Today, I took down any mention of competitive powerlifting prowess from Twitter. That is probably just the beginning. Some say it might be relevant to point out that I lift nicely and sort of heavy, for professional reasons. After all, competitive results are seen as a confirmation of a coach’s familiarity with strength training. This […]
Hiatus from competition – how long, I don’t know Read More »
I have been the president of a national powerlifting organization in a powerlifting and ethics-unfriendly country. Our organization never really grew: the corruption tradition was so strong that the IPL/USPA project could hardly be understood by people who were already lifters. Our chance were the newcomers. I didn’t have the time: I moved away. I
The beauty of team work in sports: organizing meets is a very specialized occupation Read More »
This is just a quick note written at the hotel lobby (the Hampton Inn) before I hit the road headed to the Treasure Coast. This is not a writeup and not even a properly thorough acknowledgements article. Let’s say this is a good-bye-see you soon note with many thank-yous and some interesting comments. Florida is
“The Jenn” – a quick note from the Judge’s corner Read More »
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 Read More »
(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 Read More »
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) Read More »
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 Read More »
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 Read More »
[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
