CSA 10-29-09

At CSA

Snatch - 20 in 20 minutes at 55kg
C&J - 50/1, 60/1, 70/1, 80/1, 85/1, 70/2, 70/2
Back Squat (on tendo machine) 70/2 -0.97 80/2 -0.87 90/2-0.73 90/2-0.72 90/2-0.73 90/2-0.69
Jerk from Jerk blocks - 70/3, 75/3, 80/2, 85/2, 90/1, 95/m, 95/1

Snatches completed with no misses.

First time using a tendo machine and it was pretty cool. They had it set to measure velocity. Worked on speed out of the hole. The faster you can explode out of the bottom using stretch reflex the better you'll be at pushing through the sticking point and the heavier weights you'll lift.

Never used Jerk blocks either. Good stuff.

CSA 10-27-09

At CSA

Snatch - 30/2, 40/2, 50/2, 60/1, 65/1, 70/1, 75/f, 76/f, 50/2, 50/2, 50/2, 50/2
Clean and Jerk - 50/2, 60/1, 70/1, 80/1, 90/1, 96/1 (PR), 98/f, 90/1, 90/1
Front Squat - 90/3, 100/2(PR), 110/f, 105/1

Snatch - Working on staying on my heels the entire lift instead of drifting forward toward the ball of my feet as I get the bar past my knees. Also need to stay over the bar longer and explode my second pull off the hips instead of off the thighs. I was also brushing the bar up my quads/hips and never really contacting them solidly. I need to connect with the bar in an aggressive, solid explosion in order to really explode. More like bouncing the bar off my legs explosively. I'm not explaining this very well at all.

C&J - 1k PR. I'll take it. Couldn't clean it at 98kg. Coach Pendlay said I was pulling it real high...higher then I needed to, which caused the weight to crash down on me when I receive it and that makes it a lot heavier and harder to recover from the front squat.

I brain farted on the front squats and did a triple at 90 instead of 70 and a double at 100 instead of 80. Which in turn wore me out and caused the failure at 110. Oh well.

CSA 10-24-09

At California Strength Academy

Snatch - 30kilos/2, 40/2, 50/2, 60/1, 65/1, 70/Miss x 3, 55/2, 50/2, 50/2, 50/2

Clean and Jerk - 50kilos/2, 60/1, 70/1, 80/1, 90/1, 95/Miss x 3

Had to rush the workout so didn't get to work any doubles at a lower weight on C&J or get to squat

At home got in my Front Squats - 155lbs/3, 175/1, 200/1, 220/1, 230/1, 240/1, 250/Miss x 2

Snatch - Got a great cue from John North. I wasn't pulling from the hip, I was exploding when the bar got just above my knee. This caused me to muscle it up and not get my legs/hips into it as much. When he gave me that cue and I made the fix of pulling from the hip by staying over the bar longer, the bar flew up much faster. There was a very noticeable increase in bar speed. Felt much more explosive. I love it when a light bulb clicks on in the ol' brain. Now all I need to do is finish better and pull myself under the bar to drop it into the slot. And keep my upper back tight by pulling that bar apart thus giving me a stronger receiving position. And once I have that dialed there will be plenty more to work on. But every improvement in form leads to more weight on the bar, so I'm loving this.

C&J - Hit the clean on the first attempt at 95, then missed the Jerk and missed the following two cleans.

Front Squat - At 250lbs, I almooost had it on the first attempt. Couldn't quite grind past the sticking point on the way up but I was close. A little greedy to go for 250, which was a 8lb jump from two days ago when I got a 7lb PR. I'll get it soon enough though.

CSA 10-22-09

Session coached by Donnie at California Strength Academy

Snatch - 30 x 3, 40 x 2, 50 x 2, 60 x 1, 65 x 1
High Hang Snatch - 40 x 2, 50 f x 2, 50 x 2
Clean & Jerk - 50 x 2, 60 x 1, 70 x 1, 80 x 1, 90 x 1
High Hang Clean & Jerk - 70 x 2, 75 x 2
Front Squat - 70 x 3, 80 x 2, 90 x 1, 100 x 1, 110 x 1 (PR)
Rack Jerk - 60 x 3, 60 x 3, 60 x 3

On the Snatch I need to 'spread the bar' or 'pull it apart' when receiving it. My shoulders will tend to roll forward some and create weaker shoulders and upper back. I believe that may be an important key to fix a lot of my frustrating misses where I pull the bar high enough, get under it, the bar falls into the slot, but I kinda collapse under the weight starting with my upper back. Its nice to have that diagnosed!

On my cleans I'm hopping forward some and need to stop that.

Front Squats - PR! Thats a 7.5 lb PR. I need to be quicker out of the hole. Need to learn to work the bounce out of the bottom. Gotta keep my back tight. Used a belt on the last rep as Donnie thought I'd benefit from a belt on squats and when going overhead with Jerks. Looks like it'll become a regular part of my lifting. As Donnie said, any tool that will make us stronger, we'll use.

Kept the rack jerks light to work on the following:
On the Jerks I need to focus on 'putting my head through', and 'reaching for the shelf' - getting full extension of my arms and shoulders when receiving the bar. I also need to slow down my decent on the dip so I don't lose contact with the bar which causes it to crash down on me in the bottom of the dip, making it feel heavier then it is. And plant the front foot better.

There's no replacement for good coaching.

Bike 10-20 and Lift 10-20-09

10-19-09

1 hour mt bike ride with the Academy

10-20-09

Snatch
65lbs x 2, 85 x 2, 95 x 2, 115 x 2, 135 x 1, 145 f then x 1, 155 f then x 1, 160 f, 165 f x2, 137.5 f x 3 For some reason after hitting 155 which was my PR as of a week ago and 94% of my PR from Friday, I all of a sudden couldn't Snatch 137.5 for the life of me. Blahh.

Clean & Jerk

95lbs x 2, 115 x 2, 135 x 1, 155 x 1, 175 x 1, 185 x 1, 195 x 1, 205 x 1, 215 f on clean. Good pull and got under it but was in a bad position to receive it and bailed (would have been a 6lb PR) 175 Clean and 2 Jerks, 185 Clean and 2 Jerks

Front Squat

205lbs x 3, 215 x 1, 225 x 1, 235 x 1 (ties PR) - This was possibly the slowest front squat I've ever done, was barely able to push through the sticking point.

I fashioned my workout similar to what I did with Donny Shankle on Saturday and what he explained will probably be my programming. In general he said the programming for someone like me tends to be 3 days of: Snatch heavy single, Clean and Jerk heavy single, and front squats. Usually percentage wise it should be close to lifting with 95% on Mon, 90% on Wed, and 105% on Fri. Then if anything extra is added it is decided by Glenn Pendlay who will pick a little accessory work to address whatever specific weakness I need to work through. Seems pretty common to hit a heavy single for the day and then drop back down about 10% or so and hit a few doubles or triples.

I have a private session scheduled with Glenn on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to. I'm thinking I may schedule a few of them in the next few weeks. I hope to establish a baseline of my lifting mechanics with him so he gets an idea of what I need to work on. Also I'm hoping to get put on a specific program. I'm very interested to see what exactly it will be.

Snatch worked up to 70k
Clean and Jerk - worked up to 90 where I failed on the jerk three times. then did clean and 2 jerks at 70, 75, 80
Front Squat - 100 x 3, 105 x 2, 110 f x 2 (would have been a 3.5 kilo PR), 95 x 2

Got coached by Donny Shankle. How cool is that???

California Strength Academy

First up in this video is Donny Shankle



Snatch - 40 x 2, 50 x 2, 55 x 2, 60 x 2, 65 x 2, 70 x 1 f on 2nd, 75k (165lb) x 1 PR, 80f
Clean & Jerk - 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 (209lb) PR, 100 f

I went for it. Jumped in with both feet and joined the California Strength Academy Weightlifting Club. Head coach? None other then Glenn Pendlay. The team is stacked with some powerhouse athletes. Everybody I met there were nice and encouraging. It was such a great environment to train in. And not just because of the quality Werksan training and economy bumpers with Werksan, Pendlay and Elieko bars. Though having quality equiment like that to lift with sure can't help but put a smile on my face. The atmosphere is awesome really because of the level of intensity in that place. Gets me fired up now just thinking about it. No wonder I had a 10lb PR in the Snatch and 4 lb PR in the Clean and Jerk. What a great day it was. I'm exited about the future strength and power gains to come. As David Spitz put it after watching me lift...he said there are a lot of kilos I will add to my lifts by cleaning up my technique and becoming more efficient and not becoming a kilo stronger. But not to worry, I'll be getting plenty stronger while I'm there too. If I can swing it and get the time off work the first meet is in November.

Wow. I'm stoked.

Run/OHS

Had to run with the academy today. 16 min run.

Felt scorched after the run so I 86'd the mass (a)gain programming.

Did some overhead squats with another trainer - 95 x 5, 115 x 3, 135 x 3, 155, 165, 175, 185 (PR) 190 f

That makes for a bodyweight OHS. Woohoo!

Previously I've failed when going for a one rep max during the jerk portion. I was push jerking it. Today I tried split jerking the weight from behind my back in a snatch grip and it worked much better. The failure at 190 was losing it at the bottom.

This was the final day of my second week on the mass gain program. Pretty much a wasted week primarily because of redman extra academy PT and business. I'll get back on track and redo week 2, starting on Wednesday.

Mass Gain/Redman

10-7-09

Back Squat 77% 3 x 10 - 180lbs
Ring Dips - 10, 7, 6

10-8-09

8 hours in Redman suit

Mass Gain Day 4

The warmup



And the Snatch in competition after the warmup



Clean and Jerk



10-5-09

Front Squat – 75% x 3 x 5 - 175lbs
Snatch – heavy single - 95, 115, 135, 145, 150, 155 f, 160 f
Press – 75% x 3 x 5 - 90lbs

Mass Gain Day 2 & 3

Mass Gain Week 1, Day 2 & 3

10-1-09

Power Snatch – 60% (of snatch) x 2 x 3 - 95lbs
Power Clean & Jerk – 60% (of CJ) x 2 x 3 - 125lbs
Max Pull-ups – 30, 19, 12

10-2-09

Deadlift – 80% x 3 x 3 - 275lbs
Weighted Ring Dips – 5 x 5 - 5lbs
Max Weighted Pull-ups – 10lbs - 11, 11, 6

Deadlifts were heavy. I've regressed on them some. That sucks. Weighted dips were harder then I thought. 1st set of pullups I came off the rings before I hit a true max. d-u-m-b.