On the Utility of Form Check Videos

It has been ungodly hot here in the city for the past week, and our gym has no air conditioning! We've been 2 or 3 times since last posting (a busy week kept the Marmot and I from moving much at all) and each time we go, I am convinced that I have never been as sweaty before in my life. Yesterday the heat index was around 112, and I would reckon the gym was in the (relatively cool) high-90s.

We brought our little digital video recorder to check form; I've finally been able to consistently get the bar up to rack position and full lock-out for my clean & jerk form, but I know I'm far from "good form" (even if "not failing every other time" feels like a huge improvement). Videos below the jump:

Stats: Upper body & Clean/Jerk

We're a little behind in marking our stats here. We've had a great maintenance upper body day early in the week, and an off-routine but ultimately exciting leg day on Wednesday. In spite of re-injuring my lower back on my third dead lift set (with perfect form too--I guess I wasn't all the way healed?), I powered through and did 4 sets of clean & jerk. Luckily the particular movement involved in cleans didn't trigger my back pain, so it felt safe. I think I'm getting the hang of it a little more (which you wouldn't know from my bruised collar bone); I can finally feel why something is wrong if something is wrong. My big problem for months has been feeling like I'm doing the same move each time, but with wildly different consequences. Now I can feel "Oh, I think I jumped too early" or "Hm, need to work on getting my elbows out more." So that's a huge improvement!

I also had a minor "non-scale victory" in the weight-loss/body-confidence department. I walked home after the leg day in our sweltering gym without my shirt on, just my (very conservative) sports bra and shorts. I think this is the first time my belly has seen sunlight since I was toddling. High fives all around!

Rolling in the Clean & Jerk

clean & jerk, mid-jump

So we were reminded today of the major reason we left our current temporary-summer-gym the first time: no air conditioning.

Our gym is in a basement and is blessed with neither fresh nor cool air, which is good for feeling limber (Marmot and I were much more flexible at the beginning of our warm-ups than usual) but not so good for doing much of anything else. It's humid and hot outside, a swampy 95, and the gym was maybe in the mid-80s. Yikes. The only sunny side was a new radio station: instead of "angry but melodic suburban dude music," they switched to the "dance dance gaga pop!" station which is a much more motivating sound track for lifting, for us at least.

Heat aside, we had a thrillingly successful leg day. I didn't go in with any minor injuries to throw me off, and I kept my lifts hard but not too-hard to keep from re-injuring my lower back. Everything went better than expected! We started with 5x5 squats, which was much harder than usual in the heat, and dead lifts were solid if not record-breaking. To work on my lower back strength we tried barbell hip thrusts (no weight, just the bar) which I've read is an excellent secondary exercise to strengthen glutes & lower back. I liked it a lot but it irritated Marmot's old hip injury so we might leave it by the side for now and try something different next time.

The best, though, was last. By the time we'd finished our hip thrusts we were both grossly soaked and sweaty, but we were on a roll and wanted to keep rolling. We loaded a bar with 5lb bumper plates and did 4 sets of 5 reps of clean & jerk. I am still trying to get the form down (hence the very light weight) and have to really, really concentrate before each lift. It's a lot to think about: you lift from the ground to mid-thigh like a dead lift, then you explosively jump and pop your hips forward to bounce the bar out and up to your shoulders (without pulling with your arms) while you squat a bit to get under the weight, swinging your elbows forward to create a nice bunchy deltoid for the bar to rest on; then, with the bar racked on your shoulders, you jump again to push the bar above your head. I'm absolutely terrible at learning gross motor movements, and this is a very complex move. My first set was iffy with a lot of false starts (just a dead, just a dead, a dead and an incomplete jump, a dead a jump and the bar is too far from my shoulders, etc) but after that I got my form down a little better. I still can't coordinate my body to pop my hips at the right moment, but I think with more practice I'll get it.

There's nothing quite like lifting. I know I've said it before, and I also know that I'm still very much a novice and haven't experienced many other forms of athleticism, but there's one particular moment of letting go that is unlike anything else I've experienced. Just before the lift I position myself in my form and am all in my head. With squats, I've got my hands in position, I've got my heels firm in the floor and my toes positioned at the angle I know works for my knees, and I feel the bar on my traps and then stand to hold the weight and think about that squat: you've got to hold your back strong, you've got to go deep, goddamn the bar is heavy, I hope I can get back up. With dead lift, I put my feet under the bar, get my hands in position, stretch my back and then tighten my body down into lifting position: you've got to hold your body tight, you've got to pick it up, I hope it's not too heavy, you've got to pick it up, hold the bar with all your life, pull it, just pull already. With cleans, I stand over the weight, get my feet and hands in position, and think about that jump: you've got to jump, jump at the right moment, hold it strong, jump up not forward, don't look up just jump. The thrilling moment for me is in that brief moment of letting go: I stop thinking, I stop worrying, I stop all narrative flow and just move. The moment the narrative stops doesn't seem like is controlled by me, I just suddenly find myself moving, if that makes sense. It is thrilling and sometimes terrifying, that kind of unfiltered embodiment.

With that in mind, I will say I (almost) cried in the gym again: not from frustration or injury, but from triumph. I was on my third clean & jerk set nearing the end when Adele's ubiquitous "Rolling in the Deep" came on the radio. I pulled and jumped and held and jumped and held; I dropped the bar one-two to the floor, and pulled and jumped and held and jumped and held; and then on my last set, I pulled and jumped and held and jumped and held the bar above my head for 30 seconds, quivering and holding and listening to the music build, looking at Marmot smiling at me, holding the weight above my head and listening to the music build to the chorus, and it felt beautiful.


(stats below the jump)