The days of furious air squats and massive quantities of pull-ups along with 400 m runs are over... at least for me and at least for the next couple months. I have started a new journey as an Olympic lifter. Here are my observations, experiences and grievances so far.

Why? Well that’s an interesting question. I have a couple reasons. Number one is that for me, Olympic weightlifting is fun. I enjoy the complexity of the movements and the precision needed to lift to my potential. Number two is more a developmental stage I am going through. I believe that if you are weak you are limited in your development as an athlete, and I don’t want to be weak anymore! Lastly, I am ready to be good at something. Without devoting myself to one sport, I will continue to be average at everything and never be really good at anything. I am willing to sacrifice capacity in other areas to succeed in one specific area. For me right now that is the sport of Olympic Weightlifting.

The first thing on my agenda as an Olympic lifter was equipment. Check—thanks to my girlfriends vigilance on Craigslist, I have an awesome set of York bumpers and thanks to Coach Burgener, I have a great bar to lift with. My shoes were a birthday gift, so I am all set in the equipment department.

Next task: Find a coach. Because Olympic lifting is a little more obscure than say baseball, this is no easy task. Thanks to CrossFit, I have been lucky enough to meet and train with some great coaches. Coach Burgener, Greg Everett and Aimee Anaya to mention a few. I feel like I have been given a solid foundation as a CrossFitter due to the importance I placed on the lifts. I feel they are one of the most important tools you can use to develop an athlete for any sport, including golf.

My mechanics were pretty good for a CrossFitter, but as i was about to learn, I am weak! This is not good when your sport is lifting heavy things. Fortunately, it is also very technical, and I will be able to add a couple kilos to my lifts just by solidifying some technique. That will give me time to get stronger and therefore lift more.



I am getting ahead of myself. I need a coach. Since the coaches I know live in California, I will have to rely on delayed feedback while I search for a local coach. I was, however, able to get Greg to write a program for me. I trust him and Aimee—they have seen me lift quite a few times and know their shit. But, like I said, delayed feedback is tough when it’s something small.

I continued my search by contacting Tim Swords down in Houston who referred me to Richard Flemming in Richardson, TX. Not really my back yard, but it’s less than an hour drive each way, so once or twice a week is doable. Richard is a retired firefighter and has been around the Olympic lifting game for 50+ years. He coaches out of a garage much like Coach B does in Cali. The only difference is that A/C is a must in Texas, so there is a little wall unit that quite honestly makes a huge difference compared to my garage.

Ok, so I have solved two problems, and probably the most important, so I am ready to go. Being a recovering CrossFitter, I am used to going outside, warming up, and then doing a timed WOD and being done in less than 30 minutes total. The only time this changed was if the workout was something that gave me that feeling in my stomach. You know the one. The one that causes you to warm up for 30-45 minutes for a 3-minute workout. The whole time trying to talk yourself out of doing it or trying to come up with an excuse why you don’t need that stimulus today. I no longer have that luxury. If I waste time like that when I am lifting, I will spend 3+ hours in the garage and never do anything productive. Time to get on the ball.

Greg started me off with a Bulgarian cycle. For those of you unfamiliar with what that is, it involves doing virtually nothing other than the snatch, clean & jerk, and front and back squats.

My program for the first 4 weeks being a lifter consisted 3 days each week of going for a max for the day in both the snatch and clean & jerk followed by anywhere from 4 to 10 singles at a set percentage. I was then to do a heavy squat at the max clean for the day or an absolute max for the day. The other two days, I snatched and clean & jerked to lower percentages for singles.

This program was very simple, but yet very ingenious especially for a new lifter. It allowed me to learn efficiency in working to a max for the day and also taught me that it is important to recover. Even though i was doing less than 30 working reps in a day, I was wrecked! My muscles hurt, my joints hurt and my ego hurt even more. In this time I PRed a couple times in the snatch and clean & jerk, but more importantly got some great exposure to the lifts and handling heavy loads 5 days a week.

In this time, I worked with Richard as well as Greg and Aimee via video and had a couple “aha” moments. First was that the most important thing I could do was get into a good position off the floor. For me that meant maintaining a consistent back angle off the floor as well as shifting the weight from the balls of my feet to my heels as the bar comes to mid thigh, or the end of the first pull. This patience and willingness to stay over the bar a little longer has helped tremendously. Second was that it was OK not to PR everyday. I was stuck on my numbers and felt like a failure if I didn’t hit them every time I lifted. I soon got over that when I realized that each day was a new day and all I could do was the max FOR THAT DAY. If I snatched 70 kilos and it felt heavy, then that was it for the day.

I am currently on a strength cycle where I am doing 4 movements a day with a focus on strengthening my back and legs. My total volume has grown to between 75 and 95 reps a day with lots of percentage work. It is not unheard of to do a couple 5x5s in a day. Talk about hard work! Many times I slump into my beach chair in the garage after a tough set and think that CrossFit is easy compared to this. For now I am excited to be progressing in something new, but I wouldn’t count myself out as a CrossFitter just yet...