Arien's weightlifting log

[Arien Malec]

Thought I'd put my log out there to put some pressure on myself to hit my goals

Some history for this log:

I was an endurance athlete from an early age (did 7 mile races from the age of 6 years) and was generally a skinny/fat kid through most of my lift.

Some years of frequent business travel and expense accounts changed skinny/fat to just fat. I topped out at about 205 lbs at 5'11" before I decided I needed to change things.

Discovered low carb living, and through a mixture of cardio work, machine-based strength training, and low carb eating, got my weight down to 185.

Transitioned to free weights in February of last year, and pretty quickly got my weight down to 165, and then grew back to 185, with lower body fat.

My squat has grown from 125# to 230# and my deadlift from 95# to 315#, in a little more than a year.

I got interested in CF about 9 months ago, and through that, in Olympic style weightlifting. I learned form at a class Jim Schmitz taught at Crossfit Oakland, and trained a few times in the training sessions he holds in South SF, but the commute there is hard on my work life, so I mostly train in my home gym. (I'd love to figure out an approach to get more frequent coaching).

My current goal is to snatch my bodyweight and C&J 1.25 BW. My current snatch max is 115 and C&J is 145, so these are somewhat lofty goals.

I've got a couple of (somewhat conflicting) secondary goals: to raise my bodyweight to ~200 and cut bodyfat to <10%, but after playing around with both mass gain and leaning out, I've decided to stick with the strength goal, and let the other two figure themselves out for the time being.

[Arien Malec]

The last cycle (the one that began Feb 25th, 2008) was absolutely fantastic for me. I loved lifting heavy, hitting singles and generally working the basic lifts all the time.

My snatch went from 95# to 115#. My previous 1RM PR for the power snatch had been 105#. After the last cycle, I can now snatch as much as I can power snatch. I'm hoping another classic lift focused cycle will bring my snatch over my PS.

My jerk went AWOL some time ago, after an ill fated experiment with IF. My basic problem with IF is eating enough -- after an IF session, I basically have no hunger and never catch up the next day. The result, for me, was declines in all my lifts and my jerk especially suffered.

After this cycle, my jerk slowly recovered. At the end of the cycle, I hit a max C&J of 145#. I can basically muscle clean the 145#, so my jerk is still, by far, my limiting factor.

My FS max went from 185# to 190# and my BSQ max went from 225# to 230# (my last BSQ single test was in the context of a CFT many months ago, and the 230# was tested after heavy snatches and cleans, so I probably improved more than that).

Looking to get my FS to 205# this next cycle.

[Arien Malec]

Basic lesson: the combination of tabata squats on Friday (hotel room in the morning), heavy front squats on Saturday, skiing on Sunday and Monday, and heavy back squats Monday night is an absolute killer.

I haven't felt this unrecovered since I started CF about 6 months ago. I've been crashing at work, my quads are all in a knot, and I'm basically enjoying the hell out of the current rest day today.

Yesterday was OK, despite the DOMS I was working through, but Tuesday was just brutal, despite the low weight and volume (I did Monday's WOD at 9PM, and Tuesday's at 7:30 AM). Interesting thing: the front squat 5x2 got easier over the 5 sets, not harder. CNS beats muscle exhaustion, I guess.

My goals for this cycle are to move my FS to 205#, my BSQ to 245# and my jerk to 155#. My snatch and clean can take care of themselves, this cycle. I figure if I can hit the strength numbers above, I'll hit some nice PRs for the next Bulgarian cycle.

[Arien Malec]

Thursday's workout felt good -- nice to keep things moving and fresh. OHS especially were nice, as I haven't done them in a while. Did 95#x3x3, tried to keep them low with good form. Skipped the metcon, as I have all week, due to being a bit of a mess.

Had high hopes for today's workout, but nothing doing.
sn: 65x2, 85, 95, 95, 105 ps, 105, 115f

115 was my PR from last cycle; would have been nice to hit it. Should have done 110 and finished with some success

c&j: 115, 135, 145 failed jerk, reattempted, and failed jerk again.

145 was also my PR from last cycle, again, should have done 140.

bsq: 145, 185, 225 failed, 225 failed.

I was a bit surprised to fail 225, but perhaps should not have been. I'm consciously trying to get low; perhaps my 230 PR from last cycle was stopped a bit high.

Just wish getting stronger were a bit easier for me :-)

Pull-ups, did deadhang, since I can't kip. 5, 4, 4 (my pullups suffered from my mass gain experiment of a few months ago -- trying to get them back).

Standing ab-wheel roll-outs, to a wall just short of full extension. 3x12

[Arien Malec]

Sunday I spent every moment I could foam rolling. I hurt all over, but especially the quads (upper and lower attachments) and the IT band. I've never been this sore foam rolling before.

Today my warm up was accompanied by many fewer clicks and pops in my knees. Reminder to self: keep foam rolling and prevent things from getting this bad. Treat clicks and pops as an abnormal situation, requiring treatment.

Monday:

fs: 165x2x3. Felt good, atg. Focusing on keeping my right elbow up -- some hand pain from catching my cleans wrong

chp: 165x2x2: Should have done 160 -- couldn't get the bar high enough.

pp: 125x2x2, failed the second set. 120x2x3: felt strong. Focused on keeping the push vertical -- finding that I'm trying to push too hard and getting the bar out in front. Less push but more vertical works better :-)

pullups: 5, 4, 4

tgu situps: 24kgx4@x3: hurt from Saturday's ab wheel roll outs.

Will probably miss tomorrow due to travel...

[Arien Malec]

Skipped the Tuesday workout -- figured that getting more than 3 hours of sleep would be better than getting training in.

bsq: 200x2x3. Much harder than I expected based on how 195 felt last week. Didn't get as good depth as I wanted. Looking forward to the rest week.

shp: 125x2x2 Felt quick and strong.

rack jerk bknk: went up to 145. Fear kept me from going higher....

Metcon was ultra fun -- did jumping pullups instead of kipping and knee ab wheel rollouts instead of situps. Felt good to get my heart rate up.

[Arien Malec]

Muscle snatch complex: went up to 85#
Clean complex: 105
Also did some light tall snatches and cleans at 65# and 95#

Cut the metcon back: 2 rounds of (20 24kb kb high pulls + 10 ring rows)

[John Alston]

Originally Posted by Arien Malec

shp: 125x2x2 Felt quick and strong.

rack jerk bknk: went up to 145. Fear kept me from going higher....

Fear is the mind killer.

[Arien Malec]

I will face my fear. I will let it pass over me and through me...

sn: Failed 105. WTF? Felt uncoordinated. No pull, no speed getting under
c&j: Cleans felt like the snatches. Basically ended up muscle cleaning the weight. Jerk felt strong, almost hit 145#.
fs: new PR of 195#, after just failing 200#
chins: 5, 3, 2 (arrghhhh)
ghd situps with twist: did 3x6, holding 24kg kettlebell. Did it on a medicine ball, which was rather amusing, because just keeping my balance prevented me from hitting the lateral stabilizers to the extent I was hoping.

All in all, an odd day: I felt strong on the squats, and a klutz on the core lifts.

Looking forward to the down week, and looking forward to another bulgarian cycle after that so I can get my technique back. Wondering when my chins and pullups will improve....

[Arien Malec]

Straightforward day:

fs: 175x1x2
shp: 135x1x2
pp: 130x1x4
pullups: 5,4,4 (when oh when is that 6th rep going to come...)
weighted situps