Murph 2019 2/n

Before the fun began...

Murph 2019 1/n

What can I say? I did NOT die! I did have to do some significant scaling, but I survived and completed it just seconds away from a full hour.  That being said, I made sure to take my time, which included walking the bulk of my final mile because temperatures outside got well into the 90s.  As a reminder, Murph consists of the following: 1 mile run, 300 squats, 200 push-ups, 100 pull-ups, and another 1 mile run.  The contents between the two runs can be partitioned as necessary, so I did 20 rounds of Cindy, which consist of 15 squats, 10 push-ups, and 5 pull-ups (in my case, mostly assisted with a giant rubber band, but also some ring rows if someone was borrowing my station).  I only had one bathroom stop, and there was ZERO vomit on my part!

This was my bunch (at least the main part, minus my weightlifting instructor) prior to starting Murph. We mostly look alive!

Snatches and Complexes

I'm still not quite there for maxing out my snatch with some changes to my starting stance, but it's slowly coming back.  One of my coaches recommended that I open my lift with a wider stance, which actually made it much easier to get into a more solid power position and get a stronger pull.
I got to 65 lbs reliably, and then I ran out of snatches when I hit the round of 75 lbs (90% or so).

The wider stance with my clean also made the lift feel much easier.  The 85 lb cleans didn't feel as heavy with the wider initial stance.  This is roughly my 70%, give or take a little bit.

Relief from Horrible People

I did some snatch work on Thursday in an attempt to mitigate the cluster-fudge that would result in the complete ruination of Friday by "people" who unfortunately have too much time of their own to waste and don't understand that others have more important things to do than attend poorly planned nonsensical parties where nobody seems to know how to observe a proper schedule or read a clock.

All snatches below were at 55 lbs.  I still catch relatively high on my snatches, but with the tall snatch drills and snatch balance work, that should be remedied soon... and then there's some issues with the snatch pulls, which are also being addressed.

And then there was some jerk work today after realizing that squats were unlikely to happen due to the risk of an accidental defecation at an inappropriate time and location. First set was at 85 lbs, then the second was at 95 lbs.

Barbell Warmup Drills

It may be a while before I can really handle significant weights, but I can always work on form drills. The bulk of my work came from this on the board. I didn't do that clean version of the snatch warmup, but the mechanics are similar in terms of a controlled first and second pull (or as one of my coaches will call it, pushes) and then an explosive third pull as I go into triple extension.

I didn't film the halting snatch grip deadlift, but I did film the snatch pull.  The primary thing is to make sure the barbell is moving in a straight line up.

The muscle snatch is pretty much pulling the barbell up, and then pulling and punching the bar up without dropping under the bar.

The tall snatch is primarily working on dropping under the bar quickly.  There's both the pull up and the push down in the snatch.

The hang snatch integrates both the explosive triple extension and the pushing the body under the bar. I actually like going from the hang position because something seems to happen somewhere between the bottom of my kneecap and above the kneecap.

And then there's the full snatch...

On the clean and jerk side, I put more emphasis on the jerk today because I know there will be a fair amount of work on the clean. I know I need a lot more work on my clean pulls. First there's the standard overhead press.

Next is the push press without dropping under the bar at all.

Then there's the strict press from the split jerk position, although I do end up getting into the split jerk stance by doing an actual split jerk.

A significant part of the jerk involves dropping under the bar quickly, which allows for more weight to go overhead.  This drill emphasizes work on dropping under the bar and getting the feet into place quickly.

And then there's the full split jerk.  I do tend to have my back leg a little more straight than it should be at light weights, but that seems to correct itself at heavier weights.

I also got some work on both the clean and jerk and some clean pulls at relatively light weights.

Workout Rudely Cut Short on Friday

I'm still coming back from tweaking my back, but some light form work never hurts. If only people would be remotely considerate in not deliberately interfering with my nutrition and training schedule even though I don't interfere with their inane gossip fests and ridiculous social expectations that interfere with plans.

Below is snatch work focusing on dropping under the bar quickly as well as not doing the giddy-up movement my coach is trying to get out of me.

And below is work on the behind the neck snatch grip push press to work on shoulder positioning into the overhead locked out position.