Brent’s persona (personality?) is one that isn’t impressed by much. I can’t speak for Brent, but I was impressed by some lifts that occurred at the Junior Worlds in Olympic weightlifting.
In this video, Abti Aukadov snatches 160kg-165kg-170kg at 85kg. That’s pretty damn impressive, especially because he’s 17 years old, but I’m most impressed by his solid overhead position — it never wavers. His pulling motion is also very good. I’m impressed.
A 201kg clean and jerk to follow — these are huge numbers for a 17 year old. I’m impressed. I would expect him to make the trip to London in 2012. Kendrick Farris has his work cut out for him — let’s hope he keeps improving steadily as well!
The next impressive video is Leidy Solis, a Columbian lifter, clean and jerking 139kg at a 67.4kg body weight. I just want to clarify that 139kg is more than 99% of what you goobers can do (realistically it’s not that far away from me — I plan on pulling away though). That is just damn silly. Oh, and she’s 20 years old. I will have to agree with Brent in liking her intensity as she is coming out of the hole (his words, not mine). I’m impressed.
USA Weightlifting and CrossFit have combined forces to create a mixture of a lifting meet and a CrossFit conditioning workout. The CrossFit/USAW Open will be in Colorado Springs, CO on October 1st through the 3rd. This competition will begin with a normal Olympic weightlifting meet (for the new folk, the snatch is contested first, followed by the clean and jerk) and end with what is being referred to as “the triplet”. The conditioning workout will consist of as many rounds as possible of six squat cleans (55kg men / 30kg women), 12 pull-ups and 24 double unders.
Before I talk about what I think about this endeavor, let me clear a few things up. There are folk that read this site that primarily workout in a CrossFit facility. There are folk that read this site that don’t have anything to do with CrossFit. Subsequently, there are people that read the site that both do and do not like CrossFit for various reasons.
Gant and I, for some ungodly reason I’m sure we can’t fathom, have to defend ourselves whenever a joke is make about CrossFit. I’ll clarify this issue once again. I am doing what I’m doing indirectly because of CrossFit. I hated bodybuilding style training after I stopped playing football in college, started doing power/agility/strength training, and got into a bit o’ CrossFit. I co-owned a facility in southern Georgia. I was probably the youngest person certified as a ‘Level II CrossFit Trainer’. Doing all of that led to me getting in contact with Mark Rippetoe, and then it led to me moving to Wichita Falls to run CF style stuff. I had been playing around with strength related programming, and implemented and improved it in Wichita Falls. Throughout my time living there, I mainly got stronger (no conditioning). I coached barbell training in the gym and at seminars, and also started competing in Olympic weightlifting. I also started a joke and training philosophy with my friends that evolved into this website.
So there you have it, CrossFit was the inception that turned me onto the things I do now. I have a very clear understanding of what CrossFit is and have been around and have had discussions with people who run the company. I have met tons of great people through CrossFit, and I don’t regret any of it. My philisophical difference generally lies with an emphasis on barbell training for strength with conditioning to get conditioned for whatever the goal is. CrossFit style workouts are a tool but not used in every situation, although its principles are valuable. Another difference is that I feel better when skinny guys become stronger and bigger, primarily because they can usually do whatever it is that they want to do better with few exceptions. And lastly I believe there is value in competing in sanctioned sports that can improve the vigor of an individual and reverberate throughout their life. This brings us back full circle to the CrossFit/USAW Open.
Frankly, I think it’s a good idea.
Pros
USAW has around 6,000 members including lifters, coaches, judges, and volunteers. That ain’t much, folks. CrossFit itself has…I dunno how many people, but they have over 1,000 affiliates. The majority of those facilities have bumper plates in them. Prior to this CrossFit explosion, you probably had to go to select Olympic weightlifting gyms in order to train the Olympic lifts (unless you had your own equipment). Now you can probably talk a local affiliate into letting you train there if you’re an experienced lifter. Furthermore, most of these facilities have people teaching people how to do the Olympic lifts. Now, the quality of coaching is going to vary drastically, but the point is there are a lot more people that have access to the sport of Olympic lifting as well as a lot more people actually doing the lifts, correctly or not. CrossFit is going to increase the number of lifters in USAW.
This does a number of good things. If the number of registered USAW lifters increases immediately and continues to do so over time, that means we have a larger talent pool of people who might be successful. I’ve heard rumors of China having one MILLION people in their lifting federation. If that’s even remotely true, they are destroying us on sheer volume. USAW might get some pretty decent lifters out of this CrossFit partnership.
This will also bring more money to USAW. I don’t really have an opinion on this either way, but maybe USAW can offer me more services, better discounts, or some other perk due to the increase in members and revenue. Hell, I don’t know. At the very least it will mean more people will try Olympic lifting, and that means I might get more business out of it. In either case, it’s about time USAW has taken advantage of the fact that CrossFit has tons of people throwing around barbells with bumper plates.
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Cons
I guess the idea is that more people will try out CrossFit and become involved in it. I honestly don’t see this happening. The CrossFit money making machine will still roll with or without USAW (They have 19 Level I seminars in August. If 30 people attend each one — and sometimes it’s more — that’s 570 people at $1k each…and…that’s a lot of fucking money. And that’s only the Level I.). I don’t see USAW members as likely to try or at least stick with CrossFit, but it still opens that market up to CrossFit. From what I’ve seen online, I just don’t know how much of the hardcore weightlifters will try a conditioning workout, and I suspect that the majority of participants in this CrossFit/USAW Open will be people coming from CrossFit. And there’s nothing wrong with that because it brings more people into a sport that needs exposure.
Now, the actual conditioning workout itself could be tweaked. To recap, it consists of six squat cleans (55kg men / 30kg women), 12 pull-ups and 24 double unders. Now, let me clarify that I’m probably not gonna compete in this thing because I’m poor and will be more concerned with a local meet and preparing for the American Open. Personally I think this is biased towards the CrossFitter just a bit. The weightlifter doesn’t incorporate kipping pull-ups of any kind into his training because they aren’t very useful. The CrossFitter stereotypically does a shit load of them. Furthermore, if someone were going to get 10 rounds of this workout in, they’d be doing 120 pull-ups, which the weightlifter would never bother with. Hands will be ripping and DOMS will be almost as prevalent as the internet insults that will follow the hand rippage. I don’t really care that this is biased, but it is objectively biased nonetheless.
Instead, I would have switched the cleans and the pull-ups. 6 pull-ups followed by 12 cleans would be more appropriate. The limiting factor wouldn’t be grip strength on the bar or skin remaining on the hand. I could do 55kg cleans all day long — as any man should. I don’t think that this would have tilted the bias more in the weightlifter’s favor since a CrossFitter is supposed to be doing cleans anyway, regardless of a lifting meet. And it’s so damn light that they would be fine anyway.
Summary
Overall, I thin this partnership is a damn good idea and way overdue. More CrossFitters will try Olympic lifting. Some of them may compete in it on a regular basis and I don’t see this as a bad thing. As for the event itself, I think that “the triplet” could have been designed better, but at least it wasn’t one of the awfully contrived workouts that pop up every now and then on CrossFit’s website.
——————————— A few more thoughts
Justin asked for my thoughts on this, so here they are. I think this idea sucks. The USAW will have to sign an extra Crossfitter up because I won’t be renewing my membership.
There are a lot of good people who operate and train in CF gyms who work hard and do well. That’s not the issue (let this soak in before you accuse me of being anti-CF). My beef with this is USAW’s catering to CF and CF’s refusal to acclimate and compete in an actual sport. Glassman claimed, in one of his hyperbolic declarations, “we can do your stuff almost as well as you can.” Really? Here was your chance! But instead of doing someone else’s stuff, you had to make this look like your stuff. Keep moving those goalposts up until they hit you right in the face.
There is no reason they couldn’t have hosted an all-CF weightlifting meet. Enforce the rules and use actual judging standards. Sure, you might have a lot of guys pressing out jerks, making AC Jumps, and going 3-for-6. That’s part of learning. Those same lifters will be there next time going 5-for-6 and getting 3 PRs. They jettisoned an outstanding opportunity to learn and grow so they could take their shirts off and sling some 55kg cleans (WTF, we’re not even into the blues?!).
So yeah, I think this cheapens both organizations. This will sell a few more USAW memberships, but it won’t do anything to improve America’s weightlifting prospects. The next Kendrick Farris isn’t doing Fran in some Crossfit box.
Hopefully NASGA won’t have me doing burpees after throwing a PVC caber.
The Comment of the Week is from the speedo post (which had an incredibly high page view number, easily the highest ever on this site):
StonewallWells Says: July 7th, 2010 at 5:31 pm e
Justin-
Regarding the New Services, can we request that you wear your speedo if we were to do a video conference. It only seems reasonable, after all we ARE the customers and the customers are ALWAYS right.
You’re gonna have to request me to NOT wear a speedo.
–Justin
Stonewall brings up a good point, because there will be live video presentations of material coming soon as well as scheduled chat rooms with us 70’s Big contributors doing the moderating.
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COW Honorable Mention goes to SMC who created the following image:
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the beach.
For those of you keeping score:
1 – Jacob
1 – StonewallWells
AC has been training with Taylor, a good friend that I used to pal around with when I was still in school. Taylor has pretty impressive pressing strength and bear-like features. I have heard stories of him cuddling a grizzly in its den because he “needed a soft warm body in those winter months”. I wasn’t shocked when he told me this.
A-way is his fiance and is in the top three funniest girls I know. She has surprising ferocity in her miniature stature, especially regarding her bear hug (it helps with Taylor). They are both the feature of another original AC film, and AC makes a deadlifting appearance at the end. Sweet song too.
In early June, Brent hit a PR Snatch at the WFAC in the midst of his powerlifting training.
Here’s a vid of Chris pulling 600 back in May (I think). He doesn’t get pumped at all, and that’s a rarity for him. I thought it was more impressive because he just walks up to the bar and pulls it (trust me, I know what he’s like when he’s amped).
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PR Friday. Post any personal bests you may have hit this week into the comments.
I have to say that I love Brent’s articles on inspirational lifters. I’m also fond of the heroes of 70’s Big. Doug Young would make any guy and girl wet between the legs and Pisarenko sported a ‘stache that would make Ron Jeremy envious. It’s no wonder why both men are co-captains of the 70’s Big Hall of Fame. But, if I had to a pick a hero that inspired me beyond measure to train hard, it would be Sergey Litvinov.
Before I go into why Sergey Litvinov would be the first defense against Zombies, as well why he should be inducted into the 70’s Big Hall of Fame, let me give a bit of background on the man and how I came to know about him.
Litvinov is the subject of an article written by Dan John that I immediately took to heart when it was first published years back. I sincerely doubt Dan John embellished any in his article, but even if he did, I don’t care. It has inspired literally scores of people to try to emulate the same caliber of athleticism that was described in this article which can be found here. Go ahead. Google “litvinov” or “litvinov workout” and the first hit will be Dan John’s article on T-Nation as well as other related sites.
If you are too lazy to read the article, Litvinov was a gold medal winning hammer thrower that inspired American Discus Thrower John Powell to switch up his training regiment through his observations of Litvinov’s training. Dan John described the standard Litvinov workout to be very simple but extremely tough.
Try this on for size:
“Eight reps of front squats with 405 lbs., immediately followed by a 75-second 400-meter run. Repeat this little combination for a total of three times and go home, thank you. Let’s just stop here and marvel at what Powell observed. A 196 lbs. man front squatted 405… eight times!”
Let’s not forget that he did this 3 times total for a total of 24 squats at 405 lbs. Now, I don’t know about every one of you 70’s Big readers but I can back squat 405 lbs. for a double on a good day and front squat 315 lbs. The man did this eight times and then ran 400m in 75 seconds. 75 seconds is over 30 seconds slower than the current 400m world record, but is still faster than what most people can do. Compound the fact that the man squatted 405 lbs. eight times prior to running makes this an incredible feat. The only other bit of information about Litvinov’s training is from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Litvinov) and the entry states Litvinov was rumored to be able to muscle snatch 100kg / 220 lbs. for quick sets of 10. Now, whether that it is completely accurate or not doesn’t matter. The mythology surrounding this man was that he could MUSCLE SNATCH 100 kilos for quick SETS — not A set — of 10.
A few only slightly less plausible rumors about Litvinov’s capacity:
Milo carried the calf. Litvinov carried Milo.
Litvinov was known for his use of max effort box jumps to augment his power development. Typically he’d warm up at 24″, 48″, and then progress to the Matterhorn.
Once, Litvinov was accosted by a horde of angry lumberjacks. Rather than thrashing them thoroughly, as he clearly could have, he made a peace offering of beer and sausages. They drank and ate, and proceeded to see who could chop down trees the quickest. Thus, Timbersports, one of the manliest athletic events ever, was created.
I know that astute readers will catch on to the fact that he is below 200 lbs. Further, the picture of him in Dan John’s article shows that he is clean shaven. OK, so there’s a few things going against him. So why does he deserve to be inducted into the 70’s Big Hall of Fame?
I think we have established, to some extent, that 70’s Big is not merely about the physical appearance of your being. It is an attitude. It is about training as hard as you can to achieve tangible goals. Are you eating to facilitate your goals? Are you doing what you can to get as strong as you humanly can within the context of your every day life? Are you training intelligently to ensure long term success? That, among other things, is 70’s Big for me. Litvinov illustrates that he was willing to train hard to achieve his goals. After all, he is a two time Olympic medalist and set three world records in the hammer throw, which brings me to reasons as to why he would be the first defense against a Zombie invasion.
Assuming he had a good deal of strength in his other core lifts relative to his front squat, he embodies a good mix of strength and speed, which I feel is extremely important. Let’s say, for example, you had a comrade trapped under a heavy object and a group of Zombies were headed towards your direction. You would want to sprint over there and lift the object up to your partner and this might require a deadlift, or some semblance of a clean to get that object completely off the damsel — I mean, partner — in distress. Further, you want to be able to grab your partner and run if necessary. Let’s face it, you can’t be a skinny twit who can run miles but have a hard time carrying anything heavier than a water pack. Conversely, while huge strong men will generally not have an issue with lifting, heaving, and carrying heavy weight, zombies may overtake you for reasons stemming from bad conditioning. That is also assuming you get to your partner before keeling over from being out of breath. Either way, it’s not a good look. Litvinov could probably sprint over to you, pick you up, and set you upright. Then he would probably immediately sprint over to some type of cover, lift pieces of broken car and toss them at incoming zombies. If he had hammers with him, I’m sure he would make Thor jealous with how he could toss a hammer through multiple zombie heads.
So, I guess I am kind of going against the grain here with this nomination of The Litvi into the 70’s Big Hall of Fame. But, let’s face it. If I needed someone to pull me out of some wreckage in the middle of an urban jungle, I would want someone who had the uncanny strength AND conditioning to save me and other team members while carrying cinematic-movie-levels of ammunition and ordnance to combat the Zombie horde. He would also need to throw hammers at show stopping distances to let Zombie heads blossom and burst forth a sea of blood of brain matter. And finally, he would need to have the raw power to perform multiple Spartan kicks to punch a hole through a Zombie’s chest on any given day.
