Continued from part-1
Q: The extent to which the Chinese are able to keep their arms relaxed is crazy. How do they do it? They must practice day and night.
A: Contrary to what it may seem,
Practice is not the end-all-be-all reason behind the magical ability of these lifters to make their arms appear literally like chains during the first pull.
(Yes, some lifters (e.g. Lü Xiaojun) do have a temporary "vertical" bend at the elbows/bicep but it straightens out before the initiation of the second pull)
Of course, practicing has a role to play, but it is a tiny piece of the puzzle.
Their ability to maximally relax the arms stems from something deeper.
And that is their understanding.
A personal and deep understanding of how to relax their arms.
Q: I cannot relax my arms fully. No matter how much I try. So I "lock" is at the shoulders/scapula/lats. How to relax it more?
A: An ability like that is not achievable by asking "How to".
You must first understand what is it that is stopping you from relaxing your arms.
If you asked a weightlifter from China "how do you keep your arms relaxed like that!?", would they be able to tell you?
Not at all likely.
Why won't they be able to tell you?
(They will say something like "I just relax them, I don't know how")
Because you see, they don't leave a single stone unturned to understand their body to achieve relaxed arms.
They don't compromise by "locking" at the shoulders or the lats.
(Which drastically lowers the available power from the lower body into the bar).
Their knowing of their bodies and the movements is too deep for them to compromise.
Q: My arms have a tendency to tense up as the weights get heavy. At lighter weights, I have no problem. Do I just need to practice my technique more? Do more drills?
A: The more you try to relax arms, the more they will tense up.
And for the rest of your career, you will keep trying without every knowing to truly relax them.
And practicing all the technique and doing all the drills, will, in reality, take you farther away from what you are really doing them for.
Confused? I will explain...
You see, the problem is that cues and technique can only take one so far.
When you learn a whole movement in parts and segments, how can you expect to move in a whole, integrated manner?
(You will move in parts and segments!)
And if you use your head to teach your body, how can you expect to understand what your body is truly capable of?
Q: I think I am more confused than when I started reading this post. Everyone learns a movement that way. How can the body teach us?
Yes, everyone learns through "coaching", a "tutorial", or a "how to".
And because of which,
Everyone moves in the exact similar way.
Everyone hits a ceiling in terms of max numbers, performance etc.
Everyone develops limitations, needs almost constant therapy.
Everyone has about as long a career as everyone else.
Everyone has the same questions as you (e.g. "How do I really relax arms?")
Do you see, the issue?
The body will teach you, if you, only for a moment, stop trying to teach it.
If you don't hammer an external technique into it first (and mangle it into a mess)
If you listen, it will speak to you.
If you become a student, it will become a teacher.
Continued in part 3