In previous entries, I wrote of how I want to train the power clean more. Today's workout started off with a power clean warm up of 2 sets of 5 at 135 lbs, focusing on speed and form. This exercise really does a great job of warming up, and the blood circulation feeling was tangible. I'll continue to do this exercise for warm ups, but will also train it on its own for strength gains.
After the cleans, I jumped into the squat rack for my warm up sets. Today, the squat training max moves up 10 lbs to 520 lbs, and it's the start of a new wave for squats, with the template being 3 x 5.
135 x 5
210 x 5
260 x 5
310 x 3
The warm up squats felt great. The cleans helped.
Working sets
340 x 5
390 x 5
440 x 5
Again, I stayed with the requisite reps, as per Wendler's advice.
Hypertrophy work for the legs was squats, ass to the grass style, doing 260 lbs for 5 x 10, and keeping rest to as minimal as possible (this helps with HGH release).
Instead of training hamstrings via leg curls, I opted to work on some front squats, an exercise which I have not trained since last summer. My wrist flexibility isn't all that great, and my left wrist gets sore from time to time for some unknown reason, so I did these cross-armed or "California-style".
135 x 5
145 x 5
155 x 5
This was just playing around, trying to see where I was with the movement, so these sets were light. This exercise is highly recommended for strongman training, more so than the regular squat, and reading the training logs of other strongmen, I've noticed that at times, it is the exclusive squat that they use. I find it more uncomfortable than anything else, having the bar sit on the upper chest/throat area. It's a weird feeling doing squats like this. I will be working on these more often as well. So, you can say that this will be day one in my journal for front squatting. Remember that, and if I stray, remind me!
I did two more sets of power cleans at 135 lbs, doing 5 reps each time. I had a spotter check my form, to make sure I was doing them correctly. Apparently, they looked alright, lol.
I finished the session today with 10 reps of overhead squats with the empty bar, working on trying to increase my depth. This is one difficult exercise, and I want to improve on it. The overhead squat is also highly recommended, being a staple for strength athletes, especially Olympic lifters, but also seems very popular with the Crossfit community.
I've been reading Crossfit members' training journals and I saw how they were practicing the overhead bar carry. There was only one other person in the gym today, so I moved some of the benches around (it's a smaller gym and can be a bit of a maze with all the equipment in the room) and practiced this. I tried it with the empty bar, doing a walk of ten or so feet, then returning back to start. I also tried it with the bar loaded with two 10 lbs plates, and did four walks for a total of roughly 40 ft. This was just an experiment, but I noticed that my core muscles were feeling it. I think I will be doing this one as well. Strongman competitions focus on three events: lift, carry and drag (with throwing at times ie. keg toss), so this movement would probably benefit the carry and lift movements by working the core more intensely.
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