Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Feel a bit sapped but not drained.
Upper hammies, glutes, spinal erectors, quads, inner though/groin pretty sore.
Upper back/traps moderately sore.

weighed 96.2 kg 211.64lbs straight out of bed in underwear
High rep squats with decent weight never fails to trim my bodyweight down

 

[coolcolj]

Interesting dream in the 2nd stint of sleep, had a dreams of dunking and jumping so easily, 2nd time in the last month or so
Deep sleep is back.
legs, posterior chain and upper back still sore as a bitch.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.7lbs straight out of bed in underwear
need to trim the weight back down.

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 19th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 2 Tempo Sprints/Energy Work/Movement efficiency etc - Microcycle 1

legs and hips sore, took a while to warm up. Took it easy

Workout Rating - 7/10
Workout time - 17 mins for the main part

Warmup

warmup - 15sec 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 and drills in bare feet at home.

Slow Jog - 50m x 4 - 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


Tempo Runs + Energy Work

50 metres @ 60% speed - from a easy standing start

rest = walk back to start - 1.5 min
4 runs

A bit rusty at first but that smooth floating feeling came back eventually. Feels better than before, better mobility, soon enough the extra grunt will get used. Slowing down is more work than the actual running though!

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 19th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 2 - Upper 2 Prehab_Rehab DELOAD - Microcycle 1

Did this 1.5 hours after the running above. Pretty *****ty workout. But it's a light deload workout, so not a big deal.

Body weight at gym - 215.5lbs
Workout time - 45 hours
Workout rating - 6/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x8

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1-2 min on warm ups and 2-3 mins between each exercise on work sets


16inch grip standing Military Press - pushed behind the head at the top

Warm ups - with slight hold at top - Bar x 10, 70 x 8

controlled down, explode up, slight hold at top
Rotation 1) 95lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 95lbs x 8

exploded up, maybe not a good idea, made it more tiring over 8 reps.


Dumbbell high angle Rows to ribcage - pulling with mid/lower traps and delts

warm ups - 15lbs x 12, 30lbs x 12


Rotation 1) 35lbs x 12
Rotation 2) 35lbs x 12


Close Grip triangle Pushups with extension at top

warm ups - on bench - BW x 12

Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10


Dumbbell Curls

warm ups - 4kg x12, 15lbs x12,

Rotation 1) 20lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 8

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Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 4kg x 10 + 1 min Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold

upper body and cuff stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Suprising drop in waking pulse. Legs and hips feel much better, way less soreness. Upper body slightly achey, nice to not be so sore after an upper body workout. Feet and ankles a bit trashed from the running..

As per this article http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1379910
I'm gonna stop pressing and benching for a while until I get that over and under test. I don't do any pullups or pulldowns anymore. I've been at it for over 6 months and I haven't made any progress in that test. I used to be able to hold 2 knuckles together, each side is like 6 inches away now!
Way too tight! I can bench and press ok, but shoulders are only 80% healthy. Time to get all my mobility back and get 100% healthy. Then I can powersnatch again. Plus dunking requires full shoulder ROM and health!

That should give me extra recovery to boost my lower body strength gains.
Getting bored of training upper body as well. I can still row off course, and just add some rehab work http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=818555

weighed 96.5 kg 212.3lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Time mismanagment caused late bed time, and then I kept waking up...
Will take a nap before training today to freshen up. Good time for Deload lower workout. Gym will be shut next week on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll go BBall then, perfect timing for the deload.

Legs and hips feel ok. Upper body a bit achey.

forgot what I weighed this morning, but it was heavy, getting fat! Time to cut back on the carb junking..

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 21st December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 3 - Lower DELOAD - Micro cycle 1

Deload workout. Volume pretty low on squats today, I didn't feel like going heavy and push hard on it either. Not that fresh, but felt kind hyper.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1 hour 40 mins
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
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops

Alternating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Cleans

Did these between each set of squats

Powerclean + 2x High Hang Powerclean - 155lbs, 175lbs, 185lbs --> NEW PR! +10lbs

Powerclean - 199lbs, 219lbs, 239lbs

Decided to go fairly heavy on powercleans to see how it felt. Not that bad considering I have done crap all above 155lbs, they didn't feel mega heavy etc in my hands.

Jumped straight to 155lb without a warmup and pwned it
Guess speed was decent, I haven't felt like this on powercleans in a long time!
Hip extension was better, arm bend is still there though. Catch on 185lb high hang powercleans were ugly and unstable, and lower than I'd like, but it counts for a 10lb PR. Grip sucks. At least my knees didn't hurt with that low a catch without going super wide, they would have a few months ago, thank you ankle and hip mobility work

239lb powerclean crashed on me from 3-4 inches above my shoulders, so there is room there for more weight on the bar. A bit fresher, more sleep, and without doing the squats between the sets I reckon 255lbs is there for the taking. My fullsquat is about 395 - 405lbs so about 63-65% of that.
When I get to my 365x5, 315x10 top wave on my waveloaded squats I'll take a crack at 270+lbs for a new PR. 195lb power snatch should be there too, but I can't do em for now...

Someone had put oil on the bar sleeve when the plates touch, that helped, spins better, even though the bars are cheap, crappy and all bent. I will have to bring some WD40 and oil in my gym bag from now on

Video of the main lifts - 185x2 high hang powerclean PR, 199, 219 and 239lbs Power cleans
Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...leanPR_185_Powerclean_199_219_239_21Dec06.mpg


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

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x2

just did my usual warmup sets. 315x2 was done just before the 239lb powerclean single. Didn't feel light, but not heavy either.

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Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - 45lbs x 8, 95lbs x 7, 135lbs 2x8 (+10lbs)

Wide stance split squats - oly shoes

Bar x 4, 89lbs x 10 each side - hard and unstable, gassed me out!

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
25lbs x 10 - no pauses

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 1 Plate x 6, 2 plate x 6

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 9 each side (+1 rep)

Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 3 plates x 3, 6 plates x 4 (up a plate)


--
toe on board ankle mobility drill x 20 each leg

lower body, and lower back stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Really bad sleep - took ages to fall asleep, and interrupted
Feel pretty sapped, yseterday's training hit me harder than i expected for a deload, maybe the lack of sleep is more to blame though...

Traps, upper back and posterior chain moderately sore.
Spinal erectros have blown up big time from the combined high rep squats and Good Mornings. Hamstrings more meaty too.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
need to get back to the 210lb area

 

[super_rice]

You need some grease inside the bar to get it spinning properly.

Glad to see training is going well for you, and I'm envious of the no doubt great weather down there now.

I'm surprised to see that the your best pc from hang is 185lbs.. that works itself out to around 85kg? While your power clean is getting over 110kg, and that's just kind of "ogre"-ing it up there. I don't know anywhere near as much as you about speed training but, I'll go out on a limb as say that your quest for a big vertical is being limited by that lack of explosive speed / speed-strength. It's apparent by the differential in your strength and speed moves, and especially clear when I watch you do a power clean.

There's no speed! IMO, having a big vertical, you'll be able to generate some freaky looking power in the second pull. I'm weak as shit so the first pulls are always hard, but speed's usually on my side - best power clean from hang is 95kg, best powerclean is 100 x 3. I can probably pc from hang 100.

What's your opinion on this?

I think you should spend a couple of weeks, and tag in powercleaning/snatching from the knee, hip, and below the knee to develop some freaky speed strength. You've got the plyo work and strength work in the bag, so the ends of the spectrum are lookin good.

 

[coolcolj]

correction - from the high hang for a double
this is just dipping down 3 inches or so.

I have done 205 from just above the knee a long time ago, I think I can do 220lbs now.
It's always 20-30lbs or so under my powerclean from the floor.
But I don't like to dip down lower than 3 inches as it feels really off to me, and my form changes, cause me to really swing the bar up.

I just don't practise them enough volume wise to get really good at it. I just use olys as a indicator. Can't powersnatch right now, don't have the shoulder mobility to do so safely.
Jumpsquat variants do the similar thing but a bit more specific and easier to get into. Less muscling as well..

Power is not the concern right now, I'm in a strength building phase, so you can't expect power to not be displayed so well with your doing high volumes of strength work due to all the fatigue. Fatigue masks fitness as they say.

my jumping is fine in any case, my oly form doesn't correlate well to my jumping. My standing VJ is over 30 inches right now and I ain't that light or lean 18-20% bodyfat, so power is not a problem at all. I just need more relative strength to jump higher.
All jumping is throwing the body up in the air with your legs, and the body is real heavy, so getting stronger is gonna help big time.

found this

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Under ideal condition 2 (instantaneous maximum force), the needed force, in pounds, for a certain jump height is:

f=1.2*wh/d

Where h is the vertical jump in inches minus the tiptoe distance (typically 3.5-4 inches), d is the impulse distance (typically 10-12 inches), and w is the weight in pounds.

A 200 pound athlete with a 43 inch vertical jump must exert over 950 pounds of vertical force during takeoff!

---

950lbs of force required at toe off needs some serious strength levels
That's why that 5'9" 210lb guy who has a 46.5 inch standing VJ has a 600lb oly style fullsquat and 750lb raw powersquat

my 395lb or so fullsquat at 214lbs is not gonna get it done, that's why I'm shooting for 500lbs at least. By then a high catch powerclean of 300lbs is money and a high catch powersnatch of 220lbs is there too. I should be jumping close to 40 inches by then, lean down to 190lbs and 44 is there for the taking - that's the plan anyway
Not only that but a fullsquat usually only beefs up the quads and glutes, so my good mornings need to get up to the 300lb range for paused reps onto toes, to get the hammies, calves and erectors strong as well.

Reggie Bush has a 38 inch or so vertical jump (not the combine measured one which is cheated with a 2 hand reach, take off 3-4 inches for the real VJ) and he squats 530lbs and powercleans 330lbs, similar bodyweight to me, but he's way leaner off course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2sL2qHv7wY
And he is anything but slow. So that's where I gotta head to first...