I’ve posted another of the Nike Michael Jordan adverts in the past and this one is also awesome.

Most people will never see or truly understand how hard you’ve worked to get where you are now, never realise how long it takes to achieve significant athletic benchmarks.

In life, results are King.

Does that mean you shouldn’t bother working hard, because nobody really cares how deep you’re digging each day and how much effort the results are costing?

HELL NO!!

It means you need to suck it up and work harder, because if you give it 99% and ALMOST achieve, you’ll never forgive yourself.

Anyway, that’s enough preaching for one day – enjoy the ad

The downside is that as a one-man band, its rare that I get objective feedback on my own lifts.

My Olympic lifts should be better – they haven’t increased as quickly as they should relative to my strength gains.

The reason for this is lousy technique.

So, this week I decided to take a look at my Clean & Jerk and video it so I could watch it back and be critical of what I’m doing wrong.

In short, pretty much everything is screwy with my pulls, the front squat/recovery is solid, but the Split Jerk also needs some work.

Here is the photographic proof along with some analysis:

The Set Up

My hips felt low during set up, but as you can see, my hips are actually quite high in a traditional deadlift position.

My shoulders are also too far forward.  If you look, they are in front of the bar.

Here’s what the start position should look like…  Hips down, shoulders over the bar.

Here’s a great article on starting positions by the always quality Gregg Everett.

The position I started in sets up for a back dominant pull which you will see in the next picture.  The correst start will set up for a leg driven pull and more efficient lifting.

First Pull

As you can see, my poor start position has led me down the path of a horribly inefficient first pull.

My legs have extended, but my back in now in a position where it will have to do a lot of work to accelerate the bar and/or bring me back into a good position.  The bar is also too far in front of my center or gravity.

Had I started with a more upright torso and driven correctly, the bar should now be above knee height, with my shins relatively straight and my torso more vertical.  This would be a better balanced position before transitioning to my power/jump position.

This is what I should look like…

www.cathletics.com

Extension!!

Somehow from the poor position of my first pull, I managed to recover to an OK postion from which to accelerate the bar upwards.  This involved dragging the bar up the thighs to a good upright position to try and get the bar going vertical.

However, as you can see above, when extending forcefully upwards, my knees remain flexed.  This is a serious flaw and is losing me power.  Lots of power.  Possibly this is a subconscious thing where the knees are preparing to drop me under the bar again.  Hips could also be extended slightly further.

You can aslo see that the bar is starting to swing outwards.  This is an elbow positioning issue and they need to be cued to pull high and outside to keep the bar close to the body.

Good extension…

www.cathletics.com

The Catch

Bearing in mind this should be a full clean, the video clearly showed that I am catching in a Power Clean and riding down into a Front Squat.

It didn’t feel that way during the lift, so I’ve got some work to do with sensing how high I’m catching the bar.

Front Squat position was solid though and felt good.

The Split Jerk

The dip and drive were cool, but I am short stepping on the Split position.

Here’s how it should look…

Fixing The Clean & Jerk

As you can see, I’ve got some work to do.

The first and easiest thing is to correct the start position and see what issues this fixes downstream with my pull.

Also, I need to do work on full extension, speed under the bar and catching deep in the Front Squat.  Some complex work would be good for this i.e Hang Clean Pull + Hang Power Clean + Tall Clean

As for the Split Jerk, this is mainly positioning and confidence.  Regular exposure and technique work during warm ups with lighter weights should fix this.

So, considering my PR is 80kg at a bodyweight of 65kg, and this is evidently with massive inefficency, then if I can fix the technique flaws I should be good for a nice kick in performance.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress…

What follows is the route map.

The Foundation – Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1

Trying to get strong is bordering on an obsession of mine.  I stalled out on linear progressions a long time ago and the 5/3/1 program has been a godsend.  It’s taken all the hard work out of planning my lifts.  I’ve got a spreadsheet where I plug in my maxes and it tells me what I need to lift each day.  Simples.

Each day features one lift done according to my 5/3/1 rep scheme for the day.

Assistance Work

On upperbody 5/3/1 days my assistance work is gymnastics based.

On lower body 5/3/1 days, the assistance work is Olympic lifting based.

The gymnastics work is based upon Coach Sommer’s excellent Building the Gymnastic Body book.  If you don’t own this get it.  Now.

I rotate through various combinations of movement families i.e. Handstand Push Ups + Pull Ups or Core + Lower Body on each upperbody workout usually doing 3 sets of 3-5 reps for each movement.  When a movement gets easy, I move up to the next difficulty level for that movement family.

For Olympic Lifts, on the Deadlift days, I do Clean and Jerks, and on Squat days, I Snatch.

Week 1 I work up to 85% 1RM. Week 2 – 90% and in the final week before deloading 95%-100% depending on how the weights feel.

Technique work is added as needed.

Conditioning

For conditioning, I do typical CrossFit style metcons, but regulate the intensity based upon fatigue.  The metcons are chosen based upon the exercises performed earlier in the workout and should compliment the strength training.

Here is a sample week…

Monday

A. Overhead Press

2 ramping sets and then…

5 reps @ 65% Training max

5 reps @ 75% Training max

AMRAP – 5 reps minimum @ 85% Training max

B1. Handstand Push Ups on Parallettes 3×5

B2. Wide Grip L-Pullups 3×5

C. Metcon

10-1 KB Swings

1-10 Burpees

Tuesday

A. Clean & Jerk

Work up to 85% 1RM

B. Deadlift

2 ramping sets and then…

5 reps @ 65% Training max

5 reps @ 75% Training max

AMRAP – 5 reps minimum @ 85% Training max

C. Metcon

15:00 AMRAP

Row 250m

7 Handstand Pushups

Thursday

A. Bench Press

2 ramping sets and then…

5 reps @ 65% Training max

5 reps @ 75% Training max

AMRAP – 5 reps minimum @ 85% Training max

B1. Reverse Leg Lifts (Straddle) 3×5

B2. Pistols (Jumping) 3×5

C. Metcon – Cindy

20:00 AMRAP

5 Pull Ups

10 Push Ups

15 Squats

Friday

A. Snatch

Work up to 85% 1RM

B. Back Squat

2 ramping sets and then…

5 reps @ 65% Training max

5 reps @ 75% Training max

AMRAP – 5 reps minimum @ 85% Training max

C. Metcon

5 Rounds for time:-

3 hang Power Cleans

6 Box Jumps

9 Push Ups

12 KTEs

The aim of all this is to keep all the numbers ticking upwards.  I keep results for everything and then try and make sure the next time I do something it’s heavier or faster or done with better technique.

Thats about it really.  Shoot me anyquestions you might have.

Now, I’m gonna discuss the plan I’m using to get there.

The training can be broken down into 4 main sections:

1. Barbell Strength
2. Gymnastics
3. Olympic Lifting
4. Conditioning

Barbell Strength

In order to be able to make progress over the long haul without burning out and leaving energy for other training, I decided to run with Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program for the main lifts – namely the Overhead Press, Deadlift, Back Squat and Floor Press.

Jim advocates starting too light and this is fine with me.  I’m willing to be patient to ensure long term improvements.

This is basically a 4 week cycle.  I’m following a 4 day training week and I’ll be training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Week 1 is 3 work sets of 5 reps.  Week 2 is 3 work sets of 3 reps.  Week 3 is a work set of 5 reps, a work set of 3 reps and a final work set of 1 rep.  Although a number is specified, the last set each day is for max reps.  Week 4 is a deload week.

After each cycle, your lift numbers are increased a little and you start over again.

If you want to know more, buy the ebook.  Its inexpensive and its awesome.

Gymnastics

I love gymnastics work and I’ve chosen to use this modality as my assistance work for the main barbell lifts.

I’m doing 2 days of upperbody work and these coincide with my Overhead Press and Floor Press days.

Day 1 is my volume day and I’ve chosen a pushing and a pulling movement to do for 3 sets of 10 each.  I plan on changing the exercises each cycle, but within each cycle, increasing the resistance week to week assuming I make all 10 reps each time.

Day 2 is my strength day and again pushing and pulling movements will be selected each cycle.  I plan on combining a static hold with a dynamic movement for each push/pull block.  i.e. 3 sets of planche hold for 10secs followed by 5 reps of ring push ups or 3 sets of back lever hold 10secs followed by 5 1-arm pull ups.

Olympic Lifts

I will be Snatching and Clean&Jerking one day each per week.  C&Js on the Deadlift day and Snatches on the Squat day.

I’ll be doing singles every 2 minutes for 20 minutes – hence 10 lifts each day.

I plan on starting off light and adding weight for each successful, snappy lift.  This will dictate my maxes for each day and I will only push it when I feel completely confident.

Conditioning

I plan on doing this 3 days per week, but this will be dictated by recovery needs.

These will be mixed modal crossfit-esque workouts but kept short in duration and at a comfortable pace.  1-2 workouts each week will be more rowing-centric as this is a major weakness of mine.

These will be fairly randomised but designed to shore up any weaknesses or areas not addressed by the rest of the program as I go through.

I plan on transitioning from more aerobic-based WODs to increasingly glycolytic anaerobic as I progress.  This will be over a 16 week period to ensure adaptation at each phase.

In the next post I’ll post the current template…

I figured it might be an idea to lay down my current training goals, that way some of the stuff I say in the future will have some context.

All of this refers to my current cycle which I started 3 weeks ago.

Starting Point

I like strength.  I like power.  You’ll see that my goals are mainly focused on these two areas.

My level of strength is relatively solid but I hold to the view that I can always be stronger.

As far as strength goes my relative strength is good, but in absolute terms could be better i.e. I’m strong for a light guy, but compared to big dudes could do better.

Before going into this cycle my lifts were as below, bodweight at 65kg:

• Back Squat 122.5kg / 188% Bodyweight
• Deadlift 170kg / 262% Bodyweight
• Overhead Press 65kg / 100% Bodyweight
• Floor Press  107.5kg / 165% Bodyweight
• Clean & Jerk 75kg / 115% Bodyweight
• Snatch 57.5kg / 88% Bodyweight

I feel like my Oly lifts should be higher and I think this is technique not strength related.  Gymnastics stuff is fairly solid with me working towards more advanced strength moves.

My conditioning sucks.  No further explanation required.

Goals

I wanted to take a more balanced and steady approach to my barbell lifting, whilst improving my gymnastics strength and still getting some Oly work in.  I also needed to get my conditioning up for the sake of recovery and generally not feeling like s**t

I was worried that I was perhaps trying to do too much at once.

Robb Wolf recently talked about skill acquisition as a workout goal instead of just hammering yourself with trying to improve work capacity.  This struck a chord with me as I felt it might be a good way to focus and not lead me down the overtraining route.

As Pavel says “Strength is a skill”.

So, my general goals are as follows:

1. Take the time to improve lifting technique across all lifts
2. Learn and develop new gymnastics strength skills
3. Keep up progress on the Olympic lifts focusing on technique
4. Do some form of conditioning 3 times per week with a focus on rowing.

The specific goals:

1. 130kg Back Squat (200% Bodyweight)
2. 180kg Deadlift (275% Bodyweight)
3. 75kg Overhead Press (115% Bodyweight)
4. 90kg Clean & Jerk (138% Bodyweight)
5. 65kg Snatch (100% Bodyweight)
6. Full Planche Hold
7. Freestanding Handstand Push Up
8. 7:30 2000m Row

Timescale

I’m aiming to achieve all this by the end of this year – 31st December 2010

I’ll outline my training plan in the next post.

This is a write up of my recent training experience with the Smolov Base Squat Cycle.

The Smolov????

The Smolov is an iconic powerlifting program and on paper it looks rough.  I first read about this in Pavel’s excellent book Power to the People Professional.

Here’s the breakdown… (% x reps x sets)

That’s the plan in all its glory.  Four days per week of heavy squats cycling from high to low reps as the week progresses whilst maintaining volume in the 30-36 rep range in each session.

Why Do This???

A valid question.

Short answer – because my Back Squat sucked and I couldn’t break the 120kg barrier.

My legs have always been my weak link strength-wise.  I’m kinda classic gymnast build and upperbody / core strength comes fairly naturally.  Leg strength? Not so hot.

The difference between the ease at which I can build upperbody muscle mass and lower body is also huge and my legs even when getting stronger have been reluctant to grow.

I figured the Smolov might fix some of these weaknesses.

The Starting Point

The end of my last cycle before embarking on the Smolov yielded a 1RM of 117.5kg

Crunching the numbers gave the following plan:

Looking at this before I started, I was pretty dubious that I could hit the numbers as prescribed, but I figured it was worth a shot and figured that the only thing to lose was my weakness.  Heck, if after 4 weeks of squatting that often, if I couldn’t up my max, I was pretty much resolved to top myself (I take this kind of thing way too seriously!).

The Actual Training

Week 1

This sucked.  I sucked.  I was doing way below parallel Back Squats and the volume was harsh on my knees.  I noticed also that my abductors and adductors were really weak at the bottom and I was losing knee position integrity as I was unable to keep them pushed out in the bottom position and they were starting to roll in.  I was also really feeling the volume in my low back.

I fixed all this with two simple solutions…

1. I started wearing knee sleeves (not wraps) to keep my knees warm throughout.
2. I switched to low box squats where the box was low enough so that the crease of my hips was below the knee, but not so low that I was rock bottom.

The box squats enabled me to push my hips back, whilst keeping my shins straighter throughout.  This relieved the forces on the knees and made me focus on using the muscles around my hips and my abductors and adductors.  Doing this also created more torque through the back which aided in strengthening the muscles there, but because I wasn’t going as low on the squats, kept the back in a stronger position for me.

Box Squats. Depth for my cycle would be similar if you lost the plate on top of the box

Week 2

This week called for a 10kg jump from the last week in all sessions.  This sounds like a huge jump, but the starting %s are actually a little lower than what would be maxing out, so a 10kg jump actually brings you inline with where you should be.  The first week is almost a tempering process to get you used to the volume.  The real work starts here.

This was hard, but since I’d sorted out my knees and my positioning, it wasn’t painful.  The higher rep sessions at the start of the week were the worst for me as I’m used to low rep training.  This was good though as I obviously needed the gear change.  I was also much more sore after the higher rep days.

About half way through this week a shift occurred and I became strangely addicted to the squats.  There was hardly a moment where I wasn’t thinking about squatting and the next session couldn’t come quick enough.  This was a bit odd.

Week 3

This called for a 5kg increase in each session from week 2 and by this point I was well in the flow.  Not much new to report here except that by the end of the week I was handling a weight for 10 sets of 3 that was only 2.5kg short of my recent 1RM.  Pretty cool for 3 weeks work.

The Final Result

After almost a week’s layoff I felt ready to try for a new PR.

After several warm up sets, I got to work.

All of my PR attempts were full depth and I dispensed with the box.  Therefore my Max attempts were lower than my training reps.

I checked how 115kg felt as this was the heaviest I got up to with the box during training.  It went down and up easily and this charged my confidence.

Since 117.5kg was my previous best, I decided to save some energy and skip this and go straight t0 120kg.

120kg went smoothly and the form was solid.  This was going well.  On to 122.5kg.

122.5kg also felt good.  Tough at the bottom and a sticking point half way up but it went and felt solid.  I like PRs but I like them more when they feel good

I tried 125kg like I think anyone would have done, but whether I was fatigued or whether it was just a step too far, I didn’t make it out of the bottom position.  You win some, you lose some.

That was it…. Smolov Base Cycle done…

How I felt About the Whole Thing and What I Learned

122.5kg represented a 5kg PR for me which is right in line with Pavel’s expectations for a lighter lifter (I’m 65kg).  A heavyweight lifter would see larger gains.

For 4 weeks work, I was really happy with a 5kg increase in my 1RM.  It doesn’t sound like much, but as I’m approaching double-bodyweight and since I’d been stalled out for so long, it was great to break the 120kg barrier.

My back strength improved dramatically and my midsection stabilisation is much more solid and transfers well to the gymnastic work I’ve done since.  I also gained some leg mass – quads mainly but also inner thighs.  Not quite enough to cause chafing issues, but hey – you’ve got to keep somethings to look forward to…

Recovery was paramount during all this.  I foam rolled and stretched multiple times daily.

Nutrition was also important. I ate 3 decent sized main meals of the paleo kind (a protein whack, decent amount of paleo carbs and good fats) plus 2 shakes consisting of some whey isolate, a mixture of berries plus some sweet potato and a little coconut milk.  All of this rounded out at about 2500-3000kcal per day with protein at 1gram+ per pound of bodyweight.

Despite all this I still managed to go down with a heavy cold after finishing the plan and this is really rare for me – especially seeing as its summer over here.

Combining This With Other Stuff

Along with the Smolov, I was also trying to maintain my other lifts.  I dropped Deadlifts completely, but still Overhead Pressed and Benched once per week and threw in some gymnastic work when I felt good.

Suprisingly I was able to add 2.5kg to my Bench 1RM at the end of all this.

If you are going to do other stuff with you’re squats then you need to be smart with it.  Low volume, not maxing out and skip it if you’re overtrained.  I’d personally do other stuff on the 4 sets of 9 day and the 7 sets of 5 day as these seemed easier to recover from than the other two days for me atleast.

What I’d Do Different In the Future

First off I’d eat more and sleep more whilst doing it.

Next, I’d use knee sleeves from the start.

I’d only use the box on the first two sessions each week.  I think this would give a better carryover for the final 1RM test.

Did I mention eating and sleeping more???

Would I Recommend The Smolov?

In the right circumstances yes.  However, unless you’re very experienced, the volume is high, difficult to recover from and forces you to exclude working on other lifts and skills at a high enough level to really develop them.

In my opinion, beginners will be better served by spending time on Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength program and then as they move up from novice status, moving on to something similar to Coach Rut’s ME Black Box or Wendler’s 5/3/1 template to promote long term gains across all lifts.

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 Rules

The Smolov works, but it takes over your life.  If you’re ready for that, cool, go get some.  Otherwise there are simpler ways to increase strength that allow better all-round development.