Squats, Snatches, Cleans, and Jerks: Max's Journey to Weightlifting Victory

[thehoff]

Thursday - June 21, 2018

Olympic Intensity Day.

Snatch: 145, 150, 155xFailx3. Don't know why I failed these, 150 went up smoother than a hot knife through butter.

Clean and Jerk: 195, 200, 205, 210xFailx3. 1st and 3rd fails were on the clean, 2nd was on the jerk. Better session than last time - at least I was able to stand up with the bar&catch it.

Front Squat: 220x2X (failed 2nd rep) reset to 200x3x2. No idea why these were so bad today. Probably fried. But already starting to feel better - the taper is a bit of a deload.

Weird session. No idea why I didn't perform but I felt great regardless, my technique was very sound.

[thehoff]

Saturday - June 23, 2018.

Strength Intensity Day.

Squat: 245x5RM (High Bar). Very easy.

Push Press: 165x4 (missed 5th). I started losing my balance (as in bar deviating from midfoot barpath) on the 3rd rep and it took a lot out of my readjusting my balance and setup for each rep. Had I not had this problem, I have no doubt I could have gotten the 5th rep. I knew the strength was there but I was tired by the time I got to rep #5.

Power Clean + Hip Hang Clean + Front Squat Complex: 135x1

Deadlift: 255, 270, 285, 300, 315. Surprisingly, 300 felt harder than 315. These were not bad at all.

Power Snatch + Hip Hang Snatch + Overhead Squat Complex: 115x1

A decent workout that did not take very long. As for the two complexes I tried ~ I'm simply testing some ideas for my next training cycle.

[thehoff]

Monday - June 25, 2018

Olympic Volume Day.

Snatch: 140xF (lost balance), F (dropped forward), ✅, F (dropped forward), ✅, ✅, ✅, ✅. Got more than half so I'm going to bump the weight up. Technique seems to be the issue more than strength on these.

Clean and Jerk: 175x1x8. EzPz.

Good session.

[thehoff]

Tuesday - June 26, 2018

Dynamic Effort Day.

Squat: 205x2x10 EMOM. No problems.

Push Press: 140x3x10 EMOM. I died and went to lifter heaven.

Chin Ups: Bodyweight x 8, 8, 6. I got a debilitating cramp in both calves the second I jumped up to grab the bar on my first set and took 10 minutes before I could go. My calves were in agony and I've been stretching them since. The pain is excruciating and I have no idea what caused these.

I'm clueless as to what happened with my calves. I can barely walk as I write this because of the pain.

[thehoff]

Thursday - June 28, 2018

Olympic Intensity Day.

Snatch: 145, 150, 155x3 fails. Terrible snatch session.

Clean and Jerk: 195, 200, 205, 210, 215 (PR!), FAIL 220, 220 (BIG PR!!!!!), 225x2 fails (clean on first, pull on second)

Front Squat: 205x3x3. Grindy but nice.

Massive surprise on the C&J. Hit my 100kg goal for this training block and could not be happier. Form was terrible, but the lift that counts is the one that goes over your head, which it did. Snatches, on the other hand, need serious work.

[thehoff]

Saturday - June 30, 2018

Strength Intensity Day.

Squat: 250x5. Very pleased. The last time I squatted this weight for a set of 5, it was high bar, and RPE10. This was more like a 9.

Push Press: 165x5. EzPz. Last time, I'm fairly sure I could have gotten it if I hadn't been burnt out from recovering my balance.

Deadlift: 255, 270, 290xFAIL. Terribly deadlift day. I definitely need more submaximal deadlift volume moving forward.

Good session, aside from the deadlifts. Doing these only 1x a week for only 5 reps definitely doesn't help.

[thehoff]

Monday - July 2, 2018

Olympic Volume Day.

Snatch: 145 FAIL, 145, 145FAILx2, 145, 145, 145FAIL, 145. Good session honestly, I noticed a few of my problems and did work to correct them. 2 Misses were due to not being able to stabilize the bar over my head.

Clean and Jerk: 180x8 singles E2MOM. Easy work.

Good session. Last like this of the block.

[thehoff]

Tuesday - July 3, 2018

Dynamic Effort Day.

Squat: 225x2x10. Kill me

Push Press: 150x3x10. Ya boi died again. He is currently in the heaven of weightlifting, a place filled with stars where everything moves really slowly.

Chins: 3x8 with Bodyweight. YEA BUDDY

Good session. Super glad to have finally gotten all 3x8 chins.

[thehoff]

Thursday - July 5, 2018

Olympic Intensity Day.

Snatch: 150x5-8 fails (stopped counting/logging), got 150, then failed 155. The taper has had a profound (edit. negative) effect on my snatch, unfortunately.

Clean&Jerk: 205, 210x3 fails. First fail was on the jerk recovery (after a clean that lasted a good 5-10 seconds), second on the clean recovery, third on the clean pull.

Front Squat: 210x3x3. Easy

Stressful week that involved a car crash and not enough sleep. Next week, we shall peak.

[thehoff]

Saturday - July 7, 2018

Strength Intensity Day.

Squat: 255x5RM. This beats my best low bar squat 5RM by 2 pounds, and I did it high bar. I would have rated rep#4 RPE10.

Push Press: 170x5RM. Easy.

Deadlift: 255, 270, 290, FAIL 305. Low deadlift volume is really trash for building the deadlift not going to lie.

Good session, except the deadlifts. Exactly one week out.