The Power of Declaration

Around 10 months ago I made a declaration. I decided to not take the easy way out after a failure. I chose not to focus my energy on something new. Instead, I said "I am going to chase down this dragon whatever it takes". I started this blog to help me along my struggle. Yesterday, something happened that has never happened to me. I accomplished part of that goal. I Clean and Jerked 330lb. This was my 1RM Back squat when this blog was started. I know I still have 9lb. to go on snatch but this partial goal achievement is probably the most gratifying accomplishment of my athletic life. I know it doesn't win me a medal, I know it won't put me on an olympic team, I know it probably doesn't even make me the strongest in my district. None of this matters. I set out to do something, something hard, something I thought I may not achieve, and I defied my own judgement. This feels like victory.

The power of saying you are going to do something is the first step. It plants the seed of possibility, it makes everyone know that you are there and that you are serious. Remember that and don't be afraid to speak up! Yell your goals at the top of your lungs for everyone to hear. Tell the world what you are capable of. Then go prove it.

Critical Mass or How Justin got his clean back

"The Significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them" -Albert Einstein

 Things are really starting to snowball in a good way with training since the last post. Injuries seem to be healing, form seems to be improving, strength and speed is increasing, and bigger weight is going up. Things that I couldn't grasp about my body's movement and focus I couldn't tap into before seem to be simplified and easily accessible now. This is an amazingly empowering feeling and for the first time in a long time and more so than ever, I truly feel that this daunting task I undertook almost a year ago is within reach. This can be attributed to multiple things: Less training volume and program design changes due to injury, focus on improving technique and mental game, and over all better motivation through support from friends and family. The thing is none of these are the single reason. They have all culminated and grown over the last couple months until they reached critical mass (Yes, that is a Malcolm Gladwell reference). However all the factors seem to come down to one thing: adaptability.

 By now most half ass educated adults are familiar with the phrase "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" The thing is in the sport of weightlifting it is easy to disagree with this because on the surface it seems like what we do is just that "The same thing over and over again" 

 This is because the changes you have to make are often not external, but between your ears and in your chest. Learning humility and understanding oneself is strangely such a big part of this sport. Man, why though? Why is it that I have attempted to participate in everything from Golf to MMA and nothing feels more intrinsic than these two stupid movements to get a barbell over your head? 

 Here's the thing. I have no clue. Also, I have stopped trying to figure it out. Sometimes you just have to act like a drunk white person at a wedding and let the rhythm take you until you wake up the next morning only to check Facebook and find tagged pictures of you and your uncle sweatily doing the soulja boy in perfect unison. (That is obviously just an example and has never actually happened to me). 

 The point is that no matter how repetitive it seems, there will always be things that can be changed no matter how small and it's the small things, over time that often trigger the bigger more abrupt change. Take this to heart, be humble, take a step back, listen, reassess, and grow. It sounds so simple but it is, in reality, one of the hardest lessons I have ever learned.

I recently Snatch 266lb. (9lb. off my goal) and Cleaned 330lb. (My actual clean and jerk goal)for a double off low blocks.

266lb. Snatch

330lb. Clean Double from low blocks

I got 99 pebbles but a.....ya you get the picture.

There are three usual suspects to hindering our progress. They are as follows:

Mental 

Technical

Physical 

You really do have to work all of these equally if you want to realize your full potential in this sport (and most others for that matter). Imagine your full potential as 99 pebbles in your hand. Each of these three things have an equal amount and you start with none and begin to pick them up one by one. The first ten or twenty are easy to grab and you can grab more of one type than the other but as your hand begins to get full they become more and more difficult to pick up. Keep in mind that only a few people in the world will ever be able to actually pick up and hold all 99. Now what happens when you have spent all your time focusing on one type of pebble and you are severely lacking in the others? As they say, you are only as strong as your weakest link. Now that we know the importance of balance, lets talk about the pebbles individually.

 The mental will be spoken about in more detail in the following post (critical mass) and is probably the most difficult to change because it can't really be quantified and is almost impossible teach. To work on it you need to learn to trust yourself and make sure your inner dialogue is always a positive one and more often than not, a little cocky. You will never see a timid champion. True they often come with reserved personalities outside the arena but give me one champion that doesn't show the killer instinct on the platform and I'll show you a great actor.

"Technique moves the bar" This is a quote I got from C.J. Stockel who does the USAW Level 1 classes in Flowery Branch, GA. Probably the simplest and best line I have ever heard in regards to technique and its importance. I don't care how strong you are, you are not going to be able to lift 300lb. over your head without some sort of technical ability. The more you know about your body and how it moves the better equipped you will be to move the bar which can actually spill over into your mental toughness as well. If you know what you are doing wrong and ignore it, you are destined for failure. If you don't know what you are doing wrong find someone who does. End of story.

 Your first assumption is probably that the Physical portion is referring strength, but you'd only be partially correct. Yes strength is important, you have to have both the actual muscle fibers to contract and a healthy Central Nervous System with the ability to recruit them, but you also need the ability to get into the positions needed to be most effective according to your body type which spills into technique(starting to see an interlinking trend between pebbles here?). I am talking about mobility. Funny, this is one of the easiest things to fix most of the time, however it is probably the most over looked. If you started your athletic career ignoring it, it will most likely be brought to your attention one of two ways. Either during your search to improve after everything else fails, or by your orthopedic doctor when he tells you your broken and need surgery. Yes it is that important. Listen to old athletes when they tell you to work on mobility, it's most likely because they didn't when they were in your shoes and regret it now.

That's it. Go gather.

3rd times a charm

 So it's day three back and I had plans to power jerk today since my front knee in the split is the one I hit buuuuuut after I started I got to feeling saucy so I went ahead and did splits. First off- just training again, especially three days this week was a PR in itself. Also, my this has to be an all time Post PR. Three posts this week!
 I knew I was going to Jerk and Front squat today and most likely end with some core work which has been lacking without the heavy loads. I worked up heavy on the block with one rep from the back and then one from the front both split. This is manly because I have issues pushing my head through aggressively when it gets heavy and having the bar already behind your head is a great way to train head through. I hit 325# in that with was only 6# shy of my all time PR from the front and I felt great. The front jerk was ugly but it was more because of my footwork and not power. Because of this I decided to go for a PR jerk. Why not right? I hit 335# which is a 4# PR. This is a huge win for me since even in my last cycle I didn't work much on jerks from the blocks(focused mainly on the full Clean and Jerk).
After that I did take it easy on front squat. I worked up to 300 for a double and then dropped to 185 for a set of twenty just to get some blood pumping down there. Felt great.
 I am far from rehabilitated and my knee does still have pain but it is not getting worse and hasn't bothered me during these workouts enough to mess with my head. I am still taking it slow. Three days of lifting followed by some remedial strength/conditioning accessory work during the weekend. Next week I will start with a quick session in both snatch and clean and jerk(I haven't done these in the same workout in quite some time now).

Here are two videos from today.

BACK JERK + JERK 325#

JERK PR 335#

(I held it up for extra long and dropped it on the floor for dramatic effect. Screw that weight)

Mind right, Knees wrapped, Grip hooked

 Today was day two back and I was honestly pretty worried about it. Snatch will always be a relatively lighter weight exercise and therefore doesn't really put a lot of stress on the joint coming out of the bottom(That's what she said?). Because of this I had a feeling I would be ok going heavy on that. However, Cleans and back squats obviously require alot more loading to reach maximum effort. I went in saying, "I wasn't going past 70% no matter what". Of course deep down I knew better than that. I ended up hitting 295 for a double in clean (20# below my single PR) and squatting 330 for a couple sets of 3(best single is currently 390). I felt slight discomfort at 295 and 330 but definitely nothing that scared me. Also, 330 for 3 felt fairly light considering I haven't squatted over 250 period in almost a month. I'm taking another day off tomorrow and am coming back to jerk and front squat friday.
 We will see how the knee is in the morning but right now it actually feels pretty strong and stable. Things are finally starting to look hopeful. Can't wait til Friday.


295# Clean double post injury

330# Squat for three post injury

S.N.A.F.U. or Don't call it a comeback

 So quick update. I was debating on if I should even post this or not and figured, hey these things happen in weightlifting. By now I am fairly use to things going wrong, pain, and disappointment. Such a wonderfully dark sport this is.
 Anyways, I was going for a 1 rep on power snatch three weeks ago, I hit 245(PR for Power) and when it dropped it grazed my knee. Ok grazed is probably a soft word. It was more like a 110kilo baseball bat swung by Sammy Sosa hitting the top of my patella. I actually didn't feel like it was that bad at the time and even went on to PR on power clean and jerk. The next day was a different story. I was not able to squat and have had tremendous pain since. I stopped lifting all together for two weeks. I did a couple crossfit metcons just to be doing something and though, the pain is still there, I'm slowly gaining confidence that it is something that will pass without surgery. Yesterday was my first day lifting heavy since. I did full snatch and worked up to 245#. This is 10 lb. below my PR but the important thing is I had no knee pain. I'm still a little worried about cleans and Back squats. Not sure how long it will be before I can go heavy again without pain. Hopefully soon. We will see how they go tomorrow.
 Either way, the simple act of being able to lift heavy was a huge win for me yesterday. I've been in a pretty bummed state since the injury.

Below is the video of my 245# snatch yesterday. The funny thing is, I realized yesterday that this is the heaviest snatch I have on video. Weird.

Sickness and under recovering

Again, over a month has passed since my last entry. Work has gotten busy which is awesome and exciting. However as with almost everything, it has it's downsides namely, lack of free time.
 I didn't want to slack off on my training so I was cutting back on personal time and other things that weren't absolutely a must. This blog was one of them. I really need to stop using that as an excuse though.
 My training was at an all time high as far as volume the last couple months. Averaging 8 training sessions a week. I was honestly getting used to the soreness and kind of liked it. I was sleeping fairly well and eating everything. I mean I had to pretty much eat constantly just to keep up weight with my training. Something happened a a couple weeks ago though. I either ate something bad, or God stepped in and said "you need to back the crap off". I can only describe it as food poisoning. This is weird because I have never had this before in my life until I moved to GA. It has happened three times now since I came here. I'm not sure if it's me or the area but it is frustrating. I could barely get out of bed to teach class let alone train. So I didn't.....for an entire week. I also couldn't eat anything but simple sugar and starchy foods. No protein. For seven days I was on a fruit and bread diet for calories. I lost about 15 lb.
 I know alot of people would call this overtraining 101, however let me say, I was consistently PRing and moving forward and though I was sore, I felt great. Right up until the sickness, there were no warning signs. I had great session one day and then BAM an hour later, in the bathroom. My recovery and outside stress was great. The only thing that was lackluster was my diet. This is why I believe it was food and not over training, or under recovering as most weightlifters/coaches call it.
 Even still I have changed plan of attack again. I am training half as often as I did before and only plan on upping it when I am good and ready(when progress stalls). For now I seem to be coming back strong and have even hit two PR's since my return. Though I haven't hit PR's on my main two lifts yet, I think I will see better numbers soon. I've only been back a week and I have heard from some great trainers that you can expect to take the same time to twice as long as your break to get back to your previous performance. I've also backed off the caffeine again. This is hard but I ultimately feel fresher and more clear headed. Just a bit hard to get aggressive on the bar. But hey, maybe thats a good thing? I know if I can hit my lifts without coffee, I sure as hell can hit them with it.

140kg Clean off blocks for a double PR