Less weak than last week

[David Hooper]

I'm not even particularly mad about it. I had that happen once before, oddly at 275 for some weird reason. It'll be out of my head next week, now that I've pulled it.

Once I get it, though, I should really switch to 5 lb jumps. I'm not exactly Beefy McHugeLarge, and at my age, 405 is quite an accomplishment on 10 lb increments.

[Bill Anders]

...and at my age, 405 is quite an accomplishment on 10 lb increments.

Quite incredible, even, given not just your age, but your history as a desk worker. Bravo!

[David Hooper]

08 October 2021
Weight - 211
Power Snatch - learn
Power Clean - fix

Coaching day. We started with snatches, and they went surprisingly well. I mostly need to work on keeping my back extension right and catching it in the right place. The goofy elbow will always limit me on the catch as I can't lock it out, but I can do them.

Cleans needed a few fixes. The first problem is that having a long torso and artificially short arms (due to the elbow, again) means a normal clean grip ends up putting the bar too high on my leg when the rest of my body is otherwise in good jumping position. I was hitting my hip crease a lot. We played around with grip, all the way to deadlift grip width, which worked better for the jump but makes the catch harder. I think I settled in on about a finger width wider than deadlift. It's a compromise, but seems to be the best balance.

Other than that, I want to lean back on the jump, which is a large part of the reason I have a hard time catching properly. I also keep a grip on the bar during the catch (probably because I'm not in position). I need to learn to let go and let the delts catch it. All in all, though, the catching was significantly improved and much, much easier. Narrow grip, stay vertical, be quick with the explosive bit, and commit to the catch (both getting under and letting go of the bar).

Fixing the clean was a game of whack-a-mole. As one problem was addressed, another wanted to return. In particular, I don't feel the jump point very well. Jumping high feels just the same as jumping at the right time. I can't imagine the torture that would have been trying to fix this via online coaching. By month 3, some poor coach would have felt like they were in the movie theater scene in A Clockwork Orange.

All in all, a day well spent.

[Bill Anders]

I did laugh reading about your whack-a-mole clean experience. Same for me. The amount of patience that Adam showed was incredible.

Glad to see that you could make it and that it was worthwhile.

[David Hooper]

11 October 2021
Weight - 212
Squat - 380x5, 355x5x2
Press - 115x5x5
Power Snatch - 85

Because of the snatch and clean coaching last Friday, I missed that day's squat workout. I got the 380, but I struggled to 'hit the groove', which usually results in not getting full depth. I'll repeat 380 on Friday to be sure.

First day of intermediate programming for the presses. I'm going to do overhead on Mondays, and bench on Wednesdays for volume. I can do intensity on Friday for overhead and Saturday morning for bench if I don't have time on Friday. Also, the coach suggested trying a 3x5 intensity day for a while to see if the extra volume helps, and then using a taper as needed. It's not too far off of what Nick's protocol was doing, but since it's a smaller adjustment than singles, I'll probably give that a go and see if the volume day makes a difference. Ditto for bench.

Swapped to the snatch instead of GHRs for the pull workout today. I want to cement what I learned while it's still fresh. I started empty bar and worked up to 85. I could have done more, for sure, but was struggling to keep my back in proper alignment so I stayed here to get things right before worrying about weight. (I tend to flex the lower back during the catch.) My wonky elbows also prevent lockout, so I have to support the bar with triceps/shoulders more than most people do. This will likely be my weight limitation on the snatch rather than the jump and catch itself. That will be figured out once I'm pulling heavy enough for it to matter. I was also still sore in the shoulders from last Friday, so I didn't mind going slow.

Snatches are fun, though. :-)

[David Hooper]

13 October 2021
Weight - 212
Light squat - 265
Volume Bench - 165x5x5
Deadlift - x (up to 315)
Chins (BW-30) 14,12,10

My upper lumber seems to have some DOMS-like soreness from Monday. I'm not sure how much was the weird-feeling squats or the brand-new snatches. I could have been flexing the back on the snatch, but I suspect it was more the heavy squats after effectively a week off. Either way, the back was sore yesterday and today, and light squats didn't help like they usually do.

First day of volume benching. I used 90% of my last successful 5x3 (185 lb). 165 was the closest number, and 5 minute rests seemed to work quite fine. I can move it up a tick next Wednesday and start this progression.

I warmed up on the deadlift, hoping the back would behave. By 315 it was clear I shouldn't be doing a heavy set today, so I did a set of 5 at 315 to at least do something with them, and chose discretion over bravery. I may try 405 this Friday if things feel up to it. I don't want to wait too long before attempting, or I'll have to back off a bit and ramp up to it.

With deadlifts off the table, I went to banded chins. They were a tick better than Monday of last week, which was my last true chin exercise, not counting 'greasing the groove' on a door-mounted bar at home. Hopefully I can do bodyweight chins this weekend. I have a lot to do on Friday and Saturday.

[Nikola Blagojevic]

My upper lumber seems to have some DOMS-like soreness from Monday. I'm not sure how much was the weird-feeling squats or the brand-new snatches.

It's the snatches. I got that exact feeling for a couple weeks when I was learning the power snatch. Worth it - the fast lifts are fun, man. Until you get it in your head to try a clean & jerk and hurt your wrists, shoulders, and pride all at the same time.

[David Hooper]

It's the snatches. I got that exact feeling for a couple weeks when I was learning the power snatch. Worth it - the fast lifts are fun, man. Until you get it in your head to try a clean & jerk and hurt your wrists, shoulders, and pride all at the same time.

Ok, thanks! I did do a lot of them on both Friday and Monday, so I may have overdone it for a newbie.

The coach did caution me to start learning the jerk without a bar at all. I'm sure I'll eventually decide to give it a go, so I'll definitely keep your comment in mind as well.

[David Hooper]

15 October 2021
Weight - 211
Medium Squat - 315x5x3
Intensity Press - 127.5x3x5
Deadlift - 405x2, 385x2, 365x2

I wanted to try deadlifts again today so I backed the squats down a bit to try to avoid interference and hopefully avoid regression on squats. I don't think today's squats affected the deadlift.

I'm starting with the five sets of 3 for 'intensity' pressing for now. Today went quite well, but I was conservative in the starting point to make sure I have a run-up with this new pattern before it gets into new territory.

The back felt much better than Wednesday. I decided to try deads again since Wednesday's 315 shouldn't be that much of a stress. They were moving alright, but I felt my back go round partway up the third rep. That's what caused the herniated disc a few months back. The "oh, #@$%" feeling instantly made me go slack and I lost the rep. I haven't had a full work set of 5 in over 2 weeks so I backed the weight down and got some volume in. I may give it one more go on Wednesday, but I think the right answer is to go ahead and back it down a bit and run it back up. I'm effectively stuck at this point. It's entirely possible I'm stalling because I've backed off the food a bit to let the body fat come back down to reality.

Plan is to get in Saturday morning and get the chins in. I'll also try to get intensity bench in as well. If time permits, I'll also add in some practice on cleans. I can't go to work set weights the day after deadlifting, but I can reinforce the things I learned from coaching last week.

[David Hooper]

16 October 2021
Intensity Bench - 185x3x5
Clean and Snatch - practice
Chins - BWx9,8,6

I did enough I figured I'd just post rather than edit. I'll have to figure out the best approach to that if I keep up this four-day routine.

The bench went well even after intensity pressing yesterday. Triples are fast enough it's not a problem to hold my breath the whole way, which really helps maintain tightness throughout. I may have to lower the hooks one notch, though; I'm starting to sink into the padded bench enough that it's getting really hard to get over the hooks when unracking. We'll see if benching the day after pressing is sustainable.

I did cleans up to a double at 125, but mostly focusing on cementing the things I learned from coaching. There's no way I was cleaning for work sets the day after deadlifting. I also did snatches up to 85 lb for learning reinforcement but didn't want to push hard on them today.

Chins went up a bit from the 8,7,6 I had a couple weeks ago - the last time I did bodyweight work. It's getting a bit exciting to know I'm close to the point where I can start doing weighted chins. I bought a dip belt from Dominion a while back when they had a clearance sale on them: double-ply leather and fantastic build quality. My gym bag may be due for an upgrade soon.

Speaking of... I forgot to mention that on Friday I played around with shoeless deadlifts during warmups. I did a double at 275 with the weightlifting shoes and a double without. Shoeless felt much better. I'll try that again and make sure, but I'm already strongly thinking of ordering some deadlifting shoes. That 3/4" seemed to make a much bigger difference in setup and initial pull than I would have guessed.