The Work Capacity is back.

Good timing too. It sucked feeling weak and not capable of even half of my former workloads. But, as with all training programs what worked is what always worked: consistent progressions that allow for back off times as well.

I really focused on listening to my body and attempting workloads that were only small increases from the previous workout, also always taking into account external recovery factors: sleep or lack thereof, food or lack thereof, stress or lack thereof. You get the picture. It all counts and it all adds up. Ignore these factors and just try to hit the numbers on the program that you wrote down weeks or months ago when you were feeling one way is folly. At least for me now.

I like small steady increases each week. It give my mind and body confidence to know that what I am asking my body to do today is just a little more than what it strongly handled last workout( hopefully). Big jumps make things contract too hard and my joints can't handle that anymore.

I also have to be very careful to REMEMBER just how jacked up I was not too long ago and not be too greedy for more, heavier and longer. Just being out of pain is a miracle and being able to train fairly hard and heavy again is even moreso. Slow steady progress is just fine with me.

But as usual I still didn't know what I would be able to do this morning. Last weeks set of 10/10 and 130 snatches and Tuesdays pr on kb presses made me think I could do multiple sets of 10/10 with the 24 kg. Just didn't know how many.

A decent amount it turns out, and I left with more in the tank, although not much more. Multiple sets of 20 is way more than I've done in forever and I never knew what was going to happen next set.

Ed Coan talks in his video about how his progressive cycle works so well for him. Each week he goes up and each weeks he knows he can because he fulfilled his mission the last workout. It gives him confidence knowing he can do just a bit more and I feel the same.

This is not max effort training at all but classic ,old school, western style periodization, ala Coan and Karworski. Instead of adding pounds to the bar each week I'm adding reps and or sets. A different kind of overload.

I still want to do the snatch test with the 24 kg and the SSST still is on my wish list, despite how much I LOATHE high rep training of any kind.Still something draws me to it; perhaps because I'm scared of it, perhaps because I know how big an accomplishment for me it would be. To really overcome my weakpoint.

SO to that I need to be able to cruise sets of 10 each arm and SLOW DOWN my pace. I'm so used to sprinting everything and that is not conducive at all to 5 or 10 minute sets. Pacing is but it's way harder than sprinting to me lol.

Not training max vo2 has helped slow me down as well as laddering my sets and volume up. Really fixing the bell overhead and MAKING it a rest position is part of the plan and it's working.

warmup:

45 minute stretching, rolling.

kb snatch

16 kg x5/5x2

20 kg x7/7

20 kg x4/4

24 kg x10/10 x 5 sets

x 7/7 x 3 sets

142 reps

7526 lbs

NICE! Just 12 reps more in total than I did last week but doing the first 100 of them in sets of 10 was a big increase in intensity for me.I just relaxed and focused on not going too hard so that I didn't exceed about 75% heartrate. Having a much better overhead position on my right side now is key. I can rest their much better.

Today's sets felt as good as these done in Dec of 2006. Man that's four years ago!Slower but even more solid,especially overhead.

Two hand swings

28kg x10

32kg x10 x 5 sets

this was hard, lol. I was getting tired and I did these as Hardstyle as I could with downward eccentric speed and as much hip snap as I could. Thought about laddering up but decided with the snatch workload I had to back off here. the 32 still felt plenty heavy. 45 seconds rest between sets too.

Clubbell Arm Casts

15 lbs x 10/10 x 4 sets

Clubbell shield casts

25 lb x 5/5 x 2 sets

these are really getting my arms ,pecs and upper back growing. Nice. Three days of these this week, I'm really prefering the two hand version, just like in the swings. 9 years of one arm stuff; I've paid my dues there,lol.

A great training week!

Datsit:))