Stop the presses!!!

As one of my dedicated readers has so swiftly brought to my attention. The New snatch record was broken in 2011 and the bar was raised to 214kg. The owner of this big lift is Behdad Salimi who is the former team mate of the previous record holder Hossein Rezazadeh. 

Needless to say, I like Mr. Rezazadeh performance alot better. I was generally more impressed with the last world record. I said it! When heavy weights get thrown around, I expect form to break down. I get it! Walk all around the plat form to save the lift, if you have too. It is generally more impressive of a lift thought, if they make it look like they are not trying. 

P.S. I want to know what in the hell Iran is doing with their athletes! Honestly, have I been living under a rock for so long that all the eastern European countries no longer kick ass and take names in weightlifting? 
countries that come to mind when thinking of weightlifting:
1. Russia
2. Lithuania
3.Germany (east Germany) 

honorable mention: Peoples republic of China.

Discussion: Rate this WR snatch video.

Alright, the big guy up top goes by the name of Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran. Hossein is an incredibly strong individual and im sure he has trained extremely hard just to get to where he is today.  But i got a bone to pick! Some of my acute subscribers will notice that this is from the 2004 olympic games. The reason I'm bring this video us is for two reasons. 1. Didn't that look really easy!?!?!? I mean, come on man! You're making us all look bad out here! Come in and start tossing around your big boy weights making us joe's feel like crap about out new personal record. 2. Why has this record not been beaten yet? Since this lift in 2004 Mr.Rezazadeh has retired. Hung up the ol'lifting shoes as it were. For a guy that tossed up 207.5kg like it was tooth pick, you would think that there would be some ready to hop in his spot ASAP. Maybe I have too high of hopes for the super heavy division. Regardless  scale of one to ten on how im pressed you were. 1 being "yawn! wake me when Crossfit is on" and 10 being  you still havent pick your jaw off the floor.

News: Sitting down with Darren Barens.

Darren Barens is outstanding on and off the plat form as he is up for the Sullivan award. This award is given to amateur athletes that standout in athletics and sportsmanship. Some finalist that are also up from the award are Liz Brenner (right) and Missy Franklin (left). If Barens is lucky enough to win the Sullivan award, he would be the first weightlifter to receive the award.  After reading this Q&A I cant imagine him not receiving the award. Learn more about this well spoken, young weightlifter has to say about what winning the Sullivan Award.

Best of luck Mr.Barens!
From all of us at Hook Grip'd!

Tip: Get new shoes!

"Hey Zac! I like your shoes...not!" This is what happend to me with my first time training with Mark Cameron. Little did I know at the time that there were weightlifting shoes. I know now that they make a world of a difference but at the time I didn't know my ass from my elbow when it came to weightlifting.     He also told me that if i got anything other then Adidas  he would kick my ass. Out of spite I bought Nike. I'm just kidding about the spite thing. Weightlifting shoes are extremely expensive and for a good pair you are looking at $150 or maybe more. The reason I bought the Nike was because they were $30 cheaper. By buying a good pair of weightlifting shoes can greatly improve your lifts. Weightlifting shoes have raised heels which improve range of motions in the hips and shoulders. For weightlifters that is extremely important. In my personal opinion the five best lifting shoes are as followed.

1. Adidas Adistar
2. Nike Romaleos
3.Rogue Do Win
4.Risto
5.VS Athletics

Now, shoes 3-5 are great shoes for lifting, but Nike and Adidas have a monopoly over the world of weightlifting so naturally more people are going to lean toward those two brands of shoes. Also they tend to alot cheaper then the smaller shoes companies because the can mass produce them.

Tip: Hey! there is always tomorrow

Ok! This tip is for free. Well they are all for free because this is my blog on the internet but that is besides the point. In high school, I started throwing discus and Olympic lifting at about the same time. For those of you who don't know this both recruit the same type of fast twitch muscle fibers. That means being fresh is always better and as soon as fatigue starts to set in your technique starts to set in you are screwed. That is where injuries start to accure. Where have I heard this before... CrossFit Cough! Cough! But lets not get into that right now. I would throw and if i was having a bad day all I would want to do is keep throwing to till it was better. My coach would have to lock the discuses up in the shed to prevent me from throwing till my arm fell off. Even then I had my own discuses to use. knowing what i know now, I was only hurting myself and not making anything better.
The same thing applies to weightlifting. If you are not having a good day and not making your numbers, if you keep trying it is only going to make things worse. My best advice would be to cut your losses and try again another day.

Discussion: Keep moving forward.

The video above is a very serious and harsh reality in the world of Olympic weightlifting. We are taking alot of weight and putting it above our heads. The plan if things go accordingly, that we stand up with the bar when we are in (what weightlifters call) the "whole". Sometimes we dont stand up with it believe it or not. That is when things like the above happen. Yes, it hurts very very bad, and yes it scares you to think about the next time you go and grip the bar. What I can tell you though is that it wont stop the passionate lifter from performing the lift. Why? because we are mentally strong as well as physically. For years we have ground out reps of heavy weights in order to hopefully move up five pounds to improve our personal record. Giving up because of one little accident would be to throw away a lifetime of work and sacrifice.  Just like anything else in this crazy mixed up world, accidents can and do happen. Its not about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

Learn from a Pro: Mark Cameron

I would like to take this time to promote a close family friend of mine and master in the world of Olympic lifting. Mark Cameron a member of the 1976 and 1980 Olympic weightlifting team is putting on a learn to lift hands on seminar. I have had personal experience with Mark one on one and he took my lifts up 30 pounds in the course of an hour. When I say that he is a magician with athletes, I truely mean that he can work wonders with your technique. I have had friends who in my own opinion have had flawless form but as soon as mark saw them lift he had a list of the things that they were doing wrong simply by watching them lift once. Now, I know that it is a little short notice but if you are truely passionate about becoming a better lifter, which I know you are because you are reading this blog, I will see you at Ocean state CrossFit on sunday!

please disregard the fact that it is at a Crossfit facility, He was the one coach that I mentioned a couple post back. This man is the real deal. He has been deemed the title of "Strongest man in the free world".