Dave Rigert

130kg snatch, barefoot, without warmup.

Get Your Protein On!

Lyle McDonald breaks it all down at elitefts.com.

What it means to me is that my typical in-training intake is way too low.

2008 Nationals Slide Show

From Bruce Klemens.

2008 Mintz Men's 94+

Gotta earn it the hard way.

“You can have all the money in the world but you can’t buy a body."

2008 Larry Mintz Weightlifting Video

Video from the men's 69-85kg classes. More video coming...

Larry Mintz Memorial Weightlifting meet this Saturday

Lost Battalion Hall will host the Larry Mintz Memorial Weightlifting Meet this Saturday, March 15 in Rego Park, Queens, New York. Location information can be found here. Start time for the first session is 10am.
Be there!

Learning the Snatch: Backward Chaining

Backward chaining, as it pertains to motor skill development, involves breaking a movement down into segments and learning the last motion of the sequence first. Once that motion has been learned, the preceeding segments are then incorporated, one by one, and drilled until the trainee has accounted for the entire chain of movement. The rationale is that the mind and body can more easily process and learn these individual parts, as opposed the entire movement at once. Also, backward chaining the snatch (as well as the clean) places emphasis on the most critical power producing movement of the entire lift: the 2nd pull.

Backward chaining is one of the foundations of the Soviet Model for teaching the lifts. A sample progression, as recommended by former national team coach Alexander Medvedyev, would run something like this:
-Power snatch from hang position above the knees
-Power snatch from hang position below the knees
-Power snatch from the floor

From there, the progression to full snatch is forward chained:
-Power snatch from the floor
-Power snatch from floor to overhead squat
-Squat snatch from floor

It is also worth noting that the Soviet Model calls for learning the snatch before the clean. A topic for future discussion.

You gotta squat.

Mike's Gym - website of an official Regional Training Center for USA Weightlifting and Mike Burgener, a top American Olympic Weightlifting coach and father of one of America's best young lifters, has great resources. Here's the squat program page (with an excel download).

Hossein Rezazadeh

Arnold Classic 2008 Videos

Videos from the Senior Nationals at the Arnold Classic thanks to Benn Overkamp.

Dinosaur Training

This is an old article I found on a page no longer hosted, so I had to find it using the way-back machine.
Basically an attempt to marry Dinosaur Style training with some Westside organization, it seemed a great take on lifting big for some real development in strength.
An outtake...

What I realized is that dinosaur training and the Westside system are much more similar than different. How so? Well,

1. Both emphasize heavy training. If I might quote the 2 'experts' of Westside and Dinosaur theory, Brooks Kubik says that "HEAVY weights are the name of the game. Never forget that. You need to train with heavy weights because doing so is the only way to build the strength of tendons and ligaments along with your muscles." Louie Simmons says that "We know best of all you have to train heavy-very heavy-and often."

2. Both camps dismiss the typical Western periodization, or cycling, model. Louie Simmons says that "It is my experience that all elements of training must be done simultaneously, or the training effects are lost very quickly", while Brooks Kubik feels that "Back-cycling to 60 or 70% of your max and then working back up is a waste of time. You are going nowhere. Most of your time is spent with poundages too light to test your abilities."

3. Both systems are devoted to exercises that are hard and heavy. Things like squats, deadlifts, zercher squats, front squats, bench presses, military presses, and reverse hyperextensions are lifts that build strength through compound movements. The exercises in each system are dedicated to building functional strength through a movement chain, not isolating each individual muscle group, unless that muscle group is a weak link. Similarly, because of the fact that training with machines is not as demanding as training with free weights, machines are not of prime importance in either system.

4. Both systems make use of particularly 'hard aerobics' as I like to call them. The sled dragging, wheelbarrow pushing, and walking lunges of the Westside system are very much like the sandbag carrying and farmer's walks of Dinosaur training.

Here's one of the splits proposed (looks tasty!):

DAY 1: Deadlifts, Front Squats, Bench Press, Bent-Over Rows, Bradford Press, Standing Calf, Seated Calf

DAY 2: OFF

DAY 3: OFF

DAY 4: Squats, Romanian Deadlifts, Close-Grip Benches, One-Arm DB Press, DB Extensions, Strict Curls, Grip Work

DAY 5: OFF

DAY 6: OFF

DAY 7: Speed Squats, Speed Bench, Power Cleans, Bent-Over Rows, Push Presses,Standing Calf, Seated Calf

DAY 8: OFF

DAY 9: OFF

Here's the archived version of the page. If anyone has info on the author, please share.