Should you wear lifting belts
This is from Physio/CrossFit Box Owner/Coach/Lifter - April King
“Should you wear lifting belts? Wrist wraps? Hand guards? Knee sleeves?
These are questions I am regularly asked by my CrossFit clients so I thought I would write a quick blurb about the first one (the weightlifting belt).
The short answer (in my opinion) is definitely yes but I'm sure you'll find others who don't agree. Nonetheless, here is what I think and why.
If you are squatting, pressing or deadlifting >80 to 85% of your 1RM you should consider putting on your belt because it will help to:
a) increase intra-abdominal pressure
b) support the lumbar spine in a compressive way
c) give feedback regarding your spinal posture during the lift.
The way I see it, at heavy weights, it makes sense to support your body in every way you can to minimise or reduce the risk of injury. But please note, wearing a weightlifting belt will not:
a) take over the job of your "core musculature", i.e. your deep spinal or deep abdominal muscles or
b) make you stronger
So putting on a belt does not mean that you can suddenly increase your weights and lift heavier. You actually have to get stronger to do that, because despite the advantages it might give you, it is not a guarantee against hurting yourself. “
Creatine
Some people are buying Creatine Hydrochloride, its a waste of money according to Dr Greg Haff, creatine monohydrate is a better product - you can calculate dosage on this page - http://www.qwa.org/Resources/Calculators.aspx
Harry - Commonwealth Youth Games
Congratulations to Harry on making the Australian Team for the Commonwealth Youth Games
Tia Crossfit Games
Great interview with Tia-Clair Toomey in WodLife
http://blog.thewodlife.com.au/crossfit-games-athlete-interview-tia-clair-toomey/
Tia-Clair Toomey will be competing at the Crossfit Games
The CrossFit Games will start at Hermosa Beach California on Wednesday, July 22 - You can watch on ESPN via Foxtel or the Crossfit Website
All the best to Tia and her Crossfit Coach CoachRx
Thanks Brisbane Barbell for the photo!
2015 Pacific Games
15 years ago I interviewed Mike Keelan one of Australia's best coaches and coach educators and asked him what he most enjoyed about being a coach and he said "Seeing the success of his athletes" - now at the time I did not really feel the same myself, it was not why I enjoyed being a coach.
But now as I warmed up Mary Barter at the Pacific Cup trying to hide from her the tears in my eyes from the emotion of just thinking how far she had come in now representing Australia at this event I really understood what he meant - and it was a great feeling !
Mary with here 4 Silver Medals in the 48
Tia-Clair Toomey with her 4 silver medals in the 58
Mitch with his very gutsy 125 snatch to secure Bronze
A special moment of the Games for me was chatting to Chief de Mission - Dual Olympic gold medalist - Malcolm Page
It was interesting to hear his journey in his sport and his views on improving the sport in Australia. - Malcolm's a unique
and special person and it was a privilege to meet him.
Australia won both overall Senior Team cups
The full results can be found here
http://www.oceaniaweightlifting.com/
Qld State Championships - a great 2 days of lifting
It was just a great State championships with lots of close battles and some awesome lifting !!
Maria Barter Gold 53 - PB Snatch and Total
Georgia Gaffney 58 Gold Junior Bronze Senior - PB Snatch, CJ and Total by 7kg
Tia-Clair Toomey Gold 63 - PB Snatch and Total
Leanne Knox Silver 63
Nanda Stoltz Gold 69 - PB Snatch, CJ and Total by 13kg
Ebony Gorincu Silver 69 - PB Snatch, CJ and Total by 4kg
Emma Zawila 69 Gold Junior Bronze Senior PB Snatch
Lydia Jayne Olsen Gold Junior 75 - PB Snatch, CJ and Total by 6kg
Lucy Graham Gold 75+
Best Junior Female - Georgia Gaffney
Harrison Gaffney Gold Junior
James Norman 69 Gold - PB CJ
Josh Mak 69 Silver Junior - PB CJ and Total by 3
Mitchell Delbridge 85 Silver
Shane Orr 85 Bronze PB CJ and Total by 6
Luke Gardner 94 Gold
Liam Hadfield Bronze 105 PB Snatch and Total by 3
Damon Kelly Gold 105+
Jackson Solofa Silver 105+ - PB Snatch, CJ and Total by 11kg
Best Senior Male - Damon Kelly
Full Results
http://www.awf.com.au/resultsrankings/rptcompresults.aspx?compid=648
Thank you Brisbane Barbell for the great photos !
World Juniors and National Masters
Congratulations to James Norman 69Kg who at his first World Juniors in Poland did 6/6 lifts and
PB Snatch 103 by 1kg
PB Clean and Jerk of 135kg by 5kg
PB Total by 6.
Its a mark of his character how James has come back from a flat period in his career to pull out such a performance on the world stage.
Great photos by Gregor Winter http://gregorwinter.com/blog/ (All Things Gym) http://www.allthingsgym.com/
National Masters
Congratulations Leanne Knox who at the National Masters won a gold in the 40 to 44 category and was best lifter in the 40-45 category and overall best female lifter of the event !!
She now leads the Nationals masters rankings which contains an impressive number of QLD athletes - Also thank you to Linz and Jenny who did a great job with the coaching in what can be a VERY hard coaching gig !
Tia-Clair Toomey and Andrea Miller Crossfit Pacific Regionals 2015
Angie and myself headed to Woolongong to watch Tia-Clair Toomey and Andrea Miller and Andrea complete at the 2015 Crossfit Pacific Regionals.We had great seats right next to the competition area and really enjoyed watching the individual events.
My heart was in my mouth wondering how Tia and Andrea would go snatching directly after the handstand walk - I was hoping that they had not bitten off too much in their weight selection - but they nailed their 80Kg lifts with Tia doing a "competition PB". and tied for second place in that event.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZllsA4atl0
I started working with Andrea in 2012, her Crossfit coach Rudy Nielsen was very supportive in her working on an weightlifting program and she was unfortunate to miss out on a NZ Commonwealth Games Weightlifting Team slot in 2014.
She did very well at the event and came 8th overall even though her preparation had not been the best and an inner ear issue effected her on some events, she is one of the unluckiest athletes I have worked with and I hope things turn round for her as she is such and kind and hard working athlete with a great supportive partner - Regan Hams.
My association with Tia started in Oct 2013 after the Again Faster Semper Paratus Comp when I started helping her the technique and weightlifting programming.
After she competed at the Commonwealth Games Trials in 2014 I really felt that it would help if she had a specific experienced Crossfit coach, I suggested a few names and she chose Coach Rx. We all met as a group for the first time at Cougars in 2014 and starting planning along with her partner Shane how we would work together.
After the 2014 Crossfit regionals her niggling back pain started to become really bad and a scan identified a stress fracture in her back.
We got the physio Andrew McGough to then plan her 12 weeks progress back to full health with CoachRx programming just enough to allow the healing to occur and prevent her going mad with boredom :)
She then starting working on mainly a weightlifting program with some input from CoachRx until the end of 2014 when she made her first Australian Representative spot at the Pacific Cup in New Caledonia.
Then CoachRx took over the programming up to the Regionals with me making a few suggestions on what I would like in it.
As Shane said after her 3rd place at Regionals its been a team effort and it been great to work with CoachRx and Shane and Tia.
Above all its been the huge commitment from Tia to do the 6h drive from Gladstone for coaching and to give up her shift work job so she could focus on being an athlete.
Without a supportive partner like Shane who also now is a great technique coach I do not think it would have been possible.
July is now going to be a huge month - she is off to PNG to compete as part of an Australian Olympic Committee Team in the Pacific Games and then a few weeks later off to represent the Pacific region at the Crossfit Games
James Norman World Junior Championships Selection
At the U15, U17 states in Toowoomba James Norman did 96,100,102 124,128,130 and did a 9kg PB and 6/6 at 69Kg to do 2kg over the qualifying total to be selected for the World Junior Championships in Poland
He lost 8kg in 6 weeks and took 2 weeks off work to prepare
Thank you to Amie for the diet plan and Rob for warming him up and supporting him in training and a big thank you to all the people that drove up to cheer him on at the comp.
It was great to see all the hard work he put in pay off on the day
