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Catalyst Athletics: Our Warm-up is a Warm-up
Greg Everett
| November 8 2011 |
Training
Somewhere along the line, warming up became remarkably complicated. And for some, the line between warming up and training has faded to the point that I find myself compelled to say things like the title of this post.Whenever you start getting confused about what to do, a reliable course of action is to ask yourself a simple question: Why? What is the purpose of this? What am I trying to accomplish? If you can answer those questions, chances are you’ll be able to work it all out just fine....
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The Power Snatch: Uses & Cautions
Greg Everett
| October 5 2011 |
Training
I’ve nearly always defined a power snatch (or clean) by a receipt above a parallel squat. This is how I was taught. For the most part, I continue to use this definition because it’s served me fine. However, at times I change my expectations based on what I want achieved. My other definition is no less than a 90-degree angle at the knee. This is a considerably higher receiving position—there is no question at this height of whether or not a lift can be classified as power. You w...
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Hips, Meet Bar
Greg Everett
| September 9 2011 |
Training
Some topics seem to generate more heat that others, and for some reason, the question of how a barbell should come into contact with the body during the snatch and clean seems to get some people extraordinarily wound up. I personally don’t lose any sleep over how anyone else lifts or teaches the lifts. I may agree or disagree, but I don’t let it upset me too much. The following will undoubtedly further upset the same people who are already upset.In my humble opinion, there is more th...
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Hook Grip or Not Overhead
Greg Everett
| August 20 2011 |
Training
A common question is whether or not a lifter should keep the hook grip overhead in the snatch. This is one of those issues that doesn''t have a simple answer: it depends. The main issue while holding a barbell overhead is stability: obviously the athlete needs to be able to support the weight. The hand and wrist need to be able to settle in under the weight of the bar to create a cradle that balances the weight properly and doesn''t cause injury. Lifters need to condition the joints over time to...
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Improving the Clean through a Better Turnover
Greg Everett
| August 12 2011 |
Training
A lot more attention tends to be paid to the third pull or turnover of the snatch than the clean, likely because the consequences of poor execution tend to be more dramatic and obvious, but the turnover of the clean deserves its own share of attention. The timing and precision of the turnover in the clean can be the difference between a make and a miss, or can prevent the recovery from being so taxing that a subsequent jerk fails.An idea I commonly talk about with my lifters is attempting to mak...
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The Jerk for Sports
Greg Everett
| August 5 2011 |
Training
Mike Asks: In most sports full extension and the "follow through" are important - you drive through your legs, hips, torso, shoulders, and arms with a "follow through" after making contact with the ball, or the jaw. In doing the jerk you pull away from, or drop under, the bar as it is driven upward, so the maximum effort comes before the full extension - I can think of no other sports in which this happens. Wouldn''t then the "push press" where the drive continues ...
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The Bench Press
Greg Everett
| July 27 2011 |
Training
After curls, the bench press might be the most vilified lift among functional training enthusiasts and some in the weightlifting community. First, I like curls and I couldn’t care less about people doing them, whether for reasons of performance (yes, there are legitimate performance reasons for curls) or aesthetics, as long as in the latter situation it doesn’t interfere in any way with performance goals, assuming they exist (this is tough to do, but there are definitely cases of hug...
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Overhead Stability in the Snatch
Greg Everett
| June 17 2011 |
Training
When an athlete has difficulty supporting the bar overhead in the snatch, it's natural to immediately assume there is insufficient strength and to address the problem with strength work. While this may often be the problem, or at least one part of it, there are other elements to consider that may be preventing the athlete from properly using what may be adequate strength. In some cases, these problems can be corrected very quickly and save everyone a lot of headaches. When it comes to sup...
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Kicking the (metCon) Habit
Jocelyn Forest
| June 14 2011 |
Training
The first step is admitting you have a problem. This article is about how I kicked my habit; my metcon habit. When transitioning to the sport of weightlifting, particularly when coming from a GPP addiction, it can be tough to let go. First, let me tell you how it all began.HOW I GOT HOOKED“You should be a weightlifter. You would be so good!” These were the words spoken to me by my then CrossFit coach Aimee Anaya Everett. It was 2010 and I was on a CrossFit high. As most stories...
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Sample Masters Program
Greg Everett
| June 3 2011 |
Training Programs
The following is a training cycle I wrote to prepare one of our masters lifters for the NorCal Open. He recently began training at Catalyst, and this is the first program I’ve written for him after helping him modify the program he used to prepare for Masters Nationals. He made PRs across the board at the meet.This is a fairly general program, although there is some work specific to his technical needs, which can be used as-is or altered to suit someone else.Week 1MondaySnatch – 70% ...
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Adjusting Canned Training Programs
Greg Everett
| May 31 2011 |
Training
One of the most common type of emails I get involve questions regarding how to modify the Catalyst daily workouts or other programs to be fewer days/week. This can be for a number of reasons, most commonly because people are able to train only a certain number of days each week due to scheduling conflicts, are trying to do other training along with weightlifting, or feel they will be unable to recover from five or six days of training per week. Obviously these different reasons for modification ...
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Submission Guidelines
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