The HIIT Man
08-29-18, 4:23 pm
Peace everyone! I've been lurking for years meaning to start a new log for some time, and I figured now would be as good of a time as any.
I have been lifting weights for 9 years, mostly spinning wheels doing bodybuilding routines with dumbbells and machines and afraid to increase poundages. I also fell for the whole marathon-runners-are-super-fit trap and forced myself to run (badly) a lot which didn't help. In 2015 I stumbled across 70sbig.com through my college strength training instructor and have since taken up Olympic lifting.
Biological stats:
Age: 36 (Started Olympic lifting at 24. Yes, over the hill, I know. Still fun.)
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 215 but still a bit soft. Would like to be a lean 207 or so.
2015: The initial LP
I had always done the barbell lifts, just not with anything heavy, so I started LP a bit higher than the average fella. My lifts, for 3 sets of 5, went from:
Back squat: 225 -> 345
Deadlift: 225 -> 355
Bench: 165 -> 237.5
Press: 65 (yea...) -> 155
Bodyweight from soft 198 -> less soft 215
I started with 16 dead hang pullups but degraded down to about 12 (maintained since) because I wasn't super diligent about them and the bodyweight increase didn't help. Would like to get to 20.
Late 2016 - 2017: Enter snatch, clean and jerk
I then got into Olympic lifting, something I had wanted to do for a while now, but due to a combination of a shitty body, lack of hard work, and shaky coaching, the strength stagnated, and due to shoulder injuries, actually regressed in the pressing movements.
My Oly 1RMs went up a bit though, from
Snatch: 60kg (ugly power snatch) -> 87kg
C&J: 80kg -> 107kg
Clean: 80kg -> 120kg
i.e. I wouldn't be worth anything even in the 48kg women's category....
This was a fucked up year. My strength stagnated while I picked up sn/cj technique and suffered through various injuries. I competed in one local meet and had a great time (two snatch PR's) though so that's something.
2018: It gets worse
A few friends and I got together and got ourselves a respectable coach who was horrified at the lack of strength work in my old program. We see a return of pressing, deads, eccentric pulls, and lots of squatting. I am having a great time and did a run of Steel's pressing and squatting programs (Didn't want the rigid structure of TM)...and then:
In March I hurt my knee trying to stand up with a missed snatch. Torn MCL, possible meniscus injury, no squats for 2 months. I tried to tough it out but the pain, loss of strength, and secondary chondromalacia took a huge toll. I spent three months doing RDLs and presses (press, bench press, snatch press) only, and watched helplessly as my legs withered.
My comeback progress in the last 4 months
Snatch: Back to 70kg
Clean and jerk: Back to 90kg
Squat: Bodyweight -> 205x5x3
Squatting is still unnatural and I am shifting my weight to the good leg constantly. I also picked up a tendency to good-morning the weight. This is frustrating, to say the least.
Front squat: Bodyweight -> 92kgx5x3
For shits and giggles, I've been cleaning these. Feels much more natural than back squat right now for some reason.
CG Bench press: 135x5x3 -> 210x5x3, getting towards that 205lb voodoo reset
Press: Stuck at 150x5x3
Snatch press: 88x5x3 -> 125x5x3 and climbing rapidly
Eccentric pulls (I love these. Start at the top, lower over a 5-second count, explode off floor into pull)
Snatch grip: 95kgx5x3
Clean grip: 110kgx5x3
Both lifts climbing
So yea I have a lot of work cut out for me. My program for the next few months is simple and pretty intuitive:
5-7 long sessions a week. Every session: One squat, one push, (yes doing these first when I am freshest), all for 3x5 for as long as possible, and the classical lifts up to a daily max, then backoff sets. Finish it off with pulls. My weights are so low right now that I doubt recovery will be an issue.
This might be blasphemous but I'll also mix in some conditioning on days I don't feel strong enough to lift because I think stuff like Prowlers and barbell complexes are ridiculously fun.
By the end of the year I hope to be pain-free and have a 4-plate squat and dead and (back to) a 3-plate front squat. The presses and sn/cj will fall where they fall. I might enter a local meet or too for fun, no worries about stuff like PR's or big #s or cutting weight. Not sure how realistic this is but it's not impossible so I might as well get to it. Posting a log here because the old forum where my old log was has headed in a weird direction that doesn't appeal to me and I've found the logs in this section quite motivating.
I have been lifting weights for 9 years, mostly spinning wheels doing bodybuilding routines with dumbbells and machines and afraid to increase poundages. I also fell for the whole marathon-runners-are-super-fit trap and forced myself to run (badly) a lot which didn't help. In 2015 I stumbled across 70sbig.com through my college strength training instructor and have since taken up Olympic lifting.
Biological stats:
Age: 36 (Started Olympic lifting at 24. Yes, over the hill, I know. Still fun.)
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 215 but still a bit soft. Would like to be a lean 207 or so.
2015: The initial LP
I had always done the barbell lifts, just not with anything heavy, so I started LP a bit higher than the average fella. My lifts, for 3 sets of 5, went from:
Back squat: 225 -> 345
Deadlift: 225 -> 355
Bench: 165 -> 237.5
Press: 65 (yea...) -> 155
Bodyweight from soft 198 -> less soft 215
I started with 16 dead hang pullups but degraded down to about 12 (maintained since) because I wasn't super diligent about them and the bodyweight increase didn't help. Would like to get to 20.
Late 2016 - 2017: Enter snatch, clean and jerk
I then got into Olympic lifting, something I had wanted to do for a while now, but due to a combination of a shitty body, lack of hard work, and shaky coaching, the strength stagnated, and due to shoulder injuries, actually regressed in the pressing movements.
My Oly 1RMs went up a bit though, from
Snatch: 60kg (ugly power snatch) -> 87kg
C&J: 80kg -> 107kg
Clean: 80kg -> 120kg
i.e. I wouldn't be worth anything even in the 48kg women's category....
This was a fucked up year. My strength stagnated while I picked up sn/cj technique and suffered through various injuries. I competed in one local meet and had a great time (two snatch PR's) though so that's something.
2018: It gets worse
A few friends and I got together and got ourselves a respectable coach who was horrified at the lack of strength work in my old program. We see a return of pressing, deads, eccentric pulls, and lots of squatting. I am having a great time and did a run of Steel's pressing and squatting programs (Didn't want the rigid structure of TM)...and then:
In March I hurt my knee trying to stand up with a missed snatch. Torn MCL, possible meniscus injury, no squats for 2 months. I tried to tough it out but the pain, loss of strength, and secondary chondromalacia took a huge toll. I spent three months doing RDLs and presses (press, bench press, snatch press) only, and watched helplessly as my legs withered.
My comeback progress in the last 4 months
Snatch: Back to 70kg
Clean and jerk: Back to 90kg
Squat: Bodyweight -> 205x5x3
Squatting is still unnatural and I am shifting my weight to the good leg constantly. I also picked up a tendency to good-morning the weight. This is frustrating, to say the least.
Front squat: Bodyweight -> 92kgx5x3
For shits and giggles, I've been cleaning these. Feels much more natural than back squat right now for some reason.
CG Bench press: 135x5x3 -> 210x5x3, getting towards that 205lb voodoo reset
Press: Stuck at 150x5x3
Snatch press: 88x5x3 -> 125x5x3 and climbing rapidly
Eccentric pulls (I love these. Start at the top, lower over a 5-second count, explode off floor into pull)
Snatch grip: 95kgx5x3
Clean grip: 110kgx5x3
Both lifts climbing
So yea I have a lot of work cut out for me. My program for the next few months is simple and pretty intuitive:
5-7 long sessions a week. Every session: One squat, one push, (yes doing these first when I am freshest), all for 3x5 for as long as possible, and the classical lifts up to a daily max, then backoff sets. Finish it off with pulls. My weights are so low right now that I doubt recovery will be an issue.
This might be blasphemous but I'll also mix in some conditioning on days I don't feel strong enough to lift because I think stuff like Prowlers and barbell complexes are ridiculously fun.
By the end of the year I hope to be pain-free and have a 4-plate squat and dead and (back to) a 3-plate front squat. The presses and sn/cj will fall where they fall. I might enter a local meet or too for fun, no worries about stuff like PR's or big #s or cutting weight. Not sure how realistic this is but it's not impossible so I might as well get to it. Posting a log here because the old forum where my old log was has headed in a weird direction that doesn't appeal to me and I've found the logs in this section quite motivating.