2012 Samurai Strength 1-4

How To Go From Clueless To Your 1st
Contest In 12 Weeks Flat

by Nick Horton 
TheIronSamurai.com !1

Samurai Strength
Original Publication Date November 2011
Written and Published by: Nick Horton
http://www.TheIronSamurai.com
Version 2.0 (c) Copyright 2012 by Nick Horton
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or

transmitted by any means mechanical, electronic, or otherwise,
without prior written consent from the publisher, except for brief
quotations in a review. You may store the PDF on your computer
and create backups. You may print copies for your own personal
use.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on

the authors personal experience, knowledge, and opinions. The
author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse
of the information contained in this book.
This book is dedicated to Leslie and Brandy, the rock and the
hard place I've been fortunate enough to be stuck between
during the greatest years of my life.
Table of Contents

5 - Authors Note
8 - Introduction
15 - Part I: The Mind
16 - Chapter One: The Samurai Strength Philosophy
27 - Chapter Two: The Default Mode Network & Your Snatch
33 - Part II: The Body
34 - Overview of the Program
38 - Phase Zero
39 - Chapter Three: How to Snatch in 3 (or 4!) Easy Steps
56 - Chapter Four: Front Squats and Hip Thrusts
62 - Phase One
65 - Chapter Five: The Push Press and Upper Body
69 - Phase Two
71 - Chapter Six: Cleans and Pulls
74 - Phase Three
77 - Chapter Seven: How to Jerk
79 - Phase Four
80 - Contest Taper
82 - Appendix
87 - Resources 
AUTHORS NOTE
Dawn is coming. The blackened window by my
desk is just starting to clear up to reveal the rain-
soaked streets outside my apartment, in one of
the more bustling neighborhoods in Portland. I can
hear the train now, and the slow rumble of people
crawling out of their houses, dragging themselves
to one of the many coffee houses within walking
distance from where I'm sitting ... presumably
before they go to work. At a little past five in the morning, that is
early indeed. Especially given that it is Black Friday, the day after
Thanksgiving. Of course, they could be up in order to go
shopping, but that's another thing altogether.
I'm writing this Authors Note after a 72 hour non-stop stint

of editing and last-minute writing punctuated by small bouts of
sleep just barely long enough to keep a human alive. I've surely
taken on the look of a Zombie in dire need of a brain-fix. But, this
kind of thing was inevitable, and oddly appropriate given how the
book was written in the first place.
For the past six months I've been slowly stealing away time
to write this in bits and pieces, in late-night coffee shops and
pubs, with caffein or vodka or both in hand, all the while
attempting to keep up with an otherwise full schedule of
coaching, running a gym, marketing, writing for online outlets,
and of course, living. I'm married now - not that that means
much given that we lived together for seven years before we got
married - but the point stands that my wife is rather patient given
the circumstance.
It takes some kind of odd gumption, or arrogance, or
stupidity to write a book like this. Its very existence implies that I
believe that I've "got the answers". But, that isn't true - it's not
something that can be true for anyone. Answers to the kinds of
questions this book hopes to be a response to are variable and
ever changing by their nature. My philosophy on how to coach a
beginner has evolved quite substantially over the last half-
decade, and I'm sure it will again in the future. But, as of right
now, this program presents my best attempt to explain how we
train beginners in my club, how we take them from not knowing
anything at all about the Olympic lifts to entering their first
contest in as short a time as we can.
In a year from now, surely, the program will have changed.

That's the great thing about writing an eBook. It can be
constantly updated. Any time I come out with a newer version of
this book, simply email me your receipt and I'll email you the new
copy.
That said, this book does express my current beliefs about

one way that beginners (particularly adult beginners) can be
"brought up to speed". Some of the information is unique, some
of it is anything but. I don't believe in reinventing the wheel, so
I've gone around stealing all the best bits of coaching advice that
I can from anyone I can. The list of my influences here would be
rather long. But, I should at least point out a few who's ideas
have made it - in one form or another - into this eBook.
Of the people I know personally, Tom Hirtz, John Broz, Ivan

Rojas, and Michael Hartman are guys who are specifically Olympic
weightlifting coaches who I've "borrowed" from liberally, picked
their brains, and incorporated much of their ideas into my
programs. Other Olympic lifting coaches that have had some
influence on pieces of my thought process are Ivan Abadjiev, Alex
Krychev, Jim Moser, Glenn Pendlay, Sean Waxman, Greg Everett,
and Don McCulley.
I've also been inspired in my thoughts and in my writing by

Dan John, Bill Starr, and John McCallum. Those three writers are
hands down among the best fitness writers ever, and were the
biggest drivers of influence on my generation of modern fitness
bloggers, yours truly very much included.
Also a special shout-out goes to Bret Contreras who had a

particularly acute stamp on this book by introducing me to the
Hip Thrust which now begins the workouts of all of my early
lifters, and inspired a specially-made box for the exercise that we
affectionately call, "The Baby Maker".
Introduction

I'm just like you. I was never a national level champion. While
I've lifted weights for a long time, played some sports in high
school, and I tried to stay healthy in my adult life, I didn't start
learning the Olympic lifts until it was far too late for me to ever
get to the World Championships.
I'm a proud recreational weightlifter. I do this for fun.
My gym is full of people just like us. They've got jobs, lives,
and even kids. Yes, I've also got youngin's in the gym who are
"Nationals-Bound". But, the bulk of the place is adults lifting
because that's what they find to be a good time.
That is by design. I wanted a club that catered to people just

like me and my friends. The programs I write, the progressions,
everything is built with the adult recreational weightlifter in mind.
A driving question has been: How do I make you the best
weightlifter you can be given all the constraints you have
in your life?
It is in that area where I differ quite strongly from most

Olympic lifting coaches - and where this book differs from most
Olympic lifting books. Other coaches' prime focus is on
developing the next "big" champion lifter. That's a great thing.
Our sport NEEDS that! But, the sport also needs folks like us.
I had a vision that if I opened a club who's first priority was

the adults, then that would create a positive environment in
which lifters of ALL ages could flourish. I believe that the entire
future of the sport in the United States is dependent on
dramatically increasing the number of adults who learn the snatch
and clean and jerk simply because they think it's fun and
exciting.
My Grandfathers, on both sides, were Southern Baptist

Preachers. They were both missionaries to Japan. While I'm not a
religious man, I think some of their overall vibe rubbed off on
me.
I'm a weightlifting evangelist!
I want to help as many adults as I possibly can get better at

the Olympic lifts, have fun with it, and in the process improve the
quality of their day-to-day lives.

Learning to Snatch Makes You A
Better Person
I know how hokie it sounds to claim that learning the Olympic
lifts - especially the snatch - will somehow make you a better
person. But I honestly believe that.
We're not going to the Olympics. We're not going to be

members of the National Team. We aren't going to Worlds.
(Unless it's Masters Worlds!) We have to have other motivations
for working so hard at learning such a complicated - and obscure!
- set of skills.
When you're a kid, you play. You have a full life. You learn in
school, you have many friends, and you play hard. Sadly, as most
of us grow up we lose some of that. And it is killing us.
American's have one of the highest rates of depression in the
entire industrialized world. We even rank as more depressed than
many of the worst-off third world countries! That's crazy!
We live in the richest, most industrialized, and abundant

country to ever grace the earth ... and we're depressed about it?
While I recognize that not everyone in the U.S. is living the
"American Dream", and (without verging on politics) there are
some major changes that could make peoples lives better, most
of us are doing far better than we give ourselves credit for.
The struggle is the natural human tendency to confuse the

words Wealth with Rich. Being rich, or even just having more
money than you do now is certainly something we can all hope
for. I'm not against making more money. Whether you agree with
the principles or not, we DO live in a capitalist society and in that
society you need some money to meet your basic needs.
But, Wealth is something different and is TOTALLY

independent of your cash flow. Wealth has to do with the quality
of your life, the people in it, your relationships to those people,
the activities you engage in, and the joy you feel in just being
alive.
Most of my life I've been DEAD broke. I've done "day" labor
along side immigrant workers making a wage that borders on
illegal. I've held demeaning jobs under employers whose eyes
have long since gone blind with indifference. I've gone into debt,
crawled my way out, and gone right back into debt again. And
I've lived in ghetto houses with ghetto people who were selling
ghetto drugs to other ghetto people.
And yet, I've felt wealthy and lucky. I've had amazing
friends who are always there for me when I need them the most.
I've always erred on the side of quality time in my life over
chasing more and more money.
And I've had weight lifting.
In various forms, ever since I was in high school, I've lifted

weights. It was one of the only - maybe THE only - constant in
my life throughout the last 20 years.
I can't help you with your cash-flow problems. But, I do

hope to help you feel more wealthy as a human being. Believe me
when I tell you that learning to snatch, putting in some serious
time on the skills that go into weightlifting will help you to feel
more fulfilled as a person.
You only have one life to live. Live it well. And have some
fun!

Defining a "Beginner"
A beginner is usually defined as someone who has honestly never
lifted weights a day in their lives. Programs designed for this class
of people are based on linear progressions that shoot for progress
and PR's (Personal Records) at every session.
The problem with this definition of a beginner when we're

dealing with someone in your shoes is that it only half applies.
You are likely brand new to snatching and cleaning (at least brand
new to using good form!) ... but if you're anything like the adults
who come into my gym, you've lifted weights before. You may
have spent over 10, 20, or more years getting quite strong.
Maybe you did CrossFit, maybe powerlifting, or bodybuilding, or
just random stuff at a "big box" gym. Who knows. The point is
that you did SOMETHING and you are now stronger than the
average person your age. You are in better shape all around.
You are far from a beginner in terms of your brute strength.

Sure, you could probably be stronger in a few ways that are
relevant to the Olympic lifts - maybe a lot stronger! But that
misses the point.
The problem is that what you can snatch and clean is far
less than your current strength levels would indicate. When it
comes to the Olympic lifts, you ARE a rank beginner. The SKILL of
the movements is new to you and you need a program that is
totally focussed on fixing this.

What Is The Point Of This Book?
Samurai Strength is that program. It is based on the exact
program I'd have you follow if you walked through my doors
tomorrow.

"My goal with every lifter that comes into my
gym is to prepare them to be able to compete
in their first competition - with total
confidence - in 12 weeks flat. It could take a
bit longer, but that's the goal." 

Anyone can do this. Sure, you won't be lifting the biggest
weights in the world just yet. You'll have things to work on. But,
you'll have the confidence that you can do it, hit legal lifts, and
have a great time alongside some new (cool) people.
Not everyone who goes through my program even wants to
compete. They certainly don't have to! But, they CAN. That's the
point. If they decide to, they're prepared.
Stick this program out, and even if you've never snatched a

day in your life, in 12 weeks you can enter an officially sanctioned
Olympic Weightlifting competition.

The Structure of Samurai Strength
In case it hasn't become obvious by now, I'm not interested in
weightlifting solely for the sake of your body. However, if you
don't learn to snatch that doesn't mean that you can't have a
healthy mind!
The opposite however is not true. You can't ignore the way
your mind works and expect to lift maximum poundages on
something as complex as a snatch or clean. That is impossible.
You are an adult. Just like how learning a new language is

harder for us than it is for children, the same is true with these
lifts. Some things that come naturally to the young will seem
nearly impossible to you ... at first. But, if you take heed of the
advice that follows concerning mental training, your progress will
speed along faster than it would otherwise. A lot faster.
Samurai Strength is split in two. The first part is all about

your Mind. The rest is about your Body. It's fairly clear what the
Body part is: it's a program to make you a better Olympic
weightlifter! But, the first part may not seem so obviously
related. Rest assured, the mental stuff is just as important - I
believe more so - to your progress as the physical training is.
I start the book off with a chapter titled The Samurai
Strength Philosophy in which I describe the unique approach I
take to lifting heavy weights above my head. I follow that with a
chapter called The Default Mode Network and Your Snatch which
deals with the underlying psychological roadblocks that plague
most of us on the platform - and in so much of the rest of our
lives - and how to deal with those problems.
You can certainly skip the first part of this book right now
and get started on the actual weightlifting program. But, I
strongly advise that you come back and read it, reread it, and put
the ideas into practice.
Beginners grossly underestimate how mentally tough

the Olympic lifts are. Advanced lifters never do.

Part I
The Mind

Chapter 1
The Samurai Strength
Philosophy
“I have found that bushido means to die.
It means that when one has to choose
between life and death, one quickly
chooses the side of death.” - Yamamoto
Tsunetomo, The Hagakure

The above quote is one the most misunderstood quotes to come
out of The Hagakure, which is (in turn) one the most
misunderstood books in Japanese literary history. At best, it
appears to be a call for you to take a reckless attitude with your
life. At worst, it looks like a promotion of suicide.
In fact, the author, Yamamoto Tsunetomo seems to be

obsessed with death throughout his famous book. So much so
that a majority of scholars in Edo (the ancient name for Tokyo) at
the time took serious issue with him. And who could blame them
with quotes like this:

"A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges
recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will
awaken from your dreams." - Yamamoto Tsunetomo
The reality was that Tsunetomo wasn't aiming to encourage
an obsession with death, but the precise opposite. He
understood a fundamental problem that faced the Samurai going
into battle. If you fear death, you are more likely to die. If you
don't fear it, you are less likely to die. Tsunetomo grasped this
issue with both hands.
Every lifter fails in the beginning with heavy weights because

some part of their brain tells them that with weight this heavy the
technique they used at the lighter weights can't possibly work
now! No way!
But, unfortunately, their brain is telling them a lie. The

reality is the precise opposite. If you DON'T use good technique
there is no way you're going to lift that bar above your head.
A young Samurai would practice and practice with a stick in

a relatively safe environment. (I say "relatively" because their
training was brutal!) They weren't going to die. But, eventually
they had to go into battle - where they could die.
What most people wouldn't account for is that the human

brain is smart enough to recognize this difference: In practice
there is no risk of death, but in battle there is! This difference is
enough to completely alter the way you react - no matter how
much time you've practiced. All the training in the world will go
out the window if you let your fear get the best of you.

Weightlifters have a similar (albeit far less frightening!)
problem. They can practice all day and have the prettiest
technique in the world on the snatch with light weights. But as
soon as they get upwards of 90%+ of their maximum, fear sets
in, they throw all that proper-form-crap out the window, and
decide to just yell and yank on the bar like a gorilla.
This almost never goes well.
The bar comes off the ground too fast; they get on their
toes; they throw the bar forward; don't finish their pull; or they
do something else that causes them to miss a weight that they
should have made easily.
Samurai training was designed to deal with this problem

head on. I believe your Olympic Weightlifting training should do
the same. During the next 12+ weeks of following this program
you are going to be doing more than just lifting weights to train
your body. You are going to be training your mind to chill out so
that you can lift at the best of your potential.
Your Mind is More Powerful Than

Your Body

"Fear is the Mind-Killer" - Dune, by Frank Herbert

If there is one single philosophy behind Samurai Strength it is
that Your Mind is Stronger than Your Body.
That is true whether you are capable of controlling your

mind or not. If you let your mind have a life of its own, then you
are accepting that you will have no control over your body. You
will always be less capable on the Olympic lifts (or anything else
that is athletic) because of it.
This problem is so common that I honestly don't believe that
most lifters will be capable of reaching their potential without a
dedicated and concerted effort on their part to retrain their mind,
lose their fear, and get in control of themselves.
The great news is not just that you will lift heavier weight
this way than you would have without it, but that it will carry-
over to the rest of your life. That is the whole point to me. I love
the sport of weightlifting, but I love helping people to live happier
and more fulfilling lives even more. I believe that the skills you
develop as a weightlifter will make you a stronger person
psychologically.
If you can learn to get over your fears of snatching

heavy weights, you will be able to get over many other
fears in your life.
While I'm usually against applying "war" analogies to sports

and coaching as I think it devalues and disrespects those people
who have actually served in the military, I think learning to adopt
a mindset similar to that of a Samurai warrior will aid you greatly
in your quest for bigger numbers on the Olympic lifts.

Failing Forward, OR, Learning to
Accept Failure
One of my best friends, Maria, and I took a number of
Mathematics courses together in college (I was majoring in Math,
she in Engineering). Given the reality that fields like
mathematics are hard as hell, and that anyone who is going to do
well will spend more time failing and getting answers wrong than
they will getting answers right, we came up with a phrase that
we still use today: Failing Forward.
The idea is that you CAN'T move forward unless you are
failing. That may seem insane. We live in a culture that values
only winners, and losers are ... well ... losers! However, in the
REAL world, if you want to get good at something that is hard -
very hard - you will have no choice but to fail, a lot.
Another phrase I commonly use is, "The only difference

between a Mathematician and everyone else is that the
Mathematician has no fear of failure." The same could be said of
a great weightlifter.
In the gym, I tell people that if they aren't failing, they

aren't trying hard enough. (I even made a series of T-shirts with
a "Try Harder" theme for this very reason.)
A fear of failure functions much like a fear of death. It can

paralyze you. When learning the Olympic weightlifting
movements, you WILL fail a lot. There is absolutely NO way
around this. You will get the technique wrong over and over
again, day after day. But, that is part of the process. Don't
despair.
You fail because you are trying hard enough to fail. You are
Failing Forward, and that is a good thing. In time, you will get
better. With every failure comes the opportunity to succeed at a
higher level.
Zen and the Samurai
Samurai adopted much from Zen Buddhism, so it may behoove
me to quickly summarize those parts of Zen that were the most
relevant to the Samurai, and that I believe to be the most
relevant to you as a weightlifter.
It is imperative to keep in mind that what we would call

"Samurai Zen" is a perversion of Zen proper. You may already be
asking why the Samurai, a class of warriors who killed other
people would have adopted the philosophies of Zen, a philosophy
most associated with compassion! You're not alone.
Take this quote by D.T. Suzuki, the great writer on Zen, in

his book, "Zen and Japanese Culture":

"It may be considered strange that Zen has in any way been
affiliated with the spirit of the military classes of Japan.
Whatever form Buddhism takes in the various countries
where it flourishes, it is a religion of compassion, and in its
varied history it has never been found engaged in warlike
activities. How is it, then, that Zen has come to activate the
fighting spirit of the Japanese warrior?" - D. T. Suzuki

One way to deal with this issue is to accept that in many ways
Zen is less Buddhist than it is Japanese. "Zen wants to Act," says
Suzuki, "and the most effective act, once the mind is made up, is
to go on without looking backward. In this respect, Zen is indeed
the religion of the samurai warrior." (from "Essays in Zen
Buddhism")
Buddhism was first brought to Japan by the ruling classes
who hoped to use it as a way to cement their own positions and
"preserve" the nation. Several centuries later, Zen followed (Zen,
known in China as Ch'an, is a particular form of Buddhism that is
in many ways more Taoist than Buddhist). But, when it did, the
pattern was already clear. Religious philosophy was being molded
around the needs of the state, not the other way around.
Tsunetomo was at the time living as a Buddhist monk when

he wrote, "I have no desire to attain Buddha-hood. The sincere
resolution deeply engraved on my mind is to be reborn for as
many as seven times as a Nabeshima samurai and administer our
clan." Unlike what one would expect from a monk - a desire to
reach enlightenment - Yamamoto's concerns were only of his
master and his clan. His masters would be proud. But, was he
really a Buddhist?

Now ... be careful. Even if we start to feel uncomfortable
about adopting the Samurai version of the Zen attitude, we don't
want to throw the baby out with the bathwater!
The reasons behind the development of Zen in Japan may

sound uncomfortably self-serving on the part of the elite classes,
but that is hardly rare. Most religious philosophies (or
philosophies in general) that have been adopted by a large
portion of humans have similar roots. Our concern should be just
how applicable to our current situation are the tenets that arose
out of this odd marriage of Power Politics and Compassionate
Mindfulness.
In our case, a weightlifter can't be simply mellow and

detached from their task at hand. They must also be aggressive
and explosive at the right moment. On the surface these things
seem like they are incompatible. But, they are not. Like the
Chinese Yin and Yang, in order to be whole, one needs to be both
calm and aggressive. (See my two-part article series *Zen Mind,
Big Snatch* to get a feel for what I'm talking about here.)

"Do" vs "Jitsu"
Japanese martial arts can be split into two groups, those with a
strong philosophical component that end in "do" (means "The
Way") like Judo, Kendo, Karate-do; and those that are more
practical and focus more on technique. These end in
"Jitsu" (means, "technique"), or "Jutsu", like Jujitsu and Kenjitsu.
(Jujitsu was the original form of martial arts that the Samurai
used, which is a bit like Judo, but is far more violent and can
include things like biting!)
Generally, if you are engaging in an activity for the purpose

of having a healthier body, mind, living a more fulfilled life,
adding joy, enjoying community, or anything else of that manner
then you are practicing a Do. If, however you are practicing an
activity because your basic ability to perform at that activity is
necessary for your survival - like computer programmers actually
knowing how to program or they get fired - then you are
practicing a Jutsu. There is some debate here on the "proper"
classifications of these two terms. But, the above is a pretty
good way to do it.
Professional athletes are practicing a Jutsu when they play

their sport. Most of the rest of us are not. If we fail to perform
well there are not dire consequences to our lives or to our bank
accounts. We may not like performing badly, and we may strive
hard to avoid failure, but the consequences of failure are limited
to personal feelings.
For this reason, when I liken the practice of the sport of

Olympic weightlifting to a martial art, I'm calling it a "Do" not a
"Jutsu", since it is a rare person who is training for weightlifting
that is doing so professionally, or with the goal of being an
Olympian. Most of us are doing it for other reasons that are
broadly a part of our own philosophy on how we'd like to "live the
good life".
I suppose we could call it, "Oly-do" (The way of Olympic

Weightlifting), but that sounds rather silly! Oly-jitsu, or Oly-jutsu
(The craft of Olympic weightlifting) sounds better, but ... we're
getting past ourselves!

Naysayers will get upset with any approach to learning the
Olympic lifts that appears to be "Amateur" or "less serious" than
one would use with a potential future Olympian, and so might
object to my use of the suffix "Do". That is, "If you aren't doing
everything necessary (no matter if it is healthy or not) to increase
your weight on the bar then you are not serious enough," is the
thinking. (Professional athletics is not healthy. Their training
often looks similar to something we'd call healthy, but they're
evaluation of the risk/reward equation is quite different than
ours.)
These naysayers are missing the point.
I have personally gone through periods where I was training

upwards of 13 sessions a week, going to maximum on the
Olympic lifts and squats at every session, and generally training
exactly like a professional athlete. That did not make me a
professional athlete. I didn't have to do that. I could stop at any
time. The reason (the real reason) I was doing it was as a form
of personal growth.
My guess is that no matter how hard you train in the gym,

you are likely just like me: You are not a professional athlete and
you never will be. This means you have to have other - I'd say
deeper - reasons to train hard, to spend lots of time learning a
very complicated lift like the snatch, and work at it with focus for
a long period of time.
Why do this?
What the hell is the point if it isn't for money, glory, or

whatever it is that you aren't going to get?
Your reasons come down to your belief that doing so will

increase the quality of your life. In other words, you're practicing
a "Do". Let's just accept this now, and find ways to use this fact
to your advantage.
Before we get to that, however, let's not totally abandon the

strategies of a Jutsu. There is much to be gained in adopting
some of the mental strategies of the Samurai who had to actually
use his techniques in battle or die, or the professional weightlifter
who has to use her technique in contests or else lose her position
on the national team.
There is an urgency in the practice of a Jutsu that doesn't

always exist in the practice of a Do. This urgency forces you to
confront fears and push through barriers you may not otherwise
push through. If you don't find a way to push through these
mental barriers, you will never be able to lift at the higher ends of
your capacity.
A proper Jutsu mentality is this:
All the technique in the world with low weights is

worthless if you can't use it with your maxes or on the
platform at a contest. Worthless. 
Chapter 2
The Default Mode
Network and Your
Snatch 1

Hopefully, I've made it clear enough at

this point that there is no greater
impediment to your success as a
weightlifter than your own mind. Again,
that isn't being said in some froofy way.
It's basic psychology.

What in the World is the Default
Mode Network?
"Absence of occupation is not rest. A mind quite vacant is a mind
distressed." - William Cowper
Imagine yourself in a hammock, on a sunny afternoon, under a

large tree near a beach, with the wind blowing softly over your
body. You are drifting off to sleep, barely conscious, relaxing.
Then, you get smacked in the face with a volleyball!
1
!Brain photo is by Gaetan Lee whose Flicker page is here: http://flickr.com/
photos/43078695@N00
Instantly, you spring to action and prepare yourself to
pummel the punk kid who dared to disturb your quiet slumbering
state of immaculate bliss.
What was your brain up to the moment that ball whacked

you good across your brow? What about in the moments right
before?
In the past, scientists believed that your brain was largely in

a state of near-nothingness in those moments. They believed it
was like the white noise you hear coming from the radio when
you tune it to a channel in between stations. They were wrong.
Your brain when "at rest" is actually remarkably active, with

different regions of the brain communicating with one another.
The medial prefrontal cortex, medial parietal cortex, and the
medial temporal lobes are all more active when you are not
concentrating on anything in particular in your environment than
when you are.
Psychologists and Neuroscientists now call these parts of the

brain, collectively, The Default Mode Network (DMN) . Whenever
you find yourself having a major epiphany, you have your DMN to
thank.
There are two basic theories on what the DMN is:
1. A baseline for processing and information maintenance
2. Introspection and mind wandering
In the first theory, the DMN boils down the constant and steady
stream of data that is coming into our brain from the outside
world. It helps to filter this information and make sense of it so
that we don't go nuts.
In the second theory, the DMN takes charge of your
daydreaming, subconscious creativity, memory retrieval, and
planning activities - those things where you are turing your mind
"inward" rather than focusing on something happening outside
the brain itself.
These theories are not incompatible. And, both likely hold

some truth to them. But as great as all of that sounds, there is a
dark side.
Many psychological disorders have been associated with

DMN malfunctioning including Alzheimer's, ADHD, Autism, and
Schizophrenia. Anxiety and Depression are highly correlated with
a person being too inwardly focussed, placing too much emotional
emphasis upon their own thoughts - overemphasizing their
importance. (I have a strong personal connection to all of this
which you can read more about here: http://
www.theironsamurai.com/2011/07/16/managing-depression-
with-weightlifting-or-how-you-feel-is-a-lie/)
An overactive DMN is detrimental to your conscious self. It

creeps in and makes focus hard, anxiety more likely, and success
in whatever it is you are trying to accomplish less likely. On the
platform, when you are about to attempt a heavy snatch this is
near the top end of your ability, you must have a calm, clear, and
distraction-free mind. Yes, you will be aggressive in other
physiological ways so that you will put forth maximum effort and
power. But, if your mind is over thinking all the details, focused
on what might happen if you do 'this' or 'that', then you will fail.
To lift heavy weights on the Olympic lifts, you must develop

a mind that is able to focus and be clear no matter what is going
on around you, or even inside your own head.

Mental Strategy: Meditation the

Easy Way
As I said above, the central tenet of the Samurai Strength
Philosophy is that your Mind is more powerful than your Body.
Given that, you must have a way of training your Mind so that
you can be in control of it when it comes time to lift heavy
snatches on the platform. The best, and most practical method I
have ever come across is simple Zen Meditation.
Research is showing that the type of meditation that I will

describe here is effective at quieting the Default Mode Network.
But only if you practice it diligently and consistently.
I've been practicing Zen meditation now for over a decade,

and I can say without reservation that it has dramatically
improved my life for the better. What I'm going to do in this
section is give you a 5-step action plan to learning meditation.
Alongside your physical training (the discussion of which

takes up the majority of this book) you should be practicing
meditation. As funny as it may seem to be learning how to
meditate out of a book on Olympic Weightlifting, rest assured that
if you want to put heavy weights over your head, you are going
to need to take a comprehensive approach. This is one such
approach that works.
Meditation done in the most basic way can help train your
mind to deal with the hardest things that will face you on the
platform. Again, a major one is a tendency to OVER THINK. If
you think during a heavy lift, you will miss it. If you let your
emotions start to rise up, you will miss. The best lifters have the
ability to control their minds in a way most people can't. Some of
them have this ability because they are just "naturally" talented
in this way. Others have to practice it as a skill, they had to work
to develop it.
I'm going to assume that you need practice. I sure did!
Below is my 5-Step approach to teaching meditation to a

beginner. Follow these steps everyday. It shouldn't take you
more than 20 minutes at the most. Even if you just do this in
your mind while you are lying in bed trying to fall asleep, you've
done something worthwhile.

5-Step Basic Meditation
Step 1: Find a quiet place to sit.
Step 2: Shut your eyes.
Step 3: Breath in and out.
Step 4: Count each breath trying to only think of the

counting of the breaths.
Step 5: Every time you lose count because your mind

wanders, don't fret. Simply go right back to where you left
off and count from there. No biggie.
Start out by counting to 20. If you can do that successfully for a

while, then up it to 50. Then 100. Once you can count to 100
breaths everyday with minimal mental deviation and mind
wandering, then you have made a real (and physical!) positive
changes to your brain. You are now able to control your mind in
a way most people can't.
And, the great thing is that all you needed to know how to
do was breath and count! How easy is that?

Take Patient Action
No matter what else you get from this section, you should take
away that you must take action if you want to train your mind to
deal with fear in a more positive and controlled way. Practice the
5-Step Meditation Plan just a few times a week at first. Then add
a day, then add a day until you are up to five or six. Treat it just
as you would your physical training, and you WILL lift more
weight in the long run.
Samurai Strength follows the "slow" method. I don't believe

in rushing your learning process with such a complex set of
movements that comprise the Full Snatch and Clean and Jerk.
This stuff IS hard. Make no mistake. A failure to take seriously
how much technical learning you have ahead of you would be a
grave mistake. Do your future-self a favor and follow the phases
of this program with patience. Learn the meditation techniques.
And apply all you learn to the platform and to your life.
Slowly but surely, you will develop true Samurai Strength. 

Part II
The Body
Overview of The
Program

The Samurai Strength Program is split into Four Phases with a
MANDATORY initial Phase Zero. Each of the main phases will take
between three and six weeks. The length of time that you stay on
each phase is determined totally by whether or not you've
honestly accomplished the goals of that phase. So, you can be on
this program from between a minimum of 12 weeks and a
maximum of 24.
Don't rush the learning process. This isn't a book that is

simply designed to get you stronger (though you WILL get
stronger). It is a book designed to maximize how quickly you can
learn a basic set of skills that you will then have forever. Take this
idea to heart. You are attempting to learn a set of life-long
techniques and skills. Once you've gotten them down, you'll
never lose them. Sure, you may get a bit rusty if you take a
break for a while. But, at any time in the future that you want to
dust them off and get to lifting again, you will be able to.
Making the skill of snatching, cleaning, and jerking ingrained

in this way is ONLY possible if you put in the initial time and
energy required to make it permanent. Respect the learning
process and you will reap the rewards for a lifetime.
How to Read the Workouts
Each phase is going to have both Heavy Days and Light Days.
How many times you workout per week is totally up to you. You
simply have to follow these rules:
If you only workout 2 days a week, then do only the Heavy

Days.
If you workout 3 times a week, then do 2 Heavy Days and 1

Light Day.
If you workout 4 times a week, do 2 Heavy Days and 2 Light

Days
Any other workouts you add to this should be light days.

Don't be discouraged if you can only get to the gym twice per
week to work on your weightlifting skills. I've found that many
beginners, especially adult beginners, do BEST with only 2 heavy
sessions per week with any other work being supplementary and
focused only on light practice.
If you can only hit the gym twice a week, but you want to do
something more, you can always do more technique training with
a broomstick or PVC pipe at home. Learning a complex task is
mostly about how much work you are willing to put into drilling
the basics. Drill the basics!
What About My Guns, Dude?!
You'll no-doubt notice that I've included NO upper body training
as a written part of the workout (though, I do explain the Push
Press). This is not a book about how to look awesome naked. If
you want to get good that the Olympic lifts as fast as you possibly
can, then your workouts will need to be highly focused.
Each session will largely consist of time spent working the

snatch (and eventually clean and jerk), a minor amount of time
dedicated to squatting, and only a tiny bit of your time (if any at
all) spent on other exercises.
Don't despair! This program is designed on purpose to be

something you can add things to if you want to. If you are doing
CrossFit three days a week you can still do this program two or
three days a week right on top of it. If you want to do some
bodybuilding work a few days a week to supplement what you're
doing here, be my guest.

Don't Deadlift
That said, it won't work to do this program and try to do heavy
powerlifting moves at the same time. I'm not at all worried about
you "burning out" or "over training". What I'm worried about is
that your body and nervous system will get confused.
Deadlifts are a great exercise, and I encourage most people

to do them. However, during your initial learning phase you want
to eliminate those exercises that are very similar to the Olympic
lifts but are different.
Similar but different is HORRIBLE for your learning process.
It is false to say that the first part of a snatch or clean is just

like a deadlift. It's really really close in many ways ... but it ain't
the same! It is just enough different that if you are trying to learn
the snatch and clean while still doing heavy deads every week,
you'll constantly default to your deadlift positions. That's bad
news.
If you absolutely must deadlift, I suggest you do Sumo Style

for a while until you finish up this program. Sumo deads are so
far away from anything that looks like an Olympic lift that you
aren't going to run into any problems in motor learning.
Phase Zero

Heavy Days
Hip Thrust Heavy 3 reps*
Fab-5 Snatch Drill (see below) 10x3 with empty stick or bar
Front Squat 3RM (rep max)**
Light Days
Hip Thrust Heavy 3 reps
Fab-5 Snatch Drill 10x3

*Heavy does not mean Max. Go up to something that is feeling
like real work and stop. Don't keep going until you fail or are
completely exhausted. This is a learning and activation exercise
in this program.
**Read the appendix on maxing out to get a better idea of what I

mean by such a thing.
This phase could last as little as one day or as long as three

weeks. Do NOT move forward until you are doing the Fab-5
Snatch Drill correctly about 90% of the time.
Here's a link to a video showing you how to do the Fab-5

Snatch Drill:
http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/09/27/samurai-strength-
episode-001-the-fab-5-snatch-drill/ 
Chapter 3
How to Snatch in 3 (or 4!) Easy Steps

Learning how to do anything complicated out of a book is rather
silly given that we live the modern age of Youtube. This book is a
Programming book, not a Technique book primarily. I fully expect
that you will use this book along side the companion Samurai
Strength Video Series that I post for free on Youtube and up at
my Blog, The Iron Samurai. It is much easier and faster to learn
technique through a video than through words on a page. That
said, I have added in descriptions of what I think are the most
basic points to be made here in the book anyway. I've done my
best, but please do yourself a favor and watch the videos, ask me
questions on the blog, and we'll make sure that you learn as fast
as you can.

The snatch is certainly a complicated exercise. But, if you can drill
in 3 key positions for the pull, and 1 for the catch, you will have
the basic skeletal structure down. For the purposes of nearly
everyone who isn't a dead-serious competitive weightlifter, what
I'm about to show you will be more than enough to get you by for
a LONG time.
We're going to be working from the top down and splitting

the pull up into 3 static positions that I call:
1. The Hip Position
2. The Knee Position
3. The Start Position
There is also the Catch Position which I'll get to later.
There are two risks that teachers face when trying to teach
complex material. The first risk is that they explain too much,
give too many details, and overwhelm the student. Doing this
causes the student to lose interest, feel like a failure, and quit.
On the upside, they didn't miss anything and the teacher can feel
good about how accurate the information they presented was.
The second risk is oversimplifying to the point of obscurity.

You take the material to be learned, break it down into its
skeletal, genetic structure - determine its DNA. Then you teach
the DNA, and help the student to build the organism on their own
in an organic way.
The risky part is that by simplifying you can end up basically
lying to the student. You say things that are true for rank
beginners, that are true in the abstract, but are not true - or at
least aren't completely true - if we're talking to an advanced
student. You are intentionally holding back some information,
amplifying other details, and giving an impression of what is
happening that will seem rather naive once the student has
reached advancement.
I always err on the side of oversimplifying with beginners. I

do this because I have a faith in my students abilities to take the
DNA, the materials I'm giving them, and put it together on their
own in the most relevant way possible for themselves. It helps
the student to have a self-guided learning experience that results
in their feeling a sense of ownership over their progress.
By stripping out the fat, taking away those things that don't
matter when you are starting out, and honing in as tightly as we
can on the absolute basics and drilling those basics, the student
makes faster and longer lasting progress.
I stole this approach from the martial arts. In ancient China,

when students hoped to learn Hung Gar Kung Fu, they were
asked to stand in what we can call their power position (which is
basically a half-squat) for hours and hours a day before they were
allowed to even be called students! Because if you can't hold that
position, you can't learn Kung Fu. Period.
Our approach is the same. If you can't hold the positions

I've outlined in this book correctly - and all day, and without
having to think - then you aren't ready to be a weightlifter. Drill
this stuff, make it a part of you, and you will reap the rewards of
heavy weights above your head.  
The Hip Position
There is no more important position in all of
weightlifting than the Hip Position. If you do
this right, but you get absolutely everything
else wrong, you can still hit some big
snatches. However, if you mess this position
up, but you get everything else right ... you'll
miss anything heavy.
Reread that paragraph above. Seriously.

Ingrain this idea in your head. You MUST be
able to get into this position on EVERY lift you
ever do no matter how much weight is on the bar. The only way
for that to happen is if you drill the living bajeezus out of it now.
What is funny, and more than a little ironic, is that if you

took a video of a great weightlifter and then looked at it frame-
by-frame, the Hip Position would occupy only about one of those
frames. Experienced weightlifters will move through this position
remarkably fast. But don't let the speed fool you. They get there,
it just happens at a pace that the naked eye finds hard to see.
In the beginning your are going to be flipping everything

upside down and spending the vast majority of your time at the
Hip Position, drilling how to move into it and out of it. The Hip
Position is the last place you will be before you initiate the final
explosion that puts the bar over your head. It's a good idea to
make it second nature.
The 3 Rules of the Hip Position:
1. Weight on the Heels
2. Shoulders back behind the bar
3. Legs in a quarter-squat

There are only three things you should focus your brain
around when you are drilling the Hip Position. The first is that
your weight should be on your heels. The second is that your
shoulders should be back BEHIND the bar. And the third is that
your legs should be in about a quarter-squat stance. (Keep in
mind that is a quarter-Olympic-squat stance where your hips are
above your heels, your torso is bolt upright, and your knees are
traveling forward as the means by which your torso is lowered.
Do NOT "sit back" into your squats in weightlifting.)
There are other things I could bring up, of course, like

keeping your lats tight or your chest high. But, it is much easier
to remember 3 things at first and add in the other stuff after you
have learned these so well that you don't have to think about
them anymore. You just do it.
That is where the you and bar will start your learning
process. There is nothing weird about holding this position with a
broomstick while watching TV at night.
Now that you know where to start the bar ... where does it
go next? Overhead, of course!
The Catch Position
I'm now going to ask you to
"jump" (use your legs, not your arms to
move) the bar from the Hip Position to
what we'll call your Catch Position. With
an empty PVC pipe it is easy enough to
do. I'll be continually posting videos to
help you improve how to move the bar
from the Hip Position to the Catch
Position, but suffice it to say that the
action should come from your lower
half and not your upper half.
No matter how it gets there, I'm going to want

you to catch it in exactly the same way every time.
The 3 Rules of The Catch Position:
1. Arms locked out tight.
2. Head forward and shrug up.
3. Legs in quarter squat

Again, you've got 3 key things to think about. The first is
that your arms need to be totally locked out - as though you just
finished the end of the heaviest overhead press. Flex the triceps
as hard as you can. Something that helps a lot of people is just
thinking of gripping the bar hard and pulling the bar apart.
The second is that your head should be slightly forward and

your shoulders should be shrugging upwards. Many beginners
want to look up at the bar when it is over their head. That is a big
"no no". If you do that, it forces your shoulders to come forward
which puts the bar too far forward which causes you to miss. On
the other hand, if you stick your head forward a touch, then the
traps can shrug upwards and lock the shoulders back which keeps
the bar over the back of your head and over your center of
gravity naturally.
The last thing is that you should catch the bar with the legs
in the exact same (or darn close to it) position they were in at the
Hip Position. What this means is that your legs start out in about
a quarter squat stance, they extend fully at the hips and knees
(straighten out as if you are standing tall, jumping, whatever),
and then they come right back to a quarter squat stance.

WHAT ABOUT DIVING UNDER THE BAR?
Many beginners make the mistake of believing that Olympic
weightlifters first put a bunch of momentum on the bar, then
switch gears and dive down into the bottom of an overhead squat
position. That is MOSTLY true, but it is just enough wrong that it
can really mess you up.
What really happens is a weightlifter puts momentum on the

bar, then keeps pulling on the bar so hard that it literally pulls
their body down under it. But I DO NOT want you to worry about
all of that. It's for a later date after you've mastered what is in
this book.
What is important, and implied, in the previous paragraph is

that the weightlifter meets the bar where it lands. That can
be very high when it is light, or rock bottom at the heaviest
weights. It appears that lifters dive to the bottom on every lift,
but in truth, they catch the bar where it lands and then ride it
down.

CATCH IT AND RIDE IT DOWN
If you dive into the bottom of an overhead squat on every lift, no
matter how heavy the weights is AND you put serious force on
the bar on the way up (something I want you to do, and
practice), then you are going to get to the bottom before the bar.
This will cause the bar to CRASH on you, break your lockout, and
land on your back or head.
I've seen this kind of accident many many times, it is ugly,

and it is likely the number one way you could hurt yourself in
weightlifting. Let's avoid that future by learning a new skill right
here and now: Catch it and ride it down.
You need to learn the skill that every good weightlifter has,
the ability to KNOW where the bar is going to land without having
to think about it, watch it, or ask it a question. This skill isn't
something you will magically have simply by wanting it. You have
to learn it.
The way you learn it is to start by always catching the bar,

stopping, then squatting down to the bottom. Do this on every
rep.
Do not catch the bar, stand up straight, adjust yourself, then

squat down. That is wrong. Catch the bar, STOP, then squat
down.
I find this drill to be remarkable as a self-learning aid. If you
catch the bar, but are so wobbly that you have to stand up
straight and adjust your feet before you squat, then you did
something wrong. Figure out what that was and fix it.
WHAT ABOUT TRIPLE EXTENSION?

There is a rather heady debate-a-raging out there
in the weightlifting world about whether or not
the Triple Extension exists, is important, or should
be ignored completely.
The Triple Extension is the extension of the

hips, the knees, and the ankles. When you fully
extend the knees, your legs are straight. Extend
the hips and you are standing up with your hips
poking forward a bit. Extend the ankles and you
are on the toes.
Add all of that up and you get the pose that we have all
become accustomed to seeing weightlifters in. For instance, the
picture here is of my lifter Brandon Tovey extending like a maniac
(he's also extending the Thoracic spine which gives him that
"Banana Position" look)2

The debate is about whether the ankle extension is

intentional or not, and whether it SHOULD be intentional or not.
I will not get into this debate in this book because I believe
it has no relevance for you at this stage in your learning process.
But, since you are likely going to hear about it, and because what
2
! The term "banana position" I stole from Don McCauley.
I'm telling you to do sounds an awful lot like I'm taking sides (I'm
not, I really haven't formed a solid opinion on this), then I
suppose I'd better make a quite note.
I tell lifters to stay on the heels at all times. Drive through

the ground as hard as you can through the heels. I never teach
lifters to extend the ankles. And yet, as the picture of Brandon
attests, some of them do it anyway. I've never once told Brandon
to extend at the ankles. He just does it.
I don't know if Brandon and other lifters of mine are

extending the ankle with muscular force from the calf muscle, or
if the ankle simply extends out of momentum. I have no idea.
And I really don't care.
I have a belief that much of what teaching is ... is

getting out of the way of the students learning process.
You make certain key things explicit, and the student will fill in
the details without even knowing that they are. This makes their
learning deeper, more ingrained, and intuitive. It will last a
lifetime in a way that memorizing a list of facts doesn't.
For you, for all beginners, especially adult beginners, the

triple extension is just one more detail that mucks up the learning
process. My advice is to totally ignore what is happening below
your knees. Extend at the hips as hard as you can (like a hip
thrust), at the knees as hard as you can (like a jump), and you'll
be fine. You might develop a full triple extension, you might not.
That's a discussion and a concern for a much later date. (If this
topic really interests you, I suggest you check out articles by
Sean Waxman and Don McCauley who are on opposite sides of
the issue. They each have very well thought out arguments which
will allow you to come to your own conclusions.)
On that note ...

HEELS, HEELS, HEELS
I'm a bit of a "heels" centric dude. I yell things like, "stay on your
heels!" or, "Heels down!" or, "Drive through the heels!" all the
time. I'm a broken record.
I think it is unfortunate that the pull in weightlifting is called

"the pull". It should be called "The Drive". You should
intentionally try to drive your heels down into the platform
as hard as you can.
If you tell someone to pull, they tend to overuse their upper

body. If you tell them to drive their heels down with as much
effort as they can, then they tend to lift the bar up correctly. It's
weird, but it works.
I'm into whatever cue actually works. If all I had to say was,
"Dr. Who" to get lifters to hit perfect snatches, then that's what
I'd do.
As I said above, you will very likely come off your heels
when you are transitioning from the Hip Position to the Catch
Position. But, you shouldn't think about it. You should try to drive
your heels into the ground as hard and fast as you can for as long
as you can. Sure, you'll likely end up on your toes for a split
second. But, the act of trying to stay on the heels keeps the bar
doing what you want it to do: stay close to you, move fast, end
up over your base of support rather than way out in front of you.
The Knee Position
After drilling the movement from the
Hip Position to the Catch Position for a
good long while, it's time to move to
the next stage: The Knee Position. I
find this spot to be the hardest to hold
for most people at first.
You must at once be on your

heels, have the shoulders far over the
bar, the lats tight so that they can pull
the bar in close enough to touch the
knee cap, the hips high, and the shins
totally vertical (perpendicular to the
ground).
Thankfully, remembering all of that is unnecessary.
The 3 Rules of the Knee Position:
1. Hips High
2. Heels Down
3. Lats Tight
Having your hips high is really just a sneaky trick. What we care
about is that your shins are totally vertical - perpendicular to the
platform. The reason is that the bar is having to come up past the
knee and if your knees are trailing forward, then the bar is forced
to zigzag around them. To avoid this, you get the knees back as
far as you can.
It just so happens that if you tell someone to raise their
hips, the knees come back automatically. Plus you get the added
bonus of the shoulders going forward over the bar. It's a two-for-
one deal.
Anytime during the process of learning how to snatch that

you can get a 2-for-1 deal, you should take it. There are so many
little things to remember and keep track of that it can be very
easy to fall into the trap of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.
By cutting down on the number of cues that you have to
remember, you are cutting back on the stress of learning, while
still getting all of the same benefits. Win-Win!
If you don't get the knees back then the bar will Zigzag
around them on the way up off the floor. That zigzag motion
increases the length of the bar path. That ain't good! It also will
force the bar to come into your hip at a more horizontal angle
that you want it to. When the bar comes into the hip at a
horizontal angle then it has no choice but to bang off the hips and
reverse direction - forward! You don't want the bar to move
forward away from you, you want it to go vertical. In order help
that process along, you need to pull your knees back as far as
you can so that the bar is coming up your thighs at a nicer, more
vertical, angle.
As a side issue - though, it is one that is certainly important

- you will be stronger at the top if you get your legs straighter
now. If at the Knee Position, you allow your knees to be too bent,
and your hips too low, then the hamstrings are already contracted
nearly in half. You don't get to use them as well to bring the bar
upwards. However, if you get your hips high here (thereby
straightening the legs) then you can use the full force of your
hamstrings throughout their range of motion to accelerate the
bar. This gives the bar a greater speed at the top, which you
want.
Now ... you aren't deadlifting here. You're moving from this
position to the Hip Position, rather than from the Knee Position to
simply standing up straight with locked legs. The entire reason
we shift you to the Hip Position is because we want to guarantee
that your bar path from the hip up is as vertical as we can make
it. While you will get the majority of your pulling power from your
hamstrings and glutes during the shift from the Knee Position to
the Hip Position, you MUST make sure you transition correctly to
the Hip Position before you explode the bar upwards in order to
keep the trajectory correct.

The second key to the Hip Position is that you gotta keep
your heels on the ground. At the Hip Position, keeping the heels
down at the start was rather easy. At the Knee Position it is hard.
With high hips and the shoulder trailing far forward over the bar,
it will feel natural to let your weight drift forward onto the balls of
the foot. Beware of this.
Thirdly, your lats need to be tight. The lats act as "arm

depressors". If you stand up tall and put your arms out in front of
you like Frankenstein, then have someone push upwards against
your hands while you attempt to resist them, then you will feel
the lats engaging to keep the arms where they are.
When the bar is in your hands, and you are at the Knee
Position, with your hips high, and your shoulders way out over
the bar, that bar is going to want to drift out away from your
body. Don't let it! I want that bar to TOUCH YOU on your knee
caps. It needs to actually be in contact with your body here. The
only way that is going to happen is if you flex you lats tight.
The Start Position
It is a bit ironic that we're ending
with the Start Position, but such
is the way of things. What is most
important here is that you
develop consistency. If you start
different every time, then the
rest of the pull will be different
as well.
I like to teach what is known

as "The Low Hip Start". I don't expect every lifter to stick with it
forever in the exact form they learned it, but I find that if I teach
them this way, they learn what I need them to learn faster. And
they are able to adjust (to fit their body type, style, etc) in ways
that don't break the lift.
I don't want to get into the details about the debate between
starting lifters with high hips verses low hips here. It is an
argument better left for when you are finished with this program
and are more advanced in your learning process.3

The 3 Rules of the Start Position
1. Hips Low
2. Heels Down
3. Shoulders Behind the Bar
! See my article "The Low Hip Start" on the Blog of Bret Contreras: http://
3
bretcontreras.com/2011/07/banned-in-the-usa-a-renegade-approach-to-learning-
the-olympic-lifts/
The hips should be as low as you can comfortably get them.
Flexibility will play a big role here, as will Olympic lifting shoes
that have a heel. At the very least, make sure your hips are low
enough that the top of your thighs are parallel with the ground. If
you can't mimic the position of Brandon in the picture above, you
need to work your flexibility!
I find that so long as a lifter does this, almost everything

else I want to see happens also without them having to think too
hard about it: weight on heels, shoulders behind bar.
I'd prefer it if the majority of your weight (at least 60%) was
on your heels. But, I'll take the weight being primarily at mid-
foot. What you cannot have is the weight on the balls of your
feet. That is a major problem.
If you start forward on the balls of your feet, how likely do

you think it will be for you to shift back to your heels by the time
you end up at the Knee Position? Not likely. There are some who
argue to the contrary citing examples of great world-class
weightlifters, but those arguments aren't particularly relevant to
you and me. We aren't world class weightlifters who started
learning how to do this when we were 12 years old. (I didn't do
my first power clean until I was 26!)
For us, we gotta start on the heels (or very close to it) if we
want to stay on the heels throughout the pull.
Chapter 4
Front Squats and Hip Thrusts

In the beginning, and often for a long time after, I only have
lifters doing two assistance exercises while they learn to snatch:
the Front Squat and the Hip Thrust. They are learning these two
exercises for different reasons.
The Front Squat is going to be your primary strength builder

for a while. I love this exercise for a number of reasons, chief
among them that you can max out safely, you can add a lot of
weight to it rather quickly, and it teaches lifters how to squat like
a weightlifter rather than a powerlifter. (I used to be a Powerlifter
myself, so I have nothing against them or the way they do things.
But, if you want to get good at the Oly lifts, you'll need to shift
over for a number of reasons that mostly have to do with
technique building.)
The Hip Thrust is my first line of defense against lifters who

refuse to finish their pull via a powerful hip extension. Most
people have never extended their hips fully which begs the
question, "How do babies ever get made?" It is for this reason
that the Hip Thrust Box (my lifter Trevor built us a dedicated box
just for this exercise) is affectionately known in our gym as, "The
Baby Maker".
The Front
Squat
If you could only do one
assistance exercise as a
beginning weightlifter, it
would be the Front
Squat. The back squat
is great, but too many
of us have bad habits on the back squat that must be broken.
I don't allow anyone to back squat in my gym unless they prove

to me that they can front squat in a way that looks like the
picture of Arron here - and do so with a good amount of weight.
An Olympic back squat looks nearly identical to a Front Squat.
The only difference is that the bar is on your back. If you can't
keep your torso upright, hips over the heels, and knees forward
in a Front Squat there is no way you'll do it with a back squat!
The 3 Rules of the Front Squat
1. Upright Torso
2. Hips over the Heels
3. Knees Forward
Your torso should be as upright as you can possibly get it during

your squats. Do NOT "sit back" into a squat the way you were
taught. That kind of squatting has its place (the sport of
Powerlifting being an obvious one), but this ain't it. If you sit back
into a squat then your torso must tilt forward. If the bar is on the
front of your shoulders, what do you think will happen to it? It
will fall off your shoulders!
When you do a clean, you will default to the squatting you
do the most. It will be subconscious. If you always squat down in
the "sit back" style, then that is exactly how you'll squat down
when you are cleaning ... and you'll miss your lifts. On the other
hand, if you learn to squat like a weightlifter and make that your
default, then every time you clean, you'll do so with your torso
bolt upright and you'll actually catch you lifts.
There are tons of arguments out there about whether

powerlifting or Olympic lifting squats are "better" for strength or
what have you ... you shouldn't care about that right now. What
is important is that squatting like a powerlifter (low bar, sit back,
etc) will cause you to default to this style on every snatch and
clean and you will miss your lifts for purely technical reasons. You
must make habitual your tendency to squat with an upright torso.

In order for your torso to be upright, two other things must
be in place. Your hips must be directly (or close to it) over your
heels. The farther back your hips are, the farther forward your
torso must tilt. Minimize this as much as possible by sitting
straight down rather than back with the hips.
Of course, if your hips don't go back then something will

have to give in order for you do go downward! Them something's
is yer knees.
The knees should go forward as you squat down. The farther

forward you can get them, the better. A heel on the shoe helps a
lot here, but if your ankle flexibility is up to it you can get the
knees pretty darn forward while still being on your heels.
Don't let your heels come off the ground. As is true in all
squatting, no matter what else is happening with your body, your
weight needs to be back on the heels. Most of the time when a
lifter misses a Front Squat forward it is because they came off of
their heels. Heels, heels, heels.
The Hip Thrust
Number two on your list of
most important assistance
exercises for the weightlifter
is one that may seem a bit
odd-ball: The Hip Thrust. It
certainly isn't something you'll
hear most other Olympic lifting coaches talking about. That isn't
because the lift is somehow inferior, rather it is simply because up
until a few years ago, no one knew anything about it!
Thanks to my friend Bret Contreras (see my resources

section), I gave this strange exercise the old college try on both
myself and my lifters and have found it remarkable. No other
exercise so quickly teaches a lifter HOW to properly extend at the
hip the way you must when you are finishing your snatches and
cleans. (It is also a great strength builder. But, for the purposes
of this program, you will use it first and foremost as a technique
builder and glute activation exercise.)
Learning to get the hips "through" at the top of the pull is

one of those situations where the teaching of adults and
youngin's can vary quite a bit. The younger you are when you
learn this stuff, the quicker you'll be able to get this down and the
more intuitive it will seem. (Not always, but generally.) For the
rest of us, we have to take the time to really dial in the act of full
hip extension. It just don't come natural.
The 3 Rules of the Hip Thrust
1. Feet close to the butt in a squat-like stance.
2. Squeeze the butt to raise the hips up to parallel (there will
be a straight-ish line from your knees to your shoulders),
then keep squeezing the butt to bring the bar up past
parallel.
3. Extend at the Hips NOT the Low Back!!
I'm not going to go too deep into the discussion of how to

perform this. (see my video on Hip Thrusts for Weightlifters:
http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/10/13/samurai-strength-
episode-4-hip-thrusts-for-olympic-weightlifting/)
But, I do want to make the point that you need to make

sure that when you are hip thrusting, you are practicing the art of
extending your hips and NOT extending at the lower back as a
way of mimicking the look of hip extension. That is very very bad.
You are extending at the hip joint not the spine!
Phase One

Heavy Days
Fab-4 Snatch Drill* 10 x 2
Front Squat 3 Rep Max

Light Days
Fab-4 Snatch Drill 20/20's (see Appendix)

*The Fab-4 Snatch Drill is a variant of the Fab-5 Snatch drill. The
only difference is that instead of pausing at the hip on the last
shift upward (from the Knee Position to the Hip Position), you do
a "rolling stop". It is what Brandon is doing at the end of this
video: http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/09/27/samurai-
strength-episode-001-the-fab-5-snatch-drill/
The concern is that you will not actually get the bar back
into the hip. Be patient. If you don't end up in the Hip Position at
the end, then you are doing something wrong. You DO NOT need
to move fast from the knee to the hip. It is a slow acceleration.
Exaggerate how slow you are moving from the knee to the hip,
then at the last second, explode the bar up. Don't rush it.

We're finally at phase one! This phase is not structurally all
that different from Phase Zero. You start with Hip Thrusts, you
practice snatching, then you squat. The big difference is that you
get to add weight to the bar now. Woo!
But ... don't go crazy. You need to stick to the 90% rule (see
Appendix). 90% of your attempts at any given weight should look
really good before you move up in weight.
On the other hand, make sure you are using enough weight
to force you to struggle to make them look good. Moderate
weights have little place in this sport. You use light weights to
drill basic technique till it is ingrained, then you use the heaviest
weights you can still make look pretty. You must use those
heavier weights or else you won't progress. Stagnation often
comes from lifters being far too timid in their training. I AM NOT
giving you license to be an idiot and use more weight on the bar
than you can honestly do with good form. I am reminding you of
the whole point: to lift more weight over your head!

On the Heavy Days, push the snatch up as heavy as you can
make look good and try to get a full 10 sets of 2 reps in that
range. You may need to lower the weight on some sets, or even
raise it. But, the full 10 sets should be at weights that are hard
for you. So, if 90% of them need to look good, you can have only
1 set look crappy. Keep that in mind! If you are unable to reach
that goal, no worries, simply adjust at the next Heavy Day. It's
the journey ...
On the Light Days you are doing something called 20/20's. I

explain them in more detail in the appendix, but the point is that
you hit 20 singles on the minute for 20 minutes all at the same
weight. If you make 90% of them, then next time you can add
weight. Start lighter than you think you should. It gets mighty
taxing to keep up the pace.
Chapter 5
The Push Press and Upper Body

All upper body work in this program is totally optional. It is rare
that you will NEED it at all. The one major exception are those
folk who are lacking in core strength and stability. I include the
entire torso as part of your core, so this includes your shoulder
girdle.
Weightlifting requires that the lower body acts as your prime

movers and your upper body musculature acts as stabilizers. If
you aren't strong and stable in the upper body then you may
need to work on that. (Often males will come into my gym after
10+ years of bodybuilding and powerlifting type work and are
more than strong enough in the upper body for our purposes. If
you are in that crowd, then dial back the upper body work for
while. If you can bench press more than you can back squat, I'm
talking to you!)
The most relevant upper body exercise to the Olympic lifts is

the Push Press. If you only had one option for upper body
strength and stability, this is it. I will not specifically proscribe and
write into the program, but I will often have lifters go after a
heavy set of 3 reps on the Push Press at the end of a Heavy Day.
You are also more than welcome to do other lifts like Rows
and Chins. Because the Olympic lifts tax your back so much -
including your upper back and traps - and because you are doing
so much of them, you won't need to do lots of rows and chins the
way other lifters need to. But, they won't hurt you! And, they
could make you better.
If you DO decide to add in these "bodybuilding" type

exercises, just do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps at the end of your heavy
days and call it done. (You can even do Curls and I won't make
fun of you. I do them, too. They are an exercise that is by no
means important, but if done moderately can be a fun addition.
Let's not get into that silly habit of making fun of anyone who
does anything that differs from the most hardcore Bulgarian
national workouts. We're trying to have fun here! 
The Push Press
As I mentioned above, the most important upper body exercise
you can do if you are a weightlifter is the Push Press. It is a great
combination of an upper body strength builder, core stability
builder, and leg drive improver. And, while it differs from the Jerk
just enough to periodically cause problems, it is close enough that
becoming good at the Push Press will usually carry over to the
Jerk.
What I also love about it is that it takes away the worst

things about the strict press while still keeping the best parts.
The strict press causes a lot of pain in the shoulders for most
lifters. This is because maximum impingement occurs at the
beginning of the movement where the bar is moving from the
shoulder to about the top of the head. A good Push Press
"pushes" right past this part of the lift. You use your legs to drive
the bar up (cheating, if you will). By avoiding this part, you also
avoid the pain.
The 3 Rules of the Push Press
1. Drive through the heels as hard as you can
2. Bar rests on your shoulders not in your hands.
3. Poke your head forward at the top and shrug up to lock in

the upper back muscles.
Fundamentally, a Push Press is just a well-cheated Strict Press.

You use your legs to drive the bar up to the top of your head or
higher and then finish by using your arms. Stay on the heels
during the drive phase. You don't want to pitch forward. Doing so
will quickly cause you to lose a heavy lift.
Fill your chest with air and stick it up like you're trying to
show off at the beach. The bar should be resting on your
shoulders, not in your hands. Err on the side of your rack position
looking very similar to your Front Squat rack position.
At the very top, your head should poke forward and you
should shrug your shoulders up for all of the same reasons you
do this when you snatch.  
Phase Two

Heavy Day 1
Fab-4 Clean Drill 10 x 1
Full Snatch w/ 2 sec.pause at Knee 6x2
Romanian Snatch Deadlifts Heavy set of 5
Heavy Day 2
Full Snatch w/ 2 sec. pause at the Knee 10 x 2
Fab-4 Clean Drill 6x2
Hirtz Pull Heavy set of 3 reps
Light Day 1
Fab-4 Clean Drill 20/20's
Light Day 2
Full Snatch w/ 2 sec. pause at Knee 20/20's


*You are now going to snatch from the floor in the same way you
will in a contest (no more going to the hip, stoping, coming back
down to the knee, then finishing). However, there is ONE
difference. You will still pause at the knee. I want you to pause
for a FULL 2 Seconds! Hold it. Really hold that Knee Position and
make sure it is PERFECT before you finish the lift. And ... when
you finish from the knee up, make sure you honestly get back to
that Hip Position correctly. Again, don't rush it.
Chapter 6
The Clean and Pulls
There's a reason I started you off with the Snatch and Front
Squat only for a while and avoided the Clean like the plague: The
Clean is easier to "muscle" around than the snatch. You can cheat
a little, catch it badly and still move some real weight. (Sure, not
as much as you could with good form, but the weights can still
get heavy.) That just isn't possible with a Snatch.
In a Snatch, you are forced into a binary situation: you

either make the lift with correct form, or you miss it 'cause your
form sucked! From a teaching perspective that is fantastic. You
want it to be crystal clear when you're learning when something
is right or when something is wrong.
But, there is also another reason I start you with the Snatch
+ Front Squat combo. The Clean IS a Snatch in nearly every way
but two. The first difference is that your hands on closer on the
bar, so the bar will be a little lower down on you at the Hip
Position.
Your pull on the Clean should be IDENTICAL in nearly

every way to your pull on the Snatch.
You'll have a similar Start Position, the Knee Position will

look virtually unchanged, and the Hip Position is really close
except for the bar being a bit lower down on the hips (it's now
resting high on the thigh).
The other reason is the obvious one: you catch it on your

shoulders rather than overhead. This second difference requires
its own type of learning that just happens to be covered by
learning how to Front Squat ... because the catch in a clean IS a
Front Squat.
Believe it or not, that is all I have to say for the Clean! Pull it
like a Snatch, catch it like a Front Squat. Done.

The Romanian Snatch Deadlift
The original version of a Romanian Deadlift has you starting at
the Knee Position and then simply standing up straight. It is a
GREAT exercise. It is, in fact, my favorite hamstring exercise.
But, it presents a big problem for new lifters: it is similar, but
different, from how you clean and snatch. As I've said before,
similar-but-different is horrible and must be avoided.
To counter this, we have a habit in my gym of altering the

technique of Romanian Deadlifts (whether with a Snatch or a
Clean grip) to match that of pull in an Olympic lift.
What that means is that we start at the Knee Position and

then adjust to the Hip Position as though we were about to do an
Olympic lift ... and then we finish with a strong hip extension:
flexing the butt. This is not done fast. And we try to avoid weights
that are too heavy to keep this form going.
The 3 Rules of the Romanian Snatch Deadlift
1. Start at the Knee Position
2. Move to the Hip Position, then give it a good "butt" squeeze
3. Reverse directions exactly, repeat.
When done in this manner, Romanian Deadlifts will ingrain some
wonderful habits. However, the temptation will be VERY strong to
revert to the original version of the exercise where you simply
stand up straight. Don't do that!
While in my club it is implied that this type of form is what

I'm looking for when I write "Romanian Deadlift" up on the white
board, in print it's probably a good idea for me to be explicit
about it. So, I'll write Romanian Snatch Deadlift and Romanian
Clean Deadlift to indicate the grip and that I want you following
strict technique!
The "Hirtz" Pull
One of my most important mentors in the sport of Olympic
Weightlifting is the Oregon-based coach, Tom Hirtz. (He's the
coach of 2-time national champion and world team member,
Sarah Bertram - who is one of my favorite American lifters.)
At one point he was giving me, and a few of my lifters, some

pointers and showed us a drill he has his own lifters do. Well ...
he had one of his male lifters show us. This particular lifter looks
exactly the way most male lifters wish they looked - buff is a
gross understatement.
He grabbed a bar loaded with a ton of weight, set his

positioning, and then lifted it with perfect form to the knee,
stopped, and then lowered the bar slowly in exact reverse
direction. He tapped the ground and repeated this a few times.
In hind-sight I realize that he was drilling the movement

from the Start Position to the Knee Position. But, the fact that so
much weight was being used kinda blindsided me!
The 3 Rules of the Hirtz Pull
1. Begin at the Start Position
2. Finish at the Knee Position
3. Reverse directions, repeat.

NOTE: If you combine the Hirtz Pull with a Romanian Clean
Deadlift you have a Clean Pull done the way we do them in my
club.  
Phase Three
Heavy Day 1
Snatch 1 Rep Max* + 3 x 2 @ 80%+
Clean + Jerk 5 x (1 + 2)
Romanian Snatch Deadlift Heavy set of 5 reps
Heavy Day 2
Clean + Jerk 5 x (2 + 1)
Snatch 1 Rep Max + 3 x 2 @ 80%+
Hirtz Pulls Heavy set of 3 reps
Light Day 1
Snatch 8x2
Light Day 2
Clean and Jerk 10 x 1

*Bad Form counts as a Max!!! You must follow the "3 Strikes and
You're Out" rule. If you miss 3 times, then you are out. Time to
do the back off sets. Do the 3 x 2 reps at 80% of the best lift you
made that day. You can go up if you are making the weights look
beautiful. The Point of the back off sets is to dial in great form
again. Sometimes the attempt to hit a big weight clouds your
rational brain and you will revert to bad habits. Use these
"flushing", or back off sets to get back to the good form you've
been practicing.
Chapter 7
The Jerk
The Jerk is the odd man out among the three Olympic lifts in that, unlike the
others, most people do it right the very first time they try it - at least 80% right. But,
if there is any one mistake I see people making it is that they mistake the Jerk for an
upper body exercise. It is not. Not at all.
Unlike a Push Press, you don't finish the lift with your arms. They start
similarly (though with a Jerk your dip and drive is more fast and explosive), but
after the drive phase, in a Jerk, you dive down under the bar so that the arms catch
it while locked. What this means in practice is that the arms again act only as
stabilizers, not prime movers.
The 3 Rules of the Jerk
1. Loosen your arms and shoulders at the start while simultaneously holding a
big breath and locking up the torso.
2. Drive through the heels
3. When you land, stick your head forward and shrug up (just like the snatch)
I know that it seems totally incongruous at first to hear me tell you that your arms
should be relaxed when the bar is racked on your shoulders. But, if they aren't you
are far more likely to initiate the Jerk by pushing up on the bar with your arms and
shoulders. That is a NO-NO! Not just because you will be less powerful - you will.
But, because you will increase your risk of injury substantially. If strict pressing is
hard on the shoulders with weight you can actually press ... imagine how hard that
motion is on the shoulders when you are attempting to push up a weight you can't
even Push Press.
The next thing to worry about is that you need to make sure that you are not
doing the following: Dipping down, stopping, then driving up. It should be a
bounce out of the bottom of the dip into the drive. It is like when a basketball hits
the court. It goes down, hits the deck, and immediately rebounds.
Be the basketball.

For more on the Jerk, watch the following two Samurai Strength companion
videos:
How to Jerk Part 1: Dip and Drive
http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/10/27/samurai-strength-episode-5-how-
to-jerk-part-1-dip-and-drive/
and
How to Jerk Part 2: The Agony of Da Feet
http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/11/18/samurai-strength-episode-6-how-
to-jerk-part-2-the-agony-of-da-feet/
Phase Four

Heavy Day 1
Clean and Jerk 1 Rep Max + 3 x 2 @ 80%+
Romanian Clean Deadlifts Heavy 3 reps
Heavy Day 2
Clean and Jerk 1 Rep Max + 3 x 2 @ 80%+
Snatch Pulls Heavy 3 reps
Light Days
Power Snatch* 1 Rep Max
Power Clean 1 Rep Max
*Read the Appendix section on the Power versions of the lifts.

Contest Taper

Saturday - One Week Out From Contest
Snatch 1 Rep Max
Clean and Jerk 1 Rep Max
Front Squat Heavy Single (not necessarily a max)
Monday
Snatch Up to your Opener
Clean and Jerk Up to your Opener
Front Squat Heavy Single (not necessarily a max)
Tuesday
Power Snatch Heavy single (not max)
Power Clean Heavy single (not max)
Wednesday
Snatch 10% below Monday
Clean and Jerk 10% below Monday
Front Squat 10% below Monday
Thursday
Power Snatch 10% below Tuesday
Power Clean 10% below Tuesday
Friday off
Beginners don't need a long taper into a contest. Usually one
week is more than enough. This is the template that we've used
over and over and over again with great success. With my more
advanced lifters I get more complex, and it takes them longer to
lead into competitions now. But, they all used this at the
beginning.
This assumes that your competition is on Saturday, since

that is when most local and State level competitions are.
Appendix
What follows are a series of random points and issues that don't
really require full chapters and are a bit discombobulated, yet are
still important enough to include.

Maxing Out
Olympic weightlifting is a 1-rep-max sport. The entire point is to
lift the heaviest weight you possibly can for one rep. In practice,
this means that you will miss a lot when attempting a max. The
struggle for a coach is to find a way to teach someone HOW to
max out both safely and effectively.
I always start by teaching someone how to max out on the

Front Squat with a 3 rep max. I don't start with a 1 rep max just
yet. The goal is to keep adding weight until you miss the third
rep. That's it. On a Front Squat, missing is no big deal. It is safe
to do, and not psychologically taxing.
Missing on the Olympic lifts is not as easy, neither physically

nor psychologically. For that reason, I don't want you missing
weights on the Olympic lifts pretty much ever until Phase Three of
the program. Let yourself get good and comfortable learning how
to miss safely on the Front Squat, then we'll move you forward.
Consider any lift made with bad form a miss!
Remember that the goal here is to develop good habits. You

should be making about 90% of your lifts (see below my note
about The 90% Rule). While I don't want you to actually miss lifts
totally on the Oly lifts (as in dropping them) if you can help it for
a while, you will surely do a ton of attempts with horrible form.
Count those as misses and don't move forward in weight until
90% of your attempts at that weight look good.

The 90% Rule
Perfection is great, but it is also impossible. Beginners come in
two stripes: those that add too much weight too soon; and those
that never add weight unless everything is perfect. Both lifters
are making a mistake.
If you add weight too soon, then you are always going to
have bad form and you'll never lift at the best of your potential.
On the other hand, if you wait to add kilos to the bar until
everything is perfect ... you'll wait forever!
You only need about 90% of your attempts at any weight to

look good to feel justified adding weight to the bar. Don't be in
the bad habit of fearing more kilos. This is a sport ALL about
heavy lifting. Get to lifting heavy stuff!

The 20/20 Workout
The idea behind this workout is attributed to Joe Mills. It is rather
basic, and yet brutal and remarkably effective at increasing
technique, strength, and conditioning all at the same time. That's
why I love it!
The 3 Rules of the 20/20 Workout
1. Pick a weight that's about 80% of your best lift
2. Do 1 rep every minute, on the minute, for 20 minutes.
3. Next time only add weight if you got at least 90% or more of
your lifts to look pretty. (That's only 2 misses, by the way!)
Every minute, you grab the bar and do a rep. Rest. Repeat. (Read
my article on this workout here: http://www.theironsamurai.com/
2011/09/28/the-2020-weightlifting-workout-ala-joe-mills-20-
reps-in-20-minutes-on-the-minute/)
The Power Snatch/Clean

The Power Snatch and Power Clean are great exercises, but they
can present a problem for some lifters who have a hard time
getting under the bar when they need to. This is in part because
they tend to define a Power version of the lift wrongly.
Most beginner lifters have only two ways in which they catch
the bar: in a full rock-bottom squat, and standing up completely
straight legged. That is a huge mistake. There is quite a lot of
gray area in there!
I like lifters to use the Power versions to correct this

imbalance by attempting to catch every one of them at EXACTLY
parallel (the top of the thighs parallel with the ground). Doing this
on a consistent basis ends up benefiting not only those who
"over-pull" (don't get under the bar, and instead pull the weight
up too high with their arms), but it also helps those who "over-
dive" (jump down to rock-bottom on every lift no matter what
and have the bar crashing on them all the time).
The other reason to use a Power version of the lift at this
point in your training (I don't allow it until Phase 4), is that it is a
way for you to lift up to something approaching "maximum"
without actually lifting a real max on your snatch or cleans for the
day.
(Read my article on the Power Snatch here: http://

www.theironsamurai.com/2011/10/05/power-snatch-learning-
how-to-finish-your-pull-and-catch-the-bar-where-it-lands/)

Burn Out
I write my workouts with the exercises in order of importance. If
you are running out of steam, or you are having a hard week, or
time is of the essence, just do what you can hitting each lift in
turn as it is written. The Hip Thrust functions in part as a warm
up. Then you get into your main practice on the technique-
learning of the snatch or clean or whatever it is that day. Only
after all of that do you bother with the other stuff.
The rest of the lifts, like Front Squats, are certainly

important. But, if you have to choose - and you will sometimes -
between doing a full session of snatching, or cutting the
snatching short to do extra Front Squats, pick the snatching.
The odds are that you are already too strong for your own
good. I rarely meet an adult lifter who's ability on the clean and
snatch outstrips their strength levels. This isn't universally true,
of course. And I really do want you to push the weights on the
squats! But, if you gotta pick, pick the Olympic lifts.

Front Squat Options
Sometimes lifters can hit the gym more than 2 days a week,
every week consistently. If that is you, and you want to attempt
to increase your frequency of Front Squatting, here is how to do
it. (Simply replace the written Front Squat numbers with what is
here.)
2-Days a Week in the gym: Front Squat to a max 3 at every

session. (Keep going till you miss the third.)
3-Days a Week in the Gym: Front Squat to a max 2 at every

session. (Keep going till you miss the second.)
4+ Days a Week in the Gym: Front Squat to a max 1 at every

session. (Keep going till you miss.)

How to Choose Your Openers
Your first lift in a competition is called your "opener". I believe
that your primary goal in any competition is not to "bomb out", or
miss all your lifts. If you do that, you lose. At the very least, you
want to make your openers. So, given that, you should choose
your openers to be a weight that you KNOW you can make on
your worst day, when you've got a cold, and you haven't slept.
If the weight you open with is something that you are

guaranteed to make on your worst day, then you will certainly be
able to hit it with tries.
Resources
Samurai Strength Insider

There are really only 3 things you MUST have to succeed at
anything:
1. A good plan
2. The right mindset
3. A good teacher/coach
This book is the right plan. You will provide the mindset. But to
take yourself to the next level ... you need coaching.
Unfortunately, finding a coach who can help you is nearly

impossible in this country. There are just so few of us around.
And even fewer dedicated Olympic weightlifting clubs.
But, no fear, my friend!!
The truth is that you don't really need a coach in the room with
you every 5 seconds. That is overkill for most.
What you NEED is someone to answer your questions, give you

feedback on the videos you take of your workouts, help you
tweak the programs you are on (like the one in this book), etc to
keep you on the fast track ... rather than the slow track.
I have wanted for a VERY long time to create an ONLINE coaching

group to give you exactly that. And now ... that is exactly what I
have done (with the help of my lifter and friend Sheldon who built
the website for us like a BOSS.)
The site is the insiders side of everything we are doing at the Iron
Samurai, the culmination of this book, and where you are going
to see your greatest progress take hold.
You owe it to yourself to check this out and see how joining us
will increase your rate of progress substantially.
See you on the inside!
Membership site: SamuraiStrengthMaster.com

The Iron Samurai
My blog is a the first place to look for additional information on all

of this stuff. This book is meant to be used alongside the Samurai
Strength Videos that I post up on the blog. Don't neglect those! I
record them for a reason. As I mentioned earlier, learning
technique from a book is very hard to do. So, do yourself a favor
and watch the vids.
Blog: http://theironsamurai.com

Weightlifting Academy
Another resource is the interview show I run with people in the

field along with my friend, and fellow coach/researcher, Michael
Hartman.
Interviews: weightliftingacademy.com

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How To Go From Clueless To Your 1st

Contest In 12 Weeks Flat

Version 2.0 (c) Copyright 2012 by Nick Horton

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or

Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on

15 - Part I: The Mind

16 - Chapter One: The Samurai Strength Philosophy

27 - Chapter Two: The Default Mode Network & Your Snatch

33 - Part II: The Body

34 - Overview of the Program

39 - Chapter Three: How to Snatch in 3 (or 4!) Easy Steps

56 - Chapter Four: Front Squats and Hip Thrusts

65 - Chapter Five: The Push Press and Upper Body

71 - Chapter Six: Cleans and Pulls

77 - Chapter Seven: How to Jerk

I'm writing this Authors Note after a 72 hour non-stop stint

In a year from now, surely, the program will have changed.

That said, this book does express my current beliefs about

Of the people I know personally, Tom Hirtz, John Broz, Ivan

I've also been inspired in my thoughts and in my writing by

Also a special shout-out goes to Bret Contreras who had a

I'm a proud recreational weightlifter. I do this for fun.

That is by design. I wanted a club that catered to people just

It is in that area where I differ quite strongly from most

I had a vision that if I opened a club who's first priority was

My Grandfathers, on both sides, were Southern Baptist

I'm a weightlifting evangelist!

I want to help as many adults as I possibly can get better at

We're not going to the Olympics. We're not going to be

We live in the richest, most industrialized, and abundant

The struggle is the natural human tendency to confuse the

But, Wealth is something different and is TOTALLY

And I've had weight lifting.

In various forms, ever since I was in high school, I've lifted

I can't help you with your cash-flow problems. But, I do

The problem with this definition of a beginner when we're

You are far from a beginner in terms of your brute strength.

Stick this program out, and even if you've never snatched a

You are an adult. Just like how learning a new language is

Samurai Strength is split in two. The first part is all about

Beginners grossly underestimate how mentally tough

In fact, the author, Yamamoto Tsunetomo seems to be

Every lifter fails in the beginning with heavy weights because

But, unfortunately, their brain is telling them a lie. The

A young Samurai would practice and practice with a stick in

What most people wouldn't account for is that the human

This almost never goes well.

Samurai training was designed to deal with this problem

Your Mind is More Powerful Than

That is true whether you are capable of controlling your

If you can learn to get over your fears of snatching

While I'm usually against applying "war" analogies to sports

Another phrase I commonly use is, "The only difference

In the gym, I tell people that if they aren't failing, they

A fear of failure functions much like a fear of death. It can

It is imperative to keep in mind that what we would call

Take this quote by D.T. Suzuki, the great writer on Zen, in

Tsunetomo was at the time living as a Buddhist monk when

The reasons behind the development of Zen in Japan may

Slowly but surely, you will develop true Samurai Strength. 