Interview with Lewis Chua (Olympic Weightlifting)
Written by: Hafeez | Date: Jul 22, 2010
Find out more about Weightlifting from Lewis Chua, one of the nation's promising weightlifters.
What weightlifting means to the man on the street is exactly what the name says: lifting weights. But to the athletic and sports community, weightlifting may actually refer to Olympic weightlifting. The term weightlifting will be used in this context in this article; we shall refer to Olympic weightlifting as weightlifting in this article.
Weightlifting is a sport that not only focuses on strength, but power and technique. It is not only about strength but speed; it is a test of explosive strength. However, it is also a mental test; the athlete has to give it his all as the weight is to be lifted for a single repetition and the athlete has to give it his utmost concentration.
Current weightlifting competitions focus on two lifts: the snatch, and the clean and jerk. Contrary to popular belief, weightlifting is safe; as with any sport, it is with poor form or overwhelming weight that the athlete cannot handle that leads to injuries. In fact, the training with heavy weights will help build up your strength and bone density. To find out more about weightlifting, Colin from the Singapore Weightlifting Federation (SWF) has provided an article: Weightlifting Sports Safety.
The training ground for the SWF.
To find out more about the training and more about our local weightlifting athletes, I made a trip down to the SWF training centre and managed to get an interview with Lewis Chua, one of Singapore’s top weightlifters.
HS: Hi Lewis, maybe you can start by telling the readers more about yourself?
LC: I’m a weightlifter? I live in New Zealand and am back here to do my National Service with the Airforce.
HS: Perhaps you can tell us more about your athletic background? Before weightlifting, were you involved in any other sports?
LC: Before I started weightlifting, I was playing rugby, and just hitting the gym.
HS: So what attracted you to weightlifting or prompted you to take up the sport?
LC: Basically I started to visit the gym, and got into rugby. During rugby, we had to do a lot of basic Olympic lifts for our training. It was during that time that I got interested in Olympic weightlifting. People saw that I had potential and I liked the training, so that’s when I got started.
Constant motivation for the athletes
HS: So how have you been training?
LC: I’ve been training since I was 13 ½ years old, so hmmm; it’s been five and a half years now?
HS: Wow, you started young. So how is your training any different now?
LC: Training is more vigorous and demanding now. I guess the more you are “into” the sport, the heavier the weight goes, and the more pressure you experience to perform.
HS: Do you that as a national athlete; you have to sacrifice a lot in your life?
LC: Oh definitely; you always have to make sacrifices no matter what you do. But as a national athlete, you end up sacrificing your weekends, and spending more time on training.
HS: So currently, what sort of training do you do? Like do you do accessory work? Or cardio?
LC: We do cardio once a week and we do most of our training on the lifts. We also do basic strength building movements like squat variations, high pulls, deadlifts, push presses and kettlebell work. Anything that will help improve our performance for the Olympic lifts.
HS: Most of people have the impression that training with weights will make you inflexible and that athletes who train with weights are very inflexible. Care to share your thoughts on that?
LC: Actually, in order to execute the Olympic lifts, you would require a high level of flexibility. You are using a lot of explosive power; when you have explosiveness, you need to get under the weight as fast as possible. You need to be flexible to explode upwards and get under the weight to catch the bar; flexibility at the ankle, hips, all play a part.
HS: What makes you persevere and carry on with this sport?
LC: I want to fulfil some of my personal goals such as aiming to lift a certain amount, and participate in more competitions. And to develop the sport as weightlifting is relatively unknown in Singapore.
HS: So what do you see for yourself in the future?
LC: I would aim to compete in the Olympic Games.
HS: Besides weight lifting, do you have any hobbies?
LC: Well, I’m currently serving my National Service (NS) so I don’t really have time for other hobbies. Well, NS could be considered a hobby. I’m just joking. During my free time, I just rest and recover.
HS: So, before we end, do you have any advice for budding weightlifters or people who are interested in the sport?
LC: Advice? Yeah, come down and train! We always welcome and are looking for people to expand our Federation. No matter what level of lifting you are at, it is always good to have fellow lifters together and training side by side.
HS: Thanks for your time Lewis.
LC: No problem man.
Lewis's warmup for the front squat.