Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Not too sore today or drained feeling.

Weighed 95kg 209lbs straight out of be in underwear, and waist measured 37 1/8 inch. But I am dehydrated though. So I'm just about at my goals of 37inch waist and 210lbs. Almost time for some progress pics and performance benchmarks.

Down 10lbs and 2inches on the waist so far. Legs still look big, but I've lost a ton of size in my upper body, and probably lost a lot of strength too...
At least I no longer look fat now, just bulky looking
Now onto a 35inch waist and 200lbs

 

[super_rice]

hey congrats on the progress!

i think that you'd need to spend a little more time at the lower bodyweight in order for adaptation, and perhaps more reactive work or just straight playing basketball to increase your overall athletic ability.

i know one thing for sure, concentrating on lifting does screw with your "natural" athletic ability (stuff like agility drills, etc) as well, you practice less.

say,colin, do you have any joint problems with all the court work? and from your videos it looks like you play on pavement so it can't be good. always takes me awhile to re-adjust, even to hardwood when i haven't played in a while.

 

[coolcolj]

hey congrats on the progress!

i think that you'd need to spend a little more time at the lower bodyweight in order for adaptation, and perhaps more reactive work or just straight playing basketball to increase your overall athletic ability.

i know one thing for sure, concentrating on lifting does screw with your "natural" athletic ability (stuff like agility drills, etc) as well, you practice less.

say,colin, do you have any joint problems with all the court work? and from your videos it looks like you play on pavement so it can't be good. always takes me awhile to re-adjust, even to hardwood when i haven't played in a while.

Plyos will come later when I'm under 200lbs, don't feel that good doing it until I'm lean. So that will help my jumping when the time comes, epsecially my running jumps

Yeah I know about that, I've gone a long way to fixing that in the last 6 months. That's what all those RFI hops and bounds, plus those run compelxes I do help with. It's much better now compared to a year ago, and once I get leaner it will be even better.

I don't have any major joint problems, since I slowly built up to this, doing months of force absorbtion work with all the variations of low altitude drops such and I only play once a week. Only when I don't allow for proper recovery do I get problems. It's usually my feet, ankles and shins that I have issues with, but as I have gotten stronger there and lighter that has improved. That's the thing, with all gym work, you don't really work on the feet and lower leg much, and that's like trying to drive a turbo charged car with skinny tires!
I did have some issues with my knees when I first started going all out on the first few sessions, specifically my left knee, strained my ACL when I dropped down deep to jump. Now that's its better and my body is accustomed to the jumping on the court, I have no problems. As long as I'm recovered from heavy squats. Recovery is the key!
Plus I always allow for a good 15-20min warmup before I jump all out.
Landing properly is also a big factor, that's where the months of low altitude drop work pays off.

Also I found keeping the quads and hip flexors flexible goes a long way to warding off any knee issues in jumping and squatting, especially at the reversal point. When I neglected that, I did get knee aches, from the knee cap getting pulled in to tightly etc. Now I stretch em at least 4 times a week, especially after a nice hot shower - I've described what I do it a few pages back from memory.

 

[super_rice]

thanks for the detailed response, and i never thought it would happen to me, but i've been neglecting stretching lately! perhaps that is the root of some of my problems in the hole.

whenever i start a new season i always spend two weeks or so on only depth jumps and bounds and such. you're right, it really is necessary, especially when training in gym heavy.

hey, would you mind taking a look at my korte's 3x3 progress and commenting on my little unloading fiasco? appreciate it

 

[coolcolj]

I made the same mistake and got the pain, but within a few days of stretching it went away! Anyway go back a page or so back and read up what I did. works very well

Most of the joint issues in the body are a result of strength imbalances, over use and lack of flexibility

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 5th July - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 8 DELOAD - Day 2 Morning - Energy Work - Microcycle 2

Been 2 weeks since I did any running and they felt great today. I also massaged my foot arch muscles against the side of the bath tub before heading to the park, which hurt a bit in that deep tissue massge type of way... In any case my foot arch muscle didn't tighten up like it has been in winter for the first time!
Also I will cut back down to doing only one session of energy work during the deload period, because even with the lower volume and speed it's still quite taxing on my muscles

Workout Rating - 8/10
Workout time - 40 mins all up

Warmup

warmup - dynamic stretches and swings, balance on one leg and foot massage, various hops in place in bare feet at home.

Slow Jog - 50m the walk back halfway and jog back to start . 1.5mins rest
Keep doing these until I start to feel loose and effortless - took 3 sets

Run complex increasing in speed each run to 50% speed - 1.5 mins rest

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

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

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


Tempo Runs + Energy Work

105+ metres @ 50% speed with proper standing start
walk back to start = rest 2 mins

3 runs - all around 20secs

Well my lighter bodyweight seemed to make things feel easier, plus the week's rest. Felt very good today, no issues in my feet or shins at all, very loose, relaxed, effortless and springy.
So it looks like I was actually not recovering all that well from the 2nd week to 7th week of this microcycle...

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 5th July - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 8 DELOAD - Day 2 - Upper Evening - Microcycle 2

Good workout. Kept things light today, even then I'm tired as hell right now, damn high reps!
Now that I'm not over-reaching I warmup much faster.

Even though I was much lighter than the last time I was in the gym, I looked bigger, upper body just looked wider and thicker somehow. Maybe it's because my face is getting smaller

Bodyweight at gym - 213.5lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1 hour
Workout rating - 8/10

General warmup -
scapular pushups on bench 3x10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 -2 min on warmup sets and then 3 mins between each exercise

14 inch Grip bench - shoulder blades tucked - no leg drive

Warmups - Bar x10, 95lbs x 10, 135lbs 2x5, 155x3

About 58% AW - Controlled down, 2 sec pause, lightly supported on chest
Rotation 1) 155lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 155lbs x 10

Last rep was hard but not near failure. Killer burn!


Bent over Barbell Rows - Index fingers on smooth - Strict

warmups - Barx10, 89lbs x10, 119lbs 2x5, 129x3

About 60% AW - Trying to keep back as horizontal as possible and pushing hips back. 2sec pause at the bottom
Rotation 1) 129lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 129lbs x 10

Hammies were stretched out and screaming! That takes care of my hammie flexibility work


Side of neck and trap stretches

10 sec stretches for each type and side between each set of the other exercises


Cooldown, Cuffs and stretches

Scapular Dip - warmup - on bench BWx6
BWx20

FacePulls - warmup - 20lbs x 6
35lbs x 30 each side

Low Pulley L-Fyles - 10lbs x 20

Subscap rotation stretch ISO hold - 4kg dumbells x 1min ---> too light

shoulder dislocates with wooden staff

A few Upper body static stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Feeling Ok, not drained or too sore at all.
Waist finally down to 37inches, short term goal achieved! Bodyweight was 208.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear. Time for some progress pics, still chubby though...

That week off certainly resparked off my whole body and metabolism

 

[coolcolj]

Horrible sleep, took ages to fall asleep, had a lot on my mind.
Despite that the non-powered steering wheel in the van feels very light, so much so I wondered if someone had put power steering in while I wasn't looking!
Upper body, especially my pecs are quite sore, legs a little sore as well, but the small jump I did this morning felt good.

Now that I know what it feels like when I fairly "fresh", I have a better idea of when I'm pushing myself too hard recovery wise. Looking back to how it felt weeks ago, I certainly kicked my ass pretty hard back then, even though I didn't think I was. It took a long time to warmup and I had a lot of minor aches during that time as well, another sign.

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 7th July - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 8 DELOAD - Day 3 - Lower - Microcycle 2

On the way to the gym I as feeling really sleepy. And then as I started to warmup, my blood sugar crashed... Doh, not good conditions for a productive workout, but I went ahead with it and it turned out ok.
Not too bad considering I haven't trained lower body in a couple of weeks
targeting hypertrophy today, need to regain some loss muscle mass.
Hammies are feeling pretty trashed right now!

Bah - some fat rugby forward beside me today, doing his 155lb power cleans and 1/4 squats with 315lbs
I could probbaly pulverise him on the rugby field and I'm a winger type!

Bodyweight at the gym - 214.5lbs (in winter clothes)
Workout Rating - 7/10
Workout time - 1 hour

Warmup - Prehab

1) dynamic swings etc
2) back extension BWx6 + 6 twisting to each alternate side
3) situp complex on swissball
4) Hip abduction/adduction on Keiser air machine - Level 2/2 x10, level 3/4 x 10
5) warmup complex with 30lb bar - RDL onto toes with shrug, military press, explosive good morning onto toes, snatch grip behind the neck partial press, hang powercleans, powerjerks - 10 reps each, except cleans and jerks, 5 and 3 reps respectively
6) Back tumbles from sitting position x 5
7) A few sets of hops and a few vertical jumps - not very explosive thanks to the drop in blood sugar

Rotating Sets between Squats and one accessory exercise

Resting 1 to 1.5min on warmup sets and then 3 to 4 mins between each exercise

Full Oly Back Squats - in Oly Shoes - RAW

Warmups - divebombed/explosive - BWx5, Bar x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5
normal - 225x3

controlled down, explode up - resting 4 mins in between the last singles
Rotation 1) 245x1, 275x1, 295x1, 315x1, 335x1, 365x1

2sec pause at the bottom, explode up
Rotation 2) 245lbs x 7 (30sec set times)
Rotation 3) 245lbs x 7

Did squats oly style today, sitting straight down, with a moderate stance, to hit the VMO more, and they certainly felt it.
I wasn't going to go heavy today, just get back into the grrove and get some hypertrophy, but I was feeling good as I warmed up (apart from the low blood sugar) so I went up to get an idea of my strength levels. 365lbs was hard and a bit wobbly, so I'm much weaker, but my blood sugar didn't exactly help. But it felt good, just pure muscular strain without any bad aches. None of the loads felt heavy on my back either, which is interesting, because I haven't squatted in 2 weeks! Probably due to me not over-reaching now
The smaller jumps between singles definitely felt much better, will stick to this scheme from now on.

The paused sets with 245lbs were killer. I could have done 8-9 reps with it, but my core wasn't getting tired towards the end of each set and I started to relax at the bottom etc.


SIngle Leg Standing Leg Curl

warmups - 4plates x 5, 2sec ISO paused 6Px2, 8Px1

6 sec ISO hold at bottom, explode up
Rotation 2) 10 Plates x 5 (38sec set time)
Rotation 3) 10 Plates x 5

Pretty close to failure, 2nd set were not quite full reps towards the end


Lat Machine Situp

warmups - 2 sec ISO paused at bottom, explode up - BW 2x5, 25lbs x 1

that's it


Cooldown

Bulgarian Split Squat stretched ISO hold - 20lb dumbell x 1min each leg
External hip rotor and Lower back stretches

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clip from today

Right click on clip and save to avoid errors

Squats - first set of 245lbs paused squats
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj2/Movies/CCJ_FullOlySquat_Paused245x7_7July05.mpg