Herbison's Training Log

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Awesome picture.

Yeah, but who is it?

[SeanHerbison]

Awesome picture.

Yeah, but who is it?

A person who was a bit weaker but much more athletic than I am now.

[SeanHerbison]

Yeah, but who is it?

A person who was a bit weaker but much more athletic than I am now.

And here we have the reason...



On the bright side, I'm realize that I'm further outside the norm than I previously thought. I'm actually pretty good at this type of thing.

And as luck would have it, the real thing in the same town as my weightlifting meet in two weeks. That's handy.

[SeanHerbison]

Monday, 20 May

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Overhead Press	170*3@9 170*2*4@8.5 170*3@10
Front Squat	275*3*5@6-7
Cable French Press	110*68 in 10 min
w/Cable Curl	90*59 in 10 min

Found a YMCA to lift at. Thankfully I wasn't benching today, since that was possibly the worst bench I've ever seen in a gym. Ever since then, my Dad has gained a new appreciation for good benches.

Wednesday, 22 May

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	175*1 195*1 215*a bunch of misses 225*power snatch 245*power snatch miss
Clean and Jerk	275*1 285*1 295*missed catch 295*missed jerk*2
Close-Grip Bench	225*6*5
KB Shrug	71s*8*3
w/LTE	71*12 71*10*3

Went to Buckley AFB for this. Much better gym. Also found out that if a bench is good but the surface is worn smooth, liquid chalk can fix that right up. Felt like my upper back was glued to the bench.

Saturday, 25 May - Max Aita Weightlifting Clinic

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	205*1 225*1 235*miss 235*1 245*miss 245*1 255*1 265*miss
Clean and Jerk	255*1 275*1 295*1 315*1 325*1 335*power cleaned, missed jerk*2

Good stuff here. I liked the JTS powerlifting clinic, and I'd definitely recommend it, but I didn't feel like I really had any breakthroughs in understanding there, like I did here. That could just be because I've done so much more on the powerlifting side, and my questions there were more conceptual than technical, but either way, I got a lot of these few hours.

Between this and a few things @Testiclaw has been pointing out, I'm starting to understand how these lifts are really supposed to feel, finally. I have ridiculously ingrained bad habits, so I may not get there by my 22 June competition, but over time I'm getting closer.

[SeanHerbison]

Monday, 27 May

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	205*1 215*1 195*1 195*miss*2 195*1*4 195*miss 195*1*2
Overhead Press	172.5*3*5@8
Safety Bar Squat	250*6 280*6 250*6*2
Bike	1.58 mi before - 5 min

Wednesday, 29 May

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Clean and Jerk	275*1*2 275*miss jerk 275*1
Clean	295*1 315*1
Overhead Press	165*5*2
Triceps Pushdown	110*12*7 in 10.5 min
w/Cable Curl	80*12*5 80*10*2 in 10.5 min

Friday, 31 May

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	195*1*2 195*miss*2 195*1
Jerk	225*1*6

Got my jerk blocks today. Well... at this point it's two and a half weeks ago, but "today" if I was actually writing this on the same day I did the session. One of these days I'll stop procrastinating on logging.

Saturday, 1 June - USAW L1 Course

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	243*1 265*1 276*miss
Clean and Jerk	309*1 331*miss 331*miss jerk

Well, that 120 kg/265 lb snatch ties my best, and I'm lighter now, so that's cool. I don't think I've ever tried 125/275 before. It was close, but I looped it too much/jumped forward too much and lost it behind me.

[SeanHerbison]

Tuesday, 4 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	205*1 215*miss*4 195*2 195*1, miss
Snatch High Pull	195*2 215*2 225*2 245*2
Overhead Press	175*2*7@9.5

Wednesday, 5 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Clean	285*1 295*1*6
Jerk	205*1 225*1*3 245*1 265*1 265*miss*2 265*1
Safety Bar Squat	275*6*3

Friday, 7 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	205*1 210*1 215*miss*3
Power Snatch	215*1 225*1 235*1 245*miss
Clean and Jerk	270*1 275*miss jerk*2
Overhead Press	175*2*7@9.5

Maybe I should just skip 215 when I snatch. It seems to be a bad weight for me. Snatches weren't going well technically, so I just threw technique out the window and power snatched instead.

Saturday, 8 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Jerk	265*1 275*1 275*miss*2 225*1*6
Overhead Press	177.5*2*5

Meh. Having some issues with my left shoulder.

Sunday, 9 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Front Squat	287*3*6@6-7

[SeanHerbison]

Tuesday, 11 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	195*1 205*1 215*1 220*1 225*miss 225*1 225*miss 225*1
Snatch High Pull	225*1 230*1 235*1 240*1 245*1*2
Overhead Press	175*3*5@9-9.5 175*2*3@8.5-9.5

Wednesday, 12 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Clean and Power Jerk	250*1 260*1 270*1 280*1 290*1 300*1 310*miss jerk
Power Jerk	265*1*2 265*miss 265*1*2
Safety Bar Squat	175*3*2@7 175*5@8

This was a strange one. Tried the workout in the morning (not logged), and it was garbage. Came back in the afternoon and did it much better. Physically, I had to have been more tired, but mentally it was so much better.

And speaking of mental, I'm 95% sure the left shoulder is a mental issue, just like my back and knees were, but it's an issue nonetheless. I'm working on that side of it, but in the meantime, it's really messing with my jerks.

On the positive side, throwing after lifting went quite well.


Friday, 14 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	205*1 215*miss*4 225*1 230*1
Overhead Press	155*5 155*6*5@~9

Maybe I should just skip 215 when I snatch. It seems to be a bad weight for me.

Once again, screw 215.

Saturday, 15 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Clean and Jerk	Bah
Front Squat	Humbug

I was supposed to do singles up to an opener on clean and jerk, but the shoulder was having none of that. Front squats were attempted, and just... meh. Definitely have a weird mental block. Doubly weird considering how well my lifts, particularly snatch, had been going until this week.

[SeanHerbison]

The way I'm writing this is a bit odd, since I already know how the meet turned out, but that's what I get for falling behind yet again.

Sunday, 16 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	185*1 195*1 205*1 210*1 216*1, because screw 215 220*1 225*1 230*forward*2
Clean and Jerk	185*1 205*1 225*1 245*miss

Left shoulder was really becoming an issue. I was 95% sure it was just a mental issue, rather than some sudden-onset physical problem. But unlike my back, which occasionally starts aching again, and my knees, which started hurting again recently, I've never really dealt with shoulder issues before. So when my back and knees started hurting, I realized what was happening and was able to shut it down.

But I wasn't mentally equipped with experience of how to do the same for my shoulder, so I decided to brute force the problem. Hanley had an intelligent pre-meet week scheduled for me, but I threw that out and went with the "heavy snatch and clean and jerk every day until Thursday, then rest Friday and compete Saturday" strategy It's not a strategy I would generally endorse, but at this point it was either change something drastic or withdraw from the meet.

Made it to 225 before I really felt it, and then on 245 it was too much and made me miss the jerk.

Monday, 16 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Snatch	185*1 205*1 225*1 235*1 240*1 245* miss*2
Clean and Jerk	245*1 275*1 295*1 315*missed jerk

Felt the shoulder on 295 but was able to not miss the lift because of it, which was the main goal. If I couldn't stop myself from generating the pain, I figured I could at least push through it long enough to do the meet, and then figure it out afterward. Didn't work for 315. Got it into position and locked it out, but couldn't hold it through the pain.

Tuesday, 16 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Snatch	190*1 205*1 220*1 235*1 245*1 255*miss*2
Clean and Jerk	255*1 275*1 295*miss
Jerk	275*no 225*2*5

Well, shoulder was still an issue, but at least I realized something I was doing wrong with holding the weight for the jerk. I fixed that and it felt better, so at least that's progress in a way.

Wednesday, 16 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Jerk	135*2 155*2 175*2 195*2 215*1 235*1 255*1 275*no

I realized where I really needed to focus my effort was on my jerk, since that's where the issue was presenting itself, so I decided to start with them. It hurt more as the weight increased, but even up to 255 I was able to complete the lift anyway. But 275 was sharply different, and literally put my on the ground in pain. This time it was both shoulders, not just the left, which just reinforced that it had to be mental. That didn't make it hurt less.

Thankfully, both my Dad and @Hanley had convinced me it was for the best if I didn't withdraw, since that would give the pain more of a mental foothold as a "real" thing that had to be avoided. So I decided I'd at least go and snatch, and then if jerk wasn't going to cooperate I'd just do a token C&J, maybe 100 kg.

[SeanHerbison]

Then, after all that whinging and frustration, the meet went fine.


I need to get to bed now, but I'll write up more about it later.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Great Job, Sean!

Now, get those shoulders sorted...

[SeanHerbison]

I need to get to bed now, but I'll write up more about it later.

It's been a busy week, so it turns out "later" meant "a week later." Which means I've kind of forgotten details... Oh well, I'll hit the main points.

Leading up to this meet, my shoulders had been an increasingly frustrating issue. @Hanley and my Dad thankfully convinced me not to withdraw from the meet, so I decided I'd at least see what I could do on snatch, and then sort out clean and jerk when it came time for that. So, to the confusion of the meet volunteers, I put in 105 kg as my opener for snatch, and 100 kg for my opening clean and jerk.

For most of the prep, I had been working on improving my form on the full/squat versions of the lifts. As the shoulders became more of an issue, I got more frustrated with things and reverted to just doing the power versions about half the time for the last couple weeks. So honestly, I didn't know whether I was going to power snatch or full snatch until warm-ups. I felt explosive but not particularly technical, so I decided I'd just power everything. I did actually manage to get lower on my second and third snatch attempts, but that was not on purpose. Which I suppose is a good thing, since it means my body is learning to naturally get under the bar without me micro-managing it.

So snatch ended up being fine. Went for 118 for a 1 kg pr on my third attempt and didn't quite get it. Probably could have if my feet had actually left the ground and gotten into position, but as it was I missed my PR chance.

Moved on to clean and jerk, and while I had a few twinges during warm-ups, my shoulders felt pretty solid overall. The good news is that it confirmed that the shoulder issue was just mental, which I had heavily suspected. The bad news is that I still need to figure out how to consistently get into the right mental state where they don't hurt.

Even so, I was fairly conservative. The cleans were essentially a non-issue, since I could easily clean way more than anything I could jerk that day, but since I hadn't been able to jerk anything heavy without sharp pain recently, I wasn't as confident there. It's probably not the norm to jump more than 10 kg on each attempt, but it worked out for me, and I did get my 1 kg PR here.

The meet director/gym owner was very helpful in helping me maximize my rest time (changing attempt weight, basically), since I was following myself even with those huge jumps, so that was great. I'm not sure I would have stuck that last jerk without that benefit. As it was, it didn't feel great, but it was good enough for the day.

Ended up with the biggest absolute total at 267 kg, and the fifth highest highest men's Robi score overall. The guy who won was a 89 kg lifter who was only 7 kg behind me.

Overall, pretty good day.

[SeanHerbison]

Trying not to get more than a week behind on this, but after writing all that for the previous post, I'm out of time. I'll catch up on the last week of training and the track meet tomorrow. In the meantime:

[SeanHerbison]

Monday, 24 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Snatch	200*8
Snatch High Pull	225*1*6
Bench	235*4*8

I think I'm just going to focus on the power variants for a while, rather than waffling back and forth between power and full.

Tuesday, 25 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Overhead Press	175*3*4 175*2*2
Squat	331*4*3
Bench	265*3*2@8.5 265*2*2@8 265*1*2@7.5
Overhead Squat	155*3 165*3*3

First time back squatting since the meet at the end of April, so I went conservation, probably needlessly so. Felt strange technique-wise, and I need to re-learn how to use a belt, but I think my strength here will come back pretty well.

Thursday, 27 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Clean and Jerk	185*1*2
Power Clean	245*2*5
Clean Pulls	231*4*5

Great Job, Sean!

Now, get those shoulders sorted...

Yeah, about that... Bit frustrating, since I know that it's a mental issue, but it's still a thing. For this week, leading up to the track meet, I didn't bother trying to figure it out, I just skipped them and saved myself the pain and mental effort. Going forward, I think it might be a good idea to separate the jerks from the cleans for a while and maybe hammer a bunch of them at lighter weights, below the pain threshold, to desensitize myself. I'll have to talk it over with @Hanley.

Friday, 28 June

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Bench	176*2*6
Front Squat	176*2*4

Just some quick, light lifting the day before the meet. There's some anecdata about muscle activation and optimal power production that I could get into, but even without that, it was helpful for getting me less stiff, so it was a good idea.

[SeanHerbison]

Monday, 1 July

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Snatch	190*2*6
w/Bench	270*3*3@8.5 270*2*3@7.5
Overhead Squat	160*3*4

Tuesday, 2 July

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Overhead Press	170*4 170*3*2 170*4 170*2 170*1 170*3*2
Squat	353*4 353*3*4
Bench	254*4*7

Overhead press felt strong, but off-balance. My left shoulder sits higher than my right, so some imbalance is expected, but today's was exaggerated for some reason.

[platypus]

Overhead press felt strong, but off-balance. My left shoulder sits higher than my right, so some imbalance is expected, but today's was exaggerated for some reason.

Do you have scoliosis?

[SeanHerbison]

Do you have scoliosis?

Not that I've ever noticed, no.

[EricK]

On an unrelated note, I finished up Sam Harris' Making Sense Podcast. I realize some people don't like him, but he is one of the most articulate and careful thinkers I've ever encountered, and I'm very impressed. He gets attacked by plenty of people, but I haven't seen much by people who (to the best of my knowledge) both understand what he's saying and are arguing in good faith. And holy crap are there a lot of people arguing against him in bad faith. I've never seen someone so often intentionally misquoted and taken out of context.

Can relate.

Nice work on both weightlifting and track and field competitions.

[SeanHerbison]

Nice work on both weightlifting and track and field competitions.

Thanks!

Oh, and on that note, I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'll be competing again in three weeks. I'm doing the American Open Series 2 in Albuquerque.

[mbasic]

Nice work on both weightlifting and track and field competitions.

Thanks!

Oh, and on that note, I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'll be competing again in three weeks. I'm doing the American Open Series 2 in Albuquerque.

Good luck dude

[SeanHerbison]

Good luck dude

Thanks. Shoulders are still a bit of an issue, but I think I'm figuring that out, and the rest of training is going well, so I'm reasonably confident I'll have a good meet.

Thursday, 4 July

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Power Clean	255*1 275*1 285*1 315*1 265*2*3
Clean High Pull	300*1*4
Jerk	185*1 205*1*3 225*1*2
Bench	309*1@7.5 265*5*4@8 265*2

Managed to accidentally hit myself in the chin on the third high pull. Smooth. Bench is unexpectedly strong after the layoff though, which is nice.

Friday, 5 July

Exercise	Weight*Reps*Sets@RPE
Sumo Deadlift	455*1*2 405*2*4
Bench	252.5*6*5@8-9 252.5*5*2@8
Squat	405*1, 0.57 m/s 435*1, 0.50 m/s 465*1, 0.53 m/s 495*1, 0.45 m/s, @9? 510*1, 0.39 m/s, @9.5

After re-listening to the JTS Supertotal episode that they recently re-released, I've been considering switching to sumo, or at least giving it another run. I've pulled 635 with sumo, compared to 672 conventional, so at the very least it's reasonably close, and more likely I'll be able to pull more if I actually train for it consistently.

Actually, over the last couple months, I've become pretty much convinced that ~100% of people can (with training) pull more using sumo, assuming they can get into position correctly. If anyone has thoughts or reasons why I should re-consider that, I'd love to hear them.

Also back on the menu are back squats. All I'd done since March were the previous two Tuesdays, where I squatted 331 and 353, so this was rather unexpected.


Everything 405 and up felt heavy, but you know what they say about that. And I'd rather something feel heavy and move fine than the other way around.