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.