Review of Brutal Recess up at Mighty Fit Review

My review of Chip Conrad's DVDs - Brutal Recess (NEW) and Strength Rituals - is up at Mighty Fit Review. I consider these DVDs exceptional. I'm not getting any kickbacks for promoting them; I just want to make sure my gentle readers know about them, and hope you treat yourselves.

Tonight's journey (or, working out under a Harvest Moon)

Tonight I could not clean.
My feet dragged into the garage
(sanctuary)
and I yearned for the high-voltage days
I'm sure I almost always had before
(younger).
But I love the feel of the bar in my hand
I know this space is opportunity.
Tonight I smashed my pinky
and clipped my tailbone
within the first three minutes.
Snatch finally came but light.
(Center. Focus.)

Tonight my Jerk got strong
quickly
(fast feet)
and I felt the "perfect moment"
(timing)
when my body was ready to handle the Jerk
(reality?)
and took it.
Tonight I felt extinguished after I made that heavy single
(Do it again!)
but went on to overhead squats anyway
(what I wanted from the start)
and those
were
amazing.
I
was
amazing.
(For me. Just.)

Tonight I hit the bag,
losing patience with my damaged shoulder,
and knew the power of focused force
and the warning of sloppy aim
(Life lessons, always).

Tonight I could not clean
and juggled permission to quit weightlifting
with the heroism of perseverance
(10,000 hours),
the threat of insanity
(performing the same motion),
and uncertainty
(identity, validity).

And I know that somewhere,
in all of this,
is who I am
as well as who I want to be
and who I wish I could be.
Finally, I walked out
(dark now, Harvest moon)
feeling tentatively better
(about myself)
knowing that tonight
was just that –
tonight.

Photo taken atop a mountain in Idaho this month

snatch work out - analysis III

Form is coming along.

Now if you make it to the end of this, you'll see my note on the music. About that - YouTube disabled my original audio of Levitation by Ben Vaughn and Get Down by Butthole Surfers. So the audio that's on there now I selected pretty randomly from their stock of approved audiotracks. Had you witnessed overhead squats with Butthole Surfers, you would have nodded your head vigorously when you read my comment. As it is, I really have no idea what it sounds like that far in. I chose this one based on the first few measures.