Yeah I know. I've been a little remiss in posting lately. It's not that I haven't been motivated to write a post. More like life got in the way and I haven't really had time to sit down and post what is really bouncing around my noggin. Then as you may know, the moment you get time to sit down and do it your head goes blank.
At any rate I'm now going to go back about 3 weeks ago when Eleiko Sport Center was paid a little visit by Donny Shankle. Yes THE Donny Shankle, the originator of "Pull the bar like you're ripping the head off a goddamn lion." For one entire Saturday the ten or so of us that attended his seminar were picked apart & coached by Donny. By the end of the day we were all going to attempt PRs in the snatch and clean & jerk.
Going into the weekend I was a bit nervous as I hadn't done a single lift from the floor nor had I bilaterally squatted since before the American Open. That was the last time I had attempted full lifts before my body/back gave me the middle finger. I'd been lifting at or above knee in all the lifts and most certainly hadn't dropped below parallel on a single lift. The only strength and below parallel work I'd been working on was split squats with my rear foot elevated. Those didn't cause any back pain whatsoever and as it turns out, I was pretty weak on them. They made my legs sore like I had just ridden a horse cross country for the Pony Express. Gee, I wonder what has been lacking in my training program....unilateral work much?!
Anyway I had fully prepared for Saturday by borrowing some blocks from a local CrossFit so if worse came to worse I could do partial movements from the block. I walked into Eleiko that morning over a half an hour early and found Donny laying on a stretch board on a platform, weight room completely silent and devoid of any music. I'll admit even having met him on a previous occasion and been in the warm up room at a national meet at the same time as he was, I was still pretty excited to meet and work with him. I had heard good things from people who really knew him on a personal level.
We started off working on overhead squat and snatching technique. As I had suspected but really kind of refused to acknowledge, I don't squat near low enough in the overhead. I had several inches range of motion I had yet to achieve which could and will help me hit a lower position in the snatch. Donny showed us a stretch to help with pulling yourself down into a deeper overhead squat position and I've actually been working on squatting lower across the board in all squats. From there we worked on positional snatches and I needed a slight modification on my second pull positioning and transition. At this point I continue to be amazed that I've been relatively successful in lifting with questionable lift technique. Maybe not so much questionable technique more as I have plenty of room for fine tuning which should lead to huge improvements. That was really the take-home message for me: fine tune and correct my snatch pull while dropping into a deeper squat should make the improvements I've been striving for. It'll take me being a bit more cognizant about hitting the right positions but with a few hundred+ reps I'm certain I can get there.
Moving on to cleans there wasn't anything terribly glaring that I needed to correct. Yes my clean grip is a bit wider than most, thank you freakishly long arms, but I feel the wider grip is my one nuance that I've actually made work well for me. The basic take home message for cleans was get into that deep squat but utilize the stretch reflex to get out of the hole quicker. I mean we've all had one of those cleans you just grind out that crushes your soul right before you have to jerk. Let's not even talk about missing that bounce and getting buried by a clean, frustrating but at least you racked it right?!
Speaking of soul crushing....jerks, the bane of my existence. I feel like I've tried every possible combo available for improving my jerk. From behind the neck, from in front, off the blocks, not off the blocks, front squats plus jerks, overloaded dips, overloaded recoveries, with a pause, without a pause, deeper dip, shorter dip, presses in a split, push presses, push jerks, and whatever magical cure-all you can come up with involving any of that mess. Donny presented a simple solution to determining your split stance and then all you have to do is drop under. I have always felt like I don't get under a jerk all that well, like I catch without much of a knee bend but up until this point no one has ever recommended anything regards to my foot placement or how to get under it better. The focus seems to have been on what my body does from the waist up. Moment of epiphany when after correcting my legs/stance/foot placement, a jerk, albeit a light one, actually locked into place. Effortless. 8 years struggling for every kilo on a jerk and Donny seemed to fix it in a matter of about 10 minutes. Now I know that's jumping the gun. Effortlessly locking in a 65k jerk doesn't equate to locking in 100k jerk but becoming consistent in the new/revised version of my jerk is the key to working my way up to that 100k. It's just small changes in my inner voice cues before I jerk but I'm already starting to feel a difference.
So after a few hours of working on refinements it was moment of truth time, going after full lift PRs. And I was still nervous as hell. Questions were bouncing around my head like a ping pong ball. Was this really the brightest thing to do? I haven't even been squatting, should I even attempt the full lifts? Is this going to set me back on my road to recovery? Will my coach kill me when he finds out I did the lifts after having not done them in almost 2 months? Then the inner Beastess voice piped up and quieted all those thoughts. She simply said, "Go for it. If it hurts, you shut it down. Now get your ass on that platform."
After commandeering a platform with the one other girl that was taking the seminar, we started warming up with the goal of hitting a PR within 8 reps. For me that equated to hitting a 78k snatch which seemed like a pretty sizeable task considering I hadn't touched anything snatch related that weighed more than 60k. Worked my way up hitting a 65 pretty easily. The snatches felt snappy and light. Donny said to put on 71, missed it. Dropped back down to 68 and made it. Went back to 71....nailed it! By now I was pretty impressed with myself, not only was I still pain and discomfort free but I was up in heavy weight territory that I hadn't attempted since before the Open. I took two attempts at 74 missing both before doing a couple of down sets. Holy hell I snatched 71 without having squat or pulled in weeeeeeks!
On to clean & jerks! This was actually more nerve racking than the snatches since technically this was the lift that I was performing when I solidified my status as injured. Not to mention the last meet prior to the Open I completely bombed out on clean & jerks. So needless to say clean & jerking could prove to be either really great or really grotesque. Turns out it was somewhere in that middle ground. Again we were tasked with hitting a PR within 8 reps which means I was aiming for 96k. Much like on snatch, I worked up to 65k and hit that pretty easily. Jumped to 75, a normal jump for me. Crushed the clean, failed the jerk. Okay mental check, let's get it the second time around. Again I cleaned it annnnnnnnd failed yet again on the jerk. Now I'm pissed off so I rip the weights off and go back down to 65....uuuuuggggllllyyy! Stupid stupid jerks, bane of my existence!! So Donny had me do a clean & jerk combo of one clean plus two jerks. After 3 rounds of that at 65 it was time to just shut things down.
After all that lifting I was shaking and tears were starting to build up that I knew I wouldn't be able to control. I took a moment off to the side, letting them flow a little bit, trying to calm my body back down. It was a strange little roller coaster of emotion. Going from the fear of lifting to the adrenaline bomb of snatching well to the irritation of not locking in those jerks. I had to remind myself that not only was I able to fully participate and lift in the seminar but I was able to do so without any pain or feeling like I had set myself back. I can't help that I was crying over all of that. I'm still a girl dammit! I know that my injury wasn't much compared to what others have experienced but to finally be able to do something again that I'm so passionate about was absolutely wonderful to me!
In the aftermath of the Day with Donny I spent the next two days walking around like my body was put thru the spin-cycle on a washing machine but it was the most glorious feeling! Why? Because it was still pain free! I also realized that it was the first and the last time I will EVER out snatch my clean & jerk. I almost consider Donny a miracle worker. One day had restored my confidence that I could lift and lift well. It restored the roar in my inner Beastess to step on the platform and just get after it. I might not be at top levels yet but damn if I'm not on my way.
Beware the Beastess!
