The following article was written for elitefts by Elyse Lovelace
Empow(her)ment Seminar: Coaching proper cues, Bench breakthroughs, Deep dish pizza, and Beeyags
I recently had the opportunity to go to Illiana Power Asylum in Indiana, my coach’s and his wife’s gym for a strength seminar. Since I have family in Chicago, which is only about an hour or less from the gym, I decided to make a mini vacation out of it. It just so happens that my Cardinals were playing the cubbies that Friday at Wrigley Field so I was able to work that into my trip as well.
Yessica Martinez and Julia Anto organized this seminar particularly for women. Here’s a couple of things that I learned over this weekend:
- My Chicago fam is dope and family is everything
- Female powerlifters are the coolest people on the planet
- *Some* elbow flare is important in a bench press
- The Cardinals like to disappointment me when I travel hundreds of miles to see them
- Chicago-ians accents sound like semi truck horns with colds
- Good communication in coaching a diverse group of athletes is imperative
- Independence and being able to have fun by yourself is a great learning experience
Day 1:
I arrive Friday morning, decked out in my cardinal’s gear. I drive my rental car straight from the airport to Illiana to get my workout in. Chit chat with Julia and Christian Anto for a bit and then it’s off to the 1:30p game at Wrigley. The stadium is about an hour or more away with traffic. I leave at 10:45a to ensure plenty of time to explore and soak it all in. Traffic is rolling pretty good but then I get to downtown Chicago. If you’ve never had road rage, you will have it here. With only about 13 miles from the stadium, I hit stand still traffic with drivers leaving their turning signal on without turning, and people going 2.5 mph in a 30mph zone. It took another 45 minutes to finally get to my reserved parking spot about a mile from the stadium. Speaking of which, this cost me 20 bucks. Super cheap compared to everywhere else which was around 80 dollars. 80 freaking dollars to park in someone’s apartment driveway. What planet is this, Chicago?
I park in the reserve garage, dressed in shorts, flip flops, and my cardinals jersey and hat. The radio DJ mentioned chilly winds in the downtown area so I thought I’d be smart and switch to jeans. So I did the sensible, respectable thing that any single white female would do and I changed my pants in my non-tinted rental car in a downtown Chicago garage. I throw my fanny pack on and it’s off to grab a bite and beer before the game starts. I go to Lucky’s sandwich shop which is famous for putting fries and slaw on all of their sandwiches.
At this moment, I’m listening to the all loud ass Cubs fan go on and on about “dis, dat, dere, da BEARS”.. ok no one mentioned the bears but I was waiting. I’m sitting at a bar facing an open window and my buddy from high school passes by. What the hell? Of anywhere I’d see you, it’d be an early Friday afternoon in Chicago??? We chat for a bit and then go our separate ways. So I go on to the stadium. Get some pics of course and then grab another beer. This sucker was 12 bucks. 12 bucks for a budlight beer. 12 bucks for carbonated horse pee water with alcohol. Whatever, this is my vacation so I’ll splurge a bit.
I get to my seats and facetime my boyfriend who is also a huge Cardinals fan. By this time, I have swamp ass because while there was a “chilly breeze”, my seats were right in the sun. I seriously considered finding scissors to cut my jeans into jorts. “Look at that dumb Cardinal’s fan in the jorts”. But instead, I just suffered. I asked the seat attendant to take my picture. Below is what I got out of it:
Then I meet the cubs fans next to me and get their 4 year old to tell his dad “the cubs suck”. It’s a good day. The Cardinals end up losing but I had a blast having a little getaway by myself and talking to the other fans around me. I’ve been told that I would get yelled at and disrespected by cubs fans but this wasn’t the case at all. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. I also didn’t realize how many cardinals fan’s travel for our games. It was a great experience.
I walk out of the stadium and venture around a bit, get some more pics, and some dude asks me to arm wrestle, you know, the usual. Then, I head back to my Aunt’s house and catch up with her and her sister for a while. I haven’t seen them in about 2 years so it was nice chatting. My Chicago family is LARGE so usually when we interact, there are several people to talk to. It was nice to be able to have some one-on-one time and really get to know them. Then it’s time for bed.
Day 2:
Time for the seminar. Jump in my car and head to the gym. *INSERT MYLEY CYRUS PARTY IN THE USA SONG* As soon as I walk in Yessie Martinez is there welcoming everyone. I knew who she was from Elitefts and have seen her a few times at other meets, so it was nice to finally meet and speak to her. There was about 10 other lifters in attendance. We sit down and begin. Everyone introduces themselves, tells a bit about their experience in powerlifting and we discuss what we hope to learn from the seminar.
First we go over proper technique in the squat starting from our feet to our head. While this is nothing new to me, as I’ve worked under Christian Anto and he has quite literally hounded this into my tiny brain, I was able to learn more about how to explain and break this down for other athletes. After Julia and Yessie explain proper technique, we begin to squat so they can correct any mechanical issues.
Due to the intro level of most of the attendees and limitations on time, we were not able to work up to anything heavy. I’m sure there would have been a breakdown in form under a heavy load, but there wasn’t much of anything to clean up in the loads we used. I took this as an opportunity to watch others, quietly in my own head determine where their breakdown was, and see if I was correct by watching Yessie and Julia help them. I also used this time as a review to further implant all the cues into my brain.
It’s similar to reading the bible, factual book, or listening to your coach. You have read the verse, text or heard your coach say the same things over and over. You know it word for word, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And sometimes, a lightbulb will go off and you’re able to apply it in a better way, or understand it even more. That’s how this portion was for me. I also mentioned to both coaches that I was trying to transition to a low bar squat. I have already been going lower on my back in my training which has felt great. They put me on the spot and said to go ahead and try it lower… like way lower… like I felt like that thing was rolling down to my ass. So that’s a work in progress. I just need to get comfortable, being uncomfortable… again.
We move on to bench. This is where I really needed some help. In my last meet, I missed my last bench attempt. Not necessarily due to strength, but because of technique. Christian has already pin pointed the issue on this. However, I did not understand what he meant until the seminar. He realized that I am almost “squeezing” the bar too hard and not allowing for any elbow flare in my lockout. In the missed lift, my elbows naturally begin to flare on the last ¼ portion of the lockout. I feel my elbows begin to come out and I tuck them back in, causing me to bring the bar forward, and miss the lift. In my training, I’ve always thought any elbow flare was bad. Christian has explained this to me, but I could not grasp this until he, Yessie, and Julia showed me in person.
The triceps are the main muscle used in a lockout on bench. In order to utilize your triceps, you must have some sort of “elbow flare”. What do I mean by elbow flare: on the initial set up of a bench press, you keep your lats and shoulders tight, tucked and down. Which naturally causes your elbows to come in to your body. Elbow flare allows your elbows to stay under the bar if you press the bar back. Keeping the elbow under the bar mechanically makes you work as a whole unit and will also allow for more triceps recruitment and a greater extension. What I was doing was preventing my triceps from being active and benching the bar straight up. I was benching the bar straight forward without fully allowing my triceps to take over. I am VERY good at keeping my lats tight, my shoulders tucked and down throughout the entirety of the movement. But shitty at triceps engagement.
So now that I understood, how do we break that habit? Especially for someone who is saying “tight tight lats lats break the bar break the bar, elbows tucked” in their head constantly. Well, how about you just do not think about it first. Don’t tell yourself to flare elbows, but instead, come down with the bar almost at an angle. My start position is further towards my upper chest than where I actually touch on my chest. As I press back, I follow that same pattern and push the bar up and back. This naturally allows me to engage my triceps, flare my elbows (slightly) and lockout my bench without even thinking of “ok don’t flare now but FLARE NOW”.
Some of this may sound like it contradicts what is typically taught for instructing the bench. Dave Tate even wrote an article that actually negates some of what I just said. However, Dave further discusses and confirms the above text about bar path and elbow lockout in a video here around minute 2:53: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2jCn3iH5Y. Point being that there is a general outline of how the bench should look, but diagnosing break downs in form will vary from athlete to athlete. Also, I think it’s important to mention I had recently partially torn my rotator cuff a few months ago and was unable to bench at all. At the seminar I was able to hit 135 for a few reps quite easily.
Watching Yessie, Julia, and Christian come together to not only figure out the issue and the solution, but also how to thoroughly explain this to me was the epitome of what Elitefts is. It took all of their personal knowledge, them communicating, and figuring out HOW to explain and fix this TOGETHER. That was a significant moment for me personally. Sharing knowledge with others to fix an issue or to achieve something is what a team is. So I don’t take the term “Team Elitefts” lightly and either should you.
Alright so we move on to deadlifts. We had some fine-tuning here as well. I pull conventional so I took this time to work on my opposite stance or sumo. Christian programs this within my training so I might as well get good at both. I noticed on every attempt, form was fairly good but I kept falling back a bit too much and wasn’t stable in lockout. On my last pull, Julia slightly moves my feet inward to make a 45 degree angle. I pull and boom, it felt better. Christian pulls me over and asks how it felt.
Me: “Much better.”
Christian: “Okay, but why?”
Me: *looks up trying to think the ceiling has the answer*… “Well, at first I felt like I was going to fall backwards, but when she moved my feet I felt more stable.”
Christian: “Exactly. Having your feet too far turned out won’t allow you to fully externally rotate at the knees and won’t allow for a stable position.”
I’ve relayed to Christian that I am wanting to learn more and more about powerlifting and coaching. He has taken the time to not only answer my questions and review my articles, but also to ask me questions as well. He is making me think. He’s helping me figure out the “why”. It’s allowing me to process and come to my own conclusion as to why keeping my feet more inwards is a more stable position in a sumo deadlift.
We then move on to a basic overview of nutrition and a Q&A. At the conclusion of the seminar, we have the opportunity to connect more at a local brewery just up the road. Now, the Cardinals are playing the cubs again this day, so of course I throw on my Cardinals hat and eye black. I was able to get to know everyone that attended and swap stories about powerlifting and where we are from. We ended up playing some corn hole... which apparently people up north call it “bags” or how they say it “bee-yags”. Did I already mention that female powerlifters are the coolest people on the planet? Because they are. One aspect of powerlifting that I love is meeting other lifters that share that same passion for the sport from all over the country. I don’t think I’ve met anyone in this sport that has not been welcoming or able to laugh and joke around. If you don’t know me, one of the things I love the most is sharing my humor with others. BTW Julia’s two kids were there as well. We played “bee-yags”, monkey in the middle for 17 hours, and they kept trying to steal my cards hat and throw it in the dumpster. What loyal little children they are to their cubbies fanatic mom.
So that was it. I said my goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for their time. I headed back to my aunt’s house to pack up and be ready to fly out the next morning. I had briefly mentioned that I wanted to try some deep dish Chicago style pizza during my time here. I get back to the house and my Aunt’s husband had already picked some up. How sweet?! We share some za, have a couple of beers and more story swapping. The next morning I fly out and get picked up by my boyfriend. I rambled on and on about my experience in Chicago and at Iliana Power Asylum. He was gracious enough to listen the entire time and even ask questions.
I learned more at this seminar and over this weekend about myself than anything else. That’s an important aspect in life and in the sport of powerlifting. I’ve come back to my hometown with more self-awareness, more knowledge in my sport, and more motivated to continue to learn about this sport. I’m thankful to Yessie, Julia, and Christian for the time they took to organize this. The memories and skill set I’ve learned far outweighs the monetary cost of this seminar and weekend. I’ve even made a commitment to myself to start attending more seminars each year. The value of events like this will always be worth it if your mind is open to learning.
Elyse Lovelace is an elite level 132lb and 148lb powerlifter from Memphis, TN. She began her athletic career in soccer and was recently inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame for her soccer accomplishments at Northwest Mississippi Community College. Elyse began powerlifting in 2015 and currently has a 1005lb Total at 148lb: 375lb squat, 205lb bench, and 425lb deadlift.
