Pulling for strength seem to affect the body a lot.
So the PR shouldn’t even be there, which makes it even more impressive.
Congrats.
Is the biggest goal the 405 pound jerk ?
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Yeah, a 405 pound jerk is the biggest goal of the year. The hierarchy now goes something like:
405 pound jerk (hopefully make it a clean and jerk if I’m right about my pulling strength)>495 front squat>495 clean deadlift>365lbs snatch push press/overhead squat=335 snatch balance>snatch not being trash=getting fast=more muscular.
To be honest the (clean and) jerk is the most ambitious goal for the year. Front squat is probably sitting at around 440 on a fresh/healthy back with how my pause work was going, and I plan on finishing that goal off during the summer time after I finish this pulling work up and deload and finish a preparation block right before the summer time. Front squatting 495 should give me enough legs as a power jerker to jerk 405, but I have to get timing, mobility, and speed under the bar and overhead static strength and all of that lined up together.
It’s hard to balance things in training. Put a lot on and something goes up and you have to pull off on something else or risk injury/joint issues (my hips and back for example can only take so much squatting and pulling at the same time), then you have to worry about that going down. Changes in that effects the lifts positively or negatively and you have to figure out how they are working, etc. Lots of moving pieces, I can see why getting coached is so popular in weightlifting for serious weightlifters.
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Didn’t see that Grizzly thing before. WTF weird stuff and strong dude.
That’s a big goal 405 C&J (the others btw are big ones too)
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Yeah, I have to keep that in mind. I am the type of person to shoot for crazy goals and fail high. It’s better to shoot high and end up pretty high than shoot low and hit your mark.
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3/28/18
clean pull+clean+jerk
265X1, better than when I did 120 a week ago
275X0 couldn’t get under it, back was acting up
225X1
pause snatch
195X1
205X0 same issue, back just wasn’t complying, would’ve tied pause snatch PR except under a lot more fatigue
clean deadlifts (locking out instead of to power position
310X5 for 6 sets
GHRs and GHR abs
25X3, 25X3
25X2, 25X5
25X2, 25X5
So yeah, pulling fatigue (overhead and squats seem fine though, so definitely not over training). I may work off of block or hang for a couple heavy sessions to take stress off of my back so I can survive my deadlifting. Just have to keep grinding and try to keep meeting or slightly beating old PRs while beat to hell.
My pulling power seemed to have been there, but my back was tight (which means holding positions and getting under is a lot more difficult).
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3/30
Shit session, fucked around on navel height box jumps after. Did prowler pushes with 5 plates.
Taking deload and then getting back to training even harder. I think I need to start planning out cycles from start to finish with deloads at this stage. Will start for my next cycle.
Also not sure I am liking cleaning and jerking and snatching in the same sessions. I know you’re ‘supposed to’ deeper in a cycle for extra frequency, but it doesn’t let me work as hard on eitjer.
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Hey Man I don’t have any background in lifting. SOOO take this for what it is.
I have seen a couple of programs, were as you say when going down the line they take both lifts in on the same day.
If it was me I think the first lift would be a short technique lift and then work harder on the second lift. That way one lift is trained for greasing the groove sort of.
But still I do not have any reference for it.
Following along, because it’s very motivating following your log.
BTW saw the 69 kg class european WL championship the other day. Damn you WL guys make it look so super easy.
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Don’t worry, it feels like death when it’s being done. 
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Also thanks, it depends. It’s not uncommon to do stuff for technique first like muscle snatches, tall snatches, powers from the hang, segment pulls, etc to drill certain things. I do stuff like this too when warming up/lifting depending on how I feel.
Right now you normally go to heavy singles (either PR/failure or heaviest as possible with good technique, hip cleans for example I stopped at 275 because I had to walk with the weight to get it stabilized which tells me the weight was forward so I called it there), either up to 90% and go from there which is a daily max type of thing, or just going hard as possible without technical issues.
I honestly don’t like running maxes more than once a week on the lifts, I’ve seen other ways to peak and I am considering running one of those.
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Somehow haven’t been following your log much. Looks like you’re doing some great work, and damn, 405 would be a massive jerk at 200#! Noticed your deadlifts look relatively light compared to your OLs and Squats. What’s the story there?
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They’re done with the same positioning as cleans (arched back, shoulders over the bar for the first pull, no bar contact, and a hook grip).
During my powerlifting days I deadlifted with a round back and no shoes, and for weightlifting you need an arched back and shoes that add like a 2-3" deficit. I also have a long torso which makes those even harder. It basically adds up to an incredible amount of stuff adding up against me that causes me to need a lot of work on it.
They are still really light (compared to other stuff) though, I am supposed to be able to clean deadlift my olympic style squat, both being around 125% of my clean if everything is proportionate. My clean deadlift is pretty much always on point for that.
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Wednesday and Thursday and I can finally lift again. I am antsy as all hell to get back under some weights. Also I forgot who it was (and it probably is bro science to its finest), but I remember an elite powerlifter talking about fingers curling up and CNS fatigue. Before my deload my left hand would go like 80% into a fist if I relaxed it, and now it is mostly open when I relax it. I wonder if there’s some truth to that belief.
I am thinking my Friday session will go something like
30 minutes of stretching and warming up to break up all of my tight tissue
clean and jerk
5 singles on the minute at 70%,
5 singles on the minute at 75%
5 singles on the minute at 80%,
then make 2% jumps up to 90% without being timed
clean pulls
140kgX2 for 6 sets
slow as possible descent and very long pause front squats 5 doubles at 140kg
drop snatches up to a max double (80KG is the goal)
then an ab, dip, and pull up circuit
Basically staying away from anything outrageously heavy to prevent a pull/tweak on my first day back, and working through every type of exercise (a clean and jerk, a pull, a squat, and an overhead, and some accessories to stop myself from atrophying because my body is probably going to want to start giving eating away at upper body muscle if I don’t do any hypertrophy work)
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Also to anyone who is interested in all of the neat weightlifting stuff I do, here is how an actually good weightlifter measures up on a bunch of different non-sport specific tests.
Fucking Chumak lifts the 400KG during one of the tests that is supposed to be a static test. The lad is an absolute savage, I can’t wait to see what he does when he is peaked balls to the wall at 2020.
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4/7/18 napping yesterday turned into sleeping so missed the gym. Slept another 14 hours last night
Clean and jerks OTM
215x1 for 5 sets
Break to get water/change weight/get the buckets of sweat off
235x1 for 5 sets, missed jerk on 3rd set followed up by just the most perfect two jerks after
Another break to add weight
245x1 both clean and jerk weren’t stellar, and I had 15 seconds until my next set so stopped here
Clean pulls
305x2 for 6 sets, kinda out of groove
Front squats with slow descent and pause
Just awful, back endurance is basically gone. Weight felt easy though aside from it, called it early.
Lat pull downs
200x10
220x8
240x6
160x12
Going to do abs later. Strength is the same, movement quality has improved a lot. Not sure if I caused my back to flare up or not, will find out later. Until my back conditioning is back: no fucking pulls and squats in the same workout, jesus.
Very satisfied with clean and jerk technique
Tomorrow snatches from above the knee, and drop snatches, let my back heal.
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4/8/18
Jesus christ I was in a sleep deficit. I went to sleep at a reasonable time last night and woke up at night time today (with the gym closed). I guess it was somewhat a good thing since my back will be back to normal Monday and I’ll be more caught up on sleep.
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If anyone likes ridiculous pound for pound lifters here is a lad that seems to pop up at every powerlifting meet I go to and lift an unofficial WR.
https://instagram.com/p/BNYRCobAF3N/
I was watching in the warm up area for that session when he pulled almost 5 times bodyweight.
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I recall Elliott Hulse talking bout grip strength and how it’s correlated to CNS fatigue etc.
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I’m guessing his bench isn’t great. How’s his squat? Not hating on him, just curious.
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@MarkKO World record in 2017 210 kg squat, 125 kg bench and 240 kg DL. He pulled a success full 255 kg, but leaned a bit to much back and waiting for the down command he lost balance backwards.
Weighing 53 kgs I think that’s pretty impressive.
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Holy shit, that’s really pretty damn good.
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