Crossfit Armoury - August 16, 2017: Speciality class: Olympic Lifting

Wednesday; August 16, 2017 @ Crossfit Armoury - West

Coach: Meaghan B.

Thoughts:
Well, I took a week off because it's summer and I didn't even do any crossfit classes.  I didn't even do a drop in when I was in Calgary; even thou that box was only 4 blocks away from the hotel.   I felt refreshed, and it was nice to come back to class, specifically Olympic lifting.   However, my mind is an absolute blank when the coach asked me to lead the warm-up; specifically the rubber band warm up (I actually forgot a few movements), and when she asked me to show the rest of the class the dowel warm-up; I actually drew a blank.  Sheepishly I admitted that I had forgotten.   Sorry coaches..  I'll try to be more on the ball on Sunday.    

Snatch:
Tall Snatches; I beginning to like these.  It really reinforces the proper technique and stance.   Well, at least it helps slows me down (mentally) and prepare my body for the real snatch.  We started with the empty bar and then work our way up with some additional weight/plates.

Exercises called for some technique, and less focus on percentages (thank gawd, no more math this week).  We are working to a HEAVY weight.  Coach demoed it for us; ensuring that we focus on going slow for the first initial pull, until we hit above the knee for a 2 second pause; followed by a power hang snatch.  We can then drop the barbell with weight and perform a full squat snatch from the ground.   

It seemed pretty easy until the weight started to get heavy. And then, the two second pause above the knee was getting a bit harder (felt more strain right across the entire body, arms, shoulders, back).  I may had ramp the weight up too quick  I went from 75 lb, 95 and then 115 lb, and then Coach slowed me down. She pulled me aside and gave me a demo what I'm doing, and what I should be doing.   I dropped the weight back down to 75 lb and focused on the technique.  Added another 20 lb and kept re-working on my technique.   Coach asked one of my fellow classmate to be a demo and suggested I watch how he was doing the movement.  She told me to watch his knees, and how he had spread them out of the way.  I started to understand and attempted to repeat those movement myself.  Felt awkward, and will need to practice this more outside of the class.


Clean & Jerk:
Tall Cleans; stripped the weight off and afterwards, coach suggested (pointing at myself and another person) that we shouldn't be just using the bar.   Okay, added two 15 lb plates and worked on the tall cleans.  

Exercise; we had options.  We were to work on our weaknesses. we had the option to work on 2 high pulls followed by a clean (squat), or 2 front paused squats + 1 Jerk from rack.  I opted for the first and work on my high pulls followed by a clean.

Accessory/Homework:
I was torn on which accessory I was going to do, and in the end; I opted to not.
Hindsight; I probably should had stuck around and focused on my hang cleans, or the 4 position clean as describe in the above Extra credit.   I'll save that for after my crossfit class.   

I'm partially torn on going in tomorrow, but to our southside location and redo this evenings class.   Not sure if it's wise to do two days of Olympic lifting class.
That or go in and do some accessory work tonight at the west end.  Decisions, decisions... decisions.    

Mind you, I'll be hitting Friday's crossfit class.   I can see that the programming has Snatch work for strength and the WOD will focus on Overhead Squats, Bar Muscle Ups, and some heavy sled pushes.   Hmmm...