High Bar v. Low Bar

So this debate has been going on since, well.....a while. High bar back squats vs. low bar back squat. I'm here to say right now I am biased and I only teach the high bar back squat. I'm not saying low bar is wrong, just that the high bar back squat suits Olympic style lifting better. Why you ask, well in my opinion it allows for a deeper squat, and keeps the torso more vertical which is key to the Olympic lifts. Plus, it allows for more range of motion.

Someone who power lifts would probably tell you the low bar back squat allows you to lift more weight because you recruit more hamstring and glutes, which is true. You do use more of those two muscles than when you use the high bar. Someone told me if you want to get stronger faster do low bar back squat. But, if you have ever looked at a power lifter and compare the range of motion to an Olympic lifter I think, in my opinion, you can see which one in the long run is better for you.
Again this is just my opinion, take is for what it's worth.

Found this article about the two lifts just puttin around the net and thought I would share it with ya.
High Bar vs. Low Bar Back Squats: A Brief Look into Mechanical Differences

"There are several benefits to either position and depending on your goals, either could be right for you. The high bar position tends to limit the amount of weight the athlete can lift due to less overall muscle recruitment, more quadriceps and less glutes and hamstrings. But, the movement tends to be considered more athletic as the range of motion is greater and it transitions well into the Olympic style lifts (the clean and jerk and the snatch). The low bar position works more muscles and thus allows the athlete to lift more weight and potentially build more muscle, but unlike the high bar squat it does not lend itself very well to other sports. In the end, no matter which you choose, make sure you are squatting frequently in any strength and conditioning program."

My good friend Lance also shared a good read concerning to lifts. It takes no sides and I think is a fare assessment. So take a look.

Olympic vs. Powerlifting Squats

"The key to healthy, long-term training is knowing the pros and cons of training. Knowing why and how to squat is no different. High quality Olympic squatting will take your training to the next level. The only immediate downside is that you'll have to take weight off the bar. In the long run though, you'll have greater lower and upper body development — and we guarantee that's worth spending time on."

So, I think both of these articles do a fair job of comparing the two different style of squatting. I also think it depends on what your goals are and what style of lifting you want to pursue. My sport is Olympic lifting so naturally I high bar squat.
The most important thing is have squats be a part of your training. Make sure you have proper coaching and technique. And get STRONG AS F*@K!

A Little Hiatus

Well it's been a while since I've written a blog post, but that doesn't mean a lot hasn't gone on. I know the last blog I had written I was in the midst of doing Fuel 21. Well, I will give you all the final results from my experience. Weight lost: #190 to #184. Body Fat: 15.1% to 13.3%. Inches lost 2.75 BUT, gained in my shoulders and biceps.
All in all it was a great experience! Crystal Nelson is top notch and knows her stuff. Her menu is satisfying and there are great recipes in her workbook. She tweaked my diet to fit my training regimen and it obviously paid of.
Since Fuel 21 ended I did go on vacation two times so I obviously didn't stay on it quit as strict. But since the end of July I have been right back on my diet and have seen a great response from my body through sleep and performance. I have been lifting heavy and my performance has not gone down. I am getting stronger and have put on good weight.
I would strongly suggest Fuel 21 for great ideas on food choices, and questions on when to eat. Crystal also touches on performance diet, and post work out suggestions. Great stuff all together.

Awwww, my sweet wife and I got to enjoy the beautiful country of Costa Rica for a week at the first of July with great friends and lots of good food. So you could see why I went off my eating regimen for a bit. I must say IF YOU EVER have a chance to travel to Central America choose Cost Rica. The people are friendly, the food is fantastic, and the scenery is AMAZING! It was our second time to go and we are already planning the next trip. Oh.... and their national beer Imperial is awesome.

Last but not least the CrossFit Games! I have been to all but one of the Games and the '11 Games were the best! The crowed was amazing the venue was full and the weather was great. A very fun filled group of us stayed in Redondo literally on the Strand on what is the widest beach I have ever seen in my life. I was waiting for Pam Anderson to roll up in her Baywatch truck ready to save me.
My sister Carey Kepler , sister in law Lisa Thiel and good friend Lindsay Smith all did great! Watching them work is awe inspiring and motivating at the same time. The caliber of athletes competing now is pretty impressive. Well, it's come along way since I competed in '08. Mad respect and I can only imagine what the sport is going to evolve into.

So...there is an update and some lame reasoning for the lack of blogging. My training is taking off and I have some Oly meets coming up here in the near future I will be telling you all about. I am bangin' some serious weights right now and fully expect to set some serious Snatch and Clean & Jerk PR's. Oly classes at Red Black are bumpin' and the athletes are making some real progress. Will have more updates on that as well. Good Day!

Power and Speed

As the sport of CrossFit has grown so have many other not as well known sports. With CrossFit, Olympic lifting and gymnastics have become more mainstream, at least with the CrossFit community. But, those of you who have never played organized sports or it's been a few years since that time may not realize that Olympic lifting has been a mainstay in many of your high school and college weight rooms. There are varying opinions on whether or not Olympic style lifting is as affective as say, power lifting or strongman training for your competitive athlete. I personally think there is room for both, but to build power and speed there is nothing better than the Olympic style lifts.

Artie Dreschler says, "The mere practice of the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete how to apply large amounts of force. Part of the extraordinary abilities of an Olympic lifter arises out of his having learned how to effectively activate more of his muscle fibers more rapidly than others who aren’t trained to do so. This becomes extremely important for athletes who need to remain at lower body weights for athletic purposes but need to learn how to apply greater force. Olympic lifts will help build force development without producing unnecessary hypertrophy, which could even tighten the athlete up and make him or her slower."

You can directly apply this understanding to train football players, wrestlers, baseball players, and even basketball players. Oh, and CrossFitters as well. These lifts can also be applied to your younger athlete to help develop body control and explosive power.

Matt Delany of www.EliteFTS.com says, "However, with younger athletes, there’s a lot you can do to progress them to have bulletproof shoulders with Olympic lifting movements. At this young age, there are many structural and postural changes that can be made quickly as long as you make smart progressions. A very intelligent physical therapist, John Pallof, has actually found a place for cleans in his program for pitchers because he believes the lifts have some unique qualities in force absorption for the shoulder.

Not only will Olympic lifting help with all the stated points above but will help with strength gains. Over the past three months I have dedicated myself nearly to Olympic lifting only with one to two CrossFit workouts a week and have managed to take 80% (#360) of my back squat max and do 6x6 with out any real spotting. Managing to make this jump in such a short period of time is quit an accomplishment for someone who didn't back squat on a regular basis. I have also managed to keep myself in fairly descent metcon shape.

I think Olympic lifting can and should be a valuable part of your training package. You should have a knowledgeable coach to help with form and to guide you with your progressions. The lifts are fun and will help you have the strength gains you want and help develop either the athletes you train or yourself.

Source: Defending Olympic Lifting Movements for Athletes, Strongmen, and Powerlifters.

Update on Fuel 21!
So this is day three of Fuel 21 and so far so good. Sticking to the list and eating when hungry. My body comp was about what I thought it would be with 15% body fat and weighing in at190lbs. My goal is for below 10% body fat and weighing in at below 180lbs. It's gonna happen!
Look for more to come!

Do Work Son

Wanted to share a new video from Red Black Gym Olympic Lifting class. It's not your typical video you would see me put out, but more of a promo video for the class it self. A big thanks to Elliot for his hard work and great editing on the video. He is a busy guy and has been generous enough to do the editing for all the videos I have coming.
I record the athletes for their benefit of seeing their lifts from a different perspective to help them improve. I also do the same for myself so others can see me and help me become more efficient and a more productive lifter. So be on the look out for more videos come your way and become a subscriber to my YouTube page to also see some of my favorite videos and pages I like to follow.

This Is Intense

You wonder why China has eight men's Gold Medals and the women have seven in their short time competing in the Olympics? Well, I think this video explains it. This eight year old is lifting 160.6 pounds! Yeah, I'd say that's pretty sick. How can America compete against these guys and gals? Start'em young and make it fun. Check out this article and see what you think.

Lifting and coaching the Olympic Lifts is one of my great passions in life. I feel very motivated to get youngsters started in the sport and to help make it a sport young people will want to compete at. I have to say thanks to CrossFit for introducing me to the Olympic Lifting and giving it the bump in popularity it deserves.

Gettin'er Done

A nice collage of the Red Black Olympic lifting class. As you may notice we like to incorporate power training in with the lifting to give the athletes a good set of lungs and to maximize max power output. The AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) almost always consist of dumbbells and or kettlebells to help promote balance and mid line stabilization. It's a tribute to the famous Zach Even-Esh and John Welbourn from hum I learned these great things from.

First Video

Here is the first video from the Red Black Olympic Lifting Club. I am just learning to film anything worth a darn so bear with me on the angles.

I know that I learn quite a bit by watching videos of people lifting. Some of it is do's and don'ts, but all in all it's good to watch other people lift. I hope you all get some good training ideas that you maybe hadn't thought of before and add it to your training. I know that as my athletes get better at the lifts and I get better at filming and coaching, you will gain more and more from the videos. I will try to have a new video up at least once a week from the Oly classes and my own training so I hope you follow this blog and my YouTube page.

Start'em Young

Wanted to share this clip with everyone. Found this YouTube Channel a while back and it is awesome. Wish I would have known about this Olympic lifting stuff when I was a kid.

Liberation Strength and Conditioning

Wanted:
Two highly motivated energized individuals to join one single highly motivated energized individual on Friday mornings 6:45am to 7:45am.

What Will Happen:
You will participate in highly demanding, blood pumping, strength based and power inducing workouts.

Why Should You Join:
Because if you want to get strong, conditioned, and do it all at the same time this is were you need to be. I train you the way I like to train myself using Kettelbells, Dumbbells, Barbells, Prowlers, Sleds and Sledge Hammers. If that doesn't peek your interest than I don't know what will.

I call it Liberation Strength and Conditioning because doing something different, grueling and challenging is absolutely liberating. Why not do something different?
We begin this Friday at Red Black Gym, there are ground rules to joining and farther details will be given when you make the commitment. One thing I will promise, you will get strong and it will be liberating. First come first serve. Contact: zacharythiel@crossfitcentral.com

Videos For You

So I've been lookin around and all the cool kids seem to have YouTube Channels so I decided to get one myself.
ZUTFIT is the name of the channel naturally. I created it so all of you can catch a glimpse of the Red Black Gym Olympic Lifting Club and all their glory. I also plan on throwing some vids of yours truly on there training so you can see what sort of stuff I like to do as well as videos from the Central coaches and other cool Olympic and crossfit videos as well.
I hope you all check it out and I would love to see comments on the videos I post up there.
Hope you enjoy.

Just My Thoughts........

So, at this point in my coaching career, which spans a whopping 5 years, I have come to some conclusions. I'm not saying this won't change, but I am going out on a limb here by saying it probably won't.
I coach indoor crossfit classes at Central and Olympic Weightlifting classes at Red Black Gym and some of the lifts obviously come together. For instance, today's WOD at Crossfit Central had hang power cleans in it. Naturally I had the class watch the move performed and had them perform it themselves. While I was watching the athletes perform the move prior to the actual WOD I felt like I was doing a disservice to the move and the athletes themselves. Not because they were performing the lift all wrong, but because there is so much more involved in the lift and I only have so much time to coach them up on it and correct any glaring flaws they may have.

And this is where I shamelessly promote my Olympic Weightlifting instruction separately from a crossfit class. Performing the oly lifts and becoming efficient at them takes practice and performing them repetitively creates muscle memory so that after time the lifts will become effortless. Well, maybe not effortless, but you will be able to concentrate on becoming stronger, faster and more explosive and tweak your lifts when it's called for. There are many drills, skill work and straight heavy lifting that are involved in becoming a good Olympic lifter. Not only will you become a stronger lifter but it will translate into your crossfit class. You will undoubtedly learn how to become more aggressive and also know where to focus that aggression when performing the power clean, hang clean, hang power snatch and on and on and on. I know from my own personal experience that learning the Olympic lifts, and practicing them has made me a better crossfiter. While other people are struggling with a lift like the snatch, I can rip right through it. I saw that first hand this past weekend at the Fittest Games at Crossfit Central.

So, with all of that said, I encourage all of you to consider taking up Olympic Weightlifting separate from your crossfit classes. You will become stronger, more discipline and no doubt more efficient during your workouts. Chances are you will smoke the person next to you because they are struggling and it's just like another day at the park for you.