Category Archives: Olympic Weightlifting

Koklyaev and Russian Weightlifting

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Mikhail “Misha” Koklyaev is one of the coolest and most successful strength athletes ever. In his career he has put up impressive performances in strongman, Olympic weightlifting, and powerlifting (the strongman stuff is recorded here).

I’ve always said that we would get along really well with Misha. Need proof? Watch this video of him comically flexing during photos after he won the super heavyweight class at the Russian nationals in 2005. A simple YouTube search will bring up all kinds of impressive athletic performances — like doing a jerk with people on his bar — combined with his trademarked goofy humor and smile. Need more proof? Here’s a video of him lifting a stone while wearing a speedo with Andrey Chemerkin recording:

You’ll note that in the above video, Misha went 200/250 for a 450kg total. Recently he won the Russian Cup with 200/248 despite tweaking something during warm-ups (video below). This led many of us to think, “Does this mean he’ll be going to the Olympics?”

The answer most of us saw online was that the Russian team was not taking him, and it was because of his public admission of PEDs use. The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and Olympic committee allegedly only give countries a couple of chances to fail drug tests. The PR storm over allowing a known drug user on the team would have probably made things difficult, and the Russians allegedly were unwilling to risk a positive test since it could remove their weightlifting team from Olympic competition. This seems to be the primary reason, but Russian national team coach David Rigert and Russian Weightlifting Federation president Sergey Syrtsov discuss other points in this translated press conference.

I get the impression that Koklyaev doesn’t get along with the RWF. Perhaps it stems from his admission of drug use? Or maybe it’s that Misha is unwilling to bleed himself dry for the RWF? Misha admits to “quarreling with people” (in the video below), and the Syrtsov says in the press conference that Misha pursued strongman in order to earn more money. If Russian weightlifters fare a quarter as bad as American weightlifters, then you can’t really blame him.

Syrtsov points out that Koklyaev regularly competed internationally as a teen and junior competitor, even besting the 2000 and 2004 gold medal super heavyweight Hossein Rezazadeh as a junior. Yet Syrtsov and Rigert basically come to the point that Misha’s international performance is poor, which effected his Olympic team consideration. They point out that international competition is different than success at home.

Rigert then points out that he coached Misha three times and he lifted up to 30kg lower in the total. Then he weirdly points out how Misha’s wife stopped working for Rigert once she and Misha got together — bitter much, Rigert?

This is a well produced video of Misha’s 2011 Russian Cup victory:

Rigert talks about how Misha was invited and attended training at the national facility. In Rigert’s words, after two weeks Misha just left. Obviously there’s more to the story, and there seems to be an obvious friction between Misha and Rigert, but this was what Rigert told reporters. He then went on to lambaste Misha by saying his eight national championships were all earned when his real competitors were busy preparing for bigger competitions. He’s basically saying, “It’s not that impressive because the real competition wasn’t there.”

Despite all of this, his victory in the Russian Cup made him a candidate for the team. Yet Syrtsov says that the documents they sent Misha were returned in the mail because Misha no longer lived at the address. Then Rigert candidly points out that all of the relevant information — about protocol and what Misha was expected to do — was explained to him. He was subject to a medical examination (i.e. a drug test). Rigert cannot put him on the team if he doesn’t pass this test, and Misha was not present for his test. Rigert then points out that they have two strikes regarding drug tests, implying that if they fail, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, they will be removed from Olympic competition. He finishes by basically saying, “Of course I’d want a strong athlete on the team, but not if he can only compete in Russia.”

I’m sure there is more to the story, but it all seems to stem from Misha’s drug use. It must be frustrating for him to go from strongman, a sport that inherently has athletes using PEDs, to a sport like weightlifting where the official committees pretend to stamp out PEDs while most of the athletes use them and don’t get caught. Perhaps Misha has a problem with authority, but he seems to be in good humor in all of his videos. It’s unfortunately clear that politics can decide a guy’s fate. Nevertheless, Misha is still one of the most impressive strength athletes of all time at 34 years old.

 

Pendlay’s Weightlifting Programming Tips

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Glenn Pendlay of MDUSA recently wrote a pair of articles titles, “How to write an Olympic weightlifting program” (Part 1 and Part 2). They are a good review of the basic principles for Olympic weightlifting. Believe it or not, many weightlifters get away from this foundation.

For example, there are assholes online who pose as weightlifting “experts” just because they trained with some random Chinese coach for a month. This means they “understand the Chinese weightlifting” system and miraculously gained the aptitude to teach it. Whatever the FUCK that means.

Anyway, I prefer Pendlay’s approach to weightlifting because he does it like a Socratic student who acknowledges there is plenty to learn.

“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it, is knowledge.”
–Confucius

 

“…surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know.”
–Socrates

Personally, I don’t think Pendlay needs to approach it this way; he could get away with being an asshole about what he knows. But that’s not his style because he honestly still learns stuff every day; I like that. Let’s highlight some of the lessons from his two-part article.

Part 1 concerns itself with snatching, clean and jerking, and squatting. Again, read the Pendlay’s articles for his explanation and reasoning, but it’s good that he took the time to point this out. So many people will watch videos of successful international lifters and decide to emulate them. Monkey see, monkey doo doo in their singlet. I wrote about this concept in a triumphant “I proved my point because you’ll click on anything that says sex and shows a bit of T&A” post, “Sexy Isn’t Always Better.”

Part 2 actually provides enough information for a weightlifter to program his training for several years. He points out how weightlifting success selects certain training principles: not doing anything greater than triples on the Olympic lifts, typically not squatting prior to the lifts, and organizing them effectively throughout the week. But one of the things I like the most about Pendlay’s message is:

Keep a workout log, and take good notes. When you change your program, try to change one thing at a time, and give the change a reasonable amount of time to work before you abandon it. Approach things in a systematic way, and with every week and every success and failure you will add to your knowledge of how your body reacts to training and what you need to do to snatch more and clean and jerk more.

This may even sound painfully obvious to some of you, but I’d be willing to bet that you recently waffled your way through what was supposed to be a systemic approach to programming. Most of you guys just want to be told what to do — JUST GIVE ME A PROGRAM.

Read Glenn’s articles, particularly Part 2, and you’ll walk away with a good vision of a quality weightlifting program. Lift heavy, but vary your work load throughout the week. Accumulate work above 80%. Reserve sessions later in the week for maximal attempts. Pick a rep scheme, whether it be singles, doubles, or triples, and try to push it for 4 to 8 weeks. Once you start to stall on one scheme, transition to the next (exhaust triples, then move to doubles). Once you do go through this cycle a few times, vary the sessions in a week. Doubles on Monday, triples on Wednesday, and then maximal stuff on Friday? Sounds like a plan — but the point is to have a plan. Like Glenn said, “Remember that success in weightlifting is defined by snatching and clean and jerking more. It is not defined by having a huge squat or carrying an impressive workload in training” or by doing a bunch of random exercises. Pay attention to guys that simplify programming. Listening to them will help you more than a fool keyboard warrior claiming secret Chinese knowledge.

The Importance of “Back”

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There are two dichotomous styles of weightlifting. One is sort of a relic of the past and puts an emphasis on jumping the bar up while the other focuses on efficiently getting under the bar. In “Jump/shrug vs ‘Catapult‘” I briefly discussed the differences between these techniques. The primary difference is that if the bar is jumped vertically, the lifter and bar become “floaty”, making it difficult to have an efficient turnover to rack the bar. The “get under” method sets the lifter up to not only have greater turnover speed, but to use more efficient mechanical positioning to maximize their force production.

The key is that the “get under” method is necessary for lifting loads that are significantly greater than body weight. Personally I can tell the difference between the two methods; I was taught to use the jump method and have taught myself the “get under” technique, though I’m probably not perfect. I’m lifting the same PR loads weighing 15 pounds lighter and without back squatting for a couple of months. The “jump” method is good for general strength and conditioning (especially with non-lifting sport athletes), but it’s less efficient when trying to lift the most weight (i.e. Olympic weightlifting).

This post isn’t meant to be a full biomechanical analysis of the “get under” technique (that can come later), but the technique’s starting position and execution better produce a stretch reflex on both the quads and hamstrings. This not only allows these muscles to produce force maximally, yet makes the bar-lifter mechanics more efficient. For example, if a person is snatching significantly more than their body weight, then manipulating the bar-lifter center of mass is important, but it’s not as simple as making the bar “go up” vertically.

There are two standard cues used after the initial motor pathway of the lift are learned: “bar back” and “finish in the heels”. Keeping the bar back prevents it from swinging forward, disrupting the delicate bar-lifter system. Even slight alterations to center of mass with very heavy loads will create exponential mechanical problems that result in a failed lift. Finishing in the heels ensures that the lifter doesn’t put an emphasis on “up”, prevents the lifter from floating, and sets them up to transfer into their heals in the bottom of a snatch or clean. It also facilitates the finish “arched back” position — a necessary difference to snatch or clean heavy loads.

To keep the bar back, a lifter will actively need to extend their shoulder joint (if the elbow is straight, shoulder extension pushes the wrist behind the body — see the “Anatomy Motion Explained” video for a review). This same thing occurs on a deadlift to prevent the bar from swinging forward, but it’s absolutely critical in the Olympic lifts. It’s the difference between a good lift and a bad lift. For some, it can be the difference between a good lift and annihilating their dugan and coin purse. Observe what happens when the bar isn’t kept back:

Okay, this might be an extreme example. My arm length may facilitate nut crunching, but leaving the bar out front changed the mechanics to bring the bar into my body at a different trajectory. Let’s look at the same problem on the snatch from earlier in the same training session. I had not snatched 130 in a while, and I was feeling good in warm-ups that particular August day. You’ll see that I miss 130 three times in a row. You’ll also see that it seems like I easily complete the lift, and then it falls forward. It’s because my lack of “keeping the bar back” puts the bar in a slightly forward position — maybe by a few  centimeters — and results in a missed lift. I even spiked my adrenaline for the second and third lifts to no avail. Finally, on the fourth attempt, I focused on keeping the bar back and made a good lift with significantly lower adrenaline levels.

As a side note, look how different the mechanics are from this video. Yikes.

I learned why keeping the bar back was important by missing a doable snatch three times in a row and smashing my sausage on a clean. Most of you probably won’t be able to discern your problems on the spot, so I suggest watching the Pendlay teaching progressions on Cal Strength’s website and routinely executing the basic cues (like “bar back” and “finish in your heels”). Your beef bugle will thank you.

Strength Training Is Not Powerlifting

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There are heaps of new trainees and lifters joining the “online strength training communities” — it’s fantastic. However, there are some terms that are thrown around that are often misguided, confuzzled, or plain wrong, so let’s clarify them.

 

 

“I’m doing the powerlifts.”

This is almost always said by someone coming from CrossFit, but I’ve seen it in some general populations as well. Squatting, benching, and deadlifting does not mean that you are powerlifting. This is like saying that tossing a football around is “playing football”. Powerlifting is a specific sport with specific demands and powerlifting, at the very least, requires that you enter a competition. Many athletes will strength train to augment their physical capacity for their sport, but it doesn’t mean they are powerlifting.

Instead, just say that you are “strength training”; it will solidify the distinction. It’s sort of ironic that powerlifting includes the word “power” since there isn’t a lot of power developed (speed is relevant in high power production). I just refer to squatting, pressing, deadlifting and other slow movements as “the strength lifts”. It helps me sleep better.

Let’s be fair to “weightlifting” too. 

As an extension, we could say that you aren’t doing “weightlifting” if you’re snatching and clean and jerking. This misnomer isn’t as common (probably because weightlifting isn’t as accessible to the average trainee), but saying “I am doing the Olympic lifts” is more accurate. Oh, and Glenn Pendlay hates when you say “Oly”.  It’s a CrossFit thing to use certain lingo, but when it’s incorrect it alienates certain people.

“Should I do Wendler?”

I bet he’d fucking like that a lot, assuming you have the required equipment (a vagina, I’d assume). Jim named the program “5/3/1”, and it’s pretty simple, so let’s just say that. There’s no need to rename stuff, especially because it makes you seem like a hipster. And everyone hates hipsters.

“High hang super power balls snatch”

Everything above is just nitpicking semantics (IT MATTERS, OKAY?), but this is more of helping new people with the definitions. The Olympic lifts have variations, and I will help you know them. In a biblical sense.

If the movement is named by itself (i.e. snatch, clean), then it’s done from the floor to the fully squatted position (i.e. overhead squat or front squat to receive the bar). 

If the movement is preceded by “hang”, it’s held in the hands while standing straight up, lowered to ‘second position’ or the thighs, then the lift is completed as normal (fully squatted). The presence, or lack thereof, of “hang” tells you how you start. 

If the movement is preceded by “power”, it is not caught in a squat position, but at least above 90 degrees in the knees (i.e. it is caught high in the ‘power position’). The presence, or lack thereof, of “power” tells you how you finish. 

If the movement is preceded by “hang power”, then you not only start with the bar (hanging) in your hands, you also finish in the ‘power position’. 

There are some other variations, but if you’re having trouble with these, then let’s not worry about those. We don’t like their kind anyway. These variations can be used in weightlifting programs or complicated strength and conditioning programs. I say “complicated” because it’d be easier or more efficient to just say “do power cleans” instead of “hang power boner cleans”. Or something.

 

Andrei Aramnau will miss Olympics, still an asshole

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This is the best article I found on Andrei Aramnau, a weightlifter in the 105kg weight class, not partaking in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“I was in great shape, but for whatever reason my coach had asked me to compete in a meaningless competition, where I first suffered the injury,”

There he goes again, throwing his coach under the bus. The 24 year old Aramnau didn’t learn any humility when he won his Olympic gold medal as a 20 year old at the 2008 Beijing games; he’s always been a dickhead.

It started with drunk driving. I’ll never understand why financially sound athletes bother to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking; Aramnau would probably make friends with NFL players.

Olympic champion Aramnau gets ban for drinking
Olympic Champion Andrei Aramnau of Belarus was handed a two-year suspended ban from competition on Friday after driving while intoxicated for the second time in less than three months.
The 20-year-old, who won gold in Beijing by breaking several world records in the 105kg weight class, was first caught driving drunk in December before he repeated the offence last month, just a day after receiving keys for a new apartment.
Belarus Sports Minister Alexander Grigorov, who headed the disciplinary hearing, told Reuters: “The Olympic success obviously went to his head. He is young and he couldn’t handle it in a right way. We gave him a suspended sentence because we didn’t want to lose him as an athlete.”
Aramnau, who also faces criminal charges for being a repeat offender, was stripped of a presidential monthly stipend worth more than $5,000.
However, Grigorov said Aramnau, who won his first world title in 2007 as a 19-year-old, could be given a second chance.
“If he retains the world title this year, he would get the stipend back,” Grigorov said. (source)

What they leave out is how he defended himself in this interview (translate with Chrome). When asked about the marijuana incident, he deflects it, says he had lots of stress and nerves as a result of the Belarus athletic governing body. Oh, that’s right, a champion goes and looks to substance abuse — regardless of the kind (he claimed he didn’t know there was weed in it) — to fix his problems.

And then when they brought up the drunk driving citations, of which he had several, he claimed that because he could lift several tons of tonnage in his workouts that he could handle it. Sorry, just because you’re strong doesn’t mean alcohol doesn’t effect you, and just because there are murals of you in the city doesn’t mean the law doesn’t apply to you. Then he goes onto claim that beer has significant recovery agents, as if that’s the reason he was drinking it to begin with. Can you believe this fucking guy? That’s either him continuing to deflect blame or he’s a god damn idiot. Either way it’s unacceptable.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I don’t like Aramnau, and it’s not because I’ve been a fan of Klokov for 4 years. It’s because Aramnau is always making excuses. He may train hard in the gym, as evidenced by his world records and gold medal, but he doesn’t do the things outside of the gym that make him admirable. You never hear these stories about Klokov because he conducts his life to be the greatest he can be. That much is apparent by his physique; he’s trying to get the most musculature for his weight class while Aramnau is a doughy beer drinker. Sure, he’s a doughy beer drinker with a gold medal while Klokov only has a silver, but that lack of effort in life means something to me.

I hate Aramnau’s attitude. He’s still young, but all of the best athletes in the world are young. What makes him so special that he can be a fucking dick head and get away with it? Nothing. He’s whiny, he deflects blame to others, and he’s an asshole. I’m happy that he’s not in the Olympics, because he hasn’t lived his life the past four years to deserve it.

More videos of Aramnau can be found here.