Spring Fever

Friday 27th of February

Back from 3 days away without access to the gym. I usually don't feel very sharp first workout back so it was important to get into the gym and do a little bit just in order to be on form for the weekend's training. I snatched singles up to to 43kg and C+Jed to 54kg.

Saturday 28th of February

Went down to Whites of Wexford with the Hercs crew and various of the Limerick lads to do a weekend's high volume stress training in their High Performance Gym (aka marquee) and get cryotherapy sessions. We did 4 sessions of about an hour each. The format of most of them involved doing a particular exercise to a max and then using the remaining time in the 30 minute block to drop to 80% of the best lift achieved and do doubles for volume. Pulls and presses weren't done to maxes.

I've omitted all the usual warmup stuff but it was done where needed.

Session 1:
Power snatch: 30, 33, 36, 38, 40, 43, missed 46, 2@35 x 8 sets
Clean pulls: 3@45, 3@55, 3@65 x 6
Push press: 5@35 x 4

All easy enough. Power snatch max that day well down on my best, which is 46. Might have done better going 42, 44, 46... next time.

Session 2:
Snatch: 2@33, 1@36, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 2@40 x 2
Back squat: 5@40, 3@60, 3@50, 2@60, 65, 75, 80, 85, 80 (misload), 90, 92

New snatch personal best of 49kg - w00t! Nice to get, I haven't been able to snatch over 46 since last December, probably due to the volume I've been doing. If I can do 49 on a day when I've been training hard for weeks and am not tapered I can likely do more on a good day. I seem to be getting better at heavy attempts again despite lacking a bit of sharpness - this is the 5th time I've maxed on either snatch or power snatch in the last 3 weeks so I'm getting back in the groove of it again.

We did a cryo session at this point, I just did 3 minutes.

Session 3:

Warmup for C+J
C+J: 2@35, 40, 45, 50, 54, 58, 60, missed 63, 63, missed 66 (jerk), missed 66 (jerk), 2@50 x 3
Snatch pulls: 3@45, 3@50 x 6

Hard session, didn't feel warm or sharp after the cryo, break was very short between it and training. We shouldn't have done it this way. 66 is a personal best clean, which is nice, but shame I didn't get the jerks. I was letting the elbows drop and driving the bar forward both times, got to work on that.

Session 4:

Power clean: 2@40, 44, 48, 51, 54 (got pushed down to full clean depth), 2@40 x 4
Back squat: 3@50, 2@60, 70, 75, 80, 64, 68, 90, 2@72 x 8

Not very strong on either of those.

More cryo after this session, I did 4 minutes.

Sunday 1st of March

Woke up sore despite the cryo, so the first session was pretty tough.

Session 1:

Power snatch: 2@25, 2@30, 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, missed 43, 2@39 x 8
Power clean:3@30, 3@35, 40, 45, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56 (got driven down to clean depth), 2@45 x 8

I misloaded the bar for my power snatch doubles, ought to have been 34. Oops. Lots of time for volume this session since my max weights weren't up to much.

Session 2:

Snatch: 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, missed 45 due to brainfart, 45, 47, missed 49 x 3
Front squat: 5@20, 3@40, 2@50, 60, 65, 69, 72, 75, 77, 79, missed 80, 2@64 x 7

The first two misses with 49 were very close, I actually had the second one locked out in a good position then someone said something to me and I lost it :) Fairly good snatching for a day when I know I definitely wasn't at my best brute-strength wise. Getting much better at heavy snatch attempts again.

The 79kg front squat is a new PB by one kilo, but it was very tough.

At the end of the day we did 2 sessions of cryo with about 1.5 hours gap between.