Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 29th March - Week 1 - Day 2 - Tempo Runs - Morning

Workout time - 30 mins
Workout rating - 8/10

10-15min warmup - dynamic swings
RFI hops - 2 legged alternating forward/back and side to side, 2x10 each
single leg front to back, side to side 1x5 each
2 legged on and off 6inch step 2x5
40m runs - 5x2 increasing in speed each set up to 60% speed

200+ metres @ 60% speed - 3mins rest
1) 52 secs
2) 51 secs

feeling really motivated, always a good sign!
went a little faster today. I felt smooth, relaxed and explosive. Also did proper standing starts, working on form, kept feet closer, used arms, jumping out using both feet, shot out like a cannon! Felt good after session, not tired like last one.

evening workout will be updated here later today

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 29th March - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 1 - Day 2 - Lower and Upper StrengthSpeed - Microcycle 1

Ok workout, productive. Did my whole body today. Not sure if I will do this again, as it really drags things out, and since I'm training twice a days maybe not a good thing. For lower body I wanted to go heavy'ish, but not so heavy so I have to strain hard. Upper body was power.
Fairly low volume, but I couldn't do much more anyway.

Bodyweight at gym - 222lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warmup - did my usual warmup stuff as listed before

Lower Body

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 30secs to 1min on warmup sets and then 3 mins between each exercise


Clean Grip Front Squat + LightBands - RAW - in Oly Shoes

Using Light bands, cinched around a 50lb dumbell, just in the top third adding about 40-50lbs resistance to slingshot down the bar and stop bar coming off at the top

Warmups - BWx5, Bar x5, with Bands (explosive) - Bar x3, 95x3, 135x3, 185x5, 225x1

About 70% of 1RM - Down fast, Explode up
Rotation 1) 225lbs x 2 - 0.8 sec concentric
Rotation 2) 225lbs x 2 --> harder and slower
Rotation 3) Full back squats 135x10

Snatch Grip Deadlift - RAW - in oly shoes

warmups - Bar x5, 89lbs x 3, 155x3, 225x3, 275x1

About 70% of 1RM - lower under control, reset, 15-20sec rest
Rotation 1) 275lbs x 2
Rotation 2) 275lbs x 2 --> harder

Both exercises felt pretty hard and heavy, even though they still went up fast. Especially the snatch grip deadlifts - hands were hurting bad. Grip was iffy. I used to be able to do 295lbs for 8+ reps with a slight pause at the floor!


Upper Body

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 30secs to 1min on warmup sets and then 3 mins between each exercise


14inch Grip Bench - No arch or leg drive

Warmups - explosive Bar x10, 95x8, 135x5, 165x5, 195x1

about 65% of 1RM - Down controlled but fast, explode up
Rotation 1) 195lbs x 3
Rotation 2) 195lbs x 3 --> harder and slower
Rotation 3) 95lbs x 10

45 degree Chest Supported Row - wide curl grip

warmups - bar+45lbs x10, bar+70lbs x 5, bar+90lbs x 5, bar+115lbs x 1

About 60% of 1RM - Explosive
Rotation 1) bar+115lbs x 3
Rotation 2) bar+115lbs x 3
Rotation 3) Bar+45lbs x 10

Upper body warmed up fast thangs to the squats and deads
getting stale on bench, might drop em for a while



Cuff Stuff Circuit

1 min rest between each exercise

One Arm low pulley L-Flyes - warmup 10lb x 5
20lbs 2x5

Dumbell Cuban rotation into press - warmup 3kg x 5
15lbs 2x10

Dumbell Lying on Side, cross body laterals -warmup 3kg x5
5kg 2x10

Low incline dumbell Sub-Scap Raise
5kg 2x10

Shoulder Dislocates pec stretch with wooden staff

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clip from today

Right click on clip and save to avoid errors

first set of explosive frontsquat 225lbs + light bands and Snatch grip deadlift with 275lbs. they look easy and fast, but sure as hell didn't feel like it!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...+Bands225x2_SnatchDeadlift275x2_29March05.mpg

 

[coolcolj]

feel decent, slightly hyper, some slight aches all over, but no real drained feeling.

Well it's all starting to happen! bodyweight down to 99kg 218lbs straight out of bed this morning, even though I ate quite a bit yesterday.
Waist is down another 1/4 of an inch or so, soon to break below the 38 inch barrier. Yeah its be zig-zagging a bit, but at least the trend is downward now

Waking pulse is up quite a bit to 62 bpm. Usual average low is 55 bpm which is really slow, ie sluggish metabolism.
The theory is if I can keep my waking pulse at around 60, without draining myself then, I'm upping my metabolic rate by 10%. if it heads to 70 then I'm closing in on the overreaching/overtraining side. The tempo runs 3 times a week in the morning is doing a good job of that, plus the low volume explosive weight work in the late afternoon/evening.
Then I'm also eating more, just about mainatenice levels, but much less starchy carbs, especially at dinner where it's all meat and veges. This further ups the metabolism, well at least stops it from slowing down, and helps my recovery, strength and mood etc
And as I get leaner, my metabolism should pick up a bit as well, so they say. So win win all round - seems to be working, hip bones are pushing forward

What I was doing before with the low calories and such is a no win situation - you loose size and water, your metabolism slows down, you can't recover as well, strength and power falls and you get moody and depressed etc and round it round it goes.

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 31st March - Tempo Runs - Morning

Workout time - 30 mins
Workout rating - 7/10

10-15min warmup - dynamic swings
RFI hops - 2 legged alternating forward/back and side to side, 2x10 each
single leg front to back, side to side 1x5 each
2 legged on and off 6inch step 2x5
40m runs - 5x2 increasing in speed each set up to 60% speed

200+ metres @ 60% speed - 3mins rest
1) 50 secs
2) 53 secs

First one didn't feel too bad, start was powerful. 2nd one was pretty hard.
I can tell my legs and hips haven't quite recovered yet from the stuff I did in the gym a couple of days ago, even with such low volume. I have a few days off anyway. Hopefully my body will start to get better at these soon. So far so good, definitely leaning me up

 

[coolcolj]

Prehab Work

did some Scapular Pushups - trying em out. Supposed to help shoulder/cuffs

You get in a top of the pushup position. Keep your elbows locked. Retract your shoulder blades. Up and down with the arms staying straight. As high as possible then as low as possible. Try to keep the back as straight as a board.

2x15 with knees on floor
3x10 as per normal

can certainly feel em inside the shoulder somewhere and upper back. Definitely a keeper

medium diameter windmill arm - 2x15 rotations each direction

pec, shoulder, cuff, bicep, tricep and upperback/scapular stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Woke up really early this morning. Body is in hyperdrive, light sleep. Which is making me eat a lot - yesterday. Which kinda negates the benefits of what I'm doing a little... need to keep focused
Woke up really early this morning. Body is in hyperdrive, light sleep. Which is making me eat a lot - yesterday. Which kinda negates the benefits of what I'm doing a little... need to keep focused
CNS seems to be fine, just have a bit of muscular and structural fatigue

Spinal erectors, lower legs and hammies are taking a beating. I have a couple of days off to recover. Next week I'll try waveloading the Tempo run volume. Instead of 2 runs across the board, maybe 3-1-2 on the 3 days, to allow for better recovery.
I have a feeling, that once I unload from the tempo work, I'm going to see a postive spurt in my lower body power, apart from the gains of being leaner.

After those scapular pushups yesterday, some small muscle in the back was totally hurting! Obviously a weakness for me, this should help my benching stability quite a bit
I did a search on google on em and pushups in general, and the impression I got was that pushups work your scaps and cuffs, but bench does not, and is probbaly degenerative if left unchecked.

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 1st April - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 1 - Day 3 - Lower - Microcycle 1

Excellent workout. It was productive, power was good, body felt good, form was decent, and I left the gym feeling like I hadn't done much!
Guess my work capacity is much better now. And I was right with how I felt this morning - CNS is fine, but muscles were moderately trashed. That's with tempo runs yesterday - I guess they do help CNS recovery, but trash my posterior chain, feet and shins

I didn't go to maximal fatigue, just did enough to last me till next workout, since I've already squatted earlier in the week and doing all these tempo runs etc

Bodyweight at the gym - 220lbs
Workout Rating - 9/10
Workout time - 1.25 hours

Warmup

1) Partial upper range Reverse hypers - BWx8
2) Situp complex on the swissball
3) Twisting Back Extensions - BWx5 normal, and 4 twisted to each alternating sides.
4) Bar complex with 30lb bar - RDL + hang power powercleans


Rotating between each exercise

rest - 1 to 3 min for warmups. 3.5 mins between each exercise after warmups.

Full Back Squats - in Oly Shoes - RAW

Warmup sets - controlled down explode up - BWx8, Barx5, 95lbs x5, 135x5, 185lbs 2x3, 225lbs 2x3,

Lowered under control explode up
275lbs x 2, 275x1
315lbs x 2 singles -> 1.1 and 1.05 sec concentric
335lbs x 1 -> 1.27 sec concentric
365lbs x 1 -> 1.5 sec concentric - 3 sec total time
315lbs x 1
335lbs x 1
225lbs x 10 (controlled down and snapped up - constant rhythm all the way though)

I planned to just go go up and do some explosive heavy doubles or singles at around 275-295lbs. But everything was feeling good and fast, I decided to get a feel for where my strength levels were. I felt kinda nervous, but I got 365lbs OK, it went up pretty quickly, but felt close to limit. I squatted it up rather than drive my feet into the floor like I should, and so I did that slight good morning I always do when I forget that...
So at least I know my strength levels are close to my best ever of 385lbs, but I dropped like a rock and bounced that one. Pretty cool, since I haven't done anything heavy in ages. Even though the loads were near maximal today, they all went up fast enough, and without much strain to be considered strength speed work - thanks to all explosive stuff, jumping and sprinting I have been doing

The warmup today was perfect, I lowered everything under control and exploded up with about 80-90% of max power. It made everything feel lighter, fired up my CNS, got a sweat up and the muscles warmed up faster, allowing em to do less reps and make bigger jumps.

Last set of 225lbs for cooldown was pretty cool, I didn't feel winded, and no burn at all! Tempo runs helping here probably.

Toes curls on Lying leg Curl machine - leaning back for maximal stretch

warmup - 1plate 2x10

reactive
2 Plates 3x10

did these in between the warmup sets of full squats


Lat Machine Situp - Dumbell on chest

warmups - (explosive) BW 2x10, 10lbs x5, 25x3

toes pressed into floor, lower down, relax on bench at parallel for 4 secs, explode up.
45lbs 3x3

did these in between the later sets of full squats


Cooldown and ISO Stretches - EQI

Bulgarian splisquat stretched ISO hold - front leg on 6 inch block - BW x 30secs each side

Moderate stance RDL stretch ISO hold - Bar x 45 secs to the floor on 6 inch block

layed over a swiss balll to stretch out the spinal erectors x 1min


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clip from today

Right click on clip and save to avoid errors

fullsquat singles in the order from 315 to 365lbs
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...llSquats_HeavySingles315_335_365_1April05.mpg

 

[ChinkNasty]

yo colin, I was watching your snatch grip deads, and you do sort of a power shrug movement at the end...do you do that with all your lighter snatch grip dead work or do you do that with all snatch dead movements...

 

[coolcolj]

yo colin, I was watching your snatch grip deads, and you do sort of a power shrug movement at the end...do you do that with all your lighter snatch grip dead work or do you do that with all snatch dead movements...

look again, there is no shrug - it just looks like it
I'm just snapping the weight to lockout with my glutes, and the weight sorta pops up a bit. I used to do a bit of a shrug, not anymore, don't need to create anymore strength imbalances between my upper traps and low/mid traps

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Not a good night of sleep, woke up early again. Feeling moderately drained, tried and sore all over. Just as well I didn't do more than I did yesterday. My hammies are pretty sore, upper part, as well as my erectors, abs, calves and glutes. Lats and traps are surprisingly sore

Seems like I recruit my hammies pretty well these days in the squat. My quads barely feel it, goes to show that squatting with a moderate stance, going all the way down in heel elevated oly shoes even with my knees going forward, isn't necassarily a quad dominant move, it's all down to how you squat. Since I keep my feet less angled, and use more hip extension rather than squat between my legs, my hammies definitely feel it more, and less glutes and quads. Off course once I try and stay more upright my quads feel it more, but in frontsquats where I am pretty upright, my hammies are pretty active as well, go figure

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 5th April - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 2 - Day 1 - Energy Work + Upper Prehab - Microcycle 1

Workout went well. Right ankle sprain was hurting a bit during the warmups, but I didn't notice it after that.

Trying a new warmup scheme. straight running is hard on my feet and shins, until I'm warmed up. This new complex I made up works much better. Gets my feet, ankles, legs and hips all warmed up in all directions without killing my lower leg. Running sideways is much more comfortable to me when I'm cold

Also did a agility run. The last time I leaned from from 220 to 180lbs, I did a lot of these. And I can see why, they sure make you expend more energy for the speed you run at! Mid section gets a good workout as well.
I lost fat fast back then, 1/4 an inch of the waist a day!
But I was also doing 5+ all out 50m sprints, as well as these runs, 2-3 times a week, and 3 whole body workouts at the gym, plus 20 gallons of ice cold water and hard dieting. I didn't know the concept of neural drain back then, I kicked my ass pretty good, and destroyed my shins and feet pretty quickly, at least I got lean fast.... But I didn't care about losing strength and muscle mass back then....
I wouldn't mind losing some muscle mass now though, if I could maintain my strength, just a bit too bulky, especially my legs!

Bodyweight at the home - 220lbs
Workout Rating - 8/10
Workout time - 1 hour all up

Warmup

30 min warmup - dynamic swings
RFI hops - 2 legged alternating forward/back and side to side
SplitSquat front to back and side to side

Run complex 50m forward and back x 4 - increasing in speed each run

straight run, into lateral run leftside, then rightside, back into forward run, rotate into backwards run, rotate back to front. Turn around, walk back towards start, acclerate, side steps to each side every 2nd step, then into swerves to each side.

then 50m accleration runs to 70% speed 2x2


Tempo Runs + Energy Work

200+ metres @ 60-70% speed with proper standing start - 3mins rest
1) 46 secs
2) 46 secs

Speed has gone up by 6secs for the subjective level of effort. 2nd run was quite hard. Spinal erectors were tightening up hard, and feet were really tight as well.

50m Agility run @ 60% speed - side steps to each side every 2nd step, then turn around and zig-zag runs back to start, 360 pivot at the end of each angle change

just did one run. Erectors and core were pumped and tight...bad motor patterns from sitting down, squats and deads...


Upper Body prehab at home

rotating between scapular pushup and one miniband exercise - rest - 1 min between each exercise

Scapular Pushups
1x10 with knees on floor
3x10 as per normal

Miniband Exercises
closegrip rows - 1x10
Horizontal laterals - 2x10

sacpular, lat and pec stretches