When you start to get physically active and have been active for quite a while, aches and pains can start creeping up and eventually certain injuries can take over. However, that doesn't mean you should keep getting injured. There's a reason why it is happening it all starts with how you look at the injuries.

How do you look at your injuries?

Imagine this, there is a person being mugged in an alley at gunpoint and screaming for help. How is this problem resolved so that the person is happy and stops screaming? Do you just go hit them a few times until they shut up? Or do you subdue the attacker and have them removed from the situation, leaving the person to get over the grief over time and go back to normal life?... you know the right answer. We would help the person being attacked.

So let's look at that same analogy and this time the person screaming for help is your injured shoulder/knee/hip (anything really) and the mugger is a muscle/tendon/ligament strain a little further down the line. Do you attack the injured area? Or do you attack the area further down the line?

Injuries are a symptom of something else secretly going on.

When we have an injury around a joint or near a joint it is almost never caused by what is happening in said joint. It is usually a result of some form of tension, strain or injury in the surrounding area. The pain we feel is because there is pulling or pushing occurring from a system upstream or downstream from where the pain is being felt.

Let's take it back a step…

I'm not saying that the pain in your shoulder isn't from your labrum tear or rotator cuff issues. Or that your knee or ankle isn't actually sore or injured. What I'm saying is; we have a habit of treating the area where the injury is and don't look any further into it to find the cause of said injury. These structures are breaking for a reason and we just slap some (figurative) glue on it, wait for it to dry and use it again in hope that it won't break again.

There is a better way.

Try to think of the human body like a series of pulleys. The tendons and ligaments are the ropes to your system. The joints on the body are the pulley wheels. Now let's imagine along each pulley line there are helpers that pull the rope in between each pulley wheel when it is needed (these are your muscles).

Why do we get injured?

Let's now imagine what would happen if one of the ropes (ligaments or tendon) had a knot (scar tissue) in it or if one of the line helpers stopped working and just sat on the rope (muscle strain or a knot). It's going to pull the rope tighter and hold tension there for a long time. That means the even when the line is relaxed the pulley wheel (the joint) is constantly under tension. If that structure isn't meant to hold that kind of tension there for that long it will break or fall out of place (injury around a joint). If it breaks it can be fixed but unless the knot in the rope (tendon/ligament scar tissue) can be fixed or the helper on the rope line (muscle knot or strain) can be put back into working order, it will continue to break and get worse over time.

So by fixing our tight muscles and repairing fully after minor injuries we can ensure our body will always be in perfect working order. Body maintenance should be one of the top priorities on the to do list daily. Myofascial therapy, meditation, stretching, yoga, walking, journal entries… they all play a vital role in keeping the human body working to be a finely tuned machine.

Here's 5 quick tips to help with making that body work better for you:

1. Spend 5-10 minutes foam rolling daily

Set out a foam rolling routine and stick to it every day. 5-10 minutes every day isn't much to make sure your body is working in peak condition.

2. Stretch, contract & stretch

There will be another article about this soon. But the basics of this is; spend 10 minutes stretching twice per day and when you do you will stretch the muscle, push back or rest against the stretch and then stretch that muscle a little further. It will make a world of difference to your mobility

3. Do your warm ups right!

A warm up isn't just there for the fun of it. It is there to warm the blood, muscles and joints and ensure that you are ready for exercise. Going for a 400m jog or 500m row isn't a warm up, it's the start of a warm up. You should have dynamic stretches and also look at having ballistic stretches before then getting the heart rate jacked and ready for the workout. If you're the sort of person that walks into a gym, picks up a bar and just starts lifting, you're doing it wrong. Learn how to warm up properly and your body will thank you for it.

4. Prehab those shoulders, hips, knees & ankles.

Prevention is better than a cure. Once you have learned how to warm the right way, you should have some sort of minor resistance in your dynamic warm up. This might be with bands or with some small resistance from the body. It will be a warm up for the joints and the tiny muscles that help them move effectively (think shoulder girdle, hips, ankles and knees) once this part of your warm up is done you should have no question that your joints are ready for the workout.

5. Cool down

There are a lot of people that skip the cool down portion of a workout, calling it unnecessary and a waste of time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cool down portion of the workout is a way to help with the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) that you get in a couple of days after working out and helps keep the muscles moving better so you can hit the gym again sooner. Take 5 minutes and do a light cardio movement coupled with some light stretching in between and you'll feel great the next day.

Follow these 5 tips and make sure that you consult an allied health professional for not only your initial consultation when you are injured, but also make sure that you get the follow ups done too. Just because the joint is fixed does not mean the issue has gone away. You might need a lot more work than you think.

Lift smart, train hard and you'll set pr’s

When you first started weightlifting you were smashing records all the time and you were smiling and celebrating almost daily because there was always something new to be excited about. Now you turn up to training and put in hard work day in and day out and you're still not seeing progress on the platform. It leaves you a little heartbroken, thinking it's all your fault and questioning whether weightlifting is for you or not. Maybe it's the program's fault, or there weren't the right stars aligned at the right moment… you get where I'm going with this right?! It's no one's fault, you just have to find out why it is happening

There are several common reasons people hit plateaus in weightlifting and powerlifting. Some of them are really obvious and some of them are just hard and time consuming (which is why only the best keep moving up).

1. Stick to 1 programme

People bounce off a new programme every 4-6 weeks sometimes even less! That's just ridiculous. Yes there are programs out there for you that are short term, no they won't get you long term goals. If you are an experienced lifter, you need a personalised programme that suits your needs and abilities so you can stick to it for 3-24 months (that's right, a good programme is well thought out and takes commitment to get results). If you can't commit to a programme the you will never see the results you want.

2. Get a coach

We see everything that you don't and we know all the tricks you wish that you had thought of. A good coach will get the very best out of you in every training session and and help deliver sound advice for a programme and how to continue to grow. This isn't really optional once you get to a certain level. You need professional eyes on you to succeed.

3. Fix that diet

Yep, that's right. If you eat poorly, you recover poorly. Simple as that. Fix your diet so you have high quality nutrient dense foods regularly and watch the gains train take off.

4. Mobilise regularly

Seems like an easy one but this is without a doubt the hardest thing to encourage people to do. Taking an extra 5-25 minutes per day to keep their body in check. There are ways to find this amount of time in the day and it's really a simple thing to help get results sooner rather than later. Work on those tight areas, loosen up the hips or shoulders. Get rid of calf cramps… whatever it is, find the time and watch your results soar.

5. Train with a purpose

Set some goals and your coach will ensure that you chip away at them one at a time. If you have a good coach they will have you already setting goals and smashing them on a regular basis.

This also means how you train, you need to turn up to every training session, not just be there going through the motions. Warm up, get fired up and get ready to take on the world.

6. Deload

Make sure you have a deload phase in your training or something that gives your body a rest in the programme. You can't keep smashing the body and expect it to grow. Most athletes hate back off week so I like to help them think of it as growing week. If you deload right, you'll grow and be able to hit new pr’s soon.

The final piece of advice I will give is to train smart. If you attack your training like a meathead with no purpose then you will get no results and usually end up injured. So in closing I leave you with what I will call my ‘continued advice’.

Lift smart, train hard, and you'll set pr’s

The taper week (AKA back off week). This is the week that your coach programmes weights and sets that you can do with your eyes closed… AND IT WILL DRIVE YOU MAD!!! I swear my athletes think I program things just to annoy them, the truth is the body needs time recover in order to work properly. You can’t keep pushing your body to 110% every hour of every day. Something will give.

Not sure what to do with your back off week? Here’s the answer.

1. Get stuff done that you keep putting off

Firstly, you’ll be in and out of the gym faster than ever in this week so utilise it as your chance to catch up on things. Go for that hike you’ve been putting off, have lunch with friends you haven’t seen (because we’re always training), do things you’ve been putting of or just get some fresh air and relax. This is the part of the program that we want to engage the rest and digest part of your nervous system so don’t go increasing your CrossFit workouts or add in something that creates stress.

2. Do extra mobility

You have more time and you need to relax. Go to a yoga class or two. Do some long mobility sessions at home. Sleep more. Do all of these things and it will help with the rest and digest elements that we aim for in this week and you’ll be moving better than ever when you hit the heavy weights again.

3. Focus on positions and speed

This week is perfect for working on getting minor kinks out of the way and getting faster. If your feet move slow and you aren’t very explosive with your actions, focus on that in this week and continue to implement what you learn as you start to ramp the load back up.

Overall, If you do too much on your back off week your body will adapt wrong and you won’t make the weight increases that you or your coach had hoped for. If you focus on positions and speed with light weights when you’re training and relax and mobilise while you’re away from the gym then the programme will go as planned and you will be hitting the numbers you were expecting to. If you catch up on life and enjoy the small things you will keep your sanity and the world will keep spinning for you.

Lift smart, train hard and you’ll set pr’s

If you’re new to weightlifting then you most likely don’t understand how awesome competition is. You might even fear it. I can tell you right now that nothing beats having an official total and going to a meet and making some new connections with people that are like minded from different clubs. It’s great! Here is a bunch of reasons why competing in your first competition will be the first of many.

Pic above: Kristen, Jimboomba Barbell Club, competing in her first competition

1. It gives your training a purpose

You don’t give it everything if you don’t have something you need to work towards. You’ll spend your time kicking around instead of getting fired up and smashing pr’s. Once you have done your first meet you will also have a competition total that you can work towards beating next time.

2. You can meet new buds

Everyone is friendly at local meets. You’re not sure what to do? There’s usually a coach around that is more than happy to help. You have to understand, these people at these comps are of the same mind frame as you. We all want to grow this sport so helping others benefits us all.

3. You will grow as an athlete

Your mentality towards your sport will grow and you will start to want to put more back into it and get more involved in the sport. This is a great thing! Our strength sports are always happy to have volunteers and help people learn more about our great sport. This, in turn, will help you grow as an athlete.

4. They’re Fun!

Once you get past all the nerves of it all weightlifting and powerlifting meets are exciting and you will have a blast! You will not be disappointed with competing. It will be something you start to look forward to.

Overall, your first meet will be nerve racking and you will need to have someone there to help you out and support you. The cool thing is if you are training with a weightlifting club then your first few comps will most likely be in your home gym. Awesome, right?! You can experience the sport of weightlifting with your friends and maybe make some new ones along the way.

Remember to lift smart, train hard and you’ll set pr’s

People put all of their efforts into the gym, some train hours per day. Others are in the frame of mind that it all comes down to what you eat, they meal prep and count calories and are usually pretty lean. Both of these approaches combined are a great way of taking your fitness (and weightlifting) to the next level but there is one major key component missing in this link and if it isn't addressed then this whole structure that is your training life will fall apart. Fast.

Mobility

Mobility is the key to making sure you can come back and hit that workout with full intensity every day. You can't hit the right positions in weightlifting if you start to hit the limits of your mobility and flexibility. When you start to get tight; the joints that those tight muscles cross over become restricted and then when you try to move in a way that you normally would, it puts strain on that joint and that's when injuries happen.

The answer to solving and/or preventing this is relentless mobility. Start stretching when you're sitting in front of the TV or when you study or just standing around. This is the simplest yet most under utilised tool to keep your body healthy and growing safely. If you start a regular stretching routine you will see those aches and pains decrease. That bad knee suddenly isn't so bad. That annoying catch in your elbow suddenly disappears or that pain in your shoulder every time you put a bar overhead will disappear.

Put a system of stretches in place on a daily basis and watch your fitness grow. The weights on the bar will increase and all you had to do was stretch.

Remember to train smart, lift hard and you'll set pr’s.

Making weight for a meet is tough. Often an athlete will leave it to the last minute to try to cut weight in order to make it into their weight class and this is a common mistake.

Big weight loss two weeks out

Let's get one thing sorted straight out of the gates, if you need to cut weight for a meet don't try to leave it 2 weeks out to cut 5+kgs. While it is possible to do so, it doesn't mean that you should do it and it definitely isn't an option that is good for your body. To drop that kind of weight you'd need to be in a catabolic state at some point. That means your body will eat away at your hard earned muscle gains. Have you ever noticed when you do a massive cut before a meet that everything feels harder and you don't feel quite as strong? It's because you aren't. You've most likely lost some muscle in your cutting phase and, in most cases, were cutting it so fine that you couldn't have a decent meal the night before or the morning of your meet or even a decent hydrating drink. You can generally cut about 5% of your body's mass in a water cut if need be but there are other ways to ensure that you're getting to the platform feeling stronger than ever

There is a better way

If you think about your diet, you can delve deep into why and how you eat. Changing they way you think about your weight prep for comp will ensure you can be stronger than ever and feeling good on the day of your meet.

When should I start my weight cut?

Let's first take a look at how far out you should start your weight cut. Now, the answer is now. Now is when you should start thinking about how you're eating and how it will affect your weight and body composition. Here's why:

It takes away the stress of ‘the cut’It buys you time to make adjustments in order to get the results you want.You can focus on muscle maintenance and work on fat loss to get to the right weight classYou can still lift better than ever on comp day

Eat clean to get lean

Now let's take a look at what kind of foods you should be eating. Remember, you are an athlete and you are competing in a sport that requires the best from your body. To have the athletic body you want you can't eat bad food regularly. You have to fuel your body better to ensure it will perform like the like the finely tuned machine it is. Eat lean meats, fruits & vegetables along with few starchy carbs (once or twice per week for starchy carbs). Eat good fats and stay clear of sugar (that includes soft drinks, juices, sweeteners. All of it).

Energy in vs Energy out

That's just a basic look at your dietary needs in order to fuel your body properly. The next thing that you need to worry about is how much food you are consuming vs how much of that food (you have consumed) you've used as energy.

To cut a long story short, if you consume more energy (in the form of food) than you use (in the form of exercise and daily activities) you will gain weight. If you consume less energy than you use during the day and exercise, you will drop weight.

How can I monitor my food?

There's a couple of different ways. Firstly, if you want to try it on your own, you can opt for using a food tracking journal that will calculate your caloric needs and tell you your caloric expenditure per day (like My Fitness Pal) or record your food in a journal and have your food coach monitor it and of course, seek advice from a professional.

Do I need to do more cardio?

So we've established that you need to keep track of what you eat and eat nutrient dense foods. Should you train more? You shouldn't really have to. If your dietary needs are based on your current training needs then you should be able to continue with your regular training schedule and still drop weight. At the most, if you're worried about making weight you could add in some slow go rowing or low intensity cardio for long periods of time to burn more calories without the catabolic effects.

Cutting water weight

Lastly, you might need to cut water weight in the final weeks or days leading up to the meet if you're struggling to make weight but that is a different article to be discussed later. There is a lot of info you need to cut water weight. You shouldn't put your hopes into a water cut.

Keep track of your diet through testing

A good weight cut leading up to a meet will have you feeling full and hydrated until the 24hrs before your meet and shouldn't affect your performance. At JBC we have body composition tests that are done after one meet and a repeat test is done again a few weeks leading up to the next meet to see what improvements have been and need to be made in order to make weight.

Refeed

After your weigh in you'll need to eat a decent meal and rehydrate. Make sure you rehydrate with something that can also restore your electrolyte and body salt levels (like a Gatorade or Hydralite) and eat a nutritious meal prior to warming up. Also ensure you have enough snacks to keep you going through the meet.

To summarise, if you want to make weight for your next meet you should first decide if you need to cut. Then focus on your diet sooner rather than later and then leave the final kg or two to water cutting in the final week. Do some slow and long cardio to help create a caloric deficit without going catabolic. Complete a body composition test long before your meet so you know where you can make improvements. Have the body composition test redone a few weeks out from your next meet to see if there is any more improvements to be made. Make your final improvements needed and put in place water cutting techniques if needed. Weigh in, refeed, rehydrate and set a new record!

Lift smart, train hard and set pr’s!

Crossfitters always ask how often they should spend just on weightlifting each week. The answer is always one they don't like hearing because it's less than what they'd like it to be. Weight lifting is fun and we want to do it all the time but if you're a CrossFitter you need a different approach to get those pr’s.

So how many should you be doing? One or two sessions per week. That's it.

This is for 90% of the CrossFit population. We're not all going to the Games and for most of us it's not in the near future either so prioritising some technique work and on the C&J and Snatch can majorly improve how well you move through your WOD's and improve your overall CrossFit experience.

This doesn't mean you can't do metcons with Olympic lifts in them, it just means there needs to be time for only doing the lifts and doing them when you feel fresh (not battered from your last workout) under the watchful eye of an experienced coach. You can still do accessory and strength work on either side of your metcons to help you out as well but at least one full session should be dedicated to learning and helping master the lifts each week.

Follow this idea of one or two sessions dedicated only to your lifts per week and the weights will increase. Don't overdo it and seek professional advice from a qualified weightlifting coach and most importantly have fun!

Lift smart, train hard and set pr’s!

Pic below: CrossFit Athletes: Top Left, Jethro Berry. Top Right, Belinda Geissler (trainer at CrossFit Flourish), Bottom Left, Mike Sheppard, Bottom Right, Mel Hawkins

Pulling? Or pushing

Pulling the bar from the ground. I’ve often thought that the term used for lifting the bar off the ground was a little misguided.

Our legs will only pull on something if we achieve flexion at the knee - bending the knee - (and sometimes at the hip). You don't flex your knees and hips to stand up, you extend them - straighten them. In the Olympic lifts we're generally standing up aggressively with the bar.

Just stand up...with a push

Let's try and change the way we think of the pulls in the Clean and Snatch.

You need to generate maximum force by pushing your feet against the ground to move the bar. This activates the entire musculature in the legs as you extend the knees and use your hips as levers while you continue to stand up. So why not consider this a push?

Coaches are often heard telling people “push your feet through the floor” or “push the floor away with your feet” and this takes away that nasty pull through the back and shoulders and keeps their position right to achieve the correct hang position.

From the hang positions, we can then revert to the “pull” and “catch” cues to achieve the right speed and continuation of upward force.

Pic: Greg, hang position after pushing through the floor (cue for pull)

Maximal force through the floor

Remember, weightlifting starting “pulls” are about generating maximal force against the ground through your feet to move the bar vertically from a still start position on the floor. To achieve this you need to use your legs to stand up aggressively.

Change the way you think of the pulls and you can achieve some great results.

Lift smart, train hard and set pr’s!

General physical preparedness (GPP) is valuable to a weightlifter. Why? GPP generally relates to your fitness level. I can hear you already… “dude, I'm a weightlifter. I don't need to run”. You're right, you don't need to run but you do need to be able to get oxygen to your muscles efficiently. This unfortunately means that you'll have to get your heart rate up regularly, work on flexibility as well as working on those strength gains.

If you want your body to adapt to the changes you try to force on them (weight training) then you will have to ensure that your body can utilise oxygen, other body chemicals and hormones efficiently.

Throwing in one or two days of general physical exercise (cardio, plyometrics, calisthenics, etc.) per week will improve how your body processes oxygen. Working on mobility and flexibility constantly along with your regular training (vital to GPP) will also increase your ability to handle the bar efficiently.

This will be an asset not only to your meets (when you're heart's racing) but also when your coach programs nasty EMOM’s and complexes as well.

Remember to lift smart, train hard and you'll set PR’s

In short, no. Weightlifting is a sport that will help keep your body in the best shape of your life as you age. It is a sport that can be done recreationally or competitively. Weightlifters (recreational or competitive) see great increases in strength, confidence and mobility which help individuals in their everyday lives. As we get older our bodies need more emphasis on load bearing exercise and less focus on cardiovascular exercise to help our bones stay strong.

Why is this important?

Osteoporosis is a common disease in Australia with 1.2 million people estimated to have osteoporosis and a further 6.3 million with low bone density (according to Osteoporosis Australia stats). Low bone density and osteoporosis leads to fragile bones and joint disorders that restrict everyday movements and will eventually begin to control an individual's life.

What you can do to change or prevent it

To increase an individual's bone density and avoid or lessen the effects of osteoporosis, they need to increase load bearing exercise (along with some supplementation of vitamins). This will usually start with the basics, learning how to do the movements under minimal load (recommended for those with low bone density) then increasing load over a period of time to ensure that the bones are getting stronger and the muscles that protect the bones and joints are getting stronger.

For those that are able to, we increase impact loading also. So we will begin to change some of the lifts you do to suit what your body needs. If you’re body is capable of impact loading we will look into the Olympic style lifts (Snatch and Clean & Jerk) or if you are unable to impact load, we will look into the powerlifts (Bench Press, Deadlift, Back Squat). Accessory movements are added to these programs to ensure that the full body is capable of adapting to the load and increasing overall bone density and muscular strength. Great care is taken to ensure that the individual's body is pushed hard enough to create change but not so hard that it hurts them.

If you start load bearing exercise sooner rather than later you can reduce the risk of low bone density or osteoporosis and enjoy life as you intend to.

Pic at left: Jane, masters league competitor training powerlifts.

Other fantastic benefits of weightlifting

When you join a weightlifting club you will be immersed in a community of like minded individuals that support you with your goals, big or small. This, in turn, helps with our self esteem and how we feel about ourselves. It can have dramatic positive effects on depression and anxiety and can help boost that self confidence (nothing boosts the self esteem like hitting a new PR!)

We encourage better mobility; this means that we encourage you to move better and have more stability around your joints so you feel better when you move around in your everyday life.

There are many other benefits of joining a weightlifting club for your load bearing exercise programme but you really have to join one to find them all out.

Overall, if you begin a load bearing exercise program and you are concerned about low bone density diseases please ensure you join a club with an experienced coach and take your time. Weightlifting isn’t a sprint to the finish line, it’s a lifestyle improvement, treat it like a marathon and enjoy the ride.

Lift smart, train hard and set pr’s.