BODYWEIGHT:
100.8 Kilos – holding steady at the moment
HIGHLIGHTS OF TRAINING PROGRAM:
This is the first week of competition prep for the winter cycle Yasha has me on currently. Once again, it is July but he had me start with the winter cycle to get me back in shape and to try to sync up the program with when I want to compete. Much more frequent practice with classic lifts for slight variations from the floor and building more capacity to perform both lifts heavier in same day. Multiple days of waves going up to 90% on the heavier day.
BEST TRAINING SESSION OF THE WEEK(S):
Week 11 Day 5:
Jumps 3(5)
Snatch 1(1)80% , 1(1)85%,1(1)90%, 1(1)80%,1(1)85%, 1(1)90%
Clean and Jerk 1(1)80% , 1(1)85%,1(1)90%, 1(1)80%,1(1)85%, 1(1)90%
Front Squat(% based off C&J max) 1(1)80%, 1(1)90%, 1(1)100%, 1(1)90%, 1(1)100%
Bodybuilding – 15 minutes
NOTE: Performed C&J waves on one day and Snatch waves on the next day due to time constraints
Oh yeah, I’m cruising now I thought. I’ll just do what I did yesterday. Same level of energy, same quality of movement. It’s all happening here people. Then I took 60 kilos. Yeaaahhhhh that didn’t feel right. Why am I off balance? Why am I receiving badly? And what the hell is this heavy, achy feeling in my legs? Ohhhh wait, that’s what it feels like after a couple of days of consecutive training. Actual training. It’s funny how fast you forget how bad you can feel at the end of a week of full training when you haven’t been consistent. The thing is, I really didn’t take that much time off but I seem to have amnesia as to how hard that last day of training would be, especially being that I split up the training day into two days when I shouldn’t have. Go ahead, lower and shake your head at me, I deserve it. Someone get the shame bell.
Had more life things get in the way this week and had to split up day five (written above) into two sessions. I actually did the clean and jerks on the first day and the snatch the following day. The clean and jerks felt pretty damn good for the first time since in many months. Still have technical things to work out but I was able to pull 90% of my max pretty high and without too much struggle and I’m finally feeling strong and solid under the weight when I set for the jerk – something I honestly had irrational doubts that I would begin to feel again.
Was feeling really good that first day about doing the heavier waves of clean and jerk with no misses and without too much struggle. And then, there was the next day. I had a busy day with my kids and with work but I set aside some time to train that evening.
It should have been another good day, Vasily (Vasily Polovnikov) was coaching that night at my gym and I could train along with some of my older more experienced members on the weightlifting team. I thought I’d feed off that energy, get some coaching from Vas, and repeat a good day. This was not the case.
I told my body to do something and the old girl did not listen. Yes, I call my body the old girl. Conditions seemed perfect to lift but the problem is I, like every lifter I yell at, was not thinking about the cumulative effects of everything and didn’t take the extra care I needed to keep myself going that week. I could have spent a little more time warming up. Maybe I didn’t have time before training, but I could have stretched the night before or done some hot cold therapy or moved around and stretched when I woke up that morning, or I don’t know, maybe even eaten enough food that morning. I’ve also been putting off going to a PT friend of mine to get my shit sorted out. So yeah, there’s that.
I guess the lesson here, if you’d even call it that, ist that you need to be honest with yourself as to what state you are and what you’re really capable of. That’s why it’s great to be a student and learn under someone as well like I’m doing with Yasha. It keeps you realistic about your ability and how talented or advanced you are. Your teacher or your coach can ground you and shed light on where you still lack and keep your ego in check.
Speaking of – the main things Yasha gave me to work on specifically for my clean and jerk were to keep my elbows more forward during the entire pull of the clean (internal rotation of the shoulders) and for the jerk to “get the bar higher (like nearly finishing a push press) before going under.”