Finishing up a solid week of training

Thursday June 11, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at the Club:

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Hang Snatch (kg):
20 x 3 x 5
40 x 1 x 7
50 x 1 x 4
50 x 3 x 3
55 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3 1-good, 2-no-lift
50 x 1 x 3
55 x 1 x 3
55 x 3 x 3
40 x 4 x 3

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 1 x 5
80 x 1 x 3
90 x 1 x 2
95 x 5 x 2

National level 105kg class lifterYasha Kahn worked with me quite a while with my hang snatch. He has a novel way of teaching by starting very high in the hip crease and working down a few inches at time while always repeating the movement at the higher marks. This effectively teaches how to pull completely vertical while getting in to the triple extension prior to jumping. Although I struggled terribly in doing these even with 40kg, I know this is going to payoff in the future.

The front squats went very well until on the third set when Yasha asked to borrow the 10kg plates for a set, I over enthusiastically yanked one off, forgetting that there was a small metal 2.5 kg plate on as well. The 2.5kg plate landed right across the toes of my left foot. At first I thought I broke a toe but it was just a bruise and I was able to finish my last two sets of front squats. Embarrassing as it was, fortunately, although a little sore, my foot will be okay.


Saturday June 13, 2009

Friday evening I was given a deep right shoulder massage. In the morning it was sore but a good sore. As a result, I decided to avoid all over-head work at the club to let it recover.

Cleans (kg):
20 x 1 x 5
40 x 1 x 6
50 x 1 x 4
60 x 1 x 4
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 2 x 2
90 x 8 x 2 11-good, 5-no-lift

Front Squat (kg):
70 x 1 x 5
80 x 1 x 4
90 x 5 x 3
90 x 1 x 3 1-no-lift

This is the first time I went very heavy on my cleans. Having Jason Edmonds as much stronger training partner (he recently has clean and jerked 100kg) was a big help in inspiring me to go directly from two sets of easy double with 80kg right 90kg. Although I missed my first attempt, I was very determined to stick with it and it paid off as I made 11 of the 16 total attempts .. two of them were solid power cleans as well. Most of my misses were due to improper form off the floor .. either my shoulder and chest were not over the bar long enough or I tried to pull with my arms instead of my legs. In all I'm very encouraged. I attribute lots of front squats with this weight in giving me the confidence to get under it. I also used identical setups all my cleans and this helped me relax.


Having also done heavy front squats for triples, my legs are going to be very fatigued so I am going to lay off training until Tuesday .. it will be good for my shoulder as well.

Sunday June 14, 2009

I was fortunate that prior to going to bed, my s.o. was gracious in giving a upper body massage focusing on my sore right shoulder. As a result, I had the best nights sleep in over two weeks as my shoulder had been waking me up sometimes not being able to get back to sleep for several hours. Rather than doing a full club session, instead I opted to focus in basement dungeon on light to moderate hang and power snatches. Prior to this starting this, I used my broom stick and practiced jumping in the power/triple extension position with broom stick in the crease of hips and upper torso .. this is the maximum position for jumping with leg power. I practiced keeping my arms completing loose as I jumped. Of course the stick flow over my head as I received it in the normal position.

I then proceeded first with the bar then gradually heavy weights by alternating with the high-hang power-snatch followed by a from the floor power-snatch. Once I completed my 50kg set, I finished with five sets of triples of 56kg power snatches. I had to drop a several inches lower to receive these but I was still above parallel.

Morning basement dungeon Olympic lifting session:

High-hang power snatch and power snatch(kg):
20 x 2 x 5 HHPS
30 x 1 x 6 3(HHPS + PS)
40 x 1 x 6 3(HHPS + PS)
45 x 1 x 6 3(HHPS + PS)
50 x 2 x 6 3(HHPS + PS)
56 x 5 x 3 PS
20 x 1 x 5 HHPS