Onto the bandwagon!

This is a blog mostly about weightlifting - the snatch and the clean and jerk, and the various strategies one may employ in order to maximize these lifts. It'll hopefully be a handy place to me track my progress over the next few months.

I'm currently training towards the Irish Senior Weightlifting championships, in which I plan to compete in the 63kg class. I got beaten fairly soundly last year (my second competition ever) but this year will be a different story.

I will also be doing a Level 1 coaching course over the next few months and hopefully starting studying towards my referee's qualification, so there'll be other stuff on apart from just lifting.

At the moment I'm training 4 days a week with the odd extra session thrown in for special occasions. Things will be reasonably high-volume (by my standards) until mid-March, when the volume will drop and intensity will be upped in preparation for Seniors.

Wednesday's training went like this:
Warmed up with a short dynamic warmup and then overhead squats for 5 x 3 (reps x sets) with the 15kg bar
Drop snatches: 3x3@25kg, 3x2@30kg
Hang power snatch + power snatch + snatch (snatch combo): 30, 34, 37, 40 x 3
Heavy drop snatches from rack: 2@30, 2@35, 2@38 x 3
Rack jerk warmup: 2 sets each of jerk dips, jerk catches, and split jerks with 25kg
Rack jerks: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 1@50, 55, 57.5, 60 x 5 (and one miss)
Front squat: 3@45, 3@55, 3@63 x 4 sets

40kg on the snatch combo is a new personal best. Since my max snatch is currently down as a result of doing the volume I have been, it is best to take solace in progress on anything :). I did just miss the initial HPS on the second set, but first and third were great.

The heavy drop snatches are new - the idea is to improve stability and strength in catching the snatch. I have been doing heavy overhead squats for the past several months but I think they've run their course for the moment - can now OHS 5kg over my max snatch for a double, which seems plenty.

Rack jerks were better than they have been for some time - have been doing battle with lockouts over the last couple of months, until it was pointed out to me that my front foot needs to be 2 inches further in front of me. Seems to be doing the trick. I missed my second last one because I was too slow on the drive - due to overdoing trying to keep my elbows up, which is the other thing I'm doing poorly on jerks at the moment. Still, fairly happy.

I should have done some ancillary work too (hamstrings, abs) but ran out of time... got to get better on this.