Destrength Has Awful Priority Management (road to 405 pound jerk)

Training Logs
261

To me it felt like a maximum clean feels, and my clean pulls and deadlifts were around where they should be for my planned cleans. What are your lifts like? Might be different strength ratios going on.

Like my hang clean is supposed to be (if I didn’t crash and burn) around 305-ish, and my clean is normal like 5-10 pounds on my hang. The upper limit of clean pulls is like 110%.

You are right though, I should be doing more power work (80% on full lifts, and the powers). I’ve been trying to push numbers for a bit. I need to take a couple steps back and do volume in the 75-85 range.

262

I think my ratios are close. It’s been awhile since I’ve focused on cleans but last year I hit 285 on hang power clean and then 315 a bit later on my full power clean.

I was doing pulls with 50 lbs more than my working weight on cleans. I did a 10 week progression starting at 80% and increasing 2.5% each week till I hit a new max. By week 10 I was doing pulls with 345 lbs.

I tend to push the weights too. Moving 275 lbs easily is fun even though I know that power development is achieved at 60-80% which is actually around 170-205 for me.

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263

It’s not going to be as fast as a power if that’s what you are basing it off of. What are your strength numbers like?

264

I’m building back up now. I stopped training squats in April and slowly stopped all other leg training over the summer while I tried to figure out what was wrong with my hip. Eventually I just took a complete break and I’m only three weeks back into a good routine. I’d guess my numbers are close to:

315 squat (365 PR)
225-250 front SQUAT (275 PR)
205 push Press (275 PR)
275 bench (305 PR)
450 Deadlift (495 PR)
275 power clean (315 PR)
245-255 hang power clean (285 PR)

Those are educated guesses for now. I haven’t done many of those on a regular basis as of late.

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265

How do you front squat less than you clean?

266

Lol I’ve been wondering that myself! I power clean and catch in a quarter to half squat. Apparently my body is decent at pulling but not at squatting.

I posted a video of today’s top sets.

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267

Olympic lifts are looking strong man!

Are you currently following a specific program? I saw mention above of Nathan Damron’s “Train Stupid” but wasn’t sure if you were still doing that?

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268

I got sick running Train Stupid, and college was starting soon-ish so I switched to a strength program made by greg everret that I modified (a lot more doable). I am about to do the taper for that to finish it. After it I am taking like a month to regain muscle on my upper body, fill out muscles/strengthen stabilizers for weightlifting, and have something that I can do while I am going in for finals. Then start building for a shot at a qualifying total for this next national cycle.

There’s a lot of stuff I want to work on, but I DO have to work through a taper to get 90-100% experience. Besides, I like to make sure I finish programs.

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269

Snatches
135x1 five sets

clean and jerks
185x1+1 five sets

D handle loose seated rows
160x20
200x15
220x12
240x6

Calves

Called it a day.

Very intense session as you could tell from 10 singles at 60%. :wink:

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270

Clean and jerks
135X(1+1)2
185X(1+1)2
225X1+1
255X1+1
275X1+1
295X1+1
235X1 holy fuck this was forward and shitty
235X1+1 not as forward/crashy
235X1+1 aight this was good

snatches
65X3
95X3
135X2
165X1
185X1 tad forward, never made contact to hips
205X0 forward, was tempted to grab the bar and make it on the second shot but knew I would’ve fucked with my head/recovery if I missed again.
155X1
155X1
155X1

back squats (beltless)
up to
455X1 butter
475X0 Walkout was shit and I just wasn’t in it. Who would’ve thought not squatting for multiple months and then fatiguing yourself heavily wouldn’t be good grounds to hit a PR?

10 pound PR on clean and jerk that felt easy. Throwing split jerks back in the mix. Was supposed to lift yesterday, but was over at my bro’s for dinner and returned later than I intended for some reasons.

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271

Snatch up to 205x1
215x0
215x0Pissed about missing them, I easily got them overhead with my arms locked out, but I kept landing with my feet unevenly

145x2
145x2
145x2

clean and power jerks
255x1

185x2 for 3 sets

Had to leave to get dinner before the place closes, will do the left over work later in the week. Did a light session day before. Literally biggest issue and only major issue is jumping and landing. Power jerks good too aside from arm movement/timing. Will be pleased with snatch once I get that down. Feel good for 225 with proper foot work.

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272

10/11/17

Snatches
165X2 for 6 sets

clean and jerks
235X(1+1)2 for 4 sets

weighted chin ups
45X8
55X6
65X4
45X4

Going to do some abs and band pull aparts either tonight or tomorrow morning. Worked on fixing some things with my lifts that were pissing me off, like landing on the front of my feet in the snatch, making the pulls smoother, cutting out that crashing feeling in the clean, etc.

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273

Down for the weekend at my mum’s house so I can see my puppy.

10/13/17

Dog shit training session

Clean and jerks
265X1+0 (missed jerk
295X0 stupid jump to be honest
285X0

Just left.

10/14/17
Snatches
45Xa bunch
95X3
95X3
135X2
135X2
165X2
185X1 so fucking forward
205X1 Technique and everything felt good
215X1 fuck yes, 10 pound PR
225X0 let the bar drift in the third pull because I was too pumped up
225X1 20 pound PR, some dude at the gym I like to train at when at home came up to me, said “You got this shit, fucking get it” and I proceeded to chalk up and destroy it
165X2
165X2
165X2

Place closed an hour earlier than I thought it did. Will do my squatting and accessory work at home later tonight.

I have one more heavy singles day in “this week”, that ended up being on Monday because I decided to repeat Friday’s workout/I wanted to train every day while down at home. Two more weeks of three heavy single days mixed with back off days at 80%, and a test week, feeling good about my snatch if I can keep the bar straight when I need to like today. Will probably end the cycle with my snatch around 235-245, solid improvements.

Finally starting to like snatches too, after I take my month-ish off from Weightlifting (basically just doing fuck tons of DB/GPP/bodybuilding work because I lost a lot of stuff this cycle) I think I’ll put an emphasis on them (they are lower than they should be compared to my clean and jerk anyway).

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274

Awesome snatch PR man. Your log is awesome, love reading it.

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275

Thanks, man. It was a long time coming.

276

Fucking exams keeping me busy.

10/18/17
Found a cool gym that has some Weightlifting stuff I like/has a barbell club, considering joining the barbell club. Had a few days off from training so just worked on form

snatches
183X2 for 5 sets

clean and no feet power jerks
fuck if I know, all sets between like 205 and 235

ring pull ups and controlled descent feet to bars
bwX15, 5
bwX4, 2
Was really spent/needed to eat so I couldn’t do much accessory work.

10/19/17
Back was a little iffy, slept on my stomach like a tard/was a little sore from lifting the day before so I decided to go from the rack instead of doing clean and jerks

rack power jerks
95X3
135X5
185X2
225X1
245X1
265X1 press out, but I’ll count it
275X1 butter, pretty sure this is technically a power jerk PR
285X0, I was a retard and tried a narrower than normal stance to see how it feels. The answer is: no, I am good at jerking with a slightly wider than shoulder width stance. Probably could’ve got this if I didn’t dick with my form.
no feet power jerks
205X2
205X2
205X2

snatches
95X3
135X2
165X2
185X1
205X0
205X1 ayy, ‘PR’ snatch for doing snatches after heavy singles in cleans/jerks/clean and jerks.

front squats
135X3
185X3
225X3
275X2
315X1
365X0, I… yeah. I made a stupid jump, and probably would’ve got this if I made a reasonable jump. Regardless my front squat isn’t the healthiest it’s been, so I’ll probably start pushing my (front) squats consistently again.

bamboo bar overhead carries
35lbs dumbbell on double light bands per sideX1 trip, 4 sets

KB hammer curl
35X6
35X5
35X4

weighted dips
55X20
55X5
55X5

Really liking the no feet power jerks, forces me to really focus on weight distribution/keeping the hips in the correct position during the whole lift/squatting under the bar. Noticed Apti does them a lot (in fact I think they’re his main style).

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277

10/20/17

Trained a lot earlier in the day than usual on less food, probably a very poor choice.

Snatches
185X2 for 5 sets, missed like 2 of the 10 reps

Was training in by a box and I asked some crossfitian how to do a muscle up (always really impressed by muscle ups, like literally what the fuck is that magic), so that turned into me swinging and doing transition drills for like 30+ minutes. Beat the hell out of my upper body and abs, so… win? I think I’ll start working on muscle ups once this cycle is over and I can spare the elbow/shoulder recovery. It’d be cool to be able to get volume in on my upper body pulling and pushing muscles at the same time without even having to superset.

Overall pretty meh training session, didn’t warm up enough so it dicked with my bar path on snatches and I was aching a little from the night before because it ended up being like 12 hours from my last training session. Knowing my body, with a ton of food and rest that will turn into a PR either tomorrow, or in the very near future once my body overcomes the fatigue enough to perform.

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278

On a different note, I am strongly considering boosting the fuck out of my jerks/overhead squat/snatch balance/front squat. I doubt I’ll be able to qualify for any cool 2018 meets (could always be wrong), so might as well train to be able to fuck shit up in 2019, right? Goals for 2018 would include: a 405 jerk off of boxes (boxes are magic, they will immediately fucking add kilos to your jerks), a 315 snatch balance/365 overhead squat, a good snatch push press (somewhere between balances and overhead squats), and a 495 front squat. Oh yeah, and go to and win two local meets in 2018.

As always, I shoot for ambitious goals and fail high. Balance and snatch push press goals are pretty reasonable, front squat is really fucking ambitious (maybe not, depends on how my front squat reacts to actually training it properly), and the jerk and overhead squats are somewhat ambitious but entirely possible goals with proper training and (on the jerk part) technical work. The local meet goals are pretty reasonable, I will probably be able to walk into most regional meets by the end of next year and win them guaranteed.

As for the snatches, cleans, and pulls, I just want them to continue to improve technically and be more consistent/automatic. If I get crisp, even, smooth cleans and snatches at 90% consistently then I’ll be happy.

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279

Do you ever record your weightlifting videos. I saw you 500 squat back in May, if you are still carrying that strength you could be good for more.

Have you considered the shoulder work you will need to get to a 400+ jerk? Core as well? It doesn’t look like your routine has much pressing.

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280

I have recorded for technique and stuff though I don’t keep it/post it unless it’s a PR. Right now I think my strict press is high enough/not a big priority, I do need a strong jerk support (supposed be able to jerk support 110% of what you want to jerk), so I will include those once a week during strength cycles.

I will likely do face pulling/three way raises/lu raises a couple times a week during all cycles for higher reps (3-4 sets of 12-20) to keep my shoulders healthy with all of the stress they’ll be under. Core strength I will pay more attention to, front squats have it mostly covered though I’ll be working harder/taking my core work seriously because I will need a stronger core for keeping a healthy back and transfering force properly in jerks. Right now I am looking for 5x10 slow descent toes to bar, 150lbsx5x10 on back extensions, 225x1 on suit case deadlifts, and banded bamboo bar carries up to a 55 on doubled average and 35 on doubled light per side.

Also I need more horizontal pulling work, so 365x8 on (cheat) bent over rows.

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