CT: An Olympic lifter I coach recently–about three hours ago–competed in the World" Masters at Torino, Italy. As part of his preparation for this meet I had him doing your snatch grip high pulls from blocks layers. It worked. He won his age class–45 to 49 and weight class–105 kg + with the following lifts–in kilograms:
Snatch: 146; clean & jerk: 166; total: 309.
All three of these are new world records and he has now won 4 Masters World titles.
Regarding your layering system, it helped him for sure.
He is in my age group and weight class, so stop giving him effective programming! Just kidding. That is awesome. How much did he increase his PRs on the lifts?
Mike, he hit a 170 clean & jerk a couple of weeks before the meet. He’s still across the pond on a post meet vacation but I wonder if jet lag might have been a factor? He left for Italy on Monday and he lifted four days later on Friday. Italy is six time zones ahead of us. In the 1980’s when I was doing politically incorrect things in Southern Africa, I found that it took one day per time zone for my body to adjust.
An interesting fact; on one of his earlier Nationals the World record for the clean and jerk in his weight class–105 + and age group-41-45 was 186 kilos. He did 188 in that meet but since there were no IWF certified judges, it wasn’t recognized as a new world record. So, in essence, his US record exceeds the world’s.
[quote]corrmhona wrote:
He would have pulled a gold in the M35 group as well…inspirational![/quote]
For some reason the M40 seems just as strong if not stronger than the M35 in several weight classes. My theory is that a lot of guys who would be competing in the 35-40 age group might still be competing in the open… and some, like myself, might not realize that you are a master as early as 35!
[quote]germanicus wrote:
CT, hope his lifting will inspire you to return to the competitive stage.[/quote]
Not so much his lifting rather than my pain-free elbow. I had been battling a BAD case of elbow tendonitis ever since I abused ring work 2-3 years ago… in fact it was impossible to rack a front squat, I felt like I was getting stabbed in the inner portion of the elbow everytime I tried to rack a front squat… let alone catch a clean.
I tried everything, ART, anti-inflamatories, stretching, physical therapy, icing, etc. Nothing worked. I could manage to do some cleans, but I had to warm-up for about 40 minutes to be able to do 2-3 sets and then would suffer for 4-5 days afterwards.
Furthermore my right elbow could not fully extend.
I have now fixed the problem with voodoo band flossing (thanks K-Star and Mobility WOD)… it only took 1 self-treartment too! I can now clean and front squat without pain and have full range of motion.
I still have a lot of ground to make up between not cleaning or snatching for almost 10 years and not training legs hard due to a knee issue that held me back for 5 years. But at least I’m positive now that I don’t have any training limitations.
Furthermore my right elbow could not fully extend.
I have now fixed the problem with voodoo band flossing (thanks K-Star and Mobility WOD)… it only took 1 self-treartment too! I can now clean and front squat without pain and have full range of motion.[/quote]
Man, I tell you voodoo bands are worth their weight in gold! I remember being skeptical of them when first introduced–not concept so much as the rapidity of results (I had already been a K Star fan for long time and think his stuff is just killer). But I had a mate who was a believer with a band and had him floss my left knee and calf…I spent the next 2 days wondering why I was walking funny and why my right knee hurt…only to realize that it was because I had complete mobility in my left leg and hadn’t had my right leg flossed at all! Stuff is incredible, got a pack the day after I realized that.
CT, did you also solve the mobility issues with your shoulders? We discussed this briefly after I pointed out that you were not pressing directly overhead but rather up and infront of your face. Maybe you remember, this was around a year ago. Hope all is well with you.
Furthermore my right elbow could not fully extend.
I have now fixed the problem with voodoo band flossing (thanks K-Star and Mobility WOD)… it only took 1 self-treartment too! I can now clean and front squat without pain and have full range of motion.[/quote]
Man, I tell you voodoo bands are worth their weight in gold! I remember being skeptical of them when first introduced–not concept so much as the rapidity of results (I had already been a K Star fan for long time and think his stuff is just killer). But I had a mate who was a believer with a band and had him floss my left knee and calf…I spent the next 2 days wondering why I was walking funny and why my right knee hurt…only to realize that it was because I had complete mobility in my left leg and hadn’t had my right leg flossed at all! Stuff is incredible, got a pack the day after I realized that.[/quote]
I was just about to get the floss bands to try out for my left knee since it’s been kinda bothering me in the quarter squat/power position for high pulls … it’s takes far too long to get it working properly before I lift … I was wondering since you “floss” how long did it take you to have no need to floss anymore ? or do you have to do it all the time for your left knee to feel normal … did the pain go away permanently or does it come back if you don’t floss…
Furthermore my right elbow could not fully extend.
I have now fixed the problem with voodoo band flossing (thanks K-Star and Mobility WOD)… it only took 1 self-treartment too! I can now clean and front squat without pain and have full range of motion.[/quote]
Man, I tell you voodoo bands are worth their weight in gold! I remember being skeptical of them when first introduced–not concept so much as the rapidity of results (I had already been a K Star fan for long time and think his stuff is just killer). But I had a mate who was a believer with a band and had him floss my left knee and calf…I spent the next 2 days wondering why I was walking funny and why my right knee hurt…only to realize that it was because I had complete mobility in my left leg and hadn’t had my right leg flossed at all! Stuff is incredible, got a pack the day after I realized that.[/quote]
I was just about to get the floss bands to try out for my left knee since it’s been kinda bothering me in the quarter squat/power position for high pulls … it’s takes far too long to get it working properly before I lift … I was wondering since you “floss” how long did it take you to have no need to floss anymore ? or do you have to do it all the time for your left knee to feel normal … did the pain go away permanently or does it come back if you don’t floss…[/quote]
I still do it before every session and sometimes after. Just because it’s great now doesn’t mean that it will stay great if I stop. I prefer 2 minutes of maintenance pre-workut and 2 minutes post to having the problem resurface
[quote]bro1989 wrote:
CT, did you also solve the mobility issues with your shoulders? We discussed this briefly after I pointed out that you were not pressing directly overhead but rather up and infront of your face. Maybe you remember, this was around a year ago. Hope all is well with you.[/quote]
Actually the problem with that was the same as what originally caused the elbow issue…
The elbow issue is in the inner crook of the elbow. So I originally thought that the pronators were tight.
Then I realised that it wasn’t the root of the problem, but only the symptom. Then I thought that my suppinators were tight, which caused the pronators to work extra hard when getting into a front rack position.
That wasn’t the problem.
I finally found that the real issue was that the long head of the triceps was REALLY jammed. This caused inner elbow stress both directly because it prevented me from full flexion, which felt like a knife stab everytime I caught a clean in full flexion, but also because it prevented me from properly externally rotating the shoulder during the front rack position. This led to shoulder mobility issues.
So I rolled (with a lacrosse ball) my triceps like crazy, then flossed with the voodoo band while working on external shoulder rotation mobility. Not perfect, but close to it.
[quote]bro1989 wrote:
CT, did you also solve the mobility issues with your shoulders? We discussed this briefly after I pointed out that you were not pressing directly overhead but rather up and infront of your face. Maybe you remember, this was around a year ago. Hope all is well with you.[/quote]
Actually the problem with that was the same as what originally caused the elbow issue…
The elbow issue is in the inner crook of the elbow. So I originally thought that the pronators were tight.
Then I realised that it wasn’t the root of the problem, but only the symptom. Then I thought that my suppinators were tight, which caused the pronators to work extra hard when getting into a front rack position.
That wasn’t the problem.
I finally found that the real issue was that the long head of the triceps was REALLY jammed. This caused inner elbow stress both directly because it prevented me from full flexion, which felt like a knife stab everytime I caught a clean in full flexion, but also because it prevented me from properly externally rotating the shoulder during the front rack position. This led to shoulder mobility issues.
So I rolled (with a lacrosse ball) my triceps like crazy, then flossed with the voodoo band while working on external shoulder rotation mobility. Not perfect, but close to it.[/quote]
Was the majority of the tricep issue down right above the elbow? Seems that is where mine get really gunked up. Haven’t bought the voodoo bands but have used the lacrosse ball and an old bicycle tube for the compression and it keeps it from gunking up so much. Really works well right above and below the knee!
Furthermore my right elbow could not fully extend.
I have now fixed the problem with voodoo band flossing (thanks K-Star and Mobility WOD)… it only took 1 self-treartment too! I can now clean and front squat without pain and have full range of motion.[/quote]
Man, I tell you voodoo bands are worth their weight in gold! I remember being skeptical of them when first introduced–not concept so much as the rapidity of results (I had already been a K Star fan for long time and think his stuff is just killer). But I had a mate who was a believer with a band and had him floss my left knee and calf…I spent the next 2 days wondering why I was walking funny and why my right knee hurt…only to realize that it was because I had complete mobility in my left leg and hadn’t had my right leg flossed at all! Stuff is incredible, got a pack the day after I realized that.[/quote]
I was just about to get the floss bands to try out for my left knee since it’s been kinda bothering me in the quarter squat/power position for high pulls … it’s takes far too long to get it working properly before I lift … I was wondering since you “floss” how long did it take you to have no need to floss anymore ? or do you have to do it all the time for your left knee to feel normal … did the pain go away permanently or does it come back if you don’t floss…[/quote]
Well…bit of a guilty confession here…I only got the bands this past weekend :). And I haven’t used them yet. I am deloading this week and have been doing a BUNCH of outside-the-gym strenuous work (hence taking the deload this week instead of next), and usually just fall into bed. It’s a laziness thing I know, but this is one of those weeks you just grind through and don’t think about “optimal”, you just get done. I do get a workout in today so I am going to voodoo today.
The original voodoo helped me through the whole week after one session. But it was very noticeable for the 48 hours afterwards without another session (I always did foam rolling, so no changes there).