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Thread: Chris's Olympic Weightlifting Log

  1. #1
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    Default Chris's Olympic Weightlifting Log

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    I was fortunate enough to attend one day of the IWF World Championships in Houston this past Sunday. Loved it, and I'm fascinated by this sport. Witnessed two world records (clean and jerk and total in men's 62kg class), saw Lydia Valentin, the guy from ATG, and watched a young super casually front squat 240kg in the training hall. It was an awesome experience, and I want to focus on Olympic lifting for the foreseeable future.

    Quick stats: male, 29, 5'10", ~200lbs
    Goal: hit 90/120 by my birthday (about 5 months)

    My plan is to spend a few weeks doing a large number of reps of the competition lifts at very light weights to get a better feel for the technique. There's an Olympic lifting gym about an hour from where I live. I'd like to make it out there maybe once every other week to get some feedback. I'm also saving up for a Rogue 2.0 bar for my home gym.

    I'm not very flexible, so that's going to be a hurdle...

    I'll also usually post in pounds (lame, I know) because I only have plates in pounds at home.

    11/25/15
    Bwt: 203.8
    Waist: 36 3/4"

    *POUNDS*
    AM session:
    Overhead squat w/u 45x5x3
    Snatch 45x3x5, 65x2x3
    Clean and Jerk 65x3x3

    ...drive 4 hours to in-laws'...

    PM session:
    Overhead squat w/u 45x5x3
    Snatch 45x3x5 65x3x3 75x2x2
    Clean and Jerk 75x2,2,2,2
    Press (power clean first rep) 75x5 95x5 115x5 135x5
    Lat Pulldown 45x20, 60x20, 75x15

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    Taking advantage of the calorie surplus today. Father-in-law cooks a whole hog, so plenty of Carolina-style pulled pork. I probably ate 2.5 pounds between dinner and supper.

    11/26/15

    *POUNDS*
    Overhead squat w/u 45x5x3
    Snatch 45x3x5 55x3x3
    Clean and jerk 55x3 75x3x3
    Front squat (PC 1st reps) 95x5 115x5 135x3x3
    Ab wheel 4reps X 3sets
    Lat Pulldown 30x20, 45x20
    Db Lat raise 5sx20x2
    Lunges BWx20x2

    Snatches:

  3. #3
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    For us non Europeans, thank you for pounds.

    And this may be utter bullshit, but it seems like you're catching the snatch at the top rather than getting underneath it. It's hard for my uneducated eye to tell without slow motion, but it seems like you catch it, then squat rather than exploding the bar up and getting underneath it and catching it in a partial squat while descending in the full squat. It seems like two separate movements rather than one fluid movement. If I'm wrong, please correct me so I can learn.
    Last edited by vanslix; 11-26-2015 at 11:45 PM.

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    You're describing what I'm doing correctly. It's a work in progress. Dropping under is (arguably) the hardest part of the movement. There are a few teaching progressions out there that have you catch and drop into the squat to teach that aspect of a full snatch/clean. Hopefully with practice it becomes more fluid.

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    I've been seeing stuff from Houston by following All Things Gym on Instagram and peeking in on the livestream occasionally. I, too, am intrigued. What have/are you doing to educate yourself on the Oly lifts? Working with a coach/weightlifting club at all?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher John View Post
    You're describing what I'm doing correctly. It's a work in progress. Dropping under is (arguably) the hardest part of the movement. There are a few teaching progressions out there that have you catch and drop into the squat to teach that aspect of a full snatch/clean. Hopefully with practice it becomes more fluid.
    Welcome and congratulations! You have crossed over to the wrong side of training and will soon enough hate going to the gym! You're also going to want to kill yourself every time you watch women's weightlifting and realize just how truly weak you are. Whooo!

    As far as your video, yea, you're breaking it up into two motions, but that's normal at this stage. Your positions though look pretty good and your flexiblity isn't as terrible as you say. The only real glaring error right now is that you are not finishing your pull, possibly because you are in a rush to turn over and drop. For example, pause at 0:20. Your hip angle is at something like 160°, when you should be at least 180° and probably more. Don't worry about going under; instead, focus on pulling as hard as you possibly can, and remember to shrug your shoulders too. If you do that, the bar will feel ridiculously light as it flies up and there will be plenty of time to get under. This was the same bad habit I picked up to start and it still haunts me now, so definitely see it and fix it.

    As far as teaching progressions, my coach always starts folks with something like: snatch press, overhead squat, high hang muscle snatch, muscle snatch, muscle snatch to OHS, snatch, i.e. a top down progression, using minimal for hundreds of reps. Seems to work well enough at training people to get under. There's a place for more exotic work like snatch balances later, but for now, I haven't seen him use them for new snatchers.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JTC_MN View Post
    What have/are you doing to educate yourself on the Oly lifts? Working with a coach/weightlifting club at all?
    There's a dedicated Olympic lifting gym about 1hr (1hr15min in traffic) away. I've been there three times, which comprises all the coaching I've had on the full versions of the lifts. It's a cool place. Someone's on the floor coaching whoever happens to come in to train. If I could afford to make the commute more often I would go 3x/week.

    Other than that, I've been watching YouTube videos constantly. Hookgrip is a great channel if you haven't encountered it, yet, and Pendlay has some videos from his time at Cal Strength on teaching progressions for the snatch and clean and jerk.

    This series of articles by Tommy Kono is interesting: The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban: The ABC’s of Weightlifting, Part One by Tommy Kono

    I've also been reading Bud Charniga's articles on his old Sportivny site. Charniga's obviously a weird dude judging just from his writing style, but he has a unique perspective on the sport. (Here's an example: Essential Components of Weightlifting Technique)

    @SSD, if you have opinions about Bud's writing, I'd love to hear them.

    Quote Originally Posted by stuffedsuperdud View Post
    Welcome and congratulations! You have crossed over to the wrong side of training and will soon enough hate going to the gym! You're also going to want to kill yourself every time you watch women's weightlifting and realize just how truly weak you are. Whooo!
    Ha! When I watched those 53kg women in the A session snatching close to 2x bodyweight, I knew my grasp on my man-card was tenuous at best.

    As far as your video, yea, you're breaking it up into two motions, but that's normal at this stage. Your positions though look pretty good and your flexiblity isn't as terrible as you say. The only real glaring error right now is that you are not finishing your pull, possibly because you are in a rush to turn over and drop.
    Thanks for the feedback! I'll post more video tomorrow and see if I can get more extension at the hips. Please feel free to drop in and give more pointers on what you see (you, too, Isaac, JTC, hector_, and anyone else reading) - I appreciate all the help I can get.

    Like your coach suggests, I'm trying to get lots and lots of reps at light weights to reach a serviceable point with form before I worry about pushing the weight.

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    Congrats on getting into medical school!

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    Quote Originally Posted by hector_garza View Post
    Congrats on getting into medical school!
    He's going to be a solid doc.

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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by hector_garza View Post
    Congrats on getting into medical school!
    Quote Originally Posted by vanslix View Post
    He's going to be a solid doc.
    Thank you, guys! It's a huge relief to know I've gotten in somewhere. Huge. I'm trying to get all the productive training I can out of this year.

    Speaking of training...

    11/28/15

    Overhead squat w/u 45x3,6,8
    Snatch 45x3x3 50x3 55x3 60x3 65x2 70x2x2 75x2x3
    Clean & Jerk 75x3x3 80x3 85x2x2 90x2 95x2x3
    Front Squat (PC 1st rep) 95x10x3
    Lat Pulldown 30x20, 45x20, 60x20

    C&J 95x2:


    Jerk isn't too convincing. Not reaching full extension on the clean.

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