Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Ass-Kicking for Mental Strength

Well it's been about two weeks since my last post. I've been busy with moving, and there's no internet yet at my new place so I've had some difficulty with finding the time/place to update my blog. Nevertheless, here I am.

The Drive Pop Punch weightlifting club at CrossFit SoCal has gotten a few new members over the past few weeks, so that's pretty cool. Anything to get more people into the sport. It seems that there's a pretty nice variety of people. We've got those like me who come from more of a strength-training past. Then there's complete freshies who just want to pursue an activity and stumbled upon weightlifting. We've also got the seasoned CrossFitters who are just looking to improve their technique. Fortunately, the club at CF SoCal is exactly the right venue to accomodate all these people.

Anyways, enough advertising. My training's been going alright despite not getting into the gym as often as I'd like. With the move, I feel like I've still been able to do work and maybe if anything work on my conditioning. Lugging furniture up the stairs was somewhat fun.

I power snatched 70kg last week. I've done it before, but this time around it felt almost effortless. Nailed it from below the knee. Made the lift from the floor too, but a little bit of pop forward.

In addition to some weightlifting, I might participate in some friendly "Share the Pain" WODs at SoCal. It's probably going to kick my ass, but a little bit of ass-kicking is always good for mental strength.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Lift With Your Legs

I had a sort-of-epiphany today regarding how to clean a weight. Specifically, I learned how to use my legs more.

It's hard to explain in words, but basically I used to get the bar higher up on my thigh to pop, but I would do it incorrectly by drooping into a forced power position rather than standing more erect with it. This led to reduced power AND the very common occurrence of the bar ending up a little forward because this compromised power position led me to shoot my hips OUT rather than UP.

I'm still fixing it, but I've found that if I remember to tell myself to "use my legs," I'll keep myself from going too straight-legged after passing the knee on the way up, and I'll actually have some leg leftover to produce power on the bar. I've also found that through this way, the bar actually pops lower on my leg (closer to the knee than to the hip). It's a farther distance to travel upwards than before, but I'm in a good position and I can actually get a good extension.

Also, with that "use my legs" cue, I hit 100kg for a clean double below the knee:


Definitely boosted my confidence.


I'm looking forward to the rest of the week as I really feel like I'm gonna make some progress super soon.

Monday, May 14, 2012

If You Can Power Clean It...

One time Coach told me that if you can power clean it, you should be able to snatch it. Seems to make sense. If you can power clean a weight, you can definitely get the bar high enough to snatch. But with that logic, I should at LEAST be snatching 90, and I have yet to break 75 kilos.

That's not to say I'm not close. I'm really close. I'm super close to breaking new ground.

On Saturday (a supposed "rest day"), I decided to try snatching a little bit. Warmups felt alright. Hit 65, 70, even 74 kilos. Then I loaded 79 on the bar and battled with it.


Damnit.


DAMN IT (This was the closest miss).


DAMNIT!


Whatever man. I'm close and I know it. I'll hit it soon. It might not be 79, but it'll be more than 75.

Today I did some snatch doubles at 65kg. No misses. All felt pretty fast and stable. Finished off with squats up to 140x2. This week is going to be fun. I KNOW it.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

My Warm-Up Routine

I recently watched an Insanity DVD workout (watched and somewhat performed), and I was surprised by Shaun T's idea of a "warmup".

I'm sorry. That's not a warmup. That's a workout. And that's not to give props to the difficulty of his program. That's more to give criticism to his lack of understanding of what a warmup should entail. Then again, I'm not the expert, and I don't have a beach-ready body like Shaun T, but I would think that it's rather intuitive to assume a warmup doesn't wear you out, and rather it should make you MORE prepared for what's coming up next.

If you didn't know, Insanity is CARDIO. If you started every Insanity workout with this "warmup" (which, by the way, is about 9 minutes long), you'd be LESS prepared for the next part of the workout, which is always much more intense than that. In my opinion, calling it a "warmup" is just an elitist marketing ploy to make you feel bad that you suck at getting through it in the beginning, but then by day 60 you'd tell yourself "psssh that was cake, let's get this workout started!" Guy, it's already the workout. It's not the warmup. Get at it with that mentality and you're better off.

Anyways this is all moot because we're talking about cardio, my kryptonite.

Everyone's got a different opinion on warming up and stretching, and I'm definitely not an expert or someone you should ask for professional advice. Nonetheless, this is my blog, and based on things I've borrowed from other athletes in the gyms I go to (CrossFit SoCal and UCSD RIMAC weight room), I've come up with a system that works for ME, and I'm guessing that it COULD work for someone else if they had no idea where to start.

I think the first thing you have to address is what you plan on doing that day. You need to be able to get in the correct positions comfortably, and that would mean warming up and mobilizing what needs to be warmed up and mobilized.

Also, you should have a basic routine that you do regardless of what your workout is. For each Olympic weightlifting workout, I start out with this warm-up:

  • PVC pipe work: 10 shoulder dislocations, 10 "around the worlds" in one direction, then 10 in the opposite direction, then some tricep stretching using the pipe to help get some extra stretch. If I'm still tight in the shoulders I'd repeat some movements, especially the "around the worlds."
  • Leg work: I stand up with feet at narrower-than-shoulder width, then bend over at the waist (I don't really care about keeping a tight back at this point), then I'll bend my knees and get into a squat position. I'll continue to move around and open up the hips using my elbows, and I start with the narrower foot-width to inch my way into a more comfortable actual squat position. At this time I'd also apply some weight on each thigh (one at a time) with my arms to get some stretch on my ankles. If I want to be more intense I'll use a barbell. Once I have a comfortable, full-depth bottom position, I do a few air squats using my arms as counter balance.
  • Empty bar work: Simple complex... start with the bar in your hands at clean width, then bend at the hip to get a nice hamstring stretch (again without caring about back tightness). Stand up again, and bring the bar down as if doing an RDL (tight back now) until the hamstrings feel stretched, then pump quickly but controlled 5-6 times. Stand up, then go back down and do it again. Muscle clean the bar to rack position, wiggle around to get a good wrist placement, and when that feels set, do 5-10 strict presses. On the last press bring it down to behind the neck. Bend at the hip as if doing a good morning, then squat down. Move around at the bottom position to build more ankle flexibility. Come up from the squat then do 5-10 more squats. Press it overhead and bring it down to rack position. Build up more rack position flexibility... and put the bar down.

After all of this, if something still feels tight, I'd work on it then. Sometimes my calves aren't ready yet so I'd do some sort of calf stretching until it does feel fine. Sometimes the squat position still doesn't feel that opened up, and I'd have to resort to some band distraction work to improve it.

Finally, warming up to the specific workout. If I'm doing either full cleans or full snatches, I'd include tall cleans or tall snatches with an empty bar in my warmups. If I'm doing the power version, I'd include the muscle variations. Additionally, with any clean & jerk work, since wrists have always been an issue for me, I spend extra time mobilizing my wrists.

Super-finally, I've realized that while writing all of this, a video would have made it a lot easier to communicate my thoughts, so I'll film something soon so that this all makes sense.

Apple Sots

Warmed up with a few at 20kg. Did a set at 30 too. Filmed my Sots presses at 40, 45, 50, and 55kg. 55 was a near-make. 60kg by Friday damnit.


Hurt my ass on that fall haha.


Besides that, I did some light power snatches and pulls from below the knee. Also played an hour of squash with my friend Ron. Dude never played but he picked up the game pretty well. 11-1 W, 11-2 W, 11-6 W, 11-5 W (those W's are my wins).

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Dude, shut up. That is Awesome-Sots!


Andy Dwyer on emotional reciprocation.


This week we're upping the volume on squats a little bit. We're not squatting everyday, but we are squatting twice this week, and both times are sets of 5. Yesterday was front squat sets of 5 at 70, 81, 88, 95, 101, and 2 sets at 108. Granted that's not all that heavy, but it is a decent amount of work to get in all those sets.

For some reason I was still fresh after this (which came after a bunch of power clean & jerks), so I asked Coach what else I could do. I did some snatch-grip strict presses, good mornings, and then finished off with trying out Sots presses for the first time.


Trying not to laugh while doing these.


I actually hit 40kg for a triple too. Today I'll try and see how heavy I can go. I think the trick is getting that right bar path. A standing press is a little forgivable because you can rely on your foot stability to save inefficient bar path, but when you're at the bottom of a front squat, any slight tip forward will result in a miss.

On a side-note, I YouTube searched for Sots presses last night and almost ALL of the videos were kettlebell Sots presses. The ones that were of the barbell variety were done from behind the neck, which, by my understanding, is not a Sots press at all. Anyone explain?

Monday, May 7, 2012

Double Header

For reasons I can't quite explain, I decided to have a double-header on Saturday. Squats up to 132kg x 3 x 3; muscle snatches up to 60x3; and shrugs off blocks 115kg x 5 x 4 in the morning, then a 15-rep 135# power clean & push jerk set; push presses up to 70 x 5 x 2; Pendlay rows 5 sets of 3; and dumbbell rows a bunch of sets for a bunch of reps after lunch. Lunch was all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ.

Why the double-workout Saturday? I think it was maybe because I haven't really made any breakthroughs in my training lately. I know that I'm stronger, and I know that my technique today is better than it was last year. I'm truly happy for those things, but I was also hoping I'd be lifting heavier weight by now. So if I can't lift heavier weight at the moment, I'll just lift the same weight MORE OFTEN. How's that for programming?

I've also been busy with real life these days. Real life is the most important thing obviously, but how simpler things would be if weightlifting WAS part of my real life. Been busy getting a lot of stuff done at work, still preparing for my future, still just kind of in a weird limbo between having a groove and changing things up. I know that I won't be weightlifting forever, but when it's time to throw the towel, I'm gonna hope I'd be lifting more than a 200kg total, geez.

CrossFit regionals are coming up and the athletes at my box are pretty stoked about it. Good luck guys! Maybe I'll come out and cheer you all on, even though the CrossFit thing is still a bit of a foreign language to me. Go SoCal!