02/19

Split Jerk
3x3x40
15x3x50

^ Lol

I tried so many cues and not a single set was what it needed to be. Stay on heels, stay on toes, stay on whole foot, knees out, feet wide, loose arms, chest up, chin up, drive off heels, blah blah blah. All drives were forward!!!

Then I opened the Daniel Camargo Cues book on my phone and tried this one cue that said "Get the bar back!" and forgot about all others... and all almost all drives were straight!

Man I loved my last 3 sets of jerks. They suddenly felt way easier and my front shin was finally vertical. I felt like I had a huge aha-moment. Drive it back, lol. Who would've known intent of exaggeration actually gets the job done.

Now I just hope it's a thing that will stick and it wasn't just variance.

Seated Strict Press
5x10x35

Lateral DB Raise
3x20x4

[Spoiler]It won't [/spoiler]

I reckon it will stick if you keep practicing it perfectly. You probably liked that last 3 because your body had 12 preceding sets to figure out how to get the muscles firing in just the right ways at the precise milliseconds. You're building and reinforcing new neural pathways for a complex movement patterns.do a lot of workouts like that. 10-15 triples with light weights focusing on technical precision, positions, and speed. Move weights up gradually when you're able to maintain these things.

not to mind**** you with cueues, but one thing that helped me get my split long enough to cause problems with my back knee was consciously thinking about stepping my front foot out as far as possible both vertically and horizontally.

Yeah, I was (half) joking. I think the cue will probably "stick" in the sense that it should keep helping whenever you apply it. But there will definitely be a time where you completely forget about the cue altogether.

I'll totally admit I've been approaching this whole WL thing all wrong like a dozen times already. It's only now after reading a bunch of the Max Aita books* I suddenly figured it out for myself what I need to do. Which is what everybody else had already been telling me all this time. Lol

You're probably right that it was also some of that. Although I could definitely feel a clear distinct difference using that cue compared to any other.

I know my jerks, I've watched myself drive hundreds of reps forward. It's not a footwork issue, the problem is the drive. Feeling damn relieved I (seemingly) found something that fixes it.

That being said, I've felt this way before about other cues. Lol, guess we'll find out soon!

* Max Aita books:
Strength Development for Weightlifting
Weightlifting Technique Triad

Definitely? That's reassuring!

02/21

Last day on Zack's program. Today called for new 1RM attempts. Started warming up for the snatch but didn't even try because I felt too many things were off to achieve anything great today.

Very happy about C&J though. My jerk definitely improved a lot using that "get the bar back" cue. Reps up to 80% felt more stable than ever. Not used to the higher weights but all things considered I'm extremely happy with my reps up to 100kg. It's 6kg shy of my PR but they looked way better than when I did these early 2017.

I'm really looking forward to the Wil Fleming program now and to finally learn how to ****ing weightlift!

Snatch
some random stuff with 40-50kg

Clean & Jerk
2x3x40
2x2x50
2x1x60
70
80
90
100
105xF (failed the jerk)
105xF (didn't attempt the jerk)
120 clean

Video:
(1)cj 60
(2)cj 70
(3)cj 80
(4)cj 90
(5)cj 100
(6)cj 105f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FrZtODTfnM

Noticed my hips still move forward too much in the jerk drive on the 80kg+ reps. Needs more practice.

Behold! I found the cause behind why my jerks are moving forward.

My dip is perfect down after breaking at hips and knees together (similar to initiating a frontsquat), but then when I drive my motor pattern is completely off.

My knees cave back in, causing my hips to move forward, shifting my entire balance forward and my throwing my jerk in front.

From now on:
Cue 1: Knees out on drive
Cue 2: Get the bar back

02/22

DAY 1 @ Wil Fleming's "Program for Technical Beginners"

Snatch from hip
1x5x30
1x5x40
1x4x45
1x3x50
1x2x55

That went okay. I noticed my first reps are always high but the ones after that are fine. I can probably do a better job of keeping the bar close too. I think it's too far away around chest height.

Snatch with 2s Pause Above Knee (2RM)
2x40
2x45
2x50
2x55 caught too high
2x50

Better than I thought! I really like this pause. I have to be more consistent with my setup though, on most reps my back angle changes all the way throughout my first pull.

Snatch Pull with 6s Pause At Knee
1x3x65
3x2x72

Here my setup is better and back angle stays fine in the first pull on the first reps. It's always when I do some sort of dynamic setup that I seem to mess up.

Snatch Push Press + Overhead Squat
1x(4+1)x40
2x(3+1)x50
2x(3+1)x55


1) Stop doing a dynamic set up. Set up normal so hips stay higher.
2) Focus on pulling closer to the body during 2nd pull. (Elbows up!)

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3VWLb3BusI

02/24

Press from Split Position
2x5x40
1x3x50
1x2x60
2x4x50

Jerk
1x3x50
1x3x60
3x3x70

Clean with Pause Above Knee (1RM)
60
80
90
100
110
115xF lost it forward in bottom position, I think mostly because I'm a pussy

Clean Pull
2x3x115

Problematic language, my liege.

^ It's about as close as I get to naughty sex stories these days!

02/25

Snatch Push Press
2x3x40
3x3x50

Snatch + OHS (2+2 RM)
40
40
40
45
50 high
50 high
40 good
45 acceptable
45

Guess I gotta start taking tiny increments.

Snatch High Pull from Above Knee
1x3x60
3x3x70

Snatch Deadlift
3x5x70

Front Squat
1x5x60
1x5x80
5x5x100

02/27

Jerk + OHS Split Squat
2x3x40
3x3x50

Clean & Jerk
1x(1+3)x60
1x(1+2)x70
3x(1+2)x80

Back Squat with 3s Pause (3RM)
1x3x100
1x3x120
1x3x140
1x3x150

Back Squat with 10s Pause (1RM)
100
120
130
140 no belt

I think these are really fun. Was expecting it would be much harder. It does look like I'm missing 1-2 seconds in all sets though, which is especially cheating in the supposed "3 seconds" pause squats.

Video
(1) C&J last set
(2) paused squat 3RM 150
(3) 10s paused squat 1RM 140
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-4eWTmd8BI

2019/03/01

W2 on Fleming's program

Snatch from Hip
1x5x30
2x5x40
1x4x50
1x3x55
1x2x60

Snatch with 2s Pause Above Knee (2RM)
1x2x40
1x2x45
1x2x50
1x2x55
1x2x60
1x2x65
1x2x60

Setting up with my hips a little higher feels so incredibly much better. Back angle stays consistent now too. I was feeling so rigid and smooth today, probably one of my best wl training sessions ever. I felt like I could've kept going up, but some of my catch depths were starting to become a tad too high - which is against the point of the exercise. So I called it quits there.

Snatch Pull with 6s Pause At Knee
1x3x70
3x2x75

Snatch Push Press + Overhead Squat
1x(4+1)x40
2x(3+1)x50
3x(3+1)x55

I asked Wil Fleming on gram whether if those reps were good or not and he said I'm doing great and I should just continue upping the weight to see what happens when I try going heavier. But these reps are Fleming-approved. Probably not exactly Evo-approved though.

Big improvement on snatches and jerks imo

vpn hasn't worked for 12 hours. I'll take a look when I can.

Thanks cockbloat! That’s probably the first time ever I’ve ever heard that

2019/03/03

Press from Split Position
3x10x20
2x5x40
1x4x50
2x3x60

Felt way stronger and stable than last week.

Clean & Jerk
2x(1+3)x50
1x(1+3)x60
3x(1+3)x70

Didn't focus hard enough on "knees out on drive" cue but still felt good about today's jerks. Also need to drill the footwork more where front foot lands on the ball first rather than the heel. For some reason my heel always lands first which puts my front leg in a weaker position.

Clean with Pause at Knee (1RM)
100
110
115
120 definitely some sort of paused PR, last week I only made it to 110
122x clarked it

Clean Pull
2x3x110

2019/03/04

Snatch Push Press
1x5x30
2x3x40
3x3x50

Snatch + OHS (2+2RM)
1x(2+2)x40
1x(2+2)x45
1x(2+2)x50
1x(2+2)x55
3x(2+2)x60

Snatch High Pull From Above Knee
3x3x75

Snatch Deadlift
3x5x75

I should focus more on feeling full foot on the floor after passing the knee.

Front Squat
1x5x60
1x5x80
5x5x100

Video of 2+2 snatches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziNRjMMSrSY

2019/03/05

fun at home:

high hang snatch 10x5
pushups 5x10 @30s
pullups 5x4
bicep curls 5x10xbar


Realized I am faster and more aggressive when I land the feet hard instead of staying connected to the floor on those hang snatches. Should start ingraining it.

Uhh... that seems the wrong way around? Faster and more aggressive leads to feet landing hard, not other way around. Staying connected to the floor should be optimal. Now all you need to do is just learn how to do that in a fast and aggressive way

I think this video explains it well:



Either way I just tried a bunch of reps in both ways and I just feel snappier with the “lifting the feet” method.

Since I have a problem with speed under the bar I think I should continue honing whatever works better naturally.

I don't see any visible abs, so your bodyfat is out of my range of expertise. Greater than 20%.