Saturday

Block Snatch: a few singles with some baby weights (seriously, heaviest was like 150)

BTN Push Jerk w/ Snatch Grip: 185x1, 205x1, 225x1

Pendlay Rows: 3x5

I'm not so much switching gears with my training, but trying to become a more well rounded strength athlete.  I've been watching some videos on Mikhail Koklyaev and I am amazed at what he can do.  He has been to the Olympics in weightlifting, is one of the strongest raw powerlifters in the world and is a very competitive professional strongman.  As such I'm going to start doing a bit more Olympic style weightlifting and probably adding some more strongman into my training sessions.

It's been literally years since I've done block snatches.  And it showed.  My technique felt awkward, my shoulders were killing me from the outset, and to anyone with a trained eye it looked like I very little idea what I was doing.  I'm ok with that though.  Some Chinese guy once said the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  I think I got my toes over the starting line today.  With repetition comes ease.  Biomechanically my body isn't used to the positions snatching puts it in.  My shoulders are weak with a wide grip on the bar and my right IT flares up when I do an overhead squat (and any squat lately).  My body just needs time to adapt to the stressors this lift puts on it. 

That was my reasoning behind the Behind The Neck Push Jerks.  I can feel that heavier weight at the top of the movement without actually having to do an actual snatch to get it there.  The Pendlay Rows are a version of a bent over row.  Each rep is started with the bar resting on the ground.  This forces the erectors of the thoracic spine to contract forcefully to keep the upper body rigid during the pull.  I'd never done them before and wanted to try them.  I think I may like them. 

Song of the Day:

“My earliest memory is shouting: at what and for what reason, I don't know. Probably a tantrum; or I may have been rehearsing. I was always an early starter.” -Lemmy Kilmister (lead singer and bassist of Motorhead)