Olympic lift cert at CFOT

So I've finished the certification class, and it was a great time. I got a chance to work with some extremely talented individuals, including two Olympians. The snatch, clean, and jerk are really some incredible exercises, and you don't really get to appreciate them until after some training. Coach Burgener is a great coach and likes to keep things simple, and the other trainers were incredible, like I said before.

I'm still a little overwhelmed by all the information that was provided over the weekend, but I plan on instituting what he taught us, and work on these lifts as a warm up every day for quite a while. My only really big problem with these lifts is my elbow speed with the clean. This was improved when I learned that maintaining the hook grip throughout would slow me down, but I still earned the nickname "slow elbow Adam".

The clean is definitely where I need to focus on. However, when we were practicing clean and jerks I accidentally did a split clean. I was focusing on bringing the bar off the ground, and suddenly there I was, in a split stance and the bar perfectly racked. Sage Burgener, my trainer at the time, had this kind of "wtf?!?" look on her face (I think I did too), and then it morphed into a big smile and she started applauding "the prettiest split clean I've ever seen".

To be honest, the split clean comes so naturally to me that I'm tempted to switch over to it, but I also feel that I should spend more time to master the regular clean so I can teach it to others. And that is what this weekend was all about, taking my first step towards being able to help others reach their fitness goals.

For all of the oly cert pics, click here.