Blake's strength + Olympic Lifting Log

[Blake Nelson]

Whatup,
I am a 19 year old college freshman who has been weight training for around 3 years. Unfortunatly, the first two years were horribly unproductive as they consisted of curling, benching, and nautilus machines. I have done Starting Strength off and on since then. My prs are 3x5 low bar back squat for 270, bench 197.5, oh press 127.5, deadlist 1x5 300. I am off these prs around 5% on average except for back squat which required a major reset because of caving knees and dominant quads. Currrent weight is 205 lbs at a height of 6'4"

I have done olympic lifting for about 3 weeks and would welcome any and all help and comments. I plan to work 5 singles of each the snatch and the clean and jerk with 1 minute breaks inbetween. My strength work will be low bar back squat on monday and friday with front squat on wednesday. I plan to do 3x5 on all exercises until progress cannot be made and then I will switch to texas method. Bench and oh press will alternate as well as wide and narrow grip pull ups. Deadlift 1x5 on friday.

Belor are my most recent workouts.

3-17-10

Clean and Jerk
1x1 135, 155, 165, 175, 180

Snatch
1x1 95 115 125

low bar back squat
3x5 210

bench
3x5 185

snatch
1x1 95, 115, 125,
1/4 at 130
0/3 135

clean and jerk
1x1 155, 165 (no jerk),
1/2 180 (no jerk)
1/2 185 (no jerk) pr on clean

high bar back squat
3x5 200
used a mirco band around middle thigh, it worked very well in keeping my knees out even on heavy sets. very impressed. I have dave tate to thank for that tip and a rubber band from his website is being shipped to richmond as i speak.

press 115 3x5

3-26-10

First day training in new gym.

snatch 1x75,85 3/5 for 111 lbs
clean and jerk 1x45,75,111 5/5 clean 3/5 jerk
back squat 2x5 205 (had 10k next morning which I ran in 52:14)
bench 3x4 190
wide grip pull ups 6,5,5,5
dips 11,10,10

3-29-10

snatch 111 (3/5)
c and j 165 (5/5)
back squat 5x5 205
press 3x5 120
wide grip pull ups with 1 min break 6,6,5,4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqDFCGfPQTI

[Blake Nelson]

Snatch 1x45,75,98 hit 3/5 at 111
C+J 1x 45,75,98,111,141. hit 5/5 at 168.5
front squat 3x5 175
bench 3x5 191.25
chin ups
training video

[Blake Nelson]

Today's workout felt great. It took a while becuase I was talking to several people including the owner of the new gym that I have started going to here in Richmond.

Snatch 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, 4/5 hit at 116
c+j 1x45,1x75,1x98,1x111,1x133,1x163, 5/5 hit at 173
low bar back squat 3x5 210
oh press 3x5 125
deadlift 1x5 275

youtube video of my c+j


any programming/form tips are more than welcome

[Blake Nelson]

snatch 1x45,75, 2x98, 118.5 hit 3/5
clean and jerk 1x45,75,98,111,133,168, 178 hit 5/5
low bar back squat 3x5 215
bench 3x5 191.25
wid grip pullups with 1 min breaks 6x4x3x3
dips with 1 min breaks 11x8x8
barbell pulls 153 3x5

youtube video of snatch and c+j

[Blake Nelson]

snatch 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, hit 4/8 at 116
clean and jerk 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, 1x133, 1x163 hit 3/5 cleans and no jerks at 179.25
front squat 3x5 at 180
oh press 5x45, 2x95, 2x115, 1x125, 1x130, 2x135
narrow pullups

youtube video of front squats and o lifts

I felt really bad coming into the gym today, legs were just not there today not sure what was up. It could have been the heat in the gym, 5 hours of sleep monday night although I did get 11 tuesday night, or having just broke an 19 hour fast 2 hours before. Im betting on the last one.

first clean i was not agressive with elbows, second i caught forward

missed snatchs felt like a form problem while the cleans just didnt have the strength in the legs and the jerks were lacking leg explosion.

[Blake Nelson]

youtubesnatch 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, hit 5/9 at 117.25
clean and jerk 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, 1x133, 1x163 179.25 hit 2/5 cleans and no jerks
back squat 220 3x5
bench 3x5 192.5
wide grip pull ups with 1 minute breaks

[Blake Nelson]

snatch 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, hit 7/10 in 5 sets of doubles at 118.5
clean and jerk 1x45, 2x75, 2x98, 1x133, 1x163 hit all 5 cleans and jerks at 178
back squat 225
oh press 3x3 130
narrow pullups

[John Nelson]

I enjoy watching your videos. The Ridgeways wanted to see your lifting so I gave them the website. they'll be watching too. Dad

[Blake Nelson]

snatch 123.5 hit 6/10 in 5 sets of doubles with 1 min break
c+j hit only 1 at 181
oh squat 119 3x5
bench 4 at 195, 5 at 185
superset narrow grip pull ups with incline dumbells with 30 sec in between
pulls 8x8x5
presses 8x8x8

snathes and the sucessful clean along with the miss


this is by far the most volume I have ever been able to hit on the snatches. Overhead squat also felt easy so I am sure my snatch will improve fairly quickly. I plan to oh squat once a week on wednesdays and increase by 5 pounds per week.

as for the cleans I hit all 5 on monday at 179.5 and combined with 3x5 bq squat at 230 I just hadnt recovered enough to push it on clean and jerks. In the furture I might just not clean and power jerks or something on wednesday along with the usual snatchs and oh squats.

[Blake Nelson]

also since I got lazy there for a couple weeks, here are some videos from past training sessions

4-16-10

4-19-10