SELF-ANALYSIS AT THE HALF-YEAR MARK

SELF-ANALYSIS AT THE HALF-YEAR MARK

By Shane Robert

I recently took a trip to Hawaii; Kauai to be exact. By recently I mean that I am writing this while on the plane home. It was my first time to the state and a very family heavy trip. My in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and wanted to have a big gathering of loved ones. About 16 people showed up, which I consider pretty good, given all of the hurdles to getting there (time off, cost, long travel, etc.). I basically took the time off from training. Aside from two very light workouts (inspired by early 20th-century programs with just one set of several different exercises) I didn’t do anything hard or structured. I mostly did those for fun and my own mental well-being. (I was with a lot of family after all!) This was partly planned and partly forced—both by gym access and nagging injuries.

The majority of my time was spent swimming in the ocean, hiking around on muddy Kauai trails, and walking long stretches of lava rock filled beaches. I had a lot of time and brain bandwidth to think that would normally be devoted to thinking about my training. With that on hold, I was able to reflect on where I am at the halfway mark of the year.

TRAINING: B+ (TL;DR: Training has gone well but I need to be smart and not let minor injuries become major injuries)

This has overall been quite a good six months of training. I feel that my technical efficiency has improved a lot with snatches and cleans. In fact, I was able to set small PRs on both when I went rogue and worked up to heavy singles on those lifts. My jerks have been more consistent with training weights and under fatigue, which I know will carry over to higher 1RMs once I push for that. Jerking has always been a big weakness for me and something that takes a lot of work to improve. It feels good to see improvement there. Though this SPP has increased, I need to be better about incorporating more GPP and hypertrophy work into my training.

I have been dealing with some annoying quad tendon issue particularly in my right knee, though a bit in both. This has limited my squatting over the last 6 weeks or so, which is frustrating since squatting is so central to Olympic Weightlifting strength. I have been able to find workarounds, but it takes a lot more time and mental effort than being able to simply front or back squat. Of course, it is my fault that it happened. I was probably squatting too frequently for the amount of volume that I was doing with my main lifts. As much as it pains me to say it, at one month shy of 39, I just may not be able to handle the kind of frequency and/or volume that I used to.

In the end, I do think that this slight injury will make my training and coaching better. I have always learned the most from adversity and how to overcome it. I also have to keep reminding myself that I have time. I am shooting to break records as a 40-45 masters competitor. That’s a full year before I can even attempt to do that, and 6 total before I’m out of that category.

NUTRITION: B- (TL;DR:I let my vanity win and haven’t been eating enough. Otherwise, pretty on point)

Making good eating choices has never been a problem for me; eating enough, on the other hand, is something that I have always struggled to do consistently. By consistently, I mean more than about a year at a time. The last chunk of weeks before Hawaii were definitely lower calories than I should probably have been eating. It was still an average of 3500 per day, but that is an amount that I lose weight on. I do, however, always make sure to keep my protein intake high, never lower than 170 grams per day, regardless of how many calories I’m eating.

What can I say? I’m a little vain and wanted to look good for Hawaii. I know that I need to be eating more to get the most out of my training. Going forward, now that beach life is done, I intend to get back to the calorie level that I tend to perform best with: 4250-4750 per day. It will bring my weight, over time, closer to the 89kg area that it should be for ideal training.

RECOVERY: C- (TL;DR: Not enough sleep or focus on other recovery-enhancing modalities)

This is the area that I would rank myself the worst in. I have been neglecting my overall recovery far too much. Which is likely a contributing factor to my injuries. I’ve already touched on nutrition and how I can improve in that area. Simply eating more is a surefire way to increase recovery. I know that and will do it.

I have been terrible about any kind of soft tissue work and dedicated mobility training. While the Olympic lifts themselves can do wonders for mobility, they also benefit from overall greater mobility. Particularly in the shoulders. Since I have a genetically weird left shoulder to begin with, and now my right shoulder is a little tweaked, I think it’s safe to say that I need more mobility time for my shoulders. My quads, which receive so much stimulus from O-lift training, will also benefit greatly from soft tissue work. I have no doubt that my knees will appreciate that as well.

Far and away, the area that needs improvement is the rest component of recovery. I definitely don’t sleep an ideal amount or, realistically, the necessary amount for the training load that I am doing. My weekday average is just about 6 hours, sometimes 6.5. There isn’t a lot I can do to change this. The way my schedule is right now means that I can only train in the early morning, which eats into my sleep. As mentioned in the training section, I need to reevaluate my training volume or, at least, the frequency. My weekly volume will likely go down as a result of fewer training sessions per week, something that I seriously need to consider doing. However, the total cycle volume will remain the same, but simply spread over more weeks per given block. If I train fewer days, I may be able to reduce the number of weekdays that I have to wake at 4 am, getting 1 to 1.5 additional hours of sleep 3 days a week.

It’s useful to take a step back every so often, like the halfway point of the year, and assess what you are doing well and what needs improvement. Even though you likely already know what needs to be improved, seeing it on paper can help make it more of a reality.