Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[ChinkNasty]

hey colin, I got a question for your cleans...

when you do the first rep off the floor, is that conscious decision to pull it from the floor to your hips and then snap it up to the upright clean position? My friend cleans off the floor every rep and it's a very quick motion from the floor to the standing clean position, he doesn't really 'explode' off his hips at all

that being said, I clean exactly like you except I dont catch the weight nearly as low as you do...however, as the weight gets more and more (I weigh ~175 but I'm getting close to 250 on my power clean) I dont feel as if I can clean that much by simply taking the weight to my hips and then 'snapping' it up and catching it in the clean position...in other words, what would you recommend I do? start to learn to clean from the floor but also incorporate the motion where I snap it from the hip? hope you get what I'm talkin' about...

thanks,
CN

 

[coolcolj]

hey colin, I got a question for your cleans...

when you do the first rep off the floor, is that conscious decision to pull it from the floor to your hips and then snap it up to the upright clean position? My friend cleans off the floor every rep and it's a very quick motion from the floor to the standing clean position, he doesn't really 'explode' off his hips at all

that being said, I clean exactly like you except I dont catch the weight nearly as low as you do...however, as the weight gets more and more (I weigh ~175 but I'm getting close to 250 on my power clean) I dont feel as if I can clean that much by simply taking the weight to my hips and then 'snapping' it up and catching it in the clean position...in other words, what would you recommend I do? start to learn to clean from the floor but also incorporate the motion where I snap it from the hip? hope you get what I'm talkin' about...

Yeah I squeeze if off the floor, slowly acclerate, and then once I get into the optimum position after my knees rebend under the bar I slam it, I don't think about it too much. I used to pull it faster off the floor, but that always screws up the timing and my position/technique. The first pull is just to get the bar into the right position to apply force to it, you have much better leverage once you get the bar closer to your body, and when your legs reach that 1/4 squat jumping position after your knees rebend under the bar.

Its always a trade off, if you go faster at the start, then you won't be acclerating as much once your reach the 2nd pull, or you might even slow down! But you don't want to yank if off the floor or go too slowly, somewhere inbetween is the right place to be and its different for every person.

catch it low as in the squatclean or the powerclean? If the weights get heavier then you'll have to catch it lower anyway
But I'm deliberately catching low it since I'm only pulling about 2-3inches, and catching it low works on my force absorbtion, ability to relax and drop under the bar fast, and react once I catch it and explode back up, all very good for jumping higher and acclerating faster
In any case there should be no technique difference between a lift from the floor or from the hang, same hip snap if your doing the double knee rebend

If you can't snap it with heavier weights then get stronger!
Powerclean is usually around the 60-70% area of a fullsquat if you have ok technique and speed. Fullsquat 585lbs and you'll be powercleaning big weights

 

[coolcolj]

Lacking sleep, but much better quality last night, still interrupted halfway through by neighbour's blaring TV, but when I got back into it, much deeper than the last few days. Is it a coincidence that I put the magentic underlay back in the pillow? Any my waking heartrate plumments down back to a 54!

Anyway still a little achey all over, but I have a spring in my step, so I should be right for BBall tommorrow.
The tempo type work has made an overall difference, not to just my bodyfat and CNS recovery levels, but they also train other needed qualities like beefing up my hammies+ feet, work capacity and conditioning, lower leg reactivity, improving rate effeciency etc.
The key for me is to do them on the same day as workouts in the morning, if I did them in between, I would be far worse off. It almost seems to negate the CNS drain from the training sessions later in the day...
But I did have to cut back the workout intensity and volume a bit to accomodate them

 

[coolcolj]

article on tempo work

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/tempo_and_the_beast_carlv.htm

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 17th April - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 4 - Day 1 - BBALL - Microcycle 1

I felt ok and shooting was fine, but upper body was a bit tired and quads and hips felt like they haven't quite fully recovered, they felt a bit "swollen". An extra day - ie 4 days rest would have made things better.
I guess the reintroduction of upper body work has added some extra stuff for my body to deal with, and I did do a bit more on lower body too. Though I expect this does help me to lean up a bit better.
Lower legs and feet felt good, very nimble and bouncey, felt light on my feet, and using my hammies much more now.
I will drop the overall volume a bit this week to give my system some breathing space for recovery.

Bodyweight at home - 218+lbs
Session time - 50 mins
Session rating - 7/10

Even though bodyweight is down about 2lbs from last week, no real change in the standing vertical jump, but improvements in the others, which surprised me a bit! Jumping overall, felt quite explosive, especially my 3 step jump which had better timing and feel. I'm hoping that as I get leaner/lighter, the gap between my 3 step jump and standing VJ will widen a bit.

1) Standing vertical jump is same as last week
2) One step two legged jump is 2.5 inches higher than VJ. +0.5 inch
3) 3 step two legged jump with a jump stop is 3.5 inches higher than VJ +0.5 inch
4) Running one leg jump is the same - 2 inches lower than standing VJ

One legged jump is really bad now, oh well, I'll wait till I get lean before I fiddle with it, I don't use it much anyway, and its definitely easier to do when you leaner and lighter from experience

Prehab stuff for the VMO proved to be very effective for my left knee, the twinge I had last week on 3 step jumps was totally gone!

 

[coolcolj]

Not particular sore in my jumping muscles, just some aches in my lower leg and feet, but I feel drowsy and drained. Neck and upper traps are moderately achey. Picked up a bit of a head cold as well, running nose...

Also something I noticed yesterday. Since I have been doing these stiff-legged "sprints" or RFI hops in place on balls of feet and barefeet, with arm swing for my tempo work to help drop my bodyfat, I noticed I'm starting to run like that without even thinking.
Even at low speeds, ie yesterday when I was playing BBall, when I jogged to get the ball, I did it exactly like that, felt very smooth and reactive - skipping across the ground - and you could feel the lower hammies working, absorbing each foot strike. Instead of heavy bouncing, quad and glute heavy, up and down way I used to do it. I guess that shows the functional to technical thing again

Bit by bit, I'm restoring the athletic instincts of my body

 

[coolcolj]

actually hammies are getting pretty sore now, I guess that's a good thing as far as recruitment goes

 

[d-dub]

BTW those seated calf raise ISO holds for a minute worked a treat for improving my right ankle ROM to match my left's - I know you said before you had the same problem, so try em

useful for frontsquats I must say. It used to hurt like hell when I did a deep jump from the extreme stretch on it. Slowly but surely my turning my body back into a well oiled machine

Ill def. give these ISO stretches a go. It actually has its best ROM the day after squats where its under load and stretching, so i can see these working.

 

[coolcolj]

don't need a lot of weight in em, and best of all the ROM increase is long lasting wether it's in a static or dynamic situation. Certainly no ankle stretch pains yesterday at BBall or when sitting down etc

by the fact my one step and 3 step jumps are going up, it means I'm recruiting my hammies and plantar flexors better, they supposed to act like coiled springs, reactive.

can't wait to drop the 25lbs of fat, fun times ahead!
My girlfriend would like it too

 

[d-dub]

Are you keeping the diet fairly mild whilst upping activity levels, is that the plan?