Wednesday 13.8: Cleans and Front squats

Wednesday. Strength, clean singles (max 110kg). Strength, front squat 5x4 (max 120kg).

This time I focused purely on strength. Wednesday is a day when I usually go to work later than usually so we had time for a training session at the gym with Pauliina. It's awesome I have the possibility to workout with my love on a steady basis as we're working in the same location and can match the schedules together pretty well.

Strength.

• Clean singles 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 (90, 100, 110, 105, 100, 95, 90kg)
• Front squat 4-4-4-4-4 (90, 100, 110, 115, 120kg)

Today was all about getting stronger. Started with heavy squat cleans, and then finished it off with front squats. These two strength movements seem to work perfectly together, especially in this order. At least I enjoy them a lot. My focus was getting some heavy clean singles in my system and focus on the quick turnover and pull-under. It was okay. Could have been a little better but for some reason I'm also satisfied with the lifts.

Clean, 100kg

I get pretty well under the bar but what bothers me somewhat is that I lack the patience to pull the barbell with straight hands higher on my thighs before starting to pull myself under the bar. Had I pulled the bar higher and then shrugged violently, the bar would fly higher, allowing me more time to get under the bar. Anyway, I'll take it. Felt good, as cleans usually do =) One of my absolute favorites! Today my max lift was 110kg which is only 2.5kg shy of my PR. After that lift I dropped 5kg after every rep, down to 90kg.

Front squat, 115kg

Because I take all heavy cleans with squat my legs were already warmed up for front squats. Kept the bar at 90kg and took a set of 4 reps. Then added 10kg for the following 2 sets. Those felt light so I had no other option but to keep adding stuff on the bar, next stop at 115kg. That you can see in the video. It felt very good so obviously 120kg had to be taken too. I'm kind of astonished how come these felt so light. Of course I had to do a lot of work but the bar moved efficiently all the way.

Maybe it was mental game, I don't know. One reason might be my new squat style. I wrote to you guys 1-2 weeks ago that I adopted ass-to-grass squat style. Chad Vaughn was talking about it and I learned my lesson. My mobility for front and back squats allow me to go deep in the hole. Previously I use to go below parallel, then break and hit it back up. Currently, I go to parallel, then drop down, bounce back and then push it with everything I got. Totally different way to conduct squatting. And I believe this new system is absolutely the way to do it in my case. I'm gonna make my legs stronger, increase mobility and convey these also to olympic lifts too.