Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Training
361

Maschy, I hear ya. Yeah I’m thinking along the same fence as you are. But really I only get myself in trouble when I try to detach myself from my emotions or my body. But I can see the benefits of practicing non attachment to help one just get on with things. Actually speaking of cues, my coach was late this session but one of the guys was practicing his pull, and watching him reminded me to use my hips.

nlmain, yeah I figured it was PMS, just hate when it takes me by surprise, I seem to have a 24-28 day cycle. I’m always optimistic for 28, but that 24 sneaks up on me. I think it was just a combination of stress at work and being late & having to rush through the session on top of the PMS.

Today’s session was better as I actually had sometime to myself for the warm up and first few sets. I felt nauseated going in, I can feel my “friend” trying to come, but felt fine once I started. On the way home started to feel blah again, and I just finished drying a couple of tears from Karate Kid. Ugh to be a teenager again, no thanks! My hormones at this age are bad enough.

Anyway back to the same tomorrow.

362

Same workout. I actually felt pretty good. Was able to really focus even though TOM is here. I still really think it is stress that gets the better of me during this time. I didn’t go to work, so was able to do my breathing exercises, not having to deal with anyone bothering me (well too much anyway), listened to music, take a long hot shower before I went to lift. Or maybe bad PMS means not so bad TOM. Oh yeah and a friend gave me these nice blue pills for the pain (didn’t get rid of it fully but helped in the lower back) but don’t konk me out.

No complaints from my coach on any of my snatches. I did talk to the bar at one stage, said “you’re mine”. I just gotta focus on 2 things when I snatch, knowing when I reach the hip crease & keeping my butt down. There are usually other little things I need to pay attention too, but they just distract me. So that’s my focus for now. Don’t care if my coach keeps saying to lift the 1st pull faster.

Cleans & jerks were ok, except 1 clean I jumped back & the bar followed me & was some how on top of me (oops). Jerks again just need to focus on 2 things, left hip & pushing the shoulders out. Again nevermind the rest of the niggly things for now.

Squats were fine. They usually bother my lower back during TOM (its extra sensitive around this time) but if I keep them between 1-3 reps I’m fine.

363

It could be PMS or it could be fatigue (which may be influenced by TOM). When I did my half marathon I hit a point between 11 and 12 miles where I felt both sick and emotionally overwhelmed, like I was going to break down. I held it together, though. But I figure it was just because I was so exhausted (and dehydrated). I do think there’s a strong connection between body and emotions - I’ve heard about women breaking down in yoga before now.

Regarding cycle, mine was averaging at 25 days which sucks because you spend a week of that with PMS (mine wasn’t bad but I wanted to eat anything that couldn’t run away fast enough) and another five days on the blob, leaving two weeks where I was actually feeling good. But since I have been chomping nicotine gum several times a day my cycle’s got longer again. Nicotine interferes with estrogen uptake so I was hoping it would help me lower my hip and thigh fat - however, it seems to have the added benefit of lengthening my cycle so I reckon I’ll stay with it.

364

[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
Maschy, I hear ya. Yeah I’m thinking along the same fence as you are. But really I only get myself in trouble when I try to detach myself from my emotions or my body. But I can see the benefits of practicing non attachment to help one just get on with things. Actually speaking of cues, my coach was late this session but one of the guys was practicing his pull, and watching him reminded me to use my hips. [/quote]

I think it depends a lot on the person and their style and how emotion affect performance. Some people can get themselves all fired up and make PRs and others (like me!) panic and do everything wrong if too emotional.

The trouble with allowing a lot of emotion is you fall hard when you don’t meet your expectations but then you’re flying high when you do! Emotion can get in the way of being smooth and that gets in the way of being fast sometimes. But sometimes you really need a big RAWR on a jerk PR attempt and you need the aggression.

I’m constantly screwing up PR attempts by getting too excited about it so I have to trick myself into thinking I’ve already done this weight. I have a bunch of new pretty coloured plates that are making it hard to trick myself with but they’re in kgs and I am not letting myself convert them. A coach I know says I need to just get the hell over it and not let that affect me.

I don’t think there is a right or wrong approach!

As far as cues go, I seem to do best with a visual in my brain. I visualize someone doing a good lift from memory (someone real, like recent footage from the worlds) and then visualize making my limbs do the same thing, with one or two cues like ‘drive through the heels, push down with quads’ or ‘back arch TIGHT’, and then go. Or I just have the cues if the lifts are going well.

Since I don’t have a coach I really have to do it like that. Some of the stuff you need to do is not so easily describable so it helps to have wordless ways of getting the point! PBAndy is really good at describing what to think about though.

I had a lot of trouble with using my arms on the snatch at first and Andy described them as hooks and so I got a mental picture of a stick figure using the hips to thrust the weight up and the arms just being hooks and then when I went to lift I pictured doing that.

Sorry for the ramble! :slight_smile:

365

This seems out there but have you ever had your progesterone checked??

366

I’m sorry TOM is being so annoying!

[quote]Mascherano wrote:
Also, I’m totally with you. I’m not the kind of athlete that bodes well with a lot of instruction. My coach used to yell cues from the sidelines and this did nothing for me. I needed him to physically show me, either through example or by touch where things should be hitting, how the bar and my body should move, etc. Also I do well with metaphoric cues, lol! Its a bit autistic of me, really.[/quote]

This is totally me. With BJJ, I don’t get it unless I feel it done.

367

[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
It could be PMS or it could be fatigue (which may be influenced by TOM). When I did my half marathon I hit a point between 11 and 12 miles where I felt both sick and emotionally overwhelmed, like I was going to break down. I held it together, though. But I figure it was just because I was so exhausted (and dehydrated). I do think there’s a strong connection between body and emotions - I’ve heard about women breaking down in yoga before now.

Regarding cycle, mine was averaging at 25 days which sucks because you spend a week of that with PMS (mine wasn’t bad but I wanted to eat anything that couldn’t run away fast enough) and another five days on the blob, leaving two weeks where I was actually feeling good. But since I have been chomping nicotine gum several times a day my cycle’s got longer again. Nicotine interferes with estrogen uptake so I was hoping it would help me lower my hip and thigh fat - however, it seems to have the added benefit of lengthening my cycle so I reckon I’ll stay with it.[/quote]

Yeah it was TOM and maybe a bit of general moodiness. Been feeling like I’ve been going from A to B back to A to B with work and everything.

Funny you should mention that about running. When I used to run, I would actually get sleepy, my eyes would half close & everything, this happened to me when I used to run more than 13 miles.

Hmm nicotine gum, does that give one mouth cancer at all?

368

[quote]debraD wrote:

[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
Maschy, I hear ya. Yeah I’m thinking along the same fence as you are. But really I only get myself in trouble when I try to detach myself from my emotions or my body. But I can see the benefits of practicing non attachment to help one just get on with things. Actually speaking of cues, my coach was late this session but one of the guys was practicing his pull, and watching him reminded me to use my hips. [/quote]

I think it depends a lot on the person and their style and how emotion affect performance. Some people can get themselves all fired up and make PRs and others (like me!) panic and do everything wrong if too emotional.

The trouble with allowing a lot of emotion is you fall hard when you don’t meet your expectations but then you’re flying high when you do! Emotion can get in the way of being smooth and that gets in the way of being fast sometimes. But sometimes you really need a big RAWR on a jerk PR attempt and you need the aggression.

I’m constantly screwing up PR attempts by getting too excited about it so I have to trick myself into thinking I’ve already done this weight. I have a bunch of new pretty coloured plates that are making it hard to trick myself with but they’re in kgs and I am not letting myself convert them. A coach I know says I need to just get the hell over it and not let that affect me.

I don’t think there is a right or wrong approach!

As far as cues go, I seem to do best with a visual in my brain. I visualize someone doing a good lift from memory (someone real, like recent footage from the worlds) and then visualize making my limbs do the same thing, with one or two cues like ‘drive through the heels, push down with quads’ or ‘back arch TIGHT’, and then go. Or I just have the cues if the lifts are going well.

Since I don’t have a coach I really have to do it like that. Some of the stuff you need to do is not so easily describable so it helps to have wordless ways of getting the point! PBAndy is really good at describing what to think about though.

I had a lot of trouble with using my arms on the snatch at first and Andy described them as hooks and so I got a mental picture of a stick figure using the hips to thrust the weight up and the arms just being hooks and then when I went to lift I pictured doing that.

Sorry for the ramble! :)[/quote]
Hey DebraD!
No problem about the rambling, I do quite a bit myself :wink:
Yeah its a tricky one for me, I’m still trying to figure what works best for me when I go to do the lifts. But I do see that if I’m in a flustered state of mind before my session, I don’t seem to do so well. I need sometime to get stupid work out of my head. Its happened to me before because I go straight from work to a session and I then only have so much time, rush rush rush rush. Certainly no time to get my head in the zone, sometimes work just zaps the energy out of me. Then any issues I have, physical labour is kind of like a releasing mechanism for me. Which is good in one way but, gets it out of my system. I’m trying the 3 deep big breaths before a lift if I feel in anyway unstable.

Your numbers are sounding strong, hmmm bodyweight snatch very nice! But seems so far away for me. But 1 kilo at a time!

369

MiMsy, I’ve had it checked years upon years ago. I have an appointment to do some major testing of stuff but not till July next year.

Patches, TOM wasn’t so bad this time. PMS was terrible (& I rarely ever get PMS) but I’ll take PMS over a bad TOM if this is how its going to be. Maybe my hormones are changing for the better. I can always hope for next month. I did take a few days off work & visited some fam.

370

Yesterday I was in the zone for the snatches. My 2 cues were working perfectly. So we decided to test 40kg again, sigh I couldn’t even powersnatch it, and I’ve gotten it up before, so was just my technique. We then tried 38kg, I went too wide in the hole though (& it hurt my widdle knee) so didn’t have the balance to stand up. BAH! Would’ve been a PR for me. After that when I went back on the lighter weights, technique suffered.

But I think my problem was I only ate 2 eggs the entire day, so of course I had no energy. Felt dizzy by the time I got to squats. My fault, kinda kicking myself because maybe I would’ve gotten the 40kg if I had been smart. Or maybe we just jumped the weight too quickly?? Oh well I’m gonna get it soon enough.

Clean & jerks, meh too tired to jerk explosively, so they were just ok.

I shouldn’t really complain about that session though, the first 6 sets of snatching were very smooth. Think I might have adapted to the new program & its weights already. Hmm wondering if I should suggest that we add an extra kilo or so to things???

371

Two eggs? How d’you not eat more? Eh.
No, I don’t think the gum gives you cancer but chewing tobacco will (ugh).

372

Ya I know Cal, pretty dumb. I think I was still paying for it in yesterday’s session. Bah even managed to fall over on the empty bar. And I kept landing on my toes instead of a flat foot??? Squats felt very weak too.

Found another problem with my jerks. For some reason I started to bend my knees just before I jerk, wasn’t doing it before??? Anyway they felt a bit better once I stopped doing that. Although not as good as when I was doing the jerks before snatching.

Sigh, I was rewarded yesterday by adding another set of 80%, so 4 sets after I do my 1 rep of 90%. Like my program isn’t long enough as it is, and I only have an hour to get through everything because they close the main floor at 7pm. Don’t really have the time to do a proper warm up.

70% 3 reps 2 sets
75% 3 reps
80% 2 reps
85% 1 rep
90% 1 rep
80% 2 reps x 4 sets

All & all wasn’t too bad of a session though.

373

Ooooh…I’m loving your coaches programming!! Its so awesome that he changes stuff based on your performance. That’s great!!

And it sounds like things are moving along with the Oly! Don’t sweat it. Like my old coach used to say, you’ll miss 1000 snatches before you get 1. Lol! You’ll get that 40kg. Just keep chasing it!

374

Maschy, you are such a little cheerleader! Yeah I’ll keep chasing it. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

Apparently working doubles or triples on one’s 80% is supposed to help make you faster and stronger. One of the big shots in the region said his numbers actually went down when he mistakenly stopped doing enough reps at his 80%.

Just did some yoga yesterday and went to pool. My knees are still a bit cranky.

Think I need to do more yoga, keeps me in tuned with my body and spatial awareness. Too easy to detach and push, then the body doesn’t listen to me, we seem to have communication problems with each other if I’m not more proactive. Eh, just like any relationship :wink:

Oof my swimming has suffered, along with my endurance. Nice to mess around in the pool though, the steam room was heaven. Was helping out a couple of the new trainees with their snorkel exercises in the pool as there was only 1 instructor and two of them.

375

You and me both - my knees have been really pissy this week. I blame it on the naughties I’ve been eating. My joint pain always gets worse when my diet goes down the crapper. Damn children giving me chocolate and stuff. Heh.

I may give swimming another try over the holidays but it makes me sneeze and feel as though I’ve got a cold. It’s the chlorine.

376

Just plain cranky bodies you & me both Cal. Yeah I have not had much energy for proper swimming since the beginning of the year. I prefer just messing around in the water. But I’ll need my water fitness for next year when doing the rescue stuff. Chlorine isn’t good, I smell it the next day no matter how I scrub myself afterwards.

Yesterdays session went well. Snatching felt really really really good. Only 2 reps were a bit iffy, my coach again was giving me more than one instruction so I get easily confused from listening to him. Other than that no complaints except I’m still feeling a bit weaker standing up out of the hole. Just around my hip area???

C & J, went ok. I think my jerking was better when I did them first, just a bit too tired after the snatching. I guess I’ll adjust to the work load soon enough. The next type of programme we are going to split the C&J and snatches on different days. But for now continuing with current programme.

We skipped squats cuz I had to leave early enough.

377

Got a PB on snatch, 37kg. Not the most I’ve put over my head but was able to stand up. Ah silly me, mid Nov my coach had me set things up properly before I did the lift. Seems I’ve been forgetting to put my shoulders over the bar enough. Can’t believe how easier things felt after that. Can’t believe how much spinach shrinks either after you’ve cooked it.

378

Your spinach comment has me cracking up! It is amazing to me too…the peeps at the grocery store probably think I’m nutty for the amount that I buy…but THEY HAVE NO IDEA!

:smiley:

Nice training…I’m with you, too many things to think about during a lift leaves me more confused than I was to begin with. Glad things clicked for you today though.

379

I use loads of fresh spinach when I cook it down. good for a great many things.

congrats on your PB - sometimes its all in the details.

380

Glad you gals can follow my non sequitur, plenty more where they come from.

Gonna grow some of own spinach next year, on the little balcony. As well as lots of lettuces & beets. Beets leaves just keep on giving.

I’m fully appreciating all the little things about these lifts. Get my technique consistent enough and build up these legs so I can stand up for the weight, that 50kg snatch will be mine next year, don’t care if its Dec 31st 2012