WAXMAN'S GYM

Los Angeles' Weightlifting Gym

About Sean Waxman

Sean Waxman has dedicated his life to the pursuit of improving human performance. His journey started as an eleven year old as he watched the 1980 Olympics with amazement. He had one profound question: “What do you have to do to become that strong and fast”?

From that moment on, he has sought the answers. As a boy he would spend hours reading “The Soviet Sports Review”, “Strength and Health”, “Bigger Faster Stronger”, or any other magazine or book that spoke about how to get stronger and faster.

As he became a teenager he started experimenting on himself using the very methods he was reading about. At that point, he began to understand the answers to his question. Although Sean was a gifted high school and collegiate athlete, his true passion was always in the weightroom. After giving up a promising football career, Sean decided to become an Olympic Weightlifter. From all his research and experimentation, he knew unequivocally that Olympic Weightlifters were the quickest, strongest, and most powerful athletes in the world. He wanted to find out not only why this was true, but also what he needed to do in order to ellicit those changes in his body, as well as in others.

Sean then spent the next decade of his life immersed as an athlete and student in the world of Olympic Weightlifting and Exercise Science under the direction and guidance of USAW Hall of Fame Coach Bob Takano and NSCA Hall of Fame Strength Coach Dr. John Garhammer. Sean spent four to six hours a day, six days a week, fifty weeks a year, in the trenches training, observing, and learning with some of the best coaches, scientists, and athletes in the sport. This high level of skill, driven by his passion and perseverance, made him one of the top Olympic Weightlifters in the country from 1995-2001, earning him a spot on the National Team, a National medal, and five California state championships. While training as a Weightlifter, Sean attended Graduate School at California State University at Long Beach under the tutelage of Dr. John Garhammer, studying Kinesiology with a concentration in Sport Biomechanics.

During this time, Sean started his strength and conditioning career. In 1995, Los Angeles City College hired him to work with Men’s Basketball. After two years working with the team, they won their first state championship. Sean had similar successes at all of his stops as a head strength and conditioning coach. After two years of working with Women’s Volleyball at College of the Canyons, they captured their first conference championship. After one year working with the boys’ volleyball team at Mira Costa High School, they captured their first National Championship. After only one year of working with girls’ Volleyball at Redondo Union High School, they won their conference for the first time and set a new school record for wins. And after one year of working with the baseball team at Loyola High School, they captured their first CIF championship in fifty-four years. He has also coached the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the I.H.L. and worked with Arn Tellum of SFX management preparing draft picks for their first NBA season.

In late 2000, Sean started Pure Strength, a private training facility located in Southern California. From 2000 through 2010 he developed dozens of NCAA Division I-A scholarship athletes in several different sports. Included in this list are four Southern California High School Volleyball Players of the Year, three California High School Volleyball Players of the Year, one California High School Baseball Player of the Year, one CIF Baseball Player of the Year, one National High School Volleyball Player of the Year, and four members of the USA Junior National Volleyball Team. During this time Sean has also trained MMA stars Lyoto Machida, Rico Chiapparelli, Vladimir Matyushenko, Frank Trigg, and Mac Danzig. In all, Sean has developed hundreds of athletes from a dozen sports.

Sean is a National Weightlifting Coach and special advisor to President Nino of the Nicaraguan Weightlifting Federation and he is part of the MMA Conditioning Association faculty serving as their strength and power expert.

In 2010 Sean opened Waxman’s Gym, a private training facility located in Lawndale, California. Sean’s passion is Olympic Weightlifting. His focus is the development of elite level Olympic Weightlifters and Crossfitters.

He was a contributing writer and technical advisor to “Muscle and Fitness” and had his own monthly column titled “Power and Strength.” He also writes and is a technical advisor for “Muscle and Fitness Hers”, “MuscleMag International” and “Strength +” magazines.

Since opening Waxman’s Gym in 2010, Sean has developed two World Championship team members, a Pan Am Championship silver medalist, three national champions, six national medalists, more than two dozen national-level weightlifters and he has coached top CrossFit Regionals and Games athletes.

When not developing competitive weightlifters and crossfitters, Sean works with athletes of all skill levels from a wide range of sports to help them develop great strength and power. Sean also has a great passion for helping other coaches learn to teach/coach weightlifting. Sean is the former President of the Southern California chapter of USA Weightlifting and current President of the LWC President’s Advisory Council to USA Weightlifting.

Sean’s training methodologies and ability to make complex movement skills seem simple make him one of the most sought after coaches and lecturers in the country.

Contact Sean for inquires or to schedule an appointment

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Announcements

10/04/11:

  • For the first time ever, Waxman’s Gym is offering a $99 monthly membership special. Improve your Olympic lifting technique with expert coaching and individual attention on Mondays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. All skill levels are welcome. Contact us today to learn more and get started!
  • Waxman’s Gym barbell seminar is scheduled for November 27. Enrollment is limited to only 5 people. Register by November 5 for early registration discount. Learn more and register here.
  • Waxman’s Gym will be conducting Level 1 Sports Performance Certification Courses for USA Weightlifting. Our first seminar will be December 10-11. Learn more and register here.

9/20/11:

Olympic vs Power Squat

Which one is best for developing athletes?

 

In athletes other than Weightlifters, I use both the Olympic and Power Squat. Because of the mechanics of the Power Squat I like to use it for supplemental posterior chain work and with athletes suffering with knee tendonitis or an injury the medial structures of the knee. However, the majority of the Back Squatting volume in my training comes from the Olympic Squat. It is true the Power Squat will allow you to squat more weight however, more is not always better. Is a 700lb Back Squat going to help you more than a 500lb Back Squat? In the sport of Powerlifting it most certainly will, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to improved performance in other sports. Sport is not about maximal force development. It is about maximal rate of force development. Once my athletes reach a particular squat weight (between 2-3 times bodyweight calculated as a function of body weight and the physical demands of the particular sport), I maintain their strength levels while switching the training focus to generating force quickly. I use the Olympic lifts to accomplish this because they do it better than any other exercise.It would seem foolish to spend valuable training time continually getting an athlete stronger if the strength gained cannot be utilized on the field of play. A 700lb squat doesn’t mean shit if you’re a statue!

The Olympic Squat provides many benefits for athletes that the Power Squat does not. Here is my top three:
• The Olympic Squat adheres to the normal anatomical function of the joints.
• The Olympic Squat distributes the load evenly between the knee and hip joints.
• The Olympic Squat promotes flexibility in the ankle and hip joints.

In reality, because of the “functional training” plague that has swept through the Strength and Conditioning world, if a coach has an athlete squatting with a barbell at all regardless of style, it is better than the circus acts the pariahs masquerading as Strength Coaches are pawning off to their athletes as strength development. For those of you that understand the value of the squat and use it as an integral part of strength development, I salute you. If you are a “functional” clown please continue using your revolutionary, 20 years ahead of the science exercises with your athletes. The rest of us enjoy watching our athletes continually help yours off the ground, brushing the dirt off of their backs and sending them on their merry way.

I had a bad training day today. I needed to vent

Fight until your very last breath!
-Sean-

New Book Announcement

Bob Takano and I are in the beginning phases of writing a text book to be used at the University level. The book will be for programs which have a Strength and Conditioning option in their Physical Education/Kinesiology departments.

I am in the middle of a review of the literature on the biomechanics of the pull during Olympic Weightlifting, which upon completion I will summarize and post on my blog. Given the recent stir I caused on the forum called “Go Heavy” (click here to read the posts, it is quite entertaining) about this very topic, some people are not going to be very happy.
Oh well… F*^K Um!

Fight until your very last breath!
-Wax-

Teaching The Olympic Lifts – Don’t Run Before You Walk!

The desired outcome for any progression that teaches the Olympic Lifts is for the athlete to learn how to perform the Olympic Lifts! This seems like a statement of the obvious. However, in order to meet the desired outcome of technical mastery of the Snatch and Clean and Jerk, one should not start with the Snatch and Clean and Jerk.

The process of learning the Olympic Lifts is no different than the process of acquiring proficiency in any motor task as for example walking vs. running. As a child develops there are many reasons why walking comes before running. The two that are most germane to this discussion are strength and coordination.

At some point in the developmental process a child will crawl, stand, walk, and then finally, run. The child will instinctually progress from one stage to the next when a sufficient amount of strength is developed. I understand that this is a simplified view of the developmental process however; it stands as a great template for the development of teaching progressions for complex motor tasks such as the Snatch and Clean and Jerk.

If your Olympic lifting progression throws people directly into learning the Olympic lifts you are running before you are walking. As in the aforementioned developmental process, a child does not run before he or she can walk. Very often, when learning the Olympic lifts for the first time, athletes lack the proper “structure” and this prevents them from acquiring the desired “function.”

Structural Training in Weightlifting

As the extremities flex, extend, and rotate during the execution of a lift, the torso must remain rigid. When learning the Olympic Lifts, it is not the strength in the extremities that limits the athlete; it is the strength in the torso. In other words they lack sufficient structure.

It has been my experience with beginning lifters that majority of their errors revolve around poor torso preparation (poor structural preparation). And the biggest problem with many teaching progressions is the lack of sufficient information on how to keep the torso engaged, especially in the power position.

I frequently hear coaches give beginning athletes cues such as, “tight back, lumbar curve, keep the bar close, and chest up.” All of these cues give the athletes the desired outcome however, more often then not they do not understand the process (or function) required in order to achieve said outcome. One cannot say to beginning athletes as they are about to perform a Hang Power Snatch “Ok now… take a big breath, perform the valsava and kegel, medially rotate your arms, slightly flex the wrists, flex the knee to approximately 150º, incline your torso to approximately 30º, keep the bar and your balance over your metatarsals, extend the shoulder to keep the bar close to the body by depressing the scapula, contract traps 2 and 3 and the posterior delts and go!” However, you are assuming they know all of this when you proceed directly into the Olympic lifts.

When starting athletes with the lifts I have found it useful to begin with 7 “structural” exercises, which are categorized into two groups, foundational and position specific.

Foundational Exercises

The foundational exercises include, the Back Squat, Press/Behind Neck, and Good Morning. These exercises require minimal amounts of motor ability and skill. Nevertheless, they are powerful tools for creating kinesthetic awareness as well as a baseline level of strength. With only a minimal amount of resistance you will be able to dramatically improve the athletes inter/intramuscular coordination as well as their facilititory and inhibitory response mechanisms. It’s these effects that are the “foundation” for developing strength. More specifically, these exercises will introduce the motor patterns needed for torso stabilization while squatting, supporting weight above the head, and most importantly bending over with the knees slightly unlocked and their shoulders ahead of their toes. This last position is vital for success in the Olympic Lifts, but the explanation of how to achieve this position is very often overlooked in many exercise progressions. Without question the majority of technical errors in the lifts are caused by improper position in the start of the 2nd pull. This position needs to be taught and reinforced before more complex motor patterns are introduced.

Position-Specific Exercises

The position-specific exercises include the Overhead Squat, Front Squat, RDL, and Dead Lift. These exercises introduce the athlete to the specific positions, which will be required in order to learn the Olympic Lifts. There is a higher degree of kinesthetic awareness and torso involvement required in these exercises. Because the athlete has previously developed a mental construct of what is required in order to properly squat, support weight above the head, and bend over, you are not introducing motor abilities and patterns foreign to the athlete. You are just building on abilities and patterns previously acquired and the athlete becomes comfortable and stable in the positions required during the Olympic Lifts.

Once athletes can perform all of these exercises properly they will have developed four vital fitness components, which act as a medium for successfully and easily learning the Olympic Lifts:

  • 1. Full range of motion of all joints
  • 2. Reduction/elimination of bilateral deficit
  • 3. Improved strength and coordination of the body as a whole through improved motor function
  • 4. An understanding and an aptitude for the positions required

This method of sequential skill acquisition allows the athletes to easily develop vital but basic skill sets as well as the proper structure which will allow for easier and more efficient learning of more complex skill sets as they progress.

Now when you teach your athletes the Hang Power Snatch they already understand what the power position is, how to keep the torso tight, and how to keep the bar close to the body because they have performed and understand the Good Morning and the RDL. You won’t have to instruct them on how to support the weight above their head because they have performed and understand the Press and Overhead Squat. It allows them to focus on one task at a time.

When athletes begins learning the Olympic lifts they must only focus on the gross motor skills required for lifting the barbell with precision and speed so they can develop a “feel” for the movements. Getting bogged down in the details of individual muscle action or being apprehensive due to weakness, dysfunction, or uncertainty, will only retard an athlete’s progress.

Fight until your very last breath!
-Sean-

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