Endurance training

I never thought I could run for any distance as a child. We had this stupid 600 yard dash test in PE and I didn't realize until I was 21 that there was a difference between how one ran for distance and for sprinting.


400 yds is about the limit of what one can run hard an anaerobic state. After that you simply have to stop and repay the oxygen debt you've accumulated. So 600 yds is 200 too many to sprint but that's what I tried to do. And stunk at it.


Of course no one jogged back then ( early 60's) and even when I got into gymnastics training in high school we always sprinted; from tumbling to vaulting it was never more than 40 feet at a time and the emphasis was always on speed and power.

I blew out my shoulder in '77 and had to give up any upper body training BUT I was literally in the best shape of my life and had been training 5-6 hours a day. I knew there was no just sitting around waiting for my shoulder to heal.

Now this was in the mid seventies and jogging was big. I lived in a dorm filled with Iowa's best distance runners as well as all the other athletes( they kept all the animals in one place,lol). So running was realistically my only option but I thought I couldn't run distance.

So I began researching it ( running) and came across this basic concept: one should only run as fast as they can and still carry on a conversation ( true aerobic metabolism). This was the basis of distance running training as that lower intensity (50-60 % Mvo2) made it a purely aerobic workout. If you had no one to talk to you still should be able to breathe easily enough to carry on the conversation in your head.

Simple. And it worked. I could run for 30 minutes no problem. Then 45. Then an hour. Then, as long as I wanted to and it was easy. I just had to keep the intensity down and I felt like I could go forever.


SO if you want to go the distance fast, you have to be able to GO the distance first.


So as I approach training for five( and eventually ten) minute snatch tests this is my basic operating principle. Be able to go the time first with low intensity( weight) and then up the ante.


Switching our Tuesday workout from pressing to snatching is letting me learn pacing from one of the best ever in swing and snatch pacing, the Queen herself! These workouts are nothing for her so I was a bit happy to hear her wince a bit when I said we were doing 3 sets of 3 min snatches. Of course this was her third workout of the morning and probably did 2000 reps already but hey.....
6-7 am
full stretchout with lots of splits and overhead stretches prepping for the snatches.Used the bands for hip distraction as well. getting to like these more and more.

8:30
3 minute snatch sets @ 20 RPM
16 kg x 2 min 40 reps

x 3 min x 3 sets


220 reps total

as with distance running when the weight is light and the pace is slow this wasn't so hard,lol. I want to work up to three five minute sets then I will start all over with the 20 kg. I am using my basic snatch form that I have forever. With as many hand switches as I want there is no reason to change. The same form just the relaxed version of it.

I did attempt a downswing transfer and screwed it up. Have to practice this NOT during a workset. lol. I do know I can learn it though and that will make things much easier. Nice to see my right shoulder ROM still improving too. cool.

Two hand arm cast
20 x10/10

25 x10/10
35 x10/10

ouch. these were cooking all the same muscles I just used in the snatch. the 35 set was not easy. good work though.

Two hand shield casts
20 x10/10

25 x10/10 x2
no 35 jaunts with this one.

Pullups
6,5,4,4
okay, now all the same muscles are very tired. all chin above bar.

Sissy squats
3 sets of 10

ok, it's a stupid name but I had an idea they would be very good for my knees and ankles and I think they will work out actually. Part of my current theory about why my knee lost 20 deg ROM in the last 20 years revolves around stopping bodybuilding training and doing just powerlifting.

I'll go into in more detail another time but the gist of it is that when I was bodybuilding I worked my calves twice a week minimum with all kinds of toe raise and in all kinds of angles.basically weighted joint mobility.

Same with my knees, Close stance squats, leg presses, hack squats, leg curls, extensions and Sissy squats. My leg role model was Tom Platz and he believed in them so I did them and they did a great job of working all the quads and not wrecking the knees(despite the horrible looking knee angle).It also will do an interesting job on my toes in dorsiflexion, something I'm constantly working to improve these days.

I feel a direct link to that and my ankle and knee mobility.

Plus, for someone who hasn't been able to do any 'real' squats of any kind since 2005 I welcomed the idea of being able to do these and have them help my ankles, knees and mobilty at the same time putting some meat on the quads.

We'll see:))

datsit. Sisu