Confidence booster

Every once in a while a lifter needs their confidence boosted! Today was one of those days! I had envisioned a 120 snatch today. Testing the waters to see where I was when it comes to max outs. I started warming up and felt great I have noticed that I am not exactly where I want to be. Pulling from the floor I am having a tendency of rushing into the pull.
Snatch
50 5x1
70 3x1
80x1
90x1
100x1
110x1
112x1
115 4x1

Now is when the confidence booster came I to play! I grabbed the some pulling blocks to but the bar where I knew I could succeed. With the bar now elevated right at me knees I grabbed my straps gripped the bar and applied some force.
Snatch - block at knee
70x1
90x1
100x1
110x1
115x1
120 (3x1) missed 1 on front 1 behind 1 perfect.
130 3x1 all attempts for fun and wanted to see where I was. I came very close on a couple of attempts just couldn't commit to getting my head through. Soon 130 will be mine again and I will keep pressing on!

Thanks to justin for my post training session massage! Back is feeling great now!

Snatch Pulls!

This has been a very intense week for training. A lot of attempts at 90-95% on both lifts. My shoulders are in shambles as of today. What makes this sport amazing in my eyes is there is always a way to get training in. I have been struggling with maintaining my shoulders healthy for many years. It has been a problem when I have high volumes of overhead stability. The issue with that is; I need to perfect my jerk that is the limiting factor in my competitions but cant work in it as much with pain. I can only train through so much pain before it really gets to me. With that being said I was able to get Pulls in. I am able to get almost the same benefits out of pulls as I do the true lifts.

Snatch Pulls:
2x4 50/70
2x3 80/90
3x2 100/110/110
5x1 120
5x1 125
5x1 130

My goal was to stay in the upper range of my snatch. I wanted to get the majority of my pulls in at 90-100% of my old Snatch 1RM. I was feeling great moving the bar. I was really focusing on trying to keep my chest over the bar, keeping my feet flat as the bar transitioned to my hips. From that position extending the hips and getting as tall as possible. I had a few reps at 120 that felt as if i had a superman pull (Jon North Term). Really trying to load the hips as the bar transitions into the 2nd pull to forcefully move it vertically. I have been missing a lot of my lifts in front which is telling me that I need to finish my pulls and not be in such a rush to get under the bar. Making strides everyday in training. Long road ahead of me, I plan o being in this iron game for many years to come and I can only get better from here.

Shout out to a fellow team member Chase McDaniel who hit a Clean and Jerk PR! Link Below
 Chase Clean and Jerk PR 110k

Double session training- pm session Bluegrass Barbell!

Training today was a very rough and tiring day! Double session today snatch in the morning session clean and jerk in the evening.
Snatch
The goal for snatch today was 2 waves that went 85/90/95 x1.
Opening up I had great warm up reps. Working my way up to 85% I knew I was going to have a great day! Then bam hit a wall like a crash test dummy.
105 hit
110 hit
117 miss
110 hit
115 miss
110 miss
112 hit
115 hit
117 miss 5 in a row! I did not want to give up on this weight. I know if I stopped I would have a hard time mentally getting over the weight! Got angry and ripped the bar off the floor, finished the pull, drove my body into the bottom and finally hit it!
117 hit!

Clean and jerk PM session
For my evening session I was able to go train with my Coach at Bluegrass Barbell. I was looking forward to this session all day. My goal was to work up to my opener 152. After warming up I knew my bicep tendon was not going to let me perform to the best of my ability. I also found out that I need to work more on my jerk. My coach pointed out that I am having a hard time staying in the correct line when driving though the jerk. Lifts started out well.
90 clean jerk
100 clean jerk
110 clean
120 clean jerk
130 ran jerk
135 clean jerk
140 clean jerk
145 clean missed jerk
130 clean jerk
135 clean jerk
140 clean jerk
Power cleans floor
100 3x1
110 3x1
120 2x1
130 2x1
I wanted to get the most out of this double session so that is why I added in the power cleans at the end. I was physically feeling great in my lower body but I couldn't handle any more over head stability. Tomorrow is going to be a great off day and full of recovery and hopefully a massage!

The Start to a Rough Week! Heave press/ Back Squats

This weeks training is a Higher volume/ Higher Intensity training week. My goal is to get around 20 reps of Snatch and Clean and Jerk over 90%. It is also going to be a big week of squatting. Toady's lift was a grinder it took about 2hrs to finally get though. Had some waves today, Waved Heave press and Back Squat.
Heave Press: Did not go how I wanted it to go. I have been having some issues with my bottom position in the squat when i get over 80%. I decide it was time to switch it up and work on my weaknesses for a little. Here is how that turned out.
Worked up too 80% of snatch Max
105 x1
110 x1
117 x1Miss
122 x1Miss
110 x1Miss
117 x1Make
122 x1 Make

After watching some footage I had a hard time keeping the weight in my heels. Missed in front on way too may reps. I had planned on this exercise helping me and it turned out to be more frustrating than anything.

Back Squat
160 x3
170 x3
175 x3
165 x3
172 x2
180 x3 (2 Make Missed Last rep)

Back squat was a long session in itself. I had 6 sets and it felt like I was Squatting for days. I had a very had time keeping my mind in the squatting workout. I decided to put my big boy pants on and put a goal in my head for the day. This week is going to be full of ups and down but as long as I can keep my mind on the prize (Nationals).

Light Day!

I went and spoke at the NSCA KY state Conference today with fellow Performance Specialist Eric Hammer. We discussed Power Development for athletes and it went awesome.

Today was all about moving some light weight and recovering. This is a recovery week for me in preparation for a very intense week next week. High levels of volume with high levels of load.

Lift:
Snatch/ Clean jerk 3x1 80%

Snatch
50 x1
70 x1
80 x1
90x1
100x1
105 4x1 (Missed one in Front) Youtube
I decided to do 1 extra single in snatch because I missed one in front from not being patient. My last attempt was much better.

Clean and Power Jerk/Jerk
I started out doing Clean + Power Jerk. Worked all the way up to 132 (80%) with that.
 Clean and Power Jerk :
90 x1
100 x1
110 x1
120 x1
132 x1

Clean and Jerk
132 2x1 Youtube

I have come to realize that almost all Lifters are very messy when they are training I took this Picture below. I figured out that it is just easier to have the weights close by but it takes forever to clean up at the end of a training session. Talk about great GPP work.

Before

After

Team Bluegrass Barbell -Pulls/ Jerks (PR)

This has been an up and down week. Only got to train twice this week but I am now an official member of Bluegrass Barbell Lifting Club with Coach Ben Carter. I am very excited for the future for me and my club. We have a lot of new lifters who keep getting better everyday they step on the platform. Coach Carter is doing a great job with his team and I am very excited to be a part of it. Stay tuned for training updates and videos from myself and my fellow teammates. (Videos on Blog)

Training day number two for the week. I was more or less forced into taking a recovery week from an overall frequency standpoint. With that in mind i wanted to get the most of my training day.
Snatch Pulls and Clean Pulls followed by BN Split Jerk.

Snatch Pulls:Floor/ Hang
2x4 80/90
2x3 100/110
2x2 120/130
4x1 130/140/140/130

Clean Pulls: Floor /Hang
1x4 130
5x2 140/140/150/160/170

BN Split Jerk x1
90 x1
100 x1
110 x1
120 x1
130 x1
140x1
150 x1 (Miss)
150 x1
160 x1
170 x1 (Miss)

I was hoping for a good day of training so I could be in a better mood. It turned out to be a great day of training. Hitting a 3k Pr in the BN Split Jerk. I had 170 just could not hold the lock out. In a week or so that 170 will be a thing of the past.

Coach Ben Carter's Youtube Page (Bluegrass BB Lifters)

Farrel Youtube Training 

Bluegrass Barbell Facebook

Snatch day...

Today was the first training day of the week for me... Not planned that way...
Sometimes work and life get in the way of the true fun things we get to do... Like training for Olympic lifting. I have been preparing for a talk I am giving on Saturday at the NSCA Kentucky state conference on Power development on athletes.

Training today consisted of snatches!
Warm up was pretty normal- bar work turn the posterior chain on an move weight!
Snatch
The plan was 3x1 @ 90% (117)
What happened was ... Misses all over the place!!
50 x5
70x3
80x1
90x1
Then out of nowhere I could not hit a snatch to save my life. I missed behind &in front 100x1 (2 misses in a row)
Took a moment gathered my self stopped yelling at the bar and attempted 110. Boom perfect snatch nice bottom position, locked out perfect, and blew the squat up. Now time to attempt 117(3x1).
Attempt 1- missed in front, I could just tell that my body was not going to move the weight today.
I decided to drop down to 110 to finish my attempts out I wanted to get 3 singles in to finish the day off. Well I ended up only hitting 1 snatch out of 3 at 110. Today was just not my day. Hopefully tomorrow goest I better and I find a way too move some weight and move it correctly!
Until next time - go lift heavy!