AHAP  (see video for snatch 1st pull).

Do not let the hips rise faster than the shoulders in the snatch lift off!.

Go out and lift things over you heads my friends.