Venice Barbell Club

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Check out the Everything is Everything Challenge details HERE!  

Don’t forget to sign up for the Lifting meet and the Paleo Potluck this Friday too!

Mobility:

Row 500m
10 PVC Dislocates
Overhead Band Distraction
Assisted Bottom of Squat

Group Warm Up (w/ Barbell):

5 Hi Hang Snatch
5 Hang Snatch
5 Snatch 

Barbell Gymnastics:

20 minutes to build up to 1RM Snatch

Conditioning:

‘Isabel’
30 Snatches, 135/95 lbs

-10 minute cap-

Notes:  You do not have to squat for each rep in this workout, nor should you.  Choose a weight that you can move quickly!

Midline Strength:

15 Strict Toes to Bar
15 GHD Sit ups

– VBC – 

3343. That is the official USAW sanction number for the Venice Barbell Club. This club sanction allows our CrossFit gym to operate as an official Olympic Weightlifting facility capable of holding meets and training athletes to represent the club at local and National events. This has been a work in progress for awhile and as of now, myself and Jefferson are the only official members of the club. But this is just the beginning. With the recent addition of Barbell Gymnastics classes and the fact that our club is the only one in Los Angeles proper, we are looking to expand steadily. 

As of all of us know, the Olympic Lifts are probably the most technically demanding part of CrossFit. They are a sport unto themselves requiring a lifetime of dedication to master and progress to the highest levels. Obviously, our little club will not be producing any Olympians any time soon but with the Barbell Gymnastics classes over the last month, it has been fascinating to watch the core group of attendees make huge progress with both the lifts and their general strength. That is why these classes and the Venice Barbell Club now exist and I urge everyone to try these classes out and hopefully regularly attend. If your goal is to get stronger and create a better understand of the lifts, just show up. 

This leads me to the other reason we started our club and these classes. CrossFit competitions are crazy and sickening but an Olympic Weightlifting meet is far more exacting in contrast. A lifter has three attempts at a Snatch and three attempts at a Clean and Jerk with the goal of the best possible total. The lifts are done on a platform in the middle of a crowded room in complete silence. A judge watches to make sure the barbell is properly locked out overhead. This sounds nerve-wracking because it is. It is also incredibly focusing and takes on an almost Zen-like appeal. I love competing in these meets and started the Barbell Club to hopefully get more people to learn to love the lifts and want to compete at meets at the local level. With enough training, the goal is send multiple athletes to National level meets. 

So with all that being said – let’s have a meet! This Friday the 15th at around 7pm, in conjunction with our Paleo Potluck at the Venice location, we will be holding our first Olympic Weightlifting Meet. This will be an unsanctioned meet and I am officially inviting anyone and everyone to participate. I will be judging the lifts so if you feel up to challenge of snatching in front of a crowd, then come down and lift. Usually, a weightlifting meet is divided into weight classes with winners in each category. For this meet, rather than split everybody up, we will be using something called the Sinclair Coefficient to determine the top overall rankings. This is a logarithmic function based on the most recent Olympic totals for each weight class and is used to average out each lifter’s total and essentially figure out who has the highest power to weight ratio. Again, do not worry about the weight you are lifting if you want to participate. Just come in prepared to have fun and know that every member now has numerous options to get better at every facet of the CrossFit experience, with the Barbell Club and our meet being just one expression of our overall goals.  

The video below should get you sufficiently excited to come in and lift. It’s ok if you cry watching it too. Totally normal.