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.

You Are Powerful Beyond Measure

This is for all the people competing in The Fittest Games this coming weekend. You are Great and you must Act Now! because now is all you have.