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#1
03-06-2011, 08:38 PM
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Gary's Wannabe Weightlifter Bulgarian Build Up Blog
After two years of competitive powerlifting I've decided to commit to weightlifting. First run was a few months ago and I quickly burned out. Took a few months off, came back and finally did some PVC rolling which cleared up a lot of quad and knee problems that had been plaguing me for years.
Best USAPL raw (belt and knee sleeves) results at 179 lbs and 5'9-5'10": SQ 185 kg, BP 105 kg, DL (sumo) 230 kg. Best gym lifts so far with weightlifting: Snatch 74 kg, Clean 88 kg, Jerk 91 kg. Current best front squat ~ 100 kg. (FS:Sn:CJ ~ 100:75:90) Today's training @ 80 kg: 2011-02-06 Warm up Snatch 30 / 3 x 3 40 / 3 x 2 50 / 2 x 2 55 / 2 60 / 1 65 / 1 70 / miss, x 1 73 / miss, miss, x 1 75 / x 0, x 0 60 / (1+miss) x 4, (2 x 3), (1+miss) [Break for errands] Back Squat 60 / 5 x 2 80 / 5 90 / 3 100 / 3 110 / 3 x 3 PVC rolling, ankle stretching. Decided today to front squat only from now on. Right now training three times per week and looking to work up to more over the course of the year. 
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#2
03-07-2011, 04:54 AM
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2011-03-07
early a.m. Clean 50 x 2 x 3 70 x 1 x 2 80 x 1 85 x miss, x 1 87 x 0 x 2 75 x 0 x 2 Front Squat 70 x 1 80 x 1 90 x 1 100 x 1 110 x 1 Back Squat 100 x 1 120 x 1 130 x 1 140 x 1 (slooooooooow) Deadlift 70 x 1 120 x 1 160 x 1 Couldn't sleep at all. Felt so wired. Like I had a clean PR in me. At 3 a.m. I ventured out to the gym. Should I have been back in the gym? No. Should I have done both types of squats and deadlifts to maxes? No. Good news is that my squat strength is just about 10% off where it was. Now the scar tissue and knots in the quads have been broken up, I can squat again. Felt strong on the front squats. Got stopped on the way up with that last back squat, but managed to push through. Bad news is that I'm not as efficient with the lifts as I thought I was. I'm within a kilo or two of my best snatch and clean and 10-20 kilos away from my best front and back squats. Deadlift is still way off, but that was because I was tired by the time I got to them and my grip was gone. So I have a lot of room left to get better with the classic lifts at my current level of back and front squat strength. I kind of figured that. I was hoping that I just needed to squat more weight; that would have been easier. But a 140 kg back squat means a 90 kg snatch should be possible; a 110 kg front squat means a 100 kg clean should be within reach; while a 140 kg back squat means I should be able to front squat 120 or 125 and in turn that means a clean closer to 105 kg. 90/105 is a far cry from 73/85. Screwed up training for this week. I'll just do bench day tomorrow and then maybe some good mornings later in the week and start fresh with the classic lifts next Sunday.
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#3
03-07-2011, 11:13 PM
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I was going off of some erroneous assumptions before. I can squat a lot more than I thought I could. I thought my squat strength had come down to meet my ability in the classic lifts, but this is not the case. I thought I could only FS/BS 100/120 at best, but it turns out that I'm good for 110/140. I can only Sn/Cl 73/85. There's a lot more room for improvement at my current squat strength, which is higher than I'd been led to believe. So I won't waste time and energy trying to squat more; what's the point in getting my front squat from 110 to 120 when I can't even clean 90??
And speaking of cleaning 90, why can't I do it? Definitely have to work on technique. That's a constant. You don't learn to play an instrument in a couple of weeks and you don't get these lifts perfected in a couple of weeks either. Still, over 85 kilos and things just feel impossibly heavy at the launch point, like I just can't generate enough speed from my hips and into the heavy ass bar. Maybe I do need to do more parts of the lift, like pulls and full lifts from the blocks. There's obviously a school of thought that says one should just do the full lifts, but I'm not sure what to think. Just doing the lifts seems to make more sense after you've gotten really good and your body doesn't need remedial drills anymore. I think I still need remedial drills. I'll talk to John about it on Wednesday. Things I probably need to start doing: -Deadlifts Olympic clean style -Full clean and snatch from blocks -Singles in back and front squat with 90% I'm still wary about clean and snatch pulls. They just look too much like what I end up doing when I fail with a weight. That's why I'd rather work from blocks so I can focus on the second pull. For the full lifts themselves I suppose I should work with 85-90% for doubles. I really feel like I'm "getting it" when I'm able to do so near my best for lots of doubles. With a max of 73 in the snatch: 85% = 60 and 90% = 65. With a max of 85 in the clean: 85% = 72 and 90% = 77. It really feels like it's just a technique problem with the cleans. I feel like I could make progress on the snatch just by working with 60 and 65 for triples and doubles and then just adding weight. With the clean I just feel like I'm all over the place, like I'm just not in control and maintaining positions on the way up. My clean isn't that much heavier than my snatch, but the extra weight makes me panic.
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#4
03-08-2011, 12:55 PM
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Your cleans could be technique related or a specific area of strength, such as when the body gets in specific position for the second pull (launch point). I would try clean pulls to the knees and pause there for like 6-10 seconds, then lower and repeat. Or you could do cleans with a 1-2 second pause at the knees before continuing. I've found that that specific part of the pull is my weakest, so I've been consciously working on it.
As to squatting, I would keep it going, but don't put as much priority on it. That way, as your technique gets better, you won't get to a point where your leg/hip strength will hinder you.
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#5
03-08-2011, 07:26 PM
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Quote:
2011-03-08 Session 1 Bench Press (lbs) 45 x 12 95 x 6 135 x 5 165 x 5 185 x 5 195 x 5 185 x 5 Pull Up @ 176 lbs + 0 x 6 x 3 Face pulls
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#6
03-08-2011, 08:29 PM
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Session 2
Snatch 30 x 3 x 3 40 x 3 x 2 50 x 3 x 1 60 x miss, x miss, x 1 65 x miss, x miss Power Snatch from high blocks w coaching 40 x 1 x multiple Power Clean from high blocks w coaching 40 x 1 x multiple 3-Position clean and snatch holds from the floor to standing w 60 kg. Power Clean 60 x 1, 2, 3 for multiple sets 70 x 1, 2, 3 for multiple sets 75 x 1 for multiple sets Clean 75 x 1, 2 for multiple sets 80 x 1 x 2 83 x 1 x 2 86 x 1 89 x miss, x 1 PR 90 x miss, x miss Back Squat 60 x 3 80 x 3 100 x 3 110 x 3 120 x 2 130 x 1 x 4 Good Morning 40 x 5 60 x 5 70 x 5 Mary was there for the second session in the ECG room. I was having trouble snatching 60 and over and she noticed serious form degradation. Arms were swinging out front. Took me over to the high boxes and had me work on speed from there. Had a bout of moping after she left, wondering if I had the patience to learn the subtle points of this sport. Then after about twenty minutes of that I started power cleaning, working on all the points we'd just gone over and trying to be more aggressive on the third pull so that the bar was landing on my clavicles a half second after my feet hit the floor. Felt myself getting faster and faster and kept adding weight. At 75 I started sinking into a full squat so decided to just keep adding weight and doing the full lift. Was popping up nice and fast so that the bar was leaping off my shoulders on the recovery. Felt form getting tighter from the time I kept grooving the power cleans. Kept hitting the bottom positions on the full cleans really well. Torso didn't collapse. Just kept adding weight. Got a personal best. 89 is only 1 kilo over my best ever, but it's a full 4 kilos better than I've done since I started back up. Went on to back squat. 130 was about 93% and it felt pretty fast for the first three singles. Last single got a little grindy so I stopped there. Good mornings to wrap up.
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#7
03-09-2011, 05:06 PM
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2011-03-09
a.m. session Power Snatch 40 x 1 x 10+ 50 x 1 x 10+ 55 x 1 x 5 60 x 0, x 1, x 1 full snatch Snatch 50 x 1 x 4 55 x 1 x 2 60 x 1 x 2 65 x 0 x 2 Power Snatch from High Blocks 40 x1 x 6 p.m. session Snatch 40 x 1 x 10 50 x 1 x 5 55 x 1 x 2 60 x 1 x 4 65 x miss, x miss 60 x 1 65 x 0 Thought I was on a roll and that I had a 1-kilo PR in me for the snatch too. I didn't. Now I will just take a rest for a couple of days. I'm really starting to think that I do not have the natural explosiveness for a 90%+ Cl/FS or a 65% Sn/BS. 80% and 55% may be as efficient as I get. I'm saying maybe more squat strength would help a lot more than perfecting my technique. I don't think my deadlifter's build is helping me on the efficiency front either. Last I checked one cannot change one's neuromuscular innervation or one's proportions. I may simply need to be able to squat more weight. It'd be nice if I could snatch 100 with a 150 or 160 BS. But I may need a 180 BS for that.
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#8
03-09-2011, 07:38 PM
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Gary,
This is just my novice opinion but I am in the same boat as you are - new to the sport and not seeing the numbers I would like to see - and it's not due to lack of effort or strength. My best advice, if you are serious at giving Olympic weightlifting a try, is to stick the course and put in your time. I, too, have vacillated between going back and just doing some strength work and sticking it out w/learning the lifts. Snatching and clean and jerking is a sport and it takes much time to learn to skills of the sport as opposed to general strength training. At this point and time I am determined to stick it out with a majority of my effort dedicated to taking many attempts in the 85% and up range in the classic lifts to hone the technique and get used to lifting big weights overhead. From what I've read you do do some brief, fairly intense yet low volume squatting to keep the strength base up. Some 'get it' rather quickly and others must persist and not lose heart. That is one of the great things in lifting at a club with others who can only teach but encourage you. Likewise, this forum that Glenn has not only provided but also invests a good deal of time on is a similarly great tool for learning and all the more the encouragement and motivation we can glean from each other. Sorry to take up this much space in you log, but I have recently spend some time evaluating my progress or lack thereof and I thought my conclusions at this point may, in some small way, help you. For the record, my frustration with my wrist injury has dissipated and I am nurturing this feeling that I am on the edge of breaking through some plateaus and seeing some bigger numbers soon. Onward and upward my friend!
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#9
03-09-2011, 09:16 PM
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Quote:
p.m. session II Back Squat 20 x 10 60 x 5 90 x 5 110 x 3 130 x 1 140 x 1 145 x 1 120 x 2 x 2 Jump onto box 3x3 (box a little lower than navel height). I feel fine. I haven't felt this good in a long while actually. Squats felt great. Didn't even pull the knee sleeves up till 110. 145 today felt almost but not quite as hard as 140 did yesterday, but that's because I took several hours after the classic lift to get to squats. Knees felt iffy with box jumps at first, but after some warming up, the box jumps actually seemed to help my knees. They haven't felt this good in so long. My quad tendons had been complaining a bit, but now they feel trouble-free. Oh, the joy of movement. Cleans tomorrow morning and then front squats in the afternoon.
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#10
03-11-2011, 01:32 AM
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2011-03-10
session I Clean 50 x 1 x 10 60 x 1 x 6 70 x 1 x 4 75 x 1 x 3 80 x 1, x 0, x 1* 82.5 x 0 x 3 65 x 2 x 3, x 1+miss, x 2 *That second single with 80 was probably the best form with heavy-for-me weight I've ever done in my life. Slept like the dead last night. Took me awhile to fall asleep, but when I did it was deep. This morning it took me about an hour to get out of bed, but I felt great when I finally got up. session II Power Jerk from Boxes 50 x 3 x 3 60 x 3 x 2 70 x 3 75 x 2-3 80 x 1, x miss, x 1 50 x 3 x ? 60 x 3 x ? 70 x 3 x 3, 2+miss, x 3 Front Squat 50 x 5 70 x 5 80 x 3 90 x 2 100 x 1 110 x 1 115 x 0 80 x 3 x 2 85 x 3 90 x 2+miss, x 3 Good Morning 50 x 5 55 x 5 60 x5 62.5 x 5 Left quad feeling tight and banged up. PVC rolled all over legs, but focused on left quad. Feeling better. A lot of those first jerks were pressouts for the first couple of reps at each weight, but got faster and more solid on lockouts with practice. Didn't pull knee sleeves up till 100 kilos in the front squat. Knees feeling more resilient all the time.
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