Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

more quotes from that guy

first off my squat and vert always went hand in hand. my workouts are a combo of cf, elitetrack workouts, westside barbell, a bunch of other sites and sources and my own ideas. check these out and if you want a good squat check out westside barbell.
as for box height it varies. parallel for me is about 16 inches, but i got the best results it seemed, as far as vert improvment, when i used an 18" box. the weight i was able to use was actually more than my squat.
my friend started the summer with a three quarter squat with about 350 at a bw of 190. he did what i did and he squatted 495 to close out the summer, with a full squat. as to what helped my friend acheive the increase, it was probably both the box squat and the squat as we used them in short three week cycles. we also used the dynamic box squat, later on in the week in the offseason with about 50% of our maxes, concentrating on bar speed.
as for my squat and how i got it. the first time i stepped under a squat rack i was able to do 315 (probably a three quarter squat looking back at best) but i was also a skinny 17 year old. i train by myself, always have except for the three months in the summer, and i use everything for motivation and i go balls to the wall. also, i always worked on my weakest link, whatever it was, whether it was hamstrings, butt, back, whatever, and made it my strong points. think about it, if every part of your body can squat 500 lbs but your hamstrings can only handle 400 lbs. than you need to work on your hamstrings.
my core is strong from squatting or is it my squat is strong from doing core work. either way i have always pushed my strength levels for my core like i did any other bodypart. all guys go crazy over the benchpress, but what if they put the same effort into their core training, oly lifts, etc.
i dont deadlift often, i usually do stiff legged deadlifts. for these i vary either using a snatch grip for more posterior chain involvement of just regular grip(using a hook grip of course). the weights i use for sld get over 450 lbs for reps. as for a regular deadlift i really dont know.
my squat was just over 400 lbs not too long ago and my vert not much over 30, so you can make huge gains. hardwork, research, clean diet, and listening to your body will all help you get what you are looking for. but my biggets gains probably came from the oly lifts as i never did them before. dont neglect these lifts as the explosivness in these lifts is just what you are looking for in a vert jump. oh yeah and dont forget the track work !!!!
hope this answers your questions and helps you obtain your goals.

good info

but a 3/4 squat of 350 at a bodyweight of 190lbs to a 495lbs fullsquat and only getting 6 inches on the VJ does not sound very effecient. That's probbaly around 200lb gain, time to hit the reactive work now

 

[coolcolj]

Not sure what the deal is with the waking pulse jumping back up 59 from 55 yesterday. Body feels ok today, with some slight ache in my hammies.

weighed 89kg 195.8lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Finally down on the scale, but not to 195lbs, but not far off. Stomach has been feeling much tighter, so I whipped out the tape measure and it read 34 1/4 inch, down another quarter! Visual changes are becoming more and more noticable each passing week now.
When I get down to a 33inch waist, probably around 12% bodyfat, I'll post up some progress pics. I have some pics from when I was 219lbs with a 39+inch waist and 208lbs with a 36inch waist, which didn't look too pretty...should be a big change from those hopefully

 

[Protobuilder]

Hey -- what's the point behind the dip shrugs and various shoulder-blade manipulation type movements I've seen here? I've jsut never seen anyone do 'em before. Care to share?

 

[coolcolj]

Hey -- what's the point behind the dip shrugs and various shoulder-blade manipulation type movements I've seen here? I've jsut never seen anyone do 'em before. Care to share?

shoulder rehab/prehab, postural and so on.
Helps keep my shoulders down when I run as well. I have tight upper traps and motor issues that cause me to hike my shoulders. That helps that and strengthens the serratus and fixes the motor firing and so on. Helps with shoulder impingement issues too.

Its a pretty complex issues, thats why you need to do more than just external rotations...

info
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=472224

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=535872


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Body not feeling as good as yesterday but Ok mood wise.
Strong, thanks to the carb up yesterday, but not snappy and light. Heavier of the 2 lower body days today so maybe not a bad thing.
Slightly tired out from my part-time job though

weighed 90.5kg 199.1lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Quite a jump up from the carb up yesterday. Some of it is probbaly food weight. Muscles have filled out a bit, a lot fuller looking.
I took in about 2700 calories and 300g of carbs. I pretty much had to force feed myself, and felt crappy. My body hates starchy carbs, and I pretty much don't eat much these days. Normally you would pig out on such a day, but I've lost that kind of craving a long time a go...goes it show it's all in the mind and conditioning...

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 30th April - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 1 - Day 1 - Lower Power - Microcycle 8

Decent workout. Started a new training cycle today.
Right now I'm 2 inches behind schedule in my vertical jump, compared to when I had a 35.5inch waist and weighed 205.5lbs at the gym. Jump today was more or less the same back then. It's probably due to me losing strength and muscle mass recently. So I need to regain that.
I'll keep doing the jumps at the start of the session and in between the warmups to judge progress. Helps get me fired up as well, and I can tell how my system is recovery wise. And it's not an issue now with frequent jumping since I'm leaner and lighter, and have fixed my hip firing and mobility issues.

Right now I'll probably also keep the other lower body day at the park with sprints and reactive work. I'm just curious to see if I can improve my strength, power, speed and reactivity together as I lean down....
If I decide to BBall on a Sunday, then I'll just do an easy session of tempo sprints earlier in the week to keep my form in check

Bodyweight at gym - 201lbs
Workout time - 1.75 hour
Workout rating - 8/10

General warmup -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow fullsquat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension BWx5 + 4 twisting to each alternate side
3) reverse hypers - BWx9
4) situp complex on swissball
5) adductor/hammie stretch into back tumbells x9
6) usual bar complex with 30lbs
7) various hops

8) worked up to a few sets max effort vertical jumps - same as my current best. Then did 1-2 jumps on each round of the warmups for the exercises below

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1-2mins on warmups and 3+ mins between each exercise on work sets

Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warmups - Explosive - BWx8, BARx5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4
Controlled down explode up - 225x3, 255x3, 285x2

Controlled down, driven up hard
Rotation 1) 275lbs x 5 --> felt hard, within a rep of failure
Rotation 2) 275lbs x 5 --> felt easier
Rotation 3) 275lbs x 5 --> moderate strain on last rep
Rotation 4) 275lbs x 5
Rotation 5) 275lbs x 5 --> harder strain on last rep

I was expecting to only do 3 sets with 275lbs before failing to get the same reps as the first set, as that felt pretty hard. But I started to get even more warmed up, and my form improved - stopped relaxing and semi bouncing at the bottom - stayed tight at the bottom and timed the stretch reflex/reversal better with the upward push etc and I was cranking out the sets. Even though all the 5th rep from set 3 onwards were strained pretty hard, I probably could have done a few more sets, but 5 is enough and so I did a 5x5 by accident

Will try and see what I do with 295lbs next workout. Need to get back to at least a controlled set of 315x5. Gonna be sore tomorrow!

CleanPulls - Oly Shoes - HookGrip - no Belt

Warmups - Hang Powerclean Bar x 5
Powerclean + HangPowerclean + highhang squatclean 89lbs, 119lbs
Powerclean + hangpowerclean 155lbs x 2 sets
CleanPull - 205x1, 225x1

Lowered each rep under control RDL style, 10second rest between each rep and reset
Rotation 1) 225lbs x 2
Rotation 2) 225lbs x 2
Rotation 3) 225lbs x 2
Rotation 4) 225lbs x 2 ---> feeling harder

Tweaked form a bit and it was pretty good from what I could tell, more vertical instead of leaning back etc


Standing Single Leg curl

warmups - 3plates x5, 5P x 3

Dead stop one each rep, semi-explosive, left side first - 10 secs rest between each side
Rotation 1) 5 Plates x 12
Rotation 2) 5 Plates x 12
Rotation 3) 5 Plates x 12 --> losing the snap

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static stretches for lower body, traps, lats and shoulders.

 

[coolcolj]

I surprisingly don't feel drained at all! Achey all over as expected, but upper hammies, calves, whole quad area, spinal erectors, and hips/glutes are moderately sore, probbaly will become heavy soreness later today...
Upper traps and back a bit sore too.

weighed 89.1kg 196lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Just like that, almost back to my Friday weight pre carb up! But muscles still look pretty full, strange, and my waist is back up to 34.5inches because of the filled out muscles.
Quads starting to get the hanging over my kneecap effect with the fat melting away there.
Not that big, but thanks to small bones/joints I'm kinda starting to take on a comic book look - shoulders/traps are really looking full and rounded, upperback flaring with more lumps and bumps while my waist and ribcage area is shrinking way down
Just imagine when I get down to a sub 30 inch waist...

12min walk today and some light active recovery and easy stretching

 

[super_rice]

that guys is freaky - even with "enhancements" none of us could ever reach that level.

you understand that's a 170pc from a man that weighs 90kg. that's national/international level - definately elite. the best 85s in the world do those kind of numbers.

this was posted on the CF forum - freak

from a running jump and 5'9" tall...

stats -

5'9"
199-206lbs depending on what time of day.
standing vertical jump- 44"
squat raw and top of thigh to parallel 740
front squat 545
powerclean 380
jerk 365

 

[coolcolj]

that guys is freaky - even with "enhancements" none of us could ever reach that level.

you understand that's a 170pc from a man that weighs 90kg. that's national/international level - definately elite. the best 85s in the world do those kind of numbers.

Well he's not really using all his strength even then. He only needs a 600lb squat to get that powerclean with a quarter squat catch. To think that he could actually powerclean 440-460 or so if he was....
Kinda what those big throwers would be doing. That's the thing, powercleaning isn't that hard if you have at least some speed, it's getting the strength to that level to do it, while keeping your bodyweight down
And while being able to go train the other things you need to do like sprints, jumps and stuff

Judging by his traps/shoulders he is probably enhanced
And he posted a frontal pic with just shorts and he has that "3D" look that enhanced people tend have. But you never know



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Late night. Feel ok though.
Quads and calves a bit sore, but upper hammies still extremely sore... makes me wince walking up stairs! Need to get em recovered by Thursday for my speed workout. Traps and upper back still achey too.

weighed 88.8kg 195.36lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Bling, bling. Still going, so far, so good! Legs have blown back up.
Still can grab a whole handful of flab around my gut. Might as well go straight down to 180lbs
Then I'll see how lean I am and decide what to do.

 

[ChinkNasty]

PROOOVE IT - PICS

I surprisingly don't feel drained at all! Achey all over as expected, but upper hammies, calves, whole quad area, spinal erectors, and hips/glutes are moderately sore, probbaly will become heavy soreness later today...
Upper traps and back a bit sore too.

weighed 89.1kg 196lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Just like that, almost back to my Friday weight pre carb up! But muscles still look pretty full, strange, and my waist is back up to 34.5inches because of the filled out muscles.
Quads starting to get the hanging over my kneecap effect with the fat melting away there.
Not that big, but thanks to small bones/joints I'm kinda starting to take on a comic book look - shoulders/traps are really looking full and rounded, upperback flaring with more lumps and bumps while my waist and ribcage area is shrinking way down
Just imagine when I get down to a sub 30 inch waist...

12min walk today and some light active recovery and easy stretching

 

[coolcolj]

just going by the mirror, which always looks better than reality

pics are coming when I get down to a 33inch waist