Strick, Alexus, Dude, Matty and Joe - Thanks people.
Germanone - I think unless you’re a gymnast, the squat snatch is not a position most people can hit first time of trying. I almost gave up on trying (to gain the flexibility) too, but am glad I persevered as I’m starting to see improvements now. Still a way to go though. You look pretty athletic to me. I’m sure with work you could get there. I’m sure it would be worth the effort. As far as I’m concerned, a well executed full snatch is one of the most impressive things to see in lifting.
BlueBrasil - I haven’t tried C&J yet. Frankly I’m not that bothered about that lift, it’s always been the snatch that’s captured my interest. The whole, floor to overhead in one fluid movement has always impressed me. I’ve also read that once you can snatch learning the C&J is a doddle. First job though, is to crack snatching.
19/04/2011
10 mile bike ride along the Millenium coastal cycle path, Llanelli.
Went with my wife, cycled at a leisurely pace, very flat terrain. Had a picnic on the way. Hot and sunny (22`c) hardly a breeze. Really enjoyable. Wasn’t really ‘training’ for me, but I’ll log it anyway.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Strick, Alexus, Dude, Matty and Joe - Thanks people.
Germanone - I think unless you’re a gymnast, the squat snatch is not a position most people can hit first time of trying. I almost gave up on trying (to gain the flexibility) too, but am glad I persevered as I’m starting to see improvements now. Still a way to go though. You look pretty athletic to me. I’m sure with work you could get there. I’m sure it would be worth the effort. As far as I’m concerned, a well executed full snatch is one of the most impressive things to see in lifting.
Ya I agree on that one. It would be a project that would take a lot of time though and i want to keep focusing on the sq/bp/dl stuff.
Not a great one tonight. My snatch work seems to be going one step forward, two steps back. Kept losing everything forwards again.
20/04/2011
Power snatch @ 132 lbs x 4 singles
Full snatch @ 132 lbs x 10 singles
Front squat w/u to daily max
132 lbs x 3
220 lbs x 2
308 lbs x 1 then 90% of max
275 lbs x 2-2
RDLs @ 220 lbs x 10-10-10
Pendlay rows @ 132 lbs x 8-8-8
At the moment it’s taking me 5-8 power snatches before I can get to the stage where I can drop into a full snatch. These reps with 132 lbs are just unecessarily tiring me out before I get to the ‘quality’ stuff. So I’m going to start using 66 lbs or something until I get it right, then add the weight.
Kept the RDLs light because I had some DOMS in my hamstrings from Monday. Started some push presses, but they were killing my right shoulder when I held them in the ‘rack’ position, so stopped.
First go at Pendlay rows, I liked them. I could go a lot heavier on these I think. I might post in the PL forum and ask “are these Pendlay rows?”. Should go down well. Ha Ha!
I only count the good ones. This was a run of bad ones before I got my ‘groove on’.
I’m not qualified to critique the snatches, other than to say I’m fairly certain you’re not supposed to land on your butt. (We’ve all had pratfalls, Brett, just lucky enough not to get them on video.)
More seriously, your front squats. You noticed your knees are going everywhere?
haha glad to see i’m not the only one who has a tendency to land on my butt. went through a phase of keeping a couple gym mats behind me to soften the landing.
Cavalier - I decided when I started my log to be honest and show everything, good and bad, because as anyone who lifts knows, for every day you hit a PR there’s a day when you get stuck in the hole or pinned under a weight you can normally triple. If we just showed all the great stuff then it would be pretty mis-representative. That’s why I’m happy to show my ‘pratfalls’ and fails too so that people can hopefully see improvements and progress. Without your ‘before’ squat vids we wouldn’t be able to see how far you have come.
As far as the front squats go, I have two excuses, 1) I haven’t done them for 4 months or so, and 2) that was only 11 lbs off my liftime PR, so it was pretty much a max effort and they are never pretty. I’m going to start doing them once a week so hopefully my form will improve.
LS - I’m glad you find it interesting, I’m just finding it frustrating. I seem to make progress towards the end of each workout, but seem to have lost it again by the start of the next one, but I can’t do them more often because I’ll get too tired. The sensible thing to do would be to concentrate solely on the snatch and drop all other work, but I can’t bring myself to do that, so I guess I’ll carry on sucking.
Alexus - The mat idea is a really good one. But, for some reason I didn’t do it and fell backwards on another one tonight. Will definitely do it Monday.
88 lbs x 7 singles
110 lbs x 2 singles
132 lbs x 11 singles
Deadlift w/u to max single
220 x 3
308 x 2
396 x 1
440 x 1
484 x Fail
440 x 1
GHR @ bw x 5-5-5
Face Pulls @ 88 lbs x 10-10-10-10
Overhead Shrugs @ 44 lbs x 10-10-10
Tried benching put shoulder was still too sore, hence all the face pulls and overhead shrugs. Quite happy to have pulled 440. I think I could have had the 484 if I’d have jumped from 396 rather than doing the 440 before. The last time I tried 5 plates a side I couldn’t even break it off the floor, so to knees was progress. Hopefully get it next week.
Lost another snatch behind today and this time it landed on my foot. My wife told me last week that she was worried that I might get injured by the bar falling on me when doing snatches. I laughed cockily and told her it was pretty impossible and that the bar always falls clear to the front or behind. Needless to say I won’t be showing her the video or complaining about my grazed and bruised foot!
Cavalier - I decided when I started my log to be honest and show everything, good and bad, because as anyone who lifts knows, for every day you hit a PR there’s a day when you get stuck in the hole or pinned under a weight you can normally triple. If we just showed all the great stuff then it would be pretty mis-representative. That’s why I’m happy to show my ‘pratfalls’ and fails too so that people can hopefully see improvements and progress. Without your ‘before’ squat vids we wouldn’t be able to see how far you have come.
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Very true. I’m all too familiar with bad days. If something can be corrected, I’d rather find out sooner than later. Your struggles prove that oly lifting is not easy and takes a lot of dedication. Fascinating to watch.
Brett I appreciate you posting your fails. When you post your wins they look that much sweeter, we can see the hard work you put into it. And, it reminds us why bumper plates are used. Very impressive deads too. On your snatches you still seem to be squatting from the front part pf the foot on the way up. Maybe if you took some weight off and get the hang of squatting from the heel?
ouch. hope your foot feels better soon and your wife doesn’t notice. i think you will find weightlifting shoes will really help with your balance for a stable squat and catch. i don’t think most people are able to keep the weight properly on the heel without them. know i certainly can’t. i do admit that i cringe for your knees a little when you come up on your toes to catch.
yeah. fail posts are cool. one day you will look back and laugh and laugh and laugh. i had forgotten how often i used to land on my ass until i saw you doing it.
I’ve been pseudo-stalking your log for awhile, I like both the hard work and the vids of misses/fails. It’s important to be reminded that nobody smashes it every time.
I laughed at your Pendlay Rows comment. As I understand the movement that’s it to a ‘P’.
Edit: I laughed because I saw that thread on the powerlifting forum, which amused me but for reasons other than being casually cheeky. grin
KP - I always forget that I can do a controlled drop, I’ll try that next week.
Alexus - My foot felt fine by the next morning. I’m glad you like the ‘fails’ and good news, I seem to have an in-exhaustible supply! As far as my knees go, they feel really good at the moment, mainly because doing the snatches has cut my squat volume a fair bit. I think my lack of stability in the squat and catch is because I’ve been shortcutting my flexibility and mobility work lately in my eagerness to get stuck into the snatching and then I lose it forward because I’m not squatting deep enough and then I over correct and pull it further back overhead and then start losing it behind. So I’m going to start doing some overhead squats beforehand, starting tomorrow, and that way I’ll know I can hit that catch position before I start snatching.
Kristoph - Thanks for checking out my log. I’m glad you liked my subtle dig at the arguementative nature of the PL forum lately from the relative safety of my obscure log on the over35 forum. Brave aren’t I?
I’m a regular Otto Quangel trying to bring down the Third Reich with my futile post cards. Anyone else read that book and get the reference?
It takes stones to post the fails. And that was possibly the cleanest form I’ve seen on bent over rows. Really powerful. If you think you can go way heavier, I run the risk of getting all geeked out again.
I posted my warm-up drills over on my log. Maybe they are helpful to you. Dunno. The overhead squats and drop snatches help me get under the snatches. Hopefully when I can do the drills correctly my lifts will look a lot better :-/
Glad to hear your foot is doing alright.
Still reckon shoes will help you a lot. Remember how much more stable those overhead squats felt with heel raise?? Depth wasn’t an issue, either.
