PIERINI FITNESS

Monday, October 5, 2009

Eating a piece of humble pie


A bothersome right anterior deltoid muscle has put limits on the Olympic lift workouts I’ve been able to do the past couple of months. Slowly but surely it’s healing but not at the pace I’d like, evidence that my deltoid, like the rest of me, is bona-fide middle age.

Interesting is that I’m able to perform behind-the-neck pull-ups and behind-the-neck push presses and split jerks with no discomfort but traditional split jerks are a no-no. Squat snatches with lighter weights are fine too but I wouldn’t want to load the bar heavy and try for a personal record.

Once a week I use the squat snatch to “see where I’m at” with my anterior deltoid muscle recovery and last Friday my test consisted of these sets of squat snatches (loads in lbs.): 65x3 – 65x3 – 88x3 – 88x3 – 115x1 – 115x1 – 115x1. All of these sets felt good and I had this strong desire to load the bar heavier for a further test but my little guardian angel told me to quit while I was ahead to be safe rather than sorry. I listened.

These loads are a far cry from what I was doing last October 2008 when I set personal records of 155 lbs. on October 10, 2008 and 160 lbs. on October 31, 2008. How things can change in a year’s time.

I really enjoy the Olympic lifts so I’ll continue doing them. Setting a personal record and successfully lifting a heavy weight is like eating a piece of ego cake. The loads I’m currently moving, in sharp contrast, is like eating a piece of humble pie.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

4 comments:

Charles Long said...

Humble pie has less calories than ego cake. It's good to have once in awhile.

Pierini Fitness said...

I agree Charles, at least once a week to keep us honest.

Franklin said...

Working around injuries is part of game. If progress was linear everyone would be lifting. Yep it sure is fun to set PRs but thats really only a small part of what this sport is about.

As far as your shoulder, you are very wise to slowly increase the load. Twice I re-injured my shoulder by trying to "test" it too early.

Pierini Fitness said...

Hi Franklin,

Had a bright idea on the way to the gym today that I'd do some split jerks. All seemed well going them with a PVC pipe warm-up. Then I loaded the bar to 60kg and squat cleaned it, prepared myself for the jerk, and then put it down and called that idea off when my little guardian angel intervened again for my good.

We'll try again soon.

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