Happy new year everyone! I hope all of your new year resolutions consist of something to do with bettering your technique in the olympic lifts.  

For New Year's Eve, my family did a talent show.  Above, you will see a video of my brother Cody during HIS talent show. He is expressing himself as an individual by singing Bspear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time".  We are all just so proud of him and hope that all of you will vote for him on a future season of American Idol.  

Tip of the day:

If you are having trouble feeling strong in your starting position, or you are letting your hips shoot up too soon off the ground, try practicing regular AND snatch-grip deadlifts (or pulls) while standing on a plate or blocks.  This puts the bar a little lower than normal and  makes the movement feel WAY harder because your muscles arent used to being in that low of a position.  I used to do these a lot because my starting position just always felt weak.  No matter how many deadlifts I did, I just couldnt seem to feel confident pulling the weight off the ground.  After I started deadlifting off of a plate, when I switched back to regular deadlifts, I felt way more solid.  It just works all the muscles in a different way.  While doing this movement, it is really easy to let those hips shoot up right away, really focus on keeping those hips down and keeping the back angle the same. Remember to feel a lot of tension in your legs as you are pulling that bar off the ground.   

http://www.mikesgym.org/gallery/video/sagepullblks.mov

Here is a video of what Im trying to explain to ya'll!