If you don't jump, you'lll never fly
I mentioned in a previous blog post that as a general rule, crossfitters spend hours upon hours (upon yet more hours) refining their form on even the most mundane movements.
You see crossfitters have this insane thirst for knowledge, they spend (what seems like to me) hours scouring the internet for research and promptly share that article for the rest of the crossfit community to peruse, discuss, implement or ignore.
In any one day I have anywhere between 5-20 web links show on my social media about various crossfit topics. This week the popular topics seem to be anything involving “lifting” and I don’t crossfit so no body else should either. I’ve already “shared” my opinion about the latter, what I’ve been meaning to do for some time is discuss the former (lifting things and putting them back down again).
Most posts I’ve read on lifting are focused on the technical side of things, such as what trajectory the bar should follow all complete with a graphical analysis or the difference between jumping and forcefully lifting your feet. Although these are both “riveting” and informative, most of it just goes right over the top of my head.
However when a friend who is a recent convert to crossfit posted “” I was sure that would be more suitable to “my level” and to a degree it was, it had tips such as use more hips (something I’m absolutely atrocious at doing), keep the bar close (which Joe often yells at me) and seek expert guidance (which is why I have Joe to yell at me) but as I continued to read through the article I found myself querying why the 2 single most important things weren’t listed.
The 2 things (imo) that will make you better at Olympic Weightlifting than the 20 listed;
Lift like you mean it!
Most of us approach an empty bar without fear. We don’t walk up to the bar and think about how we are going to lift it, we walk up to the bar knowing we’re going to lift it and we continue to do this up until the point where we are getting close to our previous max lifts.
It’s then that the bar starts to feel a little heavy, doubt creeps in, *it’s been a long week, my shoulders are tight and I think I just pinged my knee, hamstring, lower back (insert as necessary)*, it’s at that point we start to fail because we no longer approach the bar with confidence.
Walk up to the bar and lift like you mean it .. every single time.
Hesitate and die!
One of the things I remember from learning to drive (other than actually learning to drive) was being told NEVER hesitate, It’s when you hesitate that you die.
Those of us who drive have all seen it, you get to a round about (or intersection) and you see a car up ahead that pulls out into the road and then decides that wasn’t a good idea (maybe the flow of traffic is going faster than they initially thought) so they stop dead in their tracks, before realising that they can’t sit in the middle of the road and try to get going again, or they sit with their bonnet half way into the lane, while all oncoming traffic has to swerve to avoid them.
I’ll repeat – never hesitate ..
The other day in my PT session with Joe I was doing hang squat snatches. Each successive PB weight I got too, Joe would film it (just in case I got it). I had 6 failed attempts and 3 successful lifts and after watching the footage the outcome is the same each and every time. If I picked the bar up off the floor, went into the hang and immediately pulled the bar overhead, I nailed it. If I went into the hang then (for some reason) decided to reset and start again, I missed the lift – each and every time.
The moral of the story? Do not hesitate!
Tomorrow I have a strength testing session with Joe as I’ve completed my third cycle of Wendlers 5/3/1 and there will be no hesitation, because I’m going to lift like I mean it.
Till next time
