olympic weightlifting

In Olympic weightlifting we are often called upon to differentiate our style of training and competing from powerlifting. Even more frequently, our activities are erroneously referred to as “powerlifting.” ... Continue Reading

Olympic weightlifting requires maximal mobility, neuromuscular control, and power production. Limitations in any of these aspects will result in missed lifts, stalled progress, and potential injury. As a ... Continue Reading

Well, the XVII Pan American Games are now history. Held the third year of each Olympiad, these are essentially the Olympics of the Western Hemisphere. The 2015 edition, held in the city of Toronto and ... Continue Reading

I guess I’m getting to that age now where memories loom larger than dreams. With nearly a half-century in the sport, I along with those in my age cohort often end up discussing where weightlifting has been ... Continue Reading

As everyone familiar with the Olympic lifts knows, the clean and jerk is a two-part lift. Once the clean is finished, you then have the second lift to deal with - the jerk. Since you have only a short ... Continue Reading

Weightlifting is a sport that requires a heavy use of muscles and vast amounts of flexibility, so stretches and mobilization are critical to succeed. This article provides details on how to incorporate ... Continue Reading

The rising popularity of Olympic weightlifting has led to many newcomers and ex-athletes exchanging their spin bikes for barbells. Unfortunately, the level of coaching and analysis needed to teach and ... Continue Reading

For most of weightlifting’s history, when athletes have performed the second part of the clean and jerk, they do so by splitting under the barbell - one leg goes forward while the other goes backward in a ... Continue Reading

“You don’t look strong.” “He (or she) doesn’t look that strong” These words and other similar ones have been uttered in my presence much too frequently during my forty-plus ears of involvement in ... Continue Reading

After watching the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships, I noticed two of the biggest stars of that competition were fit candidates for a compare-and-contrast treatment: Ilya Alexandrovich Ilyin (Gold, ... Continue Reading

It’s been nearly six months since the Takano Athletics weightlifting gym opened in Woodland Hills, California. One of the unique aspects of the gym is the coaching internship program I implemented from the ... Continue Reading

We are all familiar with how difficult it is to learn the technique of the Olympic lifts, or any similar athletic movements. The field events, gymnastics, and martial arts - all are complex and require ... Continue Reading

As aging lifters are wont to do, I recently entered into a discussion with an old training buddy about the differences between the various weight disciplines. (At our ages, we have a lot more energy for ... Continue Reading

We held our first ever movement pattern seminar at Takano Athletics just recently. It turned out extremely well as the attendees were exposed to something that was a new and different concept to many of ... Continue Reading

There is a train of thought in the worlds of art and music that before you can break the rules, you must first learn the rules. If you want to smack paint all over the canvas like Jackson Pollock (right), ... Continue Reading

Click Here to Start Coach Vaughn's Free 4-Week Program More often than not when working with new athletes, I hear them talk about speed. They talk about wanting to be faster in their lifts, faster in ... Continue Reading

In the sport of weightlifting, it has been and often still remains to be believed that partaking in the sport will result in making a person shorter. Specifically, the myth remains in regards to the ... Continue Reading

Since my new gym opened a couple of months ago, one trend has surfaced that I just can’t ignore. I’ve been aware of this for quite some time, but it seems to be all the more prevalent nowadays. ... Continue Reading

Recently, I got into a discussion with some of our local weightlifting administrators as to whether weightlifting is or is not a team sport. It is easy for the pros of this argument to cite the team ... Continue Reading

In weightlifting, attaining parental buy-in is no easy challenge. The stereotype still exists that lifting weights is dangerous for a child's health and maturation process. In reality, the assumption that ... Continue Reading

One of the most talked about areas in the fitness world today is the certification of trainers. We live in a credentialized world where the public seems to demand that all instructors, regardless of the ... Continue Reading

Warm up movements are an essential part to any training session for athletes. They prepare the body both mentally and physically for the forthcoming session, reduce the risk of injury, and have been found ... Continue Reading

Having been a lifelong follower of American weightlifting, I think I can safely say that interest in the sport is currently at an all-time high. Due to the years of efforts by factions within the NSCA and ... Continue Reading