I’ve been mostly lurking for several years. I’ve been practicing o-lifting for a couple of years. My initial reading around here for a few months inspired me to want to lift heavy. I saw an ad in a local paper that showed a woman back squatting some big weights wearing ratty shorts and t-shirt and thought “that’s where I want to learn to lift”. Walked in and told the front desk “I want to learn to lift heavy”. They matched me up to an o-lifting coach and I got hooked. I’m in my 50s and stronger than when I was in my 20s. Love it!
I’m really excited about lifting over the last month or so because I’ve been busting through stalled PRs finally. Something changed. When I started I was told it would take about 2 years for the lifting patterns to get patterned and it seems to be true for me. The other thing that changed is reading this article:
A light went off in my head! Ohhhh, when my coach was telling me to keep my shoulders ahead of the bar as long as possible (through 1st and 2nd pull) he meant my scapula not the surface of my deltoids. I shifted my snatch/C&J starting balance forward about 3 inches (from my heels to just behind the ball of my foot) and, wow, the weight just started moving. The scapula over the bar thought has also really helped improve my squatting, too. I improved my old BkSq PR by 7.5kg this week.
Read the post from grrrsauce in the “Reliable Information…” post about Starting Strength which has the same author, Mark Rippetoe, as the post from the crossfit journal above. Guess I’ll have to get the book.
Choose my screen name from experiences hanging out with my lifting club or o-lifting meets. When you’re struggling to finish a lift everyone is yelling encouragement of “Stand Up”.
Looking forward to hanging out with the Powerful Women here.
Hi Stand Up,
Nice to see you here, I also do o-lifting, but have just started. We are in the same age bracket, well close (I’m 40).
What you said about scapula over the bar, yesss!!! There was a Tommy Kono video posted somewhere in the Strength Sports section (I’ll have to find it again).
He never mentioned scapula specifically, but watching that vid you can see the form that you are describing. It helped me sooo much, I wasn’t getting the concept. It’s too bad I didn’t catch on before pulling the tendons big time in my right elbow.
I’m still trying to get the olympic bar under my control, I’m wobbly side to side still. I am def. geting some lifting shoes after Christmas.
Awesome for your PRs!
db
Just wanted to drop in and say “hi”, thanks for posting. I would like to learn o-lifts this year, so you can bet I will be following along with great interest. Looking forward to reading your workouts…!
3’ row; roll
hg cln/ push press: 15 kg 1 set 5reps
hg cln/ push press: splt j: 15/1/5
2nd pull triple ext: 15/1/3
hg cln: 15/1/5
hg cln & j: 15/1/5
c&j: 25/2/3
c&j: 35/2/3
c&j: 45/1/3
c&j: 50/1.5/2 missed 2nd j due to back rounding
c&j: 52.5/1.5/1 missed 1st j
c&j: 55/0.5/1 missed j
c&j: 45/1/1
missing jerks, my weak part. Analyzed why and it seems I’m dipping straight down before punching up instead of w/ a bit of lower back curve. My lower back needs to be stronger so:
j dip/j: 35/3/2:1
back ext: 4.5/2/12
This is exciting even though I was missing the jerk. I’ve topped out doing the jerk the way I was (straight up/down dip before punch). I need to get the coil of hips and thighs to punch with instead of just thighs. The 52.5kg c&j is my new PR but more importantly I have something to work on to get past the jerk sticking point. Woohoo.
Another funny thing was that I started power cleaning for the 50 kg and 52.5 kg. Something I’ve noted with the new set-up (scapula over bar and weight balance toward ball of foot) is my dropping under the bar hasn’t been as reliable. I’m still catching it but as a power clean. Funny how that mental to physical patterning works.
Here’s my Wednesday workout.
My right shoulder was feeling a bit ache-y. I tore the RC in this shoulder Oct’06 (MRI diagnosed) so if I feel something specific to that shoulder, I back off. I did some self-massage of my subscapularis and supraspinatus trigger points as described in Claire Davies “The Frozen Shoulder Workbook”. And, ouch-y, yes there are some trigger points there.
I always lift in kilograms. Limited lifting above the shoulder today.
3’ row; roll legs; self-massage shoulder trigger points
back sq: 15/2/5
bksq: 35/2/5
bksq: 45/2/5
bksq: 55/2/3
bksq: 60/1/3
bksq: 65/3/3 I was lifting so strong, coach pushed me on
bksq: 67.5/1/1
bksq: 70/1/1
bksq: 72.5/1/1
bksq: 75/1/1 PR
bksq: 77.5/1/1 PR
bksq: 80/1/1 PR, oh yeah. I think I could have gone on but enough today
cln dl: 55/2/3 on the last rep of these hold at the bottom of the 2nd pull posn
cln dl: 65/1/3
cln dl: 70/3/3
mil pr: 15/3/10 gentle lifting above the shoulders since everything was warm. Made sure shoulder was in the neutral position before pressing. Felt good.
The clean deadlifts followed the clean 1st and 2nd pull pattern (without the trap/toe extension) and was aimed at improving the lower back strength for the new jerk pattern.
With today’s workout, I could tell I haven’t lifted in 2.5 weeks. My left shoulder tweaky problems were very evident as well. Plan to lift Wed morning and Th night this week. On the good side, the right shoulder (formerly torn RC) was solid. Over the two weeks, I walked some and skied several days all day. My legs were very strong on the slopes. Nice additional benefit from the o-lifting.
3’ row; roll thighs; massage left scalene trigger points; bwsq w/ pvc pipe over head for 3x10. all to warm up
lift:lift kg/set/rep:rep
back sq 15/1/10
variations on 2nd pull snatch 15/1/20
pwr sn:push pr:OHS 15/1/5:5:5
hang pwr sn:hg sn 15/2/1:3
hg sn:sn 25/2/1:2
sn:OHS 25/3/3:2
fr sq 25/2/5
“” 35/2/5
“” 45/2/5
“” 50/2/5
sn gr push pr 15/1/5
“” 20/1/5
“” 25/2/5
situps incline/1/15
back ext 4.5/1/15 last two rotated for 2 rounds
Did lots of shoulder work with relatively light weights. I was feeling the catch in the left shoulder and very uneven because of it. Toward the end it was feeling much more stable. I have an appt this afternoon with a trigger point massage therapist to learn to deal with the issues I’m having with my shoulders. Since I’ve been doing the foam roller on my thighs I’ve been able to reliably manage (read: eliminate pain) issues around my knees and hips. I don’t know how to do the self-massage on the shoulders very well. I worked the scalenes on the left side before lifting this morning and that definitely eliminated the sharp catches with motion so I’m pretty sure it’s something I’m going to have to get skilled at doing for myself in order to keep lifting over my head. I can handle that by putting some effort into getting instruction and then doing it.
Coach mentioned the next meet is in May. There may be a local one earlier but I have a target now for a definite meet. I think I’ll target for 50kg snatch and 60 kg c&j. I need to get solid on the myofascial issues to keep myself healthy.
Didn’t lift above my shoulders today, 1/9. Left shoulder too tweaky. The massage therapy on Monday definitely helped but still too sore. The therapist said I had the trap not extending well around the acromium. It was moving much better after and the work he did definitely improved the pain but did not entirely eliminate it. Another session scheduled and some new exercises added to help keep the shoulders lose. I wonder why I’m having these problems? Is wearing my bra strap there after lifting choking off the blood supply that is necessary for repair/metabolite removal?
3’ row; roll thighs… ohhh dang those are good sore; do shoulder warm-ups; bw OHS for 10 all to warm up.
exer kg/s/r
hang cln 15/2/5
cln 25/2/3
" 35/2/3
" 45/1/3
" 50/2/3 missed one on the first set but did 3 total for that set
cln pull fr hang 50/2/3
“” 55/2/3
“” 60/2/3
planks 3 sets of 1’
back ext 4.5/1/15
“” 11/1/15
finished with more shoulder mobility stuff. Iced left shoulder when I got home. Used straps for the first time doing the clean pulls from the hang. It changed how I felt during the move. Instead of feeling my hands crush the bar to keep a grip I was much more aware of my shoulders/traps extending up for the 2nd pull motion. Neat.
I don’t have a problem with the grip until I hit about 70kg. Above 70, my thumb gets crushed in the hook grip. I’ve got large hands (given that I’m tall) and the women’s bar is smaller in diameter so my thumb doesn’t match up with a knuckle. With the men’s bar, I don’t have the crushed thumb problem because it sits in the finger knuckle gap better. Alas, I can’t lift with the men’s bar in a meet.
Plan to lift again Thursday night. I felt like I spent all I had today wrt the CNS. I’m very pleased with the cleans. I’m regularly practicing what I max’d on during my last meet in October. Coach thinks I’ve definitely got the 60k c&j in me very soon.
In an officially sanctioned o-lifting meet, the women’s bar is 15kg and the men’s is 20kg. The women’s bar has a smaller diameter because most women have smaller hands.
In all cases, you still have to count everything you pick up. I don’t use collars while training but during a meet collars are used and their weight is counted as part of what you lift. It can kind of freak you out to walk up to your starting lift and have the colors of the discs be different from training.
My primary gym often hosts meets so we have a completely stocked o-lifting area. My secondary gym is primarily focused at power lifters so it doesn’t have official anything for o-lifting. I have to practice everything from the hang there. That’s ok. It has two squat racks and a power lifting platform I can use to practice hang clean or hang snatch and, of course, deadlifts with a more comfortable hook grip.
[quote]dianab wrote:
Hmm, you get the benefit of using a different bar? Is it lighter?
My gym is well equipped, but the OL room is crap.
db[/quote]
We’ve got blocks and platform and bumper plates, but it’s all pretty crappy. And the ricketyest (is that a word?) squat rack I’ve ever seen, the pins are all bent and it’s covered in duct tape. The gym has 10 good squat racks, but I haven’t ventured to that area yet. Too many mirrors.
The bar I use for technical snatch is 35lbs, so close to 15kg, but the diameter is the same as the olympic bar. All the other lifts I use the regular o-bar.
And last week I broke the 35 lb bar, well I didn’t break it but it broke while I was using it so I got the blame.
I can use the regular bar right now because the weight is low, reps are high in this new program. But I hope they get another small bar!
db