Snatching

Today marked day one of my official 2011 CrossFit Games training program (explained in detail in yesterdays post), and it started off with a bang.  I haven't worked the full snatch, seriously, in about a year and a half and, needless to say, I was just a hair nervous about how I would perform.  As posted yesterday, my goal is to get a 210# snatch by March, and out of all my goals, this one I am most uncertain of; mostly because I don't really now where I stand with the lift, but also because I struggle with the movement so much.

I started very deliberately, getting form work in with the PVC and an empty bar, then started off my 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3 progression with just 85#.  I felt very smooth and strong with it all the way through, and was able to finish with 3 slightly sloppy reps at 160#.  So excited to be able to pull this weight after practically zero work on the lift!  I am feeling a LOT more confident that with a little technique and mobility work, I will get my goal weight here.

I then moved on to the biggest struggle of the day:  a single snatch balance to 3 overhead squats for 4 rounds.  I obviously expected to get a good deal more weight on this than with the snatch, but I lost focus and for some reason could not get a proper lock-out at 175#.  I opted to move down a bit in weight, ultimately working up to 155#.  I realized my struggle with this movement, and what will be the toughest part of my progress with the snatch, is getting under the bar quickly.  I want to muscle the bar up, then sink into the overhead squat, and this will just get more and more impossible the heavier the bar gets.  This stems from my lack of confidence in my shoulders, and it is so clear to me that I just need to get these movements in more often if I ever expect to overcome that fear.

My challenge for the day was inspired from the 2010 Games, just a whole bunch of pressured weakness work for me:

For Time Do:
10 muscle ups then
3 rounds of:
3 power cleans 205#
4 HSPU

I got 5 unbroken muscle ups, then 2, then 1 and 1.  Missed none, very happy with that.  On to the heavy cleans and HSPU's, I got the cleans no problem, and stayed very deliberate with the HSPU's.  My first round I got 3 unbroken, yet another PR on those, and in all I missed 3 reps.  Still very weak, but I am seeing HUGE improvements with that move.  With the amount I am programming them in over the coming months, I expect to see some pretty impressive gains.  I finished in 6:28 and was very happy with that score.

In other news, I got a hair cut today, and dropped about 5 pounds in total thanks to that.  I'll miss my crazy bushy, long hair, but it was just getting to much to handle with my activity level.  So, back to the shortness! 

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage