Thursday, August 30, 2007

Speed day musings


It really has struck me just how much using the light bell and trying to move the body as fast as possible has carried over to my 24 kg snatch. Just like in WSB methods,where one uses 70% weights moved with compensatory acceleration to create maximal and supra maximal forces on the bar, doing these short work bouts where you are trying to snatch just about as fast as one can has a big effect on form.
When I would box squat for triples with weights I could do 10 reps with it allowed me to move the weight with maximum force optimizing my cns reaction. When I put a true 100% load on it(which was also part of the equation three days later) my body did the same movement it had done with the lighter weight: tried to move it fast! Learning and holding exact form is much easier with light weights.
Using accumulated fatigue ( 12 sets of 2 reps with 45 sec rest in the box squat) to create tension one got faster AND stronger at the same time.
Because of my heavy squat/deadlift training on the max effort day I rarely trained the deadlift heavy and just did mostly speed work before I pulled my best lift(545@ 181).learning to pull hard and fast is especially important for the deadlift because fear and doubt can creep in and make you TRY to pull the weight instead of PULLING the weight. You can always tell when the weight is light because it MOVES FAST.
True maximal lifts take 3-4 seconds(at least) to complete. If it takes less time than that it is not a true maximal lift.
Gotta get the bar past the sticking point before welder man comes in and takes over!
So doing all this volume with a weight I can truly dictate the form has made my 24 kg snatch much better!Being in a much more optimal biomechanical position helps tons too but a decent base now of workouts fighting through fatigue and still trying to move fast has made me hold back much less when snatching the 24. I feel I have much more power.

Nice.Strong is good. Strong and fast is better.

2 comments:

Taikei Matsushita said...

"learning to pull hard and fast is especially important for the deadlift because fear and doubt can creep in and make you TRY to pull the weight instead of PULLING the weight. You can always tell when the weight is light because it MOVES FAST."

I sometimes have this feeling with 32kg kettlebell. Sometimes it looks small, and it gets bigger as I begin to doubt. Do you think pulling fast can diminish doubt, or doubt(may be derived from extreme fatigue level) cannot be taken away in any means possible.

Mark Reifkind said...

pulling fast with lighter loads can help create a really quick and strong pattern but it is important that when one takes the heavier weight they apply the same approach to it.
Ultimately you have to conquer the doubt FIRST mentally, then it happens physically.

Thursday ruck

 Another decently strong one. Cool weather again and that helps.. Calves were tight, the only thing slowing me down 45 lb ruck 6 laps 3 mile...