Back in June I spent some time in beautiful Montreal for one of my closest and oldest friends bachelor party. Despite the typical shenanigans that comes with a bachelor party, I was EXTREMELY lucky to get in a session coached by Marilou Dozois-Prévost. And yep I was that guy at the party, that’s how much I LOVE weightlifting :). If you’re not familiar with Marilou, she is a very accomplished Canadian weightlifter:
- Silver at the 2006 Common Wealth Games
- 10th in 2008 Summer Olympics- Beijing
- Gold at the 2010 Common Wealth Games
There’s a lot of things that I learned however it’s a bit hard for me to clearly explain on a blog post, BUT I’ll do my best! With that said here are some of the key points I noted down on my ride back to the hotel. Keep in mind that these cues/points are targeted toward me and my lifting, while some points may have some overlap others may not.
Let’s jump to it!
Build a Strong Foundation
Marilou is not only a high level and experienced weightlifter she’s damn tough. She has gone through difficult injuries (back, elbow, and ankle), which can be very devastating to any weightlifter. After, I believe, the 08 Olympic games she had to relearn how to fire her transverse abdominals to hopefully diminish risk of re-injuring her lower back. This meant NO lifting at all and constant physio-therapy using a sonogram to ensure that she was firing her transverse abdominals.
The physio-therapy protocol took about 3 months starting from static to dynamic movements, i.e. laying flat and firing her transverse abdominus, same in the hip bridge, single leg bridge, walking, walking up stairs, squats and so on. Can you imagine how difficult that had to be for an elite lifter to scale down to such a laborious protocol?! But she fought on and because of this she’s built such a strong foundation that her back is no longer the weak link = her strength sky rocketed up. Take home point, sometimes you have to take a step back to hurdle over that annoying injury hump.
Stay OVER the Bar
I thought I stayed over the bar a good bit, however Marilou wanted me to over the bar much further and longer than I am used to. In the video it’s slightly subtle but you can see in the first clip how my torso is further over the bar vs. the 2nd clip where I have a little more knee flexion and torso more upright.
To reinforce the movement, Marilou had a simple drill for me to do. She stood me against the wall, while holding a bar, had me take a step forward, then I was to shoot hips back to touch the wall (like the 2nd pic above). This forced me to really stay over the bar and at points almost exaggerated the movement. I repeated this same drill a few times until I was able to set it up correctly on my own. Straight forward, simple, no thinking, just doing!
Once Above the Knee EXPLODE Up
I’m used to a “double knee bend” or slide under type of 2nd pull…
Marilou did not want my knees to slide forward very much at all and just wanted to me drive up. The video in the “stay over the bar” section showed the pull position she wanted (to my knowledge), with that said I believe the video below is the closest to what Marilou wanted me to execute with appreciable weight:
You can see that Holley stays over the bar much longer and then starts sweeping under as it gets higher up toward her hip.
This is perfect timing since I’ve been trying to figure out the missing link with my “slow” second pull. As I’ve started to tinker with this pulling style, I’ve found the 2nd pull to be much more powerful but I’m having some trouble perfecting my bar timing with this position. With that said, I am doing very light weights, so time will tell regarding the translation for me.
I also have to note that everyone is built differently, how they close the gap between the bar and hips will be highly dependent to the weightlifters built (limbs and musculature), past experience, and their comfort level. This is something that most coaches, regardless of sport take into consideration, and Marilou was very clear about this too.
Engage the Bar
Not to toot my own horn =) but I’m generally quick under the bar, but Marilou had pointed out there was a small disconnect between the extension and pull under (especially in the snatch) and in the bottom position of both lifts. She recommend that I be extremely TIGHT in the bottom and constantly pull up and under the bar- basically keep the bar engaged through the full lift.
While these are simple cues and is seemingly basic information, the observation definitely brought new awareness to my snatch transition. This shows the importance of having an extra set of eyes on you.
Grip the Floor and Widen Stance
This was something we mainly worked on for the snatch, as Marilou noticed that there was a split second of instability in my bottom position. Gripping the floor with my feet through the full lift and widening my squat stance definitely helped me stay tighter and I felt far less pressure on my back (I have x3 lower back disc herniations). She also mentioned that she had the same problem with her lifts and it caused undue stress on her already injured back. Hopefully this will help me stay healthier longer and sustain greater weights and volume down the road!
Biofeedback Programming
I asked about her program and it seemed to be focused mainly on “feel”. With that said, she still had a set goal to hit during the week but when she hit those specific goals are based on how she’s feeling that day. For instance the day we worked out together, she was supposed to train but she felt tight and a bit tired so just focused on stretching and did some cardio.
Check List
At the end of the workout, Marilou also mentioned that if you don’t have a coach in front you, to make sure you have a WRITTEN check list to go over. For example for me it would be:
- Squat- focus on squeezing quads/glutes, tight in the bottom, and chest up.
- Snatch- engage bar through full movement, stay tight in bottom, work on wider feet.
- Clean- finish taller, stay tight in bottom.
- Jerk- Knees out, step further with front let.
Simple reminders can help you stay focused and remind you of the correct bar path you accomplished with your coach.
Grateful
*rough weekend with little sleep, so excuse my rough appearance…great time though!
This was an amazing experience to not only be coached but also to gain insight from Marilou’s unique weightlifting experiences. Thanks to her my back is feeling much better through better positioning via re-working my squat to say upright, something I’ve been struggling with for a while.
Marilou is an extremely inspiring athlete, amazing person, and skilled coach. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten a glimpse of her training philosophy and weightlifting experience. Hopefully this post will be of use to other weightlifters out there too.
Train smart,