One rep at a time, one set at a time. And, a vision experiment.

Third week on rep and set increases in my snatch workout today and I was just a bit nervous. I never really know where my body is, injury potential wise, and I've learned not to be fooled by "feeling good" before workouts. In fact, many times that's when I've had my worst workouts, although it's not usually a precursor to any tweaks.

But I'm cautious, especially when I'm ramping up things and training early.Also, Nick was out so I was on my own, not a problem;especially these days as most training is now done early, but he definitely gives me good feedback on position, mechanics and other things that might lead to problems. He has been my training partner for over five years now and has good coaching instincts and a good eye.

And speaking of eyes, I decided to try a little experiment after last Saturdays 'problem' with finding my visual spot again. The horizon works well for the swings but it's not as consistent in the snatch and I hypothesized that perhaps I was seeing too well, or too much because of my contact lenses.

When I only wore glasses I never wore them when I trained as they flopped around, got sweaty and or steamed up and lacked peripheral vision. I only wore my glasses( I'm nearsighted) at work and always (still do) take them off when at home. But when I got my contacts they were so confortable and made it seem like I had perfect far sighted vision that I got into the habit of wearing them for training.

Especially at Girya as I have to drive there and I need the contacts for driving. I moved my training spot to the back of the studio, behind Tracy's class instead of facing them as I had been thinking that would help with less visual distractions but thought that no contacts might help.

It definitely did, although it took a few sets to get used to.

When I powerlifted one of the biggest challenges for meet day,especially in the squat, was where to look when you are not lifting in your normal environment, with the same focal points, cues and peripheral objects. Many times you are lifting on a stage, always in front of a judge who is RIGHT in front of you,often times with bright lights blinding you as well.

This has the tendency to pull one forward, out of themselves, if they can't make the correction very quickly. You have to find a focal point right away and NOT give in to the temptation to let your eyes wander. That's never good and really makes me disconnect from my body. Even worse the squatting in front of a mirror.

One has to be away of their external surroundings but ALWAYS cueing into where their body is in space, especially relative to the movement pattern they are trying to do> Proprioception at it's best, especially with a big weight on your back.

Or a heavy bell pulling your forwards with great force and acceleration. So I theorized that loosing some of my long sight vision might make it easier to 'stay in my body' as I went through the snatch.

And it did. It also showed me where my focal point should be, which is more down than the horizon point I had been using. Pretty much where I looked for all these years. Down and about 3 feet from my feet. Not pretty but it works.

Very old video but it seems I was right in the headline. My best technique indeed. Eye and head position were the same today.

7 am warmup:

40 minutes of stretching, joint mobility and foam roller. I am definitely taking my stretching much more seriously of late and giving it the respect, as it's own workout, that it deserves.This is especially true after watching Igor Morozov's flexibility and realizing I have been babying myself way too much, especially for my overhead work for my right shoulder.

I worked on the dyna band stretches Coach Morozov demonstrated in the video albeit on a the beginners level. it's tough!

One arm swing warmup:

16 kg x10/10 x2

20 kg x5/5/5 x2

25 kg x5/5 x 2

Snatches

16 kg x5/5 x2

20 kg x5/5

24 kg x7/7 x 10 sets

140 reps

7420 lbs

These went well although I was really focusing on one rep at a time, one set at a time. This was an increase in both reps (from 6-7 per set) from last week and total reps( 120-140). Nothing was a problem at all but my hips and hammies didn't feel perfect coming in and the last thing I wanted was a tweak.

SO I went very slowly, not getting ahead of myself mentally, holding each rep dead stop at the top, reaching back, not rushing the pendulum and really letting the arc take ME through the rep. I was definitely willing to sacrifice power here for safety. The weight felt light though, and the groove very solid and each set felt better until set seven when I just started feeling fatigue.

Rest periods were about 1 minute between sets but I didn't time them as usual. Just went when I felt ready.

Two hand swings

32 kg x 5

6

7

8

9

10

Just 45 reps but I wanted to make sure everything was fine tomorrow and I've done two hand swings twice this week already. Felt great and solid power.

Triceps work with bands

100 reps of pushdowns with both palms down and palms up grip. red blue and black band and very little rest.Hey I like triceps and it seems I can train them again without shoulder issues so why not? Occlusion training, or, as they used to say, race the pump.

post workout stretching

about 15 minutes.

Datsit. about 50 minutes of kb training total, not counting the stretching