12/13/16
Taking this as a rest day. I am going to tear something in my knee if I lift today. On the bright side at least I am not in as much pain right now. Tomorrow I should be at 100% or near 100%. Might just limit it to jerks/push presses tomorrow if my knee hurts to squat.
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12/14/16
Jerk day
General warm up, and rack warm up
Rack Jerks
95X3
135X2
165X2
185X1
220X2 for 5 sets
push presses
180X5 for 2 sets
180X4
180X3
180X1
Didn’t miss any reps, just didn’t take reps I knew would be bad
feet to bars
bwX12 for 3 sets
one arm DB curls (lol)
40X12 per side
40X5 per side
40X3 per side
My knee felt a lot better once it got warmed up. Also I learned how to rerack jerks and push presses without jacking up my elbows and wrists. I just damn near herniated a disc doing it wrong once trying to figure out how to do it. (I accidentally arched my back while pushing my head back, I figured out that I just take it down to my face then just force my elbows up and let it fall to my delts and bend my knees at the last moment).
The jerks just keep getting easier and easier. Next week I got a couple blues per side for 5X2 which will be cool. I wonder how long I can keep this going. It’ll be amazing if I can keep these going until they catch up to my strength limit.
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There’s a skill I have yet to learn.
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With my frequency it’s a must. That, and high bar speed and proper form are also more important for Weightlifting than Powerlifting (supposedly).
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AM workout
High hang cleans
190X3 for 5 sets
PM workout
Had the newspaper interviewers over so I decided to PR on my deadlift for them.
Conventional deadlift
135X3
225X2
315X2
405X1 put belt on for this set
455X1
495X1 quick
515X1 upper back rounded a little during the lift (not the intentional kind) so I called it here
20 Pound PR, good for not deadlifting in a month, right? 
I am not sure if whether I got fatter, my back/abs got bigger, or if my belt shrank/stiffened from lack of use, but I had to go down another hole. At 4 instead of 6. Also no chalk, and my grip was holding up strong. Maybe Oly lifting is the secret to a big deadlift. /s
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The deadlift fried me pretty bad. Good news is that my knee seems completely healthy now. Was way too sore to lift yesterday, will be doing yesterday’s workout today.
On pressing strength for accessory work, I got some new goals. Repping out 90 pounds on weighted dips for 3X10. After that, Javelin press 100+, see how far I can go without stalling.
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90 pounds for 3 x 10 with dips would be awesome!
Im thinking about adding the “push press” into my routine. Probably more explosive that the standard strict military press. Any tips/suggestions?
tweet
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It’s a lot more technique and power dependent than the strict press. Do it early in your workouts, program it for no more than sets of 8, sets of 3-8 are best. Make sure you can do a proper front squat rack with all of your hands on the bar. A really good warm up for the rack position is taking the bar below your neck and pushing your elbows up as far as possible and do that a few times, then take the bar into the front squat position and jiggling your elbows and wrists around getting comfortable with the bar there then doing a few front squats with the bar.
The dipping part of the push press you go straight down right before the hips start going back, and then drive the bar up, make sure your chin is out of the way, and pushing your shoulders up and back and it should have the bar finishing right behind your head right above where it would be if you were high bar squatting.
The push press is more of an athletics/weightlifting exercise than an upper body mass/strength builder in my opinion.
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12/18/16
Heavy day
Snatches
45Xa bunch
75X3
105X3
135X2
155X2
175X2
185X1, missed the second rep
195X1 YES! 10 pound PR
clean and jerk
135X1
165X1
185X1
205X1
225X1
245X1 10 pound PR, jerk was smooth
front squats
295X2 for 6 sets
Jerks were really smooth today. Jerk day seems to be paying off. Third pull on my snatch still being an issue when the weight gets heavy.
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I have some logging to catch up on. I’ll start with today.
12/26/16
Heavy day
Snatches
45Xa bunch
75X3
105X3
125X3
145X2
165X1
175X1
185X1
165X1
175X1
185X1
clean and jerks
135X1
165X1
185X1
205X1
225X1
240X0 lost clean forward out of the hole
240X1 I saved the clean, got a super easy jerk
front squats
295X2 for 6 sets
dips
90X8
90X5
90X3 drop set 45X5 bwX7
seated calves
2pl8sXsomething
2pl8sXsomething
2pl8sXsomething drop sets 1pl8sXsomething machineXsomething, machine by itself is 90 some pounds
I noticed the facility that I’ve been lifting at has a reverse hyper. The workout was already taking awhile to get to and back from and to do, and I had a holiday party to do so I cut it short without any extra reverse hypers. I bought a week pass at the place while my school gym is closed for break/I wait for my equipment to arrive/before I set up my stuff.
Also note: It SUCKS to front squat with hammer strength plates on an ohio bar. I don’t get why, but either they or the barbell I was using made the weight really uncomfortable. I’ll either keep to using a multi-purpose rogue bar, or actual rogue oly bar when I am squatting.
And list of goodies that I can’t play with/wouldn’t make sense since switching to oly at the place I bought a week pass to: swiss bar, american bar, log, axle, farmer handles, texas deadlift bar, monolift, chains for days, bands, and a bunch of other powerlifting and strongman stuff I couldn’t remember. Goodies for days.
Articles have been published, I’ll try to pop one up later if I can find an online copy.
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12/20/16
Jerk day
225X2 for 5 sets
12/21/16
apparently a strength day
front squats
295X3 for 6 sets
push press
180X5
180X2
180X1
or something like that, I couldn’t dip/drive at all after I killed my legs with those squats
12/22/16
High hang cleans
195X3 for 5 sets
above knee hang snatches
135X3 for 5 sets
bench press
225X17, I did this for fun since my buddy was benching. Not sure if it was 225 or 230 because I noticed 2.5’s on the bar after getting a drink. At least I am maintaining my upper body strength.
12/24/16
Light snatch day
Snatch complex (hang high pull-muscle snatch-klokov press-dropsnatch-sotts press-squat up)
95X1 for 5 sets
snatch unders
65X5 for 3 sets
front squats
295X4 for 6 sets
1 arm flies
50X8 each side for 3 sets
one arm inverse rows with feet elevated
bwX2 per side for 3 sets
foot elevated inverted rows
45X20
45X13
Started RSR for front squat because I felt like getting some hard squatting in. After going through the first week, I can tell I’ll be getting more than my fill of front squats in.
I had some arm work in there somewhere, but I am not sure. Also did a tempo push up max (weird thing we did for weightlifting class), in which it’s like 1 second down, 1 second pause, 1 second up, 1 second pause and repeat. I did 38 push ups like that. Also busted out arm push ups, and normal push ups afterwards for volume.
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12/28/16
Jerk day
Rack jerks
230X2 for 5 sets
Front squats
295X5 for 6 sets
I had no energy left after the squats, so I just went home before doing accessory work. Will make sure to keep gatorade with me when I lift.
I wonder how far I can push the weight before I have to go down to singles. I am going to try to keep it rolling at least until 245-255. I am finding that my form and timing continues to improve as time goes on. Need to work on my foot work though.
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Clean day
Warm up then
High hang cleans
115x3
135x3
165x3
205x2
205x2
225x1
235x1
245x1
255x1
Clean complex (1 pull, 3 pull from above knee, one power clean)
215x1 for 4 sets
GHR (elitefts) and rock climbing pull ups
4 sets each of a bunch
Was feeling good today.
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Noticed that you were jumping in front quite a fair bit in your video, you might want to take a look at this.
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That article was actually the first thing that came into mind when I noticed the forward jump. As far as I am aware that was the only attempt that had the forward jump as well. Right now, I need to work on: pulling under properly, fixing my rack position, and not jumping forward.
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The next off season like block of time I have, I need to build my calves. Having weak calves while doing oly lifting really sucks.
Never really trained my calves directly so I don’t really have an idea what’s that like. Why would you say you have weak calves though? The first exercise that came into my mind would be high pulls from the ground where you end in the tip toe position. Basically an explosive calve raise whilst also reinforces the various positions of the lifts.
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My calves get really sore/painful when I am in a squat position for a long time. I am attributing that to my knees being really far forward/getting beat up from pulls. I have been aggressively stretching/rolling/massaging them though, so that helps. I don’t think it’s a mobility thing, either though I am working daily on mobility stuff.
That, and my calves are just comically small compared to the rest of me. Like my arms are probably three inchers bigger than my calves if I bothered to check.
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That fucking hang clean was immaculate. Nice to see you pulling well into the 5’s and shit too. I kinda feel like power snatching something soon for fun because of your log. I enjoy olympic lifting but I don’t have the mobility to be good at it 
I just fling shit over my head.
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Thanks, man, that was 10 pounds over my best clean. I am not sure if something just clicked, or if snatches before cleans just wreck me.
Also I am flinging weight overhead too, I am just flinging it over my head better than I was. I need to learn how to get under the bar, and not just dropping underneath the bar.
And yeah, mobility is rough! I am doing mobility work everyday (even right now while I am dropping everything to finish my college apps). I did my first successful shoulder dislocation a few days ago, and I can now pump them out with my snatch grip. I can’t wait to snatch this morning with this newfound mobility.