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The Forge The Forge. Olympic Weightlifting and Barbell Club.

28/09/2026

Keeping the bar close is the key to making lifts. Here's a checklist of what to focus on:

- Scrape the shins: Drag the bar along the shins vertically. Use them as guide rails on where and how the bar should be pulled off the floor.

- Rest against the quads: As you transit to the second pull, rest the bar against the body. This ensures the bar is as close to your center of gravity as possible. Distance away from your quads at this juncture, will encourage your hips to swing forward in an effort to contact the bar.

- Close to the ribs: After extension, the bar should be guided as close to the body as possible. Any extreme horizontal displacement now and it's going to be a miss.

- Miss the face: An aggressive pull under is what you need. If you have kept it close this far, close the gap and pull under the bar fast. You'll feel the bar gliding fast your forehead.

- Time the top: The bar is weightless here. Catch the bar at its apex. It's weightless here. Get your timing right and the weight will feel weightless.


**ch

25/09/2026

The outcome of the lift is usually determined at the start. A poor setup often results in a cascading series of events that lead to failure. Here's what you should focus on:

- Breathing: Take the time to pace your heartbeat. Focus on lowering your heart rate. Breathe deep and slow. Relax and calm down. Nerves at the start often lead to a lift that is too tensed and inefficient. When you're ready, take a deep breath and brace.

- Bracing: Focus on connecting your upper back, lower back and abs into a comprehensive brace. The brace should feel secured and well timed. Each component has to work together (synchronised) for the weight of the barbell to be perfectly balanced.

- Mental Framing: Use the setup to imagine how the lift will go. How each step of the first, second and third pull will feel. Visualise and gain confidence before ex*****on. Never rush into the movement.

- Balance: Feel the connection between you and the barbell. Find the equilibrium between both masses. That's where you want to be. Off balance at the start == off balance at the end.


**ch

23/09/2026

Here's a checklist on whether you've improved:

- You're lifting heavier at the same bodyweight: the most obvious.

- You're lifting heavier at a lighter bodyweight: you're improved on 2 fronts. You worked through a calorie deficit while still gaining strength. Not the most optimal approach to strength training and informs me you've got more to give.

- You're lifting the same at a lighter bodyweight: maintaining the same strength levels while sustaining a calorie deficit shows great discipline. You're likely dialed in on both ends.

- You're maintaining the same training load-intensity while adding more activities (stress) to your life: Stress is global. Any new addition of stress, be they from new activities or work or life, impairs your recovery. Existing training would undergo an adjustment period before it gets better. If not well managed, injuries will crop up. Maintenance in this phase is impressive and necessary.

- You're moving better at the same weight: Olympic Weightlifting and Strength training are skill based. Improving your movement quality is a hallmark of good effort in training. It shows the increased potential to do more.

- You showed up: Controversial. Consistently showing up while life gets busier is success in itself. You showed up, did the work, did your best, regardless of what was thrown at you. You should be proud. However, if showing up is the only barometer by which you measure your success, you've got a long way to go. If unchecked, it becomes an ingrained and excuse not to challenge yourself further. You'll eventually adapt to whatever stress you're facing. And when that happens, showing up isn't enough. It's what holds you back.


**ch

21/09/2026

Cheat sheet on failure:

- Consistently failing a weight you should be able to handle: Training load is too much. Train at a lighter weight to let the body recover and adapt.

- Inconsistently failing at a weight you should be able to handle: Technical or mental cues for the lifts are inconsistent. If technical, find the root cause and work on it through accessory movements. If mental, expose yourself to a similar stress and build new mental habits.

- Failing at a new weight: Do this occasionally to test where you are. Challenges keep things fresh, but can be overly fatiguing if done too often.

- Failing at an old weight: Have there been changes to your streesors as of late? If so, recognise them and realise their impact on your training. You're probably beyond a threshold where you can recover from training.

- Failing at an expected weight: wtf are you even doing? Do better. Better is expected of you.


18/09/2026

Training to be patient is highly underrated.

It teaches you the "when" of weightlifting. It allows you to time a series of micro movements, that make up the entirety of the lift. Miss one, or rush through one, and missing the lift is almost guaranteed.

I have yet to see any successful lifter who rushes through their movements.

So if you find yourself struggling with the lifts. Practice slowing things down. Give your mind space to breathe. Let it feel the anxiety growing and your urge to rush through the movements. And when you feel it, combat the discomfort and practice being patient. Practice setting yourself in proper positions where success is more than likely.


**ch

16/09/2026

To make your lifts easier, don't focus on sending the bar as high aa you can. Rather, think about keeping the bar as close as you can:

- Close against your shins during the first pull
- Close as you rest it along the legs during the second pull
- Close as you extend vertically, and your elbows drive up instead of away
- Close as you aggressively pull under the bar; head scrapping and barely missing the bar
- Close to your centre of gravity on the catch

Focus on keeping the bar close and you'll make easier lifts.


**ch

14/09/2026

The efficient lifter.

Jeremy ain't strong. He's efficient. Every aspect of his lift is done with the right amount of patience and precision. No amount of energy is wasted.

This is the ideal. The goal. The kind of technique that you know strength amplifies.


11/09/2026

Weightlifting is a sport of mental fortitude. You're not just trying to lift a heavy weight overhead. You're trying to do it in the most efficient way possible. That efficiency requires extreme focus.

Expecting to train "fresh" every session is unrealistic. But you cannot deny the effects of fatigue on your ability to focus. Your breathing is heavier. Setting up in the right positions feel harder. Movements feel sluggish and slow. All these affects your perspective and often times "mood" towards the session itself. You get frustrated and things can spiral fast.

When faced with such scenarios it is useful to take a step back and decide how much emotional energy is worth expending during the session. If you're feel completely out of it, it's completely reasonable to take a lighter day and work on ancillary objectives. However, if there's enough fortitude within you, it is useful to grind through the session. That in itself is a skill worth learning. To know when and how to dig deep and push through.


09/09/2026

The best lifts are the kind with good rhythm and pacing. So here's a checklist of what that means:

- Controlled pull off the floor: Your feet are well balanced and constantly pushing against the floor. You are unbothered by the weight. You're in control and patient.

- Peak Extensions: You actually complete your triple extension. Your ankles, knees and hips are fully extended in a vertical line. You toes are constantly pushing through the floor, never leaving it early. The bar is kept close and moves vertically.

- Apex of the Bar: Your timing is precise and you catch the bar at the highest point. Your legs have pushed it as high as it can against gravity. The bar is weightless here and you catch it softly across your shoulders.

- The Bounce: Your legs are prepped and engaged and you can bounce off the squat. No additional movements are required to balance the bar.

- The Dip: Since no energy is wasted, your upper body remains fresh. You have a solid rack and breathing remains easy despite the weight. You're able to rest the bar well, and keep your arms relaxed before the jerk. You do a well timed dip. Neither too slow or fast. One that maximises the elasticity of your legs. Peak extension happens once again.

- The Split: You send the bar flying vertically and behind you. You land squared across your hips, with your back leg landing first before your front. The movements are stacked and it's no surprise that recovery is easy.

These are the hallmarks of a good lift. Good rhythm. No wastage of energy.


07/09/2026

Common mistakes I see amongst Beginners:

1) Power == More force against the bar: This stems from a poor understanding of the mechanics of the lift. The legs provide force in a vertical direction, while the hips in the horizontal plane. Once the lift starts looking like a Kettlebell swing, you're aren't getting more power behind the bar. You're thrusting the bar away from you. The subsequent squat up requires some rebalancing, and you lose the benefit of the bounce.

If you find yourself jumping forward to catch the bar, this is your exact problem. It ain't impressive. It's a technical flaw and should be corrected.

2) Overhead Work == Upper Body Pressing: Whether it's the sn**ch or the jerk, we are merely catching or pulling under the bar. We are not pressing it up. Once you have this misplaced perspective of a press, the upper body starts tensing up before the movement begins. It's almost akin to receiving feints from an opponent in boxing - you're tensing and reacting to something that isn't there.

For the jerk specifically, the shoulders tense up and rises early before the legs (full extension) could do its job. The movement starts feeling like a press-through as opposed to a nice catch across the hips.

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These mistakes do not stem from a lack of technique (more than likely, they don't appear with an empty bar), but rather a natural fear that comes with lifting a heavier weight. Everything gets thrown out of the window as power (in the wrong ways) gets forced into the lift. What good training does is reinforce consistent patterns of behavior and movement regardless of the load on the bar.


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