Herbison's Training Log

[Sean Herbison]

Monday, 8 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch	135x10 total
C&J	135x1x3 185x1x2 225x1x3

I withdrew from a meet, so naturally the logical thing to do is sign up for another meet. Different type though. I'm signed up for the Iron Athlete Winter Weightlifting Meet on 15 December. I actually signed up for it back on the 2nd, but I wasn't planning on starting training for it until after the meet, for obvious reasons. But, since those reasons are gone, may as well get an extra week of practice. I may need it.

Think I figured out my snatch grip today. Tried collar-to-collar, then index on knurl mark, and finally settled on the middle, more or less. Also, my jerk is surprisingly rough. Thought that wouldn't be an issue until ~315, but it didn't feel quite right even with 225. Oh well, that's what practice/training is for.

Tuesday, 9 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch	135x1x3 145x1 155x1 165x1x2 175x1 185x1x2
C&J	135x3 185x2 225x1 235x1 245x1 255x1x2 265x1
Front Squat	225x3x3
w/DB Hammer Curls	30s x20x4

Starting to remember that I'm actually decent at this type of stuff. Definitely have room for improvement on technique though, which I suppose is actually a good thing. Also did a (very) little running yesterday and today. I think I'm figuring out the mental side of my knee pain enough that I can work it back in, but boy am I out of shape for it.

And speaking of getting in shape, I'm dropping down to the 109kg class for this meet, so I'll have to drop about 14 lbs in two months, which is pretty easy. I'm fatter than I'd like anyway, and I was considering dropping weight after Nationals, so it's good timing.

[Sean Herbison]

Thursday, 11 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Strict Press	45x20 95x10 105x10 115x8 125x6 135x4x5
Snatch-Grip Deadlift	135x10x2 185x9x2 225x6x2

I was planning on doing more Olympic lift practice, but last night I managed to take most of the skin off my left big toe just by tripping in my living room, so that changed my plan a bit. I'm working on technique, of course, but also trying to bring up some of my weak points and sometimes just throwing in things I haven't done in a while, like higher reps. Looking for some sweet sarcoplasm gains.

Friday, 12 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Power Snatch	135x1x3 155x1x2 175x1x2 195x1 215x1 225x1
Power Clean	135x3 185x2 225x1x2 275x1 295x1x2
CG Bench	135x10 155x10 175x10 195x10 215x6 215x4
w/DB Hammer Curls	40s x10x6

Oof. Those CG bench sets got hard real quick, which makes sense, considering short rest times and being supersetted with curls. Could've made them easier if I wasn't doing them with a flat back, but meh, that's how I wanted to do them today. And hey, at least I can still power snatch 225 easily enough. That's nice.

And I'm not quite caught up, but I'm going to end it here for now. I want to include some thoughts about Nationals as well as log my last few workouts, and I don't have enough time for that tonight.

[Sean Herbison]

Saturday, 12 October - Raw Nationals

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I withdrew from the meet. Many tears were shed, etc. etc., but it was the right move given the circumstances. Fortunately, there were other reasons to go up anyway, aside from the fact that I'd already paid for the flight and such.

I arrived around noon on Saturday, which meant I was too late to see Loraine lift on Friday or Austin lift Saturday morning, but I did make it in time to see Leah's bench and deadlifts. For those wondering, she killed it. She just barely missed first place (2.5 kg), but still had a great meet and kept smiling the whole time. I also got to meet Manveer, who is even larger in person than I had been led to believe by his videos.

We all went to dinner and had some good discussion about training, lifting/life goals, and just general fluff. Also, I was once again amazed by the virtue of Leah, who somehow manages to spend that much time with Jordan and not be corrupted. Speaking of Jordan, you need to refill your XXL T-shirt stock.


Aaanyway, they headed back the next day, but I stuck around to watch Sunday's lifters. Got a front row seat for Prime Time and happened to be right next to Joe Pena's mom. Watching him and Big Ray is always cool, but for me the best lifting of the night was watching Garrett Blevins take a 40 lb jump on his last deadlift to nail first place (and set a PR), only to be edged out by Eli Burks jumping 33 lbs to an 804 deadlift for the win. Awesome stuff by both of them.


And I think that wraps it up. I am doing an Olympic lifting meet, but not because I'm burned out and need a change, just because I want to do both. After this weekend, I'm revved up to do well at this meet and then come back to powerlifting. My next PL meet will probably be 2019 Military Nationals in March.

[Sean Herbison]

Tuesday, 16 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch/ Overhead Squat	135x1/4x3 185x1/4x2
Snatch	185x1 (forward) 185x1 (behind) 185x1 205x1 225x1 235x1 (forward) 235x1 (forward) 235x1
Clean/ Front Squat/ Jerk	225x1/2/1x2
Clean and Jerk	275x1 295x1
Strict Press	135x5 155x5 175x3 185x1
w/DB Curls	40s x 8 ea x3

For anyone confused, something like "Snatch/Overhead Squat - 135x1/4x3" means 1 full snatch, followed by 4 overhead squats as one set, and that's done three times. I need more work in the receiving position, and it's something I tried out to work it into warm-ups. I don't think it'll be my main way of doing it, but I think it can be useful, especially if I want to keep the workout time down.

Oh, and (forward) or (back) means I caught it in the bottom position, but then lost it in front of or behind me, respectively. You'll probably see those fairly often, at least at first.

Thursday, 18 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch-Grip Deadlift	315x5x3 315x3x3
Strict Press	135x5x3 155x5x2 175x3 185x1 195x1
w/DB Hammer Curls	40s x12x3 40s x10x3

My knees are getting better, but the're not quite to the point where they feel nice the day after doing kickball for PT. So no O lifts today. Instead, I upped the volume of my other stuff. May have gone a bit overboard on the SGDL volume though. But they felt pretty good, so I kept going. No straps, so my forearms were kind of cramping at the end.

Press is going well overall. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting to the point where I can keep the accidental layback to a minimum. I'm so used to allowing it that it's a hard habit to break, but I'm making progress.

Saturday, 20 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch/ Overhead Squat	135x1/4x3
Snatch	185x1 205x1 225x1 (forward) 225x1 235x1 (forward) 235x1 (forward) 235x1 (forward) 235x1 (forward)
Strict Press	135x5x3 155x5x3 185x1@9.5 185x1@8 185x1@8

Yeah, turns out that was too much on the SGDL. I moved Friday's lifting back a day, and I was still sore on Saturday. Did snatch anyway, but the bottom position was rough. Lots of attempts lost forward.

Press went well though. I realized I wasn't getting tight enough on the first go at 185. I fixed that, and it was so much easier for the next set that I decided to do one more. I know some people don't get that much out of it, but for me, not having that hip movement and layback makes a huge difference.


Cool, all caught up to today. I'll post that later, but I want to include some video on that one.

[Sean Herbison]

Monday, 22 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Clean and Jerk	275x1 285x1 295x1 305x1
Snatch	185x1 205x1 (forward), 1 (behind) 205x1 (forward), 1 225x1 235x1 245x1
Front Squat	225x3 275x2
w/DB Hammer Curls	40s x12x5

My recent downturn in strength, or at least my ability to express it, is definitely affecting my clean and jerk. But not so much on snatch. Aside from 205, which I was starting to think I wouldn't get today, there were no problems there.

Snatch/Clean and Jerk on Instagram

I was planning on doing a bit heavier/more front squatting, but my upper back wasn't having it. Ah well.

[Sean Herbison]

Tuesday, 23 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Push Press	185x3x3 225x2x2
Clean Deadlift	315x3 365x3 365x1x10 EMOM
DB Bench	80s x10x3
w/Strict Barbell Row	135x8x3

I usually just deadlift without changing things up to focus on O lifting, but I've never had a dedicated block for an Olympic meet before, so I'm giving clean-style deadlifts a try. Not a whole lot different, but my grip is a bit wider, they're beltless (like most of my training right now), and I don't allow any back rounding. Oh, and I keep my heeled shoes and knee sleeves on.

Still figuring out push press. Seems like every time I do them I have to re-learn them, since they're not a frequent enough part of my routine. It's always a trade-off between getting my wrists in a good position and getting the bar in place to benefit from the leg drive.

[Sean Herbison]

Wednesday, 24 October

Snatch	205x1x2 225x1 245x1 255x1 - tied PR 260x1 - new PR
DB Hammer Curls Drop Set	50s x14 45s x11 40s x9 35s x10 30s x11 25s x15 20s x25

Good stuff on snatch. I didn't want to stress out on my first O meet, so I set pretty easily achievable goals, just planning to PR over what I've done before in the gym. Well, I'm 2.5 weeks into my 10-week training block, and one of those is already done. Guess that one was a bit too low.

260 Snatch on Instagram

Then just did a large drop set on hammer curls, with rest being however long it took to change the weights, which was usually about 30 seconds.

I don't know if what I'm doing right now can really be called "training", since I've only got a very loose plan of what I'm going to do when I go in. Heck, I don't even have a schedule. I'll probably lift again tomorrow morning. But whatever. I'm not usually a fan of deciding lifting on the fly, but right now it's working well for me, at least mentally.

[Sean Herbison]

Friday, 26 October

Clean and Jerk	225x1x2 245x1 265x1 285x1x2 305x1*
Hang Clean	225x2x2

Welp, I'm confused. I'm PRing snatch while having trouble with a sub-3 plates clean. I don't think I've struggled with 315 or less in the last 6 years, so I'm not sure what to make of this. Considering I'm still basically power cleaning then front squatting all my reps, as opposed to actually needing to get low to catch it, the strength is there, so ... ?

*Accidentally power cleaned, and no jerk.

[Sean Herbison]

Saturday, 27 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Clean and Jerk	185x3 225x2 275x1
Power Clean and Jerk	315x1
Starfish Power Clean*	335x1
Snatch	185x1x2 225x1 245x1 (power) 245x1x3 (forward)
w/T&G Bench	275x5 295x3 315x3 335x2 355x1x2
Strict Press	135x5 155x5 175x3 185x1
w/Fat-Grip DB Curls	30s x10 ea x4

315 Clean and Jerk on Instagram

*I did "successfully" clean 335, but I'm not posting video because the form is not suitable for children, or anyone else for that matter. Both feet were on the rubber parts of the platform.

Then did a bunch of mostly failed snatch attempts and upper body stuff.

[Sean Herbison]

Sunday, 28 October

Exercise	Weight x Reps @ RPE
Snatch/Overhead Squat	185x1/3x5
Clean	Shenanigans

That was all. I had more planned, but then I decided to take that time and instead use it to be mad at the universe for giving me a mental block about even ridiculously light cleans.