I was so proud of catching it with less of a back bend and more of what you’re describing, as that is what I’m most focused on here atm.
Ideally you would want to do the same in a continental clean as well but the axle makes it a lot harder additionally bc of the lack of rotating sleeves which makes the weight kind of slam into you. Still you will see strongman athletes with superb technical skill who manage to clean the axle without much back bend.
For me that is mostly inevitable due to a lack of skill, strength and proper athletic background (well weightlifting).
Once the weight gets heavy enough you will see a lot more back bend from me with any kind of clean cause I’m relying on brute force to get it to somewhere I can press from. I am hoping to clean that up a bit over the next off season, haha.
I’m a bit sickly so no training. Haven’t been sick in forever and of course it’s gonna hit right before my first vacation in forever. Hopefully early enough that I can be done before I have to leave.
Felt heaps better today. Just stressed out - like… a lot.
Since I missed yesterday’s session, I decided to mash them together and just reduce volume and skip stuff. Felt like a good decision and a productive session.
1 axle clean and press
10 x 1 @ 110 kg EMOM
Last set 4 presses
Alternating between push jerk and split jerk
2 front squats
2 x 5 @ 120 kg
Long time since I have done this weight and it felt very good.
3 14" axle deadlift
2 x 6 @ 205 kg
Hate this height. I’d rather pull from the floor honestly.
4 seated btn press (full rom, no back support)
3 x 8 @ 55 kg
Quality session. I’m far from your level but maybe consider focussing a bit on avoiding hips rising too fast in the front squat? It’s all gravy though.
Nah not really worth it. A slight change in posture (forward lean) is completely normal and in fact inevitable for most people, coming out of the hole of a squat, when dealing with challenging weights.
The only way I could get rid of this - and make my squat look prettier - is to lower the weight so significantly, that it will negatively impact the training effect (principle of overload - loads won’t be heavy enough to trigger adaption) or to change my biomechanics (the main reason some people will master a front squat without any posture change).
Don’t get me wrong, I am trying to stay upright on the front squat. I would alter my technique (or lower the weight) if I didn’t get the training effect or stress the tissue I desire.
Technique is about efficiency and efficiency is context dependant (what do you want to get out of what you are doing?).
Last training before I leave for Sweden. Backpack for the hike will have 22 kg, so it’s not like I will be inactive, haha.
1 btn split jerk
10 x 2 @ 107,5 kg EMOM
Took a big step back, as I said I would.
2 axle press away (clean once)
12 @ 100 kg - push jerk
7 @ 100 kg - split jerk
Little test for comp conditions. Very good result on tired legs. If vacation doesn’t take away too much, I should be able to do even more reps in comp. Which will be very competitive, I think.
3 banded deficit deadlift (blue or ist purple band; wl bar; 3,5 cm deficit)
5 x 3 @ 120 kg + band
Wanted to keep the legs and back fresh.
4 paused axle incline bench press
3 @ 95 kg
1 @ 105 kg
1 @ 110 kg - PR, I suppose.
Oh that is so cool. I want to visit all of Scandinavia for sure!
I’m gonna arrive in Stockholm (by train… fml) and then we’re gonna hike a trail relatively close to the city (not yet decided if north or south of the city).
First 4 hours within Germany to Hamburg and then 12 hours overnight to Stockholm. So 16 hours train and 19 hours total. This is a big personal challenge for e but no backing out now, haha.
I arrived on the 6th of June in Stockholm via overnight train after 18 hours on 2 trains and 21hours total travel time. We grabbed some food and started our hike along a portion of the Sömerlandsleden the same day.
We hiked for 4 days and in this time frame we met 4 people in total. Completely seperated from ‘modern civilisation’ and creature comforts, I developed a much calmer mindset. Whenever there was another challenge, you kind of shrug it off as “well this is how it is now” - but without resignation or being annoyed. You just develop a completely different ‘standard’ by which you judge situations.
As someone who constantly has like 12 tabs open in his brain, the time in nature helped keep me present much more than other things are able to.
The routes we hiked differed in difficulty and we had to alter our plans because of a big rain front on the radar on day 3. Day 2 was by far the hardest. My phone says I walked for 25 km (32.000 steps) that day in total. The backpack I carried weighed 23 kg.
The 4th day turned into a kind of ‘boss level fight’ at the end because the bus we originally wanted to take didn’t come and we had to reach a different village, where there was only one bus coming through that day. We figured this out 2.20 hours out from when the bus was gonna arrive. Google maps said we could make that on foot in 2.05 hours. I am sure they measure those times without 23 kg of additional load and the fatigue of 4 days of hiking though. However this was our only chance to get a connection back to the city. So we stepped on it and this tour turned into a real race against the time and a gritty mental battle. On top of everything it started to pour down like hell. We made it and picked up some new aches on the way.
The biggest challenge/ thing I’m not gonna miss about being in nature was the water situation. There were some rare clear water sources along the trail but that water wasn’t safe to drink without filtration either. So we had to suck all water through a filtration straw (which was a HUGE pain in the ass) or we had to cook lake water which you then had to let cool down to drink and while it won’t make you sick, it remains green with all kinds of debree in it. Also my expensive air mattress malfunctioned in night one, so I essentially slept on the ground or a 1 cm isolation mat for three days. That made me freeze at night because it got down to like 6-9°C and my back reminded me I am not 14 anymore. Waking up by a lake in untouched nature each morning is something I am absolutely gonna miss though! Oh and the mosquitos really are as bad as everyone says here, haha!
This was an unforgettable adventure and such an incredible experience! I am definitely gonna do something like this again. Also I was very nervous about how everything was gonna go with me being so heavy and strength oriented in my training and also requiring so many calories and stuff and I am proud to have proven to myself to be able to do something like this, even in midst of strongman season.
After the hike I went on to discover Stockholm yesterday and again got over 22.000 steps in. Today I’ll spend some more time in the city and will then start my journey home in the evening.
Not gonna lie, this was hard after 18 hours on the train yesterday and well the fatigue of everything that has happened this past week, haha.
2 axle press (clean once)
10 @ 100 kg - push jerk
8 @ 100 kg - push jerk
A decrease in performance was to be expected (-2 reps and very unstable). But still double digits. Not sure what I want to do with this the coming weeks. Maybe one AMRAP and 2 bsck offs or something.
3 paused axle incline bench press
3 x 6 @ 80 kg
4 lat pull down
5 x 12 @ s12
5 face pulls
3 x 15-20 @ s3
I’m not extra hardcore, I only subjected myself to this the day after travel because I have those comps lined up. I was whining throughout to people.
This was horrible, my body felt not ready for it. That all said, could have gone worse.
…where are you coming from then?
