What I Have Learned From My Seminars

I have already been running seminars around the world for more than 4 years. During this period, I have gained a lot of new experience and knowledge, both in presenting information and material content. I realized what things are worth to pay more attention to and what details are important for those who visit seminars. I also identified for myself a number of important moments that came to me through practice, communication and feedback of athletes from all over the world.

1. My training

When I just started to run my seminars, it seemed to me that it was important to lift a lot at each seminar so that people could see what dynamics should be during lifting heavy weights. It greatly raised the emotional background of the seminar. But over time I felt that if I lifted my 90% every week, I would become exhausted very quickly because it was impossible to recover normally in 1 week taking into account flights and journeys. When I refused from this practice, I had much more time at seminars to give more information to the athletes. Now I can do my training the day before the seminar, and everyone is always invited to see it. All my big weights you can see on my channel. In addition, sometimes I take part in big sports events.

2. Theoretical part

One of the accents of my seminars is the special theoretical part. At first, I tell about the biomechanics of the movement, the trajectory of the bar movement, explain the differences between what we see and what happens in terms of physics. When I started running seminars, a big discovery came upon me that many athletes did not understand how power development actually happens and what makes the bar fly. When a person does not understand something, it is difficult for him to perform an exercise correctly and consciously. This is a big difference between the training of children and adults. The best method of training for children is a game: children get the task to jump with a plastic stick and they happily repeat. It is quite otherwise with adults: they need to explain why and how it works. This is especially important for those who are engaged in the trainer’s work.

3. Details

Most athletes visit seminars to study. So I focus on detailed analysis of progressions, especially special exercises. I explain why it works this way, what differences in training for beginners and experienced athletes, why mistakes can appear and how to avoid them. When we were children and beginners, nobody particularly explained to us why it was necessary to make an exercise – we just trained. People come to seminars for answers and understanding of the basic things and small details. My goal is to provide information in the most practical ways: through demonstration, through verbal explanation and practical performance of exercises and its parts.

4. Flexibility and mobility

Modern weightlifting can be easily called mass sports, as in many countries it has become a full-fledged part of the fitness sphere. People of different ages and levels of preparation come to do weightlifting. In my opinion, they are all united by two features: everyone wants to lift “a lot” and practically everyone lacks the flexibility and mobility necessary for weightlifting. At the seminars, I spend a lot of time explaining the specifics of these skills, showing special exercises that prepare the body for speed-force work with the bar. Not everyone manages to take the necessary positions, and it is normal: my story with shoulders lasted not one month, therefore I understand the athletes well. At one of the seminars in Brazil, the athlete asked me, “I have poor shoulder girdle flexibility. How can I change the grip to lift more?” My answer was, “If there is no shoulder surgery in your nearest plans, do not try a new grip, but develop flexibility and mobility!”

5. Lift or not to lift?

The traditional thing of my seminars is training after analysis all the progressions. There are athletes who even specially make a preparatory training cycle to look confident in this training and show solid weights for themselves. I do not particularly welcome that after 4 hours of work on technical elements athletes lifted weights more than 70%. When I write the program for this training and explain it to athletes, I tell them that, as a trainer, I am interested in the conscious approach and clear movement in the area of 70%. But if you feel the strength and desire to lift on full force, I can’t stop you.

As a professional athlete, I remember very well how responsibly I prepared for heavy training: planned the rest and rehabilitation procedures. Sometimes it was like mini-competitions in terms of load intensity. Now imagine my surprise when at almost every seminar some athletes set their PRs after 4 hours of exhausting technical work. Discussing this with them, I always say that “during this time you certainly did not become stronger, but you have got an understanding and improved the quality of performance at the expense of the done work – it allowed showing a new result”.

6. We teach each other

For 4 years of running seminars, I managed to enhance and improve my theoretical and practical programs in several times. I constantly continue to do so thanks to the experience of working with athletes from different countries, questions that I am asked at the seminars and reviews about my work. I do not know the answers to all questions: some answers come from sports experience or intuitively, others I have to search in textbooks, and I still look for answers to some questions.

I believe that there is no trainer who can teach Olympic weightlifting in a few days. My goal at seminars is to share the long-term experience in this sport: the experience of victories and failures, mistakes and discoveries, various approaches to training and knowledge that my trainers and team-mates gave me.

I consider that a comprehensive approach is the most effective and efficient way to refine your skills. I believe that it will help athletes to avoid those mistakes that I made in my sports way. It will give an opportunity to be safely engaged in weightlifting, enjoying training for many years!

Train together – train right!

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