Monday, February 25, 2013

24 kg Press, 24 kg double swings

I just don't quit much. I really don't. I've had to back off on my kb pressing for quite some time lately because of my left shoulder but ever since I've gotten my pushup pattern back it didn't make sense to me that I couldn't find a way to press without pain or destabilizing my left shoulder as well.
The fact that I can press 1/2 BW and more with my right side doesn't matter. I want to be as balanced as possible and my left side is the problem. Lately it's felt like it's a failure to find the groove that works more than anything anatomical in the shoulder.

It was this way when I benched press in powerlifting. If I had the right position I was VERY strong in the bench. Wrong position, lots of pain and weak weak weak.
SO I've been playing with the start position and I think I found something. Cleaning the weight in the usual way I have my arm across my pec, thumb towards the sternal clavicual joint. I've been trying, in the past to press OUT from there,( the way I used to press, strongly and without pain) initiating by pushing against the bell but that doesn't work any more.
I just flare out and internally rotate too early and it's weak.

So I played with trying to press just straight up last week and that worked ok but wasn't 100%. Today I played with pressing almost across and up and it seemed to keep my forearm vertical longer,felt very strong, minimized internal rotation  and ended up in a good finish position.

Here's the video. this is set 5 of 8


The nice thing is that both sides felt and looked pretty much the same. Something that I haven't been able to do in years.Even though I still had an angle on my forearm my upper arm went straight up. Did 8 sets of 2 easy with the 24 and NO shoulder issues at all. This has promise.

One arm swing warmup : 16 x 5/5 x3

KB Press
16 kg x 5/5
20 kg x 2/2
24 kg x 2 x 8 sets ( would have kept going but I need to do some swings too)

Two KB Swings
2 16 x 10
2 20's x 10
2 24's x 10 x 3


These felt GREAT! Strong and easy. I only did 3 sets with the 24s but they were as solid as the 16's This is a great example of how tweaking one's groove can make ALL the difference. With my old groove this move felt slow, awkward, stiff and definitely NOT powerful. By following my body and going where the power production was best-despite how it 'looked'- made all the difference.

AS Pavel has said" do you want to swim or to understand hydrodynamics?" I want to be able to DO the skill first and understand it as best as possible second.

Belt squats
32 kg x 30 x 4 sets!!

30 reps sets were NO problem. the longer, easier breathing patterns has made all the difference. Alternated between no lock out reps and full lockouts. Nice to feel my quads work again.
Don't tell Glenn but we are going to work up to 50 rep sets here.:))
Macht Nichts.

datsit.
Sisu Indeed/





2 comments:

Joe Sarti said...

Looking really good. As you stated or articulated, the groove is strong! Glad to see the Press is there, certainly agree the strength is not an issue.

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Joe. its always a process of ebb and flow.:)

155 x 3 x 5, 160 x 3 x 5, 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 40, 35

 Thought about going back to 5x5 for a hot second then my left shoulder  reminded me why I stopped doing them before. It doesn't seem to...