June 22, 2006

4 responses to Week 22: Free bird!

  1. Scott Says:
    June 23rd, 2006 at 10:01 am

    The squats looked nice and quick. Will the family time afford you any more opportunity to use the forest gym?

  2. Kris Says:
    June 24th, 2006 at 10:03 pm

    Yes, it’s forest gym until the end of August plus probably the odd weekend and perhaps another classic end of season session. :-)

  3. Alberto Caraballo Says:
    June 24th, 2006 at 11:56 pm

    It looks like your bench changes are paying dividends, your speed is better and smoother. That squat was fast, too, with good explosion out of the bottom. At the bottom, though, start driving your traps into the bar sooner: your butt rises a bit first before your back does. Easy way to practice it would be to sit on a bench and have someone put their hand on your upper back and push the hand back hard, then rise - - - no bar or weights.
    What PRs are you looking towards after the end of your cycle?

  4. Kris Says:
    June 25th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

    Actually, bar speed was slower than normal on that clip due to the wider than usual bench grip. The load was also a bit on the light side to be able to say much yet.

    You are right about the squat of course. Although I think I have come a long way in lessening the forward dump, I still have a tendency to let the bar drift forward a bit when beginning the leg drive out of the hole. As with the deadlift, the reps actually feel a lot heavier if I try to keep myself up. I might be wrong on this, but it seems to me that this is another sign of me having weak legs - dumping it forward puts more work on the erectors, but it seems to make the lift a bit easier for the legs. I have no trouble whatsoever doing this with an empty bar, but as soon as the weights get heavier so does the forward lean (or butt protusion if you will). Any advice anyone might have on this would me much appreciated. I will have to be content with whatever form I have as I can’t afford taking it into pieces now that I am facing week 5 of the Russian routine, but I highly appreciate you keeping a watchful eye on my form and reminding me of my weaknesses. :-)

    I will be content if I can hit the PRs laid out in week 9, but I have a feeling I might be able to do a bit better, especially in the deadlift, if I can make it through this Russian routine without overtraining severely or suffering another back incident. The bench is still a big question mark due to the style change as is the squat as the 127.5 kg/281 lbs PR is projected from what I think I am good for and might be a bit too much, but I’d be more than happy if I could hit a 135 kg/297 lbs squat, a 105 kg/231 lbs bench and a 155 kg/341 lbs deadlift. All raw (belt on squat and deadlift) of course.

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