yeah. some people say ‘smash the fuck out of the bar’ but then apparently if you are bruising your hips you are over-pulling and you aren’t supposed to do that either. i need to think to smash my hips because i tend not to finish the pull. i’ve never had a problem with over-pulling to know how you are meant to think about it to correct that.
it is hard. frustrating sometimes. but in it for the long haul, yes. sorry someone took your seat on the bus, that sucks.
That’s ok Alexus, I got over the bus seat, thanks for your concern 
I just have my ‘thing’ on the long bus ride.
Hmm, over-pulling, maybe I do, not sure. But now that I’m more aware of it hopefully no more.
Yesterday I kinda did my own thing, but using a non-olympic bar, not sure if that is wise but I had some energy. One thing I did notice, is that I miss the me-alone time when I just workout on my own. I used the find the workouts as me time, but getting coaching, while great, doesn’t feel like me time. So I just need to make sure I can recover well enough to add in some more real workouts that I do by myself.
Did a couple of snatches, and 22.5kg went up so easy, like it was 15kg. 2nd try, my wrist gave out so I left it. My room is a bit too small for any failures. I can see why the lifting gym doesn’t have mirrors, they are a bit distracting, wasn’t really feeling the lift, just looking at myself.
I did 5 reps of front squats of 37.5kg just to test, only to notice that I’m still painfully, obviously corkscrewing up. I tried to clean 42.4kg, but for some reason I just couldn’t do it mentally, couldn’t even try, just stood there. So I left well enough alone.
Went on an afternoon dive, only to crack my wrist hauling myself up the boat after the dive, ouch, I’m icing it this morning. And my regulator bit me (moan, moan). Other than that was a good dive even though the viz wasn’t the best. The lead diver kinda made a balls of the safety stop, but along the dive he pointed out these cool little yellow sea slugs that sparkle when you put the flashlight on them, never would’ve even noticed them before.
i know what you mean about mirrors. if there is one in front of me i can’t concentrate on how the lift feels, either. i’m tempted to take a sheet along and blu-tac it to the wall.
heh. i play with one armed powersnatches with the preloaded barbells sometimes. i’m not sure that is wise, either, but it sure is fun 
glad to hear you had a good dive. hope your wrist comes right soon.
“Bring the hips into play”
Women should really be more involved in oly lift cues!
alexus, one armed powersnatches, hmmm, don’t tempt me, haha. Maybe when I get up to 30kg, I’ll risk it.
Glad you liked that sbmart2, still think the English language has its limits.
From yesterday my right hip flexor is bugging me now (but also as usual the left one too), I could also feel it in my right knee. So I did some hip opening yoga and managed to curl up in fetal position, and I didn’t cry but I think ‘mommy’ might have escaped my lips once or twice.
Really felt a little emotional from it, which I get that way with my plantar fasciitis and my diaphram, don’t want another area in the body. Maybe because I’m a little upset with them and I can’t work on my squat?? I don’t know.
Anyway going to do some o-lifts later this evening. Looking forward to the fun bus ride.
Brief recap of session. Fucking brilliant is all I have to say. I owned that 25kg, and my wrist didn’t get pissy. AND below the knee snatches, no mental hang ups. More later. Sorry I called you sluggish ‘Body’, luv you.
Ok so I probably sound a bit wacko saying luv you to my body, but this year I promised to only say nice things to it, its a bit harder than I thought. But you’ll have to excuse me for being a bit giddy, was a good session for progress and I’m going away for a full week of diving next week.
Yesterday’s workout in detail:
Did a nice long warm, usual prehab including some good ole stretching for the hips. Seems that yesterday’s hip opening poses until I cried ‘mommy’ worked. Right one felt back to normal.
Snatch work (2 sets of 3, working up in weight to 25kg):
OH Squats (For once the 15kg bar didn’t bother my wrists, YAY!!!)
Hip hinge snatch
Knee hang snatch
Then the dreaded below the knee snatches (on blocks)
—This took me a little while to get, but Alexus’s link she put up helped, I was a little slow and pre-empting on the 2nd pull and it was hard to concentrate on bringing my hips into play starting from the 1st pull. And I started the jump back thing again. I was told a good cue “to keep it tight” from the 1st pull to the 2nd one (i.e. my buns and hams), that helped definitely.
25kg off of 1 plate, so not quite completely off the floor.
—Not sure if I was just geting used to below the knee or if the blocks previous were just a bit weird but this one felt alot better and the 25kg felt like nothing. I know its only 25 but the first time I tried to snatch that weight, I thought OOFFF! And my wrist twinged a little but far far far far far less than it ever has. I feel that 30kg is so much closer, those exercises seem to be helping a lot. I can see/feel a bit more muscle on the forearms. I wish I would’ve recorded the last 2 reps, oh well.
Jerk work (you’ll have to forgive me for my descriptions, don’t quite know all the proper terms):
The basic static lunge dip positions, so that I could get used to how it should feel. Was told to concentrate on bending down at the hips as I was more just bending at the knees.
Worked on the dips w/ the bar overhead
Did the full jerk (I think) from partial squat with elbows up with over head press.
Bench squats (5 sets 8 reps):
Was a nice change to start working on bilateral squats again. I wasn’t allowed to go too mad though with the weight.
30kg
35kg
40kg (left hip twinged a bit, but stretched it out between sets)
45kg
48kg
After the 40kg I made damn sure that I was focusing on using the right glute to push up the weight, I think that focus will save my left hip. It’ll all be about concentration. Anyway… once my coach feels better about my hips we’ll move onto regular squats.
Then did some benching and inverted rows, nothing special about these.
I’m taking Friday off work as I plan to go lifting early to get in nice long session with split workouts since my wrist is feeling better and I’ll be gone next week. He says we can work on combining the clean and jerk then.
yay for a good session!
Hey, that sounds really good. I’ll be following along in your learning how to jerk because I don’t know how to do that. I can’t bend very much at the ankles (basically incapable of bringing my ankles forwards from my knees) so I don’t really have the dip-drive thing going on. Practice with my Oly Shoes (I got the heels raised up even more so I can squat without falling over backwards) but the high-heeled aspect makes it hard to balance the bar over my traps. When I practice with normal shoes I can balance the bar overhead much better but have trouble with the dip-drive aspect. Sigh.
Glad you can say nice things about your body. I’m very used to hating on my body and praising it goes so much against the grain for me. Remembering all the work I did (and still do sometimes) on opening up the hips and how much more comfortable and happier I feel with my body when that movement feels smoother. It is an ongoing process for me, too.
I heard a saying ‘use the muscles - spare the joints’. It is something that I’m very much learning about myself. So many joint problems… But learning good muscular activation seems to take the pressure off the joints. Still very much learning this. Sounds like you are doing really well
I totally get the “me” time that’a why I get coached once a week and I practice in my own little bubble 2-3 times.
best of both worlds if you ask me.
[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
I don’t think the English language is descriptive enough for describing the lifts. Apparently ‘bring your hips into it’ doesn’t necessarily mean bang it off the fucking bar. I personally would’ve said ‘bring the hips into play’ but what do I know.
[/quote]
lol! this is hilarious and so true. That’s why I say things like, “be the buddha” (as in get your head through your arms after you catch) or “scoop the bar” which is how I envision my hip drive - “Smash the bar” would probably be to my detriment. lol! I think it helps to just articulate things in your way
Hooray for good sessions!! And more hooray’s for being nice to your body!
Everything looks like its coming together Techno! I’m guessing you were practicing split jerks? Check out this demo from CA - they got a chick doing it! (and not my boyfriend Greg Everett) I just realized you can make the vid go in slow mo with the cursor. Nifty!
http://www.performancemenu.com/exercises/exercise.php?exerciseID=212
Nice work in here - keep it up! You’re doing awesome!
Thanks MiM!
Alexus, yeah I’ll try to make sure to be descriptive enough and get my terminology right. And stop hating on your body, it does no good. Of course we have to learn that for ourselves. Took me awhile to realise that I can still push myself without constantly picking on what’s wrong with me. BF Skinner said it best that positive reinforcement is better than negative, its more long term, etc. I’m sounding a bit high and mighty about it, but really its been a long struggle for me. Do you think everyone does what you do? Or does it as well, you have lots of admirers here, heck you brought me on here (so slap slap). Ok I’m done preaching, haha, for now.
nlmain, yeah I get it now. I’m going to work on just doing some stuff by myself. Sprinting for one day and something else that won’t get in the way of my recovery. Hmmmm.
Mashy you are TOO funny, has anyone ever told you that? Like a cheerleader. You’ll have to do a terminology/definition post or something. Uh yeah, split jerks, ok now I know what they are called, thanks!
Good progress going on in here! Nice to see the weights increasing
[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
From yesterday my right hip flexor is bugging me now (but also as usual the left one too), I could also feel it in my right knee. So I did some hip opening yoga and managed to curl up in fetal position, and I didn’t cry but I think ‘mommy’ might have escaped my lips once or twice.
Really felt a little emotional from it, which I get that way with my plantar fasciitis and my diaphram, don’t want another area in the body. Maybe because I’m a little upset with them[/quote]
I get really emotional when I foam roll my legs. I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets emotional with such things.
What yoga stuff do you do to open up your hips? I’m looking for some stuff to do for mine!
nah, you aren’t high and mighty
i know you are right. turns out to be (very freaking early wtf??) bio-dictated deload time for me. which explains why i’ve been a bit of a sensitive sad sacky temperamental mess lately. also had lots of work stress etc so blah basically. applying for jobs, too, which gets me down because i don’t at all cope well with rejection. even though i don’t actually want any of the jobs, i just need the money.
ITB makes me cry, so i’m with you on that. also my ankle mobility work sometimes.
Alexus, Yeah unfortunately we need money and jobs to get money. Just think of the job hunting as toughening up you up for handling rejection. And really they are not rejecting you, just trying to get the best fit. Besides you don’t want to work in a place that doesn’t want you or will appreciate you. I’ve had quite a few of the wrong jobs, you spend hours upon hours of your time with people you work with.
For preparation for today’s long workout, the theme is ‘Push It’
Get up on this, make the beats go harder!
Did a few lengths in pool, I think I prefer interval type of swimming, just to see how fast I can do each length, having pool fins is fun! But I think I would get a better leg workout if I used my sea fins.
Did some more hip opening yoga, the last couple of poses were tough, and then my quads were killing me all night, even after a hot bath. Woke up and hooked myself on TENS machine. Forgot to do some chin ups, like I said I would the last couple of days.
You’ll have to excuse my English and typos, in a rush. Going for week long diving.
Today’s session was just meh, mostly relearning. I was dreaming about training though. My usual coach wasn’t there so things were done slightly differently. We went up to 25kg quite quickly, good thing is it still felt light, bad thing is its almost like I have to relearn the warm ups with a heavier weight. Hope that doesn’t happen every single time I go up in weight.
Oh where to begin, well my hips weren’t talking to me, and I wasn’t following through with them. They are still quite tense, I think I over did the stretching yesterday. I don’t think I need to worry about over-pulling, I think that’s only an issue when the weight feels too light.
Oh and my arms are too stiff again, I discovered that on my own weeks ago and corrected it, but it came back. Between my hips being slightly annoyed at me and the stiff arms, I got that bermuda triangle feeling when I lose awareness when I lift the bar from the hips to shoulders.
Wrist started at me at OH squats too with just 17kg, so I knew it would be a problem on the 25kg. Still bugging me, need to ice it. I think my hips just want to be left alone for a couple of days. They were grand after Tues’s session but I had to keep pushing them the entire week, so sorry hips, I’ll let you do you thing now.
Anyway everyone have a good weekend and week.