In partnership with the weightlifting club Guerriers, the Canadian Crosslifting Federation organized its second training camp at CrossFit Guerriers between the 15th and the 17th of february.
Training camps are for all athletes who want to learn more about the basics of olympic weightlifting but also to discover new ways of training and the intensity required to perform at a high level.
This event was supervised by our Technical Director, Ciro Ibanez, who is an internationally renowned weightlifting coach. And by Abigail Guerrero, who has been a multiple Spanish champion in weightlifting.
With more than 20 participants, it was a real success. Each of the participants left with a unique experience.
We began the first day at 5 pm with a lot of squats. Isometric squats followed by simple squats to be precise. The back squat is probably the most important exercice in weightlifting when it comes to building strenght. A good squat will allow a good snatch and a good clean. The goal was to show how to build strenght in the squat. By doing 5 sets of 5 repetitions with 10 seconds hold at 90 degrees, you work the inner fibers, the ones responsible for the strenght that you have in your legs.
On the second day, participants worked on the overhead position. Usually in beginners, you see them failed a lift because of their shoulders and their back muscles. If one of them is lacking, the overhead will not be strong enough to hold the bar over the head. The athlete will be surprise by the weight and it will fall behind or in front of him. By performing multiple sets of a snatch and 3 overhead squats, you allow the athlete to work his/her technique in the snatch while forcing the nervous system to use the shoulders and back muscles together.
At the end of the second day, the same principles were applied with the clean. Multiples sets of one clean + 3 front squat were performed to focus on technique in the clean and increase the strenght and the endurance of the legs in the front rack position. If the back squat is the most important exercice, the exercice showing the strenght of an athlete in the clean is the front squat. Usually, at a high level, you see athletes having a max clean near their max front squat.
We ended the end of the camp with a small friendly competition between our guests. Each of them had to put into practice what they learned during the camp.
Most of our participants have done a PR during this competition. Despite the pressure, and the training load they had, they were able to push their limits and accomplish a personal feat.
The Canadian Crosslifting Federation is proud of you. We hope to see many of you again for the next training camp.
We would like to thank all our participants, as well as the weightlifting club Guerriers for the support they gave us during the weekend.
