I have been a bit dumb on the question of knocking out the reps. I have been trying to get my weaker (numb) arm to perform the same number of reps as my stronger (only partly numb) arm, and although the gap is getting smaller, it has meant that a set of 6 minutes might produce 57 jerks on the strong side, and 49 on the not so strong. Even I can see that this does nothing for providing an even pace throughout the set. I guess I had this fixed notion in my head that pushing it every time would force the dead arm to perform to the same level as the sensate one. All that has happened – especially in jerks, where it’s so crucial – is that my breathing has been interrupted by the irregular pace. This in turn mucked up the set further, and widened that gap I was obsessing over.

So, I listened to sensible advice from VF last night, who of course knew what I needed to tweak. Put the pace back in at a manageable rate, and work with the weaker arm first each time. Two small tweaks, that I hadn’t achieved without a nudge from someone looking at the problem one step back.

I got back in the gym this morning, and started to put things right. Cleans, 20 per minute each side, no worries, but then they never were such a problem. Then, I tried Jerks, at just 17 rpm each side rather than trying to squeeze 20 out of both. Result: success straight off. Steady 17 rpm throughout.

I still want to build up strength in the dead arm, and I think I will, as it’s only a neurological issue rather than a physiological one. It’s just that forcing it into more reps in a set of jerks isn’t the best way to achieve it. Lesson learnt.