EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the Athlete Journal of Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold. Follow her journey here as she trains for the 2016 Olympics! Holley’s journal will be posted every Friday. You can catch up by reading her previous journal entries.
Holley’s Athlete Journal 16:
Since the Olympics I have been slowly coming down from the excitement and back to reality. The whole Olympic experience made me that much more excited for the next four years. Knowing that I have experience and time to prepare is awesome. But the road to Rio will not be an easy one – I have lots of things on the table right now.
The first step is recovering from injury.
I shattered my wrist during the Olympics and am now on the road to recovery. Before competing, I had some torn ligaments in my wrist. During the competition I was so determined to total that I tore every ligament, which made the bones scatter throughout my wrist. I came back to Colorado to do my surgery.
The surgery was intense, but the doctors expect a full recovery!
My mom came out to help me get through the whole process. Doctors had to put pins in my wrist to reposition the bones and ligaments. The pins connect to an external rod that runs the length of my forearm. It obviously hurts a lot, but it’s also a pain to clean and protect from oncoming walls. I am usually pretty reckless and am having a hard time remembering that I need to be cautious.
After eight weeks, I will be able to take the pins out and start rehab.
Right now, however, I have to do workouts that do not involve my wrist. That alone is one of the most frustrating things because for the past four years or so, I been doing the clean and jerk and snatch as my primary workouts. I miss being able to Olympic lift.
I also miss being in the weightlifting gym with the other lifters – right now I workout with an Olympic Center trainer in the general-purpose gym. It motivates me to work hard and get back to where I feel most comfortable. The most important thing for me to do at this time is to recover and get healthy. I will be posting my workouts below to show the progression.
In the near future, I hope to finish my degree and get back to my normal training schedule. I absolutely love the people out here in Colorado and our hiking trips that rejuvenate me for the upcoming weeks, but I definitely miss my roommates in Columbus, Ohio! With my bum wrist, my video game playing has taken a toll and I would love to get back to my much-needed downtime!
Sample workout for when you have a pins in your arm:
One handed snatch with bar from blocks –
3x20kg, 3x30kg, 2x35kg, 1x40kg, 3x30kg
One handed pulls from blocks below knees –
6x55kg, 5x65kg, 4x75kg, 3x85kg, 2x95kg, 1x105kg
Back squat with safety bar –
6x65kg, 5x85kg, 4x105kg, 3x140kg, 2x155kg, 1x170kg
