Great commentary! Please keep it up if you feel so inclined! (Hint-hint!) I simply don’t have the time to read/watch/hear everything in the course of the day and get my outside stuff done too. (Just spent 3 hours working on a project that needed my attention, but only meant to spend 20 minutes on …) I won’t spend my time chasing down the good stuff if you’ll keep us posted! Pretty please??
Cappy
http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/weightlifting/index.shtml
i’ve been following the weightlifting here.
I’m going to have to watch some now. I was a little bitter that Casey Burgener wasn’t allowed to compete and the Canadian lifters have been bringing up the rear in their categories. At least they’re making their lifts. We picked up a 4th place in women’s 63Kg.
Edit: Now I can be bitter again. I tried the NBS videos and it said “We’re sorry, NBC is required to restrict this video to viewers in the United States.”
Been catching as much as I can. Can’t wait for the T&F but I’ll watch damn near anything in the Olympic. Some of the weightlifting is already on you tube. Amazing what the lighter weights can lift. Swimming’s been good and I’ve found I never really appreciated the intricacies of women beach volleyball before. Sorry about the balckout, Stu.
Been catching as much as I can. Can’t wait for the T&F but I’ll watch damn near anything in the Olympic. Some of the weightlifting is already on you tube. Amazing what the lighter weights can lift. Swimming’s been good and I’ve found I never really appreciated the intricacies of women beach volleyball before. Sorry about the balckout, Stu.
I continue to enjoy the Olympics, including Phelps and the OL lifting. However, I was not aware of how bad Casey Burgener was screwed out of competing. He is sitting there in Beijing, with an American lifting suit he earned in the trials, but cannot compete becsuse of all sorts of bogus reasons i dont even want to repeat.
Part of it is the IWF’s fault i think and part the US team. But weightlifting as a sport is in even more trouble than i realized. The only sport you can win the trials in your event and still not go to the Olympics based on all sorts of other variables they take into account.
Averaged variables over three years? Total team performance and earned slots??? Some of this was in play when i had my senior year in college interest in trying to qualify, but the situation has gotten far worse and more difficult. I fear this glorious sport which was already slowly dying here in America just got delivered another huge blow.
Might as well tell our kids to bench and run forties. Doc
Sadly, weightlifting’s been out of the spotlight for a lot of years in the U.S… Bob Hoffman and Strength and Health magazine carried the torch for years. The demise of ABCs Wide World of Sports, which featured many traditional olympic sports, ended what little exposure America had to weightlighting. Once the average Joe discovered he could get fairly good at powerlifting sans the technical training it lost popularity quick. I’ll leave out any analogies on generational changes towards instant gratification, short attention spans, etc… I don’t see powerlifting being added to the games, however.
All the different types of suits and equipment. Next world records will probably come from some kid at MIT. T&F gets kinda iffy too with the A&B standard. E.G., in the javelin, Breaux Greer is competing for the US and he placed 13th in the trials. He met the A standard during the season and the third place finisher didn’t and didn’t throw far enough to qualify during the trials.
[quote]Dr.PowerClean wrote:
I continue to enjoy the Olympics, including Phelps and the OL lifting. However, I was not aware of how bad Casey Burgener was screwed out of competing.
He is sitting there in Beijing, with an American lifting suit he earned in the trials, but cannot compete becsuse of all sorts of bogus reasons i dont even want to repeat.
Part of it is the IWF’s fault i think and part the US team. But weightlifting as a sport is in even more trouble than i realized. The only sport you can win the trials in your event and still not go to the Olympics based on all sorts of other variables they take into account.
Averaged variables over three years? Total team performance and earned slots??? Some of this was in play when i had my senior year in college interest in trying to qualify, but the situation has gotten far worse and more difficult.
I fear this glorious sport which was already slowly dying here in America just got delivered another huge blow.
Might as well tell our kids to bench and run forties. Doc[/quote]
I really don’t get the qualify/trials system. Seems like it cuts against itself, especially the way it forces multiple peaks in a short time.
Tomorrow morning at 7 am is the Superheavyweight finals. Catch it if you can live, or watch it later. I think the winner will lift about 450/550, but it could be more if someone goes nuts.
The guy who won the 105kg class clean and jerked 519, and he was the least physically impressive lifter in the bunch. QT looks stronger than this guy by far. But his technique was amazing, watch it, he uses the momentum of the bar's bending better than anyone I can remember. Speed and timing, and some serious leg strength. Doc
OMG, I just finished watching the supers. THIS is why I have always loved OL. A must see, thrilling competition with great lifting. Watch it on nbcolympics.com and scroll down to weightlifting, and cover up the window or you might see the winner…ruining the great drama ahead. Doc
Amazing how group A and group B compare.
Without the spoilers:
a total of 461 kilogram (1,016.3 pounds) in the men’s super heavyweight category, clinching the win with a clean and jerk of 258 kg (568.8 pounds).
I’ll leave it to everyone to guess who lifted that much.
RECAPTURING YOUTH
On the recent occasion of my birthday (57) I was approached at the party by a woman who asked me why I put so much effort into “recapturing my youth” and why can’t I be satisfied to “be what I am.” (This is a question that I seem to get a lot)
I won’t relate the whole conversation, but it started with my reply that if I were trying to recapture my youth, I’d be working as a bus boy and driving a piece of shit '64 Volkswagen, because that’s how I spent my youth.
The real pity of her question is that it’s founded on the premise that being vigorous, and doing things like working out and having fun is only for the young and that it’s somehow unseemly for someone over 50 to feel good, look good, and have fun.
I pity people who feel that way. They’re going to spend the last 25 years of their life feeling like shit and wishing they were already dead.
It’s true that feeling good requires more effort than it did when I was young. Nowadays I have to carefully watch my diet, train smart, and stick needles into myself at regular intervals to feel great, but I reject the idea that I’m trying to “recapture my youth.” I’m simply trying to spend the last 25 years of my life feeling great and enjoying every day to the fullest.
“Am I crazy?”
Just like the rest of us.
[quote]happydog48 wrote:
RECAPTURING YOUTH
On the recent occasion of my birthday (57) I was approached at the party by a woman who asked me why I put so much effort into “recapturing my youth” and why can’t I be satisfied to “be what I am.” (This is a question that I seem to get a lot)
I won’t relate the whole conversation, but it started with my reply that if I were trying to recapture my youth, I’d be working as a bus boy and driving a piece of shit '64 Volkswagen, because that’s how I spent my youth.
The real pity of her question is that it’s founded on the premise that being vigorous, and doing things like working out and having fun is only for the young and that it’s somehow unseemly for someone over 50 to feel good, look good, and have fun.
I pity people who feel that way. They’re going to spend the last 25 years of their life feeling like shit and wishing they were already dead.
It’s true that feeling good requires more effort than it did when I was young. Nowadays I have to carefully watch my diet, train smart, and stick needles into myself at regular intervals to feel great, but I reject the idea that I’m trying to “recapture my youth.”
I’m simply trying to spend the last 25 years of my life feeling great and enjoying every day to the fullest.
“Am I crazy?”[/quote]
Obviously you are a lot more sane than that lady.
I think she has missed the entire point of those of us who realize that we aren’t in our youth any more, so we need to perform maintenance work.
/sigh
I’ve read study after study about how strength and muscle mass in middle age results in decreased disability in old age and better quality of life. It’s hard to change people’s lifetime habits though, and people would rather ridicule those that have made the change rather than admit that they have to change themselves.
We do a cost/benefit analysis for every activity we engage in. That cost and benefit are weighed in emotional terms. I think that people who don’t exercise are simply ignorant of the ultimate benefit of weight training. To them, it looks like “work,” rather than a means of enjoying life more for a longer period of time.
The sad thing is that every year, one becomes used to a reduced level of activity and unconsciously operates within the confines of that so that all seems normal year over year. We don’t notice how far we’ve declined until after many decades and some seminal event occurs. Then we call ourselves old and accept that as real when, really, our state is the result of a series of unconscious choices for momentary comfort.
I guess if you want to keep your abilities - all of them - you have to stay somewhat uncomfortable.
[quote]stuward wrote:
I’ve read study after study about how strength and muscle mass in middle age results in decreased disability in old age and better quality of life.
It’s hard to change people’s lifetime habits though, and people would rather ridicule those that have made the change rather than admit that they have to change themselves. [/quote]
Good point. I have to admit I was shocked to realize how weak I had become, and surprised that I’ve been able to recover as far as I have. Too much “common knowledge” out there about how after forty, you can’t ever recover.
[quote]stuward wrote:
It’s hard to change people’s lifetime habits though, and people would rather ridicule those that have made the change rather than admit that they have to change themselves. [/quote]
Nailed it Stu
I’m only 39 but since I started powerlifting my low back and shoulders have never felt better. I have MDs and PTs telling me I’m crazy to lift heavy. So we’re all a little off the normal path who enjoy this stuff. Thats why we log in here.