As I sit and write this, I’m currently under a blanket full of cold with my calf strapped up because off a non contact strain I picked up on Sunday playing Basketball… I did hit 140kg in the squat for 6x6 with 60 seconds rest between sets completely kit-less, which was the big goal of the last block. So thats a nice win, but this isn’t about me and we’ve had a couple of guys competing this month along with a whole host of PBs coming in so i’ll crack on.
We’ll start with Taj who finished his last training cycle really strong hitting PBs in the Snatch of 56kg & 58kg, in the Clean and Jerk of 64kg and then continued up in the clean to hit 67kg and 70kg and to round off the PBs he hit one in the Block Jerk of 65kg. There’s a few things I could talk about here from Tajs month, but I’m going to focus on why you might continue upward when testing a C&J max once you start missing the Jerk.
Pitstop 1:
While the Clean & Jerk is judged as one movement, it is for all intents and purposes two movements and should be trained as such. Now most lifters train the movements separately without thinking much about it, but just as it’s important to work off the correct load in the Snatch, C&J & Squat, it’s important to work off the same loads in the Clean and the Jerk when performing them separately.
As we can see with Taj, there’s not much of a discrepancy between his C&J and his Block Jerk so we’d probably be ok just applying C&J numbers when training that, although a little extra accuracy never hurts. However there’s around a 10% difference between his max Clean and his C&J and this should probably be taken into account when training the Clean by itself to make sure we’re not understimulating adaptations in the Clean.
I’m not one to buy into either train of thought that the Clean should be higher than the Jerk by x amount or vice versa and if there’s a big difference between the two you don’t necessarily need to endeavour to close the gap, you’d just maybe put more time or effort into the one thats holding back the most.
As long as you haven’t gotten to that point by focussing on what you’re good at and neglecting what you’re not, If you know you’ve got one of the two lifts nailed in the C&J thats just less to worry about on the platform.
James hit PBs in the Floor Press of 100kg x6 and Push Press of 127.5kg for a new 1RM on his way to 3rd place in the inters category at Strong on the Tyne on the 15th of October. James has now turned his Sights to UKNS Juniors in January and bringing his Deadlift up inline with his Push Press.
Pitstop 2:
One of the ways we’re bringing James Deadlift up is by having him perform them first in the week after a rest day. James always liked to Press first in the week because he felt it had less effect on his deadlifts the next day than doing it the other way around and i’d largely agree. However James Deadlift has been stuck a while so a change is needed so one of the best way to facilitate progress is to do the thing you’re targeting most, earlier in the week and after a rest day when you have the most energy.
Jenesis hit a nice PB in the Front Squat of 56kg for a new 1RM and has been consistently getting up to 26kg in the Snatch in her training sessions which is progress as it means her consistent minimum has gone up.
A Quick Tip:
Obviously 1RMs are often the name of the game in the gym, but if you feel like you’re getting nowhere and not hitting PBs, take a look at what your minimums are and if they’ve gone up. If your minimum loads are going up, you’re making progress… It’s just that the progress you’re making hasn’t manifested itself as new 1RMs yet.
Marie has had an amazing month in October as she prepare for the Yorkshire Winter Open on the 12th of November… Here’s a list:
Push Press - 54kg x1
Push Press - 50kg x2
Front Squat - 80kg x1
Front Squat - 81kg x1
Power Jerk - 58kg x1
Clean - 65kg x1
Clean - 66kg x1
Clean Deadlift - 85kg x3
C&J - 57kg x2+1
Jerk - 57 x2
Jerk - 58kg x2
Obviously everything’s on the up and we’ll look to manifest this as a good performance on the platform. Obviously not everyday is brilliant, especially when you’re in a heavier phase, but one of the best things about coaching Marie is her stoicism when it comes to training and her ability to keep a level head when things don’t go to plan on a specific day.
Xena is going through a bit of a life transition at the minute and we’re looking to get some control. The main thing we’re looking at is fuelling well through the work day, which she’ll admit, she is shit at. Never the less, she’s hit some PBs this month in the Push Press of 40kg x5 & 42kg x3 and also in the Front Squat of 60kg x5, 65kg x3 & 72kg for a new 1RM. I think we’re in a good place but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that these movements are in a session she does at the weekend when she’s not at work.
Little Jo is coming to the end of a training cycle and is hitting some nice PBs. She’s hit all time PBs in the Bench Press of 44kg and 45kg for new 1RMs while also hitting a new 3RM on the Deadlift and while losing around 5kg or 10% of her bodyweight.
Liam is currently prepping for his first competition, the goals are to match his best ever gym Squat but with naked knees, to match his best gym based Bench Press but with a competition standard pause and to smoke a new Deadlift PB. He’s making moves to smash all 3 of those and has hit multiple new 5RMs in the Squat of 140kg, 145kg, 150kg & 155kg over the past month as well as a Pause Bench 5RM or 100kg and a Deadlift 5RM of 200kg.
Quick Tip 2:
If you want to make progress in strength, one of the best things you can do is add a little pressure both in terms of time and numbers and enter a competition. Not all stress is bad stress when it comes to adaptations and getting the most out of your training.
Olivia is having a blinding rugby season taking multiple player of the games so far. That doesn’t mean we have to stop training hard and Olivia has hit new 1RMs in the Front Squat of 82.5kg and 85kg and in the Power Clean & Jerk of 68kg.
Pitstop:
People often think they have to be 100% on game day and that isn’t the case.
I understand the argument to peak and taper for sports that are one off events with long gaps between competition, but for teams sports where you’re playing almost every week it’s just not possible as to be 100% requires a reduction in training load and repeated reductions in training load over time will cause a detraining effect which will actually cause the athlete to get worse over time. With Olivias training we have two goals, to keep moving forwards where we can and when the schedule allows and to have her 90 to 95% ready on game days.
It’s a tough balancing act, but it’s much better than having her detrain over the course of the season.
Scott is making good progress and recently hit a new 3RM of 170kg in the Deadlift. Scott is new to strongman but is proficient with a barbell so the goal here is to push barbell based strength lifts while learning and using good technique in the strongman specific lifts.
This month Jen hit 1RMs in the Front Squat at 83kg, Snatch alt 39kg & Clean at 57kg. Those 40kg & 60kg targets are getting close to falling.
Karen is new to our Online Weightlifting Team but has made great progress over the last 8 weeks recently hitting PBs in the Snbatch of 43kg & 44kg, C&J of 54kg & Clean of 55kg… Notice a pattern of whats going on once someone missed their Jerk?
Our new training cycle has just started and it’s back squat focussed, so if you’re an Olympic Weightlifter who want’s to bring up their back squat, or who just wants to be a better Olympic Weightlifter, join us here!
https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/weightlifting-online-team
Our Strongmen are in a GPP / Offseason Phase so we’re looking to bring up weakness, one of which is max weight on the yoke and Cori has done just that hitting 20m PBs of 160kg & 180kg and a 10m PB of 200kg.
The Last Pitstop:
Strongmen often get confused about what they should be doing in the off season and it’s quite simple…
You should be accumulating volume and building a work capacity that allows you to do enough work as the season closes in and in-season to illicit adaptations and progress while also looking to bring up your weakness and holes in your game.
One of the collective weakness’ in the strongman club is Max Yoke, this is partially because it’s not been in a competition and partially because my tendency is to have time limits when training moving events to keep the pace high as I believe being slow on yoke is where most people drop points rather than not being strong enough.
It has caused me to reflect on how I coach moving events though and think maybe I should put heavier stuff in once in a while as a standard rather than waiting for it to come up in competition to train it.
Moving Event Time Limits
If you’re wondering how I decide time limits for training moving events, Its 1 second for ever 2 metres of distance + 2 seconds per pick up… Or at least thats the starting point.
Stephen is in the GPP phase with the Online Strongman Team but decided to jump into Strong on the Tyne last minute and came 5th in the Novice category.
Lastly we have Oli who also is part of the Online Strongman Team and also competed in Strong win the Tyne… Old came 1st in the inters category of his first ever Strongman competition and is now prepping for UKNS U105s.
If you’re a UKNS competitor, or just want to get better at strongman, you can join our Online Strongman Team here:
https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/strongman-online-team
Thats it, as usual hopefully there’s been some value in you reading this. Now i’m off to blow my nose, rehab this calf and to have a think about how I’ll approach training maximum weights more regularly in moving events.
Reflective practices are an important part of self improvement.
Until next time
Adam
