Ensix's Olympic Weightlifting Journal

[Ensix]

some split jerks (I haven't practised split jerk before this, only power jerk, so these split jerks are kinda 'raw' and not nearly a final product )







also split jerking or catching w/e on the rubber surface feels awkward and unstable, I'll do fridays split jerks on the platform and record them.

EDIT: and I realize the knee of my front foot is past the toes and that's bad technique :P

[Ensix]

did hang snatches OFF THE BLOCKS (first time in life hell yuh)




things go **** when the weight reaches 60kg, I catch it unstable and I try to power snatch it every time instead of descending into snatch squat. 65kg and 70kg are really bad. the blocks got the better of me - I felt super solid and strong when I did 50kg so I decided to go up 5kg every set but lesson learned I guess, that was too advanced for me, my bad habit manifested itself again.

next time I do hang snatches I will catch it at the bottom, because catching it power style is my comfort zone and even at 70kg I still try to power snatch it. :/

[Saintsqc]

did hang snatches OFF THE BLOCKS (first time in life hell yuh)




things go **** when the weight reaches 60kg, I catch it unstable and I try to power snatch it every time instead of descending into snatch squat. 65kg and 70kg are really bad. the blocks got the better of me - I felt super solid and strong when I did 50kg so I decided to go up 5kg every set but lesson learned I guess, that was too advanced for me, my bad habit manifested itself again.

next time I do hang snatches I will catch it at the bottom, because catching it power style is my comfort zone and even at 70kg I still try to power snatch it. :/

Reps done at 55 kg were the best. Good starting position off the block, too. Your shins are vertical, that’s perfect. A common mistake is to get the toes under the bar instead of the center of the feet. Snatch/clean from the blocks are great to get the « bar to hips/shoulders in front » down.

Try to get the bar even deeper in the hips. It’s pretty much the same cue as « keeping the shoulders in front ». You move the hips forward to make contact, instead of bringing the bar back and into the hips We have to see the bar having a backward motion to the hips. The bar isnt supposed to go straight up. The right bar path is an inward curve from the floor to the hips, then straight up. It should look like a « s ». Your second rep done at 55 kg have a bit of this backward motion.

[Ensix]

Reps done at 55 kg were the best. Good starting position off the block, too. Your shins are vertical, that’s perfect. A common mistake is to get the toes under the bar instead of the center of the feet. Snatch/clean from the blocks are great to get the « bar to hips/shoulders in front » down.

Try to get the bar even deeper in the hips. It’s pretty much the same cue as « keeping the shoulders in front ». You move the hips forward to make contact, instead of bringing the bar back and into the hips We have to see the bar having a backward motion to the hips. The bar isnt supposed to go straight up. The right bar path is an inward curve from the floor to the hips, then straight up. It should look like a « s ». Your second rep done at 55 kg have a bit of this backward motion.

How do I keep the shoulders in front of the bar? More lat involvement I guess?

[Ensix]

split jerks



well that's the best I can do technique wise, tried to tinker with technique after those sets but I didn't find a more comfortable/powerful way to split jerk. I guess I have a weird split jerk.

[Saintsqc]

How do I keep the shoulders in front of the bar? More lat involvement I guess?

Yeah, there is a bit of lat involvement, but the contribution of lat involvement become quickly ineffective (at 60 kg it helps...at 80 kg it doesnt help much anymore). It's more about being "centered" on the heels. It's impossible to get that position if your weight is shifted over your toes.

It's hard to describe (and to do, it doesnt happen over night, so dont lose patience !). It's a mix of being on your heels, and giving a backward motion at the knees(like pulling the more into the hips) and lat involvement.

Solid jerks ! It looks NOTHING like before !!!

[Ensix]

power jerks here, what do you think of these vs my split jerks?

[Ensix]

few full snatches with 55kg




been tweaking my snatch a lot, finally found my optimal grip width, which is really wide, but feels good during 2nd pull and overhead. found a much better starting position too, the one you can see in the video. worked on my lower body flexibility too, it's not yet enough for a comfortable snatch bottom position but I'm getting there.

[Ensix]

found a way to make split jerk work for me, just a simple cue, I had to spread my jump wider than I used to before, now my split jerks feels awesome, much more powerful than power jerk. will stick to this split jerk but sometimes my rear leg (left leg) goofs, it doesn't internally rotate lol, you can see that in 85kg clean and jerk (90kg too) below. 75kg clean and split jerk is the best example.



finished the workout with a 120kg back squat, it felt much heavier than it looks in the video. I'm pretty much the weakest I've ever been lol, must be because I'm 70-71kg!

[Saintsqc]

Push jerk are good. Keep doing them in the 85-90 kg. 85 was good, 90 was meh.

Split jerks are awesome. Srsly ! It looks like sometime happen in your head in the past year and now you jerk really good. Everything is straight, your stance is wide, you look stable...10/10 !

And the 120 kg did look heavy as **** hahaha !

Keep it up, you'll be a beast @ 77 kg

[Ensix]

Push jerk are good. Keep doing them in the 85-90 kg. 85 was good, 90 was meh.

Split jerks are awesome. Srsly ! It looks like sometime happen in your head in the past year and now you jerk really good. Everything is straight, your stance is wide, you look stable...10/10 !

And the 120 kg did look heavy as **** hahaha !

Keep it up, you'll be a beast @ 77 kg

thanks man! power jerks are best substitute for push press imo, power jerks help make a better split jerk much better than push press.


today I did snatches up to 70kg, which is highest weight I've done this month. when I started my workout my snatches were really bad, then I decided to test something, I drastically slowed my first pull (atleast in my head, maybe it didn't look that much slower from a 3rd person view) but it helped very much! I caught it very stable and 'sharp', the weight didn't 'fall' on me, I caught it perfectly. I remember you doing snatches with a noticeably slow first pull, I guess that's where the idea came from!

pulling too fast too soon was probably the root of all my snatch problems, because the snatch is supposed to be an acceleration, but what I did was a big mess.

[Ensix]

todays snatches were probably the best I've ever done technique-wise



75kg is in my reach. also today I was the closest I've ever been to failing a 130kg back squat - in other words my current back squat max is 130kg.

[Saintsqc]

First rep looks perfect to me. Second meh, third is great.

Yeah, it's important to make the first pull slow, until it became natural. Sometime when a training is going bad, I purposely slow down my first pull. It allows me to focus on my technique.

Push jerk is a great exercise, but it is not really comparable to push press. It's 2 different exercise with 2 different goal. Push jerk is to split jerk what power clean is to full clean. Push press is to split jerk what the front squat is to full clean.

[Ensix]

First rep looks perfect to me. Second meh, third is great.

Yeah, it's important to make the first pull slow, until it became natural. Sometime when a training is going bad, I purposely slow down my first pull. It allows me to focus on my technique.

Push jerk is a great exercise, but it is not really comparable to push press. It's 2 different exercise with 2 different goal. Push jerk is to split jerk what power clean is to full clean. Push press is to split jerk what the front squat is to full clean.

Thanks!

I understand what you mean about push jerk & push press, I was just talking about my personal experience when I did those two exercises.

Anyway, feels good to finally have fixed my weaknesses, which are snatch catch and split jerk!

[Saintsqc]

Thanks!

I understand what you mean about push jerk & push press, I was just talking about my personal experience when I did those two exercises.

Anyway, feels good to finally have fixed my weaknesses, which are snatch catch and split jerk!

Keep focusing on them for a while. It is not an acquired skill yet. If you work on something else, chances are you will "forget" are you were doing it correctly. Now increase the weight and maintain a A1 technique. After a few weeks, you could focus on something else and these increments will stay with you.

[Ensix]

Just a recap of the week. No big advancements, starting to back squat every 2nd workout, cuz I've seriously lost some lower body power. Trying to make my 70kg snatches consistent, e.g. I do like 5 in a row with no misses in between. Widened clean & jerk grip pretty much and snatch grip is almost at the collars, only like 1 cm away, I now know how big guys must feel, because the bar has never felt shorter in my life.

[Ensix]

3x3x110kg backsquat today, gainss

and somewhat consistent 65kg snatches/ snatch doubles

[Ensix]

Few update videos on how's my clean and jerk technique doing:

80kg power clean & jerk




100kg clean and jerk (currently a PR at this bodyweight but not an all time PR):

[Ensix]

Here's a 60kg power snatch:




From next week I'll be starting sprinting training.