Progress with the Push Press

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tonight was a great session at the club. There were a record eleven lifters training .. the more the merrier! Hey I just realized I was the old-fart there last night .. no matter, still holding my own (no Depends either! .. yet).

Also, I recovered nicely from yesterdays MaxVo2 kettlebell snatch session .. as long as I keep the total volume for session under 15000 lbs I'm good to go the next day. This is one of great side benefits of logging everything .. it teaches one about their limits and training cycle efficiency.

Evening Olympic Lifting Session:

Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 10 5x Hang-Sn + 5xSn-Balance
20 x 1 x 10 5x(Sn-Balance + OH-sq)
32 x 4 x 5 Sn + 2x(Sn-Balance + OH-sq)
40 x 2 x 3 Sn + 2x Sn-Balance
45 x 1 x 3 Sn (2 Misses)
45 x 1 x 5 Sn-Balance + 4xSn
47 x 1 x 6 3xSn + 3xOH-sq
50 x 4 x 3 Sn
55 x 1 x 3 Sn (1 Miss)
55 x 1 x 3 Sn (2 Miss)

RDL (kg):
100 x 3 x 5
105 x 1 x 5
100 x 1 x 5

Off the rack Push-Press (kg):
45 x 1 x 3
50 x 1 x 3
55 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3
65 x 1 x 3 PR
70 x 1 x 2 PR

The snatch balance with 40 kg is getting much easier. Next session I will bump to 45kg. Tonight my main priority was to catch the snatch in the hole (bottom of the squat). I had some misses but only reverted back to a power-snatch for a single rep. This is a great consistency for me as I hone in on this new skill. Within a few weeks I'll test my 1RM with this lift.

The Romanian Dead Lifts are performed the Denis Reno style. Namely the knees are extended perpendicular to the ground; the knees are bent around 30 degrees and stay there during all reps; the chest is over the bar and up and down movement is performed only with the hips. Keeping the knees extended upward with the bend of 30 degrees creates tension through out the set .. a killer if done correctly.

Having "splay" cleaned 90kg on Saturday, I know I will be correctly doing it shortly and I will want to be jerking it as well. As a result, I asked Coach Fuller if I could work on Push-Presses off the rack to help me strengthen my shoulders and he thought it was good idea. I used the platform and bumper plates and this made it much easier psychologically since I could ditch the weight if there were any issues. This worked out great as I surprised myself in that the negativez did not bother my elbows at all .. after locking out and dropping the weight to shoulder level, I was immediately able to clean rack the weight for the next rep. I started light and wound up with a PR of 10kg and even did a double with my new 1RM 70kg.

Total Volume: 13330 lbs

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

This morning I really looked forward to my RSR front squats. These have helped my clean rack tremendously besides its primary purpose of building the leg strength necessary for squat cleaning. Its a heavy volume squat day but still I haven't felt better after a demanding evening session:

Morning basement dungeon assistance lifts:

Z-Health: Neural Warm-up Level 2 (Dynamic Joint Mobility Drills)

Russian Strength Routine (RSR) Barbell Back Squats (lbs):
140 x 1 x 5
160 x 1 x 5
180 x 5 x 5 @ 80% at the top of every two minutes
180 x 1 x 6

I only remembered the push off from the full foot cue after my first set with 180 after that I could feel my quads really working. These were tough but I know now that I will be able to do 6 x 6 with 180 next week.

Total volume: 7080 lbs

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Diet and Nutrition:

Goal: 182 lbs by April 2009

Tuesday March 24, 2009

Current: 183 lbs

It will be April next week and I'm still okay with being a pound over the goal. If I continue to maintain 90%+ with my Precision Nutrition compliance and stay this weight than I will change the goals. I feel very strong and lean .. I'm still 2kg under the 85kg weight class so I'm not going to sweat it.

Wednesday March 25, 2009

Current: 183 lbs

I have stabilized at this weight .. see above