and it's done

Too tired to do anything other then post this link, it was awesome:

twittified

Recently become a lot more active on Twitter, and so I figured I should start enabling people to tweet my blog posts. (believe it or not I've had people link to some of my posts before, so I know there are some posts actually worthy of sharing.). I only have 25 followers right now, but now that I've decided that twitter Adam will be the crossfit side of Adam (meaning, most of my tweets will be xfit related.) I might actually get more. Still learning how to use this particular form of social media, #WhenIWasAKid we didn't have anything like it.

Lol.

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The quiet before the storm.

This non force treatment thing is really working. In the past, whenever we did shoulder dislocates (also called something else, can't remember), I would have this sticking point in my right shoulder. Something was kind of binded up and I would hear a crunch. It wasn't painful, but I could tell something wasn't quite working right. After seeing Dr Mary for a bit, now when I do them there's nothing going on. It works perfectly. I've seen DOs, other chiropractors, plenty of massage therapists, and nothing has fixed this.

It's just so strange because even though I'm seeing results I still don't fully believe that it works. That's how much it feels like she's doing nothing, like they're just these slight nudges and that's it. However I really can tell a difference so I guess I need to just look at the results and believe in it.

Yesterday we just did Snatches up to our starting weight and then Clean and jerks up to our starting weight. Looks like I'm going to open up with 68 kg for the snatch and 94 kg for the C+J. Obv these are modest weights but that's the point, you want to have something down before you move on to heavier weights that you might miss.

From what I understand you should open up a little under your PR, then for the second lift go slightly above your PR, and if you make that go ape shit for your third and final lift.

So I figure my progression is going to go something like this:
Snatch 68, 74, 76
C+J 94, 97, 100

These weights are far lighter then what I was hoping for three weeks ago, but sadly my strength and technique gains have kind of tapered off.

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Snatch PR and frustration

Saturday was a mixed bag. On one hand I snatched 75 kg, a 4 kg pr which is awesome. But I simply could not jerk anything over 95, and that was frustrating. I could get 90 easy, 95 ok, and I tried 98 four different times, and each time I was soooooo close. But I simply couldn't stick it. It doesn't seem to be a technique thing, as Angie says everything looks good, and I asked Jerry over twitter if he saw anything I was doing wrong and he hasn't responded (I figure no response = nothing to offer).

I knew the jerk was going to be the limiting factor with my lift, but still it's frustrating not seeing any gains this week. To think I was actually expecting to be able to lift 110 kilos.

I've also learned that my weight class is the most populous one in the competition. There are guys in it who've placed in Nationals, so my best bet to get a medal is to win the crossfit division. I think there's only two other guys in that, so I'm guaranteed at least third right? Whatever the case, I'm really excited about this, saw the singlet I'll be competing in and it's starting to hit home that this is really happening!

Breaking PRs

Wednesday I cleaned 105 Kilos, so now I just need to get my jerk up to that and I think I'll be ablt to C+J 110 for the competition next week. ...I've also been seeing a chiropractor who does directional non-force technique, and at first it seems a lot like faith healing but I have to admit that after three sessions my knees and hip feel much, much better. This might actually be the treatment I need so that my psoas isn't making me feel pain all day everyday. ...Quite awesome.

Speaking of awesome, here are my cleans from Wednesday:

I was hesitant about doing Day 2 right after doing Day 1, but the prednasone's ability to suppress inflammation had me feeling fresh. Only two more weeks until the competition, so we're lowering the reps even more and are now starting to work on our one rep max, which is super fun.

Day 2:
Clean: 95, 100, 105, 103 kg
Snatch lift: up to 90? 95?
Snatch Pull: 95

I have really come a long way thanks to working on the Snatch lift and the Snatch pull. I still move my hips up first, but to a much lesser extent now and I'm much, much better at backing my back/shoulders. That first movement is really the hardest part, so the snatch lift and pull isolate that. I you're working on improving your snatch I highly recommend adding these two lifts to the mix.

After cleaning 100kg I then went for 105, which was too much. So I went for 103 and got it (new PR!). The Youtube clip can be found here. Honestly I'm a little worried that I'm just tearing down my body and not letting it rebuild itself thanks to the steroid, but it's a low dose and yesterday was my last day. I will say it did wonders for my sinus infection. I'm going to wait one more day and do day 3 on Sat, so the steroids will be completely out of my system and I can feel like I'm going to get stronger.

It's starting to sink in that I'm going to be competing soon. I had this vision that it would be a small meet, not many would show up, I'd get a medal because I'm the only one in my weight class, stuff like that. Talking to Brian, a Crossfit Rise owner, he said one crossfit box is fielding a team of 15 members. Damn. People are going to be taking this seriously, and I know I'll never be able to be a serious Oly lifter with my build unless I somehow pack on 50+ pounds, maybe more.

...I was going to go out and buy my own singlet for the event, but Brian said he's ordering singlets for the team, should be fun.

Ending on a good note

Worked out on Tuesday, and was still under the weather. Here's a compilation of most of my lifts, workout was
Power Snatch 3x2 (got up to 70)
Jerk 3x2 (got up to 90)
Squat 3x3 (got up to 100)

had some failures with the snatch, but I figure it out. Felt weak for a bit there, but then I got to the Jerk. My last one was a thing of beauty, it was pretty much perfect. Enjoy:

Down with the sickness

Woke up on Saturday feeling off, and by the end of the day I felt really crappy. The next morning was awful, so off to the minute clinic and lo and behold I have a sinus infection. The Nurse gave me an antibiotic and then said, "Now don't freak out but I'm also perscribing you something else, they're steroids."

My first thought was 'Oh come on I already know catabolic steroids are used for anti-inflamatory purposes I know better'.

But my second reaction surprised me 'Aw man too bad it's not anabolic'.

And then there was the third thought, 'Wait is this really going to mess up my training? I don't even use Ibuprofen since inflamation is the first step in healing and repairing my muscles.'

Hopefully I'm on a low dose, and when I asked the nurse when I could start training again she said it would be whenever I feel up for it, so that's good to know. I just don't want to do something that will hurt my training, but now that I've been on it for a day I can tell you this stuff works, really opens me up and my sinuses feel much better.

Really do hate my allergies, they've been a pain in my side for a long, long time.

Killing it

Managed to break personal records on both the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk yesterday, 70 and 95 Kg, respectively (links are to the youtube clips). Two pretty big PRs for me. I'm really started to get this, and it's exciting. This experience is so different than crossfit, working on the same thing everyday and seeing improvements everyday, it's awesome.

Still don't miss running.

Oly work going well

Again, not much going on. Still training, still getting stronger, and still improving on technique. I really, really do wish I had a video of the first week I attended Crossfit Rise's Oly class. The change has been from night to day, amazing. People keep on commenting that I'm getting beefier. Combine that with the fauxhawk and the fact I got some sun over the weekend and my fiancee said I looked a little Jersey-shoreish. How you doin'?

Here's a compilation of last week's lifting, as you can see I'm getting pretty good at keeping the back straight, and my hips go up with the bar for the most part. Obviously still have a lot to work on, but I'm happy with the progress made so far:



Yesterday in the workout I cleaned 100kg twice, which is exciting because in early June that was a PR, and by 20#s no less.

My clean is really coming along nicely. I think with 95kg my first rep was perfect. Tight back, got to full extention, got the violent shrug, got under quickly and bounced out of the bottom of the squat without losing tension. It felt amazingly light. Hopefully I'll get more and more of those, and with heavier and heavier weight.

My limiter will be the Jerk, Cleaning 120kg will be great and all but if I can only jerk 95kg it won't be that much help. Will talk to Angie and see if there's something I can do.