Alexus: I don’t use the technique harry described, but I definitely try to keep a tight body when I’m doing pullups–I think it helps. Sometimes when I’m pulling I flash back to slumber party seances and think to myself, “light as a feather, stiff as a board.”
lol alexus. falling over and shit. You are awesome.
lol matty - i think i’ll be months off a set of 5! get there i will, though, and with a 20kg plate!!
thanks masch, minimal, snapper for your thoughts on my coach. i will work hard to find the right balance. he is getting me stronger. for that i am grateful. i need to do that 3x per week - but have the rest of the week for me. to work on my rehabby stuffs. so i don’t get injured. i’m not a proper athlete, unfortunately, and i see why he loves training the 18 year old guys who can just throw shit around and not get injured.
cal - yeah, harder with heels on the ground. i can’t get my heels anywhere near the ground without my superolyshoes unless i go sumo wide and i’m not doing that outside the gym lolz. it is hard for me to balance on the ball of my foot though since my toes don’t stretch back properly - yet.
nimain - yeah hopefully it is just like that. you certainly profited from putting in the time and i hope i do too!
upscale - i don’t know about pull-up technique… just reporting what he suggested after seeing the vid. i think he suggests different things to different people. maybe this is related to my goal of doing them weighted one day? i don’t know. i think my form was a bit better on the singles insofar as i was able to squeeze my glutes a bit harder. think that was responsible for my legs being wider lol. but apparently i should be flexing my quads, too…
nadia - ‘light as a feather, stiff as a board’. i like that. i think i’ll use that, thankyou.
andy - lolz. graceful i am not :-p i think that is why i like oly lifting and stuff… prescribed movement. then simply repetition over and over and over. then eventually it starts to look graceful. i’ve come a long way from not being able to walk without crutches. but still have a tendancy to fall over gym mats and stuff lolz.
TRAINING
back seems to be better.
powercleans and powerjerks.
triples up to 35kg.
single at 40kg x2.
45kg. got the powerclean but missed the jerk 3x. nearly drove it high enough on the second attempt. i’ve never jerked 45kg so i’m not surprised. coach reckons i could do it, though, if i had more confidence in myself.
cleanpulls.
triples @ 55kg. i asked whether i was just meant to pull to shrug or pull it high as i could. he said to have a go at the later. seemed to go well.
back squat.
worked up to triples @40kg (5 sets). taking it easy since i’m just back into things
then i thought it was a good idea to do my chin-ups. meant to do 5x2 and 5x1. turned out to be a really bad idea. should have done them first tomorrow. couldn’t get the 5th double. wasn’t sure what to do. tried it again. nope. did the 5 singles. pretty horrid form all of them. didn’t realize how exhausted i was 
the guys started doing benching and rows while i was doing them lolz. think they are a good bunch of guys, really. i think they might find me motivating. that is good. they better train hard or i’ll kick their asses one day.
Yeah the first time I touched 45kg, I just didn’t have it in me. Then once I felt more confident of my jerking skills, it was ok. That narrowing of my stance was the BEST tip ever from my coach. I’ve still yet to recover from the 45.
The worst part for me with jerking is lowering the damn thing, my not-so-good shoulder is fucked at the moment. Apparantly I’m not lowering the most efficient way, but my coach doesn’t quite understand my problem with my shoulder, so his description of how to lower it isn’t clicking with me.
He also thinks all injuries just work themselves out. When he was younger he was built like a small sturdy bull, you can still see it even though he is 85 now.
I’m not too sure about powercleans, although I’ve only tried them twice.
Sounds like you found a good place. speaking of which any news on an actual living place?
Awesome progress in here.
Squat PRs and knocking out sets of chins.
Is your coach a weightlifting coach or a general strength coach?
And respect for resisting the “what’s a Hindu squat?” joke.
I’d have gone for about 90 lbs.
minimal - yes. i moved into a flat just nearly 2 weeks ago 
here is a random youtube vid of the beach i can see out my bedroom window (i’m set about three houses back). i’m having some trouble thinking of it as a beach because i’m used to surf beaches with golden or iron sand and this one is shelly and kinda rocky and being a harbor there aren’t many waves… but the water is pretty.
10 minutes walk from my gym
brett - an Oly coach. he represented NZ at some point. in his late 60’s now. there is another guy who competes at masters level who represented NZ, too. so an actual proper club with actual proper people who know about competing
dammit. i only just got the hindu squat joke!!
TRAINING
realized i’m not holding my lumbar arch properly on my squats. i’ve got some work to do. sucked it up and did front loaded plate squats. got some work to do. wearing my vibrams again and working hard on stretching out my feet.
one legged step ups. more a feat of balance than strength. ditto for one legged deadlifts.
trap bar deadlift.
40kg 1x20. just because. then 1x20. then slow and controlled 2x10. take that legs. they really were looking like chicken sticks today.
GHR 3x5.
minimal, i have trouble from lowering the bar from overhead, too. i drop snatches and can drop jerks once i get to 35kg but still profit from practicing jerking with 30kg. lowering it gently to my shoulders rips up my triceps pretty bad. i thought i was developing elbow tendonitis but turned out to be knotty triceps from lowering the bar.
i do think sometimes it is much more work lifting less than 35kg because of needing to lower it. it is eliminating the lowering that is supposed to be what makes oly lifting trainable so frequently. i don’t have the knack of softening the ankles to help absorb the shock of lowering the weight so mostly use my triceps.
Ooo pretty, and that’s Wellington across the water too isn’t it? Looks like I could get some rollerblades & roller along that. I’d kill to live with that type of scenery near by.
Yeah I gotta sort that part of the jerk out too, its ruining my fun, just when I was starting to appreciate the damn thing. My coach was saying to drop the bar once it gets to my shoulder, but THATS where it freaking hurts me. Sigh…I might ask another lifter how they do it, I know one that has a dodgy shoulder too.
Insanely jealous of your view and location…WOW!!!
yep, that is wellington just across the harbor. i’ll get to practice my vibram walking along the beach i’ve never lived by a beach before… really happy to have discovered that. i took the flat before i even realized about the beach lolz.
after not posting vids for a long time i’m back into it since i’ve discovered when to train for some peace and quiet:
overhead squats!
grr! so happy i don’t watch my face in the mirror lolz. now i see why people vacate the area in front of me when i’m training so they don’t have to look at me!
push-ups. haven’t done them in a while. 1x5 then 3x10 but a bit of failing near the end there…
some faffing around on the elliptical. me no like
some faffing around on the treadmill since there wasn’t anyone in the cardio room and i’ve never used one before. hmm… a little bit of light jogging. my right foot isn’t quite set straight so i want to land on the outside edge of my forefoot… i think i might build up to some very (very very) light jogging. just because it would be handy to be able to jog across the road etc. maybe i can do a little jogging along the beach? will see.
lumbar arch seems to be doing a bit better for all the work i did yesterday. note to self: suck it up and do your rehab! it makes things so much smoother and more comfortable the next day!
Looking good!!! Love the fiercness!!! OH squats look great too!! Very nice, keep it up. You’re my hero on those 35kg, I’m coming soon, giving me a kick up my ass now.
love the vid - tapping some great lifting energy right there.
and the view is amazing!
damn jelly.
OH squats look beautiful, Lex! Keeping those knees out on the way up, excellent!
And I love your defiance. Get them legs thick girl!
Back squats were triples no? I just went back to look at my vids. Even when I was squatting with kinda manageable weight, first rep always looks clean and by the 3rd I lose arch too.
Again, for me it comes down to, do you want to push weight or perfect form? I think my little lifting MO is - 3-5 reps can be kinda ugly since I’m trying to increase weight, if its too ugly I won’t add weight. 6-8 reps are tech work and should be pretty. Anything above 10 reps is for adding mass and/or conditioning and form will be compromised at some point due to fatigue. Singles, well, anything goes with those. lol!
OMG, more alexus talking videos, please! Seriously, I could listen to your lovely voice all day long. View is stunning as well. I spent some time traveling through NZ but sadly never made it to Wellington. As soon as I finish school I’m on my way back. sigh
I train a guy from Ireland and his favorite phrase is “faffing around”…I’ve yet to hear someone else use that phrase, I’ll have to let him know it’s not universally his
I’ll second Maschy, OH squats are awesome! I love the intensity that you go after it too, great job Lex!
lol @ faffing.
Great work/effort there Alexus!
[quote]cholulalula wrote:
OMG, more alexus talking videos, please! Seriously, I could listen to your lovely voice all day long.
[/quote]
unless I’m mistaken I don’t think it her - she did say “random youtube vid”…
I had the same initial response though
OHS looked good, I personally love the intensity you bring(face included)!! I was a little miffed the first
time watching some of my facial contortions :0
Beautiful scenery too, a light jog along the beach, you will get lost in that view.
Thats the face of DETERMINATION! Awesome stuff homie!
aw, thanks for the love, people!
minimal - i hadn’t really trained overhead squats in a long time but figured it was time to revisit since i’m bottoming out my snatches. was surprised to discover i could overhead 35kg!! brute is my overhead squat hero!!
nimain - thanks. you got some pretty damn amazing views on your travels, too! i would love to visit canada at some point.
masch - yeah, i gotta work on pulling those hips through / driving those knees out. that is the main thing i’m trying to get with them - but not much luck so far. i am working on it, though! looking forward to my boxes arriving since i didn’t bring my microbands with me. coach has me doing mostly triples for back squat, yeah.
i think… my back might be a bit more touchy than most because of an old fracture to the L/T junction. i can get away with a little bit of softness in my lumbar arch for a while but eventually my back screams at me. i think my high heels make my hip angle more acute, too, so it really is a battle to hold my arch near the bottom. and when i can’t hold it on overhead squats, really, what hope is there for me to hit a tight bottom position under a snatch?? sometimes… i don’t deserve to be doing snatches
lula - thanks that isn’t my voice in the vid. i want to say ‘i don’t sound like that!!!’ but then other people have a tendency to laugh at me and say ‘oh yes, you do!’ i keep forgetting y’all have funny accents
mom - thanks!
upscale - yeah, it is pretty. going to hunt out the library today and see about doing some reading at the beach!
matty - thanks. was pretty bloody determined, yeah!
TRAINING (yesterday)
so apparently our comp is next week. a few people turned up from the gym i used to train at for training this week (they will be back for the comp). i think i need to do some peacekeeping stuff with them… i think they think i kinda dissed them… and i really didn’t mean to do that at all
there is a chick who nearly made commonwealth team but got injured. she is really really good! i met her once briefly at the other gym… but never trained with her.
i… don’t do so well with the competitive thing, actually. or maybe it is more about where i am at right now with back / lumbar arch problems. if they weren’t there i probably would have faffed around with rehabby stuff trying to get the movement comfortable… but i did get this thing about wanting to show them that i was capable of trying (even though i’m obviously weak) so i pushed myself harder than i normally would…
which means my back is FRIGGING KILLING ME today.
i’m not 18. i’m not even 20 or 25. everyone seems to think you can’t take a 30 year old office worker with no gym / athletic experience and get them doing the olympic lifts. i work really hard to be a counter-example to that… but i can’t compete with the naturally athletic / those who have been active all their lives / those who haven’t been so beaten up by old injury. i need to be careful with myself or i’ll get hurt. and maybe i am a wuss with that… but it really is important to me that i have as painfree as possible functional mobility. sigh.
take it easy next week… then i feel like i am committed to putting everything i’ve got into the competition. and will suck up the 2 week or whatever time it takes me to recover from that effort…
i do want people to respect me for working / trying hard. that IS really important to me, i’ve realized. i do respect the work ethic etc involved in the whole hard core thing.
but… while i relish DOMS… hardly being able to move from a different kind of pain is no fun at all. reminds me too much of when i thought i’d never walk again and thought i’d be on the freaking methodone program for ongoing pain relief. i don’t want to go back to that place.
i… really do like training by myself