{"id":2795,"date":"2020-09-03T11:52:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T17:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strengthsenseiinc.com\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2021-08-31T15:04:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T21:04:01","slug":"strength-sensei-bookshelf-the-sport-of-olympic-style-weightlifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strengthsenseiinc.com\/2020\/09\/03\/strength-sensei-bookshelf-the-sport-of-olympic-style-weightlifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength Sensei Bookshelf: The Sport of Olympic Style Weightlifting"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
Charles Poliquin often gave his best students copies of his favorite books as gifts, ordering boxes of copies to hand out during his seminars. Among those books were those written by Carl Miller. One of Poliquin\u2019s favorite strength training methods was cluster training, and he learned about it from Miller.<\/p>
Miller started lifting weights at the age of 12 to get strong for football, training at a gym in Hollywood, California owned by Mr. America Bert Goodrich. A year later, Miller started training at a gym in the San Fernando Valley, where he met Frank Spellman. Spellman competed in the 1948 Olympics, winning gold in the 165-pound division.<\/p>
Spellman trained him till he was 21, and said he \u201cwas so captivated by the sport that it influenced me as both an advocation and a vocation.\u201d At age 19, Miller broke the national teenage record in the snatch. College studies were challenging, so Miller decided to drop football to devote enough time to weightlifting. Says Miller, \u201cDoing something athletically using speed, timing, agility and flexibility in the coordinated power chain of the hips and legs, back, and then arms against an immovable object! Now this is real power! The most powerful sport of all!\u201d<\/p>
Miller graduated with a master\u2019s degree in exercise science from the University of Arizona. Then he packed his bags and moved to South America to coach weightlifting for two years and then Japan for three years. In 1978 he was named head coach of the US Miller\u2019s athletes have performed well in junior, open, and masters competition, and he coached Luke Klaja to a spot on the 1980 Olympic Team. Klaja competed in the 198-pound bodyweight class and was known for his clean and jerk, having an official best of 429 pounds. The story goes that at the Olympic Trials, Klaja was about to attempt the weight that would make him an Olympian, and turned to Miller for words of encouragement. Miller was perplexed that Klaja needed any additional motivation to make this lift, so told Klaja, \u201cMiss it and you owe me $100!\u201d<\/p> Miller\u2019s commitment to the sport earned him the position as the National Coaching Coordinator for the US Weightlifting Federation from 1971 to 1975. In the 50s and 60s, the US was a great power in weightlifting, but in the 70s, the US had become an also-ran, with only a few athletes being able to challenge for medals. To end this medal drought, Miller visited weightlifting powerhouses from other countries to discover the reasons for their success.<\/p> The highlight of Miller\u2019s research was a private audience with Ivan Abadjiev, Head Coach of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Team. Abadjiev\u2019s training methods revolutionized the sport. These methods included training multiple times a day for no more than 45 minutes per session, training at a much higher average intensity than lifters from other countries (often maxing out daily!), and focusing on just the classical lifts and squats.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Team that competed in the World Championships.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t