You are right about the front squats. First one was pretty good, but on the next two, your elbows started dropping a bit. Along the lines of what you were thinking, it helps me to think of pushing the elbows high out of the bottom.
Hai every body!
This week has been exceptionally busy and full of grown-uppy work stuff, including a trip to the mid-atlantic and a dog-pony show at one of the local universities. Meh! Good news is I got all my training in, minus one Oly sesh that I had to skip due to my trip 
Please skip to the 3rd section of this post for the executive version of my training.
Thanks for all the kudos on the Front Squats. Consensus is, not too bad and just as I thought - need to keep elbows up. Gracias!
Nadia - thank you! I asure my hair ain’t all that. Its mererly amplified by curls - but mostly thin and damanged, kinda like Lindsay Lohan. (zing!). Actually that guy is one of the gym regs and we chat here and there. So I doubt he was checking me out.
Beast! Thanks for support! Seriously, If I can be of any help whatsoever, then I’m good with that. Glad you’re finding my journey into O lifting helpful 
Alexus - great pointers! I actually agree with you re: the first pull is really just meant to get you into position - and I def have to keep this in mind. In fact one of the other O lifters mentioned that you basically accelerate as you move from the 1st pull to the 2nd. And not just pulling with brute force from the get go. And yeah, I too have to remember to keep the constant back angle. Forward ho!
German - Yep, press heels in ground. I will remember this too! Especially since I ALSO have to remember to move from my heels to my toes pre-extension.
Cal, HAHAH! So sorry I didn’t get the vid to you earlier. I saw that PcH got it to you tho (thank god for the PW community!!). No, def NOT penis stretching. Altho get me mad enough…
Thank you, thank you Inky and Git and Ponce! Yeah, yeah, weight the pullups. Dude! I’m still struggling to get 10 consecutive pullups. Baby steps here.
Greg! Baller is right! HA! No, not really…
Oh Andy, really? HAHA! FML. Ok, that’s it, tonight I’m just going to get my knees out of the way and that’s that! And I totes checked out the Polish Weightlifting thread. So rad! I just need to ‘get under the bar’ like these guys. They make it look SO easy!
Thanks Kimba and Joe! And as a reminder, i weight 20lbs more than you.
And thank you Austin! Checked out your log and YOU sir are looking amazing!
Lol! PCh, expanding erectile tissue sounds pretty professional. “I’m an erectile tissue expander” Hmm…nice ring to that.
Thanks for stopping in Carl! I couldn’t agree more
and Nik, Veg, Mainie - thanks lovers! Had a good time dancing, altho i won’t lie, the party was, how you say…a bit…um, ghetto? Aside from the fact that I almost got into a fight with some cat that was being a creepy McFeelster (Gin, it’ll fortilize you!), the party also included 2 B rate female strippers and 1 B- rate male stripper. My girl Julie and I were like, “aren’t male strippers supposed to be buff and hot, and like, not gross…” It was hilarious. He would pick up some of the female patrons, flip them upside down and then mime cunnilingus on them. Cal and Nadia, you guys would’ve been exemplar guests. HAHAH!
This week’s training:
Conditioning - check. Nothing exciting to report. Monday and Tuesday ran a few miles, did a few hill sprints, did an hour of plyo and sprint work and some core conditioning.
Upperbody training - yesterday. Mixed bag. highlights include:
DB press - 2x3x50, 2x5x45 < couldn’t get the 50s up Had Julio spot me, I fear he helped too much.
WG Pullups - 3, 1, 1, 1 < YAY! I can do these! Who’da thunk. Clearly I suck at them, but at least I know its do-able. I actually really like them. Its a very ‘lead with the chest’ kinda pullup.
Chins - was supposed to do 5x5x10 but only got - 3, (2/3), (3/2) < first number is w/ 10lbs, 2nd number is BW, so i’ve clearly detrained these fuckers. I checked my log and last time I trained chins was 1/15, so yeah. I also stopped short b/c I got to talking to a gym regular, Dan - a super cute baseball player (his cousin plays for the Jets) - and i hate to admit it, but I got shy…Anyways, i’m going to put chins on the bench for a bit and add the WG pullups into the pullup rotation. My biceps are hyooge as it is! Lol! (not kidding).
Then did some lat pulls and pushups. Was supposed to do Incline DB cleans (stupid defranco thing that’s just stupid) but I scraped them.
Tonight its off to Oly, tomorrow lower and Sunday pilates. I’m also going see if i can get my guy to come and knock the ball around with me (he’s also a soccer player). My season starts March 12th and I need to get ready, especially the hammie!
Thanks for poppin in y’alls! I’ll be back this weekend for more training highlights. Wish me luck!
Way to go on the WG pull-ups, I thunked it 
Incline DB cleans?.. sounds scary, I’d skip those too.
Looks like a solid week of training.
Lol about the party w/the strippers.
Gosh I can’t believe it’s almost March. Good luck getting ready for soccer season.
Beautiful Masch !
Hi cupcake! Of course you would have faith in me And thanks for the inspiration! Btw, I just looked up the DB incline Cleans and they’re basically the L in YTWLs. Lol! Not so scary.
Thanks Veggie! I know, time flies by so fast!
Hi Max! Thanks for stopping by!
Just got back from Oly training and all I can say is that it was an incredibly frustrating training session. Progress is slow and its demoralizing to have all this ‘strength’ and yet not be able to do the simplest of movements. The movements are still very awkward and its always hit or miss. One set is right and the next is completely fucked up. I feel defeated.
It will be 3 months now that I’ve been doing O lifting and i’ve seen some improvement, but its such a mind fuck! Its like a see-saw and the minute one thing is going well, another thing goes to crap.
Anyways, I spent the entire session snatching, and mostly from a hang. The idea was to learn to ‘shrug, drop and pop’. I was getting it, so that’s a positive. But Coach Joe in his frustration with me basically said, “We’re going to have to learn this the old-fashioned way, first you learn to snatch from above the knee, then you learn from below the knee and then from the floor.” At one point he told me to stop laughing and that hurt my feelings. Whatever. And then he said I should stop playing soccer! I stopped deadlifting, what more does he want!
Training: (I was gung-ho to start so warm up was abbreviated)
Shrugs 6xbar
Snatch pregression - 3xbar
Powersnatch - 2x25, 30, 2x30(2f) < my form was fuck all. pulling from the ground - i suck! Why can’t i get this?! Joe put the kibosh and made me stop.
The good news is that after that debacle Coach made me stop pulling from the floor and I started catching the snatches properly.
Dead Hang snatch 2x15, 20, 25
Hang Snatch
2x30
2x32.5
2x32.5 (2f)
1x32.5
1x35
1x35 (f)
Problem areas are as follows (and remember this is all from a hang)
-jumping at the 2nd extension. I actaully need to jump, and like really jump
-dropping under the bar. I drop but i catch forward, need to drop down and get my chest out and lockout my arms , thus the ‘pop’. LWI!
-finally I’m fucking sloooow. Like laughably slow. My coach says ‘if you can do that THAT slow, just think what you can do if you were fast’. FML.
Anywho, coach said I did well today and said that ‘you’ll have 10,000 misses before you land a snatch.’ ugh.
Tomorrow lower. I’ll probably do some technique too. And if the weathers nice kick the ball about - I could really use that.
G’night good people!
Masch
love the avatatr and is that your little gym moleskine?
the FS look great- if you can triple it you can clean it.
not yet but soon.
soon.
Olifts are frustrating as feckall I am just playing with them again
and I am amazed at my lack of speed like no speed.
and how damn hard they are.
eventually they go from shite to fun.
I remember having to use the broomstick while other peeps moved on to weights
keep up the good work brooklynite
Heh, my snatch is like a car crash. It’s just not a natural movement for me, and I suspect for most people, so keep plugging away. You’re already way ahead of me.
[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
Masch
love the avatatr and is that your little gym moleskine?
the FS look great- if you can triple it you can clean it.
not yet but soon.
soon.
Olifts are frustrating as feckall I am just playing with them again
and I am amazed at my lack of speed like no speed.
and how damn hard they are.
eventually they go from shite to fun.
I remember having to use the broomstick while other peeps moved on to weights
keep up the good work brooklynite
[/quote]
This right here. As I’m the only dude doing o-lifts, I am trying to go off of the vids and books I have. You are definitely way ahead of the game Masch. Good stuff, and very motivating for me.
good stuff Masch. You are officially in the know of olympic lifting, i.e., the sport fucking sucks dick but you can’t stop (til you get enuf). slightly drunk.
anyways, I’m doing some technique stuff tomorrow, snatch/clean with 3-5 second pause below knee
Maschy: I feel your frustration on the learning new skills front. I think of it as a bell curve. Eventually, the missess will become fewer and fewer. It’s very aweseome news you hit some of your sets. You’re on your way. You just need to do the time.
That quitting soccer shit is probably a huge compliment–your coach clearly sees you as having oly potential.
Sorry to hear about the frustration.
Don’t quit…or I’ll make fun of you and call you Ms. McQuitterpants from now on.
I like this song when I feel like the shit has hit the fan.
Yes you can, SuperWoman.
Sorry to hear about all of your frustration w/oly training last night. Everybody else said it, but I’ll give you my version too: Keep the faith. Train hard. You can do it! Seriously.
Aww Maschy, I’m sorry you’re frustrated. I get the same way too with my goals, you just have to think about how far you came and how your lifts inspire/help others here. It’s easy to focus on what we need to accomplish, we just need to sit back and see what we accomplished thus far.
Keep on keeping on <3
Thanks everyone 
You guys are the best. And believe me, the last thing I want to do is come in here and be a whingey bitch. So i’m really going to try to keep my chin up. <3
Andy! HAHA! Good thing we’re not having this convo in person or I’d try to take advantage of you 
Anyways, its a real comfort knowing that feeling like this is pretty much the norm. So thanks again everyone for letting me come in here and vent.
And thanks for the song Frenchie! That helps
Legs day today:
Program called for front squats but my left shoulder is KILLING me. I’m not sure if its from the upper body w/o or the O lifting but my front delt hurts like a mofo. On top of that, there’s a bit of a clicking sound in there. So I’m assuming something got jammed up within the last two days. Anyways, started with the FS and then had to switch to back due to wonky shoulder situ.
FS
5x95, 115
1x135
Back squat
5x115, 115, 125, 135
3x145
2x145 < 145 was tough! I need to get back on the 5x5 and start working up from 140. Here we go!
BSS - 12x40, 50, 60
DB single leg RDL - 12x15, 20, 20 < getting easier
And finally, I did get out and knock the ball around Touch wasn’t too bad, but damn I got tired fast. HAHA! 90 mins is going to kill me!
Also got some sprints in at the end 1x 50, 100, 150, 200 yrds - not too bad. I will say I feel strong and quick. So that’s nice. I should’ve done another round of the sprints, but I was being lazy. d’oh!
Have a great weekend everyone! And in the words of Arachne, happy lifting!!
Masch, just fyi, learning to snatch is making me wanna cry :`( I do it over and over and over and over again and gah!
I thought I had it, then I lost it then I had something better then it’s crap waaaah
So I was complaining to my trainer how hard it is and she said “Duh! I know! It’s its own sport, you know!” So I’m imagining if I just started to play hockey or figure skating or any other sport and how I wouldn’t expect to be perfect right off the bat.
Question: Did your coach tell you not to deadlift, what is the reasoning behind that?
Your olympic lifts will come together just fine. You are athletic and seem to have good mobility and flexibility so you have the tools. Part of the responsibility of your coach is to teach it in a way you can get it? It will all click one day.
Maschy, you weren’t expecting OLYMPIC lifting to be easy, were you? I mean, the word “Olympic” is in there, and that is code-speak for “really, really, really, REALLY hard shit.” Good on you for showing up and working at it every week. I know you’ll get it in time.
I can’t believe soccer season is almost here again. Where does the time go??
Heh Masch (and Debra), don’t feel bad - I’ve picked up two injuries from the oly lifting and I’ve not even started using any weight yet. That shit is hard.
Nice sprinting!