Physical Equilibrium

It’s been awhile since my last update here in this space!

Something to finally mention after 4 years of wandering in the wilderness of self-directed training, coaching & being a parent.

Some questions to everyone:

How well do you know your body?

How do you know if you have fully recovered from your last training?

How do you know if you body is ready to train again?

In this day & age, there are many resources for these from academical textbooks & internet sources.

Nevertheless, my experiences have taught me this can differ for each individual.

Some individuals might need a longer recovery period, some might recover faster! Some individuals might need more micronutrients, while others may need to eat more macronutrients.

The greatest lesson learnt is to always listen to the signs & signals that your body is telling you.

1. If you are feeling exhausted, that could be a sign that you are either lacking sleeping or perhaps not recovered enough from your last training.

2. If you are consistently feeling dehydrated, perhaps you are lacking sufficient hydration or electrolytes in your diet.

3. If you are consistently falling ill, perhaps you are training too hard or much, else you are lacking micronutrients in your diet.

Bottom line is, science don’t necessary have the answer to everything. Learn to trust your intuition, as that is a very powerful tool!

From power to full clean & jerks!

Nevertheless, upon completing the last full clean, I felt & knew then that there was something I could have done better, especially during the clean.

Hint: Its related to a previous recent post!

Anybody sees it when comparing these 3 lifts? Would be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

No feet shift power sn**ch without externally rotated feet done with a narrow stance on today’s training menu!

Something that my coach used to drill me on whenever I needed to work on opening up my extensions in the sn**ch.

What is the purpose of this drill you may ask?

Well if you want to work on achieving a fuller extension for better power transfer during the transition & 2nd pull phases, this would be a good drill to practice.

Adopting a stance without external rotation of your feet with the intent to receive the weight in a power sn**ch position without shifting your feet, would naturally get you to:

1. Be more patient in ensuring that the barbell reaches the hip crease before jumping.

2. Fully extending the knees & hips during the jump.

3. Sharper reaction during the transition from throw back of the weight to receiving it.

Do give it a try & let me know how it feels!👌

**ch **ch **ch

It’s normally at higher weight percentages close to our maximum, that we start to experience some breakdown in lifting posture & technique.

As seen here in my sn**ches and clean & jerk drilling during training yesterday, technique, especially in the first & 2nd pull portions were starting to deteriorate in positions.

Nevertheless, as coaches, we should always take note to ensure that technical proficiency never deteriorates too much.

Personally, my technical deterioration threshold for the sn**ch is at 95% while clean & jerk would be 90%.

Why the difference you may ask? Well the sn**ch is a very technical lift, hence from personal experience, an additional threshold of 5% can be the difference between a successful & unsuccessful lift.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Olympic weightlifting technical proficiency limits!

Pulls with drive or another term: Full Extension Pulls

The purpose of these pulls is to reinforce the body to rehearse the coordination, timing & rhythm for power transfer.

The aim for you in this drill, is to get the barbell up to the power transfer point, which is your hip crease, before fully extending/opening up your body to push the barbell up.💥

So what are the muscles involved to fully extend/open up the body?

Think your thigh & butt muscles! They are the bigger muscles groups of the legs that would have the strength to drive the weight up off the floor & all the way to a fully extended position.💪🔥

**chpull

It’s not everyday that training goes according to what you wanted.

Had a really tough session yesterday, missing some of my heavier squat jerks & experiencing a struggle bus with clean pulls as seen in this video.

The speed of movement was a lot slower than normal, which prompted me to cease increasing the training load & reduce the repetitions & sets that I initially planned for, given how exhausted I was starting to feel.

Nevertheless, a training plan is meant to be flexible & adjustable when there’s a need. Hence never feel that you must or have to achieve a certain training volume, intensity or fatigue by the end of the session.

Always train hard yet smart to accomplish your goals!