The Sounds of Weightlifting

Remember in THE BIG LEBOWSKI, when The Dude is chilling in his 
Valley Apt, drinking a White Russian, and listening to Sound of 
BOWLING on his walkman? 


I do, because this particular scene
shows the importance that SOUND plays in the visualization of 
sports. The Dude, as simple and trashy as he was- which is why 
he is so awesome- was defiantly on to something!  
Sound plays a big part of Mental Visualization, which is a huge 
part of training and competition preparation. 
Close your eyes and visualize anything you like sport wise. 
Do you HEAR the sound that it makes in your head
as the movement plays out? 
This applies to all sports and music and basically anything 
that is a skill.


Recently at the gym a few people have come up to me and made 
comments about the SOUND that snatching and clean and jerking 
make. In a huge gym blasting music and lame conversation, 
the sound of weightlifting still draws attention and sticks out.
Here are two examples of two extremes: 
1) an obviously ignorant person asked me 
"why do you have to jump so much when you lift?" 
"why do you have to make so much noise?"  
I'm not even gonna bother answering that ridiculous question. 
and 
2) Former World champion weightlifter and Jr. World Record Holder 
and current Pro bodybuilder, Silvo Samuel told me that when 
he hears the sound of Weightlifting he get excited or happy and looks 
around to see who is lifting. When he hears the sound something 
instinctual goes off and the love of the sport that once comprised 
his entire life comes through immediately. Sometimes he gives me 
advice and I try to learn as many tips and tricks from him as
possible. He said he is 'always watching and observing.'  
Nothing is more impressive than seeing a HUGE bodybuilder 
effortlessly drop into a 
squat snatch and NOT use his muscles to lift the weight but use 
his MOVEMENT. One of the things he says that I really like is to 
"make the bar fly, like an airplane slowing gaining speed, 
make it fly, effortlessly."


Last night I went to see my friend's band play and someone was 
talking to me and of course I have to mention that I do weightlifting 
and he starts talking about what SOUNDS I make when I lift and 
proceeds to make a bunch of weird grunting and yelling noises. 
I had to laugh and this made me think about the sound of weightlifting 
as well, which had already been on my mind. 
Anyways those to just two of the many comments I receive on the 
sound that weightlifting makes.

First some background info:
If you don't know, usually and ideally, the olympic lifts are performed 
on a Platform, a wooden surface with rubber along the sides to cushion 
the plates on the bar when you drop the bar after a lift. 

this is a platform and bumper plates

The plates we use are called Bumper Plates and are rubber plates 
so what we can drop the bar after a lift , or a miss a lift without 
hurting ourselves, the bar, the weights or the platform. 
You have to be able to MISS a lift and not be scared of hurting 
yourself to fully commit to the attempt. That is why using metal 
plates will not work for weightlifting training. Dropping Metal 
plates on a wooden platform severely damages and breaks the 
wood. Whenever I see someone trying to do Olympic Lifting at 
Gold's Gym on the falling apart platform they have, where I keep 
some bumpers with my friends, I always volunteer that they can use
my plates to save the platform.  All bumper plates are the same size, 
as the big 45 lb plate, but come in 5 different sizes. 5 kg, 10 kg, 15 kg, 
20 kg, and 25 kg. This is because to create muscle memory and 
proper mechanics you needs to have the same distance from the
floor every time. Muscle memory is the training of hands, feet or 
any muscle to repeat an action consistently without having to think.

Weightlifting Shoes-Get Some!

The shoes we wear have a wooden sole and a heel so that it is easier 
to squat solidly and let the knees go forward. The sound of wood 
hitting wood is what creates the lovely sounds of weightlifting. 
BAM!!! 
The sound of dropping weights is quite nice as well.
People do not realize how heavythe bar is 
until they hear the heavy THUD it makes when you drop it.
It is like"WOW I am really overcoming Gravity!" One works so 
so hard to get strong and have good form to lift a little bit more 
weight and gravity ALWAYS takes it away from you so fast and easily.
Charlie says that he can HEAR if my lift was good or bad, from the 
sound my feet make in reference to sound of the plates spinning 
around the bar and what not. Its pretty crazy.


here's a recent video of me so you can hear what I am talking about. these were my better lifts, unfortunately! =)

Here is a video of the Training Hall from the 1996 
Olympic Games in Atlanta GA. 
You can hear all the sounds
that weightlifting makes! Pretty Awesome!  


Also here is an article on Bowling and the sounds 
of bowling, relating to music and what not. 
Its really interesting.  

The search for the perfect sport for me

I wrote this for school in 2005. I though I would share it because people always ask me how I got interested in lifting. 

The search for the perfect sport for me

I was always quite active growing up. One of my first experiences with physical activity was climbing trees in my backyard and going across money bars. There was a great park and playground right by my house and I would go there all the time. I would also ride bikes and roller blade all the time. My friends and I (my neighbors, all boys) would have races around the tennis courts and around the blocks. I was pretty good and fast and had good balance, I rarely fell.

When I was in kindergarten I took ballet and loved it, I loved the outfits and the movements. But I quit before I was suppose to move on to toe shoes because I was scared of the new teacher. I wish my parents made me continue because if they made me I would have, because I secretly wanted to.  When I was in elementary school I did Softball for three seasons. It was fun, but I didn’t like being part of team because I don’t like depending on people and the coaches did a half assed job teaching us and basically just favored the better players.

In Middle School I liked P.E. class and loved doing the crunches and push ups etc, that everyone hated, and I would do them at night as well.  In high school I liked PE class still but assumed that I would never be an athlete. My family is not very athletic so I was never exposed to it. In high school I would do exercises in my room that I read about in teenage girl magazines, like lunges, push ups, sit ups etc with 10 lb dumbbells, then 15 lbs. I would do my exercises every night and liked the way it made my body look compared to my friends. While my friends complained of flabby triceps, I just shrugged. Mine were great. My best friend and I played “powder puff” football, but that wasn’t very fun for a number of reasons. The guys “coaching” us just flirted with the popular girls and we just jogged and tossed the ball around a bit. I learned nothing. It solidified the fact that I would never be an athlete. I really wanted to join a gym, but I was intimidated by all the machines and of people criticizing my technique. I felt like I would get laughed at and was very self conscious.

In Junior College I took physical education classes like yoga, jogging and FINALLY weight training! I felt like I was in heaven. I was the first one there and last one to leave. I expanded my routine from what I was doing in my room in high school and was getting stronger and in better shape. But I had no idea about progressions and training plans. But I never thought I could be an athlete because I would need a sport to compete in and I had no access to sports that suited me and my personality.  My boyfriend was very much into working out and I was too intimated to tell him that I too loved working out because I didn’t want him to think I was copying him so he would like me. He took me to the gym at Stanford where he was a student and at Granada High, where his father was a track coach. I pretended I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t feel sure of myself. But we started working out together more and he showed me squats and dead lifts. Some of his friends did Powerlifting and my boyfriend started training for that, basically narrowing down the lifts to bench, squat and dead lift plus assistance to those. Even though I wasn’t lifting that much right way I started training for Powerlifting too. It turns out I have a natural ability for weightlifting. My boyfriend and I would go to Stanford on the weekends and train with his friends who had formed a Weightlifting Team. It was great to have smart people to train with. My boyfriend likes to tell the story of the first time he showed me how to Deadlift. The bar had 135 lbs on it and he said ‘do as many reps as you can’, then went to do his set of squats. When he turned about I was still going. I think I did about 10 or 15 reps. He was shocked.

 I was so nervous before my first competition. I think I didn’t want to play sports before because I am shy and don’t like attention drawn to myself.  I did okay and qualified for Nationals. I did another meet and got the state records for my age and weight class.  I later got the Jr. American deadlift record of 375 lbs. I won Jr. Nationals in my weight class 2 years in a row and placed 5^th overall in my weight class. (I would have gotten 3’s if I made my last deadlift attempt of 400 lbs). I pulled 400 in the gym though. I used gear at this time as well because that is how I was competitive. I was one of the alternates for the world team, but of course did not go. I had been thinking about switching to Olympics Weightlifting for a while. Many people said I would be good at it because I am fairly flexible. I wanted to pull 400 lbs officially first and try for the squat record as well before I switched over.

After nationals in 2005 I started olympic lifting with my boyfriend coaching me.

So I have been training the olympics lifts for the past year at the UCLA athlete’s gym. It is such an awesome and inspiring environment.  I am doing well, though there are ALWAYS things to work and improve on.  I am looking forward to doing a few meets in the spring and qualifying for Nationals in August. I think that weightlifting just might be the perfect sport for me. I know now that I AM an athlete and a good one, and it was just a matter of finding the right sport for me.

This was the meet I got my American Record and took a pee test with the amazing Pricilla Ribic. It was AMAZING watching such a high caliber (female) lifter in person! For people that say powerlifters squat high, you need to watch a video of this lady squat!! 

Written in 2005 by Christina Henesian-Stocking

"Hello, is Mr. Maxoutopoulis there?"

Last week as I was putting together mailers for our Athletic Development Seminar in the Bay Area I came across this last name:
Maxoutopoulis

Perhaps the coolest last name ever!!!

The Trap of Tomorrow and Success

How many times have you heard yourself say "I will be successful when .....?? and come up with a bunch of accomplishments that you must hit before you can be happy with yourself?? This happens all the time. In life we subconsiously think things like I will be happy when I am in a relationship, I will be happy when I am married, I will be happy when I have a baby, I will be happy when I make X amount of money per hour/day/week/month/year. We are putting off happiness for a future date.


I know in my own weightlifting endeavors I have put accomplishments that I had to fulfill before I could call myself a weightlifter or an athlete or a coach or even a happy, worthwhile person. I built my own glass celling and it was the bulletproof kind that never breaks. I really enjoy working out hard and training like a freaking maniac because I love weightlifting and strength training. Honestly, there is no place I would rather be than at the gym (the more hardcore, the better, req are dirt and chalk and bumper plates). It is never a question in my mind of "oh well I am tired and stressed out, I can skip today." NO WAY. To me that equals Death. That is NEVER an option. (my car got hit and I reported it after my workout. During my training I actually forgot about my car. My weightlifting bar got stolen, I still did my back squats. I was sick as hell over christmas one year and snatched 2 times a day for a week and eventfully snatched 55 kilos for 5x5, when I could only for do it for 1 or 2 reps at the time. So don't give me lame excuses like " I am tired, or it is raining, or my car wont start. FIND A WAY) Skip a set or a rep? I would rather shave my head, or give up splenda. The only time I change up my training plan is if my coach/husband tells me to, or I am in actual pain where I cry. I tell my coach EVERYTHING and he makes the call.


SoI found it rather strange that I even though I am devoting my life to strength and power that I put such limits on myself in terms of when I am actually able to call myself successful. I was WAITING to be happy with myself based on my weightlifting total and that is just silly! Do you LOVE what you do? Do you always want to learn more and improve in every way possible? Will you be back at the gym tomorrow?  YES. 


I was thinking that to be successful I have to 1) hit a PR or match my current PR in whatever exercise I was doing , snatch and clean and jerk wise (for example, I can hang power snatch 60 kilos, if I an doing hang powers and do not hit 60 , then I am failure for that day), But for Strength movements like squats and pulls and presses, I do not have this requirement b/c from my Powerlifting experience, I know it to be completely detrimental to success. I have seen people max out their back squat every session and get 100 lbs weaker in a short period of time.


So I have come up with a new definition of success, not based on totals, or numbers, or winning, or the olympics or any sort of competition where what YOU do has no influence on what OTHERS do.


It is that I am successful when I devote myself to being the best weightlifter and athlete I can be and training as hard and smart as I can. When I give 100 % of my soul and effort to each lift. Everyday that I get the opportunity to train and be in a gym where I am able to snatch, clean, jerk and squat, is a good day and I count my blessings that I have so many resources and good friends that help me with my lifting endeavors.


That is being successful. Not waiting till I am better than the person standing next to me because we are all on a unique path designed just for us.

"I want to lift HellaBytes"

If you know me at all, you know that I say Hella every 5 seconds, especially when excited or enthusiastic. Well now Hella will hopefully become a scientific term to mean 10 to the 27th power. This is very awesome. I am hella stoked.

"1,000 yottabytes? That's hellabytes."

So proclaims a T-shirt sold by the campaign to make "hella" the prefix for 10^27, an extremely large number written out as a 1 followed by 27 zeroes.

Apparently, there is not yet a standard prefix for this number, in the way that "kilo" is "thousand" and "mega" is "million." That's how you know that a "kilobyte" is 1,000 bytes and a "megabyte" is 1,000,000 bytes. But so far only prefixes for units up to 10^24 ("yotta") have names, according to the International System of Units (SI). Here are the established prefixes.

Now comes a Facebook page (with more than 37,000 fans and counting), and an online petition to get "hella," a hip, Northern California slang term that means "a whole lot of" as a standard prefix for 10^27.

Here's an excerpt from the Facebook page, written by physics student Austin Sendek at the University of California, Davis:

"Addressing this issue presents an exciting opportunity. Since the SI system has traditionally adopted the last names of accomplished scientists for unit nomenclature, it follows that prefix designation should do the same. From this tradition comes the chance for the SI system to use nomenclature to honor a constantly overlooked scientific contributor: Northern California."

According to Sendek, since Northern California institutions have contributed greatly to scientific endeavors, it makes sense to honor the region with "hella." Apparently, that's where people originally started saying things like, "there are hella stars out tonight."

Speaking of stars, the word "hella" would be useful to describe the sun's energy, which is 4 x 10^27 watts according to NASA. That would be 4 hellawatts according to the proposal.

What do you think about bringing "hella" into scientific standard practice?

Written By: Elizabeth Landau -- CNN.com Writer/Producer

MotorBrands USA February Ride of the Month

I am very excited to announce the MY car, my 1978 Pontiac Trans Am, was voted Ride of the Month at Motorbrandsusa.com!!! 
I am very grateful to all my friends and family who put in a vote! Thank you!