European Masters Weightlifting Championships in Elz, Germany. May 1998

I went to the European Championships this year and the World Championships last year to look at the standards set on the world stage both from a lifting perspective and as a physiotherapist looking at problems associated with ageing. As a lifter I continually marvelled at the strength, speed and flexibility of many of the lifters and it was a wonderful testament to the response of the body to sensible and continued training. Some particularly memorable lifts were Stefan Jacobsson (Swed - age 51- 94kg) 137.5 / 167.5, Walter Legel (Austria- age 58- 77kg) 105 / 122.5, and Jiri Smolek (Czech- age 47- 85kg) 120 / 147.5.; the last two lifters were memorable for their explosive speed, split technique and flexibility and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to talk to these lifters and others about their adaptation of training to the ageing process.

Stefan Jacobsson has had surgery on ten occasions to his knees and has a chronic shoulder problem so he adapts by training four times weekly on push presses, clean & snatch pulls and squats; protecting his knees by avoiding full movements until competitions. Current President of the IWF - Masters and World Champion, Walter Imahara protects his knees by only training from blocks, never full movements and only performs half squats. Walter is known for his excellent technique and catching the bar at the rock bottom position in competitions. The other widespread philosophy was that many lifters only feel the need to squat 20kgs.above their best clean & jerk to save their knees.

By far the most widespread problems are shoulder injuries associated with degeneration of the rotator cuff tendons; particularly the supraspinatus tendon which has a poor blood supply, deteriorates with age and becomes more susceptible to tearing. However, I am convinced masters lifters do not include enough shoulder strengthening exercises to improve shoulder stability and lessen the possibility of injury. Shoulder strength / musculature declines with age and the jerk and snatch "catch" the weight at the end of movement rather than relying on the deltoid and rotator cuff muscles to work over a range of abduction / extension.

The recurring theme for the over 55 years lifters in the clean and jerk was that the jerk produced the limitation rather than the clean. In fact, the older the lifters became the more obvious it became a competition of how much a lifter could jerk as the number of failures in the cleans were very low. Was this ageing problem due to lack of leg strength for the drive or lack of strength to hold the bar at full extension ? I am inclined to suspect the latter and it was interesting to watch some of the British lifters incorporate some body building exercises for the shoulders; something we should all think about.

The second major area of injury was the patello femoral joint; that is, the joint formed by the knee cap as it slides over the groove in the femur as opposed to the knee joint. Knee joint problems are relatively rare in lifting and many lifters are mistaken in claiming they have knee pain whereas it actually arises from the patella. This joint degenerates with age and produces pain and stiffness exacerbated by excessive squatting. It was interesting to note that most of the senior Russian lifters at the hotel would wait for the lift rather than climb one set of stairs !! - using stairs produces patello femoral pain very quickly if there is degeneration in the joint. A large number of lifters choose to do half squats rather than full movements to save their knees. I feel this is justified as lifters can still achieve big totals without going into the bottom position as they age. A number of lifters have managed their chronic patello femoral problems by adopting a split technique and have gone on to rank very highly on the world scene.

The number of entries and the interest in Masters weightlifting highlights the strength of the sport in Europe and is rapidly overtaking Senior lifting in the northern hemisphere. Something the IWF needs to take notice of and perhaps take the Masters a little more seriously. At the same time I feel the referring in the older groups, where poor lockouts are permitted, needs to be tightened before the IWF takes Masters IWF more seriously. The differences can be quite marked in Australia and referring varies from state to state and at a more local level. I anticipate criticism for my views but I feel referees must become strict and older lifters must reduce their poundages to a level where they can lockout correctly. I have a vivid memory of an American lifter having three white lights in Poland for a lockout which lacked at least 30 degrees of elbow extension in each arm - after the lift was passed he waived to a cheering crowd with straight arms !!

The potential for the IWF Masters numbers to completely outstrip senior lifting is very strong and not far away. The ramifications of the growth in Europe was quite obvious in Germany and will create questions of ? independent funding , more relevant rules for masters and more appropriate support from the IWF. There is already a large ground swell of discontent that could push for independence if support is not forthcoming.