By Tom Rohrer
When someone hears the words “Olympic weightlifting”, the vision is of short, stocky men lifting a heavy barbell.
There are certainly more misconceptions surrounding the ‘clean and jerk’ and ‘snatch’ exercises, and fortunately, there are people in Thurston County working to fight those associations.
Olympic weightlifting, as opposed to more conventional workouts, doesn’t utilize one area on the body. Instead, it trains an athlete’s muscles from the ankles up to the shoulders.
David DeLong, the owner and head coach at South Sound Weightlifting (SSW) in Olympia, has been involved in athletics and fitness the majority of his life. A certified personal trainer, DeLong was hooked after his first experience with the two exercises. He has seen both clients and friends alike fall under the same spell.
“Once I started Olympic lifting, it was so much more fun and effective. I initially looked into it because it seemed like such a challenge and incredibly hard,” said DeLong, who instructs both youth and adults at SSW. “Once you start feeling the weight and the movement, it becomes an addiction.”
DeLong has been operating the business for a year and a half. The new facility on Mottman Road opened at the beginning of 2013. DeLong has seen an increase awareness of the sport, as evidenced by his cliental list doubling since his latest re-location.
“I think people are always looking for a new challenge, a new workout, and they soon realize that this is so beneficial for you,” DeLong said.
One of DeLong’s prized pupils is 19-year-old Olympia resident Courtney Duncan. A fitness enthusiast for a significant portion of her life, Duncan has been weight training for six years and focused on the CrossFit regiment for the last two.
“I was drawn to (Olympic weightlifting) because it’s you against yourself,” Duncan said. “You’re the challenge, you’re the motivation. That and people never expect me to do something like this and I like to prove them wrong.”
DeLong believes Duncan has the ability – and drive – to make a name for herself at the national level by participating in USA Weightlifting (USAW) sanctioned events.
“She’s going to be the first one from this gym to go on and compete at these high level, national competitions,” DeLong said. “She has a real intense training schedule. In the next six to eight months, we hope to have her ready for a national level.”
Along with a non-sanctioned meet scheduled for late March at SSW, Duncan plans on competing in a USAW sanctioned meet in Aberdeen in the end of May.
“Getting on the national level, that’s a challenge, but it’s fun,” Duncan said. “To get there, it’s going to take a bunch more training, eating better, and more discipline.”
There may be another crop of future USAW participants in the making at DeLong’s gym. Along with assistant coach Nicole LaPraim and Sybil Norberg, DeLong runs a highly supervised, twice a week program youth boys and girls ages 8-11. (Norberg is the co-owner of SSW and also runs Custom Bodies, LLC from the same building.)
Fighting the misconceptions of resistance training in youth, DeLong and the staff are seeing the benefits the program has on the students first-hand.
“Proper, supervised, well instructed weightlifting doesn’t stunt a child’s growth,” said DeLong, who cited a host of publications on the matter from sources such as the Mayo Clinic, and the New York Times.
“Weightlifting has the lowest injury rate of any organized sport per participants – far lower than basketball, soccer, any of those sports. The reason why is that weightlifting is scalable. Once our kids are in here, we start them with (a wooden pole) and nobody moves a muscle in here without trained supervision. No one gets on a platform without my eyes on them. The supervision is the difference.”
Norberg, who also practices the exercises herself, has two children in the program. She is very happy with the results she has seen.
“There is a lot of controversy about resistance training for kids and I find that ironic, because there are people who let their kids play video games for hours,” Norberg said. “I’ve seen the positive changes in kids’ self-esteem. They just want to feel better, have more confidence. Then they start training and you see their whole persona change. They walk a little taller, head higher. Olympic lifting is something kids should be doing more of.”
The exercises also go a long way in helping performance in other sports and preventing injuries.
“The reason (Olympic weightlifting helps injury prevention) is because the type of movements we do leads to tissue remodeling. It strengthens the joints, tendons and bones,” DeLong said. “Many weightlifting programs focus on making muscles bigger and stronger. That’s great, but what Olympic weightlifting does is remodel you at the cellular level.”
With all the health benefits, Olympic weightlifting also provides a new challenge to athletes and an inner competition with themselves.
“I enjoy it because it’s challenging and different from anything I’ve ever done, and I’ve tried just about everything in fitness,” Norberg said. “It’s not the only thing that I enjoy, but it’s a challenge and it’s something you’re not always good at. You may have a bad day, but you learn a lot on those bad days.”
“Frankly, throwing weight over your head and catching it can be scary,” DeLong said. “Can I quiet that inner voice that says ‘are you out of your mind’? You have to conquer that. It’s like hitting a golf ball well – you want to keep repeating that. It’s not about just getting bigger muscles.”
South Sound Weightlifting
2500 Mottman Rd SW
Tumwater, WA 98512
360.280.2816
www.southsoundweightlifting.com or www.facebook.com/ssweightlifting
