February is a short month and I basically get 3 less days to run the business on my own… But what a fucking month for everyone. Progress was made all over the place!
Anyway, i’m short of time… As always, so will try to blast through this while giving each of our guys the justice they deserve.
Jens just finished the end of a training cycle and hit PBs in the Front Squat at 75kg and C&J at 53kg, so it’s time to start looking ahead, we’re still yet to make any solid goals for the next training cycle and are currently in a 2 week transitional phase to let the body rest a little, but after i’ve looked at what her lifting ratios say and had an evaluation of the last training cycle, we’ll be looking to move forwards and get back at it with new goals.
Joe hit some nice Axle FTOH PBs of 132.5kg x1 followed by 135kg x1 a few weeks later. This bodes well as he has Axle in a competition coming up on Saturday.
Paul is hitting pbs in the big lifts and hit PBs in the Push Press of 94kg x1 (+1kg), 97kg x1 (+4kg) and 98kg (+1kg). PBs in the Deadlift of 193kg x1 (+3kg) and 195kg x1 (+2kg) along with a Squat PB of 133kg x1 (+5.5kg). Were still chasing those long term goals of a 100kg Push Press, 200kg Deadlift and 140kg Squat, but we’re moving forwards!
There are going to be a couple of people like Xena in this section where they basically get a list because there’s too many PBs.
Snatch Deadlift - 66kg x5
Snatch Deadlift - 68 x3
Snatch Deadlift - 72kg x3
Push Press - 38kg x5
Front Squat - 60kg x3
Front Squat - 63kg x3
Front Squat - 65kg x2
Push Press - 40kg x3
Push Press - 41kg x3
No Foot Snatch + Snatch 37kg x1+1 (equalling 1RM)
Front squat - 65kg x2
Snatch deadlift - 75kg x2
Snatch Deadlift - 76kg x2
Front Squat - 68kg x2
What can you take from this list? Well it’s mostly strength based movements and not competition movements so we can see Xena’s raw strength is going up, that we’re probably at the back end of training that and that in march we’re probably going to switch our focus to transferring that ‘raw’ strength into actual competition strength.
James (Jimmy) is doing fucking amazing! His push press is skyrocketing and has hit PBs of 107.5kg x5, 110kg x5, 112.5kg x3 & 115kg x2 along with a PB Axle CTOH of 105kg x5. On top of that, he’s making progress with his Front Rack and has hit PBs in the front squat of 137kg x5 (with straps) and 120kg x2 with no straps. The deadlift fear is also disappearing and he hit 210 x5 in the deadlift all while dropping 15kg bodyweight since Christmas. If I had to pick someone for client of the month, it’d be Jimmy. Not because of the PBs, but because of the work and effort he’s put in to acquire new positions that we’re actually quite painful for him at first.
Jo has had a nice month, the shoulder issues are subsiding and he hit a volume PBs in the squat of 160kg for 6x4, 170kg 6x3 and a rep PB of 170kg x5. He also hit a rep PB in the Deadlift of 235kg x5.
Liams had a nice training cycle hitting PBs in the Incline Press of 95kg x1 followed by 95kg x2 and 100kg x1 along with hitting a PB Strict Press of 67.5kg x1. Upper body strength is definitely on the up as is the Squat where Liam hit PBs of 165kg x1 and 170kg x1. Next we turn our attention to the next training cycle and the Deadlift where we’ll look to bring up some technical flaws along with getting over a metal block that manifests itself at 215kg.
Marie like Xena, can also have a list!
Push Press - 50kg x2
Clean + Front Squat - 64kg (+1kg)
Jerk - 63kg (+1.5kg)
Push Press - 51kg x1
Snatch - 51kg x1
Clean & Jerk - 61kg x1
Front Squat - 75kg x1
Snatch - 52kg x1
Back Squat - 90kg x1
Snatch Deadlift - 87kg x1
These are huge improvements from where we started 6 months ago and after a 1 week ‘rest’ now we turn our sights to competition! I say rest, it’s not a rest, it’s just reduced volume and load compared to what she has been doing… It’s certainly not a rest though.
Olivias training cycle is 12 months long and seemingly never ends due to a long rugby season, there are just different phases. Since January we’ve reduced the output on the ‘raw’ strength stuff and started looking towards moving face and increasing RFD. We’ve also reduced Olivia down to two lifting sessions a week to facilitate more recovery between hard games. Although thats not the focus in season, here’s a list of PBs Olivia has hit recently.
Squat - 112.5kg x1 (7.5kg PB)
Bench Press - 66kg x1 (3.5kg PB)
Deadlift - 130kg x1 (10kg PB)
Push Press - 65kg x1 (5kg PB)
Snatch - 46kg (+3.5kg)
Snatch - 49kg (+3kg)
Snatch - 50kg x1 (+1kg)
Wil is still dealing with a dodgy knee from his Skiing trip and while we’re still training lower body, the load is reduced and is the ROM on certain movements. This means however, we have more energy to build the upper body and it’s shown! Seated OHP PBs of 60kg x5, 65kg x3 and 70kg x2 along with a Bench PB of 75kg x5. I often struggle to follow my own advice as I coach myself (Yes i’m aware thats dumb), but for my guys, set backs are just opportunities to get better somewhere else.
This was Jacks first full training cycle back after basically a year out and being fully detrained so the goal was always just to bring the numbers up as close to old numbers as possible. We finished with a 86kg Snatch, 110kg C&J & 150kg Squat so getting close to where we were! Jack did hit a Power Snatch of 77.5kg x1 which is an all time PB.
Lucy hit a nice Triple in the Clean of 62kg in the Weightlifting Club.
On top of that, we have 4 or 5 guys now training for their first Weightlifting competition on the 28th May.
Cori his lots of PBs that I don’t track because frankly, they’re too numerous at 14 year old and i’m more interested in the way he moves right now. However, i’ll be giving him a shout out as he’s started going to the gym himself now outside of our sessions which is a big step forwards in confidence and competence in his lifting!
George F hit a nice PB on Sandbag to shoulder of 110kg x4. The end goal here is to hit the heaviest competition weight of 120kg for a set of 5 which means we should have plenty strength in the tank come competition day.
Jonny and hit a nice Beltless Deadlift PB of 270kg x3. Both Jonny and George are coming in nicely for BNSF Northern Qualifiers.
I’ll finish by chatting about the ‘transitional’ phase that a few people are in.
It’s important to have a transitional phase where possible at the end of a training cycle to allow full recovery from hard training. It essentially amounts to reduced load and reduce intensity training for anywhere between 1 to 4 weeks, depending on the requirements and timeframe of the upcoming training cycle, along with how intense the last training cycle was.
As a general rule I like to look at it as an extension to the last training cycle rather than an intro to the next, although it should be fairly fluid.
Id also focus on low rest times, being in and out of the gym fast while looking to train things that maybe get neglected in your usual training. Structural balance and unilateral work is always a good thing to look at in these phases. I wouldn’t neglect the strength training completely though and 1 session of low volume strength maintenance per week is fine and usually helps set you up well for the next training block.
Hopefully you found that insightful.
Until next time
Adam
