[Abe Smith]

Nice writing Eric.

[Abe Smith]

That was a great story.

[Abe Smith]

Never thought Joe would be the lightest lifter at a meet 🙂

[Abe Smith]

Just as an update….I have started to do single leg work – pistols, bulgarian split squats and find they help the popping. I think, “think” that this could be a precursor to something more problematic I need to watch out for…

[Abe Smith]

I appreciate the information Tom. When I wrote the first post I would have never imagined the colorful response I would get back. I never heard rice krispies’ knees pop yet…pretty funny. The odd part is that after I press my elbows tend to pop too…

Pretty funny and thanks for the information!! Just to check I squatted the last two nights and this AM no popping! Weird games the body plays…guess I will be squattting on a daily basis.

[Abe Smith]

I used to work on walking with barbell for distance here and there and found that after a while your shoulders and arms become numb and throb. I would have thought that the back or abs would give out, or you would just get really tired but what always got me is the numb and throbbing of the shoulders and arms. I think that if someone used a safety bar, cambered bar (with added ab padding, as in towels under a tight belt)or used a harness of some kind to keep arms out of picture they could probably do it.

[Abe Smith]

I have done the following:

Very light good mornings with very high reps. We are talking like a 15 pound bar for 70 reps.

Very light deadlifts with high reps. After I hurt my back Bill Clark told me to take 135 lbs and work up to doing a set of 50 reps. I do not know if it would have worked because I did not heed his advice and ironically my back did not really heal until I gave the light good mornings a shot.

A lot of times walking has really helped my back.

I would say stretch but I have found that stretching actually made my back hurt worse.

I have found that learning proper movement patterns like the hip hinge and proper squat form that Dan John discusses was key to helping me finally get over my back issues. The hip hinge was a miracle worker.

When my back was “shot” I found that by doing sled work and farmers work kept my deadlift up without putting strain on the back.

Eric Todd has had some issues with his back as well and he has come back stronger than ever. You may want to try the KC board for some added input.

[Abe Smith]

Good comments and all quite relevant. One night at Clark’s an ex top 0lympic weightlifter strolled through the door (don’t remember the guys name). He said that he just came from Bill’s house to get okay for him to lift. The guy warmed up and proceeded to knock out huge weights..I believe he finished up near 400 lb on the clean and jerk. For me this was quite a large amount. I asked him about training…he said when he trained at the center he lifted nearly everyday…now as he got older he found he only needs two times a week…clean and jerk and snatch followed by back squats on both days. The extra time gives him the ability to rest up.

For me at this stage the routine squatting seems like a good way to build overall strength without overstressing other parts of the body…one thing for certain it is stressing my paint’s leg seams! Hehehe.

[Abe Smith]

I used to do them at the end of workouts. I used to pick just one and slowly work my way up to a heavy set between 10 to 20 reps. This usually only covered harness and hip. For hand n thigh I would keep the reps and weight lower in percent to maximum and work on the lean back. Same for neck lift.

[Abe Smith]

Pretty cool article. I remember seeing Bruce Lee with an isometric training tool that I thought looked promising. Essentially a wooden disk you would stand on and chains with handles to pull with. I always thought that was interesting because you could do all sorts of lifts with just using different handles, handle locations and chain lengths or bars. hell you could even use resistance bands to help as well….

http://rosstraining.com/blog/2009/02/23/homemade-isometric-tool/

[Abe Smith]

I find it hard to olympic lift in chucks. For one the thin sole makes it hard to stomp when you jerk. Also the no heel makes it hard to set you up for the second pull and catch portions of the lift as said by Tommy Kono. Chucks are good for the deadlifts we often practice. For proper squatting I found a heel helps but is not necessary.

[Abe Smith]

Thom, good story man…keep them coming. Funny to note that Bill wouldn’t of done weightlifting if he did not first run a boxing club.

[Abe Smith]

Congrats on the 900 lb neck lift! You can about neck lift what I can hand n thigh 🙂

[Abe Smith]

Man I wish I could….it would be a great trip to see the venue alone…not to mention get a beer at the historic tavern 🙂 But my wife works everyother weekend and so happens that all meets I’ve been wanting to do have been falling on the wrong weekends.

[Abe Smith]

Perhaps beating a dead horse….the USAWA consists of many lifts, most lifters do not do the USAWA solely but as a hobby. Doing the split method requires a lot of technical proficiency. Unless one spends a lot of time on the split method it will not likely pay off.

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