SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Wouldn’t it be fun if fitness was a science?  Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could see, with numbers that you are getting more fit, getting less fit or staying the same?

Now is your chance to strap on your lab coat and measure.  Find your 1rm front squat.  Find the maximum number of double unders you can do in two minutes.  Write those numbers on the beautiful pieces of paper located below the whiteboard.  Then, at the end of November, test those things again and see if your numbers are bigger, smaller or the same.

This should be a well defined experiment with easily repeatable conditions.

http://youtu.be/b0stYKwzJ1c

Since people keep asking (instead of just showing up), this is what we do in mobility class.  We pick a movement, do it, go through a bunch of mobility work and see if the movement we picked gets any better.

This week the movement was the overhead squat.  The mobility work included trying to open up our shoulders, upper back and ankles.  Did it work?  You tell me.  Watch the video and see if either of us improved from the beginning (first clip) to the end (second clip).

Carrie got a new fancy phone that lets her film in slow motion.  As you can see, it is awesome at revealing both what you are good at and what you need to work on.  I strongly recommend you have her (or anyone else who has a newer phone) film you.

Go ahead.  You can tell me how bad my lift is in the comments.

http://youtu.be/VvDGPno_EAk

When you watch someone move, triage.  If you want to help them get better, you’ve got to pick one thing to tell them about.  You can’t tell them about their feet, arms, head and chest all at once.  They’re just going to say “okay” and then move worse.

This is nothing new.  You’ve all heard me talk about this.

The new thing I want to mention is that when it comes to the snatch and the clean p, one of the best corrections you can give a novice lifter is to get them to stop pulling early.  Get them to bring the barbell up as high up the leg as possible before launching.  Usually, this involves telling them to stop picking up the bar from the floor and instead work from a high hang position.

One correction?  Work from the high hang.