It’s Monday morning and the last Monday of the month, so it’s time to write this months blog.
It’s a quiet one if i’m honest.
Rugby is in the off season, the Strongmen are building for UKNS in January, so there’s around 16 weeks to go so it’s very early for them to be hitting big PBs and generally people are ticking over nicely.
It’s all a process and you can’t just magic PB, that and (more of my guys than I could have imagined) we’re doing the Great North run, and that training in itself will eat into strength PBs.
Anyway, onto it!
First off, big well done to Jen, Paul B, Paul Y and Xena on their performances in the great north run. Jen, and the Pauls on their times and Xena who gave up her time and acted as a guide for a visually impaired woman.
Speaking of Xena..
Xena out did herself this month hitting PBs in the Squat of 78kg 2x5 and 80kg x5. Snatch 34kg x1 (+1kg), Clean - 35kg x1 (+2kg), Clean & Power Jerk - 39 x1 and Snatch DL 63kg x5 (+3kg). One of the big goals of Xena’s training is to create more separation between her Snatch and Clean & Jerk pbs caused by a discrepancy in technique level between the lifts. Your Snatch should realistically be 80 to 85% of you max Snatch, so we’re getting closer and making progress to bringing them inline.
Lucy is making progress and recently hit a 51kg Snatch adding 1kg to her max. The real thing we need to continue working on with Lucy is her Jerk technique. Once that improves with higher weights I have no doubt her C&J max with soar.
Paul hit some great PBs in the Snatch and C&J of 63kg (+5kg) and 80kg (+4kg), all while training for the GNR.
And Marie who was until recently a member of the WL Club and has recently moved online has been killing the PBs too hitting a 58kg C&J and a 60kg Clean. More work on the Jerk coming up for marie because there’s certainly more there in the clean.
George F started back working on building up that Deadlift hitting a Beltless rep pb of 255kg x5 (Beltless).
Last one… Told you it was a quiet month!
Well done to both Dean & Gillian who came 3rd and 2nd respectively in Stags First Timers Strongman competition. They both work hard in training, didn’t make many mistakes and reaped the rewards. Great work!
Compared to last month that didn’t take long to write, but thats what happens when you have people who have just finished competing, program in blocks and a few off-seasons line up.
I’ll leave you with a little usable information.
I spoke about Xena’s lifting ratios earlier in the post…
Now… Some people take it way to far and have lifting ratios for your ‘Preacher Curl to Back Squat’ which to me is a little far and a bit stupid and generally just isn’t useful as it can just divert your attention from what you really need to work on.
Imagine thinking ‘shit, I can’t push my back squat until I bring my bicep curl up.’ It just doesn’t make sense.
If you use the right ratios and put your attention onto the right ratios they can be useful in identifying what you really need to work on.
Here’s Some useful ones for weightlifting.
Snatch should be:
60 to 65% of your max Back Squat
Or 80 to 85% of your max C&J
C&J should be:
80 to 85% of your max Back Squat
Or 85 to 92% of your max Front Squat
Front Squat should be:
85 to 93% of your max Back Squat
Powers should generally be around:
85% of their full lifts
There are lots of others, some dubious and not that useful, some not so dubious and very useful, but I feel these are the best.
There will be variation in this, so don’t worry about being bang on the mark, but if you find you’re way out in something, it’s probably a good idea to turn your training focus on bringing that thing up to scratch.
Improve the weak link and you’ll usually improve the entire system.
Until next time
Adam
P.S. I’ve been putting together a excel sheet of lifting ratios for a while for strongman, weightlifting and general training / structural balance…
It’s mainly for my own interest and coaching, but if something like that would be interesting and useful to you as a download, let me know and i’ll look to put something together in the future.
