milo… i drink a lot of that, too. i mean a LOT. go through a big tub a week. it is kind of sort of chocolate milk. dunno if you guys get it. use about 3 tablespoons per cup…
barley probably bad. but whatever…
sorry. just feeling pretty demoralized today about my sucky mechanics. i really did pick the wrong sport. but that is probably why i chose it. that song is fairly appropriate pp. there is a fine line.
Hey it must be the season of re-evaluating goals and such.
For me it is the job/career stuff right now, I guess for you it sounds like it’s the gym stuff.
With my overwhelming things I just make my goals really small to get me through.
For me the small goal is not what career or something big like that but what job am I qualified and do I want to do right now and what do I need to do to get it right now. I’m basically thinking about what I can do this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Maybe think about a small mobility or strength goal you can achieve next week and not worry about the long run. Just worry about next week.
Wow! after catching up with your log, I can only say that I miss O-lifting like a dead sister.
Anyways, first off, I have to say, your snatch is a thing of beauty! It looks really, REALLY good to me. I love watching a snatch and seeing the weights go up and then they stay at precisely the same height as the lifter drops under. So be-u-tiful.
Your analysis of your lift is beyond impressive. You amaze me with how kinesthetically aware you are. And I think this will definitely benefit you in the long run, especially while you run the RSR program and are taking time off from lifting Oly. When I sprained my shoulder I did a lot of peripheral homework - reading logs and watching Oly vids, stretching and correcting form with the stick or empty bar, and when I got back in it, i feel I was able to progress much faster than if I had continued with repetitions of brute force. I hope you find the same!
Also, I understand that getting the form down, being mobile and flexible are highly important, but don’t get hung up on this. Maybe I’m just a bit of an underachiever, but I say just fucking lift, Lex!! There are world champ lifters that have their own weirdo ways of lifting because of the ways their bodies are built. I’m sure they try to snatch as correctly as possible, but hey, sometimes you just got to get the bar up! I know you’ll find a nice balance of fine tuning the lifts and muscling things up, tho, so i’m not too worried.
And who says you can’t go to the Olympics!! Dream big, mama 
Also, yes, please continue to eat 1 whole rotiserie chicken after your training. Preferably with your hands and on a park bench - snarling at passersby is always a nice touch.
Keep up the good work madam!
This is a baconator :=) Well, the marketing version–the real thing looks a lot greasier 
[quote]Mascherano wrote:
Keep up the good work madam![/quote]
x2 to everything Masch just said! Very well said.
I wish you had some people to lift with. The one session I had with a club was so encouraging and they would tell you what Masch just said. Is there another club with a good coach you could try?
Also, don’t lose sight of your incredible progress! I’ve had some bad sessions lately and I’m a bit demoralized too so I shouldn’t talk. Lifting on your own makes it harder to pull out of a funk for sure. But with that in mind think of how great you’re doing lifting by yourself. From what I’m hearing from the people I’ve met recently is that figuring this stuff out on your own is very impressive and something to be proud of. You even have some additional challenges and you still have a great snatch technique and this is not something most people can do on their own.
alexus-whenever i’m gone for a couple days in here I feel like I’ve missed so much! I would love to get in your brain and just shake it free! I think it is great that you can be so aware of your body and it’s strengths/weaknesses, but like Masch said-just get in there and fucking lift! I am the same way, and cerebral gals like us need to not let our brains hold us back and just let it loose once in a while (you’re not a capricorn, are you?). And as you said, remember why you started this in the first place. Your movements are truly beautiful, I strongly disagree that you chose the wrong sport.
And back from last week-I backpacked through NZ/OZ a couple years ago and fell head over heals for NZ—I am green with envy that is your homeland! Sigh, I am doing everything in my will to get back there. Have some milo and tim tams (mmmmmm, tim tams…) for me and get to feeling better.
[quote]Mascherano wrote:
You amaze me with how kinesthetically aware you are.[/quote]
I agree. But I think you are absolutely obsessing about minutiae. Your form looks pretty damn good. Your mobility . . . how can you not be pleased with it? Don’t forget to enjoy the journey instead of getting wallowed down in the tiny imperfections.
Also, you said that your wrist measurement is 9.5 cm. That’s impossible. I have extremely small bones and that just cannot be right.
I’ve decided squating is a lifetime learning process - kinda like mariage. There are good times and not so good times but everyday you learn a little more.
I’ve been relearning since december 2010 and it’s still not perfect and I am no where near as analytical as you.
Don’t lose track of the joy
Can’t say anything new except that I agree with all of the above. But I think feeling demoralised (once in a blue moon, mind you) is part of the process about this whole personal growth thing. You’re a little spitfire, you’ll move on from it and be stronger for it.
Alexus: Sorry you’re feeling down. Progress with skill training can be difficult to see at times. I feel that with the gymnastics. I’m working on trying to get my Backhandspring on beam back, but first I have to perfect it on floor.
I had this idea to make a video of my progression so I’ve been filming 1 backhandspring every day I train them. And you know what-- 3 months later I can’t see any progress. But, I know that’s not possible. It will come. Like the sunset. Have you watched one lately? After a certain point that sucker just sinks. Skill training is like that too. Keep plugging away.
Charlie - feeling a bit better now. with my goals… i think it is about remembering what my goals are, if that makes sense. sometimes i get distracted by other things and forget.
Masch - thanks. any insight i have into my form issues is because of feedback i’ve got from this site so cool that people can teach me to lift via the internet from all around the world. i’m sure i would have given up this whole enterprise long ago if it wasn’t for that.
i hear what you are saying about the stick and the bar. that is one of the things i’m remembering.
PR’s come not after many sessions of attacking them directly…
They come after many sessions of my fussing over positions and form with the stick and the bar.
If I attack them directly my form turns to crap and my body kind of stiffens up to protect itself.
If i fuss over positions and form with light weights then sometimes I can’t see what to do to improve…
So I add weight and things keep feeling good until… I’m not strong enough to stand up the catch / squat.
There is a time to just lift. And there is a time to fuss. I think I’m starting to get a sense of what I need to do. It isn’t what I want to do, but I think I’m starting to learn what one is good for me right now.
Debra - wow that burger looks awesome! A monster version of the bacon and egg rolls I get sometimes. So glad that you got to train with some club people. Unfortunately… I don’t have that option. There are a few other Olympic Lifters in my gym… I talk to them a bit sometimes… Not sure that we are on the same page with respect to what we are aiming to do, though. And… Well… I think one of them (at least) has some issues with my being a girl… Or something. I’m okay about this being ‘me time’.
Lula - mmm tim tams. they are indeed a wonderful thing thanks.
Snap - it is just my ankle and toe mobility that bothers me. i can’t seem to take pics (photobooth seems to have vanished). at some point in the near future i’ll take a vid of me measuring my wrist. maybe i’m doing it wrong or something… (i probably am because i tend to suck at things like that lol and the measurement does indeed sound crazy).
nimain - the joy yeah… i think i’m finding it again. thank you. it has been interesting for me to follow along your squat learnings. you have indeed improved a lot!
techno - thanks. yep. just a bit of a phase. i think it was coming from my being used to having a deload after about 4 weeks. but RSR says no i don’t get a deload until after 6 weeks. i have had a few more days off from the gym than usual. and over the past few days have been focusing a lot on mobility. feeling much better for it.
nadia - yep. that is exactly how i feel about my snatch vids. not much progress. of course i think there is progress in both of our cases… but the visible outward signs of it can be slow sometimes. still… i guess that is part of what we like about the whole business, huh. wouldn’t mean terribly much if it wasn’t freaking hard.
TRAINING:
yesterday.
eva and ball rolling. ankle stretching etc.
play with the bar. trying to get positions as good as possible.
feeling much smoother for the mobility work i did on Sunday.
hands were feeling very tender and things not going so well because they hurt so much.
someone loaned me his straps.
i’m not very co-ordinated with them. took a long time to set them up.
just played up to 30kg (triples) getting used to straps. i really like them. made it possible to train with munted hands, basically.
RSR base (6x2 @ 80% / 36kg)
GHR 5x5 (stick assist)
today.
play with snatches up to 38kg. not finishing the pull properly.
backed off and waved up to 38kg again. a little better.
then some drills with the bar - much better.
thought of debra’s ‘pull the bar to your belly button’ and that really seemed to help
and masch’s ‘monkey arms’, too
chin ups 5x1 (x2)
pressing / push-pressing etc. worked up to a single jerk at 40kg. need to do more of these (work toe mobility and suck it up and do 'em)
tomorrow… work. then i’ll see how i feel about hitting RSR 3x3 @ 95%. i suspect i can possibly do it :-/
RSR 3x3 @ 42.5kg (95%)
1x3
1 - fail
1 - fail
fail
dammit.
2x3 @ 40kg.
hmm…
i think i should be able to get this. know i can do 40kg for 6x3 before i start failing…
but on the other hand 42.5kg is my reliable training max… so i guess i did well to get it for a triple…
didn’t plug that into the RSR as my max because I did get 45kg once, though. and if i plugged in 42.5kg as my max it would have been 6 weeks to an old max (45kg is 105% of 42.5kg). aargh.
will do the base workout next time. then try repeating this session early next week.
Alexus: I don’t know what advice to give you with that RSR that you’re doing. Sounds grueling. Hang in there. You gotta trust the program… none of that “I suspect I can possibly do that.” You have to believe that you can do the next progression because you made the previous one.
How many more weeks is the program?
alexus, I’m glad you are feeling somewhat better about your lifting. We all go through the demoralized stage, but the commitment to lift means nothing will stop us. Even our damned selves.
Keep on, keepin’ on!
I had a similar experience a while back of being able to do one weight for 5 reps, but not being able to do five pounds more for any. I think it was definitely more of a mental block and was able to break through it by resetting the weight, doing 5-3-1 for two months, and then by e time I was attempting the weight again, I was able to do not only one, but five reps with it.
I’m with Mainie, don’t lose track of the joy.
Not a damn reason to do what we do anymore when we can’t get excited to train upon waking in the morning.
RE: Snap’s comment about the wrist.
She was saying that your wrist can’t possibly be 9.5 CENTIMETERS.
You meant inches. 9.5 centimeters isn’t possible for a fetus in the womb =)
[quote]Nikki9591 wrote:
RE: Snap’s comment about the wrist.
She was saying that your wrist can’t possibly be 9.5 CENTIMETERS.
You meant inches. 9.5 centimeters isn’t possible for a fetus in the womb =)[/quote]
I have extremely small wrists. Less than 5.5 inches. 9.5 cm equates to 3.7 inches.
So sorry about the fails on the RSR. I’ve had that happen on Smolov, which is a similar type of high-frequency squat program. What’s your next step?
I’m sorry the picture quality sucks. I can definately get the 60 and 70cm marks lined up. If I angle the tape measure straight there is half a mark (half a cm to spare). Maybe the tape is a funny tape because it is gym ball tape? Maybe the cm marks are off because it is measuring… diameter… or circumference… or something… I dunno. It has gotta be that though, huh.
today. mobility stuff.
playing with snatches
GHR 5x5 (vid - stick assisted on the cable row machine). probably should make an effort to go all the way down and try not to hyperextend spine.
plank 1x60sec @20kg
2x60sec @25kg.
vid is of the last one. need to squeeze glutes more and push up with my upper back. not as picture perfect as i had supposed.
i will get a whole heap of exam grading tomorrow that has to be done for monday morning. probably… won’t get the time to hit the gym over the weekend. i think… on Monday (the next time i get in) i’ll try the RSR base again (6x2@36kg / 80%) and then on Wednesday I’ll have another go at the 3x3. I think it is fairly psychological. I yelled a lot getting up each rep of the triple. Then someone came in and I got self-conscious with the second set. Did fight with it - but without the yell I couldn’t get it moving.
If I get it on Wednesday then on with the RSR as planned (base, 2x2@100% HA!!!, base, NEW MAX!!).
If I don’t get it on Wednesday then I’ll reassess things.
Once I’m done with this…
I’m very tempted to run the first half (volume increase same weight) with a tiny bit more weight than last time. I have made gains from the program. Even if I can’t get the work days in from now on I certainly don’t regret doing this program. I’m a LOT more confident with 36kg (80% a very ambitious max) than I was. I’d like to run it again with 37.5kg. Then maybe with 40kg… Will see…