Oly. Oly. Oly.

Saturday was an awesome continuation of strength training. Coach programmed a heavy day of squat cleans and deadlifting to build on Thursday's Olympic lifting class. I was reading last night in Starting Strength that these two exercises are very beneficial to train together - one helping the other. And I relish the opportunity to practice squat cleans when I can. On my journey to a thousand squat cleans, I figure that I've done about 60 in the last week. 940 to go! Mike and I worked on technique, building up to our maximum weights and keeping the form as strict as we could. It's a difficult move. I've addressed my issue of pulling the bar too high, but now I'm jumping under the bar to soon - essentially sitting down. When I compensated for that, I jumped quite high and was airborne with the weight for several inches. Heh. That must have looked hilarious. Even so, there were a few that felt just right, as Goldilocks would say. It's funny to work on these because the more the brain gets involved, the worse it gets. Here's my depiction:

But that's also what makes it so great and worthwhile. If it was easy, I wouldn't be trying to damn hard to get it. I performed some light moves and then loaded 135lb for my work sets. This weight is heavy enough to keep me from muscling up the bar and light enough to allow me to keep my form. Just right. A few of these and I loaded two 10lb plates on for another attempt. Fail. I also read in Starting Strength that this is the nature of the clean. The addition of just 5 or 10 more pounds and the weight just won't rack. This is such an interesting sport.

Deadlifting was next and Mike decided to keep pace with the weight I was loading on the bar, based on my 295lb personal best.

1x4 50% - 150lb
1x4 70% - 210lb
1x4 70% - 210lb
1x4 80% - 255lb (Actually higher than 80%)

Bar over the shoelaces, I repeated to myself. Arms straight and back set. A reverse grip, and hoist! (I love this stuff) We both gave it our all and I was impressed with Mike's strength and determination. Partner workouts really help build the enthusiasm to do your best. The deadlift felt awesome and soon I'll be ready to challenge my PR. I think I deserve a weight belt.

Box jump drills after that. These were surprisingly fun and I read AGAIN in Starting Strength that the vertical jump is a good predictor of athletic performance. Hollie and I created a pancake stack of bumper plates on a box and challenged ourselves to keep jumping higher and higher as we added plates. At the other end of the gym, Mike was LEAPING atop the tallest box stacked with three plates. Impressive.

I left the gym with my mind and body refreshed and renewed from drinking at the Crossfit well.