I Swear I'm Listening

Workout date: 5/4/16

I've been a little bit concerned over the last few weeks about how I would do on heavy squat day because I was scheduling them for 6:30am on Wednesdays and those sessions typically followed an appearance at Dudes After Dark at 7:30pm the night before.  I had no such worries this past Wednesday.  After taking the noon express on Tuesday, I had ample recovery time before Open Strength on Wednesday morning.  Add in the fact that Tuesday's WOD was not very leg-intensive and I was raring to go for the final heavy session of my front squat program before the final test day.

The working sets for this session would use 265 pounds, which was both my 1RM and my 2RM.  Having done 2 reps at this weight, you would think that I could probably handle 1 rep at a higher weight.  And that may have been true as I had never attempted 270 pounds.  I had given 275 pounds a couple of tries, each time hitting my sticking point and finding myself unable to push through it.  I had also tried to do 3 reps at 265 a few times because the 3RM front squat has been part of the gym benchmark series for both 2015 and 2016.  The first time I tried 265 for 3 reps, I got 1 rep before bailing.  The last time I tried it, I got 2 reps.  Three reps was definitely within reach and the greedy part of me wanted to reach that goal as soon as possible.  So the plan for this session (since there was very little volume once again) was to attempt a third rep on the second set if everything went to plan.

Much like the 3x3 session, I added in a fourth warmup set before taking on the working sets.  I began with the typical 5 reps at 135, 4 reps at 185, and 2 reps at 215.  From there, I bumped up the weight to 245 for a final set of two.  Didn't run into any problems during that sequence, even at 245 pounds.  If I had gotten stuck at that weight, I might have begun doubting whether 265 was going to happen, but I ended up going into my 2x2 sets feeling pretty good about my chances of not only completing my last heavy day successfully, but also with a new 3RM.

With only 2 reps in each set, I could take my time and really focus on what I needed to do.  And with the knowledge that I had previously done 2 reps at 265 pounds, there was no question in my mind about whether I could handle this weight.  For set #1, I had a good first rep, took a few seconds to reset at the top, then did the second rep the exact same way I had done the first.  For each rep, there was an ever-so-brief visit to the sticking point, but I moved through it quickly.  Awesome.  One set down, one set to go.  There was a ton of time left in Open Strength, so I gave myself 5-6 minutes of rest before tackling set #2.  After all, the plan for this set was 3 reps, not 2.  No reason to rush into that.

Set #2 began like set #1, with a really solid first rep.  Perhaps that made me think I had things in the bag.  Because I completely lost focus on the second rep.  I had made it through this entire squat program without having to bail during any set.  This second rep of the second set was basically the last difficult rep of the program (with the one light session remaining unlikely to pose any problems). Yet I did every thing in my power to blow it right at the very end.  After resetting at the top, I did not properly descend into the second rep.  Instead, I plummeted into the bottom about as quickly as a person could (very bad), causing the barbell to crash down on me at the lowest point of my squat.  I knew I was in trouble immediately.  I began to stand up, but I was very much feeling the quicksand-like effect of the sticking point.  I was still moving upwards, but I was fighting with everything I had. I might have had some anger kick in as well.  I was determined not to bail this rep and a few seconds later it paid off for me as I stood tall with the second rep complete.

My first instinct was to rack the barbell because I was breathing heavily and there was little chance that the third rep was going to be a success after seeing how the second rep went.  But as I stood there, I told myself that if I did the rep correctly, I could get it.  The pause between the second and third rep was much longer than any pause I had taken between reps during this program, but I'm glad I took it.  I got my breathing set and reminded myself not to crash into the bottom of the rep.  The result?  My third rep was much more like the first rep of the set.  No fight necessary this time around. I had finally conquered 265 pounds for three reps!

There was still 30 minutes left in Open Strength, so I decided to take part in some snatch practice.  I had recently gotten 170 pounds and my 1RM was 175, so maybe I could get two PRs in one morning.  Those thoughts went away pretty quickly as I could tell my form was off.  I started with reps at 95 before progressing to 125.  After doing some shaky reps at that weight, Clay asked me what I was working on.  My short answer: form.  That was the answer Clay was looking for, because if my answer was something like "snatching 180 pounds", he probably would have stopped me then and there at 125 pounds.  There were a couple of tips that Clay gave me as I worked on my form.  The first was a reiteration of something that Rachel had told me the last time I did the snatch: I needed to stand up all the way as I tried to pull the barbell over my head.  The other tip concerned the path of my barbell.  I was looping the barbell from the floor to above my knee.  Then I would loop it once again from where the barbell made contact with my hip to its final destination over my head.  My snatch looked like a capital B.  Not ideal.  Clay suggested pulling my knees back slightly during that first pull from the floor so that the initial loop would not be necessary.  Then he had me do some drills where I paused at my knee before doing a snatch pull (think giant shrug) and then a snatch.  My form is pretty lousy at the moment, but hopefully I can remedy these problems by practicing more over the next few months.

How bad is my Olympic lifting form?  I needed two lessons in one day!  Okay, the second lesson was planned in advance.  KOP is hosting two free clinics on consecutive Wednesdays and the first was being held later that evening.  This week's clinic would cover the clean while next week's would tackle the finer points of the split jerk.  There was a large turnout for this first clinic, but the Barbell Club was prepared with four coaches (Steph, Jim C, Tom C, and Faby) at the ready to help out all of the attendees.  We split up into groups of two, with each of the coaches keeping an eye on the groups in their area.  Brian and I decided to work together under the tutelage of Jim.  There were 5 different progressions that we went through during the clinic and I was not very good at 4 of them.  (Thankfully I'm good at dropping under the barbell quickly!)  Brian was catching on much better than I was.  Jim would watch him and begin with some improvements that he could make.  Then Brian would go again and Jim would say "better".  When it was my turn, I would do a rep or two before receiving instructions from Jim.  Then I would attempt to correct my mistakes, only to have Jim give me a quizzical look before saying "you're still doing the same thing".  After a while, I began to worry that Jim thought I was ignoring his advice, but I swore to him that I really was listening to what he was saying.  My two biggest issues?  One was not keeping my chest up as I began my initial pull, which caused me to lose the hip angle I need to generate power during the clean.  The other was that I kept whipping my head back as I got to "triple extension".  Jim told me to stare straight ahead at a spot on the floor, but time and time again I'd end up looking at one of the shirts on the wall at the end of my clean.  As was the case with the snatch earlier in the day, my clean form needs a lot of practice.

Thursday preview: Endurance features sets of medium-length runs and a cash out of tabata sit-ups.  Plus my last light session in the front squat program.