Attack Your Weightlifting PRs Smarter!
Written by Jared Enderton
I am naturally a nerd so things like this with Weightlifting and CrossFit always excite me (or annoy the crap out of me ha!). That is: Most athletes take WAY too big of jumps when trying to PR!
If an experienced CrossFitter has a 300lb Snatch as a PR – what is a reasonable weight to try? 305 sounds pretty reasonable right? What about an athlete that has a 100lb Snatch? Does a jump to 105lbs sound reasonable? NOOOOOO!
Not all 5lb jumps are created equal, and 100 to 105 is a is a 5% jump. A HUGE jump! But 300 to 305 is about a 1.66% jump. Those are very different worlds right there. The 100 to 105 is equivalent to the 300lb snatcher taking a PR attempt of 315 right away which is absurd!
The amount of weight we are lifting matters, and, trying to increase by 5% all the time is way too big of a hurdle to cross. Instead, let’s focus getting small, incremental wins over time! That will lead to more consistent lifting, and, those small wins add up to big progress over time.
Do yourself a favor and grab yourself a pair of .5lb and 1lb plates! Whether you clean and jerk 100 or 400 – I would recommend using those plates for your PR attempts. Those 5% jumps may happen here and there, but I guarantee you’ll have a much higher success rate with 1-2% jumps AND you’ll enjoy the process more along the way.
If that isn’t enough to convince you, the best snatcher in the world snatches 496lbs. He takes 1kg (2.2lb) jumps for competition PR’s! That’s less than .5%, so over 1/10th less of a jump than taking 100 to 105 is! Let’s be athletes and mathletes at the same time and use our logic to our benefit! I bet you’ll get over that long lasting hurdle in your snatch or clean and jerk soon if you do!
