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Effort training

P

PTC

Member
Tonight at PTC I witnessed one of the best sessions ever. I had 7 lifters so driven to hit PB's that they pulled for 3 hours.

One guy powercleaned for 2.5 hours in an effort to clean 110kg. The effort he put in tonight will bring rewards further down the track. Alen doesnt get annoyed, he just keeps trying. We filmed lifts and put them on the computer to pick up areas to improve, we slowed them down to 25% speed.

Nick (NPR) finally powercleaned 120kg after missing it a dozen times, then later squatted 170kg, totally spent.

Max started lifting at 7.00pm and finished at 10.20pm, eventually powercleaning 110kg @ 68kg.

Trish powercleaned for 90 minutes before finally making 106kg on his last lift for the night.

Meanwhile Jimmy was toiling away in the background, squatting 180kg for a PB, while his training partner made 147.5kg PB

Little Nick just kept pulling on 85kg till he managed to clean it, 2 hours after he started. His other training partner had long gone home.

Powercleaning and squatting for so long is going to make you strong. After Trish squatted 160kg for a PB, he turned around and cleaned 106kg for a PB, this was at 10.20pm, he started at 7.50pm.

All these guys have made massive improvements, its no wonder with the effort they put in.

Not one of them was working off a program tonight, it was just gut busting effort.

I wish I'd filmed all of it.
 
That is awesome, I want to see some of that footage. Where they working on techniques to get the weights up or just trying again and again and again to get used to it? I would have thought that trying for 2 hours you'd be buggered!

Max is powercleaning more than his old man! I bet that makes you proud.
 
How did they not fall over after an hour? They must have had some good rest periods and rushed out to buy milk or something? Or they are phenomenally fit and determined both... :)
 
Most of those lifters have done my cardio sessions. These were introduced originally because I was finding lifters couldnt lift heavy for an hour. They could do filler till the cows come home, but we only squat, press and pull, there is no filler or easy exercises. No extended rest periods either, one lifter after another.

By making clients fitter, they are now able to lift longer, the trade off is they get stronger.

As far as powercleaning and technique, it made a massive difference analyzing the lifts in slow motion to look for areas of improvement.

Max easily has the best technique of the bunch, but EVERYONE can improve. We noticed he wasnt pulling the bar high enough. He had been splitting sideways trying to get under the bar and not extending as far as he could. The bar was being pulled to his shoulders, rather than being pulled higher and having it drop onto his shoulders. He is quick enough to get under the bar, as his succesful 110kg effort was done with zero split.

He simply pulled longer which gave him ample time to rack the bar correctly. He kept dropping the bar forward previously.

Nicks 120kg effort was pure blood and guts. He had smashed his knee on numerous attempts, but we all felt he had the strength to make the lift. His succesful attempt wasnt perfect, he stepped in to catch the bar, but he was so proud to finally clean 120kg he left the bar on his shoulders for almost a minute, simply admiring it.

As Fadi will tell you, the Olympic lifts need to be drilled and you will miss more than you make, but the ones you make are far more enjoyable than any other lift in the gym.

I actually filmed Nick, Alen, Max and Trish with around 90kg. We will be slowing them down and showing them one after another, simply to assess the techniques. We will post them on YouTube on the PTC Frankston channel. I'll provide a link when its done.

Purely for analysis as none of the lifts are close to PB's
 
Man I am struggling on the Power Cleans, there is so much to think about.
 
That's very interesting to hear about the cardio. I have always felt that most lifters would do much better with better cardio fitness, I see a lot of people around the gym resting for a long time between sets, or messing about with dumbell lateral shoulder raises or something - "filler", as you say.

And that is also interesting to hear about looking so closely at the lifts. I feel sure that anyone experienced looking at my lifting technique is going to find a zillion mistakes. I look forward to sorting them out.

This is why I have not attempted powercleans at all. While I am obviously going to have lots to learn on all lifts, they are definitely more technical than (say) the overhead press.
 
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Yep, far more technical. I prefer to teach them from the top down. Most lifters bend their arms before the bar reaches the knees, by doing hang cleans from mid thigh, we at least have straight arms higher up the lift

It has taken forever to teach Nina, she would bend her arms as the bar left the floor. She watched her technique on video. She now gets it. She is so excited.

We are not increasing the weight at the moment. Her PB is 57.5kg with the worst form. Because she always had lots of arm involvement, the movement was heavy regardless of the weight.

She now does around 15 sets of 3 with 40kg everyday. The bar flies up like its empty. She is displaying good patience, as I know she wants to clean 60kg so bad.

Its one movement I dont add weight to too quickly, it destroys form.
 
Marcos are you able to put up a vid, or a link to what you consider good form for a power clean, I have never tried them.

Is it an exercise taht your can just strait into lightly, or would you recomend doing some other exercises first so that you are more preperard for them..
 
Max has a stack of videos from elite Olympic lifters. When he gets home from school I'll put up the youtube links.

I taught Max the basics that I learnt from reading. He then read my strength journals and watched plenty of videos of the best lifters.

i think once you are doing most things right, you can start to push the weight. Once Max knew he was pretty much doing everythink okay, like not using his arms, flat back, shoulders in front of the bar, triple extension, he really pushed it.

Just be aware nobody is ever perfect on this lift, well not consistently any way. With sub maximum weights, yes, but when your approaching PBs, form suffers a little.

Most Olympic lifters have lifted more weight in training than competition. This seldom happens with powerlifters.

Botev C&J 265kg in training, the world record is 263kg, and he wasnt that heavy.

I'll get those links up tonight.
 
Last night when I was doing powercleans I was really focusing on hip drive. A few times it all came together and the bar just seems to fly up to the shoulders.

The one I really struggle with is squat cleans. I can't get it to sit on my shoulders properly when I clean it and end up overbalancing forward on the squat part.
 
Thats right, you'll know when you do it right, the bar feels weightless.

More and more of my clients are interested in weightlifting, so on Thursday nights at 8.00pm I have a weightlifting session.

I have 5 bars and I have 3-4 lifters on each bar, similar strength levels so to limit plate changes.

Anyway, we do front squats exclusively in these sessions to prepare lifters for a full clean.

we also start and finish with overhead squats. All lifters have to pass a mobility test before I allow them to lift from the floor.

Practice your overhead and front squats. Wrist, elbow and shoulder flexibility is crucial to be able to rack the bar correctly
 
PTC said:
Practice your overhead and front squats. Wrist, elbow and shoulder flexibility is crucial to be able to rack the bar correctly
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I think the wrist, elbow and shoulder flexibility that you mention is what I am lacking.
 
Mark, you should come and do a session with me mate. It may be the blind leading the blind but it could be beneficial. I think it would be good to film each others cleans and then we can post up here and get Markos and Fadi to have a look at the power Clean. I know I need ALOT of assistance.
 
Josh_GTiR said:
Mark, you should come and do a session with me mate. It may be the blind leading the blind but it could be beneficial. I think it would be good to film each others cleans and then we can post up here and get Markos and Fadi to have a look at the power Clean. I know I need ALOT of assistance.
Click to expand...

Yeah definately keen to give that a run. I train at Goodlife as well so I think that means I can drop by your gym coz members can train wherever right?
 
That's right mate.

Let me know what would work for you. I can't really get up to Carindale at the moment because I am limited with time because of my son. I reckon a Saturday morning sessions would be a good one, if you can make it down to the Hyperdome. Otherwise I might be able to make it up there, but it would only be a Saturday. Otherwise I train Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights.
 
Trust me you guys; I’m getting very frustrated sitting here not being able to physically help you with your requests.

And yes Markos, Stefan was one powerful Bulgaria and a true gentleman as well. I’ve got nothing but admiration for the man.


Fadi.
 
Hopefully I will have to footage to put up soon so I can get some assistance.
 
Josh_GTiR said:
Hopefully I will have to footage to put up soon so I can get some assistance.
Click to expand...

Hey man should be keen to catch up at your gym Saturday week (12th). My girlfriend is going to Japan for 7 months on Monday so I've got to spend this Saturday with her i'm told, haha.

Don't sweat it Fadi, you and PTC and others give us plenty of help and motivation we wouldn't otherwise be getting. It's very much appreciated.
 
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