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Olympic Weightlifting



Yesterday I drove WAY out to MIke's Gym in Bonsall, California. This place is in the middle of acres and acres of land with a gorgeous view. MIke's Gym is based in his 2 car garage which is packed with kettlebells, olympics weightlifting equipment, crossfit stuff, and much more. This is all you would ever need for a hardcore workout.

Greg Everett (USA Weightlifting Club Coach, Crossfit Trainer, RKC, and CSCS) was nice enough to invite me to the gym and teach me a couple moves. I would have to say I have never tried Olympic lifts and I felt extremely humbled by them. They are far more challenging than any kettlebell moves I have ever tried. I had a good time trying to maneuver some of these lifts. My body definitely was trying to resist, since it was such an unnatural feeling.

Here is Greg's info. Greg will be doing an Olympic Weightlifting Clinic Oct 6 & 7th. You should definitely check it out!
http://www.cathletics.com/ Here is the event info http://www.performancemenu.com/resources/events/olyClinic.php

Here is a picture of a Muy Thai Fighter. The view is in the back of this incredible unique gym. Then there is me doing a clean and jerk with a kettlebell at the end of the olympic weightlifting session.

Comments

Franz Snideman said…
I have met both of them and they are great. Mike is a legend for sure in the teaching and coaching of the O- lifts!

Like you Lauren, I found the Olympic lifts to be so unnatural and so hard to learn. KB's are way easier to learn, no doubt. I wish I could do the O-lifts but because of my orthopedic challenges the KB are much better for my structure!

Hope you like Olympic lifting and learn them well!
Lauren Brooks said…
Franz,

I didn't get the pleasure to meet Mike. But next time I go I will.

It would definitely be nice to be able to master the Olympic lifts. I am sure the learning curve is much slower and would take lots of dedication. One day when I have more time I will.
Anonymous said…
Here is a video from leo's training the day of that photo:

http://www.performancemenu.com/daily/video/leoWorkout5.mov

His TGU sit-ups are dicey, but I cut him some slack since I'm more interested in his power output and general AKP rating.
Lauren Brooks said…
Greg,

I tried to copy and paste the link but it didn't work. Is there a letter off??
Anonymous said…
Oh. Yeah after pm.com it should be

/daily/video/leoWorkout5.mov
Lauren Brooks said…
The video is brutal. Love it! I'll come back to Mike's Gym in one condition! That I don't have to do any of that stuff, except I would like to try the tire thingy. That's only if there is a small enough tire for me.
Anonymous said…
The only condition under which anyone can come to Mike's Gym is that you do whatever Mike or I say!

That tire is one size fits all. All that KB swinging should have built you a nice strong back! I promise I won't make you flip it UP the driveway--just on the flats.

Then maybe we can introduce you to my sand bags...
Anonymous said…
You can get a little more of a taste of how mean I am:

LeoWorkout1.mov
LeoWorkout2.mov
leoWorkout3.mov
leoWorkout4.mov

And then I can introduce you to some REAL exercises:

www.performancemenu.com/resources/
exercises/videos/
burpeeBackflips.swf
Lauren Brooks said…
Burpee back flips! Damn. Can you do those?
Anonymous said…
That was me in the burpee backflip video. Of course, that was before I moved up to the light-heavyweight class. I weigh about 212 right now and the heaviest I've done a backflip at was about 195 or so. So physically, I'm sure I still could, but it would take a lot of encouragement to get past the fear that's returned in the long time of no flipping around all the time.
Lauren Brooks said…
Extremely impressive then! I thought it looked like you. But wasn't sure.

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