I started my journey to Connecticut well before the sun came up, stoked the wood stove, brewed a coffee, grabbed my stuff and headed out for the ferry in my fancy weekend ride. I skipped eating an actual meal for breakfast to give me an excuse....
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| My Rental a Chrysler 300 and the Bob Evans in Watertown, NY. |
After a filling steak and egg breakfast at Bob Evans it was time to hit the road. Nearly 400 miles later I rolled in South Windsor Connecticut.
I stopped in briefly to check out the gym, said hello to owner, a giant monster of a man, Matt Mills. Very friendly Dude. To say the facility was overwhelming is an understatement. It has everything strength sport related. I mean everything.
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| less than a 1/4 of the gym space and 1 of 2 Monolifts. |
I headed out to find my Hotel just down the road, then grabbed some snacks and supper before crashing for the evening.
I managed to sleep despite my excitement and even with the time change I was at Lightning Fitness early. Several minutes after getting settled in I met my long time Facebook Friend Kevin Kuzia for the first time. He is also a part time blogger and vlogger.
Fierce & Mighty
It was great to finally shake his hand and hang out with him for the day.
So Swede and Greg showed up and we got the day under way. They started the day with a Q&A which covered a variety of topics.
-Recovery methods, understanding what inflammation is telling you, how to reduce damage to the body caused by lifting and a few of the signs that you need to scale back
-What is De-loading, When to De-load and the reason why (see first point)
-Get a sleep study done
-Swede shared an interesting Bell Curve I will not get into all of it because it is an entire log post in itself. I will say it started an interesting theme for the morning, You don't want to be Shitty.
-Greg Panora covered Prilepin's Chart (Which he wrote on a white board from Memory)
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| I knew about the chart. Had a rough idea how to apply it. The way Panora and Swede explained made it so much easier to apply in the future. |
- Learn from the experience of previous lifters so you don't make the same mistakes.
-Powerlifting is dangerous you are striving to get to a level where the weights will hurt you and then to a level where they can kill you.
-How Swede coaches his athletes and something that was huge, that he admitted is never talked about in the macho sport of Powerlifting, how to avoid Post Meet Depression. What is causes it and how he gets his athletes through it. His approach also prevents his athletes from feeling like total dog Shit post meet.
-The importance of heart health, how something as simple as walking 3 x 3 miles a week can keep you from cardiac problems. Yes another rarity in the world of extremes that is Powerlifting, guys will do anything for 10 lbs on their Bench but will do not do something as simple as walk 9 miles a week to live longer.
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| Swede Burns & Greg Panora |
"Crawl, walk, run 3 miles, 3 times a week for your heart" -Swede Burns
-weights cuts for Powerlifting (DO NOT DO FOR YOUR FIRST MEET) and their effects as well as why or when. As well as what they feel like for those who had never done one.
"Drink a bottle of tequila the night before Training. That is what a weight cut feels like" -Greg Panora
That is just the overview of some of the stuff they covered. I will say this I learned a lot. More importantly I realized that the sources I get my knowledge from are valuable because 2 men with decades in Powerlifting confirmed a lot of what I had figured out for myself or had learned else where. Anytime experienced people in afield confirm the same findings as you, you can be pretty sure the knowledge is extremely valuable and relevant.
So after making my ears nearly bleed from all the knowledge imparted we moved onto to the technique portion of the seminar. Squat - Bench - Deadlift. In that order. Always. As powerlifters I don't even think we could say it any other way let alone do it in any other order. The universe might implode.
The Squat:
I was in Swede's group. He broke the technique down very simply. His focus for the day was to make sure we were all doing things safely then to make corrections on the gross errors.
Quite simply he Broke the Squat down to
Air
Neck
Brace
Squat
Yes four words. With those 4 words EVERYONE made improvements in their technique.
These 2 articles covers what Swede taught about bracing. Having him explain it person is priceless.
Activation for Lifting
Embracing the Brace
For me these things made a big difference. Then Swede had me make some minor adjustments to my feet width and placement. That was when the magic happened. No pinching or pain in my hip while squatting. Consistently. My glutes also felt like they were working effectively as well. Although I still have problems with stiffness and hitting depth, this is huge for me and a new place to move forward from with my lifting.
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| Air-Neck-Brace-Squat |
I may need to adjust things in a few months as my body gets strong(er), for now I can work on the technique and see how things end up.
We hit Moe's for lunch. I will say this, the USA has a plethora of Taco places compared to Canada. I will not claim they were world class or anything outlandish. They definitely hit the spot. We had already been at it for 3+ hours. Everyone was hungry.
Post Lunch we started with BENCH.
This was Co-Taught by both Greg and Swede. In a room of 30+ people, all of them lifters (including 1 Crossfitter and several Strongmen) no One walked away without improving their bench or cramping up in new and wonderful ways. The position to bench correctly is uncomfortably initially, with practice it does get a little easier. I cannot do it justice by writing it out.
Swede suggested 10 set of 10 reps with the Bar every lifting day until the setup becomes natural.
The main point of the position for Benching is to utilize leg drive. For me this has always been a little elusive. Now that I understand what the position feels like and how to get into, my Bench is going to improve. My Shoulders were not irritated at all by the position and although tucking my feet under did not bother my hip, it is even easier on my quads and hips.
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| Kevin Kuzia, Matt Mills (Owner Lightning Fitness), Greg Panora, and Swede Burns |
When Swede was position my rib cage properly and my left calf cramped super hard. I managed to jump up and get it to settle down. After a few people went i got on and tried it again. No problems (other than regular back cramping of course) the second time. The cool thing, the mild nerve pain I had in my heel has been gone since.
Finally we finished with the Deadlift. Greg Panora explained and then demonstrated a different way to set up for the Deadlift than I had seen before. The intent is the same, put tension on the Glute and Hamstrings in order to use the Strong(er) muscles to get the bar off the floor with purpose and intent. It seemed simple enough, yet highly effective. Greg also covered how to use the same technique and apply it to Sumo Deadlifting as well.
So walking away from the Seminar I have a few weeks of continuing to push the ROM in hip to remove the restrictions preventing me from having continuous fluid movement. I will be doing bar reps for the next month or so. When things start to feel natural I will begin adding weight again. Hammer home the technique and build things back up.
I will be attending another seminar in the future for sure. I would recommend it for anyone to attend regardless of your lifting goals. You will get a ton of information from these guys and technique instruction from Dudes have been doing it for decades.
Thank you to Greg Panora and Swede Burns for passing on your valuable knowledge.
Matt Mills thank you for opening your facility to me, your facility is amazing and truly is a hidden gem.
Whether absolute beginner (there was a few in attendance) to very experienced lifter as well as anyone in between, everyone who attended walked away with information they could apply to their lifting and make immediate improvement. Which is invaluable to those who want to move forward and get Strong(er).
