Tuesday, December 29, 2009

a new year

todays training

decided to ease back into it and do very lil just awake the legs again after christmas

power snatch 1 floor 2 below knee 40,40,40,60,70,72.5,72.5,72.5
power clean jerk power clean 60,60,60,60,70,90,90,90

post training shake and some homemade apple tart amazing

epiphanies revealed

been a good christmas i am close to being a 94kg lifter weighed in at 84.4kg today ha ha ha ha

the following is geared towards my own training and what i have learnt about myself and does not apply to freaks like byrdie or other lifters that recover at a redicolouse rate

been thinking a lot about my training and reading a good bit and the more I think about it the "bulgarian" (focusing on the competition lifts or their power variants every day in training and for heavy singles) way of training that is just does not work for everyone and more importantly i think not for me. the last 12 months of my lifting have not resulted in any increases in my lifting the only thing that has increased is my rate of getting injured and constant knee pain !!!

i am looking back through my training and thinking when i have felt the strongest and when i performed to my capabilities i think my three best competitions or periods of training were just before christmas 07 in the galway open last october 09 in cork at the club before the world unis and this year was towards the end of the trip in scotland and when i came home from there.

looking at the sort of training i had been doing none of these periods were intense competition periods with maximal work multiple times per week or most days they were periods when i was doing large volumes of muscular work mixed in with some planned heavy loading above 90%.

note before byrd has a canary
although in scotland we did reach a high % of lifts most days this work was intersperesed with a massive volume of muscular type work and also this was a small period of time

i feel as if this way of training is what benefits me the most and i think importanly this is the way of keeping me injury free after my annoyance with injuries. i believe that muscle growth and protection i get from the higher volume more muscular type work is too important to just overlook. i dont doubt that the "bulgarian" type training gets you amazing results but i dont think you can overlook the injury factor i know some people will say suck it up and train but i think when you get to the point that you cant walk up or down stairs or pretty much do anything without constant pain or require a bucket load of meds to train i think you need to rethink the way you are going about it.

i am a firm believer that you need the heavy heavy work throughout most stages of the year however i think that this work needs to be interspersed with large amounts of more muscular type work i.e. treble double power snatch power clean combos from different position clean and jerk combos front squat jerks and pulls and deadlifts from various positions along with some back extensions push presses and presses oh yeah and fucking squats !!!!!.

i think the importance with these types of work is not to push the intensity too high on the power variations and combo or repetion lifts i think 70-85% of your lifts would be optimal on these keeping the repetitions at a minimum of two and towards 3 the majority of the time and in the squat pull type assistance a minimum of 3.

i still believe that the lifts and the squats to a lesser exetent should be hit heavy but out of a 6 day programme i would say a maximum of once in the clean and jerk and maybe twice in the snatch and i would say once around every 12 days to hit heavy singles in the front or back squat.

over the last while i have ignored the more muscular type work and i have suffered for that in inury and performance levels.

i am not going to make those mistakes again i will post later on about what i think exactly i need to be doing and how i am going to go about getting some decent lifts together

Saturday, December 19, 2009

my epiphanie

i have had my weightlifting epiphanie at last when i think about it it makes so much sense !!!!! it will be all revealed in time

Friday, December 18, 2009

some quality strongman vids

this is a link to some deadly strogman vids has lots of competition footage and at least three training vids of some hilarious strongmen some quality watching

http://www.youtube.com/user/HITstrongman

ps svend karlsen the funniest man ever pat shortt on the juice if you may ??

a return to full snatch

thursday was a busy day sorting stuf for my masters for the weekend and doing other bits so was not training til late. was feeling tired before training but a good dose of sugar helped get me going.. byrd was back from vegas so was good to have him about for the start and then sull after his 4 hr warm up eventually got into lifting

warm up usual boring rubbish to try keep the body in one piece
power clean doubles 50,50,70,85,95,95,95,95,95
clean pull one from floor two below knee 105,105,105
clean deadlift for threes 115,115,115

was feeling good so decided would try some full snatch

snatch doubles 50,50,50,60,70, then 80 for 5 singles
was my first day doing any power clean from the floor and first day back snatching mye first few snatches were rough out and felt so ugly twas not funny but by the end the last few at 80 felt great.

friday knee is a bit stiff after yesterdays power clean and full snatches so going to just do a bit of light bike and get ready for weekend

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

nothing like a bit of banter

had a good session today last few days have been quite at training and kinda boring as byrd has been away whoring and touring in the city of sin so was good to have a bit of life around the platform with fatz and sull being about. fatz double biceps pose was the most impressive piece of sausage posing i have seen in a long time.

warm up empty bar work and some slow bodyweight squats, few glute bits and pieces and ankle shite,
power snatch and power snatch from below the knee 40,40,40,60,70,70,75,75,75,75,75
snatch pull from floor and two snatch pull below the knee 87.5, 87.5, 87.5
snatch deadliftx3, 97.5,.97.5, 97.5
back squat 3 sets 10 at 70

good session knee feeling quite good so happy out power snatch coming together again liking the more muscular type stuff as well to add a bit of mass around the hamstrings, glutes, lower back to hopefully keep me in one piece. plan to train tomorrow evening with a similar session to today except with the power clean in stead of power snatch and some push press in stead of squats

over and out

Monday, December 14, 2009

getting back into it

mondays session aim to relearn the jerk for the last time i hope ???

double jerk from the blocks 50,50,70,70,90,100,100,100,100,100
push press 50x3, 50x3, 70x3, 80x2, 90x1, 90x1
back squat 3 sets 10 at 50

happy with the push press its close to where it was before i got injured. its going to be a slow precoess getting back to some decent weights in order to put myself in a decent position for nationals in april so not going to rush anything jsut take it nice and slowly but not easy. going to def concentrate on more muscular work ie doubles trebles around 75-85% ish for the moment and slowly build back up the tolerance.

2 and a half hours after my first lot of squatting and jerking and no stiffness to report so happy out. knee sorted laptop to be fixed next part take over the world !!!!

knee back in one piece but the laptop aint the best

apologies to my loyal followers my laptop went bust at the weekend so am only reporting the weekends activiities now

sunday
decided to go go back to the floor and see how the knee takes it as unfortunately cant lift from the hang in comp

power snatch one from floor two from hang below the knee 40,40,40,60,70,70,70
power snatch 75,75,80
snatch pulls one floor two below knee 85,85,85
snatch deads one floor two below knee 95,95,95
hanging leg raises 3 sets 10
looking back over my training have been doing way to much work over 90% too often need to prioritise some more muscular type work for the next while hopefull will prevent some niggly injuries resurfacing

Saturday, December 12, 2009

a quick powerful return to fun

fridays session was great to get back into some sort of lifts i decided to just ease back into it with some power snatch from the blocks and power clean from the blocks
i did 3 doubles with 70 in power snatch and 3 doubles with 90 felt so good to get to doing some decent lifting. going to train every second day for next while just to give the knee lots of chance to recover between sessions. saturday will be an off day and then hope to try some power snatch from the floor and power clean and jerk from the floor on sunday.

have a fun evening of watching the x faxtor in work tonight ahead of me what a show that will be combined with putting the finishing touches to my espn game station which should be really detrimental to my studies but so worth it

this is the espn game station well worth it http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-ESPN-Gamestation/dp/B00020QJF8

Friday, December 11, 2009

wohoo

went to the doc this morning and found out it aint my acl happy days just the bone bruising on the patella i think there shall be some snatching done this evening. i have to just stay of squatting for a few weeks and the inflammation will go down so looking forward to doing some powers tonight :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

there is a lot to be said for a nice bungalow !!!

bless me blogger it has been around 4 days since my last blog entry

tuesdays training stupid bodybuilding
shoulder press 3 heavy sets of 3
duumbell chest supported row 4 sets 10
high cable row 3 sets 10
one arm dumbell press 3 sets 6 each side
various shoulder felxibility and scap rubbish
10 mins on the bike

wednesdays training not a whole lot more exciting than the previou days shite
shoulder press 5 sets 5
seated row 10, 8, 6, 4 then 10, 8,6,
tricep push downs and curls
10 mins on the bike trying not to fall asleep from the sheer boredom

who wants to cycle a bike inside i have decided if i ever own a gym or run a place there will be no stationary bikes or treadmills and if anyone asks where the bikes are there will be a mountain bike in the corner and you will be more than welcome to use it and if the treadmill question comes up you will be swiftly pointed to the door and shown to a field to run around !!!!

went to a physical therapist on friday about my knee got examined anyway and was going grand he said have some joint swelling and some bone bruising thinking to myself ah grand not so bad might do some power snatch later and some light squats to take it easy like and then he says oh and ........ i think you might have done some damage to your acl :( very very unimpressed with this news !!!!! there goes any thoughts of fun training ......he wants to refer me to this other doctor so have an appointment with the doctor on this coming friday. i am allowed to cylcle a bke yipppeeee so much fun ............. NOT !!!!! and i get to aqua jog if i want talk about a snooze fest i cant bring myself to aqua jog so cycling on stationary ike going nowhere liek a stupid lil hamster it is.

i play soccer hurling rugby you name it i played it for years then take up weightlifting and how do i hurt myself walking down a f***ing stairs..... fingers crossed now for the next days that it aint anything serious.

i really wanted to go back doing a bit of decent training but when i heard the words acl mentioned i kinda decided it would be beyond stupid to try do anything til i get the all clear

i am finding it so boring just going to the gym and doing upper body crap it so hard to motivate oneself its hard to believe that the majority of the people in the gym happily do this day after day i find it mind numbingly boring.

the worst part of it is i started this bloody blog and all i am getting to put on it is fukcing presses curls and rows not very exciting huh

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

damn you stairs

spent the morning iceing my knee and getting myself up for training was feeling great no pain walking around the place was thinking to myself ah grand knee pain gone happy days then bam back to reality 40 kg power snatch from blocks ow ow owie
ah maybe power clean 40kilo owie not a runner here !!! thought ah well some snatch pulls or clean pulls from the blocks nope owie getting annoyed by now had to resort to some romanian deadlifts did sets of 3 at 40,80,110,130,140 for 2, not sure why i went so heavy but kinda wanted to lift something kinda heavy cause all that bodybuilding stuff that was ahead is well boring......

said would try some snatch grip push press got up to 90kg but felt liek a pretty pointless exercise so stopped it, did some dumbell rows 3 sets 10, some high pulley cable rows and some heavy sets of 4 in dumbell alternate curl fun fun..........

not being able to train has really pissed me off the last few days its strange that what i did the last few days was how i would have trained when was a complete newbie allbeit with a few more curls and some half squats, i dont think i could ever see myself back training like this again i really cant wait to do some decent lifting again.

i also made a vow to byrdie not the wedding type before anyone gets carried away i vowed that i would never complain about squatting again and seen as this is set in stone or little computer type stone i guess i gotta stick to it.

just finished my session and then found out had to personal train ah pooor poor dan got a awful flogging of intervals, hopefully the big Z can help me along and i dont mean zydrunas zawhattever i cant spell the rest of it i mean the big Z from surfs up inspirational man

Monday, November 30, 2009

pumping iron remake

had a good pump today in training cant do anything fun due to being a complete retard and not being able to use a stairs properly !!! think need to get a lift for the gaff ?? any chance or sorting that out clem ???

todays session
military press sets of 3 40,40, 45, 50, 55, 60
dumbell chest supported row 3 sets 12 at 20 i think ??
one arm dumbell shoulder press 20x8, 24x4, 28x2, 22x10x3
one arm dumbell row strict 3 sets 10 at 24s
fat bar curls 5 sets 2 and one set of 5
various shoulder health/ injury prevention (stuupid phrase)to undo my pumping the guns and getting the cannons in order

got a good pump going but realistically it achieved nothing other than getting me away from the chicago deluxe pool set for a few hours

now for my rant about injury prevention read this somewhere cant remember where but basically i didnt come up with it anyway injury prevention meaning exercise that is done to prevent injury ??? i do believe, so what exercises do you do to cause injury ???? none i would imagine other than jerk lunges insert sean osullivan >>>>>>> so injury preventuon kinda dumb phrase ........

on a good note byrdie was flying today clean and jerking, clean front squat jerking, double clean and jerking his little heart out.

also good to see sull back from his much needed rest while the search for my new knee goes on and on and on, will try to train tomorrow i know i shouldnt but one day of curls and shite is enough for me

Saturday, November 28, 2009

programme for forseeable future

day 1
power snatch heavy single back 15kg two trebles up 5kg two doubles
snatch pull 3 sets 2
power clean and 2 jerk 5 heavy lifts
back squat 5 sets 2

day 2
snatch press overhead squat 5 sets 2
power clean 1 heavy single
clean pull 3 sets 2

day 3
snatch heavy single back 15kg two trebles up 5kg two doubles
2front squats and one jerk
front squats 5 sets 2

day 4
power snatch heavy single back 15kg two trebles up 5kg two doubles
power clean 5sets 2
clean pull 3 sets 2
push press heavy single back 10kg for two trebles up 5kg for two doubles

day 5
snatch 5 heavy singles 3 doubles back 10-15kg
jerk from blocks heavy single back 15kg for two trebles and up 5kg for two doubles
back squat 3 sets of 5

Note
On days where I go to max or a heavy singles If I hit a pb in that exercise I reduce the volume in the back off sets and also reduce the intensity i.e. dont go to max just go to a heavy single in the next exercise

greetings

I have decided to put a blog together to vent my fury and thoughts on all topics and report my weightlifting training. Hope showing my training can provide some insights into the way I train for others and also when I see it I hope I can spot the glaring mistakes I am making.

wow i weally weally am bored

hoywa
First post of my blog

saturday 28th november
am session
chasing pike kids out of the gym

pm session
snatch heavy 5 singles
jerk heavy close to max then back down for 2 trebles and 2 doubles

how the pm session went
snatch could not do it due to injuring my knee walking down a stairs dont ask :(

jerk 50 for a few, 80 for a few, 90 for 1, 100 for 1, 110 for 1, 115 for one, 120 for one, 122.5 pb equalling and then at long last a pb in the jerk 125 happy days
110 for treble missed the last one due to being an ass, 110 for a treble easy enough

few back extensions bodyweight and a few with 10kg

Anyone got a spare knee I have spent the last few months looking after my right one and finally getting back to the full lifts and then bam i hurt my left one walking downstairs