Want to learn Weightlifting?
Training on your own?
Need live Coaching to get you to the next level?

PFP Barbell has a USAW Barbell Club located inside Pittsburgh Fitness Project  at 5500 Butler Street , Pittsburgh PA 15201. We are an East Coast Gold Satellite location making us part of the winningest team in all of weightlifting. 

Barbell Club Membership is $75/month it includes:
​ clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=219143&stype=40&prodId=229

• ​Unlimited Barbell Coaching (11 coaching sessions M-F)
• Open Gym 
• Programming
• Online Support
• In Meet Coaching
• Cash Incentives for Performance at National Events
• Become Part of East Coast Gold Weightlifting

It all starts with a FREE Barbell Assessment ! Email : Head Coach Tom Duer to set up your Assessment today. 

About Coach Tom :

• NSCA-CSCS
• NSCA-TSAC
• USAW L-1
• Crossfit L-1
• 4x USAW National Qualifier
• 7th at 2017 & 2018 USAW Nationals
• Top 10 Ranked in the USA
• East Coast Gold National Team Member and Coach
• Best Lifts
  • Clean: 191kg(420lbs)
  • Power Clean: 168kg (370lbs)
  • Jerk: 191kg( 420lbs)
  • Clean and Jerk: 185kg (407lbs)
  • Snatch: 156kg ( 345lbs)
  • Power Snatch: 150kg (330lbs)
  • Front Squat: 227kg (501lbs)
  • Back Squat: 273kg (601bs)
  • Deadlift: 272kg ( 595lbs)
  • Strict Press: 115kg ( 255lbs) 

Have you hit a road block in your progress?
Do you jump from program to program?
Are you constantly second guessing your coach?
 
I would bet all three of these are related to a lack in faith. I am not talking specifically talking about Biblical Faith , but not completely unrelated as well. I am referring into a lack of trust in three big things that are key to your Weightlifting success. 

1. Technique: This one is pretty simple , when the weight feels heavy, many lifters feel like the have to "Do More" to lift the weight. We practice technique on every single rep, than fail to trust that technique we have just developed when we get in the 90+% range. Does this make sense? I didn't think so ! As the weights get progressively heavier you need to be laser focused on good technical lifting. This isn't something that can be developed in a day.  When you notice you are getting fatigued is a good time to remind yourself to lean into your technique.  You may not train at 90% very often but that 3rd rep of triples may feel like 90% , so use that as an opportunity to mentally check back in to your technique and be crisp! DO NOT MAKE A HABIT OF PRACTICING CRAPPY REPS! Practicing the Snatch and Clean and Jerk is Strength/Skill work. Once the skill goes .....stop. Remember what got you there. 
2. Program: This is one that I have seen happen to MANY lifters/athletes/gym bros over my career as a strength professional. A person finds a new magic program , tries it for 3 weeks , finds a new fancy program, tries it for 3 weeks, then moves on. Flash forward years later, they have made little to no progress, and anyone who has is either a genetic freak or on drugs. The truth is , that person probably just finished their programs. Strength coaching has evolved greatly over the past few years, finding good , effective , programming has become easier and easier. There are no magic programs and no programs that work if you don't actually finish them . You are going to feel like crap sometimes, and wonderful others, but trust the program you are on and finish it. You DO NOT know better than the person who programmed it. If you did , why would you be following it in the first place?
3. Coach: I am going to be brutally honest here. If you don't trust your coach , get a new coach. You will NEVER be able to see the progress you want  if you do not trust the person who is supposed to be getting you better. It amazes me how many people waste time and energy second guessing their coaches. Most coaches are planning for their athletes over the long haul. It takes a ton of time to lay a firm foundation for an athlete's success. Always, ask coaches for clarification if you don't understand something , but if you are spending most of your time second guessing the answers you get, maybe it is time to move on.  Find a coach that has your best interests in mind, is athlete (not self) centered, and who has the experience and expertise to get you to your goal. ​

Set up an evaluation today by emailing: Head Coach Tom Duer 
About Tom :

• NSCA-CSCS
• NSCA-TSAC
• USAW L-1
• Crossfit L-1
• 4x USAW National Qualifier
• 7th at 2017 USAW Nationals
• Top 10 Ranked in the USA
• East Coast Gold National Team Member and Coach
• Best Lifts
  • Clean: 191kg(420lbs)
  • Power Clean: 168kg (370lbs)
  • Jerk: 191kg( 420lbs)
  • Clean and Jerk: 182kg (400lbs)
  • Snatch: 156kg ( 345lbs)
  • Power Snatch: 150kg (330lbs)
  • Front Squat: 215kg (475lbs)
  • Back Squat: 265kg (585lbs)
  • Deadlift: 272kg ( 595lbs)
  • Strict Press: 115kg ( 255lbs) 

​Last week Maggie and Tom Duer had the opportunity to go on Broken to Barbell last weekend. We talk about how we met, founding Pittsburgh Fitness Project,  Weightlifting, Tom living in a Zoolander house, and the fun fun world of Tinder dates.  Follow the link and give it a listen! 

www.brokentobarbell.com/single-post/2018/04/23/Episode-16---Big-Heavy-Puzzle---Pittsburgh-Fitness-Project

1. Do you want to get better at the Snatch and Clean and Jerk?
2. Do you currently do Crossfit , bootcamps, or are part of some other fitness community that you want to maintain?
3. Do you live too far from PFP Barbell to make regular class attendance possible?
4. Do you want access to programming, video analysis , and be part of a weightlifting team?
5. Does your busy schedule get in the way of you perusing your Weightlifting goals?
6. Do you usually train at a home gym but would like access to coaching on a weekly basis?

If you answered yes to any of these questions than our Remote Athlete Program  could be exactly what you are looking for! 

Our Remote Athlete Program is designed for those athletes who want to get better or compete in Olympic Style Weightlifting AND are living in Western Pennsylvania. We are focusing on more local athletes we can see 2-4 times a month in PERSON. 

$50/month

• 4 Drop in Weightlifting Classes at PFP Barbell
• Unlimited Video Analysis 
• Club Programming 
• Become part of PFP Barbell and East Coast Gold Weightlifting 
  • This includes support and performance bonuses for National Events
• Goal setting 
• https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=219143&stype=40&prodId=260​​

Schedule your assessment with Coach Tom today to get started!

​In the sport of weightlifting, consistency is key.  Consistency is something as athletes and coaches we always strive towards.  Ideally, we always want to make those important lifts in both training and in competition; however, that isn’t always the case.  Often times, our bodies are sore and tired, our minds are taxed from our lives, or we aren’t just moving as well as we’d like.  Fortunately, there are ways to hone your consistency even when everything else seems to be missing the mark.  Here are 4 easy tips that I have used in my training to increase my consistency on the good days and the bad.
​

1. Visualization – It is important to visualize a successful lift before one touches the barbell.  If you walk onto the platform already planning on failure, you will probably end up failing.  Doubt clouds the mind to all of the other important things that a lifter should focused on, such as body awareness and positioning.  Visualization has other benefits outside of just providing a positive mental outlook.  It can also allow you to visualize cues given by a coach to hone and tune form.  Visualizing the lift before you touch the bar is an easy way to build confidence in uncertainty and also work towards more consistent lifts.
2. Address the bar with intention, every time – I’m often surprised how little care is taken when people pick up a barbell.  A tip I learned from Olympian Melanie Roach is to pick up the bar with purpose and intention, every time.  This means that regardless if you are warming up, doing lifts from the hang, or any other exercise, you pick the bar up like you would if you were lifting from the floor, with your legs (not your back) and flush with your body.  While this may seem overly time-consuming for warm-ups, addressing the bar in this fashion helps to reinforce proper motor patterns.  Often times, new lifters will be leverage power from their upper bodies instead of their legs, which can lead to several outcomes that will put the athlete out of position and endanger a successful lift.  By adding in this simple, but effective strategy, you can begin to reinforce proper movement by maintaining proper positioning every single time you come in contact with the barbell.  Good motor patterns = increased consistency.
3. Every lift with intention – Warming up properly is vital to success in higher percentage lifts; however, I see many weightlifters sandbagging on their warm-up and working sets.  I have often heard from our athletes at PFP Barbell, that lifting with lighter weights can sometimes be hard because light weights are more easily “muscled” (i.e. pulling more with upper body, rather than driving with the legs).  While this is definitely true, the road to consistency demands that every lift be exacted with precision.  Every lift should be executed the same, regardless of the weight; 40kg should be treated with the same care and attentiveness as 140kg.  If every lift is focused on with the same mental fortitude and positioning, consistency will increase dramatically.
4. Body awareness – While it is easier said than done, having awareness of your body is perhaps the most important aspect to consistency. From knowing that your body is active before lift-off, to feeling the balance in the catch, awareness of your body can help you self-regulate for better consistency.  Additionally, body awareness can help you address parts of your body that may need mobilized or additional supplementary training.  Knowing how your body feels on a good day and on a bad one can help you tweak your training.  Sometimes if our bodies and minds are tired, it may be necessary to deload the weights, cut back on volume or reps, or even scale the exercise in some way to achieve the desired result for training that day.  Listening to your body will allow for maximized training and recovery, which will ultimately aid in your quest for consistency.

​
While there are many ways to increase consistency throughout your training and competitive strategies, these are 4 tactics that have helped me immensely.  That being said, the keys to any type of consistency is to constantly address the hinderances to your progress and work towards fixing them, and as always, listen to your coach.
 
Yours in strength,
Dave

We just wrapped up our first 6 weeks of an 18 week training cycle at the gym . This is the first time , as a team , we have put a long term training program into place for our athletes. We are a pretty new gym with really new lifters so we have spent most of the past 18 month on skill development and general strength. This weekend we had 5 athletes compete at the East Coast Gold Classic in York PA , while the rest of our gym worked up to Maxes in the Snatch and Clean and Jerk in the gym . 

While in York , our team had the chance to watch some of the higher level women from East Coast Gold  compete on Saturday . Our women are awesome! They are also all very new to the sport. I believe that every single one of them can become really good weightlifters if they stay consistent in their training and continue to be open to learning and growing. I think they left a little awestruck and inspired by what they saw from the national level women on Saturday. 

On our ride home we started talking about all things weightlifting, My wife, who just started back into training for weightlifting , mentioned that sometimes she feels "unworthy" of the coaching she receives . I thought this was a little silly, but then one of our lifters spoke up.  She informed me that she had felt this very same way before coming into PFP Barbell. She thought that she wasn't good enough yet to coming in to  get coached. Then went on to talk about how happy she was that she finally decided to come in. 

After this conversation  I decided to  create a simple checklist to see if you are good enough to be coached. 

1. Are you breathing?
2. Do you want to get better at Weightlifting?

There you go! You are good enough, you deserve coaching, you are not a waste of time for anyone. If any coach makes you feel that way go somewhere else. There is one big catch: THE COACH CAN NOT WANT IT MORE THAT YOU WANT IT. As coaches we can do a lot of things , but effort, enthusiasm, and perseverance is up to you. Coaches can show you the way , but it is up to you to get there.  Remember , you are enough! 
 
To get started weightlifting go to : www.pittsburghfitnessproject.com/get-started.html   and schedule your FREE assessment with Tom ! 

As a developing athlete being coachable didn't come naturally for me. If I didn't do something correctly , often times an excuse would be the first thing out of my mouth. Our head coach loved the saying " Don't tell me how rough the seas are, just bring the ship in!" . What he was telling us was , either we got it done or we didn't. It did not matter why we didn't make the play , it just mattered that we didn't . The coaches job was to figure out what went wrong, it was our job to listen to the coach on how to correct it .  This concept was so ingrained in me that I became a sponge for feedback. If I didn't get something right , I wanted to know how to improve, then I would take steps to fix whatever I was missing.  I had started to develop a growth mindset. 

A Growth Mindset: Individuals who believe their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others .

So what the heck does this have to do with Weightlifting?  Coachability is the number 1 trait you need to be successful in the sport of Weightlifting . There are a lot of super talented athletes out there but the ones that truly succeed are those who embrace coaching and feedback in order to continue to evolve and grow as an athlete. 

One of the quickest ways to stop your development as a lifter, is to start finding excuses for why you "can't" do the things you're being coached to do. But what happens when there are legitimate reasons that you can't perform the task being asked of you? How do you know when you are just making an excuse or providing beneficial feedback that your coach needs in order to get you to your end goal of lifting better? 

Feedback

1. Comprehension: When given a cue and you are not sure what the coach means . Every athlete is different and responds different ways to different cues and commands. If a coach tells you something that you really do not understand, ask for clarification or for them to word it in a different way. Do not be embarrassed to asked for clarity , the coach is there to get you better. If you don't understand you cannot improve. 
2. Injury: Is there an injury or pain  holding you back from hitting the proper positions or performing the tasks required of you during a training session? This is extremely important feedback to provide your coach. It could be something as a simple as a mobility issue holding you back or something more serious. You are the only one who can feel what you are feeling. Let your coach know where you are stiff or in pain so that the appropriate steps can be taken to make improvements for the day. 
3. Stress/Fatigue: These two can often go hand in hand. Life happens and we all go through periods of extreme stress. Everything we go though can either add to or take away from our stress levels. Even positive life changes can contribute to this. Physical fatigue is very similar , remember that everything you are doing in you week is contributing to fatigue. Some sessions athletes come in and are warn down either physically , mentally , or both. Let your coach know so they can modify the workout accordingly . There is nothing wrong with scaling back your workout for the day because outside factors have worn you down.

*REMEMBER at certain points in the program you will feel beat down. This is how the program works, but letting the coach know how you are feeling will ensure that things are going as they should. 

Excuses:  Nearly all of these problems come down to not being coachable . Typically most of the athletes we have run into do not have to be encouraged to work harder. For the most part they need to be told to pull it back and focus more on good movement ,rest, and recovery. 

1. Routine:  This is how I always do __________, so thats why I lifted that way. NEWS FLASH: You're here to get better, if you didn't need to improve your current technique you probably wouldn't be here. If you do what you've always done , you'll get what you've always gotten . Get out of your own way and grow! 
2. Insert Olympian here Does it this way: Instagram and Youtube are wonderful tools to learn about all sorts of subjects . As a coaching group we have learned a ton from watching good lifters and coaches on the internets. You are not whatever lifter you just watched, their technique will not necessarily be the best for you. Trust your coaches to put you in the best position to succeed. If you don't , find coaches that you do trust and listen to them. 
3. It Feels Better this Way: This one is really common. A lot of Weightlifting technique it very counter intuitive initially .  Some people instinctually 'get it' but this is the exception not the rule.  Be open and learn the technique being coached , don't lift by feel. It takes 1000's of reps and years of practice to be able to really feel .

Your coaches job is to make you the best weightlifter you can be. You can help them do this by providing proper feedback , being coachable, and finding a way instead of finding an excuse. 

Find a way to better lifting technique by scheduling a FREE Barbell Assessment today! 

"If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started."
                                                             Drew Houston

There are a lot of ways people find out about the sports of weightlifting . The usual suspects are Crossfit, Strength and Conditioning programs, or the Summer Olympics. I know I was always captivated by the sport as a kid during the Olympics, I always wondered how people got into the sport. As a small town kid from Central PA, prior to Crossfit , I had never even seen any weightlifting in person aside from our power cleans in the football weight room. As I got older and my competitive side came calling, I found Crossfit and fell in  love with the barbell work. Slowly but surely I started focusing more and more of my attention into weightlifting until one day I started lifting full time. 

Weightlifting is awesome! Weightlifting full time is not for everyone. If you want to pursue the sport but are currently engaged in a fitness regime, the prospect of completely leaving your previous activities behind can be a little intimidating or just flat out unappealing.   I have some great news, you don't have to. You can successfully get better at lifting my practicing 1-3 times a week with a coach. Then if at some point you decide that Weightlifting is "your thing" you can choose to pursue it fully. Thats the thing about YOUR fitness goals....they are yours. 

Previously PFP Barbell didn't have good options for those who want to drop in 1-3 times per week , but want to continue with their other fitness goals. We have just started some awesome options for those folks. 
 
Classes :   Great option for those with previous Weightlifting experience that wants some extra help in a group setting . We have Classes 3 times a day Monday-Friday and 1 on Saturdays .  

Drop-In : $20
5 Classes : $60
10 Classes : $100
25 Classes: $200
1 Month Unlimited (open gym included) : $75/month auto payment every month
 
Private and Semi-Private Weightlifting Coaching : This is great for those who want more indivualized instruction or looking to improve a specific skill . 
60 min sessions only
Barbell Assessment  : FREE
1-on-1: $75/session
              $300 for 5 sessions ($60/session) 

 Semi Private(2-4 people) : $30/Session
 
Weightlifting Courses  : These courses are designed to not only teach  you what to do, but also why your doing it. 
60 min Semi Private
Basic Barbell (3 sessions) : $90
Weightlifting 101 (12 sessions): $300