BROWSE BLOG POSTS
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This Is The Last Thing I'll Ever Write
Matt Foreman
| April 1 2013 |
Weightlifting
This is going to be the last thing I write for Catalyst Athletics. It’s actually going to be the end of my whole journey in the iron sports. I didn’t think I was ever going to say this, but it’s time to finally get it over with.
I’m giving up weightlifting, and everything involved with it. Training, competing, coaching, all the work and the sweat and the pain…screw it. I’m sick and tired of it. After all these years, I just can’t see the point in lyi...
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Spasm!! Spasm!! Dang It!!
Matt Foreman
| March 25 2013 |
Weightlifting
We’re all such a bunch of little go-getters, aren’t we?
We love to train hard. One of the big pleasures in our lives is going to the gym and working our asses off until we’re drained, sore, and completely shot. We want to feel like we made ourselves better, conquered obstacles, or whatever. Everybody who reads this blog knows what I’m talking about, so I don’t need to explain it much more.
And we get sore, right? Actually, it often goes way past “sore.&...
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What The #@%! Just Happened?
Matt Foreman
| March 12 2013 |
Weightlifting
Let me tell you about a little conversation I had recently. This is an exchange between me and one of the gals I coach after she attempted a heavy snatch and missed it.
Me: “Okay, do you know what you did wrong on that one?”
Her: “Yeah.”
Me: “What did you do?”
Her: “I f-----d up.”
I love people. They’re my favorite.
We all know things aren’t always going to be perfect, right? We’re going to miss attempts occasi...
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Missing Lifts In Training
Greg Everett
| March 11 2013 |
Quick Tips
What percentage of your lifts in training are misses? If you know an actual number, you're spending too much time on the math and not enough on the lifting, but if it's a big chunk, you're probably aware of it. I've talked a lot about practice and how important it is to practice lifting the way you want to lift even on the seemingly inconsequential sets or accessory lifts because that will be the majority of your training volume, and therefore the majority of your training time.
Your misses ...
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Some Words From The Olympic Champions
Matt Foreman
| February 25 2013 |
Weightlifting
The London Olympics finished up a few months ago. Recently, I got the new issue of World Weightlifting in my mailbox. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, World Weightlifting is the official magazine of the International Weightlifting Federation. It’s published in Europe and comes out about four times a year. I’ve been subscribing to it since the eighties.
Anyway, this latest issue had the Olympic Games coverage. One of the parts I dug the most was the post-meet interv...
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The Back-off Week
Mike Gray
| February 18 2013 |
Weightlifting
Also known as the de-load week, the back-off week is by far my least favorite week during a training cycle. Coincidentally, as I write this I am wrapping up one right now. If you would have asked me last week at this time I would have told you I couldn’t wait for the damn thing to start, but that was last week and I felt like hell because I thought my body was used as a human pry-bar for the last 3 weeks.
The back-off week is a funny little animal in that you know you need it, yet it ca...
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Diagnose & Prioritize
Bob Takano
| February 11 2013 |
Weightlifting
Over the years I've developed and refined a process for working with new (to me) lifters. I thought it might be helpful to share these thoughts with those of you interested in the art of coaching.
Diagnosis: This process begins the first day when I run a new athlete through the standard exercises of overhead squats, overhead presses, and front squats. I look for joints that are lacking in range of motion, improper alignment of the spine, improper alignment of the skeletal components while sup...
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We Need More Disciplinarians
Matt Foreman
| February 11 2013 |
Weightlifting
Do you want to know one of the things I find most pathetic in weightlifting, and sports in general?
It’s when coaches let their best athletes get away with crappy behavior, simply because they’re the best athletes.
This makes me want to puke. It’s even worse when the coaches make excuses for the athletes and their shenanigans, defending them and playing the “they didn’t do anything wrong” card.
It’s sad to say, but I’ve seen this more tha...
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Learning From Your Misses
Aimee Anaya Everett
| February 6 2013 |
Weightlifting
I used to not think about other people’s training so much—about their mental state and struggles, or the fact that their minds may be racing during training as well. It’s not because I am some selfish bitch who doesn’t care about my teammates, I simply didn’t think that anyone else struggled as I do. I was oblivious.
It took me a lot of years to learn to relax in the gym, to learn that a missed lift wasn’t the end of my world as I know it, but a chance to m...
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American Weightlifting: The Documentary
Greg Everett
| February 5 2013 |
General
I just recently announced the documentary I've been quietly working on for the past couple years, American Weightlifting. This is a project I'm extremely excited about and can't wait to release. It will highlight the hard work and passion of lifters and coaches in the US and their struggle to compete internationally with lifters who are well-funded and well-supported, and recognized and appreciated by the public.
You can check out a trailer and get info as it becomes available from the movie ...
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