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Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

Sunday 19th November - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 10 - Day 1 - Lower + Upper Strength - Micro cycle 10

I wasn't sure if I was gonna head to the gym, didn't feel the best. And it was supposed to be an upper body workout, but I wanted to squat, so I did. Wasn't even planning on training my upper body today, but decided after the squats to chuck em in so I can get a lot rest in before I train on Thursday, because I am definitely over-reached. It's not too bad as the weights didn't feel heavy today, but speed is well down, and off course my sore throat.

Looks like the last 2 weeks have been a concentrated loading of sorts, by accident, I'm just addicted to squatting - it hurts so good :)
Long ass workout. Probably gonna feel like ***** tomorrow!
Time for a deload.

Body weight at gym - 214lbs
Workout time - 2.75 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension BWx5 + 4 twisting to each alternate side
3) sit up complex on swiss ball
4) various hops
6) bar complex with 30lbs - 5 reps each - slow hang clean pull onto toes, military press, explosive GM onto toes, snatch grip press, hang power clean, power jerks


Cleans

did these in between the warm up sets on squats - 2-3 mins rest between

In sneakers - Powerclean + 2 High Hang Power cleans - 89lbs, 124lbs, 154lbs
in oly shoes - Powerclean + 2 High Hang Power cleans - 174lbs
Powerclean x 2 - 15 sec reset between each rep - 194lbs, 214lbs

Had to dip quite a bit to rack the 174lb set, so definitely no speed today...yep over-reached..


Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled - BWx8, Bar x 8, 95x8, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5
in oly shoes - 275x3, 305x2, 335x2, 355x2

5+ mins rest
Hold at middle on the way down, pause at bottom, driven up hard
1) 335lbs x 3 (+20lbs -3 sets)
2) 335lbs x 2 --> failed on 3rd rep just off the bottom

Thought I could up the weight to 335lbs and get 2 full sets like I wanted, even though I didn't get 5 full sets with 315lbs last time, but no go.
The mid hold was a bit shakey and I just barely made the first set.
I'm not quite fully recovered from the last workout anyway. Still I can't be all that badly over-reached since the squats didn't feel "heavy" on my back and 355lbs has never felt so controlled and comfortable. Smooth and upright. Definitely 20-30lbs stronger now, so 1RM should be at 405lbs at least. Oh so close to double BW!

Video of the 2 work sets - pause could have been longer on the 2nd set, I didn't do my usual count to 3 in my head.
Right click on light and save to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquat_ISOPaused_335x3_x2_16Nov06.mpg



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

Rotating Sets between each exercise
1 min on warmups and 3 min on work sets between each exercise

16inch grip Bench - shoulders tucked, no arch or leg drive

Warm ups - hold at middle and inch off the bottom on the way down, powered up - Bar x 10, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3

Hold at middle, and an inch off the bottom on the way down, powered up.
Rotation 1) 205lbs x 3
Rotation 2) 205lbs x 3
Rotation 3) 215lbs x 3
Rotation 4) 225lbs x 3

Trying these ISO paused style like my squats. Wasn't sure what I could handle doing em like this, so started at 205lbs. Felt really hard, breathing was difficult too, but then it started to get easier. So I upped the weight later on, and even 225lbs wasn't quite maximal, but getting harder. Will use 225 for my work sets next time. Quite surprising as I can barely get 255lbs x 4 normally. Unless I've gotten stronger...
I can do about 7-8 reps with 225lbs I think. So the holds pretty much halve the rep count. Massive pump!


Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - Explosive - +70lbs x 5, +90x5, +115x4

Explosive
Rotation 1) Bar + 135lbs x 4
Rotation 2) Bar + 135lbs x 4
Rotation 3) Bar + 135lbs x 4


Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 3 plates x 4, 5 plates x 4, 7 plates x 4 x 2 sets
 
good work man, do you feel like your immune system gets weak when you overreach? I definitely always get sick when I tax my CNS too much, wondering if its the same for you
 
ChinkNasty said:
good work man, do you feel like your immune system gets weak when you overreach? I definitely always get sick when I tax my CNS too much, wondering if its the same for you
Click to expand...


yeah it does, but it's been only this year that I have overeached slightly and gotten a sore throat. Usually I have be mega drained and beat up to be like that, and I'm not feeling like that right now. The last time I severly overtrained was in the first 2 years of training

----



Sleep not great. Feel a bit crappy, but not as bad as I expected. Slightly sore throat, running nose. Upper body a bit achey, but lower body is surprisingly not sore at all, just a worked feeling.

weighed 95.1kg 209.22lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Might go for a 12min walk and do some active recovery and easy stretching. I didn't do any yesterday after that long ass workout for obvious reasons

I looked back at my log and saw that I started doing these ISO paused squats on the 16th October. So in about a month of these I have added 30lbs onto my squat. With no change in bodyweight, and crappy sleep/diet. Not too shabby, average of 4-5lbs increase in strength each workout, plus I'm overreached too. ZMA is helping as well....?
These are like newbie type gains :)

I'd like to keep these gains going and hit 60lbs by the end of the year, so I'll be doing several sets of ISO paused squats with 355lbs. Putting my full squat at the 435-445lbs area. Then my goal of 495 isn't so far away....
 
Feeling better. Sleep not great, but I had a ton of naps, so that helps.
Immune system definitely got hit hard, the cold I got has green mucus...
Sore throat is just about gone.
Still feeling a bit battered body wise.

weighed 95.7kg 210.54lbs straight out of bed in underwear

did a bit of thoracic extension work and stretches
 
Sticking hot day and night, made it hard to sleep, but the naps made up for the sleep and early wake up.
Definitely bouncing back, non-powered steering wheel in the van felt the easiest to turn in the last few months.
Lower body is starting to feel good, feet got that springy feeling. Upper body still a bit beat.

weighed 95.9kg 211lbs straight out of bed in underwear

did more thoracic extension work and stretches
Getting better now, can just about get my arms vertical overhead. And can finally touch my arms on the floor in the same position lying on my back, so lats are finally loosening up. It used to be like 4 inches away from the floor,
but there is some impingement pain in that position so more work to do. Until then no more pullups.
 
freaking dogs, woke me up again! I'm looking so damn tired!
Cold is getter better, have an ulcer inside my mouth though - crap food caused it. Gotta clean up my diet
Upper back sore from all the stretching and crap I did the last 2 days.
Legs, hips and feet feeling better.

weighed 95.9kg 211lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Thursday 23rd November - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 10 - Day 2 - BBall/Jumps and Speed - Micro cycle 10

Feeling sleepy, and thought about taking the entire week off, but I need to get some sprints and jumps in. Won't be training again till Sunday again anyway.
Went to that other park with a BBall court next to the field

Body weight at shorts+ t-shirt - 213.18lbs
Workout time - ?
Workout rating - 6/10

Did a dynamic warmup in bare feet at home before heading to the park which is only 8 mins away.

1) Played BBall for 20mins or so, went moderately hard, didn't do that much jumping though. Mostly shooting, layups and post moves. Lots of agile explosive moves - damn calves, soleus especially were pumping up! They get used more than I thought.
The few near max effort jumps I did before I headed to sprinting were ok, not that high, but I still wasn't fully warmed up to max jumping mode yet.

2) did several warmup runs with a rest between sets of 3.
Then did 3x3 short sprints up to 90% with 4mins rest between each set
No shin issues. Long, close fitting shorts made these a bitch though...
Did a few vertical jumps in the rest period. Was able to touch the base of a light on the stadium ceiling.

3) played some more BBall, mostly jumping, feeling tired now. Probably should have skipped this and headed home. Pretty disappointed with my jumps here.

---

Negatives - jumps in the 3rd part of the session were real low. I dunno if the sprints tired me that much, or I'm really overreached, but they were 4 inches lower across the board for the 2 legged jumps.
Jumps felt kinda muscled too.Really disappointed, will see how it turns out when I'm fresher in 10 days time.


Positives - I BBalled in some low cut sneakers, not a whole lot thicker than Chuck Taylors, and I felt pretty good. Feet, ankles, knees all felt solid. When your strong in those areas with good force absorption you don't need much padding I guess.
Will never buy another pair of BBall shoes. They're too big, heavy, hot and expensive anyway! The Nike Free 5.0 I tried the other week feel so comfortable, might get a pair

- The ball rolled onto the road in the first part when I was BBalling, and I ran after it, jumped off a 2 feet high ledge, landed and bounced off the ground easy as you like with hardly any knee bend.

- I automatically reeled off some smooth running one leg jumps anytime I did a layup without thinking. Very unusual as I normally prefer 2 legged jumps. It felt real comfortable. Did them at good speed too, with no shin pain, and a lot more confidence. The jump practise I have been doing at the gym is paying off.

- 3 step vertical jump was smooth, without the hesitation jump stop I normally do and was higher than my one step VJ by a couple of inches or more. Getting more spring.

- Knees came up extremely high on the sprints. Kinda like full squat bottom position. Hmm wonder if the paused squats doing some active flexibility work there...
 
coolcolj said:
Thursday 23rd November - Cycle 3 Get Lean+Maintain Strength - Week 10 - Day 2 - BBall/Jumps and Speed - Micro cycle 10

Feeling sleepy, and thought about taking the entire week off, but I need to get some sprints and jumps in. Won't be training again till Sunday again anyway.
Went to that other park with a BBall court next to the field

Body weight at shorts+ t-shirt - 213.18lbs
Workout time - ?
Workout rating - 6/10

Did a dynamic warmup in bare feet at home before heading to the park which is only 8 mins away.

1) Played BBall for 20mins or so, went moderately hard, didn't do that much jumping though. Mostly shooting, layups and post moves. Lots of agile explosive moves - damn calves, soleus especially were pumping up! They get used more than I thought.
The few near max effort jumps I did before I headed to sprinting were ok, not that high, but I still wasn't fully warmed up to max jumping mode yet.

2) did several warmup runs with a rest between sets of 3.
Then did 3x3 short sprints up to 90% with 4mins rest between each set
No shin issues. Long, close fitting shorts made these a bitch though...
Did a few vertical jumps in the rest period. Was able to touch the base of a light on the stadium ceiling.

3) played some more BBall, mostly jumping, feeling tired now. Probably should have skipped this and headed home. Pretty disappointed with my jumps here.

---

Negatives - jumps in the 3rd part of the session were real low. I dunno if the sprints tired me that much, or I'm really overreached, but they were 4 inches lower across the board for the 2 legged jumps.
Jumps felt kinda muscled too.Really disappointed, will see how it turns out when I'm fresher in 10 days time.


Positives - I BBalled in some low cut sneakers, not a whole lot thicker than Chuck Taylors, and I felt pretty good. Feet, ankles, knees all felt solid. When your strong in those areas with good force absorption you don't need much padding I guess.
Will never buy another pair of BBall shoes. They're too big, heavy, hot and expensive anyway! The Nike Free 5.0 I tried the other week feel so comfortable, might get a pair

- The ball rolled onto the road in the first part when I was BBalling, and I ran after it, jumped off a 2 feet high ledge, landed and bounced off the ground easy as you like with hardly any knee bend.

- I automatically reeled off some smooth running one leg jumps anytime I did a layup without thinking. Very unusual as I normally prefer 2 legged jumps. It felt real comfortable. Did them at good speed too, with no shin pain, and a lot more confidence. The jump practise I have been doing at the gym is paying off.

- 3 step vertical jump was smooth, without the hesitation jump stop I normally do and was higher than my one step VJ by a couple of inches or more. Getting more spring.

- Knees came up extremely high on the sprints. Kinda like full squat bottom position. Hmm wonder if the paused squats doing some active flexibility work there...
Click to expand...

if you want a good pair of ball shoes. get NEW BALANCE. they are the best. i got a pair and the support is really good. i put my carters on this morning, and it felt so clunky and not comfortable.
 
wakefib said:
if you want a good pair of ball shoes. get NEW BALANCE. they are the best. i got a pair and the support is really good. i put my carters on this morning, and it felt so clunky and not comfortable.
Click to expand...

Well I'm no longer buying BBall shoes because they are crutches, too much support and pudding = heavier, hotter and muschier shoe
Most people have weak feet, ankles and lower legs so they need that

I prefer a low cut, minimal padding shoe for more comfort, air flow, and power transfer. I tried the Nike Air Free 5,0 and they are so comfy, they are a running shoe that is supposed to make it feel like your running barefeet. Very airy and not much padding. Not quite barefeet feeling, but it does feel very light and airy! You have to use your foot muscles and calves to do most of the shock absorbtion unlike other shoes.

Off course you need to be strong in your feet, ankles and lower body to use em. Strong calves and barefeet work will get you there. Which I have done.

---

Not enough sleep. Feel a bit beat up. Feet, and lower legs are trashed. Achey posterior chain and upper back/traps/shoulders.

weighed 96.3kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
ChinkNasty said:
hows taht cold coming boss?
Click to expand...


still tehre, but it's not a mega running type. Just thick and block my breathing a bit. I don't blow my nose a whole lot.
Ulcer is still there though :(


-----

Sleep still not there :(
Legs and upper body feeling better, but soleus is still trashed.
Although upper back is smashed right now after my part time job this morning.

weighed 96.7kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear


http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1347125
also on page 2, Bill outlines a test for mobility with regards to snatches

I can't do it, that's probbaly why I haven't been doing any powersnatches lately :)

damn tight lats! But it's getting better, and one day I will return to powersnatches...
 
neighbour decided to hold a party last night so late night, and not much sleep after hard a day :(

rather than trying to save a sinking ship, I decided to take a week off. I'm well past over-reaching and into a light overtrained state for sure. Plus I'm due for break anyway, been training for 10 weeks straight.
 
Much better sleep, at least it's somewhat continous now. Once I get back those deep long sleeps then I'm back to 100% and ready to push hard again.

Sore throat is gone and my cold is just about done as well. Ulcer on my gum/mouth still there though. Waking pulse drops back down to 56 in a long time, been hanging around the 63-67 area the last week or so.

weighed 95.3kg 209.66lbs straight out of bed in underwear
weight dropping back down.
 
Still reading your journal,very impressed by your recent strength gains.I was wondering what type of diet you used in getting up to 210lb~ lately.I ask because I remember you(i think it was you anyway) mentioning once that you had issues with blood sugar fluctuations at a certain point in time(It may have been the previous time you went up to 219lb~ I think).Just wondering what you have found useful in terms of eating.

Thanks in advance:)
 
asdfzxcv said:
Still reading your journal,very impressed by your recent strength gains.I was wondering what type of diet you used in getting up to 210lb~ lately.I ask because I remember you(i think it was you anyway) mentioning once that you had issues with blood sugar fluctuations at a certain point in time(It may have been the previous time you went up to 219lb~ I think).Just wondering what you have found useful in terms of eating.

Thanks in advance:)
Click to expand...


thanks but man I hope my strength gains are still there when I start a new training cycle next week.... that's always a scary feeling :chomp:

Well 210lbs ain't so great, I'd rather be at 190lbs or less and very lean :)

Well here is the full story - I got fat and binged my way up to 220lbs with cereal+milk plus tons of chocolate. When you do that, especially the chocolate, your insulin sensitivity drops. I actually had really bad type 2 diabetes as a result of that, my body would just release tons of insulin after any meal. Blood sugar would yo-yo all over the place. I would get the shakes after a carb heavy meal etc.
I remeber blacking out in the gym once after such a binge. I was standing there resting after a set and then the next thing I know I woke up after someone shook me up on the floor and my head hurt...scary.

Then I went on a 1+ year diet to get myself down to 198lbs or so. Mostly eating veges and meat, ie pretty low in carbs. That improved my insulin sensitivity and fixed my blood sugar issues. I didn't get as lean on the diet as I wanted though. Waist went from 40 inches down to 34, wanted to hit 30inches, but I also lost some muscle mass and my metabolism got real slow....

Then I started upping my calories to 2000-2500 and just eating normally, balanced and clean, which is where I am now. When you do that after a long period of time where your only taking in 1500 calories average with low carbs, your bodyweight shoots up, your anabolic hormones spike up, you pile on muscle mass fast etc
Ok to piled up to 210lbs, but there is quite a bit of fat gain, and some muscle. My waist is back up to 38 inches, so I am fatter.
But not too worried about that right now. I just want to keep my weight here and get stronger to reach my power goals. But after that I will lean back down to 190lbs hopefully. For now I'm happy my blood sugar is normal and my metabolism is back into normal range and my bf% and weight is stable as I get stronger


----

deep sleep, but woke up early. Find it hard to sleep in when I hiut the bed late, due to my bodyclock too used to waking up early
Feeling better anyway, mouth ulcer is starting to heal up.

weighed 95.3kg 209.66lbs straight out of bed in underwear

I'm debating on wether I should take the whole week off, not doing anything, or do some active recovery work and very light stuff in the gym to keep the movement patterns greased and stop excessive soreness when I start a new training cycle next week.
 
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coolcolj said:
I remember blacking out in the gym once after such a binge. I was standing there resting after a set and then the next thing I know I woke up after someone shook me up on the floor and my head hurt...scary.
Click to expand...

Damn that would have been a bit of a wake up call to change the eating habits.I have spent the last 3 years going down from around 280lb~ down to about 185lb.I never got to the point of type 2 diabetes,but I think that I did compromise my insulin sensitivity somewhat.It is very slowly returning back to normal,but it still remains to an extent.The thing is that it makes me somewhat reluctant to gain muscle for fear of geting fat again,but at 6'4 185lb doesnt go very far.I will have to push my weight up if I want to get the coveted 300/400/500 bench/squat/dead as I am very far away.I want to hit 220 at a bf lower then 14%,but with shitty skinnyfat bodytype it might take a while.
 
you need to ramp the calories up very slowly, the body will adapt in time

I gained most of my fat in the first month after I stopped the diet, after that things normalised and now I don't count what I eat. If I want to eat a lot one day I do it, but later on in the week I find I eat less without even trying. It all balances out, the body figures out things as it sees fit eventually.

Plus the training burns quite a few calories too, so my bodyweight and BF% just zig-zags around my current level. Guess my body likes it here for now.
So I'm not too fussed with movements 4lbs either way. It all balances out at the end of a week.

So I keep my bodyweight steady and getting stronger, even if some of my training is kinda hypertrophy orientated. And I'm getting stronger in each rep range. Perfect scenario for someone with relative strength/power goals :)
Probbaly because my protein levels aren't excessive, no more than 150g.
Some days way less than that.

If I can stay at 210lbs or less and get my full squat up to 585lbs that would be extremely bad ass!!!! :mommakin:
Definitely will have a 44inch vertical jump if I get lean, 275lb high catch powersnatch and best of all I will be able to powerclean the whole bumper plate set at my gym of 354lbs! :p

That guy with the 46 inch VJ I posted before has a 600lb fullsquat at 210lbs too....
 
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another night of bad sleep. My stomach felt funny when I woke, and it got progressively worse, and by mid morning I was feeling pretty sick. Feverish and my stomach was churning. Felt like throwing up.
Been in bed all day, and don't feel like eating much either. It's warm, but I feel cold. Trying to get some sleep, but hard to when your stomach feels so rotten. It's bloated as hell too.

weighed 95.7kg 210.lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
83 waking pulse says it all, I am still sick, but much better than yesterday. Started feeling better last night. The fever is gone, but my stomach still feels churned up, painful and bloated. Funny taste in my mouth too. Don't feel like eating. Seems like I got hit by a stomach virus or something.
At least I got a ton of semi-sleep.

Man I haven't been this badly overtrained in a while. My immune system is so weak right now, I'm getting hit by nasties left, right and centre :(
After all this time I still ahven't learnt my lesson!!!!

weighed 95.7kg 210.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Cool post from some strength coach who trained a BBaller, using Kelly Baggett's Vertical Jump Bible - top notch E-book!

Just goes to show what you can do with intelligent training and hard work

Also kinda backs up my theory that if you have the strength to powersnatch with a high catch your bodyweight you will have a 40 inch VJ if your also well practsied in jumping.
He squatted 360. High catch powersnatch = 0.42 of 360lbs = 151lbs.
His bodyweight was a little heavier at 160lbs, so 38inch VJ :)

That's why I need a 495lb fullsquat for starters if I stay fat...

feel compelled to write in as I have direct experience with Kelly's VJ bible. I have been in the strength and conditioning field for 15 plus years and worked with many athletes over that time period.

Last year I was able to work with an aspiring young basketball player. I utilized much of Kelly's programming with this young man and his dream of a full ride scholarship came to fruition.

In summary, this athlete came to me as a 20 year old, skinny caucasion with better than average basketball skills. He was what I have heard others describe as an "in betweener"! He was pretty much overlooked for scholarship offers as a senior and began to blossom a bit after graduating. He worked his butt off during the summer but was frustrated with his strength workouts. After breaking his fibula in a rec. game he sought out my services. Together with a couple of other specialists, we were able to get him to the point where he could actually workout to improve his performance.

Here were his initial numbers:
3/1/2005 Standing Reach:7’8”
3/1/2005 Vertical Jump(Vertec): 27”

3/2/2005 Body Weight: 150
Back Squat: 205 x 2

PR's:
5/20/2006 Body Weight: 155
Back Squat: 340 x 1

5/19/2006 Vertical Jump (Vertec): 34.5”

Final PR's Before Leaving For College:
8/14/2006 Body Weight: 160
8/14/2006 Vertical Jump (Vertec): 38"
8/15/2006 Back Squat: 360 x 1

Other than applying EMS, we essentially followed Kelly's programs to the letter. The athlete put 13 inches on his vertical. This was a countermovement jump with no steps. I have helped other athletes to improve 4, 6 and even 8 inches on their verts in the past, but this was simply amazing. I must give Kelly much of the credit for this one as ultimately the "proof was in the pudding"!

Thank you Kelly!
Click to expand...
 
coolcolj said:
83 waking pulse says it all, I am still sick, but much better than yesterday. Started feeling better last night. The fever is gone, but my stomach still feels churned up, painful and bloated. Funny taste in my mouth too. Don't feel like eating. Seems like I got hit by a stomach virus or something.
At least I got a ton of semi-sleep.

Man I haven't been this badly overtrained in a while. My immune system is so weak right now, I'm getting hit by nasties left, right and centre :(
After all this time I still ahven't learnt my lesson!!!!

weighed 95.7kg 210.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
Click to expand...

feel better man, sounds like me
 
Feeling better, but still a tiny bit sick feeling.
Sleep last night was decent. Dreams coming back. Need more of it.

weighed 94.8kg 208.56lbs straight out of bed in underwear
one positive spin from getting a fever is that you don't eat much and so you get leaner..but I have been making sure I get a few protein powder + Vitamin C drinks in so I minimise my muscle loss, hopefully
 
Sleep has been all over the place. Enough of it, just spread out here and there etc.

Haven't updated the last few days, same sh*t different day.
Body is feeling ok now, but I'm still not as fresh as I would like, but given the circumstances, it's about as fresh as I'd likely to be.

So I'll start my new training cycle today. Probably won't be going all out immediately anyway, so I'll get some slight deloading happening for the first week. Goal will change to getting strong, especially my legs, and maintain my current bodyweight. If I get leaner, that would be nice, but I'm not focusing on it right now. While I can't let myself get much heavier, since relative strength is my main priority.

weighed 94.5kg 207.9lbs straight out of bed in underwear

bodyweight has been consistently edging down the last few days. Down a steady 1kg now. Appetite has returned, and I ate a lot yesterday, and still my weight has creeped down. I look leaner too, so hopefully it's all fat.
Nice to get leaner without having to try!
 
this picture freaking inspires me - 270kg 594lbs nice and deep!
my long term goal one day...

but he is probably repping that for a few sets :)
270kg_594lb_squat.JPG
 
5'7" touching 11 feet! leaning forward too
That's gonna be me soon, I'm taller than 5'7" but my reach is about like his I'm sure :)

Alleyvator.jpg
 
coolcolj said:
this picture freaking inspires me - 270kg 594lbs nice and deep!
my long term goal one day...

but he is probably repping that for a few sets :)
270kg_594lb_squat.JPG
Click to expand...

I can do that,I just dont want to :p :p .Seriously though,oly lifters always astound me with their squatting strength.It is far more impressive imo to see an olympic lifter squat 600lb deep then a powerlifter of similiar size doing 700-800lb for a half squat in a squat suit/whatever else they use.My long term goal is to hit 180kg back/155-160kg front,not much compared to some people but nothing to sneeze at either.
 
Monday 4th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 1 - Day 3 - Lower Power/Strength - Micro cycle 1

Starting a new training cycle, and microcycle today. Hopefully smarter than the last one.... still feeling a bit under the weather. Guess the virus is still lingering around and may take a couple of weeks before I'm fully over it. Looked very pale at the gym today. Didn't feel that fresh given the time off.
Upper back felt sore.

Didn't really have a set plan. Just wanted to get a feel of where my strength levels were. And selected exercises and programming on the fly.
worked well in the end. Probably did a bit too much for the first week back.

Bodyweight of 210 at the gym is 4lbs lighter than last week, big drop. Probably have lost some muscle mass.

Body weight at gym - 210lbs
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins


Power Cleans

just did these in between the warmup sets of squats

Powerclean + 2 High Hang Power cleans - 89lbs, 111lbs, 131lbs


Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, semi explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 315lbs x 2 - rest 3 mins
2) 275 x 5 - rest 5 mins
3) 225 x 10 - rest 6 mins
4) 295 x 5 - rest 6 mins
5) 245 x 10 - rest 6 mins

squats felt hard initially. Feels like I'm down 30lbs based on how 315lbs felt. I assumed my max is around 395lbs, it's probably lower. Should come back fast anyway.
Then I went down to 275 and cranked out a hard set of 5. Was thinking of ending here, but I went down to 225lbs for some reason, it felt nice and light now and did 10, which was hard, lactic acid wise, and my support muscles went to jelly towards the end. Then somehow I ended doing a wave load pattern, funny how things happen when you least expect them to :)
295lbs felt ok then, but 245x10 was hard. Not nearly failure, but the burn and cardio expect was a killer!

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom - controlled - Bar x 10, 95lbs 2x10
been a while since I did these, hammies felt negelected after the squats. They really smash my posterior chain and core. Should help my squat hoepfully.

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 10lbs x 5

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 5 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 5 each side

Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 4 plates x 5

--

lower body, and lower back stretches
 
ChinkNasty said:
gj just getting back, solid layout...i know how you feel bro, been tryin to get over this virus for weeks now
Click to expand...

what kind of virus you got? :)


----

Sleep not good. I feel ok, apart from being sleepy/tired. No drained feeling from the workout yesterday, well I shouldn't it was more muscular than CNS intensive.

Not too sore in my usual squatting muscles. It's probbaly due to the fact I massaged my quads a lot last night. They started cramping as usual after the hard squatting, and I thought I had that problem licked for good with lots of water and my magnesium intake is high from the ZMA. Stretching didn't solve the problem because the VMO would cramp again when I started walking after sitting for a while. So I got into a sissy squat position by kneeling on the sofa, putting the quads into an extreme stretch and massaged the quads for a good 50 secs and then it went away for good...

While my quads may not be to sore, my hamstrings are smoked from top to bottom!! Spinal erectors, calves, upper glutes to a lesser extent. OLY Good Mornings doing the biz! Upper back is a bit sore too.

weighed 94.8kg 208.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear

12 min walk planned today and some easy stretching.
 
I dunno, had an upper respiratory viral then becamse a sinus infection and now I'm still trying to work through it...any suggestions?
 
ChinkNasty said:
I dunno, had an upper respiratory viral then becamse a sinus infection and now I'm still trying to work through it...any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about virus :) I suggets you go see a docotor and get some antibiotics. That's what my mum did last week. worked fast

---



Sleep not that bad, but I feel sleepy and tired.
Upper back a bit achey, but feck my hamstrings and groin are so damn sore!! I can barely move properly.

Also my lower back feels really good and strong. Big change from last week and before, where it was always tight and achey. Good Mornings are working better than I expected. I think it's because it stretches and strengthens the whole posterior chain as a unit. I never got that feeling with RDLs, it stretches the hammies, but makes my lower back tight. Funny because I avoided GMs for a long time because I thought they would stuff up my lower back....
Seem to work my hammies far better than than any other move as well, and if you go up to your toes like I do with the oly version your pretty much strengthening the whole posterior chain as it functions in jumping and sprinting.

weighed 95.4 kg 209.88lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Wednesday 6th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 1 - Day 2 - Upper Strength - Micro cycle 1

Average workout. Strength is definitely way down after the break and virus.
In the back of my mind I'm keeping the upper volume on the lower side as lower body is priority. Every bit of extra recovery is gonna help

Body weight at gym - 212lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x10
3) bench scapular dip shrugs x 10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2mins on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 15secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation


16inch grip Bench - shoulders slightly tucked, no arch or leg drive

Warm ups - pause at middle, and bottom on the war down, power up - Bar x 10, 95lbs x 5, 135x5, 165x4, 195x3,
normal - 225x2


controlled, no bounce, driven up hard
Rotation 1) 255lbs x 1 --> pretty hard
Rotation 2) 205lbs x 5
Rotation 3) 155lbs x 10

None of the sets to failure
255 was pretty hard, considering I did it for 3 reps + 1 gut buster before the break. Maybe the dual paused warmup sets tired me out more than I realise.
Pretty tired by the time I got to the 205x5 set, so I didn't much more after that. I was planning to do 2 more sets waving back up.


Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - semi-Explosive + 2 sec hold at top on last rep - BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x8, +70x5, +90x5, +115x3, +135x2

controlled
Rotation 1) Bar + 160lbs x 1
Rotation 2) Bar + 135lbs x 5
Rotation 3) Bar + 90lbs x 10

None of the sets to failure. Posterior chain didn't tense up like it normally does when I go heavy.

-------------------------------------------------------
Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 min on warm ups and 2 mins between each exercise on work sets


Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

warm ups - 4kg x 8

controlled - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 15lbs x 8

took it easy

Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 12


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

Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and lower body

Dip/Pushup stretched ISO hold - knee on floor - 30secs
 
Good sleep but yet I still feel so tired, WTF!
Oh well at least my legs are starting to get that nice springy feel back. Adductors and hammies are still pretty sore though.
Upper body not that sore from yesterday which is surprising. And I feel quite good in the sense that I don't feel sapped from the workout yesterday. So much so I could actually go and sprint/jump/BBall today. This is a welcome change. Maybe dialing back the upperbody workouts will pay bigger dividends than I thought...you only have some much adaptive capacity, so you have to divide it accordingly etc

Feels like I'm starting to rebound back. Maybe by the end of next week I'll be back on track

weighed 95.8 kg 210.76lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Last edited:
Thursday 7th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 1 - Day 3 - Lower Power/Hypertrophy/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Hammies and adductors still uber sore, but I have enough spring in my legs to feel I have recovered enough to train em today. I don't want to train on Friday, so I squeezed in this session today. Glad I didn't go all out yesterday.
Pretty good session in any case. Legs are feeling great from the high rep squats.

Bodyweight back up to where I want it for now

Body weight at gym - 213.5lbs
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins


Jumps

Warm up - sets of 2-3 jumps going higher/harder each time

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 185lbs to 225lbs

a) standing Vertical jump,
b) one step VJ
c) running one legged jump
d) three step VJ

sequence for 2 sets total

jump just slightly under my current best at the gym, but I'm not expecting much during this phase with all the high rep squatting etc.
Just some low volume work to maintain my form and reactivity etc.
These are feeling even better on the landings after the Good Morning work. Knees felt real solid.

Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 315lbs x 1 - rest 3 mins
2) 285 x 5 - rest 5 mins
3) 235 x 10 - rest 6 mins
4) 305 x 5 - rest 6 mins
5) 255 x 10 - rest 6 mins

Up the waveloading sequence 10lbs from last workout. Was kinda nervous about this, but form was better, I felt stronger, support muscles held solid, and I didn't even need to take breaths between each rep. Powered em up like a piston!

255x10 made me real nervous, but my desire to squat 500lbs pulled me through and in the end wasn't as hard as I thought. The single I did 315lbs felt a lot lighter and faster as well.
Noticed the extra posterior chain ROM from the Good Mornings, allowed me to stay stiffer and more upright at the bottom. Lower back keeping the arch, and it didn't pump like before.

Next squat workout I'll intensify and lower the volume by switching to those ISO paused squats for 3 sets of 2 with 315lbs, well I'll see how many sets and reps I can get, but 2 reps per set planned for now. Plus some easy high rep single leg squats to flush some blood in there.

That will probbaly be the plan this microcycle, 2 waveloaded high rep workouts to one ISO paused intensification workout. With a sprint/jump/BBall session inbetween each squat workout. Then a deload after 2 such complete sequences.

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom - controlled - 65lbs x 6, 95lbs x 6, 105lbs x 6

Upped the weight 10lbs, wow 105lbs was pretty hard! Granted I did these after some tiring squatting, but I have no idea how people can toss around 300+lbs on these, but then again I ain't full squatting 600lbs for reps either :)
Did these is sneakers today and it felt much harder than in oly shoes last time. Thought the extra calf ROM would be nice, but you can sit back as much and it's a bit unstable, so I'm going back to oly shoes. Unstable GMs is not a good diea..

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 25lbs x 6

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 6 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate, 2 plates

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 6 each side

Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - forgot to do these.....

--

lower body, and lower back stretches. Massaged squads in stretched position.
 
Not enough sleep, but not much choice on this. Will nap a bit to catch up.
Don't feel too bad, a little sapped but not drained. Quads and posterior chain pretty sore, lower back quite a bit, although my hammies and adductors are less sore than yesterday
Achey calves, and upper back/traps/biceps are pretty sore too. I think from holding the bar down on squats as I power up hard enough for the bar to come off my shoulders.

weighed 95.5 kg 210.1lbs straight out of bed in underwear
Just when I feel like I'm starting to bloat up, the high rep squats trim me back down :)

12 min walk and some easy stretching
 
Better sleep, but still not great. Damn dog needs to die!
Upper body beat up from yesterday, but I will still go to the gym and do my prehab/rehab light workout.
Lower back still pretty trashed, all that lifting and carrying around of medium loads yesterday doesn't help recovery. Legs still sore, but feeling better. Quads feel rock hard, VMO bulging! Getting some myogenic tone I guess :)

weighed 96.5 kg 210.54lbs straight out of bed in underwear
Pigged out yesterday, lots of carbs, so the weight jump is probably mostly water weight hopefully.
 
Sunday 10th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 2 - Day 1 - Upper 2 Prehab_Rehab - Microcycle 1

Surprisingly good workout, even though my upper was a bit sore and tired from yesterday. Felt much stronger than the last time I did this workout, and that was 2+ weeks ago! Body rebounding back, virus is just about all gone.

Cut down the work sets to just 1. The 2 work sets I did before was just too damn tiring. Also dropped a few exercises.
I had more energy to do the post workout stretches today.
Also I will probably drop the loads to 60% of what I use when I go hard in this workout, every alternate time I do this workout to back off.
In the last microcycle I started dreading every time this session came up so this will help keep me relaxed and improve recovery, especially now that upping my leg strength is the main goal.

Even though there are 4-5 days break between each upper body workout, and at least a days rest between any workout there was still too much CNS drain on a global level. I figure erring on the side of under training my upper body will give me better lower body gains, make me feel better, and who knows my upper body just may make better gains too!
So I'll have roughly 4 hard upper body workouts a month, 2 for each of the two upper body session. And lower overall volume compared to before.

Body weight at gym - 215lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x8
3) situp complex on swiss ball - warmup my core for military presses


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1-2 min on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets


16inch grip standing Military Press - pushed behind the head at the top

Warm ups - with slight hold at top and pause at the middle on the way down - Bar x 8, 95 x5, 115 x4, 135x3

controlled, pause at the middle and bottom on the way down. Relaxing at the bottom
Rotation 1) 155lbs x 7 NEW PR!!

not bad at all, and with double pauses. Once it gets easier I'll for maybe 8 reps I'll go up to 165lbs. Once I can do 175lbs for at least 6 reps I'll take a crack at 225lbs.


Pull Downs/Rows

warm ups - Shoulder width Pull downs, 2 sec hold on the last rep - 35kg x 10, 50kg x6, 70kg x3


Dumbbell high angle Rows to ribcage - pulling with mid/lower traps and delts - hold at top - warmup 25lbs x 5
Rotation 1) 40lbs x 10


Dumbbell Bench - arms/elbows by side - neutral grip

warm ups - incline - 15lbs x10, flat - 45x5, 75x5, 95x3,

controlled, 2 sec pause, shoulders pushed off bench at top
Rotation 1) 100lbs x 7 NEW PR!! (+5lbs -1 rep) --> hard strain on last rep

I'm finally in the "Big Boys" club - LOL. Not that hard at all, I could probably get 10 reps without doing the pause, extension at top and lower down a bit faster. Grip was barely holding the 100lb dumbbells though when carrying em! Will stay here till my grip catches up, Maybe time to dust the cobwebs off my Ivanko Super Gripper :)


Dumbbell Curls

warm ups - with pause at the middle on the way down on some reps - 4kg x10, 25x5, 30x4, 35x3

controlled, hold at parallel on the way down, pause at bottom
Rotation 1) 40lbs x 7 (+1 rep) --> hard strain on last rep


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

Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 6kg x 10 (paused) + 35 sec Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold

Knee supported Pushup/dip stretched ISO hold - 30secs

upper and lower body stretches etc
 
kinda crappy sleep. Upper body moderately sore.
Legs getting the loose feeling back, 4 days after not squatting, like clockwork.
Lower back/posterior chain still sore, some of it from yesterday's workout. I might train lower body today, I will definitely feel better tommorrow, but the urge is there to train, and I feel good enough to do it

weighed 96.3 kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear

ran out of protein powder, didn't take any yesterday. Kind lazy to go buy some more, so I'll see how I go without it for a week or so :)
 
I actually went to the gym today to do my lower body workout, but aborted it early when the squat warmup sets felt too hard compared with what they should feel like. CNS is still sapped from yesterday's workout I guess...
The signs were there , I just ignored them - that warm fuzzy feeling I get, it just wasn't as pronounced as when I really feel drained, and I wasn't tapping beats in the key on the way to the gym like I usually do, had a serious mood or something.

Funny though the general warmup drills I did felt pretty good, as did the lighter squat and powerclean warmup sets. But when I got to 149lbs on the high hang powercleans that felt pretty heavy in my hands.
The 225x4 squat warmup set felt way too hard for the load, then 255x3 wasn't that much easier considering I did it for 10 reps last time, and 285x2 sealed the deal - I left the gym then.
Didn't do to much damage, pretty light workout in terms of volume etc
and only 40mins long.

On a positive note the high rep wave loaded squats I've been doing has reduced the amount of lactic acid build up and winded feeling in the earlier light squat warmup sets. That stuff usually gasses me out a bit.

I need to learn another lesson on back to back high intensity workouts again... I may or may not retry this workout again tomorrow. In the past I've had bench workouts where the warmups felt real heavy and hard, and I stopped the workout then and came back the next day, and then warmups felt a lot lighter and I cranked a PR. See how I feel tomorrow....

So frustrating!
 
damn dog barking again! Sleep would have been great if not for that.
I feel ok though, much better than yesterday. Upper body less sore, hips and posterior chain a bit achey.

I think I will go to the gym again today and squat just to see. I feel much more energetic today. I sometimes ask myself if I feel up to sprinting and bballing/jumping flat out that day, if I answer yes then my CNS is doing ok, I would have answered no yesterday. I ignored that, and I paid the price...

weighed 95.8 kg 210.76lbs straight out of bed in underwear
I was depressed and pigged out yesterday after the bum workout and my weight went back down, how does that work? :)
 
Tuesday 12th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 2 - Day 3 - Lower Strength/Hypertrophy/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Back into the gym to squat after yesterday's disappointment, and what a difference a day makes! Much better. It's all in the CNS...last time I do 2 high intensity workouts back to back. And I have to pay more attention to my indicators.

Did not do any cleans today as I already did some yesterday. Next "lower" workout will be in 5 days time - BBall, lots of jumping and maybe some sprints. Then back to squats, but intensifying with sets of 2 ISO paused squats. I was supposed to do that stuff today, but didn't feel like it's the right time for that.

Body weight at gym - 214lbs
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) various hops
6) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 2/1 setting x 10

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins


Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 335lbs x 1 - rest 3 mins
2) 295 x 5 - rest 5 mins
3) 265 x 10 - rest 6 mins
4) 315 x 5 - rest 6 mins

yesterday the warmup squats between 225 and 285 were really hard, form was awful and there was a lot of lactic acid buildup. Big difference today, felt much lighter, good form and less burn.
Increased the overall waveloaded sets weight up 10lbs. 335lbs felt kinda hard. Then I misloaded the bar on the first wave's set of 10. Supposed to use 245lbs, instead of 265lbs! I was wondering why it felt so much harder....made 315lbs x 5 a lot more difficult than it should have been. Pretty close to failure on those sets.
Decided not to do another set of 10 on the 2nd wave. The waveload effect had already been shot. Plus I did some squats yesterday and I wanted to leave some gas for more GM volume and a set of split squats.

Form a bit ragged today as well. Abs were working real hard too, I didn't notice this in the previous workouts.
Used a narrower stance in the warmup sets in sneakers. Better ankle flexibility makes it much easier to do this now in sneakers.

Looks like my squats is back in the 385lb range. First goal is to get these waveloaded squats up to 365x5, 315x10 on the top wave. Should put my 1RM around 435lbs

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - 45lbs x 8, 95lbs x 8, 115lbs 2x8

Upped the weight 10lbs, and a bit extra volume.

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 25lbs x 7 (+1 rep)

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 6 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate, 2 plates x 2 sets

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 7 each side (+1 rep)

Barbell Split Squat - Vertical Shins - Wide stance - Oly Shoes
45lbs x 10 each side, left side first. Lots of hammie action, 20 total reps gassed me out!

Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 3 plates x 3, 5 plates x 5 (+1 plate)


--

lower body, and lower back stretches.
 
wakefib said:
405 is just around the corner bro
Click to expand...

been a long time coming as well! :chomp:



Found it hard to sleep and annoying dogs as well. Tired and a drained feeling.
Should be cool though, next 2 upper body workouts will be light and low volume deloads, and I won't be using my lower body again till Sunday.
Then after that a light deload squat workout before hitting it hard again 5 days after that. I'm gonna be more conervative with my recovery this microcycle. Can't afford to overtrain and wate time again!

Moderately sore in my calves, legs, posterior chain and upper back.

weighed 96.3 kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear

12min walk, easy stretching
 
Took ages to fall asleep, and I kept dozing in and out of light sleep.
Pretty sure that's a sign I'm overreached now...
Didn't feel too bad in the early going, but got lethargic later on. Inflamed feeling all over lower back is tight and sore.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Thursday 14th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 2 - Day 3 - Upper 1 DELOAD - Micro cycle 1

Deloading today, just as well as everything felt heavy today!
Confirms my overreached state, and it only took 5 total workouts to achieve...

Body weight at gym - 215lbs
Workout time - 40+ mins
Workout rating - 6/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x10
3) bench scapular dip shrugs x 12


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2mins on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 15secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation


16inch grip Bench - shoulders slightly tucked, no arch or leg drive

Warm ups - last 3 reps on each set paused at middle, and bottom on the way down - Bar x 10, 95lbs x 7, 135x6, 165x5

controlled
Rotation 1) 195lbs x 3
Rotation 2) 195lbs x 3


Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - semi-Explosive + 2 sec hold at top on last rep - BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x6, +70x5, +90x5

controlled
Rotation 1) Bar + 115lbs x 3
Rotation 2) Bar + 115lbs x 3


-------------------------------------------------------
Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 min on warm ups and 2 mins between each exercise on work sets


Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

4kg x 3,

controlled - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 4kg x 15


Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 6


Single arm Face Pulls

warm ups - 25lbs x 3

controlled
Rotation 1) 25lbs x 15

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

Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and lower body
 
fell asleep ok, but dog kept waking me up several times! Argghhhh
Feel a bit crappy, upper body a little sore. Legs and hips feeling better.
Lower back feeling way better!

I've been having this tightness issue with my lower back, it over tenses and just won't relax. Lower back just can't recover because of this. Squats and sprints have been a nightmare the last few weeks because of this. Every so often it goes away, but I haven't been able to figure it out till yesterday.
If your back is tight you stretch it and your glutes right? Yeah, but it doesn't help much. I sit down a lot, but I hardly ever stretch my abs, not the most comfortable feeling when stretching em, hard to breath. Figured they must be tight. And yep tried stretching em with arms overhead in a pullup positon and they were screaming. Did that a few times. And more after my workout yesterday, added that kneeling hip flexor/hip stretch as well. My hip flexors aren't that tight, they pass all the usual tests, but I haven't done that kneeling stretch in a while, so it can't hurt.

Today, no more back tightness! I can feel my glutes fire more as well when standing and walking, and especially when I bend over to pick something up.
Seems like my tight abs have inhibted my glutes from firing, which causes my lower back to take all the stress and tense up.
Hmmm, tight lower back, inhibted glutes = the hamstring issues I've been having when sprinting...not being able to full extend my hips in the cleans and sprints....
Probably gonna help my jump reach and hip extension as well.

gonna have to do these stretches daily as I do sit down a lot and hunch over.
Just about all of my issues can be traced back to a tight and shortened muscle group!

weighed 96.5 kg 212.3lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
LOL my glutes got pumped up today walking around for shopping!

also there is a click in my left knee when I bend it, it's gone, and both my knees no longer ache when getting off a chair, even with my knees well past my toes. That used to be scary, sometimes it would hurt and sometimes not, especially the left clicky knee. Stretching the abs (and hip flexors) leading to better glute activation seems to have fixed that.

it's like magic! A new me
 
Feck, some bangs, maybe fireworks went off 3 times throughout the night.
Tried to sleep in, but only managed to lie in bed half asleep...arghh worst sleep ever this week!
Legs and hips feel good. Upper back/traps a bit sore from yesterday.
Been stretching heaps everyday this week.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
pigged out yesterday - lots of carbs
 
Sunday 17th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 1 - Lower Strength/Hypertrophy/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Was supposed to BBall and sprint today, but I didn't feel like it. So I went to the gym to jump and squat. Will do some low intensity sprints on Tuesday though, before my upper 2 workout. Which will be a light low volume deload workout, perfect time to do em then.

Went to the gym earlier than usual for Sunday, nice and quiet, good vibe. Will have to make this my new usual time from now on.
Nice workout, felt strong and powerful! Been a while since I felt like this.
Pretty long workout, lower back mega pumped at the end.

Body weight at gym - 215.5lbs
Workout time - 2 hours
Workout rating - 9/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Jumps and Hops

Warm up - sets of 2-3 jumps going higher/harder each time

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 185lbs

a) Speed hops on a 5inch step x 5

rest 1min
a) standing Vertical jump,
b) one step VJ
c) running one legged jump
d) three step VJ

sequence for 4 sets total. VJ about the same as before, but I'm slightly heavier, so power is up. Plus the high rep squats don't help.
one step VJ felt very powerful! Can feel some extra boost.

Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 345lbs x 1 - rest 3 mins
2) 305 x 5 - rest 5 mins
3) 255 x 10 - rest 6 mins
4) 325 x 5 - rest 6 mins
5) 275 x 10

Decided not to do the ISO paused squats, but see if I was stronger on the waveloaded high rep sequence. Squats felt awesome today. They haven't felt this smooth, upright and strong in a long, long time! My speed is back even though I wasn't moving the main sets explosively. The hitch on the way up is gone, the sticking point is there, but I just get so much thrust out of the bottom. Must be the better glute firing and hip mobility :)

Up the load 10lbs across the board. 345lb single was powered up nicely. 275x10 was hard, especially the last rep, but on the video doesn't look that hard, speed was maintained pretty well on all reps, must be the lactic acid buildup making it feel harder than it was.

video of the 305, 325 and 275 sets. Pretty good form overall, just some slight GM'ing here and there. Used a slightly narrower stance today than I have recently

Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...uat_Waveloaded_305x5_325x5_275x10_17Dec06.mpg

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - 45lbs x 8, 95lbs x 7, 125lbs x 8 (+10lbs) quite hard

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 25lbs x 8 (+1 rep)

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 6 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate, 2 plates

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 8 each side (+1 rep)


Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 3 plates x 3, 5 plates x 6 (+1 rep)


--

lower body, and lower back stretches
 
Feel a bit sapped but not drained.
Upper hammies, glutes, spinal erectors, quads, inner though/groin pretty sore.
Upper back/traps moderately sore.

weighed 96.2 kg 211.64lbs straight out of bed in underwear
High rep squats with decent weight never fails to trim my bodyweight down :)
 
Interesting dream in the 2nd stint of sleep, had a dreams of dunking and jumping so easily, 2nd time in the last month or so :)
Deep sleep is back.
legs, posterior chain and upper back still sore as a bitch.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.7lbs straight out of bed in underwear
need to trim the weight back down.
 
Tuesday 19th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 2 Tempo Sprints/Energy Work/Movement efficiency etc - Microcycle 1

legs and hips sore, took a while to warm up. Took it easy

Workout Rating - 7/10
Workout time - 17 mins for the main part

Warmup

warmup - 15sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow fullsquat at bottom on toes.

dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle, standing on one leg with eyes shut, various hops and drills in bare feet at home.

Slow Jog - 50m x 4 - 1 mins rest, getting faster each run, mostly flat footed dorsiflexion runs using mostly my feet and ankles

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

2 sets - trying to stay as smooth, relaxed and fluid as possible
25m prime times (stiffed legged runs), 10m straight run, then into lateral run, right side 5m, left side 5m, into backwards run 5m


Tempo Runs + Energy Work

50 metres @ 60% speed - from a easy standing start

rest = walk back to start - 1.5 min
4 runs

A bit rusty at first but that smooth floating feeling came back eventually. Feels better than before, better mobility, soon enough the extra grunt will get used. Slowing down is more work than the actual running though!
 
Tuesday 19th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 2 - Upper 2 Prehab_Rehab DELOAD - Microcycle 1

Did this 1.5 hours after the running above. Pretty *****ty workout. But it's a light deload workout, so not a big deal.

Body weight at gym - 215.5lbs
Workout time - 45 hours
Workout rating - 6/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x8

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1-2 min on warm ups and 2-3 mins between each exercise on work sets


16inch grip standing Military Press - pushed behind the head at the top

Warm ups - with slight hold at top - Bar x 10, 70 x 8

controlled down, explode up, slight hold at top
Rotation 1) 95lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 95lbs x 8

exploded up, maybe not a good idea, made it more tiring over 8 reps.


Dumbbell high angle Rows to ribcage - pulling with mid/lower traps and delts

warm ups - 15lbs x 12, 30lbs x 12


Rotation 1) 35lbs x 12
Rotation 2) 35lbs x 12


Close Grip triangle Pushups with extension at top

warm ups - on bench - BW x 12

Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10


Dumbbell Curls

warm ups - 4kg x12, 15lbs x12,

Rotation 1) 20lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 8

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

Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 4kg x 10 + 1 min Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold

upper body and cuff stretches
 
Suprising drop in waking pulse. Legs and hips feel much better, way less soreness. Upper body slightly achey, nice to not be so sore after an upper body workout. Feet and ankles a bit trashed from the running..

As per this article http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1379910
I'm gonna stop pressing and benching for a while until I get that over and under test. I don't do any pullups or pulldowns anymore. I've been at it for over 6 months and I haven't made any progress in that test. I used to be able to hold 2 knuckles together, each side is like 6 inches away now!
Way too tight! I can bench and press ok, but shoulders are only 80% healthy. Time to get all my mobility back and get 100% healthy. Then I can powersnatch again. Plus dunking requires full shoulder ROM and health!

That should give me extra recovery to boost my lower body strength gains.
Getting bored of training upper body as well. I can still row off course, and just add some rehab work http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=818555

weighed 96.5 kg 212.3lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Time mismanagment caused late bed time, and then I kept waking up...
Will take a nap before training today to freshen up. Good time for Deload lower workout. Gym will be shut next week on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll go BBall then, perfect timing for the deload.

Legs and hips feel ok. Upper body a bit achey.

forgot what I weighed this morning, but it was heavy, getting fat! Time to cut back on the carb junking..
 
Thursday 21st December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 3 - Day 3 - Lower DELOAD - Micro cycle 1

Deload workout. Volume pretty low on squats today, I didn't feel like going heavy and push hard on it either. Not that fresh, but felt kind hyper.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1 hour 40 mins
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops

Alternating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Cleans

Did these between each set of squats

Powerclean + 2x High Hang Powerclean - 155lbs, 175lbs, 185lbs --> NEW PR! +10lbs

Powerclean - 199lbs, 219lbs, 239lbs

Decided to go fairly heavy on powercleans to see how it felt. Not that bad considering I have done crap all above 155lbs, they didn't feel mega heavy etc in my hands.

Jumped straight to 155lb without a warmup and pwned it :)
Guess speed was decent, I haven't felt like this on powercleans in a long time!
Hip extension was better, arm bend is still there though. Catch on 185lb high hang powercleans were ugly and unstable, and lower than I'd like, but it counts for a 10lb PR. Grip sucks. At least my knees didn't hurt with that low a catch without going super wide, they would have a few months ago, thank you ankle and hip mobility work

239lb powerclean crashed on me from 3-4 inches above my shoulders, so there is room there for more weight on the bar. A bit fresher, more sleep, and without doing the squats between the sets I reckon 255lbs is there for the taking. My fullsquat is about 395 - 405lbs so about 63-65% of that.
When I get to my 365x5, 315x10 top wave on my waveloaded squats I'll take a crack at 270+lbs for a new PR. 195lb power snatch should be there too, but I can't do em for now...

Someone had put oil on the bar sleeve when the plates touch, that helped, spins better, even though the bars are cheap, crappy and all bent. I will have to bring some WD40 and oil in my gym bag from now on :)

Video of the main lifts - 185x2 high hang powerclean PR, 199, 219 and 239lbs Power cleans
Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...leanPR_185_Powerclean_199_219_239_21Dec06.mpg


Full Squats - high bar, medium stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x2

just did my usual warmup sets. 315x2 was done just before the 239lb powerclean single. Didn't feel light, but not heavy either.

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

minimal rest between each exercise

Narrow stance OLY style Good Mornings onto toes - pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - 45lbs x 8, 95lbs x 7, 135lbs 2x8 (+10lbs)

Wide stance split squats - oly shoes

Bar x 4, 89lbs x 10 each side - hard and unstable, gassed me out!

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
25lbs x 10 - no pauses

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 1 Plate x 6, 2 plate x 6

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 9 each side (+1 rep)

Single Leg Standing leg Curl - hold at top, mid and bottom - 3 plates x 3, 6 plates x 4 (up a plate)


--
toe on board ankle mobility drill x 20 each leg

lower body, and lower back stretches
 
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Really bad sleep - took ages to fall asleep, and interrupted :(
Feel pretty sapped, yseterday's training hit me harder than i expected for a deload, maybe the lack of sleep is more to blame though...

Traps, upper back and posterior chain moderately sore.
Spinal erectros have blown up big time from the combined high rep squats and Good Mornings. Hamstrings more meaty too.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
need to get back to the 210lb area
 
You need some grease inside the bar to get it spinning properly.

Glad to see training is going well for you, and I'm envious of the no doubt great weather down there now.

I'm surprised to see that the your best pc from hang is 185lbs.. that works itself out to around 85kg? While your power clean is getting over 110kg, and that's just kind of "ogre"-ing it up there. I don't know anywhere near as much as you about speed training but, I'll go out on a limb as say that your quest for a big vertical is being limited by that lack of explosive speed / speed-strength. It's apparent by the differential in your strength and speed moves, and especially clear when I watch you do a power clean.

There's no speed! IMO, having a big vertical, you'll be able to generate some freaky looking power in the second pull. I'm weak as shit so the first pulls are always hard, but speed's usually on my side - best power clean from hang is 95kg, best powerclean is 100 x 3. I can probably pc from hang 100.

What's your opinion on this?

I think you should spend a couple of weeks, and tag in powercleaning/snatching from the knee, hip, and below the knee to develop some freaky speed strength. You've got the plyo work and strength work in the bag, so the ends of the spectrum are lookin good. :)
 
correction - from the high hang for a double :)
this is just dipping down 3 inches or so.

I have done 205 from just above the knee a long time ago, I think I can do 220lbs now.
It's always 20-30lbs or so under my powerclean from the floor.
But I don't like to dip down lower than 3 inches as it feels really off to me, and my form changes, cause me to really swing the bar up.

I just don't practise them enough volume wise to get really good at it. I just use olys as a indicator. Can't powersnatch right now, don't have the shoulder mobility to do so safely.
Jumpsquat variants do the similar thing but a bit more specific and easier to get into. Less muscling as well..

Power is not the concern right now, I'm in a strength building phase, so you can't expect power to not be displayed so well with your doing high volumes of strength work due to all the fatigue. Fatigue masks fitness as they say.

my jumping is fine in any case, my oly form doesn't correlate well to my jumping. My standing VJ is over 30 inches right now and I ain't that light or lean 18-20% bodyfat, so power is not a problem at all. I just need more relative strength to jump higher.
All jumping is throwing the body up in the air with your legs, and the body is real heavy, so getting stronger is gonna help big time.

found this

-----
Under ideal condition 2 (instantaneous maximum force), the needed force, in pounds, for a certain jump height is:

f=1.2*wh/d

Where h is the vertical jump in inches minus the tiptoe distance (typically 3.5-4 inches), d is the impulse distance (typically 10-12 inches), and w is the weight in pounds.

A 200 pound athlete with a 43 inch vertical jump must exert over 950 pounds of vertical force during takeoff!

---

950lbs of force required at toe off needs some serious strength levels :)
That's why that 5'9" 210lb guy who has a 46.5 inch standing VJ has a 600lb oly style fullsquat and 750lb raw powersquat

my 395lb or so fullsquat at 214lbs is not gonna get it done, that's why I'm shooting for 500lbs at least. By then a high catch powerclean of 300lbs is money and a high catch powersnatch of 220lbs is there too. I should be jumping close to 40 inches by then, lean down to 190lbs and 44 is there for the taking - that's the plan anyway :)
Not only that but a fullsquat usually only beefs up the quads and glutes, so my good mornings need to get up to the 300lb range for paused reps onto toes, to get the hammies, calves and erectors strong as well.

Reggie Bush has a 38 inch or so vertical jump (not the combine measured one which is cheated with a 2 hand reach, take off 3-4 inches for the real VJ) and he squats 530lbs and powercleans 330lbs, similar bodyweight to me, but he's way leaner off course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2sL2qHv7wY
And he is anything but slow. So that's where I gotta head to first...
 
Deep continous sleep! I had to get up early though, but I think I figured out my sleep issues, mostly to do with being too hot when sleeping... :)

part time job was nice and easy today, thanks to Christmas. This combined with the general deload, and if I can get my sleep in order, recovery should be better than average. I should be ready to push hard again mid next week.

weighed 97.1 kg 213.6lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Sunday 24th December - Cycle 4 Get Strong Lower Body Strong + Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 1 - Upper 1 - Micro cycle 1

No more benching in a while, not a bad thing, less stuff to do.
Thought it would be an ok workout, but I didn't have much energy. Diet issues I figure.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1+ hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench 2x10, on floor x 10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2mins on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 15secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation



Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - semi-Explosive + 3 sec hold at top on last rep - BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x6, +70x5, +90x4, +115x4, +135x3

controlled
Rotation 1) Bar + 160lbs x 2 (+1 rep)
Rotation 2) Bar + 135lbs x 6 (+1 rep)
Rotation 3) Bar + 95lbs x 10 (+5lbs)

Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps, BWx 5

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10

Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

4kg x 6, with 3 holds on the way down 4kg x 3, 15lbs x 3

controlled, with 3 holds on the way down - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 20lbs x 3
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 3

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

Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Reach, roll and lift stretch x 3 each side
Reach, roll and lift with 3 sec hold x 3 each side

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and some lower body
 
Monday 25th December

better sleep, body clock woke me up after 7 hours though. Upper body slightly sore, but pecs and front delts don't feel stiff and sore for once - nice

weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear


Tuesday 26th December

Feel ok, best in a while, legs and hips have that snappy feeling. CNS is in about a good a shape as it will be for whiule. Waking pulse back down 56, lowest this month.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear
surpised my weight has been steady even with all the pigout and junkie foods!
 
Tuesday 26th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 2 - Sprints + BBall/Jumps - Micro cycle 1

I felt good in the morning, but after stuffing around kneeling on the floor trying to fix something on my computer, my posterior chain got a bit tired.
Then started to feel drowsy, so not mega fresh, but not too bad.

Went to my usual outdoor court complex. Really quiet at the courts. Did some sprints on the grass area between the BBall/netball area and the baseball stadium/diamond, then played some BBall.

Body weight in shorts and t-shirt - 214lbs
Workout time - 40-50 mins
Workout rating - 8/10


Did some dynamic warmup stuff, then

1) 4 short jogs with 1 min rest between.
2) my usual sideways, backward pivot spin running complex x 2 - 1.5 mins rest

3) 4 x 40m sprints on grass building up to 70% speed with a mins rest
4) 4 x 30m sprints up to 80% speed on a slightly upward sloping concrete netball court - followed each sprint with a running one leg jump on the way back trying to arm/elbow against the low netball ring.

then played some BBall for 20-30mins. I didn't do that much dribbling/shooting/ and moves. Most of it was spent jumping and testing myself on the various types of jumps. Hardly anyone around so I felt more comfortable practising my jumps. Lower inner shins on my both legs were starting to ache towards the end on the jump landings, and my jump starting to lose pop so I shut it down. Didn't go till I was as exhausted like I normally do. Sprints probably fatigued my lower legs, so then shins started to ache, but I guess it's time to get back on calf work, especially the seated stuff.

I was gassed pretty quickly, fitness is crap, but I'm not too worried about it right now. 214lbs at BBall is pretty damn heavy. I feel so fat and bulky, and my legs so big and chunky, that I shouldn't be able to get off the ground, but I was popping up really explosively with solid landings. The kids watching me were probably thinking how can this bulky guy jump like that :D

---

now the jumps felt pretty good today, just snapping up in a strong, solid way that I feels so different from before.

compared to when I was 198lbs at the same court

standing VJ - was 2 inches lower
one step VJ - was about the same or maybe an inch lower tops
3 step VJ - was about the same or a bit higher
running 1 leg jump - same

It's odd that my standing jump is lower, because some of the one step jumps with like 2 arm swing were higher than I ever did at 198lbs!
My reactivity is much better as you can see, which is strange considering all the high rep squats I've been doing, I haven't even done a power/reactive block yet!

Seem to feel like my hammies were used much more, especially on the 3 step jump, maybe because of the sprints? Hammies are bigger now from the Good Mornings as well. There is this cross bar on the back of the BBall ring, that I can only manage to nick once in a while at 198lbs, I got it no problems today off a 3 step jump, form felt so smooth, using my momentum better. Widdest gap between my standing and 3 step VJ so far. No longer jump stopping, it's one continous flow of steps, practise does pay off. Running one leg jump does surprise me though, the same at 16lbs extra weight. Squats must help em as well.

Having said all that, I am annoyed that my power to weight ratio seems to remain fairly constant! If I get lighter/leaner I get weaker, and if I get stronger I get fatter/heavier! Gees I gotta break even for once. Get weight back to 209lbs, get squat up to 435lbs, and powerclean to 275lbs and I should make some gains. The next time I come back here I want to jump at least 2 inches higher!
 
Not good sleep, light and I woke up an hour early.
Lower legs, ankles and feet are trashed. Soleus pretty sore, and the muscles on the side, right outter ankle feels inflamed like a mild sprain. Upper back a bit sore, not too bad everywhere else.

weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Crap sleep, woke up early again. Could be an issue with the naps I take.
Body feeling better, upper back/cuffs still achey for some reason.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Thursday 28th December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 4 - Day 3 - Upper 2 LIGHT Prehab_Rehab - Microcycle 1

Was supposed to be just a light upper body workout. Decided to do some lower body stuff at the start to see how well my body has recovered from the sub-max sprints and max effort jumps 2 days ago. Did my usual lower body dynamic warmup and warmup complex.
Then did

1) Powercleans + 2 high hang powercleans - Bar, 89, 119lbs
2) FullSquats in Oly shoes - Bar FrontSquat x8, backsquat - 95x8, 135x8, 185x5, 225x4, 255x3
3) Narrow stanced, high bar, Good Morning onto toes in Oly Shoes - 2 sec hold at bottom and top - 95x5, 135x7, 135x9
4) Peterson Stepups on 12inc box - 2x12 each leg

I should not have bothered with the cleans, body just did not want to explode, no pop, no speed, felt like crap....CNS is still sapped! Granted I don't have the best sleep in the world, but max effort jumps put a serious hurting on CNS drain. I definitely need the 4-5 days rest between each high intensity workout for a quality session. Don't know how people BBall 5 days a week and train 3 days ontop of that...me thinks they are not making gains!

So I stopped cleans and squats pretty early. Warmups felt ok. Squats didn't feel too bad until 185lbs where it started to get harder than usual.
Finished off with some GMs and stepups.

Although I think a light high rep boxsquat/seated GM combo (lower down to box, do a seated GM, and then squat back up etc) and Peterson stepups might make a nice active recovery in this workout and keep my knees healthy. Might try this next time.
Did my upper body circuit, and then some stretching for whole body, left feeling good after that stuff. Hopefully I'll recover ok for the next workout on Sunday, a heavy lower body workout.


Body weight at gym - 214lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 min on warm ups and 2 mins between each exercise on work sets


Reach, Roll and Lift

stretches in the same position

Rotation 1) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating
Rotation 2) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating

Dumbbell high angle Rows to ribcage - pulling with mid/lower traps and delts

warm ups - 30lbs x 10

with hold at top
Rotation 1) 40lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 40lbs x 10


Pushup with extension at top

Warm ups - on bench BW x10

on floor
Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10


Low Incline face down dumbell Raise/External Rotation combo

warm ups - 2kg x 3 each

Thumbs up Y raise + nuetral grip side raise + Cuban rotation - all with hold at top
Rotation 1) 2kg x 8
Rotation 2) 2kg x 8

d**n tough for such a light weight!


Dumbbell Curls

warm ups - 4kg x12,

Rotation 1) 30lbs x 10
Rotation 2) 35lbs x 10

a bit too heavy, too much strain on last few reps

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

Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 4kg x 10 + 1 min Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold
partial Bench dip stretched hold x 35 sec

upper body/cuff and lower body stretches.

Body felt real good on the stretches, not tight like I normally am when pressing and dumbell benching here.
Can finally touch my heel on my butt pretty easily in the quad/hip flexor stretches, and I have big quads and pretty big hammies!
 
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Much better sleep. Feel a bit sapped.
Moderately sore all over, mostly in the upper back, spinal erectors, VMO, glutes, hammies.

weighed 96.7 kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Went for a easy 12min walk, then did quite a bit of stretching for whole body. Worked a bit on ankle flexibility with respect to narrow fullsquats
 
Gah not so good sleep :( Part time job yesterday was pretty easy too, compared to normal. Not feeling as fresh as I wanted, but my body feels ok. Lower back a bit stiff and achey, but no problems bending over, get some blood into before I squat and it should be ok.

weighed 96.3 kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear
 
Sunday 31st December - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 5 - Day 1 - Lower Strength/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Last workout of 2006, and a pretty average one at that. Felt kinda crappy, but workout was productive.
Didn't do any GMs and ab work, moved em to the next lighter lower body workout. Will be alternating between 2 different main lower body workouts.

Body weight at gym - 215.5lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 8
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops
7) 30lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Power Cleans

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 225lbs

Powerclean + 2 x HighHang Powerclean - 89lbs, 119lbs, 155lbs


Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1, 345x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 365lbs x 1 - rest 3 mins
2) 315 x 4 - rest 5 mins
3) 265 x 8 - rest 6 mins
4) 335 x 4 - rest 6 mins
5) 285 x 8

Increased loads 10lbs across the board, but reduced the reps. 10 is just too high, 8 seems to be the nice upper limit before too much lactic acid sets in. About 25 secs total set time. Pretty hard, felt like within a rep of failure on the 2nd wave. 365lbs was hard, I couldn't control it in the bottom half on the way down. But I stayed upright on the way up, 1.6 sec concentric time, 3.3+sec total time

I don't think my strict controlled 1RM is higher than 375lbs right now, but I'm using a different form to before, narrower stance, sitting straight down and much more upright - ie like a proper oly full squat. So my 240+lb powerclean is about 66% of 375lbs, just where you'd expect it to be, so my explosive strength is better than I thought :)
So I should powerclean 285lbs when I hit double bodyweight and 330lbs when I reach 500lbs. Wonder if I can hit 500lbs by this time next year...
545lb squat and powerclean whole bumper plate stack of 354lbs would be sweet! :D

video of the 365, 315, 325 and 285 sets.

Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au..._Waveloaded_365_315x4_335x4_285x8_31Dec06.mpg

---------

lower body, and lower back stretches
 
thanks dudes :)

400lbs has alluded me for so long!
Good mornings will be my ticket to the promised land..strong hams and lower back is the key. Squats themselves will take care of the quad and glute strength
 
A new year, lots of fireworks and crap sleep..need to catch up on some sleep
Sore all over. VMO finally real sore again, thanks to change in squat form.
Posterior chain pretty sore, erectors seems to be getting thicker every week.

Abs (front, side and rear) and hamstrings surprisingly really sore! For the hammies I think it's because of a form tweak, even though I'm sitting straight down now, I tilt my butt back while trying to lock the back solid, which prestretches my hammies. That's something I picked up from doing Good Mornings, that along with the paused narrow stance Good Mornings gets rid of the tail tuck you get at the bottom of fullsquats.

weighed 96.6 kg 212.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear

12min walk and stretching planned for today
 
Late night. felt a bit drained yesterday, not too bad today. Still pretty sore though in my VMO, spinal erectors, glutes and upper hammies.

weighed 96.3 kg 211.86lbs straight out of bed in underwear

didn't end up walking yesterday due to rain
 
Tuesday 2nd January - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong + Maintain Weight - Week 5 - Day 2 - Upper 1 Light - Micro cycle 1

Light workout today for Upper 1
upper body is definitely loosening up since I stopped benching and pressing

Body weight at gym - 216.5lbs
Workout time - 1 hour
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings, prone scorpions
2) scapular push ups - on bench x10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2mins on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 15-20 secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation

sat at the bottom of a narrow stanced fullsquat - 1min did it 3 times in total between each rotation. Trying to get heel to touch the floor, about half an inch off...


Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - controlled BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x6, +70x5

controlled
Rotation 1) Bar + 90lbs x 5
Rotation 2) Bar + 90lbs x 5 (neutral grip)


Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps, BW 2x5,

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 10
Rotation 2) BW x 10

Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

2kgx10, 4kg x 8

controlled - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 15lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 15lbs x 8

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

Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Reach, roll and lift stretches
Reach, roll and lift with 3 sec hold x 5 each side

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and some lower body
 
Absolutely shitake night of sleep, so many distractions and noises!!!
Lower body still a bit sore, upper body not bad

weighed 97.3 kg 214lbs straight out of bed in underwear
f*ck, putting on weight!
 
really bad interrupted sleep again. Feel ok, body is feeling better, but still kinda stiff-ish. Waking pulse under 60, CNS feels kinda good, if I can get a nap in to freshen up, training should be ok today.

weighed 97.3 kg 214lbs straight out of bed in underwear
I'm almost 98kg right now after a few meals....getting too heavy
 
Thursday 4th January - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 5 - Day 3 - Lower 2 Power/Strength/Assistance - Micro cycle 1

Didn't feel all that fresh, but my CNS felt decent enough. Feeling so much better these days since I backed off on the upper body days!
Damn heavy today, up 3lbs from my average bodyweight at the gym so far, it's either fat or muscle....I know my legs have gotten way bigger, front and back, erectors as well...

As you can see I've changed my setup from the previous 4 weeks. Lower 1 will be light cleans and my waveloaded squat crap, then 4-5 days later I do this "lighter" workout. Max effort jumps, go for a squat rep PR, then hammer my assistant lifts and weak points etc. Then repeat 4-5 days later.
Every 4 weeks or so I will do what I did earlier where I deload the squat and go heavy on powercleans and get an idea where it is, do no jumps, and 4-5 days later go BBall/sprint

In between these lower body days I do my 2 upper body days, mostly maintaining here as lower body strength is priority and fixing up my shoulder ROM and health. On the 2nd upper body day I will sometimes do some tempo sprints before it, and some light lower body prehab moves like Peterson setups.

Body weight at gym - 217lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Jumps and Hops

Warm up - sets of 2-3 jumps going higher/harder each time

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 315lbs

a) Speed hops on a 5inch step x 5

rest 1min
a) standing Vertical jump,
b) one step VJ
c) running one legged jump
d) three step VJ

sequence for 5 sets or so. VJ slightly higher than before on some types of jumps, lower on running one leg jump I think.
Feel so much more powerful though! But without a muscled up feeling, very snappy and reflexive. Landings feel very solid. I'm landing without any bouncing. Standing and one step jumps land into a sorta GM type position, interesting, I sit back. 3 step VJ land into a deep squat stance with heels off the floor, but locked up stiffly and instantly, I can hold it too.
Strength gains coming through in my posterior chain and calves.

Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4
in oly shoes - 275x3, 315x1

315lbs x 8 NEW PR !!

Holy crap, I didn't expect this! Massive PR, the most I ever did before was 5 reps for a long time, and I thought I was only good for 6 today!!
315lbs didn't even feel that easy or light, but the reps kept cranking out!
Squat must be very close to 405lbs now...

Will add 10-20lbs next time, and keep going for PRs. Every time I hit 8 reps I add weight. Until I get 405x8 which should put my squat very close to my goal of 495lbs. For now anyway, maybe I will shoot for 545lbs later if I get there faster than I expect, maybe even 585lbs :)

video
Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquatPR_315x8_4Jan06.mpg

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

1-2 mins or so rest between each exercise

Good Mornings onto toes - high bar, sitting back enough for toes to come off the floor - 2 sec pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - 95lbs x 5, 135lbs x 3, 145lbs 2x6 (+10lbs) quite hard in the bottom hold, will stay here till it gets a bit easy and I can get more reps.
I sorta do a double knee rebend on these, kinda like my jumping form.

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 25lbs x 8

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 6 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate, 2 plates

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 10 each side (+1 rep)


Seated Calf Raise - 15 sec stretched hold at bottom then, reps with hold at top, mid and bottom - 50lbs x 5, 100lbs x 5

--

lower body, and lower back stretches
 
have you noticed that your knee moves to the inside on your way up during the
squat?

whats up with your sleeping problems? why do sleep bad quite often?
 
hopefully it's a good training day by design rather than fluke :)

should carry over into the next waveload workout. Man my upper hamstrings have really filled out from the paused Good mornings,and extra lower back strength/endurance from em helps the squat a lot for staying tight.
The GM thing I used to do on squats was just the result of my hammies being weaker than my quads and glutes...which held my squat back all this time...!
Also not being able to control heavy squats in the bottom half = weak hammies too.
I did RDL, and deadlifts and all, but GMs are that much better than all of em!

I kinda spread my knees out on the way down, subconsciously, I don't do it on purpose and then it moves back to nuetral when I power back up, it sorta prestretches the adductors and they add more force on the way up. That's probbaly why they get quite sore after each squat workout. My knees don't actually cave in

I don't know why my sleep is bad, probably a combo of hard training, slight overeaching and bad sleeping patterns from the early rise on some days. Overactive CNS as well.

-----

another *****ty night of sleep again, I woke up at 1 am and couldn't fall back to sleep again, just lay in bed half asleep :(

Feel a bit drained, that warm fuzzy feeling. Overdid the jumps me thinks, have to cut them down a touch. Waking pulse still under 60 though.
Achey all over, but lower body not as sore as the last waveload workout.

weighed 97.2 kg 213.8lbs straight out of bed in underwear
I think the weight gain is mostly fat, just need to curb the junk food me thinks...

might go for a 12 min walk and some stretching after - not sure, as I have a heavy day at my part time job tommorrow, walking tends to make my lower back/posterior chain achey
 
crap sleep, nothing new... Apart from feeling so damn tired, body feels ok. Hammies still pretty sore though. Lowest waking pulse in a while 54


weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear

did quite a bit of stretching and some pseudo foam rolling on my hips and glutes using the floor.
 
Late night, feel a bit spaced out. Sleep never feels as good after midnight
Body feels pretty good, hips and it band a bit achey. Hammies still not recovered yet

weighed 97.3 kg 214lbs straight out of bed in underwear
thought weight was starting to go down..doh
 
Sunday 7th January - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 6 - Day 1 - LIGHT Prehab Rehab - Microcycle 1

Usually this is an upper body day, but it's more a full body one, but pretty light and low volume active recovery type session.


Body weight at gym - 217.5lbs
Workout time - ?
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

15 sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings
2) back extension x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 8
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Keiser hip adduction/abduction gas machine - 3/2 setting x 10
6) various hops
7) Prone Scorpion - x6 each leg alternating
8) Braced Scorpion under - x6 each leg alternating
9) 30lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 min on warm ups and 1-2 mins between each exercise on work sets


Reach, Roll and Lift

stretches in the same position

Rotation 1) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating
Rotation 2) 3 sec hold x 4 each side, alternating


Pushup with extension at top

Warm ups - scapular push up on bench x 10, push up on bench BW x10

on floor
Rotation 1) BW x 11 (+1 rep)
Rotation 2) BW x 11
Rotation 3) BW x 11 (+1 extra set)

Dumbbell high angle Rows to ribcage - pulling with mid/lower traps and delts

warm ups - 30lbs x 10

with hold at top
Rotation 1) 40lbs x 12 (+2 reps)
Rotation 2) 40lbs x 12

12 inch Peterson setups

Rotation 1) BW x 12 each side


Low Incline face down dumbell Raise/External Rotation combo

warm ups - 1kg x 3 each

Thumbs up Y raise + neutral grip side raise + Cuban rotation - all with hold at top
Rotation 1) 2kg x 6
Rotation 2) 2kg x 6

Reverse Hypers

Rotation 1) BW x 15


Dumbbell Curls - hold at the middle on the way down

warm ups - 4kg x12,

Rotation 1) 15lbs x 7
Rotation 2) 25lbs x 6


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

Cooldown - Restorative - ISO stretches

Subscap raises 4kg x 10 + 1 min Pec/Subscap stretched ISO hold

upper body/cuff and lower body stretches.
 
Finally a decent night's sleep. Still feel tired though.
Body has some mild aches, not bad.

weighed 97.3 kg 214lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Did some upper and lower body mobility work. Some lying and standing side leg raises, woo tons of hip and adductor activation tehre, especially with a slight hold. Gonna have to add these to my lower body general warmup to activate the hips and adductors.

Went for a 12min easy walk and then some light stretches and a few single leg squat/deadlift type move to fix some hip/glute firing issue - very hard to balance, and pumped the hell out of legs and hips with only 6 total reps each leg!
 
Pretty good sleep, not the best, but better than what I've been getting recently. Feeling pretty good, hips and lower back a bit achey, but body has that loose feeling that tells me it's time to rock. Legs felt strong walking upstairs. See how I go with squats today....

weighed 96.7 kg 212.74lbs straight out of bed in underwear
yay, weight is back down. 95kg 209lbs would be nice
 
Tuesday 9th January - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 6 - Day 2 - Lower Strength/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Workout was ok, but squats were a lot tougher than I expected, but I'm not feeling so gassed now afterwards even with the ever increasing loads.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1.25 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings
2) back extension x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 8
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) prone side leg raise x5, standing side leg raise x 5
7) Prone Scorpion - x6 each leg alternating
8) Braced Scorpion under - x6 each leg alternating
9) various hops
10) 30lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Power Cleans

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 18bs

Powerclean + 3x High Hang Powerclean - bar, 89lbs, 119lbs


Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x6, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1, 345x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 325 x 4 - rest 5 mins
2) 275 x 8 - rest 6 mins
3) 345 x 4 - rest 6 mins
4) 295 x 8

Increased loads 10lbs across the board again, but by mistake, was supposed to go 5lbs up...Anyway I got em all ok, but 345lbs x 4 was bitching hard. Just about all out, although it did feel much easier in the 2nd wave compared to how it felt in the warmups, where I didn't think I could even get more than 2 reps! 345lbs felt much easier in the last 2 weeks, and form overall was not good, so recovery is behind, but I only have one more week before I unload the squats

A bit of room left with the 295x8, not surprising as I got a 315x8 PR last session, but not sure I could add 10lbs more next time and get 355x4...getting into 90% zone, and I want to stay away from there. But that would be a nice PR for me, as I have been trying to get 355x4 but always fell short....
See how I go, but I might make some changes into a 3 tier flat waveload in the 70-80% area.

Lower back is starting to feel a bit over trained as well. So I may not go that heavy on squats next session, save the back for the GMs, plus I need to get back into the split squats, they help a lot. That should leave a bit of breathing room for overall recovery.

video of the top wave with the 345, and 295 sets.

Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquat_Waveloaded_345x4_295x8_9Jan07.mpg

---------

reverse hypers - BWx15
lower body, and lower back stretches
 
Last edited:
coolcolj said:
Tuesday 9th January - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 6 - Day 2 - Lower Strength/Work Capacity - Micro cycle 1

Workout was ok, but squats were a lot tougher than I expected, but I'm not feeling so gassed now afterwards even with the ever increasing loads.

Body weight at gym - 216lbs
Workout time - 1.25 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings
2) back extension x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 8
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) prone side leg raise x5, standing side leg raise x 5
7) Prone Scorpion - x6 each leg alternating
8) Braced Scorpion under - x6 each leg alternating
9) various hops
10) 30lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Power Cleans

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from 95lbs to 18bs

Powerclean + 3x High Hang Powerclean - bar, 89lbs, 119lbs


Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x6, 225x4
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x2, 315x1, 345x1

controlled down, semi-explosive up
1) 325 x 4 - rest 5 mins
2) 275 x 8 - rest 6 mins
3) 345 x 4 - rest 6 mins
4) 295 x 8

Increased loads 10lbs across the board again, but by mistake, was supposed to go 5lbs up...Anyway I got em all ok, but 345lbs x 4 was bitching hard. Just about all out, although it did feel much easier in the 2nd wave compared to how it felt in the warmups, where I didn't think I could even get more than 2 reps! 345lbs felt much easier in the last 2 weeks, and form overall was not good, so recovery is behind, but I only have one more week before I unload the squats

A bit of room left with the 295x8, not surprising as I got a 315x8 PR last session, but not sure I could add 10lbs more next time and get 355x4...getting into 90% zone, and I want to stay away from there. But that would be a nice PR for me, as I have been trying to get 355x4 but always fell short....
See how I go, but I might make some changes into a 3 tier flat waveload in the 70-80% area.

Lower back is starting to feel a bit over trained as well. So I may not go that heavy on squats next session, save the back for the GMs, plus I need to get back into the split squats, they help a lot. That should leave a bit of breathing room for overall recovery.

video of the top wave with the 345, and 295 sets.

Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquat_Waveloaded_345x4_295x8_9Jan07.mpg

---------

reverse hypers - BWx15
lower body, and lower back stretches
Click to expand...

Watched the video - nice ascending speed, but is it just me, or does your depth seem to barely break parallel? Some reps it looks like you stop just below parallel, when you could probably sink a bit deeper.
 
some of it is due to the camera angle, have a look at some of my other vids from the side

maybe if you measure it ala Powerlifter style, by looking at top tops of my thighs

but I have 29+inch legs with big hammies and 17 inch calves, so that's about as low as I can go squatting oly style, unless I relax and round my lower back like I used to. Then I can sink down maybe 2 more inches, which I can't see it adding that much. I try to stay tight these days to avoid back issues

I can go a bit lower if I really sit back and keep my shins more vertical, but my range of motion would still be the same, look how far the bar travels! Around 2 feet
and my ass is 12 inches off the floor

only skinny people can go ultra low :)
Look at the heavier olylifters, they squat pretty similar to me - like Botev in this vid I put together before - at the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu4v-USn0DE
 
crap sleep, ran out of ZMA too. Wasn't sure on the waking pulse, miscounted, but it did seem mega high.
Feel tired, and a bit drained. Whole body is sore, whole hamstring and surprisingly my calves are really sore.

Hammies are stronger from the paused GMs, and so they are definitely getting used now, which has reduced a lot of the GM type move I used to do on squats on the way up, plus I can control it better in the bottom half. Nice and upright now, almost like a frontsquat with bar on my back. Still kicking myself in not doing them 2 years ago, would have saved a lot of wasted effort and frustration!!!
I still GM a bit when I go heavy and get tired, but it should go away as my Paused GM gets into the 200+lb area. If it reaches 300+lbs for reps then the fullsquat should be well over 500lbs :)

weighed 96.8 kg 212.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear

12min easy walk and some light stretching planned
 
Got me some more ZMA. Nice deep sleep, interesting dreams. Woke up a bit early though
Still pretty sore

weighed 97.9 kg 215.38lbs straight out of bed in underwear
dang, I just ate 2 big burgers in the afternoon yesterday, 5 hours before I went to bed, nothing inbetween and my weight jumps up heaps!
 
Thursday 11th January - Cycle 4 Get Strong Lower Body Strong + Maintain Weight - Week 6 - Day 3 - Upper 1 - Micro cycle 1

218lbs at the gym, damn, must get back down to 214lbs at least!
Workout started pretty crappy, feel so lethargic, must be the weather, but I got stronger as time went by. Pretty good.

Body weight at gym - 218lbs
Workout time - 1+ hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

1) whole body dynamic stretches and swings
2) scapular push ups - on bench x10
3) scapular bench dip - BWx10


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 1 to 2mins on warm ups and 3 mins between each exercise on work sets

stretched the side of neck and upper trap, 20secs each, at the start of each warm up and work set rotation

sat at the bottom of a narrow stanced fullsquat - 1 min did it 3 times in total between each rotation

Chest Supported T-Bar Rows - medium overhand grip

warm ups - semi-Explosive + 2 sec hold at top on last rep - BAR x10, +25lbs x 8, +45x6, +70x5, +90x5, +115x3, +135x2 (no hold)

elbows out, chin tucked
Rotation 1) Bar + 160lbs x 3 (+1 rep)
Rotation 2) Bar + 137.5lbs x 6 (+2.5lbs)
Rotation 3) Bar + 97.5lbs x 12 (+2.5lbs +2reps)

Hmm getting stronger it seems. Tweaked form, keeping elbows out - can finally feel it in the mid/lower traps and rear delts, and takes out the lats from the movement.

Dip Shrugs

warm ups - regular 10sec Hold + 5 reps, BW 2x5

controlled with hold at top
Rotation 1) BW x 12
Rotation 2) BW x 12
Rotation 3) BW x 12

up 2 reps and a set

Elbow on Knee single arm External Rotation - started from bottom

2kgx10, 4kg x 8, 15lbs x 6, 20lbs x 3

controlled - 1.5 min between sides
Rotation 1) 20lbs x 8
Rotation 2) 20lbs x 8

felt stronger too

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

Cool down - Restorative - stretches

Reach, roll and lift stretch x 4 each side

Static stretches - lats, shoulders, rear delt, bicep, tricep, cuffs and some lower body/back
 
Mild drained feeling, still a bit behind the recovery curve, but I have a few more days till I train again.
Sore upper back and rear delts, spinal erectors and lower body achey as well

weighed 98 kg 215.6lbs straight out of bed in underwear
FAt! It kinda dawned on me that my legs and glutes are massive for me, damn they have really blow up something serious! I could be a Tom Platz if I wanted too :)
My legs grow so easily, probbaly because I have jumped so much and a good helping of genetics, and I love squatting.
 
Last edited:
Sunday 14th January - Cycle 4 Get Strong+Maintain Weight - Week 7 - Day 1 - Lower 2 Power/Strength/Assistance - Micro cycle 1

I haven't been updating, but the all usual, crap sleep etc. I also had to fill in for someone at my part time job, so that *****ed up my sleep, and added more fatigue to my whole body.

So felt pretty crappy going to the gym, but somehow I was pretty explosive and strong after all that. Ankle and Hip mobility is getting better and better, and so my knees feel so good and strong right now!

Body weight at gym - 217.5lbs
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

20sec ISO holds - quarter squat, on toes, on heels (toes pulled up), hip back wide stance squat at parallel, on side of feet (for ankles), narrow full squat at bottom on toes
standing on one leg, balancing, and with eyes shut

1) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
2) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
3) reverse hypers - BW x 10
4) sit up complex on swiss ball
5) Prone Scorpion - x10 each leg alternating
6) Braced Scorpion under - x8 each leg alternating
8) "hurdle" over and unders x 5 each direction and each type
9) glute bridge x 8
10) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills


Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3mins

Jumps and Hops

Warm up - sets of 2-3 jumps going higher/harder each time

did these in between the warm up sets on squats from bar to 225lbs

a) Speed hops on a 5inch step x 5

rest 1min
a) standing Vertical jump,
b) one step VJ
c) running one legged jump
d) three step VJ

4 sets or so, but only 3 were all out I stopped when I got enough of that achey inflamed feeling in my lower body, I normally get when jumping. So I didn't go to full dropoff/exhaustion. So lower volume than last time, which drained the hell out of me the next day.
Jumps were about the same as last time. Plenty of time for gains later when I have a monster squat and powerclean, then tapering the strength work off and bringing in the jump squats plus depth jumps will do the trick

Full Oly Squats - Oly Shoes - no Belt

warm ups - controlled down, explosive up in sneakers - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x4,
in oly shoes - 255x3, 285x3, 315x1, 330x1

330lbs x 8 +15lbs NEW PR !!

WOot! 10 days later, 15lbs extra on the bar and a new PR!!!
Looks like I got my Workout/Recovery frequency dialed in. Damn 15lbs in 10 days is ok with me! Weights were feeling ok on my back, even though none of the warmup sets were any easier than last time.

330lbs didn't feel that good, wasn't sure I'd make it past 5 reps, but somehow I did. 7th rep was hard, I didn't think the 8th would go, but I tried it and made it!
Gives me confidence to up the load 10lbs on my waveload squat workout in 4 days time. Squat must be over 405lbs now, not long to go till double BW.....heck only 75lbs to go till my 405x8, 500lbs squat goal.

video
Right click on video and save first to avoid errors!
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj2/Movies/CCJ_FullSquatPR_330x8_14Jan06.mpg

---------

Rotating Sets between each exercise

1-2 mins or so rest between each exercise

Good Mornings onto toes - high bar, sitting back enough for toes to come off the floor - 2 sec pause at bottom and hold at top - oly shoes - controlled - Bar x 5, 95lbs x 3, 135lbs x 3, 155lbs 2x6 (+10lbs) quite hard on 2nd set

Lat Machine situp - BW x 12 (progressively lower each rep with hold at bottom)
hold at middle and bottom on each rep - 15lbs x 3, 25lbs x 3, 35lbs x 6 (+10lbs)

Toe curls on lying leg curl machine - 10sec stretched hold + 5 reps with with a hold at top, mid and bottom + 5 sec stretched hold - 1 Plate, 2 plates, 3 plates

Sideways situp on hyper bench - BW x 3, Paused - BW x 11 each side (+1 rep)


Reverse Lunge - Bar x 3 each side, 95lbs x 4

--
revers hypers - BWx17

lower body, abs and lower back stretches
 
enigma4dub said:
is that your typical range of motion for your oly squats? and may I ask your height?
Click to expand...

yes more or less, sometimes 2 inches lower when I'm leaner and lighter :)

5'9"
 
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A little sapped, but no where near as drained as last time. Light to moderately sore all over. Hamstrings are pretty shredded, especially the right side. Spinal erectors continue to get thicker, there are 2 steel poles running up my spine now :)

weighed 97.6 kg 214.7lbs straight out of bed in underwear
Good some downward trend

dynamic stretches and mobility work for upper and lower body
12min walk and some light stretching after
 
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