PR Report 11-16-13

Lots of solid training this week before I hit the road to Phoenix, Arizona for Energy Medicine training.

Several days of squats and lots of PR’s among them. This video includes:

• Front Squat 185 x 10
• Front Squat 245 x 1 (new Max)
• Half Back Squat 455 x 5

My form is still not close to optimal, but it does seem to be getting better even as I continue to make progress. I recently received a new cue to work with that should help in the front squats, of imagining someone pulling you up from the bottom via a rope tied to your elbows.

There was also another partial I hit this week but I’ll be sharing that in its own post next week as I’m writing an article around it.

This next video showcases two different sets of different difficulties in assisted one arm chins. As I wrote in The Ultimate Guide to Pullups and Chin-ups this is my favorite method of working towards the one arm chin. Both these sets were PR’s for the level I was working at (what I refer to in my journal as Level 3 and Level 6).

And I’m back to snatching the beast. I found it didn’t work to well along with the deadlifts, but it seems a good pair with the squats. I’ve been working with a new take on it, doing the volume I want to hit and reducing my time. The other week I did 100 reps in as easy a manner as I could do them and it took 38 minutes.

This week I did 102 reps (sets of 6 instead of 5) and did it all in under 28 minutes. This was tougher but not by all that much.

Part of the difficulty is I’ve been practicing martial arts drills during my workouts. This has a two-fold effect. Because of the intensity of the snatch training, it puts my body in stress mode, which is what I want to wire these moves to, both for testing purposes and for actual combat should I need it. Secondly, it’s also working on my conditioning to do the drills so the exercises become a bit harder.