Tag: Olympic lifting

A Hike and Olympic Lifting

I didn’t end up golfing this morning because I went back to test out some new golf irons. After I was done, I headed straight to Piestewa Peak for a hike. I had to park in the farthest parking lot from the trail head, so the total distance was 2.85 miles, which I completed in 1:11:07.

There wasn’t an Olympic lifting class at CrossFit Full Strength last week because of the Super Bowl, but it was back on the schedule today, so I made sure to get there. After doing a 500m warm-up on the rower, we worked on transfer skills and strength for them.

First we started with hanging muscle snatches. Nothing too complex, but I had to work on keeping the bar close to my body on the way up and not starting the move with a dip of the shoulders and body. The weight quickly got heavy, but I guess that’s why it’s called a muscle snatch. I think I got up to 95#.

The next thing we did was heaving snatch balance into a receiving position, followed up by an overhead squat. The OH squat is an awkward movement to get the hang of. I have trouble keeping it locked out, back behind my head, and still make sure I’m pushing up on the bar. I started rocking a few times, but think I was getting better. Got up to 95# again doing these.

Finally at the end, we worked on a slow jerk movement. Starting in the rack position, we’d go up on to our toes and pause the bar at our forehead for a second or two. Then from there we’d concentrate on dropping below the bar into the split jerk. I have a tendency to split too wide with my feet. We started with just the 45# bar, but as I added weight I felt that it helped me to keep the split smaller. I only worked up to 85# on these because we did a lot with the bar and were concentrating on the split portion more than anything else.

I really like going to these Oly classes because they are really slow paced with a lot of instruction from Johnny. They are really helping me out during the strength work and WODs of regular classes.

After I got home I worked on DUs for awhile. I did better than I’ve been doing in class, but still a struggle.

My legs have been really sore since Thursday…

My legs have been really sore since Thursday when we did front and goblet squats. I almost collapsed when I got out of bed on Saturday that’s how sore I was. It doesn’t help that I went hiking on Friday and walked 18 holes of golf each of the last two days. Who needs rest days?

I just got back from the Olympic lifting class at CrossFit Full Strength. I’ve really wanted to check it out, but this was the first time I could make it. Two weeks ago I was in Mexico and last weekend I was recovering from getting sick there. John, the Olympic lifting coach, was a key member of the 2005 Team Arizona Junior National Champions, so it’s a great opportunity to learn from him.

I got warmed up with a 500m row and then we started working on the snatch. To be honest it’s kind of a scary looking exercise because you are taking a barbell and weights from the ground to overhead in one fluid, but complex, movement. I’ve never done a snatch in my life so I got some special attention. I was able to learn the basics of the snatch quicker than most people I guess. John was impressed with how fast I picked it up and said it takes most people quite awhile. Of course I still was doing a lot of little things wrong and have a lot to work on. Felt good overall though and it’s not really as scary as it looks.

After the snatch, we moved on to power cleans, which I’ve done several times now in class. It was good to have John give me some tips because the clean in probably the exercise I feel the least comfortable with. In the back of my mind I fear the barbell is going to smash me in the face or smack my chin. It’s probably because of this that I don’t have the fast elbows yet when I get under the bar. It’s a work in progress for me.

I’m really glad I went to this class and I’m going to try and make it every week. Getting better technique will help me improve my strength and endurance, but will also make it safer for me to do the lifts and CrossFit WODs involving them.