two returns in less than 8. days

Tomorrow I will be making my retrun to the hurling pitch it may only be as a sub but have to do it for the parish. Timber will be flying.......

The internet has been good of late

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_truth_about_singleleg_training

great article on single leg training

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/iron_evolution_phase_6

part of dave tates series on his training

http://www.pendlayforum.com/showthread.php?t=3626

pendlays forum talking about the poor people in china ..... what people are they martin ? the chinese hahaha

http://www.pendlayforum.com/showthread.php?t=4095

best thread in a long time talking about the otc

Times a changing

Last few weeks have been pretty hectic but also pretty enjoyable. Moving house, part moving gym, getting back to hitting decentish weights in the gym, deciding to transfer to phd, getting ready to attempt to transfer phd and quite a few work projects. Right thats the end of the boring stuff.

Training has been going well of late. Here is what i have beeen doing.

day one
snatch press from squat 3s and 5s
snatch press into overhead squat 3s and 5s
snatch pull and snatch from blocks around knee or above up to heavy single back for some twos or threes or if dont feel the heavy single just some twos or three. Somtimes its 2pull one snatch or 1 pull 2 snatch pending on how i feel
power clean from blocks around knee or above again up to heavy single back for twos and/ or threes or maybe just 2s or 3s and no heavy single.
Jerk behind the neck (same principle as aboove)
some bodybuilding

day two
muscle snatch from blocks sets of 4 with a few singles thrown in for good measure here and there
snatch pull and power snatch (from floor or low blocks) same loading as day 1 except less emphasis on singles
power clean and jerk up to heavy single sometimes and then 1+2 or 2+1 pending on groin and that. Was doing pclean frontsqt and jerk combo but have change that
front squat 3 sets 5 have put this is in instead as need the leg strength

some bodybuilding

day three
snatch press from squat 3s and 5s
snatch press overhead squat 3s and 5s
snatch pull and power snatch (floor or low blocks) usual loading as day 1
clean from blocks or floor twos and threes focus on catching with hips balanced load irrelevant
back squat off pins
some bodybuilding

day 4
snatch usual loading
clean and jerk up to heavy single then back for clean front squat jerks at lighter weights
clean pull 3s and odd 1
some bodybuilding

On my off days I am doing pushups , chinup and a load of abs/ lower back stuff. Am hoping to get some decent weights for the house soon so can save on the travel time and squat on my off days.

knowledge bombs number 3

Weightlifting coaching and teaching maths are the same thing..... Weightlifting coaches provide movement puzzles for their atholetes to solve and maths teaateachers provide maths puzzles for their students to solve. It is not just about the puzzles that are provided it is about the learning that takes place during the solving of these puzzles. The great coaches/ teachers know what puzzles to provide and in what dose and when to change the content of these puzzles to stimulate constant adaption the really really great ones also know how to guide/coach their students to solve these puzzles.

This stuff is getting very deep and meaningful times a changing...........

two old school lessons from my youth

1. If someone hits you hit them back twice as hard.....

2. If someone screws you over or mistreats you dont worry about it in the end they will want you more than you want them.

Mr and mrs murphy were fairly wise in fairness to them. Two quite different messages but put them together you are onto a winner.

knowledge bomb number 2

When a kid desides he wants to be a formula one driver does he got put at the wheel of a formula one car straight away ????????? No so why should it happen in every other sport/ activity???

guess whos back with some knowledge bombs

Its been quite a while and lots has happened and I mean lots a hell of a lot I cant even talk about and some of it I dont want to ha. Had to hide the old blog there for a few weeks as was in the running for some jobs and the old spelling and culchieness would not be giving the best impression of me. So yes I was attempting to hide who I was but that aint going to happen again. I shall be singing this to myself in future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

yes i do give quite the version of this song. Now to drop some knowledge bombs

1. If it looks like shit and smells like shit it probably is shit but it could be just manky chocolate or even worse manky chocolate ice cream.

2.If it looks like vommint and smells like vommit it probably is vommit but it just be mushed up banaana and carrots or even worse banana ice cream with carrots in it

P.S. I love chocolate and bananas but dont flavour my ice cream and other products with this stuff

weightlifting according to murph part 1 (WOW WEIGHTLIFTING IS A SPORT)

Whats the difference between the programme of these two weightlifting ATHLETES

The training of weightlifter A

Snatch
Clean and jerk
front squat

Training of weightlifter B

Power snatch one floor, two below knee
snatch
snatch pull
snatch press
back squat
20-30 jumping exercises

First time you answer this question, there is a lot of differences. Now read below.

1. weightlifting is a sport like football, soccer, rugby, hurling or any other.

2. Athletes must possess strength, power, speed, flexibility, mobility, work capacity and many other elements. Are these components of fitness or a skill or is at all the same ?

3. Athletes of each sport require various combinations of each of those components (dependent on phase of season/ stage of career/ previous history/ individual/ tactical and way to many other reasons)

4. For an athlete to succeed they must practice their sport/ skills in conjunction with improving their all round physical capabiities or do they improve their physical capabilities while practicing their sport/ skills.

Re-read many times with an open mind.

For the discussion of Weightlifting training/ programming it is more important that they orrespond/ adhere/ follow basic sound DEVELOPMENTAL sporting principles that are relevant to all other sports rather than focusing on soviet or bulgarian methods or how often we should lift maximum weights.

FOLLOW SOUND DEVELOPMENTAL SPORTING PRINCIPLES THAT UNDERPIN SUCCESSFUL SPORTING PERFORMANCE.

im back

Wohoo i am back.
Power snatch 60 for three doubles
Power clean 80 for three doubles
Push press 60 for 5
Clean pulls 90 for 3 sets 3

A small light return but a return nonetheless

day of the return

muscle snatch from blocks 50 for 3, 55 for 3, 60 for 2, 62.5 for 3, 65 for 1
back squat empty bar 5x5
power clean one floor two below knee 50, 50,50, 50,50

as sad and as pathetic as this session was this was a great session for me considering what i have been able to do of late.

roll on thursday 40kg squats and 60kg power cleans maybe even some power snatch........ enough said time to ice my groin which proves to be quite the engineering feat

8 weeks to a better me ????

unfortunately i have to come to terms with how bad my groin injury actually is. I will be a number of months before I am back lifting heavy weights. It has taken quite some time and very very boring stretching, core and foofoo bollox exercise to get me there and it appears it will take quite a lot more of this time. Last week i squatted the empty bar which was pretty exciting yes that is very sad. This week i am going to progress to 40kg in a squat which i cant wait for. I have to accept that attempting max snatches and clean and jerks are a long way away.

during this injury i have been doing a lot of thinking and actually some college work for a change and i Have come to the realisation that weightlifting is what i want to do. I always thought i would be happy weightlifting for a few more years and then return to the hurling or rugby pitch but alas i dont think that is going to happen. Weightlifting is what i enjoy the most and is what i want to stick at.

I cant wait to get back training properly and when i do I am going to train myself into the ground and work harder than ever before in the gym weightlifting and doing all that foofoo garbage. I will be 100% anal about my diet my recovery everything when i get the chance to get back lifting there will be no holding me back. I have come nowhere near accomplishing what i want to in the sport of weightlifting and I am not giving up yet. Whatever i achieve will be nothing in comparison to the best irish lifts ever and certainly not internationally but I have numbers in my head that i want to lift and i will keep going til i hit those numbers. I have numbers in my head that I want to do but when i write them down and look at them i think fuck it sure why not aim for more. I will not set a target total like i have beeing doing for too long I will get strong and train my balls off and lift whatever i can and that will be my maximum.

So thats the future so what about the present I need something to train for the next 8 weeks while I am getting myself back together readying myself to make shit of myself in pursuit of some bigger numbers.

Cardio ?
Upper body strength training ?
An inordinated amount of foo foo core garbage ?

I need a goal to train for for the next 8 weeks I cant simply just train for the sake of it I need something to aim for to motivate me and prevent me from being a mess. What will I train for help me ???

as bjk would say i fucking love weightlifting

In the past couple of weeks when i have been unable to train properly and as a re

sult i have come to the realisation that i love weightlifting. I have been able to return to somehwat normal weightlifting training. So what seperates weightlifting training from the general rubbissh i have been doing for the past few weeks.

1. Using enough weight that you can hurt yourself with. Lets face it there aint much things more fun than moving heavy weight. As a weightlifter you are able to tioss around and overhead a lot more weight than you really shoukd. When you are like me and incredibly weak at all pressing movements or any general upper stuff you cant handle enough weight to hurt yourself.. You cant beat the bit of body english.

2. A good bit of brusing around your pelvis. Yes a very strange thing to miss but i miss this feeling. You cant beat the feeling of the hips hitting in and under the bar good times.

3. Simialr to the previous one nice red thighs from cleans or clean pulls. Pretty strange feeling put shiney raw thighs always make me feel like i have had agood days work in the clean.

4: muscle soreness in my lower body what a great feeling. The past few weeks have revolved around very boring upper body shite and very lil lower body work.

So basicallu i love weightlifting cause i can hurt myself but i have been unable to weightlift cause i am injured wow weightlifters are all fucking crazy

no need for the chinese dictionary

Been a long time since posting on my blog and the dream is over. My training had been focused towards qualifying for the world unis in china in august. I had to make the required total at nationals in 2 and a half weeks but that aint going to happen now. I have an adductor strain which has pretty much ruled out everything purposeful in training which is very disappointing. Even more disapointing is the realisation that I wont be able to lift at the nationals and thus not qualify for china.
So whats next ???? Well its gotta be to attempt to qualify for worlds in paris in november..... And in the short time its going to be get ripped for beach season and do an inordinate amount of beach weights alright..... i might even do some cardio hahahahha

sports science incompetent students and graduates???

A harsh but accurate description of what I see on a day to day basis......

weightlfting is not a matter of life and death its more important than that.... rip sos

yes i did rip off bill shanklys quote.....
its been quite a while since my last big of blogging because i have had very little to say and i still have very little to say.

Weightlifting in ul has seen many people come and go. I got into the sport nearing the end of my first year in college a long time ago. Back in those days the club was made up of sull, eamonn costello (great beard), cross yes a lady lifter back in those days, pie man flanagan and the enigma that will live on forever the one and only jamesie daughton. I started with a bunch of other hopefuls barry, ronan, ainle, ray and a bunch of other people i cant remember their names ah well...these were the most frustrating days in any sport i have ever experienced. when i started i didnt exactly posess the most amazing potential to become a weightlifter i had rubbish flexibility, lower body or upper body, i was embaressingly weak in the upper body and lower body, not very explosive, not very quick, a cartload of bumps, dislocation, breaks and bruises from every field sport imaginable. Not the best beginning to weightlifting but fuck it once i started i was hooked.

long ago in these times a one hour slot in the elite gym with platforms, decent bumpers coaching of sull and the holy grail for all weightlifters the eleiko weightlifting bar was not far off the highlight of my week. back in those days there was no such thing as a platform or a weightlifting bar down in the normal gym. When you went to train in those days you had to enter the zoo and part the sea like moses in order to have a relatively safe place to train. You would be snatching or clean and jerking within cms of the bicep curl brigade and more often that not you would have the bar overhead and you would look down only to see a poor fresher cluelessly walking under the bar.

Just before the platfrom came to the normal gym or around then my memory plays tricks on me the strong skinny calfed one arrived on ul weightliftings doorstep.
This was the arrival of the one and only cathal byrd. On his arrival weightlifting we all realised weightlifting would never be the same in ul. The level of addiction and commitment to reading and talking about and training and pretty much everything weightlifting related took on a whole other level

other arrivals and departures in ul weightlifting glorious history include crazy horse or the human salmon, sinead the gaffer, jimmy ill power snatch for 6 weeks and pack it in quinn, glassy eyed shit everyhwere nat, adam, cairbre, joe and many other sports science heads that have gone onto greener pastures.

Few have stayed submereged in the sport of weightlifting. I have engrossed myself in weightlifting and became addicted this happened to the rest of the beginners i started with but this addiction has long worn off my fellow beginners who have gone onto other sporting realms.

When some one stops weightlfting in ul they are referedd to as " ah remember ..... he used to be ....." these fallen comrades are spoken about as if they have passed away. that is the addiction and ability of weightlfting to take over your life.

Five ul weightlifters have remained until recently this five has become four rest in peace sull.

i can jerk wohoo

Today i learned to jerk again happy days this happens quite regularly but doesnt last very long may have tweaked my groin a little as i actually jerked the weight instead of speed pressing with a split. Groin got tweaked when went under the bar properly in a plsit rather than running after it

saturday

snatch 92.5 for 2 singles, 97 missed, 97 missed,92.5 missed, 92.5 missed, 92.5 made, 82.5 made. 95 made, 97.5 made missed all them reps due to being a clown and thinking too much just needed a bit of the john daly approcach grip it and rip it

back squat 150 for 1 missed second rep, 150 for 2, 150 for 1

friday

clean front squat and jerk 110 for 5 singles
snatch dead lift off platform 110 for 2 sets 3
abz

todays embaressingly weak legs

Snatch balnce 102.5 then miseed 107 like a soft cock three times
Snatch five doublles at 87:5. Should have been four doubles but lost count all felt pretty good
Back squat 135 for four doubles pause at the bottom these were horfificaaly heavy feeling you take away the bounce and my legs are embaressingly week
Push press 90 for two and 95 for teo then 70 for five

yesterday and today progression

Yesterday
Power snatch 70 for two 80 for one
Snatch trebles 82.5 missing one here and there due to being a muppet

Today
Power clean and power jerk 100 for 1
Cllean and jerk 115 for four singles
140 for two sets of three in deadlift
Ab rollouts four sets of eight
Curlz

a good days work

100 power jerk
110 jerk from rck for four doubles
140 front squat for a single
125 for two doubles
Back extensions x 10 one set bw, 2 sets 15 kg
Leg raises 2 sets 10

deadly shit to read

http://jasonferruggia.com/

have been following his writings a lot and have decided he is my fave writer / blogger only down side is his fondness for vegetarianism and vegan ness if i can like a guys writing and he dont like steak or a good pint of milk its gotta be some serious writing. have not highlighted a particular article cause its all though provoking

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/iron-brothers/top-50-articles-of-2010/

50 best articles from 2010 off elitefts need i say more ......

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_worlds_simplest_training_template
gold dust from jim wendler

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/five_exercises_you_should_stop_doing_forever
cause there is muppets out there and by out there i mean the arena

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/blood_and_chalk_jim_wendler_talks_big_weights_volume_eight
more jim windler

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_evolution_of_dave_tate
a bit of dave tate

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/who_wants_to_be_a_novice_you_do
a the genius of rippetoe regardless of what some people thinks about him

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/unilateral_movements_make_you_weak
piss off with your pistols and that other rubbish squatty squat squat

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_big_5_of_getting_big
another old school genius

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/look_like_a_bodybuilder_perform_like_an_athlete
tibedabby dabby dabby doo
a must read but take off your dick head hat and read it properly and analyse and you will learn a hell of a lot cause i sure did and read the accompanying fancy bull that comes with it some serious stuff to be learned when take off your sceptic hat and put on your bull shit filtering hat

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/9_things_i_wish_i_knew_when_i_started_bodybuilding
another from clay hight another bodybuilding type article again read with your dick head hat on and you learn nothing but put the bullshit filtering hat on and its got some deadly info

all my readings not one of them research related or sciency crap behind them that tell you anything dont believe the scientists

its early days yet but........

i may be speaking prematurely but my training is going quite well and i think i have a number of reasons why its going well

1. lots of full snatch and full clean and jerk duhhhh if you practice a specific lift you are bound to get better at it ....

2. concentrating on snatch or clean and jerk each session. allows me to focus on the important stuff i.e. snatch or clean and jerk and then my squats

3. the variance in my squats the inclusion of pause work to work more on brute strength as i like to call it rather than bouncing from the hole

4. the variance in volume from week to week

5. the variance in intensity from week to week

6. the variance in volume from day to day

7. the variance in intensity from day to day

8. a increase in intensity met with a decrease in volume

i firmly believe that the last five are the most important things for any lifter to have in their training. i know this is coming from a pretty poor weightlifter but i think without this variance in volume and accompanying intensity you are missing out on huge gains

a good weeks training

monday
jerk from blocks 107.5 for 5 doubles
front squat 130 for single 120 for 3 doubles

tuesday am
snatch 80 for 5 trebles

tuesday pm
clean and jerk 110 for 5 singles 100 for 3 doubles
dead with shrug 4 sets 3 at 135

wednesday
snatch balance 105
snatch doubles 85 for 5 good doubles
130 for 5 doubles in pause squat excruciatingingly heavy
push press 90 for 2

thursday
clean front squat jerk 107.5 for 5 sets
snatch dead off platform 105 for 3 sets 3

friday
snatch 90,90, 95, 100 missed, 100 missed, 100 happy andy, 90,90,90
back squat 145 for 3 sets 2

a good first week of the cycle looking forward to bigger and better things
only things i have posted are the important shit am doing other powers and that but none of it heavy to warrant including

100kg snatch in ul about fucking time

some fine videography from master byrd

the rant is about to emerge i have been silent too long

i have not blogged in weeks i have a lot to get off my chest i dont know if i should get it off my chest as i am sure it will get me in lots of trouble .... but i cant hold it any longer tomorrow will be a fun filled days of rants and ramblings that i have had in my head for weeks

keep tuned my one reader that checks my blog.........