Fitness Blog

I was feeling a little sore when I got out of bed this morning but I kind of figured that might happen. Marlaena and I went to an Olympic weightlifting seminar yesterday with Charles Staley that was hosted by CrossFit Vancouver.

The course ran from 9 till 5 and covered the Clean & Jerk and the Snatch. These are two lifts that I've really wanted to learn so it was great to be able to spend an entire day on both. I've been working on my power clean and full clean for the past few months and a bit on the jerk but before yesterday I had only ever done the snatch twice. It's a pretty complicated lift and feels very unnatural in the bottom position but once I got the mechanics and speed down, it got easier and felt a lot better. I didn't lift as heavy as I probably could have because I really wanted to focus on my technique so the heaviest I did was 105 lbs. for a single rep.

Almost everyone that attended the seminar (there were about 20 or so) had some experience and understood the basic mechanics of both lifts so we were able to speed things up a little and work on a wide variety of drills and cues from different positions to improve power output and efficiency. My clean felt so much better by the end of the day and I was able to put up a solid 195 lbs. for a single.

I'm not sure what kind of weight Marlaena was lifting throughout the day because we were broken up into smaller groups and she was on the other side of the gym. She also just recently started working on the Olympic lifts but has incredible shoulder and hip mobility and was able to pick up both of them quite easily.

I'm going to be working on the Clean & Jerk and the Snatch for the next several weeks and then will film both Marlaena and I and add them to the exercise library as well as future workout routines.

Has anyone else ever heard of the FFL? A friend of mine sent me a link the website the other day and I could hardly believe my eyes! The FFL or Fight Football League is a professional sports league in Italy that combines football, rugby, boxing and mixed martial arts. It's based on an ancient Roman game called Harpastum and was used as a way to prepare gladiators for battle. It's apparently the foundation of modern Soccer and Football and is still played once a year, and has been since the 1500's in Florence, Italy under the name "Calcio Storico".

The objective of the game is to score a goal but on the way to doing that you might have to get into a couple of serious brawls! There are some rules though.. you can only fight one on one, you can't hit while you're running, no strikes from behind and you can't kick a guy when he's down. Sounds pretty fair to me!

Players come from all different types of sports including calcio storico, rugby, boxing, wrestling and MMA. This sport is only being played in Italy right now but I'm sure as exposure and popularity grow, it will eventually expand into other European markets and then who knows.. maybe one day we'll have a North American league.

You have to check out this video clip of the world's strongest six year old. I've seen a few other videos of him in the past and this kid is unbelievable. His name is Guilano Stroe and his dad has been training him in gymnastics and weightlifting since he was only 2 years old. The amount of strength, skill and body control that he displays at his young age is absolutely unreal! 

In 2009, he was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records for the fastest ever 10 metre (33 feet) hand-stand walk with a weighted ball between his legs and in 2010 he broke the world record for most air push-ups (which means you do them in a hand stand position and your feet don't touch the ground). He did 20 of them in front of a live studio audience.. the previous record was a mere 12!

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