Benchmark: April 2008 Archives

Having completed one cycle of Scott's program for O-lifting, I needed to test max lifts in order to start the next cycle. (I haven't tested them all yet.)

Overhead squat: 50 kg (I may be able to do more but I stopped at 50) (previous max was 37)

Back squat: 100 kg (previous max was 85)

Snatch: only 27 kg because I don't want to count it if I can ONLY power-snatch it (catch it high). Going to a weekend O-lift workshop in June for two days and hope to improve this.

Deadlift (tested for fun, not for O-lifting): 115 kg (previous max was 110)

Clean and jerk: 53 kg if I recall correctly (duh, it was only last Saturday)

Front squat: ? - still need to test

I have to plug these numbers into Scott's new spreadsheet and then I can start on the next cycle.

To work on overhead squats, I want to do sets of 5. That means using 80 percent of my 1-rep max, or 31 kg. I have my work cut out for me. We have an 18-year-old female athlete who is my same weight and has overhead squatted bodyweight (60 kg). I want to catch up with her. if only for a 1RM. She's working on overhead squatting bodyweight for 15 reps, a common goal of more accomplished CrossFitters. If I ever do that... well, I guess there's no real reason to think I never will... but it won't be as soon as the young lady I'm thinking of does it! She's incredibly strong and has the fast recovery ability of youth.

I used this calculator for various-rep max weights if you plug in the max lift that you've done.

Yesterday's women's barbell intro class was fun. It was a great learning experience for me as a trainer and teacher working with a group at various levels of experience and natural athleticism. I was lucky to have two volunteer assistants from the gym, because it would have been a lot harder to manage without them. We taught and practiced (a little) the squat, press, and deadlift, and then ran a totally unofficial CrossFit Total (three attempts at each lift; total the heaviest of each in pounds for the score) so that people could get a taste of the lifts and of one way they can be used as benchmarks and in a competition.

We also made a video clip of each person's lifts. Some looked better than others and I hope people will use the videos to compare good form with common mistakes. If I do the event again, I might skip the CFT in favor of more teaching, in order to make the common mistakes less common more quickly.

As I expected, it was rewarding to talk with other women about various kinds of weightlifting. They were not much better informed than I was four years or so ago, and they seemed happy to hear about the differences between weightlifting/Olympic lifting, power lifting, body building, and everyday weight training with machines and dumbbells, plus why CrossFitters value some lifts over others and how we use them in workouts. We didn't have time to do a CrossFit workout, of course, but were able to just touch on it.

Afterward most of us hung out at Hale's for a while. A good day.

I didn't complete the CrossFit Total in the interests of time (neither did my helpers) but I did get a PR squat of 100 kg. Allison also hit a couple of PRs. We are still beginners enough to get frequent PRs--a reward to "not" being elite.

For reference. Now that I finished the snatch and clean and jerk program Scott gave me, I retested some max lifts in order to start over on a new program.

Snatch: 32 kg
Clean and jerk: 53 kg
Squat: 96 kg

This week I hope to also test the overhead squat and front squat, and try for a higher max on the squat--the 96-kg one was a few weeks ago.