For the ladies who are afraid to lift weights...

Jaime Eason is kinda totally my idol! I'd be proud to be like her any day!!

That statement "But I don't want to end up huge and bulky, like a man!" makes me cringe, every time I hear it.

I always want to reply "Well, you won't, given the fact that you have boobs and aren't a man."

I looooove my strength training routines. I know I won't bulk up and have no problem doing this type of workouts 3-4 times a week. My arms and legs look absolutely amazing.

I am not afraid to strength train and I workout on a bowflex every other day right now. I am going to have the body that i always dreamed of since i was in my 20s and in my teens. I am also getting a membership at the Y soon so i can start on free weights.

The two lifts I'm talking about are the clean and jerk and the snatch. And all the associated moves that go with them (they both have a 4 step technical progression, learning them takes 2 to 4 sessions before you really use weight and do it for real, form is really important).

power cleans are my favorite exercise. there's just something awesome about the move. it's so quick and fluid. i don't have perfect form (i taught myself from watching videos and reading online) but i did start light (95 lbs) and once you get the movement down you can progress your weight up pretty quickly. now i'm stalled at 225 lbs though so any tips you have would be great.

side note....i don't understand the point of crossfit style cleans and snatches. what's the point of doing high reps on olympic lifts with basically no weight?!?!

I take Bodypump at my gym ~ i mix it with spin classes and just regular cardio on the elliptical and I am toning amazingly! I'm no longer afraid to pick up a barbell ha!

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The two lifts I'm talking about are the clean and jerk and the snatch. And all the associated moves that go with them (they both have a 4 step technical progression, learning them takes 2 to 4 sessions before you really use weight and do it for real, form is really important).

power cleans are my favorite exercise. there's just something awesome about the move. it's so quick and fluid. i don't have perfect form (i taught myself from watching videos and reading online) but i did start light (95 lbs) and once you get the movement down you can progress your weight up pretty quickly. now i'm stalled at 225 lbs though so any tips you have would be great.

side note....i don't understand the point of crossfit style cleans and snatches. what's the point of doing high reps on olympic lifts with basically no weight?!?!

tips huh?

1) Well, of course form is vital when you get up near your upper thresholds, so I would say drop down a bit and use a mirror (I do form drills with a dowel or just the bar, it's actually harder to get form right which makes it a better tool), do enough so that you find it comfortable before putting weight on.

2) Don't over train with power cleans, because of all the stabilizer muscles involved, many people don't recognize when they are fatigued, and that leads to injury. 3 or 4 set of 2 to 6 reps is about all you should ever do with any weight above 70% of your 1RM, if you're going for a heavy week, you could do 3 sets of 2 to 3 reps at like 90 or 95% 1RM.

3) before you make another pull, make sure you've learned how to miss correctly. Since you can't spot an Olympic lift (that's very dangerous), learn how to be comfortable dropping the bumpers behind you as well as in front. Many people try to hold a lift that is out of center, that's a mistake that can get you hurt, if you're not dead center perfect over your shoulders, drop it in what ever direction it's motion is flowing in. I would do this a few times on purpose with 1/4 or 1/3 weight for better control so you get the feel. It's REALLY important to miss correctly. Hey, we all miss sometimes, but the ones who get hurt are the ones who try to recover a bad pull.

As far as getting over a plateau, that's tough to help with without knowing your routine and program. Usually I give out a 12 week cycle with 4 week sets, but that is for people training to lift competitively, so it would probably be a shorter cycle for you. If you want, pm me your program and I'll see what I can tweak on it to get you over your plateau.

If anyone wants to see a correctly performed Olympic lift. I'll try to find some video. The Americans, the Iranians, and the Ukrainians all do it very well. IMHO the Japanese and some of the western Europeans are sketchy (not all, but some) and I haven't seen all of them. Usually Women have better form than men too, as they are usually far more flexible under the bar, especially in the snatch.

We don't do high reps or light weight...usually there is a standard weight (something like 155# for men and 95# for women) which is the "RX" (recommended), what we strive to work up towards. I will get there some day.

A workout that includes clean and jerk for example would be something like:

5 rounds of

7 clean and jerks
14 ring rows
21 knees to elbows

So essentially you would be doing 35 of the moves all together (heaviest weight you can do, probably 70% of max), but spread out to incorporate a certain amount of rest. We definitely do not do high reps with those kind of exercises.

now, I've never seen the crossfit version of a clean and jerk (so I assume it's a full split jerk as opposed to a power jerk which are less stable), but doing 35 to me would mean you're doing muscular endurance more than power and strength building. I don't know what a ring row is, but I'll assume it's a ring pull up. Knees to elbows, I assume would be a modified power clean from the 1 position(above the knees), either that or just a straight upright row maybe?

Is this the only routine you guys do? I could see doing this once a week, but not every time I think. Again, I've watched 1 or 2 crossfit sessions (never one with Olympic lifts though), but I'm no expert at it, that's why I ask. 7 lifts in one set usually means you don't have enough weight IMHO, 4 to 6 is about as much as I ever recommend, and if you can do 6 for 2 sets I'm upping your weight by 10 lbs. I know that the difference between 6 and 7 reps is no biggie for most lifting, but for this type of full body routine, it's a big deal IMHO.

We don't do high reps or light weight...usually there is a standard weight (something like 155# for men and 95# for women) which is the "RX" (recommended), what we strive to work up towards. I will get there some day.

A workout that includes clean and jerk for example would be something like:

5 rounds of

7 clean and jerks
14 ring rows
21 knees to elbows

So essentially you would be doing 35 of the moves all together (heaviest weight you can do, probably 70% of max), but spread out to incorporate a certain amount of rest. We definitely do not do high reps with those kind of exercises.

now, I've never seen the crossfit version of a clean and jerk (so I assume it's a full split jerk as opposed to a power jerk which are less stable), but doing 35 to me would mean you're doing muscular endurance more than power and strength building. I don't know what a ring row is, but I'll assume it's a ring pull up. Knees to elbows, I assume would be a modified power clean from the 1 position(above the knees), either that or just a straight upright row maybe?

Is this the only routine you guys do? I could see doing this once a week, but not every time I think. Again, I've watched 1 or 2 crossfit sessions (never one with Olympic lifts though), but I'm no expert at it, that's why I ask. 7 lifts in one set usually means you don't have enough weight IMHO, 4 to 6 is about as much as I ever recommend, and if you can do 6 for 2 sets I'm upping your weight by 10 lbs. I know that the difference between 6 and 7 reps is no biggie for most lifting, but for this type of full body routine, it's a big deal IMHO.

We have so many different routines, in my 9 almost 10 months of doing Crossfit 3-4x a week we might repeat once a month.

Actually before we do the main workout (example of what I posted) we usually do a strength routine which varies between a push press, chest press, overhead squat, back squat, split jerk, dead, etc.. They usually follow the 5-5-3-3-1 pattern (1 being max weight of course). Then we do the main workout, which you're correct, a lot of it is endurance training, though I feel the weight they recommend is heavy enough to build muscle as well (as I have definitely seen).

Clean and jerk can be done either way (split or power depending on the individual's abilities), we use all rubber weights and she teaches the correct methods of dropping as you mentioned. Ring rows are basically pullups on the (hanging) rings, knees to elbow would be a deadhang from a bar and pulling your knees up to your elbows. So we incorporate strength with plyos and cardio. Its pretty good stuff.