Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

here is a video + slow mo of a recent vertical jump video I did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VqFZdMiTKg

Can you notice the double knee rebend I do in my jumps?

I've long noticed I do a bit of rocking on my foot when I jump, due to this double knee re bend. I wonder if I jump like this naturally or is it from all the olys I used to do?
I dip down with my weight on heels, and then scoop my hips forward, and my knees move forward, and then my my weights shifts onto the balls of my feet. You can see this weight transfer in my shoe's soles. It's not just a basic down and up, but a subtle rotary hip motion

After studying my slow mo Jump vid, I finally figured out why I keep jumping forward on my standing jumps. It looks like my body is leaning forward as I finally straighten up before my body leaves the ground. Very strange.
Could be a result of my tight hip flexors, as it doesn't allow my body to fully extend.


also a link of interest - about the knee rebend in olys
http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sportivny/library/index.html

high correlation was found between the strength of the hamstrings and the vertical jump results of weightlifters. Furthermore, the vertical jump results of weightlifters have a high, but inversely proportional connection to the speed with which the knees shift under the barbell. The stronger the hamstrings, the higher the vertical jump of weightlifters, the faster the knees shift under the barbell in the "explosion" (4).


The faster this reaction takes place, the more powerful the "explosion", the higher the results.


Research into improving the speed of joint motion has shown that the relative strength of the antagonist muscle in an antagonistic pair can affect the speed of movement (1). The hamstrings are the antagonist muscles to the quads. These muscles act as a "brake" for the quadriceps during the extension of the leg. This is to keep the joint from being straightened faster than it can be prudently stopped.


According to the research in this area: " When the agonist is stronger than the antagonist, the neuromuscular system limits speeds to that the antagonist can safely brake, even if the agonist can make the joint move faster" (1).


Consequently, the recommendation "To make an athlete move faster, training must emphasize the antagonist"(1). In all probability this is the reason for the practical observation in weightlifting that "A lot of squats adversely effect speed"(16). A significant disproportionate strength development between the quadriceps and the hamstrings is, apparently, the reason behind this observation.


The key role the hamstrings can play in weightlifting technique revolves around the so - called stretch reflex and the positive effect the action of these muscles can have on the vertical forces produced by the quadriceps. In the approximately one second it takes to execute the snatch, the hamstrings are stretched and subjected to significant tension as the legs initially straighten when the barbell is lifted from the floor. Then, in virtually the same instant they come into play to flex the knees as they shift under the bar. Finally, a fraction of a second later, the hamstrings flex the legs for the squat under the bar.

 

[coolcolj]

feel pretty good today, and it's cool and sunny, hoping for a nice session at the BBall courts!

interesting - even my carb and water loaded bodyweight is coming down with the new changes in my diet, while eating more calories. 90kg 198lbs exactly this morning clothed.
90.5kg 199lbs earlier in the week.

 

[coolcolj]

Saturday 24th February - Micro Cycle 6 - Week 1 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 89.5kg 197lbs in shorts and t-shirt

funny enough, my bodyweight did end up the same as last week despite all the extra calories and carbs, and not witholding from water.

Pretty crowded today at the courts

Outdoor BBall Complex - one with 8 foot rims at the back

40 mins total

started with shooting and easy 2 handed dunks on the 8 foot rims .
Then lots of jumping - some standing, more one step and plenty of running jumps. Added a few running single leg jumps, apart from the usual layups and dunks off one leg I have done.

again I didn't really feel that explosive today - had that low energy and weak feeling, like when you have low blood sugar
Plus the heat from the Sun started to get to me after a while. I jump best when it's cool and overcast.

So I couldn't jump for crap. Running and one step 2 legged jump was 2 inches lower, but standing was about the same. Jumps dropped off fast.
I did do more dunks on the 8 foot rims though - finally got the windmill dunk going off the dribble, despite my stubby arms and small hands
Although, when you can get nose level to the rim, it's not that big an achievement

running single leg jump seems to be improving from the addition of the single leg exercises in my gym session, was able to take the forces off a moderate speed run well enough. But it's got ways to go when it's 10 inches lower than my 2 legged jump!
A long time ago, at about a similar bodyweight, it was the same as my standing vertical jump, and I could do it off a full speed dribble, so I just need to practise it more, and it should come back up eventually. And maybe even match or exceed my running 2 legged jump when I get much lighter....

 

[coolcolj]

don't feel too bad today - pretty sore calves, hamstrings and spinal erectors.
Landing straight legged on my jumps with my heels off the ground seems to be the cause.
Glutes and upper back/shoulders to a lesser extent

 

[coolcolj]

a quote that fits here I guess -

---

I've been a weightlifting coach at the international level for quite a few years and thought 'd post an anecdote that is relevant to this discussion. This is one of those legendary stories that is pretty well known among weightlifters of that period.
It occurred in the Games village at the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. Henry Hines was the top triple jumper on the U.S. team and was one day was involved in an impromptu vertical jump competition in the hallway. Henry had defeated every track athlete there, when along came shot putter Dave Laut. Dave was able to out-jump the shorter Hines, much to his chagrin. Before the event concluded, however, Tom Stock wandered by.
Tom was the superheavyweight on the weightlifting team and weighed 308 lbs. at about six feet in height. He was able to outleap both Laut and Hines, and spectators estimated his vertical to be about 40 inches.
Great story, eh?

Bob Takano


--

a quote found posted by Bob on GoHeavy - from 20 years ago - so the guy is legit

Way back in 1987 I was fortunate to attend the old "All Comers Camp" held in Colorado Springs with Bob Takano and Dan Forrester as coaches.
It was a three week long camp and Bob was taking us through the program used by the Soviet Team to prepare for the 1986 World Championships.
"How did you get this program?", I asked. "It was not hard, he began. "I just asked. You need to know 3 things. In our sport athletes and coaches are always cool about sharing things. In fact the Soviets want us to get better so that they can come over here at compete. Besides what they share with us is 'old' stuff anyway Second. Administrators and officials always have big egos so you'll need to learn how to deal with them and finally, at the end of the day, everyone just wants to lift big weights. We are a small enough sport that we can share information. What is holding Americans back is two bad concepts. We think that a 300 pound snatch and a 400 pound C&J is impressive and amazing. Other countires are focusing on 400 pound snatches and 500 lb C&J's so we need to believe that we can lift those weights as well. We need to stop thinking that we can go into our garage's and do 3 sets of 10 in the snatch and clean and jerk and somehow make those 300 and 400 pound lifts.
If we can hang around people that do 400 and 500 on a regular basis regardless of how they may actually do that. (Insert whatever thought you want here) then we can start doing 400 and 500 ourselves.
Sport is not a vacuum, especially in weightlifting. We, really do, want to see every athlete perform well. If you go out for a 300 pound snatch I want you to get it. But then again I want the next guy out to get 305. We just want to do well."

It would seem that at the top level, all olylifters have hops
The CNS speed and great relative strength does great things

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 26th February - Micro Cycle 7 - Week 2 - Day 1

Pretty decent workout - first in a while. I felt pretty strong.
Dropped the paused full squats. That shortened the workout, and I left without feeling trashed up.

I did that hip flexor stretch + glute activation move I detailed a few days ago today at the start together with my general warmup. And it was awesome!
My hips and lower back felt nice and loose. Highly recommended!!!!

Since I've started doing this move, I no longer need scorpions, any of those twisting type dynamic stretches, glute bridges or reverse hypers, and plain lower back stretches anymore!
There is no need. My lower back feels untouched no matter what I do now, glutes do all the work. Lower back is no longer getting pumped, tight, or achey!

This will serve to make my back stiffer than my hips - as per the Eric Cressey recommendation. Although glute bridges still makes a nice warmup exercise for a lower body day sometimes.


Body weight at gym - 199.5lbs
Workout time - 1 hour
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises

Behind-the-Neck Band Pull-Aparts x 8
with green jumpstretch band held 3/4 x 1 set, then 1/2 length x 1 set

lateral deep lunge 2x8

situp complex on swiss ball

single leg kneeling deadlift BWx3

single leg RDL mobility walk


Sumo Deadlift - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - doubled overhand hooked grip

explosive up, semi dropped down - 89lbs x 3, 119lbs x 3, 155lbs x 3 205x3, 243x3, 273x2

did a few bodyweight full squats x3 and low 9 inch box jumps x3 inbetween the earlier warmup sets

explosive up, semi dropped down - 4mins rest
outer feet lined up with outer rings.
1) 293lbs x 3
2) 293lbs x 3
3) 293lbs x 3

Felt pretty good today - stronger than I have felt in a while. Form was a bit sloppy on a few reps, but I never felt my lower back work at all as I mentioned earlier. Pretty quick - slowest rep was the first rep on set 1 - just a touch over 1 second. Fastest reps were around 0.9 seconds. Making progress.

May have done 1 set too many - I wasn't sure if I was gonna do a 3rd set.

Now that I don't have any squats in the workout I can feel which muscle groups are working better - plenty of glutes, mid upper back, rear delts and forearms, then a bit in the hamstrings, VMO, calves and upper traps.
All the right muscles for jumping power I guess

video of all 3 main worksets
right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_SumoDeadlift_293_3x3_Explosive_26Feb08.mpg


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches

bench dip shrug x 10
scapular dip shrug - 10sec hold + 3 reps, 2x12 reps with hold at top

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x4kg dumbell x 8
single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x6kg dumbell x 8

increased load by 2kg each, felt good, will go up in weight next week

Lat machine situp - toes pressed into floor, knees as far forward as I can get em - progressively getting lower each rep BW x 12
These felt even better as a result of that hip flexor stretch move.

 

[needtogetaas]

Wow nice to see you back bro.

 

[coolcolj]

thanks

--

I feel a bit sapped today, but nowhere near as drained as i was this time last week, and I did use heavier loads and a bit more deadlift volume.

Nowhere near as sore or heavy in the legs. Squats always makes my lower body feel heavy, and make my adductors tight/sore. Didn't get that feeling today.

My upper back and traps seems to be the most sore. Hammies slightly less so, and glutes, erectors, abs and quads about medium soreness.

 

[coolcolj]

I played BBall yesterday for an 75mins - pretty cool day, but sunny
couldn't jump for jack, I look to be down 3 inches across the board


And I don't appear to be getting any leaner - 88.8kg 195.4lbs this morning, waist 35.5inches. Still at 16.8% BodyFat --> http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
I pretty much "starved" a few days this week as well - sigh

can't jump and not getting leaner while not eating much, which means my power also sucks.
Maybe I do need to squat (full paused squats) for my hops, or I need some eccentric work that the dropped sumo deadlifts don't provide....

On the positive side, I don't feel as beat up today as I have been in the past after BBall. Mostly in my calves and feet/ankles.

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 4th March - Micro Cycle 7 - Week 3 - Day 1

Fairly easy workout today - dialed everything down, just need the mental break and the diet has been cranked up, so I'm less likely to be lifting well anyway. Bodyweight is back down again. I want to be at 194lbs this weekend at the BBall courts!

Nice and short, left feeling pretty good

Body weight at gym - 198lbs
Workout time - 45+ mins
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

My hip flexor/glute activation move

1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises

Behind-the-Neck Band Pull-Aparts x 8
with green jumpstretch band held 3/4 x 1 set, then 1/2 length x 1 set

lateral deep lunge 2x8

single leg RDL mobility walk

did a few back and front squats with the bar


Sumo Deadlift - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - doubled overhand hooked grip

explosive up, semi dropped down - 111lbs x 4 x 2 sets, 155lbs x 3, 205x3

did a few bodyweight full squats x3 and low 9 inch box jumps x3 inbetween the earlier warmup sets

semi dropped down - 4mins rest
outer feet lined up with outer rings.
1) 243lbs x 3
2) 243lbs x 3

normally I'd do these as explosive as I can, but today just lifted it however.

Then did some wide stance squats to parallel - Bar x5, 135lbs x 5


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches

bench dip shrug x 10
scapular dip shrug - 10sec hold + 3 reps - felt much easier, I think to the active isolated type scapular/serratus type stretch I've been doing everyday -> roll shoulders back and down and release etc

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x8kg dumbell x 8
single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x10kg dumbell x 8

increased total load by 4kg and 8kg respectively, felt good, still not mega hard, but my posterior chain and VMO are starting to get much more pumped up now.

a couple short burts of rope skipping

Heavy Bag work - 5 mins of punching the bag, the lighter of the 2 heavy bags at the gym. Started easy and focused on my jabs and hooks, getting the body behind the punch and twisting into it properly. Then more intense and more combos, but not punching mega hard. Not that much footwork. Still I was breathing hard at the end and sweating like a pig!

Stretching for whole body - my hybrid active isolated type stretching
Just experimenting and it felt good, left the gym feeling different to my usual static type stretches. Less tiring in a way, and it seems to "warmup" and loosen and refresh all at once