E tu, Bloatus!

Saturday January 31, 2009

Olympic Lifting Noon Session:

Clean & Jerk
20 x 2 x 5 Clean & Jerk
60 x 4 x 2 Clean & Jerk
70 x 2 x 2 Clean & Jerk
75 x 1 x 2 Clean & Jerk
80 x 1 x 2 Clean & Jerk
90 x 1 x 2 Miss badly
70 x 1 x 1 Clean & Jerk
80 x 3 x 1 Clean
80 x 1 x 1 C & J with pushout
75 x 1 x 1 Clean & Jerk
80 x 1 x 2 Clean

Russian Strength Routine for Front Squat (lbs)
135 x 1 x 6 Warmup
155 x 1 x 6 Warmup
165 x 6 x 6 Work sets

Many positive things occurred in today's session. With the meet in two weeks, the platforms were very crowded. As a result I did my warmups with the bar and then immediately to 60kg C&J doubles with an already loaded bar. They got easier as I progressed. My jerks were fine until I got around 75kg. I only got one successful jerk with 75kg and all the others had ill-legal press-outs. I was very pleased with my squat cleans as I did six rock bottom squat cleans with 80kg and no belt. One of the keys was Coach Kahn's cue:

"Whip your elbows out and up during the drop under."

This helps to keep my back straight and to really make the rack catch smoother. I'm looking forward to getting in more volume with 80kg squat snatch to really groove the feeling. A good clean will set the stage for a good jerk.

With no time left at the club, I went home and did the requisite front squats completing the volume phase (6x6 @80% 1RM) of the Russian Strength Routine. I really had to focus on keeping my elbows up and back straight. The roughest sets were the warmups and last set working set.

I discussed my jerk problems with Coach Fuller explaining that I can no longer jerk 80kg. He explained that although not great news, its nothing to panic about. He said that I have been focusing on some many things with the squat clean, it doesn't leave enough focus for a good jerk. To help me with this issue he has prescribed some technique work with off the rack light barbell push presses starting tomorrow. He said I should focus on the following points:

• When performing the dip, the hips, knees and ankles should flex simultaneously.
• The weight of the bar should be on the hips with the elbows pointed up as high a possible.
• Use work sets of triples starting very light say 40kg always returning to the clean rack position after each rep.
  
• The press out should leave the bar behind the ears in the same position as the jerk lockout.
  

A week after I started another master lifter also joined the club. Although a little younger (43), Jason has worked harder on improving than I thought was possible for a new lifter. Today he succeeded in a 90kg C&J which represented the second 5kg PR in the last two weeks for him .. absolutely inspiring.

Weight: 184 7/8 lbs (one year PR .. yikes!)
Total Volume: 11800 lbs
=============================================================
===================================================================

Diet and Nutrition:

Goal: 182 lbs

Fact: If one wants to cut weight, its probably not a great idea to eat an entire super-sized basket of oil and salt laden sweet potato fries late in the evening and subsequently belch them up through out the night.

Okay, okay I confess this was me last evening and although the 1.5 lb weight gain the morning after indulging in said offense does not mean all hope is lost, it does mean I have to get serious again. I do understand that Olympic lifting with all the heavy assistance lifts (tons of skwats) does contribute to weight gain. But in my case, I've started eating a lot more nutritionally-challenged hi-carb crapola and the non-stop weight gain is cause for concern.

In terms of my competition weight class, it's 85kg (187 lbs). I have no intention of blowing up to that weight and at the same time I have no shot at the next lower weight class of 77 (169.4 lbs). Around 182 lbs would be ideal as I would never have to worry about a few pounds of fluctuation and still comfortably make weight while still having a large healthy breakfast. But as I approach 185 lb (I always weigh myself as soon as I get up and before breakfast), I leave almost no lee-way for an late morning weigh-in. Also, the jeans I bought after my RKC cert are becoming unwearable .. that really ticks me off.

When I made weight for my RKC Russian Kettlebell instructor certification, I had been logging everything I ate on this blog. The idea was to bare myself in front of my immense readership (hi Aaron!) by posting the dirty truth of my daily consumption. Well it worked. I ate healthy, watched the portions and got down to 176 lbs and held it for several months. So its back to a daily caloric consumption log that will appear at the bottom of these posts to make it easy to skip over.

Caloric Consumption log:

Breakfast:

• One bowl of kitchari (yellow mung beans, brown Basmati rice, sweet potato and various exotic Indian spices)
  
• One bowl of u-waved frozen peas
• 6 oz of canned Salmon

Post Workout:

• Whey Protein with water (24 g protein)
• Handful of roasted unsalted almonds
• Helping of raw baby carrots
• 1/2 u-waved sweet potato

Late Lunch:

• Bowl of Brussel sprouts
• 8oz of canned salmon
• Handful of roasted unsalted almonds
• Handful of raw unsalted cashews

Dinner:

• One Maryland crab cake
• Large green salad with 6 oz diced chicken
• One glass of red wine
• Handful of roasted unsalted almonds
• Small handful of walnut halfs