Training For Gold: Week 10

It's been a while since I've updated you all on as to how I'm progressing through my training.  This post serves only as a short update, as I realize it's really only of interest to a few people.  Though this is a pretty good spot to get my thoughts down, if I don't say so myself.

I'm please to announce that I'm continually feeling stronger than I ever have before in my life.  The workouts are brutally difficult, however I'm constantly surprising myself with hitting double and triple snatches that I didn't think were even close to possible for me.  The strength is there, and Ivan, my coach, clearly knows exactly what he's doing.  I have an unbelievable amount of respect for him.

In terms of injuries, I'm overcoming a shoulder pang that's been nagging me for a couple weeks, however through ice, heat, and lots and lots of massage and stretching it's recovered despite not ceasing my training.  Awesome!  It never effected my numbers either, thank goodness.  I'm also overcoming a bout of patellar tendinitis with a combination of foam rolling, a LOT of fish oil, and even more ice. All three combined are working wonders, and 12 days after I could barely walk, I'm feeling absolutely great.  Another week and I should be up near 100%.

I hit two new max lifts yesterday, which was absolutely remarkable because the workout surrounding the max attempts was designed to drain me of any energy I had left by the time I actually got the lifts themselves.  That means good things, such as LOTS of untapped potential deep within my muscles to lift a good few kilos more in both the clean and jerk and the snatch.  I have no doubt I could hit at least another 2 kilos in the snatch, and maybe as many as 5 more in the clean and jerk.  Regardless, here's my latest video of both lifts:

You can see more at my YouTube account specifically created to document my lifting progress: Liftm0re (yes, that's a zero, NOT an "o").

I'm due to max out in week 12 as well, so we'll see how that goes.  Progress is coming at relative light speed, and I cannot WAIT to see what else I'm capable of lifting.  A 150kg clean and jerk by the end of this year may not be so far fetched after all, especially if the muscle keeps coming on like it has been.  I'm up to 74 kg!

Stay tuned for more progress, cause I'm not quitting any time soon.

Training For Gold: Week 3

My one rest day has come around again, and unlike last week where I did some core and aggressive stretching on my rest day, this week I'm actually resting.  Looking back on this previous week, I'd consider it quite successful.  After tomorrow, I will have had three days where I did double sessions, and three days of single sessions.  That's a pretty decent amount of volume, and I'm definitely proud of myself for adapting to the load.

Eleiko Plates. Oh what I wouldn't do for a nice set of these.

My first session on double days always involves either front squats or back squats, and are usually one hour long.  I'll do between 20-30 total reps, attempting to get within at least 87% of my best ever belted max squat. This means above 275 lbs.  I can pretty regularly hit 290-300 lbs, which I feel is acceptable with my morning fatigue and semi-cold muscles.  

My later afternoon sessions are the ones dictated by my coach, who sends my daily workouts via facebook.  I hit all the numbers in Oly lifts, then squat.  This week I hit an easy 66 kg double snatch, and am feeling stronger than ever with my snatch form in general.  I feel like I could snatch over 80 kg if I maxed out, maybe even closer to 82kg.  I feel stronger in my clean and jerks, but I won't know for sure until I get near maximum weights again, which, judging by my workout schemes, won't happen for a while.  I'm hoping for at least 110kg when I finally do get a chance to lift the heavy stuff again.

Afternoon squats have been going very well, and my morning sessions haven't seemed to fatigue my legs much at all.  I hit 125 kg (275 lbs) for an un-belted triple the other day, AFTER my Oly lifts and AFTER a morning session.  Here's the video.

I was happy with it, and I feel like there's more there.  I REALLY want a 130 kg triple, hopefully this next week.

This week I added to my diet: 

2 Bananas (For Pre and Post Workout Carbs due to high glucose content)

1/4 cup Fiber One Cereal (Post morning session, just to refill some glycogen before afternoon session)

1 cup milk (Basically I just added to my previous milk amounts in lunch and dinner)

Almonds (100 calories worth, just to round out my afternoon meal to an even 200 calories)

Total Calories...3000?  I'd say about 3 grand, though I'll count more closely when I get a chance.

After this week I'm right up at about 160 lbs, which is a 1-2 lb weight gain.  I'm happy with that, and I'm going to keep my diet steady and see where it takes me.  Once I hit a plateau, I'll bump up the calories again.  The extra carbs are REALLY doing me good, I feel much more powerful under the bar, and have a LOT more energy.  Hurray for bananas.

We'll see how these next workouts go.  Things are getting heavy quickly, and I can't WAIT to start smashing some more PR's.  Here's a video of my Double 66 kg double snatch, with bar path analysis:

If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, or suggestions about training, please comment!  I'd love to hear from fellow Oly lifters, and I'd really love support through this journey of mine.  I'm determined to be a champion.  I have to lift more, I just plain HAVE to.

Front Squats, And Why They RULE!

I've said time and time again, if you want to get stronger, faster, bigger, leaner, more powerful, and look like you actually lift weights, get under the bar and do some squats.  Seriously, you can read this article later! go hit up the squat rack for a few sets of heavy triples!

And now that that's done, let's talk about why next time you run off to the gym, you should try putting that heavy bar on your shoulders instead of your traps.  What the heck am I talking about?  FRONT SQUATS!  The ultimate total body squat exercise (save for overhead squats, though those can be a little harder to jump right into).  I'm not kidding, back squats and front squats are two completely different beasts.  To put it in perspective, I can easily rep 280 lbs for a set of three back squatting, then after a minute or two I'll be ready to come back and hit it again.  When I approach my max in front squats (which happens to be about 80% of my max back squat), I literally need to compose myself for quite some time between sets.  They absolutely drain you, and work your body to a whole new level of fatigue.  Don't be scared though, because after a set of good, deep front squats, you'll walk away from that squat rack feeling like you REALLY pushed yourself, and nothing feels better than that.

So what's a front squat look like?  Well, before I attempt to explain via text on a page, I'll show you a video:

This guy definitely knows how to front squat, great depth, great flexibility, and INCREDIBLE strength from the very rock bottom position.  Can you do this?  Absolutely, though obviously we'll start off with a little less weight.

First step in a front squat, approach and grip the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width.  This will ensure your upper back is as tight as possible, and will fight your urge to "hunch" in the bottom of the squat.  Second, bring your elbows down under the bar, and push them forward until the bar is resting on your deltoids (shoulders).  Make it tight against your throat.  Don't worry about breathing problems, and if you are choking just a little, LOOK UP.  It will clear your airway.  I'm serious here, you want that bar tight against your neck, keep it close to you.

Now, un-rack the bar with either both heels under it or in a split position (just make sure you're not using your toes to lift the weight off the rack).  Step back with a couple slow, very controlled steps, and get your feet into a position that's either shoulder width or slightly wider (I go a little wider because I have very long legs).

Now this is important.  You may have learned to keep your legs parallel and your toes pointing straight forward.  If you do this in a front squat, you'll dump the bar.  Front squats require you to remain UPRIGHT in the bottom position, and therefore they might feel a little weird at first.  To accomplish this upright position, the first thing necessary is to point your toes at an angle slightly outward.  When it's time to descend, lock in your lower back, and instead of pushing your butt "back" like so many personal trainers might have told you, push your knees OUT and start to descend between your hips.  This may take time to get right, and you'll need to build up some hip flexibility to get it right.  STAY ON YOUR HEELS.  Don't go onto your toes, or your knees will punish you.  Keep going as deep as you can, continually pushing your knees out, and staying on the outside of your heels.  Once you're as low as you can go (hopefully at least below parallel), drive with your heels, quads, and glutes, and try to stay upright.  A little forward lean is expected under heavy loads, but try to keep it minimal.  Oh, and don't let your knees buckle inward!  Push them out with all your might!  Once you're standing again, feel free to do another.

Now I keep saying to remain upright, but I haven't told you two EXTREMELY important tips to doing so.  Firstly: KEEP YOUR ELBOWS UP!  Don't let them dip.  Keep them parallel to the ground (I mean your upper arm here, your elbows shouldn't point toward the ground at any time in the squat.)  Second:  FLEX YOUR CORE!!!!  Front squats are one of the greatest core exercises of all time BECAUSE they require you to keep your core extremely tight to stay upright.  You have to clench your abs with everything you got, even before you start the squat.  Don't even THINK about heading down until you make sure your abs are TIGHT.  The requirement for a strong core is much moreso than in back squats.

Here's a picture:

Alternate Grip:  If you're having trouble with the classic Olympic grip, you can try the cross arm grip.  You're still balancing the bar on your shoulders, but your grip looks more like one of those russian "hooplah" dancers, if you know what I mean.  If you don't, here's a picture:

I honestly don't like this grip too much, and if you do any sort of Olympic lifting, even as an assistance exercise, DON'T USE THIS GRIP.  But for those of you just starting out, or just doing front squats for the fun of it, feel free to try it out.  Some people like it much better.

So there's your intro to the front squat.  I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend hitting this exercise ASAP! You won't be sorry.  The gains possible off of front squats are enormous, and a lot of people have found that if they've plateaued on back squats, front squats can push them over that stall point and keep their numbers going up.  As far as Olympic lifting is concerned, the front squat is MUCH more applicable to the lifts than back squats, because you're forced to stay upright (and every single time you clean a heavy weight, you have to front squat it up...see the relation).  Hit the gym and try these bad boys out and you'll look and feel like an absolute monster!

Squat deep, squat heavy, stay tight, and GOOD LUCK! 

Training For Gold: After week 1

Working on as straight a pull as possible.  Not bad so far, eh?  

Well, I made it through week one.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't easy.  Total, I had 4 double days, in which I squatted heavy in the morning, and ran through that day's weightlifting workout (provided by my coach) in the afternoon.  Overall, the working weights for my second workout have been light, but that doesn't mean the workouts themselves weren't brutal.  The first two days, in fact, were a little more than I bargained for.  Allow me to explain:

Before starting this targeted training, I usually lifted heavy singles in all the lifts for about 6-20 reps per exercise (snatches, clean and jerks, squats).  This would take me about two hours (working at a slow pace), and my total reps weren't too high (though because the weights were always heavy, I always was quite glycogen depleted at the end of each workout.)

My new workouts involve tons and tons and TONS of triples.  That's right, three reps of heavy-ish weight in some of the most fatiguing lifts ever created.  Have you ever tried 5-8 sets of triple heavy clean and jerks?  Let me tell you, after you're done you feel like you've just sprinted two football fields.  It's crazy, but I can feel the strength building up inside me, and I love it.

Diet-wise, this week has been somewhat successful.  I've adapted to the higher caloric intake (and enjoyed it quite thoroughly), though I haven't seen too much budging on the scale.  I was 159 this morning, with clothes on and breakfast in my belly, as well as a lot of water in my muscles from the creatine.  I would say that taking all this into account I haven't really made any progress in terms of weight gain thus far, though I do feel stronger and more capable in the gym.  That could be either the creatine or the extra food talking.  I guess we'll see.

Creatine loading is complete, by the way.  I'm off the 20 grams per day, and have dropped back down to around 7-10 grams.  I'm trying to conserve the product, and see how far into this cycle my half jar of Universal Creatine can take me.  Luckily the stuff is cheap, so if supplies run low another couple 200 g bottles shouldn't cost much at all.

Universal Creatine.  Probably the best strength "bang for your buck" you can find.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

There haven't been any PR's in the classic lifts this week, and judging by the format of the workouts given to me I doubt I'll see any more PR singles for quite a while, just because I'm working so heavily on lots of repititions.  However I did PR on my front squat this week, and hit 104.5 kg (230 lbs) for 3 reps.  And despite it being a PR, it felt pretty darn solid, I might have another 2-3 kilos in me if I really push it, though I think I'll wait on that for just a bit.

For my rest day today, I've been doing nothing but stretching, loading up on protein and complex carbs, and working my core.  I cannot WAIT to get back into the gym bright and early tomorrow morning for my next heavy squat session, and can't wait to see what my coach has in store for this next week.  I have a sinking feeling the weights are going to increase very quickly.

We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you all posted.  Wish me luck!

This is a Knol I wrote a while ago, and was quite proud of it.  I suggest learning the overhead squat if you are able, as it will do you a World of good.

The Ultimate Movement

Exploring the Benefits of the Overhead Squat

In truth, there is no one "greatest" exercise to perform. Not for strength, endurance, flexibility, nor any other subset of the fitness world. However, there are a few that can produce great results in most of these fields. This article will discuss one of my personal favorites: The Overhead Squat, and why exactly it can transform someone into a very strong, flexible, powerful individual.

Contents

• Ben Smith demonstrating the overhead squat

The overhead squat, by nature, is a scary sounding exercise.  It can be even more daunting to watch, as someone who's never seen/tried one before will find it very hard to understand how one can hold such huge amounts of weight over their head, then descend beneath it into the deepest, most straining of squats, and rise back from the depths to full standing height, miraculously unharmed, shoulders and legs fully intact.

Ben Smith demonstrating the overhead squat

Without doubt, this exercise is difficult.  It is strenuous, and requires vast amounts of strength, stability, and flexibility.  And with higher weights, the term "vast" becomes more and more of an understatement.  But even at very low weights, this movement remains one of the greatest full body exercises one could ever do in their routine.  It engages muscles everywhere, and therefore will build complete, full body strength.  To figure out one movement can do so much, let's examine the overhead squat piece by piece.

It should be mentioned first that any type of weighted squat will do wonders for building remarkable strength.  Why is this?  Well, squats require the activation of a huge amount of muscle fiber in order to complete even one with good form.  You may think of squats being synonymous with leg workouts, and while this is initially a correct instinct (a good squat will activate the hamstrings, glutes, and quadricep muscles), they activate many more muscles as well.  In fact, to be stable in a deep ATG (ass to grass...pardon my french...) squat requires an extremely strong core.  Core in general means muscles in, you guessed it, the MIDDLE of the body.  This includes abdominal muscles, upper legs, lower back, and obliques.  More formally, it is defined as the entire spine, pelvic girdle, and hip joints.  This is a remarkable 29 muscles at least!  That's a LOT of muscle fiber.  And the best part of all this?  All that huge amount of muscle fiber is actually USEFUL.  The muscles you're activating while squatting are some of the most used in the majority of other strength related exercises.  So when you squat, you build real, usable strength, everywhere.  

A second, equally important reason as to why squats are so important may be of interest to those guys looking to get bigger and more muscular quickly.  Because squats activate the largest muscles your body possesses, as you squat you release a large amount of testosterone, which will cause your body to go into, put simply, "muscle building mode." You'll pack on lean mass relatively quickly (obviously not that quickly, building lean muscle take a LOT of time), and the strength gains will be as close to immediate as you can get.  Ladies, don't be scared by the word testosterone, squats will only help you, as will all weightlifting.  In fact, adding any muscle mass will increase your metabolism and help you shed unwanted pounds.  And you will NOT bulk up.  I don't care who says you will, they are wrong.  Go look at any female Olympic weightlifter in the lighter classes.  They're throwing 300lbs above their head, and they're still lean, mean, sexy machines.  

On an aside, SQUAT DEEP.  Parallel squats are what hurt your knees, as they take the brunt of the force as you go from descending to ascending.  As you go below parallel, that same force is transferred to your hips and hamstrings, which are bigger muscles that can definitely take the strain.

Well there's the squatting portion of the exercise.  And talk to anyone who know's squatting, it's not easy.  People spend years developing good squat form (not to deter anyone from trying, I suggest it to anyone and everyone looking to put on a little muscle).  But with the overhead squat, squatting is really only half the battle.  The other portion is obviously making sure that the huge weight above your head, doesn't come crashing down from it's precarious perch above your head.  This requires even MORE strength.  A lot more.  

To hold the weight overhead, there's generally a specific grip used.  It's called the "snatch" grip, and is named after the Olympic lift (the snatch) where athletes bring the weight from the ground to overhead in one fluid motion, catching it in...you guessed it...a full overhead squat.  There's a reason those athletes are considered the strongest in the world.  The snatch grip itself means to hold the bar with one's hands very spread apart, nearly at the collars of the bar.  

  This requires less shoulder flexibility to remain upright and "tight" in the bottom of the squat.  The narrower the grip, the more shoulder flexibility is required to go ATG.  This is because as you descend, your shoulders must rotate backwards in order to keep the bar aligned over your heels, and in turn keep your entire body balanced.  Drift too far forward or backwards, and you'll be forced to dump the bar.  What this basically describes is an extremely tight isometric exercise for your entire upper back, core, shoulders, and chest.  One must keep their traps squeezed together and their arms locked out throughout the entire motion.  This, without doubt, becomes very fatiguing VERY quickly.  Little tiny bits of bar movement suddenly require huge efforts to fight and contradict.  And after a few sets, it's almost a guarantee you'll be sore the next day where you haven't ever felt sore before, because most likely you've never worked stabilizing muscles to such a high degree.

    To even do one overhead squat, with any sort of weight, is an accomplishment.  No one should claim it's not, because it'd be safe to say the large majority of gym-goers have ever ventured from their routines enough to try one.  The flexibility requirements of overhead squatting is large.  One must have very flexible hips, knees, hamstrings, calves, quads, shoulders, chest, and spine.  Luckily the overhead squat itself is not inherently possible without such flexibities, so the risk of strain or dislocation decreases.  One who isn't flexible enough, will be forced to drop the bar before any sort of bodily damage can occur. 

     In order to increase flexibility for such an exercise, many stretches should be done on a daily basis (perhaps this is a good time to say that this article is merely meant to describe the benefits of overhead squatting, and should not be considered a guide to either the exercise itself or the supporting exercises or stretches.)  And not only will stretches help your overhead squat, the overhead squat itself is an amazing full body stretch, and therefore will only help you to become stronger and more flexible in the long run.

So is it the Ultimate Exercise?  Is overhead squatting the greatest, most beneficial movement one could do in the gym?  Again, certainly not exclusively.  But the benefits associated with the exercise are immeasurably large, and definitely place this exercise near the top of the list.

Talk to Marcin Dolega, champion 105kg class Polish weightlifter, about the benefits of overhead squatting.  That's a full Olympic snatch^^^....and is about 400lbs.