Review of Derrick Johnson "King of Weightlifting" Seminar

I headed over to the east side of Michigan to the Crossfit Switch gym to hear and participate in their seminar.  I was impressed that a crossfit gym reached out and got someone like this to come and present.

First, I really don't have any interest in learning to refine my Olympic Lifting technique anymore.  My elbow's lack of flexion precludes me from any type of clean and front squat.  I occasionally will play around with the Power Snatch.  But, it never hurts to learn from one of the best to help others that are.

What got me to dish the cash and the time in the car,  was knowing that Derrick has been under the care of Dr. Craig Liebenson in LA.  Dr. Liebenson is one of the guys I gravitated towards in school to increase my knowledge base.  His book "Functional Rehab of the Spine," helped change the way I think.  I had heard the first two hours was all about drills and warm up that Dr. Liebenson has implemented that put Derrick back on track for medals.

Derrick talked about how before he started doing things like this warm up, he had battled back injuries and several knee injuries.  Cortisone shots and Ibuprofen were common.  After the implementation of smarter training and getting the glutes/core firing, zero.  Pretty cool.

The warm ups and drills weren't anything ground breaking, in fact, nothing new to me.   What I came away from was new doesn't mean better.

I need to to appreciate the basics much more.

The magic isn't in the exercise, it's in the concentration of the performance.  Subtle corrections.

My left Glute is way under performing.  Always nice to learn new chinks in your own armour.  My endurance in certain positions was extremely lacking.  So I have things to work on.  Fun stuff.

Here is the list of the warm up we went over.