Oly Update

Six months into Olympic lifting! Hey remember when I thought I could deep squat? I couldn’t and I needed to go deeper. It took about 4 months to get it. I am hitting depth and still building leg strength.

I got a DEXA scan this week so I can better calculate how much protein I actually need for recovery and muscle growth. It’s about 80-90 grams per day, not the 200+ grams suggested by just using my total weight. Trying not to let this DEXA scan ruin my body image and self concept and shit is it hard.

I have one body. I won’t be losing weight. But I will be gaining muscle. And the DEXA is the best baseline to gauge my progress in the coming years.

I am slowly progressing through the motions of power snatch and power clean, starting to feel the proprioceptive cues for balance during jerk and press, and have gotten way better at bracing. I am seeing my raw strength decline in areas I am not actively training, however, which is a bummer. I can add in a powerlifting workout once a week if my body is up to it, or I can just trust the process and focus on technique now. I will build stupid strength with Oly lifts when I can competently perform them, but that will take time.

It’s summer now and I’m trying two Oly sessions a week. It has been crazy on my knees, but also I haven’t been doing much to help them recover other than chilling after working out. I can start icing, stretches, active recovery, voltaren gel and compression to help. Like God damn I’m 40 and I’m not already doing this? It’s amazing my knee pain only lasts 24-36 hours!

Still vibing with the lifting community, still enjoying the connection and support of other lifters, although some of the toxic masculinity is grating. But that’s only a few dudes and usually I can look at a woman who is also like WTF after some guy says something idiotic. Which is validating. Mark is funny and sometimes gives me compliments on my terrible jokes as well.

I think he’s a pretty great teacher, and our teaching styles are pretty similar: lots of praise, lots of trolling, relationships come first, immediate corrective feedback. He takes the time to break things down and will always give you that cue again if you need it. Also, he helps make my progress visible for me.

So yeah! It’s going well. I imagine it will take literal years to get these lifts down. I think we are a few months away from me doing the whole lift sequence, and maybe after a year or year and a half with training I’ll start adding weight. That’s fine for me. I want to do it right.

And I want gigantic quads. So I’m willing to do what it takes to be an absolute beef cake.

Stay fat and jacked!