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Hey - gonna learn Olympic lifting

SteelWeaver

SteelWeaver

New member
Went to sports admin at my university today to ask about wrestling - thought that could be a fun sport to try, but they don't have it right now - I have to put in a proposal if I want it. However, they do have Olympic lifting. I've been trying to incorporate some O lifts into my workouts, but they're hard to learn alone from just descriptions and pictures and the odd video clip. Looks like I can get a coach! Cool!
 
That's so cool! It's funny you bring this up - on Sunday I'm gonna be working on my clean and press form with my PLer; next, I was thinking about learning how to snatch. So much to learn...how could you ever possibly get bored with this sport?
 
Exactly! I could just keep on doing this forever and be excited about it all over again every single day. I got ahold of the coach toady - he sounded really keen - even asked if I was training tonight and he'd start with me! But I'm off tonight :( Anyway, going to watch a meet at the university tomorrow where he'll be, meet up, meet the other club members.

Very revved up about this! Then by the time I sort out a power rack and so on, and do WSB, I'll have the three core styles under my belt. Cool :)
 
Yeah, I have to admit I'm psyched. Luckily, my guy is a stickler on form, so I know I'll be learning the right way from the beginning.

I've been playing with hang clean and press, but I kept wondering how cleans could be part of a leg workout. He got a good laugh out of that one - maybe I should be a little scared. :-)
 
JJ: I work on my front squats due to cleans. Cleans have really helped with my leg drive.

Someday, try The Bear. It's comprised of: hang clean into push press, lower bar into back squat, explode up into push press. That's just one rep. I follow a 5x5 protocol with The Bear. This was created Coach Davies of Renegade Training.

This is my idea of fun...yeah, I know. I'm twisted.
 
I know I don't post much but as a new convert to O lifts I'm here to say they are the absolute BOMB!!
My upper back and traps have exploded since learning them. I have also increased sport specific speed just training the lifts.
How do I know? Because I run stairs as a cardio option. After not running stairs for quite a while (several weeks) and instituting the Olifts my foots speed and ability to "fly' has noticibly increased.
I also noticed a maintenance of cardio capacity with out training cardio specific. Give the bear or any of those renegade moves a try and you'll see why.
You're gonna love 'em.
Storm1
Back to lurk mode:D
 
Post away storm, post away! It looks like I'm going to be doing a fair amount of gabbling about OL in the near future, and since there isn't much of OL on these boards, any input would be great!

Slinky - I must be twisted too, because that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me! lol

Wow, JJ if you'd seen the comp I went to yesterday, you'd se how a clean can be part of a leg workout. Wow - talk about some seriously strong front squats! OMG, I've never seen OL in real life ... I had no idea how beautiful it could be. Talk about skill, balance, intensity, explosiveness, co-ordination ... awesome.

Anyway, I spoke to the coach - I start with him on Tuesday! And, get this - I asked him if they work out the "real" lifts based on weight to strength ratios, like in PL, and he said, no, not really - it's basically just a weight class, and what you lift is what you lift. So there are 2 weight classes for women - under 75 and over 75kg. Obviously I'm already way into the over 75's ha ha. So I said, great, that means I can get up to 100kgs if I like, and they won't use some formula that makes my weight/strength ratio bad? He was like, sure, you can get as big as you like, and the bigger you get, the stronger you'll get, generally speaking. But most women don't like to put on weight ... if you don't mind putting on weight, I can make you an SA champion - maybe not a world champion, but sure an SA champ. (!!!)

Anyway, he might be big talk, which is fine, whatever, so long as he can teach me the lifts properly. But he reckons there's a gap in the "market" so to speak, for female weightlifters. Hmm, this could be an interesting foray!

Wish me luck :)

(After this I'm going to learn how to wrestle, and then call myself Asia (not just Chyna, ha ha) and start raking in the bucks LMFAO!!!)
 
Thanks for the link slinky :) I'll try it once I've figured out the broomstick hang, hee hee.

I had my first session last night - it was great - we just worked with a broomstick at first, got the grip right, then worked on the 2nd pull of the snatch - just that central portion of the upward explosion.

Then did some front squats. Easy, for now. I see him again Friday.

But get this - I swear I must be the most charmed chick in the universe - somehow every time I make a few enquiries about trainers, I manage to turn up some pro .... This guy spent a great deal of time working with none other than ..... Louie Simmons!!! And not only that, but Fred Hatfield too! He was the PL coach for the SA paralympic team in Sydney, and was the coach for the most recent female weightlifting champ, who has now taking up boxing instead. And he says he knows plenty of people who could teach me wrestling :) Wow, if I wasn't stoked before, now I'm burning!
 
A little update:

Girls, if you haven't tried OL, I suggest you head on down to the nearest coach or whoever you can find, and LEARN! This is the most fun I've had in ages, and I usually have a LOT of fun training. Wow - what incredibly demanding but fun moves!

So far I'm up to doing hang snatches & jerks with the bar and even a few small weights (! ha ha), and we started the first pull for the snatch on Tuesday. This move gave me the most trouble I've had so far, since I feel I can't keep my back completely flat at the bottom part because of the wide grip - but my last few sets were much better than my first few, so obviously this is just a practice thing.

We also started cleans last week - these were REAL fun. My coach somehow was also really impressed - he told me my form was awesome for a first timer, and was pleased with what I'd achieved by the end of the workout. Sure - he may just be flattering me - but so what - I personally felt I did the moves well, so that's OK. :D

The only thing that's a bit confusing is that the first pull for both moves starts with the bar over the balls of the feet, but I'm so used to DL'ing with the bar close to my shins to start, I tend to forget.

Oh, and my front and back squats are going up, up :D

Wha hoo! I'm going to be super strong!
 
Thats great!

They will teach you how to do deep high bar squats. Some of the very best quads I have ever seen have been on Olympic lifters.

RG
 
Aren't hang cleans just a blast? I haven't learned the snatch yet, but that's next on my list. Keep us updated; I'm curious to hear how your OLY training proceeds...
 
Hang cleans are great. Actually I love just about any type of clean or snatch. Right now, really working with the one arm snatch.
 
USA Weightlifting offers certification courses/seminars across the nation. I went through the training and received a Club Coach certification about 3 years ago. That's another way to increase your experience and credentials.
 
Yes, RG - the first thing coach said when he saw me squat is - you're leaning too far forward and your stance is too wide, and the bar is too low on your back - you're powerlifting - this is weightlifting. So he's fixed that, and you know - it feels good. And better than that, I'm now doing narrower stance squats WAAAAAYY down - all the way down - butt on achilles - I used to cut it a bit when things got heavy, but having a coach means no cheating at all. The truth is - he said it's not really that important to go that low - that I should go as low as I feel comfortable with, but this is comfortable! And even better than all of that is my squat, back and front, has JUMPED!!! - I'm up 10 kilos on the back squat and a bit less on front in less than a month! And this is squatting about 3 times a week!

I did full cleans and jerks tonight for the first time - what a pleasure - to put it all together. It feels so natural. I think I'm in love with the clean and jerk. The snatch is ok, but needs more work.

One thing I WILL say - DAMN my shoulders are sore! You can't see the bruises yet, but they're there, and there's a huge black one on my collar bone. Nothing like a heavy bar dropping onto your shoulders over and over again :)

What's a one arm snatch slinky?

Pwr machine - I'd like to do that, but I live in South Africa, so not now :(
 
Steal:

One Arm Snatch is a snatch performed with one arm :D

My BF is performing them with a full barbell; while I'm using the short barbell and am up to 40-45lb DB's when I use a DB.

Once you really perfect the form of the clean, expect to no longer see the bruises.
 
pwr_machine said:
USA Weightlifting offers certification courses/seminars across the nation. I went through the training and received a Club Coach certification about 3 years ago. That's another way to increase your experience and credentials.
Click to expand...

its pretty cheap to head to colorado and take it out there. airfare and the certification fee, room and board is covered i think.
 
Yeah - I got a nice, lovely scrape right across my collar bone after the last session. I also tore up my thumbs a bit initially; I think I was letting the bar rotate a little, and it just ripped up the inside of both my thumbs.

Throw in a couple bruises on the knees from deadlifting, and I'm looking pretty right now. Good thing that ShowTan covers and hides most of that stuff. :-)
 
wow...how did I miss this thread?! I've been working on the basics of the clean. I have a tendency to start thinking too much, then hesitating! But I'm with you ladies...this OL is so much fun! I am reading a book called "Explosive Lifitng for Sports" which outlines the different olympic lifts...very good reading with lots and lots of pics.

I have a question about your grip...they show a "hook" grip in the book for pulls...do you ladies use this type of grip? I haven't tried it but the author recommends it.
 
No, I haven't tried it. My PLer started me with a standard grip (hence the beat up thumbs). Maybe that's the grip Steel's coach has her using?
 
The other thing he has me doing to get used to hang cleans is I warm up before every lift with an Oly complex instead of doing 5-10 minutes of cardio. I just use the bar for this complex:

Hang clean -> front squat -> press -> rear squat (high bar) -> push press.

I do 3 sets of 5, with a minute rest in between. I'm definitely warmed up by the time I'm finished, plus I'm getting much smoother on my cleans.
 
Yup! Hook grip. Inside of thumb getting a bit ripped up - the sweet beginnings of callouses :) This grip allows you to relax your arms, which weill increase your speed wen you're flipping the bar up overhead in the snatch. That was the second thing he taught me. The first thing was "ALWAYS throw the bar away from you when you feel it going - NEVER let the bar fall on you - throw it - I don't care where, but throw it away" lol. I've only had it fall on me once - scraped my thigh. There's so much to concentrate on all at once, it's easy to forget about tossing the bar.

I've let the bar "float" a few times, and thrown it into my oesophagus by mistake - this isn't comfortable, lol.

Yeah, Nonerz, the first few moves of every session are always a bit jerky, because nothing's habitualised yet - I'm still thinking about each part of the move - bar over balls of feet, slow on the first pull, explode from mid thigh, up on calves, explode traps , bring up the elbows, arms relaxed, flip op the bar - OPEN hands to let it drop onto shoulders, etc etc. It all happens so quickly, but it's coming together very nicely - my cleans are good, the push jerks aren't bad, except for not pulling my shoulders blades together. And I simply can't believe how quickly my squat is going up. I squatted four times last week - 2 back, 2 front, and every time the weight jumped. It's eerie.

My coach also told me a very cool thing - as one starts lifting heavier weights, so the bar bends, right? Well, OL'ers USE this bendy "whippiness" of the bar to add to the speed of their lift and the amount of weight they can lift by timing the rebound of the bendy ends of the bar to coincide with their upthrust, thus allowing the bar's momentum to basically lift itself!!! I think that is SO the funkiest thing!
 
nonerz did great today! she is getting the timing down pretty well. main hangup is exploding too soon for the second pull which causes her to bang her knees with the bar. a few times, she got the timing just right with the explosive shrug and the bar ended up by her "nooose". hehe. so the rack was rather jarring. i had her work with the 45lb bar today to get used to the size, balance of it.

like you guys said, its alot of timing the movements and it becoming more of an instinctive pattern vs a concious lift. the conciousness comes in the early phases of learning the parts of the lift and then putting it all together. ah well, we learn by doing....and she did alot today!

finished her up with some push/presses today, she got up to 65 for 10 and really saw how it has to be an explosive movement.

some farmer walks to round out the fun and we were on our way.

she's on her way to doing "the bear" soon enough. hehehe.
 
Cool! Yeah, I have the same problem - exploding too soon. That, and not stamping my feet hard enough - coach keeps on at me about this. I'm sure once I get some proper shoes he'll hear me stamp!

Push presses are a ball - the stronger the legs, the zappier the explosion.

Dunno about the bear, but I'm going to be doing SOMETHING animal pretty soon, heh heh heh :)
 
SteelWeaver said:
I'm going to be doing SOMETHING animal pretty soon, heh heh heh :)
Click to expand...
;) The bears sound like fun, but I think I'll wait until I get a little better!

Yep, I kept banging my knees on the first pull...I'm anxious to get that bar up! I love the Olympic lifts! I sweat up a storm doing them, which is always a plus as far as I'm concerned!

Keep the updates coming...they are great to read!:)
 
I'm leaving for Scotland tonight, so lifting is on hold through the end of next week. I'm already planning out my next training cycle, so I'll have lots to post soon. :-)
 
Good luck JJ! You're gonna be great!

Nonerz - all is well - great, in fact, except for that I have a biology exam tomorrow (and 5 exams in 5 days after that) and will probably have to write reams of fine detail on things like protein synthesis - fascinating, thrilling, but intensely complex :)

My squat was up another 2.5 kgs this week - it's slowing a bit, and I'm still getting bruises on my knees from the cleans, but right now everything is perfect :)

You? Just out of interest - I guess you guys don't have access to a ladies' OL bar? It has a smaller diameter and is only 15kgs, as well as being "whippier". My coach has me on that cuz he says that's what I'll have to use in comp. so I better get used to it .... It's nice (even though I generally don't go for "ladies' things", lol.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your programme JJ.
 
No wonder...you've been a very busy girl!

I've been using the plain old bars at the gym...nothing specifically designed for women or OL for that matter.

The area around my collar bone is really tender, but no visible bruising. Maybe when I move my weights up! :) I don't do OL'ing again until Thursday...looking forward to it though!
 
I would rather keep workin' with the "big bar' (didn't now there was a "ladies OL" bar) - besides I'm liken' the clean with the Apollons Axle. And it's diameter is 2".

And my hands are leeeettle tineeee things. Gotta work your grip, especially for Oly-lifts.

Steal, sounds like you've been making great progress!
 
I suppose, unless you're intending to compete in OL there's not much point in getting used to the littler bar. And slinky, you look so .... whew, just SO good with that thick Apollons Axle up overhead, I think you should do ALL your training with it, lol :) (and of course post pics ... ) Amazing!

Cleaning with that thing must really pound your shoulders! (I mean when it lands).

Anyway, progress report - learning the split stance for the jerk - very nice. Snatch is coming along, clean is great - cleaning 50 kgs at the mo ... going up every week. Front squat has come up 10kgs in just a month, and back squat about 15. Considering that for a long loooooong time I didn't really manage to make my squat go anywhere, and would thus seem to be a rather weak girl for my size, this is an unheard of accomplishment in my life. Wow :)

So perhaps 12-14 sets a week on legs past failure ISN'T really a very good idea for a natural, LMFAO! Although, I'm doing about that many total now, just spread over 3 days a week.

No more OL until NEXT Thursday now - gotta somehow get through exams without sending myself over the edge.
 
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