Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Tuessday 25th July - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 4 - Day 2 Tempo Sprints/Energy Work/Movement efficiency etc - Microcycle 9

Field was wet and soak as hell, but I did managed to find a small area that wasn't under water

Workout Rating - 7/10
Workout time - 45 mins

Warmup

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.

dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle, standing on one leg with eyes shut, various hops in place in bare feet at home. Massaged foot arch. Did a few barefoot runs - normal, side to side, backward.

Slow Jog - 50m x 5 - 1 mins rest, getting faster each run, mostly flat footed dorsiflexion runs using mostly my feet and ankles

Run complex increasing in speed each run to 50% speed - 1 mins rest

2 sets - trying to stay as smooth, relaxed and fluid as possible
25m prime times (stiffed legged runs), 10m straight run, then into lateral run, right side 5m, left side 5m, into backwards run 5m

2 x 40m acceleration runs to 60% speed - 1min rest


Tempo Runs + Energy Work

56 metres @ 60-70% speed - from a rocking standing start

rest = walk back to start - 1min
6 runs

Lots of hammy action, pulled myself down the field. Spinal erectors were a bit tight

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went for a 12min walk after

 

[silver_shadow]

i don't know how much milk you drink CCJ, but i drink a good amount and i never have trouble falling asleep as a result. i usually sleep after 1am and wake up at around 4am to drink more milk. i just fall asleep again - no problems. it's the tryptophan. i've been noticing you usually have some shitty sleep. BTW i used to sometimes suffer from insomnia especially in the summer (i'm in india and hate the heat). i didn't drink as much milk then.

 

[coolcolj]

i don't know how much milk you drink CCJ, but i drink a good amount and i never have trouble falling asleep as a result. i usually sleep after 1am and wake up at around 4am to drink more milk. i just fall asleep again - no problems. it's the tryptophan. i've been noticing you usually have some shitty sleep. BTW i used to sometimes suffer from insomnia especially in the summer (i'm in india and hate the heat). i didn't drink as much milk then.

well I can't tolerate lactose, gives me the runs
Plus milk just bloats me up and makes me fat....I gained all my fat after I started eating cereal and milk after not having any for ages when I got to 192lbs from 220lbs.

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Wooo, 3.5 hours of sleep - all my fault too...will need a solid nap before training today... Waking pulse of 71 too! Don't feel too bad, just this wall of tiredness.
Lower back tight and achey, calves and hammies achey too from the running

weighed 95.2kg 209.44lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 26th July - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 5 - Day 3 - Lower Strength - Micro cycle 9

LOL, 3.5 hours sleep, and a 2.5 hour nap where I was only half asleep, and I'm way stronger! WTF, would have rated a 9 or 10 today had I felt fresh with a good nights sleep!
I was humming tunes as I left the car so that was a sign of things to come, warm up drills felt good, but the warm up sets didn't feel any lighter, kinda harder, and I had no snap today.

You can see I'm going back to a 4-5 day frequency. For the next 4-5 weeks anyway. Then I'll switch back to once a week to peak things out. Sorta like what I did the last few months, seems to work well

Body weight at gym - 213.5lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

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 full squat 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) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) various hops
6) bar complex with 30lbs - 5 reps each - slow hang clean pull onto toes, military press, explosive GM onto toes, snatch grip press, hang power clean, power jerk


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2 mins on warm ups, 3 to 3.5 mins on work sets

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

warm ups - alternated between front squats and back squats
front squats in sneakers - Bar x 5, 95x3, 135x3, 185x3
Semi-explosive in sneakers - BWx8, Bar x 5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4, 225x4
Controlled down explode up in oly shoes - 275x3, 295x1, 315x1

Controlled down, driven up hard
1) 335lbs x 5 --> last rep hard NEW PR!! + 1 rep
2) 335lbs x 5 --> last rep hard grind
3) 335lbs x 4 --> last rep hard

Finally my 5RM moves up 20lbs! Could have gotten 6 reps on the first probably had I pushed myself. Damn that's a big jump, struggled with sets of 4 and boom just like that on a bad day it's way up. Just felt really powerful coming off the bottom
Looks like the hypertrophy--> strength --> power sequence I loosely followed works pretty well.
Also tried a new warm up scheme. Form was pretty good, upright with no GM'ing at all - front squats in the warm ups seems to be the key. Did bottom out on the first rep though, lost concentration. Also on the 3rd set my legs where doing that s-curve thing again - interesting.
Will stay here still I get a few more sets of 5, and then onwards to 355lbs. 405 should be cake by the end of this training cycle. 435x5 is still the long term goal, just under 100lbs to go

Video of all squat worksets
Right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquatPR_335_2x5_x4_26July06.mpg


CleanPulls - Oly Shoes - HookGrip - no Belt

Warmups -
in sneakers - Hang Powerclean Bar x 3 + 3 high hang squatcleans
Stiff arm clean pull + Powerclean + HangPowerclean + high hang squatclean 89lbs, 111lbs.
Stiff arm clean pull +HangPowerclean + high hang squatclean - 155lbs
in oly shoes - Stiff arm clean pull, rest 15 secs, Powerclean - 185x1, 205x1

Lowered each rep under control RDL style, 10 second rest between each rep and reset
Rotation 1) 265lbs x 2
Rotation 2) 265lbs x 2
Rotation 3) 265lbs x 2 --> 2nd rep very hard and slow

No higher, but speed wasn't there today for obvious reasons. Also with cleanpulls I don't tend to pull it much higher than my upper abs no matter how light the weight due to arms stopping the bar from going higher, so it's hard to tell.
Did stiff armed pulls to help with my arm bend, and they did feel much looser today, biceps didn't tug as much

Standing Single Leg curl

warmups - 4plates x5,

Dead stop one each rep, semi-explosive, left side first - 30 secs rest between each side
Rotation 1) 6 Plates x 10
Rotation 2) 6 Plates x 10

took it easier today, hammies achey from runs yesterday.

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Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1min between each exercise

Calf raise machine

warmups - no plates for a few holds and slow reps

45 secs rest between each side
10secs hold, then a hold at top, middle and bottom
1) 35lbs x 5 (+5lbs)

Sideways Situp on hyper unit

warmups - BW x 4

Hold at top, middle and bottom
Rotation 1) BWx6

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static stretches for lower body

 

[super_rice]

Perhaps consider doing the clean pulls before your squats. If you squat first then your legs are toasted and that is not good for oly movements.

 

[coolcolj]

Perhaps consider doing the clean pulls before your squats. If you squat first then your legs are toasted and that is not good for oly movements.

don't get me wrong, the pulls were still pretty snappy, just not power snatch snappy
Just that without much sleep it doesn't feel like it etc.

I do all my worksets in circuit fashion, ie squat, rest 3mins, cleanpull, rest 3mins, leg curl, rest 3mins and repeat
This allows me to monitor my fatigue and autoregulate my workout volume wise. I never have a set workout volume - the workouts sort themselves out as my work capacity and loads fluctuate each time

Also doing it like this gives me more rest, and provides a waveloading contrast type effect.

Lastly this session is more hypertrophy/strength, and with the cleanpulls more of hitting my fast twitch muscles, since the squats will fatigue the lower threshold muscles first. I have a separate power workout where it's all speed. I go through stages where do different things depending on where I am in the training cycle

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Feel a bit drained. Achey all over as per usual. Legs and hips not as sore as before though. Calves are pretty hammered - leg curls, cleanpulls and seated calf raises all hit em in different ways. Upper hammies, glutes, traps, rear delts, whole back from top to bottom are moderately sore

weighed 94.9kg 208.78lbs straight out of bed in underwear

active recovery - swings and stuff, 6 inch steup into calfraise x 16 each leg, scapular wall slides 2x10
25 min walk. easy stretching for whole body after

 

[coolcolj]

Crap. Legs and hips tensed and achey.

weighed 95.2kg 209.44lbs straight out of bed in underwear

At least my weight has stopped going up, so that's good. If I can just keep it steady for a while and inch it down as I get more powerful good things should happen.

 

[coolcolj]

Crap sleep, but I'll at least be able to sleep in tommorrow!
Waking pulse has been rather high lately. Did feel tight and tensed earlier in the day but its not so bad now.
Decided not to train my upper body today as I feel tired and sore from my part time job.

weighed 95.2kg 209.44lbs straight out of bed in underwear

I was thinking that maybe the eccentrics from the missed heavy squat singles on my last heavy waveloaded squat session boosted my strength more than I realise

 

[coolcolj]

I thought this was funny - drug testing working real well in track and field...

LMAO.. these are "women"

 

[coolcolj]

Better sleep, but I'm gonna take a nap before training today, still feel tired.
Upper back a little achey, but it's ok enough to train.

weighed 94.5kg 207.9lbs straight out of bed in underwear

surprised by the drop in weight actually, face looks leaner.