In case you missed it via facebook, twitter or 5 oclock news

10 things to do to improve your clean and jerk.. from start to finish

#1: Discontinue your day job at the strip club…you’re better than that. (Shoulders, hips, and bar move up together off the ground).

#2: God gave you lats to activate. Do NOT disappoint him (Set your lats before the bar leaves the ground,or you WILL pull with your arms)

#3: The bar’s main goal in life is to pull you forward and down. CRUSH that bar’s dreams (Shift to your heels IMMEDIATELY off the floor)

#4: On a hot day, milk is a bad choice, but using your legs is ALWAYS a good choice even on non climatically- perfect days. (Jump HARD)

#5: A wise woman once said, “My hips don’t lie”(Your hips must move UP and DOWN in a matter of milliseconds. Slow hips=slow bar)

#6: You’re not on the dance floor. “Dropping it like it’s hot” is not recommended. (Do not dive or drop. PULL yourself under the bar)

#7: 99% of the population has suffered from the deadly disease MonoSyphiSlowElbow. Will you be one the them?(Fast elbows=brownie points)

#8: Favorite alliteration: Petunia Practiced Perfect Posture… On Her Jerk…wait… (The jerk dip: chest up, toes out, weight on heels)

#9: Chewing gum instead of brushing your teeth counts for nothing, but jumping up and punching down on the jerk, counts for a lot.

#10: Weight on your hips doesn’t always mean you have love handles (Receive your jerk with ALL the weight centered on your hips)

I've been stranded

I've been stranded in the middle of the desert with no food, water, or internet.

Of course that's not true, but because I haven't updated my blog in forever, that's the story I'm going with.

Let's talk turnovers (unfortunately, I am not talking about apple turnovers because that would make this post WAY more appealing)...
I've been in this weird mood the past couple weeks. It's the kind of mood where I just don't really feel like turning the bar over aggressively in the snatch. I tried blaming it on my experimentation with just letting things happen and not trying to control people, places, or things in my life, but that worked for about .5 seconds until I missed my snatch at 60 kilos and then missed it again.. and then missed it 6 more times after that.

And all my misses have been in the exact same place... at the bottom of my snatch, and in front of me.
Of course I'm not going to ever be satisfied snatching anything less than my brother Casey (best snatch was 400lbs), so I know I need to get a move on this minor set back. Aka.. I need to fix my turnover.. NOW (I'd be happy if I fix it within the next 3 months) before I get all old and wrinkly and too jacked up to even lift my ice cream scooper.

So, what am I going to do?

I am going to work my muscle snatches and snatch balance.

Muscle Snatch:
Muscle snatching is going to help me strengthen my external rotation. It takes my legs out of the equation and forces me actually use my shoulder muscles to get that barbell back behind my ears. By the time I get to add my legs into the equation, the bar will be FLYING through that turn over!

The other GREAT thing about muscle snatching is that it forces me to pay attention to the path of the barbell. I can't muscle snatch anything unless that barbell is moving straight up my body and staying as close to me as possible. Because I can't move the bar as fast with my arms as I can with my legs, slowing down the movement really reinforces how it feels when the bar moves right... which is great for when you start moving fast again.

Snatch Balance:
Yes, I admit, I'll be doing more snatch balances because I love them with all my heart, but it's also because when I have an unaggressive turnover, the bar never gets back in the "slot" (right behind the ears where our whole body is supporting the weight rather than our arms and shoulders). When we snatch balance, the bar is behind our neck at the start, so it only has one way to go... and that is STRAIGHT UP into our slot (of course, that's only if we actually do it correctly). Not having the pressure of having to get around my face and back behind my ears really helps me to feel the proper bar position overhead. That way, when I snatch, I'll have a reference point as to where the bar is supposed to end.

Make sense?

So, If you're like me, and you miss every single important lift of your life out in front because you have commitment issues and won't get the barbell back behind your ears, do muscle snatches and snatch balance.

If you're the person that misses the barbell behind you a lot, stay tuned... Definitely within the next seven years when I decide I want to write another blog post, I will teach you guys some exercises that can fix that!

BORRRINGGGGG

I've decided to limit my blog posts. Updating every day get's boring and monotonous! So, I think I'll fill you in on what's going on with my "iron pumping sessions" in the next couple days.

Until then, I'll leave you with this...

Quote of the day-
"After twelve years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, "No hablo ingles." - anonymous


Photo of the day-

"When it comes to family, trust no one"

over and out

Burgeners and our smelly farts (applies to boys only)

Confessions:

#1: I have been POUNDING the whipped coconut milk. The reason I'm confessing is because it's high in fat and calories and won't make me skinny, but I don't care.

#2: I took an unscheduled rest day yesterday (someone chopped my legs up with a meat tenderizer)

#3. Next week I will be visiting my best friend and she will make gluten free creme brulee and I will eat it. I will eat the S*&t out of that creme brulee

Anyways, now that I have that off my chest, let's get to the good stuff.

Workout:

3 Position Cleans: 65%x3x5

Clean Pull: 90%x3x2

Clean deadlift: 100%x3x2

Rack Jerk: Work up to a heavy single

Row Sprints: 30 sec. on 30 sec rest for 6 sets.


Things I focused on:

Today was definitely not a favorite because every time I see a clean I want to punch it in the face. I've always been an early arm-bender and a weak squatter and those two things together make for an atrocious clean.
So, today, on my 3 position cleans, I focused on keeping it light and re-training my old habits.
To fix my early arm bend, I over exaggerated keeping my lats locked in tight. That inhibited the bar from pulling me forward and allowed me to keep the weight back on my heels without having to pull it back with my arms.
Also,I power cleaned, so I didn't have to work on coming out of the squat, but I did have to focus on NOT throwing my feet out too wide JUST because I was power cleaning. MEANING, I have to remind myself that I have all the way until a 90 degree squat for a lift to still be considered "power". So, instead of throwing my feet out wide to get depth as I pull myself under the bar, I focused on meeting it in a lower position, because thats where it travels to anyway when it gets heavier! However, despite my good intentions, I did look like this a couple of times:

On the clean pull and clean deadlift, I focused on the same thing I focused on with the snatch pull and snatch deadlift on Monday: shifting my weight to my heels immediately off the floor. How SUCKY is it when the bar leaves the ground and it feels SO HEAVY that you're sure someone waterlogged the weights?! When you have that sensation, it is typically because the weight pulled you to your toes off the ground. STAY BACK!!

On the rack jerk I didn't focus on much because I AM REALLY FREAKING GOOD AT JERKS. Allow me to toot my own horn here for a second. Being a Burgener typically means that you will come out of the womb being able to jerk AT LEAST 100kg. We have weak legs, pug noses, and smelly farts (just the boys, of course), but man can we jerk. And I love to remind myself of this because I'm trying to be nice to myself, remember? Sometimes I get so caught up in feeling like I'm not cut out to be a weightlifter. The ideal weightlifter has short legs and a long torso. I have long legs and a short torso. The ideal weightlifter has a mind of steel. I sometimes get afraid of weights. So, when some type of exercise comes up that I am semi decent at, I have to JUMP ALL OVER IT because it may be the last time, in a couple days, that I'll do something that reminds me that I'm not wasting my time.

Side Note: Yes, I am all about cherry picking exercises you're good at JUST to raise your confidence level for the day.

Speaking of smelly farts.. here is your awkward family photo, photo of the day:

Day 278.. oh wait, never mind, it's only day 2

Well, the good news is that I squatted today and although the odds were not in my favor, I didn't die (it has nothing to do with the fact that I stayed EXTREMELY light). Life is good.

Workout:
Box Squats: 5x2, back off sets: 2x3
Front Squats: 2x5 @ 4 second descent and 2 sec hold in the bottom
Good Mornings: 3x5
Wall climbs+Handstand Walks: 5 sets
Muscle ups: 12 total (done in pairs)

Allow me to elaborate:
Box Squats: These were supposed to be regular back squats, but I cannot squat below parallel with any type of heavy load. I've never really done box squats before, so I had someone show me how to perform them properly. MUCH different than an oly squat! We'll see if they transfer over to the clean at all.

Front Squats: I literally stuck with 35-40 kg for these. I stayed very light and controlled because I didn't want to aggravate my hip too much. Despite almost passing out from holding my breath for so long, I love having to force myself to slow a movement down and keep my form PERFECT.

Wall climbs: I use these for shoulder strengthening and stability. Start in a push up position with your feet on the wall. Walk your feet up the wall and your hands towards the wall until your belly is touching. When up there, walk on your hands laterally for a couple of steps and then walk your hands back out into a push up position. Repeat in the opposite direction. I LOOOOVE these for strengthening the jerk. The more hand stand work I do, the stronger I feel when supporting the weight overhead.

Muscle ups: I only did these so that I could still say that I can do a muscle up.

Things I focused on:

Since it was more of a strength day, I didn't focus on much other than making sure I eased my way back into things. I wanted to do 70 sets of box squats because I want my leg strength to be back where it was. Tomorrow. However, I knew that if I pushed it too much today, I most likely would be too sore to have a productive workout tomorrow. I want to progressively improve... Not take 17 steps forward, and 27 steps back (I'm really into random numbers right now).

I also focused on keeping everything tight through my mid-line. For me, I have a tendency to relax my core as I go through simple movements. Like good mornings, for example. I know that when I get lazy on a good morning, I really arch my back and completely disconnect from my abs as I'm sending my butt back. That does me no good! So, today I tried my best to avoid that. I made sure to ask my friends to randomly punch me in the stomach when I wasn't expecting it, just to make sure I was staying focused.... kidding, people... I didn't ask. My friends just do that on their own.

The last thing I focused on was not crying (tears of joy) when Michele told me my butt looked bigger. Miracles really do happen.

When my butt gets this big, I know that I'll REALLY be competitive in oly lifting:

Day 1 in the bank, yo!

Yes, this is me not finishing my pull..
Day one is complete, and despite my previous concern, I did NOT forget how to snatch.

Workout:

3 Position Snatches 65%x3x5
Snatch Pulls: 90%x3x2
Snatch Deadlifts: 100%x3x2
Snatch Push Press: 3x5 with medium-heavy weight
Prowler push: 6 sets with 60 seconds rest in between each set.

Workout De-coder:

3 Position Snatches: 1 snatch from the ground, 1 snatch from mid thigh, 1 snatch from high hang.
65%x3x5: Anytime you see three numbers together, it reads: 65 % for 3 reps for 5 sets.
3x5: Anytime you only see two numbers together, it reads: 3 sets of 5 reps.
Prowler push: Take that heavy thing over there.. yes, that.. and push it. Fast.

I kept things fairly light today because I do not know what my best numbers are at this point in my life and because it's my first day back into the olympic lifting world. I could base my percentages off of my all time best snatch ever (77 kg), but I know that would be silly since I probably couldn't even back squat that weight right now. Nevertheless, I'm really going to work on being nice to myself and realizing that I'm not as strong as I used to be. I'll get there, I'm sure, but it's going to take time. Getting discouraged because I'm not lifting what I used to never got me any closer to snatching 80 kg.

Things I worked on:
1. With the 3 position snatches, I really worked on feeling each position. I wouldn't just go to mid thigh really quick and then snatch, I would go to mid thigh, make a mental note of how it felt, and then I would snatch it. Same thing with the snatch from the floor and snatch from high hang.

2. I also focused on keeping the barbell close to my body. When I have more than one rep to do, I have a tendency to get lazy and forget my technique. Whenever that happens, the FIRST thing that goes is keeping my elbows high and outside (aka keeping it close). When doing a weight for multiple reps, keeping the bar close is SO important because no matter how little weight you have on the barbell, come rep #3, the weight starts to feel heavy. The heavier that mofo feels, the closer you have to keep it, or that bar aint movin up!

3. On the snatch pulls and snatch deadlifts, I kept my mind on my heels. The pull off the ground is always hard for me because I have weak legs, so shifting to my heels RIGHT when I leave the ground is a MUST. If I don't over exaggerate that shift, the bar pulls me forward and I'm left chasing it for the rest of the movement... and I HATE chasing things!

4. The last thing I focused on with the snatch push press was holding the barbell up over my head for a couple of seconds. I wanted to make sure that I was completely stable and I wanted to give my body a chance to feel heavy weight over my head again. If I just snatch push press it up there and immediately bring it back down, I feel like I never give my muscles a chance to strengthen and become familiar with the position.

5. Oh, and for the prowler push, I just focused on not throwing up.

Quote of the day:
"It is important to look at yourself and identify your gremlins. In sports, as in life, the first step to success is getting out of your own way". ~ Mind Gym Book

Day 0.

LADY GAGA

Tomorrow I begin my "get strong enough to where I can snatch over my body weight again and get jacked enough to where people no longer secretly wonder how the barbell hasn't snapped my legs in two" regime!

I will start on a program that my dad has conjured up for me, but will be substituting some exercises in and out depending on my hip, my recovery, and my decision as to whether or not there is a different, more fun, exercise I can do that I'm better at...

I'll share all my numbers with you fellow bloggers, as long as you're not that person who thrives off of always lifting one more kilogram than me. Cause let's face it, I'm a sore loser. I'll also be sharing what exercises I think will be good for ya'll to do as you look to improve your oly lifts.

My nutritional goals are all over the place, but basically I am deciding to:
1. Stick to lean meats only. No sausage, limited red meat, and bacon 1-2 times a week. I want to really try and have fish a couple times a week as well.
2. Cut out any added fats. Cooking oils and fat from meat will be the extent of my fat source. That means, no handful of nuts after a meal. However, I'm allowing myself to have 1 tbs of heavy whipping cream in my coffee each morning because I don't want to lose any friends or get arrested.
3. Eat as many vegetables as my sanity allows. My goal will be to fill the majority of my plate with all sorts of delicious veggies!
4. Drink 3-4 bottles of water a day in my sassy purple water bottle.
5. Not convince myself that anything gluten free is healthy and I should eat lots of it even if it's pizza and corn bread.

My physical goals are to:
Not look TOO skinny in my wedding dress
Put some lean muscle mass on my legs
Get at least 8-9 hours of sleep a night
Be as fashionable as Lady Gaga

My general goals are to:
Someday try out to be Eminem's partner rapper



3,2,1, Go.