Sports and Competition Articles

Have difficulty getting into a good front rack or overhead position? 🤔 Try this partner drill to improve your shoulder mobility!

In this article we break down why ankle mobility is critical to your success as an athlete (and human being) and three exercises that you can implement today to help improve your ankle mobility.

Maddison Pannell was the first Cal Strength soldier to compete in the AO Finals Online Competition on December 4th, 2020.

She was just one lift away from making the US Pan American Team but took home PR’s in the Snatch, Clean & Jerk and Total along with some hardware!

We caught up with Maddison to ask her about the experience of that night, what motivates her and what it was like to compete alongside Olympian Morghan King. ENJOY!

How to do double unders. The end. Double unders aside, there are three things that, looking back, would have been very helpful to have known when I first started out on my five year adventure into the world of competitive fitness.

In the US alone, more than 3 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury every year. According to a recent study, concussion rates in high school football games have been on the rise. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise, we were surprised to learn that while Football had the highest rate of concussions (10.4 per 10,000 exposures), women’s soccer follows closely behind at a rate of 8.19 per 10,000 exposures.

When we work with athletes both at the junior high, high school and pro level; we forge bonds and care deeply about their well being. As far as anyone can tell, you are your brain (unfortunately it’s not something we can live without). As strength & conditioning coaches it is our responsibility to improve each athletes resiliency to injury and that includes protecting their brain.

Can omega-3 fatty acids, specifically DHA protect athletes from the negative effects of traumatic brain injuries like concussions? Read to find out!

Snatch what you can, Clean & Jerk what you must. A simple idea that presents the fundamental strategy for how we select openers and competition attempts for our lifters. There’s a reason why California Strength lifters have one of the highest rates of success competition makes in the country! This is a must read if you want to maximize your performance at your next weightlifting competition! (Exact lifting percentages included)

Wes Kitts won his first Pan American Games title on the last lift of the competition, Clean & Jerking 217kg (478lbs). He was sitting in second place after posting a Snatch of 172kg (379lbs) but in a dramatic come from behind finish came away with gold for Team USA.

We sat down with Wes to ask him a few questions about the competition, training and life!

We are often asked to try out and review several products during training. Over the years, we’ve picked out our favorites and tend to lean towards the same products, even as a team. Below are some of the key items that most of us carry in our gym bags to help us get through training sessions and competitions.

Whether you’re brand new to Olympic weightlifting or are a seasoned veteran training for Nationals, if you have dreams of competing it is critical to know your competition weight class. The International Weightlifting Federation announced the highly anticipated change to the male and female weight classes and for Olympic weightlifters around the world, the decision to go up a weight class or down has been left in question.

In response to our athletes at California Strength being faced with the same question, we came up with a solution. We have analyzed six key parameters to provide you with the weight class category that is best for you. Take this quiz to receive your personalized and detailed Weight Class recommendation from USAW Senior International Coach Dave Spitz himself!

If Cal Strength were the Avengers, Jaden Washington would be Captain America. He’s polite, well-mannered, works hard, and always does the right thing. Jaden is representing Team USA at the IWF Junior World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan this week and I thought it would be fitting to do a little Q&A with him.

We are just under four short weeks away from competing at the 2017 American Open Finals. Because our team only competes a handful of times every year, having success at this competition is really important. As we get closer to game time, I like to really hone in on a couple extra things to ensure that I won’t have too many excuses as to why I didn’t perform well (jk, I’m going to do great!).

Taking a look back at the American Open Series and Pan American Championships last month in Miami, Florida there were a number of notable performances across the board. One thing is ABUNDANTLY clear, weightlifting in the United States continues to improve across every weight class and gender.

American Donovan Ford, a veteran in the sport, put together a dominating performance winning the Snatch, Clean & Jerk and Total on his way to gold in the 105kg weight class.

We had a chance to catch up with Donovan to discuss his American Open performance and his training that led up to the meet.

Every so often in a coaches life an athlete comes along that changes you.  That athlete is transformative in the sense that they make you a better.  They challenge you to become something more, not through explicit demands but through sheer appreciation for their raging fire to master their athletic discipline.  Wes Kitts is one of those athletes...

Think your weightlifting program is perfect? You've accounted for volume, intensity, exercise selection and have lined up your periodization to peak at the perfect time; but wait.  Have you added mental reps into the equation? All your blood, sweat and tears could easily be for not if the mental side of training is forgotten. Don't worry, we have you covered!

Success at the team level comes down to organizing attempts correctly, based not off of lifetime PR's or Ego, but from knowing what your athletes are capable of producing at that given moment in time.

Team and Individual Results inside!

I had recently spoke with a couple of new Olympic weightlifters and I had come to realize that after competing in one or two meets, they had no idea what their goals should have been prior to going into the competition! Goal setting is a critical part of competing and should never ever be overlooked.

Here are 5 examples of important milestone 'goals' to help you in setting goals before your next weightlifting competition.

We can all agree that routine stretching of the muscles is important to the overall health of any athlete. With the constant grind of heavy weights, Olympic lifting takes a serious toll of your body and as a result it's important to keep your joints mobile and muscles flexible. Through the California Strength Blog, we have built a library of stretches to help with and maintain the overall health of our Olympic weightlifting athletes and have put together the TOP THREE stretches that every weightlifter should implement on a daily basis.

Videos Included!

It happens to all of us at one time or another, sometimes more than we would care to admit. Still, stepping on to the platform is hard enough on the body and with no warm up at all, you are more susceptible to injury. This quick flowing series is easy to remember and can serve as a warm up for those days when you just don’t have time to complete your full warm up.

Demo Video Inside!

A few motivational words by Theodore Roosevelt.

Managing your training weight should be complementary to your weightlifting program and long term goals. Like all things weightlifting, cutting weight is a skill in itself and is very individualized. At California Strength, we practice individualized but simple weight cutting techniques that have been fool proof for our athletes time and time again.

Thoughts from head coach Dave Spitz on the California Strength team performance at the 2016 American Open in Orlando, Florida.  The weekend had a number of notable performances but were highlighted by an American Record Snatch by Wes Kitts and top team finishes of 3rd (Men's) and 5th (Women's).

FloElite sat down with Dave Spitz and Wes Kitts this week to discuss the upcoming American Open Meet!

Link to video inside!

The calves and ankles are an often overlooked area when warming up for your training session. They are neglected and traded for the popular hamstrings and hips, but this is a critical mistake that can hold back your athletic performance. Mobile and flexible feet, calves and ankles serve as the base for bottom position stability in your Clean, Snatch and Squat.

Demonstration Video Included!

In 2012, there were 3,332 registered female USA Weightlifting members compared to an astonishing 8,600 female members today. Now, why has there been so much growth in what has traditionally been such a “masculine” sport?

An Interview with California Strength Soldier Wes Kitts: Covering nutrition, training and supplements for an in-depth look into what makes the podium difference.

Here is the story of Jordan Weichers, a future star who's quiet and relentless determination will help to carve her name into the California Strength and USA Weightlifting history books in the years to come. 

Just found weightlifting?  Tried it for the first time?  Love slamming bars? 

Here are a few tips on how to keep the gainz train rolling...

If this is your first weightlifting meet, I would not worry about making a weight cut.  Instead, go into the competition feeling comfortable and ready to focus your energy on making all of your lifts.  If you are planning a weight cut, make sure to bring plenty of fluids as well as a nutrient dense snack to replenish your body before the competition begins.

We have all probably seen it by now… a snatch missed behind or an unstable jerk that leads to the very scary hyperextended elbow.  Why is this more commonly seen in female weightlifters?  Well it turns out that females are more susceptible to this type of injury due to our specific anatomy.

This year we had the amazing opportunity to send SIX stunning women to compete for and represent California Strength at the 2016 National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The lineup included a number of individual medalists and one lady in Olympic Trial portion of the meet!  We came together as a team that weekend and learned so much, bringing our friendship closer than ever before.