yea today was my first day ever doing clean and jerk. i think it went well. a little werid at first but get it down ok. the only problem is i cant get the kick out or when u go from shoulders to the finsh postion. do you have to spread your legs when going up to the finsh postion or can u just keep your feet shoulder with? thanks
Ended up being another rest day unfortunately. Sometimes you try to do the right thing and it backfires, or pi$$e$ you off, or both.
Been reading Starting Strength for last few weeks and committed to starting back at the basics on the big exercises. So far Squats, Deads, even Presses, I can tell it will pay off.
Mr. Rip teaches the Clean (Power Clean mostly in the book) by starting at the top—learning how to catch the bar in the front rack. My nemesis. I’ve shared conversations with several on these pages, followed tips, stretched and made little progress. But that was ok, I was prepared to just work today with the bar if I had to. Start at the top, eventually work down to the jump and see where it went from there.
It didn’t go anywhere. Weeks/months of trying, I can now get the bar about where it is supposed to be, but my grip is way too wide, I’ve got maybe one fingertip or a thumb on the bar (not good for the Jerk) and my elbows are almost straight down, barely in front of the bar. I read the book for an hour first, ran 2k for warmup and stretched everything that was going to hurt. Worked on catching the bar up there for 20-30 minutes, tried it with the jump, a little extra weight or just the bar, didn’t matter.
I was tempted to just throw weight on there and sling it like I used to, just so I could feel some kind of workout, but decided that was probably stupid and called it a day. A $#itty x-fit day.
Wondering if I should just skip this when it comes around, skip the angst do something else (like what?) and work on this during every warm-up until I turn 50 and can Clean and Jerk 50 pounds somewhat properly?
Or, should I just accept that my form isn’t going to be ‘classic’ and do better the parts of the lift I can with better technique (pull, the jump, even the jerk from a shoddy front rack) and go back to weights that aren’t too heavy to hurt me, but not so light as to make this drill feel worthless and frustrating?
I could try to post some video, not sure exactly what to shoot, but if it might offer some clues to help…
Sorry for the crappy tone, I’ll take it out on tomorrow’s workout.
Hey casalingo, if I were you, I’d film myself from different angles (front and side - yeah, like the mugshots) while doing C&J, and post those so some of the trainers here can give you some feedback. Don’t get discouraged. There’s an interview with GD on the CF journal today, and he mentions how the CF kids take on this kind of challenge. They just keep chipping at it, a litle bit every day, and then in the long run they get their reward for not giving up. Just my two cents…
BTW, I believe I have achilles tendinitis. It’s been hurting for over a month, so I fianlly made an appointment with the doctor for next week. Meanwhile, I stopped running and jumping (and I am applying ice and taking ibuprofen). Any experience with it? Any other excercises you would avoid?
I did the WOD today and I would have to say it was my first time doing this, kinda stayed low weight to make sure i had the form because that is what you want is good form. But I think I did ok.
45lb barx4
95lb x 4
135 x 2
135 x 2
135 x 2
135 x 2
135 x 2
I will stay with this till I get better at and more comfortable, maybe up the #‘s a bit.
Late entry for WOD Rx’d 030209
1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Deadlifts
Warm-up was 1 hour of Krav Maga
135-135-185-185-185-185-185
This was my first time doing deadlifts, so I took it real easy on the weight. The increase was because I thought that the 135# was
not sufficient for me to appreciate the forces involved, so I upped it a bit.
I have always been worried about hurting my back, even though I have never sustained a back injury.
I concentrated on form - not bending the back at all/ keeping my head up.
I do not have a coach or someone to watch me, so I have to be real careful.
The idea of getting up some big weights is pretty exciting, but I temper that with an abundance of caution.
BTW, I believe I have achilles tendinitis. It’s been hurting for over a month, so I fianlly made an appointment with the doctor for next week. Meanwhile, I stopped running and jumping (and I am applying ice and taking ibuprofen). Any experience with it? Any other excercises you would avoid?
I’ve done every kind of calf stretch and these are by far the most effective. I used to get up with sore heels every morning until they warmed up. After doing these that just went away.
Also, before you get out of bed in the morning, you can gently stretch your calves. I used to keep a towel or something like that near by: loop the towel around your foot and gently pull your foot so as to stretch the calf muscle. That seemed to help me with that first shock of ai yi yi in the AM and the less you inflame the tendon the better.
Sometimes a small heel lift in the offending shoe will work for temporary relief. You can usually find these in the dr. scholls section of the pharmacy.
As for things to avoid, you’ve hit the two that bother me the most, but sometimes lots of cleans will do it too. Not so much lately, it’s a flexibility thing, but avoid anything that gets your feet off the floor only to slam them back down again. Also watch jumping off the pullup bar. Use that box . . . .
No jump rope, no tuck jumps, no jumping in the burpee (breaks your heart, I know . . . ).
