Hey everyone. I am interested in taking up O-lifting.
I am interested in hearing people’s experiences as beginners and what kind of advice anyone would have to give.
I think the first step I will need to take before beginning is to find a reputable coach, so I would also love for tips on where to train out in San Francisco.
I might be heading back to NYC soon, and if so, plan on checking out Lost Batallion, but any other tips would be welcome.
Thanks.
The Sports Palace:
Physique Magnifique Gym
387 Grand Avenue
South San Francisco, CA 94080
Contact: Jim Schmitz
1980, 1988 & 1992 Olympic Team Coach
does anyone know of a good place in san diego??
The Pacific Weightlifting Association web page has the contact info of all the clubs in California and western Nevada.
Until you get a coach, learn to deep back, front (w/clean grip), and overhead squat.
Thanks for the tips. I am doing some of those basic practice moves - deep squatting, super light weight, for form.
Honestly, I can’t get an overhead squat in - I am not flexible enough to keep the bar upright while down. It seems like a shoulder thing. So obviously I am not even ready for real o-lifts, but working towards it.
I heard of sports palace, but I think he seems to be out of, or changing business. Could be a great resource.
[quote]BoxBabaX wrote:
does anyone know of a good place in san diego??[/quote]
You’re in San Diego?? Where do you train?
[quote]ledfist wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I am doing some of those basic practice moves - deep squatting, super light weight, for form.
Honestly, I can’t get an overhead squat in - I am not flexible enough to keep the bar upright while down. It seems like a shoulder thing. So obviously I am not even ready for real o-lifts, but working towards it.
I heard of sports palace, but I think he seems to be out of, or changing business. Could be a great resource.[/quote]
Start each workout with lots of shoulder circles (don’t use any weight) as you loosen up more during your workout, you can do them faster and faster. It is a great dynamic way to loosen up. OH, and you should do a set of military presses and rows with just the bar to get some blood in the shoulders first…that can only help.
You may want to use dumbbells for any chest pressing you may do, and even lighten up a bit on the volume for chest pressing until your flexibility catches up.
Be sure you do at least as many rows as you press for chest. Stretch your chest, shoulders, and triceps thoroughly after you work them…then do some overhead squats right after.
Full ROM dips with just BW worked great for my shoulder ROM. Actually, now all I do besides OL is 2 sets of dips and 2 sets of chins every workout.
Doing these things has helped my shoulder flexibility a lot. Now, in my OL shoes, I can atg overhead squat the bar with the bar only an inch or two wider than my shoulders.
Good luck.
most everyone has flexibility issues when they start oh squats. when i started it was the usual going up onto the toes. i just worked w/ the bar and kept doing it everyday. sometimes twice a day. it’s a flexibility thing so frequncy and consistency are important. it didn’t take long, 2 weeks maybe, until i had decent form w/out having to stand on plates.
so just do it. it’ll come. you might look like an idiot for awhile but so what ? elevating your heals w/ plates will help. so will learning to get a solid, one piece lock at the top. that extra 1/4 inch can make all the difference.
Don’t rush, take one step at a time. I didn’t have any flexibility issues; could do deep squats, overhead etc easily but I tried to lift much too quickly and injured my shoulder. Luckily didn’t lose my flexibility but had to stop training for a month. The culprit in my case was “motor control”
Oly lifts are explosive and initially might give you a shaky motion. Try to get it under control. Also, if you are committed to Oly lifts, think about investing in a good pair of weightlifting shoes, or at least some flat shoes with some heel. Sneakers and runners are worst to use for this training.
Keep your body position’s correct even if that means lifting very light.
[quote]bald_eagle wrote:
Also, if you are committed to Oly lifts, think about investing in a good pair of weightlifting shoes, or at least some flat shoes with some heel. Sneakers and runners are worst to use for this training.
[/quote]
Shoes make a big difference. I picked up a pair of weightlifting shoes from vsathletics.com for around $60 and I’m super happy with them. I immediately felt more comfortable front squatting and overhead squatting when I put them on.
For shoulder flexibility, get a broom stick and take a snatch grip and try to move your arms from overhead to behind your back while holding the broom stick (keep arms straight). That will help loosen the shoulders up. It will take about one month to get accustomed to it, but it normally comes pretty fast. At this point, I think my shoulders are the only flexible joint I have thanks to olympic lifts. Remember, the actual lifting should improve you flexibility in the joint as well.
You should also practice drop snatches (start with a broom stick) to overhead squats to get comfortable sinking down with something in your hands. For me, comfort level was a big issue and I found that the lightweight stuff like this gave me the confidence I needed in the movements to lose my bad habits of trying to muscle a weight around.
Regards,
Sensless
[quote]ledfist wrote:
Hey everyone. I am interested in taking up O-lifting.
I am interested in hearing people’s experiences as beginners and what kind of advice anyone would have to give.
I think the first step I will need to take before beginning is to find a reputable coach, so I would also love for tips on where to train out in San Francisco.
I might be heading back to NYC soon, and if so, plan on checking out Lost Batallion, but any other tips would be welcome.
Thanks.[/quote]
Hey ledfist, if you’re anything like me, once you get in a real weightlifting gym and start the lifts you’ll be hooked!
Flexibility wasn’t a problem for me because I came from a gymnastics background. To stretch the shoulders I always did a move called “Skin the Cat” where you hang from a pullup bar, pull your legs through your arms and hang through. As you get more flexibile the ROM increases. It looks uncomfortable but it isn’t.
As others have said, a broomstick is your best friend. OHS with it everyday, work squat snatch balance, and sots pressing when you’re able. And the dislocates. It shouldn’t take too long.
Also, rack a barbell at front squat height in a cage or rack, grip it with one hand as if you’re going to rack it on your shoulders, and really stretch the wrist by pushing your elbows out and up. This will come in handy when you start doing jerks.
Finally, watch everything you can. There’s a bunch of videos on Youtube and do a search in google for weightlifting exchange.
speaking of ohs, proper OL shoes do definitely make a difference. Before I put my OL shoes on, I do some sets of BAck, OHS, and press unders in my running sneakers since they require more flexibility than the OL shoes. Then, I get the OL shoes on and do OHS, and drop snatches.
Occasionally, I will finish a workout with OHS using just the bar without shoes because they require more flexibility. Those of tough!
Thanks so much guys. I had been offline for a bit so I missed these replys but this encouragement and advice is really helpful.
Shoulder flexibility seems key for me right now.
As it stands now, there is a good chance I could be moving soon, so getting into a gym commitment now is bad. The good news is that I?d be heading back to NYC, so there?d be real options for real lifting.
This is the kind of response that helps a fella get back in the game, and more so than before.
A good dynamic warmup will really help the flexibility issue. With cold muscles i can barely pick my butt but once im warmed up i can lick the back of my knee.
Grabbing a skipping rope or martial arts belt at snatch width and then locking your arms out and over your head is good for stretching. keep the rope taunt and rotate your arms all the way from back to front. rope or ‘belt’ stretching is really great for relaxing into the stretch.
When i first started olyL I just kinda taught myself. This was rough but doable if you have good resources here on the net. videos are key. Also, breaking down the moves liek everyone here says is good. start by doing all the parts of a clean in little bits. first do DL high pulls, then front squats with hook grip (just hook grip everything, chinup bar, dumbells, coffee mug, cell phone, penis etc.) and finger/delt “rack”, then do push presses or split jerks. And do it all with just the bar to grease the groove per se. If you can’t do OH squat then try some OH lunges or splits. this can help build up the rombs and other muscles needed for the isometic hold unitl you get the flexibility (like 2 weeks max).
Also just for the movement pattern try one handed snatches described in staleys article “nice snatch” or something. They really get you into the motion of getting under something your putting up.
also i warm up by doing some high vertical jumps to ‘prime’ my legs for the explosivity. Staley has some great articles on Oly lift form. have fun dewd, it’s like crack.
-chris
[quote]realpeanutbutter wrote:
(just hook grip everything, chinup bar, dumbells, coffee mug, cell phone, penis etc.)
-chris[/quote]
You know you are becoming an OLer when you hook grip odd items. I noticed myself driving with my right hand in the 3 o’clock position with the hook grip first, then suitcases, coffee mugs…if you start masturbating with the hook grip THEN you have problems. ahha
To reply to your thread, I am a beginner also in OL. I started off getting interested in full squats and then stumbled onto Dan John’s website www.danjohn.org and read about overhead squats. Back in December 2005 I found the Columbus Weightlifting Club and was hooked. www.columbusweightlifting.com
The best advice I can give you is to have a ‘beginner’s mind’ be a blank slate. Don’t worry about shoes, when you get to a club your coach will point you in the right direction.
Benefits from OL are immense. I don’t bench (why do PL always have rotator cuff injuries). With OL i press overhead and its amazing to see my chest getting bigger since in OL we always “rack” the weight on our upper chest before a movement (clean and jerk) everytime we take the bar off to do anything the coach has us rack the bar resting on our chest/shoulders…
Check out Tony’s interview, I lift with him and gives his background. www.columbusweightlifting.com/tony.htm
Also if you want to see what a meet looks like, here’s some pics I took in Pittsburgh www.columbusweightlifting.com/pitt0606/
I work in IT, and my wrists have benefited from bar work, I now have built up a better grip since in OL everything we do is just with the bar, also front squats we bend our wrists back, also on cleans, so for someone like me who is stuck typing all day OL has had some nice sidebenefits.
Best of all is the people I lift with are great, you have all these people watching you when you lift, so you learn to lift with ZERO distractions. The nice thing about an OL club is the people, the coaching, encouragement and trash talk during lifting (grin).
So far I’ve been to 4 meets, just observing, in OL you ALWAYS know proper form because you are always watching other people lift, esp going to meets that you sorta build up a lot of experience in what is the right thing to do.
Rely on the coach. We do the movements and can’t look at ourselves (always that was kinda strange at a gym people staring at themselves in the mirror) so you learn to “feel” what is right through the feedback of the coach.
Anyway I would recommend you download Dan John’s OL PDF from his website (“From the Ground UP”) and read that… don’t do anything yourself … get into a club now or with other OL… the key is feedback, OL is built on relying on other coach, etc it keeps you honest LOL on the straight and narrow so that you are doing the form right.
Jim
Does anybody know a good ol club in Los Angeles? Thanks
From personal experience i would see you need to stretch EVERY day, get a pair of shoes (seriously, alot of coaches wont train you until you have some). Also, learn to overhead squat, this is a must, and once you can do that start doing drop snatches with just the bar to get the feel for it. O, and if you have poor shoulder flexibility… stop benching… i kno it sucks but if u have to u have to. you can take it up again once your flexible enough. good luck!
Great thread. This is why I love this site.