Eating my morning breakfast tacos and thinking about training and what actually moves the needle… Two thing we need to remember for weightlifting gains #1 - Consistency As much as strength is going to help us, this is a SPORT for a reason. Like any other sport, we need skill acquisition in order to improve, IE, we need to practice. Every training session is another practice, and he who practices the most will gain greater skill than his peers. #2 Intensity While practice improves our skill set/technique in the sport, intensity is the factor that determines how our central nervous and musculoskeletal systems adapt to training. We can train with moderate weights as much as we’d like to, unless we are pushing hard in training then our bodies won’t have an intense enough stimulus to warrant any sort of meaningful adaptation. So, train often, and train hard. Happy Thursday, let’s close out this week strong!

If you notice your hips pop up right as you pull the bar off the ground… Or if you have a hard time creating and maintaining tension from the floor… OR if you struggle with utilizing strong leg drive through the pull phase of your clean… This low-pause power clean variation can help to optimize your mechanics. Pick a weight around 70-75% of your clean max to work with on these (heavy enough to force you to try, light enough to where you can still move it well consistently). Focus on a tight and controlled lift off the floor, full-body tension maintained THROUGH that isometric hold, and then a big finish through the LEGS as you complete the power clean. Pay attention to a couple of points as you perform these: 1. Is my back at the same angle during the pause as it is off the floor? (Pro tip, it should be 👍🏻) 2. Am I extending my hips all the way as I finish through the pull? (Pro tip, you should be 👍🏻) 3. Are my arms staying mostly extended through the bar making contact at the thighs? (Pro tip, they should be 👍🏻) Throw this variation into your routine if you’ve noticed any of the former mentioned form breakdowns in your clean, report your findings back here so we can all learn and improve together!

The backwards jump can be a tricky habit to shake, but once we understand the nature as to why it’s occurring, it becomes much more manageable. If you’re throwing your shoulders back in the top pull phase of the lift, your momentum is going to be sent backward. The only way to land and recover from throwing yourself in that direction is to bring your feet with you when you land. Not what we want to happen. Instead, we want to drive our momentum upward to get the most force output into a vertical pull as possible. This not only will help us pull the bar even higher, but it’s going to keep our energy transfer mostly within the vertical plane, making it easy for us to keep our feet in roughly the same position, and also putting the bar directly overhead for a simple receive. Just remember, your body is aiming your feet, so practice maintaining that vertical torso angle during your pulls to help drive this form point home. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Happy training

129 kg / 285 lbs, just 1 lb away from matching my all time best! Jumped up to 134/295 after this but no dice… yet

The name of our game is how much weight you can possibly lift with adequate form, so practicing with heavy loads is obviously going to be a non-negotiable. The main point of focus when going heavy: try to make every rep look the same regardless of the weight on the bar. As the weight gets heavier, there are going to be form breakdowns that you won’t necessarily see at lighter loads. Maybe your hips rise early, maybe you start shooting your hips forward to make bar contact, maybe you don’t finish extending in your pull. Doesn’t matter what your “thing” is that flares up, just take note of what this thing is time after time with heavy weight on the bar. From there, we have 2 points of feedback: 1) Focus on one cue to help overcome this form breakdown. For example, if you’re too slow under the bar (like I am), think about speed in the turnover. Sometimes this helps us make a big improvement on our lifts immediately, other times it can lead to another compensatory breakdown. Either way, it’s going to take us one step further in the right direction. 2) Determine how to address this form breakdown in the future. For example, if you notice that you’re shorting your pulls when it gets heavy, practice doing pulls at high percentages. Pick 2 oly variations per week that address this form breakdown you’re having, and 1 accessory exercise that same point of technical or physical breakdown. For the snatch in particular, what’s your primary breakdown that’s stalling your ability to continue pushing the weight?