Week 2021.04.05

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Reminder: Please note that the gym will be closed this Saturday, 04/10/21, as we are hosting the annual Testify Strengthlifting Challenge.

This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
Sled
Outdoors:
10-20 x 25 yds EMOM at a weight of your choice

Every minute, push the sled 25 yards, i.e., if pushing the sled takes 20 seconds, then you have 40 seconds to rest. Perform 10-20 rounds.

Indoors:
10-20 x 100 ft EMOM at a weight of your choice

Every minute, push the sled 100 feet, i.e., if pushing the sled takes 20 seconds, then you have 40 seconds to rest. Perform 10-20 rounds.

Compare to 2021.02.01.

Option 2
Bike/row:
12 min TT
Score = distance

Compare to 2021.01.11.

Option 3
5-10 rounds of:
30 sec ME tire flips
30 sec rest

Compare to 2020.12.14.

Option 4
1. 5 yoke carries @ 30 yd (15 yd downback) – work up to heaviest carry
2. 5 rounds of 5 reps on the axle “clean and press away” – work up to heavy set of 5

Compare to 2020.12.07.

Weightlifting Meets: Placing and Tiebreakers

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IMG_6451.jpg

A lifter’s place (i.e., 1st place, 2nd place, etc.) at a weightlifting meet is determined by the total, i.e., the sum of the lifter’s heaviest successful snatch and the lifter’s heaviest successful clean-and-jerk. Since two lifters can have the same total, let’s look at the IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) rules for determining place and - specifically - breaking any ties that may occur. Let’s look at the rules in order of application (the official IWF phrasing is given in bold) using our sample lifters Bob and Joe.

Rule #1: Best result - highest first: if identical, then:
This one is pretty simple - if Bob’s total is 170 kg and Joe’s total is 165 kg, then Bob wins because his total is higher. If they both total 170 kg, then we move on to Rule #2 . . .

Rule #2: Best Clean & Jerk result – lowest first; if identical, then:
Bob and Joe both total 170 kg in keeping with the example above. Bob’s best clean-and-jerk is 90 kg while Joe’s best clean-and-jerk is 100 kg. Bob’s clean-and-jerk is lower than Joe’s, so Bob wins.

This logic can seem a bit strange at first, and we’ll address it after going through the rest of the rules. However, if their best clean-and-jerks are both 90 kg, then we move on to Rule #3 . . .

Rule #3: Best Clean & Jerk result’s attempt number – least number of attempt first; if identical, then:
As stated above, Bob and Joe’s best clean-and-jerks are both 90 kg. Bob hit 90 kg on his 2nd attempt while Joe hit 90 kg on his 3rd attempt. Bob’s attempt number is lower than Joe’s (i.e., 2 is lower than 3), so Bob wins.

Again, if the logic seems strange, don’t worry - we’ll get to it in a moment. On the other hand, if they both clean-and-jerked 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt, then we move on to Rule #4 . . .

Rule #4: Previous attempt(s) – least number of attempt first; if identical, then:
Now, it gets slightly more complicated. Again, in our example, Bob and Joe both clean-and-jerked 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt. Bob attempted 85 kg on his first attempt while Joe opened at 86 kg. Since 85 is less than 86, Bob wins.

If they both hit 90 kg for their best clean-and-jerk on their second attempts, and they both opened at 85 kg, then we move on to Rule #5 . . .

Rule #5: Lot number – lowest first.
Last time - we promise. Bob and Joe both clean-and-jerk 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt, and they both opened at 85 kg. Bob’s lot number is 15 while Joe’s lot number is 23. Bob’s lot number is lower than Joe’s, so Bob wins.

These rules can seem pretty convoluted, but if you’re actually watching the meet, it’s pretty simple. Rule #1 is fairly obvious - whoever lifts the most wins. After that, when it comes to the tiebreaker rules (i.e., Rules #2-5), the basic idea is that whoever hits that 170 kg total first - in time - wins. For example, if Bob establishes his 170 kg total at 1:30 p.m., and Joe establishes his 170 kg total at 1:40 p.m., Bob wins since he got to 170 kg earlier in the day than Joe did. Seriously - that’s it.

In the example for Rule #2, Bob’s total is cemented in place when he hits 90 kg for his last successful lift. That means his total is 170 kg before Joe ever steps on the platform to attempt 100 kg. In other words, Bob is rewarded for having staked his claim to 170 kg first - Joe could have gone for 101 kg to total 171 kg, but he instead went for the tie at 170 kg, and since Bob got there first, he wins.

All of the other rules that follow are simply worded to guarantee that this same concept applies in all situations, which can require some serious thought when considering how the order of lifting is determined in weightlifting (for more on that, read this article).

So simply remember this - in the case of a tie, if you hit the total first, you win.

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Week 2021.03.29

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This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
Sled
Outdoors:
10 rounds of:
Push sled 100 ft
Pull sled 100 ft (hand over hand)

Indoors:
20 rounds of:
Push sled 50 ft
Pull sled 50 ft (hand over hand)

Compare to 2021.01.25.

Option 2
Bike/row:
8 x 30 sec on/2:00 off

Score = least distance covered in any 30 second interval

Compare to 2021.01.04.

Option 3
Outdoors:
5-10 rounds:
10 sledgehammer strikes (5R, 5L)
50 yd farmer carry (25 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Indoors:
5-10 rounds:
10 sledgehammer strikes (5R, 5L)
100 ft farmer carry (50 ft down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Compare to 2020.12.07.

Option 4
Sandbag-over-bars
Set yoke at #33 for women or #35 for men.
1. 1 minute AMRAP
2. 5 rounds of 2 reps every 2 minutes (speed!)
3. 1 minute AMRAP

Weights
Female under 40 years
140 lbs and under: 75 lbs
140.1 lbs – 185 lbs: 100 lbs
185.1 lbs and over: 150 lbs

Female 40 years and over
140 lbs and under: 50 lbs
185 lbs and under: 75 lbs
185.1 lbs and over: 100 lbs

Male under 40 years
185 lbs and under: 150 lbs
185.1 lbs – 235 lbs: 200 lbs
235.1 lbs and over: 250 lbs

Male 40 years and over
185 lbs and under: 100 lbs
185.1 lbs – 235 lbs: 150 lbs
235.1 lbs and over: 200 lbs

Compare to 2020.11.30.

Mistakes New Lifters Make - Part II

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In Part I of this series - Common Mistakes New Lifters Make (and how to avoid them!) - we discussed the common errors of misloading your bar, forgetting to wear your belt, and forgetting to use chalk or a hook/switch grip for your deadlift.

Parker and Milo make all kinds of mistakes - mistakes only redeemable because the two furballs are moderately cute.

Parker and Milo make all kinds of mistakes - mistakes only redeemable because the two furballs are moderately cute.

In Part II, we’re going to examine a few other mistakes that new lifters are likely to make, and hopefully, we can help you avoid them or at least quickly correct them. Most of this list is inspired by conversations we have at the gym with new (and sometimes experienced!) lifters, and the mistakes are not listed in any particular order.

Setting the j-hooks too high for the squat (or press/bench press)
For some reason, new lifters often set their j-hooks too high for their squat. You should never be at risk of catching the edge of a hook with the barbell when either unracking the bar at the beginning of your set or racking the bar at the end of your set, so err on the conservative side and set the hooks a bit lower than you think you should. Mid-sternum is a good height to start with, and remember, too low is better than too high - nobody should have to do a calf raise to rack the bar - and you can always raise the hooks later if you’ve set them too low.

Looking for the j-hooks when racking the squat (or press/bench press)
It can be tempting to look at the j-hooks as you’re racking the bar after your last rep. Don’t. Unless you have an exceptionally sneaky and cruel training partner, the hooks didn’t go anywhere while you were squatting, so stop treating them like they have legs. When you’re finished with your last rep, look straight ahead and walk forward until the bar makes (and keeps) solid contact with both uprights. At this point, you’ll know the bar is over the hooks (assuming you set the hooks at a reasonable height - see the previous paragraph), and you can then safely lower the bar down to the hooks. Looking at one hook makes it very likely that you will miss the other, and this tends to be a rather disastrous event - it might not happen today, but it will happen. Don’t look at the hooks.

Breathing in or out while the bar is moving
New lifters often breathe out when the bar is moving upward - we have years of fitness magazines to thank for this inane idea. Again, don’t. Remember: if the bar is moving, you’re not breathing. Instead, inhale before the rep starts and exhale after the rep ends. In other words, all breathing takes place between reps - not during - and for crying in the beer cheese soup, don’t blow your air out at the top of your deadlift. Wait the quarter of a second it takes to lower it to the ground and release your breath when the bar is back on the floor.

Watch one of the included videos above or below for more on how to correctly breathe and perform the Valsalva maneuver.

We hope these tips help you in your training, and we anticipate a “Part III” in the near future.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

Talk to a Coach

Week 2021.03.22

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This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
Sled Pyramid – 4, 5, or 6 tiers
Go up and down a 4, 5, or 6 tier “sled pyramid” – rest as needed. The distance for each round is 80 m indoors (a down-back on the 40m course) or 200 ft outdoors (2 down-backs on the 50 ft course). Rest as needed.

For example, Bob does the following (4 tiers):
Round 1: Empty sled
Round 2: 25#
Round 3: 50#
Round 4: 75#
Round 5: 50#
Round 6: 25#
Round 7: Empty sled

Compare to 2021.01.18

Option 2
Bike/row:
4 x 800m

Rest 3 minutes between each round. Score = slowest time.

Compare to 2020.12.28.

Option 3
Outdoors:
10 rounds:
25 yd yoke carry
Rest 1 minute

Indoors:
10 rounds:
30 yd yoke carry (15 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Compare to 2020.11.30.

Option 4
1. 5 yoke carries @ 30 yd (15 yd downback) – work up to heaviest carry
2. 5 rounds of 5 reps on the axle “clean and press away” – work up to heavy set of 5

Compare to 2020.11.23.

Tips and Tricks for the New Lifter

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When you’re new to some task, like lifting, there are always a few tips and tricks that will seem rather obvious to you years later, so in an effort to speed things up a bit, here are several that might prove useful to both new and experienced lifters:

An additional use for your wrist wraps

figure 1: An additional use for your wrist wraps

Deadlifting on a Non-level Floor
If you must deadlift on a slightly non-level floor (hopefully very slightly!), and you find that the barbell always wants to roll a bit, you can simply place your wrist wraps on the floor in front of the plates (Figure 1).

You can, of course, use any other soft, thin items like socks, lifting straps, even sponges, but don’t use a hard item like a 2.5-lb plate. If you set the bar down, and it glances off that item, it will come back at your shins, and shins and horizontally moving barbells don’t get along well (hint: the barbell always wins). In addition, the contact between the plate(s) on the bar and the 2.5-lb plate on the floor may cause one or both of them to chip. Wrist wraps are thick enough to immobilize the bar but soft and compressible enough that setting the bar down on top of the wrist wraps won’t cause any problems.

Quit Using 2.5-lb Plates . . . Sometimes
Stop using 2.5-lb plates in your warm-ups. As you get stronger, you’ll find that you can round most - if not all - of your warm-up weights to numbers that end in “5.” This will allow you to stop using 2.5-lb plates in your warm-ups.

If you’d like to use 2.5-lb plates in your final warm-up in an effort to be a bit more precise, that’s fine, but most of your warm-up weight selections won’t require this level of precision. (If your work sets on a given lift are less than 100 lbs, you might decide to use 2.5-lb plates more often in your warm-ups, but you can apply a similar exclusionary logic to the 1.25-lb plates instead.)

Stop Resting . . . Sort-of
Stop resting between your warm-ups sets. We mention this on a regular basis, but it still blows people’s minds that they don’t need to rest 5 minutes between every single set.

Do your empty bar sets (alright, you can rest 15 seconds between your two empty bar sets of five reps), then add weight and go. Then add weight and go again. Repeat until it’s time for your first work set, before which you should probably rest a few minutes. Remember - the act of changing the weight on the bar gives you enough rest to do the next warm-up set. This will save you a lot of time in the gym.

Write Out Your Next Workout
Write out your next workout before leaving the gym. As you gain experience, you may ditch this habit, and that’s perfectly fine, but when you’re new, it’s a very productive use of your rest periods to start writing out your next workout in your training journal - especially the warm-ups. You’re already in “training mode,” and the warm-ups you performed today will inform and influence the warm-ups you do next time, so now is as good a time as any to write out your next training session (and you won’t have to think too hard when you come in the gym next time).

As always, we hope these tips and tricks help you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro