Five pounds. That’s not a lot, right? Most people would agree with you. Not lifters. Not at all.
Five pounds DOES make a big difference as you’re approaching your max in any olympic lift. I can’t explain why but it does.
Several months ago, frustrated by my gym’s 2.5 pound weights, I bought a set of 1 lb weights, 1/2 pound, and 1/4 pound weights. Then I can push my max incrementally and not stagnate at a certain weight.
This has been one of my best investments hands-down in CrossFit equipment.
Today we had a WOD with 10 jerks at 95 lbs for women. The last time we had a WOD with jerks at 95 I had to drop. First I dropped to 90 lbs and then finally landed at 85 for the remainder of the WOD. It was very frustrating for me.
So I decided to push my jerk weight slowly in order to reach 95, a popular weight for women’s WOD’s. Today, I used my 1 lb weights and did the whole WOD (30 reps) at 87 lbs. Next time, I’ll go up to 88 and so on and so forth until before you know it, I’m at 95. The extra 5 lbs makes a huge difference, especially when you’re talking dozens of reps. But I’ll get there. Smartly. And not be stuck at 85 lbs for the next 6 months.
I would suggest the same thing for others. Invest in the smaller weights (they weren’t that expensive) and see your max rise–slowly. And slowly is better than not at all. Just ask the tortoise.
My Journey to the CrossFit Games 