Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Not too sore, just and overall achey feeling, in my posterior chain (mostly in the erectors) and lower legs/feet

weighed 93.3kg 205.25lbs straight out of bed in underwear.

Down to where I should have been yesterday, the water bloat is all gone and I feel and look a lot more athletic/tighter. Probably would have jumped higher if I was like this yesterday.
I even had quite a bit of carbs after training and at dinner. So carbs aren't so bad after training, but loading up on em doesn't work to well for me. Good for bodybuilders and strength athletes, but not so good for speed and power athletes. So I'm tweaking the diet this week in light of this.
I can sorta see faint outlines of my abs now, but my bodyweight and waist size doesn't seem to say that I am actually much leaner than 6 weeks ago....

29min brisk walk this morning after a serving of whey.
Walked a bit further than last week, and up more slopes, but 4 mins faster. And I feel less tired, fitness is improving. Next step, is to walk up that long street with a 30 degree slope.
Noticed chicks walking dogs on the other side of the road and in cars going past checking me out. That hasn't happened in a while, guess having some muscle mass, shape and a slight tan isn't such a bad thing after all

 

[coolcolj]

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=8C122DBFF36FA8636BF5E8B6B2BE18A7.hydra?id=813755

my sleep is crap, hmmm the cause of my problems.... ?

Did you know that there's a nearly linear relationship between hours of sleep and body mass index (a crude marker of obesity in non-athletes)? Or how about the fact that sleep debt builds up on you, contributing to carbohydrate intolerance and fat gain over time?!

 

[800man]

I know it sounds stupid, but rather than get super complex about everything, compare what you were doing when you were lean to what you are now. It may be as simple as that.

Dr. mauro disquale (former world champ pl'er totaling 10xbw in 3 different catergories) says genetic food tests are 10 years away. Exact nutrient needs & everything. What im trying to say is maybe what your following is ideal for certain bodytypes but not you. Everyone seems to have this textbook answer (most of it stemming from bodybuilding following) & IT DOESNT WORK FOR EVERYONE!

i've been a similar weight to you (i've been as high as 98.5kg fairly lean) & just couldnt lose it. muscle or fat. its wasnt untill I stopped all the carb loading for increased leptin levels & evelated IGF-1 etc that I actually started to lose weight. This is before I started doing middle distance. art devany on t-mag.com has some interesting opinions, as does the author of the warrior diet. (not saying its ideal for your situation but neither is what your currently doing cos it aint happening)

maybe you look at constant lower carb/kcal levels. just for a few consectutive weeks. no carb ups & no massive kcal days. Maybe putting bodyweight as the first consideration for your sprinting & then any strength/power ratio's from there. I doubt you'll lose as much as you think. Decreased leverage might result in a small drop in squat numbers etc. but not much. Compare weightlifters numbers from 69-85kg. Not much difference in numbers relatively (boeski 196kg C&j compared to vanevs 217.5kg) but big difference in bodyweight! Also mutlu. competed regularly in the 56's, snatched a WR 138.5kg. Went upto 62kg because of the struggle with bodyweight & dieting down & snatched 146kg. whoop whoop! Big difference if your chasing world records but not for the average joe. Majority of it is the CNS, muscle mass aint really worth much, otherwise kevin lervone would of beat chambers in that race

I wish you the best of luck with it man, cos I know its mega fustrating, espeically when you think all your lifting is gona go down the drain.

In the end, I had this (bad) attitude; muscle mass cant stay there is the isnt enough kcal to support it. & it worked. my numbers didnt drop at all. All that horrible useless muscle was there for nothing. stupid.

Also, have you thought about factorized arrangment for your db training? May assist is the extra kcal expenditure & help to keep tha metabolism moving on week upon week of low kcal/carb.

 

[coolcolj]

I know it sounds stupid, but rather than get super complex about everything, compare what you were doing when you were lean to what you are now. It may be as simple as that.

Dr. mauro disquale (former world champ pl'er totaling 10xbw in 3 different catergories) says genetic food tests are 10 years away. Exact nutrient needs & everything. What im trying to say is maybe what your following is ideal for certain bodytypes but not you. Everyone seems to have this textbook answer (most of it stemming from bodybuilding following) & IT DOESNT WORK FOR EVERYONE!

i've been a similar weight to you (i've been as high as 98.5kg fairly lean) & just couldnt lose it. muscle or fat. its wasnt untill I stopped all the carb loading for increased leptin levels & evelated IGF-1 etc that I actually started to lose weight. This is before I started doing middle distance. art devany on t-mag.com has some interesting opinions, as does the author of the warrior diet. (not saying its ideal for your situation but neither is what your currently doing cos it aint happening)

maybe you look at constant lower carb/kcal levels. just for a few consectutive weeks. no carb ups & no massive kcal days. Maybe putting bodyweight as the first consideration for your sprinting & then any strength/power ratio's from there. I doubt you'll lose as much as you think. Decreased leverage might result in a small drop in squat numbers etc. but not much. Compare weightlifters numbers from 69-85kg. Not much difference in numbers relatively (boeski 196kg C&j compared to vanevs 217.5kg) but big difference in bodyweight! Also mutlu. competed regularly in the 56's, snatched a WR 138.5kg. Went upto 62kg because of the struggle with bodyweight & dieting down & snatched 146kg. whoop whoop! Big difference if your chasing world records but not for the average joe. Majority of it is the CNS, muscle mass aint really worth much, otherwise kevin lervone would of beat chambers in that race

I wish you the best of luck with it man, cos I know its mega fustrating, espeically when you think all your lifting is gona go down the drain.

In the end, I had this (bad) attitude; muscle mass cant stay there is the isnt enough kcal to support it. & it worked. my numbers didnt drop at all. All that horrible useless muscle was there for nothing. stupid.

Also, have you thought about factorized arrangment for your db training? May assist is the extra kcal expenditure & help to keep tha metabolism moving on week upon week of low kcal/carb.

not really that simple, when I was lean, I was already fairly lean naturally at 10% BF, I just got leaner! When your young, whenever I got fatter, just walking and eating breakfast cereal got me leaner, and fast. Not gonna work now that's for sure!
Then when I wanted to get under 10%, exercising stop working, so for 3 weeks I just ate chicken breast and lettuce 6 times a day, and then carb loaded every 4 days, plus walking 3 times a week. That got me to my leanest ever, about 8% BF or so, upper 28inch waist, 151lbs, and I was starting to see faint outlines of the veins in the thighs. Still not ripped, but pretty damn lean for me. Had I kept going for another 3 weeks I probbaly would have ended up ripped to shreds.

My body just doesn't respond like it did back in my teens and early 20s, even though I have much more musclemass now. It's a whole new ball game when your in your mid 30s hormone wise.
I'm eating half what I used to eat when younger, with a lot more muscle mass, but yet I'm not dropping the fat or bdoyweight for that matter like I used to....

Anyway in case you haven't seen, I have been leaning up over the last 12months, very slowly, but that stop working a month ago. Guess I hit my setpoint at around 15-17% BF. When that happens things get a lot harder since your fighting your body now as well.

Well as far as strength goes, musclemass is very important. That's why people's benches drop when they lose weight, but it doesn't effect the squats as much because their lighter - ie less bodyweight to squat up. If the strength stayed the same they should be squatting more weight at the lower bodyweight...
My bench has gone down quite a bit, because I have lost a bit of musclemass. And the last few weeks I have regained some of that mass, and what do you know..my upper body strength has come back
Someone who is 205lbs and at 15-17% bodyfat naturally does not run the 100m in 11secs and have a standing vertical jump over 30inches like I do.
So it means my neural effeciency is pretty good. And I move loads at a high % of my 1RM pretty fast. Neural effeciency is pretty quickly maxed out, after that the only way to get stronger is to add muscle mass. Although it seems to vary for person to person. I tend to add muscle pretty easily no matter what I do, whereas other people can get stronger without as much muscle gain.

It's a lot more than just CNS and neural effecieny. Especially the elite level guys your talking about who are on drugs. Why do you think drugs make people a lot stronger? It's hormones and musclemass. Take the drugs away and guess what they get weaker, even though their neural effeicency is the same!
What happens when your lean up? You put yourself in starvation mode which decreases the anabolic hormones, and inturn musclemass does go down a bit.
It affects some people more than others. The genetic freaks can get lean and stay very lean and strong at the same time, not many other people can do this.

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 15th November - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 3 - Day 2 - Upper + Lower Strength - Microcycle 5

Damn good session, stronger across the board! All this money I'm spending on protein powder is sure paying off, almost steroid like for now
Imagine if I could get a full deep 8+ hours sleep a night...
Why didn't I start eating more protein before?!

They say maximal strength is the base of the power pyramind. Well my pyramid sure got a whole lot bigger and at a lighter bodyweight too! Just need to get shredded and I'll be happy.
I've noticed a gain in muscle mass, and it's pretty obvious it's spilling over into everything I'm doing

Bodyweight at gym - 208lbs
Workout time - 1 hour 30mins
Workout rating - 9/10

General warmup -
1) dynamic swings etc
2) back extension BWx6 + 6 twisting to each alternate side
3) reverse hypers - BWx10
4) situp complex on swissball
5) sitting in bottom of a narrow fullsquat for 1min
6) adductor/hammie stretch into back tumbells - makes me feel alive
7) usual bar complex with 30lbs - blasting the barbell like nothing!

Rotating Sets between each lower body exercise

Resting 1 to 2 min on warmup sets and then 3.5 mins between each exercise

Full Oly Back Squats - in Oly Shoes - RAW

Warmups - explosive - BWx10, Bar x8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4, 255x2, 285x2
Frontsquat - Barx5, 95x3, 135x3, 185x2
Wide stance fullsquats - Barx5, 95x3, 135x5, 185x2

Rotation 1) 315lbs x 4 (+20lbs -1 rep) --> Balbusting strain on last rep
Rotation 2) 315lbs x 3 --> felt easier...
Rotation 2) 315lbs x 2 --> wobbly

315lbs felt much lighter on the back than 295lbs did last week. Nice and solid form too. I kinda relaxed at the bottom of the 4th rep, and was lucky to get it back up. Funny the 2nd set felt easier, I was expecting to grind the 3rd rep.
3rd set felt wobbly walking out, so I ended it there. Need some ab work now, my erectors have been getting more work lately

Fronsquats feeling much easier and soild now. Wide stance squats no longer making the adductors ache.

clip - right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullOlySquats315x4_x3_15Nov05.mpg


Snatch grip Deadlifts - in Oly Shoes - RAW - HookGrip

Warmups - Hang powersnatch - bar 3x3
snatchgrip dead - 133x3, 183x3, 213x1

explode up, lowered down RDL style, slight pause on the floor staying tight
Rotation 1) 213lbs x 6 (+20lbs)
Rotation 2) 213lbs x 6 --> did two highhang powersnatches before

Solid but not quite as snappy as last week, but I didn't dropoff in the 2nd set.
Had to reset my grip on the 4th rep of each set, slippery bar. Might stay here until I own this weight.
The hang powersntaches felt ace, very snappy and smooth. Much better than the last time I did em, and no shoulder impingement pain at the top!


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

Rotating Sets between each upper body exercise

Resting 1.5 min on warmup sets and then 2.5 mins between each exercise


16 inch Grip bench - shoulder blades tucked - no arch or leg drive

Warmups - Bar x12 (last few reps drop/catch style)
explosive - 95lbs x 10, 135x8, 165x5, 195x2

controlled down, 3 sec ISO hold an inch above the chest , explode up
Rotation 1) 230lbs x 3 (+5lbs, +1rep) --> last rep mild strain
Rotation 2) 230lbs x 3 --> medium strain on last rep

LOL, 230lbs was too light! I should have used 235lbs. 225lbs was very hard last week. 230lbs felt like nothing holding it there in the ISO and I was able to power it up much faster than 225lbs last week. Might have been able to do 4 reps too, but I played it safe. 245lbs next week I think, I can almost smell a 315lb bench...

clip - right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_16inchGripBench230x3_ISOPaused_15Nov05.mpg


Chest Supported 45 degree T-Bar Rows - Overhand grip

warmups - explosive - Bar+25lbs x10, 45lbs x8, +70x5, +90x2 with 2sec ISO at top

controlled, 3sec ISO hold at the top
Rotation 1) Bar + 125lbs x 4 (+10lbs) --> strain on last rep
Rotation 2) Bar + 125lbs x 4 --> very hard strain on last rep, bar falling down

Not as easy as last week, but the snatch grip deads probably added some fatigue, and I'm up 10lbs to boot. 3 plates next week!

Cooldown

bunch of easy 10sec static stretches for whole body

 

[800man]

not really that simple, when I was lean, I was already fairly lean naturally at 10% BF, I just got leaner! When your young, whenever I got fatter, just walking and eating breakfast cereal got me leaner, and fast. Not gonna work now that's for sure!
Then when I wanted to get under 10%, exercising stop working, so for 3 weeks I just ate chicken breast and lettuce 6 times a day, and then carb loaded every 4 days, plus walking 3 times a week. That got me to my leanest ever, about 8% BF or so, upper 28inch waist, 151lbs, and I was starting to see faint outlines of the veins in the thighs. Still not ripped, but pretty damn lean for me. Had I kept going for another 3 weeks I probbaly would have ended up ripped to shreds.

My body just doesn't respond like it did back in my teens and early 20s, even though I have much more musclemass now. It's a whole new ball game when your in your mid 30s hormone wise.
I'm eating half what I used to eat when younger, with a lot more muscle mass, but yet I'm not dropping the fat or bdoyweight for that matter like I used to....

Anyway in case you haven't seen, I have been leaning up over the last 12months, very slowly, but that stop working a month ago. Guess I hit my setpoint at around 15-17% BF. When that happens things get a lot harder since your fighting your body now as well.

Well as far as strength goes, musclemass is very important. That's why people's benches drop when they lose weight, but it doesn't effect the squats as much because their lighter - ie less bodyweight to squat up. If the strength stayed the same they should be squatting more weight at the lower bodyweight...
My bench has gone down quite a bit, because I have lost a bit of musclemass. And the last few weeks I have regained some of that mass, and what do you know..my upper body strength has come back
Someone who is 205lbs and at 15-17% bodyfat naturally does not run the 100m in 11secs and have a standing vertical jump over 30inches like I do.
So it means my neural effeciency is pretty good. And I move loads at a high % of my 1RM pretty fast. Neural effeciency is pretty quickly maxed out, after that the only way to get stronger is to add muscle mass. Although it seems to vary for person to person. I tend to add muscle pretty easily no matter what I do, whereas other people can get stronger without as much muscle gain.

It's a lot more than just CNS and neural effecieny. Especially the elite level guys your talking about who are on drugs. Why do you think drugs make people a lot stronger? It's hormones and musclemass. Take the drugs away and guess what they get weaker, even though their neural effeicency is the same!
What happens when your lean up? You put yourself in starvation mode which decreases the anabolic hormones, and inturn musclemass does go down a bit.
It affects some people more than others. The genetic freaks can get lean and stay very lean and strong at the same time, not many other people can do this.

well, I think personally think muscle mass is overrated.

taken from ''training of a weightlifter" text it take 8-10 years for a elite lifter to max out. Then muscle mass is the only way to improve (i.e. move up a weight class) super heavy weights take up to 16 years for progress to come to a complete halt. According to this you have done this way too soon. Yes these are elite athletes on drugs/anabolic stimulants but then surely there would be a linear increase as each one moved up in their own class!?!!

same drugs + same training + increased muscle mass = small jump in total.

everytime this is what you see.

vanev cleaned 212.5kg twice at the worlds @ 77kg (cant remember total)

moved upto 85kg. clean & jerked 217.5kg.

vardayan was the same. huge c&j at one weight, moved up & it barely shifted. (223.5/228kg)

you've probably got more in your body than you think. You keep taking protein shakes & shoving in extra kcal when you actually trying to lose muscle mass & decrease relative fat levels (drop weight).

"Someone who is 205lbs and at 15-17% bodyfat naturally does not run the 100m in 11secs and have a standing vertical jump over 30inches like I do.
So it means my neural effeciency is pretty good. And I move loads at a high % of my 1RM pretty fast. Neural effeciency is pretty quickly maxed out, after that the only way to get stronger is to add muscle mass"

so what your saying is you are rate dominant & you've maxed out on your CNS strength capabilities with a squat of barely 2x bw after 4-5 years of training???

Leg wise im on par with you & I know I havent even started. However I would say you are are far more gifted than me overall. I still train with basic methods & make steady gains (my logs on fortfiediron now). I now worry about a meal after lifting, well, never. I stay leaner than before & it seems like i havent got the same body as before in terms of metabolism.

"It's a lot more than just CNS and neural effecieny"

thats a bit of a contradiction considering you follow db hammers methods......

Dave Tate says hes never met anyone who great at their sport who really was meticulous about their diet.

maybe because they are all freaks?

or maybe because the body is very adaptable & can deal with alot thats thrown at it.

what im trying to say is maybe eating like a bodybuilder (5-8 meals a day) is the reason you are well, like a bodybuilder. stuff down 6 meals (albiet small) & your insulin & blood sugar levels are CONSTANTLY elevated. Not good for weight loss. (unless you are on a strict ketogenic diet, which you are not).

On a weekly average what are your kcal/protein/carbs/fats? do you keep a log of it>?

Either way, if you are gona eat like a bodybuilder then there should be a weekly decrease (i.e. average of 250kcal drop a day over the week) if your not dropping weight. Regardless if its 3500kcal or 1400kcal. Compensate with extra protein if you feel your losing muscle. Otherwise you are just turning in circles.

I think all this hocus pocus hyper concentrated loading has made us forget one old skool rule;

progressive overload!

This applies to diet & training.

How did they do so well in the old days? Ever heard of eddie coan?

good luck with your training fella.

 

[coolcolj]

Well olys are a different kettle of fish to pure strength lifts. Sure their total are not up linearly, but their strength lifts would be up much higher.

well if I were actually lean it would be over double bodyweight
I'm actually better at deadlifting than squats, even though I have short arms, I guess having a big ass helps...
My oly style clean deadlift without any belts or straps is almost 2.5x BW even now at my fatter weight.

power --> hypertrophy--> strength, they all feed into each other, that's the DB structure, straight from the source. High power capacity will maximise hypertrophy, musclemass will make your stronger, and strength will increase power. And around you go again.

I've already listed what I eat in this log. Average day is 1500 calories, 200g+ protein, under 100g of carbs and 40-50g of fat mostly from fishoil, nuts and flax seeds. A little more on training days, 300-500 extra cals from extra carbs

 

[coolcolj]

Not great sleep, had a lot on my mind. Achey all over, but not too sore or drained feeling.

weighed 92.6kg 203.72lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Interesting bodyweight dropped down further, but I look a little bigger.

32 min brisk walk this morning after a serving of whey.
Walked further, and up more slopes. Felt easier too, just getting better and better.

 

[coolcolj]

Still a bit sore, especially in my upper back and hammies/adductors.

weighed 92.1kg 202.6lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Bodyweight down again and I look trimmer. A bit lighter from this time last week, so it looks like the changes I made last week are heading in the right direction, but most importantly, I'm also stronger to boot!
So it's just a matter of fine tuning things now. Keep the carb load tonight after training and all day tommorrow, plus after BBall on Sunday. But I'll drop carbs on the last meal on Friday and see what happens.
Most of my meals are just a bit of meat, veges, one scoop of protein blend drink+milled flax seeds, some raw nuts and 2 caps of fishoil. Keeps me nice and full for a while. And my usual cereal+whey+oat milk after training and walking in the morning.

The walking is starting to play a big part now that I can walk further, faster and more intensely without getting sore from em. Drop in bodyweight from yesterday shows that. They also help my CNS recover as well. On that note I will add another walking session on Saturday afternoon to help me recover for BBall the next day, and drop some water weight.
Eventually I'll probably add another shorter session of walking at night with my girlfriend, since the sun sets at 8pm these days. Yeap GPP is certainly ramping up..makes up for me sitting on my ass most of the time
When I lived in Papue New Guinea, the people there don't have cars, so they walk everywhere, and most of em are very lean, even the women...

Plus my feet and ankles are feeling better than ever since I started walking for longer, and I have a feeling my work capacity in the 200m runs is getting boosted by them as well. As they say longer duration work spills down to shorter duration work, and so on down the chain

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 17th November - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 3 - Day 3 - Energy Work - Microcycle 5

Soreness in my posterior chain and adductors made things a bit uncomfortbale at first, but after I warmed up I didn't notice them so that cool. But my adductors are feeling it a bit now...
No shin splints though which is good as I went all out on some hard grassy/dirt surface

Workout Rating - 8/10
Workout time - 40 mins

Warmup

warmup - dynamic stretches and swings, various hops in place in bare feet at home.

Slow Jog - 50m x 4 - 1 mins rest

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

3 sets - trying to stay as smooth, relaxed and fluid as possible
25m straight run, 25m prime times (stiffed legged runs), then into lateral run, right side 5m, left side 5m, into backwards run 5m

Starts into 30m accleration runs to 70% speed x 3, walk back to start = rest

then rest 2.5mins

Tempo Runs + Energy Work

200 metres - 180 degree turn at halfway @ 70% speed - from proper standing start

rest = 3 mins
1) 46.4 secs
2) 43.8 secs
3) 45.7 secs
4) 46.2 secs

Sweet, work capacity has improved a notch from last week, definitely surprised at the time of the last run, and how it felt. It was hard, but a second faster than last week and matches my first run.

Leg spring from each leg felt uneven though, felt like my mid torso trying to twist. Hmm core need some strength work.

10m Hill starts - from 3 point start - 40 degree angle + 30m sprints in touch football shoes

rested 5mins
10m Hill start sprints x 3 runs - 10secs rest between each rep
concentrating on full leg and arm drive

rest 2mins
2x30m sprints from 3 point standing start - 30secs rest
times - 1) 4.66 2) 4.69 secs

rest 2mins
10m Hill start sprint
rest 30secs
30m sprint - 4.03secs

Very explosive today, Woah, I was powering up the hill like it was flat! Must be the greater leg and posterior chain strength this week. So much for slowing down the movement...
Was gonna just do the 3x3 10m hill start sprints like last week, but on the spur of the moment complexed them with 30m sprints to make the transfer of the start and drive form to em. Certainly worked for the last 30m sprint. Way faster than the earlier ones, but it actually felt slower....
Form didn't feel great I was just blumbering out and stepping on the gas. Point and squirt.

The touch football shoes didn't have much grip at the start for the jump off the line. Plus I was also pretty tired from the 200m tempo suns, so 4.03sec on the last run is pretty good. Fresh, with good form, and spikes, 3.7 to 3.8sec is quite realistic for me by the end of the microcycle, especially if I lean up a bit and add some more strength/power