The YouTube Effect

I have a love hate relationship with YouTube. The video channel has a LOT of great information and because of this sprouts “YouTube Professionals” = watch a few videos and you’re instantly an expert! Ok…moving on from that stupidity, the main issues I find with YouTube is that some weightlifters, and sadly some “coaches”, will watch competitions and world records, analyze it and try to emulate it…

So what’s wrong with this method? They are the best and they are there for a reason, right?

The first issue is that you’re analyzing a weightlifters WORLD RECORD lift; generally speaking this is a personal record and a maximal attempt. For the most part, maximal attempts show compensation patterns and reveals the weightlifters weak points, in short it’s usually not the prettiest lift nor does it always show how they consistently lift during training.

The 2 aspects I believe we should be focusing on:

• What was the training process that lead to this type of performance?
• What is the coach’s system? How is the coach developing the lifters strengths and increasing the weak areas? Is there a national system- levels of coaches up to the international team.

Understanding these areas of training, in my mind is more important then just analyzing the world record lift and making assumptions based off this.

Training Process

When I watch lifters or any athlete, my thought process is always, “What was their training process that lead them to this level?” For the majority of weightlifters their training lifts are much “sharper” than their personal records, respectively. If you’re looking at positioning and technique, their training attempts will reveal a lot more about their everyday training technique then their world record attempts.

The other aspect we should focus on, is what the coach is focusing on to increase their weak points and how they are continually developing on their strengths? Understanding both of these areas (coaching philosophy and training) in my mind are the top priorities we should be focusing on, not analyzing a video and making an assumption.

The Contradiction

With all that said, I’m going to completely contradict myself here, BUT give me time to explain. The next issue I have is watching top tier training and trying to mimic that.

While I did state above I wanted to understand how they train, this doesn’t mean that I will mimic their training based off of a YouTube video. I fully understand that these elite weightlifters were hand picked from a very young age, those that were picked were then brought up through a system that tested who will be about thrive through the development of becoming a champion weightlifter. Simply put, they are literally the survival of the fittest for weightlifting.

The reality is that most of us find weightlifting much later in life and while we may have some general physical preparation, we do not have NEARLY as much time under the bar both in training weight and maximal weight to sustain their level of preparedness. So when I hear things like well the “Bulgarians” do XYZ, you’d also have to take into consideration are you willing to go through their full methods too? Lift x2-3 a day x2-5 days week, go through the full recovery process- manual therapy, contrast baths, supplements, eating habits, etc… because otherwise you’re only taking a small part of the whole and expecting the same results. You also have to keep in mind that those that actually competed were hand picked and made it through a rigorously system, it’s funny how many choose to ignore this very important aspect of their training.

Don’t get me wrong, if you feel that some of the philosophies and methods will work for your weightlifters, by all means go for it. But before you implement it, you should fully understand the process and method of developing a weightlifter and the full philosophy you’re about to implement. In my experience most people read some watered down version of a sample program that was translated and then develop their own interpretation of training system and preach it as if it’s the full system. Then the reader doesn’t take into consideration the communication lost during the translation process and the interpretation of the translator and so goes the snowball effect.

To end, my point is to respect the process of becoming a weightlifter. Don’t look at the elite and just see the big numbers they put up. Look at the whole picture, most of these lifters were hand picked to become weightlifters and survived through a system that is built to weed out the “weak”. If you’re able to do such a thing, great! But in my experience, juggling life, work, family,etc… limits their full ability to train in such a way.

Team Fusion Weightlifting