Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Deep continous sleep! I had to get up early though, but I think I figured out my sleep issues, mostly to do with being too hot when sleeping...

part time job was nice and easy today, thanks to Christmas. This combined with the general deload, and if I can get my sleep in order, recovery should be better than average. I should be ready to push hard again mid next week.

weighed 97.1 kg 213.6lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 24th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong Lower Body Strong + Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 1 - Upper 1 - Micro cycle 1

No more benching in a while, not a bad thing, less stuff to do.
Thought it would be an ok workout, but I didn't have much energy. Diet issues I figure.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1+ hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x10, on floor x 10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

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

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 15secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation



Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - semi-Explosive + 3 sec hold at top on last rep - BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x6, +70x5, +90x4, +115x4, +135x3

controlled
Rotation 1) Bar + 160lbs x 2 (+1 rep)
Rotation 2) Bar + 135lbs x 6 (+1 rep)
Rotation 3) Bar + 95lbs x 10 (+5lbs)

Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps, BWx 5

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10

Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

4kg x 6, with 3 holds on the way down 4kg x 3, 15lbs x 3

controlled, with 3 holds on the way down - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 20lbs x 3
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 3

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Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Reach, roll and lift stretch x 3 each side
Reach, roll and lift with 3 sec hold x 3 each side

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and some lower body

 

[coolcolj]

Monday 25th December

better sleep, body clock woke me up after 7 hours though. Upper body slightly sore, but pecs and front delts don't feel stiff and sore for once - nice

weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear


Tuesday 26th December

Feel ok, best in a while, legs and hips have that snappy feeling. CNS is in about a good a shape as it will be for whiule. Waking pulse back down 56, lowest this month.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
surpised my weight has been steady even with all the pigout and junkie foods!

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 26th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 2 - Sprints + BBall/Jumps - Micro cycle 1

I felt good in the morning, but after stuffing around kneeling on the floor trying to fix something on my computer, my posterior chain got a bit tired.
Then started to feel drowsy, so not mega fresh, but not too bad.

Went to my usual outdoor court complex. Really quiet at the courts. Did some sprints on the grass area between the BBall/netball area and the baseball stadium/diamond, then played some BBall.

Body weight in shorts and t-shirt - 214lbs
Workout time - 40-50 mins
Workout rating - 8/10


Did some dynamic warmup stuff, then

1) 4 short jogs with 1 min rest between.
2) my usual sideways, backward pivot spin running complex x 2 - 1.5 mins rest

3) 4 x 40m sprints on grass building up to 70% speed with a mins rest
4) 4 x 30m sprints up to 80% speed on a slightly upward sloping concrete netball court - followed each sprint with a running one leg jump on the way back trying to arm/elbow against the low netball ring.

then played some BBall for 20-30mins. I didn't do that much dribbling/shooting/ and moves. Most of it was spent jumping and testing myself on the various types of jumps. Hardly anyone around so I felt more comfortable practising my jumps. Lower inner shins on my both legs were starting to ache towards the end on the jump landings, and my jump starting to lose pop so I shut it down. Didn't go till I was as exhausted like I normally do. Sprints probably fatigued my lower legs, so then shins started to ache, but I guess it's time to get back on calf work, especially the seated stuff.

I was gassed pretty quickly, fitness is crap, but I'm not too worried about it right now. 214lbs at BBall is pretty damn heavy. I feel so fat and bulky, and my legs so big and chunky, that I shouldn't be able to get off the ground, but I was popping up really explosively with solid landings. The kids watching me were probably thinking how can this bulky guy jump like that

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now the jumps felt pretty good today, just snapping up in a strong, solid way that I feels so different from before.

compared to when I was 198lbs at the same court

standing VJ - was 2 inches lower
one step VJ - was about the same or maybe an inch lower tops
3 step VJ - was about the same or a bit higher
running 1 leg jump - same

It's odd that my standing jump is lower, because some of the one step jumps with like 2 arm swing were higher than I ever did at 198lbs!
My reactivity is much better as you can see, which is strange considering all the high rep squats I've been doing, I haven't even done a power/reactive block yet!

Seem to feel like my hammies were used much more, especially on the 3 step jump, maybe because of the sprints? Hammies are bigger now from the Good Mornings as well. There is this cross bar on the back of the BBall ring, that I can only manage to nick once in a while at 198lbs, I got it no problems today off a 3 step jump, form felt so smooth, using my momentum better. Widdest gap between my standing and 3 step VJ so far. No longer jump stopping, it's one continous flow of steps, practise does pay off. Running one leg jump does surprise me though, the same at 16lbs extra weight. Squats must help em as well.

Having said all that, I am annoyed that my power to weight ratio seems to remain fairly constant! If I get lighter/leaner I get weaker, and if I get stronger I get fatter/heavier! Gees I gotta break even for once. Get weight back to 209lbs, get squat up to 435lbs, and powerclean to 275lbs and I should make some gains. The next time I come back here I want to jump at least 2 inches higher!

 

[coolcolj]

Not good sleep, light and I woke up an hour early.
Lower legs, ankles and feet are trashed. Soleus pretty sore, and the muscles on the side, right outter ankle feels inflamed like a mild sprain. Upper back a bit sore, not too bad everywhere else.

weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Crap sleep, woke up early again. Could be an issue with the naps I take.
Body feeling better, upper back/cuffs still achey for some reason.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 28th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 3 - Upper 2 LIGHT Prehab_Rehab - Microcycle 1

Was supposed to be just a light upper body workout. Decided to do some lower body stuff at the start to see how well my body has recovered from the sub-max sprints and max effort jumps 2 days ago. Did my usual lower body dynamic warmup and warmup complex.
Then did

1) Powercleans + 2 high hang powercleans - Bar, 89, 119lbs
2) FullSquats in Oly shoes - Bar FrontSquat x8, backsquat - 95x8, 135x8, 185x5, 225x4, 255x3
3) Narrow stanced, high bar, Good Morning onto toes in Oly Shoes - 2 sec hold at bottom and top - 95x5, 135x7, 135x9
4) Peterson Stepups on 12inc box - 2x12 each leg

I should not have bothered with the cleans, body just did not want to explode, no pop, no speed, felt like crap....CNS is still sapped! Granted I don't have the best sleep in the world, but max effort jumps put a serious hurting on CNS drain. I definitely need the 4-5 days rest between each high intensity workout for a quality session. Don't know how people BBall 5 days a week and train 3 days ontop of that...me thinks they are not making gains!

So I stopped cleans and squats pretty early. Warmups felt ok. Squats didn't feel too bad until 185lbs where it started to get harder than usual.
Finished off with some GMs and stepups.

Although I think a light high rep boxsquat/seated GM combo (lower down to box, do a seated GM, and then squat back up etc) and Peterson stepups might make a nice active recovery in this workout and keep my knees healthy. Might try this next time.
Did my upper body circuit, and then some stretching for whole body, left feeling good after that stuff. Hopefully I'll recover ok for the next workout on Sunday, a heavy lower body workout.


Body weight at gym - 214lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings


Rotating Sets between each exercise

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


Reach, Roll and Lift

stretches in the same position

Rotation 1) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating
Rotation 2) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating

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

warm ups - 30lbs x 10

with hold at top
Rotation 1) 40lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 40lbs x 10


Pushup with extension at top

Warm ups - on bench BW x10

on floor
Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10


Low Incline face down dumbell Raise/External Rotation combo

warm ups - 2kg x 3 each

Thumbs up Y raise + nuetral grip side raise + Cuban rotation - all with hold at top
Rotation 1) 2kg x 8
Rotation 2) 2kg x 8

d**n tough for such a light weight!


Dumbbell Curls

warm ups - 4kg x12,

Rotation 1) 30lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 35lbs x 10

a bit too heavy, too much strain on last few reps

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Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 4kg x 10 + 1 min Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold
partial Bench dip stretched hold x 35 sec

upper body/cuff and lower body stretches.

Body felt real good on the stretches, not tight like I normally am when pressing and dumbell benching here.
Can finally touch my heel on my butt pretty easily in the quad/hip flexor stretches, and I have big quads and pretty big hammies!

 

[coolcolj]

Much better sleep. Feel a bit sapped.
Moderately sore all over, mostly in the upper back, spinal erectors, VMO, glutes, hammies.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Went for a easy 12min walk, then did quite a bit of stretching for whole body. Worked a bit on ankle flexibility with respect to narrow fullsquats

 

[coolcolj]

Gah not so good sleep Part time job yesterday was pretty easy too, compared to normal. Not feeling as fresh as I wanted, but my body feels ok. Lower back a bit stiff and achey, but no problems bending over, get some blood into before I squat and it should be ok.

weighed 96.3 kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 31st December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 5 - Day 1 - Lower Strength/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Last workout of 2006, and a pretty average one at that. Felt kinda crappy, but workout was productive.
Didn't do any GMs and ab work, moved em to the next lighter lower body workout. Will be alternating between 2 different main lower body workouts.

Body weight at gym - 215.5lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

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 x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 8
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops
7) 30lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Power Cleans

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 225lbs

Powerclean + 2 x HighHang Powerclean - 89lbs, 119lbs, 155lbs


Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1, 345x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 365lbs x 1 - rest 3 mins
2) 315 x 4 - rest 5 mins
3) 265 x 8 - rest 6 mins
4) 335 x 4 - rest 6 mins
5) 285 x 8

Increased loads 10lbs across the board, but reduced the reps. 10 is just too high, 8 seems to be the nice upper limit before too much lactic acid sets in. About 25 secs total set time. Pretty hard, felt like within a rep of failure on the 2nd wave. 365lbs was hard, I couldn't control it in the bottom half on the way down. But I stayed upright on the way up, 1.6 sec concentric time, 3.3+sec total time

I don't think my strict controlled 1RM is higher than 375lbs right now, but I'm using a different form to before, narrower stance, sitting straight down and much more upright - ie like a proper oly full squat. So my 240+lb powerclean is about 66% of 375lbs, just where you'd expect it to be, so my explosive strength is better than I thought
So I should powerclean 285lbs when I hit double bodyweight and 330lbs when I reach 500lbs. Wonder if I can hit 500lbs by this time next year...
545lb squat and powerclean whole bumper plate stack of 354lbs would be sweet!

video of the 365, 315, 325 and 285 sets.

Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au..._Waveloaded_365_315x4_335x4_285x8_31Dec06.mpg

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lower body, and lower back stretches