Catalyst OTM Cycle - Week 12

Hello!

I have finally finished the Catalyst OTM cycle, and I must say that it has been a great ride. I feel kind of unfortunate that I had to skip a week between week 11 and 12. A lot of things came up really suddenly (including a Sabaton/Nightwish concert!!) and I was just not in a position to train.

I think that skipping that week, and then doing things like trampolining over that weekend sort of messed me up for week 12. Unfortunately, I was unable to end the term with a PR. Pretty disappointing, but not a big deal.

Week 12 is actually meant to be a deload week that concludes the training cycle with max attempts on the last day. I think that as a part of the program, it would work effectively as a taper to a max. But because I messed up by taking a week off, I was not really ready for heavy weights on the max days. I also split the max day in to two separate days for Snatch/CJ.

Snatching went great, I spent the week working on technique and feeling it out and getting back into it. And on Sunday, I felt really good about snatching. I hit up to 165 without missing. I'm not sure if maybe it was just out of position a bit or I'm just weak, but 165 felt really heavy overhead. And I think that thought along with the pressure of going for a PR messed me up for 170. It's a major weakness of mine, to get nervous before going for a PR. It's 5lbs, perfectly within my capability, practically not even heavier than the previous weight. It's all in my head though; demons I must conquer. Oh well, I was happy to be able to hit 165 twice.

CJ I think is what I messed up with the week off. I wasn't really prepared to go heavy. And I think I made the other mistake of taking minimal warm up weights. The idea was to conserve energy for the max attempts, but the jumps were a bit too big (I was taking 15lb jumps), and the weight felt too heavy off the ground that I just crashed on receiving. It's been a weakness since the day I started lifting, and it has improved a lot, but I still need to work on preventing the bar from crushing me on the receive. I guess a part of it is just confident from lifting heavy often. Either way, the second 225 I missed the jerk because the clean was really inefficient. Now to be fair, I haven't Front Squatted more than 225 for probably > 6 months.

Not such a big deal. I think 225 is a weight that is meant to be lifted for the first time at the PAC. And I hope this coming term to hit it pretty quickly! All it takes is a good day xD

So overall progress with the program: I'm happy. I know that all I managed was a 5lb PR on both lifts. But the program brought my Snatch up from around 135, and I was practically not CJing at all when I started. Besides, I make really really slow progress in weightlifting. I think the OTM cycle was just what I needed. It's unfortunate that complications occurred, such as delaying days/weeks, and the inability to decide on a form to stay consistent with (esp. for the Snatch). But I still think that consistency and confidence have improved significantly.

Moving forward, I will be taking a week off to recuperate mentally/physically. I'll try to post up my next cycle for the summer term by the end of the week. It won't be as set in stone as this one, because I know things will always come up during the school term. The focus will be imbalance correction, Structural/postural & Overhead strength. I think I'll also be squatting more, to try and keep the squatting movement fresh and get the weights back up to what they were before.

Thanks a lot for following, friends! Stay strong!

Catalyst OTM Cycle - Week 11

Week 11 has been a great week!

I finally finally managed to break my Snatch plateau.

I think it's been close to a year since I snatched 155. I hit 160 like 1-2 weeks after that. And then I tried 165, and I missed. So I tried it again, and I missed. And I tried, and missed again. And again. And again. And again. I would hit 160 just fine, everything was good. Add 5lbs on the bar, and all of a sudden it becomes impossible to lift. 165 haunted me. I used to have nightmares about that weight. I don't even know why, I had the strength to lift it, it was just a mental barrier. Technique always broke down significantly, I'd knock it forward, or I couldn't tighten up and receive it well; everything was just bad.

And then I started thinking about 160. "What if I miss 160..." And I missed. And then I thought about 155. "...What if I miss this too..." And on and on. Next thing I knew, I was missing 135lbs.

I don't lift much weight. But I've already found that this sport is incredibly hard. Not just physically, but mentally. You have to be prepared. You have to believe in yourself at a level beyond thought. Absolute faith in your ability, and you have to be brave enough to pull yourself underneath a heavy ass bar. I lack this.

This was a really depressing time for me. I've never progressed fast in weightlifting. It took me years to get my squat to where it is, and then you can compare it to people who can walk into the gym and squat just as much within a week. So to see my snatch, my favourite lift, actually accumulating negative progress was pretty demotivating.

I was even training 4-5 times a week, and when each session is 3-4 hours long, you spend a lot of time in the gym. Backwards progress is the last thing you want to see.

The Catalyst cycle has been great for me. It's helped me get back to where I was before without over thinking things. I guess all I needed was a reset, high volume at low weights and the ability to throw out my ego. Maybe all that happened was that I got really burned out always trying to push myself. But lessons were learned.

This was the penultimate week of the cycle. The last time you work up to heavy singles. Week 12 is essentially a deload and taper up to a max out day.

Clean and Jerks were a little bit bleh. Main reason was that I was apathetic and put them on the back burner to really push the snatch. I know I can do well in the CJ if I'm well rested.

So, I don't actually have the time this week for week 12's training unfortunately. I'm going to try to sneak in a training session tomorrow but it's a maybe. Week 12 will probably be next week. It's not such a big deal I think. The rest is just going to be trying to hit a PR or two. The goals are 170/225.

So, what's going to happen next?

After the cycle, I'm going to take a short break. I'm feeling really burned out after these 15ish weeks of training 5 times a week for 4 hours a day (my warm up takes forever :( ). So the week before classes is probably going to be all rest, with maybe one or two sessions.

Next term is when I'll begin the new cycle. I think it's pretty obvious watching the video, the reason for my misses at the heaviest weights seems to stem largely from the imbalances that have been formed due to the recent hip injury and my eternally stiff shoulder. At heavy weights I end up gripping and ripping, thus not controlling my movements very well, and imbalances just show more at heavy weights generally.

So fixing those imbalances will be one of the primary focuses for next term's training. For this, I'll probably be taking a much more active approach using exercise selection in the workout as opposed to just stretching and activation in the warmup/cool down. The second focus will be structural/postural strength. I'll be doing a lot of pulls, RDLs, SLDs, etc. To try and maintain strength over the bar and better back positioning. Will probably be 4 days a week (but will vary a lot with class and associated work). Squats will probably be low weight/high volume (to work on the imbalances). I'm also planning on working on Overhead stability. I've been basically power snatching exclusively this term. Partially to save the injured hip, but also because thinking about power snatching really helps tighten up and receive the bar well for me. It's just that my best weights are so low that I have the strength to power snatch them, but I lack other things that cause me to miss. But to get better, I still need to be prepared to hit full snatches though.

Will definitely be carrying forward loading and programming experiences learned from the OTM cycle.

Thanks for the read! Thanks for the support!

PS I'm sorry for being so loud! I've been encouraging myself to let loose a bit more, especially since I'm lifting alone. And the moment I locked out 165 was so cathartic that I ended up getting a bit excited xD

Catalyst OTM Cycle - Week 10

Week 10 is done. It was a really blergh week. I can make excuses like tiring work and horrible traffic (which for some reason persisted throughout the week). But I dunno, I just wasn't feeling it.

Sunday was better, though I had plenty of rest before then.

No video this week, didn't really have enough footage to justify it :p