Terminal City Training Vancouver Personal Trainer Strength & Conditioning

Question:

Starting to get into some heavier lifts now.  My co-workers keep on saying I should be wearing a belt but I am not 100% sold on them. What are your thoughts?

Answer:

Glenn,

  I will try and sum up my thoughts on belts.

-There is no definitive answer on the efficacy of belt usage. Many good and great coaches and lifters are in favour and some are against. I take a middle road.

-First of all, the proper use of a belt is to help to teach and ensure that you are pressurizing and using your abs well. It should not be a psychological crutch or a way to feel safer in lifting heavier weights. It is not so much the belt that protects your body as it is your own air and abs.

-If you choose to use a belt it is usually best to use it on your heaviest warm-ups and working sets and go without your belt for most of your warm-ups.

-The belt tends to work best with squatting and overhead pressing. These are the best lifts for learning to use it.

-On the deadlift the belt is usually worn looser and higher and this can be confusing at first.

-If you choose to buy a belt look for a very stiff or at least moderately stiff model. Buy one that is uniformly wide front and back. Do not buy a belt that is wide at the back and narrow at the front. This defeats the purpose of the belt, which is to teach you to breathe and brace.

  For more in-depth information on belts for the strength lifts, check out Rippetoe's Starting Strength. The above opinions are for squatting, pressing and the like. Belt choice would be different for snatch and clean & jerk.
​
​Al

​  I sometimes receive emails asking if I do "form checks" and the like from novice self-taught lifters. A great number of people have purchased Starting Strength or mined the depths of Youtube and have otherwise basically been on their own with their training. A nice, thoughtful, guy named Nick came to the gym a few months back and we spent an hour together going over fundamentals. He sent me a message which I share below. I should add it to my "Testimonials" but I see I haven't posted to this blog for about a year. 

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  I wanted to thank you again, Al, for our session last night. You're a spectacular teacher. Having such a skilled set of eyes looking over my work was invaluable. I'm eager to go to the gym and practice the lessons I learned from you.

  One of the big takeaways for me is the notion of tightening your whole body so no strength "leaks out." It made the movements feel so much better. That piece of advice alone was worth the price of admission because it has the potential to transform my practice.

  Beyond that, all the tips, advice, and adjustments you provided felt great. Your voice will be in my mind during my next workouts. 

Thanks for your time and attention, Al.

Nick

Bill had his 2nd ever meet this past weekend. I was't able to attend and he was kind enough to keep me updated throughout the long day. He did a lot of the training on his own and came into our gym on Saturday afternoons to train with Jaime, Jeremy, Lance, Dave or whoever else dropped in that afternoon. He also had to run his training alongside very frequent and extended trips to Saskatchewan. While in Regina he trained at Adrenaline, a very cool strongman-focused club. So, he did his own programming with input and advice from the leadership of two gyms. 

I am really glad that he squatted 300# for the first time in 6 years. Also impressed with his gutsiness in dealing with an injury just a week before the meet. What I would really like to share about Bill though is that he is always supporting the other lifters in the Club. The man is a team-player.
Bill competed as a Masters1 in the 93 kg class (weighing in way below the limit at 86.4 kg).

Message from Bill the day after:

So here are the final official numbers from the meet.

 
I finished with a 405 KG total. This is up from my last meet which was 382.5. Also, was exactly two pounds heavier from the meet in October weighing in at 190.1 lbs.
 
My final best squat was 302.5 lbs. Very happy with this milestone. People have already said I could have done 315.
 
Bench was a disappointing 214.5 lbs. My second deadlift was 374, I was able to lift 385 on the final lift but two judges called me on a small hitch. So I learned alot at this meet and raised my total on top of pushing up my deadlift and squat PR's at meets.
 
I officially went 7 of 9 on the day.
 

On October 12th Abram competed in the Jr. Doug Hepburn weightlifting meet which was hosted this year by the Lions Weightlifting club of Surrey. 

I should have taken some pictures of the venue, which is also where the Lions train. Universal Fitness which is a commercial gym of a more old school sort, with three weightlifting platforms in a special room of the facility. Not the kind of thing you see often in Metro Vancouver gyms. Clearly Surrey has a leg up on Vancouver in this regard. It is an old gym, not at all flashy (more dingy than anything) with the right feel and equipment for good training.

Abram, our youngest lifter at 14, seemed cool as ice in the weeks leading up to the meet.  It was not until halfway in to the long drive from Vancouver to Surrey that he began to show the building stress when he pronounced that he was “getting nervous.” From that moment one could see it in him and the focus of the day moved into the process of helping him keep calm, emphasizing breath control and focus on his preparatory tasks.

The strategy going in was setting openers at an easy triple and just going for 6/6, getting the experience under his belt. Nerves threw things off for the snatch session. After missing his opener he got it on the second try. On his third attempt he got red lighted. Emcee suggested he had pressed it out though it looked good to some of us (we of course are not the judges so our opinions don’t matter).  Learning points from snatch session: practice meet-like conditions more in the training hall. Don’t warm up too quickly. It was hard to judge when to carry out warm ups but Abram was ready too early.

For the clean & jerk the nerves were only building up but between Abram’s efforts plus those of myself and Abram’s brother we managed to hold things down. First and second lifts were good, all white lights. He started his second pull too early. Nerves again.  We slowed down the pace of the warmups. For the third attempt Abram seemed nearly paralyzed sitting on the stool in the warm-up area. After proclaiming that he wasn’t feeling too good I told him to get up and take his lift. While he prepared his hands I thought he might throw up in the chalk bucket. The loaders were having trouble with the collars so we reminded Abram to keep breathing and take his time. He had no idea of the weight on the bar and managed to clean and jerk a personal record. The judges liked it and he finished the meet with a good success and a valuable learning experience behind him.

Two lifters from the Terminal City Barbell Club, Kevin and Derek, competed in the 2012 British Columbia Powerlifting Championships on June 3rd in Vancouver. Both were competing in the "unequipped" or "classic" category, meaning that they wore no special supportive equipment. Typically powerlifters wear supportive gear which adds weight to what they can lift. Our Club chooses to forego such equipment.

Three are events in a powerlifting meet: the back squat, bench press, and deadlift. Each lifter gets three attempts at each lift. The best lift which gets passed by the officials for each of the squat, bench press, and deadlift goes towards the lifter's "total." Judging is done by three officials, each of which can pass or fail a lift (usually by turning on a white or red light). Two out of three white lights makes for a "good lift." Best total wins each category.

This was Kevin's first meet. his game plan was to get all nine of his lifts and his initial goals were more aggressive than Derek's. He was aiming to set a personal record (PR) in the both the back squat and the deadlift. His first four lifts went very smoothly getting the nod from all three officials. He set a PR in the squat. After missing his second bench press he retook the same weight and got it. The first two deadlifts were challenging but went up well. On the final lift of the day he locked the deadlift out but the lift was disqualified on technical grounds. He end the day getting four lifts out of six.

The goal for Derek, this also being his first meet, was to get all nine of his lifts. He started of on a roll getting all white lights on his first three squats and tying his personal record (PR) on the last attempt. Bench press began well but it was clear on his second lift that he had hit his ceiling for the day. He missed his third attempt. All three deadlifts went up without problems and he finished the day with a PR. Derek went five lifts for six.

Kevin ended the day with a silver medal for his efforts. Derek received the gold. Both lifters took some time for easy lifting and recovery and are now back on the road to getting strong(er).

Congratulations to Kevin and Derek and thanks to all our members who came out to support them.

Most of the people that walk into my gym for general strength and conditioning or even with an interest in weightlifting or powerlifting don’t really know why they are there or at least can’t articulate their goals.

Whether or not they express an interest in competition, my fundamental approach is to help them develop the mindset of a competitor. If we can achieve this then goals will follow. They will generally arise organically.

Some of the changes to mindset I try and cultivate in my students include:

-embrace the whole lifestyle of an athlete. Train hard then recover hard both through rest, food, water, and active recovery methods. Takeaway point: success requires an all-day approach.

-constantly strive to better yourself in your lifting. Strive for PRs whether one rep max or multiple rep maxes. Compete with yourself day in and day out.  This will also tie into the development of work ethic. Compete with yourself in recovery as well as lifting.

-friendly and supportive rivalry between teammates.

-educate yourself. Study powerlifting, weightlifting, or whatever it is that interests you. Find some heroes.

-encourage attendance at meets as a spectator or volunteer or as support for your competitive lifters. Post upcoming meets on the wall or whiteboard. Make it clear that if they are interested your student can enter their first meet for the experience. I would suggest not putting a lot of pressure as far as changing the training program (specializing), worrying about hitting a certain weight class, or focusing on a total. Committing to a meet, especially if the athlete makes the decision themselves, will radically change the feel of training without the coach needing to impose such a change.

Take the right steps in cultivating the mindset of a competitor and you will see more often than not that your students will start setting their own meaningful goals.