Olympic Lifting Q's, help

[Gladiola]

I'm about 1.5 mos now into learning the lifts - I totally transitioned into exclusively this type of training & joined a team.

The overhead position for the snatch - when I do overhead squats, I am having so much pain in my wrists!!!! Anyone else experience this? I've been stretching them agressively, hoping to increase flexibility to improve it, but yesterday the pain was even worse - like a dagger in the middle of my hand. One of the other ladies who trains there is having the same issue.

JUMPING - I'm an aerobics instructor. Quite used to jumping around. Been told I'm jumping WRONG! Should be all from the hip - not knee extention. I'm having some difficulty re-programming my body to do this. When I'm 'jumping' doing a power clean (from the hang), I'm dipping a bit at the knees - which is setting me back, bar swings out in front sometimes, etc. It's not so bad as to be horrible (i.e. it's not as ugly as it sounds! it's a subtle error), but I gotta fix it so I can start doing the cleans from below the knee! Any tips or advice???

My coach asked if I had ever been a cheerleader when watching me jump onto a bench. "Nope, but aerobics is pretty similar!" I have had to reprogram myself for sooo many things. I know a lot of it will just require hours training & patience.

 

[johnsmith182]

why not tell your coach and follow his recomendatios? if i was coaching you id probably have you ditch the overhead work for a while in favor of just pulls till the pain goes away... then work back into the overhead stuff slower to let the body get used to it... however im sure your coach will have a decent solution to this... wrist pain is common when starting OL and its usually pretty easy to get over.

 

[AnimalMass1]

what's up John!!!!

Hey guys, this is one of the smartest guys you'll ever come across.

AnimalMass

 

[Deciever1]

john seems smart. what are your lifts? how do you train?...etc

 

[Gladiola]

why not tell your coach and follow his recomendatios?

I did. He basically shrugged it off & said I need to increase the wrist flexibility. I should really make it clear to him though that I am NOT averse to pain. If I'm whining & stopping overhead squats b/c of wrist pain, it's serious!!! Fortunately it's not all overhead work - only snatch grip. Clean grip for push presses or military presses is perfectly fine.

I got the below advice from a much more helpful team mate. Just got the e-mail, haven't tried it yet. Thoughts?

WristPain- sounds like carpal tunnel. Seriously, or at least the beginnings of it. I get the same feeling, like someone is trying to pull my bones apart on the top center of my hand. i would take 2 advil 3x a day with a meal, the last after my workout. also, take two or three strong rubber bands and wrap them around your fingers, and then pull them apart for 3 sets
of 30. each hand, once or twice a day. you could also put your hand in a bowl of dry rice and open your fist, or do the same thing in water. your wrist pain should stop in about two weeks.

Deceiver - are those Q's for me? I train Mon & Wed evenings & Sat mornings at the OL center.
I usually do cleans, 3 sets of 3
snatches, 2-3 sets of 5
OH squats, just 2 sets of 5-6
front or back squats, 5 sets of 5
some sort of overhead work (push press, push jerk, or military press) 3 sets of 5
& sometimes also RDL, or GM. Abs 2X per week. Coach just said Wed that I'll start to alternate snatches & cleans. Pounds are low now since I'm just learning - just transitioned from BB style training (each body part 1X per week).

THANKS for any help!!!!

 

[AnimalMass1]

lol - John is an Olympic lifter. I'll let him tell you his lifts, as they will blow you away.

Other than that, I'll let him say what he wants to say about himself. He's pretty guarded about his private life.

AnimalMass

 

[johnsmith182]

to "gladiola" i cant say as im really surprised by your coaches attitude. theres always a communication problem at first. god knows i have problems when i first start to coach someone. the problem is this... ive had some beginners who tear their hands up so bad their first training session, they are literally dripping blood on the floor... and they wont say anything, they just keep lifting. other people, if something is the least little bit hard or uncomfortable, they want to quit. when you first start coaching someone, you just cant tell. it takes a few months to get to know someone.

so, you need to sit down with your coach, and tell him in plain english just how bad the pain is. im confident that if you can communicate with him that your not just being a wimp, that i really does hurt and is getting worse, that he will do the right thing.

just dont let the communication problem go on.

 

[spatts]

to "gladiola" i cant say as im really surprised by your coaches attitude. theres always a communication problem at first. god knows i have problems when i first start to coach someone. the problem is this... ive had some beginners who tear their hands up so bad their first training session, they are literally dripping blood on the floor... and they wont say anything, they just keep lifting. other people, if something is the least little bit hard or uncomfortable, they want to quit. when you first start coaching someone, you just cant tell. it takes a few months to get to know someone.

so, you need to sit down with your coach, and tell him in plain english just how bad the pain is. im confident that if you can communicate with him that your not just being a wimp, that i really does hurt and is getting worse, that he will do the right thing.

just dont let the communication problem go on.

Hey john...where do you coach? what kind of lifters? how long?

 

[johnsmith182]

deciever... ive had good careers in several different sports... including powerlifting and olympic lifting.

as far as mylifts... i prefer not to be specific for now.... simply because as animal said, i prefer to be carefull about my identity, and my lifts are good enough that if i was truthfull about them, it would not be hard to guess my identity if you had been involved in the strength sports long enough.

 

[Screwball]

You wouldn't happen to be John Smith, would you? Too easy, right?

 

[Hannibal]

You wouldn't happen to be John Smith, would you? Too easy, right?

Damn Screwball, they don't call you the smartest kid at the playground for nothing.

 

[AnimalMass1]

OK, John tell me to shut up if I'm saying to much, but first off, no he's not the real "John Smith," and let me just say that John could kick the real John SMith's ass anyday in lifting.

I was going to say what John said about himself, in that his lifts are so superb, that it would give away his identity. So quit trying to guess his identity, and understand that we have one of the best in strength and cond knowledge and experience on our board.

AnimalMass

 

[johnsmith182]

spatts, as far as how long, seems like ive been coaching as long as ive been training. i was always the type that thought about training 24/7, and wasnt afraid to call people on the phone or get in a car and go and talk to people face to face if i thought they could answer a question or expand my knowledge. so i suppose i was always the person that everyone hates, always offering "advise", always trying to solve my problems and everyone elses.

at some point i did gradually move from that informal "coach" positition to a more formal paid position, but not without a few bumps along the road. as i began to see the end of my own ahletic career getting nearer, i began looking more seriously at the acedemic and coaching side of the equation. at one time i seriously considered staying in acedemia... just teaching and research. i liked the teacing side of it, still do in fact, and i did do some research into the taining of strength athletes... good research i think. some of my concepts are being used by he USOC to moniter the training of athletes in several sports... and quite frankly, a couple have been "stolen" by more famous people in strength world, with no mention of my name.

however, i did realize that i could only be happy working with athletes... and specifically working with "my kind" of athletes. fortunately, i had just enough "clout" to not have to accept a job as a typical "university football strength coach"... while this might be great for some, it wouldnt be satisfying to me.

i currently work with a wide range of athetes... all the way from 12 year old beginners to international competitors. they all have one thing in common though... they all want to get better bad enough to willingly put up with me yelling at them every day! this, in reality, is quite different from being a university strength coach... i have some experience in this field and in reality the chief challenge is just getting the athletes to put out some effort... most DONT want to work. i also work for the USOC n several capacities and work with the primary sports coaches for several sports to help them optimize their training.

as far as what kind of athletes i work with... just basically anyone wanting to get stronger, faster, or more powerfull. i do seem to attract athletes from mostly one or two sports, but have worked with elite competitors from a quite wide range of sports, including skiing, cycling, track and field, and others along with more specific strength sports like olympic weightlifting. powerlifting is not an olympic sport, so i dont currently work with a lot of powerlifters, but have coached quite a few in the past.

 

[Screwball]

Welcome to the board johnsmith182. I respect any and all levels of lifters. I meant no disrespect. Just trying to keep things upbeat and positive.

AnimalMass1: No one on this board is going to try and expose anyone who wants to remain anonymous. We all have a tremendous respect for each other and our varying opinions. I was joking around...

 

[AnimalMass1]

Oh yeah, I know Screwball. It's just that if you exposed me (which you will next Saturday at the meet) it means nothing. But when you have someone of John's caliber on here, I can understand wanting to remain anonymous.

AnimalMass

 

[Gladiola]

John, I would be SO grateful for any little smidgen of your knowledge you'd toss my way. I'm feeling reaaaalllly lost. I'm not even used to being coached - I've been the one leading the show for years now.

In my quest for more info - I came across this enyclopedia of OL:
www.wlinfo.com
Has some great reviews from some great lifters. Your thoughts? I like to really understand things inside & out - I don't wanna go by just 'intuition' or feel - I wanna know WHY about everything!

What is your recommendation for ab workouts? My coach is saying sets of 20-25, 120 reps total, 2-3X per week, weighted. Ugh. I hate high reps! Any recommendations for exercises?

PEC WORK!!! I have been told by my coach & one teammate to, "STAY AWAY FROM ALL PEC WORK." Must let my pecs intentionally atrophy. It is possible to be strong AND flexible - so why can't I continue to increase the flexibility of my front delts & keep that pec strength????

THANKS