That Bulgarian Thing

you’re doing a meet! yeah!! me too! in march–its my first as well! you’ll do awesome :slight_smile:

sort of like Bulgarian weightlifting, expect Polish.

Sorry for hijacking your thread ,booya!

God I can’t wait to snatch tomorrow.

ow that looked painful. Poor Pole.
These videos are making me want to learn olympic lifts (but I’m still kind of scared off by the technique.)

[quote]AlisaV wrote:
ow that looked painful. Poor Pole.
These videos are making me want to learn olympic lifts (but I’m still kind of scared off by the technique.)[/quote]

Start with the clean. It’s a fundamental Olympic movement that you can work into your routine pretty seamlessly, and isn’t nearly as scary since it doesn’t involve taking the weight overhead.

As an example, when I was in college I used to do a routine that pretty much only involved heavy deadlifts and overhead presses, but I didn’t have access to a rack so when I did my heavy presses I would deadlift the bar off the floor and then hang clean it to my shoulders. This is pretty simple and safe since you’re shortening the movement by doing it from a hang and because your strength in the hang clean greatly exceeds your pressing strength; if you can press it,you can clean it easily.

Eventually I got to the point where I could press (and thus hang clean) 110% bodyweight for a single, and not long after I noticed some results from a national high school power clean competition where the winners were pretty much universally at about 150% bodyweight. After seeing that I started adding LIGHT power cleans to the beginning of my workouts to get get the full technique down, and pretty much subbed them in for most of my deadlift warm up sets since explosive power cleans with light weight are a great deadlift warm up.

Long story short, on a couple of random Saturdays after that I came into the gym and worked up to a safe single in the power clean, and between the technique work I got in during my deadlift warm-ups and the strength work I got in racking the bar for my presses, I hit the 150% bodyweight power clean in just a few sessions. So yeah, start hang cleaning the bar for your overhead presses and doing a few LIGHT power cleans before you deadlift, and you’ll end up with a nice Olympic lift foundation without really changing your current template at all. From there, a decent coach should have you snatching and jerking in no time.

Good stuff Alisa - 185 is all you!

have been feeling unaccountably tired and hungry. So diet was a mess. Will still try to make today a good one.

Nice work on the squatting! And your decision to participate in a meet is exciting, can’t wait to follow along & hear how it goes!

I am so happy about your meet :slight_smile:

Couple questions ?

What federation ?

Have you ever done a meet before ?

Do you have someone that has done several meets helping u? Keeping track of everything. ? How far out you are … Your warm ups ect. You attempts … Much of your success will have alot to do with timing.

Do you have a singlet ?

Do you have a good belt ?

Not trying to get in your busness … I just want you to have the best experience possible

Jim

  1. USAPL.

  2. No, this is my first meet.

  3. I know a couple guys who have done meets before. They’re going with me to this one. I will be asking for advice liberally whenever I get to see them. (Not as often as I like; they’re chem majors and ALWAYS in the lab.) I do have confirmation from them that my form is legal, if not always pretty, which is a relief to know. (i.e. my squats are to depth.)

  4. I ordered one but it hasn’t come yet. Starting to get nervous.

  5. Belt? I’ve never used a belt. I suppose I could borrow one if it helps. But I have tried once or twice, didn’t see any improvement in my lifts, and felt really stupid using a belt for my weeny lifts.

A question: I have never lifted without doing lots of warmup sets. Normally I work up in smallish increments to my top set. Usually it works out to 5 warm-up sets and then 3 sets or so that are heavy for me. I’m kind of scared of just walking up to a heavy weight out of the blue. How long do you have to wait between your warmups and your attempts?

Alisa:

I have done three USAPL meets and found the experience somewhat different at each one. The time lag between warmup and first attempt varies . . . anywhere from 5-ish minutes to more than 30. Don’t worry about a belt if you have never used one. I wouldn’t change up anything this close to your meet. You’ll definitely need one eventually, though. There are some good articles online about doing your first powerlifting meet.

Ok you need to have one of those guys stick by your side like glue and
take care of you.

This is what will happen

There will be two to three flights (groups of
lifters) you will prob be in the first flight.
You will be given time to warm up. You would start with the bar in the warm up room. Say your opener is 135 your last single in the back will prob be like 115. You will want to that about 5 mins before the meet starts. That is why you need someone good to help you and tell you what to do so you don’t need to worry about jack. While your squatting the second flight will warm up for the squat … Then onto the bench … Then deadlift. Some
meets will take a lunch break others will not. It is key you have someone to help you to keep you from going mad.

Your weights are not tiny … You are lifting
against yourself. And you have the “balls” to do a meet I think you will find everyone very helpfull and positive. I am so proud of you for doing the meet :slight_smile:

Yes get a belt and push out on it as hard as possible with your belly :slight_smile:

If you have any other questions feel free to pm me …

Knowing what you are getting
into is half the battle :wink:

Jim

Thanks for the advice.
Nope, no gym today; felt like poo. Will try tomorrow.

Get yourself a handler girl!

[quote]rcfromdb wrote:
Get yourself a handler girl![/quote]

she speakes the truth … Ask anyone who has done a meet … One of the keys to a smooth ride is having a good handler (Molly feel free to chime in). :slight_smile:

Jim

Yes, I can’t imagine doing a meet without a handler. Especially if you go the gear route.

I’d volunteer! What are handler requirements? :slight_smile: Even if it’s for moral support, I’d come up Alisa! Really.

I will be going with several people from school, including a girl (it’s her first time too, but she absolutely blows me out of the water.) I hope that’ll do. I guess I’m vague on what a “handler” is.

A handler - guides you through the meet

they deal with everything
and wrangle your shit.

like getting your attempt weights to who needs them
getting your rack height requirements to who needs them

they help manage your time
tell you when to eat, warm up and coach you

if you use gear/equipment they help you put it on etc

great news on the meet, see if one of the other lifters will do it for you

Yeah, I’ll try to get that kind of help. I have learned just from gym experience that it’s a pain when the rack heights are off (having to stand on your tiptoes to get the bar on your back; having to pull your shoulders forward to unrack the bar for benching; they just ain’t built for shorties.)

Meanwhile … my singlet better arrive in time. It says it’s been shipped. This is getting a wee bit disconcerting.

I have not been trying to cut weight so I’ll be in the 148 class. It just seemed too daunting (and stupid) to try to lose weight in a hurry.

When I’m done with my meet and my short-term strength goals (whichever comes last) I think I’ll go on a six-week carnival of fat-loss pain. It would just be nice, for once, to have no worries about my body. Right now I’m heavier than I’ve ever been (though still two dress sizes smaller than before I started exercising seriously.)

Might try this Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
which looks weird and profoundly unpleasant, and is different enough from what I’m doing that it might work. Not messing with supplements, though; I’m superstitious about that and I am not going to play with stimulants. It looks absolutely miserable, but I have the kind of personality to do things in one shvung. I am not, by nature, a great lover of healthy rabbit food.

How much weight do you have to drop ?

Can you weight in the day before meet ?

Drop me a line I’ll tell you how to make weight and still be strong if not stronger.

If singlet doesn’t show they always have someone there selling them

I am so glad we are getting this all delt with before you get there :slight_smile:

Jim