Strength training: I think I chose the wrong gym

**melk** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 3:03pm

Originally Posted by Emevas

Mirrors are ok for certain exercises, but with squats and deadlifts, you're prolly gonna wreck form trying to watch and lift at the same time unless the load is too light to really be effective.

Exactly!!

I would say to go to dragondoor.com and ask on their forum for a coach or trainer in your area. A workout buddy is also a good idea. Another thing would be to talk to your physician, you definitely want your doc clued into what you are doing.

My last nugget of advice is to remember that you are doing a sport and injuries will happen. If you don't like it do something else. My doc just put me on bedrest because I f*cked up my back doing a kettlebell workout he prescribed. Hang in there.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 3:34pm

Originally Posted by Machete

I've ordered a copy of starting strength and I've emailed Crossfit London to find out if they are running any courses/classes/seminars that would benefit me.

My goals are explosive and functional strength.

I would like to learn olympic lifts because I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that olympic lifts use a large number of muscle groups in conjuction with one another. (I don't like exercises that train muscles in isolation).

I am familiar with squats and deadlifts. But I don't know if I'm doing them right. For example, I may be unaware that my back is rounded when I deadlift.

Most of my injuries are upper back and shoulders. Because of this I suspect that my technique may be poorest when I do various lifts that bring weight overhead and place pressure on those areas, e.g. behind the neck press.

What Emevas said. Also, have someone check on you when you lift. Some people can lift ok with a slight curve on their thoracic vertebrae, others cannot. What you must always avoid is a rounded lower back at all costs. Also, you must also avoid a pronounced lordosis (hyper-extension of the lower back). The back is neutral and with a natural arch, looking up as Emevas said.

Film yourself at an angle (so that you can see yourself from the front ,or back, and sideways). Do so regularly and study your form.

Check the stickies for related information, and when you get a chance, check this clip which I uploaded just recently on video.google.

http://www.google.com/videoplay\?doc...43448999792460

**Jim Londos** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 4:53pm

Lost Battalion Hall in Queens NYC. If you are not from NYC ask them. It is hard to learn Olympic lifts by yourself

**Machete** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 6:36pm

I just sent an e-mail to the British Weightlifting Association asking them where I can find a coach.

Originally Posted by melk

Exactly!!

I would say to go to dragondoor.com and ask on their forum for a coach or trainer in your area. A workout buddy is also a good idea. Another thing would be to talk to your physician, you definitely want your doc clued into what you are doing.

My last nugget of advice is to remember that you are doing a sport and injuries will happen. If you don't like it do something else. My doc just put me on bedrest because I f*cked up my back doing a kettlebell workout he prescribed. Hang in there.

I've just had a quick look around the dragondoor website and I'm going to try and find a Kettlebell Instructors close to me. After all, there's no reason for me to not get my technique right with my kettlebells as well.

I might be able to get one of my friends to be a workout buddy. I'm a fraction of an inch away from persuading him to take up western boxing and if he starts doing that he'll probably want to strength train too.

I accept that injuries and getting hurt are part of all sports. I'm not afraid of getting injured. I'm disappointed with all the time I'm not training because of injuries I probably could have avoided and I'm trying to make sure that I don't injure myself in ways that will ruin my body in later life.

Originally Posted by Teh El Macho

What Emevas said. Also, have someone check on you when you lift. Some people can lift ok with a slight curve on their thoracic vertebrae, others cannot. What you must always avoid is a rounded lower back at all costs. Also, you must also avoid a pronounced lordosis (hyper-extension of the lower back). The back is neutral and with a natural arch, looking up as Emevas said.

Film yourself at an angle (so that you can see yourself from the front ,or back, and sideways). Do so regularly and study your form.

Check the stickies for related information, and when you get a chance, check this clip which I uploaded just recently on video.google.

I take back what I said about being familiar with deadlifts. The video you posted has made me realize how much I didn't know. Thank you for posting it!

**tyciol** · Posted On: 12/26/2007 9:39pm

Olympic lifters use the more basic exercises to prepare for olympic lifts, since olympic lifts are like combinin a couple of them.

**Carrera26** · Posted On: 12/27/2007 4:37pm

Oly lifts are great, but there really is a whole lot of technique involved in doing them. You can do unilateral (one arm) explosive lifts with dumbells and not only will you greatly reduce the need for perfect Powerlifter form, but it will actually be more effective for your need as you will also develop more Core stabilization.

I have injured myself in the past doing Oly lifts, and have since done only the Dumbell versions (one and 2 handed) since without any injury. One of the main reasons is that it's much easier to "abort" with Dumbells without them coming down to crash on top of you. The other reason being that the weight can take a more natural path, and you won't have the stress working "around" the bar or having one side compensate for the other.

One last thing. I see everyone in the gym (I am a part-time trainer, BTW) jog and do plenty of warmup for their lower body, and completely blank on the fact that they haven't sufficiently warmed up their upper-body. Thoroughly warm up your upper body before lifting, and not only will you save yourself some pain, but you'll be able to lift even better.

Good luck!

**alex** · Posted On: 12/28/2007 6:36pm

while getting my PT quals i think one of the single most useful things for a beginner to weightlifting we learnt is before every exercise to lock and load- breathe in, tense the abdomen, roll the shoulders back and down, keep your back straight and eyes to the front during the exercise.

go find a competent PT to take you through it. then give him ALL YOUR MONEY HAR HAR HAR

**Greyfox** · Posted On: 12/29/2007 9:11pm

Machete - I was going to PM this to you, but the function didn't kick in at 50 posts, as I was expecting. So I'm posting this here before I forget (apologies if this seems like advertising).

I spoke to my stepdad (who is CSCS himself, and has trained with Pavel, Steve Cotter and others). He recommends these guys - Balance Physio. They're based in Clapham.