olympic weightlifting with Ang

Just about every Sunday a few of us gather at Crossfit Oakland and do Olympic Lifting with Angela Lim.

Angela is an excellent coach and motivator and I recommend her whole-heartedly.

Olympic lifting is an odd hobby, I'll admit, but trust me, it feels good. I got into by chance. I was doing Crossfit workouts on my own and some days the workouts called for technical moves that I had no clue how to do. The videos on the Crossfit site generally give you a good idea, but for lifts such as the "snatch" and the "clean", I couldn't tell what was going on. Nor did I want to take the risk I was going to do it incorrectly.

Lifting Something Heavy Badly == Good Recipe for Injury

Through some searching, I found that Angela taught private lessons on these moves. I went to one and ended up loving it. Angela has a great personality. She will get you motivated and laughing the whole way!

Now that I've learned some of the technical moves, I still come by and join a group lifting on Sundays. The group is supportive and friendly, if you're interested in learning more you should stop on by! The next time we meet is the first Sunday in June at the new Crossfit Oakland location.

Sunday 3/22 -- clean and snatch

Yesterday I worked out with Angela Lim at Crossfit Oakland.

Most of the weights are in Kg still, so I'm never really sure how much I'm lifting.

This is actually a pretty interesting experience as I focus more on the movement than on competing with myself (or others) on how much I lift.

Olympic lifting is interesting in that it is very low pace with sudden explosions of power.

I did about 6 sets of Snatches:
3 @15lb
3@15lb
3@17lb
3@20lb
3@22lb
3@25lb




Snatches are pretty complex. You generally lift less than with the Cleans, but then again, you're lifting over your head!

There's always plenty of rest in between sets too. At the Sunday lifting group, there were 4 of us taking turns lifting.

Cleans:
With my cleans, I need to work on that sudden explosion of power. So I practice first with the high-pull/Scarecrow movement. The explosion should be so powerfull that it knocks me onto my toes.

3@45
3@45
3@55
3@55
3@55

Lastly, I did a few front squats. These are good for practicing "high elbows" which is also important in the Clean. The high elbows keep the weight on the center body line.