Good day today.  Guys were tired and a bit sore, yet Donny hit 160/202, Jon hit 150/180, Spencer hit 155/180.  Jared hit 137/165, coming close with bigger lifts but just not quite able to hold position.  Not so bad considering the situation.  Each lifter hit one set of 5 on both lifts after they had worked up.   Here is the video…

We did the live feed again today, not as many folks chose to watch as usual, and probably a good thing! Although the morning session was pretty good, the guys, particularly Jon and Jared, didn’t seem to have it in the afternoon. They may have been tired from the morning training, as we did include some things they are not used to. We will be using the same basic template for about the next 6 weeks, so let me briefly outline what we are doing. Since we have time for a good long training cycle before Nationals, we are going to be doing a bit more concentration on strength, and do some pulling, which we do some form of a couple of times a year. We are also going to be doing more variations of the lifts than normal, to work on individual weaknesses of the various lifters.  Jared has a tough time holding position during the pull, and will probably be experimenting with pauses and block work to focus more on achieving and holding correct positions.  Jon has a hell of a time gaining leg strength, and squats seriously tax his recovery ability, so in order to work as hard on the squats as he needs to, he is going to have to lighten the volume a little on the lifts.  Spencer needs reps to get more consistent.  He is strong as hell so I am not worried as much about him not being fresh for squats, he will probably be able to do more volume on the lifts.  Rob seriously needs to get his squat up, and might concentrate more on squatting than this template allows for.  Anthony will be doing more overhead work than the other guys because of his jerking problems.  Donny is going to differ the most, as he needs to work around some injuries.

Mon AM Snatch, CJ, Front squat

The idea here is to go just a bit easier on the competitive lifts, so we can get in a decent front squat.

Mon PM Snatch, CJ, some form of heavy pulls, like RDL’s

We will probably start out with higher reps on the RDL’s, and decrease as the weeks go on.

Tue PM Power snatch, Power clean

This will likely be a lighter day, because no one ever does well the day after pulling hard.

Wed AM Snatch, Clean, Push press or push jerk

I am hoping to top off a fairly quick session on the lifts with a couple of sets on the push press or push jerk with some higher reps.

Wed PM Snatch, CJ, Back squat

This should be a quick back squat session, going up to a heavy single and maybe a back off set.

Thur PM Power snatch, Power clean

Again, probably will be a fairly quick session.

Fri AM Snatch, CJ , Front squat

Light on the competitive lifts, but trying to work up to a single heavy attempt on the front squat.

Fri PM Snatch, CJ

This is the workout that we usually try to make our heaviest workout in the competitive lifts.

Sat PM Back squats, Snatch, CJ

We will be concentrating on heavy squats, starting with several sets of 5 during this workout, and then doing a light and fast workout on the lifts.

We are going to be using some variations of the lifts, for instance lifts from blocks, from the hang, with a pause at the knee, and I even plan on a few workouts standing on a 1″ or 2″ platform. So many of the workouts labeled “Snatch” might actually be from blocks, hang, etc . Same for the clean. Saturday will be the “main” and heaviest squat day, where we will get some actual volume instead of just going up for singles.

Here is how it worked out today…

Collegiate Nationals has come and gone, and today was my first day back in the gym with the guys. Had a fairly low intensity training session, just power versions of the lifts, and a bunch of really odd conversations. Nice little warm-up for the rest of the week…

I think the competition on Sunday finally caught up with us! Not the best training day we have ever had. Everyone was quite stiff in the morning, and not much better in the afternoon! Still, we got some good work done. Here is the video from the live feed today.

Well the PWA championships have come and gone, we trained through it but still had some guys get good lifts, the one I was most happy about was Donny’s 204 clean and jerk, a PR for him. The meet was on Sunday, we had actually trained pretty hard on Friday, then light on Saturday, and Monday we were back in the gym and some of the guys actually managed to lift well, for instance Donny did 190kg in the clean and jerk during his second workout of the day. Today (Tuesday) was a lighter day, we did power snatches and power cleans and everyone but Jared did some doubles w/ a pause at the knee after working up to max. Jared didn’t because he competes at Collegiate Nationals this weekend. I only filmed the Snatches, pretty good work with Jon getting a 135kg powersnatch for a new PR and barely missing 140kg, and Rob, who’s old PR was 112 made 115kg then 117kg for a really big chunk of improvement. Here is the video…

Donny Shankle set a new PWA record, Spencer had a PR day as well. Rob took first place in his weight class, Nate had a PR day, Anthony took 1st place in his weight class. Andrew Jester took 1st place in his weight class, and William Pendlay went 6 for 6.

Great job team!