Month: August 2015

The Importance of Wrist Strength and Mobility

The number one complaint I hear from people when they first try the olympic lifts or even front squatting, is that it’s hard to get into/maintain positions because they are limited by their wrist flexibility and strength.

As a result, their front squats collapse because they can’t keep their elbows up comfortably and they can’t rack a clean quickly or efficiently and lose the bar in front.

I’ve never had a good answer to correct this.  I’ve Googled some videos on wrist stretches but some of them seemed more like something from Vlad Tepes’ playbook than actionable advice.

Then a link to the latest article on Jen Sinkler’s website came to my attention (thank you most observant husband!).  Entitled, “Rock Your Wrist Strength”, it includes an outstanding video by Ilya Igolnikov, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor and athlete.

Check it out NOW!!!!! Here is the Link: Rock Your Wrist Strength

But listen to what he says – do these movements slowly and in a controlled fashion.  Don’t bro out and hurt yourself by loading your wrists heavily when you first begin.  Set a realistic time frame for improvement (months, not days).  And do use these as part of your warm-up

[for those who are wondering, Vlad Tepes was also known as Vlad the Impaler, the historical person upon whom Dracula is based.  “The Impaler” is simply the coolest sobriquet in the history of mankind.  You can read about him here]

What’s The Most Important Job of a Masters Lifter?

I know all the reasons why old people lift.  For the personal satisfaction of reaching goals.  To keep aging at bay.  To feel powerful.

But you know what I think is one of the most important reasons you lift?

To inspire the next generation.

Let’s face it.  Other than Melanie Roach, us oldies are unlikely to see an olympic platform as a participant.  But what we can do is lead by example.  And the people we’re leading are the youngsters who see us every day.

I had  a friend who told me this story thinking it was hysterical but it’s actually kind of sad.  She was getting ready to put on a nice silk dress for an evening out.  She was wearing a thong to avoid panty lines in the fitted dress.  Her then 8 year old daughter looked up at her and said, “Mom! It’s not that your butt is too big.  It’s that your panties are too small!”

Yeah, it’s kind of funny.  But what does this say about how many times her daughter had heard her critique her (very slim) backside?  And how likely is it that her daughter will absorb that kind of negative self talk as being normal behavior?

Contrast that with the parent who lifts.  My kids see me head out to our home gym almost every day.  Lately, after a summer of Kids Crossfit, they’ve been asking to come along.  They like squatting and deadlifting, they like clean and jerks (snatching is still a harder sell).  The girl in the video is my daughter Ariel, who spontaneously decided she wanted to max out her clean and jerk this week just so we could spend some time together.

Just like my friend’s little girl, they subconsciously absorb the message I send them.  That strength sports are fun.  That commitment to a goal is important.  That competing means challenging yourself and that it’s ok to do things that make you nervous or uncomfortable in the pursuit of being a better person.

Maybe it’s not your kid that you’re going to inspire to try weightlifting.  Maybe it’s some teenager at the gym where you train.  Maybe it’s the neighbor’s kid who sees you with the garage door open, dropping heavy weights from overhead.

Maybe that kid could be the next CJ Cummings.

Or maybe it’s not a kid.  Maybe it’s your mom who starts lifting in her 60’s and builds better bone density as a result.  Don’t laugh – I have a friend who competes at the national level in masters events who was inspired by her daughter in just this way.

Who will you inspire today?

Credit Card Breach at USA Weightlifting

Over the past few years I’ve had a few incidents of credit card fraud, resulting in my credit card provider canceling my card and re-ssuing a new one.

A few days ago, a woman on an olympic weightlifting Facebook group asked if anyone had suffered credit card fraud after making purchases from the USA Weightlifting (USAW) site. She specifically mentioned fraudulent Starbucks gift card purchases made on her account and I immediately thought of my case.

Over the years I have used my credit card often on the USAW site and purchased apparel, meet registrations, annual membership, a coaching certification, and Masters Camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. I specifically recall having fraudulent Starbucks cards purchased on my affected credit card.

I commented on the Facebook post as did several others that had the same type of fraud and all had used their affected credit card on the USAW site. Perhaps an official from USAW was on the Facebook group and looked into it or perhaps one of the group members contacted USAW.

Today, August 20, 2015, I received an email from USAW:

USAW

Dear USA Weightlifting Member,

According to our records you have purchased goods or services on USA Weightlifting’s website in recent months. We have learned that incidents of credit card fraud have been reported from some members after using one of our online processors. These reports specify small charges for Starbucks card reloads

We have investigated the reports and believe that the breach has occurred in MyCart, the shopping cart that we have used for many years for the purchase of coaching course registrations, banners, event merchandise/tickets/banquets, camps and miscellaneous payments. We do not believe that the problem stems from HangAStar, our on-line member and event registration system, but we have made reports to both service providers.

We are now in the process of rapidly moving all of our credit card processing from MyCart to an alternative provider.

We encourage you to be vigilant in reviewing your financial statements and report any unauthorized charges to the issuing institution.

Most importantly, we apologize for any inconvenience and want you to know that we are actively working to resolve the situation by changing providers.

Yours in Sport,

USA Weightlifting

For those of you that have recently purchased goods or services on the USAW website, keep an eye on your credit card statements for suspicious activity.

I’ll try to learn more about this specific merchant account provider mentioned by USAW, MyCart, and I’ll add any updates I have to this post.

Why Pancake Good Mornings Matter

My husband once told me a story about a very, very strong guy.  I’m pretty sure he was a bodybuilder.  One of those giant jacked and tan dudes.

This behemoth was mighty in the gym.  But he leaned over to tie his shoes one day and wrenched his back, keeping him out of the gym for weeks.

Why?  Because it’s not enough to be strong in a single plane with a limited degree of range of motion.

To have healthy joints, you need stability.  To have stability, you have to have strength and control in the entirety of the range of motion of the joint.  Particularly at the end ranges of motion.

Think about the olympic lifts.  Think about where you catch a heavy clean.  Is it just below parallel? Hell no! If it’s very heavy, you’re catching it at the bottom of a front squat.  Olympic lifters need strength and flexibility to reach those positions and to get in and out of them with power.

So you don’t just have to be strong.  You need to be strong and mobile and stable from one end range of motion to the other for most of your joints.

Which brings me to this fascinating exercise, the pancake good morning.

Like the Sots press, it takes any and all hip drive out of the equation which can be humbling when you can’t load it as heavy as you would the standing version of the exercise.  But it also highlights any limitations you have in hip mobility and stability.

When I tried it, my hamstrings seemed to be the limiting factor.  I couldn’t go face to grass like some of the videos on All Things Gym (seen here) nor could I do them with a completely flat back.

But even with just 55lbs, I was sore in my hammies the next day.  And now I have something new I need to work on in terms of optimizing my lifts through better range of motion.

If you look back through some of my old posts (for example, here) you can see where I built a better lockout overhead by building my shoulder strength in a variety of ways, not just barbell presses.

What are your limitations?  What are you doing to fix them? Let me know!

Fear is the Mind Killer – More Lessons From Weightlifting Camp as I Prep for the World Masters Cup

When I first saw the start list for the 53k/45w class at the Masters World Cup in Dallas I thought I had forgotten how to breathe.  There were seven – SEVEN!- women entered and while most of us were tightly clustered in terms of previous totals, the entrants included the multiple time world champion in the class, Joanne McManus from Great Britain and the current American snatch record holder in the class, Sandra Arechaederra.

Now let’s stop a moment and contemplate how ludicrous my reaction was.  Yes, I’m more used to be one of only a few at any given competition and yes, I’m used to being pretty good.  But why the panic?

Keep in mind that if you were lying on a stretcher in front of me with multiple gunshot wounds to your trunk, I would calmly and efficiently assess whether or not you needed a life saving operation while simultaneously wondering if the cafeteria would close before I was done in the OR.  How do I know this? Because I’ve actually asked the clerk to call the cafeteria to set aside some banana pudding with ‘Nilla wafers while I was waiting to go to the OR for a gunshot wound to the belly. 

I know how to keep calm under pressure.  I also really like banana pudding with ‘Nilla wafers. 

And I’m not afraid to be in public in revealing clothing so it’s not the singlet that bothers me.  My closest friends call me Dr. Buttfloss in honor of the string bikinis I prefer at the beach.

So why the panic?

Because this was going to be my first competition with a lot of competitors.  What if I were finally revealed as a fraud?  This is what’s known as imposter’s syndrome.  Where you live in constant fear that others will realize that you’re a fraud and don’t belong in whatever situation you’re in.  That you’re never as smart/capable/pretty/strong whatever as others have thought you were.

There’s also a profound sense of the unfamiliar.  Blood, guts and alas, poop, are my daily life.  They don’t particularly scare me (unless I can hear the bleeding; that’s really bad).  But put me on a platform to lift weights in front of strangers and my mouth goes dry, my hands shake and my heart races. 

None of these things are conducive to making successful lifts.  The adrenaline helps make all my cleans high powers in competition, but the shakes have caused me to miss snatches and jerks. 

So I need to spend more time doing what my coach Nick Horton described at camp this week as noticing the emotion, but not letting it affect you.  Recognize it, acknowledge it, but don’t let it have power over you.  He recommends meditation as the mental tool for sharpening that skill which is something I’d like to pursue.  In the short term, I think just practicing the mantra of “this is weightlifting, not facing execution by guillotine” will help me defuse the mental tension.

Because let’s face it.  I love the sport, but it’s just weightlifting.  If I go 0/6 the worst thing that will happen is that my dad won’t have cool pictures to edit in photoshop.  No one will die, my kids will not love me any less and in fact might love me more because they’ll feel sorry for me. 

So as I finish the last 10 days of prep toward the World Cup, I am trying to learn to be a little bit more of an adult about my lifting and the competition.  I want to go in confident, but not cocky.  Excited, but not terrified.  And I’m avoiding donuts because I’m still a kg over weight.  I am learning to love baked kale chips. 

May the best woman win. 

BELIEVE!

I just got back from another week of weightlifting camp in beautiful Asheville, NC with Tamara Reynolds and Nick Horton.  I have much to share, so I’ll spread it out over several posts.  But this is the first and most important lesson.  I think of it as “BELIEVE!” shouted with a southern preacher’s passion.

We started every session of camp with a didactic session.  Sometimes it was technical, i.e., this is how you place your feet in an ideal jerk receiving position.  Sometimes though the lesson addressed the mental aspects of lifting.

During one lesson, Nick asked us to visualize making a lift that was just beyond what we could currently do.  He wanted it visualized in perfect detail: walking to the chalk bucket, chalking up our hands, stepping up to the bar, adjusting our grip, grinding feet into the floor, setting our back, then each phase of the lift ending with perfect lockout.

So I tried to imagine a 45kg snatch.  I had done 43kg once before and 46kg was my holy grail (because that translates to three digits, 101.2lbs, in freedom units. ‘Merica!).

Literally my visceral and immediate response was, “I can’t do that.”  Now keep in mind this is in my imagination.  In my imagination, I can have carnal relations with Russian weightlifters.  In my imagination, I have ridden flying horses.  But somehow my mind balked at making a 45kg lift.  So apparently I think my chances are better with Klokov and Pegasus than making a sub-bodyweight snatch.

Now this is clearly a problem.  It’s why I have almost always made PRs when I didn’t know what was loaded on the bar. Because my doubting, sabotaging brain could be put on silent and I could let my body do what it knew it could do and lift that damn bar.

It’s particularly pernicious for someone who trains alone like I do.  I don’t have an external voice encouraging me or chastising me into trying scary lifts.  So I tend to cat out to paraphrase Nick Horton (whose three rules of snatching are lockout, hit your hips and stop being a pussy).

I have found recent success in stopping the recording of every attempt in training.  Meaning, I finish with my warm-ups (for snatch, up to 77lbs/35kg) then just start adding random and differing small amounts to the bar so that I don’t know exactly what’s on there.  I find I ramp up to a higher daily max with this strategy because again, I’m not staring at that scary number on the paper in my log book before addressing the bar.

In Asheville, I tried Nick’s way.  I visualized making that lift.  I visualized locking out HARD.  I visualized guiding the bar down when I was done in victory.

Then, on day 4 of camp, I walked up to a bar loaded with 46kg.  I knew it had 46kg.  I had just made 44kg which was a PR and instead of loading 45, I went on up to 46.  44 had been easy and I knew, knew knew knew, that I could do 46.  I believed!  And I did it (although the lockout may not have counted in competition, I’ll still take it).

A double PR.  A PR in actual weight lifted (three digits bitches!!!!) but also a PR in confidence.  I felt like an actual adult making that lift because I did it with knowledge aforethought.  I couldn’t be prouder.

Do try this at home kids.  Try visualizing successful lifts.  Try visualizing making technically better lifts if there is a part of your lifts that doesn’t move like it should.  Try visualizing standing on a platform in competition to start taming those meet day nerves.  And believe that you can succeed because you can do more than you think you can.

BELIEVE!