My mate Peter Upham of Shire Speed and Strength wrote a pretty cool preview of the 2012 London Games Olympic Weightlifting. Check out the rest of the article that includes every weight class for both genders, but here’s the 105, 94, and 85kg men’s sections.
Men’s 105kg class. Records 200/238 Total 436kg
In 2008, Belarus’ Andrei Aramnau slammed the field with 200/236, 436 total to set all 3 world records. Since then he was kicked off the Belarusian team for drunk driving and did not lift in the 2011 World’s, but did lift in the Belarusian nationals last year and is coming back to form.
In his absence the Russians have been pushing each other hard. 2008 silver medallist Dmitry Klokov has a huge international following. His lifting attitude and athletic physique have built a fandom who are hungry to see him go one better in London. At the 2011 World’s he went toe to toe with countryman Khurtmani Akkaev who has moved up a weight class from the 94kg class and won Bronze and Silver in Athens and Beijing. Additionally, David Bejanyan at the President’s Cup set the World Record in the Clean and Jerk at 238kg earlier last year. Bejanyan’s problem is that his Snatch and total are not as competitive and he will likely miss out this time, but its an easy prediction to make that he will ascend the space that Klokov and Akkaev will leave after London.
TIP: If Aramnau is on form I predict one of the great all time three-way battles for the Gold. At the World’s, Akkaev rose to Klokov’s challenge and made the lifts necessary to get the victory; Klokov knows what his countryman can do and will leave it all out there. I hope he takes the final lift and gives it one of his trademark almighty Viking roars to win the Gold.
Chris deadlifted heavy at the 70’s Big Seminar this past weekend at CrossFit Annandale. He’s about six weeks out from Nationals and is still coming back from an injury to his back. He was disappointed that he didn’t get the double, yet there are some factors that influenced it.
CrossFit Annandale has a pretty cool barbell club, some nice strongman equipment, and lots of accessory tools (fat grips, sleds, etc.). However, they don’t yet have a power bar (at least one will be purchased soon, so get off it). The bar Chris was using in the video and during his warm-ups is just a standard “econo bar” that most CrossFit facilities purchase. They are optimal for the lightly loaded conditioning workouts aside from being economical.
Different kinds of barbells have different levels of tensile and yield strengths. Power bars are going to be more stiff (with a 29mm circumference) and can handle a lot more weight while Oly bars are going to be more whippy (with a 28mm circumference). A good Oly bar will make the difference between a snappy or sloppy jerk. In slower powerlifting movements, having whip on the bar is terrible because it produces a constant vibration on the bar throughout the movement. While a power bar will stay solid and not have much, if any, oscillation, a cheaper bar will vibrate subtly. This makes the movement more difficult; the bar is essentially moving around in the lifter’s hands on a deadlift. To add more weirdness, Chris had to use 100 pound plates to get enough weight on the bar. Most CrossFit facilities don’t have any iron plates at all, but CF Annandale has a good stash, just not enough to have 7 on each side (to make 675 on the bar). 100 pound iron plates theoretically shouldn’t have an effect on a good bar, but they will make a cheap bar even more wobbly because of the uneven distribution of load. That and Chris put them on as the third plate instead of putting them on first (I think this would have an effect, but I don’t have personal experience with it).
The bar oscillation was easy to see when Chris warmed up with anything over 405. It’s analogous to lifting with chains hanging off the end of the bar; Chris has to use more force and energy to stabilize against the extraneous forces. I think that if he had better equipment that he would have had a shot at the second rep at 675. Yet he still got a 96% of 1RM rep in and accumulated the same tonnage as when he did 655×2 in January (his last warm-up of 635 added with 675 makes the same tonnage of 1310) — the tonnage doesn’t paint the whole picture, but my point is that it wasn’t a worthless session.
If you train at or own a CrossFit facility, or any strength training gym, take note of the how much a good bar can help your training. It will allow you to hit heavier loads with greater efficiency in training to result in better meet/competition performances.
Edit: See Facebook/Twitter pages for info and updates on USAPL Men’s Nationals.
PR Friday
You know the drill. Post any PR’s you made, but also post your training updates. If you don’t, WHO WILL EVER REMEMBER YOUR NAME???
Weekly Challenge
Last week’s challenge was to eat vegetables in at least one meal every day. Y u no do dis?
Next Week’s Challenge: On one day next week, put 25 to 35 pounds in a pack, wear it on your back, and walk for 30 to 60 minutes non-stop. If you have a dog, take them. Do this after training or on a day in which you don’t have any training the next day. It shouldn’t be terribly difficult. As you do it, think about how there are soldiers who are doing the same thing at the same time as you somewhere in the world. Except they are doing it with three to four times as much weight and are probably in a dangerous location or preparing to be in one. Regardless of your country — US, CAN, UK, AUS — they made the choice to do it which allows you to not have to. Doing this will probably act as conditioning, but it’ll give you an appreciation for service members.
GR Class 186 carrying a 1200 lb tree through Georgetown last Friday
I’m in DC with NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPTION Chris Riley, and we’ll be doing some touring on the national mall today. Yesterday we walked around to see the monuments in 98 degree weather, and Chris was rewarded with severe chaffing. He’ll also be deadlifting a lot of weight at the Saturday portion of the seminar this weekend.
A friend and I were discussing our misconstrued notion of fitness from our younger days. Many individuals dedicate countless hours to the gym without a clear direction. I came across a valuable excerpt from FIT’s “Chapter 1 – Fitness: What It Is” that shed light on the importance of defining the parameters of fitness. This excerpt from FIT emphasizes that having clear definitions enables us to quantify, providing a purpose to our training. In essence, training should have a purpose; otherwise, merely “working out” is akin to stumbling through the woods without a map. For more insightful content on fitness and well-being, you might want to explore Americansportandfitness.com.
The human body is an integrated living system, one that must follow the laws and theories of biology, chemistry, and physics. These fields are structured upon foundations of definition and measurement. Any definition of fitness must be quantifiable. If we focus our definition of fitness on the many decades old works of Darwin, Nietzche, Bernard, Selye, and many more, we will create a definition rooted in the science of physical abilities, adaptation, and survival (9,10,11,12). But what physical abilities are related to survival? If we consider the physical abilities that help us function and conquer the spectrum of physical stresses and life tasks with which have historically and presently encountered, we can categorize them into three basic physical abilities:
Strength
Endurance
Mobility
Strength is the ability to move the body under load and is expressed as an ability to generate muscular force across a spectrum of movement speeds. Strength is a physical entity driven by the biological need to overcome the force of gravity acting on the body or on environmental entities with which the body interacts. It is easily measured using apparati commonly found in gyms (barbells) or laboratories (force platforms, dynamometers, and other force measurement devices). Strength can be further subdivided into muscular force generated with no body movement – isometric strength; muscular force generated at slow speeds – low velocity strength; and muscular force generated at high speeds – high velocity strength. One can go on https://www.numan.com/ to find health supplements to enhance their fitness and workout routine.
Endurance is the ability to sustain a task over time. Standing and sitting are the two most sustained things humans do in modern life. Neither require any type of physical effort as the body is anatomically structured to minimize exertion and caloric expenditure when seated or standing. Endurance is a characteristic of movement, physical activity, exercise, and sport. Many things we do require a level of endurance – walking across campus, carrying groceries up to a fourth story walk up, jogging a couple miles, and playing a hard half of football for example. Endurance is primarily a bioenergetic entity, related to the ability to deliver oxygen and energetic nutrients to the working muscles at adequate rates and for long enough duration to accomplish the task at hand. As endurance is time dependent, it is easily measured with a watch and measuring tape or any number of other common or laboratory measurement devices. Endurance can be subdivided into continuous endurance, where the activity is sustained, as in jogging – and intermittent endurance, where work-recovery cycles are repeated for long durations, as in digging post holes for a fence row.
Mobility is the ability to move the body and its constituent parts in a variety of directions and carry out both simple and complex motor tasks. Mobility is an important – but under attended – element of fitness. Stable, controlled, and coordinated movement within our occasionally unstable and frequently unpredictable home, work, and play environments facilitates adequate function and survival. Mobility is likely the most complicated element of fitness as it is comprised of range of motion, agility, balance, and coordination. Each of these entities is measurable in the gym or in the laboratory using simple instruments.
A VIABLE DEFINITION
Once we know what fitness is comprised of, we can create a functional definition. The definition for physical fitness used in this book is simple, functional, and measurable: Possession of adequate levels of strength, endurance, and mobility to provide for successful participation in occupational effort, recreational pursuits, familial obligation, and that is consistent with a functional phenotypic expression of the human genotype (13).
This definition applies to the general population but it can be extended to occupational and sporting populations. We can also abbreviate it to make it precisely applicable and measurable by the average coach, trainer, or trainee through omission of the clause about genotype – an assessment of ones genetic make-up and function which is measurable only in the laboratory. This will be our approach throughout this text. Various occupations require more (or less) of one of the elements of fitness, and sport has goals and specializations that merely emphasize or de-emphasize pre-determined components of physical fitness to varying degrees – a weightlifter has focused on strength, a marathoner on endurance. Each has accelerated fitness in one area and has an average ability or potential weakness in the others. As we progress though this book you will find out how to develop each component of fitness individually and also how to develop all three elements simultaneously – enabling the tailoring of training to any purpose or goal.
One would hope that it is a logical concept that knowing what fitness is and what it is not is essential knowledge before it can be manipulated and improved. The definition here clearly states that physical fitness is functional and that the elements of fitness are strength, endurance, and mobility. It follows that improvements in physical fitness are dependent on progressive strength, endurance, and mobility training that force our bodies to adapt. It should also be apparent that physical fitness is not a set of variables that cannot be directly measured or do not manifest as outward physical performance. Further, physical fitness should not be considered an abstract concept or set of intangible feelings. These things are by-products of fitness – as a trainee becomes more physically fit, their ability to function within their own circumstances improves, making them feel better about themselves. This change is not “fitness” but rather a change in self-perception driven by their awareness of the tangible increases in performance produced by training and of becoming more fit. The perception of wellbeing is directly attributable to systematic and progressive exercise training delivering something of substance and value to the trainee, fitness. For those looking to explore fitness equipment and training programs, Shoppok offers a wide variety of options to help you on your journey to improved physical health.
