I'm Working On It...

[jake oleander]

Originally Posted by Brian DeGennaro

Basically I've been lifting as heavy as I can daily (twice a day sometimes), going up to a daily max and then backing off for a few sets of singles/doubles/triples. It's been working pretty well for me, weights are getting more consistent at heavy weights and are increasing. IT's HARD and you need a lot of milk and meat and potatoes and fish oil to keep improving.

going heavy every day+ for three months! no shit it's hard....
thanks for the reply.

[Brian DeGennaro]

A doozy today. I'm skipping most of my warmup attempts, not worth posting.

1/4/10

Morning
Snatch:
205/1
(225/F)x2
205/1
(215/F)x2
215/1
(220/F)x2
200/1
200/F
200/1

CJ:
245/1
265/1 (pressed out the jerk)
(275/F clean)x2
275/1, no jerk, regripped it and it slipped off shoulders

BS:
295/2
(345/1)x2

Afternoon:

Snatch
205/1
210/1
(215/F)x2
215/1
220/1

CJ:
245/F (hand slipped on clean)
245/1
(265/F clean)x2
265/1, no jerk, dizzy
(245/1)x2

FS:
295/1
(315/1)x2

Workout felt fantastic. Normally the morning session would be weights 10-20lbs lighter than what I lifted. I remember a few weeks ago I would normally hit anywhere between 85 and 92.5kg for a session, now I've been able to routinely hit 95kg+ as of last week. It's actually quite fantastic to be lifting that now. It is also much better to be hitting ~95-100kg range for the snatches than before, because that makes everything more in line with my cleans, ratio wise.

Clean and jerks were so-so, but it isn't bad, being able to hit ~120-125kg regularly and not missing any weights lighter than that. Hopefully by the end of this week I can bump that up to ~130kg+ for clean and jerks. The jerks have been feeling weak for some reason despite the jerk being my favorite and best portion of the lift. It's probably just a lack of heavy jerking.

Squats were ok, using less weight and making sure that I'm not grinding the weights out. I have a meet next week and I want to just keep my legs up to strength and not fatigued with routinely heavy squats. Hit the lifts harder and then taper off next week. Ought to be fun.

[Brian DeGennaro]

Morning

Snatch:
205/1
(210/F)x2
210/1
185/F
185/1
185/F

Power CJ:
210/1
215/1
225/1

Afternoon
Snatch:
205/1
215/1
(220/F)x2
220/1
(231/F)x3

CJ:
245/1
255/1
(275/F)x3 on cleans

BS:
295/2
(345/1)x3

Not a bad day at all, felt snappier and quicker and stronger on everything despite feeling like absolute CRAP when I wasn't on the platform. Bought myself a bottle of fish oil to help me get through this week. I think I've had about a tenth of it already.

[Brian DeGennaro]

Morning
Snatch:
185/f
185/1
(205/F)x2

Jerk tech:
(135/2)x3

BS:
345/1
365/1
345/1
315/2

Afternoon

Snatch:
185/F
185/1
185/F
(185/1)x2
205/F
205/1
210/F

CJ:
225/1
245/1
255/1

BS:
(330/1)x5

Was surprised lifting felt good today despite feeling like crap. Apparently I'm faster and more efficient when I'm like this. I only raised the bar high enough to get under it for both the snatch and clean.

Also, I needed to put as much mental effort into this as possible to lift the weights. It was quite amazing actually. It has made me realize that you need to train on the days where you feel like crap. I learned to be more efficient and snappier while dumb tired and I learned no matter what I can get within 10kgs of what I'd lifted normally.

[Brian DeGennaro]

Morning

BS:
(365/1)x2

Snatch:
185/1
(205/F)x2
205/1

CJ:
245/1, no jerk, too dizzy
255/1
265/1

Afternoon

Snatch:
185/1
(205/F)x2
205/1
215/1 (slight press out)
220/F
220/1

CJ:
245/1
255/1
265/1

BS:
(345/1)x2

Even better day than yesterday it felt like. My speed has been fantastic and I'm looking strong despite feeling like crap as well. Looking forward to the meet next Saturday.

Here are two vids from today, hopefully they've processed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzWdStTMSoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZS9h9FpNgs

[Matt Edwards]

Good lifts Brian, only thing I really noticed was to remember front foot first on your jerk recovery. How far apart do you space your morning/afternoon sessions?

[Brian DeGennaro]

They're about 4 hours, with lunch and sometimes a nap between them. It's great, as you can see afternoon sessions tend to have heavier weights lifted.

Yeah, the jerks are tending to be a little forward, which is why I'm taking the step forward, need to work on it.

[Brian DeGennaro]

Morning
BS:
315/2
(345/1)x2

Power Snatch:
165/1
175/1
185/1 (just below parallel)

Power CJ:
225/1

Afternoon
Snatch:
(185/1)x2
205/1
(215/F)x2
215/1
(220/f)x3

CJ:
245/1
255/1
265/1
275/F clean
275/1, F jerk

BS:
(365/1)x2

Another good day. I was fast on my snatches today, as shown by the video link. I was so pissed I missed my first 100kg attempt at the snatch today, it was such a GOOD one too. I overpulled it and wasn't expecting it to fly up so easily. Oh well, such is life. I'm feeling so weak while I'm warming up but the weights I'm lifting aren't representative of that. My legs are feeling tired which is why there has been a decrease in squat and clean strength. Hopefully I'll be better rested next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJA3nBvps4

[Brian DeGennaro]

I treated today like a mock meet, although it ran much faster than a real one, minute clocks and all.

Snatches:
Warmed up to 90kg
1st attempt: 95kg/1
2nd attempt: 100/1
3rd attempt: 105/F

CJ:
Warmed up to 116kg
1st attempt 125/F (clean)
2nd attempt: 127/1, dropped jerk because I was dizzy
3rd attempt: 130/1, missed jerk

Not bad, even though I "bombed" my jerks. The last one was a hard clean and I just lost some of my confidence driving under the bar, I should have had it.

So now I start to taper off for the meet next Saturday. Hit relatively heavy weights on monday, probably just my opening attempts if not less and go medium on the squats. My legs have just been feeling dumb tired this week.

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

Excellent Work Brian. Damn, I wish I had the youth to do those two a days. I do conditioning work with kettlebells on evenings I lift in the morning - but I can't imagine doing two awesome sessions like you are doing.

Very impressive.

Keep up the excellent work!!!

All the best,
Arden