December 2015 - Strong Snatch Masters Olympic Weightlifting

How to Cover Up Bruises

It was 73F today here in Northeast Texas. On December 12.

On the one hand this was great because I got to do farmers carries in a t-shirt and shorts. On the other hand, I had to go to a semi-formal holiday party this evening.

So what you are asking yourself. Well I am a woman. Women wear dresses to parties. When it is hot, they do not wear stockings with their dresses. And I am currently sporting the lovely bruised gash you see above on the front of my shins from trying to show a new lifter what triple extension looked like and accidentally finishing that demo by landing on a barbell with my shin (yeah, don’t ask. It was exactly as not graceful as it sounds).

This is a conundrum because I really hate to listen to people tell me how awful lifting is for my health and I really, REALLY don’t want to explain how I got this stupid gash (which is much more bruised and awful looking in person).

So I went to the local Alta store and asked for the some cover-up heavy enough to cover tattoos. I also called my bestie who suggested one of these products.

So voila! A combination of these two products was magical and completely erased the gash and the surrounding bruising after the application of around 6 layers of product with an application of powder to seal it.

Dermablend professional leg and body cover mixed half and half with Tarte Amazonian Clay full coverage foundation. Both available at Alta, at least the Tarte is likely available at Sephora if you don’t have access to Alta. I asked a professional at Alta to help me color match to my skin.

Now if you’re a guy you probably stopped reading this a long time ago. But ladies, if you a know a guy that lifts, tell him about this combo. I’ve socked myself with a heavily loaded bar doing jerks and bruised my chin, but hey at least my bar path was straight. Guys may wear their bruises with pride, but they may need to go to an interview or corporate event not looking like a street fighter.

As far as my limited experimentation goes, this works on scabs, bruises and birthmarks. Your mileage may vary.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE AD, JUST MY OPINON

Internal Rotation in the Lockout

As I start to teach classes to beginners in the olympic lifts, it is becoming very clear to me that different cues work differently for different people.

I’m a surgeon. When I heard somebody explain the position of the arms when locked out overhead as, “internally rotating your humerus” that resonated with me. I understood just fine.

I have said this to several other people who looked at me like I look at my husband when he tries to explain to me why my horizontal picture won’t orient correctly on this website. That is to say, slightly slack jawed and very blankly.

What seems to resonate with many people is “push your head through”. Now this I never really got. That sounds like some sort of weird turtle thing. But recently it clicked that this is the same as internal rotation of your humerus.

Right now you’re saying, no it’s not. But think about it – if with a barbell in hand overhead, you rotate your humeral head internally, that is, your rotate your armpits down and your elbows back and up…. what happens?

Your head moves forward as your scapulae (shoulder blades) retract back and you lock that bar into a solid position slightly behind the frontal plane of your face, over or even a bit behind your ears like Charis Chan is in the picture above.

Try this. With a PVC pipe held in a snatch grip overhead, try externally rotating your humerus, i.e., rotate your elbows down toward the floor and rotate your armpits forward. Then have someone push on the pvc.

Next, still holding the PVC overhead in a snatch grip, internally rotate your humerus, i.e., rotate your elbows back and your armpits down toward the floor. Have someone push on the pvc again. See how much more solid it feels in this position?

To see Russian olympic gold medalist Alexsey Torokhtiy display this principle amazingly clearly, go watch this video posted by Diane Fu to her Instagram account. You’ll never do Sots presses the same way again, I guarantee it!

So this is what putting your head through really means- getting the bar in a secure position with the humerus internal rotated, scapulae back and traps shrugged. But I still think it makes you look like a turtle.

Masters at the American Open

Last week the senior American Open was held in Reno just one week after the World Championships in Houston.

So much great weightlifting in America this year!!

For once I was not glued to the live feed because I was worried that I had reached the limits of my family’s tolerance of my weightlifting obsession after their letting me go to Worlds alone over Thanksgiving. For anyone interested, I had a grilled cheese with french fries from room service for Thanksgiving and loved every bite of it because it meant I had spent the day watching the best weightlifters in the world compete.

So instead of watching the live feed, I made donuts on Saturday to celebrate Chanukah which started Sunday night. A whole week of celebrating your religion by eating fried foods. Not a bad deal! And Sunday had to go re-certify in trauma life saving.

But while I was munching and saving lives (at least on paper), great lifting was occurring in Reno. What is most remarkable to me, is that a fairly large number of masters not only qualified for and competed in the Open, but a few actually platformed. The 48kg Open champion is a master – Kelly Rexroad Williams – and the silver medalist in the 53kg class is also a master, Melanie Roach. Both set American masters records with their platforming lifts and both qualified for senior nationals in 2016.

Jo Ann Aita set masters records in the snatch, clean&jerk and total in the 58kg class at 45 years old. I believe the oldest master to lift was Robert Arroyo who is a 47yo 85kg lifter.

If you think about it, this is amazingly impressive. That a former olympian and US senior record holder (Roach) is still kicking ass as a master may not sound remarkable at first glance but think about it again. She’s 41, she’s had 5 children. And she is still performing at the highest national level.

I am 47. I know what 47 feels like. The slower recovery, the more delicate line between sore and injured. And yet Jo Ann Aita competed in the C class at a national meet. And she has not always been a weightlifter. She was a powerlifter for most of her youth I believe. So she is accomplishing this remarkable performance without decades of olympic training behind her.

This may be the last year we see so many masters at a national event. With the 77s going into an H class this year I”m thinking they’re going to raise entry totals in the future making it tougher for many masters to qualify.

So let’s just revel for a moment in the grey (or greying) hair that competed this year. Kudos to each and every one of you. You are all my heros.

If you want to peruse the results of the 2015 senior American Open, you can find them here

What To Wear in Olympic Weightlifting Competitions

I think we’re incredibly lucky in olympic weightlifting that we do not have to buy singlets or equipment from specific manufacturers like the lifters in some powerlifting federations. Looking at those pictures, there is just a sea of similar looking singlets and belts.

USAW and the IWF are much more liberal about what you can wear. Other than when I competed in the Masters World Cup and proudly wore a USA singlet, I have always preferred sparkles and a bit of glam with my spandex. In the video below I’m wearing one of my favorites with actual sequins (courtesy of Glamlets who I believe are no longer making singlets). The Two Doctors who were narrating the session enjoyed the sparklies, too.

But while the pattern of the singlet isn’t specified, there are in fact many rules about what can and cannot be worn, especially in and around the elbows. Judges have to be able to see if you re-bend your elbows or if you even lockout in the first place.

The rules have undergone a fairly large change in the last two years to accommodate religious and cultural needs for modesty. But while some rules have changed, some are still fairly strict.

There is an excellent powerpoint presentation HERE that is available as a download from the IWF site. Lots of good examples of what is and isn’t legal in competition (keeping in mind that these rules may be laxly enforced at the local level).

You can wear a short sleeved t-shirt or a long sleeved unitard but you cannot wear a long sleeved t-shirt. Socks can now touch your knee sleeves, as can the bottom of your singlet, but neither can actually cover the knee sleeves nor the knees.

Prosthetic limbs can be worn, but they are considered part of your body and so count toward your weight at weigh-in.

No cell phones on the platform. Period.

Sponsor’s logos are limited to specific dimensions on the singlet. If you are lucky enough to have a sponsor.

My favorite part is that tiaras are apparently considered part of your head and are allowed in competition. I might actually do this some day.

Olympic Weightlifting with the PUSH Band

NOTE: I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH PUSH STRENGTH NOR IS THE LINK IN THIS ARTICLE AN AFFILIATE LINK. THIS IS JUST MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND OPINION USING THE DEVICE.

As you may know, I train largely by myself. Which means I video a lot of my lifts to dissect afterwards. But an even more useful tool is my PUSH band. I first wrote about it at this link if you want to learn some of the basics: Review of Push-Band

The PUSH band is basically like an affordable Tendo unit. It’s an accelerometer that is worn on your forearm that measures bar speed- both peak and average- throughout the lift.

For olympic weightlifters, peak bar speed is, I believe, a nice measure of speed at the end of the second pull. This is a measure of the power you were able to generate with your pull. It also gives you power readings for your lift (you input the weight on the bar) but I think bar speed is more reliable lift to lift.

Now previously you could only look at this data after your set was done as seen here:

But a recent update to the software means you can now watch your lifts in near real time, i.e., a second or so after completion.

I keep my phone with the bluetooth linked program propped on a tripod where I can clearly see the screen while I lift.

This feature is most useful to me on sets where I need to do more than 1-2 reps, for example, squats. Now I am not a natural squatter. My secret of secrets is that I kinda hate squats (I know, that’s not good for an olympic lifter, but there you go. I like pulling, not squatting). I always feel like I’m going to get crushed to death. So I’m a giant wimp about squats.

Left to my own devices, I am likely to wimp out on squats as soon as they “feel hard”. What’s valuable about real time data is that it can tell me if the squat was actually hard as opposed to just feeling hard. By watching average bar speed, I can look at when a squat actually starting becoming a grinder, i.e., when did I actually start slowing down during the lift.

So now I tend to push myself one to two sets more and 5-15lbs heavier than I used to with squats. Because by seeing that what felt hard actually went up easily, I build the mental confidence to push for more. It’s also actual data as opposed to the subjective “yuck this feels hard.”

A few sets with a few extra pounds may not sound like much but when you squat every day (which, at the moment, I do) that volume actually adds up pretty fast. I think it is why I’m already seeing more out of frequent squatting this time around than I did back in January.

There is also a feature in the real time update that lets you pick a speed range by telling the program what your objective is. If you tell it “strength” is your goal, it has one set of suggested speed parameters. If you tell it “power”, then it has a different set of parameters. But either way, it will ding after a rep to let you know if the rep was good (in the range) or bad (too slow).

It has also provided interesting data on my olympic lifts. I have noticed that the speed and power don’t vary much from my working sets (70-85%) to my sets with a failure (usually 90-95%). This tells me that it’s not a strength issue, per se, but likely more of a technique issue. Maybe failing to keep the bar close or wimping out and moving elbows slowly in the clean for example.

So here is a video of me using the PUSH while doing some fairly light snatch doubles. You can see the tripod in front of me and inset is a shot of the screen.

You can see on the screen inset that it counts reps at the top (the “1”) and then average bar speed below it (the “1.21”). Useful data when you’re training alone to know when to stop and take a rest even if form “feels” ok.

If you’re interested in learning more about the PUSH or interesting in purchasing one, this is their website:

http://www.trainwithpush.com/

They also have 1RM calculator software which my husband and I are eager to try. The 1RM works on your data from sub-maximal loads of your lifts. I’m currently having trouble with the PUSH picking up all my deadlift reps which obviously needs fixing before I can test that lift, but it does well on almost every other lift except jerks off blocks (where it also misses reps).