15/1/1 - 15/1/4

I seem to be doing more of these weekly updates, that's not a good sign. I was kind of tied up this week by holidays and friends. We had a situation where some friends needed to spend the week in our guest room, which threw off my gym schedule. 

On the first, Thursday, I was talked into "running the stairs" by my wonderful SO. This entails running up and down the flights of seats at the Harvard Stadium. There are 37 sections, I made it through about 25 before my quads started to just stiffen and give out on me. 

Could barely walk the next day, thanks. 

Saturday, the 3rd, went in to the gym even though my calves were still rocks. Worked up to a heavy clean and jerk. 275 felt great on the second attempt, the first one stayed forward the whole way. Hadn't been setting up properly. Hit 285 for an 8lb PR. 

Did a 15 minute workout afterwards where you work for 30 seconds then take 30 seconds off. Just speed work on clean and jerk at 105. Got 93 reps in 15 minutes, hello volume. 

Sunday, the 4th, went in to work out one last time with my weightlifting coach. She's moving for a bit for work, so wanted to get in and hang out with her one more time. Worked up to a heavy snatch. Hit 202, 207, and then 210.5 for a 5.5 lb PR. Got 215 up in front on attempt 1, then threw it over my head on attempt 2. Didn't want to take another attempt though, will save that for later. 
Hit some paused front squats and called it a day. 

Two PR's over a weekend is pretty good for me. 

W2D3 : 14/12/14

Snatch Singles: 3 @ 60%, 2 @ 70%, 2 @ 75% 2 @ 80%, 1 @ 85%, 1 @ 90%
Clean and Jerk Singles: 3 @ 60%, 2 @ 70%, 2 @ 75% 2 @ 80%, 1 @ 85%, 1 @ 90%
Front Squats: 2 Doubles at 90%

Today was the first time I was able to get up to 90%. Starting to get up to the big numbers. Good times. Had a buddy in the gym with me today, it was good to have some lifting partners there. 

Snatches  went well. 90% was 195lbs and it went up super easy. Will put video of it up once it uploads. Felt too easy. Threw 205lbs on the bar and got that up pretty easily as well. That was nice as I haven't put over 200 up in a while. It didn't feel like a max either. PR hunting is going to be fun in a few weeks. 

Clean and Jerk went smoothly as well. 90% was 256. I hit that rather smoothly. Threw on some more weight just for the hell of it and then hit 277 without much trouble. Will put video down below as well. 

Front Squat hit the first double at 270. Which was great, as I failed rather hard on that on Friday. For the second set, I went to exhaustion. Got 4 reps at that weight before I had to drop the bar. 

Snatch Video

Clean and Jerk Video

W2D2 : 14/12/12

Clean and Jerk 5x2 @ 220-240lbs [75-85%]
Clean Pulls 4x3 @ 255-275lbs
Low Hang Snatch 3x2 @ 145lbs, 2x2 @ 155lbs [~75%]
Snatch Balance 4x2 
Front Squat 5x2 @ 240-270

Alright, this day didn't work out that well. I was off my game for some reason. Snatch Balances were just wiped off the docket, my shoulders were completely shot and I could not handle it. I actually lost the last hang snatch. It was up, I was down in the hole, and it just had to come down. My shoulders couldn't hold it up anymore. 

Lost the last set of 270 front squats. Just couldn't get out of the hole. It was bad. Got pretty upset with that one.

You miss lifts sometimes. It happens.

W1D3 : 14/12/7

Snatch Singles: 3 @ 60%, 3 @ 70%, 2 @ 75% 2 @ 80%, 3 @ 85%
Clean and Jerk Singles: 3 @ 60%, 3 @ 70%, 2 @ 75% 2 @ 80%, 3 @ 85%
Front Squats: 2 Singles at 90%

Wasn't really feeling too motivated to get into the gym today, after a long night of hard cider drinking last night. But, finally got in before dinner. 

The weights went up rather easily today. Not going to lie, 85% felt great on both Snatch and Clean and Jerk. I walked out the last attempt at each lift, which had to be rather hilarious to see. They weren't pretty. But, they went up smoothly, it was just the lockouts that seemed to give me a bit of trouble. 

Front Squats were cake. I think I lowballed my numbers here. I hit the first single at 270 with no effort. Actually took the second single for a double, because it just felt that good. 

The only thing bothering me today is my hands. The cold and dry weather is affecting them as I spend more time on the barbell. I've bought some hand recovery lotion that I've been applying nightly, so let's see how they feel next Friday. 

Back to CF classes for a few days now. 

W1D2 : 14/12/5

Clean and Jerk 5x3 @ 205-225lbs [70-80%]
Clean Pulls 4x4 @ 245-265lbs
Low Hang Snatch 5x2 @ 145lbs [~75%]
Snatch Balance 4x3 @ 135-155lbs
Front Squat 5x2 @ 245-265

Clean and Jerk, man, the first set and last set felt pretty rough. The middle ones were fine, once I was warmed up to the weight and everything. But the first set felt heavy(at 205) and the last set felt heavy(at 225). 
Clean Pulls are being treated the same way as the snatch pulls. Slow off the ground with a pause at position two. 
Hang Snatches were dreadful. By this point, my hands were shot and the winter was ripping at my skin. Kept my straps around for these, but ended up just dropping between reps to save my hands more.
Snatch Balances have never been an easy exercise for me. For some reason, I just never could figure these out. Today was a lot better though, was dropping directly into the hole and these didn't feel too awful. Progress!
Front Squat went about as well as it could have. The last set of 265 was tough as I had expected it to be. 

Pretty sore and tired from last night's training session. Looking forward to tomorrow's recovery day. About to shower and try out some new hand lotion I bought to see if it helps my cracked paws.

2014/10/25

Barbells for Boobs!

Dressed in far too much pink, that I stole from the lady friend's wardrobe, I went in today to do the workout for the charity "Barbells for Boobs". We did Grace, a very short fast workout... 

I RX'ed it at 135 lbs for 30 reps of clean and jerk in 2:42. 

Then, feeling like a sub 3 minute workout was not enough for the day. I took a 10 minute break and recharge with a shake before doing it again, only this time with my bodyweight on the bar. 

With 188 pounds for 30 reps of clean and jerk in 9:20. 

Needless to say, that extra 50 pounds made this quite a bit more difficult. That and the fact I was a bit tired was enough to make this workout interesting enough. 

Now, I'm going to eat and decompress from approximately 12 minutes of work.

2014/10/04

Today we were told to find out Olympic total. That's what my lazy lifting was going to be anyway, so I went to class to do it.

Had some trouble with snatches this morning. Everything was out in front. Had to walk forward to clear up so of my attempts and all of my cues were not helping. Still managed to hit 195 lbs and then jumped to 205. I figured that i was already over body weight, might add well try something big. Missed 205 by an inch and then couldn't get 207 to stay put. Lost them both forward, kind of frustrating.

Cleans went really well. Hit 260 easily and then made 270 on the second attempt. Took some effort and readjustment to get out of the hole with it, but that's an easy front squat for me, so I just grunted it up. The jerk would have been red lighted. Like a two inch press out, but I'll take it as an ugly gym PR.

That's a new gym total of a little over 211 kilos. A good day to be sure.

2014/09/18

Landed from my business trip and made my way into the gym. 

Max Clean and Jerk @ ~120 kilos or 265 lbs. 
Smacked myself in the throat with 270 lbs and had trouble swallowing for about a day. Fun stuff. 
Side note, this is a new PR. Didn't realize till afterwards. 

10RM for Deadlift @ 275 lbs. 
Didn't really feel like going too big here, my DL form is shit nowadays and high rep stuff always weirds me out. 

7AMRAP of 
7 Thrusters @ 75 lbs
7 Lateral Bar Burpees

Finished 6 rounds + 9 reps. 

Took a bit of a breather then did the class afterwards. 

3x10 pause back squats
Stayed at 185 lbs for consistency sake, and I was already beat up. 

Then a weird little workout of 
4 rounds on the 4's
300m Row Sprint
1 minute plank hold

I still cannot hold a plank to save my life, don't get it. Core instability? Really? 

2014/07/23

Skill work was double unders, which I'm getting better at. And I only swore about 3-4 times in ten minutes, which is a definite improvement. Worked up through flight simulator to the 35 rep level and then screwed up on the 34th rep. Much swearing and throwing of ropes was had. 

The WoD was a non-time based Grace. Pick a weight and hit 30 clean and jerks with it, take whatever time you need just use perfect form on each. This was a ton of fun. The hardest part was probably not trying to race through it and not sweating all over the bar. 

I hit 28 of the same clean and split jerk and 2 power cleans and split jerk, all at 205# (bodyweight was 198 that day). They all felt great. This workout became about muscle memory. Hitting the same muscle sequencing on every pull and every jerk was paramount. I got to practice the same movement for ~23 minutes straight, it was a good time. 

I wished that some other people took more time with this. I actually sped up my last 12 because everyone else was almost done by then. I tried timing it for one every 45-60 seconds. Then I started to feel rushed so I bumped that down to every 25-40 seconds. And the last five I think I stayed at one every 15-20 seconds to sprint to the end. Same strict form, just faster. 

Baystate Competition

Well, the competition has come and gone.  I think it went rather well. 

Weigh in was supposed to start at 1, so we went over at about 1:15 and then sat there til 1:45 or so waiting for someone from the organization to come into the room to weigh us. All 17 of us 85+ kg lifters just sat around and shot the shit with each other till the one guy showed up.

We were supposed to start lifting at 3, so we started at 4:30 or so. After we started, it went pretty well. We all got scolded when someone had the audacity to bleed on the bar. Oh the bars, if you have no lifted on an Eleiko bar, you really should. The difference is amazing, it spins so beautifully. Starting your third pull is just a brilliant thing. 

Snatches were... eventful. First attempt at 88 was too far forward, but I walked it out. 90 was too far backwards, but I dropped deeper into my squat and locked it out. Two ugly lifts. Third one though, oh, the third one was what you look for in a lift. It felt beautiful. 92 never felt so solid. Sadly, that is the only lift my lady friend did not video tape. Gods bless her. 

Clean and jerks were far too light. I sold myself short here. I wanted to go 6 for 6, I said that. Coach J told me to. Coach Everett says to do it. So, I did it. But, I went really low on my first attempt at 108. I literally stood up with the bar and threw it over my head with ease. Second attempt was 110. Still pretty easy. By this point, I was getting upset with myself. My books said to go for 112... I went up to 114 just to get a little more difficult. Still easy. The jerk was a bit challenging, but that's it. Just challenging. 

I should have gone heavier, but as it stands, I hit my gym total in a legit competition. I went 6 for 6 with my lift attempts. And I had an amazing time. The camaraderie with gained amongst the other lifters was awesome. Having some folks from our gym come out to cheer for us was just a great show of support. I can't thank my coaches and the lady enough. I had a great time and I can't wait for the next one. 

2014/07/06

Today was a nice quiet morning in the gym. I wanted to get in as it was a week out from my competition. Lady friend went out on a run, so I had the place to myself. That means heavy metal and heavy weights.

Worked up in weights to three singles at a weight between my first and second attempts for 3x1. So, an 88 kilo snatch and a 113 kilo clean and jerk. Both felt extremely comfortable and I'm liking my attempts going into the competition.

Did a few sets of front squats to kill time afterwards. Worked up to a triple at 125 kilos. Nice and easy. Just spent the whole day with weights that were heavy but comfortable. Building that confidence layer.

Mock Meet - Lift Videos

We took videos of all our lifts. So, here's the 93 snatch and 113 clean and jerk. 

2014/06/28 - Mock Meet

Today we our Mock Meet to let us try out our lifts that we want to hit at the meet on the 14th. So, we slipped into our singlets and hit a couple heavy pulls.

My snatches went well. Opened at 84, nice simple lift that I know I can hit. Moved up to 88 and pretty much power snatched it. Finished with 93 and felt pretty awesome about the lift. I'm comfortable there, probably don't want to go any higher if I plan on going 6/6.

Cleans went alright. Opened at 106 for an easy lift to get on the boards. Moved to 113 for an easy clean but the jerk was a little iffy. Don't think it'd get redlighted, but it'd be close. Wanted to go out with a bang, so I upped it to 121. Was only supposed to go for 120 which should have been close. The jerk was just ugly, should not have upped it so far. Should have settled for 118. Live and learn though. That third attempt will be a game time decision.

All in all, felt pretty good about my attempts. I'd be happy with those numbers at the meet. I'm not planning on medaling here, just want to get out on the platform and hit some lifts. I'm pretty pumped about it. Plus, I look awesome in the singlet.

2014/06/16

Started the day of right by getting there an hour early to get some lifting in.

Worked a complex of power snatch + 2 snatches from 95 - 155, progressing by ten pound increments.
Then switched to power clean + clean + 2 jerks from 165 - 205 in ten pound increments.

Class was some time under tension weighted push ups and planche. Much more painful than you'd think. Exposed s major weakness in my core. Will need to spend more time on that static hold.

Finished with 600m x4. Splits were 1:26, 1:30, 1:31, and 1:26. Not a huge fan of cardio but it serves a purpose.