8/13:

Afternoon sesh:

lbs

HBBS 5x5, 1x15 @ 65%

=290lbs which was no prob on the 5x5, but the 1x15 was an impressive grind. Took a video and it took me 50 seconds to do the first 10 reps, and a minute on the last 5. Completely wiped afterwards

Weighted planks 5x1min + Front Rack overloads 5x5

25lbs on planks, ~350lbs for FROs. Planks were really hard, FROs were not that bad this time.

Evening sesh

jerk work

BTN footwork 10x3 with bar
BTN jerk 10x3 @ 50kg
BTN jerk presses 10x3 @ 50kg

Barely broke a sweat during all of this but it's good practice. More pressing is certainly good for me as well

8/14:

Spent about 30 minutes stretching my hips/hamstrings before lifting today and it felt great. I really need to devote more time to this, especially when I can multitask like watching tv.

lbs

Dead + incline bench (superset, both 5x5, 1x10)

Deads: 295 beltless. Felt pretty easy. Even the 1x10. Really tried to focus on good setup on each rep.

incline bench: 135. I'm weak. Shoulders are pretty sore from all of the volume so these were actually pretty tough for me, but I still got through the 1x10

tall snatches 10x5

65. feeling better about these each time.

5x {bicep curls w/ 35s + dips x10super set}

I need to do this to. I do it like for two minutes before workouts and never on off days. And I always just sit around watching tv doing nothing

Yeah I have been doing it more and more recently when watching tv. But I still need to do it more.

Honestly, when I started, I'd sit on the floor w/ my back against the couch and that would stretch my hamstrings. Now I have to put foam roller/pillows under my feet to get a stretch going so that's progress! I can actually touch my toes now!

Today at the gym I spent a lot of time stretching my hamstrings like this^ method as well as sitting against the wall with the soles of my feet touching and a 45lb plate on each leg pressing them down so that it stretched my groin/hips. Man, that was great. I really need to do that more

Can you explain the second paragraph. Where do you put the pillow? And your feet are just straight ahead of you?

sorry, yeah, I put the pillow/foam roller under my heels so that it elevates my legs, making it a more acute angle, thereby emphasizing the stretch more.

feet straight ahead, yeah

8/15:

lbs

Snatch:

10 good reps at 70%

I did 125 and they all felt good. Hitting my hip well on each rep these days and while I'm not really getting under the bar that well, I'm definitely making improvements. Here are my last 4 reps:




CnJ:

10 good reps at 70%

All at 175lbs and I tried to do full reps. Cleans + good jerks on all. All were super easy, but my form on jerks is always bad due to mobility restraints. Trying to punch my head through more and lock out better but it's tough. Here are my last 5 reps:



FS:

280x1x5 Kinda hard. Pretty tired

C&J is looking so much better. You're light years ahead of where you were.

Snatch is much much better too. Something about it still looks a little funky but you're getting under the bar a lot better and not just muscling it up. BBC doing you good.

Thanks! That's awesome to hear. It feels better. Feels easier. But having someone else see the different also helps a lot

Agree with POW. You've made some BIG improvements. Jerks just look a million times better. Nice job, bro.

Thanks! Still have to make huge improvements with my right shoulder so that I can actually jerk effectively, though. All of this stretching and rolling might be making really slow progress or it may just be doing nothing. I don't know.

Twice in the past week I laid on my back on the ground with a lax ball under my shoulderblade. I extended my arm overhead so that the ball could get into that meaty part and holy mother of f'ing god did it hurt. I found some gnarly knots and worked two out which literally brought me to tears. It was so intense and my shoulder was sore for a couple days in that area but was probably needed because those knots got rolled out...so that's a good thing right? lol. I haven't done this in a few days though and need to make sure that I'm exploring that region w/ a lax ball (or maybe eventually a golf ball) on a regular basis. At least every other day, I think.

Also, I've been attempting to roll my right lat with a foam roller, but the lax ball works about 100x better it seems.

I'm also sore in parts of my right shoulder that I'm not rolling (like the top, by the joint), and now that I'm doing all this extra overheard work that my coach is prescribing me I assume that it's related. Hopefully it's a good sign in that I'm using muscles that I don't normally use, and not a bad sign due to some overtraining/bad form kinda thing.

8/17:

lbs

Snatch grip sots press

10x3 @ 55 and 65lbs. Maybe 5 reps of each. They're really hard. 65 was way harder than 55, too.

Muscle snatches

10x4 @ 75lbs. These were really easy. Probably should have done more weight!

also did some situps and hanging L raises

8/18:

Afternoon sesh:

lbs

FS: 65%x5x5, 65%x2x10, 70%x10

245x5x5
245x10!
245x8 ugh. almost
260x3 lol. not 10. Dead.

last time I only got 7 and 7 on the 2 sets that are supposed to be x10, so this was nice progress.

also did incline press @135lbs and pullups, 7 sets of 7 each, supersetted.

Evening sesh

Went into this with my shoulder feeling wonky. Maybe from lots of shoulder volume recently. Maybe from doing something to it? Not sure. Hope not!

kg

snatch work

Tall snatches w/ 3-5s hold
3 reps EMOM 10mins @ 30kg
2 reps EMOM 10mins @ 40kg
1 rep EMOM 10mins @ 45kg Feeling better towards the end of these!

Re rolling with lax ball: I think EOD is not even enough. If that's a problem area or you have mobility issues around there I think you should be rolling at least every day, and probably even several times a day. Before every workout, every day before bed, etc.

Also in my experience when some place hurts the day after rolling, it's because I went too hard and/or overdid it. Pain and discomfort is going to be inevitable, but you're not meant to purposely hurt you. You should try and stay relaxed and keep breathing when you roll, if you're lying there with a cringing face making "arghhh" sounds, you probably need to take away a little pressure. Roll smart, not hard!

Definitely agree that I should be doing it more.

However, the spot on my back will hurt right when the ball touches it in the right way. Very little pressure is needed. That's why I don't think it's just going too hard or anything. I think it's really just a tender area where there is a knot or something.

But yes, definitely need to just relax into the ball and not tense up. and need to it every day!

I don't know if you feel like you need it but I was pretty confused and unaware about what I was doing when rolling and these video series helped me a lot! This guy does a really good job explaining SMR:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...65ACD066E5E9D2

Are those percentages for front squats real? You have front squatted 375???? Jfc

Good catch. That's insane

My coach has targets that he has for me so my %s are based off of the targets.

Snatch: 80
CnJ: 110
BS: 200
FS: 170

They're all higher than what I've ever hit. My PRs:

Snatch: 72
CnJ: 100
BS: 188
FS: 147

I guess the goal is to have high targets so that I push myself and sometimes fail and sometimes succeed and eventually get stronger.

also FSed 300x3 once. That was another PR triple.

So, yesterday I did all that FSing and for the first time my legs are actually sore today after front squats! Literally never happened before.

Those are some nice numbers for FS, and a really decent C&J in that video. Motivating to read/see

So your percentages are based on aspirational maxes?? But your percentage you had for clean pulls the other day was of your max c&j? Real or aspirational? Weird.

No idea what's going on in this log, but it seems that while your lifts are getting better, your logging notation format has become WOAT. Still, I enjoy the vidyas. Moe vidyas.

Thanks, I feel good about my FS! Just not my CnJ, lol. Hopefully it'll go up a lot soon once form improves

Yes, the %s in my programming are based off of where my coach feels like I should be by the end of the cycle. 14 more weeks, so it's a long cycle!

And my logging notation makes sense to me but if it doesn't make sense to you lmk and I'll clarify. More vidyas incoming tho

Hmm, okay I need to watch this then. I think I have a good idea and know what I'm doing, but I'm not pos.

A lot of the time I will find a knot w/ a lax ball and just let myself seep into it slowly, releasing tension. It starts off as insanely painful but slowly dissipates into nothing. Sometimes I move around a little but try and keep that muscle unflexed as much as I can.

Last night I had an amazing session without moving much at all. I'd just find a knot, and lay into it until it went away. So good. Not sure it really does anything, but I think it does. Hopefully that counts

8/20:

Afternoon sesh

globo; lbs

Front Squat: 245x5x5, 245x10, 245x15

I got through the x10 and my right wrist was about to break off on the last rep. The x15 wasn't happening. I gave myself a long break and got 3 reps.

5 sets of Weighted planks for 1min w 25lbs + Front Rack Overloads @ 350lbs (superset)

Planks = death

Evening Sesh

barbell club; kg

CnJ work

Slow clean pulls, 10x2
@80kg

1clean + 2 push press
10x60kg Easy game
5x70kg Still pretty easy
3x80kg First push press was hard and failed the 2nd pp on each of the 3 sets

BTN jerk singles @ 75kg. 5 sets

Easy enough but I need to do a better job of locking out my elbows overhead immediately

Split jerk stance strict press

40kg x5x10 These were fairly hard after all the overhead volume. Shoulders getting fried
40kg x10 I really noticed on this set that once my shoulders got fatigued around the 4th or 5th rep, I started to really use my left and right shoulder muscles differently to get the weight up. I could feel them burning in totally different positions, yet the weight was light enough for me to still muscle it up. I should have done a better job of noticing where this fatigue occurs because it was kind of a pinching in both, which isn't good, and not just a sign that my muscles were tired, rather, that I was using them improperly.

Anyways, after all of this I was totally soaked and demolished. Beyond tired. I basically collapsed when I got home and now today, Friday, I feel like a zombie. Didn't sleep enough either. Cannot wait for this weekend.

In other news, this guy at our barbell club, Colin, had injured his knee squatting ~9mo ago. He has taken it really slow getting back into it since he doesn't want to hurt himself again. Fair. Seems excessively long to test the waters, but whatever, he's smart and knows what he's doing. He's really knowledgeable about physical therapy type stuff. Anyway, since he's been hurt he basically just presses all the time and his shoulders are so massive. I'm mirin hard.

This was him at the ma strength seminar before he started pressing:



No after pic that I can find, but they're way bigger now. And everyone comments on them.

Anyways, I really REALLY need to press more. jfc. With my #blessed #abprivilege I would probably look amazing with boulder shoulders. I mean, I am doing a lot more pressing than normal right now in my programming that my coach gave me, but I feel like I could be doing more. I think on days at the globo gym when I have time I will add more incline press and OHP into the mix. Even if it's light weight. Just getting reps in is necessary right now