Has Sarah Davies lost her mind? | The Barbell Queen Jerk analysis

[@kellybardwell3290]

As a beginner I get so overwhelmed with drills, warmup and cue videos from so many different people. I’m glad your “calling out” drills that shouldn’t be done - again as a beginner I would be fooled into thinking I need to do these.

[@HanLifts]

It is really hard in a world where everyone has a ‘quick fix’ for everything. In my opinion keeping things simple can be the most effective way of learning how to lift!

[@RossFit]

Speaking the truth 🙌🏻 People need to stop over complicating weightlifting with these strange exercises

[@HanLifts]

Agreed! Thank you! 🫶🏼

[@katherinebuckley413]

Really interesting Atm, my weakness is my jerk. Trying to overcome a technical issue and more than anything overthinking

[@HanLifts]

What technical issue? Overthinking can be really difficult to overcome but I’ve found doing waves (3,2,1 increasing weight then back down 3,2,1 at slightly heavier) helped massively!

[@katherinebuckley413]

@@HanLifts technical issue = dropping my elbows during the dip, particularly my right elbow.

[@HanLifts]

Send me a video on instagram so I can have a look as it could be a few things. 1. Elbows just might be high in the first place and so naturally they fall for comfort and ease. 2. Could be that you are on your toes and dipping forward meaning that your elbows drop as your weight shifts. 3. Could be upper back weakness if you struggle with front squat strength or back strength.

[@dominickloka9758]

I don't compete in weightlifting, but I still follow the sport and found this discussion very interesting. Here's an example of a double-bodyweight clean & jerk in the old 58-kilo category. You can see that her back doesn't arch much when she braces; her jerk looks very solid and her split is wider because she's near her limit. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoCbcmurha-ShM0 I followed her Instagram and her training looked simple and solid. Lots of squats (heaviest I saw was 155 kg), competition lifts, pulling and push presses and a few specific exercises, but quite basic overall and she took silver at the Europeans that year.

[@HanLifts]

That is an unbelievably strong clean and jerk! The control she has is amazing. Very different to Sarahs lifting technique

[@dominickloka9758]

@@HanLifts Sarah would probably be best served by using those same boxes to train her jerk directly like she's done before; this would take time, but the result would be worth it. I saw her do push presses where she's better centred -- I'm absolutely no expert*. * I'll still say that clean/snatch deadlifts will do a lot to keep strength and mobility in an athlete's 50s and beyond. Curious to see if I can get to 200 kg in the snatch deadlift (I've done 190 two years ago so this is realistic) Easier on recovery and better for leg strength than powerlifting deadlifts. Safer too when training with iron plates at home! (there's no bailing out like in squats!)

[@satanette8562]

Did Sarah go 2 Paris? I didn’t c her ❤

[@HanLifts]

No, sadly she didn’t qualify. Only one British female went - Emily Campbell

[@harmonykrieg]

It would be a bad exercise for me my problem is my jerk is too short. It gets shorter the heavier I try!

[@HanLifts]

This is super common and people do struggle as it is scary and can feel like a panic reaction

[@harmonykrieg]

@@HanLifts yeah i wanna put my feet down faster I think

[@Yupppi]

I was a bit suspicious about this video before clicking, but I admit this exercise makes no sense. Why are you doing a jerk drill with a weight you can't jerk and not doing a proper split either. Is she training to remove her ability to split jerk properly? Most people suffer from not splitting big enough, so I don't think you really should be emphasizing small split. Like the dip doesn't need to be loaded in excess to your jerk capability either, does it? It's a skill thing, not a strength thing. She needs to practice the dip in the front rack to move the knees and not the hips/back. Like having the bar on the back doesn't help with feeling how to keep upright in the front rack. Nothing in this exercise makes sense. I don't really agree with the comments talking about over-complicating weightlifting with drills and complexes though. Most of them exist for a reason and work well to teach an athlete to do the right thing in a partial exercise over trying to cue with words (or for complexes bring more volume in the appropriate periodization phase). To fix things. Not to use just because, they have a purpose so they should be used with purpose when needed. This is a good example on why you shouldn't take training advice from athlete's social media, but coaches. If it works for her, I'm not telling her to stop. But it'd be better if people didn't just copy it because she's doing it. I dig the pause exercises for sure. For example pause after jerk you have time to assess and fix the split, and you get exposure in the position which is often lacking and critical for your body to want to even go there. If you don't feel comfortable and used to it, there's a fat chance your body will voluntarily jump into it easily.

[@HanLifts]

Thank you for your comment! I appreciate the contribution to the video