Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Sunday 5th June - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 4 - Day 1 - BBALL - Microcycle 2

Bodyweight dropped back down to my lowest so far at BBall by 1lb. I even waited to pee everything I could possible do
Sported a nice haircut from my girlfriend, felt decent and so I went to my regular outdoor court feeling alright

Bodyweight at home - 214.5lbs
Workout time - 50 mins
Workout rating - 8/10

started with easy dribbling and shooting for 30 mins to warmup.
Then progressed to more intense stuff and jumping
Shooting, especially jumpshots were much better today.
I was alone at first, but some black kid turned up later on and then asked me if I wanted to play one on one. I wasn't interested, just wanted to practise moves and jump!

Well my overall jump was back to my peak, both my 1 step jump and 3step/running jump was up maybe half an inch. No noticable difference in my standing VJ though, but I felt kinda tired by the time I tested it.
My jumping died pretty quickly today for some reason, but my bounce and spring was there, and I felt a pretty snappy overall.

I was able to just about get my whole hand over the rim on my running jump. Just need another 3-4 inches. So another 4lbs of fat off, and deloading from the tempo/energy work, I should be close to hammering it down again hopefully!

Towards the end I tried a 2 handed jump out of curiousity and I got high enough to grab the ring and hang on it, which I did without thinking! It sorta happened by reflex, and then I braced myself for pain, since I'm not that light, but all I felt was the ring springing down and my body swing about. Felt real good! Guess having a nice flexy ring helps and some upper body strength.
The landing, when I let go, was a long way down though! I landed on the balls of my feet, with hardly any leg bend, and my heels never touched the ground. My calves didn't like it to much in a good way - like a high stiff legged altitude plyo drop!

Well two things I notice working real hard, my hammies and calves. Calves are aching quite a bit now!

 

[coolcolj]

Not feeling drained today. Calves quite sore, some minor aches in my hammies, erectors and upper back


clip from yesterday

Right click on clip and save to avoid errors

Running 2 legged jump. Yeah I run funny because I'm fat!
And a nifty move, which I missed, but it's the thought that counts
Well my friends used to call me the ""the Dancer Man", you can probbaly see why

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj2/Movies/CCJ_Jumps+BBall_5May05.mpg

 

[coolcolj]

legs and hips still a bit achey, might be due to the stretching I did yesterday after a nice hot shower. I will tone down the lower body stretches now, as I only need to maintain. But will keep hammering the external hip rotors and spinal erectors until I can get my feet pointed directly ahead with ease.
Right ankle has been bothering me - sigh. Seems like the wide stance squats may have tweaked it last week. Probably not a good idea in oly shoes...

Bodyweight more or less the same, but waist seems to be just under 37.5 inches today. Well I'm looking kinda skinny in my upper body, relatively speaking, so I expected a bit of drop in bodyweight.

Stoping the reaction time tests for now. It's quite tiring mentally. Quite a good exercise in it's own right

From the running jump vid, I can see I'm much lighter on my feet now. I can feel like it too, really springy, snappy and floaty. Ground contact times are way down, and like wise I'm jumping with much less knee bend than before. Less muscling the movement and reactivity is up. Especially on the running jump, where I used to just thud into the bottom position and spend ages there before I got up. This also lessens stress on my quads/knees/legs as well, using my hammies more to jump.
All thanks to the relaxed tempo runs, sideways/backwards runs and stiff legged hops in place I guess, plus getting leaner obviously helps
I think the stretching and improved ROM/tonus is a big factor too up to a point.
Amazing difference to vids I took a year or so ago! You can't do everything in the weight room!
RFI and RATE work is a lot more important than most people realise.

last week where my recovery wasn't so good, I didn't quite feel the same. And my joints ached quite a bit.
Also notice how my feet face more to the front now? They used to angle quite a bit more to the side thanks to my tight external hip rotors, but they still angle out on the slow jogs when the leg kicks up behind which you can see on the running jump. Maybe glute heavy recruitment issue?

Also a reminder that as I mentioned a few weeks back, the ring I've been playing on is a little bit lower than a proper 10 foot ring. So I will need to gain a few inches to jump like that on a proper hoop.
But I'm using it as a stepping stone, and it's one of the few rings around here that is spring loaded. All the rest are stiff double layered rims which don't feel that good to grab onto! At least until you can get well above it
I figure once my head is getting close to rim level on this ring I'm ready to graduate

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 7th June - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 4 - Day 2 Morning - Tempo + Energy Work - Microcycle 2

Good session, fairly warm again. Apart from the fact the muscles in my foot arch started to tighten up again. Bodyweight down a pound from this time last week.

Bodyweight at home - 215lbs in winter clothes
Workout Rating - 8/10
Workout time - 30 mins all up

Warmup

warmup - dynamic swings
Various hops in place for 10secs - double leg and splitleg

Slow Jog - 50m 2x2 --> legs fairly straight using mostly calves and hammies

Run complex increasing in speed each run to 50% speed - 1 mins rest

3 sets - trying to stay as smooth, relaxed and fluid as possible

50m straight run, 10 sec rest
5m accleration into 90 degree right direction change into lateral run,
Right to left 10m, then left to right 10m, rotate into backwards run 10m, walk back to start (50m)

then 50m accleration runs to 60% speed x2 - 2mins rest

Tempo Runs + Energy Work

220+ metres @ 70% speed with proper standing start - 180 degree turn at halfway
rest 3 mins
1) 53.83 secs
2) 50.9 secs
3) 53 secs

Strange the times followed the exact sequence as last week, slowest on first run, then faster and then back to almost the first run.
First 2 runs felt pretty easy relatively speaking, core held tight, high hip height, and legs snapping. Could feel the lower back remain loose and long, first time since I started running I think!
3rd run was a killer, hip height started to drop in the last half, legs thumping the ground.

Foot muscles tightened up again, but not as bad as last week. Have to figure out how to make em relax up. Getting easier to warmup, quicker now.
Last week of higher volume energy work sessions, deloading next week.

 

[coolcolj]

Went to sleep late, 6 hours is solid sleep, and I lay in bed after that and dosed in and out of sleep for another 2 hours.
Feel ok, legs and hips a bit achey.

Waist still just under 37.5 inches. Weighed just under 212lbs straight of out bed bare. I am looking much thinner/leaner. More so the current drop of 1.5 inches on the waist should be. It's amazing how different I look!
I think it might be because my spinal erectors are getting huge from the sprinting I have been doing adding some size to the waist. Coupled with the drop in fat levels, they are really starting to stick out, feels like an inch from the spine!

Upper body has lost a lot of size, not sure if its all fat or a combo of fat and muscle. I haven't been working it as much in the past, and I haven't lost too much strength, so I guess some "useless" size will have melted off. Will find out today since I'm working upper body
Still have plenty of trap and upper back size though, but my pecs, shoulders and arms have shrunk a lot.

Legs look narrower from the front, quads still overhang my knee. I have geneticaly big legs anyway. From the side, damn my legs have gotten much wider! I have a big ass naturally, and fullsquats have made em stick out even more, but damn my hamstrings have blown up bigtime. From sprints no doubt. They look kinda freaky compared to before!

Hopefully the progress pics I will take when I reach a 37 inch waist will show the changes I'm seeing.
I went back through my log and old progress pics, and when I had a 35inch waist I still looked pretty fat. I only started to look lean at 32 inches. I used to have a 29-30inch waist and even then I still wasn't what you would call ripped. So I have a long ways to go, granted that my waist will be a couple of inches bigger from the added muscle there

 

[coolcolj]

my BBall friend, the 6 foot guy ex semi-pro BBall player in Europe who I posted his clip here before dunking and stuff back when he was 18 years old had a look at my clip and made some comments

His comments to follow, but firstly I wanted to say that I always had a feeling my running jump wasn't right, it didn't feel flowing the way I did it with the jump stop. Since It's hard to do when your running fast. The way I do it is more like a Volley ball running type jump. It feels more like a standing jump with some extra force from the run. But I can only get one inch higher than my one step jump. So I wasn't using the extra speed from the run up much.
Well his reply made me know why now, and his clip linked below shows the difference in technique
Also note, how much bigger he is now vs the 18 y.o old clip I posted before
he's olylifting these days

---------------

You're definitely explosive and bouncy!!! But MAN!! You need to work on your running jump technique, you would gain 2-3 inches at least! Do you realize how harder it is to approach at half speed and bounce from 2 feet at the same time like you do?? Is that your usual technique? If so you need to learn the "1-2" step take-off when you jump off two feet like that.

Look at this vid:
right click on link and save
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj2/Movies/2handsbouncedunk.MPG

It's not good quality but look at my steps right before take-off, right leg first, then left, then jump. Some people prefer left-right, it doesn't matter but all good leapers do this, it allows you to run faster and more
effectively transfer that speed into a powerful upward movement.

I mean don't get me wrong, with that height you should be able to dunk already, especially if you bounce the ball but I tell you, if you train on the correct jumping technique, man, you will do some nice dunks!!!

 

[coolcolj]

more from him

Yeah try it. Try to do the initial step long and swing the arms fast
backwards! then the 1-2 foot contact on the floor as fast as possible, and
explode up with a powerful arms swing. It takes a little time to get used to
but once you can do that, you will be dunking easily.
There will be a lot less energy wasted compared to your 2-foot bounce prior
to the jump.

Also how do you do your depth jump? do you jump off of the box? I do mine
stepping off the box with the leg I usually put forward first in my 2 foot
jump. Maybe that would help building the coordination. It must be like a
reflex you know, one-two-BOOM!!

 

[d-dub]

after seeing that dunk clip im ready to play ball.
He certainly packed on some size since the old clip, but still looks v. athletic.
What does he weigh now - 200ish didnt you say?

Does he have any comments on one legged running jump?

 

[coolcolj]

Wednesday 8th May - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 4 - Day 3 - Upper - Microcycle 2

Felt queezy for most of the workout for some reason. Lowest bodyweight at gym so far! Pretty warm today for winter, so again I wore shorts!

Anyway I think one upper body workout probbaly isn't enough to maintain strength and msucle mass on a calorie deficit, so I might add in an extra workout to do at home. Using mostly bodyweight exercises, light dumbells and bands. My lower body is fine with all the sprinting, jumping, and once a week weights session. It's actually getting stronger!

Bodyweight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - ?
Workout rating - 7/10

General warmup -
scapular pushups (3 angles from easiest to floor) 3x10,
pulldowns 25kg x10, 35kg x10, 45kgx 8

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 30secs to 1min on warmup sets and then 2 mins between each exercise

14 inch Grip bench - no leg drive

Warmups - Controlled down, snapped up - Bar x10, 95lbs x5, 135x5, 165x3, 195x3, 225x2

Controlled down, explode up
Rotation 1) 245lbs x 4 --> last rep a hard grind
Rotation 2) 205lbs x 5
Rotation 3) 205lbs x 5

Strength more or less about the same, slightly weaker perhaps

45 degree Chest Supported T-Bar Row - palms down grip

warmups - 45lbs x5, 70x5, 90x3, 115x1

Assuming bar weighs 20lbs
explode up, controlled down
Rotation 1) Bar+115lbs x 6
Rotation 2) Bar+100lbs x 6
Rotation 3) Bar+100lbs x 6

A little stronger

Dumbell Low Decline Tricep Extensions

warmups - 2kg x10, 15lbs x 5, 35x3

Controlled down, explode up
Rotation 1) 50lbs x 5
Rotation 2) 45lbs x 5


Standing Dumbell Curls

warmups - 2kg x10, 15lbs x 5, 35x2

Controlled down, explode up
Rotation 1) 45lbs x 5
Rotation 2) 40lbs x 5


CoolDown, Cuff Stuff

Cuff circuit

rotating sets between each exercise - 1 min rest

High angle single arm dumbell row to ribs - using lower/mid traps to pull, also hits the rear and medial delts - 25lbs 2x10

Locked arm Dip Shrugs - warmup BW x 6
BW 2x15

Neutral Grip single Arm Face Pulls - warmup 25x6
50lbs 2x12

Single arm Low pulley L-Flyes - warmup 10x6
20lbs 2x10

Shoulder dislocate pec stretches with wooden staff
Neck, trap, cuff, lat stretches

 

[coolcolj]

after seeing that dunk clip im ready to play ball.
He certainly packed on some size since the old clip, but still looks v. athletic.
What does he weigh now - 200ish didnt you say?

Does he have any comments on one legged running jump?

he is 9-10kg heavier so about 95kg.

Not sure, but you don't want to go too heavy, he said he can't do one leg jumps now. There is a reason why high jumpers, longer jumpers and triple jumpers try to stay as light as possible
Your weaker on one leg, and it's mostly a reflexive glute ham raise type movement, so it's more about being light, and carrying good speed into it while being reflexive and relaxed.

Anyway he has tried just about every training thing you can possibly do at one time or another