Happy dance!
Power snatched a double with 30kg after failing most sets last week. Even did an OH squat within the same rep.
We are working towards getting more balance in so the OH squats are added. Not yet within the snatch but directly afterwards: 1 powersnatch & while the wt is up an OH squat (w bounce).
Feels great!
Did wide pulls up till 50kg later on and then just up to a measly 35kg technical back squat. Was too tired already for more but mostly since I need to work on keeping heels on floor, yet having toes travel forwards as much as I can.. basically involves lots of stretching.. thought my heels would hurt, but no, shins (tibia) hurt from this more..
Lifted again in the morning.
Geez.. I was sooo sore from Tuesday workouts that it wasn't any fun at all to try more squatting. No way was I going to be able to do fastish squats or do 2 waves.. just managed 1 ascending wave and got to a pitiful 55x3 at the end while going just below parallel & probably too far bent over.
Felt equally trashed on the pullups and managed less than last week..
The snatch-grip semi-fast deadlifts were OKish but I'm staying so far away from failure those seem easy (55x8 this time).
Still got 1 PR in: did renegade rows with 12kg and 15 reps for each hand, but I have a sneaky suspicion form was off.
The main thing: have GOT to keep 2 days in between the double workout day and the next workout. It ain't no fun lifting when you're still so sore
It's the 5th week of my new plan and I can totally see again why I really prefer short cycles.. by now I'm totally tired of the plan already and ready to switch to another one.
Partially because I had to make some changes I wasn't yet sure of how it would work out like. The main was changing from training
Mon am & pm - Thurs am - Sat am
to
Tues am & pm - Thurs am - Sat am
This only leaves 1 day to recover from the double workout day. I have only done Mon am & Tues am just once and that didn't work either. So, grudgingly I'll just move on everything 1 day.
Tues am & pm - Fri am - Sun am
Grudgingly since Thurs & Sat am are far quieter than Fri am & Sun am. Sunday is actually stupidly busy, even when I wait till the last possible moment = go in 90mins before gym closes at 2pm.
Another change will be that the wave loading will be dropped.. loved it in the past but now my Oly lifts are going up in wt, I need more recovery time from it, and wave loading stretches that boundary = you can do more reps w/o feeling too fatigued, while it is still draining.
Somehow I just wonder how it's possible I could do so much in Oct - Nov and reach my peak while eating less than I do now and am still struggling in parts.. the obvious answer is my hand injury (tendons between thumb and index fingers are over stretched from falling back w bb clenched in my hands) that reduces grip strength by a lot.
Another thing I'd like to play with and this is actually also a type of wave loading, is to do 1 drop set after the heavy sets. E.g. work up to 90kg for deadlifts , then take off 20kg and see where I end at. In the past I've been able to do tons more reps than you'd normally deem logical when looking at the wt/rep chart for that particular exercise.
I don't want to do them to set more PRs again, though I'm sorely tempted but to see if this helps with recovery... now just set a maximum amt of reps for these, just like for warmup sets.
Finally.. I need to get a grip on my diet again. These 2 months have been set apart as maintenance months. So far I've been doing very well, despite eating more than I'd planned to eat, since maintenance has gone up as well.
But the bummer is that I've not eaten as many health foods as I've wanted to eat.. instead of eating more fruit, heck even fruit juice would be fine, and eat more fats from nuts & fattier cuts of meat, I've pigged out on candy.
The stupid part is, that eating candy probably had less effects on my waist line than eating more fatty meats & nuts would have had! So, instead of being punished, I'm getting rewarded for eating junkfood. If the 30d rolling average is correct, bf% has gone down, since there's been a minimal increase in bf (0.1-0.2kg) in relation to the total wt increase since my last minimum BW (60.0kg as a 30d avg).
Reason for still wanting to go back to eating differently is that the candy nourishes my sweet tooth and wakes up the sugar addiction. Sofar it hasn't done any damage, though I wonder if the stupid amounts of DOMS I am now getting (see why I want to change my workouts) has anything to do with the increased carb intake.
One remedy would be to take more interest in trying out new recipes. For now, Iranian/Persian recipes are very high on my list: http://www.farhangsara.com/foods.htm http://www.iranmania.com/travel/eating/loobiyapolow.asp http://www.farsinet.com/farsieats/recipes/
Reason: one of my favourite shops is run by an Iranian (moslim) Kurd and we'd like to invite him for dinner, and what would be better than to make him feel welcome by serving an Iranian dish.
WEEK 5 Tuesday February 17: Olympic training #20 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #)
Dynamic warmup : arm circles, calf/ham stretch, Frankensteins, cat/camel, hip stretch , lateral lunge, reverse lunge, BW squat ,dislocations & Javorek warmup w broomstick
A power snatch+ OH squat
Broom stick: 6-6
15x4+4– 3+3– 3+3 & 5-count hold at bottom
20x3+3– 3+3 & 2-count hold at bottom
25x3+3
27,5x2+2–4+4
30x1+1– 1– 2 (66#)
Pretty amazing to see how I failed most 30kg attempts last week and now even got to a double.
Felt really good & focussed:hmm maybe the caffeine+Fortega ?
B wide pulls
35x5– 5– 5
40x3– 3– 3
45x2– 2– 2
50x1– 1 (110#)
Pretty difficult to both keep up the speed, go low enough and then hold it for a moment when extending fully.
C speed (back) squat
15x8– 7
35x5– 5–5 (77#)
Concentrated on letting the knees go forwards while keeping heels on floor but yet, keep the speed up. Was tired already from pulls & OH squats, so left it at just 35kg. Comment: good workout.. lots of stretching work ahead though.. will be tough to increase ankle mobility to the point that heels stay on floor.
______________________________ ______________________________ ___________ Tuesday February 17: Waves 1 – A5 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #) dynamic warmup
Straight sets of arm circles, calf stretch, Frankensteins, cat /camel, hip stretch, scaptions, pushups, lateral lunge, reverse lunge, goblet squat w 10kg db, Russian twist w 4kg ball & SHELC
A1 lateral throws
9x10/10- 10/10
A2 db swings
9x10-10 (20#) Olympic
Not today since I’d done all this in the morning already: postponed to Thursday or cancelled
POWER: chest & back H
B1 db press
WU: (15x2)x6
1st wave: (17x2)x5 – (19x2)x4 – (21x2)x3
2nd wave : (18x2)x5 – (20x2)x4 – (22x2)x6 (49#x2)
Built up both waves easier than last time 5-4-3 instead of 6-5-4 but went out w a good last set.
B2 Pendlay row (from floor)
40x7
1st wave: 42,5x6 – 47,5x5 – 52,5x4
2nd wave: 45x6 – 50x5 – 55x4 (121#)
Same wave as last time (6-5-4) but slightly more wt.. .
TENSION: back & bis/tris
D1a neutral grip chin up
BWx5
Five easy reps
D1b wide grip LPD
45,5x8-8-8 (100#)
Better than last time.
D2 preacher curl (bench)
25x12-9 (55#)
One more rep
D3 triceps (rope) pushdown
26,3x4 (58#)
23,8x11
One & 4 more reps
DEPLETION: chest & back
E pec deck
42,5x12 (94#)
F supine row
BWx10
Comment: felt almost like a lazy slob omitting the Oly lifts and doing ‘just’ bb-type lifts, but was simply too tired, due to having done so much in the morning.. plus not having done a true refeed either. At least got a few PRs
Thursday February 19: Waves 1 – B5 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #) dynamic warmup
Straight single sets of arm circles, calf stretch, Frankensteins, cat /camel+ hip stretches, scaptions, pushups, lateral lunge, reverse lunge, goblet squat w 10kg db, Russian twist w 4kg ball & SHELC
A plank
BWx60 counts (still no new watch)
B pull+back SQ + GM+ BOR + hang snatch
15x6 (33#)
POWER: back V & legs
C1 weighted chin up (neutral grip)
1st wave: (BW+7)x1 – (BW+6)x2 – (BW+5)x3 (15#)
2nd wave: (BW+6)x2 – (BW+5)x2 – (BW+4)x2
Same wts, but not as many reps as last week.
C2 back squat
WU: 42,5x5
47,5x5
50x4
55x3 (121#)
Ditching the waves here as DOMS was killing me.
TENSION : posterior chain& chest
D1 snatch grip DL
55x8-8-8 (121#)
A bit more wt.. stayed far away from failure, just trying to keep speed up.
D2 OHP
22x11 (48#)
20x13
E pull through
38,8x9-12 (85#)
DEPLETION: back & legs
F leg extension
38x15 (84#)
Upped the wt.
G renegade rows
12x15/15 (26#)
Comments: man.. the Tuesday workouts just about KILLED me. There’s no way I could do OH squats again and back squatting was mediocre too. Traps were sore as well, so it was a surprise the pullups & OH presses were still decent.
Back to the drawing board.. probably will leave 2 days for recovery in between the 2 Tuesday workouts and the next one again, which means lifting on Tues-Fri & Sun. Oh joy! Both Friday & Sunday are way busier than Thurs & Sat.
Going back to Monday would be nice but I can’t do 2 workouts in 1 day on Monday anymore, so it remains Tuesday.
______________________________ ______________________________ ___________ Saturday February 21: Waves 1 – C5 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #) dynamic warmup
Straight sets of arm circles, calf stretch, Frankensteins, cat /camel, hip stretch, scaptions, pushups, lateral lunge, walking lunge w extra stretching, Russian twist w 4kg ball , SHELC & glute bridges
Olympic warmup
A pull – GM – squat – BOR – hang snatch + OH squat
15x6-6-6-6-(5+4) (33#)
POWER: posterior chain & chest
B1 overhead press (from rack w/o hang clean)
27x5
1st wave: 30x5– 32x4– 34x3 +10-count static hold
2nd wave: 31x5 – 33x4 – 35x3 + 10 count static hold (77#)
Didn’t push myself.. only the barbell. Instead of repping it out, I finished with a 10-count overhead static hold..no idea what’s the practical use of it, just made it up last time I did the exercise and I liked it.
B2 hook grip DL
WU: 77,5x5
1st wave: 85x4 – 90x3– 95x2
2nd wave: 87,5x4 – 92,5x3– 97,5x2 (215#)
Still no real improvement over what I was able to pull in the past.. I think I’ll just go a bit down in weight and try to focus more on faster pulls.
TENSION : chest & back
C1 db press
(2x16)x8
(2x20)x8 – 8 (88#)
(2x18)x14, PR!
OK, a bit of a grind, but who cares
C2 1-arm lat pulldown (R/L)
23x13/13 – 13/13, PR!
21x 10/10 DEPLETION: posterior chain & shoulders
F leg curl
42,5x13 (94#)
Upped wts.
dynamic exercises
G1 db swing
14x10– 10 (31#)
G2 goblet squat
14x10– 10 (31#)
H Saxon side bend
8x13/13
Comments: not too shabby . The deadlifts were disappointing but all other exercises were really good with plenty PRs.
Since I am not able to do any Oly lifts in the same (Tues)day as I work on these in the morning, I've removed those from the equation and still lift that night.... then wait 2 days and lift again on Friday and once more on Sunday.
The former program had me lift Tues-Thurs-Sat but I've had too much DOMS going on on Thurs to be handling decent weights..
The template is as follows:
heavy - light - moderate
rotate all major 'muscle groups/movements' as follows Tuesday AM
power snatch+OH squat
pulls
back squat
before I was injured it'd be:
technical snatch
hang cleans (still no PP)
front or back squat or pulls
Tuesday PM
OLY: hang cleans + push presses (for now only PP)
HEAVY: posterior chain
MEDIUM: chest H + back V
LIGHT: quads
Friday
OLY: snatch
HEAVY: chestH+back H
MEDIUM: quads + back V + bi/tris (assist)
LIGHT: posterior chain
Sunday
OLY: only light stuff
HEAVY: quads + back V
MEDIUM: posterior chain & shoulders
LIGHT: chest H + back H + abs
Program:
Tuesday
O Javorek + snatch
O hang clean singles+ PP 7s
P deadlift 7s
T db press -3s
T 1-arm lat pull down 2s
E leg extension 1s
M db swing + goblet squat 2s
Core Turkish get ups 2s
Friday
O snatch 6s
(T Overhead Squat 6s)
P db press -1+6s
P Pendlay row 1+6s
T supine row 2s
T EZ-bar preacher curl 2s
T triceps push down 2s
E GHR 2s
M/core lateral throws + db swings 2s
Sunday
O Javorek + snatch
P weighted chins -6s
P front squat -1+6s
T snatch-grip DL 3s
T OHP 3s
E pec deck - 1s
E renegade rows 1s
Core planks 1s
The only thing I've not given much thought is to do unilateral work.. so lunges & step ups are missing. I do lateral & walking BW lunges in the warmup routine though: this is my current warm up routine.
Anyways.. trained on the Oly lifts again this morning. Still no cleans & front squats due to the hand injury. Yet, a nice surprise.. upped my PR with 1kg as I got my first 31kg (power)snatch+OH squat and that even as a fairly easy double . Twice even!
Trainer finally allowed me to use microloads and not go up by 2.5kg all the time. Worked beautifully, just like I'd predicted to him (had kept begging to use micro-loads for much longer.. he finally gave in).
yeah, either your program is perfect, or nobody understands it
I maybe would try to understand it, but for now I better try to understand analytical chemistry, or go to bed
but as you see, I found you again at jpfitness. Maybe I will look around here some more
Essentially it's a split, morphed into a full body WO.
Progression is from light to medium to heavy.
The difficult part is that I have to combine Oly lifting and 4 movement patterns/body parts into 3 workouts (don't want to go 4 times):
quads /hams (or posterior chain) / chest + back horizontal / chest + back vertical
day
quads
day
hams
1
goblet squat+leg extension
2
GHR
2
overhead squat
3
snatch DL
3
front/back squat
1
DL
day
back H
day
back V
3
renegade row
1
db swing
1
1-arm LPD
2
supine row
2
Pendlay
3
weighted chins
day
chest H
day
chest V
3
pec deck
3
plank+pushups
1
db press 6-12
3
OHP
2
db press 3-8
2
overhead SQ
So when combining everything I start with the most difficult things and then work my way towards the lighter stuff, though I do some things as part of my warmup like planks, goblet squats, db swings and pushups. Bi/tris are done on the heavy chest day.
Since the WO sheet was left at home, I had to come up with what I thought the correct routine was for today! While doing so, I mulled over why I had chosen for what exercise and ... yep, light bulb.
The origins of this workout are really in the very simple progression of 3 'body parts'
legs - chest - back
I've complicated stuff by discerning between
hip dominant & quad dominant for legs
horizontal & vertical movements for back & chest
And lest not forget unilateral work!
That's what was bugging me most.. I did not insert enough unilateral work.. and then again have to do core work & balance (abs), rehab stuff (rotator cuff, neck) and then again stretching ...
Makes for
legs heavy - chest moderate - back light
legs light - chest heavy - back moderate
legs moderate - chest light - back heavy
and then for a cut
for legs : pick either hip dominant OR quad dominant OR unilateral
for chest+back : pick either horizontal OR vertical OR unilateral
in a bulk
for legs: pick BOTH hip dom + unilateral OR quad dom + unilateral
for chest + back : pick BOTH horizontal + unilateral OR vertical + unilateral
Plus then of course.. rotate through the OLY moves, and do core work, stretch & rehab stuff in every workout...
With that structure in mind it was easy to see where the gaps were.. not enough unilateral work and not being sure whether or not to do 2 moves or 1 and then doing both..
WEEK 1 Mix-it-Up 5 Tuesday February 24: Olympic training #21 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #)
Dynamic warmup : arm circles, calf/ham stretch, Frankensteins, cat/camel, hip stretch , lateral lunge, reverse lunge, BW squat ,dislocations & Javorek warmup w broomstick
A power snatch from shins+ OH squat
Broom stick: 6-6
7,5x6+6–6+6
15x5+5
20x3+3
25x2+2
27,5x2+2
29x2+2
31x2+2 – 2+2 (68#)
Thought it wouldn’t be a good session since arms felt a bit tired, but then amazed myself to easily progress to 31 kg.. yay for microloading, the smaller steps gave me way more confidence as the difference in weight wasn’t so large anymore.
B wide pulls
35x5
40x5
45x5– 5 (99#)
Much more stable this time.
C speed (back) squat
15x8– 8
35x5
45x5 – 5 – 5 (99#)
Better technique here too. Comment: was surprised at how much easier everything went as far as technique & focus was concerned. Felt really good.. yay for using mostly fruit for the carb-up!
Tuesday February 24
Rest day
______________________________ ______________________________ ___________
Thursday February 26: Mix-it-up 5B1 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #) dynamic warmup
Straight sets of arm circles, calf stretch, Frankensteins, cat /camel, hip stretch, scaptions, pushups, lateral lunge, reverse lunge, goblet squat w 10kg db, Russian twist w 4kg ball & SHELC
A1 lateral throws
7x10/10- 10/10
A2 db swings
7x10-10 (15#) Olympic
B pull – GM – squat – BOR – power snatch+OH squat
10x6-6-6-6-(6+6) (22#)
C1 power snatch from shins+ OH squat
15x5+5
18x3+3
19x3+3
20x3+3
21x3+3
22x3+3
18x3+3 w 5 slow count hold POWER: chest & back H
C2 db press
WU: (15x2)x8
(17x2)x8
(18x2)x7
(19x2)x6
(20x2)x5
(21x2)x4 (93#)
(18x2)x11
C3 Pendlay row (from floor)
40x8
42,5x7
45x6
47,5x5
50x4 (110#)
42,x5x10
Done as a (slow) triset.. felt good. TENSION: back & bis/tris
D1a neutral grip chin up
BWx3
Was a bit fatigued
D1b supine row
BWx8
D2 preacher curl (bench)
25x12-10 (55#)
D3 triceps (rope) pushdown
23,8x8-7 (52#) DEPLETION: hams
E fake GHR on Bosu & abd crunch machine
BWx6
Not motivated enough to do more of these. Comment: first new workout with ascending sets + dropset at the end to go to exhaustion .. loved this new set up. Felt really good too about being able to sit down so long at the bottom of an overhead squat w/o fear of falling backwards.. go me !
Saturday February 28: Mix-it-up 5 – C1 all weights in kilograms (top wt in #) dynamic warmup
Straight sets of arm circles, calf stretch, Frankensteins, cat /camel, hip stretch, scaptions, lateral lunge, walking lunge w extra stretching, Russian twist w 4kg ball
A plank
BWx60 counts Olympic warmup
B pull – GM – squat – BOR – hang snatch + OH squat
10x6-6-6-6-(2+2) (22#)
15x4+4 (snatch + OH squat) (33#) POWER: back V & legs
C1 weighted chin up (neutral grip)
BWx5
(BW+7)x2 (15#)
(BW+6)x3
(BW+5)x2
(BW+4)x3
(BW+3)x3
BWx6
Stil 6 res after all these sets, yay!
C2 back squat
40x5
45x5
50x5
52,5x5
55x5
57,5x5 (127#)
50x5 + 5 count pause at the bottom
Instead of repping it out at the lower wt, decided to pause at the bottom in the last set.. ouch! TENSION : posterior chain& chest
D1 snatch grip DL
55x8-8-8 (121#)
Same as last week
D2 OHP
22x10 (48#)
20x11
D3 1-arm LPD
21x8/8 (46#)
Wrong move (did vertical back stuff already).. so stopped after 1 set DEPLETION: chest & back
E pec deck
42,5x10 (94#)
F renegade row
14x10/10 (31#)
G push ups
BWx18
Hey, not bad at all and no pain whatsoever Comments: geez .. so much is going on in your head when you forget a workout plan, but it was worth it, as I went over every detail in the new workout schedule and why I wanted to do what.. still forgot a bunch of things and did 1 exercise that wasn’t meant to be (1-arm LPD), but am happy that I got a few good ideas again about a workout routine that wasn’t still 100% satisfactory. Strength was good too.. was glad to still do 6 BW-chins at the end as well as be able to sit down in the hole and still come up reasonably fast.
Am back from the NC Oly lifting.. what a small turnout it was. Wouldn't you believe that the lightest snatches were a mere 25 kg? I've done better than that!
There were only 3 girls in the -75 category where Miss Deadlift (see above) lifts in together with the girl who works & trains in the gym where I go to once a week. Then the other girl who trains in my gym, seems to have moved to the 75+ class which was empty. And guess what? She not just won by default but even managed to improve on the mediocre record in the books: 40kg snatch & 50kg C&J.
Miss Deadlift started conservatively with 10kg below the wt she can snatch well, and got all 3 lifts: 50-55-60 kg. The other girl in her category snatched 50kg as well but missed the 2 other lifts. You'd think MissDL's victory was a 'shoe-in' (is that what you say?) , esp. since she got all 3 lifts at the Clean & Jerk with 60-65-70 kg but it wasn't quite since the other girl outlifted her ... almost at 70-75-80 kg.. it would have been a tie but judges said her 3rd lift wasn't good enough.
Meanwhile there was a girl in the -69 kg class who outlifted both of them. Just to show how unequal forces are.. actually another woman was present in the -58kg class who was actually as good as my friend was.
Yet.. we all think MissDL can easily get much more weight on the bar. Her 70kg clean flew up waaaaay high and it was joked she could have cleaned 100kg. In any case it's great for her that she as one of the few got white lights for all 6 lifts in her first Oly meet.. it will build confidence.
And if she feels recovered within a week, she might even do a PL -meet next weekend!!!
Hey Espi, when you tell it like this, it looks like weightlifting is really nothing in the Netherlands!
..o. wait, it actually IS nothing
But now I could really try to understand your program, which may be perfect but off course if it is you will find out soon..your results will be unbelievable
Why is it so hard? Your work really shows some similarity with scientific articles, and those I CAN understand but off course I have to think a little to do so. When I read web blogs, that is because I don't want to think much. If I want to think I rather read scientific work...mmhh
What says Pierre about your program? Or hasn't he seen it? If he understands it, I want to understand it too and will eventually even think in order to do so
Hey miss HighPull! (that's how I am going to address you from now on... )
Pierre doesn't want to say anything as he wants me to jump 'ships' and come train full time in his gym. I don't want to do this for 2 reasons:
- he gets on my nerves already , not because of his instructions as those are just fine but because of any and everything we ever discuss outside the actual Oly lifting
- it is simply too costly & time consuming to go & drive 30mins each way when I can walk to the other gym in 15 minutes each way.
So, I'm on my own here..
My current routine is wonderful in its' design if I may say so.. but ... it doesn't really address what I want or need to do = improve on Oly lifting and other weaknesses.
However.. teh Lyle as well as a Swedish Olympic lifter have been kind enough to comment . Not so much on my current routine but on helping me discover what lifts I should do in order to improve on my weaknesses.
From what I got, it seems I can /should drop some deadlifts & presses and do things like pulls (instead of DL) and do exercises to learn drop below the bar.
I'll c&p what they said:
What are your strengths and weaknesses? Some problems in technique and how to correct them:
Pulls snatch/clean in front -> more light ("technique") pulls, staying on the toes for a little moment at the end of the pull. Failure to stay on toes = pulling improperly
Poor "diving" speed - "sit-downs" from dead hang by using traps, and hamstring work (RDLs or preferably leg curls)
Poor stability in the catch - more upper back work; rows, or perhaps face pulls
Weak cleans -> more heavy pulls
Weak front squat recovery or weak jerks -> more squatting in general and heavy front squatting in particular
Jerks forward -> push jerks to practice pressing yourself under the bar
Poor core stability or lack of ass powwah - hyperextensions, ab work, good mornings
Adjust program according to strengths and weaknesses; less or same total volume of what you're good at, more of what you're less good at.
My experience with myself and some youth/junior athletes I'm coaching is that OH squats do little to make the athlete dive under. However, it could help you by way of increasing your balance, so sure you might wanna do some. Regardless, I would just put OH squats as part of the warmup for snatches. What works better is sit-downs from dead hang; i.e., you stand straight up, then go up on your toe, and then finally shrug yourself under the bar to a snatch squat stance.
I'm not too familiar with flexibility work, I don't have a problem with it and neither do "my" athletes, I can say this though... If you're leaning forward too much in the squat, that tells me that besides the ankle issue you're also lacking in flexibility/mobility in the hips. I had some limited flexibility in the hip when I started, which I solved quite simply - by squatting. Something like 50% of your 1RM is great to push your ass down the floor, stretching those hips. Nice and slooow
Lyle:
OH squat is a good balance exercise, teaches the balance part of hte snatch. I agree that it won't teach going under
I think drop snatch or heave drop snatch (aka snatch balance) or whatever you want to call it is better for going under the bar.
Swedish guy: Do you have a coach? A gym where they don't have racks doesn't sound like the place where the local OL club trains
Anyway, you can use the front squat for stretching as well.
The exercise I mentioned - not sure if it's the same as what Lyle calls drop snatch - can certainly be done with just the bar or a broomstick. Indeed, it's simply not an exercise that allows for greater loads. I use slightly less than 50% of my best snatch in that exercise. I'll try filming it today.
When you're able to perform it well, you can start progressing into a hang snatch from the knees, which should enable you to use heavier loads, 80-90%.
Deadlifts are not very important to OL; squatting and snatch/CJ technique is paramount. Also, I don't think you should be doing push presses so early into your lifting "career"; I've seen quite a few accidentally push press the bar instead of jerking it on competitions.
Lyle again
drop snatch aka snatch balance:
Start with bar on shoulders. from here there are different ways to do it
1. drop into full snatch as you push yourself under the bar
2. use a slight heave (dip and drive) to get the bar started and then reverse under the bar
1 is more about speed
2 will let you use more weight
And you will see why I get angry when Pierre says that I can't learn anything on the internet as only dimwits sit there... that article is bloody awesome!
I have been thinking..however not enough to understand your program...it would not be nice of me to not want to think about your program but I already know I am not that good at training programs either, so even if I undertood your program I don't think I could help you with it
If I were you, I think I still would go to Pierre full time, however I know he can be annoying. The time it will cost you to drive to him, will be spared from not having to calculate around on your own training program
and I know he is good. Are you still afraid weightlifting is no good for your "looks"? I don't think so...you have seen what most weightlifters are eating yesterday
Thank you MissDL/high vertical jump/high pull. I think you are right.. after yesterday I'm very eager to learn more. I don't know though if he will have time to teach me as well on other days too, but we will see.
The 6 mo. trial expires more or less now and it was just like he said.. 6 months would be just good enough to give me an idea of how it is like.
And no.. I'm certainly not afraid from how they look. Oly lifters dont'look good because they eat poorly and don't do enough assist lifts to make up for what they are missing.
Hey if you don't mind can you catch me up to speed on what you mean by
(BW+3)x3
and what "Stil 6 res after all these sets" this means as well
I like your warmups I'm going to check them out in the future for some help warming people up (my weakest point)
One more thing. How has the pause at the bottom of the back squat been helping you? I do that isometric bulgarian split squat hold occasionally gotten from Maximum strength and felt a good strain.
BW+3 = BodyWeight + a 3 kg db (clasp it behind the belt x 3 reps
"still 6 res" is a typo and should have been 6 reps , so still 6 reps @ BW after the other weighted chins.
The warmup has partially been taken from what is described in the New Rules of Lifting and some things, like scaptions have been suggested by rehab people for shoulder problems. The lunges and hip stretches as well as goblet squats are my own addition to get more flexible.
The pause at the bottom was an impromptu decision.. several reasons
- to stretch at the bottom &
- to make the lift harder w/o adding reps or weight = no stretch reflex whatsoever.
(for Oly lifting you are using the stretch reflex to get out of the hole fast)
So.. almost ready to leave for the Oly session.. am always a bit antsy about whatever topic NOW will turn up that will curl up my toes (get me mad). It's almost unbelievable, but take just 9 out of 10 topics and we will disagree on it. Including that he thinks he pays too much for my supplements, while he shouldn't even get the reduction he's getting for lack of volume!
Another happy but also sad dance: happy because I power snatched 33kg this time, uh almost.. had to still push up. But the 32kg was definitely good enough.
That's 1-2 kg up from last week. At this rate I will see 40kg sooner than expected.
Sad dance because hand still bothers me big time.. can still not even rest it in the hands in a clean position . F*k!!!
Another plus.. no arguments this time, we only talked about OL, Pierre's passion. He thought MissHighPull was silly for not trying 73kg.. I hadn't seen that your opponent got a 53kg snatch, which meant you had a total of 60+70kg and she had to do at least 130-53=77 kg to beat you and she got 78 kg for her last C&J.
He gives you his compliments for your snatches, but says you can still improve on the C&J. It will be hard still to beat your opponent as she just got out of her overtraining slump.
I must say that I've never seen a girl do the lifts as beautifully as she does.
That issue with your hand is going on for far too long.
I see Pierre likes psychological games with his opponents. I'm not in. I was not even trying to win, I just wanted to do good lifts in competition and would have liked to win with them. In the aftermath I also thought, I could have done more in C&J and than maybe win. But in the competition I was really only concerned with good lifting for myself. I don't like the strategic shit, like seeking the weight class where your chances are highest,etc. Pierre doesn't know out of which kind of slump I was coming
so competition is still open, but in the end both for my "oppenent" and me it is still a long way to go, no need to make a serious competition out of it now
but if he wants to talk about it to you, by all means, he can't talk about your prices etc at the same time
I think your approach was the best.. it is positive. You did your best and gained a TON of confidence from doing all 6 of the lifts right.
Pierre is indeed a man of tactics.. he could have been a cycling coach for that matter.. the older woman he coaches (errr, she might even be younger than me ) landed in the 75+ category and won by default as the only participant but also improved on the PR for that category since it was so low it was an almost shoe-in to improve on that one.
If we (you, your coach, us) had been really strategic thinkers you could have stayed in that cat and won easily. But .. yeah, now your competition with P. was very entertaining.
Apparently future competitions between you & P. will remain entertaining as P. was also coming out of a slump after having C&J'd 80kg a few months ago and then overtraining herself. She almost got that 80kg C&J again and may go over soon.. however, we all think you are strong enough for maybe a 100kg C&J
My coach's snatch was 133kg! Forgot his C&J but maybe 150kg? That's awesome! Never knew he was that good.. do you know H.'s PRs?
Finally I totally agree... that hand is acting up for far too long. Not even being able to clean 15kg w/o pain yet snatch over 30kg is ri-di-cu-lous.
Trouble is, it's the right one and when doing any semi-forceful massage it's bent in a similar painful way. In case anyone didn't know, I'm doing a course in sports massage and we are heading from the more sedative & gentle massage into the more stimulating ones where you need to apply more force. It's no fun being small as I can't just lean onto the hands as easily and make the body use the force rather than use hand strength.
Trained again last night , which was the first time with the new program. errr.. dunno if this was a small or a BIG mistake to move everything up 1 day. Since now I was doing push presses (with a healthy hand it would have been preceded by hang cleans) and.. deadlifts.
O boy.. deadlifting after having done power snatches in the morning. Someone should have told me.. I knew it might be iffy, but didn't know it wasgoing to be that hard. Felt like a low rep depletion workout.
It's a good thing I'm not having bad DOMS easily as I might not have been able to get out of bed this morning from being sore all over.
The best Olympic lifter of our country , D. Rozalina, just was here and analyzed my squatting.. it's piss-poor. Too much of a GM. He says my lower back isn't strong enough so I have to practice wall/door squatting with a straight back and a narrower stance than I'm naturally doing.
We showed him the small clips of the NC OL and he said (to my surprise actually) that YOUR technique on the snatch was very good and actually far better than that of P. which I thought was so beautiful. The reason why I thought it was so beautiful is that she is so lightning fast.. but... he says she is not stable enough. You are very stable! And apparently that's what counts.
Maybe one day I will be as stable as you , once my lower back is stronger.. now I at least know where to work on.. also need to work on underarm strength as my wrist strength isn't good enough either (grip is very decent OTOH).
He told me to forget about workout schedules, but to only focus on technique, esp. proper squatting w/o even using wts. And then work on getting my lifts up.
OK, who's going to argue with one of the world's best lifters . I've rarely met anyone who is that quick at analyzing people's flaws.
yes, I see what he means about your squat, I just had no idea what you could do about it. I hope you will succeed in improving it, it willindeed help at olympic lifting.
But hey, what is that, you showed D. video clips or something of the competition, while I didn't even know that they exist? I want to see them too!
Yes. You know A. took his camera with him. Instead of just pics, he took mini-videos of a lot of snatches and then upon seeing the battery die, he continued with pix for the clean & jerks. D. didn't see the C&J's. That's where the comment on your and P's snatch came from. Likewise he & A. explained why T.Br.'s lift weren't how they should be.
Anyways.. I'm quite disappointed this morning. How is it possible that I get a sore lower back from unweighted (BW) wall squats as it is so frigging hard to keep my back up and have been able to front squat (with a straight back as otherwise I'd have dropped the bar) up to 70kg w/o back pain?
That's the weird thing of it all. The answer lies probably in the inflexibility of my back.. in between the sacral joint bones and the upper back it is totally and entirely inflexible. After the neck & upper back cervicae (?) I can't make my back flex down.. only around the hip joint I can bend it again.
Waited until early afternoon to work out as I woke up being all sore in the lower back and having woken up at night too from numb hands.. almost had wanted to give up on lifting altogether .. however.. went in and did everything I'd planned, except for skipping a few sets (most assisted exercises were cut down to the bare minimum of just one set).
What i did do went OKish... had originally wanted to try out snatch balances (as suggested by Lyle to learn diving under teh bar) but chickened out coz' of feeling tired/slow.
If you (like me) didn't know exactly what a snatch balance is :
Still don't know what exactly the difference is between a snatch balance and a heaving snatch balance ...
Anyone?
So I just did the planned power snatches + OH squats (within 1 rep), the db presses & Pendlay rows (got 1 PR) and then finished with a round of assist exercises (chin, preacher curl, tri push down, supine row, fake GHR) plus 3 of the newer extra rehab exercises (face pull, neck flexion, exo rotation, Sissy squat, ham stretch and also tried touching my knees with my nose... and got remarkably close!)
) landed in the 75+ category and won by default as the only participant but also improved on the PR for that category since it was so low it was an almost shoe-in to improve on that one. 
. I've rarely met anyone who is that quick at analyzing people's flaws.
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