And in the barbell realm...

Noticed that except for the clean analysis all my posts so far have been more philosophy related, so to change pace I'm going to devote some lines to my current goals in the gym, and how I intend to go about them:

• Enhance powerlifting total in 15 kg. Which breaks down in +10 kg in the squat, +5 kg in the DL and just keeping the BP. That means I'll be squatting a helluva lot, basically using the Texas method: 5 x 5 on Mondays, using a high volume and a moderately high percentage of my 1RM , starting around 75% (currently 125) and adding 2,5 kg each week, and an AMRAP top set on Thursdays, starting w 85% of 1RM (as of today, around 140). As active recovery I'll use a toned down, "mini-compressed TM" of front squats, w some manageable volume (5 x 4 w about 70% of 1RM, which in this case translates to 85 kg) on Tuesdays and some intensity on Fridays (probably I'll rotate between a top 3, top 2 and top 1 lifts, getting close to 100% in the last one, and improving every 3 weeks). For the (relatively modest) gain in DL I'll rely on a lot of Olympic pulling (see next goal) and one day a week of semi serious DL'ing, rotating between stiffies from a deficit (putting in some volume, with 4 sets of something between 4 and 6 reps) and competition stance DL's (going for a day's max, followed by a couple back off sets w 3 reps taking 10% off the bar). As for maintaining the BP, I do not plan to do any bench pressing whatsoever in a couple months, but I'll do pressing, lots of dipping and some jerking, so I should be fine. If I happen to grow somewhat stronger in tris and pecs, all the better
• Enhance Olympic total in 5 kg. Not very sure how this may look like, if they're gonna come in the snatch or in the C&J, just intend to do one of them every day (may be some days both), trying to have every week a "volume" day (totalling between 16 and 20 reps in doubles or singles) and an "intensity" day, going for a daily max w a couple back off singles w a few kg off (just to ingrain some technique w heavyish weights). Also will try to perform a couple days a week my recently developed "snatch catch combo", designed to improve my position in the bottom of the snatch AND enhance my overhead stability. It consists in the following sequence: a hang power snatch, a power snatch from the floor, two overhead squats and three snatch balances, then add a little weight until you fail some movement (it starts w the empty technique bar, so it may take a lot of sets to get to that failure, which for me is typically a miss forward in the snatch balance)
• Improve conditioning, by performing the planned workouts in less than an hour (so, every time the weights have gotten so heavy I need rest intervals between sets of more than 2 -3 minutes, I'll reset the weights going back 2-3 weeks and focus on beating my prev times w same weights, trying to get further until I hit the 1h mark again)

So improving all three areas is going to be quite a tall order, and I'll have to see how it goes. It hasn't started well, as in my second week I had a motorcycle accident, which has left my right knee pretty sprained, so I'll go a tad slower for the next couple weeks before I pick up speed again (at which point I'll have to stop for another week due to a Holiday committment w family), but that's OK, the time frame I've set to review where I'm at and potentially adjust is the end of September, so we'll see how things work until then