Monday, February 23, 2009

Power to the people!

Decided to do something a bit unusual today because I'm away for the next 3 days without access to training facilities. The idea is to spend 30 minutes power snatching to a max for the day, then when that is reached drop to 80% of that and do doubles until time is up. I'd follow this with some snatch pulls for about 15 minutes and then some jerks from the rack and some back squatting. This is basically a bastardized excerpt of the sessions we did on Valentine's Day, which were good fun (and which I found really good for kicking me out of a training rut, too).

Mindful of yesterday's lesson I started with about 15 mins dynamic warmup and a bit of foam rolling for the glutes, back and hip flexors.
OHS: 5@bar x 3
Power snatch: 2@25, 2@30, 1@35, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, missed 47, 2@37 x 5
Snatch pulls: 2@45, 2@50 x 5
Jerk warmup with 25kg - jerk dips, catches, jerks behind the neck
Rack jerk(1 behind, 1 in front): 35, 40, 44, 48, 52, 54 x 4
Back squat: 3@45, 3@55, 3@65, 3@70, 3@75, 3@80.

44, 45 and 46kg are new personal bests for the power snatch, and 46kg is awfully close to my best snatch at 48kg. As soon as I get a good run at a new snatch attempt on a good day my best has got to fall. I just need to keep working on the speed in second pull and extension, this has been serving me well this week.

Rack jerks were OK, still getting used to the behind the neck stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to handle more weight on them soon. Technique isn't perfect but it's improving.

The Butcher was reminding me to pull my shoulderblades together and rotate my elbows out in the jerk receiving position - must keep this in mind when jerking and especially doing jerk-related warmup stuff. I've been focusing heavily on snatch stuff this last while since I got that rack jerk PB on the 14th but really the jerk is as important if not more so.

Here's some video of the snatch pulls:



So here ends a pretty tough couple of weeks, a hell of a lot of volume done in snatch, clean and jerk and lots of progress made. Back to it on Friday for an easy session to sharpen me up for a weekend of lifting and cryotherapy in Wexford.

Fair play to Gillian also today on her new (accidental) power snatch max of 48kg :)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sunday's Septuagenarian Snatches

Friday 20th February

Quick dynamic warmup
OHS and drop snatches
Snatch: warmup sets, 2@42 x 6 (missed second rep of second set)
Jerk dips, jerk catches, split jerks, light front squats with 25kg bar
C+J: 40, 44, 48, 52, 54, 57, 59 x 4
Front squats: can't remember, will have to check training log later!

C+J video:


Really good snatching today, the last couple of sets of snatch in particular felt really good - light and fluid. The Butcher was originally going to have me to stop on 5 sets but I got a bonus set because I was making them look easy :)

Saturday 21st February - ancillary training
Hamstring curls supersetted with pulldowns, step ups supersetted with decline pushups, scap work and ab work, stretching.

Sunday 22nd February

Am away Tuesday to Thursday this week so trying to get as much training int0 Sunday and Monday as possible - wouldn't normally do this much because I'm not a lunatic :)

OHS and drop snatches 3 sets each
Snatch: 2@33, 1@36, 39, missed 42, 42, 45, 45, missed 45, 45, 45, missed 45
Heavy drop snatches: 2@35, 2@40, 2@44, 2@46 x 3
Rack jerk warmup (jerk dips, jerk catches, split jerks)
Rack jerks: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 2@55 x 5
Clean warmup: 5 light front squats with 35kg
Cleans: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 2@54, 2@58 x 4
Front squats: 3@55, 3@60, 3@65 x 3

Annoying to miss those two 45kg snatches but on the first miss two septuagenarian ex-weightlifters were having an extremely loud chat 4 feet away from me, and tiredness was setting in on the last rep. Still, I need better, faster extension on my heavier snatches. I do this much better on every other lift, even snatch doubles/triples, but for some reason on heavy single snatches I'm just wimpy.

Position also wasn't great on the snatches, not as good as on Friday anyway. Could have done with a better warmup but I knew time would be tight on this session. Probably a false economy, that.

I also have a manky headcold but it seems to be moving off now. Really irritating as I haven't been sick in months and months - I thought I'd acquired some sort of superhuman immune system but it appears this is not the case. D'oh.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Laura - 9, 41kg - 0

Wednesday 18th February - heavy snatches and rack jerks

Bit of a warmup, OHS and drop snatches
Snatch: 2@32.5, 2@35, 1@37.5, 1@40, 1@42, 1@44 x 5 (and 2 misses on the 5th and 6th attempts, 1 forward one back)
Jerk warmup
Rack jerk: 2@35, 2@45, 1@50, 1@55, 1@57.5, 1@60 x 5 and 1 miss (due to holding the bar too long before jerking it)
Front squats: 3@40, 1@50, 1@55 x 3

A good day overall, but a lot going on - Sami, Gill and Shane were all training and the gym was pretty noisy and busy in general. Snatches and rack jerks were both around the 90% of max mark for me and it was an effort to concentrate enough to get these lifts in.

Missed a couple of snatch attempts, not because the bar was too heavy but because fatigue was starting to set in and distraction.

Thursday 19th February - snatch combo and more rack jerks

Warmup, OHS, drop snatches
2PS + 1S: 33, 36, 39, 41 x 3
Jerk warmup
Rack Jerk (1 behind neck, 1 in front): 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 x 4
Back squat: 5@40, 5@50, 2@60, 2@60, 2@73 x 6

All good today. The snatch combos were very tough (OK, they were modified snatch combo with 2PS instead of HPS + PS - due to my still delicate ripped callous). Mind you they should be tough, 41kg is a hilarious 85% of my best ever snatch to date so I shouldn't be able to do this at all. Here's the second set:



The Butcher has been threatening me with behind the neck jerks for ages now, but they haven't happened for some reason or another. I didn't much like these before but then I've done very little of them - definitely started to enjoy them a bit as I got into the groove. Here's the set with 45kg:



Moved the squats up another notch and leg was fine, hopefully back to normal squatting soon.

Need to get the ancillary work done this week, there is just no time at the end of sessions. Plan to get my push presses done at end of Friday's session to give shoulders max rest before I have to jerk again, then get in and do the rest on Saturday morning.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I am teh strong!

Really good day today, added weight to everything and no misses, felt full of energy. Torn callous now partly healed but still feckin sore, hence snatches from floor instead of usual snatch combo which is harder on the hands.

4 sets of 5 OHS with bar, 3 sets of 3 drop snatches
Snatch: warmup sets, 2@41 x 6
Drop snatches: warmup sets, 2@44 x 3
Front squats: 5@35 x 2 to warm up for cleans
Cleans: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 2@55, 2@57 x 3
Back squat: 3@45, 2@55, 1@60, 1@65 x 3

Possibly shouldn't have done those heavy cleans but I'd entirely forgotten about my dodgy quad last week. It was fine, anyway, so I think that was just a freak thing. I did take it very easy on the back squats though, seems best to ramp back up to squats gradually.

Here's the last set of cleans:


Was fairly happy with these although I could probably still do with better extension and keeping the bar closer. As always!

Roy was in, his physio said he was OK to start cleaning again, so that's what he was doing. I have some videos but my interwebs are being slow so I'll try to stick those up again later.

According to the scale in the ladies in the Hercs I am now 63kg, 1kg down on last week. Yarr!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentine's Day Massacre

Somebody acquired a crazy Russian overreaching programme and of course like crazy people we all did it. Myself, Gillian, Barry, Sami, Cathal, The Butcher and the ever-taciturn Jimmy convened at 11am Saturday morning to get it done.

The day was split into 4 45 minute sessions with 30 minute breaks between. Session 1 was power snatches and clean pulls, session 2 snatch and power clean, session 3 snatch pulls and C+J, session 4 squat. For almost every exercise the idea was to work up to a max for the day, then drop down to 80% of that and do doubles until the allotted time for the exercise ran out.

In deference to my torn callous and dodgy quad, I just rack jerked for session 3 and sat out the squats (I did some glute ham raises and band external rotations instead, then ate my sandwich while everyone else squatted. Hardcore).

Session 1:
Bit of warmup stuff, some overhead squats with the bar.
Power snatch: 3@25, 3@30, 1@35, 37, miss@39, 39, 40, 41 (new PR), 42, miss@43, 43, 2@35 x 5 sets
Clean pulls: 2@45, 2@50, 2@52, 2@54, 2@56, 2@58, 2@60, 2@62, 2@64 x 3.

Session 2:
Overhead squats and drop snatches to warm up
Snatch: 2@30, 1@35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, miss@47 x 4 (last two very close), 2@36
Power clean: 45, 47, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 2@48, 2@49 x 3

Session 3:
Jerk skill work to warm up (dips, catches, split jerks)
Rack jerk: 2@40 x 2, 1@45, 1@50, 54, 57, 60, 62, 54, 65, 66, 67, miss@68, 2@55 x 2.
3 sets of GHR supersestted with 2 sets of band external rotations.

I'm really glad I did this, torn callous and all. I hit a 3kg PR on power snatch, and a 5kg PR on power cleans (I was pretty shocked I was able to do 60 actually, god knows what I can full clean - I've never gone to a max on cleans with jerks being my limiting factor at the moment on C+Js). The really nice thing was the rack jerk PR though - jerks were feeling very very strong. The grim mood I was in on Friday has lifted and I've felt energized since doing this.

The only low point for me was the inability to get 47kg on the snatch, it's a bit silly not to be able to do this (have done 48 before). It's a combination of the training I've been doing lately not being conducive to max effort snatching, and a few technique factors - starting position of feet and bar and timing the pull. I really need to work on these over the next few weeks. All snatch ancillary work is getting much stronger so chances are it will come together at some point and all of a sudden there'll be a decent jump in it.

I haven't trained since Saturday in order to let the callous heal and get a bit of recovery in but I'll be in tomorrow (Tuesday) and back to the normal routine.

Kudos to Barry on his 138kg C+J, Gill on her 51kg snatch, Cathal on his mid-traps and thanks to Sami for letting us invade his gym. And muchos gracias to Harry and Jimmy for the coaching and the help lowering the bar on the max effort rack jerks.

Video of the day, courtesy of Barry:
http://vimeo.com/3226169

Friday, February 13, 2009

A nice big cup of toughen the fuck up

Wednesday - took it easy, iced the dodgy quad, munched Ibuprofen.
Thursday - leg felt OK, did a few very light overhead squats, caught up on the assistance work.

Today - decided to do some work on hang power snatches and jerks, and leave squatting type stuff out for now. Had a decent session of hang power snatches, then tore a callous. Jerks were a bit pants, maybe a result of the torn callous but that's no excuse for lack of focus. Grr.

Dynamic warmup and foam rolling, glute activation
Overhead squats: 5@bar x 4 (moving grip inwards)
Drop snatch: 3@bar, 3@25 x 2, 3@30
Hang power snatch: 3@30, 2@32.5, 3@35, 3@37.5 x 5
Jerk dips, jerk catches, split jerks, and some experimental front squats all with 25kg
Jerks: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 1@54, 1@58, 1@61 x 5 and 2 misses

Assistance:
Step-ups and scap pushups
Some static stretching and a little bit more foam rolling to finish.

Frankly, I am sick of training in a bloody building site and I'm sick of injuries and stuff going wrong. This has been a very frustrating week.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sycophants in the Abattoir

Short dynamic warmup
OHS: 5@bar x 3
Drop snatch (with power snatch to get bar to shoulders): 3@bar, 3@25 x 2, 3@28, 3@30
Snatch combo (HPS + PS + S): 30, 33, 36, 39 x 3
Heavy drop snatch from rack: 2@35, 2@39 x 2, 2@42 x 3
Power clean + 3 Front Squat: 2 sets with 30
Clean: 2@35, 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 2@55 x 4
Back squat: 3@55, 3@60, 2@70, 2@79, 2@76 x 3

And then on the fifth heavy set of squats my right vastus medialis seemed to cramp and tear slightly. Arsebiscuits. Not too sore but can feel something wrong walking up stairs etc. Lots of icing and Ibuprofen today. Hopefully I will still be able to do some power work and jerks while this is healing :(

Monday, February 9, 2009

Fromage et Jambon

An example of my diet for the past week. Yes, that is a quarter of a wheel of cheese being toasted under an iron. It is called raclette. Yum.




Here is an example of today's diet. Meh.

Away and back again

I've just been away for a week's high altitude work-capacity training (aka skiing). Happily, I managed to return with all limbs intact, but sadly I missed the Munster Open while I was away. Plus, I've been living on mostly ham, cheese and various bread products so now I've got to wean myself off those and back onto a proper diet :)

Friday 30th January

The last session before I headed was Friday 30th January. The Butcher has just produced a new programme for me so we did the second session from that (not a full week's training because we tested maxes at the start of the week). We've been doing a lot of work on snatching and jerking to get my technique up to scratch. Now The Butcher has expressed a modicum of satisfaction with these lifts but thinks the cleans could use a bit of work, so the new template includes a day of doing double cleans.

Snatch warmup - overhead squats and drop snatches to 32.5kg
Snatch: 2@35, 2@37.5, 2@40 x 6 (83% of best snatch)
Clean warmup - power cleans and front squats with 40kg
Clean: 2@40, 2@45, 2@50, 2@55 x 3 (84% of best clean)
Back squats: 3@60, 3@70, 3@80 x 6

Looking back on this now that's quite a tough session for me volume wise but I got through it well, energy was good. A video of the cleans is below. These look fairly OK but I need to work on setting up better and keeping the bar closer throughout the pull.



Sunday 8th January

Just a very easy session to get back into the swing of lifting after the week off. Did a good warmup, usual snatch warmup (overhead squats and drop snatches), then did the HPS + PS + S combo up to 3 sets with 35kg. Clean and jerked to 3 singles with 50kg, finished with some ab work and stretching and called it a day. Gym is closed on Monday the 9th so back to it on Tuesday for 3 good hard weeks training. Yay!