I do have a few things to discuss unfortunately, so here it goes:
My week's training has been refreshing, tough and very, very enjoyable. I had a wonderful Christmas Eve workout with Zag and few of our dedicated ECB members. We all trained well and Stephen Kinsella hit a huge pb in the Clean and Jerk; the more impressive part is that he got it after failing twice. Awesome. Zag also trained well and it is great to see him getting his training back on track. Aco is another new member in ECB and the man has an awful lot of potential, as does young Josh who is a beast of a 16 year old. I wish I had trained like that when I was 16.
As for my own training, today I Snatched 94kg for twenty singles in twenty minutes, lifting on every minute, giving me around 40 seconds of recovery. Again, my technique got better every lift and I really enjoyed the challenge. I Clean and Jerked straight after and did my 20 singles with 114kg in twenty minutes, giving me around 35 seconds of recovery between each lift. I followed this up with a max set of 5 reps with 140kg in the box squat. Yes, this is embarrassingly small, but it is better than last week and there is more there. I am aiming to push it more in week three and four.
As for my new program, there are a few points I neglected to make in my previous post. I chose the Box Squat over the regular Back Squat for the following reasons:
1. I am awful at the movement because I have a weak posterior chain and poor--but improving--hip mobility. My first day of doing 5x5 in the Box Squat had my hamstrings about to pop off the bone.
2. Both John Broz, David Spitz, Max Aita and Glenn Pendlay all told me the Box Squat would help me immensely for the above reasons. As well as that, Broz gave out to me in length about how I was Back Squatting like I should Front Squat and that basically, it was embarrassing. The idea is that performing the Box Squat for a few months will help me regroove a proper Back Squat and allow me to focus on a physical imbalance. When I get up to hitting 160 for five reps, I will drop down from a 14 inch box to a 12 inch box and build my numbers up again. Once I get stronger at this height, I know the proper movement pattern will be ingrained and some of my physical areas to work will have been strengthened.
3. I am choosing to do the twenty lifts in twenty minutes for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I got the idea from Glenn Pendlay who has used the program with his beginners with great success. The amount of repetitions helps lifters get a high amount of reps in to learn the movements; but more importantly for me: because there is very little recovery between lifts, rhythm, tempo and technique determine success and it is far more difficult to muscle up weights, which is something I have been very guilty of for a long time. My twentieth rep today with 94kg was far better than my twentieth rep with 90kg a week and a half ago. I was hitting the positions I want to hit far better after all the reps. Usually I would hit higher weights regardless of positioning and go on ingraining negative movement patterns.
Also, the lack of recovery time means that I dwell less on technique and simply focus on controlling my breathing, getting set and lifting the weight overhead. Basically, it gets me to shut up and lift. Another reason I chose this style of training because it is great for off season sport specific conditioning. It is very demanding on the heart and lungs, particularly the Clean and Jerk.
And finally, I actually enjoy the challenge of lifting this way. I have never done anything like it and it is my short term aim to hit twenty reps in twenty minutes with 100/120 within the next four weeks. I know I can do it.
I am really enjoying training again and this makes me happy. The most simple squatting system in the world is making me stronger and I am getting lots of reps in improving weights.
For all of you who love X-Factor, Christmas and comedy:
For people who love to laugh:
Everyone knows weightlifting is the same as bodybuilding, right?
Last one to make you smile. If it doesn't, I never liked you anyway:
Source: http://weightliftingepiphanies.blogspot.com/2010/12/fridays-fitness-buff.html
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