OK everyone. Wish Phil Locker a successful meet in Mobile AL this weekend as he travels to compete in the USAW American Open. The meet will be webcast live. Here is the link: American Open Webcast
Phil's weight class (85kg) is scheduled to lift at 3PM CST (2PM our time) this Saturday, the 3rd.
The next meet we have locally will be February 4th at Red Rocks Crossfit in Colorado Springs. This is the annual Colorado State and Open Championships. It's time to start thinking seriously about planning and programming since this meet is just 8 weeks away. Perfect amount of time to prepare actually. Let Tim or me know if you want to compete.
And for you lifters who are 35 and above next year, you really should consider taking the plunge and going to Masters Nationals in Savannah GA. The Cohen's put on a fantastic meet and Tim, Russ Leabch and I can all attest to the fact that it's one of the best events anywhere. Plan an extra day and enjoy Savannah in the early spring: a fabulous town. The National Masters is March 30th to April 1. For more information about masters weightlifting go to http://www.mastersweightlifting.org/
Flatirons Weightlifting Team member Russ Leabch added yet another Gold medal to his collection with a perfect 6/6 day at the American Masters championships in Savannah GA this last weekend. Great way to wind up the lifting season Russ!
For the first time the Men's Team finished in second place in the affiliate competition, edging out Front Range Weightlifting Club and just behind Front Range Crossfit.
My paper work is a little sketchy from the first session on Sunday, so please correct me in the comments or when you see me at the gym and I'll adjust. Kirk Warner 77kg had a good first meet with a 148kg total 4/6 performance as did 77kg Greg Parr with a 5/6 performance and a 127 kg total.
The second session was all 85kg lifters. James Phillips got snatch, clean and jerk and total PRs with a 78/101 6/6 performance. Greg Brown had a good day with 84/100 effort. Russ Leabch, tuning up for American Masters in Savannah this coming weekend cranked out a 6/6 performance and looked very sharp and explosive with 65/83 best lifts. Phil Locker had a close battle with James Byers of Front Range Weightlifting Club. James went 3/3 in snatch ending with a 122. Phil also went 3/3 finishing with a PR 113kg snatch. James finished C/J with a 140kg best so Phil needed a 150kg C/J for the win. It took three tries for Phil to get a lift the three judges could support, crushing 150kg for the win in the 85s.
The final session of the day, the 94s, 105s and +105 classes had some excellent performances. Peter Reilly had a very successful 5/6 first meet, 65/93 performance. 105kg Tim Retzik had been having severe wrist problems all week and after being unsuccessful in the snatch competition had to withdraw from the meet. Novice Mac Crawford had a great 5/6 day with a 200kg total (85/115)good enough for Silver in the 105kg class. +105 Keith Mitchell, lifting on little training due to work and grad school and coming off the bubonic plague that has been going around plus coaching all weekend managed a stellar 6/6 effort nailing 97/115 for Silver.
First of all, I want to say that I am very proud of everyone who lifted this weekend. And I am very proud to be able to work around and coach such great people. We had two full days of lifting in Denver and Skip and Jodie and all their team at Front Range Crossfit really put on a fine event. (The Paleo Wagon serving hot food all day was a great and very welcome touch!!) Flatirons Crossfit owner and coach Tim Retzik, Keith Mitchell and James Phillips all did a great job coaching, guiding their respective lifters to the best performances that they could produce each day.
In the first women's session 48/53/58 kg lifters, Rosanne took the silver medal in the 53s. Danielle lifting in the 58s also took silver going 2/3 in the snatch. After a rough two misses on her opening jerk she nailed a great third attempt for a 5kg jerk PR and a 4 kg PR for total. Emily Shangraw lifting in her first meet went 5/6 in the 58s and 96kg total for a very nice first meet performance!
Lucinda struggled a bit in the second session, which was all 63kg women, but she persevered getting on the board with a 118kg total. Lucinda is a tough competitor!
The last session on Saturday was the 69kg, 75kg and + 75Kg classes. Elizabeth improved 7kg on the snatch with a 58kg PR and matched her last best meet effort in the jerk with 70kg for a 128kg PR total and the Silver medal! Emma had a good day going 5/6 setting a 3kg snatch PR and a 6kg total PR and just missed (barely) her final jerk attempt which would have been a 3kg jerk PR! Rose, lifting in her very first meet, had a perfect 6/6 performance with an 89kg total. Also lifting in her first meet, Erica Solano took Gold in the +75 class with a 5/6 114kg total.
The women's team just barely missed 2nd place overall tying FRCF on points but losing the tiebreaker: they had one more lifter that placed higher. Great job ladies!!
You need to show up at the weigh in on time. You have an hour to make weight if that is an issue. If you are a little over weight when you get up, don't eat breakfast. Eat after weigh in. Chew gum and spit in a cup on the way to the venue. 8 oz of spit weighs .25kg or 1/2 lb. Gross, yes. But you do what you need to.
Bring your USAW card. You will be asked for it at weigh in. Go to USA Weightlifting Member Log In plug in your member number and password, click on the membership tab. You can print out a hard copy fo your card, or someof the cool kids print it as a PDF and save it on their smart phones. either way is fine.
Know your starting attempts for snatch and clean and jerk. You will be asked for these at weigh in. If you don't know, ask me or Tim. One of us will be around for weigh-ins so don't be afraid to ask for help.
Remember to bring a snack, water etc. Your session will start an hour after weigh-ins are over. You might want a little snack between snatch and jerk sessions too.
Bring your singlet, socks, t-shirt, sports bra, shoes, warm up suit/sweats, tape etc. iPod might be a good idea. Foam roller, stick, lacrosse ball. Don't assume the venue will supply what you need. Change of clothes for after the meet. Some lifters bring a blanket and a pillow. If you want a nap after weigh in, not a bad idea. Whatever will make you comfortable, bring it. If you need a team T-Shirt, hit me up. I have a few left.
Here we go!! Good luck and good lifting everyone!!
There is some fuzzy history on the interwebs about the origins of the Romanian Deadlift, or RDL as it's come to be known. I've spoken with and read accounts by coaches who swear up and down they first witnessed this lift in training halls at European meets, at the USOC in Colorado Springs, etc . Not to cast aspersions on anyone's best recollections, but as far as I can ascertain, the account by Coach Jim Schmitz and journalist Randy Strossen is the best documented (see the picture above by Strossen) and all the other stories about first witnessing the RDL are, well, good stories.
Far from being the "beloved exercise of the Romanian weightlifting team" as one report puts it, according to Romanian Olympic Champion Nicu Vlad, he had simply devised a hybrid deadlifting movement to give himself some extra low back work. Neither he nor his coach at the time Dragomir Cioroslan had a formal name for it, so Schmitz (who was hosting the lifter and his coach for a clinic at his gym) coined the name Romanian Deadlift (and being the king of abbreviations for movements) or RDL. And it stuck. Here is the story, told by Schmitz, as it appears on Strossen's Iron Mind website:
"I get quite a kick out of all the mileage the RDL (Romanian deadlift) has gotten in the world of strength and conditioning. It seems I almost always come across the RDL exercise in every article written about training for power and sport in all the journals on the subject. The reason for my amusement is that the �discovery� of the RDL was in my gym, The Sports Palace, in San Franciscoin 1990.
Olympic and world champion and world record holder Nicu Vlad, of Romania, and his coach Dragomir Cioroslan were conducting a clinic there. They were in the U.S. for the 1990 Goodwill Games that were being held in Seattle and Spokane, Washington. USA Weightlifting, for which I was president at the time, invited Nicu and Dragomir to conduct some clinics while they were here, and my gym was one of the locations. Part of the clinic was Nicu doing a workout where he cleaned and jerked around 220 kg to 230 kg, and then he proceeded to do this lift, a combination stiff-leg deadlift and regular deadlift, but actually neither. He did several sets, working up to 250 for triples.
Someone watching asked what the exercise was he was doing. Nicu just shrugged his shoulders and said it was to make his back strong for the clean. Dragomir also said the same; it was just a lift that Nicu had developed for his back and clean. Well, then everyone was really interested and asked Nicu to demonstrate it with lighter weights and describe how to do it. Someone taking notes asked what this lift was called. There was a long pause and Nicu and Dragomir didn�t have a name, so I said, �Let�s call it the Romanian deadlift or RDL for short,� and every one agreed and there you have the birth of the RDL. MILO publisher and editor-in-chief Randall Strossen was there taking photos.
Let me tell you how to correctly perform the RDL for those who may not be sure. You grab the bar with your clean grip, pull the bar to the tops of your thighs, but don�t complete the lift: knees are not locked out, chest is out, and back is flat. You then lower the bar to about two inches from the platform, keeping your back perfectly flat or arched and your knees slightly flexed, then you return to the almost erect position--but is very critical here not to fully lock the knees--then repeat. Two very important details are 1) your back stays flat or arched at all times, and 2) your knees stay slightly flexed at all times. This lift is almost all low back, glutes, and hamstrings. I recommend 3 to 5 reps with a weight 80% to 100% of your best clean. An interesting side note here is that Yoshinobu Miyake, Japan�s 1964 and 1968 Olympic champion, was at the clinic and he said he did the same exercise back in his prime, the 1960s." http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Lifts/Romanian_deadlift.html
Try the RDL as Schmitz recommends. I would add that the trick to making the RDL effective is to lock the back, hinge at the hips and "reach back' with the butt to lower the bar. Go no further than you can maintain back integrity. Did it work for Vlad? Here's some footage of him cleaning and jerking 205kg at the 1984 Olympic Games.
When he moved up to the 100kg a bit later in his career he became the heaviest man in history to snatch double bodyweight. Of course, if you include the RDL in your workouts your results may vary.
The start lists previously posted for the Fall meet this weekend November 5th and 6th are being revised. Final lists will be available Thursday. Women will have an additional, earlier session on Saturday: weighing in at 9 and lifting at 11, so if you were originally scheduled to weigh in at 11 and lift at 1, this change will possibly effect you. Stay tuned!!
General warm up 10 minutes, walking lunges, crawling lunges, shoulder dislocates, OHS, wrist looseners
1) Clean from three hang positions. All three positions = 1 rep. 3 sets x 3 reps
2) Push Press: 556065(3) (use 1RM push press %s)
3 3 2
3) Front Squat: 556065 (3)
5 4 3
4) Clean Pull: 80 (3)
3
Two Hand Kettlebell Swings to Chest Height: 3 sets of 20 reps. Use a heavy bell!
V-Ups 50 total with med ball
Brendan has been lifting just a few months and has gained almost 30lbs of bodyweight...hard to believe. His lifts have moved up too. Here is a PR jerk from the blocks: 100kg!
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Team Leader-Instructor
American Kettlebell Club Kettlebell Lifting Coach
Coached and competed in many meets including local, Master’s National and Pan American Championships. 2008 94 KG Master’s National Bronze Medalist. Achived Candidate Master of Sport qualification in Kettlebell (Girevoy) Sport for 80, 90 and 90+ KG body weight classes.
Since 2006, strength trained professional Stihl Series Timber Sport athletes Mike Eash and Arden Cogar, Jr. In 2008 coached Collegiate Stihl Series runner up Matt Slingerland who at 17, is the youngest competitor to qualify for the Collegiate Timber Sport series. Arden Cogar, Jr is the 2009 Stihl Series American Champion and will represent USA in the World Championships.
In 2005 coached former National Kettlebell Lifting Champion Jen Morey who in 2005, participated on the first USA Kettlebell Lifting Team to ever compete in Russia. Jen was runner up in the 2007 National Championships. She still holds the American record for total one arm snatches and double jerks.
In all sports, the ability to express speed, strength and explosiveness for the duration of an event are prized athletic attributes. These attributes are trainable. Both kettlebell and Olympic weightlifting movements are excellent choices for the athlete desiring to improve explosive strength. Traditional repetition kettlebell lifting also provides an additional dimension of strength endurance training not found in other weight training modalities. Intelligent application of both kinds of weight training practiced produces the ability to express explosive strength and speed repeatedly with less fatigue. Kettlebell and Olympic Weightlifting movements teach athletes to generate power from the core/torso and concentrically transmit focus and power. Weight training is essential for all athletes. For runners, cyclists and any endurance athlete.
Consider the words of three-time British Olympian Gordon Pirie :
“Before I began weight training, I was a long distance and cross country runner who could grind it out with anyone but a constant loser in the sprint. A diet of hard weights, however, turned me into a complete competitor, one who could pour on the pace and still sprint madly at the finish.”
Getting involved in Olympic Weightlifting in college was one of the best things I've done for my athletic career. I've seen it increase explosiveness and overall strength, as well as flexibility and motor control.
