Weightlifting is not as developed in North America as it is in other countries like China or Russia. One major drawback we face is the lack of a well defined sporting system. In Canada, we have no real sport schools to speak of and no… Read More »Identifying weightlifting talent in North America
Don’t miss out on Updates : Make sure you follow First Pull on Facebook and Instagram for daily pictures and advice You are responsible for your success. You are also your own worse enemy. Seeing athletes miss lifts because they thought too much during the lift has been my pet… Read More »Paralysis by analysis : Stop thinking and start improving!
Action shot (more like blurry shot) of me hosting a summer camp at Club Les Géants de Montréal. I think about 60 kids visited us that day. About 27 left their phone number for me to send information to their parents. Fun experience.
I believe that I am an accessible guy, meaning that I reply to pretty much every e-mails, Facebook messages or questions posted on Instagram and I pride myself in doing so. It sometimes take me a few days to reply, given that I coach pretty much everyday and also have trainees that I train online, but I always reply. People write to ask all type of questions, from very technical questions to more personal questions about their lifts or about my private life. I have put a lot of time and effort into First Pull to make it what I believe is a worthy read (At least, make it something I like) and also a reference in the sport of weightlifting. I’m proud of what I have accomplished and I am also proud of having stayed true to my convictions and mission with this”FP project”, meaning that the site offers well researched content for free and that I can only write when I have some free time. First Pull is, and will always be, content driven. Anyhow, people still write me to know who is ”The First Pull guy” (as they call me apparently) and what is my background. To those interested, this is longer version than my short bio posted on here.
From Lifter’s Life. Copyright © Clance Laylor 2014
Assistance exercises are often debated and debaters tend to have a wide range of opinions. I have encountered and discussed with coaches and athletes that defend how useless they think assistance exercises are just like I have encountered coaches and athletes that are so much into assistance exercises that the main lifts just does not get the required attention to make it better. In my discussions, I have noticed that people have different thoughts about different assistance exercises when, actually, I don’t think we really need to single out an assistance exercise more than the other one. The most common argument for the use of certain exercises over others, is specificity. I don’t think assistance exercises need to be that specific to be useful and here are my thoughts on this matter.
Read More »The lack of specificity of weightlifting assistance exercises : Part 1
from Mads Klokov Thøgersø’s flickr
In Part 1 of this series, I made the point that the third pull and second pull can be considered as the same pull. Following this, I would like to expand on muscle sequencing, on its definition, on its importance in coaching weightlifting and on weightlifting efficiency. Understanding proper muscle sequencing is key to coaching the right positions and to demanding the right outcome of the lift. In the next part of this series, I will explore different pulling styles and how it affects muscle sequencing (favour certain muscles) and ultimately, your results. Do take a look at the follow included in this article as they are example of different muscle sequences.
Read More »Essay on the second pull Part 2 : Muscle sequencing
