Weightlifting Comp April 6 2019

About four months ago, I decided I wanted to do a weightlifting competition.  I talked with my coach, and she was on board to get me ready for my first competition.   I started to prepare at the first of the year.  This would be a long 14 week cycle.   My snatch and clean and jerk have trailed behind my other lifts, since I have only been doing these lift for about 4 years, where as I have been doing power lifts for 21 years.  Overall I have had the most to improve on with the these lifts and therefore I wanted to take on the challenge of competing in the weightlifting.   This entire cycle I knew it was all about getting a decent total at the competition and not really about hitting big PR's at the meet.  I ultimately wanted to compete at a national meet, therefore I put my head down and worked hard for the 14 weeks to have a great competition.  I blogged about the preparation over the course of the preparation, so I will not discuss the entire cycle, but wanted to say a little about how sometimes things don't seem to be going as planned, but when you work hard you can still accomplish a goal.  

At the beginning of my last 4 week cycle, I was not feeling 100%. I was congested and just feeling sluggish for about a week.   This really limited my lifts, I kept on pushing and holding back when I needed to make sure I could recover properly.  In my head, I should have been snatching about 240# , which is about 10#  more than best snatch from back in December.  I think I hit 227# once over the past 4 weeks and I missed 215# at least 6-8 time in training.  This made for a very frustrating  4 week training cycle.  After this first week of being sick, the rest of my family was sick, this entire time I was still not training great, I was just not getting that energized feeling I was hopping for while training.   

My clean and jerk were at least a little more consistent hitting much higher percentages during training, but in my mind I can't help to think that this lift was also being limited by my lack of sleep and recovering immune system.  Again I just kept plowing forward toward my competition, and had mentally accepted that I would have to open with less weight than I was hoping in about week 10-11 of my competition preparation.    

While I was feeling run down and fighting sickness, I was also fighting with muscle tightness making my lift less consistent as well.  I was working on mobility like crazy, and I was seeing amazing improvements, but I was still getting a pinch in the bottom of my squat making it difficult to push in my training.  A visit to the PT and I would be back to training, but the issue would return.  I also put in my head that I just need to through this competition, and then I would take a step back to really find the cause of these issues with my psoas, adductors, and other tight muscles leading to a pinch in the bottom of my squat.    

Talk about a downer going into my first weightlifting competition, I was fighting my own body on all fronts while trying to perform my best.  I was one week out from my competition, and I had a competition style training day programmed.   This is a training day you treat like a meet day, warm up the same and only give yourself 3 attempts on each of your lifts.  This is to give me more confidence going into the meet.  My plan was to open with 195# snatch, move to 207#, and then 215#, this is only 93%, so should be easy.  Well,  I hit 195# but missed 207 twice, talk about being defeated.  I moved on the to clean and jerk and worked up to my opener at 265#  and stopped. The bar was not moving well either so instead of feeling defeated on both lifts, I stopped on a successful opener.   I took a rest day following this sad mock competition training day, and started fresh Monday with the last heavy snatch day on my taper week.   

Monday I woke up feeling fresh, recovered and ready to get after it on the platform.  This  was the first day in 4 weeks that I felt great.  I worked up to 220# on my snatch with no misses and everything felt easy,  I also worked up to my clean and jerk opener again.   Great confidence booster only 6 days away from my first meet.  Tuesday, 5 days out from my first meet I get up early to hit some front squats, and Power clean and Jerks everything felt very easy, and I head off to the the PT to get everything in order for my competition.  Dr. Lamar from Georgia Sport PT, goes to town getting me ready, dry needling is amazing at resetting the body.  I take Wednesday off from training and by Wednesday night, I start to feel what I think are major allergy issues.  Thursday I get up, with some congestion and a little cough and I think dang these are the worst allergies, but still get after my programmed training day.  I worked up to my opening snatch based on how Monday's snatch went, I had decided to open at 200#. I was also programed to work up to last warm up on my clean and jerk 245#, both move well even though I am not 100% due to what I think are allergies.   Friday, I wake up feeling worse than the previous day, but nothing so bad I can't function.  I did a lot of mobility and just worked on recovering for my meet the next day.  I ate a lot of food, drank a lot of water, even took a nap.  

April 6, 2019, meet day, I wake up at 1 am coughing up a lung and having major drainage.  I wake  again at 3:30 am  to use the rest room  and coughing again, 4:45 am I wake up again with a bad headache and again feeling super congested.  I think this is not good, and not what I am suppose to feel like the morning of my meet.  I get up at 7:15 am and start getting ready for my meet.   I make coffee and eat a protien bar to get something in my stomach.  I don't want to go overboard because I have to weigh in at 9:30 am.  In my mind, I am still hopeful I could make the 89 kilo weight class, although I didn't really try anything.  My head is pounding and nose is stuffy and my chest feels like I have a brick on top of it. So I do what I think everyone would do, GO BACK TO BED .... JK, although any other day that is what I would have done.  I suck it up, and get ready to dominate my first meet.   I make two PB and J sandwiches to eat after weigh in, pack my Pedialyte drink, water, bananas, candy, and my C4 preworkout.   I take 2 Mucinex, 2 flonaise shots up each nostril, a zyrtec, vitamin C, Multivitamin, and 4 advil, and it then it's time to go.  I pray all these meds kick in and I can perform on the platform.

I get to the Crossfit Garage where my meet is being held, and I am the first to weigh in. I weighed 90 kilo, crush my two sandwiches, and my 32 oz of the Pedialyte and finally my headache starts to dull.   I do a little stretching and loosening up while the kids and women finish up there sessions, and I talk with a few of the other lifters.  I met some great guys, and they helped show me the ropes since this is my first meet.  I am  the only one at the meet that doesn't have a coach or a friend helping them in the back.  My coach lives in North Carolina, so I would not expect her to drive to GA for a small local meet. She was also kicking ass competing in a power lifting meet- setting unofficial world records.  The men's session is getting started, so I slam my C4 pre-workout drink, put my lifters on and start moving the bar around.  I am thinking how long do I have before I lift verses the first lifter because I don't want to warm up too quick.   I ask/meet a random guy walking by, Tony Garay, how long it will take to get started and move through the lifters.  He is the coach of a youth lifter, the first lifter in the session.   He volunteers to help keep on me on track and help count for me.  He basically tells me to hit whatever weight is on the main platform in the back which will time my warm ups to when I am up.  He watches my lifts and checked in with me a couple times.  I had this same plan, but just didn't really know when to start.

I decided to open with 89 kilo snatch (195.8#) since I was not feeling great.   I kill the lift like it was nothing.  I jump to 94 kilo (206.8#) and I kill it too, so I make a little bigger jump to 100 Kilo (220#).   I almost throw it over my head, but saved it.  Snatch is done and I have gone 3/3.   I think, I could have hit 110 kilos (242#), the way things were moving on the platform.  Now I am pumped, but I have some time before I have to start getting warm for Clean and Jerk.  I slam some Powerade, eat a banana, and some candy to refuel for my next big lifts.  

I am excited to get back on the platform and get a little ahead on my warm ups for my clean and jerk. So I end up standing around waiting to lift my opening Clean and Jerk of 120 kilos (264#) a little longer than I would have liked, but it was not problem.  I am hit my opener, and the announcer/head judge is waiting for me to tell him my next lift.  He is telling the loader what to put on the bar, and as I tell him I am jumping to 130 kilos (286#), it takes him by surprise because that is a big jump.  I think there ends up being like 3 lifters before my second attempt.    I ask Tony to watch my second attempt to gauge how hard or easy this lift looks.   I hit 130 kilo lift like it was my opener, and he said go for it man, so I take the announcer by surprise again by jumping another 10 kilo to 140 kilo (308#) 3rd attempts.  My best clean and jerk  in training was 305#.    I hit the platform and killed the 140 kilos.  I finish the meet 6/6 giving a competition total of 240 kilo, with 1st place finish.  I am fired up to move on to my next meet.   

To qualify for the American open masters, I needed to only hit a 175 kilo total, which is nothing for me.  If I had competed in the American Open 1 at the Arnold classics in OH in Feb, in the 96 kilo weight class, I would have had a 5th place total and a silver medal in the Clean and Jerk.  This gives me the confidence that as a master lifter, which is not saying too much, I can be competitive at the national level.  This total would have put me in the top 10 at masters national,  and  I am within striking distance of top 3.  I have 16 weeks until the American Open 2 in Albuquerque, NM on July 24-28.  This is my next goal for my weight lifting.  I want to refine my technique and get my nagging training pains under control and see what I can do in Albuquerque.    

   

     

      

Weightlifting Comp Prep Week 11-14

It has a been a few weeks since I have had time to sit and actually write anything.   Life happens, especially with 4 kids.   To be honest, life can be down right hectic.  It has not even hit full busyness in our life.   We only have 3 of 4 kids in activity, but we only have about 2 years before all 4 are being run around every night of the week.  Even with all the kids activities, I am some how still finding time to train.  I am on the last 4 weeks leading up to the weight lifting meet.     Week 11 and 12 are finished and have been very disappointing, and I can point to many reason as to why training has not been great.   I have been fighting off sickness for these two weeks.  I had a chest/ head cold during week 11.    Then everyone in the family has been sick as well.  My wife was at the doctors office 3 of 5 days this past week.  All of the kids being diagnosed with a sinus infection/ ear infections and 1 case of pink eye.   I then notice a fever blister coming on and my wife picked up a 24 hr stomach bug.  It is also allergy season for me.  Even though I have not been super sick, with the entire house being sick this means that no one in the house is sleeping good.   Sleep is so important for results in a good training day.   I  have not really missed any training days, but I m have not had the drive to really push my training these first two weeks of this peaking cycle.

On top of the all the sickness in my house, I have been plagued with these nagging training pains.  My Psoas is my biggest problem lately.  It is hindering my catch on both my clean and jerk , and snatch, along with my ability to squat heavy.   Combining all of these issues ,it has made for a very discouraging and frustrating couple weeks of training.   These weeks should be a time when I am getting super excited about my competition.

The mental aspect of lifting is real and can have a huge impact on the wether you hit lifts or not.    I am starting to taper down to be ready for my meet in the two weeks.    My snatch is my biggest issue right now getting ready for the meet,  I have only caught about 91%(210#)  of my max the last few week.     This is my first weight lifting meet and I think it more important to make sure I am landing my lift instead of hitting close to PR results.   My best snatch is 230#, so my current thinking based on how my lifts have been going over the last 6 weeks of training to open with 195# snatch, This is very safe lift for me, then I will move up to 205# on my second attempt and then 215# on my third attempt.    Although I still have 2 week to decide, this is my current plan.   I hope to build a little confidence on the actual platform.

On my clean and jerk, things have been going a little better the past couple of weeks.  I have been able to clean and Jerk  up to 295# a couple times.   My biggest concern on my clean and jerk is the actually Jerk.  I sometimes do not get a full lock out which lead to a press out of the weight at the top.  This is not a good lift if I press it out.    In my head I am going back and forth on where I should open.  I think I am going to play it safe and open with a 265# and then jump to 285#, then jump either to 295#  to 305# depending how things feel.   My PR clean and jerk is 305#.  The entire point of this meet is to have fun and see how I can do with weightlifting. I have competed in powerlifting, Crossfit and now weightlifting.    This meet is a stepping stone to allow me to go to the American Open 2.0 in Albuquerque in July, which I hope to hit better numbers at a national meet, which will give 17 weeks to prepare and get my psoas issue under control. 

My week 11 and 12 are very similar,

Day 1

• Snatch  (Percentage work up to about 90%  then if things are good work up but stop at 1 miss)
• Clean and Jerk (Percentage work up to about 90%  then if things are good work up but stop at 1 miss)
• Back Squats 3RM
• Clean Pulls from block 3x3 @105%
• One Arm Rows  3x8
• KB high pulls  3x8

Day 2

• Front squats 1RM 7 sec pause
• No hook Hang Power Cleans 3x3 @63% then 3RM
• barbell rollouts 3x10

Day 3

• Snatch (Percentage work but bigger jumps than day1 up to 85% then work up but no misses)
• Clean and Jerk  (Percentage work but bigger jumps than day1  up to 85% then work up but no misses)
• Elevated Suitcase DL 3x8 each side
• Zercher Lunges 3x8 each side
• Sled drags forward and backwards 

Day 4

• Overhead squats work up to 80% with 5 sec pause
• Hang power snatch 3x3 @65% then 3 RM
• Plank Lat pulls

Day 5

• Snatch ( Comp style 3 attempts)
• Clean and Jerk ( Comp Style 3 attempts)
• Back squats 1 Rep@95% rest 2 min then 4 reps@ 80%  for 3 sets
• Snatch pulls from blocks 3x3 @105%
• Reverse hypers 3x8

I start week 13 this week and it very similar to week 11 and 12 except that a lot of the accessory work as been reduced and I am not allowed many misses at all.   These weeks are for being consistent with reps that I plan to hit the day of my comp.  I want to build confidence while maintaining my strength over the next two week so on the day of the meet I can preform as expected.  As plagued as I have been in the gym the the past few week, I am confident the day of the meet I will be ready as like other competition I have been in I will step up to the plate with everything I have. 

Nagging Training Pains

When I first started to train as a teen, I would walk in the gym, load up some weights and start to lift.   I had no concept of a warm up, stretching, or mobility.   This went on for at least 10-15 yrs of my training life.  I am 100% confident that this has lead to a repetitive  movement dysfunction and nagging training pain that continue to creep up today.   Over the last 5 yrs, I have become more and more interested in movement quality and have paid much closer attention to the way a movement makes my body feel.   I am very body aware and test and retest different movement patterns to ensure I am moving in symmetric ways.   I am interested in both if my right and lift joints move to same end range, and if my muscles are tighter on one side versus the other.  When I notice a difference in these things, I start to figure out why and think about biomechanically what this means in terms of my lifting, so that I might make a small changes to keep muscle from locking up.   Remember I have no expertise in physical therapy, biomechanics, but I am a scientist, so I use critical thinking skills to do self assessments.  I use the information I come up with to help explain issues I am having with my physical therapist, the real expert.  I am confident this allows me to get more accomplished when I have an office visit.

My first piece of gym equipment that I built for my house was a plyo box. Not because I love plyometrics and box jumps but because I wanted a box to do various stretches.  This is a great tool for doing things like elevated pigeon pose.   It was about this time I was reading Kelly Starrett's book "Becoming a Supple Leopard".  This is an amazing resource to have on hand for when a nagging issue pops up.  If  you have a tight shoulder, look in the book and you can find many possible solutions to help loosen up.   You test these exercises and find the one that will relieve the pain.  If tight hips are your problem, well the same applies.  Pick this resource up to determine how dysfunctional your movement patterns are in you day to day life.

For years I have had three recurring nagging issues: my right shoulder, my left hip, and my adductors.  These are not the only issues but these are the most chronic.  My body awareness started when I was flying back and forth from ABQ to ATL.  I could comfortably sit with my right foot propped on my left knee, but if I tried to switch it to my left foot propped up on my right knee, there was no way I could sit this way. My left hip was so restricted I could barely get my foot to my knee. It is now about 5 yrs later and I am still working on issues with this hip.   If you want to move well on a day to day basis ,and you are lifting heavy daily, it take a lots of work to stay mobile, especially if you waited 15 years to start to care about moving well.   Little things add up to help stay mobile and don't add to the fire of tight muscles.   I try to stand as much as possible at work.  I am lucky that both my desk in my office and lab is set up to stand or sit.  I park further away from my office so that I get to walk a little more during the day.   Most importantly, throughout the day I spend 1-2 min performing various stretches, and try to spend part of my day sitting in the bottom of my squat.  The days that I am more deliberate about taking the 1-2 min breaks to get some stretching in are the days I do better in the gym.  My body is primed better to get after in the gym compared to the those days I just sit all day in front of the computer.  

Over the last year, I have made amazing progress on many of my nagging training pains.   The first is my shoulder, which I have written previously.  I had a cortisone shot for a torn labrum in December of 2018, and I have not had any joint pain since.  Since there is actually a problem with my right shoulder, it still gets a little tighter than the left side.  I can not thank my PT, Dr. Lamar Frasier,  enough for taking care of all my issues by dry needling on visits.  Georgia Sports Physical Therapy always gets my shoulder back in working order.  Another issue I have not been able to get 100% under control yet is my left hip and adductors.  If you take a holistic approach to the body, then they are  the same problem.  This is my thought on it and my physical therapist thinks this is possible, but he may just be humoring me.  My left hip has limited range of motion compared to my right, so when I squat, I toe out on my right side slightly more (not intentionally) than my left, and as I get to the bottom of my squat I get a slight hip shift to the left.  This leads to more torque on the my right adductors.  The result is that my left hip gets tight and my right adductor gets tight.   Then as the adductors tighten up this leads me to get a valgus knees when doing more dynamic movements like snatch and cleans.   This leads to the problem getting worse over time.  I am very aware of this issue, which is why I am so worried about my movement quality through the day.   I try to be very careful when squatting to line up my feet, but on things like snatch which require me to move my feet during the rep, my body will find the path of least resistance to get the job done and a lot of time this is where I don't get a symmetric stance in the bottom of my catch position.  My physical therapist is a life saver when it comes to getting my back in working order as nagging training pains pop up.  I get my adductor needled almost every time I go to the PT and as painful as it is for the 30 sec I am getting needled, the results is life changing when I step back in the gym. He also has provided me with many great priming exercises and mobility tools to help correct the issues.  Although during my last visit to the  PT, the issue was not my adductors, but my psoas and iliacus muscle caused a pinch in the bottom of my squat.   This mean the maintenance mobility is working. 

Another little issue that has come up which doesn't effect my training, but has been caused by my training, is a little bit of numbness every once in a while in the my thumb and fingers.  I notice when eating and have a bent elbow my fingers start to go a little numb.   It turns out that my radial nerve is sending these signal and down the path that I have tight muscle in my shoulder, tricep, and forearm.  My last visit to the PT resulted in some dry needling along this path coupled with Electronic stimulation to help relieve this issue.   See the picture below of the three needles in my arm. This is the same type of needling that happens to my adductors, psoas, iliacus muscle to relieve some my other nagging training pain.  I highly recommend you reach out to my PT if you are having nagging training pains and are in the Atlanta area. 

Recently , I started to looking in a systematic approach to doing mobility and stretching to help my squats and address this issue to help extend the time between appointments to the PT.  It is much cheaper to preform self maintenance mobility than rehab/physical therapy. There are many great resources out on the market.  Kelly Starrett has mobilityWOD , and another program is called RomWod and I have heard great things about both.   A while back I heard about GotROM on one my favorite fitness Pod cast  Strength and Scotch.   I stumbled on to GotROM again during my search for mobility programs.  I really like the idea of targeted programs instead of the general mobility programs.  I reached out to the owner, Shane,  based on my nagging training pains to determine the best program for me to start.  He suggested the 45 day Deep squat program.   I am currently about 41 days into the program, and I have made some ridiculous progress on my squats and mobility.  This has helped address many of my issues I mentioned above.  Although it has not completely eliminated the problems,  it has help significantly and extended my time between PT appointments.  This program has givien me many more tools to help address my adductors.  These are picture of my day 1 squat barefoot and compared to the day 41 squats barefoot.  This program comes with a list of soft tissue exercises and stretches for beginners, intermediate, and advanced, and a large library of videos.   You are really paying for the video library, which has more videos than are in the program.  

I am also showing my pancake split stretch on day 28 and day 41.  This is 10-100 time improvement over my day 1 pancake split  I am planning on finishing out this program and moving on to another one of the GotRom program, Super Shoulders, to see if I can better self address my nagging shoulder issues.  Even if these program only save me a few PT visit a year it is worth it because the cost of the programs is less than a single trip to the PT.

Overall if you have your own nagging training pains, it is worth getting some resources to educate yourself on what could be causing these issues pop up.   You should try to do some self assessments and mobility drills on your own.  I would also say if these things don't resolve your problem go to a professional PT.   Like anything, not all physical therapist are created equal so do some research and find a good PT in your area.  You can also try to find systematic approach to resolving the nagging issue, by paying to a mobility program like the one I found through GotROM.  Nagging issues should not keep you from getting in the gym even though they can easily lead to negative gains if they are not addressed.  Listen to your body but never give up on making progress toward your goals.   

 

 

Wieghtlifting Comp Prep Weeks 7-10

The last couple of weeks I have moved into a strength phase of my training cycle.   Overall this has been a great transition.   I am currently six weeks out from competing in my first weightlifting meet.  I officially signed up for the Barbell Collective weightlifting meet.   My shoulder is holding up so far, I have only had some tight muscle issue in my shoulder.  I have not experienced the same joint pain as I did before a cortisone shot back in December.   My lifts are still getting smoother, but I have not hit any PRs this cycle.  I have now attempted 305# Clean and Jerk twice in the last few weeks, but I missed the jerk.   My Jerks still are not great and I need to get more consistent with them.  My first two weeks I have only been able to get in 4 training days each week.  I am starting week 9 today, Feb 24, 2019, and I hope to hit 5 training days this week.  Since I train at my house by myself, I wanted a way to train with a few of my lifting buddies every once in a while.   I decided that I would start scheduling a training day once a month so everyone could put it on there calendar.     This is called Bros, Barbells, and the Bible.   It is a  great time that we can get together, hang out, lift weights, and discuss a bible verse and life.   This was the first Bros, Barbell, and the Bible, but will not be the last.  So what has my training weeks looked like in this strength cycle.

Day 1

• Clean and Jerk (65%3x2, 73%2x2,78%2x2,83%1x2,85%1x1, work up allowed 1 miss)
• Power cleans 73%  3x3 then 3RM
• Front Squats 3 sets ( 95%x1 , rest 2 min 85 %x3 )
• Wide stance Goodmornings 3x5  30% of back squats
• Weighted box steps Ups 3x5 Each leg

Two of the three weeks I have hit 305 # clean with ease but missed my jerk.    I also worked up to a 265# power clean. I realized this cycle that I catch my power clean very high.   I started to pull as if I am power cleaning the weight which has been a helpful internal que for my full cleans.   These front squat waves are tough after all the cleans and power cleans.  Overall my first day of the week was great.  

Day 2

• Snatch Balance + Over head squats,  working up to 80% of snatch
• Snatch (65%3x2, 73%2x2,78%2x2,83%1x2,85%1x1, work up allowed 1 miss)
• No Hook No Feet Snatch 3x3 at 70%  then 3RM 
• Cleans pulls  3x3  at 105% 
• Conditioning 
• 5 rnds E2MOM 200m Row , and 3 DUs 

Warming up with the Snatch balance+OHS has been great for my catch on these.   I must say that I have not had a great snatch day yet over these past few week.  Overall my snatches have been much smoother, but I think I have not snatched more than 220#.  I am starting to think it is just that I am more sore and not fully recovered from the Clean day previously.   My No Hook No feet Snatch work has helped me with my snatch pull though. 

Day 3

• Snatch from low blocks (60% 2x , 70% 2x2, 73% 1x1,75%1x2, 78%1x2, 80%1x1,83% 2x1, work up is no misses)
• Clean and Jerk from low blocks (60% 2x , 70% 2x2, 73% 1x1,75%1x2, 78%1x2, 80%1x1,83% 2x1, work up is no misses)
• High Bar Back squats with 100# of band 3 RM with 1st rep pause 3 sec.
• Rear foot elevated split squats  3x10
• conditioning 
• 5 rnds 12 KB swings , 10 box jumps, 8 burpees 

The low block work is also very good for me. All my coaches really like these for me because it forces me to keep better form.   Starting the weight at mid shin make these a little harder.  I have been able to work up to about 215# on the snatch and 265# on the Clean and Jerks.  I have actually moved the high bar back squats to day 4 the previous two weeks.  I love doing band work with squats.    Last week I was able to work up to 365# bar weight with 140# band tensions.  This is about 425# in the bottom of the squat and 505#  at the top of the squats.   After all this, add in rear foot elevated split squats and I am guaranteed to be sore the next day. 

Day 4

• Snatch pull + Snatch Max
• Clean + Front Squat+Jerk Max
• Muscle Snatch 3x5 
• Pull-ups 3 x submax
• KB High pulls 3x10 (Lower Slower) 

This day has snatch and clean complexes. The first week also had a hang clean in the complex and I believe on week 3 and 4 of this strength cycle it is  just  a Max out day.  The complex listed above I believe I was able to work up to 215# on the snatch and 285# on the cleans.   This was a fun day, but turned into a very tough day when I move the back squats to this day.  I am hoping to start hitting some better numbers this week.