Your First Weightlifting Meet – Part 1

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Justin

Thankfully some of you are now committed to compete. This is good. Now we are going to talk about what you are going to be doing in preparation of that meet. We won’t get through all of it today, but consider it a little series to look forward to. I just want to go over the last week of training before a weightlifting meet. My friend Phil Stevens (who is in town right now with Charles Staley) will be our source for getting ready for a powerlifting meet.

You should be set up on some kind of strength program. If you are a novice, you should be on some kind of linear progression to get the most out of your body’s potential for strength gain from a local and systemic standpoint. Even a weightlifter should be taking advantage of some kind of linear progression, and it is easy to derive programs from the Starting Strength model.

What your program will consist of is dependent on if you know the lifts or not. Go back and read some of my posts on Getting Into Weightlifting, because you need to be taught the lifts. The programming for an early level weightlifter is dependent on so many variables, and it leaves the scope of this post (perhaps it will come later if you want to hear what I have to say). In any case, the lifts need to be learned and you need to have a decent amount of strength (which is sort of a relative term, but I digress). We are going to assume you are set up on some kind of strength program that incorporates the lifts. If you are not currently doing the lifts, you should probably progressively add them to your program to eventually look something like this. Easing your way into doing more snatches and jerks is a good idea so that your joints and structures can adapt to the new kinds of movement. I know I have had acromioclavicular joint (there is a little ligament that holds your collar bone to the shoulder blade, and it is near that pointy tip of your shoulder on top — for you non-anatomy folks) problems when I go from not jerking a lot to jerking a lot (stay focused in that sentence). It would prevent me from jerking heavy — usually nothing over 120 kg. I never had an issue with my wrists or elbows, but some may, so it is better to be safe than sorry.

Bill Starr said: Patience + Persistence = Strength

Now, let’s assume you are on a strength program that incorporates the lifts (my novices use the program I linked above). You really don’t need to do any tapering until the week of the meet because you are a novice. Tapering is something that will be dependent on the training advancement of the athlete (meaning what stage they are in their requirement for adaptable stresses) as well as other things like possible injuries or overtraining. However, in most situations, you will only need to change your program the week of the meet, especially if you are a novice.

The week of the meet you have a basic outline. Assuming the meet is Saturday, you will go heavier on Monday, medium on Wednesday, with an option of going very light on Thursday. Monday can either be a “max out day” if it isn’t clear what the person will open with or if there is potential to easily hit a weight that is higher than what the lifter has done in training (this person would be less experienced with the Olympic lifts, or they are still progressing quite well). If they are a bit more advanced, then the lifter would work up to the weight that they want to open with conservatively.

The opener for the snatch should be something the lifter can smoke and annihilate, especially if this is their first meet. You want confidence, you want ease, you want to put on a show. Shit, it doesn’t even matter if you are only power snatching and cleaning — that is preferable with some novices. I will say that again — you do NOT have to squat your snatch or clean. I see lots of new weightlifters unnecessarily squatting their lifts, which makes them slow and inefficient. There is no rule that demands you squat, and if the weight is light enough, there is no reason to do so. In my first meet, I power snatched 115, and 120, and did not finish my pull when I missed 125. So open with something easy, and power snatching is okay.

Work up to something that is very reasonable for the first attempt on that Monday training session. Do the same with clean and jerk — because you do NOT want to miss your openers. You don’t want to get into a rut at the meet, especially if this is a hobby for you. You want to set yourself up to be successful instead of being stupid and going for weights that are too much of a challenge. Remember that what you did in training means jack shit, you have to have it count in a sanctioned competition. Your third attempt may even be something under what your gym PR is, and that’s okay, because your goal, especially in the first meet, is to hit your lifts, have a good time, and feel confident that you had more left in you on that day. I promise it will be better than bombing out (I have had both scenarios, just trust me on this one).

Wednesday’s training session consists of working up to your last warm-up. This means that in both Monday and Wednesday, you are going to warm-up as you will on Saturday. For most people this means they will be taking less warm-ups, so just go ahead and get used to that on Monday and Wednesday. The idea on this day is to not miss any reps, continue the high you got from Monday’s training session, hit an easy last warm-up, and call it a day. One of my lifters, 15 year old Kyle, had a really good Monday and Wednesday training session. He didn’t PR on Monday or anything, but everything was running smoothly. This gave him excellent confidence while going into the Bill Starr Memorial Meet, and he PR’d on snatch, clean and jerk, and total. He had a really good day because we handled his week delicately to get his confidence high. I was extremely proud of him.

Thursday’s training session is only going to be some light stuff. If it were me, I would only snatch around 80 and clean and jerk 120 or so, and I did 130/157 at the meet. In other words, just some nice, easy light stuff to get some technique practice. If the lifter has specific cues they have been working on, this is the time to work on it. Realistically, this day isn’t necessary. If you need another day of technique to be comfortable, then keep it, but I dropped it out of my training (because I wanted my AC joints to rest).

That would constitute what you could do to prepare the week of the meet. There are plenty of ways to go about this, but I have found this little method works pretty well to get a beginner ready for a meet. However, the whole thing is dependent on the training program leading into this week. Over the next few days, I will get into what will happen the day of the meet, as well as some other considerations.

Formal Complaint

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Justin

I’d like to file a formal complaint. This is serious, so I want you to listen…

Some of you are sandbagging, and I don’t like it.

I need to direct my malcontent towards someone, so I am going to choose my pals Ruth and Sean, from CrossFit Intrepid. Yeah, you guys are totally busted. Gant told me all about how you haven’t competed in a weightlifting meet. Gant met them last weekend when he presented at a seminar/workshop, and I met the couple at one of Rip’s barbell seminars at the end of last year.

These two goons have some serious potential in Olympic weightlifting, and would do pretty decently in a meet…yesterday. Apparently they said some hogwash to Gant about “not being good enough” or something. Gant’s response is that you aren’t going to be good enough when you first start competing, but you have to compete in order to get good at competing. Pretty straightforward.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for not competing, but I am not convinced that these two have a valid reason. They were opening a new gym, and things were probably hectic, but Sean snatched 60 or 70 kilos the day I coached him at the barbell seminar…after squatting, pressing, bench pressing, deadlifting, and power cleaning that weekend. The dude has something like a 39 inch vertical (he played division I football) and is pretty damn strong. He would make a HELL of a 94 kg lifter — as in he would qualify for national level stuff pretty fast. And Ruth is a fiery little gal who is pretty strong and explosive.

Me, Ruth, and Sean at the seminar last year

I told them both right away when I saw them move that they would be good at this sport, and they seemed enthused. We even talked for 15 or 20 minutes about a program they could do when they got home. And the silly bastards never competed! All kidding aside, these are two very nice people, very good athletes, and both pretty damn strong. It is just a bummer to see quality potential wasted. I am sure there are plenty of people just like them — folks that know they will enjoy a competitive endeavor but are for some reason avoiding it.

If you are avoiding competition because you don’t think you are good enough, then you are a Silly Person. The whole point is to test yourself in a competitive environment. I promise that you will enjoy yourself — as long as you set yourself up to do well in that first meet (I will talk more about this tomorrow). If there is a chance that you might be decently competitive in a given weight class, then you have more incentive to get better, but you will never know this without ever competing.

If you think a sport might be fun to compete in, then what the hell are you waiting for? Go online, find a competition, circle the date, and train for it. You’ll thank me later, you buffoon.

Notables

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Justin

Paul’s wife had a baby. This baby’s name is Gabe, and he lost 13% of his bodyweight due to jaundice (I had jaundice when I was a newborn too). After that, he gained 3 lbs. 4.5 oz in 18 days, which is a growth rate of 2.9 oz/day. The average baby will grow 1 oz/day in the third and fourth weeks of life. In other words, Gabe is already gettin’ 70’s Big and makin’ daddy proud.

Gabe says: If the bear is hungry, he’ll eat.

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I am long over-due with this, but my friend Mike Hom pulled 505×5 at a body weight of 185. I am trying to talk him into growing into the 94 kg class, and he is doing a decent job at it.

Call to Arms – Part Deux

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Justin

Note: You will find Monday’s post below — this is just a side post because I did not want to take away from the article posted.

Ladies and gentlemen who are on your quest to 70’s Bigdom, I am excited (physically or emotionally, I can’t tell) to announce the advent of the 70’s Big Workshop.

This interactive lecture style formatted workshop will include material that teaches a coach or trainee how to get 70’s Big along with a butt load of training material that you can only obtain from a knowledgeable coach or through years of experience — in other words, the little things that make a big difference in your training.

While we could host the first workshop at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, I figured I would make it more accessible to Dallas/Fort Worth by coming to the area. However, this requires a willing gym, hence this message. If you own or are part of a gym in the DFW area and are interested in hosting this brand new workshop, e-mail me (there is something in it for the gym owner).

Also: yes I am interested in other areas within driving distance of Wichita Falls — east, west, and south Texas, Oklahoma, etc.
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For those of you asking about shirts, they will be going to print within the next 10 days.

Real vs Relative

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Justin

The following is an article by my friend Phil Stevens. Phil has competed in powerlifting and strongman, and is pretty damn strong. He works with Charles Staley and is a contributor on the Staley Training Systems website.

Real vs. Relative

I often find myself thinking on the subject of strength, and of course the whole relative strength concept, or more so fallacy (fallacy in My Opinion, and remember my opinion is one that’s has seen me as heavy as 320 and light as 165 at 6’1” so it’s pretty damn diverse where I have been) comes to mind. In reality, reality meaning the real world, there is NO such thing as relative strength,. There is ONLY strength. Relative only comes into play in a contrived situation such as a weight classed sport such as power or Olympic weight lifting. In the real world, the one that 99.9% of the population lives in, aside from us athletes, there is NO relative factor to strength. (HMM so why is the relative fad such a highly sought and contrived pinnacle when most people are not in a competitive situation that demands it)

In the real world if there is a task to be done, the task does not care one iota how much the person doing it weighs. The one and only factor is that the job must be done. In such a case, a case that is a many and very much so the majority, strength is the most residing factor to your ability to compete such a task. A factor that by far and large most lack including those that seek and triumph there supposed superior relative strength.

So lets bring the relative world in to the real world. Of course the situation is going to still be contrived, it’s a story, and any story will be, But we’ll make the tasks these two have to complete as real world as we can.

So we have Carl. Carl is a self proclaimed stud. He is a jack of all trades and pretty damn good at pretty much any sport he trains. He’s 6 foot 190. He can run a 6 and a half minute mile, run a 4.3 40, has completed a half marathon, can do 20 dead hang chins, can press 225 (1.18 x bodyweight), bench 275 (1.44 x bodyweight) , squat 475 (2.13 x bodyweight) , deadlift 570 ( 3 x bodyweight)and is Ripped at 8% body fat with HOT Abzz. Those are damn good numbers in relative terms, and dude is Hot and mean he has Abzzz.

Now we have his polar opposite Abbot. Abbot is the same 6 foot but he is 280. He hasn’t ran a mile in ? god knows how long, can still run a 5 second 40, gets sick thinking about running a half marathon hell even walking a half marathon, can do 8 dead hang chins, can press 275 (.98 x bodyweight), bench 345 (1.25 x bodyweight) , squat 490 ( just 1.75 x bodyweight) , deadlift 600 ( just 2.15 x bodyweight) Abbot is over fat with a 23% body fat with not a hint of abs and some killer love handle. He’s strong but his numbers aren’t great. He’s no elite athlete by any means he dabbles in strength training pretty good at making it 2-3 times a week and just trying to get Strong when he does make it. He thinks about some day maybe getting serious and being a power lifter or Olympic lifter but who knows.

Again polar opposite one jacked ripped pretty down strong stud and one guy that’s again has a good level of strength but in relative terms not that great and his capacity for distance is likely crap as he hasn’t done any. What happens when we put these two in a simple real world situation? Meaning a situation that like life doesn’t care what you weigh just that a task MUST be completed?

Abbot and Carl are dropped on an island ( told you contrived but stay with me here remember the definition of real world) They are told you each have 24 hours to do two things or you will face death on this island which has no food and no escape. You have to first cross the island. It is 30miles then you must lift a 580 lb lead weight off of a trigger that will then send the alarm to have the chopper come save you.

OK GO. Carl smokes it he paces himself and to conserve energy and still makes the 30 miles in 6 hours. Abbot on the other hand, he is over fat and not “fit” he slugs along at 30 minutes a mile, takes the time to take in the scenery etc. and makes the trip in a piss pour 15 hours.

What does Abbot find? He find Carl laying on the ground next to his weight to move crying his eyes out knowing he faces certain death even thought he kicked the hell out of Abbots travel time, even though he has HOT abuzz and is a superior physical specimen. Despite the fact his relative strength in as high as three times body weight a HUGE feat in any sports realm he just can’t move the weight, it is 10 lbs more then his best ever effort.

Abbot smiles then waddles his fat as over to his lead weight. He takes a big breath expanding his bowl full of jelly, grunts turns 16 different shades of red as his blood pressure shy rockets due to his over stressed heart but he moves the weight and he lives, While his relatively stronger competitor is destined to die.

What’s the moral of the story? Abbot was relatively less “fit” ( an abused and over used term) but when the rubber hit the road he could do everything his counterpart could and more. It may take him longer at some things that required endurance but he could do them. While Carl even though he was a human freak and had great relative strength when face with one task vs. a seemingly lesser opponent in all ways except one (maximal strength) LOST.

In the real world, on the field of life. What matters most is your ability to DO the job, not so much how long it takes. If you cant do it, it will by default, take you forever. More times then not in life the reason someone cant do something, be it a chin up, to carry an injured soldier or co worker off the field. The ability to push your car off the street. To beat down an oncoming attacker. Or simply be a useful man and have the ability to move your old washing machine out of its basement home, and move a new one in its place is limited by your lack of maximal strength. All of the other strength qualities, as Mark Rippetoe has a very unique and entertaining way of explaining and I urge you to hear in person by attending one of his seminars, relies first on maximal strength. For example before you can have strength endurance you better damn well simply have the strength. You cant endure without the base level of strength to do one.

This is not me proposing you to become an over fat, un-conditioned but fairly strong slob. It me telling you to wake the hell up and realize you live in a real world, and the real world doesn’t care how much you weigh. If you care about real world ability one of the main things on your mind should not be your Abzz and if you can fit in your skinny jeans and still knock out 25 chins, but that you have the ability to DO the tasks that are asked of you, with no regard to how you look doing it. More times than not that will mean getting bigger, and adding a bit of healthy body fat to get stronger. A healthy focus on performance instead of aesthetics and you’ll find out an amazing fact that if you do so, your form will follow your function.

I’ve had visible abzz myself and I’ve still never seen an ab do a damn thing in this life in the real world. Now go ponder these words and ask yourself really how useful are you, in real, not relative terms.

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You can find the link to this article here. And here is some training footage from Phil: