So, as usual its been a big month for our guys here at Savage Strength… So here it goes!
Jen has been burning the candle at both ends when it comes to training, and between running marathons and performing the Olympic Lifts she works nightshift as a nurse. Obviously long distance running and Olympic Lifting don’t necessarily go hand in hand and I told her that progress in the Olympic lifts would be hard to come by as we got deeper into the program and as she performed more longer runs, so to hit a new 5RM Squat of 73kg is a huge win for us. To be clear, I don’t program Jens running, thats not my area of expertise. I program Jens strength work and Weightlifting.
Paul has had a great month hitting a Deadlift PB of 182.5kg (+2.5kg) and a Strict Press PB of 70kg. There’s more to come from Paul as we move deeper into his training cycle. Pauls currently my guinea pig for trying out some new methods (I asked him and he’s happy for me to do so, he’s been with me a while and trusts me) and as we move to an isometric focussed phase i’m excited to see how things progress.
Joe currently has one thing on his mind… To beat his best ever wrapped set of Squats (204kg x4) without wraps and belles. His volume PB in the Squat of 180kg for 5x5 takes him 1 step closer to that goal.
Ash has been smashing it out of the park recently and hit a rep PB in the log press of 65kg x5. We’re also working on her deadlift technique in the background and its coming on leaps and bounds! Better technique means you can harness more strength which ultimately means bigger numbers.
What a month Jo has had, because of that, it’s probably easier for me to just list his PBs
190kg SSB Squat (+10kg)
115kg Push Press (+5kg)
110kg Axle FTOH (+10kg)
240kg Deadlift (+10kg)
110kg Close Grip Larsson
160kg Atlas Stone to 48in
175kg Atlas Stone to 48in
Lots of PB’s there but the one that sticks out is the 175kg Atlas Stone. At 18 years old that is an elite weight and is a testament to the work he puts in. His pressing is also coming on leaps and bounds which at 6ft 5in and with long arms, is no easy feat.
Liam had a great training cycle and finished it off with two all time PBs in the Squat & Deadlift of 160kg (+20kg) in the Squat and 210kg (+10kg) in the Deadlift. Up next we move to improve pressing strength while starting the chase for a 180kg Squat and a 220kg Deadlift.
Wil hit a great all time PB in the Deadlift of 150kg (+20kg). 160kg would be double bodyweight for Will so thats the next goal. Wil’s still in the ‘learning how to train’ phase of his journey. Learning when to push, when not to push. It’s an important phase if you go down the route of Online Coaching where you have to be self sufficient and sometimes make your own decisions and will set you up for making good decisions further down the line.
Megan hit an all time PB in the Back Squat of 78kg which is a 3kg increase! We’ve been working towards this for a while and was a big win!
Olivia hit some great PBs in the Snatch of 37kg (+1kg) and Clean & Jerk - 50kg (+Lots) and is finally getting on top of her Split Jerk technique.
Paul is also hitting plenty of PB’s in the Snatch of 50kg & C&J of 60kg.
Finally Marie hit a big Push Press PB of 43kg (+8kg). Now i’m not going to take credit for that as it was her first or second session with me and she’s been training a while so was obviously strong enough to do it. However, one of my jobs as a coach is to give athletes opportunities to progress their PB’s and to make sure they’re working at the correct intensities… And I think I did that quite well.
George C hit a nice Front Squat rep PB of 90kg x2 and we will continue to increase this as he progresses.
George F (Or George number 1) has been flying. He’s currently working on improving his grip and has hit a PB in the DOH Deadlift of 153kg 5x5 which is up 13kg since week 1 of his program and also hit some new rep maxes in the Deadlift of 240kg x7 (Beltless) and 250kg x5. The 250kg x5 matches his previous 3RM and sets us up nicely in the chase for that 300kg Deadlift. George also hit a nice 3RM on the Log of 120kg matching his previous 1RM.
And finally, after that marathon, Sean hit an nice 5RM on the deadlift of 230kg which was his previous 4RM.
Phew! That was a marathon, but a testament to how hard my guys work!… Speaking of marathons, i’d like to touch a bit more on Jens situation.
As I said, its not ideal to mix two very different modalities with completely different qualities, and while Jen has made a little bit of progress, it has been slow and I look forward to getting her back to weightlifting properly. If you do have to mix modalities and make your training more ‘concurrent’ in style, it is still possible to make progress, as long as you split up your sessions by at least 6 hours and making each session have a specific goal.
This means not mixing the sessions together and keeping lifting as lifting and running as running. If you do that, you can still make progress. The big problems usually arise when you mix the sessions and start with a strength movement then finish with cardio. It’s why CrossFit (as its programmed on a box level) largely doesn’t work past making you feel like you’ve worked hard.
Give each session a specific goal and you can circumnavigate some of the problems that arise with concurrent style training.
Until next time
Adam
