Vanity Log: how much in a year?

Yeah - I'd reached the point a couple of weeks ago (I think) where I was struggling to lower my heavier snatches (yeah, ok... 70kg might not be heavy for some) and last week the same issue with jerks...

Mercifully, the guy who 'specced' our office gym refit was the guy who started Core Cambridge and somehow wangled £2k of jerk blocks from the Corporate Responsibility team here at work. It now means I can play with Olympic stuff for longer. Which is amusing, because it makes my office gym one of the best-equipped gyms for Olympic lifting in the whole of Cambridgeshire (there are three otherrs with proper Olympic platforms, only, and they were built by the guy who did ours... go figure). :)

Not sure what's going to happen when I try full lifts (currently only hang cleans/snatches), but hey-ho...
 
Oh, wow - I ahve mullared myself well and proper! :eek:

This will be a combination of two days' workouts, as I was too sleepy to update this yesterday...

BACK SQUAT (YESTERDAY) Didn't really have the motivation to go to the gym, which was a bad start, but I knew I was going to have fun with jerks later and wouldn't have time for squats today...

70x5 WU
140x1: Nope - too heavy.
135x2: This is where I suspect I would have been ok had I got my head sorted, but still too heavy... :(
120x5x4: If not the weight, then we'll go for volume. Might have been able to go in for another set, but was going very slowly (between sets), and therefore ran out of time.

A bit pants, really, and should have tried harder, but the volume work was good. Misplaced my MTFU tablets, which was foolish.

PULLUPS

10kg x5
16kg x4
16kg x3

Not really going anywhere fast with these, probably because I'm not being consistent with either timing or weights. Again, not a great session.


TODAY, 11/01/2012... Had a good 8hrs in bed, and was up for having a play with the full-height jerk blocks! But my goodness they're heavy!

JERKS

40x5 WU
60x3
90x3
100x2+f (SCORE! 2RM PB!). Well that was a surprise. The difference being able to drop rather than lower is just amazing. This actually went up more easily than I expected... :)
100x2+f
90x3x2

Happy to get the volume in and crack 100kg. Wasn't going to try 110kg because this overhead work is TIRING. :eek: My shoulders and back were absolutely finished by the end of this exercise. There was some brain drain fun, too, where I wasn't thinking straight mid-set and did a half push-press (which I haven't counted) by complete accident (not enough blood in my head and wasn't thinking)...

Very happy with the effect of the jerk blocks, too. They make it soooooo much easier! :D


SINGLE LEG SQUATS (Weights are for each dumbell)

12kg x5
12kg x4
12kg x3

This was a good way to finish my bottom half off, too - particularly given the squat volume yesterday.


BANDED PUSHUPS Pullum ORANGE band - wanted to try this bad-boy for ages.

3x1: And done. This thing completely wrecked my wrists and was unbelievably uncomfortable (not in a 'pump' way), so...

DUMBELL CHEST PRESS (weights are for each dumbell)

37.5x5
40x5x3

Pumptastic.


Overall, the jerk work was the most fun. The rest of the exercises I could take or leave, but I just love Olympic stuff. My scaps, traps and delts are going to be in pieces tomorrow, but what a way to go. :D
 
Urgh. Not happy with today's session. After the fun on Friday, I felt very weak when I actually picked the weights up..

DAY ONE routine, today...

HANG SNATCH (blocks were out for this, given how refreshing it was to be able to drop the weights last week. Was strapped up for all aside from the 40s...)

40x3
40x3: Felt slow, but persevered...
70x3: Fast pulls only, as I just couldn't get fast enough and low enough to catch. So decided on fast pulls only from herein...
90x3
90x3: This felt heavy... :eek:
60x3: Got these overhead, but felt really tired. :(


FRONT SQUATS

60x5
60x5
100x4
105x3: video is below, and it seems that as my ankles flex, I roll forward onto my toes. I had a think about this, and it would seem that my upper back weakens and the weight rocks forward... :(


105x3: form was better, but was a massive grind...
90x3; Decided to pause these for 3 seconds at the bottom to make sure I was getting into the right position. My goodness, that's horrible... and it feels like a loooooooot longer! Still, managed to crack the apparent forward rock, but hey... :(


OHP

60x1
55x4
55x4
55x2 with a pushpress for the last one. Just felt really, really weak. Not thrilled, as a result, but hey.


WIDE-GRIP CHINS

+12,5x5
+12.5x4
+15x3

Not a great workout, today. I'm probably just not resting and eating enough over the weekend, but still frustrating to not be going anywhere with any of this.

The snatch fast second pulls felt the best, and made me feel like I'd actually done something, but otherwise I'm not overly thrilled with it.

Still, that means early to bed tonight, and much eating today. Will carry over the DBSS to tomorrow.
 
Mother of...

So I asked my coach for a 5 day programme for Olympic lifting, and he's sent it through...

DAY 1

- Snatch balance 4x3
- Snatch pulls 3x3
- Hang snatch 5x2
- Snatch 4x3
- Overhead squat 5-4-3-3

DAY 2

- First pull deadlift 5x3
- SLDL 4x3
- Glute ham raise (urgh) 4x3
- Single leg squat 3x5

DAY 3

- Power clean from hip 4x3
- Clean pulls 3x3
- Hang clean 3x2
- Clean 5x2
- Front squat 5-4-3-3

DAY 4

- Overhead squat 4x3
- Push press from back 4x3
- Push jerk 5x2
- Barbell military press 5-4-3-3
- Single arm military press 3x5

DAV 5

- Pull-ups 5x5
- Lat pull-downs 4x5
- Bench press 5x5
- Floor press 4x5
- Close grip lat pull-downs 5x5
- Single arm row 5x5

Well, I suppose he's decided he's going to test my dedication and persistence. Because I'm going to need a truckload of the stuff. :eek:

As the saying goes... "careful what you wish for..."

*Idiot*






This is going to be awesome. :cool:
 
Full of trepidation of the workout to come, I got my days mixed up and did..

DAY 3

Power clean from hip 4x3

65-75-85-95

Normally I stop here...

Clean pulls 3x3

75-85-95

Serious trap burn - the suckers are ON FIRE at this point... but it doesn't stop there...

Hang clean 3x2 with paused squat at the bottom of each. :(

55-65-75-85-95

Futzed up my routine because I could barely think straight at this point. Coach decided to come in and inspect the form, too...

The pause was because the coach spotted bum tuck at the bottom of the squat (I'm sitting around 2-3 inches off the ground at this point), and so I spend 3-5 seconds at the bottom of each one correcting. Quads are melting at this point...

Clean 5x2

75-85-95F

As above. Bailed on the 95 as was completely exhausted. Coach commented that my full clean is different each time. so suggested I stop chasing load and concentrate on teh fire pull-second pull transition. He's happy with the power, but not the variability. This is why I love my job. :D

Front squat 5-4-3-3

70-70-70-70 (and pre-loaded with an extra set of five, like a dumb4ss).

No loading on this - settled on 70kg to get the bum under control, and coach seems happy with the last couple of sets.


So. How did it go? Overall, a mixed bag: the power clean and second pull work is fine - coach is happy with both the shape and the power. However, when it comes to the first pull segment, I need work. So will be dropping the weight back for pattern work at 50/60kg or so.

And my goodness I'm knackered. My tra[s, delts, glutes, quads, hammies and even my calves are hurting like they've never hurt before.

But that is fricking AWESOME. This is easily the hardest overall session I've ever done, but it was just brilliant.
 
Soooo... I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a train. Changing in the work gym highlighted why: traps were still perfused from yesterday's workout, so that can only meen everything else was still in a state of shock, too.

Which meant today would be good for a gentle posterior chain session...

DAY 2 (actual, as posted)...

First pull deadlift 5x3

90-110-140-140-150

Still getting my eye in for the load progression, but 90 was just silly. 150kg was pretty awesome, however. The key thing for me was getting the bar in the right start position for this: second Adidas stripe on my shoes. Must remember.

SLDL 4x3

110-120-140-140

Strapped up for the last 140 set and really working on back shape and glute draaaaaahve. Some serious burn going on...

Glute ham raise 4x3

WTH are these?!? :eek: Horrible, horrible exercise and highlight a massively weak part of my posterior chain. First set involved much flailing around and windmilling (because that would get me back up, obviously), with added grunting, but the last two weren't atrocious - I managed 45 degrees on most with a couple going closer to horizontal (but only 1 or 2). This will take a lot of work...

Single leg squat 3x5

12-14-16 (weight is for each of the two dumbells)

Really struggled to wake my quads up for the first set and thought I was doomed to fail. However, once I got going, these were good. Not the hardest stuff in the book, but a nice, easy wind-down.


Overall, I'm hurting like I haven't hurt in a long time. Again. What is this new regime doing to me? :eek:

Still, it's more fun in the gym than I've had for a long time, even if it hurts like no workout I've done before. Very happy. :cool:
 
This was a revealing session, and not in a good way... confirmed that my overhead strength is not great and needs a lot of work.

So. DAY 4

Overhead squat 4x3

40-50-60 (2+f)-60

These were interesting as they were really cranking my wrists. The failure occurred due to me not pinching my scaps, meaning the bar rocked forward out of control (resulting in a drop). However, the actual squat felt fine. The video below shows that I'm not keeping my bum from tucking, and I'm also not vertical enough.


Still, nice to get the load. :)


Push press from back 4x3

60-70-80 (2+f)-80

Fun exercise, but really require a lot of concentration. The first weights were too light and were too easy to press, but I was lulled into a false sense of security with the first 80kg: I reall need to concentrate on the 'press' part of this (failure was caused through good leg drive and not really engaging the upper body).


Push jerk 5x2

40-60-80 (2+f)-70-80

I don't like these. It's a new technique and it feels very strange. Much more shoulder stability required as there is no 'split leg' stability to forgive any front/back movement of the bar overhead. As such, it highlights how my split jerk is too slack up top. As I said: quite revealing day today. :)


Barbell military press 5-4-3-3

50-55-57.5-57.5

Slowly getting my strength back on these. Started from a 'racked' position (UP-DOWN) rather than 'overhead' (DOWN-UP), so the initial shoulder drive was hard!


Single arm military press 3x5

18-20-22.5

Fun to play with dumbells again. All the weights were too light (kept them low because I wasn't sure how badly I was going to fatigue for the end sets), but I'll just work up to bigger stuff - will probably top out at 25/27.5 next week, but we'll see how my fatigue accumulated over the next week.

TL: DR

Again, really happy with the new routine - possibly because it's just different, but I'm really hitting areas that haven't been looked at in a while and serious shoulder pump feels gooooooooood. :D

I'll be interested to see how this helps the actual Olympic lifts... :)
 
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Urgh. Beach weights Friday. Who thought this was a good idea?

First return to a 5x5 routine for a good, long while, so I wasn't sure where the weights were going to be on this one...

Anyway, here we go...

DAV 5

Pull-ups 5x5

(+)10-10-5-BW-BW

Supersetted with...

Lat pull-downs 4x5

(setting) 20-19-17-16

Urgh. Some open vs. closed chain exercise going on here. I had to drop the weights in the later sets to keep shape to prevent my shoulders coming forward, but it's interesting again to see how weak I am in given areas...


Bench press 5x5

80-85-85-85 (3+f)-80

Supersetted with...

Floor press 4x5

Again, I'm not used to this sort of volume, so felt pretty fatigued by the end of it. Not the burning, straining sensation of uber hypertrophy reps, but that horrid, empty feeling where the muscles just don't respond! :eek:


Close grip lat pull-downs5x5

Setting 16 for these, whatever that means...

Supersetted with...

Single arm row 5x5

40kg dumbells a-go-go.

These felt fine, although I needed to concentrate on the shape for the lat pull-downs (not used to doing them). I do love single arm rows, however, and these were awesome. Not quite as brutal as barbell rows for the whole body, but nice to get some serious lat burn going. :D


Not sure what to think of this session. It was fun, and I can see how it will help with the Olympic lifting, but it's just something I'm not used to doing and have taken some big load drops, too. Still...

DAT BEACH PUMP!

:D
 
Never noticed lat DOMS before, until this morning's workout... still present from Friday's beach pump day.

Was dreading today, as was going to be snatching without blocks, which normally results in some lairy rebalancing with a heavy bar overhead. :eek:

DAY 1

Snatch balance 4x3

BAR-BAR-40-40

Just getting used to the movement on these. It sounds silly, but I really suck at them. Whilst I can overhead squat a fair bit more than 40kg, riding that weight down and hauling back up again whilst trying to keep my back straight was hard work!

Snatch pulls 3x3

80-90-100

These were fun, simply because I really get to crank the weight without really worrying about what happens past my shoulders, as the bar never goes past them. :D

Hang snatch 5x2

40-50-50-60 (2+f) -60

I wasn't confident without the blocks to ride these down comfortably - there is a video of the fourth set which was pretty nasty as I nearly wrenched my shoulder trying to catch the damn bar,.

Snatch 4x3

40-50-60-60 (2+f)

Yes - got some bleeding shins even with some lolsocks on this time! So positioning must be good. :D The failure on the fourth set was fatigue - no confidence to get the bar overhead. A bit disappointing, but hey.

Overhead squat 5-4-3-3

40-50-60 (2+f)-60 (2+f)

Shoulders and back had had it by this point - my legs were still good to go and ready to party, but I just couldn't get the bar stable enough to squat properly, leading to a drop on the 3rd set, and bailing on the fourth. Dropping in a power cage from overhead makes A LOT of noise. :D

Due to the snow, I arrived in late this morning, and so couldn't train early enough to get the blocks out. As such, it was a bit tentative today, meaning I don't really feel like I've given it my best,

It also has highlighted pretty serious problems with my technique (not stable enough overhead) which means for overhead work I will have to drop the weight until I'm good enough to get funky with it.

Also, without the ability to drop each rep, my back takes a massive strain which is the underpinning fatigue issue for a lot of this, but ultimately I need better technique. :D
 
Sure thing, but be advised some contain pretty horrific examples of what NOT to do when a heavy barbell is overhead. :eek: :D

Training really suffered because of the lack of dropping, but that just sucks, I guess. :)

Also, be prepared to use the orogress bar as there is a lot of waiting around.

Hang snatch at what looks like 50kg?


Hang snatch at 60kg...


Full snatch @ 60kg



Inb4 lolsox
Inb4 loltubesox
Inb4 wtfsox?


EDIT: My shoulders and lats are now killing me. Hard. With fire.
 
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Chris1712 said:
God damn I want to try some Oly lifting.
Click to expand...

Just unrack the barbell (unweighted) and hump it for all you're worth. ;)

As you can see from the vids, you don't need a special floor to get started,as no dropping is really involved.

Do be warned it is significantly less forgiving than powerlifting, as you just can't muscle them or engage beast mode. It either works or it doesn't. Which is both awesome and utterly, utterly demoralising at the same time. :)
 
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It's a snatch grip and specifically designed to make every part of my body miserable. :)

My problem is (one of many, anyway) I'm 5'11, meaning my snatch grip has to be almost as wide as the sleeves on the bar... Or maybe I just have long arms. :mad:

When you get back into dead lifting with good form, try going for a snatch grip for sheer unpleasantness. I assure you: snatch grip dead lifts are just horrid. :D
 
Part of my interest inOlympic lifting is showing up the areas in which I thought I was strong and mobile as not very strong or mobile. Overhead work, for example. :)

Plus it's just fricking awesome, anyway. :D
 
Right. Bad night's sleep due to my own idiocy, but it's a "no technique" day...

Warmed up with some snatch balances (bar only) and was playing around with overhead positioning to get more stable and vertical in the body->shoulder->arm position. I think it went better, but...

DAY 2

First pull deadlift 5x3

WU (70x5x2)-110-140-150-150-155

Ah - what did I say about technique? Bah. These are getting heavy now, and felt awesome. Shins were also bleeding, too, which shows the technique is better, too. :D My hamstrings were singing. :)

SLDL 4x3 Standing on a jerk block for these to get a nice deficit

110-140-150-150

Yowzer. Getting a deficit involved REALLY made things interesting. :eek: Glutes and hams were brutalised by this, in a nice burning way.

Glute ham raise 4x3

Better than last week, and managed to get a better rhythm going. Consistently managed 45o before bailing and was much more positive hauling myself back up. My hanstrings were ruined by this point...

Single leg squat 3x5 (weights are for each dumbell)

14-16-18

Oh, yes - these were a horrid way to end the session. Massive, massive quad pump by the end of the third set and I almost fell off the box. :D


Great workout, even if it was all assistance exercises. My legs are in ruins.
 
Cleaning day, today! :D

DAY 3

Power clean from hip 4x3

70-80-100 (1+2f) -100

Upon reflection, my head just wasn't in the right place to pull these - I got lazy with the first two and then struggled with the first 100 and then proceeded to fall over backwards on the second and bail on the third. Second 100 set was 'cleaner' but a lot more crouching than I'm used to. :(

Still, it was nice to have the blocks out for dropping. :D

Clean pulls 3x3

110-120-120

Punishment sets. However, for a couple, my form suffered, so had to think again about what I was actually doing.

Watch the second rep...


Hang clean 3x2

80-90-100

These were HARD and I was pretty slow under the bar. Back started rounding out at 90kg and I rocked forward onto my toes at the bottom of one squat (:eek:), but persevered and managed to get it sorted for 100kg, which is counterintuitive (and stupid) but it worked. :D

Yes - I forgot to turn the camera on, hence only 1 rep.


Clean 5x2

70kg for all.

Took it easy with these because of the form problems with the hang cleans, and wanted to get my squat catch ironed out. Bu the end of the exercise it wsa better, but still has consistency problems.

Front squat 5-4-3-3

70-80-100-105

Finally fell as though I'm getting my pattern right for these (after two months or whatever) and really using glutes instead of relying on quadzillas. Was happy to get 105kg up there, even if it's only for three.


Overall, a bit rubbish but I ground it out. I will concentrate on bashing out the heavy stuff at the front of the workout just make sure my technique is correct with the full/hang cleans as this is where I need a lot of work.

Hope this amuses somebody (forward to 0:30secs as I don't know if the Youtube trim worked...! :D

 
Yeah, there was another guy in the gym at the time, I think, who was busy zomg-ing.

And technically it was meant to be a powerclean from hip, as the "power" bit means no squatting to catch. But I had to 'squat' because the drive and shrug were gash. :D
 
Well, like a

DAY 4

Overhead squat 4x3

50-60-70-70(1f1)

Slowly increasing the weight and trying to get a better vertical positioning for my body. Good fun and the last set involved much grunting. :)

This one's for FreeFaller @ 70kg ;) :D


Push press from back 4x3

70-80-85-85

Backed off going for 90kg as 95kg felt very heavy, today.


Push jerk 5x2

60-70-80-90-85

Still don't have great stability at the top end, so bottled a second round of 90kg. The other part of the issue is that I wasn't locking out straight from the jerkat 90kg, so my strength wasn't where it should be and therefore it would be pointless risking injury.

Like an idiot, however, I didn't have the jerk blocks out and so was lowering the bar. And managed to tweak my right shoulder. What a ***. :mad:

Barbell military press 5-4-3-3

55-f-f-f

Single arm military press 3x5

22.5 (4 only)-f-f-f


Bailed on the rest of the workout because my shoulder was playing up. Very annoyed at myself for being such an idiot when this almost happened three weeks ago.

Still, happy that the push-jerks and overhead squats are working better and the weights are increasing! :D
 
So today was first day back after a weekend of ibuprofen double dosing to keep my shoulder in check. No benching last Friday because of the tweak on Thursday, but I did do some dumbell rowing... however, that isn't very interesting as the weights aren't much.

DAY 1

Snatch balance 4x3

BAR-40-40-40

Great warmup excerise and sets up an awareness of my overhead squat/snatch form for the rest of the workout.

Snatch pulls 3x3

100-110-120

Last set was really hard, and I was struggling to get my traps going because they were a bit over-taxed. Which is a good thing. :)


Hang snatch 5x2

50-60-60-70-50

Mucked up the sets because... I'm a dumbass, pretty much. Thought I'd finished and then realised I needed another set. 70kg was hard, but I managed to get it overhead for the double, which was nice. :D

Snatch 4x3

50-60-70 (1f1)-70 (2f)

Sort of "below knee hang snatch" because of where the blocks were located. Bottom line (with the failures): I'm not stable enough at the bottom of the overhead squat to pull off a quick dive under the bar for 70kg, so...

HD Platinum Box Set'd Edition @ 70kgs...


Overhead squat 5-4-3-3

50-60-70-70

First two sets were easy. Last 70kg was very shaky, but worked. 70kg seems to be my shoulders' limit at this point, so will work up slowly from here.


Overall, nice to see 70kg again, even if it's the limit from where I develop properly (one could argue 60kg is, but pfffft). Also very happy with development of technique to the point where overhead squatting feels a lot better and overhead catching for snatch also feels a lot more stable at the bottom of the squat.

And no shoulder pain. :D

Videos only of the last round of "BKHS," but they're on a video camera so will have to upload later. Better quality than my potato phone, however, but hey...


EDIT: Video now added. Enjoy.
 
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