Contemplate your day.
Placeholder post. Jackassery ensued.
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What suits your fancy?
I finally was able to train heavy on the Olympic lifts today outside of Atlanta with AC. I brought my bar and bumpers all the way from Panama City, and was itching to train. We had to move to a second facility nearby (thanks Brad, of CF North Fulton), and things went pretty well. This was the first heavy day I’ve had since nationals, and I was pleased; I snatched 120kg (missed 125 a couple times, technical issue) and clean and jerked 155kg. This was solid because my meet PR’s are 130/158, so I wasn’t that far off in my first heavy day in quite a while. I also cleaned 160, but passed out before the jerk (bar went forward, I landed on my back) after telling AC that the only way I wasn’t going to get it was if I passed out.
I bring this up because I was in a pretty good training environment. There was loud music, my body was fresh, I was excited to go heavy on the lifts, and AC was there (it’s always better to train hard with your friends). Since I haven’t been able to do the Olympic lifts, I’ve been training heavier on the strength lifts at a military base. I’m able to get pumped by myself and train hard, so it isn’t a big deal. But when I trained the Olympic lifts before I moved, it was typically quiet and my friends weren’t around because of the coaching schedule I had.
I like to have a more intense atmosphere for the Olympic lifts. They require that maximum exertion be applied on every rep, and, for me, getting some adrenaline going before the lift is helpful. Even more so because I haven’t done the lifts that much lately. I was too lax at nationals when I was trying to get over excited, and I think it degraded my performance a little bit.
Anyway, I respond well to like-minded people and music. What do you like when you are lifting? What kind of music? What is your approach? Are you at the stage of thinking, “Okay, let’s not fuck this up,” or are you all about attacking the bar? Hopefully if you’re really intense, it’s warranted with some heavy lifting. Nobody should really be screaming about a 250 squat, unless you’re a girl.
Oh, and the 190kg overhead squat by Ben that I promised:
July Challenge: 3 Presses, 3 Pulls
May Challenge Results
Results are in. The top 5s are:
Women [135# squat/95# bench/135# deadlift]
Kate W. (126 total reps)
Jenny L. (124)
Mary P. (98)
Robbie (96)
Amanda C. (90)
Tanks [315# squat, bench, deadlift]
Shon P. (76)
vandy676 (54)
powerlifter54 (50)
Gant (44)
Captain Ronn (36)
Open [225# squat, bench, deadlift]
Levi (98)
Quadzilla (93)
Buddy Holly (75)
elijah (70)
Drew0786 (69)
I took results from everywhere I could find them. Most were in the Challenge thread, but there were a few strays, including a couple friends that posted on my Facebook page.
I have attached a spreadsheet with the results of the May Challenge. The first page is the absolute rankings in each division. The next two pages are ranked by weight class (I used PL classes just because).
The results are interesting. The women up at CrossFit Works killed this thing, which is to be expected given their high rep, high volume training with the weights used here. I don’t know Levi’s or Quadzilla’s training background, but they outpaced the open division by 20 reps. Hopefully they’ll chime in here. As for the tanks, powerlifter54 is a very accomplished powerlifter (and a great source of lifting knowledge) who did this during a light week in preparation for a Navy fitness test. I don’t know anything about vandy676 other than he is a large man. Shon P. (I estimated his weight) is a friend of mine who I asked to do this. He ran away with the tank division. I’ll profile him next week, but I’ll leave it to you to guess his training background in the comments.
Thanks again to everyone who participated. Enjoy your June and look for more silliness in July.
PS If anyone can tell me how to attach an spreadsheet to WordPress, I’d be glad to do it.
What do you guys want to talk about?
Look, I really don’t have anything to post. I have lots of medium length posts that I have to write, lots of lifters to induct into the hall of fame, lots of Olympic lifting to cover, lots of people to feature, but none of that is a quick write up, and none of it is happening tonight (Sunday night). You’ll always get my honesty.
We had a small group at the 70’s Big Workshop in Allen, Texas. I’ve mentioned that the workshop will adapt to the crowd, and this one shifted into the benefits of strength training and ways to incorporate it into training programs. If you want to host a workshop, e-mail me.
On a similar note, Chris graduated from college this past weekend. We had a little shindig and congratted him. To celebrate, here is the following video.
So, somebody strike up an interesting conversation in the comments. You guys are always welcome to send me links to stuff that you consider 70’s Big (it makes for entertaining posts, like last Friday’s), send in photos (although sometimes they don’t make it on the site), or send in videos. Maybe somebody will come up with something good. Happy Monday.