After not being able to do overhead motions for 3 weeks, I assumed overhead squat max day would fall by the wayside. Not so, yesterday was an impromptu max test.
My previous max was 45kg, and I honestly wasn't totally sure I could do that reliably, partly because of the lack of push-press practice in the meantime. I've also picked up a bad habit somehow of lowering the bar too far back on the right side, so after 38kg or so I'm afraid I'm going to end up dropping it down my back (possibly with bonus arm-wrenching) if I lower it back to my shoulders. So my max testing ends up being a session of light power cleans for my trainer as well (which I always feel bad about).
Anyway, we proceeded, and the new max -- which is also a new push-press max -- is 48kg! I tried for 49kg, but didn't quite connect the leg drive on the push press and it was literally the second to last minute of my hour session so there was no chance of retrying. I have no doubt that I can do it, though, and probably 50kg as well.
The real breakthrough of this session was that somewhere in there, possibly my second attempt at 46kg (after dropping it on the way up from the squat the first time), I just suddenly figured out the balance point overhead. After that, everything was much easier than the light weights had been. I'm not sure if it's another example of my needing a fair amount of weight to really figure things out, or if it's just a matter of having enough repetitions in a row, but I'll take it.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
New max of the time period
Hello, sadly neglected blog.
I haven't been inspired to write too much this month because so much time was dedicated to shoulder rehab and many of my favorite activities have been off-limits in the gym. Band external shoulder rotation moves and new stretches have been extremely effective, but not very interesting blog post fodder. Fortunately, last week saw my return to overhead movements, and this week I will be learning snatch progressions, whee!
While the shoulder was healing, the front squat cycle continued as per usual, and this week was max testing. My new front squat max:
77kg!
I unracked 78kg and started to squat when I lost my nerve, mostly because I felt a little light-headed. It's the first day of Shark Week, which may have contributed, but most likely I just didn't breathe properly. I would have taken another shot at it, but I was already running out of time. It's extremely frustrating sometimes to have a limited slot of gym time vs. the freedom to stay until the job is done.
Another thing that happened over the last 3 weeks is that I returned to ice hockey. I play on a Saturday night league, and I've noticed a little leg tiredness on Mondays. This week was particularly tiredness-inducing because my team was super-shorthanded, with only 8 skaters. I had expected it to take a toll on this front squat max, and maybe it did, but it's hard to tell. 77kg is proportional to my back squat max, but it didn't feel like it was as hard as I'd expect a "real" 1RM max to be.
I haven't been inspired to write too much this month because so much time was dedicated to shoulder rehab and many of my favorite activities have been off-limits in the gym. Band external shoulder rotation moves and new stretches have been extremely effective, but not very interesting blog post fodder. Fortunately, last week saw my return to overhead movements, and this week I will be learning snatch progressions, whee!
While the shoulder was healing, the front squat cycle continued as per usual, and this week was max testing. My new front squat max:
77kg!
I unracked 78kg and started to squat when I lost my nerve, mostly because I felt a little light-headed. It's the first day of Shark Week, which may have contributed, but most likely I just didn't breathe properly. I would have taken another shot at it, but I was already running out of time. It's extremely frustrating sometimes to have a limited slot of gym time vs. the freedom to stay until the job is done.
Another thing that happened over the last 3 weeks is that I returned to ice hockey. I play on a Saturday night league, and I've noticed a little leg tiredness on Mondays. This week was particularly tiredness-inducing because my team was super-shorthanded, with only 8 skaters. I had expected it to take a toll on this front squat max, and maybe it did, but it's hard to tell. 77kg is proportional to my back squat max, but it didn't feel like it was as hard as I'd expect a "real" 1RM max to be.
Friday, February 22, 2013
The tyranny of the feminine ideal
A couple of days ago, British weightlifting Olympian Zoe Smith did an AMA on Reddit, which was pretty cool. Zoe is one of the 3 young women profiled in this BBC documentary.
One thing that kind of made me sad about the thing was this subthread, which asked Zoe to comment on the importance of being attractive as a weightlifter. The original commenter was I think trying to get her to trash the super heavyweights, which is not the direction Zoe took it, but instead the thread comments negatively on women who fit the "manly" stereotype that some people hold about female weightlifters. The example she gives of a woman where something "happened" pharmacologically looks quite similar to a childhood friend of mine, who I assume does not dope for her quiet life of being a perfectly normal everyday woman.
While I recognize that at an elite level in sports most of the women who look markedly masculine got that way through the use of exogenous androgens, it still makes me a bit sad that even in a strength sport there is so much enforcement of a feminine appearance ideal that frankly does not come naturally to all women. I'm well aware that my most feminine features -- my cute little nose, say, or my waist:hip ratio -- owe little or nothing to my deliberate choices. Is it so wrong for me to hope that a young girl who looks a bit different -- maybe a bit blocky, maybe fond of getting the same haircut as her brother -- would also feel welcomed in a weightlifting gym?
Ironically, Holley Mangold, the super heavyweight American lifter mentioned at the top of the comment thread, benefits from this bias (along, of course, with the reflected glamor of her NFL player brother). She is an amazing athlete, of course, but would she have gotten as much attention without the long blonde hair, pretty smile, and bubbly personality? Probably not so much.
One thing that kind of made me sad about the thing was this subthread, which asked Zoe to comment on the importance of being attractive as a weightlifter. The original commenter was I think trying to get her to trash the super heavyweights, which is not the direction Zoe took it, but instead the thread comments negatively on women who fit the "manly" stereotype that some people hold about female weightlifters. The example she gives of a woman where something "happened" pharmacologically looks quite similar to a childhood friend of mine, who I assume does not dope for her quiet life of being a perfectly normal everyday woman.
While I recognize that at an elite level in sports most of the women who look markedly masculine got that way through the use of exogenous androgens, it still makes me a bit sad that even in a strength sport there is so much enforcement of a feminine appearance ideal that frankly does not come naturally to all women. I'm well aware that my most feminine features -- my cute little nose, say, or my waist:hip ratio -- owe little or nothing to my deliberate choices. Is it so wrong for me to hope that a young girl who looks a bit different -- maybe a bit blocky, maybe fond of getting the same haircut as her brother -- would also feel welcomed in a weightlifting gym?
Ironically, Holley Mangold, the super heavyweight American lifter mentioned at the top of the comment thread, benefits from this bias (along, of course, with the reflected glamor of her NFL player brother). She is an amazing athlete, of course, but would she have gotten as much attention without the long blonde hair, pretty smile, and bubbly personality? Probably not so much.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Whoa!
Today I had a funny little positive negative experience: I failed an overhead squat and landed on my butt. It was the 3rd squat of a triple at 38kg, and I honestly didn't know I was off-balance until I landed. The bar safely went the other way and no one was hurt. I've always been reluctant to fail lifts and left to my own devices play it a little too safe, so I'm really happy about these incidents when they happen for the first time.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The front squat cycle
With the new PR single the week before last, my back squat cycle ended and a new front squat cycle began. This is now the second front squat cycle in the time I've been training at Catalyst.
Last time around, front squats were misery for me. I'm quite flexible so there was never any question that I could get into a good rack position, but it took me at least 4 weeks to get a rough idea of what that should look like. The very first day of the cycle I'm not sure I even made it up to 35kg, but I was sweating and shaking from just the effort of being in (something like) rack. As the weeks went on, I crunched my hand and wrist dumping 55 or 60kg incorrectly, and ultimately ended up going to urgent care for an x-ray when it still hurt more than a week later (it was fine). I got plenty more practice dumping weights, and when max testing day came I had no confidence that I would succeed in holding up under more than 63 or 65kg. It was really in large part good luck that I made it up to 70kg.
The next cycle, that is the cycle I finished 2 weeks ago, was back squats, power jerks, and power cleans. I think the power jerk work did a great deal to improve my rack and my front squats. Figuring out how to set up so I was stable and upright in the dip and drive was I think a big part of getting comfortable. I also at some point watched a Kelly Starrett video that made a lot of sense to me.
Now I'm back with the front squats, and while they aren't really any easier -- OMG my abs -- I feel a lot more confident addressing the bar and more secure in holding it all together through the whole movement. Now 2 weeks into the cycle, I've done 58kg for a 3 or 4 sets of 4 without catastrophe. I'm not particularly looking forward to 70+kg doubles the week after next, but I'm sure I'll be fine.
Last time around, front squats were misery for me. I'm quite flexible so there was never any question that I could get into a good rack position, but it took me at least 4 weeks to get a rough idea of what that should look like. The very first day of the cycle I'm not sure I even made it up to 35kg, but I was sweating and shaking from just the effort of being in (something like) rack. As the weeks went on, I crunched my hand and wrist dumping 55 or 60kg incorrectly, and ultimately ended up going to urgent care for an x-ray when it still hurt more than a week later (it was fine). I got plenty more practice dumping weights, and when max testing day came I had no confidence that I would succeed in holding up under more than 63 or 65kg. It was really in large part good luck that I made it up to 70kg.
The next cycle, that is the cycle I finished 2 weeks ago, was back squats, power jerks, and power cleans. I think the power jerk work did a great deal to improve my rack and my front squats. Figuring out how to set up so I was stable and upright in the dip and drive was I think a big part of getting comfortable. I also at some point watched a Kelly Starrett video that made a lot of sense to me.
Now I'm back with the front squats, and while they aren't really any easier -- OMG my abs -- I feel a lot more confident addressing the bar and more secure in holding it all together through the whole movement. Now 2 weeks into the cycle, I've done 58kg for a 3 or 4 sets of 4 without catastrophe. I'm not particularly looking forward to 70+kg doubles the week after next, but I'm sure I'll be fine.
Monday, February 11, 2013
The home gym
When we were first house hunting, one of our big priorities was finding a place with room to put in a home work out area. I had had pretty good success with getting access to equipment in commercial gyms in the City and on the peninsula, but here in the south bay we had a hard time finding a gym where you could both get access to a power cage without too long of a wait and also reliably find plates. By the time we actually moved, I was established at Catalyst, but I was still interested in having equipment at home so I pitched in.
The thing is, now that my training has changed, what I want to have at home has changed, too. While my sweetie is happily squatting, deadlifting, and benching in our little power cage, my spoiled little hands long for a ladies' bar and I basically want to do the new movements I'm trying to get down all of the time. I have used our bar for deadlifts and front squats, and attempted hanging knee raises at one point (the pull-up bar is *knurled*...who at the factory thought that was a good idea?).
So at this point I'm waffling over buying a nice spinny ladies' bar and some droppable bumper plates. At heart I'm a miser, so it's a little hard for me to pull the trigger on it; I also have some concerns about my recovery ability, particularly in the upper body, and whether I could make good use of it without causing my arms to fall off.
The thing is, now that my training has changed, what I want to have at home has changed, too. While my sweetie is happily squatting, deadlifting, and benching in our little power cage, my spoiled little hands long for a ladies' bar and I basically want to do the new movements I'm trying to get down all of the time. I have used our bar for deadlifts and front squats, and attempted hanging knee raises at one point (the pull-up bar is *knurled*...who at the factory thought that was a good idea?).
So at this point I'm waffling over buying a nice spinny ladies' bar and some droppable bumper plates. At heart I'm a miser, so it's a little hard for me to pull the trigger on it; I also have some concerns about my recovery ability, particularly in the upper body, and whether I could make good use of it without causing my arms to fall off.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
New max, noro, breakthrough!
The week that just passed has been about as up and down as a week can be, physically.
Monday was my most recent back squat max testing day. I went to the gym feeling pretty dejected; I had been sad leading up to my last deadlift max and I was pretty happy with that result, so I was hopeful that being miserable might lead to a good result this time, too. Going into Monday I'd already exceeded my previously tested max by a kilo the week before and it had been pretty easy. Another thing I had going for me was that it was a rare day completely free of SI pain. I can easily squat on a bad SI joint day -- walking out the weight is usually the worst part -- but it was nice not to have to worry about it.
Up through 85kg or so it was really no big thing. 89kg was hard, with a sticking point, but I managed. Now I had a dilemma: the next weight my trainer put on the bar was 91kg -- which was my goal for myself as well -- but 89kg had stuck badly enough that I wasn't sure the 2kg jump would work out for me. Nevertheless I got under it and...with a serious tilt to the left...got it up. 200 freaking pounds!
Unfortunately my week followed up that high point with a serious low, in the form of a 48 hour stomach flu (norovirus). 23andme tells me I'm somewhat resistant to the virus, which I'd believe based on the relative mildness of the symptoms, but it's still no picnic. Beside the illness itself, I apparently ended up short on magnesium and the fasciculations were pretty crazy for a couple of days.
Friday I was back up and about, and in the gym. Friday has been my power clean day in this cycle, and I've really struggled to figure out the movement, particularly pulling myself under the bar. The week before I failed to clean 40kg because I just couldn't figure out how to get under it. In the mean time I'd watched some super-slow video of Pyrros Dimas doing power cleans, so I was hopeful that that had helped.
My first warm-up attempts at hang cleans did not go well, I basically just forgot how to move. I was so disappointed. We moved on to cleaning from the floor and there too my first rep or two were unintentional muscle cleans, if not straight up reverse curls. Then somehow I got my head out of it and it just clicked. After a stop at 38, 40 just FLEW right up. I think I even said "wow it's light!". A few more doubles at 40 confirmed for me that I had finally figured out how to put the pieces together. I felt pretty confident that if time allowed I could've gone up another 10 kilos that session, but I still wasn't understanding the "quick elbows" cue.
I guess it's technically a new week, but this evening I spent a little time reading Greg's book, and it finally occurred to me that part of why my elbows are slow is because my shoulders are just kind of sitting there. I tried experimentally thrusting my elbows forward just in my kitchen with no bar, and it's so much faster and more decisive with a shrug as Greg describes. So now I'm looking forward to giving that a try for real, if I can do it without losing the plot completely. Woo!
Monday was my most recent back squat max testing day. I went to the gym feeling pretty dejected; I had been sad leading up to my last deadlift max and I was pretty happy with that result, so I was hopeful that being miserable might lead to a good result this time, too. Going into Monday I'd already exceeded my previously tested max by a kilo the week before and it had been pretty easy. Another thing I had going for me was that it was a rare day completely free of SI pain. I can easily squat on a bad SI joint day -- walking out the weight is usually the worst part -- but it was nice not to have to worry about it.
Up through 85kg or so it was really no big thing. 89kg was hard, with a sticking point, but I managed. Now I had a dilemma: the next weight my trainer put on the bar was 91kg -- which was my goal for myself as well -- but 89kg had stuck badly enough that I wasn't sure the 2kg jump would work out for me. Nevertheless I got under it and...with a serious tilt to the left...got it up. 200 freaking pounds!
Unfortunately my week followed up that high point with a serious low, in the form of a 48 hour stomach flu (norovirus). 23andme tells me I'm somewhat resistant to the virus, which I'd believe based on the relative mildness of the symptoms, but it's still no picnic. Beside the illness itself, I apparently ended up short on magnesium and the fasciculations were pretty crazy for a couple of days.
Friday I was back up and about, and in the gym. Friday has been my power clean day in this cycle, and I've really struggled to figure out the movement, particularly pulling myself under the bar. The week before I failed to clean 40kg because I just couldn't figure out how to get under it. In the mean time I'd watched some super-slow video of Pyrros Dimas doing power cleans, so I was hopeful that that had helped.
My first warm-up attempts at hang cleans did not go well, I basically just forgot how to move. I was so disappointed. We moved on to cleaning from the floor and there too my first rep or two were unintentional muscle cleans, if not straight up reverse curls. Then somehow I got my head out of it and it just clicked. After a stop at 38, 40 just FLEW right up. I think I even said "wow it's light!". A few more doubles at 40 confirmed for me that I had finally figured out how to put the pieces together. I felt pretty confident that if time allowed I could've gone up another 10 kilos that session, but I still wasn't understanding the "quick elbows" cue.
I guess it's technically a new week, but this evening I spent a little time reading Greg's book, and it finally occurred to me that part of why my elbows are slow is because my shoulders are just kind of sitting there. I tried experimentally thrusting my elbows forward just in my kitchen with no bar, and it's so much faster and more decisive with a shrug as Greg describes. So now I'm looking forward to giving that a try for real, if I can do it without losing the plot completely. Woo!
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