4 Reasons Why You Cant Use Your Legs.

Legs. Legs. Legs. Everyone knows they need to use their legs when trying to create the drive in the second pull or the drive in their overhead movements. “I don’t feel them engage at all.” or “I can’t tell if I am using them”. These are the common reactions when I ask an individual if they know whether they are using their legs.

What are such legs for? #legsmuch?

Let’s talk about 4 possible reasons why you cant feel the strongest muscle group in your body and that is not your back.

1. You are “pulling” off the ground.

Yes, it’s indeed called the first and second pulls within a lift. However, many mistake this action as a pulling action and what happens is that the individual begins pulling the bar off the ground. This results in the use of the back or even the arms to create the initial drive off the floor.

Are you using your legs or your back here?

If you are guilty of this, try focusing on feeling your feet as you move the bar off the ground. Feel like you can spread them out and push into the ground. This will help you begin the movement and engagement of the legs right from the beginning. Yes. It becomes a push with your legs off the ground to get the bar moving.

2. You are pushing off the ground too quickly.

Yes. You may be using your legs to overcome inertia and come off the ground. However, you are thinking of hitting it hard right from the ground and realise you don’t really feel the leg drive happening when it comes to the second pull. Try jumping up as high as possible from the bottom of the squat position. In order for you to generate as much force and as much height as possible, you do not do the violent push with the legs till you come up to a certain height. That is where the range of the lower limb joints are at its strongest to create as much joint extension velocity as possible.

If you are guilty of this, try slowing down the initial portion of the lift. It should feel like you have the ability to accelerate once the bar begins reaching mid-thigh level (for the snatch) or above the knees (for the clean). Slowing the first pull of the lift also helps ensure that you are getting into good positions and you are timing the second pull right. When more proficient with this, that’s where you can add more speed to your first pull and still have the acceleration or explosiveness when the second pull begins.

3. You think too much “hips” and too little “knees”.

If you look at the position of the joints within the body, there seems to be a sequence when trying to generate force and transfer that force to an object that you are trying to displace. Take a shot put throw for example. Upon anchoring the support foot onto the ground, the drive is initiated from the legs into the hips and transferred through the torso and shoulders before the arms follow through to drive the shot put into the distance. Very similar to the lifts is this kinematic sequencing of joints. The force is driven into the ground from the feet, through the legs, then the torso and lastly the shoulders to create momentum on the bar. If the sequence is lost in between, that joint can no longer contribute to the summation of force. The contribution of the knees not only help drive more force into the bar but drive the bar in the right direction (i.e. vertical instead of horizontal with just the hips).

If done properly, knees should be fully extended as well as the hips come through.

If you are guilty of this, you should try doing some squat jumps with a very short counter movement but still with the intention of generating as much height as possible. The burning sensation you begin to feel in your quads after a decent amount of reps gives you an idea of you properly using your legs which you should be feeling within your lifts.

4. You are knowingly or unknowingly doing too much with your feet.

I know I mentioned that you need to feel your feet when you initiate movement off the ground. The common error with weight distribution is that the individual needs to feel that the weight gets shifted around within the feet (i.e. from the balls of the feet to the heels, back to the balls of the feet before extension). Imagine that combined centre of mass being physically over the base of support. If it is shifting back and forth as much as I have described, what do you think the muscles and structures in the body are doing to maintain that in the center or from hitting the extreme limits of the base of support? All that effort to keep the balance while moving the weight up can be directed more to actually moving the weight up instead of trying to pull the body back centered.

Gif credit to b-reddy.org

If you are guilty of this, try thinking of your jumping mechanics and feel where you get to put out the most amount of force when going for a vertical jump. Most of the time, it should be on the balls of the feet. How to get this feeling in your regular weightlifting movements? Do the drill that everyone has been on and using to feel your legs. Heels off the edge and do your pulls from there. Nothing new about that.

Conclusion

Learn to engage those springs within your body known as your legs. They are designed to act as hinge joints and in a synergistic manner, easily propel the torso in a vertical direction which is key to force transference to the barbell for the lifts.

Want to learn more? I am running a workshop talking about the second pull and how to transition under the bar at Crossfit 3039 this Saturday at 10.30am (Melbourne Time). At the same time, come down and listen to Anurag from Crossfit 3039 explain and demonstrate how that same transition is applicable to the muscle up.

http://e.mybookingmanager.com/MuscleUp-Snatch-Workshop

The Philosophical ABCs of Weightlifting by The Training Geek.

The quintessentials of weightlifting is seldom discussed and personally I feel is related to the coaching philosophy developed by the coach imparted to the athlete. In any sport, the coach has certain ideals and thoughts that they constantly strive to bring about through their lifters and also through their coaching methodology. For example, the Russians have a certain way of teaching and programming the lifts and that’s what makes them Russian. So do the Chinese.

On top of that, everyone likes their lists, everyone loves their numbers, and everyone adores the alphabet. So here’s my little take on the ABCs of weightlifting from the eye of a coach, an athlete, a recreational individual, a modern day coach, a modern day athlete or whatever you want to call me.

A – Appreciation

Appreciation is something that many struggle to get a grasp of. Appreciation comes in many forms within the world of weightlifting. You appreciate the technicality of the movements. You appreciate your coach’s ideas and methods. You appreciate the platform and the competition vibe it brings to you. You appreciate the history and tradition of the sport. You should also appreciate the evolution of the sport. You should also appreciate the people who are working to make the sport more accessible and popular. You should appreciate that you are given a gift when you are involved in the sport and that you should do what you can to share what you know.

Too many people fail to appreciate the right things and only choose to appreciate what they deem fit. Weightlifting is so diverse and there is still so much more for us to explore and discover. Being able to appreciate that helps the sport evolve, not being stuck in your ways thinking you have already attained the highest level of the sport.

B – Benevolence

The community of weightlifting is small and close-knitted to begin with. If you do not have an appreciation for the fact that we should be working with each other to improve the sport or its popularity, we lose the vision of creating a bigger community in the sport. Benevolence is defined as the quality of being well meaning. As a coach, as an athlete, or as an individual involved in the sport, what have you done to mean well for the sport? Have you done all you can to allow people to enjoy the sport or have you constantly belittled people in the sport only because you think you know almost everything?

Even the best coaches with most experience seek to learn more and understand why. Being open to learning allows people to understand that you are constantly improving yourself to help them get better.

C – Character

Also related to the last point, character is something you build up as you grow into the sport of weightlifting. It definitely takes alot to be knocked down by the bar after each failed attempt and coming back to it to make the lift. It also takes alot of character to push through working on your weaknesses to improve a certain aspect of your lift, committing fully to your program and listening to your coach.

Character also refers to the way you approach the sport. Being one who chooses to contribute to the growth of the sport is the direction of growth that weightlifting needs and seems to be heading towards. Always seek to help others improve is what I say and try to do. Regardless of the time and the effort.

 

Well that’s the ABCs from me. I wouldnt do the whole alphabet only because in weightlifting, we don’t go more than 3 reps for the classic lifts.

Stay Strong and Keep Growing the Sport,

Lester a.k.a. The Training Geek.

My 3 Tips for the 2015 Crossfit Games Open Workout 15.1.

So the first workout for this year’s Crossfit Games Open involves the two main weightlifting movements. To be attempted one after the other, one for reps and the other for a maximum attempt. 

At first glance, many would suggest to save the grip as the metcon is grip-taxing (with toes-to-bar, deadlifts and snatches) and to pace oneself. But here’s my take on it and three things I would suggest from a weightlifting front. 

1. Use your legs appropriately for the various movements. 

You have all three movements in Workout 15.1 that can easily blow your grip. For guys, chances are you will want to muscle these movements and hope that you have enough juice in the tank for that 1RM clean and jerk. 



So you need to save your grip at the start in order to prevent you from misappropriately using your arms in the clean and jerk. How to do so?

1. Focus on flexing the hip in the toes-to-bar
2. Engage the back and posterior chain in the deadlift despite it being a minuscule weight. 
3. Use the quad punch for the snatches and actually receive the snatch than trying to pull the bar to position. 

Your key in the metcon is to increase the efficiency of your movements by using the correct muscle groups to move the weight or your body. See it as a secondarily warm up for your clean and jerk. 

2. Keep your hookgrip loose. 

The hookgrip is designed to save your grip on heavy loads in the weightlifting movements. If you are capable of using the hookgrip, I would suggest using it not only for 15.1a but also 15.1. 

Letting the weight rest within your hookgrip will ensure that you keep your arms loose and for the first tip to be effective. This will also help in the clean and jerk where a much heavier load is attempted and you risk the tendency to use your arms especially in a fatigued state. 



Saving your arms will also benefit you in the jerk portion as you can still maintain a snappy lockout. 

3. Aim to be technical. 

Although it’s a metcon and your aim is to get as many reps as possible and following that as heavy as possible, but technique will go a lot way for this one. 

Being able to punch with the quads in the snatches will potentiate you for a good punch with the legs in the clean and in the drive for the jerk. 

Using enough legs and allowing momentum to carry the weight up for a power snatch, plus possibly receiving your power snatch lower will ensure a good lockout and save the arms. 



Being technical also means having a good strategy to your clean and jerks. Have a goal of what you want to hit with fatigue in mind. Make calculated attempts within that 6 minutes you are given. Even if you fail an attempt, look to keep to the timing of each attempt. 60-90s per attempt will give you 4-6 attempts so planning them out will be a better idea. 

Conclusion

It is a test of performance under fatigue. And it is also a test of strategy in the 15 minutes you are given. Going in without a plan will kill you. Be smart and keep both workouts in mind when planning your strategy. From a weightlifting perspective, aim for good technique and be efficient and you should be able to move well for the clean and jerks. All the best for your first Open workout!

Stay Strong and Keep Weightlifting,

Lester aka the Training Geek