Melanie Roach qualified Saturday as the top US female on a team of 4 women going to Beijing to compete in the Summer Olympics. Rounding out the rest of the US womens’ team are Carissa Gump, Natalie Woolfolk and third time Olympian, Cheryl Haworth.

The US Olympic Weightlifting Trials were held Saturday in Atlanta.

On the men’s side, there are three qualifiers including Mike Burgener’s son Casey, who at the trials on Saturday snatched 180 kilos (396#) and clean and jerked 224 kilos (492.8#) for a 404 kilo (880.8#) total. The top rated US lifter is Kendrick Farris, followed by Chad Vaughn.

More on Casey, from the AP story.

Farris and Vaughn dominated the men’s competition, with the main battle for the final spot. Burgener took it with a clean and jerk of 493 pounds on his next-to-last attempt. He fell over backward on the stage in jubilation.

“It was just a surge of energy,” Burgener said. “I can’t put it into words. It was like every surge of emotion you can feel all coming down at once.”

Congratulations, Casey, Melanie and the rest of the US team.

Mehdi over at stronglifts.com outlined the pros and cons of using weightlifting belts, which were and are primarily used by Olympic lfiters and power lifters. Personally, I don’t use one, but did recently doing a 605# rack pull which I had never done before. I think they are a great aid for those extra heavy lifts, but I don’t believe you should rely on them. Strengthen your core to make it “bullet-proof” and you may never need one. The purpose of the belt is to tighten up the core to create intra-abdominal pressure, which serves to keep the spine strong and protected. This can be done by working the entire core, not just the abs to create this same pressure. My coach Danny Henry and kettle guru, Pavel both advocate tightening the entire body for light and heavy lifts. Stay tight! Mel Siff in “Supertraining” suggests that the benefits of the belt may be mostly psychological but that wearing one does give you the sense of where your back arch needs to be. 

When wearing a weightlifting belt, make it tight and move the buckle off the the side so it doesn’t interfere with an Olympic lift if your belt wasn’t designed with this in mind. When lifting, push against the belt with your abs.

For me, I would use a belt as an occasional tool as I go for heavier lifts, but not regularly. I have almost the same view of lifting straps as well. They both assist, not replace.

Sound off in Comments if you have a take on the use weightlifting belts.

Time was short and the pressure on for Val and Torri to complete a custom pink paint job for Charlie Fields, RKC, who has an in-home personal training business in San Diego centered around kettlebells- pink kettlebells. Charlie drove up from San Diego just as the finished product was being delivered by Mike to the meeting place.

While Val and Torri were stressing, Mike and I stayed out of the fray, choosing support roles that kept us out of the way. Val wanted my opinion over breakfast as to the shade of pink I thought was best. For someone who has an opinion on just about anything and everything, I think she was a bit dismayed that at a time she really needed one, I had none.

In spite of it, the project was a success and they made their customer happy which is what really counts when it is all said and done.

Monday, 5/12/08

Muscle Snatch + Behind-the-Neck Press + Overhead Squat, 4×3
45/65/95/105

Clean + 3 Presses
110/110/115/125

Clean & Jerk, (from the hang)
110/110/115/125/145/155 pc/155/160pr

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Tuesday, 5/13/08

Burgener w/up x 3

Muscle Snatch + Behind the neck presses + Overhead Squats, x 3
45/65

Hang Squat Cleans + 3 Push Presses, x 4
65/95/115/140

3×30X sit-ups.

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Wednesday, 5/14/08

Takin’ a break

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Thursday, 5/15/0

More Oly lifting. Warmed with Burgeners

Hang Power Snatch + Behind the Neck Presses + Overhead Squats, x 3
45/65/90/90.

Overhead Squats,
90×3/90×3/90×3/100×3/110×3/120×3/140×2/150/160pr.

Kettlebell Snatch, 20 kg.
3×40

Sit-ups
2×40

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Friday, 5/16/08

Big Oly Lift training session with Danny Henry.

After warm-ups, the first thing Danny taught me was the correct way to dump the bar. I even did that incorrectly, but now I know. I did a lot of muscle snatches, overhead squats and RDLs and all the training was done from the hang position. He had me do a lot of power snatches and full snatches. Danny found that I get the full snatches better than the power snatch and the same held with the cleans we did later. I did not count reps or weights, but while the weights were not that heavy, there were a shit load of reps. Sets were usually 3×3 or 5×3. It seems on this day, my biggest problem was starting the third pull too soon, before even getting close to my navel. Danny said my legs and hips were strong and I can move the bar quickly, but too soon and too far away from my body. I did some overhead squats and liked them, though he pointed out my flexibility issues and some weakness at the left scapular area.

After the skill lifts, he took at look at my front squats (didn’t like ‘em) and helped me make the corrections so that it would match the corresponding part of the clean. Next, he had me do a bunch of strict overhead presses and taught me to keep tight and keep the elbows out in front of the bar and to keep tension on the lats. He also corrected my head position to keep it neutral and not looking up above parallel. I did 6×5 of the presses.

By the time I finished these, I was totally spent, but we played around with kettlebells, including a game of “catch”. Being the coach he is, Danny corrected some things he saw while swinging and snatching 24 and 35 kilo Fedorenko kettlebells. I was so smoked, there was no possible way to have a semblance of decent form; that was long gone.

This workout lasted about 2 hours! I more than got my money worth and I expect tomorrow will be recovery.

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Saturday, 5/17/08

I was wiped out from yesterday so this most definitely was all about recovery.

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Sunday, 5/18/08

Went for a beautiful, scenic skate around Back Bay.

Er, scratch that. Due to time constraints, I started off with a 200 meter run and then alternated 3 more 200 meter runs with 3 x 20, 32 kg kettlebell swings. It was hot, sweaty and ugly, but done in 15 minutes. (More accurately, I was done in 15 minutes)!

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My friend, Glenn Koshi of Bont now sells a 6 wheel inline skate model. I currently skate in 5 wheel Bonts and over the last several years, many have favored the shorter 4 wheel arrangement.

While frame length and number of wheels each frame holds increase or decrease, boots and frames get lighter and wheel sizes keep getting bigger.

When I first started, wheels were 72 mm and quickly went to 76 mm. I was an early adopter to the 80’s and loved them. I currently use a 5 x 88 mm configuration. I have also tried a 4 x 100 kit and they were good, but I still favor my current components.

This new 6 wheel, 110 mm is gigantic! I may have to check them out!

Thanks to another friend, Toby Taylor for letting me know about these.

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A Barbarian Blogroll Plug for Jeff at liftkettlebells.com who has some great new content, including video at his new and growing kettlebell-dedicated site.

You can find out who Kettlebell Kate is and what the SovietForce kettlebell gym is all about, (hopefully those guys know the Cold War is over)! Both of those sites have some good video up as well.

Jeff will also will fill you in on the best footwear for KB training and where the kettlebell gyms around the world can be found. This looks to be a work in progress so if you know of some gyms not listed, I am sure he would appreciate the tip.

Besides liftkettlebells’ growing collection of helpful kettlebell videos, you can listen to a detailed interview of kettlebell superfreak, Steve Cotter, linked to Super Trainer.

If you are new to kettlebell lifting as many of Val’s Kettlebells customers are, then this is a great place to get started. Of course, if you have logged a little more “swing time”, there is plenty here for you too.

MarkFu gives two thumbs up!

I probably have sounded like some of these guys after a failed lift at the gym and definitely when some clueless guy came up in front of the high end of a kettlebell swing. (I guess he didn’t see the candy apple red KB.) Sometimes, you just gotta vent a little, right?

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I have discovered I’ve been taking a legal muscle enhancer for a while and never even knew that was one of it’s functions. Now that I know, I guess I am not taking enough!

What am I talking about? Well it seems taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofren or acetominophen for pain and inflammation has an effect on building muscle mass…legally. Here is the study, done at Ball State’s Human Performance Laboratory, with implications for the adaptation to old folks to exercise and astronauts exposed to long-term weightlessness.

Ibuprofen or acetaminophen in long-term resistance training increases muscle mass/strength

What a bonus! I was happy enough the ibuprofren was reducing the inflammation; (I don’t think acetominophen is anti-inflammatory, though).

We have been having fun with kettlebells over here. Not only do we swing and snatch them, but we paint ‘em too!

You have seen my blue-green 24 kilo creation and the candy apple Big Red 32 kg paperweight. Those were my modest attempts at kettlebell creativity and about as far as I want to go. I would rather go ballistic with them.

Torri Lehman painted this beauty and recently presented Val with her own customized hot pink kettlebell. In the works is one for a female MMA fighter and another for Todd Medina’s Fight School adjacent to our training pit in Costa Mesa, CA.

If you would like to get a kettlebell or two or three and then get them painted by Torri, contact Val at Val’s Kettlebells. Just click the tab at the top of this page.

Ok, ladies, let’s get to some kettlebell swingin’.

Melanie Roach is a 117 lb former gymnast-turned Olympic weightlifting hopeful who who can put double her bodyweight over her head and is fond of saying weightlifting is the easiest part of her day. Read the amazing story of Melanie Roach.