Marathon Runner Looking Dude Dabbling in Oly Lifts

Training Over 35 Lifter
521

[quote]Carl Darby wrote:
John,

High bar, pushed up against but not on top of the seventh cervical vertebra (had to look up the singular form of vertebrae).

Feet with heels about shoulder width, toes pointed out 10-20 degrees. Play around with this.

Back arched and locked in tight.

Head straight forward, or maybe a little up.

Raised heels. The 10 pounders should be good enough.

Sit straight down between your feet.

If you can’t get into the bottom position without rounding your back, then you will need to improve hip and maybe ankle flexibility. As with anything new, start with just the bar and move the weight up only when you can do the current weight properly.

It seems that I try to push the weight up and back with my shoulders, but I’ve been doing it for so long that I am not really aware of this part anymore. I just think “keep tight and explode up.”[/quote]

i can keep a tight arch in the hole, but i lean forward to get down to the bottom. its a combination of flexibility and practice. i’ve been doing the powerlifting type squat for so long that I am just used to my back getting about 45 degrees when I squat. I was able to hit better depth on OH squats a couple days ago standing on 5# (first time I’ve tried that) so I will try it with 10s. I’d like to get some oly shoes, but they are not in the budget.

522

Training 1/21/2011

Snatch: 50x2, 60x2, 70x1, 78x1, (84x1)5, (89x1)5, (92x1)5, (95x1)2, 98x0 (behind),1, 100x0, 102x0,0,0

Blah! Need to be more patient.

Took too much time on the snatches so couldn’t do the presses. Maybe rest is more important now anyway.

523

Nothing I can add. You make me wish I’d known some oly lifters back whwn I was reading Strength and Health and watching Vasily on Wide World of Sports.

524

[quote]hel320 wrote:
Nothing I can add. You make me wish I’d known some oly lifters back whwn I was reading Strength and Health and watching Vasily on Wide World of Sports.[/quote]

ditto!

525

Wish I could deadlift that lol.

526

flactcat, I was leaning towards doing it, especially after you reminded me about it, but then malevolent micro-organisms took over my body. I’ve mostly kicked their asses, but their last tactic is an ear infection. I’ll probably be spending most of that day in bed, if past experience holds true.

Thanks Harry. I would have liked knowing some too. Would have saved a lot of time not having to figure everything out on my own.

Thanks John. With the squats, if you have no trouble getting in and holding the right positions without weight, then just do them as light as you need to and still maintain positions. If its just the bar, then so be it. Just focus on perfect positions, and if you stay close to form all your reps, up the weight. It won’t take long to be up to your true ability with the new positions. I had to do this with my pulls about 25 years ago, when I finally had a training partner with good technique. Made the fact that I wasn’t keeping an arch in my back obvious. Took about 2 months working the new technique every session before the weights were back to where they had been.

alexus, I wish you could too. Amazing thing is, there are women your size and smaller who can snatch that and more. The women’s 48kg snatch record is the only world record I can beat.

527

Yeah, that is amazing. Right now I can’t imagine ever snatching 35kg. I guess the main objective for me was acquiring good movement patterns. Still working on that to be sure, but now I’m getting fairly interested in seeing more weight go up. Hard to know how to negotiate between those sometimes. Guess that is a bit of an ongoing battle. I do tell my deadlifts ‘one day I will snatch you’. Just so they know what’s coming :slight_smile:

Hope that you feel better soon.

528

ahhhh, the joys of working with pestilence-bearing youth…

529

Thanks John, that was the first laugh I’ve had in a few days.

Thanks for the well wishes alexus.

Threw Saturday, pretty good day but not as good as the week before. Followed up with lots of moderate sprints. Was feeling fine after a week of fighting off a cold. Then Sunday realized that was just a tactic of the evil microbes to lure me into working too hard before their renewed assault.

Monday
C&J: 60x1,1, 65x1,1 70x1,1 75x1,1 80x1,1 85x1,1 90x1,1 95x1,1 100x1,1 Working on jerk technique, bent rear leg = hips stay forward? Seemed to work, but felt a little unstable.

5/3/1 C9 W3 Bench
70x5
80x3
89x2

94x1, 75x5,5
Pendlay Rows 70x7,7 Cut short due to lack of energy.

Training the rest of the week consisted of sleep as much as possible and try to eat as much as possible. Despite this, at 83.95kg, I’m down 2kg since the start of the week.

With the cold, the war is won but not yet over. Those damn micro-organisms do not surrender, but fight to the death every time. Did a shortened workout today anyway.

5/3/1 C9 W3 Squats
93x5
105x3
118x5 was wanting 6, but given the circumstances, I’ll take it.

126x1, 134x1 Easier than 133 last week. Very happy about this.

Front Squats: 101x5
Back Raises: BW+27.5kgx6 Thought it wise to stop there.

530

Since you don’t squat in a cage, I’m guessing that you’re a pretty good judge of how many reps you’re capable of doing without hitting failure.

531

Actually with highbar squats its a trivial matter to dump them behind. I did try for 6 today but had to dump the last one. Here’s a video from last spring where I dump the 8th rep.

532

Been watching a fair number of weightlifting videos on youtube recently and noticed how lot’s of elite lifters start the lifts with their mouths open, rather than taking a big breath and holding it (as you would for a big squat). Is this just personal preference or is there a reason for this?

Hope you’re back to full health.

533

Brett, I have no idea why they do that. I can’t imagine that they are not holding a deep breath during the lift either. Thanks for the well wishes, but this ones looking like its going to take a while.

Despite feeling about 75% physically: Training 1/31/2011

C&J: 60x2, 70x2, 80x1, 90x1, 90x1, (100x1)5, (105x1)5, (108x1)2, 111x1, 114x0 Missed clean, weak core muscles starting to show through. Had intended to stop at 105, but they were going up pretty easily, so I kept it up until I missed. Trying 3 new things today, hard hip thrust on the pull, elbows down at the start of the jerk, back leg bent on the catch. Impressions are vaguely positive so far. Give it a few weeks to get better and more natural.

5/3/1 C10 W1 Bench:
71x5
76x5
81x5 This might be the last bench cycle before resetting the training max.

95x0, 76x5
Cut it off there in consideration of comprised recovery abilities.

534

nice lift :slight_smile:

does having confidence in ones ability to ditch the bar behind on a back squat help you be more confident about being okay if you overbalance backwards on a snatch do you think?

hope you feel 100% soon.

535

best not to go too crazy until you’re feeling 100%

536

Training 2/1/2011Power Snatch: 50x2, 60x2, 68x2, (72x2)2
High Hang Snatch: 72x1,1

5/3/1 C10 W1 Squats:
95x5
101x5
108x8

118x1, 128x1, 135x1

Front Squats: (102x5)2
Back Raises: BW+27.5kgx7,7

537

Thanks for the kind words alexus. Being able to dump back squats like that only helps with confidence on back squats. Practice dumping snatches behind makes you confident in your ability to dump snatches behind. Its unfortunately all very specific.

Thanks John. I definitely need reminding of that sometimes.

For those of you that pay attention to the technique issues going on in these lifts, just like with Monday’s cleans, I was focusing on hip extension on the snatches today. Not a thought to knees, feet, or shoulders, just get those hips out there fast and far after the bar hits my hips. I’m not controlling the horizontal placement as well as when I use my old cues, but the bar does seem to get moving faster and I seem to start getting under the bar sooner.

538

Yes, bumper plates definitely make it easier to dump the load. I’ve never had the benefit of those before. If I dumped a back squat like that, I’d be escorted outta the gym.

So I’m trying to figure out exactly where the bar hits on the snatch when you bump it. I hit my pubic bone once trying to Oly clean like that and almost burst into tears it hurt so much.

I did front squats today and after watching your vid I need to remember to just sit down rather than back like I do for a powerlifting squat.

Thanks for the tutorials. Your vids are really helpful form-wise.

539

Thanks snapper. Yeah, I forget that not everyone has the luxury of training with bumper plates. Back in the day, workouts were a lot noisier. On a snatch, the bar should hit right around the crease your hips make when you bend forward slightly. For me that puts it at the top of, or just barely above my pubic bone. Once in a while I screw things up and hit hard and low. I know the pain you are talking about.

Training 2/2/2011
Power Cleans: 60x2, 70x2, 80x2, (90x2)2
High Hang Cleans: (90x1)2 A little off today. Couldn’t get the hips shooting in at the top of the second pull.

5/3/1 C10 W1 Clean DL:
120x5
128x5
136x6

158x0, first miss at a deadlift max attempt in 28 weeks.
(128x5)3

Leg Raises: Bw+3.75x8,8,9

540

Do you always double overhand max DL attempts?