Topic: "Dube's Direct Approach"

[Sam McLean]

9 Sept 08: Day Eight

Oi!  I've been riding my bike to and from work all week.  It's about seven miles each way, and on the way home the last 2.5 miles are up a monstrous hill.  After about 40 odd miles of this crap, and today's strength workout, I'm freakin' smoked!

And yet for all this whining, the workout went pretty well.

Push Press (warm-ups: 45x3, 65x3, 95x3, 115x3, 135x3; work sets: 155x3, 165x3, 165x3)

Back Squat (warm-ups: 165x3, 185x2, 225; work sets: 275 [1 single], 300 [2 singles], 310 [3 singles], 320 [1 single], 330 [3 singles]).  Saving the high volume stuff for tomorrow, we're having a club wide sontest of strength where I work: high box squats (as many reps with 100% bodyweight as possible), 2-board bench press (as many reps with 90% bodyweight as possible [this is going to suck hard for me, I can't bench for nothing]), and then sprints in the basketball court (as many line touches, baseline to half court, as possible in one minute).

Snatch Pull (warm-ups: 45x3 [full snatch], 65x2 [full snatch], 95x2 [full snatch], 115x2 [full snatch]; work sets: 135 [2 singles], 145 [3 singles], 150 [2 singles], 160 [3 singles]).  Yeah, yeah, I know, the program doesn't call for snatch pulls, using a deadlift+shrug instead.  Well I like snatch pulls, deb blemmit!  I did snatches for the warm-ups to make sure I was "in the groove", so as not to practice the pull incorrectly.

Snatch Deadlift (work sets: 135x12, 135x12).  My hips were low, and my quads paid the price!

Crucifix lift on decline ab board (10 lb plates, 12 reps).  Rather than try to explain this, I'll just record it next time.

TTFN!

[Sam McLean]

11 Sept 08: Day Nine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIN7v5UPg4

Snatch (warm-ups: 45x5, 65x3, 95x2, 115; work sets: 135 [5 singles], 140 [1 single], 145 [2 singles], 150 [3 singles]).  Didn't feel quite as fast this time as last, but the second pull is still a far cry better than my first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Erj3QFkq_4

CJ (work sets: 150 [1 single], 165 [3 singles], 175 [2 singles], 185 [1 single], 195 [2 singles], 205 [2 singles]).  Wow!  Watch that spine collapsing action on 195!  I straightened up in the catch on the subsequent singles at 205, but my jerk wasn't 100%.  There was a little press out on the right side both attempts at 205.  If Chris were in charge, this wouldn't warrant any reds, but alas, we are not so fortunate!

13 Sept 08: Day Ten

Conventional Deadlift (warm-ups: 135x3, 185x2, 225x2, 275, 315; work sets: 365, 385, 400 [15 lb PR], 365x3).  When I was powerlifting, I pulled sumo style, but I wanted to give my spine a little shock by making it move nearly 400 lbs again (it's been awhile).  As it turns out, all the dynamism in my current regimen has helped me tremendously with speed off the floor and through the sticking point at knee level.  Amazing!

High Seated Box Jump (warm-up: 20"x3; work sets: 30"x3, 32"x3, 34"x3).  Started in a seated position on a 24" box, then jumping up to various heights.  The high box puts me in essentially the same leg and hip angle as I should be for the beginning of the second pull.  Compounded these with:

Snatch Grip Power Row (work sets: 135x3, 155x3, 165x3).  Hey, it's leisure day, why not throw in some upper body pulling?

[Ryan Marciniszyn]

Ever experiment with a slightly wider clean and /or jerk grip?

It looks like if you widen your jerk grip out a little you will be able get your elbows down a little bit, i find that helpful to keep the jerk over my head instead of forward.

Like see my jerks here ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKAwx93tX74

[Sam McLean]

Ryan,

I have tried a wider grip in the past.  I used to power jerk exclusively, thinking that it was just cooler to do so.  When I went to a split jerk I just brought it in a little bit, as I didn't have to take as wide a grip to allow for shoulder mobility.

Still, it's been about a year since I started split jerking, and I might experiment with a grip that's a couple fingers wider next time I jerk on a light day.

Interesting point.  I'll try it.

[Matt Erdman]

Your biggest problem with the jerk will come from the platform. There is no way to get your feet out as far as you need to. Do you have more space where you can do rack jerks?

[Sam McLean]

Matt,

I realize that you are 100% correct about the platform dimensions being one barrier to my jerk.  If I don't limit the footprint of my jerk, there's a good chance I'll step right off, or worse, part way off, assuring a rolled ankle.  Unfortunately, the "racks" are full squat cages, and there is a low lying crossbeam in the front.  It makes me more nervous to jerk in the rack than on the platform.  I'm glad we HAVE a platform (we're the only gym in Salem, OR that has one, to my knowledge), but 8'x8' would be awesome, rather than 4'x8'.

15 Sept 2008: Random!

So Monday I did the "Mighty Member" challenge that my club is putting on, (since I'm a trainer, it's expected that I do it), and totally stunk it up.

High Box Squat (warm-ups: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5; work set: 205x30 [100% bodyweight]).  I probably could've gotten another 5-10 reps here, but I wussed out.  A 46 year old woman next to me got 100 reps with 95 lbs (80% of her bodyweight).  Muscular endurance is not my forte, but I'm still a bit ashamed of my performance here.

Bench Press (warm-ups: 45x5, 95x5, 135x3; work set: 185x10 [90% bodyweight]).  Apparently not doing bench press for 4 months made me better at benching.  Who knew?!

Shuttle Run (baseline to half court and back: 8 laps [16 lengths] in one minute).  This aggravated my patellar tendinitis quite badly, still hurts to load my left leg today.  I HATE direction changes!  Still, my pace was good here, and I did better than I expected.

So with a point being awarded for each rep on squat and bench, and each length on the shuttle, I scored a pathetic 56 points.  The skinny 46 year old woman next to me got 123 points.  That made me feel great.

With the gnarly flare up on patellar pain, I think I'm going to make this week an unloading week.  If it feels good I'll do some light work, but if the pain worsens at all, I'll quit right where I am, and go get the ice.

[Jack]

Thanks for the great vids Sam! How do you get such good quality of image. About your elbow position for the jerk, you can sort your grip and elbow position when you've come  up from the squat, and the bar kicks up loose form your rack position for a moment when you have stood up completely. At the moment the bar leaves the delts and shoots up a bit, move to the jerk grip. If you watch the C&J footage you'll see the moment.

Sjaak Smorenburg