glad the shoes are giving you renewed energy. Sometimes it’s the little tweaks that get us excited again- although with your feet history this might be more of a big change.
Yay for shoes! I’m still waiting for mine and I think I will be for a while.
Yay for accidental PR! I’ve done that too. It’s awesome 
I think it was a week ago I was doing front squats and felt like I was sucking so badly and couldn’t understand what the problem was then I realized I was mentally expecting my back squat numbers. And I was oh, gee that’s not bad at all! In the past I’ve also tricked myself intentionally by not letting myself count the weight as I put it on and then got past some mental barriers.
Awesome work, you push press a lot more than me.
Motivating me to work on that tomorrow.
Toe rehab FTW! I’m still working on my foot strength too, and gains come slowly.
I was shopping today and saw the New Balance Minimis Trail shoe:
http://www.shopnewbalance.com/newbalanceWT10GG.htm
It has a Vibram sole, but no toe pockets. Very interesting.
HURRAY FOR YOUR SQUAT. So happy to hear that it felt comfortable and natural when you were snatching. Nice to have your shoes back, huh?
go go magic shoes:
lost the vid of all my snatches so tried a couple more attempts at the max for the footage.
IF my math is correct (which it may well not be):
2x PowerClean 32.5kg
2x Clean 30kg
Clean 35kg
Clean & PushPress 35kg
2x Clean and Collapse 37.5kg (heh)
Powerclean & PushPress 37.5kg, 40kg, 41kg (PB!), 42.5kg (PB!), 43.5kg FAIL.
Lex! The snatches and C&Ps look soooo good! Awesome! You’ve come so far - you’ve def surpassed me. lol! You rock woman!
I’ll be interested to hear critique in the Oly thread, because i think they look great!
Good luck on the comp!
awesome vids alexus - nice to see what you are talking about with all those stellar olympic moves.
Alexus: I’m glad those shoes are proving to be worth the wait. The videos are awesome. You are really going for it and I love it!
Nice to see your training in action!!!
can you hop a little during the push press? Haven’t done those in awhile myself…but there FUN!!
If do em at home, I’ll have to be able to ‘clean,’ the weight…
But I really don’t know how to do that properly without muscling it up.
Alexus, you’re looking great!!!
Me and you have the same hip issue in the snatch I think. I was thinking I should hang a weight off my ass to keep them down :0) But seriously apparently a pause at the knees will help that. Also, clean deadlifts can help if they can get you to practice with the correct angle of the back, chest out, slow pulls to get a feel for the form, but if it’s a strength thing then something like the halting deadlift that PB Andy recommended somewhere (Masch’s log?)
http://cathletics.com/exercises/exercise.php?exerciseID=186
I can’t tell if your hips are too high on the clean.
Here’s from Donny Shankles blog:
http://donnyshankle.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-weightlifting-personal-view_14.html
“YOU MUST BEGIN HOW YOU INTEND TO END. Placing the hips low while the back is straight in the start creates neurological memory. I am telling myself through action that the way I begin my pull is how I intend to receive the bar once I change my direction. If the hips are high on the start then the back cannot be forced into as strong a vertical position. Also with the hips high at the start neuro memory brings the hips exactly to the same point once the lifter changes direction during the finish of the pull. The result is 9 out of 10 times the weightlifter leaves the bar out in front or collapses when he or she receives the bar. Bring the hips as low as you can in the â??make readyâ?? command and this will allow you to better receive the bar in the same low position for both the snatch and the clean.”
I gotta say, I am way impressed with your vid lifts. Oh my. Looking super.
I so wish I could do this stuff. I have to admit that I tried to clean a bar yesterday and got some seering bicep pain before I completed the catch. So I stopped. I think it’s in my head. I just don’t trust my shoulder but love living variously through your Oly lifting journey.
[quote]debraD wrote:
I took this sketch of the set from Donny Shankle’s blog too.
http://donnyshankle.blogspot.com/
[/quote]
Thanks Deb, I’ll have to read that.
I realize I def need to get my hips lower…If you think about it, the legs act kinda like a spring. Ugh! I can’t wait to do this again. Its killing me! lol!
i saw the critiques over in Oly (both youse twos!) - very interesting!
Masch, maybe you can still play with a broomstick? =)
Not for keeping hips down but I like these and you don’t even have to be at the gym, except make sure you’re not standing right under the chandelier:
[quote]debraD wrote:
Masch, maybe you can still play with a broomstick? =)
Not for keeping hips down but I like these and you don’t even have to be at the gym, except make sure you’re not standing right under the chandelier:
[/quote]
HA! Actually I’ve been using my beach umbrella pole to do some shoulder dislocates and OH squatting in my living room. I live on the top floor - i doubt my neighbors below would appreciate me doing any dropping etc.
No worries, I plan on easing back into the Oly this week actually 
Slow and steady.
thanks nimain, nadia, MIM. bit disconcerting to hear my strangled poodle sounds, heh. it really does help me lift, though. how do you mean hop while PPing MIM? do you mean use more leg drive?
yes, I think more leg drive…a little jump as you drive the weight up, landing solidly. kinda like when snatching a db? I dunno…
lol
thanks masch. i really am so happy that you are going to keep up with the oly lifting. hope your shoulder feels 110% real soon. thanks snapper. hope you will be joining us at some point. i’ve never had shoulder trouble but my hip trouble leads me to believe that it is a right pain with respect to impacting on quite a lot. thanks for posting the links debra. i do like those drills. i’d rest more between reps, but i do like the drills for what they are trying to teach.
catapult vs spring… dunno… physics is not my strong point.
i’m planning on some broomstick / bar drills tomorrow to try and sort out my positions. side on with mirror so i can see what i’m doing. then trying to learn how it feels to do it right. then gradually adding some weight. however long it takes… have been there done this before, though (with some success, i think) so time to re-do it with my current heel lift situation.
TRAINING:
SNATCH - up to 30kg. positions sucked so went back to triples with the bar up to 25kg. did a bajillion reps and ended up sucking pretty badly. heh. coach dude turned up (first time i’ve seen him since before christmas) and helped remind me about wedging myself under the bar to get my hips down in the starting position. tried with limited success to keep my back angle constant. technique work tomorrow.
CLEAN - up to 35kg. too lazy to stand it up… procrastinating my squats…
FRONT SQUAT - 6x5. clean gets my feet in the stance width they want to be in. squatting from there. just did 15kg (bar) and 20kg. feel like i’m starting to find my natural stance. not sure i can explain this properly… it is like my knees want to do a weird frog thing when i stand the weight up where they actually go out wider than my feet. i’ve seen others do this but can’t find vids at the mo.
realizing that wider stance = more upright torso = more stress on adductors (weaker) = less lumbar curve vs
narrower stance = less upright torso = more stress on hamstrings / glutes (stronger) = harder lumbar curve. making trade-offs…
maybe the rest of the week (2 more sessions) like this before i get back to adding weight.
didn’t do abs. must do abs. wouldn’t be totally surprised if weak abs were playing a role in my not standing the weight up. i don’t crumple forwards but my body might be trying to protect crumpling by not letting me use my legs.
toe stretching etc.
ah, i think i see what you mean MIM. i don’t think i’m getting as much leg drive as i could. still feeling things out with my new ankle flexibility (go go magic shoes). the weights i was using were pretty close to max for me so don’t think i’ll be jumping off the ground with them… am hoping to move to jerks ASAP (once my toes are a bit better) which will mean that I’ll need to drop into a (sorta) lunge pronto after the hip snap / drive.
haven’t really learned to jerk, yet… i think i’m kinda turning the pp into a standing bench press with my tendency to backwards lean lol. (that is why the press component of olympic lifting was removed).