Hookgrip: Bar Acceleration in Second Pull

Hookgrip has been doing amazing work lately. Their Facebook and Instagram pages are constantly churning out beautiful weightlifting photography.

Lately they’ve been doing more “infographic” photos that provide insight in addition to beauty. Below is the best example to date:

The lines track bar path for three world-class 77kg weightlifters cleaning 196kg. The length of each line segment represents distance traveled between each frame.

Two things you can notice about Lu Xiaojun’s photo compared to the other two.

1) Look at how much more vertical Lu’s bar path is than the other two lifters. You can also see this in his lack of lean back relative to the other two lifters at triple extension.

2) Look at how much power Lu generates during his second pull. As hookgrip notes, it “show[s] Lu’s remarkable explosive power even compared to the best 77s in the world”.

World Record Weightlifting Totals In Their Weight Categories

Simple post today. All the current World Record totals.

Dmitry Klokov Videos

Dmitry Klokov is a Russian 105kg weightlifter. He started getting a following the CrossFit community, especially from Outlaw’s Rudy Neilsen, who penned a love note to the Russian. His YouTube channel was full of original, creative training videos completely different from the ordinary weightlifting training videos.

Klokov capitalized on his new found Internet fame by going on a global tour doing wildly popular weightlifting seminars. At $500 a pop, this must have been a lucrative trip. Many US weightlifters complain about the lack of financial support for weightlifters compared to other countries. Creative entrepreneurship like this may be able to fund a full time weightlifting career.

Here are a few of my favorite Klokov videos. There are plenty more.

Warm-Ups

Legs

Core

 

Chinese Training at 2013 World’s

Lu Xiaojun and Liao Hui (China, 77 and 69, respectively) doing a little light training after arriving in Wroclaw, Poland, for the 2013 Worlds.

I always enjoy watching videos of the very best lifters during training. You can pick up a lot of little things from watching them in a natural environment like this. With that said, take anything you see someone at this level doing with a huge grain of salt. For someone like me, for instance, it’s not really relevant how Lu Xiaojun trains as a world record holder. I’m sure he didn’t train this way before he even had a bodyweight snatch.

So how did the 2013 Worlds go for these two amazing lifters?

Lu Xiaojun set the Snatch and Total world records @ 77kg with 176kg Snatch, 204kg Clean and Jerk, and a 380kg Total:

Liao Hui set the Clean and Jerk and Total world records @ 69kg with 160kg Snatch, 198kg Clean and Jerk, and a 358kg Total:

 

Speed Under the Bar

This video has been shared all over the weightlifting community lately:

It is Ilya Ilyin snatching 200kg off blocks during his London 2012 prep. After seeing this video, it’s no surprise that he took the Gold. The speed with which he gets under the bar is incredible.

To many beginners it seems like the strength and power necessary to get the bar high is the fundamental struggle of weightlifting. But some say getting back down quickly is even more important.

This is definitely something I struggle with. Not being a natural athlete, the rapid reversal of direction is difficult to master. My instinctual “solution” is to cut my second pull early, which obviously doesn’t help the situation.

So how can this be fixed? Actively pushing yourself down against the weight of the bar is the answer, though something I’ve yet to really figure out.

Searching around a bit, here are two videos with helpful suggestions:

Synchronized Clean and Jerk

A few fun videos today. Thanks to Reddit’s /r/weightlifting and AllThingsGym for the videos.

First up, former Olympic Gold medalist, Matthais Steiner (also remembered for this cringe-inducing London 2012 accident) and partner Almir Velagic do a synchronized clean and jerk with 333.3kg (for reference, the world record for one person is 263.5kg). Skip ahead to 57 seconds to see the lift.

Next up, we have USA Weightlifting coaching legend Jim Schmitz teaching the clean and jerk with slow motion video:

Finally, madman Russian Dmitry Klokov does broad jumps. With a barbell. At the bottom of a snatch position. Don’t try this at home.

Slow Mo: Lu Xiaojun’s 176kg World Record Snatch

Short and sweet today. This is one of my favorite lifts to watch. Lu Xiaojun’s 176kg World Record Snatch at 77kg at the 2013 World Weightlifting Championships in Poland.

Hookgrip has a great series of photos alternating between his 170kg and 176kg lifts.

Beautiful.