Thanks Dom.
JIMMY, USAW you nitty. But you’ll always be LBH true blue. What’s the team motto?
Find a club here:
[quote]ledfist wrote:
JIMMY, USAW you nitty. But you’ll always be LBH true blue. What’s the team motto?
Find a club here:
[/quote]
Be prepared to lift anytime, anywhere, and under any condition.
Yeah, USAW was the first place I looked. There’s nothing in LA.
[quote]ledfist wrote:
JIMMY, USAW you nitty. But you’ll always be LBH true blue. What’s the team motto?
Find a club here:
[/quote]
How can you trust USAW for anything?
They can’t even remind their coaches or members that they’re are up for renewel…
Word of mouth is way better than this mess!
[quote]Dominator wrote:
ledfist wrote:
JIMMY, USAW you nitty. But you’ll always be LBH true blue. What’s the team motto?
Find a club here:
How can you trust USAW for anything?
They can’t even remind their coaches or members that they’re are up for renewel…
Word of mouth is way better than this mess!
[/quote]
True that.
I second the idea of approaching the coaching staff at UCLA to see if you can get into the varsity weight room. That worked for me at Nebraska.
The head strength and conditioning coach for the track and basketball teams was a former oly lifter and he let me and a couple other lifters come in during off hours (i.e., 4:00 p.m.) to use the weights.
Frankly, I think it helped some of the athletes to see guys putting up bigger weights in good form on the classic lifts, squats, and presses.
I think it’s worth a shot; the worst that can happen is that they would say no.
Go over and ask at the Oly forum at goheavy.com
If anybody knows if there are places to do Oly Lifting in LA, it will be there.
Isn’t it a sad commentary on US Olympic Weightlifting when finding an Oly gym in one of the biggest cities in the country is like finding a needle in a haystack?
[quote]entheogens wrote:
Isn’t it a sad commentary on US Olympic Weightlifting when finding an Oly gym in one of the biggest cities in the country is like finding a needle in a haystack?[/quote]
Sadly, it’s just as hard to find a PL gym there. It’s more of a sad commentary on LA, really…
I talked to Coach Burgener. He confirmed what I thought - the only places to lift there are Crossfit (fuck that), Velocity (way too expensive), and UCLA. He told me if I speak with the coaches at UCLA, plead my case, offer to volunteer, and tell them I come recommended from him, they might just let me lift there.
The only thing is I’m having trouble getting in direct contact with the coaches. By phone they always try to transfer me to a recruiter.
If UCLA doesn’t work out, I won’t move to LA just yet. I’ll wait until I have enough money to get a place with a garage and I’ll get my own equipment. Either that or I’ll just move to Bonsall to train with Burgener or to San Fran to train with Abadjiev himself.
The problem with not going to LA is I’m a professional rock singer and I want to start a band out there. It’s tough really. My two passions in life are music and lifting. For music, LA is the best in the country - for weightlifting, the worst.
[quote]jimmyjames wrote:
Either that or I’ll just move to Bonsall to train with Burgener or to San Fran to train with Abadjiev himself.[/quote]
Abdjiev moved back, a while ago.
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to train over at Cal Strength though…it’s a good group.
Cal Strength? Where’s that?
[quote]jimmyjames wrote:
Cal Strength? Where’s that?[/quote]
In NorCal. The guys that trained with Abadjiev are there.
Gotcha.
I live in Santa Monica and am having a hard time too in finding a O-lift club. I heard of place called “shutup and lift” in El Segundo, but can’t find it. This place sucks for O-lifting.
there’s about a million crossfit clubs out here. They might be able to help…
[quote]jackson44 wrote:
I live in Santa Monica and am having a hard time too in finding a O-lift club. I heard of place called “shutup and lift” in El Segundo, but can’t find it. This place sucks for O-lifting. [/quote]
They have plateform and latest Olympic bars. They also have a ton of other stuff also.
Guys: I live in LA and used to be National Junior Champion and was on the National Junior team for USA Weightlifting in the late 1980s. I was out of Sayre Park in Chicago and moved to LA in the early 90s. I saw this thread and signed up for the forum because I think I can help you. Although I do not do any olympic lifting anymore, I did get an itch to do some a couple years ago. At that time, I found a gym in El Segundo that I thought was totally adequate. I believe this is their website:
http://www.r1gym.com/default.html
The gym is not dedicated to olympic lifting or even dedicated to any kind of weightlifting. In fact, it’s more geared towards MMA. But they had a couple platforms and totally adequate equipment. Sure, it’s not the best Eleiko bars and plates. But the stuff they had totally worked fine. If you wanted, I betcha they would even let you bring your own bar if you wanted to go out and buy a nice bar that spins properly.
Moreover, it was totally cheap. I think I paid $10 for the day and I am sure that they have monthly rates that are very reasonable (it’s not exactly a luxurious place but you don’t need one). One caveat is that the last (and only) time I worked out there was 2-3 years ago so I don’t know what’s changed in that time.
My other recommendation is to call USA Weightlifting in Colorado Springs at (719) 866-4508 and ask to speak to Paul Fleshler. Paul is the resident coach at the OTC for the USA men’s team. We also went to high school together. Paul may be able to point you out to a gym in LA that nobody on this board knows about.
More importantly, Paul may be able to refer you to a coach in the LA area who you can train with. Jimmy, the only way you are ever going to attain your goals in weightlifting is to train with a good coach. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I assume you’re in your 20s and at your age you should be lifting quite a bit more at your weight class (15 year old competitive lifters lift more than what you’re doing). You need to work out with a coach who can guide and mentor you or you’re never going to get anywhere.
Lastly, FWIW, I once called Velocity in West LA and asked them if I could work out there on an occasional basis. The equipment there seems first rate from the pics I’ve seen. But they totally blew me off when I told them that I didn’t need any expensive training. I gave up quickly because I really don’t care about olympic lifting anymore. But I bet if I pursued them, they would cut a deal to work out there.
The sales rep I spoke with told me that they have an arrangement with a health club that is attached to or somehow a part of their gym and that it’s possible to become a member of the health club. So that’s an avenue that you should explore. After all, if you’re living up in LA, you really don’t want to drive down to El Segundo six days a week to train.
I hope this helps.
Best of luck,
Steve Blevit
I train at Gold’s Gym in Venice. There is an Olympic lifting platform there and 4 squat racks. The bumper plates and kettlebells are locked up, but you could ask the Olympic lifting coach, Danny, if you can use the plates. If you try to train at UCLA, the $11/day parking fee will suck you dry, and the Westwood Village traffic is horrendous. Gold’s has free parking and reasonable monthly membership rates.
No problem with chalk or deadlifting. Beware, Gold’s is the only gym I’ve ever trained in where people wear costumes (strange training wear). But everyone who trains there is a serious lifter, even the old farts like me. (I lean more toward powerlifting.)