Feb 13, 2012

I love the 3 rep hang clean for conditioning purposes. 3 reps of any type of clean movement will be very physically challenging. Explosiveness, strength, technique, and mental fortitude are all put to the test by high repetition cleans. The hang clean in particular is a great way to build explosiveness in the near standing position (one which is common to many sports).

Even those of you who are more endurance oriented than the average weightlifter (eg. those of you who take the stairs not the elevator) will find a 3 rep hang clean to be quite a conditioning challenge. Hang cleans done in one right after the other tend to send people straight to the ground, sucking for air. Go try it for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Jan 30, 2012

Many people find that they need some extra helping in keeping their wrists stable and safe while they are lifting. There are two ways to do this, tape and a pre-made wrap. Tape is the old school method, one which I prefer, because it allows me to custom fit my wrap to the support/comfort level that I want.

The second way to support your wrists is to use a pre-made wrap. These come in all shapes and sizes. Usually a lighter weight, thinner, wrap is preferred for Olympic weightlifting. The heavier and wider wraps are often used for bench pressing.

The reason for this difference is the level of flexibility required for these movements. The Olympic lifts require quite a bit of wrist flexibility and therefore a thicker wrap would limit a lifters ability to complete the lifts. The bench press requires almost no wrist flexibility and therefore it is best for a lifter to have a very sturdy and inflexible wrap to provide the most support possible.

My personal preference for tape stems from my need to have a wrap that is quite flexible and provides some, relatively little, support. If I were a powerlifter I would probably use a much thicker wrap for bench pressing.

Both tape and wraps are pretty inexpensive. If you chose the tape route, you should probably buy a large “trainers” box of tape as that will give you the best price/roll. Wraps should be chosen based on their size and the level of support that they offer. I can’t personally recommend any brand in particular, stick to the major weightlifting or powerlifting brands and you should be fine.

One final point about tape, don’t use Kinesio (or similar style) tape, to tape your wrists! Kinesio tape is great at what it does, but you don’t need a stretch type tape to effectively tape wrists. I stick with a standard ½ inch type of tape that is more than enough to get the job done. Save your money and use your Kinesio tape where you really need it.

Jan 23, 2012

The bear is one of my favorite conditioning workouts. For those of you who don’t know, the bear consists of 5 movements that bring the bar from the ground, to over your head, to a full squat, over your head again and back to the ground. The movements are a power clean, front squat, push press, back squat, and push press. These are performed without letting go of the bar. The ideal way of completing this complex is to keep the bar moving at all times.

There are two ways that I know this workout can be completed; however there are probably many more ways these movements can be put together. The first way that these movements, what I’ll call the classic bear, can be done is to do 7 of each exercise before going on to the next. I have used this type of complex to gain muscular endurance in a longer time domain. I was definitely well conditioned after doing this complex; however I did not use this rep scheme when I was in a strength gaining phase.

My favorite way to do the bear, let’s call it the heavy bear, is to do each part of the complex once for maximum weight. Instead of using a fixed weight like the classic bear, the heavy bear is done for maximum load for the 5 reps. This complex was very helpful for me when I was training for strength in weightlifting because it provides a good general strength workout with just enough conditioning for someone training to lift a max single.

The heavy bear trains a small amount of conditioning, while staying under the 20s rough time frame for the ATP/CP energy system (more on that in later posts). It helped me to stay conditioned and tolerate longer workouts without ruining my maximal effort strength.

What kinds of weight should you be using on this? If you don’t know, you should ask a coach. I’m not even going to tell you what weights I used because if you don’t know what you can do for these exercises you should ask someone and if do you what weights to use you probably don’t care what I have to say about the issue.

Jan 2, 2012

I don’t really like the idea of making new years resolutions. To me it seems like a way to postpone something you ultimately don’t want to do. Most people who make new years resolutions tend to give up trying to complete them a few months later. If you need to do something, anything, set a performance based goal immediately, then work until that goal is complete. The use of an external time frame, such as saying “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll start next month” is simply a way of putting off the completion of your goal. If instead you approach the problem by thinking “I’ll start today,” you will approach the problem with much more dedication.

With all that said, here is a top 5 resolutions every weightlifter should have.

1) Make more time for recovery. Mobilization (aka stretching) is crucial in preparing muscles to receive heavy loads in safe positions without injury; however it takes time, somethings that all weightlifters need to devote more of to mobilize. Diet, rest days, better food, sleep, and possible supplements are also important parts of recovery. Make sure to note these factors in your training log and see if you are meeting your goals.

2) More technique work. That’s right, you need to spend more time training at lighter weights to correct the mistakes you make while going for heavy singles. I know that most weightlifter would prefer to spend every day maxing out, but unless you have been training at a high level for 10+ years you probably need to spend more time at lighter weights making sure that your technique is spot on.

3) Core work. I know the buzzword “core” is no longer in fashion in many circles; however I think it’s the best way to term midline stability/abdominal training because everyone knows what it means. Yes, core did originally refer to the idea that the majority of strength came from the hips, and the the zones that are increasingly further from the hip are increasingly weaker. If you didn’t know that, know you do; if you did, please don’t remind everyone in the comments. Anyways, you need to do more core work. For the weightlifter, this involves both the front an back of the torso. Think reverse hyper and weighted ghd situps.

4) Fast squats. Who doesn’t like squatting heavy? Every weightlifter loves to go heavy on squats, both front and back, but it is important to remember that this training is about developing strength and power for the snatch and clean & jerk. If you start to go very slow on your squats, make sure to drop the weight a little or implement some Westside style speed training to that the strength you develop adds to your lifts.

5) Eat more. Is it time for you to move up a weight class? Now is a good time to decide that you need to start gaining the weight for your next move up. You should evaluate how tall you are for your weight class. Most people find that they are too tall to be in their, currently light, weight class. If this is the case you should start gaining weight as you ill lift more when you weigh more. If you have just moved up a weight class it’s a good time to lean out (without losing weight) and finish growing into that class, a process that takes quite a long time.

Once again, Happy New Year!

Do you you like sugar? How about water? I think we need a video reference to start this post.

Today I’m going to talk about breaking my own rules. Usually I avoid sugar, especially soda, as much as I can. However, the one exception I make for our delicious friend commonly known as soda is during a long workout. Occasionally I will have workout that last around 2 hours, during this time I often need a pick me up for quick energy and moral support. For this purpose candy works just as well as soda, but I find that liquids go down easier while training heavy.

Now I think of a soda as pretty much any commercial drink that has calories, as well as those that don’t. I know you’re probably thinking that my beautiful tautological argument may not be the most descriptive, but let me explain. I think of a soda in the conventional sense of colas, root beer, etc. that probably represents how most people think of sodas. But wait, there’s more! I also think of juice as a soda. Why? Because most commercial juices are processed in some way that adds natural or artificial sweeteners and therefore they start to resemble the “conventional” soda in some pretty scary ways.

Perhaps by biggest fear of all soft drinks is the zero calorie beverage. I refuse to drink anything that you would expect to have sugar because I know that the sugar been removed by some witches brew of chemical reactions. Perhaps most relevant, these drinks don’t do what I want them to do, which is to provide me with a burst of energy to finish a long workout. In order for sodas to be effective for me, i need them to have sugar so that a) my mouth will detect it and B) my stomach will have something that it can absorb quickly. Studies have shown that even the presence of sugar in the mouth can improve athletic performance. Easily digestible sugars like the ones in soda will enter the bloodstream quickly and bring up levels of blood sugar which can help you to feel more alert.

One final note, the best kinds of soda to drink during a workout are those that are flat. Personally I don’t mind a lightly carbonated drink, but some people really dislike any carbonation while working out.

“Yo bro, check out my sweet quads!!”

Did you just say that? Are you obsessed with making your quads bigger? I bet you are, and to a certain extent so am I. But what we need to remember is that the quadriceps are not the whole story. Squats, deadlifts, cleans, jerks, snatches, cardio bs all use the anterior part of the leg; however you need to train the posterior to execute these lifts at full efficiency.

To use a great buzz phrase, the posterior chain is crucial for maximizing the force production of the leg and maintaining proper posture. Today I’ll focus on the hamstrings, why? Because my hammies are weak. To fix this I always end my workouts with some exercise that hammers my hammies. My personal favorite is the back extension machine. I’ll focus on keeping my back right while pulling through my heels as hard as I can. This usually results in a great burn, particularly when done for high reps with a 100lb dumbbell in hand.

Are your hammies weak? How do you train them? There are plenty of great hamstring exercises think about which one works best for you, post to comments if you care to share.