Voodoo Weightlifting

89 kg Sn**ch
🇦🇹

Starting to approach heavier weights as Worlds gets closer. Paula is still getting used to pulling from the floor again, so this was an encouraging lift to see at the early stages of this training cycle.

Are you a competitive athlete looking for a training program? DM us for more info!

📍 .fit.vienna 🇦🇹

When 🇦🇹 Clean & Jerks heavy, Jerks are the first movement to start breaking down.

After observing a few sets, noticed that the primary problem lies in her footwork.

Note how much the front and back foot travel compared to where they start. Her front foot hardly travels forward while her back foot travels backwards plenty.

A great place to start is drilling footwork for the Split Jerk. Practice reaching the feet out evenly, so landing balanced evenly between both the front and back leg. (It isn’t going to be perfectly even in actuality, but this is to discourage almost all of the weight to be placed onto one leg).

Great footwork is crucial for the Split Jerk. Weightlifting coach Artie Dreschler instilled the importance of this in me when one of my biggest struggles was teaching athletes to Split Jerk if it didn’t come naturally to them.

Want a more comprehensive breakdown of how we teach the Split Jerk?

Let us know in the comments.
📍 .fit.vienna

Need to build strength in your Squat and Pull?

The September Segments training cycle begins this week.

The primary exercise selection will consist of segments and partial movements of the full lifts, coupled with a variety of assistance and remedial exercises.

When you join you also get to have your lifts analyzed on our livestream once every two weeks!

You also get linked up to a community of athletes following the same program.

What’s included:

◾️3 Training Days per week
◾️Video Analysis Livestream 2x/month
◾️Community of athletes following the program

Want to try a free week? Go to the link in our bio.

85 kg Sn**ches
🇦🇹

First time getting to see Paula train in person since the training hall at Europeans earlier this year. She’s been training around some back issues and seems to have it under control.

A big focus today was making sure she used her legs properly off the floor and she did very well today.

In the past, it seemed to be strength that was holding her back from being able to execute the first portion of the pull properly. But simple cueing seemed to fix this, an after her Sn**ches, when she performed pulls, she was able to demonstrate good positions along with good barbell velocity.

She does a lot of training independently, but I’m very proud to see that she’s maintained good habits and worked on her weaknesses these last few months.

Final push to worlds!
📍 .fit.vienna

We’re starting a 6 week strength cycle this week called Symmetrical Strength.
This cycle will focus on building strength in the squat over the next few weeks and developing symmetrical strength through unilateral exercises.

Most of the movements we do in Weightlifting are bilateral exercises, or in simple terms both sides of our body are used to complete an exercise. It is common for one side is working slightly more than the other to complete the movement. Over time, a strength imbalance will grow as the stronger side works more and gets stronger.

What’s included:

◾️3 Training Days per week
◾️Video Analysis Livestream 2x/month
◾️Community of athletes following the program

Go to the link in our bio ‘Voodoo Solution’ to join!

THIS caused the bar to come forward on his Jerk

He was sitting too far back on his heels when he started the Dip
This caused him to come forward.

If your Jerks are constantly in front of you, see if you’re doing this!

We will post a way to address this, but wanted to identify the error first.

Have any issues with your Jerk right now?
Share them in the comments.

In 2024, we asked legendary 🇮🇹 Italian Weightlifting coach, Dino Marcuz:
If there’s one message he could give to every aspiring Weightlifting coach, what would it be?

Dino’s Answer:
“Be passionate about what you do, keep at it with love and passion.
There is having a profession, and being a professional.

Having a profession is about getting paid.

A professional does it because they love it.

Loving what you do is key.”

🟣🟣🟣

This footage is from October 2022 in Pordenone, Italy.

is a Weightlifting powerhouse that started in the 1960s, and produced multiple Olympians (Most recently Olympic bronze medallist Mirko Zanni).

Coach Dino Marcuz, nicknamed ‘the Soul of Pordenone Weightlifting’, is 77 years old and still coming to the gym every day to work with athletes. He’s been involved in the sport longer than most of us have been alive.

🟣🟣🟣

Realize there’s so much footage that hasn’t seen the light of day, coming up with a plan on how and when to release it all.
Repost if you think people should hear this advice!

57.5 kg (126 lb) Sn**ch from Sibby Flowers (44 kg) 🇺🇸 at the 1989 Women’s World Championships in Manchester

Sibby holds the American Records in the 44 kg Class with a 67.5 kg Sn**ch and 85 kg Clean and Jerk.

Sibby was a lifter (the lineage we come from). She is one of the pioneers of Women’s Weightlifting one of Coffee’s first internationally competitive lifter.

It is often thought that to hit heavy lifts in a meet, you HAVE to hit those same heavy lifts over and over in training. If training and the body permits, this makes complete sense. However, there may be times where a different approach is necessary.

There were instances John Coffee never had his lifters hit their openers in a training cycle until the actual competition. (John mentioned at least one instance this occurred with Sibby).

This wasn’t typical, but when his lifters were recovering from an injury, pregnancy, or layoff it made more sense to only hit the lifts when needed.

With the right amount of self confidence in a lifter, the best lifting will be performed the day of the meet.

There are certainly many ways to approach a meet (which are just as successful) but it’s not set in stone that you HAVE to hit your contest numbers in training, particularly when coming back from an injury or some other life circumstances.