by Tanner Mauk

The new AHS teacher Eric Waldstein has brought many changes to the school, including in the weight room. He replaced Nick Ross as the weights teacher and brought about a whole new lifting program. 

In 2013, Ross liked to include conditioning workouts into his routines throughout the week. This year, Waldstein incorporates Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting into his workouts to get a good combination of power and explosiveness.  As far as combining the two, even if you are a great Olympic lifter, you still need some brute strength to move people, objects, or yourself in every sport. “That is why we still spend time on the different bench presses and squats,” said Waldstein.

Olympic Lifting exercises include snatch and clean and jerk. The Olympic Lifts help to build explosiveness and also help your muscles to cooperate to move the weight better. This happens because when you do Olympic Lifts, your body uses most of the muscles in your body during every rep. The three power lifts are bench press, back squat, and dead lift. These help your muscles get bigger, stronger, and burn off excess fat.

Waldstein has done his research and has learned about the benefits of mixing Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting. “There isn’t hardly a sport where you don’t need that explosive movement at one point or another,” said Waldstein. “That is what really sold me on Olympic Lifting.”

The first few weeks of weight class was all about learning the proper technique and form for the new lifts. After the first 2 weeks of form, the classes moved onto maxing. They will be maxing in 3 lifts: back squat, bench, and power clean. These new maxes will be entered into a new program that will be used throughout the year. Sophomore Jake Olsen said, “There’s different styles of powerlifting and a different form than what I’m used to but I like it.”

Waldstein describes the program as “a 3 day a week workout [where] we are able to do an Olympic lift everyday and a leg lift everyday.” He says only lifting three days a week gives your body plenty of time to recover and prepare for your next lifting session.

Waldstein is bringing a new type of lifting to the AHS weight room and many of the lifters are excited about it. They look forward to getting stronger throughout the year.