Training to be America's Strongest Organist

[Nick Klemetson]

Nick's Olympic Experiment Week 3 Day 4

Snatch
45x5x2
95x3
105x2
Singles at 115, 120, 125, 130, 132.5, 135 (miss), 120, 122.5, 125, 127.5, 130, 132.5, 135 (miss)

I'm getting much better at catching the snatch in a nice, low squat. I'm not sure why I didn't get 135 today. Both times I just couldn't get under it fast enough. Not too concerned about it. Slow and steady... I've only been doing these for a few weeks.

Clean and Jerk
135x2
145x2
Singles at 150, 155, 160, 162.5, 165, 167.5, 170 (PR)

On the other hand, I'm still struggling to catch the clean low. I need to dedicate some time to just working on that. That being said, 170 was much easier than the attempt was last week. I probably had one or two more in me, but I was exhausted and was running out of time.

[Nick Klemetson]

Nick's Olympic Experiment Week 3 Day 5

Long day of travel, so I started at about 5:30 PM, which is probably the latest I've ever trained. On the other hand, it was a balmy 55 degrees and I could train with the garage open in a t-shirt.

Squat
45x5x2
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
335x5

Video shows borderline depth, which pisses me off. Any other angle, and my squats almost seem too deep. But from the angle I shot at tonight (which is the only feasible angle in my garage right now), they looked about 1/2" high.

Press
45x5x2
85x5
105x3
120x2
135x5

No problem. 2nd rep in particular was very fast. Good place to start to drive sets of 5 again.

[Brian Jones]

Good work, brother-man . . .

[Nick Klemetson]

Good work, brother-man . . .

Thank you sir. Sorry I didn't see this before.

Nick's Olympic Experiment Week 4 Day 1

This is the last week of the Olympic Experiment. I never intended for it to go much longer to begin with. I just wanted to try something different in order to bridge the gap between my last meet and finishing the garage gym. I could train the Olympic lifts at home without a rack or bench, but now that I have the rack and bench, I'll be able to focus fully on powerlifting and put up another PR total this fall.

Snatch
45x5x2
95x3
110x2
120x2x8

Knee was hurting quite a bit today, so these were mostly power snatches. Once I focused on the "trebuchet" aspect of the lift, the bar speed was quite good.

Power Clean
135x3
145x2
150x3x5 Set/Rep PR

I believe that aforementioned knee pain is caused by the split jerk, so no more of those for now. Cleans were okay... I filmed a few sets but I won't post them since they're not textbook. Two serious flaws... one of them is trainable and I will continue to work on... the other just will never happen no matter how hard I try, and that's okay. The lift is still trainable.

[Nick Klemetson]

Nick's Olympic Experiment Week 4 Day 2

Front Squat
45x5x2
135x3
165x3
185x2
200x3x3

Tried flat shoes to see if it would keep me from leaning forward too much. It helped some, but I still need improvement. Need to keep my upper back tighter.

Bench Press
45x5x2
135x5
155x3
175x2
195x5x3

Just getting back into the swing of things.

Slingshot Bench
225x5

Didn't get properly set before I unracked. These were all off balance.

[Nick Klemetson]

Nick's Olympic Experiment Week 4 Day 3

Deadlift
135x5x2
225x3
275x2
315x1
345x8 PR

Ooof... 8's are tough. I need to start squatting for 8's too.

SLDL
285x8x2

Barbell Row
165x8x3

[Nick Klemetson]

Today I reached a milestone that was a long time coming. Twice now during certain cycles I've worked up to squatting 310x5x5, and technically that was what was on the docket for today as well. I decided last night that I was just going to ignore my programming and jump straight to 315x5x5.

Squat
45x5x2
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x5x5 Volume PR

Thought I filmed all five sets, but after going to the camera after the 1st, I realized I must have missed the record button, so I only got 4 on video.

I know many of us have already reached and surpassed this milestone, but for me, it's been a lot of training to get to this point. I remember specifically the day I squatted 315x5 for the first time. It was a great day, and a serious grind. To do the same weight for 5 full sets today made me really happy.

Press
45x5x2
75x5
95x3
110x2
122.5x5x5

Had to do these 5 sets in about 10-12 minutes total, since I was running out of time.

Went to BWW with the wife afterwards and had some celebratory Buffalo Mac. Full now.

Here's the video. I filmed from a variety of angles to try and confirm I was reaching depth, since for some reason, the rear 45 angle looks disturbingly high. It's not until the final set from the side that I could confirm that the hip crease was below the patella. Sorry that some of these angles might be disturbing to watch (especially set 4!), but it is what it is. It's also a long video, so I threw in some Hendrix.

[Nick Klemetson]

Forgot something else... next week is the Week of Holy, so between that and Easter, I doubt I'll have much time for anything else. I'll probably mess around with a few things though. Then after Easter, it's on to squatting 4 plates and deadlifting 5.

[manveer]

Congrats on hitting 315x5x5! Plate milestones are the best.

[Kundahli]

Awesome work on hitting that milestone, Nick! Those squat reps looked extremely solid.