Wake Up!

Just 5 more minutes...

I just got home from my first lift testing of the week. We are testing our lifts this week- power clean, squat, bench press, broad jump, and possibly vertical jump if we have time.

This morning's lift time was at 10:00 a.m.- I woke up at 9:08 a.m. NOT GOOD. Why?

I have read studies that concluded that the CNS (Central Nervous System) is most efficient 3 hours after waking and/or 11 hours after waking. I have recommended in the past to try and follow this general guideline when weight training. Now I know most people have lives outside of training and can't always follow this rule- BUT, in my case I should have been much smarter and followed this simple principle. Personal experience of mine has shown positive correlation to this as well. Not only do I perform better after being up and moving around for a while, but I get some time to mentally prepare for the lift, eat a quality meal (which I skipped this morning- only had time for a protein shake and a little caffeine. Again not good!), and focus for the task at hand. Every time I skip this step the workout suffers.

In short, I performed poorly in my opinion today since my testing numbers are well below what I know I am capable of.

I power cleaned 105kg (231 pounds, and had 2 close calls at 110kg (242 pounds). I only had 1 legit broad jump mark at 8'8"; scratched my first 2 jumps at 9'2" and 9'1" because my toe went over the start line by about half an inch. Not bad for a body weight of 183 pounds, but I have done much better than this in the past. My personal best power clean is just about 242 pounds, but my best broad jump (standing long jump) is 9'5". Just one of those days!

The Power Clean in sequence- A great lift, but highly technical!

So what is the take home message here? Give yourself time to wake up, get some food in your system, and focus on the task to follow if you are truly serious about what's to come!

-John Cortese