At Risto Sports, we received the most incredible email from a customer. Our customer wrote that their Risto weightlifting shoes survived an F3 tornado.  Having no other shoes to wear,  they wore these shoes for what appears to be days for 12 plus hours at a time.

Here it is, unedited:

“Sir/Ma’am,

I just wanted to let you guys know how amazingly built your shoes are.  My wife and i were in Woodward, Oklahoma last week visiting her parents when the tornados hit. We were all in the house when it hit, but we survived.  My Ristos were the only shoes I had left and had to wear them while I sifted through the rubble.  I never thought I would be wearing OLY shoes 12 plus hours a day but they were still comfortable.  I just wanted to let you guys know you definitely make a quality product that can make it through an F-3 tornado, and multiple hours of wear.  Needless to say I’ll be buying me some new OLY shoes, and they will definitely be from you.

Ive also attached a couple pictures.

Thank you for your time.

D.L.”

Woodward, OK April 2012 Tornado, damage to house customer stayed in

Risto Cobra weightlifting shoes which survived

Risto Cobra shoes which customer wore for over 12 hours a day, to clean rubble

Between 1987 and 1996 9 world championships took place , 729 medals were disputed (gold, silver,bronze). China won 230 medals, Bulgaria won 71 medals, third was Taiwan with 71 medals and Russia got only 3 medals, let’s keep in mind that Russia sent female lifters to a world championshiops in 1995 for the first time.

A. Medvedev decided to research the raeson of this big difference of sports performance between the above mentioned countries. He usedthe classification board of Starabutsev for masters of the sport, showing the number of repetition that each natioanl female team was performing during that time:

Volume of  loading of female lifter from China, Bulgaria and Russia. Mesocycles :preparatory and competitive.

Chinese lifters executed 12% more reps than Bulgarian lifters and 28% more than Russian lifters. In the number of repetitions with weights of 70% and up the Chinese lifters performed 37% more that Russian lifters, but only 3% more than the Bulgarians. These percentage of high volume type of training shows clearly that the high number of repetitions is the best way to GUARANTEE success on the world  stage . Now how can we increase the number of repetitions to adapt to this type of training? we can start but increasing the number of repetitions in weights under 70%. With this study A. Medvevev showed that to improve the performance of the Russian female lifters the had to increase the work of resistance strength as basis to develop other manifestations of muscular strength.

Next post: Variation of the loading between the preparatory and competitive mesocycles.

Ivan Rojas

Risto Sports LLC

Why did we go to US sizing?

Most people are familiar with US men’s sizing. Although, sizing systems vary form manufacturer to manufacturer, customer feedback shows that even our non-US customers were more comfortable converting their size to US versus the South American system that we had been using. 

Additionally, in our old sizing system, most people were required to measure their feet to find their size.  Yes, we had customers who complained that they didn’t own a ruler, had difficulty aligning their foot with the 0″ line on the ruler and recording the measurement, or were buying shoes for someone as a present and didn’t know their measurements.  In effect, we wanted to make the process a whole lot easier for customers.

Why is the sizing only in US Men’s and not US Women’s?

To avoid confusion, we wanted to stick with only one sizing methodology.  What we really liked about the South American system was its unisex application, which avoided confusion on whether the shoe size was in men’s or women’s.  So, now that we are going to US sizing, it made the most sense to use men’s sizing because it is more consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer than women’s sizing and it is more universally known.

But aren’t their differences between men’s and women’s shoes?

In a weightlifting shoe, the shoes use the same mold and are unisex, hence creating 2, gender specific sizing systems would add no value to the customer.   A similar example would be steel toe industrial shoes, often the male and female shoes are from the same shoe mold, only the styling differs.

Two models still show the old sizing on your website, why is that?

These models are discontinued, hence only the sizes showing are what is available in stock to buy.

The location of the US Olympic Trials for weightlifting will be the 2012 Arnold Expo.   Risto Sports will be on site with gear, so please stop by to try on shoes, look at our new line of products, talk to the Team, and grab a catalog.

The weightlifting venue is located along the main hall on your way to the Expo.  We will have a banner up, so we should be wicked easy to find.

We just got back from training with Carlos over the holidays. He is starting his Olympic training cycle in his journey to winning an Olympic medal in London.  By the way, he is on track to pull off some stunning upsets.  His clean and jerk of 205KG at the 2011 Pan Am Games was a medal at the 2011 World Championships.

Here is a photo gallery depicting the training settings of his gym in Armenia, Colombia.  Note, Carlos gives back to neighborhood kids by coaching and helping them with their technique.

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More to come…

Anyhow, it is always great to see someone you trained with, even after several months.  Of course, Annie looked ripped as ever and in great shape.  She seemed to put on more muscle mass in her legs since our last meeting, in January, and  maintained Ivan’s Technical adjustments such as squatting more upright and pulling with the bar closer.

As it was my off day, I got to hang out and play photographer while Ivan, Annie, and Frederik (Annie’s boyfriend) moved some weights.

Now, if you are a high level athlete or aspiring to be one, you may be wondering what type of work out you would do with Ivan –especially, if you were in town just for the day.

Coach Ivan Rojas smiling while Annie shows technical perfection

…Allright, I’ll tell you:

Ivan started by analyzing Annie and Frederik’s technique.  Ivan measured the speed of the bar as well as the path of the bar.  Specifically, Ivan first did tests with the full snatch, followed by the clean and jerk.  Afterwards, Ivan also measured the speed of the jerk from the high blocks.

In between, we worked on specific technical aspects.  For example, we did very nuanced work on Annie’s pull.

Here is a short video showing an example of technical feedback and coaching.  Notice the interaction between coach and athlete. It’s all about improving yourself:
httv://youtu.be/9F-3o2LBNQE

For the record, according to Ivan’s tests, Annie has very efficient technique — even for a weightlifter.

What can you learn from Annie?

Frederik doing technical work

Annie has an awesome attitude. Yes, she won the Crossfit Games, and her next logical thought is to improve her weightlifting, which will also improve her CrossFit. Additionally, like all great athletes, Annie listens and takes feedback.  She stays focuses, takes Ivan’s direction, then improves her next lift.  She doesn’t over analyze things (something I need to work on), nor does she under think.

Finally, notice that Frederik and Annie are doing very light weights in these photos.  This is a sign of not letting one’s ego get in the way of improving.  To do technical analysis, one must use light weights. ( they actually did go a bit heavier).

Jennifer Pisciotta and Eric Sevland

Coach Ivan Rojas is currently in Paris at the Weightlifting World Championships…Just to give a heads up Risto Sports is now offering Personal training by Jennifer Hieatt World, State and National record holder for womans Powerlifting and Strength and Strong man training with Eric Sevland. Both are fantastic trainers dedicated full of knowledge as well as being very passionate about their jobs and the people they offer their services to. Jennifer trains a youth power lifting team that also holds world state and national records, as well as Kimberli Smith the Kro$$face killer. Jennifer specializes in training over weight men and woman and has taken more than a hundred lbs of of her clients. She has the ability to drive her clients to meet their personal goals, and helping to create the body that most people would wish for. Jennifer is not only personable and passionate but she is Strong in Character her motto is it’s “YOU against YOU…just do it” . Don’t miss out she is running out of openings.

We are happy to make the athletes well designed and uniquely styled singlets, transcendign gear from past sponsors.Below is a preview of the singlets:

Note, we also made singlets for Team Haiti at these Games.

Our lifters brought home Best male lifter, Best Female lifter, and Best Junior Female lifter.

Yoni Andica- Best 77kg, Best Male
Gwendolyn Sisto – Best 63kg, Best Female
Gwen Rojas- Best <48kg, Best Female Junior
Tuba Tony- nice snatches at 105+kg.

Check out our you tube and facebook pages for video.

We also had

This week, Luz Mercedes Acosta of Mexico, Jonny Andica of Colombia, and Lesbia Cruz of Guatemala graced us with their presence. For our new lifters, this was an awesome opportunity to see a fantastic display of power and technique.

Seeing a woman with 12% bodyfat toy with 90kg snatches is incredibly motivating.  Seeing a 77kg lifter snatch double bodyweight for reps was also incredibly motivating.  It is an eye opening experience, to see that, yes, lifting huge weights is possible!

For those who missed the action, we uploaded new videos on our youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/zaurbor?feature=mhee

We also had some up and coming National level lifters make a surprise entrance:

National medalists Jonas Westbrook and Dave Boffa stop by for a training session