Shoes and masters

If you are hunting for Olympic Weightlifting shoes, click on this box and visit holdall. Cheapest I could find ( and they will pay us a commission!)

For UK Master lifters ( 35 Plus, but I'm really 21 you know) here are the 2009 Qualifying target totals. See you at Crystal palace for the Southerns in February. Thanks to BWLA for organizing these competitions.

age	35-39	44	49	54	59	64	69	74	79	80
56kg	130	125	112	107	95	82	72	57	55	55
62kg	142	137	125	120	105	90	80	62	55	55
69kg	155	147	137	132	115	100	87	67	60	55
77kg	170	162	147	142	122	107	95	72	65	60
85	180	170	157	150	130	115	102	77	70	65
94	190	180	165	157	137	120	107	180	72	67
105	197	187	172	165	142	125	110	85	77	70
105+	205	195	180	170	147	130	115	90	80	72

Olympic Weightlifting

Arthur Drechsler, author of The Weightlifting Encyclopedia (the single most important book ever written on Olympic weightlifting), hit the nail on the head when he wrote of the unique value of the Olympic lifts for athletes. Drechsler listed eight benefits unavailable to those using machines (1):

1. Practicing the (Olympic) lifts [the snatch and the clean-and- jerk as well as related lifting techniques] teaches an athlete how to explode.
2. Practicing proper technique in the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete to apply force with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequences.
3. In mastering the Olympic lifts, the athlete learns how to accelerate objects under varying degrees of resistance.
4. The athlete learns to receive force from another moving body effectively, and becomes conditioned to accept such forces.
5. The athlete learns to move effectively from an eccentric to concentric muscle action.
6. The actual movements performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and fundamental in sports.
7. Practicing the Olympic lifts trains an athlete's explosive capabilities, and the lifts themselves measure the effectiveness of the athlete in generating explosive power to a greater degree than most other exercises they can practice.
8. The Olympic lifts are simply fun to do.