Bells: Bars & Kettles

Nice short session today. My knees and ankles are on the mend, so I didn't want to do anything too extreme today. But just enough to keep progressing forward.

Warmup: empty bar, the usual

Snatch: 65/3, 85/3, 105/2, 115/2

Back Squat: 115/5, 135/5

Kettlebell Long Cycle: 2 x 16kg - 5 minutes @ 6 rpm

Band work for the rotators

Snatches felt good, they are landing overhead nicely, without too much of a squat. I threw in the back squats to see how my knees would feel tomorrow. My delts and rotators have been fried as of late, so looking to balance them out with some band work. No pressing for them today.

Long Cycle felt good. Not too intense today, but a good start. I need 60 reps to make Rank III. I am going to try to start working these in regularly and hopefully hit rank soon, then move up to the 20's for the November competition in NJ.

Mini Milestone

Olympic lifting today, not too much as my left knee and ankle are still hurting from last week. I guess I overstretched them with the pause squats. So today, I made sure not to perform any deep squatting.

Warmup - empty bar

Cleans: 65/3, 85/3, 100/2, 115/2, 135/2, 155/1, 170/1

Push Press behind the neck: 65/5, 90/5, 110/5, 135/5


The last set of cleans marked my first bodyweight set. Yay!

Friday Lifting

Here's what went down this past Friday. It was a relatively quick session (as I had my sports massage scheduled directly following), but I have been feeling the effects all weekend, particularly in my ankles and knees.

Warmup: empty barbell (see prior workouts, same)

Clean & Jerk: 65/3, 85/3, 115/1, 135/3

(for the first three sets of C&J, I cleaned the bar, then performed a front squat, pausing for 5 sec at the bottom, then came up, performed the jerk, holding that position also for 5 sec before lowering the bar)

Seated Snatch Hold: 65/1

Snatch Balance: 65/4, 65/1

(it was here that I first felt some soreness in my left ankle, so I didn't push it)

Pistols: 5/5

That was it for the day.

USAW Coach

As I returned from today's workout I received an email from USA Weightlifting informing me that I am now officially one of their Sports Performance Coaches! Hurray!!

OK, enough celebrating, now let's get down to business. I was out of commission last week as the family and I went away on vacation. No real training there except for running after the kids.

Once I returned, I had a few short kettlebell sessions to get things moving again. The first was a 12 minute Clean & Press set with a 16kg bell for 10 rpm. The next was an 8 minute snatch set with a 20kg bell at 14 rpm. Both of these sets were with multiple hand switches.

Today was the first day back at the gym for some Olympic lifting.

Warmup - my now-standard empty bar warmup

Snatch: 65/5, 85/3, 105/3, 115/1

Press: 65/5, 85/5, 105/5

Front Squat: 95/2, 115/2, 155/1, 175/1

Handstand Pushup: 1 set of 5

Kettlebell Swing: 16kg - 4 minutes (switched hands as needed)

That's it and that's all!

And Some Jerks

It's Friday! Time to wrap it up for a successful week of lifting...

Warmup - empty bar (same as previous days)

Seated Snatch Hold - empty bar - held overhead about 5-10 seconds, focusing on feeling the weight in between my scapulas

Jerk (from rack) - 45/5, 65/3, 75/2, 95/1, 115/1,1,1,1,1 (five singles), 135/1

Snatch Pull - 65/5, 95/5, 95/5

Pistols - 5/5, 5/5

Handstand Pushups - 5, 4, 2 (maybe made it down about half way on these)

That's it for the week!

Some Cleans

Back to the Olympic lifts today. Began with the same warmup as Monday. Then onto a few sets of lifts...

Clean: 65/3, 95/3, 115/2, 135/2

Press Drop Snatch: 45/3, 45/3


That was it for today. Back was feeling a bit tight for the Drop Snatch so I kept it with the press so that I could ease into it. Those cleans really work you, don't they? =)

The Day After USAW

What a great weekend this was attending the USA Weightlifting Level 1 Coach's Certification. Our instructor was top notch. I learned lots and am now eager to start putting it into action. I put together this week's training schedule already for a Mon-Wed-Fri routine. Check out today's...


Warmup - all lifts 10 reps with the empty Olympic bar:
Clean from the knees
Clean
Snatch from the knees
Press behind the neck
Back Squat
Back Squat with Press behind the neck
Good Morning
Good Morning with Press behind the neck

Onto the workout:

Snatch: 65/3, 75/3, 85/3, 95/3

Press Behind the Neck: 65/5, 85/5, 95/3

Front Squat: 95/2, 115/1, 135/1, 155/1

Pistols: 5/5, 5/5

Raised Pike Pushup: 5, 5, 5


This was a GOOD workout. If persperation is any gauge, it was just as intense as one of my kettlebell workouts. Good stuff!