On Tuesday, September 10, don’t miss the chance to chat with Nick Horton, Olympic weightlifting coach and blogger at the Iron Samurai. We’ll be taking audience questions for our monthly #RealKnowledge chat starting at 11am PST (2pm EST), and the floor will be open for questions for one hour.

If you’ve read Nick’s articles here at Breaking Muscle or his blog, you know he’s got a lot to say about everything from squatting to Star Trek. Plus, he wears cowboy boots and jeans while he squats:

Not only is Nick answering reader questions, but he’s also giving three particpants a membership in the Mastermind program. Here’s what Nick had to say about this program and his own background in Olympic lifting and athletics:

1. Tell us a bit about your own athletic background.

I was raised to be an artist, trained to be a mathematician, then became a jock by accident. I never intended to be a weightlifting coach. But as John Lennon famously stated, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”

As a kid I messed around with lots of sports, from martial arts to gymnastics, track to baseball, but nothing stuck until I met my first barbell at fourteen years old. That was love at first lift.

I went off to college to first study music, then study mathematics, and all along I competed in the different strength sports (bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, Highland Games, strongman), coached others; and set in motion a huge rolling snowball, the effect of which is this crazy monstrosity of a coaching career I could have never predicted.

2. What attracted you to Olympic weightlifting and how did you get started as an athlete and as a coach?

I like things that are hard.

I’ve taught myself how to play multiple instruments, went to music school, switched, and got my undergrad and masters degrees in mathematics. I’ve competed in nearly every strength sport there is, have been lifting for 21 years, and have coached thousands of people to reach all kinds of varied goals over the last seventeen years. Challenges are what make me tick. I even do all of the website design/development for all of our online properties.

I think it was inevitable that I’d fall in love with Olympic lifting. It’s got all of my favorite things: physical challenges, mental challenges, chalk…

But above all else, I love teaching weightlifting. And that has been one of the greatest

challenges, and most rewarding endeavors of my life.

3. What are three tips you have to offer for people getting started in Olympic weightlifting?

If there were only three things (I like the rule of three, too!) that I want any beginner to take to heart it’s the following:

1. Don’t believe the hype
2. Be more like the Karate Kid
3. Smile more – it’s supposed to be fun

Let me explain those a bit.

FIRST

Don’t believe the hype! Weightlifters are notoriously elitist. There are a lot of lies and myths floating around about the sport that are perpetuated by weightlifters because it helps to boalster their sense of superiority. The most notorious are, “snatching is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports,” and “it will take you 10,000 hours (or reps, in some versions) to become even remotely good at weightlifting.”

What a load of crap!

Here is what is true:

• To become great at weightlifting will take you (more than) 10,000 hours/reps.
• The snatch/jerk performed at the level of a champion is one of the most amazing feats in sports.

However, you can learn to snatch in less than thirty minutes. No joke. A good teacher can get you doing a competition-legal, performance-enhancing, and safe snatch in less than one hour at the absolute longest.

It just isn’t anywhere near as hard as it is made out to be.

SECOND

Be more like the Karate Kid. I want you to take very seriously that the basics are going to account for 90%+ of your progress.

My three rules for the snatch are:

1. Lockout.
2. Hit the hip.
3. Stop being a wimp.

Why? Because if you can do those three things – not simply understand them, but actually do them – on every lift, you will go far. If you fail to do any one of them, you will fail to be a weightlifter. Period.

Drill the basics like your life depends on it. That’s the only way to get the girl at the end of the movie.

THIRD

Smile more – it’s supposed to be fun. It’s true that this stuff is hard. It’s also true that I just told you stop being a wimp, which could be misconstrued as a kind of militaristic-seriousness about the task at hand.

The truth is that we are a bunch of adults screwing around playing a sport in our spare time. Never forget that nothing here is life and death. If weightlifting is adding stress to your life, change something, or drop it altogether. It should be lowering your stress.

We do weightlifting for fun, to increase our sense of accomplishment, to learn things about ourselves (and what is possible) so that we can then translate them into the rest of our lives. Anything less is purely selfish and self-destroying.

Never stop searching for the deepest answers to the question, “why?”

4. Tell us about the Mastermind program and why it’s awesome.

Mastermind is an online private coaching, accountability, and support group for Olympic weightlifters. United by passion, the members are a very eclectic bunch with totally different backgrounds. We have members who are rank-beginners, and others who we have helped qualify for national-level competition.

Tamara Reynolds (my co-founder and fiance) and I run it like a small group tutoring class. You get daily feedback on your workouts, weekly live chats, access to archives and member-only lesson materials, premium support (I’ll literally call you on the phone if you need me to), and anything else you need to succeed.

That last point is critical. We treat this is our “results-guaranteed” club. We will bend over backwards for every member to ensure that your goals are met.

Right now, Mastermind is only $49/month. Because of how far we’re willing to go for each member, we are going to have to raise that a lot in the future. But for this Breaking Muscle Giveaway, we’re giving one person three months for free. That’s a $147 value.

We’re also giving away a second 2-month membership for free. And a third 1-month membership for free.

That adds up to a whopping $294 dollar giveaway!

Mastermind is our “crown jewel” at Weightlifting Academy, and we’re very excited to take on board three new dedicated athletes.

Thanks Nick! Got questions of your own? Join us for a live Twitter chat!

If you want to learn more about Nick’s approach to Olympic weightlifting, join us on Tuesday, September 10th for a Twitter chat where you can ask all your questions.

Here’s how to get in on the conversation:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday, September 10th at 11am PST/2pm EST.
2. Follow the hashtag #RealKnowledge and direct questions to @TheIronSamurai
3. Ask away! The floor will be open for questions until Noon PST/2:00pm EST. Be sure to end your question with the hashtag #RealKnowledge to lock into the chat.

Be sure to stay tuned for future Twitter chats with coaches from every discipline!

The post Join Us for a Twitter Chat with Olympic Weightlifting Coach Nick Horton! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Thanks to Richard Airey for taking time to answer audience questions in our #RealKnowledge Twitter chat! If you missed it, here are some of the reader questions we received during the chat and Richard’s answers.

1. What are some of your tips for staying injury-free as a runner? Do you have any injury stories yourself?

• Having solid mechanics is first and foremost and always build up volume and intensity gradually.
• The worst injury I’ve ever had was a stress fracture in my left femur in 2002.

2. Ouch! Any recovery tips for runners who are dealing with injuries?

• Don’t accept rest as the cure. Find the flaw in mechanics, fix the movement and strengthen the area.

3. What are some telltale signs of poor technique/mechanics?

• Aches and pains in your ankles, shins, knees, IT band, and lower back.
• Pain is our body’s way of telling us we’re not moving properly.

4. Speaking of achy muscles, what do you recommend for mobility/recovery work? Esp. for long-distance runners?

• I’m a big fan of ice baths for recovery. I also use SFH fish oil and recovery formula post-workout.
• For mobility I’ll foam roll and stretch for 30 minutes before bed.

5. Do you follow any particular diet or nutrition guidelines?

• I try to eat as clean as possible as often as possible. Fruits, veggies, lean protein and healthy fats.

6. What’s your running etiquette pet peeve?

• When other runners don’t reply when I say good morning to them.

7. In your article you mention you like a high weight/low rep scheme. Why is this a good approach for runners?

• Too often endurance strength programs focus on muscular endurance, low reps with heavier weight use different energy systems.
• Endurance athletes will benefit greatly from training in all energy systems.

8. Any favorite strength training exercises for endurance athletes?

• For athletes new to strength training I keep it simple: gymnastics, press, squat, and deadlift.
• I’ll also use toys like kettlebells, sand bags, tires, and sleds.

9. What are your thoughts on minimalist/barefoot shoes?

• I’m a fan of the concept and will have my runners do barefoot drills, but I would never have anyone run over 100m barefoot.
• And never on the road.
• Too often people try to switch to barefoot/minimalism without taking the time to do it gradually to avoid injury.
• Minimal or bad mechanics are bad mechanics – no shoe will correct that. You have to practice technique drills to fix it.

10. Very interesting as a strength coach! How well do you feel Olympic lifts transfer for endurance athletes?

• I think Olympic lifts are a great tool but the amount of time needed to teach them properly could be better used.

Read more about Richard’s approach to training and get 4 weeks of free workouts here.

The post #RealKnowledge Twitter Chat Highlights: Richard Airey appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Can you deadlift a lot of weight but have trouble getting out of bed without wincing in pain? Are your biceps too big for the rest of your body? Do you find yourself constantly battling aches and pains, despite the fact that you work out three times a day? If so, it sounds like you need a little natural movement in your life.

Why move naturally? There may be no better person to ask than Erwan LeCorre, founder of MovNat, an innovative fitness program that promotes healthy, natural movement as the foundation of fitness. Curious about what that looks like? Here’s an advanced MovNat training video from Erwan’s Featured Coach programming:

If you want to learn more about Erwan’s approach to fitness, join us on Tuesday, July 30 at 11:00am PST/2pm EST for a live Twitter chat where you can ask Erwan all your questions. Not only that, but you’ll also be eligible to win a spot at a one- or two-day MovNat workshop! Here are the giveaway terms:

• The giveaway winner receives one free space to a MovNat Power & Agility workshop. The MovNat Power & Agility workshops teach you all the fundamentals of the MovNat program. You’ll work on basic movements like crawling, running, jumping, balancing, crawling, climbing, lifting, carrying, throwing, and catching. The workshops are open to all fitness levels and held all over the world. Learn the MovNat Fundamentals and empower your true nature!
• The winner chooses what date and location they wish to attend. For a list of MovNat Power and Agility workshops, click here.
• The space cannot be exchanged for money, given or sold to someone else, or exchanged for another type of MovNat workshop. The workshop value cannot be deducted from any other MovNat workshop.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment at the bottom of this page telling us why you want to attend a MovNat workshop. The winner will be announced at the end of the chat on July 30th, so be sure to tune in to see if you’ve won!

We asked Erwan a few questions about the MovNat approach. Here’s what he had to say:

1. Tell us a bit about how MovNat came to be.

We’re all the product of a long line of people, and so is fitness. Most people tend to believe fitness was invented twenty or thirty years ago, or 100 years ago, but the necessity to keep in shape is as old as the human species, as old as life itself. Fitness is life and life is fitness, literally.

So what’s the point of it? Well, the point is that today we’ve got a plethora of fitness concepts and programs, and they’re all optional. You choose what you like or want – it’s your call. But in the past – whether we’re talking about 100 years ago or 100,000 ago and before that – it was all about physical competency, i.e., is your body capable? Can it move and perform well in the real world, in practical ways that adapt to contextual demands?

This is key to understanding MovNat. MovNat was designed with this mentality in mind, but it is not the first system of this kind, it is the most recent and evolved. I draw my inspiration from many influences, but mostly from the history of physical education in Europe, especially the old French and German physical education systems, but of course with a modern approach to training, coaching, and programming.

Or I can explain it this way. When I was a young boy my dad would take me with him in the woods and push my limits, climbing, jumping, crawling. He basically encouraged me to do what most kids normally do naturally. Growing up, I never encountered any sport like this, or did anything like this at school, where all we were doing was learning rules and trying to score points with a ball. I’ve done many different specialized sports and enjoyed most of them and have learned in the process, but I’ve always wanted to make this general, natural movement approach to exercise and fitness become the new trend, as I know how big the potential is for people in term of physical and mental health. I mean, you go to a park and somebody is doing yoga or some form of fitness conditioning drills, and it’s okay. But you see a guy or a girl crawling, jumping, running, climbing, balancing, or carrying stuff and you’re baffled, wondering what it is.

Isn’t moving naturally a birthright, the most natural thing to do, and the most natural way to get fit? I’ve always felt I wanted to reawaken people to this simple truth and inspire them to explore their natural potential again, but also to enjoy exercise again, and learn techniques so they can move efficiently and safely. I’ve put lots of work in this vision and now the movement is born and spreading like wildfire.

2. It seems that unlike a lot of other forms of fitness, where you just go into the gym and lift weights for thirty minutes, MovNat is more of a lifestyle. Would you agree, and do you have any further comments?

I agree. Conventional fitness draws a limit between the body and the mind, between exercising and life. Such separation is not only false, it is also detrimental. You can’t put everything in a box, walled in a seperate compartment. Muscle-isolation workouts reflect this fragmented approach to what we are. We’re not body on the one hand and mind on the other. We’re whole.

When I MovNat, I exercise my whole being, both physically and mentally. When I do it in nature (because MovNat is also trained indoors) it can even reach a spiritual dimension where you feel connected to everything, where the perception of separation with the world is gone, where you’re fully immersed in the “here and now.” This special state of mind has been described as a state of “flow,” and when you reach it it’s truly priceless, especially in a world where most people tend to be stressed all the time.

MovNat is also a lifestyle in the sense that when you understand that fitness is not just about the maintenance of your body through exercise, but being healthy overall and having great energy at every level, then you also want to pay attention to how you eat and sleep and other lifestyle behaviors than can help you heal and thrive.

This being said, people are mistaken if they think that it’s “just” a philosophy. There’s a reason why we’ve worked with special forces or exercise scientists and why many physical therapists praise MovNat. It is because MovNat approaches the body both from the lens of movement efficiency and motor-control and conditioning. You don’t just get a workout for conditioning. You learn to operate your body with the most efficient techniques and movement patterns. You train to move your body and perform physically through real-world movement.

On top of that, we’re big on movement adaptability. For instance, you may condition through plyometrics, jumping on a box. Okay, you’re conditioned for the box, which is only one particular obstacle, but could you jump over a completely different obstacle? Will you have both the specific motor-control and specific conditioning required to be effective (doing it successfully) and efficient (doing it with minimal energy expenditure and loss of time, and greatest safety possible)? Chances are, if you’ve never trained specifically in adaptable ways, then it is highly likely you are not prepared – or, if you will, not fit.

Conventional fitness asks, “how fit do you look”? It tries to make simplistic, mechanistic, segmental movements look more complex than they really are. MovNat asks, “how fit are you? How effectively and efficiently can you perform real-world tasks?” MovNat makes complex, sophisticated movements look simple, but they’re not! It is an illusion generated by efficiency.

And the good news is, the more and the better you practice and perform, the better you look.

3. What is your vision for MovNat and how do you hope to see that vision come to fruition in the future?

The ultimate goal is that people are stronger, healthier, happier, and more free, and in that sense MovNat is a mere tool designed to provide principles and techniques for physical training and programming, and beyond that, inspiration, motivation, and perception to embrace an overall healthy, more natural lifestyle. This has been my vision since inception, and in that sense it has already come to fruition, which is one of my greatest satisfactions in life (apart from my family). Today we have almost a thousand of certified trainers worldwide and it’s still growing. Obviously my vision is that it can reach millions. That vision has nothing to do with ego; it is genuinely about people.

You see, despite advanced medical technology, we live in a world with alarming health statistics (we should talk about sickness and disease statistics actually) and there’s no real sign of wide scale improvement. The answer doesn’t lie in more or better pills and health technology, but in a better lifestyle A return to more natural behaviors – what we eat, how we stand and move, contact with nature – is necessary. This is not a romantic view. We are made of nature, we are nature, and the further away from it we go, the more we suffer. We can reinvent ourselves in many ways but not from a biological standpoint.

I would like the fitness industry to understand this and start pushing for a paradigm shift, as we have a responsibility for the way people perceive fitness and exercising. To me, machines, muscle-isolation, the globo-gym, all this is old school, passé, and destined to disappear sooner or later. Smart fitness business owners will get it and evolve. The future of fitness is lifestyle and life enhancement, and I envision that this return to nature will take place sooner than we think. There’s a calling, there’s an urgency, and the emergence of MovNat and its rapid growth is just the tipping point.

Thanks Erwan! Got questions of your own? Join us for a live Twitter chat!

Here’s how to get in on the conversation:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday, July 30 at 11am PST/2pm EST.
2. Follow the hashtag #RealKnowledge
3. Ask away! The floor will be open for questions until Noon PST/3pm EST. Be sure to end your question with the hashtag #RealKnowledge to lock into the chat.
4. Stay tuned after the chat to find out if you won a spot at a MovNat workshop!

Be sure to stay tuned for future Twitter chats with coaches from every discipline!

The post Join Us For a Twitter Chat With Erwan Le Corre – And Win a Free Spot at a MovNat Workshop! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.