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In today's Workout Wednesday post we're back with our mini series called Ask a Trainer. We'd had a number of submission emails asking if we can discuss Olympic lifts, so I enlisted the help of my friend, trainer and nutrition coach James, who is co-owner at Focused Movement Academy in Miami. You may remember him as one of the key people to help me get past the plateau when I was getting in shape for the photoshoot for Namaslay. If you're interested in working with him on nutrition, click here and and fill out the form at the bottom.

Last week we went over how to do cleans. The next step from cleans is learning how to do different variations of jerks.

I've talked before about incredibly important it is to build strength as a yoga student because flexibility without control can be a recipe for injury. How you want to build up your strength is totally up to you - Olympic lifting is just one of many options, and I personally love it. Lifting weights can seem intimidating, so I wanted to get a thorough explanation for people who may be interested.

The jerk primarily uses power and strength from the hips, legs and torso to get the barbell overhead. It's an explosive movement that has a few key points to keep in mind. Below, I've added the key talking points and their corresponding time within the video as James discusses the push press, the push jerk and the split jerk. Hope you love!

Here's a quick break down of the video:
1:00 how to do push press
1:09 tip: keep your elbows up so the bar stays on your shoulders. if your shoulders drop, the bar will come down onto your clavicle.
1:15 tip: keep your knees out
1:33 keep hips under you for good alignment

2:26 how to do push jerk
2:44 tip: jump and push, lock arms and land
3:19 what not to do: dip too far
3:27 instead: do a quick dip for bar flexion
3:36 what not to do: lead with your hips. doing this will send the bar forward
3:41 instead: keep your weight in your heels, knees out and hips stacked under you

3:49 how to do split jerks
4:08 tip: picture a box. your front foot lands on the front corner, and your back foot will land on the opposite back corner
4:33 tip: end where you started. step front foot first, then back foot.
4:52 what not to do: dip too fast
5:07 instead: do a controlled dip
5:18 what not to do: land too tall (this means you're pressing the bar up rather than using your hips)
5:36 instead: land low. treat low weight like it's heavy so you develop proper technique from the start
5:54 what not to do: land with your feet too close
6:27 instead: land with wide feet for more stability
6:54 tip: be sure to tuck your chin
7:19 tip: dip, pause, drop to help get under the bar
7:55 how to figure out which foot goes first

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I'd love to hear what you think of this series, and if you have any questions you'd like to Ask a Trainer :)