Ep 349 - Elite Weightlifting: An Inside Look (ft. Wil Fleming)

Iron Culture presented by MASS

The MASS Crew

Sports & Recreation, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 827 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Iron Culture, Eric Trexler interviews Wil Fleming, a level five senior international coach with USA Weightlifting. They discuss Wil's journey into Olympic weightlifting, the importance of mental resilience, and the technical aspects of teaching Olympic lifts. Wil shares insights on managing arousal levels during competitions, the significance of routines, and many other factors that contribute to successful weightlifting at the highest level.

Be sure to support our friends over at elitefts.com by using our discount code (MRR10) to save 10% on your next order of lifting gear or apparel.

Head over here to check out Wil's new book:
www.strongmindtraining.com

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:42 The Journey into Olympic Weightlifting
7:28 Teaching the Olympic Lifts: Progressions and Prerequisites
32:10 Mental Aspects of Weightlifting: Building Resilience
48:22 The Importance of Pre-Performance Routines
54:30 Mentally Preparing for Setbacks in Competition
58:32 Managing Arousal Levels in Competition
1:05:42 Water cuts in weightlifting
1:09:42 Final Thoughts and Book Info

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, welcome back to Iron Culture.
0:06.3	It is me, Eric Trexler.
0:07.6	No Dr. Helms this week, but we are in luck.
0:11.2	We have an esteemed guest with us, and this is going to be a fun interview because,
0:16.0	unlike our dear Dr. Helms, I know very, very little about Olympic weightlifting. So I feel like I'm
0:22.8	almost more qualified to do an interview with an Olympic weightlifting coach because my questions
0:27.2	are absolutely genuine. I won't be just teeinging you up with pretending to not know things. So
0:32.7	we are joined today by Will Fleming. He is a Level 5 senior international coach with USA weightlifting and was an assistant
0:40.1	coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic weightlifting team at the 2024 Olympics.
0:46.4	Where were those?
0:47.6	Those were in Paris, France.
0:49.0	In Paris, France.
0:50.4	Beautiful.
0:50.9	So, Will, thank you so much for joining us.
0:53.3	How are you doing today?
0:54.7	Excellent. I'm talking to you from Ferda, Norway, which is the site of the 2025 World
1:02.5	Championships in weightlifting. And Norway is beautiful. It's a little bit rainy right now,
1:06.7	but overall, it's been a great experience. Just got to watch a U.S. lifter, Olivia Reeves,
1:13.1	set snatch, clean and jerk,
1:15.1	and total world records on her way to winning,
1:17.9	you know, her, I guess, third world title now.
1:20.8	So, yeah, good day.
	...

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