Program Re-Vamp

Two recent T-mag articles have inspired to try a program based on a combination of the two.

Dan John’s The “One Lift a Day” Program

and

Ian King’s Ian’s Top 10 Mass Makers

Basically just do one mass maker lift each session.

The focus lifts that I am going to do:
power snatch sets of 1
power clean + power jerk sets of 1
standing shoulder press sets of 3
barbell rows sets of 3

Bench press and pull ups (as above) if time and energy allow. Or week of one week of the other for upper body.

After warm up sets should be able to get 3-6 work sets in with max weight in less than a 60-minute session.

Thats it, do a little abs (i.e. hanging leg raises) in the warm up and warm down

Goals by Christmas:
Body weight snatch
1.25 clean + jerk
Body weight shoulder press (optermistic for me, but my snatch and press are about the same and go up together usually)
Increase body weight from 200 to 220 while keeping fat lowish

My back got all stiff after doing a whole session of barbell rows (10 sets, 5 reps + warm ups).

I think the main problem was that I was breathing during the set and hence my abs were not braced all the time (putting all the support pressure on my back).

Anyway after a couple of days off the back is getting better (just a minor muscle strain really) but a good wake up call for me about safety.

I think I will drop the rows and replace them with pull ups at least for a few months.

So basically now I am just doing the old olympic three (i.e. clean and press, snatch and clean and jerk) plus pull ups, hanging leg raise and a bit of arm work (i.e. mucking around and having fun with rope pressdowns mainly).

Also I needed a few more rest/light days to really be able to attack the weights on the heavy days.

Also found that if I just tried to squeeze in the clean and press I got NO improvement in terms of strength. Needed to give it as much focus and as much rest (pre and post) as the snatch and clean and jerk. Now I give it its own day with a days rest either side of it like the snatch and the clean and jerk.

Current setup:

Day 1: Clean and press

Day 2: Rest

Day 3: Snatch

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Clean and jerk

Day 6: Rest

Warm up and warm down: hanging leg raises 5 sets aiming for 20 reps a sets. After the first couple of sets the reps drop off i.e. 20, 20, 15, 12, 9 etc. No swinging either. The reps are even worse on the warm down last set I am currently stri=uggling with about 5.

After about 5 or 6 warm ups lifts I aim for about 5 or 6 heavy but crisp singals on press, snatch and clean and jerk. All about 92-97% effort. Volume in this range I find really improves my strength. Any higher either all out or failure sends me backwards.

On the rest days if I have the time and energy (maybe) do higher reps (e.g. 5 reps or 10 reps) lighter weight in pull-ups, military press, hanging leg raises and rope pressdowns. All in the one lift a day style as above.

I could never really get much of a pump or growth in my arms but doing nothing but rope pressdowns for a whole workout really works for me.

Main goals by the end of the year:

To press 100 kg for a signal (this will be a big stretch for me, may not get quite there but will get close maybe 80kg for example)

To power snatch 100 kg for a signal(current best 80 kg) easy reps with 75kg at present

To clean and jerk 120 kg for a signal(current best 100 kg) easy reps with 95kg at present

Improve the body a little. Better posture would be a big step hence the leg raises to straighten the pelvis and the rows now pull ups to bring the shoulders back a little and build the rear delt. Onto of that a bit more meat on my triceps and chest from MP and pressdowns would help a lot. Back and legs are pretty good for me and hence are not top of the lost at the moment.

Never really found assistance work to be of much help, squats a little deadlifts not at all hence for now I am leaving it out. Really assistance work just made me tired especailly CNS wise with little improvement in focus lifts.

single not signal sorry I should have checked it