Magic Bullets and Tired legs

The photo above is of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN where particle beams are accelerated close to the speed of light and then smashed into in each other, in the hopes of creating elusive primordial subatomic-particles. If in fact discovered as predicted by the theory of super-symmetry, these sub-atomic "Magic Bullets" would provide the indivisible glue for assembling the greatest source of energy known in the universe.

But alas, way up here at the macro level of everyday existence in the iron game, the search for a "Magic Bullet" yielding ever-lasting strength and power is completely futile .. just blood sweat and tears and only then results.

On Saturday, absolutely everything felt heavy, I had no explosiveness in my pulls and my right shoulder acted up while power jerking a fairly light weight. I should have known this was going to be a rough one as my bar warm-ups were unexpectedly taxing. When my inner dialogue of indignation and disgust finally subsided, I "sucked it up", dropped down to weights that I could handle with somewhat reasonable form, and made the best of out it. What kept me going was knowledge of the belief that these are precisely the days that really count towards measurable results as they train the mind just as hard as the body.

Tuesday Sep 1, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 8 Standing-sn, 3-pos-sn, scarecrow-sn, sn-on-toes
32 x 1 x 5 3Sn-on-toes + 2 AK-sn
40 x 1 x 3 Standing-sn 1NoLift
45 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
50 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn, BK-sn-NoLift
50 x 1 x 3 2AK-sn + sn
50 x 3 x 3 1NoLift

Clean and Power-Jerk(kg):
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 2 x 2
75 x 1 x 2
70 x 2 x 2
75 x 2 x 2
80 x 1 x 1 PR
80 x 1 x 1
85 x 2 x 1 2CleanWithNoJerk

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
90 x 6 x 2

My hips and legs were quite fatigued as I had to abandon snatches early. The power-jerk PR was a nice surprise in a very difficult session.

Thursday Sep 3, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 6 Standing-sn, AK-sn, BK-sn
30 x 1 x 5 3-pos-sn, standing-sn
40 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
45 x 1 x 4 3-pos-sn, 1sn-NoLift
50 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
55 x 1 x 2
60 x 5 x 2
63 x 2 x 1
66 x 2 x 1
66 x 1 x 1 NoLift

Snatch Pulls (kg):
70 x 1 x 3
75 x 1 x 3
80 x 1 x 3
85 x 1 x 3

Back Squat (kg):
70 x 1 x 3
80 x 1 x 3
90 x 1 x 3
102 x 5 x 3 (5 x 3 x 85%)

A great snatch session as this was the first time I was ever able to full squat snatch 60kg so consistently, in fact for five sets of doubles. However back squats required such intense focus as I forced myself to go as deep as possible on each rep. Recovering from the 3rd rep of each set was agonizing and I knew it would take a toll on me in terms of requiring extra time to recover.

Saturday Sep 5, 2009

Noon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 2 x 5 3xStanding, AK, BK
30 x 2 x 5 3xStanding, AK, BK
40 x 2 x 3 3-Pos
50 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
50 x 1 x 2
55 x 2 x 2
60 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
60 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift

Clean and Power Jerk (kg):
50 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3
70 x 1 x 3
75 x 1 x 3 2-Jerk-NoLift
75 x 1 x 3 2-Jerk-NoLift
70 x 1 x 3 Clean only

Front Squat (lbs):
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 5
155 x 1 x 5
175 x 1 x 3

Walking Lunges (lbs):
45 x 5/5
95 x 5/5
135 x 2 x 5/5 PR

Although this session was extremely difficult and every thing felt heavy, I salvaged it with walking lunges. The heavy back squats on Thurs completely fatigued my CNS.