My road to 206kg

[Mr_Rogers]

Tried to order an Eleiko training bar but they're back ordered until August 15...

Proved to be a blessing in disguise. I spoke with Todd last night and he mentioned not being able to reply to emails as he's at a trade show conference. I understand that and I was too stupid to leave the guy with my phone number so he had no means to contact me. Anyway, he gave me a rough quote on shipping to MN so I ordered one. I lucked out and got a bar that was used at the US Youth Nationals a few weeks ago for $399. 20kg, 12 needle bearing (6 per sleeve) bar with a three year warranty. That should hold me over quite nicely.


Thursday, July 12, 2012 - my basement

Power Cleans/Cleans:
40kg x 2+1 jerk x 2
45 x 2 + 1 jerk
50 x 1 PC + 1 C + 1 J
55 x 1 PC + 1 C + 1 J
40 x 2 hang cleans had to unload the bar to switch plates, just goofing around
60 x 2 cleans
65 x 2
70 x 2
75 x 1
80 x 1
82 x 0
82 x 1 *PR*

I need to slow down off the floor and really concentrate on that first pull and then accelerate. It felt like I did a much better job extending and not cutting the second pull off last night.


Front squat:
60kg x 3
70 x 3
80 x 3
90 x 3 x 3

Last set was belted. I was toast. I didn't realize I hadn't front squatted in two and a half weeks :-| Coach wanted me to do a slow, controlled decent and explode out of the hole, but my hamstrings were having none of it LOL I'm still walking around work like a cripple, but now my quads hurt in addition to my hamstrings. Decent was controlled, but not as slow as I wanted. I did turn my toes in a bit more than usual and liked the results.


Bench Press:
20kg x 5 x 2
60 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 5 x 3

Pretty pleased with almost hitting body weight considering I haven't done bench press in two months (?). I'm doing these mainly for the seminar, but also for general shoulder health. Worst case scenario I gain some general muscle mass and gain weight...worst case scenario. I'm not concerned about flexibility as Rachel pointed out it wasn't a factor. I will probably step up the shoulder/upper back mobility work though.


Pull-ups:
8, 7, 6

Went as wide as I could. I need to do these more often.

[Mr_Rogers]

I was going to lift Saturday, but I didn't like the prospect of four heavy days a week so I bailed in favour of recovery aka playing Tales of Graces: f.


Sunday, July 15, 2012 - Crossfit Superior

Power snatch:
30kg x 3-5 x 3 from the blocks
40 x 3-5 x 2-3 sets
42.5 x 3 x 2
45 x 3 x 2
47.5 x 3
50 x 2
52.5 x 2
55 x 2

I think we hit up to 55 in power snatch. I can't remember sets or reps, but we did at least doubles the whole time. Coach had me widen my stance a bit at setup and it worked really well. He also narrowed my grip a tad which felt good. At one point he had as stand off to the side and then he setup three different ways and told us to identify which ones were wrong. The correct one was bar over the mid-foot, shoulders (scapulas) over the bar. I still have the tendency to shoot my ass up at the start which earned me the name "ratchet". Still I was a lot more consistent lifting with my legs compared to last week. I was a little weak on transitioning from the second to third pull, I need to continue the explosiveness for the whole movement. I also need to stay over the bar a little more than I have been with this lifting method.

Snatch:
40kg x 2-3 PS to OHS
45 x 2-3 PS to OHS
50 x 2
55 x 2

I think this is what we did. I know the last set was 55kgs. There were a couple of missed reps in there, but I can't remember when they happened. I do know they weren't at 55. I don't know what we did for sets either and all sets might have been triples I can't remember.


Snatch high pulls + shrugs:
60kg x 5 x 2
80 x 5

Apparently I was high pulling 60 to my chin with "ease". Coach then threw on 80kgs and I was high pulling them to chest level. I've never hit 60 for a snatch, but if I'm pulling 80kg to my chest I'm confident I'll be hitting 80 soon. Coach thinks I'll go heavier.


Front squat:
40kg x 3
60 x 3
80 x 3

Slow down while staying tight and then fire out of the hole. Coached wanted to see how our form was on these because we're both front squatting on our own. Turned my toes in a bit which put less stress on my knees, got the seal of approval.


I was gassed after the workout and that pretty much ended my desire to go home and back squat. I think we lifted for 2+ hours and it was non-stop. We used straps the whole time and I still destroyed my right hand on high-pulls/shrugs. Confidence is growing, now I just need the strength :-) I can't wait for coach to start our programming.

[Mr_Rogers]

Should have worked out Saturday for two reasons: #1) it was six days in between back squat workouts and #2) I was still exhausted from Sunday

Monday, July 16, 2012 - My basement (needs a "gym" name)

Squat:
20kg x 5 x 2
60 x 5
84 x 4
93 x 3
105 x 2
116 x 5 x 3 *PR*

Due to a mathematical error (KG and LB plates) I fucked up my weight and went heavier than I intended. I did not want to do a 5kg jump over last time, it was supposed to be half that. Things went well until reps 4 and 5 of the last set. Rep 4 was a grind and I got a little loose in the hole on rep 5, but got it up.


Press:
20kg x 5 x 2
29.5 x 5
34 x 4
38.5 x 2
46.5 x 5 x 3

Not too bad. Kept my grip the same as last week and most reps had a more vertical bar path. Looking forward to the seminar so I can get these fixed for realz. The hunk missing from my hand made gripping these a pain.


Pull-ups:
9, 7, 7

Moved the grip in a bit and they didn't seem to bother me as much. I still hate the angled bars as I feel they really limit range of motion.


Now that I realize I had the wrong weight on the bar for squats I feel better about last night. Maybe lifting the day after my coached session is the way to go. I don't think I'll have to worry about that much longer though as I head to the seminar next Wednesday and then Coach is going to start programming for us in August. I do think I have a lot of LP left on all the strength lifts. I just need to find a way to sneak in deadlifts because I haven't done them in two months :-|

[Mr_Rogers]

Don't want to forget where this is so I'm putting it here for programming ideas I can hit coach up with:

Sunday- Strength Training
LB squat 3X5
Press 3X5
Deadlift 1X5

Tuesday
Snatch (80%-90%)
C&J variation
Front squat 3X3

Friday
C&J (80%-90%)
Snatch variation
LB Squat 3X5
Bench Press

[Kregna]

I'm mad jelly at you and your home gym. Not so much the spending money but the rest of it sounds cool. If you're using set plates you could really go crazy with the microloading, as you don't have to worry about the slight weight variances between plates.

What does your coach think of the low bar squats, deadlifts and the rest?

Good stuff with the PR on low bar squats (even after not doing them as much recently). When you said your knees hurt high bar squatting, did you bounce off your knees? I tried em for a while and they made my knees pretty achey, apparnetly I was bouncing off my knees

[Mr_Rogers]

I've spread the cost out over 4+ years so it hasn't been all that bad. When I was looking to join a gym when I moved here it was about $800/year so I went the home gym route. I've got about 345lbs in metal plates plus metal lb micro-loading plates (1/4 to 1lb) and 70kg (20kg, 10kg, 10lbs) in bumpers plus kg change plates that range from 1/2kg up to 5kg plates. I'm currently working on getting 15 and 25 kg plates, Rogue just needs to get them in stock.

What does your coach think of the low bar squats, deadlifts and the rest?

He's fine with me pressing and I don't think he'll mind if I deadlift (because it's the same as our clean and snatch setup), I just need to figure out how to program it in if he doesn't. He's pretty big on having general strength because not every lift is going to be perfect and strength is useful. He seems to favour high-bar squats though (he can do 195-205lbs+ at 85kg) and do hamstring work separately. It doesn't seem to fit with how he wants us to setup and lift though. I'm sure it will become more clear once he starts our programming, right now he's just seeing what we can do, how much weight we can move, when does form break down, etc. I do get the sense that he's coaching us because he loves weightlifting.

Good stuff with the PR on low bar squats (even after not doing them as much recently). When you said your knees hurt high bar squatting, did you bounce off your knees? I tried em for a while and they made my knees pretty achey, apparnetly I was bouncing off my knees

Thanks! He had me turn my toes in two weeks ago when I was squatting after a clean and I liked it so I tried it with low-bar. I think I got in the habit of turning them out more than Rip had suggested and that was putting a ton of stress on my knees when I would do any type of squat or the olympic lifts. I'll have to keep that in mind if I switch to high-bar.

[Mr_Rogers]

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Power Cleans:
40kg x 3
45 x 3
50 x 3
55 x 3
60 x 1 + 2 FS x 2

Cleans:
65kg x 2
70 x 2 x 3 (Set 1) (Set 2) (Set 3)

I was pleased with how these went. The new start position is taking some getting used to and I'm still a little unsure about it. I do think I cut my extension short on the very last rep though, but I felt I was fairly consistent last night. I should mention that coach told me to work around 70kgs so I actually listened this time. He didn't say it, but I don't think I should be maxing out these while trying to do LP. In one of Rip's Q&A threads a weightlifter asked about tapering for a meet while doing TM 3 times a week and the lifts on the off days. He admitted to having to tweak the intensity of the lifts to allow for progression on TM, so a light bulb kind of went off. Coach also said he finds he's able to go at snatch pretty close to max more often than he can cleans, so I'll probably work a little closer to max with snatches.


Front Squats:
60kg x 3
75 x 3
85 x 3
92.5 x 3 x 3 (Set 1) (Set 2) (Set 3)

Coach wants us to stay tight and controlled on the way down, stay tight in the hole and really drive out of it. I do think I relax a bit in the hole so I'll have to work on that.


Bench Press:
20kg x 5 x 2
60 x 5
70 x 3

Done. I was having a difficult time hold the bar in rack position in front squats with my left hand. I don't know what I did to my left biceps/triceps but I could barely get weight on the bar. I didn't have a spotter last night so I just stopped. I figure I aggravated something on those forsaken angled pull-up bars. I felt something Tuesday night when I was helping the Mrs. fix the gate on the fence, but thought it would "heal" by the time I lifted. I was pretty pissed off. I tried I narrower grip when I did pull-ups so that might have been it. I'll go wider again and see how that goes, but if that bothers things I'll have to give chin-ups a shot.

[Mr_Rogers]

Good news: picked up my DHS training bar and it is suh-weet. The knurl on the B&R is still better though.

Bad news: my left biceps seems to be acting up again. Worst case scenario I squat tomorrow and maybe through in some deadlifts or something if snatching and cleaning aggrevate it. Not good timing with the seminar coming up.

[Kregna]

I can't believe how much there is to this olympic weightlifting... all the technique work, finding a way to do it alongside general strength training, all the technique work... I'm glad I'm doing none of it though I guess I'm missing out on the fun of the quick lifts? You seem to be very enthusiastic and to be enjoying it

I've probably missed it, but what caused the biceps injury?

I really love tha front squat video. The video's in great quality (makes me realise how shit my phone is lol), the platform, weight plates, squat rack and your shoes all look fantastic. One pretty set up you've got going on there. And those front squats do indeed look very controlled!

[Mr_Rogers]

I can't believe how much there is to this olympic weightlifting... all the technique work, finding a way to do it alongside general strength training, all the technique work... I'm glad I'm doing none of it though I guess I'm missing out on the fun of the quick lifts? You seem to be very enthusiastic and to be enjoying it

I'm really enjoying it, though I probably would have benefited from finishing LP first. But training was supposed to be fun so I don't really regret trying a few different things even if they set me back a bit. Oddly enough it made me realize how weak I am so I need to emphasize strength training. I'm glad I tried it though, it's much harder on your body and it's taken quite awhile for my joints to get used to the different movements.

clarification: I still have a long way to go on LP and I think that style of training will suite me the best right now.

I've probably missed it, but what caused the biceps injury?

Tried a different grip width on pull-ups. That's what caused the issue, stuff like high-pulls and cleans seem to aggravate it though.

I really love tha front squat video. The video's in great quality (makes me realise how shit my phone is lol), the platform, weight plates, squat rack and your shoes all look fantastic. One pretty set up you've got going on there. And those front squats do indeed look very controlled!

Thanks! My squat platform is my ghetto platform too, I put a lot more effort into my WL one. The phone is pretty nice, it's a Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus which the Mrs. is extremely jealous of.