Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[delldell2]

See how it goes, I'd rather just do heavy static holds with the normal bar. You can use more weight, and it's not like you're lifting with a thick bar.

Have you tried the HF squat yet? I can't get that bounce up. Do you contract with your working leg at parallel or straight up? If you started at parallel, it'd be like a 2" ROM. I tried the scoop and I still had to muscle it up instead of having it natural.

Video?

 

[coolcolj]

Have you tried the HF squat yet? I can't get that bounce up. Do you contract with your working leg at parallel or straight up? If you started at parallel, it'd be like a 2" ROM. I tried the scoop and I still had to muscle it up instead of having it natural.

Video?

I guess you haven't been reading my journal too closely....
there is a photo in his book you know. The contraction is slightly above parallel and you switch back up at parallel.
Your probably not strong enough

The one I do just looks like a bulgarian split squat, no scoop, just a small bounce up and down.

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 4th March - Cycle 1 Get Stronger - Week 4 - Day 3 - Upper 2 STRENGTH SPEED/Reactive - Afternoon

Shees workouts are getting long! But PRs keep rolling out, not a bad workout today, but not great

Workout time - 2 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

Warmup

Did my general warmup - dynamic swings etc, and 10 reps with 25lb in various exercises - pull, press, oly goodmorning, snatch grip BN press, hang powerclean + powerjerk

Incline Situp, arms outstretched infront, Russian twists to each side at top - BW x6

Back Extensions - 5 normal + 6 twisting to alternate sides

8xHangPowercleans + 8 Pushpresses - 45lbs


Rotating Sets between Press, Chin, Tricep, Pulldown, Flye

Resting 1.5mins on warmup sets and then 3-4mins

Military Press in Oly Shoes

Warmups - 75lbs x6, 95lbs x5, x3, 115lbs 2x3, 135x3

Rotation 1) 155lbs x7 New PR!! +3reps

5% of (15%BW+Weight) Dropoff -
Rotation 2) 145x7,
Rotation 3) 145x6,

No matter how much stronger I get Presses always feel hard, I guess it's because the whole body has to work to stabilise etc. Didn't think I'd get 7 reps, 5th was hard, but I did. Won't be long now till I hit 10 with this weight, but still for a 7 rep set it was hard!
Was so close to getting 7 reps on the 3rd set, stuck at the sticking point halfway up.


Shoulder Width Chins - 3 inch Square Bar - FullGrip thumbs around bar

Warmups - used pulldowns for warmup initially, then BW x1

Rotation 1) BW(222lbs) x6

Rotation 2) BW x6,
Rotation 3) BW x4,

Harder on grip that muscles, the fact I got 6 reps on the 2nd set again proves that

Parallel Grip Tricep Extension Oscillatory ISO - AN2

Warmups - 3kg x8+5 OI, 5kg x5+5 OI, 25lbs x5 +5 OI, 30lbs x3 + 3 OI

Rotation 1) 30lbs x 30secs,
Rotation 2) 25lbs x 30secs,
Rotation 3) 25lbs x 30secs,

Weight was too light, so I fudged it. Hard to guess loads for Oscillatory ISOs.
Still learning how to do em properly.

Chin Grip Pulldowns Oscillatory ISO - Shoulder width - AN2

Warmups - 30kg x5, 40x3, 50x3, 60x3, 70x3 + 5 OI

Rotation 1) 75kg x 35secs

5% of (15%BW+Weight) Dropoff -
Rotation 2) 70kg x 35secs,
Rotation 3) 70kg x 30secs,


Pec Fyles Oscillatory ISO - AN2

Bent Arms, elbow slightly toward feet, shoulders tucked
Warmups - 3kg x8+5 OI, 5kg x5+5 OI, 25lbs x5 +5 OI, 30lbs x3 + 3 OI

Rotation 1) 30lbs x 40secs,
Rotation 2) 35lbs x 35secs,
Rotation 3) 35lbs x 30secs,

Again had problems finding correct loads


Standing Low Pulley L-Flyes Oscillatory ISO on Free Motion Machine
Warmups - 10lbs x5 rest - 3mins
20lbs x 25secs, 15lbs x25secs, 15lbs x25secs

dropoff load was 18lbs, but was too lazy to add a plate to the stack.

ISO Stretches - EQI

Low Pulley ROW Stretched ISO hold - Close Overhand Grip on Straight Bar
45kg x 1mins

Tricep Dip Forward leaning Leg supported Stretched ISO hold
BW x 1.5mins

Shoulder Dislocates pec stretch with lights bands

 

[delldell2]

Yeah I saw the pic in the book, but the ROM was so small, I wasn't sure. I don't know if it's a matter of strength, but just learning how to relax quickly enough. Sets of 8 w/ 2 50s isn't enough?
Do you have a video? I'm interested in how you do it.

 

[coolcolj]

Yeah I saw the pic in the book, but the ROM was so small, I wasn't sure. I don't know if it's a matter of strength, but just learning how to relax quickly enough. Sets of 8 w/ 2 50s isn't enough?
Do you have a video? I'm interested in how you do it.

the ROM is supposed to be very short, the more advanced you get the shorter it becomes. You still have to exert effort to bounce back up, it's not like you magicly come up, but when done right it sorta feels like jumping when you dip down and spring up. That's how it should feel, like a jerk basicly.

I don't have a video, and I don't know when I'll do them again, if I follow the next mcirocycle, it maybe another 1-2 months before I do them again

 

[delldell2]

Thanks. When you contract, it's basically like flexing right or is it supposed to be in a direction?
Are there guidelines to when you do upper and lower? I mean, if you did upper on M, could you do lower on T or should you wait till W? Is the gap different when it's a fatigue cycle?

 

[coolcolj]

I flex and go into the direction slightly to help contract the right muscles, I basicly flex whole body to some extent, and then relax eveyrthing even grip a bit, and then snap everything back together. Takes much practise

I dunno, experiment
I generally feel sore the day after so I never train back to back.

 

[coolcolj]

Monday 8th March - Cycle1 Get Stronger - Week 5 - Day 1 - Lower 1 Strength - afternoon

Well my CNS was fully recovered today, 76 taps on TapTester. I felt pretty good. But alas my squat has gone nowhere
But I know why. Anyway if I feel OK tommorrow, CNS wise, I'll do my upper bodyworkout where I am having much better luck

On a positive note, I looking much faster in general.

Workout Rating - 7/10
Workout time - 1 hour 50mins or so

Warmup+ CoreWork+Plyos

Did my general warmup - dynamic swings etc, and 10 reps with 25lb in various exercises - Hang slow cleanpull, military press, oly goodmorning, snatch grip BN press, hang powerclean and powerjerks for a few, powersnatches, Fullsquat press for a few.

Rest - 30secs alternating between each exercise. 1min between pairs.

1)Twisting Back Extensions - BWx11,
2)Incline situps with Russian twists to each side at the top - arms held outstretched x6

Ankle Jumps - Low 2x10secs

Olys

rest - 1.5 to 2mins

5 Hang Powercleans + 5 Frontsquats + 2 Powerjerks - Bar
Powerclean + Powerjerk - 111lbs x 2sets
Powerclean + HangPowerclean + Powerjerk - 111lbs

Just some light stuff to warmup and keep in the groove


Rotating between each exercise - Squat, Reverse Back Extension, Lat Machine Situp

rest - 3-5mins between each exercise after warmups. 1 to 2 mins until workoutsets

Full Oly Squat - in Oly Shoes - RAW
Warmup sets - reps - Bar x5, 135lbs 2x3, 185lbs 2x3, 225lbs x3, 255lbs 2x2, 285lbs x2, 315lbs x 1

Tempo 10X0
Rotation 1) 355lbs x1

10% of (85%BW+Load) Dropoff
Rotation 2) 335lbs x1
Rotation 3) 335lbs x1
Rotation 4) 335lbs x1 --> upper back starting rounding, slow through sticking point

Well I kinda felt lost, been a while since I did heavy full range reps. Warmup sequence wasn't done well. 355lbs felt heavy, so I left it there.
Even though my posterior chain is much bigger and stronger, I am no stronger on the squat it seems. But I knew my quads look and feel different, its like maybe they have shrunk and gone weaker.
Makes sense, since when I compared my ISO holds to my regular squats, it seems I sat a lot further back than normal, and maybe I didn't hold em low enough...because the sticking point is still damn huge!
I fear my frontsquats may have regressed Lesson learned!
But I feel once the quads are back in shape strength wise, I'll have 405lbs no probs with my much stronger core and posterior chain - I still feel ISOs when done properly work really well. I will experiment more with a different sequence.

Reverse Back extensions - resting feet/weights on floor at the bottom
Warmup sets - BWx5, +15lbs x5

Tempo 1110
Rotation 1) 25lbs x 30secs - that was hard work!

5% of (50%BW+Load) Dropoff
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 26secs

Damn stuffed up here, was supposed to use 15lbs on the 2nd set. Hard to do these on a hyperbench. Ahh wish I had access to a proper reverse hyper unit!


Lat Machine Situp Oscillatory ISO, Torso near Parallel, Dumbell on Chest
Warmup sets - BW x 8, +15lbs x5+5 OI, 25lbs x5+5 OI

Rotation 1) 55lbs x 15sec

5% of (47%BW+Load) Dropoff
Rotation 2) 45lbs x 15sec
Rotation 3) 45lbs x 15sec
Rotation 4) 45lbs x 12sec

Ouch these really kill my lower abs!


Bits and Pieces

Reverse Back Extensions
BW x10

Bulgarian SplitSquat Stretched ISO hold
BW x 1min each leg

RDL Stretched ISO hold
BW x 1min

These have replaced most of my post workout stretches nicely.

 

[delldell2]

Interesting...I'd like to see what DB says about it. Good luck with these experiments. Prevents others from making the same mistakes.

 

[coolcolj]

I feel this microcycle would work well for a powerlifter type squatter.
The problem is my quads shrunk and got weaker.
And for me the quads are a big part of the strength that is needed to get through the sticking point since I squat oly style, where quads form about 50% of the strength equation.

If you look at the program it's mostly posterior chain stuff and corework.
And those areas are definitely way up in size and strength.
But the problem is when I did those ISO squats, I maybe should have held them 2-3 inches lower. And my form changed, I sat back more.
I did do a few ISOs a bit lower in the last session and felt more quads.

So I think with a few tweaks this program could work well for me.
Even though there is some Bulgarian Splitsquat OIs, they didn't really tax the quads as much as normally full range reps.
Perhaps adding some regular or ISO frontsquats on the first day in between the clean deads and HF abs might help. Kinda makes sense, as frontsquats are upright, clean deads bent over and situps way back. And then still keep the ISO backsquats for sticking point work.

In a few weeks when I bring up my quads strength (and maybe size) I will have 405lbs hopefully...
In hindsight perhaps having one day of - Frontsquat ISO, clean dead ISO and HF Abs ISO and then the other day of PIM olysquat, SplitSquat OI, reverse back extension OI, GHR OI and HF Ab OI would work better for me.

My spinal erectors are much bigger as is my glutes and hammies
so yeah I could probbaly nail that 455lb deadlift I missed last year, 3 inches short of lockout but that was a powerlifter stiffed up dead. A stricter clean deadlift would be more applicable to me, but my grip needs work

I figured that my squat didn't go up when I could only powerclean around
220lbs a week and half ago. I use my quads a bit when powercleaning now - double knee rebend etc. At least I know my ratio of powerclean and fullsquat lies in the 60% area now

CNS doesn't feel too bad today, will test the Taptester
if I'm ok I will go do benches today and see where it's at