Pulling Up | A Fitness Diary

First, I need to get out of the way my recent PR, since I just updated my status on my goals for the year – I hit my bodyweight on my floor press 1 rep max! Soon I need to retest actual bench press, since that was the official bodyweight goal. I think floor press is more difficult than bench, so hopefully that means bench is even higher!

Onto business – I’ve gotten addicted to getting stronger and watching all my weighted numbers go up. It’s incredibly motivating. Problem is, on some lifts, my rush to get a heavier weight on the bar than last time has caused me to overlook some technique and form work. Things that could actually catapult my strength numbers if I could learn the technique better instead of always just relying on raw muscle strength.

For example, cleans. The way I clean, it’s all in my shoulders. I don’t have a powerful opening of the hip, where my thighs come in contact with the bar forcing it upward. Because of this, I’m not getting the most out of what my body could do. For me it’s a coordination thing – figuring out the timing of when to pop the hips forward and propel that bar up and then get my hips back into a power position to balance the catch. I have the same challenge with snatching. So I’ve added a couple lunch hour dates with myself to just practice technique work with lightweight. I’m practicing lots of cleans and snatches form the hang position to get used to using my hips more. I’ve actually PR’d on my hang clean just doing this (95 lbs). I used to hate the awkwardness of starting with the weight of the bar pulling down on my shoulders and back, but now it’s feeling a little more natural. Next I need to work on my pull, and actually getting the timing from the ground to when my hips need to go. I’ve found really focusing on keeping the bar right next to my body is helping (duh – they told us this back in On Ramp a year and a half ago and I’m finally taking it to heart). I’m going to have to be ready for some bumps and bruises. Ronnie’s cue to help me? “Hump the bar!” And I’ve been focusing on that, every single rep.

I’m enjoying my little technique lunch dates – it’s nice to have no pressure of what weight is on the bar – just focusing on getting smooth, purposeful but natural movements. I’m hoping these practice sessions will help make the work we do in regular class more beneficial and not so awkward and frustrating for me. I already felt better during today’s heavy-ish hang cleans (ok heavy for me, I PR’d!) after both last week’s clean practice and this week’s snatch technique work.

Also, this was a really boring post. I’ll probably never go back and read it again 🙂

It has been over five months since my last post, almost six! It’s not for lack of activity, but lack of time and energy to put the words down. I’ve had lots of ups and downs and some PR’s in there. I’m in one of those “downs” right now, which is silly because in the last week I have celebrated two PR’s. I’m mostly bummed because I was on my way to the gym tonight, excited to work on some challenging things, and my stomach was just in bad shape on the way there so I turned around and came home. The side effects of my off-track nutrition for the last few weeks has been difficult to shake, and has been putting a damper on my fitness. This should be sign enough to get back to it, no excuses.
My purpose here is to log my progress for the year, which will hopefully give me that extra fire I need to keep pushing for my goals before the year is up. There is barely two months left. So here goes, with goal first, most recent status next. A lot of my stats are actually several months old. Would really like to retest these soon to gauge how far I have to go before the end of the year.

Back squat: 200, 180 (July)
Dead lift: 200, 190 (June)
Front squat: 150, 135 (February)
Bench press: 130, 120 (March)
Shoulder press: 90, 80? I have no idea, I really don’t remember or have record of the last time we did this. It was for 3 reps, and I did 75 for three…
Overhead squat: 100, 105 (June, though I’ve struggled with this as of late and have only been able to do 85 for a few reps)
Pull-ups: entire wod unassisted, check!
Double unders: be able to do them, I’m doing them! Did 2 in a row for the first time last week, then proceeded to do 12 in a row! Still need so much work as I have zero consistency, but these are slowly but surely improving. It helps when I actually practice them…

Below are things I didn’t make goals for, but am fairly happy with the progress I’ve made from the beginning of the year. Except snatch – I know my form has improved a little, but I’m still scared to add weight. It is what it is, I’m not trying to be an Olympian, but I do want to get better.

Clean: 115 (August)
Clean & Jerk: 110 (August)
Power clean: 105 (August)
Snatch: 75 (May)
Handstand push-ups: Surprised myself being able to do several of these over an Abmat a week ago, no kip! Now to get rid of the Abmat…
Atlas stone: I managed to shoulder the 115 several times last month, and one-timed the 90 several times.
Yoke: I think I carried 210 or something like that.

Clearly, looking at some of these dates, I need to retest! Theoretically I should make some of these numbers laughable, but I also know that I’m a mental case…