Right click on each link and save before watching to avoid errors!
Mid thigh hang powersnatches
http://www.members.optushome.com.au…_5x2_3Jan04.mpg
squatsnatches - needs work 
Hear the bar squeak when I roll it back? Ugh no spin! And bent too!!!
CoolColJ dreams of an Elieko bar
http://www.members.optushome.com.au…3-x4_3Jan04.mpg
Squat singles
http://www.members.optushome.com.au…gles_3Jan04.mpg
workout will be posted later, and it will put things in perspective
Saturday 3rd January - Week 12 - Speed Strength - Day 1 - Lower Squat - Afternoon
I normally don’t like to workout on Saturdays as work in the morning tires me out. But today I felt raring to go to the gym, so I obliged, and it was a good one
Speed strength week, although I did do some heavy squat singles for the complexing - I felt fine. Tweaked myself a bit though…read on
Warmup+ CoreWork+Plyos
Did my general warmup - dynamic swings etc, and 10 reps with 25lb in various exercises - pull, press, oly goodmorning, snatch grip BN press, hang powerclean for a few, full squat press, Hang powersnatch for a few
Rest - 30secs alternating between each exercise. 1min between pairs.
Low Ankle Jumps 3x10secs
High ankle Jumps 2x10
Arched back Good Morning ISO hold - 45lbs x 1min —> brutal! Abs and erectors fried.
Snatches
Warmups - Shoulder Dislocates with wooden staff + some overhead squats
Bar x 3 BN snatch presses+ 3 Overhead squats,
MidThigh Hang powersnatch Bar x3, 65lbs x3, 89lbs x3, 109lbs x2
Rest - 1.5 to 2 mins
Hookgrip on some sets
119lbs 5x2
High Hang Squat Snatch Bar x3, 89lbs x3, 89x3 → Miss on last rep.
89lbs x4 → miss on first rep
Well my shoulders were working overtime on the powersnatches locking out the bar. I didn’t get a handle on this until the 3rd set. The wide grip makes it harder, once I narrowed the grip an inch or so in each side, it felt much stronger. Guess I’ll have to start doing snatch grip behind the neck push presses. Big pump in my delts and traps from supporting the bar.
Tweaked my left hip/hammie tie in on the 2nd set when I racked the bar - need better warmup.
Squat snatches felt strange, I think I’m sitting too far back or the stance was narrower than normal, balance was iffy and I dumped a few reps. Feet were really angled out a lot. Much work to be done
Full Olympic Back Squats - RAW in Oly Shoes - Compelxed with Jumpsquats
Warmup sets - resting 2mins
Bar x5, 135lbs x5, 185x5, 3 jumps, 225x5, 3 jumps
Tempo 10X0 rest - 3 mins
275lbs x3
340lbs x1, rest 1min, Jumpsquats 25lbs x4, rest 3mins
345lbs x1, rest 1min, Jumpsquats 25lbs x4, rest 2mins
345lbs x1, rest 1min, Jumpsquats 25lbs x4, rest 2mins
345lbs x1, rest 1min, Jumpsquats 25lbs x4, rest 2mins
345lbs x2 singles resting 1.5mins between each.
Cleangrip full Frontsquats - 135x5, rest 1min, 185x5
Well 345lbs felt pretty good, went up pretty quickly, my old 1RM. By the way things felt it would seem my lower back might be the weak link, not sure.
Getting stronger, considering I’m not fresh when I did em and form was good.
Jumspquats were done with very shallow dip, bouncey and reactive.
Front squats felt better this week
Bits and Pieces
GluteHam Raise on Incline Situp Board
Tempo 20X0 2x5 - using hand to help - rest 2mins
Reverse Back Extensions
Tempo 1010 BW x12,
Then layed over a swiss ball face down to stetch out the erectors and open up the spine for a couple of mins
CoolC,
have you ever tried doing your lifts WITHOUT your feet leaving the floor. given, its probably going to happen when you get super heavy and are going all out(but it should only be a few inches at most!), but you should really think about practicing without the intentional “jump in the air”.
when you jump the only thing that is going to get you under that bar (talking snatches here)is gravity (letting you fall down) and all of your back muscles used in pushing you against and under the bar. the more of a jumper you are the more youre going to feel it in your shoulders. dig?
now, if you leave your feet in contact with the floor, you can use your legs/hips to duck/pull yourself under the bar as well as using your upper body to speed your “duck” under the bar. it looks like your pulling speed is decent but its taking you, comparitively, forever to get back under the bar.
practice doing high pulls (snatch or clean) and just really coming up onto your toes and pulling the weight up and back AND letting your body go up and back. basically you will feel like your going to fall over backwards when youre all up on your toes with your traps shrugged tight. do this a couple times but now pull/duck under the bar. DONT JUMP.
im guessing you are really used to jumping and its pretty ingrained.
just work with light weights and work on speed of your reversal (thats what im calling it when you go from your fully extended form of pulling the bar up to the point where the weight is “floating” and then you are explosively ducking under the bar).
ahhh haa!!! thats what im getting at:)!
if you “exlplosively duck” and your feet are off the ground, youre not doing anything but pulling your feet up towards your body and then letting gravity lower you back to the ground. sure you get some help from your arms pulling you under the bar (remember youre not trying to move the bar over your head, youre trying to move your body under the bar…) but this is going to be a much slower movement than if you were actually ducking explosively (using your hamstrings to pull you to the ground/ your feet–which should be on the ground) and using your arms to weave you under the bar.
just work some drills in which you leave your feet on the ground and see if you can get the feeling of “pulling yourself under the bar”. no need to go into a full squat either , just catch the weight with a med knee bend then stand up or drop into your full squat to practice your form.
wow! alot of words. hope some of that made sense.
good luck man,
ryan b.
Those OH squats look painful! Looks like your shoulders are about to dislocate. Looks hard on your knee joints too.
Yep heard the squeak, that the bar or your knees? Take some WD40 with you 
Ryan -
well I understand what you are saying. Generally I’m on the way down when the bar is flying up. The shrug pulls me back down. Ok for powersnatches but not for squatsnatches I suppose.
Well I know the Bulgarians jump like I do, but also backwards. Especially Vanev, but most of them jump quite a bit.
Another thing is that I need to move my feet outwards to squat under, so I need to jump a bit anyway to do this.
Well I sorta blame CT, if it wasn’t for his “jump powersnatch” article I might have snatched more in a more normal fashion
Also when I started doing them it was to help my Vertical Jump, so that makes sense.
Believe me I have tried to keep my feet on the ground, I lose power when I do that.
Creed -
why would they hurt my knees?
I know my feet angle funny, but these are no different from doing fronsquats.
Also about the shoulders I can actually rotate the bar all the way round with current snatch grip, but I’m narrowing in a bit in future.
Even then my shoulders aren’t that supple though
Yes that the crappy bent bars at my gym squeaking… I need to bring my own bar with needle bearings soon!
Ahh if only I could lift at home…
Col
Your knees cave in when you go low (indicating flexibility probs). That puts alot of stress on the cruciate ligaments. You def don’t want to tear them!
Cool,
I think that Ryan has a good point, although, like mine, it may be on top of his head.
I meant to write this a while back the first time I saw your snatch and clean form. Basically you are cutting short your second pull phase. What I mean by this is you never drive your hips up and through… instead, you are more worried about getting back under the bar.
Herein lies a problem with taking an idea from an article without everything explained in detail. Your jump must come from being extremely explosive into the ground, not from pulling them up during the second pull phase…two very different items. You are losing some drive from both fully extending your hips and from not really exploding up onto your toes.
Another thing that I always teach is a slightly chin up form during the entire movement. This keeps my trainees in a stronger structural form thoughout the lift… sometimes this immediately equates to a 5-10% strength improvement… seriously… I have never read a scientific article looking at this, but it works. I got it from nearly twenty years ago, doing BFS in high school. While I do not advocate or condone this system (I personally never recommend it, but that is personal, I do know that cleaning 300, benching 300, and squatting 405 was not unusual in my high school. And, that is top of the thigh parallel (we used the BFS beepers). We routinely produced 45’+ triple jumpers, and sub 11 second 100m runners… and we were an all white high school. Not being racist, just stating that at states in the 4x100 and 4x400, we were basically the only white kids… this was in Florida.
The point of that was you wanted an increase in performance… you might work on full extension during the second pull phase and keeping that chin up…it locks in your upper back.
Like the guy above stated, your knees buckle a bit on the squat snatches… correct this… correct it now, please.
The final point about increasing your vertical is you might be carrying a bit too much weight. I can’t really tell since you are asian and it is just video, but you might need to shape up that diet a touch. I do also, so don’t be offended.
If you have CT’s new book there is a picture of a guy during his second pull phase with his hips fully driven through the bar… if you ask CT, he may post the pic. I feel this guy has extended beyond what is necessary, as he is beginning to pull back, and not upward, but the pic may help you picture what I mean.
This is just my .02, keep it or trash it as you may.
Good luck, and keep working hard!
Coach H
CSCS
I always welcome critque, that’s why I post these clips, and off course I think it’s interesting to see others train
I’m not lean that’s for sure, yeah I could lose 20lbs
But that will happen in due course from all the sprinting I’m currently doing.
Anyway I always get people saying I’m not full extending, up onto my toes, and pulling my feet up. Well I do pull my feet up a bit, but that is after I have extended and airbourne. It just happens so fast you don’t actually notice it.
I made a freeze frame sequence of one rep, and you can see I clearly extended, I mean if the legs are straight and I’m on my toes that’s extended. The only main thing fault I see is that maybe I should be shrugging earlier, and that may keep my arms straighter I dunno.
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj/Photos/CCJ_MTPowerSnatch_Sequence.JPG
also I noticed that the bar is maybe pressing into my stomach at the full extension point. I never noticed that or felt it, interesting. I guess you can’t get the bar closer than that
