SW & Central Championships 2012

SOUTHWEST & CENTRAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012

 

 

Hey Leo Lions

So it's been some time since my last blog but as ever, I have been working hard and I hope you have too. The run up to the SW & Central Champs has been one giant rollercoaster.

 

3 weeks before, I put my back out on a light clean warming up. It was an A&E trip where all I could say was "you're kidding me" - I couldn't walk. They gave me the greatest drug of all time - valium. I was out of training for over a week and had to see my physiotherapist, but then slowly, in the final week and a bit we started with a broom handle, and worked up again - this week and a half was the most frustrating agonising nightmare ever.

 

Well, until we arrived at the Championships. We had been training in the week leading up with power jerks to protect my lower back and my best power jerk so far had been 48kg.

 

The snatch started and it was a relief to start warming up. Watching the class before was just absolute agony as I was so nervous and had nowhere to put my energy. Luckily I weighed in at 62.1kg so I was comfortably in my class (63kg).

 

I was so focussed on the first lift that on coming off my coach said "that was good, but can you try not to look as if you're hating life" - I went back into the warm up room and laughed my head off - just the tension release I needed! I went up to 36kg on the snatch because of the POTS (and also why I am power snatching). Before my injury, the goal had been to reach a 90kg total and qualify for the English Championships, but this was dashed. I needed a 37kg snatch for that to be plausable, especially with the back injury and PB power jerk needed. I was so frustrated at my coach. Then we went into the C&J and then on my last lift, we just went for it. 54kg. That was a 2kg C&J PB and a huge 6kg power jerk PB. I nailed it - the best clean I've ever done (thank you knee-knocking terror and adrenalin) and a shakey but there jerk. I QUALIFIED!

 

On top of that, the girl in my weight class bombed out on her snatch and so had no total, but major props to her because she still did her C&J - major mental strength.

 

Here's the video:

 



At the end of the day, I had the best coach in the world who timed my warm up fantastically and controlled me in the face of my impatience as well as had iron-clad certainty when I had tears in my eyes with frustration at my snatch weight. I always argue, I'm not a fun lifter to train sometimes, but I will always trust my coach now.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about this journey and here's to the English Champs in February.

Southwest & Central Champion, 2012

Liftspiration

Hey Guys

I know I haven't been writing blogs too often recently but rest assured I have been training!

I just wanted to write a brief blog on some challenges I've been faced with recently. I hope that reading this you might feel a little more empowered, a little more inspired, and maybe a little more motivated.

I recently attended the UCL in London to see the EDS specialist (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) and the letter came through afterwards with a few surprises.

Firstly, there's an indication from their investigations that I might have a condition my sister shares, along with the delightful superpower that is EDS, which we had suspected recently in training. It's called POTS, or Postural Othostatic Tachychardia - it's an autoimmune issue whereby when you stand the blood pools in your legs, away from your main organs and brain. Some people black out completely, and there's loads of other bits to it. The only real bit I am concerned with is that when I am lifting and it's hot/humid, I am almost blacking out between lifts. It's no fun going for a snatch when you're light-headed. Until I can see the cardiologist, I have developed 4 techniques for keeping me conscious!:

1. Open the door and windows in the training room and nab the coolest platform
2. Drink rehydrating sachets
3. Drink a lot of water
4. Take off my top and train in my sports bra (haha)

The other bit of news the letter had was a bit of a relief and again, suspected but not really believed: my thyroid has slowed again and so I am back on meds for life (although it's really just replacing a hormone). This explains weight gain I've had that was depressing and upsetting me :)

There's a silver lining to everything (the thyroid means free prescriptions for life too; the POTS means the men get to train with my abs) and the EDS clinic said whatever I do don't stop weightlifting
You have no idea how much I've fought - fought the people I love, the Dr's I've seen, friends, family, coaches - to convince them that weightlifting is good for my body. That EDS isn't a death sentence. That it doesn't mean you should wrap me in cotton wool. I meet beautiful souls with EDS all the time and there's something I recognise in all of their faces - fear. They're afraid of their own bodies - they're afraid of what they think they can't do. I don't want them to be scared, I want them to be empowered. And the greatest thing that has happened to me was something that came from all this - my sister has started to own her body again and build up strength and power and I hear it in her voice. She doesn't sound scared anymore. This isn't just hopeful thinking - the EDS specialist said the muscle in my body is HOLDING IT TOGETHER. The muscles around my knee caps, which are alarmingly hypermobile, hold the caps in place. They can't move. The muscle under the arches of my feet are pulling the arch back up. The muscle in my back is PUSHING MY SPINE BACK INTO PLACE (sciliosis).

Don't get me wrong - I am lucky. I don't get much pain most EDSers suffer. But what all sportspeople will tell you is pain is their constant companion. Welcome to sport, EDS. You've met your match.

Don't let anything stop you. Not even your fears.

Head up; Bar up
xoxo 

PB Puppies

 

Hey Eleiko Elves

 

We had a PB night on Friday at Empire - my second ever. PB nights are a chance to get a little bit adrenalin filled and try to do your best lifts in front of everyone (so basically a practice competition) :)

 

I did OK - our aims were:

1. To stay focussed
2. To get good technique
3. To handle nerves and pressure

The coach was a little more nervous than me and so only managed to video my last Clean & Jerk, which didn't have the great jerk technique the lift before did (haha):

 

 



 

I had a great time though and didn't feel half as sick as last time. I managed to stay completely focussed on the lifts and not get distracted. It was good practice :D

 

It won't seem much, but here are my PB totals from the PB night:

• Snatch: 35kg (in training: 37kg)
• Clean & Jerk: 47kg (in training: 51kg)

 

My all-time PB's are:

• Snatch: 39kg
• Clean & Jerk: 51kg

but this was back before I learned the technique. Now I have the technique, I can push further and these won't be a limit :)

 

Just to prove that I am not at my limit, I managed to Clean 51kg today with great technique and would've got 54kg if it weren't for a beetle running between my feet ;)

 

I am going to write another blog now on some personal challenges I have had recently

 

 

PEACE OUT PLATFORM PUPPIES x

TECHNIQUE

HEY POWER POUNDERS!

It has been some time - I am so sorry. I have had quite a few changes going on behind the scenes but I was reminded today about this little blog and I realised you folk must be hanging on waiting to find out how the KBear is doing - am I right or am I right? hadn't noticed you'd gone actually...

RIGHT let's get down to business. All the technique work is finally paying off and with a little carrot called 2016 dangled, I have been super motivated and focussed.

The Coach has been dealing with my difficult ways, still, and getting my technique right. There's one thing about weightlifting - if you're having a really bad time of it, you can get on that platform and all your problems are...right there with you. That's right, there's no escape. You cry your tears between sets and you carry the weight because this isn't fairyland and the platform isn't a safe, happy, fluffy place - it's where you go to put yourself against it. If you only step up when you're feeling strong you'll never know what you can do.

I can't get through this blog without mentioning a certain international sporting event which occurs quadually - mega disappointed for Mr. Klokov that he didn't lift. I wish him a speedy recovery and if he needs any entertainment/cheering up, he need look no further than this week's training:

I clean better than your girlfriend, I'm happy to jerk, and I have a great snatch

Those snatches were sponsored by Ilya Ilin.

In other news, if you'd now like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at @tinylittlepaws (I buckled)

GET YO' TECHNIQUE DOWN BRO'

KBear x

Snatch Outtakes...

Here's my coach...

That's a clean clean and jerk, jerk

Evening Power Puppies!

I am in a really good mood from training tonight Kbear fans :) I did C+J and Back Squats - nice and short but it all came together right :D

Not much else to say apart from watch the video:

BOOM!

And yes, that's me getting told off on the last rep for talking whilst I had the bar off the ground...again hahaha

My operation is this Monday - frustrating because we've come so far, but you can't do anything about things outside your control. You can only do the most you can and work around what life throws at you. If anything, this time period has taught me to use every moment to the max and do as much as you can - don't take a day for granted.

In other news I passed my 1st year of my Post Grad whilst working full time and holding down a weekend job and training! This year it's back to just 1 job, the 2nd and final year of study and even more training, hopefully :)

FILL EVERY DAY
KBear x

when a snatch looks better than it feels

Hey Pull Pilots

I had a short but good session on Sunday at Empire doing a sequence of:

hang clean > front squat > power clean

It was tiring work, as you can see from this video where Coach W managed to accidentally catch me in the background (thanks coach). I really enjoyed it though and I feel like working to fatigue works quite well for me as it makes the last few lifts feel a lot heavier and lets me correct errors which normally come as you start pushing the weight up. I feel like if I'm tired I can force good technique when it's still light.


I am quite enjoying the sequences so today we did snatch from the floor for the first time only in drills so here were the sequences:

3 consecutive snatches
snatch > OHS

I had a really pap day today at work and felt really tense and stressed so I was really pleased I had a nice session and managed some good lifting. The snatch almost looks like it should do :)

I hope you enjoy watching that as much as I enjoyed doing it - this was the first full snatch I've done since before all the operations :)

Keep at it - eventually a day will come when you see a little progress :)

KBear x