Simple can be genius.

I'm affected by the weather and it's amazing the difference between winter me and summer me. I'm a guy that sometimes thinks too much, I'll admit it. Especially during the depressing fall and winter I've just failed to see the big picture, but lately the weather has taken a turn for the better and I'm starting to think clearly and see things how they really are. One thing that dawned on me lately, something that I should have never forgot is that the main thing that matters is the main thing. What does that mean you ask? It means that getting enough calories in general is probably more important than what I'm actually eating. Smart isn't always smart. For instance eating Paleo might be a smart move but not if it makes me underweight and unhealthy. It also means training consistently is more important than how I train. It means squatting is more important than the type of squat I do (front or back). First things first so to speak. Most of the time it's not about being smart, it's about being simple. Simple can be genius. 

Minnesota High School Weightlifting: Searching for Zach Krych

(Photo Of Zach Krych winning University World Championships Ahead of Adrian Zeilinski(2012 Olympic Champion)

It's kind of surprising when I think about it, even though I went to high school in Northeast Iowa, I was a Minnesota High School weightlifter. After all this is weightlifting, and like weightlifters from Bulgaria migrating to Qatar or Azerbaijan, or Turkey, I didn't care where I did my lifting, I just wanted to lift, and compete. Just how did I end up lifting in Minnesota High school weightlifting competitions? Well, I was in Northeast Iowa at the time and the nearest weightlifting in Iowa had to be in Carroll, a good four hour drive away. Red Wing Minnesota on the other hand was two and a half hours away and if I represented them, then I was eligible to compete in Minnesota. Not everyone was on board with an Iowa boy representing a Minnesota High school club, sometimes I was counted as an "extra lifter", but for the most part I was greeted with open arms. High School Weightlifting? I sure like the sound of that. If only every state had a similar program to what Minnesota is doing. They have a weightlifting "season" in Minnesota. It starts in the fall and culminates with the High School State weightlifting championships in the winter. Many of these high school lifters quit weightlifting after they graduate but not all. Zach Krych came out of the Minnesota High School Weightlifting program, I believe he went on to Medal at the World University Championships, I personally saw him snatch 150+ at one of the American Opens, and he ended his career with a 195kg clean and jerk. He always competed in the 85kg class, although as a little inside information, I saw him lift as a 77kg lifter in my first competition ever in Armstrong, MN. All those high school meets were at some random Minneapolis suburb town. It was either Armstrong, or Robinsdale, or Rosemount, I forget some of the other ones. Separate from the high school meets, sometimes there would be competitions in Northern Minnesota like Brainerd or Nisswa. I remember miles and miles of trees when driving up there and big statues of Paul Bunion. The Nisswa competition was actually an outdoor competition held during the town festival, "Nisswa Crazy Days" they called it. The platform was set in the middle of town in the turtle racing circle and bystanders would walk by and observe the lifting as Roger Sadecki announced and converted kilos to pounds over the loud speaker. Zach Krych was at that meet as well if I remember right, he is the hero of Minnesota Weightlifting, the best of the best to come out of the High School system. What else about Minnesota Weightlifting? I'm deviated from the simple subject of High School lifting now. Well, I remember the Star of The North Games alternated locations each year between Rochester and St. Cloud. I always liked when it was in Rochester because it was only an hour and a half away from my home town in Northeast Iowa. How about how did I even get into weightlifting? Well, I can remember being pretty young, young enough that I was sitting on the floor instead of the couch watching TV and it must have been the 1996 Olympic. I remember watching someone trying to snatch a big weight and it was mind boggling, maybe that's not the right word for it, lets just say I was amazed. I often forget about this key moment, watching weightlifting on television as a young lad but I remember it now and it played a part. Then in my freshman year of high school I got the fever to go out for sports. I tried wrestling and I tried football but nothing really clicked except we got to use the weight room and that's where I began my journey. After a couple years of doing somewhat bodybuilding, somewhat powerlifting, I watched a video of Naim Suleymanoglu clean and jerking 190kgs in the 1988 Olympics on the internet and that was it, I made the call to the Red Wing coach and got involved with Minnesota High School Weightlifting the winter of my Sophmore year. I encourage anyone near the State of Minnesota to get involved with High School Weightlifting there because it is a great and memorable experience that you will never forget and perhaps you can be the next Zach Krych. It's kind of like that chess movie "searching for bobby fischer" only in Minnesota it's "Searching for Zach Krych".

what you oughta be

If you are a wolf then you have to train with other wolves or you will never reach your potential. If you train with dogs then it's like someone really smart going to community college, they aren't going to be challenged enough. Hell, I went to community college, it was easy, and now that I've gone to a University I'm sure community would be even easier, and if I went to an even harder college I'm sure University would seem easy. Do you get my point? It all goes back to something I've been thinking a lot about lately and that is standards. Standards are what separate the levels of success individuals achieve. I remember coach John Drewes of the Red Wing Weightlifting Club, he would say a lifter hadn't "arrived" in the 69 weight class until they total 200, that was a standard. That's kind of like saying you aren't really a weightlifter in the 69's until you total 200, it's a very powerful thing to say. I remember PRing and John saying sure but you took those steps forward to save it. I'd be lifting in front of him and he'd say things like, this weight is light, this weight is nothing, this weight is a stepping stone. He would put you up on a pedestal as if he didn't see who you were currently, he saw your potential, he didn't see what you were he saw what you oughta be. You have to have contempt for the weights, you have to have contempt for other lifters, but you also have to have contempt for your current level of strength.

Compete, more.

This is gonna be one of those blogs that sounds stupid, one of em' that sounds like a no brainer, no college required as my dad would always say, back when Ed would become Edge, the hard ass that would throw cold water in my face if I didn't wanna wake up for church on sunday. This blog is about competition and how training isn't training without it. Technique is important, sure. Puttin' in the work is important, sure. It all comes down to one thing though. I mean, what are we doin'? What is the sport of weightlifting? It's competition, and the minute you forget that is the minute you aren't training for weightlifting, you're just playing around, you are forgetting the game, you need game, be a gamer. Find someone who is a little bit stronger than you or a little bit weaker than you, the closer you guys are in strength the better. I don't care what exercises you do with that other person, it doesn't matter, but on ever set and every rep, compete, do one kilo more, do one extra rep, do the lift better, do if faster, do it cleaner, do it better. What if you don't have a training partner like that you ask? Well, you are shit out of luck in a big way but there is still a way. You have to compete with yourself and that's the hardest thing to do. You think it's easy, you think training alone means you are automatically competing with yourself, with your old numbers, with your old form and all that? No, what you have to do is play the more game. You just lifted a weight on an exercise, more. You just squatted 200 kilos, more, 201 beats 200, more. More, more, more, more. Compete.

Wired for Weightlifting

How do you find weightlifters? How did I become a weightlifter? Well, I lifted weights in high school and eventually put the bar over my head by chance and....BANG! I was hooked! Soon I was using the hook grip, soon I had a platform in my dad's garage. I found out the closest weightlifting club was two and a half hours away. Oh well, I call up the club, talk to the coach, mind if I stop by this weekend and lift in front of you and you can point out what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong? Sweet! see you this weekend. The rest is history, I traveled 2 and 1/2 hours many times to get coached. So, what is a weightlifter? It's not just someone doing snatch and jerk I'll tell you that. I now train in a gym with many people doing snatch and jerk thanks to the popularity of crossfit and not one of them has come up to me and said, "Simon, I just did a clean and jerk and wow! how do I get started? I wanna be a weightlifter!". A coach once told me that weightlifters are born to be weightlifters, they put a barbell over their head and they know it's meant to be, but is it something rare? Does it take a certain type of person, someone that walks to a different beat? How many weightlifters have come out of crossfit? How many people did crossfit until they were taught to snatch and jerk and then said, "see ya later crossfit guys, I found what I'm lookin' for, I wanna be a weightlifter".? What if every gym class in the United States taught a unit on weightlifting and everyone got exposed to snatch and jerk? How many would do that first snatch or jerk and think Eureka! or Aha! My guess is not as many as you'd think, maybe because weightlifting is difficult, maybe more difficult than we'd like to think and maybe it's those select few who weightlifting happens to come easy for because they just maybe are built for it, made for it, born to do it, and are wired in the brain for it. I've shot a basketball before and made it go SWISH! it felt awesome, but am I a basketball player? No. What makes a weightlifter do weightlifting? I have my suspicions that it's a body type, a certain flexibility, coordination, and more importantly it's some way a person is wired in the brain, wired for weightlifting.

Maslow's Hierarchy

    It must have been in 9th grade English class with my father when I first learned about Maslow's Hierarchy. Basically it's a pyramid illustrating human needs. I don't remember each level of needs by heart but what I do know is that at the bottom you have self preservation, things like food, water, sleep, shelter. At the top you have self actualization, self actualization involves the creative things we do to express ourselves, maybe painting, sculpting, bird watching, whatever it may be. The lesson of the hierarchy is that if you are starving and can't eat, or if you don't have a home, it's very hard if not impossible to get to the point where you can do and appreciate your deepest goals or experiences.
     Now, I don't know exactly when I figured this out but the act of me flossing my teeth is a sign of moving up in the hierarchy of needs. If I'm not getting enough sleep, getting too much sleep, stressed, making bad decisions, etc, then I'm not flossing because I have problems and don't feel the need to. Flossing is just the one things I noticed I do more often when I'm mentally well off or have more of my lower self preservational needs under control. It could be anything though, maybe you play golf every saturday with your friends when things in your life are in order. I have something similar to that actually. For awhile every Sunday I would meet my friend at the gym and we would work out together. For awhile we both did good and were making it there on Sundays, then, after awhile I started sleeping in and texting him that I couldn't make it. This was a big sign that something wasn't in order in my life because here I was calling in sick so to speak for an event that I usually looked forward to and enjoyed. Now I'm back to getting in the gym on Sundays but my friend has called in sick a couple of times, maybe something is off in his life or maybe he's just had some tough weeks at work, maybe his sign of self actualization is something else.
     For years now I've watched as older men sit at the Mini Mart in my home town and drink coffee in the morning and socialize. My father always talks about it like he'd like to join those men, yet he doesn't. The day I walk into that Mini Mart and see my old man drinking coffee and shooting the shit with fellow townies is the day I'll think to myself that things must be going o.k with him, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. My point is, don't underestimate the little things. Was there a little ritual you used to do but for some reason or another it faded out unnecessarily? Well, get back in the rhythm and break the cycle. Maybe meeting up with your old friend for billiards, or cards, or whatever every 2nd tuesday of the month is what kept your life in perspective, what kept it real. We create these little worlds with these big walls and we're the only ones with the key. I can tell you right now that going to chess club on tuesdays and thursdays was good for me and I never made it their last semester, something was off. In fact, publishing this blog is a sign of self actualization for me because I don't publish blogs when my life isn't in order, I save em' as drafts and never have the nerve to press the button. Press the publish botton, press the life button, live it!

My Program

AM
Snatch
Clean and Jerk

PM
Snatch
Clean and Jerk
Front Squat

Pain management/ Fatigue reducing tools
Cold Shower
Ice Bath
Coffee
Chocolate
Fish Oil
Vitamin D

4 meals per day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night)

Wake up early and train while the sun is up (training is more productive that way).