Making weight, in addition to being one of the most difficult aspects of sport, is often the most misunderstood. Widely criticized by both those who practice and those who watch any sport divided in bodyweight classes, making weight and cutting weight are often depicted as cheating or as reckless and risky behavior. Several academic […]
That past weekend I had to red light a couple of lifts because of floating butts. A floating butt is something that always frustrates the lifter to the point of rage: been there, done that, much more than I would like to. Nobody wants to raise their butt. So why does this happen? Let’s start
Floating butts and leg drive – 4 tips Leia mais »
(read “Numbers” before) One day I calculated the safe time for alternating squat rounds (flights A and B), the time required to change the equipment on the platform for the bench press rounds, plus all that and the deadlift rounds. I summed the operational arrangements time and came to the “golden” number of 30
Again about the golden numbers – keeping powerlifting boring and kosher Leia mais »
Sometimes I really feel stupid to give advice on how to improve something – say, your deadlift – when everybody, plus myself, has already written extensively on it. How many different ways are there to tell someone they need to keep spine neutrality during the deadlift? Or that you need to avoid early/ asynchronous hip
The first attempt (things I’ve been learning while teaching) Leia mais »
Of all people, I am most grateful to Gene and Ame Rychlak. They have been supportive from day one until yesterday. They have been understanding, flexible and accommodating to our innumerous demands. I must say that because I feel I owe them so much, I was partly disappointed with myself for not being able to
Time to say good-bye and thank you Leia mais »
I’m here. Diego is by the sink preparing “dinner” or whatever we may call it. We just did a bodyweight training circuit in the room. This time, we couldn’t rent a car, which is quite a nuisance in Columbus. We have to manage as we can. We seem calm and serene. We talk, we design
Believe it or not – getting to Ohio. Part 1: introducing the whole mess Leia mais »
Not the first, not the last. The massive immunological stress a competition generates is not exactly new to science or to sports specialists. Powerlifting is somewhat extreme in this sense. I just read Howard Penrose’s article about his flu and I bet many of us were/are exactly in the same condition. What I didn’t know
Post meet reality – part 1: respiratory infection Leia mais »
I guess I’ll just start writing whatever seems important here as “notes to self” and then organize it all later. First, because I don’t have a “note to self” file on my computer. Second, because maybe some of the input can come in handy. We were at Westside Barbell today but that’s not what
The Road to the Gold – part 3 – where to compete Leia mais »
[Warning and disclaimer: this is not the best reading for a pre-competitive period.] A few years ago I wrote an almost poetic piece on why I lifted weights. It was the first time I tackled issues related to flow, still unaware of the wealth of literature on the subject. I just described the feeling
This is another quick command that can fix even unknown (in the sense that it’s not your athlete) lifter’s unconscious sinking of the bar on the chest at the bench press (resulting in three red lights). I figured this out during my last meets when some lifters were missing lifts because of this. This is
A quick fix to sinking bars: stiffen up your lats and control the descent Leia mais »
