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Suns out, guns out [Strength Training]
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This pre-squat hip opener thing on mobwod looks awesome, I will try this one out. Thanks TRB.
If you're not using a rack or cage, it's basically the only way you're gonna get the weight up to your shoulders. Your max clean won't be as much as your max squat, so your only option will be to squat for volume.
Weighed in at 293lbs this morning. Down 1lb from yesterday. Nothing too extreme yet cutting wise. I've switched to plain lightly seasoned chicken breast, some veggies and a bit of rice for every meal, with a couple bananas as snacks and a small protein shake after the gym. I've started drinking more water but not loading it yet.
Tomorrow will begin the process of loading 1.5-2.0 gallons of water per day. This will continue through Saturday.
Edit: For an overall performance I've lost 40lbs since starting this challenge at the beginning of January. If I can clear 50lbs by next week I will be very pleased.
Edit 2: Also I'm at the strongest I've ever been in my life, did Max lifts at the end of January and cleared 455lb deadlift, 405lb squat, 245lb bench and 145lb overhead press.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I almost feel bad for the people competing against you man. This is a fantastic effort.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Losing 3% of your bodyweight while maintaining or increasing strength levels though... I know a lot of people who would pay a lot more than $20 for that.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Right now I'm in "off season Lee Priest" shape. Slowly adding in the interval work and Prowler sprints to slowly drop that down.
Yea it will mostly be a continued focus on shedding weight. I would be pleased to be under 240 by then. I'm probably already in good enough shape condition wise I just have too much bulk. It's hard on the joints.
As far as water 1.5 gallons seems a lot! Depends on how active you are. If it works for you though, more power to you.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
There's no real reason why you can't do both. Most olympic lifters squat high bar, but it's not going to be a deal breaker. Alternate with front squats or whatever, but don't stress out about it.
Let's make record. It will look like:
Side A.
1. Tomato Soup
2. Grilled Cheese
Side B.
1. Naptime
I could make a crude joke about "working the jerk" but I've moved beyond that kind of childish humor.
Strongfat is a fine shape to be in.
Something seems very wrong about that.
The jerk isn't really a press. I do military into jerks.
Big fan of strict, push is alright. It means you can do more weight, good for overloading in some negatives.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
It's not a big deal which you do if it's relatively casual weightlifting, but the additional quad strength to be gained from high bar squatting is important in WL because quads are king, but perhaps more important are the motor control and specific strength carry over from high bar.
For weightlifting I really like the behind the neck snatch grip press - it's good for building strength in that position with lighter weights than normal presses due to the mechanical disadvantage.
I use push-presses twice a week (CJ three times) to build tricep, delt and trap strength for lockout and to improve my technique and strength in the dip and drive. I think they're the best exercise for that. Normal pressing is ok too, but doing them often will almost certainly lead to you using your arms too much in the jerk.
Do you only have one day/wk working on the jerk? It's quite technical and therefore can benefit from more frequent light work.
Started water loading today. Already drank over 50oz since 5am. Goal is a gallon of water at work then as much as I can before and after.
Question about carbs. For my meals I'm eating a small amount of mixed veggies, and I was wondering if for my purposes sweet potatoes are complex enough carbs for me to be able to eat this week. Thoughts on that?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
To be clear, I have literally no credentials so I'm just talking about my own experience. I think the basic message "squat in a way that feels comfortable to you" is correct, especially as the starting point for beginning to learn to squat. I do think to suggest that this is somehow in opposition to "knees out", or the use of "knees out" as a coaching cue is a bit off. It seems that there is a misunderstanding that comes up online all the time (and I'm not saying that you make it) that the "knees out" cue is important because it is important that when you squat, your knees be out. Whereas the fact of the matter is that it is important when you squat that your knees don't come in. I think this is exacerbated by, for example, the instructions for how to begin squatting in Starting Strength specifically stating that first you squat down free and push your knees out with your elbows, then you recreate this without your elbows in future.
I think this leads to a tendency to build certain cues in to the process of squatting before it is even clear that there is a problem, whereas I would have thought the time to cue "knees out" is when someone has a problem with their knees coming in. Even then, the important thing is the process of pushing the knees out, not the positioning of the knees. I guess there are some cues that are universal (bend the bar/spread the floor) and some that are corrective, I suppose I want to argue that "knees out" is the latter.
I'm in the position that there is no way I can achieve the exaggerated "knees out" position the guy demonstrates in the video, in fact if I push my knees out with all my might I'm basically in the same position as if I squatted naturally. But I am incredibly inflexible in general. I have a feeling that the people who can by choice switch between the two positions he demonstrates (both of which I would think of as "knees out" positions, in that the knees aren't caving in) have to work really hard to get tension in the hips, but again I could just be making crap up.
Having written all this out I'm inclined to consign it to the graveyard of drafts but I thought it was an interesting video so it's worth talking about.
And it is better than my initial response "Brent Kim doesn't really suit that long hair".
Snatch grip press is good but it's not something I'd throw at everybody right off the bat. The carry over from strict press to the jerk is learning to drive with the traps. Again, whatever works best is what you should go with. I like military and snatch grip, but I don't think strict pressing leads to any more pressing with the arms in a jerk than push pressing does.
I do full CJ twice a week, and specifically jerk once a week on top of that. I've tried btn snatch grip push-presses before, and it's just always felt incredibly awkward as a exercise. I think mainly I'm just trying to experiment with different pressing exercises to see what works best as assistance to the jerk. I suppose I could just do more jerks to get better at them.
Let's make record. It will look like:
Side A.
1. Tomato Soup
2. Grilled Cheese
Side B.
1. Naptime
Mog, the secret to owning face on pullups/chinups is to buy one of those hanging door pullup bars. When I had one of those I went from 0% of 0 pullups, to an ugly half pullup in like, 2 days. By the end of the week I had 1 real pullup, and after about a month was hitting like, 4-5.
Arguably the best 20 bucks you can spend on your fitness.
Why not? Now, I'm only talking about what I think is best for dedicated weightlifting training here. In that context the BTN snatch grip press (or push press) has various points to recommend it over other forms - it loads the arms in the positions required for the snatch to build specific strength in both muscles and ligaments (particularly the wrist), it helps establish a stable overhead position specific for the snatch and it doesn't have to be loaded particularly heavy to be effective for building strength due to the mechanical disadvantage (hence safer). For those reasons I think it's the best exercise to build the strength required to hold the barbell overhead in the snatch, which is more demanding due to grip width, compared to the jerk (unless you're one of those crazy Africa snatch grip jerkers).
Now if we want a strength exercise to supplement the jerk - I don't really know what you mean about the press being good for learning to drive with the traps for the jerk - they only get significantly involved after the humeri pass horizontal in order to rotate the scapulae upward. Before that the delts are doing most of the work. A push-press bypasses the delt dependent first part of the movement (which is usually weight limiting) and more effectively trains the upper traps for their role in the jerk - rotating and stabilising the scapulae - in addition to training the dip and drive. It's well established that strict pressing strength has almost no correlation with jerk numbers.
I think that an excess of strict pressing often increases pressing out jerks because in the strict press the delts dominate the first part of the movement and this tends to favour anterior movement of the barbell, as the rear delts are almost universally weaker and because the bar starts out in front of the shoulder. The bar going forward is basically the worst thing in the jerk and usually people will compensate by tilting back and incline pressing it out with nearly no trap involvement. Lots of strict pressing is only going to encourage this early forward motion because of motor recruitment learning and because stronger delts will be unconsciously used more for near max lifts, in the same way lots of people arm bend the pull when near max. A good, vertical dip and drive for the push press only involves the arms in the function they perform in the jerk - pushing you under the bar after the initial pop in a vertical/rearward direction. Obviously you can avoid using the delts in the jerk by keeping your elbows high in the D&D, but many people can't maintain a solid grip in that position or alternatively will drop their elbows as soon as they start to drive anyway.
Ah, ok, that sounds reasonable. As for the presses, they may well feel awkward initially, but as they should mimic the receive position of your snatch it is very worthwhile trying to improve your form, mobility and/or strength to the point that they don't, or it may limit your progress in the lift.
One more thing, I got a delivery today, so excited about this: