Power snatch
3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3
Then,
21 – 15 – 9
Power snatch, 65% of 3RM
T2B
Burpees
Post loads and time to comments and BTWB
Driving home from the mountains this weekend I had the opportunity to listen to Kelly Starrett’s podcast with Joe Rogan. At one point Kelly was talking about “practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent”. He also mentioned that in the heat of the battle our body reverts back to it’s training, to what it knows. His main point being if we set up in bad position and we train in bad position, it is only expected that when it counts, we will move in bad position. This whole topic of conversation hit home for me because in the last week I have had the same argument with several different athletes. The argument goes something like this:
While working on a movement like the push jerk, where the ability to push ones self under the bar is paramount, I walk around and find an athlete doing a push press. I stop by this athlete and give a few tips/ cues to really drive home the push jerk movement. This is the athletes response to me, “It’s too light for me to jerk it. Right now I can just press it overhead. When there is more weight I’ll be able to jerk it.” Now, fast forward to a new day, a new athlete, and a new movement. For the Hot Shots WOD we are working on a moderately heavy power clean, during the warm up I watch an athlete muscle clean their bar. I give my coaching cues and in return I get “well it’s not even heavy right now, I don’t know how you want me to get under it when it’s easier for me to just pick it up.” Another athlete assuring me that when there is more weight on the bar they will be able to perform the movement correctly. During the WOD, with the “heavy enough” weight on the bar, I watched the athlete do 19 single, tiring, and inefficient muscle cleans for 5 rounds. Even though I was told when it was heavy enough they would do the movement correctly that’s just not what happened. Why? Because there is a flaw in these athletes arguments, how can you think that what you can not train your body to do at light weight it will some how figure out the right way to do it when there is heavier weight???? Your body doesn’t just go “Hey, this stuff is heavy. You know that thing that we never practiced but will definitely help get us through this, we should totally do that now. . . with perfect execution.” Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. The way you practice is the way you will perform.
Let’s take Rich Froning, the world’s fittest man. When Rich is warming up to his 1RM clean and jerk, do you know what his warm up clean and jerk looks like in comparison to his heaviest clean and jerk? The same. He doesn’t warm up with a muscle clean and a push press cause it’s just the lightweight warm up. He warms up with a full depth squat clean and a split jerk. He practices getting his body in the right position with 135# so that when he goes to pick up 335# his body knows what to do.
When we warm up with PVC, go through the motions, feel yourself pulling your body under the PVC. Light weight/ no weight are the perfect times to get your body in the right position and to do it over and over and over and over again, until that right position becomes permanent. I will no longer be accepting “it’s too light for me to do it right” any more. If Rich Froning can do it, so can you.
