Well well well. Who’s been a slack little blogger this week hey! This kid.
I didn’t really feel like I had a great training week, but when I put it down on paper so to speak, I don’t think it was that bad afterall. I’m back to university tomorrow, finally, after a long 3 month break. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited 🙂
So the training for this week was;
Sunday – This is normally my rest day, but by the afternoon, I had an overwhelming desire to do some weights, so off to the gym I went for some Sumo deadlifts, front squats, face pulls, KB clean/press, anti-rotation chops with cable machine and some foam rolling/ mobility work. No-one in the gym except for the Sunday afternoon Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, had all the toys to myself.
Monday – Boxing training PM
Tuesday – 4k run AM, Boxing training PM
Wednesday – Interval training (Circuit of Bag drills, mountain climbers, Med ball slams, jump lunges, battling ropes, DB squat to press, AKA “Hell”) AM
I took Thursday & Friday off (ghasp!), just trained clients AM & PM both days
Saturday & Sunday – Completed the Australian Weightlifting Federation “Club Weightlifting/Sports Power Coach” licence for Olympic lifts. And it wrecked me! The theory component was kept in short bursts, which left plenty of time to practice the lifts again and again and again! And who said hand callouses aren’t sexy?
I’ve been wanting to get formally qualified in these lifts for a long time. I was fortunate enough to learn the basics & get some coaching from the guys at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning back in 2010 when I visited the US, but I really wanted to get my ticket, so to speak, and more in depth education so I can coach them and include them in programs at the gym.
These lifts (Clean, Clean & Jerk, Snatch and their various progressions & variations) are excellent additions to both our fighter and client training programs, in that they are ideal for increasing power output/ strength, muscular hypertrophy (big guns!) or strength endurance, depending on the program design. It’s such an old way of thinking that boxers shouldn’t do weights. Absolute nonsense. Olympic style power lifts, when programmed correctly and not done to excess, are extremely useful for boxers, as they increase the ability to generate power through the hips and torso, vital for strong, controlled punches. Lifts such as the snatch, build tremendous “core” stability & strength (try holding a 20kg bar or even just a broomstick overhead down in a squat position and it will really highlight weakness & dysfunction through the hip & back musculature). We also did a number of explosive plyometric & medicine ball drills which compliment the lifts very well and are great warm up to get the muscles & nervous system switched and ready to work.
We’ve been doing Squat & Deadlift variations in the gym for some time now, with great results. We also do a lot of Kettlebell training including Clean & Press, Turkish Get-up, Windmills & Swings. There’s so much to learn about these lifts, but I will be regularly practicing them now to get an in depth understanding of their execution, so our clients & fighters can reap the most benefits out of them. It will be great to now slowly incorporate these new techniques for cross training in the gym.
Here’s couple pics as I went though the final lift of the course this afternoon, Power clean to Split Jerk. No weight on the bar, body was hating life and super sore by this point and still working on technique 🙂
I shall be working on this jerk… 🙂
Nadine Brown 