I started reading an online fitness journal recently, and I’m enjoying it because there’s a lot of Olympic Lifting articles mixed in.

Breaking Muscle is following Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold’s journey to the Olympics, which is fascinating to me. And there have also been a few recent posts from various coaches. This week, one that hit home was all about accidents — like dropping the bar on your head — which just happens to be a fear of mine.

Fear holds me back — as Zach has told me many times — but I’m growing more comfortable. The more I practice, the less I worry about the bar hurting me.

Accidents are a concern in any sport, and I don’t think you’re ever going to eliminate them. However, you can reduce their likelihood a lot just by paying attention.

This week a girl at work sent me a YouTube video of a guy who looked like he was about to jerk the weight up when he just fell backward. The video doesn’t show what happened, but the caption said the dude was OK. I could find that video on YouTube, but just a search of “Olympic Weighting accidents” turns up a bunch of results. Some of them look really painful.

It’s a good thing I love it and feel like I have a good coach, otherwise, I’d probably shun the sport just from watching those videos.

Training this past week

Monday
Power snatch, build to 70% then 1×5 → 50×5
Snatch pulls 90% of max 3×5 → 65×5
Back squat 80 2×6 → 120×6
Shoulder press by feel 5×4 → 40/45/55/55

Wednesday
Front squat + Jerk, build to 70% then 2+1×5 → 65×4
Drop snatch + OHS by feel 3+3×3 → 45/50/55
Clean pulls 90% 3×5 → 100×5
Snatch grip BN press by feel 6×3 → 40/45/45

Read the Breaking Muscle article: No Dying! How To Avoid The Most Dangerous Accident In Olympic Weightlifting