Alexus: Uggh. Sorry about your back. Hope it continues to improve quickly.
The back gets soreness from workouts just like every other muscle, it’ll get better. I get that back tension too from heavy weight on my back, OH pressing and such, but it’s a different feeling from actual back pain.
While I hate eggs, I actually like them boiled. Like you said, yum.
[quote]alexus wrote:
figured that my back (not as bad as yesterday but a bit overtrained) is because of all the max push-pressing i’ve been doing. when i max i lean back and use my spinal erectors for stability. lower weights / higher reps i get better abdominal activation. forget that while you can max snatch and clean and jerk every day other things need to be maxed a bit more cautiously. no push pressing today and tomorrow and we’ll see how i do on saturday.
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I generally find that my lower back, which doesn’t like it when I grind out reps overhead, doesn’t mind push presses. However as my push presses get heavier and heavier they invariably get slower and thereby longer (timewise) and start to bother my back again, so I have to lower the weight a bit and aim for speed.
Have your push presses got heavier and slower? could be the reason.
smart about the fish oil.
canned fish may also be a life saver for you. I eat tuna, salmon and sardines many times a week. cottage cheese is also a quick protein fix.
you can also boil chicken breast and it cold later in a salade or on its own.
i certainly do eat a lot of canned tuna and salmon and mackerel, nimain 
will see about cooking up chicken (as a treat i buy a whole cooked chicken - but would be cheaper cooking it up myself). love chicken in salads. trying to see about cottage cheese. need some kind of blender, i think, because i can’t tolerate the texture even though i like the taste.
my back turns out to be injured in a weird way… the injury is inflammed disks or something like that. the good news is that if i really be sure and hold my lumbar arch very tightly indeed (use the muscles, spare the joints) it doesn’t hurt at all. so… a self-correcting injury. not so good for snatching / cleaning because i’m not reliably hitting that bottom position tightly. good to have learned that, though. front loaded plate squats / goblet squats are fine. wall squats are a little dodgey, too - which is also good for me to have learned. so… shame about the timing, but the very best kind of injury to have aside from that. we have dumbbells up to 55kg (well over my squat max) so i’ll hammer the goblet squats after the comp and try and grease the groove of a nice tight squat.
hoping that i’ll be able to match my current PB’s tomorrow (snatch 33.5kg, clean and push-press 42.5kg). i’ll try not to be too upset if i don’t, though, given the circumstances. have learned a lot because of this comp, anyway. learned that i don’t know how to prepare / build up to peak for a comp properly. good to know. only way is onwards and upwards from here.
i’ll see about getting a weightlifting belt, too. i think the main problem with my back is that my erectors are stronger than other things like abs - so i need to work on bringing up other things so i use my back less. make use of a belt to help prevent injury for max effort presses and deadlifts etc where i think i always will inevitably rely on it given that it is stronger for me to use it.
trouble was i started maxing out push-presses the way i max out cleans and snatches. doing them every day and working up to a single that i missed x2 before calling it a day. have learned that you can’t train push-presses like cleans and snatches. very heavy grind for the back, indeed. i’d been doing slow negatives, too, to help things get stronger. oopsie.
TRAINING: squat mobility just trying to get it comfortable.
comp tomorrow :-/
Good luck at your competition Saturday.
good luck with the comp
alexus, I hope you are feeling improved and can hit your comp hard! A belt is a truly excellent idea.
BTW, I take the fish oil capsules but could never stomach the idea of a liquid. Better the capsules than nothing.
I hope things are feeling better for you today. Good luck with the comp!
You’re right alexus, no need to get disappointed over anything. You didn’t decide to do the comp until last minute really, so there’s only room for improvement. You’ll learn more next time around, just have fun, do your best and don’t hurt your back =)
Competition! Hope you have a great time!
I didn’t know you were competing. Good luck!
fairly informal club comp so as many lifts as you want, 2 misses and you are out, 5 minutes between lifts.
weighed in at 61.something negligable kg (under 63kg). after 1 cup of coffee a couple hours prior.
snatch 32.5kg. missed 33.5kg x2.
clean and overhead (push-press) 40kg. missed 42.5kg x2.
sinclair: 92.031
% of world record: 28.320 (heh)
warm up
40 minutes EVA / softball rolling / hip flexor and quad stretching (I think any loss in strength is outweighed by gaining confidence in my mobility). worked up to my attempts faster than i would have if left to my own devices (would have done a couple more lifts to have more confidence in my technique). the latter was probably a mistake.
snatch.
didn’t feel amped up the way i do on a good day in training. put my i-pod on after the first miss at 33.5kg but it was probably a mistake to have left that till then. forgot to eat until after the snatches were done, too, oops (though took stuff to make coffee and had quite a lot of that).
not aggressive enough so didn’t finish the pull properly. first one didn’t feel like it was worth trying to get under, second one was lost forwards in the catch.
clean and overhead (push-press)
easy powerclean so this was a test of my push-press, really. wasn’t willing to lean back hard to get the 42.5kg push-press locked out. back was doing okay but i don’t want to injure it properly. should have jumped to 41kg rather than 42.5kg. oh well.
feeling a bit blah. didn’t get my training bests. in a way thinking that competition isn’t for me. guess the main thing is that i didn’t really feel ready for this. i want to bring my squat up and stop powercleaning. i want to work on my toe rehab and learn to jerk and stop push-pressing. i am pretty happy with the snatch, though. and learned some stuff about how to get that better for comp (re: hyping myself up better).
they are going to have another comp in 3 months. i’ll focus on technique and the above-mentioned stuff and see how i go next time…
Heya!!! Nice work on the comp girl! I understand that you don’t think you were ready, but let’s face it, no matter how good you get, you’ll probably never truly feel “ready”. So just think of this as just another stepping stone to progress, persistence, and the whole journey that is before you.
Anyways, you got balls enough to compete, and that says it all. Plus who we kidding bitch, you got a 32.5k snatch and a 40g powerclean/PP - you’re a rock star in my book
When you gonna start split jerking?
Can’t wait to see how you do on the next comp! Don’t forget to film it!! Imagine how awesome it will be to look back and see how much you’ve progressed.
[quote]Mascherano wrote:
you got balls enough to compete, and that says it all.
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x2
Everybody’s heard the old adage about either being in the arena, or being in the stands watching the people that are in the arena. You’ve chosen to be one of the fighters in the arena. Good choice and great job!
Great job.
I know how disappointing it is to not hit your training PRs. But don’t despair.
Major kudos for participating. It takes courage. And for that reason alone you should feel very, very proud of your efforts.
Balls for sure! I’m with the others. You have major reasons to be proud as hell.
yes, i know mirrors are bad - i’ll stop with them now
Super job for just DOING the comp. Looks like you were having fun. Love the vids. You have some long legs girlfriend!
Congrats and hope you decide to do some more comps in the future.
…and learned some stuff about how to get that better for comp (re: hyping myself up better).
This is where it’s at. It’s worth it if you are learning something.
Good job for just getting out there.
Nobody is ever proud of the stuff they DIDN’T do.
You look really graceful to me doing your OLY moves. I love to see the video.
Oh, and catching up from a page back…I eat TONS of boiled egg whites. 5 whites is 20 grams of pro, with only 80 cals. Can’t beat that.