Weightlifting in Colombia: PT.1 with National Coach Luis Arrieta

So Cap's Cave Strength made a trip to Colombia where in recent years Colombia has produced Weightlifters who have won medals in the Olympics with Diego Salazar and Oscar Figueroa and in last years World Championships where Luis Javier Mosquera won the Bronze medal in the snatch. Prviously, Mosquera won the Junior World championships. So something special is going on in Colombia where both men and women are competing at the highest levels whereas in the USA our program is developing but we're still behind in terms of success what the Colombian's have achieved.

Luis Arrieta Weightlifting School in Barranquilla

250kg squat 20 years old 77kg body weight

I first met Luis on Facebook and he invited me to come down to his Weightlifting school in Barranquilla Colombia. I've never been to South America and have always wanted to so here's a perfect opportunity to visit the exotic continent of South America. First stop, Barranquilla. I met Luis outside the gates of the Metropolitano stadium in Barranquilla where his weightlifting school is at.

His Weightlifting school is centered around developing youth lifters from 10 years old till 20 and under. From there on, lifters who are good enough and need more development after 20 years old will be relocated to one of several training bases in Colombia such as Cartagena, Cali or Bogota. His Weightlifting school is one of many in the country.

Colombian Weightlifting schools
The sport of Weightlifting in Colombia is free for anyone that wants to participate. The funding is provided for by the state. The state covers uniforms, shoes and travel expenses when competing nationally or internationally. There are lifting leagues within each lifting department and all competitions develop lifters to rise in the ranks or qualify to bigger competitions such as Pan American's, World Youth Championships, or youth nationals.

At the Luis Arrieta lifting school there are both boys and girls training. The boys there were squatting close to 200kgs or over. A 20 year old lifter was squatting 250kgs at 77kg body weight. This is common in Colombia. After years of technique training they put a lot of focus on developing strength for the lifts.

In PT. 2 I want to share with you a deeper look into the Colombian training system and how they develop that system to develop their lifters and their lifting program.