“Before you worry about getting too big, try getting stronger than a woman half your weight in her 50s.”
– Kyle Aaron

Australian strength coach Kyle Aaron relates this story.

The Olympic lifts are rising in popularity, but this is definitely not always a good thing.

I found a guy today snatching, badly. Feet splayed out, arms swinging the bar forward like a kettlebell, pressouts, all that sort of thing. He was a state volleyball player and said his coach had got the team to do them.

Apparently not an Olympic lifting coach, though…

The volleyball player was a talented guy, things cleaned up pretty quickly and he felt good. I told him, “Honestly though mate, this stuff is good but at this stage I’d just focus on getting stronger.”

“I don’t want to get too big and slow down,” he told me.

At about 1.87 meters tall and a body weight of 100kg, he squats 115kg and today, with me, set a personal best snatch of 60kg. I told him about a few lifters I know of, such as Mary Macken:

Mary Macken, at 52 years old and a body weight of 51kg squats 120kg in competition. I said to him, “Before you worry about getting too big, try getting stronger than a woman half your weight in her 50s.”

I honestly didn’t know how to put it more politely than that.