[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
[quote]dagill2 wrote:
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
MONDAY 8/24/15
DB Bench 2x10 - 50lbs
DB Hammer Curls 2x10 - 15lbs
DB Tricep Extension 2x10 - 20lbs
DB Shoulder Circuit 3x10 - 5lbs (Side, Rear Raises)
Row Machine 3x10 - 120lbs
2 Mile Walk
I have a gym at the office that has DBs that go up to 50 lbs, has a bike, 2 treadmills, and one of those “bow-flex” type machines with a leg press/rows/bench, etc. Since I usually lift in the AM I figure the days I lift (This week will be a bit different) during my lunches I will do some more “hypertrophy/bodybuilder” type work. Just a basic 30 min session that will be more arm/chest/back work. If I feel like this affects my Olympic lifting sessions negatively I’ll just drop it. This is just to hit some of the muscles that Olympic lifting doesn’t really hit. Plus I’m one of those people that need a bit more direct arm work. I’ll play around with different setups for a few weeks and see how it goes.[/quote]
OK. The following advice is worth about two cents. With that said: I don’t think I would bother with this stuff if I were in your position, with your stated goals.
Look, I get it. I don’t like taking days off entirely from exercise, and I have done almost this exact workout many times in a hotel gym over the years (when traveling, I often stay at a Hampton Inn, which almost always has a set of dumbbells from 5-50 pounds in the exercise room). If you were traveling for an extended period and just wanted to “get something in” for a few days, I think this would be fine, better than being totally sedentary for weeks at a time. But given that your stated goal in the very first post of this log is becoming a highly competitive Olympic weightlifter, I would say that this type of work contributes minimally, if at all, to that pursuit.
If you really must do something besides your Oly lifting, I think you should try to find an activity that will compliment the Oly lifting a little better. Yoga, or some other kind of flexibility work, could be useful in developing / maintaining the necessary flexibility required to perform full squat snatches and full cleans as you progress in weight. Heck, even 15 minutes on the bike could be justified as light recovery cardio. But the DB work listed here is an extra bit of stress on the elbow and shoulder that may not be worth whatever benefit is derived from it (once you’re doing snatches and C & J with more serious weight, that is).
Will this make a big difference in the early going? Probably not. Perhaps it’s even worth doing for a few months to add some overall mass. But my gut feeling is that - if you are serious about the pursuit of Oly lifting above all else - you would be best served nixing this stuff, and focusing 100 percent on your Oly training and recovery for your Oly lifting workouts.
However, if you’re an Activities Guy like me who is content to just, uh, do a bunch of stuff at a middling level, then feel free to keep doing this workout. I am absolutely epitomizing the concept of “Do what I say, not what I do” in this thread. It’s a free country, pump work is fun.[/quote]
I would echo all of this 100%. Apart from pump work being fun. Pump work is boring.
I find I make my best progress with minimalist training.
On a side note, I find rowing machines to be about the best warm up for O-lifting when I was doing them. Followed by kB swings/snatches. If you really are itching for stuff to do on off days, these might not be a bad place to start while still keeping your training pretty focused.[/quote]
Re: minimalist training, I agree with a caveat.
I’m not against the use of sensible assistance exercise, or even occasionally doing stuff just for fun. I do plenty of workouts that are “eh, I just felt like doing this today, so I did that” workouts.
However, when the trainee lists a specific goal of “be good at Olympic weightlifting” that’s when I start to get a little “ehhhh, does that really help the trainee?” at this type of discussion.
Dan John has a very simple maxim, somewhere, of
“Look at your training. Look at your goals. Does your training match your goals?”
Since I have the very vague “Be fit and capable and sorta strong” goal, I can make myself justify damn near anything! I win! But when OP (or anyone) lists a specific goal of “Become a really good Olympic weightlifter” then there seems to be a limited place for those kind of extras.
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I think, as is often the case, the two of us agree on this.
“The goal is to keep the goal, the goal”
I feel this is something both myself and OP find to be an issue on occasions.
In this particular case, I think conditioning will help anyone, and I can’t think of a much better way for an olympic lifter than kB work or rowing.