This was great – learned a lot and got very specific coaching. Powerlifts included back squat, press, deadlift and hang power clean. Established reliable 5RM for the press and hit a new 1RM in the power clean. Specifics:

Back Squat

Focus on keeping head neutral. Eyes on a point about 4 ft in front of me. I always have trouble tracking knees out over toes – just push extra hard and know this is important to keep from impinging on hip movement. Big chest = tight thoracic curve in back, not just pinning shoulders back. It feels almost like a pinch at the base of your back. Big chest is a side effect of getting your back tight. Hip drive can be demonstrated by having someone put their hand on your lower back while you’re in the bottom of a squat and pushing up with your hips, not your chest. It always means NOT shoving your hips forward. When you get under the bar on the rack, put it just under your scapula. It’s higher than you might think. Breathing is extremely important, do the Valsalva Maneuver each and every rep. Never pause at the bottom – be thinking about driving back up before you get there. In the back squat, don’t try to stay as vertical as you would in a CrossFit air squat. Keep your back tight, but you’ll start a bit more bent over if the weight’s heavy, and when you go down literally just shove your butt backwards and you’re gonna incline your body forward. Lastly, my depth is way low – good for building strength but at the very bottom it could also be loosening my back just a bit.

5 rep max: 175 – same as last time I attempted this

Press

Hadn’t worked on this much, I always seem to miss WODs when this is the strength work. Important things: when you address bar, grab it from the top, with an overhand grip coming directly down on it, then rotate your hands. This eliminates tendency to bend wrists when you grab the bar. Wrists straight, hands not too wide, just wide enough so that your chest is open and your elbows can travel freely. Elbows in front of bar, forearms perpendicular to the ground. Clench everything: hands should be super tight, legs, core, glutes, everything should be clenched tight to transmit force directly to the ground. Initiate by moving head back to get it out of the way and pressing straight up. Bring head back forward to give some momentum to the last push. You should be able to make a plum line from the bar end through your hips to the middle of your foot. In multip rep sets, breath in before the first rep, then breathe out and back in at the top of each rep, and only then. At the bottom of the press, literally bounce it – use that momentum. For me specifically – don’t overextend at the top – bar should be directly overhead. Keep your core tight, keep elbows up at the bottom of the press, in front of the bar.

Got 5x 115 easy, could only press 125# 4 times.

Deadlift

Teaching points: Stance, Grip, Shins, Chest, PULL. I have tight hamstrings so I have to really focus on getting my butt up and shins more vertical in my stance. It helps to think about tightening your back to the point where you almost feel a pinch at the base of your thoracic curve – this makes it possible to get a big chest and start with a tight back, even with the butt up higher and hamstrings tight at the beginning of the pull. Use double overhand grip, not hook, on multiple lighter reps – this builds grip strength and you can switch to hook at the higher weights. Personally, I need to focus on keeping my back tight, but also dragging the bar across my legs at all times especially at the top of the pull. I tend to let it get out in front of me once it’s over my knees.

5RM – only did 255# this time, I’ve done 275 but wanted to focus on form.

Powerclean

We learned the powerlifting power clean, which is different from the Oly clean in that it’s a deadlift assistance exercise (not sure if this just means difference b/t hang and squat). Quickness is key to getting the most out of this. We practiced from the top down – always using hook grip as it releases tendons in the forearm according to Rip. Sets of 3 are the norm when strength training this movement.  We found the jumping position first, which means just sticking your butt back to go down, rather than bending your knees to go down. Knees should only bend enough to help the hips go back and the bar should end up just above your knees. Memorize that point on your thigh because that’s where you jump from. We then practiced jumping from that position off the ground keeping our arms straight. Don’t remember doing that specific practice move but it helps. Hit a new 1RM with 175#, last time got 165# (but also jerked it).