It has been some time since I worked out on a Friday. In fact, my last Friday workout came at the conclusion of the Open. Maybe 16.5 was a little more scarring than I first thought! The more likely explanation for my Friday absences from the gym is that I've settled into a little bit of a routine. Monday has become WOD followed by light front squat session day. Tuesday is Dudes After Dark. Wednesday morning is heavy front squat session time, usually followed by a return visit in the evening to do the WOD. Thursday gets me away from the gym as I switch things up with Endurance class. After four days of doing a variety of workouts, it makes sense to use Friday as a rest day. That is, unless there are things going on outside of the gym that make coming to the gym on Friday seem like a good idea. That was the case this week.
Megs was turning 30 and had sent out an invite for her birthday party the following Saturday. The problem: I had friends coming in from out of town that day and I knew I wouldn't be able to make the party. I was bummed, especially since your 30th birthday is generally a big deal, meaning I was almost certainly missing a good party. I got a hold of Megs, let her know I couldn't make it, but asked her if she was interested in a plan B. Her boyfriend, Neil, was completing the on-ramp program on Friday. I thought it might be fun to go out for a drink after the class was over to celebrate his graduation from the program and to welcome Megs into her thirties a week early. They both agreed. It would have been weird just meeting them at the gym after they had worked out, so I signed up for the 6:30 class at KOP.
Know who else was making a rare Friday night appearance at the gym? Coach Rachel. She was filling in at the 6:30, so the class became Friday Night Fellas! (Note: There were actually more girls in class than guys. Did that stop me from coming up with an alliterative Friday night counterpart to Dudes After Dark? Absolutely not!) The WOD was focused on finding a 1RM snatch, followed by a short cash out where we'd be doing 50 GHD sit-ups for time. First we warmed up, then we spread out to work on our lifts, with me and Luis ending up on the "magic platform". Luis was completely immersing himself in the experience, even using kilo plates. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm interested in using those fancy colored kilo plates. Perhaps my insistence on using black plates with weights listed in pounds is due to a bit of American stubbornness on my part. I think this clip captures my reaction to kilo plates accurately:
The worst part about watching people lift with kilo plates? Those plates morph into a giant flashing neon sign saying "convert me!" and I end up going from casually watching someone lift to frantically calculating how much weight is on their barbell. You know I can't resist you, math. Why must you tease me?!?!
We were supposed to be making 7 lifts as we worked our way to a 1RM. I planned out what weights I wanted to use in my progression, although I might need to work a little more on my time management during these sessions. I'm either going too fast (with a coach coming over to tell me to take my time between lifts) or I'm going too slow (needing to rush at the end to finish all of my lifts). There doesn't seem to be any middle ground with me. Guess there's always something to work on. As for the weights I wanted to use, I settled on 95-115-135-150-160-170-180. How did I come up with those? 175 is my 1RM and I wanted to have a shot at a new PR if I happened to be "on" this evening, so 180 was going to be my final lift assuming all went swimmingly up to that point. The real goal was 170. I had recently gotten 165, one of a handful of times that I had gotten that weight. I've hit 175 once, but that was at the end of the 8 week Barbell Club program (translation: when I was at peak form with my Olympic lifts because I was practicing them religiously). Hitting 170 would feel like a PR to me because it would come at a time when I wasn't focused almost exclusively on Olympic lifts. What was I truly expecting? That I would miss 1 or 2 lifts along the way, with success at 160 and failure at 170.
Both the clean and jerk and the snatch are lifts where you take a barbell from the ground to overhead. The difference is that the clean and jerk is a two-part lift (the clean gets the barbell from the ground to your shoulders, the jerk moves the barbell from your shoulders to overhead), while the snatch eliminates the middleman, as you go from the ground to overhead in one quick motion. The clean and jerk is the local train, while the snatch is the express. However, I can't make anything easy. I've started treating the snatch like a two-part lift as well. The reason I have done this is because I am more confident in my overhead squat than anything else I do in the gym. So when I snatch, part one is all about getting under the barbell, catching it in a full squat. While others might get panicked in this position, for me, it's my happy place. I can hang out there with the barbell overhead and stand up with it when I'm ready. Since my overhead squat 1RM is 225 pounds and I've never snatched more than 175 pounds, there should never be a point where the weight I'm holding overhead should be too much for me. I can be patient while in my squat. So now the lift is all about getting to that point rather than the finished position.
Rather than power snatch the lighter weights, I've begun to practice the full squat with the lighter weights I use. Did it for 95 pounds. Did it for 115 pounds. When I went for my lift at 135 pounds, I caught it in the full squat but didn't feel completely balanced. So I took an extra second to get my balance right. A couple others in class were yelling at me to stand up, but I wasn't worried about not being able to stand it up. I was more worried about stumbling forward if my balance was off. I hadn't taken on the more difficult lifts yet, but I was feeling good about how I was approaching each of my lifts. That was short-lived.
Luis was lifting behind me on the platform and he pointed out after my lift at 135 that I wasn't centered on the barbell when I lifted it. One of my hands was wider than the other, causing the barbell to tilt when I held it overhead. This further contributed to the mountain of evidence that I'm lopsided. Rachel came over and let me know that I wasn't fully extending upward before going into my squat. I had no doubt that this was true as my focus is on quickly getting underneath the barbell. Best way to do that? Don't stand all the way up on the lift! I've always told people that the reason I drop under the barbell so quickly is because I can't lift it that high. But I might be able to get the barbell higher if I fully extended when I stood up with it. Duh.
I made my attempt at 150 and was successful with it. My hands were more symmetrically placed during this attempt. I looked over at Rachel after the lift and she gave me a "better, but you could still extend more at the top". I always find it difficult to make adjustments in the middle of a workout and it's even more problematic when you're adding weight to the barbell. Perhaps it would have been wiser to stay at a lower weight and work on my form, but I felt like I was having a good day, despite my crappy form. I hadn't missed a lift yet and I was about to try 160. I wanted to keep moving up if possible. As I got ready to make my attempt at 160, I told myself to extend fully at the top. I might mess up something else during this snatch, but I was going to stand up all the way this time. A couple seconds later, the rest of the class was cheering. I did it right! (Well, sort of.)
I was so focused on standing straight up that I forgot to go into a full squat like I had on all of my previous attempts. Instead I got it overhead in a partial squat and stood right up with it. I felt like I had short-changed the rep, even though coaches would probably tell me that there really is no need for the full squat if you have the ability to do a power snatch. For once, I wasn't going to overthink it. Rachel came over and confirmed what I knew from the cheering: that I had fully extended at the top and snatched with proper form. The cheering also led to this fun exchange with Samson:
Samson: Was that a PR?
Me: No, that was 15 pounds less than my PR.
Samson: I thought I've seen you lift more than that, but then everyone started cheering, so I wasn't sure.
Me: Oh, that's because I had shitty form on all of my previous lifts and I finally did this one right.
If my form was improving, there was reason for optimism with my next lift at 170. I had reached that weight range where I needed to be nearly perfect to complete the lift. That included not letting doubt creep into my head. If you think you're not going to make the lift before you touch the barbell, then you won't make the lift. I kept positive thoughts in my head as I walked up and got ready to lift. Did I extend fully this time? I'm not sure, but I was probably close at the very least. Unlike the lift at 160, I was quick to land in the full squat. And before I knew it, I was back in my happy place. The yells began again when I didn't immediately stand up, but I knew I had it. I rose from the squat with a big smile on my face. It wasn't a PR, but it sure felt like one. I may have had better form at 160, but this felt like the best lift of the day to me.
What was I saying about time management? Rachel told us to start cleaning up so that we could do the cash out. But I wanted to try 180! As everyone began putting plates away, I loaded 10 more pounds to my barbell. I took less time than I had in between my previous lifts. And there was a ton of doubt in my mind as I rushed up to get one last lift in. The result was, as Rachel put it, "a very good snatch deadlift". Today was not the day where I set a new snatch 1RM, but with some practice, that day might not be that far off.
The cash out was one that I had done at the end of Competitors Class a few weeks earlier. I was likely a little more tired that day, breaking up the 50 GHD sit-ups into four sets, finishing in 3:06. The goal today was to complete the cash out by doing no more than three sets. Since I was a little behind the class, I decided to go in heat two, as each of us were going to do the cash out with a partner who would count for us. Cline was my partner and he let me know that he might only be able to do 40 GHD sit-ups. Who's believing that nonsense? Cline's a fighter. Unless he was in pain after 20 reps, there was no way I was believing that he was stopping early. Sure enough, he hit 40 reps and kept on going. We switched places and now it was my turn to go. I wasn't super excited about this cash out. As I mentioned at the end of my last blog post, I had spent some time on the GHD at the end of Open Strength. I had a bad feeling my body wasn't going to be receptive to more GHD work. But maybe Friday was just my day. My plan was to try and go 20-15-15, but I actually made it through 30 reps before needing a break. (As Cline pointed out, the last 5 reps of that set were not so good. And he was being generous putting it that way.) I got through 10 more reps before needing another brief respite. The last 10 reps were not pleasant, but I gritted my teeth and got through them. Final time: 2:01.
Wow! That was much better than I was expecting. Between shaving a minute off of my time for the cash out and hitting a snatch of 170, I felt like I had earned a beer (or two). Megs, Neil, and I headed over to the Taphouse to grab dinner and some adult beverages. We got into a conversation about various beers with our waitress who had a wealth of knowledge on the subject. And then Neil told me that he had read some of my blog posts and had recently bought a beer called "Shut Up Meg" due to the nickname I have given his girlfriend. Since I don't know Neil that well yet, I wasn't sure whether he was okay with the fact that I call Amanda by a completely different name, but this story was a cool way of finding out that he was on board with it.
Sunday preview: 3x3 front squat day along with some sets of heavy KB swings at Open Gym.
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