Meanwhile in Norway …
Have you attended an Apti Seminar? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Related: Check out the Assistance Exercises from Dmitry Klokov’s Seminars.
Update 05.03.2015: Read the detailed reviews by Ramsey & Yuriy below the video.
Update 07.03.2015: Added Anton’s photo & video.
I attended an Apti seminar in London last week, video of his lifting is above.
So from memory here is what happened…..
Started off with his training session, he worked up to 160 of C&J then did some pulls at 170. Followed this up with close grip snatches, working up to 100 for a few singles.
He mentioned that his weight was currently just 81kg and that he tried to get to 94 category but only made it as far as 89kg. Also talked about how most of the year he is nowhere near competition bests ‘body cannot handle 200kg+ every week‘
We then moved onto snatches and Apti worked his way around everyone, Colin from WODSKILL TOURS also coached and was very knowledgeable. Throughout snatch session staying over the bar was emphasised and Apti said several times NOT to actively rebend the knees.
We then did a snatch from very narow foot position jumping onto plates to get better at finishing the pull, Apti said bar was enough weight to drill this.
Then it was C&J, again Apti and Colin worked their way around the goup. Staying over the clean was also emphasized as well as the point about NOT rebending the knees deliberately.
When it came to the Jerk Apti encouraged many people to slow down the downward phase of their dip, it worked for me as I got a PB 5 minutes later!
We then completed a jerk drill where you are not allowed to dip, just drive up. This was to teach you how to use full extension to get maximum height on the bar.
Close grip snatches (clean grip) were up next, again staying over the bar was a key theme. Apti said this was to develop flexibility and accuracy with the bar.
Finally we finished up with a back strength exercise which can best be described as a back plank. Basically a plank face down on a bench with plates on your back and legs [Video Demonstration].
Apti said 3 x 1 minute with a 20/15 plate would be a good point to get to. (Heavier on legs)
In summary it was without a doubt the best 4 hours of coaching I have ever had, the experience was fantastic and wod skill tours have done a great job organising it. Thoroughly reccomend to anyone.
From Anton:
- Says 90-95% of injuries in WL come from bad warm-ups
- Apparently has an old injury in his right shoulder and thigh/leg. This is why his grip isn’t 100% centered in his Snatches.
In the photo below you see Apti do a weighted Reverse Plank. He was in this position for 8-10 miuntes.
A video posted by Anton Viberg (@antonviberg) on
From Yuriy:
I worked as a translator during the Apti’s seminar in Italy about 2 weeks ago. I’m also a weightlifter so I paid attention to his thoughts about the technique etc.
In the first part of the seminar we did a little warm up after which he did a little training session (c&j, pulls). Once finished, we started our training.
The first exercise was the snatch. He told us to feel our feet and try to emphasize on the leg work while pulling, maintaining your shoulders over the bar.
After snatching, we did 3 accessory exercises useful for the Snatch:
- Good Morning (while sitting on a bench and positioning your feet very wide) x4 + overhead press (deep squat position, bar behind the neck, snatch grip) x3
- Hang Snatch with no leg/back drive (basically you have to pull the bar only using your calves and shoulders)
- Snatch Grip High Pulls to a Stick (set your squat rack on the shoulder level and put a stick on it to limit the pull height) x8
Once finished these exercises we took a break after which we did the same with the C&J as we did with the Snatch.
Apti went over both the split and the Squat Jerks. He explained how the feet position should change after the clean if you don’t feel comfortable during the Jerk.
“There is no standard feet position” told Apti. He wondered if we had ever noticed that sometimes, after the Clean, the bar on his shoulders is inclined. Several years ago his coach tried to correct him but he didn’t feel comfortable with the bar straight.
- These are the exercises we did after the Clean & Jerk:
- Jerk with no leg drive
- Hang Snatch (1x snatch grip + 1x intermediate grip + 1x C&J grip)
- Vertical Jumps (holding the bar on your back) 8×3 [Video]
At the end we did a little jump competition (obviously Apti won).
We spent the last 30 minutes for the FAQ.
It was a full day seminar so we had enough time to talk to each other about all kind of stuff. I was surprised about the fact that, although he is a world champ and olympic silver medalist, he still remains a nice guy.
I have a 20 min footage of him answering to the questions and me translating in Italian. I’ll try to translate it in english once I have enough time.
Reader Martin sent in this info from an Apti Seminar he attended in Oslo.
First Video: He worked up to 160kg c&j and did some pulls. Said he was tired.
At the end he did some games and Kettlebell tricks (wrist stability stuff). Video is from the plate hold comp.
Apti and most of the guys used 20kg (different kind of plates) and girls used less. Just for fun.
Apti said he thinks he needs 178kg snatch and 219kg c&j to win in Rio. Bodyweight stays around 3kg over competition weight in training. He has no plans to go to 94kg category (he doesn’t have the appetite he said).
Super kind and cool guy who is a bit modest and is not really such a showman but is really honest and comes off as a good guy. No diva at all (you see he uses different kind of eleiko plates which has way different bounce but he just lifts and doesn’t mind).
Exercises he went through on Sunday: (You can see videos of most of those in the Klokov Seminar Videos)
- Slow Snatches
- Snatches Jumping on to plates
- Narrow Grip Snatches
- Snatch High Pull to Stick
- Clean and Jerk
- Clean Pull with no foot lift off (only traps)
- Jerk assistance exercise where you have the bar on your back and you go in split position and then you shift for lead leg forward so your knee goes in way in front of your toes. Apparently helps so you get more comfortable in jerk position so you don’t “dance” (Apti’s words) when you catch your jerk.
There are already at least four 85 kg lifters who are better than Apti and they are not wasting their time with giving seminars instead of doing quality training. My opinion is that he is making a mistake with these seminars.
I asked them about this, not directly to apti but to a guy in tour with him, and he said they are on tour only when apti’s schedule permits, this time for example is 3 weeks on tour, and he is not training very heavy yet.
Also, I don’t think it’s that easy to say they are better than apti, after his title he was beaten only 1 time and not in perfect conditions. Besides that he is still 22 years old so he is plenty of time to improve.
Asking directly to him, he said to me that he plans to clean and jerk 220 in competion in the future, this is a c&j that can be compared to yurik vardanian’s, so if he manages this would be one of the greatest lifts ever.
The problem is that the other four is also plan to cnj 220 🙂 Okay I understand what you’re saying. I just see more in Okulov,Markov,Tao and Rostami that’s all. The Olympics is still far away and anything can happen of course.
They are all very close, that’s for sure xd. But my bet is that none can beat him on the c&j. I had some problems to understand everything in the seminar because my norwegian is very bad, but I think he said his best jerk was 230, but don’t take this as truth from me.
There is a youtube video of a 225 FS+Jerk (done when he was split jerking), as well as a more recent instagram video of him power jerking 223 out of a rack after his injury.
He also has posted numerous videos of him moving 180-200 for various reps of power and squat jerks and making it look like a toy. While I haven’t seen any other reference to 230 it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Remember he was coming off back surgery at the worlds too.
Apti ftw. Calling it now.
Rostami is so inconsistent…he’s definitely one of the strongest but he seems to only get 2 lifts in out of 6 every meet.
I wasn’t sure about him either but he proved himself last year and one can feel the space for more in him. Maybe it’s the back injury for Apti but he doesn’t have a pull which would convince me. He tries to jump under the bar with incredible speed because it’s always so low. I know that quickness is very impressive but when he gets to the big weights he’s weakness becomes very visible.. I’m talking about being competitive among the other stars. I hope he gets back to his best form – or much better – because he’s gonna need it.
that’s interesting…I wouldn’t see that (because I’m not a weightlifter). would you say his “raw” strength isn’t up to par with Rostami, Tiao, etc…or am I misunderstanding?
In weightlifting raw strength is far from enough. Of course he has incredible raw strength he’s a 390 man which is the highest level. But he’s back is clearly lets him down because he simply can’t pull the bar high enough in either discipline. He never fails a snatch because he over pulled it and it drops down behind him. He is almost perfect save his back.But that’s the most important beside the legs. Rostami is doughy like a gum 🙂 It gives him a lot of space to correct his lifts. He is strong enough to pull the bar high. Apti is a strict kind of guy,if he doesn’t get it perfectly he most likely fails the attempt. If his back gets stronger he can go much farther. Look at Tian Tao. He’s got an enormous strong back. Like Ilya. It’s never a question for them to clean the weight.
interesting…reminds me of Pyrros dimas who seemed to have incredible upper back strength and had a slightly “different” lifting pattern than some other guys.
Do you think his back injury is making it hard for him to get his back stronger ? (Apti)
Well,it certainly doesn’t help 🙂 Although it looked the same before his injury. When he was in form it wasn’t as visible as it is now but his pull was short before. I don’t say it has always been short – it would sound harsh and I don’t know.But again he is an outstanding lifter so no one should take my words as a criticism. Who knows? He might come back far stronger than before and beat the whole field. At the moment – injury or not – he’s not in the mixture for the gold. He does everything very well, excellent technique,strong legs ,determined attitude and all. He’s just weak at the back.
well, I hope we see them all head to head!
Very good point about the back. I believe in the old days of the split lifters, there were more pulls being done than squats by some lifters, certainly in the training of Schemansky. I am a split lifter now because of several joint issues and I pull at least three times a week but also squat every workout.
I agree. One of those four will be the winner at Rio. Apti is the most dynamic but I am afraid they have all caught up to his level. Ivan Markov will be a dangerous man being the champion of nothing. He will win sometime, it could just be Rio.
Eh, Rio is still 16 months out. Ilya went from straight “do you even lift?” status to world champion in less time, and he put on 10-15 kg in the process. Apti will have to work extremely hard to reach 178/219, but he’s got the time. Can’t fault him for wanting to make some cash before settling in to an Olympic cycle.
Agreed. I’ve seen this in other olympic cycle sports. Those who dominate in year 1, 2, and even sometimes 3 are not always the ones who win gold. Gold medalists are those who know when it is time to push. It’s possible he has the correct plan and this isn’t interfering with it, time alone will tell.
To be fair, Ilya was lifting on USA national level (unless you call it do you even lift level)
Lifting has “seasons” as well. It is entirely too dangerous and irresponsible to stay “in season” from now till rio. He is fine
https://m.youtube.com/results?q=fit%20performance%20apti&sm=3i
I attended an Apti seminar in London last week, video of his lifting is above.
So from memory here is what happened…..
Started off with his training session, he worked up to 160 of C&J then did some pulls at 170. Followed this up with close grip snatches, working up to 100 for a few singles.
He mentioned that his weight was currently just 81kg and that he tried to get to 94 category but only made it as far as 89kg. Also talked about how most of the year he is nowhere near competition bests ‘body cannot handle 200kg+ every week’
We then moved onto snatches and Apti worked his way around everyone, Colin from WODSKILL TOURS also coached and was very knowledgeable. Throughout snatch session staying over the bar was emphasised and Apti said several times NOT to actively rebend the knees.
We then did a snatch from very narow foot position jumping onto plates to get better at finishing the pull, Apti said bar was enough weight to drill this.
Then it was C&J, again Apti and Colin worked their way around the goup. Staying over the clean was also emphasised as well as the point about NOT rebending the knees deliberately.
When it came to the Jerk Apti encouraged many people to slow down the downward phase of their dip, it worked for me as I got a PB 5 minutes later!
We then completed a jerk drill where you are not allowed to dip, just drive up. This was to teach you how to use full extension to get maximum height on the bar.
Close grip snatches (clean grip) were up next, again staying over the bar was a key theme. Apti said this was to develop flexibility and accuracy with the bar.
Finally we finished up with a back strength exercise which can best be described as a back plank. Basically a plank face down on a bench with plates on your back and legs. Apti said 3 x 1 minute with a 20/15 plate would be a good point to get to. (Heavier on legs)
In summary it was without a doubt the best 4 hours of coaching I have ever had, the experience was fantastic and wod skill tours have done a great job organising it. Thoroughly reccomend to anyone.
Thanks a lot for the details Ramsey!
PS: the link you included just leads to a youtube search results page
http://youtu.be/DYBA9sBDnzo
Apologies Gregor I must have made a mistake when copying and pasting the link.
One above is correct and will be good to imbed.
Ramsey
Very nice! Thanks
I worked as a translator during the Apti’s seminar in Italy about 2 weeks ago. I’m also a weightlifter so I paid attention to his thoughts about the technique etc.
In the first part of the seminar we did a little warm up after which he did a little training session (c&j, pulls). Once finished, we started our training.
The first exercise was the snatch. He told us to feel our feet and try to emphasize on the leg work while pulling, maintaining your shoulders over the bar.
After snatching, we did 3 accessory exercises useful for the snatch:
– good morning (while sitting on a bench and positioning your feet very wide) x4 + overhead press (deep squat position, bar behind the neck, snatch grip) x3
– hang snatch with no leg/back drive (basically you have to pull the bar only using your calves and shoulders)
– snatch grip high pulls (set your squat rack on the shoulder level and put a stick on it to limit the pull height) x8
Once finished these exersices we took a break after which we did the same with the c&j as we did with the snatch. Apti explained both the split and the squat jerks. He explained how the feet position should change after the clean if you don’t feel comfortable during the jerk. “There is no standart feet position” told Apti. He wondered have we ever noticed that sometimes, after the clean, the bar on his shoulders is inclined. Several years ago his coach tried to correct him but he didn’t feel comfortable with the bar straight.
These are the exercises we did after the c&j:
– jerk with no leg drive
– hang snatch (1x snatch grip + 1x intermediate grip + 1x c&j grip)
– vertical jumps (holding the bar on your back) 8×3
At the end we did a little jump competition (obviously Apti won).
We spent the last 30 minutes for the FAQ.
It was a full day seminar so we had enough time to talk to each other about all kind of stuff. I was surprised about the fact that, although he is a world champ and olympic silver medalist, he still remains a nice guy.
I have a 20 min footage of him answering to the questions and me translating in italian. I’ll try to translate it in english once I have enough time.
And this is our picture on Instagram:
Thanks a lot Yuriy! I included it in the post as well. Nice write up.
“There are already at least four 85 kg lifters who are better than Apti ”
Make it three as Kianoush Rostami basically told Iranian Federation he rather to quit than getting very small compensation in his opinion. I personally believe this is just a bargain for better pay even though this puts his medal (not gold) in jeopardy in 2015 and 16.
Tian Tao has not shown us anything special except dramatic Asian games 218 C&J.
I would be really surprised if Rostami let that stop him from going for broke for an Olympic gold. Tian Tao has improved his competition snatch by 10kg in 1 year (or 7kg in 2 months) and shown us a 220kg clean and jerk in training after only a third of his winter training. Actually, Apti hasn’t shown us anything special since the 2013 Worlds and even then, that would have placed him 3rd in 2014.
Tian has cleaned 219 like a joke and did 220 C&J in training. Rostami cleaned 219 in 2011 and did 220 C&J in training as well. Aukhadov has never done more than 215 by his own admission, even at this 2013 training peak. He couldn’t rack 219. Out of the top guys he has the weakest pull i.e. missing height.
But this discussion is still silly overall. Right now Rostami is the best since he’s WC. But going forward nobody is THE favorite since four to five guys are remarkably equal. Rostami and Markov are already at 390, Tian and Aukhadov have the obvious potential, Okulov seems good for 175+215 by 2016 as well and even Alimov is close to 170+215.
At this depth anything can happen. Maybe Aukhadov wins with 395 but perhaps he never really recovers like Kolecki. Any of the other guys can get equally injured, miss a lift, bomb, get banned.
LOL “get banned”
Weakest pull maybe, best jerk for sure.
Everyone’s got their own strengths and weaknesses.
Thank you guys for the reports. However, whenever I read about seminars I wonder why people attend. I wonder, because what they talk about is nothing that any weightlifting coach shouldn’t know.
Not to actively rebend the knees is absolutly basic. Those are things you learn in your first weeks when starting lifting. I can understahdn that it is cool to see them lift, but I doubt that you learn anything special. Weightlifting isn’t that complicated.
I don’t know, I have never been. But if I had to guess, perhaps insight. The fact that these champions are normal people who are dedicated to their craft. Maybe when you see the precision of their movement rep after rep you realize chasing numbers is not nearly as satisfying as moving like butter. But I don’t know, I have never been.
I do not think these are normal people at all. Ilya Ilyin is the last person to be called genetically normal. I think they go to see these genetic marvels in first person, or, in the case of Ma Strength, it’s to experience the mystique that surrounds Chinese Weightlifting.
I think actually seeing people doing it gives a great insight on how you should do it. For me it is not about just asking what he eats or his training schedule, this is something for coaches, but a coach usually can’t lift him so that training with him makes you know better in which direction you should walk.
Good point by Anton that 90-95% of injuries come from bad warm-up. I am 52 yrs old and am training for a meet on March 21. Thursday morning injured my back doing cleans because my warm-up was only 10 minutes long and not the usual 20 minutes. Not a bad injury, should be back training Sunday.
Why do you think he has a weak back?
Upper or lower back?
How much weight do you use for the jerk assistance exercise to fix it so you “don’t dance”?