I didn’t workout yesterday. Well, I did, but I didn’t do what we would call a “workout.” There were no clocks or real counting. There was barely any sweat. And, the entire session didn’t really mean anything.
I was greasing the groove.
I knew I wanted to work on snatches. I needed to rest and wanted to recover from the crushing training the day before. It was during my brainstorming of what to do for my workout that I realized that when it comes to exercise I have a hard time just practicing.
Guiltily, I can say that I’m often sucked into going as heavy as possible on weightlifting days. Whether I’m doing one’s, two’s, three’s, or five’s, I get sucked into the ego thing. Twenty percent of the time I PR and I want to throw a party for the whole neighborhood, while eighty percent of the time I underachieve and I’m ready to front kick the wall.
So, today I said, “Enough.” I was going to practice. I chose a weight (185lbs) that I knew would be heavy enough to give me feedback, but that was a no brainer, easy weight I could do a hundred times if I wanted. I was practicing so I snatched from the hang. And, I was going to just do reps – very meticulous reps.
Jake being meticulous.
I did twenty.
I can’t remember the last time I got twenty quality, intentional reps in of anything. When is the last time you practiced a strength and conditioning related skill outside of the stressors of a workout or en route to maximal loads?
You’re answer is probably never. And, that’s OK. But, what can we do about it? Mark my words: You need these meticulous, practice reps without the stressors of a metabolic load.
It does a body good.
So, if you don’t have an Olympic weightlifting platform in your living room or gymnastics rings hanging from your bathroom door, there is one critical place we all can get these types of reps done. That’s right, you guessed it – warm ups.
Get selfish. Embrace in-class progressions and warm up reps to steal practice without consequences or other stressors. If not, you’re setting yourself up for a coin-toss-of-a-result when it comes to your outcomes during “game time.” Steal these practice reps and you’ll surely move along when it comes time to perform.
Other options include skill work before and after class. The ball is in your court!
Logan Gelbrich
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Thursday’s Workout:
Complete the following for time:
400m Run
21 KB Swings (53/35)
12 Burpees
-Recover-
AMRAP 12
400m Run
21 KB Swings
12 Burpees
