Nice work in here. Keep going after that 40kg full clean. One of these days its going to go up.
I’m also glad to hear that not all males in your gym give you problems. Seems the more confident they are of themselves, the less trouble you have with them.
Eye candy is always great motivation.
thanks Cal! is that the tongue sticking out dance thing? I love that 
it’d freak me to compete against them that’s for sure.
I noticed that as well…about the english players vs other teams body wise…I hate to say it but I think British dudes are just slightly smaller framed. I dunno. I felt like a giant as a woman more then ever when i lived in Essex. Polynesians are just meatier in general I find, Aussies too for whatever reason.
sorry for the hijack alexus! hope your workouts are going great!
Oy!
Here’s a link Andy put in my log - thought I’d just go ahead and stick it in here too!
cathletics.com/...php?sectionID=2
Happy training!
Thanks for reposting the link, Masch. I’m going to start a file of all these wonderful links that I need to follow up on…
Brute - I’m a kiwi. Just moved to Aussie for grad school. I’m not sure what rugby team they were… But my guess was a Pacific Island team (Tongan, Samoan etc). Heard them speaking to each other a little in a Pacific Island language (so unlikely to be born in Aussie) but their English was very good.
A fair few of the NZ rugby team are Maaori - but a fair few are NZ born Pacific Islanders, too. Polynesians seem to be taller and broader than most of our white boys with a propensity to put on muscle mass and / or large amounts of fat depending on their lifestyle. I think our white boys are similar to English white boys or North American white boys - but I dunno…
I’m a bit old to know about pop youth culture - but yes, there are / were Emos…
I’ve only been to North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and St Louis - my experience was that fresh fruit / veg was significantly more expensive in the US (whole foods or from regular supermarket) - but junk food was significantly cheaper than Aussie / NZ. Some meat is very cheap in the US, too (e.g., buffalo wings) but I’d never before encountered greyish chicken of such an odd texture (I think our animal condition / hormone laws are different - but we pay much more because of it).
I needed to totally change what I ate in the US because I couldn’t afford what I can eat here (and needed to change back when I returned for the same reason).
Carl - confidence, yes. also… just having a plan and getting on with it. i think the most annoying ones are the ones who don’t really have a plan and are more interested in getting others attention and / or just kind of wander around and get in the way.
I have a lot to learn about appropriate assertiveness quite generally: ‘of course you can do pull-ups - there is enough room for 2 work stations here’. ‘sure you do a couple if you like - but there are lots of free bars and work spaces so i don’t quite understand why you want to use mine’. ‘yes, it is fine for you to set up there - but there is only room for the both of us if you rest when i work and vice versa’. ‘i find it hard to focus on the lift when you are standing so close to me’. ‘i really just want to focus on my training’. etc. need to remember these and spit them out pleasantly. need to come up with a few more for other situations i’ve encountered.
TRAINING:
got work and my head isn’t into training this week. sunday rest day. monday almost had another - bailed on squats. tuesday started squats but bailed…
getting the hang of hip drive out the hole. not for every rep - but for about half of them. this is progress.
figured that whether i catch a snatch or not depends significantly on whether i pull it straight or not. so lots of powersnatching focusing on extending the hips and pulling it straight. playing with 32.5 more regularly now. a well rested focused fairly solidly caught single. hopefully can do 35kg in a couple weeks (then the bumpers will go on and there will be no looking back!)
still fighting the fight with standing up 40kg (no can do).
getting better at dips. there is a knack to how you hold yourself. did 2 chinups from a deadhang today. tiny bit of wall climbing with my legs on the second rep - but very happy with this.
gotta prep for work (tutoring).
bleh.
next week will be better head-wise.
ah! thank you 
this sounds awful, but my only real understanding of new zealanders is Flight Of The Concords…i was wondering if the Aussie vs Kiwi thing was for real 
…My british friend is very anti aussie at times!
You are spot on about US food. crap is cheap, good is expensive…and that’s how it is.
I’m sorry to hear your heads not in the game this week, I hope it will get better! Your log has been very helpful
If you ever want to be put off eating American meat, watch the documentary, King Corn. It’s quite an eye opener. I’m very glad our British cows aren’t treated like that.
We all have off weeks - it’s not PMS week by any chance? I always struggle then. Good you’ve figured out your snatch (er, the lift, given the context of the previous sentence!) at any rate. You’ll get there, I’m sure!
Nice work on the “assertiveness” drills, Alexus. Rehearsing what one will say in a given situation has always helped me.
Yay on the dips and chinups. I don’t know much about oly, but sounds like progress on your snatch. Glad you’re feeling the groove on squats/hip drive.
Hey Doll, I hear you on the head not in training this week, maybe something in the air?
Still, I see progress with the snatches and dips and chins… see how much that was? Your head is in it more than mine ;D
Congrats on the two chinups.
So . . . do people tend to encroach on your space when you’re training? That just never happens to me. I must look fierce.
[quote]alexus wrote:
Seeing this was one of the things that inspired me to do this. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Weirdo, huh.[/quote]
New to your log, however, I really liked this video. Good stuff in here.
Sorry to hear about the work stress Alexus. Hang in there and get in the gym when you can. Cal is right, might be a good time for a deload.
Good work playing with the 32.5kg. Its true, once you get the bumpers on there it WILL be no looking back! Woo hoo!
And awesome on the 2 chins! Getting the first is always the hard part - after that you’ll be hitting 4, 5, in weeks! Keep at em!
brute - thats ok, i’m used to it. When I was in North Carolina people thought I was Australian - which made sense since they knew I was visiting from Australia. The first season of Flight of the Conchords aired when I was over there and then they started to get the sense of peculiarities of the NZ accent etc (did/dead, Brett/Brit etc) and pick on me more for being a Kiwi. Better than them picking on me because they thought I was Australian (hey - we pick on them for that, too!). The tensions between NZ and Aussie are good humored (though Kiwis take it more seriously since we are smaller) - except when it comes to sport. I grew up pretty close to the Hobbit Shire lol. Don’t get me wrong - crap is cheaper than good food here, too. It just seemed that things were more extreme in the US. Mind you, I’ve only spent time in 2 places and there is much more I’d like to see and experience over there. Never been to England or anywhere else… Want to travel more one day. Nothing like travel to get a sense of what is distinctive about where you are from.
Cal - not PMSing. Now should be PB time. My head really isn’t in the game this week, though. Decided to take a deload on psychological grounds. MIght be fighting off illness since the weather has started to turn more wintery and I’ve had a serious change in schedule with new work commitments. Eating much better than I was… But it is possible that I’m not eating enough / eating regularly enough. I’ll get some protein powder soon and restart my multivitamins.
vege - thanks. the ‘assertiveness drills’ are a lot of work for me. Have a bad habit of sucking things up until I kind of explode in unhelpful ways so working really hard on appropriate assertiveness.
Nikki, Nadia - Yeah, I have made some progress Tend just to focus on the bad…
kpsnap - Yes, people encroach on my personal space. Not all, but some. I think they broadly come in two kinds: The genuinely well intentioned friendly ones and the ones who see me as a solitary target to practice ‘game’ or something equally stupid on. The first probably don’t realize they are being annoying, the second seem to think my being annoyed constitutes progress for them.
I bet if I lifted 1/3 of what you lift they would leave me alone.
I’m getting a better sense of the times that various people from the club are training this semester, so I’ll schedule in my serious sessions for when they are around. Need one of them to unlock the cabinet so I can use the women’s bar, anyway, so problem solved. Not sure what magical thing I need to do in order to be trusted with a key… Probably lift significantly more and / or be trusted to assert myself to random gym douche-bags. Sigh.
Beast - glad you liked it. welcome
Masch - thanks for your support. i suspect given history… it is likely that i’ll get to play with 35kg once and then the bar won’t play happily for a few months… i’ve been waiting for something magical to happen… some break-through. starting to think now that there won’t be a break-through. just the steady one forward - two back thing. or sometimes the other way around lol.
TRAINING:
Taking a deload.
Took my shoes in to get altered. I have faith that the Cobbler understands what I’m needing / wanting - but he also said it was a big job and he would do his best… He is basically going to try and build up a higher rise between heel-toe by layering very hard rubber. The taper is what is tricky. I think he is going to try and cut the layers with a bit of a taper at the end… See how it goes, anyway. Probably got ripped off on the price, but I guess it is a bit of a labor of love to get it smooth rather than stepped.
I think they used to make the shoes with layers of leather. He suggested that to start with, but I guess that would be even more labor intensive… Probably the least labor intensive would be to get someone who works with wood to do it… But then it needs to be shoe shaped… Probably a carpenter would have been an idea… I don’t know. Anyway…
This has been built up to mythic proportions. Club people are expecting my lifts to go up quite a lot (they reckon the main reason for my misses is because I’m lifting with my heels in effect bolted to the plates / platform). I… Am a bit wary… That my performance will be disappointing… That my performance will be non-existent as I simply might not be able to squat on them at all. I’m scared. Whatever… Get them back next Friday. Sneakers until then.
just brought a pair of 2.5kg training bumpers. enough of this nonsense.
yeah! in between wts make a world of difference! are you getting those for that reason? if not then , word ! new wts for toys re great too!
bleh! sorry your still feeling not 100% training wise…it’ll come,you have put in previous effort and strides in your training tool box already, it’ll be there waiting when you get back on track.
It’s a good idea to time your workouts around the other serious lifters. You can probably learn a lot from them if they are amenable.
brute - i’m getting them because i’m tired of having the dinky metal plates set up on wooden blocks / reebok stepper to set the proper height. the training plates are the right height and they are 2.5kg each - which means i can take the women’s bar + training plates to be equivalent to a regular 20kg bar (that will stop me thinking I’m lifting more than I’m actually lifting).
they are hard plastic resin rather than rubber so aren’t really designed to be dropped, though. i’m hoping that if dropped they will protect the bar better than the little metal plates do. training with a women’s Eleiko competition bar which is too good for me in the sense that i risk bending it if i drop it / if it comes down hard without proper bumper plates on it. it still spins fine but it isn’t perfectly straight anymore 
can’t afford to replace the bar at this stage, but i can donate some training plates to the club in case other people want to learn in the future.
kpsnap - yeah, i do learn a lot from them. am sure to train with them 3/4 times a week. need to schedule in my squats for when they are around, though, because i’ll feel some peer pressure to get 'em done. also good for feedback on when I need to man up vs when i need to groove technique. also have more luck going for maxes since i feel less encroached on by others when they are around.
TRAINING:
Deload (aka: leave the heavy weights alone)
TOE REHAB:
If I’m going to jerk I need to be able to (sort of) lunge with the weight resting comfortably on the ball of my back foot. SInce my toes are claw / mallet / hammer shaped I’m going to need to get them lying out flat and eventually being able to bend back so the weight can rest on the ball of my foot (rather than being prevented by rigid toes jamming painfully into the floor which is what is happening at present). May as well sort out both for symmetry.
Spent 1 1/2 hours manually pulling my toes out straight and trying to pull them out straight with dorsiflexion. Pulling them in a mexican wave. Same stuff trying to get them to move without being pulled. Trying to balance on the ball of my feet comfortably. Played a bit with the women’s bar standing on a fairly thin gym mat (floor a bit hard on my toes). Hang power snatches. Trying to get comfortable extension / stomp with comfortable landing with ankles softening the impact.
Brought some Vibrams. Wore them home from the gym. Usually takes 15 minutes. Took me 25. Trying to fan out my toes. Walking slowly trying to shift the weight through the balls of my feet.
WOW. Better range of motion than I’ve had since my injuries. Muscular DOMS setting in already. Took my fish oil / glucosamine and (special occasion) an anti-inflammatory. Think I’ll have trouble standing / walking tomorrow. I can do this, though. Went through a lesser version getting hip range of motion to sit in a relaxed asian squat without feeling like my hips were full of broken glass (that took me 3 frigging months). Feet will get good enough to jerk properly. Even if it takes me the rest of the year.
Damn that toe rehab. Hope you can walk today! ANd I love your positive attitude.
Strangely enough, I’m also in toe rehab for weak extensors/flexors. Doing the wave with my toes in sympathy!