That’s a good mentality, and remember that competitions are all personal, and being YOUR best. Even for my comp, it’s about me being the best that I’VE ever been, not to beat out another woman.
I love to read your training, it has a lot of thought behind it. I can tell that you learn about yourself with each session and that’s most important.
LOL hip thrusts can be awkward. Hey, whatever gets you awesome glutes and helps hip drive, hmm?
THURSDAY
WICKED hamstring DOMS from the hang / second position work yesterday. that means I’m doing it more right 
Overhead Squats: 20kg bar 5x5. Trying to be more upright. That involves me using my legs in a way they would prefer not to (tempting to take the tension off them by sitting my butt back more, losing my lumbar curve, and resting my belly on my thighs a bit while in the hole). aargh. practice, practice, practice. legs will get stronger, by gee.
Snatch Technique: 20kg bar. Triples. Much the same as yesterday. Feeling a bit better technique-wise. Some things are starting to click that never clicked before. Getting from the floor to 2nd position / the hang. Getting hip drive from the hang. Having a wider grip on the bar (thanks Carl!) is helping a lot with me getting the feel for proper hip drive. Need to practice that so I don’t under drive (not finish the pull) or over drive (ow!).
22.5kg - felt pretty good. If I try and get myself under the bar I don’t pull it properly. So… I think I best not try and get under the bar. For now, anyway.
Clean Technique: 20kg bar - worked up to 35kg. This is going to take some figuring… Not sure if my back is meant to be horizontal like in the snatch or not… Felt sorta okayish.
Jerk Practice: 20kg bar. okayish
Chin Ups: 10x1. Tippytoes start, really. a little bit of wall climbing with my legs.
AMT: 20min.
Concept II: 500m.
And now I need to sleep…
…oh my god!! :& <–grr face!!
I can actually see and feel your frustration of getting that form PERFECT!! I read your entry and i can feel it! oh my!! :{ so frustrating!!! That is hard–and Snap’s right on it about freaking oly stuff being so form dependent or it can go real bad quick.
I have to give you props for sticking with this. It takes a major disciple–stuff that i myself have trouble giving to things that i do for pure pleasure…hang in there is the only lame condolence or comment i have! you are an inspiration!
I’ve always translated doms in the right places as a good sign.
keep fighting alexus, your determination will pay off.
[quote]alexus wrote:
I’m starting to think that without lifting 6x a day for, like, 5 years, this may well apply:
[/quote]
HAHAH! I think this all the time! Last night I asked one of the more experienced lifters about this and she basically said that when she started she was practicing about 3 days a week, and this was 3.5 yrs ago. Now she has impeccable form and puts up serious weight. So, yeah, it’ll happen…eventually. HAHA!
I’m so glad that we share the same frustrations Alexus. You have no idea what it means to me to know that its not just me - it really is so incredibly frustrating!
I will say this, you are very lucky to at least be able to pin-point your weaknesses. I on the other hand, don’t really know exactly where my form breaks down. Rather, I just know that there’s something amiss in like 5 different places on the pull, starting from the 1st part to catching. UGH! I guess I just don’t have that mind/body connection…who knows. And I have a coach btw…so yeah.
Anyways, i think its great that you’re still doing the comp! just do the best you can with the best form you got - and i agree when it comes to Oly, numbers are meaningless if you’re muscling the bar up.
You’re doing great girlie! Keep at it!
Nikki - yeah, thats right, it is about being MY best. i’ve been working hard to be able to do the lifts (i didn’t know whether it would be possible for me). so this can be a celebration of that. once that is done i’ll move my goal to being able to do the lifts better.
Brute - sometimes technique work does indeed get me down. don’t feel like proper training. othertimes… technique work feels kinda zen, though. especially if i get some alone time in the weight room, i can just kinda be for a while (instead of being really caught up in my head). i guess i do love it or i wouldn’t be doing it. do need to remind myself to keep the joy when things feel frustrating, though, as they do at times.
nimain - hamstrings are so sore i can hardly sit down! it is good because it means i’m using them more how i’m supposed to be. also helps me feel better about not deadlifting as frequently since i know this stuff is giving me a good hamstring workout now.
Masch - great to hear about people picking it up well. also kinda great to hear that it took them some time as well (and they didn’t annoyingly just kinda do it all automatic). with respect to my weaknesses… we have a new guy at training and he has been offering me some comments. some of them are reminders of things i used to do wrong then worked on and got right before regressing… some of them are different ways of communicating the same point that others have been trying to communicate to me for a while. similarly, getting different people trying to explain things to me on these boards (and offering cues to think of) really has helped me a lot. i’m sure there are about a billion other things i’m doing wrong that i’m not even aware of (yet!). but… its the process or the journey, i guess.
FRIDAY:
Back Squats 15kg bar 5x5.
Tight hip flexors today. Working hard on holding hard lumbar arch and pushing hips forwards to rise. Felt like hard work. Doesn’t help that there isn’t any air con and I was making a little sweat pool. I’m turning into a bit of a grunter… It really does seem to help.
Snatch Technique 15kg bar triples, couple waves up to 22.5kg
Position work again. Hamstrings really stiff and sore from the last couple days but thought it was important to get them working a bit. I think a bit better than yesterday… I’ll take that.
Clean Technique 15kg up to 30kg
Few triples. Felt okay… Couldn’t think of how to improve them at any rate. So:
Squat Clean 35kg 5x1
Bailed on these (was going to do 10x1) when I realized my lumbar spine was feeling a bit achy (suspect it is because I’m not getting a hard lumbar arch in the hole). I think it is wise for me to stop doing these until my squat motor program is better.
Jerk Practice. Up to 30kg. Feet feeling a bit sore at this point.
Adaptive Motion Trainer 30 minutes. I’ll take that. Want to get more distance in the same amount of time but 30 minutes daily is plenty, I think.
Bailed on rowing since I’d like to get better at the technique and that ain’t happening at the end of my training.
Looking forwards to Bodybalance and some serious mobility work / stretching tomorrow. Realized that the king pigeon pose I’ve been trying to cram myself into is simply too advanced. It isn’t helping my flexors relax. Need gentler more relaxing stretches and to really take some patient time with them. Will start this tomorrow (found some gentler stuff to be doing).
that’s a good way to think about it–the form training. no pressure just movement, zen instead of zero. very good idea!
Grunting always, always & I mean always helps
I don’t think of myself as a grunter, but heavy squats, cleans, and sometimes the recovery from a snatch force them out of me.
I learned to be more vocal in the gym a little while ago, and it is a great help. And it’s fun.
grunt ARGH-UGH!
Heehee
But yes, it does help for some reason. I guess it takes a lot of energy to keep those kinds of things in?
I also read a statistic saying that women barely grunt in the gym, and of course men grunt a lot.
And I don’t like to be a statistic.
It’s awesome that you’re sticking with the BodyBalance. It’s admirable that you stick to everything you do, and commit 110%. Awesome.
Brute - I went to this seminar once where some dude was talking about swarming / non-swarming locusts (thought to be two different species). He got graduate students to be on shifts in order to stroke the back legs of the non-social locusts with teeny tiny paint brushes every hour. This resulted in the non-social locusts turning social (they would swarm) - they were two different variants of the same species.
Anyhoo… Point was the grad students described brushing the locusts legs as ‘zenlike in its tedium’. I kinda like that. I feel like that about technique work a lot. I stop thinking and just be… It is nice for me, yeah.
Just little grunts. Or maybe not so little. My i-pod is up pretty loud so I can’t hear me lol. Started as a short forceful exhale on the way out the hole but adding a little noise seems to help… Helps with hip drive on pulls, too, I reckon. I’ll try and keep it down.
TUESDAY:
HIP THRUSTS: First time I’ve tried them. 10kg 1x10 easy. 15kg 1x8 starting to work, but still easy. 20kg 1x8 - felt really awkward. Need to watch kimba again… Tried a 20kg dumbbell but too unwieldy…
SMITH KICKBACKS: 20kg 1x8, 25kg 2x8. Okay… Think I’m using my back a little and I shouldn’t be…
OVERHEAD SQUATS: 20kg 2x5, 22.5kg 1x5, 25kg 1x5, 22.5kg 1x5. Okay. Should increase the weight on these.
Mini Circuit-Like Thing: x3
CHIN-UPS: 5x1
PUSH-UPS: 1x5
JERKS: 1x5
INVERTED ROWS: 1x5
AMT: 30 min.
My hip flexors are super tight and cranky. If I lie on my stomach and try and grab my ankle to pull it to my butt my flexors really don’t like that. They don’t like my leg to lie flat, actually (preferring to bring it forward). Having trouble crossing my legs behind me for chins because of my hip flexors… Something needs to be done about this…
Lumbar spine is a bit cranky too. I think these are because of my squat work. Learning to have better control over my pelvis. Learning to arch my lumbar region (this actually feels a bit odd - maybe because of old fracture?) I think last time I hurt my back I basically totally left it alone… Then never rehabbed it back into shape properly. That is about when I stopped with the lumbar arch on squats. Sigh.
I figure squatting is the best rehab now that I know how it feels when I’m doing it right. It really is going to take some time, though… Annoyed with the crappy little weights… But sucking it up for now.
PROGRAM: I need one. Got to write one up over the next few days. I’ve been avoiding the exercises I should be doing because they are the ones I don’t much feel like doing.
Had one day of not smoking. Felt better to breathe… And then felt worse to breathe (as the toxins start to circulate). I need to time quitting since I get seriously ill with each serious quit (worst about 2-3 weeks in).
Heat is really getting to me… Lethargic…
I sympathise about the hip flexors. Check out Mobility WOD: http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/
There are lots of hip mobility workouts on there.
[quote]alexus wrote:
Brute - I went to this seminar once where some dude was talking about swarming / non-swarming locusts (thought to be two different species). He got graduate students to be on shifts in order to stroke the back legs of the non-social locusts with teeny tiny paint brushes every hour. This resulted in the non-social locusts turning social (they would swarm) - they were two different variants of the same species.
Anyhoo… Point was the grad students described brushing the locusts legs as ‘zenlike in its tedium’. I kinda like that. I feel like that about technique work a lot. I stop thinking and just be… It is nice for me, yeah.
!! whoa!! 
right on!
no smoking!! hurray!! !!!
you can come train here with me in Denver and avoid that damm heat. 8-10 inches of snow around here :{ I keep forgetting you’re in Australia!
Routing for you on the no smoking kick! And do your mobility work!
Are you anemic?
If so, I definetely feel your pain… and I moved to FL of all place
Great training, and try to push through with the no smoking.
If it’s worse at 2-3 weeks, it can only get better.
Locust stroking.
Figured out why my lumbar spine is achy: Stupidity. The green bumpers bounce pretty high off the platform (especially on the women’s bar) and I got into a bad habit of catching it then lowering it in a speed ‘this is how you lower a deadlift if you hate your back’ fashion. At least I figured it out before I seriously injured it.
Sorry the vid is so close again but it is hard to figure how to set things up so I’m not hogging half the gym. Yes, I swear it really is a gym even though it looks a bit like a jail in the vid lol. Today:
Having some problems figuring out my grip. Are you supposed to hook it into your fingers for the pull and then let it fall into the crook of your thumb and finger for the catch? Been having trouble with it pinching the skin in my fingers when I catch and I don’t think I’m rolling my wrists back properly (if that is in fact what one is supposed to to).
Generally: Thought I was smoother at gaining momentum than the vid is showing. Guess I need to work on that. I’ve been trying to drive my hips through properly but this is taking some figuring… It feels to me that when I do that (even though I’m not hitting the bar hard) I’m getting an arch in the bar path. But maybe unrelated… Not sure.
Thanks for the link Cal, n8tive mentioned it to me before - but I have yet to seriously start doing it. Now is indeed the time, though.
I’d love to go to Denver, since I’ve never been. Can’t imagine snow right now, but seems surely wonderful from this end.
Thanks nadia - the smoking thing is going to take time. sigh. So true about it only getting better… First time I quit (3 months) part of why I started again was that things didn’t feel psychologically right, though. Apparently… It just takes more time than that even. Bit of a shock to my system since I’ve been on around 30 a day for around 20 years now. Still, that makes it only even more important that I quit. The difference to my conditioning is phenomenal.
I might actually be a little anemic. Should start back on my multi-vit that I needed to stop for medication interaction… Green leafy stuff…
I’m not entirely sure I remember the story right kpsnap - but ‘zenlike in its tedium’ struck me as kinda cool. Maybe it is about just being in the moment doing something instead of going round in circles in your head trying (in my case unsuccessfully) to figure stuff out… The grad students probably didn’t appreciate it as such… But there is something appealing to me about doing something (stroking locusts even) and feeling like a job well done when you walk away. Work for me usually involves completely undoing everything I did the previous day. Urgh.
My recommendation: More back! Meaning make the bar path go back towards you from the beginning. On some of the reps, the bar goes straight up from start to when it passes your knees, but on the others, you can see a slight or sometimes pronounced forward path. Push your knees and butt back and make the bar go where back to where your knees used to be. Your weight should shift back towards your heels as this happens.
Also, try to start with your butt lower and back not so horizontal. The forward motion of the bar after the second pull is not so bad. Violent hip extension makes it somewhat unavoidable. I like how close you keep the bar at the top.
Hey Alexus! Looking good! You’re absolutely improving - great work!
You are great at getting in low when you squat. So jealous! Plus you’re incredibly flexible! Damn you woman!
Carl knows much more than I do, so def listen to him.
I can just add one tip which has helped me keep the bar close to my body - when you hold the bar keep arms loose and turn your and wrists elbows out. Essentially that will help you kind of curl the bar towards you. Not sure if that makes sense and you may already be doing this - its hard to tell since the plate is in the way…i don’t know, maybe someone else can better explain, or even debunk this if I’m wrong.
Also did you see the Tommy Kono vids posted in the Oly forum? Some good tips in there too!
