Thursday, April 2, 2009

A solid week of incremental progress

Another very busy week at work. Here is quick summary of the weeks training so far:

Tuesday March 31, 2009

My lower back is about the same but now I also have a little soreness in my left hip flexor. This is another one of these intermittent issues I periodically deal with. This evening, Coach Fuller showed me a great hip flexor stretch and its seems to have stablized.

Evening Olympic Lifting Session:

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

Hang Clean (kg): 3x3@70%
20 x 1 x 5 Hang-Clean
40 x 1 x 3 Hang-Clean
50 x 1 x 3 Hang-Clean
60 x 1 x 3 Hang-Clean
65 x 1 x 3 Hang-Clean
70 x 4 x 3 Hang-Clean

C&J (kg): 4x3@80%
72 x 4 x 3 C&J

RSR Back Squat (lbs): 6x2@80%
160 x 1 x 2
185 x 1 x 2
205 x 5 x 2
205 x 1 x 6

Power Clean (kg):
81 x 3 x 1
84 x 2 x 1

I miss calculated on the hang-cleans and did closer to 80% of my 1RM clean (90kg). The heavy power cleans I did following the back squats were marginal form wise but fun. The triple C&Js with 72kg following the hang cleans were very tough. I maintained good form throughout but it did take a huge focus and effort.

Total Volume: 9900 lbs

Wednesday April 1, 2009

Morning Basement Assistance Lifts:

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

RSR Front Squat (lbs): 6x2@80%
140 x 1 x 2
160 x 1 x 2
180 x 5 x 2
180 x 1 x 6

Total Volume: 3480 lbs

Thursday April 2, 2009

Although I slept for almost 10 hours, I woke up sore. Fortunately as the day wore on most of it subsided.

Evening Olympic Lifting Session:

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

Snatch (kg): 5 x 2 @90%+
20 x 1 x 10 5xHang-snatch + 5xSnatch-balance
20 x 2 x 5 OH-squat
40 x 1 x 4 Snatch
40 x 1 x 5 OH-squat
40 x 2 x 1 Snatch-balance
45 x 1 x 2 Snatch
50 x 1 x 2 Snatch
55 x 1 x 2 Snatch
60 x 1 x 2 Snatch
65 x 1 x 2 Snatch 1 Miss + 1poor form
60 x 5 x 2 Snatch

Snatch Pulls (kg) 3 x 2 @100%+
65 x 2 x 3
70 x 2 x 3

Off the Rack Overhead Squat (kg)
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 1 PR
75 x 1 x 1 PR

Tactical overhand thumb-less grip pull-ups:
BW x 4 x 4
BW x 1 x 6
BW x 1 x 4

I made a mistake of jumping to 65kg snatch after only one set of doubles with 60kg. Its been over two months since I've been able to match my 65kg PR. I missed the first one badly, and although I made the second attempt my form was horrible .. it probably wasn't even a legal lift .. not probably, I'm sure it wasn't a legal lift. Coach Fuller correctly intervened and had me drop back down to sets of 60kg snatches to work on making them smoother and getting me to quickly drop under into a squat. The good news is that my thumb injury is almost completely healed and it never presented a problem. Also, I hadn't snatched heavy in over five weeks since the injury so I was pleased that 60kg snatches are getting easier.

My OH squats have really improved as today I PR-ed multiple times for gain of 15kg over my previous 1RM OH squat. I made sure I paused deep in the hole on every rep. I'm seriously considering doing an RSR cycle with OH-squats as soon as I finish my front and back squat RSR cycles.

To get into the OH-squat starting position from the off the rack, at least for me, requires a snatch grip behind the neck push-press to begin the 1st rep. As a result, I had a 15kg gain over my previous 1RM of this too.

Total Volume: 7400 lbs

2 comments:

Colin said...

That is some great work this week mate. And culminating in a VERY impressive OHS PR. That must have made you smile!! I know it made me:)

Funny, I was asking at the start of this week if you should be OHSing more than you can Squat Snatch. It made sense to me that you should be able to stand up with more from a starting, stable shoulder position. Maurice reckoned you get better rebound though from squat snatching. Your numbrs seem to be making my case for me.

Congrats again and I'm glad to hear the injuries are subsiding and certainly not slowing you down any.

Franklin said...

Colin,

First thanks so much for the encouragement. OHS are down right nasty but an extremely great lift all in itself. In a separate article by Dan John on Dragondoor he goes on to say this may be the best single lift for GPP and flexibility. The snatch balance (or snatch drop) is also a very challenging lift and one that I need to continue on. Judging by how often Coach Harry Lynch's gang train I'm probably on the right track.

Maurice is correct about the rebound effect that is also used in the squat clean. After your post about "From the Ground Up", I re-read a nice chunk of it and remember him discussing that his clean was just a few kilos short of his best front squat. He goes on to discuss how to learn to use the "bounce" by hang cleaning from the RDL position.

So far I have only achieved a good bounce from a small percentage of my lifts but I understand that eventually it will become natural.