John's Quest for the AWESOME

[John Alston]

I'll be posting my log here. There are old posts elsewhere, but I'll just put somethings down here, for reference.
I welcome all tips, ideas, praise and heckling.

Started Oly in August 06 with no real previous training and no real access to training except pullup bar and dumbells at home.

Benchmarks for 1/20/07 were:
Bdywt: 77kg as of 1/13/07
Snatch: 77.5
C&J: 90 (power clean though)
FS: 100kg
BS: 110kg

More recent numbers... best backsquat, 255# for a triple. Have front squatted 110kg. Benched 185# for 5. Have cleaned 100 (missed jerk), and powercleaned 95.
First Comp was 10/06 with 60 and 82 for total of 142kg.
Best Comp lifts were from 2/11/07, with 75 and 93 for 168kg total.

Key: LBH=Lost Battallion Hall, all those weights will be in KG unless noted.
Richies = Richies Gym in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Those weights are lbs. No bumpers at Richies.

Here are last few workouts, to give perspective... was sick a few weeks ago, away weekend of 3/30 - 4/1, so went light on 4/2... then these workouts:

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Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:40 pm Post subject: 4/4 LBH PRs and Stuff - last heavy LBH day before the meet

Snatches!
What we did was work up to 70, 75 and then 81 (PR! Made 80 a while ago...), made on first time. Missed 82.5
Some decent work on the way up. Still not totally reliable on form. Will work light and fast until the meet.

Clean and Jerk
50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90, 95pr, 97.5 pr!, 100 miss.
95 was good, but 97.5 was even better. Missed 100, never racked, tired.

Did some ab work during clean up, 2 sets of shrugs, 12x60 and 15x70.

So PR in snatch 81, PR in C&J 95 and 97.5, so practice total of 178.5, PR.
Looking for new PRs in the meet -- 180+.
Tired. SHould get some sleep now.
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Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:38 pm Post subject: Saturday 4/7 Richies

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Quick warm up. Lunges.

BB row then press (then lockout on most sets) complex.
40x5
60x5
80x5
90x5
100x5
Presses good. ROws light and easy.

Front squats all x5
bar/95/135/185/185/185 Tough but good.

RDL then fast surgs all x5
95/135/185/185/185 Good.

Behind neck press x5
40/60/70 all supersetted with 5 undergrip pullups.

leg raises 2x8
dumbel side bends 55lbs 3x5
back ext x5 with +35/45/45
after last two i held 35lb plate overhead and did slight side bends

incline situps plus 25lbs 2 sets of 8.

Core work was good. inc situps tough after leg raises. Maybe do them more often as they are more scalable for me most w/os.
one week till the Sablo! Light and snappy at LBH this week.

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Post subject: 4/9 Monday LBH

Week of the Sablo. Light work all around.
Snatches, only up to 60. Mostly good. Just drilling it.
Clean and Jerk up to 70. Jerk a little loose, tightened up as I progressed. Will make sure to keep it tight on Wed.
Back squats, 50x5, 60x5.
Out of there by 7:30. Loose, relaxed, atmosphere. Good times.

[Yuen Sohn]

Good to see you posting your log here.

This will also give me a great opportunity to persistently heckle you and get my post count to 1000 in no time...

[Elliot Royce]

very good results....when I think that I weigh 28kg MORE than you and C&J around 10kg LESS than you, it's discouraging. Then again, I'm still working on technique.

[John Alston]

Elliot, technique is still the huge task for me, too. It's a humbling sport, but when you nail it, it's really like nothing else, no?
Last breakthrough I felt was with the PR lifts last week. Getting set into position before even starting to lift, I gained new awareness on setting the body right. Hips down. It creates a great tension in the hip area, it feels like power just gathering.
I am not one of those guys that dives into the lift, I settle into it, brace, then start the push. But settling in really tight felt strong. I guess it's worth making a habbit and repeating with every lift, even the little 40kg warmups.
Now I am trying to spend less time screwing my hands onto the bar and just gripping, setting and going. I used to spend far too long on gripping. Go ahead and ask Yoon.

[Elliot Royce]

that's what my coach says, just grab it and go. But I think too much. Check out Dan, one of our guys, at the meet. 170lbs but should be putting up some good weights -- great technique.

Good luck!

[John Alston]

4/11/07 LBH Wednesday
Last w/o before Meet. Very light. Veavuiest snatch was 50, maybe 55. Heavest CLeandJerk was 65.
Some back squats with 50. Chill time.
Remember to be over the bar, stay on heels.
Jerk still not super nice, but it usually gets better as I move up in weight. Let's hope it does that Saturday.

[John Alston]

Am already thinking of a post meet training. Wanting to get squat up, as pull is my strong point. Found this program:
Anton Nikolov's Training
Monday (Sat)
Back Squats
Pulls

Wednesday (Mon)
Front Squats
Cleans
Snatchs
Pulls with Snatch Grip

Friday (Wed)
Back Squats
Jerks
Pulls with Clean Grip

while poking around http://danjohn.org/nikolov.html - and http://danjohn.org/bulgaria.html... So will try this for a few weeks at least.
Will make it Sat/Mon/Wed, as this matches the off days, and I can do the first w/o on Sat without bumpers. Trying not to mod it. Trying to follow a program, which I haven't in a while. Might do some high rep sets (8!) occasionally for more growth in size. That's mostly it. Though also seeing I'd like to put in some OHS.... uh oh.

[Yuen Sohn]

Just writing you a public reminder to bring your USAW card on Saturday. Maybe a video camera too? I think you're the most reliable of the bunch...there's probably about 600 hours of never-to-be-released video of us lifting stuck on Lenny's computer.

See you at 9:30 weigh-ins.

[John Alston]

So finally meet time. I slept ok, ate at home and got there plenty of time.
Body weight of 79.5kg, about what I expected after breakfast and coffee.
Snatch
76, total power snatch.
82, caught about 2/3 down, good make.
85, miss, a little in front but I didn't go down enough.

Clean and jerk - feeling tired by now, it was after 2 by now.
98 miss the rackm short pull.
98 made, decent, tough way up.
100 ughghguhghgughjgh make the clean, struggle! Jerk I had it, I held it for a while but could't hold it, lost it front left. Had to laugh.
180 toal, 396lbs, had hope to total 400plus.

[Yuen Sohn]

Yeah, you allllllllllmost had that 100kg jerk! Next time.