Marathon Runner Looking Dude Dabbling in Oly Lifts

Training Over 35 Lifter
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I’m 53 years old, 6’ tall, and weigh 185-190lbs. I compete in Olympic Lifting and throwing events in Track and Field. 6’ tall makes me very tall and skinny for my weight class. Thanks for the thread title hel.

I used to keep a log here, tracking my training for master’s nationals last year. I cut my dreads off in June and was consequently unable to train for 7 months. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been back at it and I’m starting to misplace all the loose paper I’ve been recording my workouts on, so its time for a more organized approach.

I don’t know whether to describe my current training as olympic lifting with 5/3/1 assistance, or 5/3/1 with an olympic lifting warm up. I just started 5/3/1 in hope that something entirely new and unfamiliar (sets of more than 5 in any lift) would get my leg strength up to levels that make my snatch and clean and jerk fantasies possible. Thank you everyone doing 5/3/1 for your detailed logs. They have been informative and helpful.

Just for future reference, any comments intended to inform or help, solicited or not, are very welcome. Jokes are also encouraged, although you might have to tell me on occasion that you have made one.

The following posts are to catch up on my training since I started 5/3/1 last week.

Oly Lifts + 5/3/1
Oly Lifts + 5/3/1
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3/14

Snatch: 50x3, 60x3, 70x2, 75x1, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1(ties pr), 92x0, 85x1,1,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0
Squat: (110x3)4, 92.5x10 (started 5/3/1 the next day)

All prs are since January 1st unless otherwise noted.

For snatch and clean and jerk, one day a week is a pseudo Bulgarian type training–work up do a daily pr, then drop down to 90-95% and do at least 5 singles, more as energy allows. The other days I do triples, sometimes keeping the weight light, sometimes working up to a new max, depending on technique.

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Welcome back Carl. Missed reading your logs.

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3/15

Rack Jerks: 60x3, 70x3, 80x3, 90x3, 95x3, 100x3 (rep pr)
Snatch High Pulls: (90x3)3
Beginning of 5/3/1 week 1, day 2 Deadlift based on 130kg max
88x5, 94X5, 99x10, (60x10)5
Dips: (Bwx3)5

Deadlifts were with a clean grip, done as much like the bottom half of a clean as possible. I stop when the form breaks down even a little. On the dips, what can I say. We all have to start somewhere. These actually feel good now, rather than when I started a month ago and my shoulders felt like they would rip apart.

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Thanks for the welcome back. It was a comment of yours that got me headed down this 5/3/1 path.

3/17
Clean and Jerk: 60x2, 70x2, 80x1, 90x1, 95x1, 100x1, 105x1, 108x1 (pr), 101x1,1,1,1,1
Cleans: (97x3)3
5/3/1 week 1 day 3 Push Presses (substituted for mp) based on 70kg max:
50x5, 53x5, 56x9
no bbb, clean and jerks kicked my butt.

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3/18
Snatch: 50x3, 60x3, 70x3, 75x3, 77.5x3 (rep pr)
5/3/1 week 1 day 4 Bench based on 80kg max:
54x5, 58x5, 61x10, (36x10)5
Pullups: (Bwx2)5

The 36kg on bbb bench was the prescribed 50% of working max, but they were ridiculously light. The weight is going up next time.

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3/19

Throwing, 3rd session this year.
6kg shot: 40 throws, 5 standing, 5 half-spin, and 30 full throws. Can’t stay in the ring yet on my longer throws,but getting a good right foot crank in the middle.
25lb weight: 20 3 turn throws. No impressive distances, but actually stayed in the ring on a few of these.

Sprints: 50m x3.47, strained my calf on the last one. Damn! I always do this stupid stuff sprinting.

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3/22

Snatch: 50x3, 60x3, 70x2, 80x1, 85x1, 90x0, 92x1 (pr), 85x0,1,1,0,0,1,0,1,1
5/3/1 week 2 day 1 Squats Based on 120kg max:
86x5, 92x5, 97x7 (54x10)5
Pullups: (Bwx2)5

I do olympic style back squats, high bar, as deep as possible. The volume got to me. Staggered through the rest of the day and fell dead asleep at 6:30

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3/23

Rack Jerks: 60x3, 70x3, 80x3, (90x3)3 mucked up my calf again.
5/3/1 week 2 day 2 Bench:
58x3, 61x3, 65x8 (40x10)5 still too light on the bbb

That about catches me up. Think I’ll only do cleans (no jerks) and push presses tomorrow, let the calf heal.

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Carl it’s very nice seeing you posting again, really looking forward to videos of your lifts and throws when you get a chance. They were very inspiring and gave me at least an idea of what a first pull, second pull should look like.

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Carl glad to see your training again.
nice work and welcome back.

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Scotto, its good to be back. I guess I will dig out the video camera again. I need to take a look at the recent technique anyway.

kmc, I understand you have an new munchkin at home. Thinking back to that time, I’m surprised you have any free time not devoted to sleep these days. My wife also did the natural child birth thing, but at home with a midwife. The videos they try to show you beforehand are misleading. Nothing even vaguely off-putting about it.

3/25
Cleans: 60x3, 70x3, 80x2, 90x1, 95x1, 100x1, 105x1, 109 not even close, (99x1)5, (90x3)3. Held back a little by the calf strain, keeping the bar close during the pull was painful enough to be distracting. Calf is getting better though.

5/3/1 week 2 day 3 Push Presses
54x3, 58x3, 61x7

bbb OH press: (35x10)2 Thankfully I ran out of time after 2 sets. I’ll try to work in more sets in the future.

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Welcome back, Carl! I’ve missed the throwing videos.

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So I’m poking around the weightlifting world on the internet and decide I wanted to look at the American Masters Weightlifting records to see what they are and whose name do I find in the 45-49, 85Kg class for snatch, clean and jerk and total set in 2003?

Nice job, Carl!

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Good to see you posting. It will be a nice change of pace reading about Snatch in the old folks forum.

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jjackkrash, yeah, it seems snatch gets less interesting as we get older. By the way, my mind is boggled by your strength gains over the past year. If I can finagle half of what you’ve done, I’ll be sitting pretty for next years nationals.

math, throwing videos are in the works, but I’m not sure when I’ll get around to doing them. Be patient.

dca, as I guess you are now referred to, I wasn’t aware they had those records online. I would have been doing a lot more bragging if I’d known.

3/26

Snatch: 50x3, 60x3, (70x3)3 these didn’t go too well today, light weight, but not very precise placement.
Clean High Pulls: (110x3)3
5/3/1 week 2 day 4 Dead Lifts (Snatch Grip, based on 110kg 1rm)
80x3, 84x3, 90x9, (50x10)5
Dips: (Bwx4)5

Its too early to tell how strength gains are coming along on 5/3/1, but I have noticed that my joints feel much better than on low rep - high intensity training. Has anybody else noticed this? I’m still trying to dial in the appropriate weights to use on bbb, 50% for squats nearly sent me to the hospital, but I’ll try it again next week to see how I’m adapting. 60% seems more appropriate for the presses, and maybe 55% for dead lifts.

My competition plans for the next year are vague at this point with the exception of Mater’s Nationals, usually in early April. I might do American Masters in November and will definitely throw at the Nevada Senior Games in October in order to qualify for the National Senior Games next year. I might try to throw in the Western Regionals, usually in June, somewhere in Southern California.

My hopes for the 5/3/1 training is that my deadlift and squat will see significant gains over the next 9 months, An article relating squat maxs to clean and jerk and snatch maxes made me go back and compute a few percentages. It seems that no matter what level I’ve been at, throughout my lifting career, my clean and jerk has always been 86-91% of my back squat, and my snatch has been 70-76% of my back squat. Get my back squat up and my oly lifts should improve proportionally.

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It is spring break here. I spent the week at the beach near Morro Bay and got my training in at commercial gyms. Couldn’t do the oly lifts, but it was time for a deload on those anyway. I did get to see a few species of animal that never show up where I usually train, squat rack curlers, cardio bunnies, bosu ball bozos, and one Miss Incredible legs in very tight tights PT. The 5/3/1 went very well, but the numbers might have been positively affected by absence of Olifts as warmups and elevation. (I normally train at 8500 feet).

3/29
cycle 1 week 3 workout 1 squats (in pounds)
205x5, 215x3, 225X7, (120x10)5

3/30
cycle 1 week 3 workout 2 bench
135x5, 145x3, 155x7 (95x10)5
pull ups (bwx2.7)5 got the third rep anywhere from mouth to eye level on all sets.

4/1 cycle 1 week 3 workout 3 MP (switched to straight militaries instead of push presses, based on 65kg max)
115x5, 120x3, 125x7, (70x10)4, 75x10
Same workout did deads because of logistics
cycle 1 week 3 workout 4 deads
225x5, 235x3, 245x9, (145x10)5

Edit: I mis-remembered the bench numbers, I was 10 lbs off on the work sets. I’ve fixed it now.

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Sounds like some fun training. Next time, though, get pictures of the PT. Good work.

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Carl… looking good here.

I am doing a little bit of 531 to bring up some lifts as well.
the best week of training I have had in a long time was the last week before the munckin

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Sorry about no pics jack, I was trying to keep a low profile.

kmc, I’ll have to drop by and catch up. I haven’t read much after the little one came along.

4/2 Throwing

Shot: 5 stands, 5 half spins, 40 full throws at varying intensity. Best was just over 14m, but out of the sector to the left. A good sign, meaning I’m doing 3 important things well. Last 8 throws were practicing staying in the ring where I got some effortless 13m throws.

Discus: 10 throws, first time this year. Got some out around 40m, but with poor balance and rhythm. Typical for first session of the year.

Easing back into sprints after the calf strain, instead of sprints, I hobbled once around the soccer field and called it a day.