Let me start out by saying I did something I have never done today. I missed a clean backwards. In other words, I caught it at the bottom but lost my balance and fell onto my back with the bar crashing down on me. Not once, but twice. Fortunately I'm not fat or have a ridiculously large chest so it didn't come into contact with me when I fell but it was still damn embarrassing even though I was alone in the gym. These were at weights I can do for doubles (275-285). This was beyond frustrating and I almost called it a day. Almost. Maybe all the coconut water and creatine was screwing with my brain because I said "Nope, I'm getting 300 before I leave and I have to make 275 first."
After my two back to back bumbles I was shaken but then something happened. 275 went over head and even though it felt heavy I realized the thing inside my head that needed to click had clicked. I didn't miss a single lift after that. 275, 285, 291, 295, 297, and 300. Yes, I Clean and jerked 300lbs. today. It wasn't pretty but for a training lift it was good. I felt like I had three more lifts in me but I cut it off. I set out to get 300 and I did. That was a victory that I did not want to spoil with a failed lift. Because I had the patience to keep going when I needed to and the intelligence to call a win a win, I will wake up tomorrow feeling stronger and ready to rip the bar like I'm "ripping the damn a head off of a Lion"(Shankle). I finished with front squats for 3 sets of 3 at 275 to remind my legs they don't get a free day just because I PR'd. I do however plan on rewarding myself with food later like a dog.
I think people have trouble understanding the colors of patience and stubbornness. The difference is a fickle bitch and never quite clear until after the fact. Today I rode it all the way to a PR. Maybe next time I will again, or maybe not. Either way...
Back Under The Bar 2013
failure, patience, and 300lb. PR
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Primary lifts or "Why my legs suck"
In the sport of weightlifting there are only two movements. The Snatch and the Clean&Jerk. Everything else trained is considered secondary. Of course inside those movements are many other movements. Things like the deadlift, front squat, overhead squat, Pulls, etc. are all integral parts of the lifts. The odd thing is some people practice those lifts often, some rarely, some not at all. Many national and olympic level lifters say the best program for the Snatch and Clean/Jerk is to do the Snatch and Clean/Jerk.
There is however one thing that all olympic lifters have in common. One movement that anyone who has ever been successful at the lifts does religiously. The back squat. If you neglect this you are planning for failure. It is weird that a movement that doesn't even appear in the olympic lifts is so vital to becoming proficient at them.There are several reasons for this. The first being that there is no other movement better at creating over all body strength. Second being that the back squat is king of the lower body movements and the lower body is integral in all parts of the olympic lifts.
So you must squat. Heavy and often. That brings us to the variations of the two. High bar vs Low bar is probably a debate that has lead to many bloodied noses, Ripped affliction shirts , and shattered Bromances. It's pretty much the republican/democratic split of the strength and conditioning community. Arguments vary but the most relevant for this blog is as follows:
High Bar
Pros: Superior relevance to the front squat because of the angle achieved at the bottom of the movement, Superior at building quad strength.
Cons: Hamstrings do not fire until midway of the ascent. Weaker of the two movements for maximum loading
Low Bar
Pros: Superior at building Hamstring strength, superior at building lower back strength.
Cons: Neglects quads, Inferior at putting the lifter in an upright receiving position needed for the Front and Overhead Squat.
Both have valid points in their favor. The thing is, I have seen strict highbar squatters with 500+lbs deadlifts and militant lowbar guys that can clean 350+lbs. These numbers don't seem to jive with the Pros/Cons of each movement. The question of course isn't how weak they are because they only do one, but how strong could they be if they did both?
I believe both need to be done in different ratios for different athletes. For instance, a Quad dominant athlete starting the lifts should primarily use the low bar squat with the highbar being a secondary movement to make sure we are able to achieve comparable loads with an upright position. On the other hand a lifter that has strong hamstrings but has trouble catching a clean at the bottom and bouncing out of the hole needs a highbar dominant training ratio.
The important thing is that you stop spending time on arguing which one is better and just squat, Damnit! Do it heavy, do it often and keep adding weight to the bar. I did not do this and it turned into embarrassing numbers and failure after failure. Take a note from me. Not because I'm a Guru or a squat Jedi, but because I've made alot of mistakes and once I changed them, I improved! Don't be like me.
This is me Highbar Squatting 315 for 5 today. This is not impressive but considering less than 18 months ago my 1 rep max was 225lbs. it is proof what I am doing is working.
Highbar Backsquat 315x5
There is however one thing that all olympic lifters have in common. One movement that anyone who has ever been successful at the lifts does religiously. The back squat. If you neglect this you are planning for failure. It is weird that a movement that doesn't even appear in the olympic lifts is so vital to becoming proficient at them.There are several reasons for this. The first being that there is no other movement better at creating over all body strength. Second being that the back squat is king of the lower body movements and the lower body is integral in all parts of the olympic lifts.
So you must squat. Heavy and often. That brings us to the variations of the two. High bar vs Low bar is probably a debate that has lead to many bloodied noses, Ripped affliction shirts , and shattered Bromances. It's pretty much the republican/democratic split of the strength and conditioning community. Arguments vary but the most relevant for this blog is as follows:
High Bar
Pros: Superior relevance to the front squat because of the angle achieved at the bottom of the movement, Superior at building quad strength.
Cons: Hamstrings do not fire until midway of the ascent. Weaker of the two movements for maximum loading
Low Bar
Pros: Superior at building Hamstring strength, superior at building lower back strength.
Cons: Neglects quads, Inferior at putting the lifter in an upright receiving position needed for the Front and Overhead Squat.
Both have valid points in their favor. The thing is, I have seen strict highbar squatters with 500+lbs deadlifts and militant lowbar guys that can clean 350+lbs. These numbers don't seem to jive with the Pros/Cons of each movement. The question of course isn't how weak they are because they only do one, but how strong could they be if they did both?
I believe both need to be done in different ratios for different athletes. For instance, a Quad dominant athlete starting the lifts should primarily use the low bar squat with the highbar being a secondary movement to make sure we are able to achieve comparable loads with an upright position. On the other hand a lifter that has strong hamstrings but has trouble catching a clean at the bottom and bouncing out of the hole needs a highbar dominant training ratio.
The important thing is that you stop spending time on arguing which one is better and just squat, Damnit! Do it heavy, do it often and keep adding weight to the bar. I did not do this and it turned into embarrassing numbers and failure after failure. Take a note from me. Not because I'm a Guru or a squat Jedi, but because I've made alot of mistakes and once I changed them, I improved! Don't be like me.
This is me Highbar Squatting 315 for 5 today. This is not impressive but considering less than 18 months ago my 1 rep max was 225lbs. it is proof what I am doing is working.
Highbar Backsquat 315x5
Sunday, September 23, 2012
The day after
Sometimes it's difficult to look forward to training the day after a big upset but today it was not. I felt empowered for some reason and not beaten up. I came in and rather I believed it on the inside or not, I told myself I was going to rip the bar apart. I told myself I was going to forget anything negative and just get the weight over my head. This turned into a 7lbs PR on snatch. I am officially at 110k(242lbs) and it feels good. I didn't put much into the clean and jerk after that but I did hit 275 in a power and jerked it for three. All and all a great day of lifting. Whats better is I feel less beat up than I have in a while after a 2+hour session.
I didn't feel fast or explosive today but I felt comfortable with the weight overhead. More so than normal. No worries of lock out or leaving the bar out front or behind. I was clear headed and focused and the bar landed in the right place every time. Today it became very apparent that the hardest thing to do is all you really have to do. Try.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
I owe everything
Every great story has a small beginning. A spark that starts the fire, a thought that leads to an idea that turns into a wanting that forms into a plan that makes one embark on a journey. This one starts, as many do, with failure. There have been many things in my life, more than I care to mention that I have started, failed at and never finished. Things that meant alot to me even if it was only at that time. I have held these failures up as badges of inadequacy and shame for most my life.
Of course success has been inbetween those failures but we never seem to holds those quite as close do we? Why is that? Is it because of the lessons we learn from it or some kind of primal instinct to remind us we are mortal? Maybe both, maybe neither. The answer is not the purpose here. The purpose is to chronicle the journey of someone who decided that he wasn't going to stop working towards his goal because of failure this time. No matter how trivial that goal may have been.
I have been falling in love with the sport of weight lifting (Snatch/Clean&Jerk) for the last year or so. I had been using the lifts in training for about 5 years now but never had paid them any serious attention until recently. I under stand that at my age and ability I will probably never qualify at the olympic or national level. I do not care. I have found, in these lifts a certain clarity and grace that I have not found in anything else in life. This brings me to my goals.
I have had the dream of achieving a total of 275K (125k/275lbs. snatch and 150k/330lbs Clean&Jerk) for about as long as I have been interested in the sport. This was when my TOTAL numbers were more along the lines of 161k. My numbers are now at 241k (107k/236lbs snatch and 134k/295lbs Clean&jerk) and I have hit a stand still. These are respectable numbers for most in the line of training I do for a living, far from where I started but no where near that goal. So I ask myself how do I continue forward? How do I adjust my training and make that dream real? Should I even care? Is there any money in it? No. Is there any glory? Maybe a little but certainly not much. Is there any significant reason at all to keep beating myself half to death for this goal even if it seems I'm swimming against current and making no progress?
The answer is yes and not for any reasons to do with weightlifting, health, fitness, work, money etc.. The answer is yes because the clarity I found at the start of this courtship, I have found again in the follow through and process of it. The answer is yes because every day I don't try is a day closer to that complacency. Complacency is not living. I have settled for so many damn things in my life that it makes me physically ill. It wasn't until I met this sport that I began to not accept where I was or what I was doing as OK and try to push forward. As silly as it is, this sport has put me in a position in life that I can honestly say I am happy with and proud of. This sport, cliche as it may be, has in many ways saved my life. So how can I stop pursuing the goal that has been the vehicle to my happiness and success? It's simple. I can not.
Make no mistakes about it. This blog is not a how to on weight lifting, health, or fitness. It is not something I am doing for anyone else or to gain notoriety by. I have no plans of choosing my words carefully or making this an inspiring story with a happy ending. What I do plan on doing is using this blog as a tool to force myself out of bed and under the bar everyday because I owe it to the sport. I owe my drive to it and I am going to make good on that debt.
So I start this story with failure because that is the spark we all need.
Today I stalled on front squat for the first time in 2 months. I have been climbing up from 275 for three by five pounds a week and today that stopped.
Of course success has been inbetween those failures but we never seem to holds those quite as close do we? Why is that? Is it because of the lessons we learn from it or some kind of primal instinct to remind us we are mortal? Maybe both, maybe neither. The answer is not the purpose here. The purpose is to chronicle the journey of someone who decided that he wasn't going to stop working towards his goal because of failure this time. No matter how trivial that goal may have been.
I have been falling in love with the sport of weight lifting (Snatch/Clean&Jerk) for the last year or so. I had been using the lifts in training for about 5 years now but never had paid them any serious attention until recently. I under stand that at my age and ability I will probably never qualify at the olympic or national level. I do not care. I have found, in these lifts a certain clarity and grace that I have not found in anything else in life. This brings me to my goals.
I have had the dream of achieving a total of 275K (125k/275lbs. snatch and 150k/330lbs Clean&Jerk) for about as long as I have been interested in the sport. This was when my TOTAL numbers were more along the lines of 161k. My numbers are now at 241k (107k/236lbs snatch and 134k/295lbs Clean&jerk) and I have hit a stand still. These are respectable numbers for most in the line of training I do for a living, far from where I started but no where near that goal. So I ask myself how do I continue forward? How do I adjust my training and make that dream real? Should I even care? Is there any money in it? No. Is there any glory? Maybe a little but certainly not much. Is there any significant reason at all to keep beating myself half to death for this goal even if it seems I'm swimming against current and making no progress?
The answer is yes and not for any reasons to do with weightlifting, health, fitness, work, money etc.. The answer is yes because the clarity I found at the start of this courtship, I have found again in the follow through and process of it. The answer is yes because every day I don't try is a day closer to that complacency. Complacency is not living. I have settled for so many damn things in my life that it makes me physically ill. It wasn't until I met this sport that I began to not accept where I was or what I was doing as OK and try to push forward. As silly as it is, this sport has put me in a position in life that I can honestly say I am happy with and proud of. This sport, cliche as it may be, has in many ways saved my life. So how can I stop pursuing the goal that has been the vehicle to my happiness and success? It's simple. I can not.
Make no mistakes about it. This blog is not a how to on weight lifting, health, or fitness. It is not something I am doing for anyone else or to gain notoriety by. I have no plans of choosing my words carefully or making this an inspiring story with a happy ending. What I do plan on doing is using this blog as a tool to force myself out of bed and under the bar everyday because I owe it to the sport. I owe my drive to it and I am going to make good on that debt.
So I start this story with failure because that is the spark we all need.
Today I stalled on front squat for the first time in 2 months. I have been climbing up from 275 for three by five pounds a week and today that stopped.
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