Notes from China

Over Summer of 2015 I lived in a Chinese sport school for a month, and another week just before I left China.

My Chinese is pretty bad, but I managed to, with lots of repetition, understand what my coach was trying to say to me. I'm going to try and post what stuff I've learnt from my experience there. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

1 The School

The school I lived in catered to many sports. I can't remember the exact number. It included weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, basketball, football, shooting, track, badminton, tennis and more. The school was a specialist weightlifting school, having around 40 resident weightlifters aged from around 15 to in their 20s.

This school recruits from lower level sports schools, which trained young children and lower level athletes. These kids are often not full time; maybe just weekend athletes who still go to school. Once they come to this school, they become full time athletes with a salary. If an athlete at this school wins the national games, they would move to the national training centre in Beijing (for weightlifting at least, not sure about for other sports).

All athletes and most coaches live in the school in the same accommodation blocks. They eat in the school canteen, which is just like a regular Chinese buffet but with slightly more meat. It was delicious. They are technically not allowed to eat outside the school, and if they do should not eat any meat besides fish. Chinese meat has lots of hormones added, and the Chinese anti doping agency do test athletes.

Guest athletes visit from other schools reasonably often, and stay in guest accomodation in the school. I lived in this block.

2 Typical Day

• 6:30am
• Wake up. Sometimes go for some running, duck walks, handstands etc
• 7:20am
• Breakfast
• 8:30am - 10:30am
• Morning training
• 11:50am
• Lunch
• 12:15pm - 2pm
• Afternoon nap
• 2:30pm - 5pm
• Afternoon training
• 5:50pm
• Dinner
• 10pm
• Sleep

Any free time should be spent either playing video games or doing recovery treatments.

3 Injury Tips

My coach had a favourite movement for each body part you could injure. These should ideally be done everyday if you have an injury. Here they are:

• Knee
• Half squat (not deep at all), hold for 5+min, 2 sets
• I had bad knees when I was there. These helped massively.
• Shoulder
• Plate upright rows, 5x20
• 10+kg plate, pull to forehead level. Strict form not too important.
• Scapular
• Rear delt flyes, 5x20
• Strict form preferred. Torso inclined to near horizontal, elbows bent slightly.
• Lower back
• Lying on floor, raise legs and torso. Tense glutes. 2+x15
• Hold last rep of each set for max time
• Elbow
• Biceps and triceps

4 Technique

Disclaimer: this section may be incomplete, as I probably internalised lots of the lessons learnt so won't think to write them here. This is also based on advice given to me to try and fix my personal technical errors, so may either not be useful or counter-productive for you, and probably won't address technical issues you have which I don't (although I have most technical issues possible).

Most stress was put on having an open chest, head up and tight lower back. This was desired at all times whatever the lift, besides when the bar is overhead, when head should be pushed forward hard (with and open chest and tight lower back...). Don't rush anything.

4.1 Snatch and Clean

They liked to do drills with no bar. These were considered basic skills of weightlifting.

For the snatch and clean, there were 3 positions. 1: Start position, 2: Full extension and 3: Catch. Focus was on relaxed arms/whole body and tight back in position 1, smooth pull to 2 (balanced on toes), then let the 'bar' glide up your body into a precise and solid catch. Here is me doing a snatch drill. Focus on hitting and potentially pausing at each position until you can do them smoothly. Don't rush.

During the pull and the jerk the arms should be relaxed. Arm bend didn't seem to matter much, as long as the arms are relaxed. Head should look up during the pull. From the floor to just above the knees should be controlled and slow, then aggressive and powerful extension (ideally with a 'power shout') followed by a precise catch (my coach liked to stress 'stable, very, precise', which rhymes nicely in Chinese) and riding the bar down if necessary, whilst maintaining an open chest and tight lower back.

To catch the bar, they told me to jump. Feet should move from the pulling position to the catch position and not stick to the floor. Longer legs mean you will need to catch wider. They liked it when I stamped more aggressively, but don't donkey kick since that just looks silly. In the snatch hookgrip is maintained overhead.

4.2 Jerk

Again, no bar drills were considered important to learn technique. For the jerk, there were again 3 positions. 1: Dip. Weight over midfoot, well balanced, open chest, arms relaxed, tight lower back. 2: Drive. Full extension, balanced on the toes. Tensed quads and glutes. 3: Split. Feet slide out from 2, no extra rebend and bounce back up. Nice loud sound of feet hitting ground is good. All points of split position as described later. Make sure to fully extend when you smooth it out. Don't rush again...

For the dip and drive, relax the face and whole upper body (especially arms). Maintain an open chest. Controlled, slow dip. Drive onto your toes (with them sliding slightly backwards for a push press; indicative of proper use of quads and glutes). Focus on feeling quads and glutes contract hard.

In the split, the legs should move straight back and forwards, or slightly outwards. Front foot around 1 foot forward, rear foot around 1.5 feet backwards. More if you don't have stupidly short legs like my coach (I do around 1 foot forward, 2 feet backward). Front knee should be perpendicular to the ground (when looking from the side AND from the front). Push hard with both legs. Rear knee should be slightly bent, with heel off ground and pointing backward/slightly outward. Shoulders should be directly above hips, which should be in roughly the same place they were in during the dip. Bar should be behind head, with head shoved forward hard. Feet should hit the ground at the same time elbows lock out. Don't rush the split. Hold the split for 2 seconds, and after recovery hold the bar overhead for a similar time.

Power jerks are done if the lifter is better at them. As a relative beginner (ie sub 350-400 sinclair or so), you don't know what you're better at so stick to split jerks with power jerks as assistance.

4.3 Squats

These are done on their own day (Tuesday and Saturday).

Controlled, slower descent. Faster ascent. Upright torso, open chest, weight on midfoot throughout. Head up, especially when going up. Don't keep your mouth closed or you look stupid. Shouting on heavy lifts is cool.

1 in 4 squat sessions should be done with a different type of squat. For example, narrow stance (heel touching), wide stance or paused. Most lifters did a 1:1 ratio of front:back squats. I was recommended to do a 3:1 ratio because I have weak legs and my squats are ugly. As I had weak legs, I was also recommended to do pause squats for half my squat sessions, and jerk supports reasonably regularly too to help teach me to maintain a more upright torso position when squatting.

Most squat sessions had heavy rack holds or jerk dips after the squats. These were done at around the max back squat weight, with focus on maintaining a good torso position and symmetry.

4.4 Pulls

These are always done after a lift. Wear straps.

2 main types of pull: Power pull, and Hard pull.

Power pulls are to work on technique. Usually done at around 10kg above your working sets or so (or weight of your max in that lift / a little less). These involve a normal high pull with a rebend, aiming to get the bar to almost touch your chest or chin. Slow descent, stopping just before touching the floor, then back up. Focus is on making these look like the full lift. Good for training relaxed arms.

Hard pulls are similar to deadlifts. Normally at around 135% or more of the power pull weight. Maintain positions, slow negative, touch floor then back up. I maxed out my clean pull once when I was there.

Another pull they did, and which is a basic skill of weightlifting, was long pause pulls. Hard pull for the first rep, then lower to just above ground and hold for 10sec. Then back to top, then lower to just below knee, pause for 10sec. Up again, and finally pause above knee for 10sec, then back up and down to floor. These are done normally at a weight around your max for that lift, or as heavy as you can go whilst maintaining positions. Long rests.

They also did high elbow pulls, which were done on some AM sessions at light weights. These were basically upright rows with not so strict form, pulling the bar right to the forehead. Grip was just outside the inner knurling. Done for high reps, they should strengthen the shoulders and help the overhead position. Focus on having an open chest, and looking up.

The other type of pull I did whilst here was deficit straight leg pulls with a snatch grip. The aim is to round the back and collapse the chest, to get some good dynamic work done on the back extensors. Done with a reasonably light weight.

5 Programming

An average training session will be:

• ~30 min warmup
• ~1 hour barbell work
• Rough minimum, don't go too much over this
• Don't rest for too long, during this time you should be taking training seriously
• ~90 min assistance / relaxation

5.1 Warmup

The team I was on walked on hamstrings/glutes/backs/calves/triceps, then some gentle stretching before training. Other teams did a warmup very similar to this.

5.2 Barbell Work

After every barbell movement, pullups of some kind are normally done to relax the back. Low reps, easy sets. At the end of training, bodybuilding and core are done (normally 1-3 movements for 2-5 sets of high reps). Leg raises are very commonly done to relax the lower back. Upside down hanging from feet thing is done most days at the end of training.

Loading is autoregulated, with a rough idea for the goal of a session (eg get some good volume done, push consistency at heavier weights, hit a heavy single etc).

Training would follow a basic template for the whole team, with adjustments for individual lifters based on their weaknesses or injuries. The general attitude to injury was any pain, don't train. Don't push through it. Find an alternative movement you can do pain free and train that. Eg, if you can't snatch, try power pulls.

• Monday, Wednesday and Friday:
• AM Session is light technique work with pullups and assistance work
• PM Session is a main lift (then pullups) and pulls (then pullups and assistance work)
• Tuesday, Saturday
• PM Session is squats followed by squat assistance, pullups and assistance
• Thursday
• Active rest. Running drills, hill sprints, duck walks, handstand holds (not freestanding)

Rep schemes for Snatch and Clean and Jerk were reasonably standard; 6x3, 8x2, 6x4, 6x1+2, 3x1+2 + 3x1+1...

Rep schemes for the squat sessions I did were 5x5 or 6x3. Again, nothing exciting.

A typical pulling session would be Power Pulls 4x4 followed by Hard Pulls 4x4. Other sessions would be Pause Pulls 5x3, Hard Pulls to max, Hard Pulls 4x4 + 4x3, Hard Pull 4x4 + Deficit SL Pull 4x4 etc.

Squat assistance would normally include rack supports (5x10sec) or jerk dips (5x10), and sometimes include lighter variations of squat, eg close stance back squat, lighter back squat after heavy front squats. Sometimes the main squat movement would be heavy jerk supports (bottom up overhead squats). Apparently you should be able to do these around your max jerk for triples, or a little heavier. They help to train you to have an upright torso when squatting, and are not just for squat jerkers.

5.3 Assistance

Normally 1-3 assistance movements are done each training session. Leg raises are very common, to help relax the lower back. Assistance work was around 60% core, 40% 'bodybuilding' (ie anything which isn't strictly weightlifting or core work). It included planks, leg raises, back extensions, side bends, pushups, bench press, bench rows, dumbbell rows, handstand pushups, strict press, reverse flyes, dumbbell high pulls, arms...

5.4 Recovery

Walking on backs/legs is often done at the end of training. Hanging upside down is done most sessions too.

Other treatments include acupuncture, physiotherapy and suction cupping. This is done after morning sessions and after dinner, usually finishing around 9pm. Recovery is very important to training full time. The school had a resident masseuse who was available for any athlete to walk in on. He helped with all of the recovery treatments.

5.5 Periodisation

Periodisation as far as I learnt about it was very simple. Volume week, then heavy week, then light week and repeat. It is different for women, but I don't know exactly how. 1 week out from competition the Friday session will have both snatch and clean and jerk. Far from a competition, a cycle may be 2 volume weeks then a light week.

6 Typical Training Week

Here is my first, and most typical, training week. Some of the exercises here were only done by me, as assistance programming varies to address individual weaknesses.

• Monday
• AM
• Missed (arrived in PM)
• PM
• Snatch
• 6x3
• Pullups
• 3 sets
• Wide power pull
• 5x4
• Wide hard pull
• 3x3
• Pullups
• 3 sets
• Plank
• 2 sets
• Weighted pushup
• 2 sets
• Tuesday
• PM
• Front squat
• 5x5
• Back squat
• 2x3
• Rack Hold
• 5x10s
• Wednesday
• AM
• Narrow high elbow pull
• 4x8-12
• Pullup
• 3 sets
• BTNPP
• 5x5 (v light)
• Pullup
• 3 sets
• Plank
• 2 sets
• PM
• Clean and Jerk
• 3x1+1 + 3x2+2
• Chinup
• 2 sets
• Narrow hard pull
• 3x3 + 3x4
• Pullup
• 2 sets
• Rear delt flyes
• 5 sets
• Leg raises
• 2 sets
• Thursday
• PM
• Running drills
• 4 sets, 5 types
• Frog jump
• 5x3 + 5x5
• Handstand holds
• 2 sets
• No barbell sn
• 4x5
• No barbell CJ
• 4x2+3
• Leg raises
• 2 sets
• 5kg plate jerks
• 3x5
• Plank
• 2 sets
• Friday
• AM
• Power clean + Squat clean
• 2x2+2 + 5x1+1
• Pullup
• 3 sets
• DB Row
• 5x15
• DB high pull
• 2x20
• Leg raises
• 2 sets
• PM
• Power Sn + Squat Sn
• 3x2+2 + 4x1+1
• Pullups
• 2 sets
• Wide power pull
• 4x4
• Wide hard pull
• 3x4
• Pullups
• 2 sets
• Dips
• 5 sets
• Hanging leg raises
• 2 sets
• Saturday
• PM
• Front Squat
• 5x5
• Rack Hold
• 5x10s
• Handing leg raises
• 2 sets
• Lying back extensions
• 1 set
• Hanging sit ups
• 1 set