A 15-year-old weightlifting prodigy

[juddlyon]

This is really cool to see an American with such potential.

The explosion of Crossfit is exposing a lot of people to Olympic lifting. However, Crossfit's programming can be incredibly dangerous - encouraging Joe Sixpack to do such complex and technical lifts "AMRAP" (As Many Reps as Possible) is a recipe for serious injury. Source: I got rhabdo and was nearly hospitalized.

[abrookewood]

Yeah, Rhabdo is really serious. A family friend of mine got it and was just going to 'wait it out" until I told him to get to the hospital immediately. Seriously people, if you do a workout and start pissing blood, get to the hospital: Rhabdomyolysis is a serious syndrome due to a direct or indirect muscle injury. It results from the death of muscle fibers and release of their contents into the bloodstream. This can lead to complications such as renal (kidney) failure. This occurs when the kidneys cannot remove waste and concentrated urine.

[mathattack]

Barbells = Good.

Cult of Work Past Exhaustion = Injuries.

[icelancer]

CrossFit has done more than USAW ever has and ever will do to get barbells in the hands of Americans. Too bad that it comes with serious side effects...

[Pxtl]

Related (I'm sure you've already read this):

https://medium.com/@ericrobertson/crossfits-dirty-little-sec...

[anaolykarpov]

I made rhabdo 2 weeks ago after doing just 80 squats (I haven't exercised my legs for about a year prior). I think it's pretty hard to make it and a pretty rare encounter in the emergency room. I recommend you to show the wiki page of the rhabdomyolysis at the ER if you think you have it so they won't send you home because you look healthy (I have to thank HN because I read about crossfit and rhabdomyolysis here a few years ago and that's why I searched the Internet when my pee was Coca-Cola coloured 2 days after doing the aquats). I had a week of hospitalization but I think I'm OK now (I have to do another set of analysis tomorrow to confirm). Although it's a diagnostic I'm pretty proud about having, I hope it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.

[kbenson]

You're the second person I've heard that exact same scenario about on HN. I wasn't even aware it was a thing before I heard about it in reference to crossfit.

[steve-howard]

There are a few of reasons that powerlifting (squat/bench/deadlift) is more popular than weightlifting (Snatch/Clean and Jerk). The technique is much harder to learn for the explosive lifts, as the bar and lifter must move very fast for the lift to work at all. Olympic lifts generally require bumper plates (significantly more expensive than iron), though it is possible if painful to lower the weights back to the floor. And there is a much bigger genetic component to your limitations in explosive lifts than in the slower ones; the fraction of your deadlift that you can clean is very difficult to improve.

That said, if you can get the technique down (internet coaching or otherwise) it's a wonderful feeling to rack a power clean.

[vidarh]

Power cleans are great, but they also feel massively simpler than clean and jerk. I picked up power cleans on my own, but I don't know if I'd dare try to teach myself clean and jerk without a coach.

EDIT: It also really annoyed me to see how they described power lifting vs. oly. As if you don't need core and leg strength and for deadlifts and squats. And for that matter most power lifters will practice additional lifts like overhead press too (or power cleans..)

[IkmoIkmo]

Definitely not going to be a medal in Rio, that's now less than 1 year away and he's totalling just under 300kg, when the bronze in 2012 took a total of 332kg alone, and everyone who's lifting in the 330 range is about 20 years old. He'll make gains but I think it'll be too early for him at 16 to win a medal. (like his trainer said).

In 2016, very possible. He's definitely well on his way. I think the main thing to know is that he's not just a US nationals champ at his age (a country who won 0 WL medals at the olympics in 2012, i.e. not super significant). But rather that at his age, he is the nr 1 ranked in the world by the international weightlifting federation. 20 people lift more than he does, but they're all older by at least 1 full year (and others well into their 30s by now). One can wonder if he has what it takes to increase by 35-40kg in the next 5 years. He added as much over the last 12 months, but of course it gets exponentially more difficult as you go up. On paper it looks like he can do it but 5 years of dedication is a long time, and it's likely that he'll have to jump a weight division as he grows into an adolescent body. We'll have to see!

[temuze]

Here's a video of him putting 331 lbs over his head...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v8OexNKrug

At the age of 14. Most people can't deadlift that. This kid's a prodigy.

[perfTerm]

I'm sure if you do it safely that's fine, but boy does that look dangerous to me. Awesome feat for anyone, really pretty unbelievable for a 14 year old.

[bcassedy]

Man this is very cool to see. I know part of the reason the US has been traditionally been subpar at Olympic Weightlifting is the lack of emphasis at the youth level. That said, my understanding is American coaches are leagues behind the rest of the world in understanding how to train oly lifters. Hopefully this kid has a good coach.

[phowat]

And also the USADA is much stricter in testing for PEDs than the WADA. The countries which dominate weightlifting are pretty heavy into PEDs and american olympic lifters (and from other countries, like Germany) will always be at a disadvantage in international competitions. I'm not saying this is the only reason, and your points are also valid, but this is a pretty big deal too.

[kevindeasis]

If this guy would just open source his diet and routine that would be great. I wanna see how hard it is to copy his habits

[wdewind]

One of the interesting things about high level athletes is that their routines are often terrible and they are succeeding in spite of not because of them. People with even an intermediate understanding of weightlifting and program design can easily point out massive flaws in many top NCAA and professional training routines. The philosophy tends to be when you are working with monsters it's better not to break them than it is to train hard and risk injury (which I think is idiotic and ultimately leads to far more injuries, but who am I to say). So looking at this guy's routine probably wouldn't help you anyway.

As for diet, the vast majority of a professional athlete's diet comes down to getting enough protein and carbs, with minor tweaks for individuals around things like meal timing, micronutrient content and fiber content. A great place to start for a 200lbs male is 220g protein/250g carbs/50g fat/30g fiber.

Sorry I know that's a disappointing answer, but I can tell you the real answer isn't that much more interesting. Elite level athletes certainly work incredibly hard, but great genes are still a prerequisite.

[balls187]

Curious why the article's title is "The LeBron James of Weightlifting" when the USA Weightlifting Exec was quoted as saying "The Michael Jordan of Weightlifting?"

[differentView]

The 50-something coach said Michael Jordan, meaning the best. The writer just updated it to the best basketball player right now, same meaning.

[dang]

Both of those titles are rather baity, so we changed it to language from the subtitle. Happy to change it again if someone suggests something better.

[zedder]

It's like the debate has settled. Lebron James equals Michael Jordan. Practically interchangeable...

[Laaw]

Article is behind paywall. :-/

[MikaHakkinnen12]

Come on, guys. This is Hackernews.

In no way this is related to what this site is about. There're hundreds of site where stuff like this is supposed to be posted and discussed.

I wouldn't care if I wouldn't need to read to all those cs and startup unrelated headlines.

[perfTerm]

Hmm, I learned a bit about something I didn't know I didn't know much about. And then through the comments I learned a bit more. I'd say that's exactly why I come here :)

[TDL]

For the record, there is a large number of long time users to this site that are very serious about lifting in general. Furthermore, as it's been repeatedly stated, articles that are submitted to HN are what interest the community and many members of this community are interested in lifting.

[tghw]

That's why there's a voting system. If enough people think it's interesting, then it makes the front page. Trying to tell people what to vote for is not productive.

[reality_czech]

do you even lift?

[brayton]

But the mods have decided you need to know about this.