I 100% agree. in fact all squat cleans, either for reps or while O lifting I found incredibly sapping. Have you ever done the Badger WOD?

3 Rounds For Time:

30 Squat Cleans (95/65 lb)
30 Pull-Ups
800m Run

try not to, it's truly awful.

I can also +1 thrusters tbh...one of the most glorious realisations when I left crossfit and started training on my own was that I would never have to do a Thruster or squat clean again....and I haven't. Life's good man!

lots of stuff wrong with the snatch tech tbh and frankly, not too much right. I think you'd be better served by going back to basics with an unweighted barbell and getting things corrected before you add weight again.

forgive me is the terminology isn't perfect and I hope I'm not coming off as a dick.

the whole pull is off from the beginning to the end and there's about 5 things that need to be corrected. In order of how they come to mind (if not totally in sequence)....

the lift should be a violent pull from the hips and glutes and yours looks almost totally with your arms. you need your arms to be fully locked with the elbows pushed through right the way through the pull and then the only times they are bent is as you drop under the bar. they must be fully locked again by the time you catch the bar. compare that to the (admittedly awful quality) screen shot here




pulling with the arms also means you're pulling early and not fully extending the hips and there's almost no force coming from the end of the hip extension and the shrug. so the bar is moving slowly and without much power, which frankly is the point of doing this lift.

contributing to this issue is that your weight looks too far forward on your feet. I would want to see more weight on your heels and you almost sitting back more into your heels as you address the bar and start the lift which in time will help fix the issues above of pulling through to the top of a more violent hip extension and shrug

not sure if your are as tight through your core as you should be which...in addition to having your arms bent and the bar being too far forward, leaves you off balance when you catch the bar.

lastly (and I know it's a power snatch so you're not dropping that far) but you're really slow dropping under the bar...the whole movement is slow when really the reason you snatch is to develop your explosive power ...so moving something heavy with speed (and precision).

Cliffs...weight on heels, torso upright, core tight...pull more violently to full hip extension with fully locked arms, then drop as fast as you can under the bar to catch it.

I would go back to basics and train snatch tech every day as your warm up with a bar. Have you seen the Burgener warm up video? There's a few variants of it on youtube...this is the first one I found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5YFU_iuwJ4

feel wrath,

gyazo.

you're welcome,
renton

ty ty. I'll have a look..but it might be beyond my intellectual capacity.

I am honestly a total bif with technology. utterly clueless. like, I have no idea how to post a video on tpt and I've been on here for more than a decade

assuming you use windows: you download and install it, then you find the icon on desktop, right click on it, and select "pin to task bar".

Then when you click the new button on our task bar, it lets you click and drag an area on your screen which it immediately hosts as an image on the internets.

feel wrath - Thanks a ton for the feedback, and no need to apologize about being harsh. I welcome all harsh feedback here. My squat/bench/deadlift form have all improved from the beginning of this log and it's mostly down to the people here.

Re: the actual feedback, my form actually looks pretty decent (relatively anyway) at lower weights. I have only noticed the not locking out at heavier weights (My 1RM snatch is 65 (lol) and video was 55). Also, anything from the hang has always been a huge problem for me as I tend to yank with my arms as you pointed out. So the video was probably as bad form as it gets for me, which is why I posted it.

With weightlifting, I know what I need to do differently. I'm just not able to implement it. For a year, my coach told me to not bend my arms early, and believe it or not, this is as good as it has been. It's really frustrating but I will keep plugging away and eventually have a respectable snatch. I'll keep in mind some of the things you have said. Bending my arms early seems to be the biggest thing. For some reason, I don't do it for cleans but I do it for snatches. Perhaps I need a wider grip?

Pat actually programs the Burgener warm up 2-3 times a week, even on non snatch days, so I've watched that video and been doing it a lot. It's a pretty good warm up and helps with ingraining form. I'll really focus on snatch drops to help with locking out.

Yeah, that looks rough. If I were to do it, I'd probably scale to 30kg and maybe 20 pull-ups. I love strategizing about metcons though. If someone pointed a gun to my head and said I had to do it RX without a timecap, then I would walk the 800m run to get the fastest possible time. I definitely would need all the recovery I can get to do those 60 reps which jack your heart rate.

Edit - Just saw it was 3 rounds and not 5 rounds. I could probably do it RX, with a slow jog and walk the last 400m. It definitely looks a lot less terrible now though. I thought it was 150 squat cleans!

I’m not sure Feelers was entirely clear. He can barely turn on the interwebs

It was definitely a wall of text and I should have edited it down.

The arm issue compounds with not pulling through the top of the hip extension and not shrugging properly, which all leads to a lack of power and violent explosion.

I reckon the best exercise to do would be reps from a hang position of the hip extension shrug part of the lift with a snatch grip with fully extended arms.

Crossfit Linchpin - D42

Main
5 rounds for time: (or not)
70 Double Unders
5 Deadlifts | 60-70% 1RM
30 Push-ups

28:58 RX - not for time/105kg DL (65%)

Accessory 1
Barbell Glute Bridge: 90x10x3

Accessory 2
Windshield Wipers: 1x40

--------------------------------------------

Really great session. Non-trivial amount of deadlifts (5x5@65%), a lot of pushing, 30 minutes of cardio, some core work, and some glute work in under an hour including warmup. I chose not to do this for time, but my HR was always going to be high with 350 DUs! Round times were 4:27, 5:21, 6:20, 6:30, 6:18. Average HR 171, max 185. DLs were all unbroken. Push-ups were all in sets of 5. I am pretty pleased with this because I thought there was a decent chance I would hit a wall and take 40+ minutes. I've never done 350 DUs in a day, and they held up well under fatigue (which hasn't been in the case in the past). I don't think I've done 150 push-ups and they were fine as well. These are proper ones, chest to floor, core tight. I saw some 10-11 minute times for today, which is either incredible fitness with good DU technique, or cheating push-ups. I am going to brute force my way into getting better at double unders.

Accessory work as all k.

Yeah, I can see how high hang will help me. I watched through 10 videos from my EMOM yesterday and made the following notes for the future:

1. Engage lats at setup
2. Be patient with the 2nd pull and start it later. Don't bend arms early
3. Keep the bar close
4. Snatch - head through and strong lockout. Clean - fast elbows.

It's a lot to think about, but I think these are the main things I am doing wrong.

Someone called the snatch ‘gymnastics with a bar’ and I think that’s right. It’s ironic from my own POV as I was truly terrible at gymnastics when I was cross fitting but the Snatch was the one movement that ‘works’ for me like machinery, whereas I could never do double unders or muscle ups or butterflies.

But it’s such a beautiful technical lift and it’s really worth persisting with because once you get it, you really get it and it’s so much fun to do. I’ve never loved any gym exercise as much as I loved snatching once I learned how to do it

Ha, we're exact opposites! Weightlifting did not come naturally to me. Gymnastics did though. It didn't take me long to get muscle ups and start linking them. Same with handstand pushups. I had to work for pistols, but they're pretty easy now.

Are you going to do the open in March? There's the standard open, then there's a reduced equipment option, and a no equipment option. You seem to be getting serious about fitness, so it might be something fun to do.

Agree with most everything feel wrath has posted except for this. I more or less have to relearn the lift every session (I remember an interview with a top pro who said something similar, but forget who).

You must lift better than you 2p2.

You've helped me out quite a lot, what is your training like? Are you mainly an olympic weightlifter?

No way. I was very early into CrossFit 2007-2012 ish and I did used to compete at games days and in the Open etc that was more than enough for me.

I was at a gym owned by Games athletes that had people qualify for the games every year and I saw what weapons they were and also how hard they trained..totally a full time job and really not worth it IMO for what they had to give up and also the damage it did to their bodies.

I went very hard at it for a while but I would eventually break down which would lead to weeks or months of not being fit. I don’t squat heavy or do any o lifts apart from power cleans any more and I’m extremely content to stay in my lane, be fit and relatively strong and not beat my body up.

ha - you’re probably right but it’s easy for me now because I don’t/can’t do the lift any more so all I have to do is post about it. Far easier to remember how I did it than to actually do it again

Crossfit Linchpin - D43

Main
2017 CrossFit Games Qualifier Workout 3 - Teens 16-17 / Masters 35-54
21-15-9
Shoulder-to-Overhead, 61kg
Chest-to-bar Pull-up

9:57 - 50kg S2O/ burpees instead of C2B

Accessory 1
3 rounds for max reps of:
Hang Power Cleans, pick load, 30 secs
Shoulder-to-Overheads, pick load, 30 secs
Rest 2 mins between each round.

63 reps @ 40kg - 11/12 - 11/9 - 12/8

Accessory 2
Strict Pull-ups: 3x10

-----------------------------------

It was a really outstanding technique gains day. I switched chest to bars for burpees to keep the stimulus of the workout (short sprint). Since I can't kip, my replacement is strict pull-ups, but 1) they were accessory work later and 2) my heart rate gets to come down if I do them. So burpees it was. The goal time was 7 minutes, so I went too heavy. Round times were 3:36, 3:56, 2:23. AHR 176, max 191!! S2O were 7/7/7, 3/4/4/3 (1 short by accident), 3/3/2f,1.

Because the S2Os were too heavy, I realized that I really had to dip under and lock out aggressively. Otherwise, I would be failing. It's counterintuitive, but I make technique gains whenever I use heavyish weights in a metcon. There's never a situation where I'm doing so many sets close to failure and my body is forced to find out the most efficient way to do it. I linked the entire video above, and the first set of 21 was fairly easy and I really wasn't dipping under and locking out hard. When I picked the bar up in the round of 15 and did just 3, I thought oh ****, this is going to take me 13 minutes+. But then I did sets of 4 after because I realized I had to dip under more and lock out hard. Boom. Technique gains. My burpees are all probably no reps because I don't extend at the top, so that's something I learned from recording myself.

The HPC/S2O complex gave me even more technique gains! I recorded the first set and realized that I was just doing reverse bicep curls for the cleans. I practiced with an empty bar between pull-up sets and shrugged instead of using my arms and they look so much better! Both videos are below to see the difference. I also tried to dip under and lock out for S2O.

Pull-ups were easy because I was messing around with the empty bar doing cleans and the rest periods were long. 3x11 might be possible, so pretty good gains. I should do a max test sometime, I predict 17.





Ha, I wasn't telling you to train 5 hours a day and try to make the games! It's just a fun competition and might be some extra training motivation and maybe a friendly bet.

Yeah, sorry if I misunderstood. I’ve left CF behind now, there’s way too many exercises I don’t do and I have a form of ptsd about it now looking back.

I do like the look of the S2O and burpees though. That would have been right up my street back in the day at 50 or 60kg - medium weight metcons with no complex gymnastics was my wheel house. Tempted to try it tomorrow!

Ah, gotcha. Yeah it's a fun one, really gassy, similar to Fran. Do it!

Crossfit Linchpin - D46 (messed up the numbering)

Main
For time: (or not)
Row, 250 m
12 Front Squats, 65% 1RM | 77.5 kg
Row, 250 m
35 V-ups
Row, 250 m
Walking Lunge, 70 m
Row, 250 m
35 V-ups
Row, 250 m
12 Front Squats, 65% 1RM | 77.5 kg
Row, 250 m

19:58 - not for time/Ave HR: 162/Max HR: 180

Accessory 1
DB Box Step Up: 40 reps

2x22.5kg onto chair (19 inches), 4x10

Accessory 2
Double Unders: 200 reps in as few sets as possible

Did ~240

----------------------------------

The main part was a mix of the RX and Limited Equipment version. I replaced GHD sit-ups with V-ups. I didn't sleep well last night and really didn't feel like doing it. Today was the one day a week where it's for time or not, so I chose to just go slowly. Front squats felt heavier than they should have (8+4, 4+4+4). I'm happy I got through it.

DB Box Set ups were a grind, but fine.

I did more than 200 double unders because I completely lost them at the end. I did a few more just to let myself know I can still do them. They were all in sets of 15-27 before I tripped up. It wasn't a good double under day, but they will come back. My left calf hurts a bit, probably from the increased skipping. I might take it easy with the DUs for a while.

My diet has been pretty ideal. I've been eating way more protein at meals and still letting myself eat ~300 cals for dessert. I've even started eating fruits again.



This has been a staple the last few days.
Rice - 200
Chicken - 200 (some chicken hidden beneath the veg)
Avocado - 100
Veggies - 100
Tzatziki - 100

All approximations, but pretty filling and a huge improvement from earlier. There's some donk calories in there, but I can lose weight on 3x700 cal meals + 500 in snacks.

Crossfit Linchpin - D47

Extra
~1 hour of snatch practice. Loads of singles - around 10 at 55, 1 at 57.5 being the heaviest

Main
3 rounds of:
9 Power Snatches, 60% 1RM | 36 kg
9 Row Calories
- Rest 5 minutes -
3 rounds of:
9 Power Cleans, 50% 1RM | 43.5 kg
9 Row Calories

5:11/4:00

-------------------------------------------

I deviated from the programming today. The optional work was a snatch complex and a hard 500m row/TT. I wanted to work up to a heavy power snatch single for around 15 minutes, while working on technique, and then do the rest. I got carried away though and snatched for an hour! I recorded every rep and got more and more frustrated as I kept jumping forward. I tried using all my cues (lats engaged, weight back, delay arm bend, keep the bar close, and lock out strong overhead). I actually was about to give up after 45 minutes, when I remembered something from AtS last year. I had my weight back at setup, but then my weight would go forward on my toes during the first pull. I focussed on having my weight back throughout and BOOM. No more jumping forward and I even jumped back! I had lowered the weight by now because I was tired, but even with the lower weight, I was jumping forward at the beginning. Video of the 55 power snatch is from before the cue, 40 snatch is from after. I was getting SO frustrated, but I now feel better.

The metcon was actually really fun. I paced the snatches too much (3+3+3, 5+4, 5+4). My max HR was only 183 during the first part. I went unbroken on the cleans and my HR reached 188. I used my fractional plates for the first time! If I were to redo, I would try and do the snatches 9, 5+4, 5+4.

Crossfit Linchpin - D48

Main
Nate
20 minute AMRAP:
2 Ring Muscle Ups
4 Handstand Push Ups
8 Kettlebell Swings, 32kg (American)

12+2 - 4 strict pull ups instead of MU/24kg KB

Accessory 1
Plank: 2 minutes

Accessory 2
OHP: 46x8x2, 46xAMRAP=9

--------------------------------

Another good day! Nate is a benchmark workout that I would love to do RX, but alas, there's no place to do muscle ups at home. I would target 7-8 rounds and it would be cool just to do it RX because it's a toughie. The KB swings (ironically) would probably be the movement that slowed me down the most - 32kg is a lot of weight for me to get overhead again and again.

Anyway, I really grinded to get into that 13th round. Round times (in seconds) were 56, 90, 91, 102, 110, 111, 123, 119, 108, 104, 81, 85. Average HR 171 and max HR of 192. All HSPUs were unbroken which I am really happy with. I didn't think I was capable of doing a set of 4 unbroken at a HR of 185 after doing 44 already! Huge progress there. Pull-ups were unbroken in the first round, then 2+2 from rounds 2-11, then singles in rounds 12 and 13. In hindsight, I rested too much in the middle rounds that were slower. I'm itching to do this with ring muscle ups.

Planks were fine. OHP was a struggle after the HSPU. I failed the 10th rep. I need to stop really going for it and stop at RPE 8-9.

Crossfit Linchpin - D49

Main
10 rounds:
10 Burpees
Row, 100 m
- 2 minutes rest between rounds -

8:11 - 49/53/47/47/48/48/51/49/50/49 (seconds)

Accessory 1
Landmine Twist: 30x12, 35x12x2

Accessory 2
Farmer's Carry: 3x90m (with 22.5s)

-----------------------------------------

Well, that sucked. I contemplated doing a steady 10km row, but decided to trust the programming. This was actually in my wheelhouse. I can burpee fast and can row respectably after this summer. The burpees were all done in 22-23 seconds (chest to floor, jump up, no cheating), then a 6 second transtition, and then a ~19s row including a slow start while strapping in. It became difficult in the middle, but I managed to keep my speed. I can tell that these sessions are going to be really beneficial.

Accessories were fine. I added 10m to each set of farmer's carries. 2 months ago, I did 3x60m at the same RPE as today! This programming is going to to be so great for my core.

If I were to add things to this programming to address my goals/weaknesses, it would go - in order - squat, snatches, bench. I'm going to wait for a few more squatting sessions and if I am not getting stronger, then I'll add a standard 5/3/1 squat day. The volume right now is fine and I am positive I can handle more. There are 3 heavy days in the next 6, exciting times!

One of my worst WOD with a trainer 5-6 years ago for time
10 Rounds 500 Meter Row and 15 Burpees
Is your gym set up in the living room or bedroom #dedication

Crossfit Linchpin - D50

Main
Clean and Jerk 3-3-3-3-3

65, 67.5, 67.5, 67.5, 65

Accessory 1
Clean Pull 5-5-5-5

90, 90, 90, 90

Extra
A lot of cleans and power cleans at 50 trying not to jump forwards

Accessory 2
1000m row

3:33.7 - 1:46.8/32spm

--------------------------------------

Another solid day with lots of technique gains. My only cue for the cleans was to keep my weight back during my 1st pull. I ended up not jumping forward in the first rep, and then jumping backwards in reps 2 and 3. With jerks, I need to not drop my elbows during the dip. I wanted a set at 70, and could have done it, but my technique would have suffered even more. I was smart and didn't move up.



During clean pulls, I had another aha moment. I really need to finish my 2nd pull and sort of lean back. The thought in my head was "lean back using my back". I felt like I was in a stronger position.



After the clean pulls, I now had to obviously practice cleans again. I dropped the weight down and did a bunch at 50. There were so many thoughts in my head and I again started jumping forwards. Only when I made a HUGE CONSCIOUS effort to have my weight back in my first pull, did I not jump forwards. So all the reps when I was half heartedly thinking about it (including the 2nd and 3rd reps in the main part), I was jumping forwards. Going forward, I might do a clean deadlift before a lot of my reps to really ingrain it. These reps below look pretty good to me. Besides having my weight back, I really tried to finish my 2nd pull and lean back.



Olympic weightlifting really reminds me of golf. You have to get the reps in and practice. Some days it's good, some days it's bad. Something clicks and then everything is great. Bad habits slowly creep in. Frustrating and rewarding.

1000m row was fine. It was probably 95% effort. My PB is 3:23.8, and was done fresh and is one my strongest rowing PBs where I think I performed to my potential. I did 3:36 a month ago after a metcon and today I just wanted to go under 3:35, which I did easily. I sped up in the last 200m (1:45 split). Since these are programmed at the end, I'll just try chipping away at this time with sub-max efforts and that should be fine for long term progress.


That WOD looks fairly standard - a long 30-40 minute endurance piece. If that's the one that stands out to you, you probably paced it horribly and went out too fast and suffered! I've done that plenty of times. Yup, the gym is in my bedroom but it's a big room and all the stuff is stored in the corner.

That wod loco posted would be horrible

The worst metcon I can remember was 3 rds of run 400m 21burpees row 500m

nothing fancy but just a total heart check for you to get as close to the redline as you want to go