Today was Jon North day at the gym… Sure Spencer hit a 190kg clean and jerk and two singles with 180kg, surpassing our goal for the day then hit a set of 5 on the clean with 170kg to surpass our goal by 5kg, and hit 132 for 5 in the hang snatch for a new PR, but today that wasn’t enough to stand out. Donny hit snatches of 150, 155, 160, and 165 kilos without a miss, then went to 202.5 kilos on the clean and jerk also without a miss. He then cleaned 205 three times but being dizzy and lightheaded prevented him from jerking it. working to a total of 367 without a mis however STILL wasnt enough to overshadow Jon however. After a routine 155kg snatch, he moved to clean and jerk and quickly hit a PR of 190kg. He got dizzy on the jerk with 195 kilos, a lift I thought he might get, but then erased his old clean record of 200kg with a 203kg effort that looked easier than it should have! He topped off the day by first cleaning 170kg for a set of 5, then maybe the most impressive set of the day, 5 reps in the clean with 180kg. Once again, the kind of day that makes it fun to be in the gym!!!

Jon was sick, Donny had personal commitments that did not allow him to come to practice today. Spencer was learning the high box and not lifting big weights. But Jo Ann busted out a 105kg front squat at a 53-54kg bodyweight. Fairly good, don’t ya’ think? Then Jared hits a 137 snatch without going into the hole… I called it power even though it doesnt quite look like it on the video. But video can be deceptive at the wrong angle. I watched him from the side and called it power and stick by it. Here is the video, see for yourself.

Challenging workout today. The guys are tired, and hard to get motivated… we did get PR sets of 5 from Spencer and Jon on both snatch and clean though Spencer did 130/160 each for 5, snatches from hang and cleans from blocks. Jon did 136/160 for 5 on the same lifts. Near the end of the workout, Spencer also did a 156kg set of 5 on the push press. It was a PR for him, but more importantly moved him 1kg ahead of Donny Shankles best set. I think this is gonna be a war on the push press between those two. Here is a recording of the video that went out live yesterday…

Today was a very lackluster day of training, probably just fatigue from last week, which was a particularly hard week. So no video of the usual suspects today.

I would like to share a video of Andrew Jester doing a snatching complex that I like to use to correct certain technique flaws. The exercise is a snatch high pull followed by a hang snatch from just below the knee. I emphasize high elbows on the pull and a very “tall” finish. This exercise is useful if you are coaching a lifter who has the tendency to push the bar out away from himself with the second pull, or doesnt want to allow the arms to bend while going under the bar causing excessive bar swing or excessive layback while going under. It should not be used with a lifter who has a tendency to pull with the arms early or a tendency to over-pull.

The longer I have coached the more and more I believe in using exercise selection to perfect technique instead of just drills with light weights. It seems to work better, and has the advantage of allowing you to push hard on whatever exercise you are doing and continue to build strength, something hard to do if you are drilling with light weights. It also seems to lead to a more “ingrained” technical change, since you are practicing the better movement pattern with challenging weights, as opposed to the all to often situation where one might correct a flaw with light weight on the bar, but the flaw comes back as soon as a challenging weight is on the bar.

The possibilities are endless. A lifter who cuts the pull can do more power snatches or power cleans. A lifter who “floats” or has a slow transition from pulling to going under is sometimes well served by practicing the power versions of the lifts with weights right up around and even a little beyond what they can actually power snatch or power clean and emphasizing putting all available effort into catching and stopping above parallel… even when they are not successful and sink below parallel its ok, its the effort that matters, not the actual high catch. A lifter who has trouble pushing the knees back can use a 2-3 second pause at the knee when lifting. This both gives the lifter a better opportunity to get into the correct position, emphasizes that position, and builds strength in that position making it more comfortable for the lifter. A lifter who is not generating a lot of acceleration with the second pull can do lifts from a box that puts the starting position of the bar at mid thigh, forcing acceleration on the second pull if one wants to make the lift.

In general any exercise that encourages whatever is “opposite” to the flaw or weak point of the lifter is a positive. Just be careful that you keep a close eye on things and don’t go too far, for instance snatch high pulls with high elbows might work to encourage a straight pull in a lifter who tends to swing the bar, but if overdone can cause the same lifter to eventually over-pull or arm pull. Extra power snatches might be good if a lifter tends to cut his pull in the snatch, but if overdone can lead to overpulling. What has worked best for me is to use complexes of 1 or 2 reps of whatever remedial exercise is being used followed by 1 rep of the competition movement when possible, if that is not possible then at least perform some reps of the competition movement within the same training session as the remedial movement. This seems to increase the carryover effect.

And remember to go heavy and challenge yourself. When using this method usually the heavier you go and the more you challenge yourself on the remedial exercise the more you encourage the positive change in technique and the greater the chance that you will be able to retain the positive change in technique when using challenging weights on the competitive movements.

Here is the video.

Good day today. Jared and Jon both did their squats in a fairly workmanlike manner. Not very exciting but they put in the reps that should pay off next week during the heavy workouts. Donny had his first day back since he tweaked his neck. Didnt lift real heavy but got started at least. Rob, Andrew, Anthony and the rest of the crew had a fairly normal workout. Mark Haz had 3 close misses with a 117kg PR snatch. The highlight of the day really was the team getting together at my house in the evening for dinner (I made home made pizza) and a bit of Call of Duty. Donny Shankle is a stone cold killer. Just sayin’.

Epic is a good way to describe today. One of those days when all the problems of life go away and you can just be glad that you are living right here, and right now.

Jon and Rob started things off right in the morning workout. After normal snatches and clean and jerks, meaning going to max and fighting like hell, Rob front squatted a 5kg PR. This is very significant because his months long string of PR days stopped a couple of months ago with a slight lower back strain, and this was his first PR post injury. Jon had recently set a new back squat PR, and was absolutely on fire, and proceeded to set a HUGE 22kg front squat PR, raising his best front squat from 205kg to 227kg. That was the morning workout.

Fast forward to the evening, where Ben Claridad drove down from Sacramento to train with us. Andrew Jeeter set the stage. One week ago his PR lifts were 41/57. Three days ago he made a 42kg snatch. Two days ago he made a 45kg snatch. Today he smashed 58kg on the clean and jerk for his first PR, then manhandled 60kg for his second PR, then cleaned 61kg in an heroic effort but failed the jerk. But still, the clean was a new PR, so that gave him 3 on the day, and 5 on the week. Way to go Andrew. Then Anthony steps up, and snatches 101kg weighing 68kg. New PR for this high school kid that is on his way to Arizona for college. Hate to lose him. But have to admit that today, he got the troops revved up and ready to go. Anthony, when you gonna put 105kg on the bar and pull like you mean it? Jon snatched 155 for one of his better training snatches, and talked some shit to Spencer, who responded with a 157kg effort to shut him up. Ben made 140 look easy but unfortunately was not able to do more. Then Rob hits a beautiful 131, new PR. Since this was not enough for him, he loads 133kg, gets it over his head, and holds it there for 6-7 seconds (count it on the video) trying to get from his toes to his heels… but he cant and drops it forward. Epic. 140kg will go soon for Rob. He is sneaking up on some folks for sure.

On to clean and jerks for the older guys… “Big” Ben Claridad smoked 160kg, then 170kg for a 5kg all time PR… wow, was awesome to watch!!! Jon and Spencer both blew away 180 in a routine fashion. Spencer then made a fairly tough clean with 190, followed by a routine and easy jerk. Jon cleaned 190kg 4 times easily, but was off balance on every jerk. Never fear, 200kg is coming soon… and I am talking about both the clean AND the jerk. You heard it here first. Spencer tried 202 a couple of times, but it wasnt there. Big Ben tried 175 but it wasnt there. Rob made 147kg for a new all time total PR, but 151kg was not there for a new clean and jerk PR.

After all that, we BSed for about an hour, ate Mexican food (some of us anyway). Some of us had a little talk about not letting some negativity on the internet affect us in a negative way, and we all went home happy, with full stomachs, but HUNGRY for bigger weights.

Not much to report today, as it was a pretty easy day, work up to a near max power snatch, then a near max power clean. Then go home and rest up till tomorrow. No video, so I dug out a vid of Shankle making another attempt at the 160kg X 5 push press that he has been aiming for lately. He didn’t get it, but he got closer than he did the last time we tried it.

Kind of an odd training session this afternoon.  Started out a little lackluster.  Everyone has been doing very high volume of training, and was tired, and the lifting showed it.  Plus this mornings workout hadn’t seen any big weights lifted, so I think expectations were low.  Then Hartman tuned in to the live webcast and Jon dedicated his workout to him (lol) and promptly made a 150kg snatch. Jared followed with a 140kg effort, his third day in a row to hit that weight which is good for him.  Spencer got a little worked up after missing 150 since he wanted to beat Jon and he put 152kg on the bar and made it for the best snatch of the day.  Donny sat out the snatches and just did pulls because of a slight strain in his back.  Rob is coming back from both a lower back strain and a hand injury, and he hit a nice 125kg snatch, his best post-injury.  Nate just recently added an extra workout day to his routine and was a little tired and was not able to attempt a PR lift.  Jon and Spencer also hit nice sets of 5 on the hang snatch after working up to a single.

Things got a little interesting in the clean and jerk.  Rob hit 140, about what I expected.  Jon started to feel good and got to talking a lot and Spencer guaranteed he would beat him.  So Jon makes a beautiful 180kg effort, then fails on the jerk with 190kg, leaving the door open for Spencer to put 190kg away easily and take a couple of attempts at 202kg, which would have been a PR but he didnt make it.

Really interesting was the squat portion…  for some reason, Jon was actually in the mood to squat, which happens once in a blue moon.  He has been sitting at a 227kg PR for a while now, and seeing as how he was talking a bit, Stephen Powell who was watching the webcast told us that he would bet Jon $50 that he couldnt make a PR.  Jon proceeded to absolutely blow away 230kg, at which time Stephen said double or nothing for 240kg, Jon accepted and blew it away, earning himself $100 for the workout.  Spencer went on to at first miss 260kg, then absolutely blow it away on a very strong attempt.

A big thank you to Dr. Hartman and Stephen Powell for helping to turn what could be a lackluster practice into a great one with a huge squat PR by Jon.  A recording of the live webcast is below, It does get a little slow paced during and immedietly after the clean and jerks, but keep watching as the squats are interesting.

No video today.  I expected everyone to be absolutely hammered today, and was pleasantly surprised that for the most part the boys were ready to train.  No PR’s today, but we did have Jared, Jon, and Nate at least attempt a PR, and that means they made a lift within 3-4kg of their old PR and missed a lift heavier than their old PR, which, considering what we did yesterday I call a win.  We will be live at 2pm tomorrow pacific time with our second workout of the day, don’t miss it!

Pretty damn hard day today.  Used a two second pause at the knee in the morning, Donny got a 195kg clean and jerk that way.  Everyone lifted pretty well.  Considering how heavy the morning was, I wasnt sure about the afternoon training.  Ended up being more missed than I would have liked, but some heavy weights lifted.  Jared hit a 142kg snatch even though he was quite tired and sore, Jon hit a 155kg snatch, then cleaned 175kg 6 or 7 times but didn’t have the legs to jerk it, Spencer snatched 150kg off the blocks then hit a 190kg clean and jerk, Donny went 160/200…  Rob made a 142kg clean and jerk, the most he has made since his back injury, then hit a set of 7 cleans off the blocks with 120.

Video is from the afternoon session only.