Thursday 17th May - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Stronger + Get Lean - Week 1 - Day 2 - Lower body base conditioning - Micro cycle 4
Decent workout, but not as good as the Tuesday one, a few more aches and soreness in my posterior chain and ankles, but the groove and feeling for the loads is coming back. Vertical jump is up as well and bodyweight is down
Foot muscles got worked hard today in all moves I did with the Nike Free 7.0, they are feeling tired now. Good stuff. the Shoe is doing what it's designed for
Right IT band was aching again after the workout, I think the reverse lunges are responsible...it never did this until after I started doing em....
Body weight at gym - 200lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10
General warm up -
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 full squat at bottom on toes
1) standing Side leg raise x 9 each side
2) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
3) hurdle over and unders x 5 each direction and each type
4) Prone Scorpion - x8 each leg alternating
5) Lying on back Scorpion under - x10 each leg alternating
6) Single Leg SLDL mobility walk
7) Lying on back Scorpion under x 11 each side
8) glute bridge x 10
9) back extension x 4 + 4 twisting to each side
10) sit up complex on swiss ball
11) single leg kneeling deadlift x4, x3 each side
12) hop complex
13) 40lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks
14) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills, low 6 inch altitude drops and depth jumps
15) Behind-the-Neck Band Pull-Aparts x 10 + band dislocates x 10.
with green jumpstretch band held full length, then 3/4 length for another set
Rotating Sets between each exercise
Resting 2-3mins
Jumps and Hops
Warm up - a set of 5 speed hops on a 3inch step, rest 30secs, short run of prime times, running one leg jump, rest 30 secs, then a set of 2 standing jumps going higher/harder each time.
did these in between the warm up sets on squats
a) Speed hops on a 3 inch step x 5
b) short run of short step high knee bounds into prime times
c) running on leg jump
rest 30 secs - and 20 sec rest between each jump
a) standing 2 handed Vertical jump
b) one step VJ
c) standing Vertical jump
2 sets for the first part and 4 total sets of the 2nd part
Vertical jump was up an inch and back within half an inch or so of my best at the gym, which is pretty cool considering I'm jumping in new shoes, posterior chain is sore, and the crappy sleep 2 nights in a row.
half an inch dropoff on the 4th set of vertical jumps, at least for my one step VJ.
Getting used to jumping and landing in these Nike Frees, guess it doesn't effect my jump for the worse like I thought. Landings definitely feel better in these, and no shin splint issues so far.
Now my bodyweight is also down to 200lbs at the gym, which is 5lbs lighter than when I set my PB, so I should be up another inch over that. Which means just on power to weight ratio alone I am not far off from touching the fire exit ceiling with my standing vertical jump, and that's not factoring in any strength/power increases I may gain over and above what I had before I overreached and took my layoff. That would be a nice milestone!
Power Cleans - in Nike Free 7.0 shoes
did these inbetween the jumps and warmup sets of squats
Powerclean + 3 High Hang powercleans - warmup set with bar
89lbs
Powerclean + 2 High Hang powercleans - 109lbs
Full Back Squats - Nike Free 7.0 shoes - no Belt
warm ups - controlled - frontsquat, rerack, rest 30secs, backsquat
frontsquat - bar x3, 95lbs x3, 135x3, 155x3
backsquat - bar x5, 95lbs x5, 135x3, 155x3
controlled - 4 mins rest
1) 205lbs x 8 (+20lbs)
2) 205lbs x 8 ---> in oly shoes
Up the main loads 20lbs, and that felt way too aggressive, had to work harder on the last couple of reps than I would have liked. Gonna have to use a smaller increment.
Getting used to squatting in the Nike Frees now, and my foot muscles were working hard on that 205lb set, first time I have had them get pumped up like that when squatting!
Will drop the load down next workout to allow some recovery, maybe to 155lbs and cut the volume down, drop the jumps and cleans, and the 2nd lower body circuit. That will allow me to do my upper stuff then.
Things never work as you would hope for, so big change of plans, instead of this linear progression over 1.5 weeks I had planned, which I don't think is gonna work too well, I'm gonna use a step load wave pattern for a longer period of time and using a smaller progression increment like 5-10lbs and keep riding it till I regain all my strength or even beyond.
So for example down to 155lbs for a few reps for recovery next workout, back up to 230lbs for 2x4 and bring back the other lower body moves, then back down to 190lbs for 2x8, and repeat, but add 5-10lbs onto the bar each time around etc. Although I have not decided whether the heavier part of the sequence will come first or 2nd...
So basicly I'm just splitting that waveloading scheme I last did a few months ago over a few days, which should help me avoid overtraining like I did back then...
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Lower body circuit - Rotating Sets between each exercise
Resting 2-3 mins on worksets
Good Mornings onto toes - high bar - oly shoes
2 sec pause at bottom and hold at top on toes
BW x3, Bar x 3+3 more each side split leg style, 105lbs x 4 (+10lbs)
Reverse Lunge - vertical shins, medium wide stance, rear leg kept on the straighter side - 2 sec pause at bottom - oly shoes - alternating legs
BW x 3, Bar x 3 each side, 65lbs x 3 each side (+20lbs)
Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - BWx15, 1plate 2x5
Snatch Grip Deadlift - RDL style - oly shoes - no belt
hook grip, pause on floor - 89lbs x 3, 139lbs x2, 159lbs x 4 (+10lbs)
Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom) - hold at middle and bottom on each rep - BW x 6, +10lbs x 6
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Cooldown and stretches
lower body stretches and some upper body ones
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