There was only one session today and it was light and snappy. I was pretty fatigued at this stage, which is the past month’s training catching up with me on top of this week’s. I was feeling those niggly pains that start to set in when training hard. Different people feel them in different areas, but I was feeling my right shoulder and the insertion point of my right bicep and my left one also, but not to the same extent. Today’s session was supposed to be light and fast; a sort of active recovery for tomorrow’s informal competition where me and a few others will max out and see what happens. Here is what I did today:
A brief warm up with bar work and some Snatch grip RDL’s followed by a Hang Power Snatch. I did around 3 sets with 3 RDL’s and one Hang Power Snatch with 50.
1. Hang Power Snatch—I worked up to three triples with 70kg. Each set improved in extension and extending the elbows up rather than out.
2. Power Clean+1 Push Press+1 Power Jerk—I worked up to 90 with this and then 100 for a Power Clean and Push Press. Incredibly, Safak—who is not lifting tomorrow—maxed out on 20 Power Cleans with 100kg. There was never more than three to five seconds in between his lifts. This seemed to be something he wanted to do himself rather than a direction from Tom.
3. Back Extension—1x8@15, 25, 30—The video of this back extension exercise is included below. It is a nice variation and works the lower back and hamstrings nicely.
That was it for today. It was short and sweet, although my lifting was quite sluggish due to fatigue. Tom also made a point that some of you may agree with or not: it was that the squatting technique that he advocates--that of controlled down with a slight pause and explode back up--is better for speed development than the fast down fast up type of squatting, which he says is good for developing the stretch reflex and elastic speed. This is an interesting point coming from Tom, who is as much a professional Strength and Conditioning coach across many sports, as he is a weightlifitng coach. It will be interesting to hear if anyone agrees or disagrees with his point. In the vidoe below there is a brief one minute tour of Tom's gym as well as a nice Back Extention variation movement.
Friday 26 June 2009
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3 comments:
Hmmm... I'll keep an open mind, as always, but while there are benefits to stop squats, I think a controlled (versus 'fast') descent with a slight bounce at the bottom and as fast a recovery as possible is more specific to weightlifting.
Enjoy the control competition tomorrow, let me know how you get on and hopefully you get to see the Lions match; I'll be coaching and will miss the first half :(
I am just your average idiot but I think they are squatting down too slowly in the video. Regarding which pace is better, my view is the back squat strengthens the legs, nothing more. No bouncing.
That guy in the video is Squatting down too slowly. He is a random punter that lifts occasionally in the gym in a non weightlifting capacity. Interesting point on the Back Squat.
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