Sorry for the No post last Monday, I was traveling and the blogger website doesn't play well with Safari I suppose. Anyways, moving on.
Today I am going to be blatantly lazy and direct you to someone else's page. The page is Wil Fleming's. He writes links articles/videos from Eric Cressey who is a pretty renowned shoulder guy. So read the words and more importantly watch the videos and determine if you can even train over head yet, and if not, what to do to fix it (hint: mobility work).
Strength Wod 10/24/13
Power Clean and Jerk 5x2 @ 75%
Squats 3x8 AHAP
Clean 1st Pull (same as snatch last week) AHAP
Mobility work as deemed necessary from the Cressey videos.
Hola my iron friends. Today we will get our next strength workout and post an analysis of a new C&J pr I got yesterday. It could have been prettier. The because of the problems I had in the jerk, we will go over some jerk problems and fixes. So here we go.
C&J analysis.
The most common problem you see in the jerk is exactly what just happened in the video above. Most people tend to miss jerks forward. This is either because they have never felt a proper overhead position and have just conditioned themselves to catch the bar a little bit forward, or because you lack the should mobility to put your arms over your head in a good position.
Luckily both can be fixed.
1st, you need to work on the dip and drive. It needs to be on the heels and through a vertical plane.
I made and incredibly detailed painting on the subject.
You should look like the guy on the left, not the guy on the right.
Second, you need to start practicing some BTN Jerks. But Jason WTF is a BTN Jerk? Well I am glad you asked. It is a Behind the Neck Jerk. You start with the bar sitting on your neck (like a high bar squat), and you do the exact same jerk dip and drive to finish the jerk. The advantage is the bar doesn't have to move around your big head. It naturally puts the bar behind your head which is where you want it to be for a regular jerk as well. Do this for a couple warm ups and it will start to "grease the groove" as to where a jerk should finish. Also if you want to do this as an overload workout, most people can go over their max jerk weight with a btn jerk. Here is a video explaining the movement. You can skip the recovery drill at the 2nd half of the video.
Finally if your problem is mobility then K starr to the rescue.
The key to the above stretch is that you don't hyper extend the back. He keeps talking about the rib cage, but really he is meaning don't let the back extend, because that is keeping the tension off the system you are trying to stretch. Keep the torso rigid (just like of you were dipping and driving.... oh shit, you mean all of this is connected somehow..... mind=blown).
Another good one
Same thing don't hyper extend the back, the stretch should be through the lats.
Alright, this should be enough material to improve your jerk for a little while. Onto your 1st strength wod for the week.
Snatch Complex, 1 rep = 1 power snatch, 3 behind the neck push press. (3 reps AHAP)
Behind the neck jerk (from rack or jerk blocks): 3x3 @ 80% of max jerk. (looking for technique and good overhead position).
Squats: 3x8 AHAP
Snatch Lift off: 3x8 AHAP (see video for snatch 1st pull).
Do not let the hips rise faster than the shoulders in the snatch lift off!.
Go out and lift things over you heads my friends.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Howdy. Not much to talk about today. A few things that I think are very important to weightlifting. Consistancy, wearing a belt helped teach me how to squat properly, taking the belt off helped build "the core", "the core" can't be strong enough, Squats, Mobility. That is about it.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Strength Wod
power snatch: 3x3 as heavy as possible (ahap) unbroken.
power clean and push press 3x2 ahap
squats 3x8 ahap
Strict pull ups 3x10
Be very snappy with all of the movements. No press outs (except push press obviously). In fact never again press out a lift. If you press it out, it doesn't count. For the next couple of weeks we will be doing lots of power movements while building a strength base, so get ready for some squatting and pulling.
Today the workout inspired my to post yet again on squats. But there is more than just me on my soapbox box jump. I am also gonna try a little something that will have you seeing many more posts here, but a lot less content per post. Many people have asked me about strength classes and a strength schedule or program. I will post 2x per week a strength workout that you can do during open gym or any other time you might have bumper plates available to you.
Spoiler Alert: Every workout will include the snatch, clean and jerk (or some variation) and squats (or some variation) plus some accessory work.
Okay onto the squat. Or more specifically, the "butt wink". Butt wink? I thought this was supposed to be SFW (safe for work, c'mon keep up). Butt wink simply put is allowing to let the pelvis tuck underneath you during the squat. Picture a dog tucking his tail in between his legs. It is a weak position and definitely one you don't want when you have gravity trying to pull a heavy weight to the ground while resting on your back. If it was a strong position then a dog wouldn't do it when he as in trouble and submitting to you. I was trying to find some good pictures of butt wink, but Google and I have different opinions on what butt wink is.
This is what your buttwink looks like to me.
What causes it?
There are a few culprits when a butt wink squat is present. It could be one or all of them combined.
Culprit 1: Tight upper hamstrings.
Where the butt meets the posterior upper thigh is the upper hamstring. For most people this is the sole muscle preventing you from having a beautiful neutral spine squat. Roll the bejeezus out of these, followed by some targeted stretching. Oh you don't know any upper hamstring stretches? Well that is why they are tighter than sin. Use google and some common sense and you should be fine. Even with just google and no common sense you will survive.
Culprit 2: Knees are caving in, foot arches collapsing, weak external hip rotators, whatever, they are all the same thing. When you squat, the torso/pelvis doesn't move once you set them. You simply move them down in between the knees/thighs. To do this, your weight needs to be on the outside of the foot, with the knees tracking outside the foot. If you allow the knees to move to the inside of the foot, the weight will shift to the arch and the femur will track out front instead of outside. This will force you to butt wink if you try to go anywhere below parallel. The fix? keep your knees outside your feet. How many times have I said it? at least 1 million. But here is 1,000,001. Keep your knees outside of your feet.
Knees are inside, weight is on the foot arch. Bad squat. If I ever say "collapsed arch"or "collapsed knees", this is what I am talking about)
Knees outside the foot, weight on the outside of the foot. Notice the easily seen arch in the foot. Upright torso, excellent squat.
So those are the two main culprits of the butt wink. Tight upper hammies and bad knee/foot positioning. Never ever ever let yourself squat with "collapsed knees/arches" again. It is something that you must be consciously aware of every time you squat until it is 2nd nature. I will leave this topic alone with a 7 minute video on a cool trick to diagnose if you are butt winking.
