Dave Earle Elite Performance

Update

In the last month I’ve made a big change in my life, moving from personal training full time to going to school for massage therapy, keeping only two clients.  

The decision was a tough one, but I felt as though my knowledge had plateaued.  I like to think of myself as a pretty smart coach, but one thing always eluded me - injury management.  Many of my clients are middle aged, weekend-warrior types who have aches and pains from the accumulation of injuries and restrictions that happens over the decades.  While training smarter and harder with me was making their bodies stronger and decreasing these problems, I was entirely at a loss when it came to directly managing the issues when they came up.  At the same time, I was spending $100+/week on rehabilitation of my own injury - tendonitis of my wrist as a result of the amount of training I have to do to be at the top of my game in Olympic Lifting.  Treatments involved soft tissue manipulation and basic exercises and stretches… I thought to myself, “why can’t i do this for myself?  Better yet - I should get other people to pay me for this!”

Massage therapy was the answer to both of these problems.  In Ontario, massage therapists are more strictly regulated and eduacated than anywhere else in the world.  Every therapist is registered, must complete a rigarous 2200 hour college program, and has to pass a board exam.  When most people hear ‘massage therapy’ they think of new age music and rich old ladies relaxing at the spa - and while that’s one part of the RMT spectrum, I’ll be at the other…  We’re qualified for every level of soft tissue manipulation and deal with rehabilitating sports injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and can provide specialized modalities like Active Release Techniques (ART), acupuncture, etc.  More studies are being done all the time to show the efficacy of massage therapy treatments, most recently one from McMaster University that showed a brief massage treatment post exhaustive exercise reduces inflammation and signals cells to produce more mitochondria.

I’m also working part time in a new gym in Toronto - REACH Personal Training.  It’s a brand new gym, strictly for those willing to make a commitment to achieving great results.  We have an Olympic Lifting platform, Eleiko competition plates and bars, a Poliquin squat rack, prowler, gymnastic rings, Watson fat-grip rotating-handle dumbbells up to 120 lbs. and that’s just the start… basically it’s Mecca for a strength nerd like me.

So, basically, I’m apologizing for not posting a ton of new stuff over the last 6 weeks… between classes, my own Olympic Weightlifting training gearing up for provincials and nationals, personal training, and the shambles of a social life that I’m holding on to I haven’t had a ton of time for the site.

Some good lifts from our team at Winterlift 2012

Naomi Earle - 58kg

Ayesha Sabayle - 69kg

Gavin Young - 105kg (really 95kg because he ‘started eating vegetables’

Doug Malone - 105kg

Killian Newman - 105+kg

Matt O’Brien - 105+kg

Good Strategy.

Hey man, thanks for the question…

Focus on keeping the torso as vertical as possible throughout the lift.  Look up, push your chest to the ceiling, and in front squats drive the elbows up.

When the weight just gets too damn heavy your torso will slide forward - this happens to me in rep 2 @150.  To correct it and get yourself back into a good position you have to either think of bringing the hips forward under the bar, or driving the chest up and back to move the bar to the hips.  Both basically achieve the same thing - vertical alignment of the bar and hips.

If it’s really a problem you might try isometric holds or ‘bottom-up’ squats from the level of your sticking point.  I’ve never done either of these with any regularity though, as the squat is already just an assistance lift in the training for Olympic Weightlifting.

Front Squat - 150kg x2 and 155kg @ 69kg bodyweight

Too loose in the bottom and threw away the second rep @155

Don’t Take Advice From Novices

There are lots of articles dedicated to teaching the Olympic lifts to beginners, few are good.  This recent one from TNation is not one of them… 

While the article is decent, it completely misses the mark in teaching solid Olympic Lifting technique.  Here’s my take on the article and how I (and other actual weightlifters) would do it differently:

“The number one thing to think about with Olympic lift technique is to have strong, responsive external rotators…”

Any article that has you focus on muscles not the movement when starting the Olympic lifts is off to a bad start.  The clean and snatch are highly technical athletic maneuvers, just like throwing a ball, swinging a golf club, etc.  In none of those activities would a good coach start by breaking down specific muscles and their roles, they’d just give you some guidelines and have you feel out the movement.  In real Weightlifting gyms we do the same thing - ‘muscle’ snatches and cleans - moving the bar through the range of motion and feeling it out, low speed, bar received in a full standing position.

This is the progression we usually use in teaching the power clean - note the bar does not rest on my shoulders because my wrists are tight and I’m just warming up

Always start by focusing on bar flow and the necessary body positions - your body is one whole unit when doing the Olympic lifts and breaking it down into specific muscles makes it overly complicated.

Boyce also cites the need for strong upper back muscles - he isn’t wrong.  BUT he suggests pulldowns, T3 raises and rows as the best way to achieve this.  What’s the best way to get better at cleans?  Do cleans.  Now, if you’re a strong person but just starting the lifts you’re not going to be able to use enough weight in the clean to elicit strength gain… so we look to the best assistance exercise for the clean -  Clean Pulls.  Here you can use much heavier weights and it’s still very activity specific.  The majority of upper to lower trap imbalances come from doing standard shrugs, which place a huge majority of the work on the upper trap.  In cleans and clean pulls we move the bar from the floor, or at least from the knee, and in these bottom position a great deal of mid-back strength is built.

I seriously doubt Anatoly Pisarenko even knew what a T3 raise was…

In the article Boyce has you start cleans from the hang position, bar at the knees and catching in a power stance (half squat) - I think this is a great idea.  It’s a great starting point because the full pull from the floor is complicated by having to maneuver around the knees, and you catch in an easy stance.  However, in the second part of the article Lee has you start snatching from the floor… when the snatch’s pull is FAR more complicated than the clean’s.  Ideally you should start snatching from the hip or above the knee to make the pulling portion easier to manage.  Since you can hip snatch ~80% of your full snatch, and you can snatch 100% or more of your full snatch from the knee. Just this small part of the lift is where your body creates the most power, so if you’re just trying to get strong don’t worry about the first pull at all.

Finally, Boyce’s technique in the videos is weak.  Sorry man.  

He advocates a foot stomp in receiving the bar.  Don’t do it, it makes you look silly.  The feet need to slide out from the pull into the receiving position, as any time they’re off the ground is a waste.  Also, he’s using a thumbless grip! …in reality, Olympic lifters not only wrap the thumb around, but because of it’s importance we need to hook grip the bar for a superior hold.

This will hurt at first, man up. Women too.

In the blurb about him it says he is a sprinter… do you see me putting up instructional videos/articles on sprint mechanics?  No.  Sure, I can run pretty fast, but I’m not at a level where I feel I should be teaching people via a huge platform like TNation how to do it.  We have kids in our gym for 2 weeks who look better than Boyce does in the videos.  I’m not trying to be a hater - I’m just saying stay within your realm and wait until you’re good to instruct others.  

I realize that Lee Boyce didn’t write this article for people trying to be World Champions, or even compete, but the items I discussed above are fundamentals of how to perform and coach the Olympic lifts.  There is so much poor information on the internet about Olympic lifting, so make sure you’re getting it from people who actually know the sport.  I want everyone who wants to do these lifts to be great at them, and I think it is impossible that anyone really got better at snatching or cleaning from his article.

Lee is based out of Toronto - and so am I.  I openly invite him and anyone else interested in snatching and cleaning huge weights with precision to come to Variety Village - we have close to a dozen national-level athletes, a coach who’s been to the Olympics and four World Championships, and some average Joes just having fun.

Oleg Perepechenov with 220kg (484lbs) @ 85kg bodyweight… the current world record is 218.

He holds the official world record of 210 @ 77kg, but now is retired from official competition and (I can only assume) taking great ‘restorative’ measures.

It should be noted that Asen Zlatev of Bulgaria did 225kg @ 82.5 in 1986, mostly likely also fully ‘restored’.

You MUST Compete

Klokov @ the 2001 U18 Russian Championships

3rd Clean and Jerk is an absolute beauty…

What were you lifting at 17?

View high resolution

Wu Jingbiao - 56kg Weightlifting World Champion 2011

Lessons From Two Years of Training - II

Continued from Part 1, here’s the rest of my lessons learned from my first two years in Personal Training…

It’s 55 minutes, get to work - I’m against the clock.  55 minutes with someone isn’t a lot of time to work out, especially when you’re only able to see them 2-3 times a week.  Time management is essential.  This means unless you’re nursing an injury back to health our warm up takes 5 minutes maximum.  We’re here to lift weights, and the best warm up for lifting weights is to… lift weights.  If you’re injured or your mobility is keeping you from safely completing the exercise then obviously we need to work on that beforehand, but this isn’t usually the case.  We do ‘fuck around’ exercises only when needed… these are called ‘accessory’ exercises by others.  Popular choices: reverse flies, front or lateral shoulder raises, shrugs, any direct arm work, anything done on a machine, any direct abdominal work.  Don’t get my wrong, these aren’t ‘bad’ exercises, but in the time span I have we’re only going to do them as necessary.  Non-‘fuck around’ exercises are: olympic lifts, squats, deadlifts, step up/lunge/split squats, rows, pull ups, presses.  These are the basis of our workouts, with the rest is filled in on an individualized basis as I manage the weaknesses of my clients.  There’s no time to waste - manage and time your rest breaks, and have set time limits on the different stages of the workout.

There are too many poor personal trainers - It sucks but it’s true.  The field is so loosely regulated and there are so many different certifications… everyone from a 17 year old fresh out of high school who took a weekend course to Charles Poliquin is are all put under the umbrella of ‘Personal Trainer’.  Furthermore, just because you have a certification doesn’t mean you are able to coach someone well, it just means you’re insurable.  The best personal trainer for you is the one that helps you get to your goals and makes you enjoy working out.  Regardless of certifications, accolades, etc. the goal of every trainer should be to have the client get the body they want and foster a genuine love of working out and self improvement.  If you have accomplished this, you are a good trainer.  The trainers who often do this the best are the ones who have a great education, experience in high level sport/athletics, and have trained lots of clients.

Consistency + Great Diet - If you can nail the importance of these two things down to your clients they’ll get results, if not then there’s not much hope.  If you want to be in great shape you need to be working out in some way almost every day.  If you want to look good when you take your clothes off you need to take responsibility for what you eat.  There’s no way around it so don’t fight it, just learn to love it.  As a trainer you need to stress these points from the beginning - if you already have clients who are doing this well then highlight them as examples to your new clients.

And, the #1 Lesson:

CARE.

This is the most important thing.  Lots of trainers treat their clients like they’e just working on an assembly line trying to get their hours up.  When the person in front of you is just a paycheque then you’ll never be great.  Recognize that their goals are your goals, because when they start kicking ass in the gym and their friends ask them how they look so good, then you get promoted, and you get more clients, and you win!  Passion is contagious and when your clients know that you really and truly care about them getting stronger, faster, leaner, they begin to take things seriously as well.  Build a relationship, know your clients’ goals and obstacles, make them feel comfortable with reaching out to you for advice, and you’ll both win in the end.

January represents a big influx of clients coming in looking to make 2012 a year of success - what kind of trainer will you be?

Every girl who can do a chin up is hot. 

From the 12 Tips to Improve Chin Ups by Charles Poliquin 

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/735/Top_12_Tips_to_Improve_Chin-Ups.aspx

Lessons From Two Years of Training

“The better you get, the less you run around showing off as a muscle guy. You know, you wear regular shirts, loose shirts-not always trying to show what you have. You talk less about it. It’s like you have a little BMW-you want to race the hell out of this car, because you know it’s going 110. But if you see a guy in a Ferrari or Lamborghini, they slide around at 60 on the freeway because they know if they press on that accelerator they are going to go 170. These things are the same in every field.”  - Arnold Schwarzenegger