Well, I guess you wouldn’t call it a workout, per se, but with Heather at work, I figured today would finally be the time I could get to the weight room and test out my deadlift and clean & jerk! So, it went a little something like this:
Warmup: Medicine ball wall throws: 8lbsx50×10 ft (guesstimate) while waiting for a power rack.
After the warmup, a rack had opened for me, so I hurried over to get started. From here, I worked up the following (note, we’re in kilogram land here):
3 sets of 5×70kg (~154lb)
2 sets of 5×80kg (~176lb)
1 set of 5×90kg (~198lb)
Then, I tried to go too high. I tried at 12okg(264.5lb), failed, tried again at 110kg(242.5lb), and finally grabbed a 10lb plate (4.5kg) for each side, and maxed out at 99kg (~218). Felt so good, felt so pumped, that I did a celebratory water break, then did it one more time!! This is a pretty decent baseline. I would’ve been REALLY happy to deadlift my bodyweight right off the bat, but now I have a goal. I feel so raw and manly after doing deadlifts…big nerdtime there, but something very visceral about moving big weight around that bicep curls don’t really capture.
So, I wanted to work on my clean & jerk, both to set a baseline and to see how my form was. Unfortunately, no one around could coach my form, so I ended up eyeballing myself in the mirrors as I went. I started light to groove the form a bit, then stepped up to see where I was. You release the bar when it is over your head, so there aren’t really “sets”…the number is how many reps I did at a given weight:
5×40kg (~88lb)
4×50kg (~110lb)
3×60kg (~132lb)
At this point, I was pretty close to max. Realizing what happened when I jumped too far on deadlifting, I grabbed the trusty 10lb plates again and got one good rep at 69kg (~152lb)
I finished up with some T-bar barbell presses. I’ve never actually used a T-bar, I just load a barbell with weight at one end and stick the unweighted end in a corner. Rack it at chest height, and then explosively (or as explosively as possible) “punch” the weight up like a dumbbell push press. Did 20×20kg (~44lbs) and 10×30kg(~66lbs) It’s the second exercise in this video:
Called it a day. Some thoughts:
More grip training. I could likely deadlift more than 99kg, but my grip held me back. More “squeezing the bar” when I lift other things, I guess. Also, my rack position in the clean & jerk is compromised by my lack of wrist flexibility. I’m having a hard time getting my elbows away from my body. More research is necessary. Moving up weights in kilograms = way more weight than moving up weight in pounds. Bump yourself from 20kg to 30 kg a side and you increased 22.5 lbs! So, mental note on loading for the future, heh.