Waxman's Weightlifting

Up to this point, we have been on the whistle for all exercises. Today I gave them some autonomy.

We did a circuit that comprised a number of the elements we have been working on for the last two weeks: clean, press, pull-up, push-up.  

As expected, some of the boys did not meet the movement standard, but this provides two good learning moments for us.

When they were done, we spoke first about the importance of maintaining standards regardless of the situation. Reminding them that the standard is the standard, and when somebody lowers it, then that becomes the new standard.

We also spoke about the importance of perfect practice and its relationship to performance. Explaining to them how you perform and practice in a controlled environment is what you will do under stressful situations.

Coaches of young boys should be thinking beyond the X’s and O’s. There are great opportunities through physical exertion to positively affect the trajectory of their lives and help create strong, capable, and productive men.




 

First day doing full Cleans with the Freshman.

For the last two weeks, we spent five 15-minute periods hammering our Clean Circuit. We do 3-5 reps of every exercise for 3-5 sets.
1. Breathe and brace before each rep
2. Front Squat
3. RDL
4. Jump
5. Muscle Clean
6. Hang Clean

I taught the Deadlift (which is the same as the Clean Deadlift) separately.

Today, we put it together for the first time.

We have seven training days left before the stupid one-week mandatory moratorium. We will do five more 15-minute periods of Cleans.

By the end of next week, most of the boys will be doing at least 50% of their bodyweight with acceptable technique.

With this age group, the goal is never to lift as much as they can. It’s to find the correct weight that presents a challenge without disrupting the coordination or dynamics of the movements.

In my experience, for the first 150-200 minutes of training the Olympic lifts, 50% bodyweight, is usually where the average boy can perform sets of 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets with consistency and precision.




 

Once a week or so, I will do this type of finisher with the boys. 
It’s 10 minutes of as many rounds of push-ups and pull-ups as they can do. I tell them three things: hold our movement standard, don’t stop moving, and don’t quit. 

They dont see the timer, so they don’t know how much time is left. 
In my experience, this training format (not knowing the time and consistent movement) is among the most mentally challenging types of training for the boys. 

It’s a good, safe way to improve grit.

I took this video with about a minute left, and all of his sets were like this, all gas, no breaks.

If we have a team full of pipe hitters like this savage, I don’t know if we would win every game, but I guarantee that after the game, the team we played won’t want to play us again.




 

While living in Los Angeles and working in professional Strength and Conditioning and Executive Protection during the 90’s, I spent time in the inner circles of high-profile athletes, celebrities, and politicians.

Also, while living in “The Miracle Mile” (a Beverly Hills adjacent neighborhood) for seven years during the 2000’s, you couldn’t go to a store or walk down the block without bumping into a famous actor.

I was never star-struck by anyone I ever met... Except Hulk Hogan and The Macho Man.

In 1998, I was training pro basketball players at Gold’s Gym in Venice for a well-known sports agent.

Upon leaving Gold’s, I stopped in my tracks when I saw Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man entering the Gym. Whenever Wrestle Mania came to Los Angeles, Hulk and The Macho Man would train at Gold’s.

For the first time in my life, I was starstruck. It was as if my favorite superheroes just jumped off the pages of a comic book and were standing in front of me.

I have never in my life asked a celebrity to take a picture with me, except on March 19th, 1998. Those guys obliged and couldn’t have been cooler to me. I asked the guy behind the front desk, with whom I became friendly over time, to take the picture. That guy was either or I don’t remember which one.

I’m the guy who was no stranger to the fork with the giant grin in the Adidas shirt

What a thrill it was!

Over the last ten or so years, the people who helped weave the fabric of my adolescence are slowly disappearing.

It’s a strange time being near sixty years old.


GoldsGym LosAngeles

I have found the Military Press to be the most versatile and effective upper-body pressing movement for athletes, more so than the Bench Press.
When done properly, it creates incredible upper-body strength, including the torso.
It also develops good shoulder mobility when the ribcage remains down, and the bar finishes over the traps.

Here are the five elements to the progression. I also reinforce the breathing and bracing. You must stay on top of them in the beginning until this becomes an unconscious action.

1-Foot width
-They are using the same foot width (under hips) they used last week in the RDL and Barbell Jumps

2-Grip
-They are using the same grip width they used last week for all the exercises, other than the Sn**ch, and holding the barbell with a full grip with the wrists straight.

3-Starting position
-Bar across the shoulders (if possible with no weight), straight wrists, elbows slightly ahead of the bar.

4-Movement
-Press straight up with straight wrists, elbows under the bar until the bar passes the head, then push back until the vertical projection of the bar is over the traps

5-Torso
-Make sure the ribs do not flare, and the lower back does not arch

Today I introduced the Military Press to the Freshmen.




 

You got to fill the sleeves before you go to the Boardy Barn for Memorial Day weekend!

If you know, you know!!!




 

When I first started coaching Weightlifting and a young athlete was interested in joining my team, I would do a battery of tests to measure physical output, vertical jump, broad jump, sprint tests, and flexibility.  

I agreed to work with those who met the basic standards.

Over the years, most of the athletes who tested off the charts wound up quitting or being thrown off my team.

I realized I was testing for the wrong things, so I changed my approach.

I began using one test; I would tell them to do as many pullups as they could in five minutes.

I didn’t care if they could do one or fifty; I wanted to see what they did when they failed. Did they stop or keep pushing until the time was up?

If they stopped fighting before the time ran out, I wouldn’t work with them.

If they quit during this simple exercise, it’s practically guaranteed they will quit somewhere else when things get difficult.

I am a big believer in “how you do anything is how you do everything.”

Every time we program pullups at Corner Canyon, I stand on one end of the weightroom and watch who fights and who quits. The kids who quit here are the same ones who dont run through the line or take practice reps off, and that becomes your standard.

It’s our job to teach the boys that it takes what it takes to be good; you have to do what you have to do to meet the standard, regardless of how you feel about it.

Because how you do anything is how you do everything!

If they can do that, in the weightroom, classroom, field, or in life, they will be proud of those results, regardless of what those results were.




 

The buy-in for the Strength and Conditioning program at is special.




 

In Olympic Weightlifting you must strive to get your athletes to move as close to perfect as possible on every rep and every exercise.

If your Weightlifting athletes move inconsistently during training, they will not lift as much as their abilities allow, will miss more lifts than they make in competition, and, more importantly, with your most talented athletes, they will have an increased occurrence of overuse injuries.

Strength and Conditioning is not Weightlifting in that the barbell is not the sport but a tool to improve the fitness qualities required for the sport.

Having been involved as an athlete and coach in team sports and Weightlifting at the beginning through the highest levels for 32 years, I still struggle in my S+C career to be comfortable with less-than-perfect technique with my Non-weightlifting athletes.

But the reality is that you will never have the amount of technique coaching time with your team sport athletes to achieve perfection in the weight room. So what do you do?

Strength coaches have to identify a range of acceptable deviations from perfect.

I have asked myself these three questions in order to establish these acceptable ranges:

-Does the torso remain ridged throughout the movement?

-Are the extremities aligned in safe positions?

-Do the speed, coordination, and bar/body positions create enough output to enhance the fitness qualities we are seeking to improve?

Figuring out where those edges are will produce better-performing athletes while minimizing risk.