End of the Exams

Finally finished 'em, thank god. Should be able to get some much needed order to my training now.

Got in twice more this week, Wednesday and Thursday. Planned on training Friday, but spent the session in another local gym critiquing a friends deadlifting technique. They have no squat rack, and barely enough room to deadlift, nevermind clean or snatch; so I decided not to train.

Wednesday and Thursday weren't great, so I'm not going to log my lifts.

Wednesday was a day of random lifting. I was in with a friend, Reamonn, who I'm trying to get to return to the gym; so just went over some basic stuff. Pull ups, military presses, rows etc. Was nice to get doing some pull ups again, can't remember the last time I did! They were pretty tough though. My strength has really decreased recently, first time it's ever happened this drastically. Little annoyed about it.

I intended on training in Hercs Thursday, but Harry couldn't make it, and I've still to join, so I decided to train in DCU instead. I only got 3/4 hrs sleep the night before, so it was a pretty terrible session. I did some snatches, then some squatting, and left it at that.

I'm joining Hercs next week, and hope to train there 3 or 4 days. I've no lectures, so I can focus on lifting alone, and hopefully get a routine down for the following weeks.

Tuesday's Steady Progress

I trained in Hercs again today. It really is great to be back. The change in environment, improvement in training gear, and coaching from Harry is fantastic to say the least!

I arrived a little earlier than usual, so managed to fit in some of my shoulder rehab work. When Harry arrived I moved on to snatches. These were pretty good for a while. I was still making simple mistakes like not extending fully, as well as other smaller ones. Not staying over the bar, or getting my knees back enough going into the second pull were some Harry mentioned.

After that I did some jerks. These are improving a lot technique wise. That wouldn't be hard though. They really couldn't have been much uglier! Harry got me focus on the drive mainly. I definitely wasn't putting enough power or speed into it before. This made them feel a lot easier. As usual I finished with some squats. Here's what I did-

Snatch - 2*2*40kg, 2*2*43kg, 2*2*47kg, 2*1*47kg
It was intended that all four sets of 47kg would be doubles, but I missed the second in the last two sets. I was pretty annoyed about that. I lost them out front each time. The lock-out really needs improving.

After some jerk skill work with 40kg-
Jerk - 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 2*50kg
Front Squat + Jerk -
2+1*50kg, 2+1*54kg, 2+1*58kg, 2+1*62kg, 4*2+1*65kg
Front Squat - 3*65kg, 3*75kg, 5*3*85kg
These were pretty tough. But I managed to squeeze out the 5 sets of 85kg.

Today's session was very enjoyable overall. I think my strength levels have actually decreased though. I don't mind anyway, technique is the most important thing at the minute.

I have four exams out of five done, so I'm almost at the point where I can completely focus on training for a while. Really looking forward to getting this last one out of the way.

I should be down in Hercs again Thursday. There'll undoubtedly be a session that night though, since it's the last day of exams, but I'll make the best of it anyway. Even if the recovery time suffers. Here's hoping the DOMs aren't too bad!

Hours of sleep - 7/8hrs

Friday's Short Session

I was pretty fatigued today. I had another exam this morning, so I only got 3/4hrs sleep. I'm actually going to start logging roughly how much sleep I get the night before training, just to see how much it's affecting me.

As the title says, I kept it short today. I started with my shoulder rehab work as usual. Spent a little longer on it today, as I hadn't done much during the week. The exercise I'm finding most effective so far is the thoraic spine extension (also called the cobra pose in yoga). I can really feel the scaps moving in to place when I do them. The scap push-ups are really improving too. I hope all this indicates I'm improving.


Disclaimer: This is not me.

Here's what I did today after some bar work-
Hang Clean - 2*2*40, 2*45
Clean - 2*50, 2*55, 2*60, 2*65, 3*2*70
Back Squat - 5*60, 5*70, 5*80, 3*5*90
Glute-ham raises - 1 set of 6
Had to leave it at one set as the gym was closing. They weren't feeling the best anyway, so I wasn't too bothered.

So there you go. Quite an easy session.
I'm not sure when I'll be in next. I've exams Monday and Tuesday, and the last on Thursday. Hopefully I'll get in three times. Not too happy with only 3 sessions a week. But I'm too busy at the minute to increase that. Once the exams are finished, I'll up it to 4 proper sessions a week.

Hours of sleep - 3/4hrs

Wednesday's Return to Hercs

Got to train in Hercs today, which was great. I used to be a member there last year, and got in quite regularly, so it was good to be back.

There was some old and new lifters. Wayne Healy was most noteable, as I'd never seen him lift before. Wayne's competition PBs are 112/137.5kg from back in 1999 as a 62kg lifter. He also lifted 115/140kg as a 69kg lifter the same year. He's ridiculously fast under the bar, and is still lifting close to his best. He made, what looked like a very comfortable 100kg snatch today. It was great seeing Wayne lift, as his physique, and weight are very similar to my own. I figure I could learn a lot from him.

I got far more done today than I have in months of training. Having Harry there pushing me to do extra, and being around other lifters really spurred me on. Harry decided what I would do. He knows I'm weakest in the overhead part of the lifts, so that's what I mainly focused on. I didn't get any of my shoulder rehab work done, but here's what I did after some bar work-

Snatch- 2*30kg, 2*35kg, 2*40kg, 6*2*45kg
For these Harry got me to slow down in the first pull, and extend a little quicker in the second pull. Before this I was speeding through the whole thing, causing the bar to swing out in front. It was far more sets than usual, but I need to do this to improve.

Jerk- 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 2*50kg, 4*2*55kg
Here Harry got me to focus on relaxing the back leg a little more. I was basically straightening it, which was causing me to lose the bar out front. I also had to work on getting the front foot out more, and increasing the width of my stance. As it was, it was quite narrow, which made balancing with the weight overhead difficult.

Front Squat- 3*60kg, 3*70kg, 3*80kg, 3*3*90kg

So there you go. That's the best session I've had in months! Doesn't say much for my training. I intend on rejoining Hercs now in semester 2, Harry says he's going to try getting in a few times a week, so hopefully it'll help me progress quicker. I probably won't be training tomorrow, as I've an exam the next day. I'll be training at home on Friday.

Tuesday's Logic

Had my first exam today, it was in Logic surprisingly enough! It's probably the easiest of all our exams, but it's good to have one over and done with.

While some people can apply their study to their training, I really don't find I can. Computers, weightlifting, not much there really! Logic is probably the only one with any relevance, especially as reasoning is such an important part of it.

While training today I thought about relationships between my lifting and study. I really couldn't think of any, apart from ones negative impact on the other. I concluded that I need to improve the balance. I leave college work to the last minute all the time. These leaves me working to ridiculous hours in the morning, skipping training, and not concentrating fully when I'm there. All negative! So applying my logic skills, I reason that I should get my college work done earlier, and everything will improve. Genius!

Right, enough of the waffle...


Today's training was mediocre. I started with foam rolling again, and some of the other shoulder rehabbing exercises. Then after some bar work, I started snatching. Initially these felt great, but as the weight got heavier, they got pretty bad. I put this down to confidence more than anything. I'm not getting myself into the mindset that leaves me comfortable getting under the bar. I also noticed I'm driving out with the hips rather than up, going to focus on improving that over the next while.

Afterwards I did some jerks. I was experimenting with different grip widths. I've been trying a wider grip for a while now, as it made sense to me that it would improve my lock out. Today I went back to the normal width, and I felt I was locking them out better than ever. No idea why.
Anyway, here's what I did-

Snatch- 2*35kg, 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 1*50kg(messy power snatch)
Jerk- 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 2*50kg, 2*55kg, 2*60kg
Still Struggling to get the foot forward in these as the weight increases.

Back Squat - 3*60kg, 3*70kg, 3*80kg, 3*90kg, 3*100kg, 3*110kg
Jerk Combo (Military Press + Push Press + Power Jerk) -
40kg, 50kg, 3 sets @ 60kg

Should be training in Hercs tomorrow, if Harry's heading in. Gonna increase the sleep tonight anyway, 3/4hrs last night did not make training easy at all.

Friday's sore shoulders

I'm noticing a trend to my posts already. Not a good sign at all. I promise the complaining will stop though, next week hopefully!

Today was a quick session. I trained at home, so I was limited. I started with some shoulder rehab. T-spine extensions, bar hangs, lat stretches, shoulder dislocates, theraband stretching and scap push-ups. These left my shoulders pretty fatigued, but I really think they're starting to make a difference, even if it is small.

I then moved on to overhead squats, and snatch balances. I wanted to push the weight up in these, but it just wasn't happening, so I cut that short. The same happened with the cleans. Here's what I ended up doing-

Overhead Squat + Snatch Balance- 2+2*30kg, 2+2*35kg
Clean- 2*40kg, 2*50kg
My shoulder joints were screaming at me, I had to leave it there.

Military Press- 5*30kg, 5*40kg, 5*42.5kg, 5*45kg
Back Squat- 5*40kg, 5*60kg, 5*70kg, 5*80kg, 5*90kg

There you have it. Twas a fairly embarrassing session to have to log. But I guess it's just one of many steps to greatness!

My exams are starting next week (insert sad face), so I probably won't get in to train until Tuesday. I'm not really sure how much I'll actually get to train at all next week, I've a lot of work to do. Looking forward to next Thursday. I'll have some time off after that to train a good bit.

Thursday's battered legs

It must be the slight increase in volume, my legs are really suffering. A return to the ice baths is definitely due!

Today was tough again. My sleep pattern is all over the place, I got damn all last night, and it's really catching up with me. My speed was terrible, everything felt unusually heavy, and the intensity was like a long distance race (without it being that intense at all!).

I was training in DCU's high performance gym again today. Sami was in training some of the Dublin gaelic team, which was great, as he's always got plenty of advice for me. Sami's an 85kg lifter with pbs of 100kg/135kg. He's only lifting a short time, so we'll without doubt see plenty more from him.

I started again today with some foam rolling. It was a little more painful than yesterday as I was a little tight. Afterwards I did some shoulder dislocates, and t-spine extensions, following that I began some bar work, and then moved on to power snatches. Sami informed me that I need to keep the bar in closer when I extend for these. A rookie mistake no doubt!

After that I did some clean and jerks, with two cleans and a single jerk. Sami was quick to point out that I need to get the front foot forward more in the jerk. I've noticed this for a while myself, but when someone else mentions it, you think about it that bit more. I'll have to get some videos up to see if there's any improvement in it. Unfortunately you're not allowed to use videoing equipment in the HPG, I'll have to see if I can find a way around that. Here's what I did today-

Power Snatch - 3*30kg, 3*40kg, 3*42.5kg, 3*45kg
Clean and Jerk - 2+1*40kg, 2+1*50kg, 2*2+1*55kg, 2+1*60kg
Front Squat - 3*60kg, 3*70kg, 3*80kg, 3*90kg

The front squats were ridiculously tough. My 3x100kg last week was far easier than the 3x90kg today. I'm looking forward to adjusting to the current training.

I'm not sure whether I'll be training at home or in DCU tomorrow. May have to head back early. I'd much rather train here, so fingers crossed I can.

Wednesday's return to DCU

I wasn't feeling the best the last two days, so I only got back today. I was training in the high performance gym in DCU, which was I was glad to return to. Unfortunately though, the facilities aren't much better than those at home.

They've two platforms, which is obviously a plus; but there is only a womens' olympic lifting bar, two 5kg, and two 2.5kg bumper plates. These are wrecked as well because of the extra weight being added to the bar along with them. I think the sports centre is more to blame here though. The bar and bumper plates combined only make up 30kg. Lifters cannot be expected to stay below that weight!

This is probably the main reason I've become involved with trying to establish a DCU weightlifting club. We've had several obstacles holding us back thus far, but hopefully over the next month we can get funding sorted, and focus on the lifting.

For semester 1 we trained with broom handles under the guide of the ever wise Harry Leech. This was of course suitable for the start, but as you can imagine, it became difficult to keep everyone interested. We later hit our first funding issues, so even these classes had to be halted.

For semester 2 we our looking to get the club a permanent training area, this is looking the promising. The only reason we couldn't in semester 1, was because the building we are looking for access to was being refurbished. We will also find out next week if our grant application has been successful. Fingers crossed it will be.


I started today's session with some foam rolling. I find it great for keeping the IT band loose. I also tried it on my upper back and lats. It certainly helped a little, I'm sure I'll notice it working more and more over the next few training sessions. I also did some of my other shoulder rehabbing work, these are becoming easier each week.

The actual lifting today was tough. My speed under the bar was terribly slow, and everything felt far heavier than it should have. I really wasn't focused enough. After some overhead squats and light snatch balances here's what I did-

Snatch- 2*30kg, 2*35kg, 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 1*50kg
The one rep of 50 was more of a muscle snatch, so I didn't even bother with a second.

Jerk- 2*40kg, 2*45kg, 3*2*50kg
I stuck with 50kg to focus on the lock out as much as possible. I really need to focus on getting my front foot forward more too.

Back Squat- 3*50kg, 3*60kg, 3*70kg, 3*80kg, 3*90kg, 3*100kg, 3*110kg

I then finished 3 sets of the following circuit
Scap push-ups * 20, glute ham raises * 6, bar hang * 1 min.

Had a bit of a chill out in the sauna, jacuzzi and tepidarium afterwards, which I thoroughly enjoyed! Here's hoping tomorrow's session is easier.

Friday's Final Session of the Week

I was training with Jason again today, he's following training advice from Victor Costa. It's not really applicable to Olympic lifting, but there's some interesting stuff there.

Today I started off with the usual shoulder rehabbing exercises. I'm finding my shoulders are pretty sore, so I might give them a rest tomorrow.

After some overhead squats and snatch drops I moved straight on to cleans. I only did a few warm up sets, and then moved onto the full clean and jerk. My lockout is still pretty bad, but I mainly put this down to the fact that my shoulders are fatigued. I finished the session with some squatting, which went pretty well. Here's what I did-

Clean & Jerk - 1+2*40, 1+2*50, 1+2x55, 1x60, 1x65, 1x70
Front Squat - 3x60kg, 3x70kg, 3x80kg, 3x90kg, 3x100kg
Back Squat - 3x60kg, 3x70kg, 3x80kg, 3x90kg

I left it at that. I would have liked to do a final set of 100kg for the back squat. But I was tight on time. Here's a video of my 70kg C&J, comments would be appreciated. I'm pretty sure my front leg needs to go forward more for a start. (Forgive the quality, my phone sucks!).



I won't be training again until Tuesday, as I'm working most of the day Monday. I should be training in Dublin next week, Hercs hopefully; if the roads are drivable that is.

Thursday - More nostalgia!

Today I was training with my first ever training partner, Jason. The two of us started back when we were 15, in another small local gym; learning the ins and outs of bicep curls, tricep extensions and ab exercises. Jason's more into the bodybuilding aspect of training, and I don't think I'll ever convert him to Olympic lifting! He currently weighs around 85kg at 5'8".

I didn't do any lifting today. I focused on my shoulder rehabbing exercises, and did a lot of bar work. I did the usual thoracic spine extensions, my flexibility is improving in these day by day. I also did 3x1 minute bar hangs. Even though it wasn't intended, these are really improving my grip. They also give me a great lat and pec stretch.

I did 5 sets of scap push ups as well. I got Jason to video my first, which made me realise my technique was woeful. So I worked on that, and got him to video me again. Here's a video, feel free to leave any constructive criticism. I know my hips are dropping when they shouldn't, I'm going to work on adjusting that.



That was it for today. I plan on doing some full clean and jerks tomorrow, and plenty of squatting. Should be well recovered for it.

Wednesday's Reunion

Today I got to train with two mates of mine, Gerard and Tom, who I haven't seen in ages. Gerard was a training partner back when I started going to the gym, so it was great to get training with him again! Of course the craic was good, so the lifting suffered a little.

I started off with the shoulder rehabbing exercises. Thoracic spine extensions, bar hangs, lat stretches, shoulder dislocates, and overhead squats with a progressively narrower grip (These are really improving my flexibility). I'm feeling these in the left shoulder especially, hopefully this indicates they're working.

I was still training at home, so I couldn't snatch fully. Last time I did I almost tore a bicep lowering the weight back to the ground. I chose to do the snatch balance instead. I find these great for getting comfortable with full snatches, they really improve the lock out. I finished with some cleans, squats and power jerks. Everything was feeling a little off, but I'm sure once I get back to DCU, and start training normally, things will fall back into place. Here's what I did-

Snatch balance - 2x35, 2x40, 2x45, 2x50
Clean - 2x40, 2x50, 2x55, 2x60, 2x65, 2x70
Back Squat - 5x60, 5x70, 5x80, 5x90
Power Jerk - 3x40, 3x50, 3x60, 2x65, 2x60

The power jerks weren't feeling very solid at all. In hindsight I probably should have stayed below 50kg, and really focused on the lockout. The rehab exercises are leaving my shoulders pretty fatigued, but I'm sure this will improve with time.

Here's a video of a great exercise I came across for improving shoulder mobility. For anyone with few issues here, it could be used as a warm up.



Gerard and Tom study in UL, and I think I may have talked them into joining the weightlifting club there. So hopefully you'll have two new members down there in semester 2 Cathal!

One session down

Thankfully it wasn't a drinking session this time! Far too much of that went on over xmas.

I was training at home in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan today. Unfortunately I've limited facilities (powerlifting bars, steel plates), so I had to keep it simple. It suited me though, I really need to be eased back in!

I started with some of my back rehabbing exercises, so I think now is probably a suitable time to explain what issues I'm having exactly.


My left scapula is the culprit, and it's been preventing me from supporting heavier weights overhead for quite a while now. According to my physio there is several things causing this. All contributing to the overall imbalance. I'll list them, with the suggested treatment.

1) Thoracic spine mobility
-extension (avoid excessive Lumbar sp. extension)

2) Lat dorsi flexibility
-foam roller
-bar hang (great for grip work too)
-stretch lat dorsi (physiological stretching = 20-30sec, 2-3/10 stretch sensation, 5reps, 5 daily)

3) Pec/chest tightness
-shoulder dislocate
-door stretch at different angles
-theraband behind back

4) Serratus anterior weakness
-scap pushups

5) Levator scap tightness
-to stretch (physiological stretching) look towards opposite armpit (sit on stretch-side hand)

So as you can see, i've plenty of work to keep me busy! At the minute my scap is slightly winged, and due to the weakness in the lev scap, it's not as tight to the back at the bottom as it should be. That's not completely obvious in the these pictures, but I think it's fairly clear what effects it is having on my back development.


Today I mainly focused on the thoracic spine extension, as well as some scap push ups. I also did 3x1 minute hangs from the gyms pull-up bar. This really lets me get comfortable with the arm positioning for the jerk, it fairly burns the forearms though!

As I was saying I was limited in what I could do today. So after a some leg stretches, and bar work, here's what I did-

Front squat- 3x50, 3x60, 3x70, 3x80, 3x90
Back squat- 3x60, 3x70, 3x80, 3x90, 3x100
Military Press- 5x30, 5x35, 5x40
Push Press- 5x50, 5x55, 5x40

I dropped back to 40 for my last set of push presses, because my lefts arm's lockout was really suffering. I feel the fatigue after some of the earlier work, and the effects of just being back were the main causes.

So today's training was very basic, and not too intense. It was really just what I needed for my first day back. Hopefully I can up it a little more tomorrow.

Step 1 - Acceptance

It's been a long time coming. I've made several half-hearted attempts, but the temptation always took over. This time it's for real. It's time to finally say goodbye to the bench press. Well... almost!

I had my first Olympic Weightlifting competition in March of '08 (The Irish Seniors). I've been lifting close to 2 years now it might appear, I've surely built up some reasonably impressive numbers in the various lifts involved. Unfortunately this is not the case (as you can see from my pbs below). The list of excuses is endless, I won't bore you. A quick summation would read- laziness, shoulder issues, laziness!

For now I'll use the second excuse. Even though by right, laziness was the reason I didn't sort it out! See I've been lifting weights from the tender age of 15. I was the best at the bench press and bicep curls for miles! This however, rightly fecked up me shoulders.

For my first competition I was self trained. My technique simply involved muscling the bar overhead, it wasn't pretty (I lifted 45/62 in the 62s). It wasn't until October of the same year, that the excellent Harry Leech took me under his wing.

With my shoulders almost melding with my chest Harry realised he'd have his work cut out! It took about 3 months until I could overhead squat correctly. Even when I got that far, it became obvious, that without serious shoulder rehab; they would impede on most other parts of both lifts. And they did.

However I still managed to make the Irish Seniors again, and with some coaching under my belt, I made a slight improvement. 49/70 @ ~63. It was still pretty bad, and I soon started finding my motivation declining.

I was in the middle of my 1st year in DCU. So when summer hit I moved back home to the mighty Monaghan. Training took a standstill for 4 months. The most I did was squat occasionally.

Returning to college in October, I figured I could really start making the change, and I did to a degree. I became involved with starting of a DCU weightlifting club (I'll have more on that soon), and upped my training. This went on for 2/3 months, I had the World Drug Powerlifting Championships in November, so it was disturbed.

After the competition the shit hit the pan. Too many late nights, to much drinking, to much not going to gym, etc etc. And now I'm here...

A New Year, a New Beginning -
1) Fix the bleedin' shoulders once and for all.
I've seen a physio twice over xmas, I have the rehabbing solution, I just have to follow it.
2) Train four times a week.
Not difficult. Harry has a program laid out for me, and I used to train 6 times a week for powerlifting. Four's nothing.
3) Get the weightlifting club sorted.
We really need to step up the fight, and get the funds needed. Then we can really get the ball rolling.

So there you have it. The blog is going to act as record for me, a motivator(through you the reader hopefully), and a guide (if you're all generous enough to give constructive criticism and pointers!)

Cheers,
Shane

ps. I'm sure there's much I've forgotten to include. I will make sure to mention them in the coming days.

Current PBs

It hurts to put some of these up, I'm hoping the embarrassment will encourage me to train harder!

@ ~64kg b/w

Clean and Jerk - 75kg
Snatch - 52.5kg
Power Snatch - 50kg
Clean - 85kg
Power Clean - 75kg
Power Jerk - 75kg
Front Squat - 120kg
Back Squat - 140kg
Military Press - 70kg
Deadlift - 185kg
Bench Press - 115kg