Make or break

[Alon]

Squatting first is awesome, hopefully this will win my bet with a fellow lifter (retired, I have to out-backsquat him by more than 5kg above his best double front, he did 192.5kg) which ends on Friday. Bodyweight was also good and the technique work was nice. I've VERY rarely squatted first (since it isn't a focus exercise) and every time I do it pays off bigtime.

Bodyweight 90.15kg
Light powercleans as a warmup
Backsquat 70, 100, 120, 150, 170, 190, 200, the warmups were very good, especially 190, back was tight and I went down nice and slow
Powerclean technique, 70, 90, 110, 110, 120, one power, one full, one power, working on timing and getting the hips through not only when I recieve the bar, but as I get under it
Clean pulls 4x3 160, alright, left knee and the surrounding muscles were screwed by now
Bench 3x5 80, alright, last reps were tough
Stretching

 

[Alon]

I woke up sooooo sore, back, legs, arms?? My training wasn't all that flashy as a result but what do you expect. Bodyweight was great, very happy.

Bodyweight 91.05kg
Snatch 4x3 95, some of these were supposed to be power, instead they were just a bag of shit, completely missed the first set, last rep of the second set, added in extra sets to compensate. They were actually better as time went on, shouldn't have benched yesterday
Snatch pulls 4x3 125, this weight should not be this hard
Power clean, power jerk 3x(1+2) 115, surprisingly easy, worked on keeping my upper back tight and it felt very good, especially the powerjerks which have been awful recently
Backsquats 3x3 120, just for the movement
Situps, stretching

 

[peanut butter]

how do the other lifters you train with, compare in bench pressing? i'd imagine a strong jerk would carry over to the bench

 

[Alon]

how do the other lifters you train with, compare in bench pressing? i'd imagine a strong jerk would carry over to the bench

Not really that much, most people bench 20-30kg over their max press, which usually isn't too much. If you want to look at a few numbers (both for club lifters and some other good Aussies) have a look here http://www.phoenixweightlifting.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=181

Todays training was alright, I feel like I need to freshen up a bit so tomorrow's off day will be very welcome. For some reason my shoulders were also quite sore still, not good.

Bodyweight 90.60kg
Clean & jerk 3x(2+1) 125, first two sets were very good, hips in the right spot and all, in the third I tried to change the timing and it was shit, jerks were lacking a bit of power
Clean pulls 3x3 160, alright, could be easier
Power snatch 4x3 80, decent but I was getting shit for it being a bit slow, I don't really know what to do to speed them up
Front squats 3x3 140, alright but third reps were tough

 

[peanut butter]

cool site, some strong mofos

 

[Alon]

cool site, some strong mofos

Thanks, it's a great club (although not everyone in that page trains with us). Unfortunately today's training wasn't flash at all, to say the least.

Bodyweight 90.15kg
Start warming up for powersnatches, did 3 doubles on 90 (ugly full snatches) and stopped cause I was having too much pain from the muscles I strained on Monday's squats. I just did some shoulder rehab crap and decided to save it for tomorrow or next week, my body just feels too screwed and I'm not sure why.

 

[Steve Oly]

Cool workouts man. Give yourself some time to recoup. You'll be better off for it man. If you feel your body needs a rest than most definatly give it one. Most of the time you will come back stronger after a short break from intense training. Keep up the nice work man.

 

[Alon]

Cool workouts man. Give yourself some time to recoup. You'll be better off for it man. If you feel your body needs a rest than most definatly give it one. Most of the time you will come back stronger after a short break from intense training. Keep up the nice work man.

Thanks, I'm just trying to get everything as "in order" as I can since I'm going on a holiday in two months and most likely will only train 3 times a week there, which is enough to maintain but not really to make pb's. Still waiting to hear from the relevant people as to where I can train (in Israel, Tel Aviv).

Bodyweight 89.65kg
Clean pulls (triples), 110, 140, 160, 170, 180, 160, felt alright, the lighter sets were good
Snatch pulls (triples, blocks), 90, 130, 150, 170, 180, 160x3, all upto 160 were very fast, the heavier were good but a bit slower cause of the weight
Bench 70x5, 90x5, 80x8, felt better than all the other times I've recently bench
Bent over rows 5x5 65, not too hard
Abwork

 

[peanut butter]

how long you staying in tel aviv for?

 

[Alon]

how long you staying in tel aviv for?

About a month (end of June to end of July), should be very fun.

 

[Steve Oly]

I would love to go to Isreal, such a historic place man. Enjoy it bro!

BTW, I would disagree with you that 3 days a week is not enough. I made my biggest gains on a 3 day a week program, granted the workouts were very intense but i made incredible gains. I am switching it up to 4-5 days now to see how my body reacts to shorter workouts more often. Anyway, have fun on your vacation, I am seriously jealous.

 

[Alon]

Israel's great fun, I was born there and moved here when I was 1-2 years old, I've been back and seen the historical stuff but really want to try experience life as an Israeli, party and basically try have as much fun as I can. You should definitely go sometime, I can gaurentee you that it won't be what you expect (pretty much what everyone I know says after they've been).

 

[peanut butter]

id like to go there but it seems quite a dangerous place. i know its probably the media over hyping the situation but nevertheless you often here of bombs going off and people dying. it just seems a scary place

 

[Alon]

Nah it's all good, I never worry when I'm there, however I'm probably quite biased. Realistically you're more likely to die crossing the road and getting hit by a car.

Anyways as for training, I still feel flat, however I'm back on Creatine and Glutamine as of today. I snatched for what felt like forever, finally working out some stuff later on.

Bodyweight 89.50kg
Weird miss while warming up, lost 50kg behind and hurt my shoulder a bit, felt funny afterwards but trained anyways.
Snatch (doubles) 70, 80, 80, 90, 90, 100, 105 (miss), went back to 70 and did powersnatches from here in, 70x3, 80x2, tried a wider grip, 70x2, 80x3, 90, 100 (full snatch), all in all they feel better with the wider grip, especially for the powersnatches, but it's a bit unstable with the grip so wide. I'll try this for a while and see what happens.
Snatch pulls 3x3 120, alright, wide grip makes it harder from the floor
Good mornings 3x5 90, ok
Some lunges and random crap, plus stretching

 

[Steve Oly]

Try taking some Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA). They are awesome for building muscle tissue and for workout recovery. I just started taking them because of all of the feedback I had been hearing on how incredible they are. Do a bit of research on them and then see if it fits in your budget. BCAA's and Glutamine are both incredible but I would take BCAA's over Glutamine any day. Like I said, read about them online when you get a chance and hopefully you can give them a shot for yourself. They will definatly help your muscle endurance and workout recovery!!!

 

[Alon]

Try taking some Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA). They are awesome for building muscle tissue and for workout recovery. I just started taking them because of all of the feedback I had been hearing on how incredible they are. Do a bit of research on them and then see if it fits in your budget. BCAA's and Glutamine are both incredible but I would take BCAA's over Glutamine any day. Like I said, read about them online when you get a chance and hopefully you can give them a shot for yourself. They will definatly help your muscle endurance and workout recovery!!!

I'll have a look, it's just such a pain to do since the regulations on what you can and can't take are so strict, I'll ask around about it later this week.

 

[Alon]

Right shoulder was still pretty sore but good enough to do power snatches. Tried to figure out the new grip width a bit more.

Bodyweight 91.00kg
Power snatches (floor) 70x3, 70x3, 80x2x4, felt ok but a bit akward in the second pull
Power snatches (blocks) 70x3, 70x3, 80x3x3, 90x2 (miss second very high behind), 90x3x3 (last one full), pretty happy with that, just need to relax my arms and get used to the bar hitting my hips a little higher
Clean pulls 120x3, 160x3x4, 175x3, 140x3, all pretty good, quite happy, powerful
Backsquats 3x5 140, alright, should be easier
Little bit of abwork

 

[Alon]

Shoulder is feeling better but not 100%, uncomfortable overhead in the jerk but not much of a problem otherwise.

Bodyweight 90.30kg
Power clean & jerk 3x(2+1) 115, threw in a few full cleans, they were ok but nothing special, jerks were akward at best
Clean pulls 3x140, 3x5x170, legs were killing me, cramping on the last reps, I'll be so sore tomorrow
Power snatch 3x3 80, better than last week but still slow at the top of the pull
Front squats 3x130, 3x3 145, squats were very powerful but the back wasn't as tight as it usually is, kind of akward going down
Abwork

 

[peanut butter]

how do you design your cycles?

 

[Alon]

how do you design your cycles?

My coach (best friend's dad) writes my programs, except for when I was overseas. The plans generally run for a three month cycle (we're not fans of competing too often). The first month or so is power development, muscle building, this generally means doing lifts off the blocks and some higher reps. The second month is more strength based, with more floor work. The last month (which I'm in now) is low reps, lots of full snatches and cleans (as opposed to the poer versions). Within that, the plans are also designed to work around any injuries, flexibility issues and technical problems that I might have at the time.

Todays training was better, shoulder is feeling fine in the snatch and much better in the jerk. I'm also trying to train much faster, especially at the start of training when the gym is rather empty.

Bodyweight 89.95kg
Power snatch (doubles) 50x2, 70, 80, 4x90, some of the 90's were full, and rhythm wasn't perfect but feeling alright
Full snatches (singles) 5x100, missed the third behind while trying to correct a problem in the pull, that said they felt nice and comfortable
Power clean & jerk (2+1) 70, 90, 110, 3x120, power cleans felt great, the jerk was still a little bit akward and uncomfortable but much better than before, also I was driving the bar nicely