Working Olympic Lifts With Injured Hamstring
Most you now know that I have been battling a Hamstring Injury. One of the hardest things for me to do is to rest when I am injured. I am one of those guys that can’t stop working out. I feel depressed, sluggish, and worst of all my joints start to hurt if I am not doing some kind of activity. The problem with that is that sometimes when I am injured I never allow the injury to fully heal. Over the years and as I mature I am learning, more often then not the hard way, that I need to rest or work around the body part that is injured.
Rugby season is over and its time for me to focus on Olympic Lifting. In order to do that I have to lift. With a hamstring injury its can be hard to imagine doing Olympic Style lifting without putting a massive amount of stress on the hamstrings. I couldn’t really figure out how, I was going to do it. So what did I do? I called my Guru Coach Burgener. He suggested I do some light Muscle Snatches off of blocks, Light Overhead squats, some high hang cleans and high hang snatches for this week. This would allow me to train the lifts while not aggravating the hamstring.
Monday looked like this:
- Muscle Snatch x 3 +Overhead Squat x 3 (40kg)
- Muscle Snatch x 3 +Overhead Squat x 3 (40kg)
- Muscle Snatch x 2 +Overhead Squat x 2 (60kg)
- Muscle Snatch x 1 +Overhead Squat x 1 (70kg)
- Muscle Snatch x 1 +Overhead Squat x 1 (70kg)
This workout felt good and I was surprised to see that I was only 5kg off of my PR for Muscle Snatch from the ground. Just proved to me how important that speed through the middle is.
Weightlifting, teaching the Olympic lifts, and just training people in general is quickly becoming a major passion in my life. If I can help myself progress doing certain things, then I can’t wait to share those same pointers or techniques with other people.
Below is a video of the Muscle Snatch + Overhead squat.
If you or anyone you know may benefit from training with me please write me an email at:
Crossfit San Diego is the best place for Olympic style lifting in San Diego.
