Monday, June 16, 2008
Sandbag Clean to 10 Zercher Squats x 4
Back Squat: 135 x 3/225 x 3/225 x 3/225 x 3/245 x 3/245 x 3/ Snatch Deadlift, 130 x 2 x 3 Push Press, 135 x 5 x 5 Pull-ups, (w/mini band assistance) 8/7/8 Sandbag Turkish Get-ups, 70#: 5 each side
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Deadlift Singles to 90% 1RM
Snatch Grip: 155×3/199×3
Std.: 289/339/379/429/450f/379/379.
Pull-ups, (band assisted): 8/7/7.
Good Mornings, x 5: 65/85/95/115/115.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Rest Day
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
Warm-ups, including 3 rounds of Burgeners
Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch + Overhead Squat x 3: 65/75/88
Cleans + Hang Squat Clean + Front Squat x 3: 88/115/125
KB Snatch, 24 kg: 20/20/20/20
Stopped when my form went away. Very hot and humid.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Warm-ups with mini-bands, OHS 45×10 x 2; BB Presses 45×10 x 2; Snatch Balance 45×5 x 2; Power Snatch 45×5 x 2.
Two Position Snatch, 60% x 4. 60% = 70#
Snatch Balance, 88×2 x 3/100 (85%) x2 x 3.
Band Assisted Pull-ups: 7/8/9/8/.
10# Ball Slams: 50
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
2 Station 2 Man Metcon
Station 1: 70# sandbag. 1 clean to 10 zercher squats, press overhead and walk 50 meters and drop. Clean to shoulder, walk back 50 meters and bear hug squat 10 x
Station: 2: 88# BB Power Cleans until the other guy finishes the sandbag set.
Repeat Station 1:
Station 2: 3 BB deadlifts + 3 overhead presses. Repeat until the sandbag guy finishes.
Repeat Station 1:
Station 2: 24 kilo kettlebell swings until the sandbag guy finishes.
After a minute rest, I repeated the Station 1 sandbag set and the Station 2 Power Cleans
Kettlebell swings 24 kg: 20/20/25/.
Ring Dip Ladder: 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2. Ast my strength waned on some of te higher repped dips, I did jumpers to lockout. Ring Push-up Ladder: 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2.
Warmed up with 3 rounds of Burgeners Snatch: 65×3/75×3/88×1 Clean & Jerk: 95/115/125 Front Squat: 135×2/185×2
Snatch, 85% 1RM x 1 x4: 98/98/98/98/ Clean and Jerk. 85% x 1 x 4: 139/139/139/139/ Front Squat, 85% x 2 x 3: 205/205/205/
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Tuesday, 6/10/08
Burgeners x 3
Muscle Snatch: 65×3/75×3/85×3/85×3/88×2 x3
Power Snatch + Overhead Squat: 95×1 x5
Cleans: 95/115/140
Power Clean & Jerk, 80%, 139×1 x4 3 Rounds for time: •400 meter run •20 kettlebell swings, 24 kg. •20 sit-ups •20 back extensions
Now for some metcon…
3 rounds for time…
run 400 meters
20 kettlebell swings
20 sit-ups
20 back extensions
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Wednesday, 6/11/08
Rest Day
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Thursday, 6/12/08
Warm-ups, Burgeners x 3.
Snatch, 65×3/75×3/.
Snatch, 80% (85#) x 1 x 5 Clean & Jerk, 80% (130) x 1 x 5
3 rounds,
•20 x 24 kg Kettlebell Snatch
•400 meter run
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Friday, 6/13/08
70# Sandbag Workout
Stair Climbs
•Zercher Carries: 3 x 3 •Over the Shoulder, L: 3 x 3 •Over the Shoulder, R: 3 x 3 •On the Back: 3 x 3
Back Squats: 3 x 10
Side Throws: 16
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Saturday, 6/14/08
Rest Day
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Sunday, 6/15/08
Trained over at Steve Belanger’s Old School Barbell Club and did some kettlebell deadlifts and swings. Steve is an accomplished kettlebell RKC and today he trained Valerie and provided more useful tips and ideas for me. His new website is Kettlebells and Beyond and his forte is functional barbell, kettlebell and clubbell training as well as all that cool old school stuff.
To warm up, 3 rounds of Burgeners and 3 x 3 empty bar snatches
Snatch + Overhead Squat, x 4 65/75/85/100
Clean + Front Squat + Push Press, x 3 95/115/135
Kettlebell Snatch, 20 kg, 40/40/40/20/20.
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Tuesday, 6/2/08
Warmed up with dislocates and overhead squats, 3 x 15
Hang Squat Cleans: 45×3/65×2/65×3/
Hang Squat Cleans, 7 x 3: (first from the ground, 2 and 3 from the hang)
95/115/125/135/145/155/175 single/.
Ab Mat sit-ups: 3 x 40 Back Extensions, 3 x 25
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Wednesday, June 4
Rest Day
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Thursday, June 5
Warmed up to dislocates, OHS and light bar snatches, 45×3/65×3/
Hang Snatch Singles (11): 70/75/88/93/103/110 power snatch/110 ps/110f/113/115/115.
Overhead Squats: 88×3/115×3/139×3/ all from the ground up.
Sit-ups: 35/35
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Friday, June 6
Kettlebell Swings, 32 kg.
2×15 2H
2×20 1H
2×15 2H
2×20 1H
140 reps
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Saturday, 6/7/08
Aerobic skate on Santa Ana River Trail from my house to the hockey rink, round trip in an hour. An out and back course with a brisk wind in my face on the way back.
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Sunday, 6/8/08
Six Way Barbell Complex
6 x Deadlift
6 x Row
6 x Hang Clean
6 x Front Squat
6 x Back Squat
6 x Push Press
6 x Push-ups
4 sets, 75, 85, 95, 105#
Done in just under 11 minutes.
3 x 20 kettlebell snatches
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Thanks for the great times Hill! See you in ‘12! Buh bye now!
After warm-ups, the first thing Danny taught me was the correct way to dump the bar. I even did that incorrectly, but now I know. I did a lot of muscle snatches, overhead squats and RDLs and all the training was done from the hang position. He had me do a lot of power snatches and full snatches. Danny found that I get the full snatches better than the power snatch and the same held with the cleans we did later. I did not count reps or weights, but while the weights were not that heavy, there were a shit load of reps. Sets were usually 3×3 or 5×3. It seems on this day, my biggest problem was starting the third pull too soon, before even getting close to my navel. Danny said my legs and hips were strong and I can move the bar quickly, but too soon and too far away from my body. I did some overhead squats and liked them, though he pointed out my flexibility issues and some weakness at the left scapular area.
After the skill lifts, he took at look at my front squats (didn’t like ‘em) and helped me make the corrections so that it would match the corresponding part of the clean. Next, he had me do a bunch of strict overhead presses and taught me to keep tight and keep the elbows out in front of the bar and to keep tension on the lats. He also corrected my head position to keep it neutral and not looking up above parallel. I did 6×5 of the presses.
By the time I finished these, I was totally spent, but we played around with kettlebells, including a game of “catch”. Being the coach he is, Danny corrected some things he saw while swinging and snatching 24 and 35 kilo Fedorenko kettlebells. I was so smoked, there was no possible way to have a semblance of decent form; that was long gone.
This workout lasted about 2 hours! I more than got my money worth and I expect tomorrow will be recovery.
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Saturday, 5/17/08
I was wiped out from yesterday so this most definitely was all about recovery.
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Sunday, 5/18/08
Went for a beautiful, scenic skate around Back Bay.
Er, scratch that. Due to time constraints, I started off with a 200 meter run and then alternated 3 more 200 meter runs with 3 x 20, 32 kg kettlebell swings. It was hot, sweaty and ugly, but done in 15 minutes. (More accurately, I was done in 15 minutes)!
I like powerlifting and other barbell and kettlebell lifting, but here are the Top Ten Reasons I Like the Olympic Lifts:
10. The lifts use the entire body in one fluid motion. There is no isolation aspect about them.
9. They look cool, (when they are done correctly)!
8. The names of the lifts themselves are double entendres. You can use the words now in polite company.
7. You don’t look like a bodybuilder or a powerlifter, but you do look damn strong.
6. The speed, power and explosiveness generated transfer well into many sports and activities.
5, People in the gym don’t quite know what to make of you. One guy recently asked me, “Why are you doing high school lifts?”
4. They are very technical and therefore a challenge to learn and master.
3. You pretty much have free access to the proper equipment, at least in my gym, because you don’t have to compete with others on “chest day” or “leg day”.
2. Chicks dig you. (Ok, I made that up, but that’s Curry’s motivation for snatching “a wheel”).
1. When the lift is completed, you get to drop the loaded barbell from over your head and let it bounce around and make a lot of noise. Even a light load is loud.
Go ahead, use the Comments below to add to the list.
Since taking up Crossfit a couple of years ago at age 50, one of the things I got re-introduced to was Olympic weightlifting, which are the snatch and the clean and jerk. I had an interest in them way back in my early high school years and on occasion, on Saturdays, I went to the Eagles’ Club in Milwaukee with my dad and had a chance to do a rudimentary form of the C & J (a nice way to say no form at all) with dedicated lifters. There was just no opportunity to go any further with the lifts. Our high school gym consisted of a chrome multi-station Universal machine, one of the early progenitors of The Rise of the Machines in gyms all across America.
I have received a small amount of group instruction time from Mike Burgener in a Crossfit certification, but the only hands-on, eyes-on training came with the instruction of Stephane Rochet, now the strength and conditioning coach at University of San Diego. That was good fundamental training from Stephane that furthered my interest in learning the lifts.
More recently at my gym, two other guys share my interest in the lifts, Jon Curry and Mike Covert. Jon and I train and share a goal of doing a good looking 135 lb snatch while Mike has great athleticism and ability with a knack for good technique. It is a lot of fun to train with these guys, but I have been wanting to get coached for a while at this.
Last weekend, after Val’s Santa Monica race, we went to Gold’s Gym and met Danny Henry as he was coaching a lifter. After a brief conversation and a phone call this week, I trained with Danny for the first time Thursday afternoon at Gold’s.
Danny took me through some warm-ups while talking about the lifts in general. Danny is a very enthusiastic student of the weight game and definitely was excited at the prospect of training me. (He must like the challenge of training a stubborn, over-the-hill wannabee weightlifter)!! As we progressed through various drills from the muscle snatch, front squats, RDL, bar positioning, etc., I was impressed by his attention to detail. He would make sure tell me what worked and what didn’t after each lift and explain what needs to happen. I could tell he was forming a baseline for me. That baseline will continue next week as he will put me through sub-maximal lifts to better see where I am in all this and how he will structure my training.
My first session went for 90 minutes and his fee was very reasonable considering what training can go for in southern California. I definitely got value for my money which is nice for a change when I consider what I spent and what I got out of a weekend certification not all that long ago.
My Thursday lifting buddy and I practice the snatch and even have gotten coaching by a high school kid who does it far better than we do. But why? In part, it is because we think it would be “cool” to snatch a “wheel”, that is, a 45 lb plate on each side of the bar for a 135 lb lift. For me, another reason is that for a lift that takes less than a second to complete, it takes a few years to learn correctly. It’s a challenge. Because the lift is so “technique-centric”, it is an impressive lift going up.
Here’s what it looks like when two Olympians set world records with the lift. (Did the first lifter yell out Fred Flintstone’s signature “yabba dabba doo”?)
Charles Staley has a very enthusiastic treatise on the snatch that is great reading if you are doing or thinking about learning the snatch. I like that he mentions it is a fun lift, and I agree. He also caters to mine and my buddy’s interest in the “coolness factor”.
“ The snatch will completely freak out everyone at your local health club, and I KNOW this is an attractive idea for most of you.”
The barbell snatch is an elegant, fast and explosive lift and there is an excellent chance there is a high school athlete doing it better than you or I ever will, but, that won’t spoil my fun and don’t let it spoil yours. You can still look cool in the gym!
Yesterday, my training buddy Jon and I got together for our Thursday “Snatch Session” where we train for our mutual goal of snatching “a wheel” or 135 lbs with good technique. To date, we are hovering around 110, with crappy form. We did get some help though in the form of an 18 year school football player who has been lifting the Olympic lifts with the benefit of expert coaching at his high school.
The level of coaching I have had was some bits and pieces from very good teachers, unfortunately so far, not consistent coaching which is needed for the technical Olympic lifts. So, Jon and I are trying to get some professional coaching so we can nail our goal.
Though referred to not by the name “backward chaining” my first coach, Stephane Rochet, taught me to break down the snatch into progression movements starting from the end of the lift to the begin to get the proper skill set for integration. This was reinforced further by Olympic coach, Mike Burgener of Mike’s Gym.
According to Pro Athletic Training and Development, LLC, the “catch” is the starting point of the snatch. That means holding the bar overhead with the elbows locked out to get a good sense of where you need to be at the end of the lift. From there, master the overhead squat and then snatch high pulls, but not to the catch. Further down the chain, closer to the beginning is the RDL (Romanian Deadlift) with a wide snatch grip.
Next, deadlift into the RDL with the snatch grip. Finally, put it all together! Those are a lot of progressions, (steps) and a lot of reps to master for a technical lift that takes less than a second to perform. We think it is well worth it. The Snatch is a fast, powerful and elegant lift. (Jon thinks it will “pull babes” when we get out lift working. We all have to find our motivation somewhere)!
It’s back to the broomstick and pvc for learning the snatch while I continue to find a coach.
Here are some additional resources if you would like to learn more about backward training to master the Olympic lifts:
Of course better known as “March Madness“, my two teams in the hunt, Marquette and University of Wisconsin, both won their 1st round brackets.
In my “madness”, I worked out when I should have probably stayed home and in bed. With my energy levels way down and a tickle in my throat, I made it to the gym with low expectations for a snatch workout with John Curry.
Jeff and Jim, the two termite guys, weighing 270 and 305 lbs and 6′5″ respectively brought in their 32 kg kettlebell and I started swinging with them. My two handed kettlebell swing sets were 15/15/15/15.
I got ready to snatch with 3 sets of Burgener warm-ups and those indicated firing on all cylinders might not happen today. Starting light with the snatch, I did 45×3/55×2/65×2.
Continuing, my snatch sets were 75×2/80×2/90/90/100/100/105/105. On the weights I did twice, it was because I did not get into a full squat and they ended up as power snatches. I got it on the subsequent lifts.
Next, were Good Mornings: 135×5/155×5/155×5/135×5.
The finisher was 3×100 meter slosh pipes; 2 were Zercher Walks and the other was an Overhead Walk.
The training turned out better than it started and certainly better than I expected and I figure I was at about 85% of my mojo.
