Let’s talk weightlifting. Whether you are new or veteran in our community let’s take a good look at the Clean. For the newbies the video below is of Jon North, one of the best weightlifters in the country and a dear friend of mine. This video is from the American Open in 2014, one of the premier events in the sport of weightlifting in our country. He is the master of the way I teach weightlifting, and in turn the way all our coaches teach weightlifting at Lando(s), known as the Catapult method. Since he is the master I figured why not show a video of him performing a great example of it for all of us to learn?

Why again am I having you watch this video? Well first of all it’s mesmerizing. The 51 seconds of slow motion somehow takes up 51 minutes of my day when all is said and done because I just mindlessly hit replay to watch the perfection over, and over, and over. I also somehow end up with no pants on. Another reason why I shared it is we are performing the squat clean in class today during the WOD and it’s supposed to be heavvvvvyyyy. The purpose of the cleans in this structure is to perform heavy lifts when fatigued, teaching through force (and sometimes beatings) how to just get your thoughts and GO. We can’t always think through what we have to do yet still have to perform at a high level. Thinking also cripples even the strongest of beings. I also like to throw high skill movements (HSPU and pistols for example) with heavy lifts to really just F the mind up. The requirement of concentration to move the body through space for these tough movements mixed in with the requirement to move a heavy load with our body and manipulate our body to it provides an amazing neuromuscular response in a relatively short amount of time. In other words, we expend a lot of energy (burn fat), get huge (build muscle), and get smarter (Einstein cleaned 2x BW) all in like 15 minutes!

OK I lied about the smarter part. Anyways….

The last part about weightlifting is really important : manipulate our body to it, the it in this case being a barbell. In weightlifting we are ultimately trying to move a bar loaded with a relative metric s**t-ton of weight on it just enough so we can move out body in position to lift it better. For the clean  we want to move a bar from the ground to our shoulders and eventually or immediately into a full standing position. When we are talking about 400+ pounds like the video above we aren’t talking about pulling with our arms or back to get that thing up there. We need to squat that bad boy up there!

If you are newer to what we do here we want to move the most efficient way possible. This might mean moving the least to accomplish the most (near vertical bar path in the clean or snatch rather than swinging out in front of us), or might mean using the most/strongest part of our body to accomplish something we otherwise couldn’t with what we are given. This last part applies especially to the clean. Again if you are newer here you might not know this : the SQUAT is KING (or QUEEN). The barbell squat, specifically when loaded on our back, provides us with the potential to lift the most weight of any other movement there is. With the clean we take that bar and put it on our shoulders in the front rack position giving us almost the same strength. For many of us the easy part of the clean is the squat, the hard part is getting it there.

When performing the clean, to get started off the floor I want you to think about pushing through the feet into the floor RATHER than pulling off the floor with the posterior. In a way this is saying the same thing just a different way. As you can see in the video of Jon we want to move the bar off the floor by pushing our knees back while keeping our back and shoulders as stable as humanly possible. This is why so much of a weightlifter’s accessory work has to do with getting the posterior chain stronger. If you can start thinking of this lift as you needing to move the barbell from the floor to your LAUNCH position (launch being at :12/:13 in the video where the hips start coming into the bar and the bar into the hips) by pushing the knees back rather than pulling the bar up, you will get the idea of staying over the bar as long as possible because you can focus on pushing. Once launch hits and happens, the bar almost stays in one place while the body is moved into the bottom of a squat, preparing to receive the bar and stand it up.

So much of progress is about change. We find something, use it, change it, make it better, repeat. Or we don’t and we fail epically. The reason why weightlifting and CrossFit are so popular is they work as a fitness platform but they always have room for improvement. You can always meet a weight you cannot lift that particular time, or a movement you cannot perform. It’s time to start thinking of your bodies as high performance machines capable of both manipulating objects to itself or moving itself to move an object more efficiently. Either way we want to beat whatever object we are trying to move.

WEDNESDAY

Strength : Deadlift
5-5-3-3-3-3

WOD : EMOM 10m
4 Handstand Push-ups
4 Pistols (alternating)
20 Double Unders

immediately after last round:
5m AMRAP : Squat Cleans 185/135

S : 5 Pushups, 5 Jumping Air Squats, 20 Single Unders, 75/55 Barbell
L1 : 2 HSPU, 2 Pistols, 10 Double Unders counting attempts, 115/80 Barbell

Rx+ : Strict HSPU, Jumping Pistols (over line in mat), 225/155 Barbell

The Program

1. Strength and WOD as written (WOS Rx+ scale but as able to realistically finish EMOMs)

2a: Good Morning, 5×3 heavy, rest :60
2b: DB Snatch (single arm), 5×5 each side, TnG, heaviest able, rest :90

3. 40 Barbell Lunges @ BW, on back, no time component