Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Cough has been really annoying. It's not helping my sleep. Have not felt so good yesterday and a bit today.
Whole body is achey. Quads, calves, hammies, glutes and spinal erectors sore from the box squats. I guess I over did it on those.
At least I don't feel drained though, so my CNS is regaining some reserve again. So I can start to ramp back the intensity and volume next week. Once that desire comes back then that's the signal to hit it hard again

weighed 92.8kg 204.16lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Felt pretty crappy yesterday, very hungry, dizzy, blood sugar going crazy etc. I ate more throughout the day and at night which didn't really seem to help. Weight was up slightly this morning, but has now dropped to a lower level fully clothed, 92.5kg 203.5lbs just then! I don't know where the weight is gone cause I'm still fat as hell! Mind boggling, I was over 98kg 1.5months ago. I can't even imagine myself at 175lbs, but I could get down there eventually

 

[coolcolj]

Sleep not so good, need more of it. Back to a low waking pulse of 51.
Still got that f*cking cough!!!
Body feeling better. Most of the soreness is gone, except I have sprained or jarred my right ankle somehow. I don't know where or how, it just started hurting all of a sudden! Not too bad, it won't stop me from jumping and squatting today.

weighed 92.1kg 202.62lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Nice, will be cracking 200lbs real soon. 190lbs is where things are going to start to takeoff and I should be in the low teen bodyfat %. I am feeling a lot lighter, very noticable this morning walking up this steep driveway. Stronger posterior chain from GMs help too.

 

[coolcolj]

Thursday 8th March - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong + Lean up - Week 3 - Day 3 - Lower Strength DELOAD - Micro cycle 2

The last time I did this session, was the last workout before I over trained and got sick the next day on the 28th Feb. Was 210lbs then, now 5.5lbs lighter!
Felt Ok today, not the best, CNS is starting to rebound back, but it was a very humid and stuffy day. The cold and cough I have made it very hard to breathe!
Sprained right ankle was giving me some *****s on the jump landings but went away after a while. It's pretty stiff now and hurts like a bitch when I try to bend it sideways! Feck I spend all this time strengthening it, and it gets sprained without actually spraining it!!! One of those twilight zone things...

Body weight at gym - 204.5lbs
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

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 full squat at bottom on toes

1) dynamic stretches and swings
2) back extension x 4 + 6 twisting to each side
3) sit up complex on swiss ball
4) standing side leg raise x 8 each side
5) Prone Scorpion - x12 each leg alternating
6) Braced Scorpion under - x10 each leg alternating
7) hurdle over and unders x 5 each direction and type
8) 40lb bar complex - slow cleanpull, press, GM onto toes, partial snatch grip press, hang powerclean, power jerk - 5 reps each, 3 on the jerks
9) glute bridge x 8
10) Single leg SLDL mobility walks
11) various hops and prime times etc

Rotating Sets between each exercise

Resting 2-3 mins

Vertical Jumps

Did 4 sets of 2-3 jumps in between the warm sets of squats. Felt easy, but no higher. I have lost so much weight too!!!


Full Oly Squats - Sneakers - no Belt

warm ups - Bar x 8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x4, 225x4, 255x3, 285x2

controlled - 5 mins rest
1) 275lbs x 3
2) 225lbs x 8
3) 245lbs x 6 --> in oly shoes
hard strain on all last reps

Just wanted to get an idea of leg strength. Partial deload.
Leg strength is down a lot, I don't think I have any chance of getting anywhere near my PR of 330lbs x 8. That's probably why my Vertical jump haven't changed much even though my bodyweight is at least 10lbs lighter than when I set my PB a few weeks back.

Squats felt really different, very good, no aches and pains, smooth and depth is way lower! I have set the safety pins to the 3rd lowest notch ever since I started training. And even back in my lighter and skinnier days the bar was always about an inch above it at the lowest point, lately it's been 2 inches thanks to bigger legs/hams/calves. Today I kept hitting the pins throughout the warmups very easily!! I had to drop the safety pins one notch and then it was 2.5 inches too high.
Some guy I know there came up and said I was getting really ass to the floor
I must have lost a lot of size/fat off the back of my legs and calves. I'd imagine I'll get even lower as I continue leaning up!

Also did a set in oly shoes. Felt a lot easier and more stable. Sneakers hit the glutes more, while in oly shoes, I'm more upright and feel it more in my hammies, I probably sit back a touch more or something.
Just gonna keep it basic on this workout and work up to two sets of 6-8 reps, first set in sneakers and then 2nd in oly shoes. Add weight whenever I can and try and get it back to 315lbs 2x8

Vid of my new depth on squats - there seems to be more sacral tuck though. I could feel my lower back working more. It's probably because I was more focused on going as low as possible rather than trying to stay tight. Gotta fix that. That's pretty low IMO....A little higher in oly shoes though
right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj3/Movies/CCJ_FullSquat_NewDepth285x2_245x6_8March07.mpg

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split leg Good Mornings - narrow split - high bar - sneakers - no belt

warmups - BW x 5 each side

controlled, 2sec pause at bottom, left side first
45lbs x 5 each side x 2 sets


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lower body stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Feel crappy, and tired. Not drained though.
Whole body is sore, upper hammies the most. Followed by my VMO, glutes, calves, erectors and upper back.

weighed 91.8kg 201.96lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Surprised it dropped down even more today! I substituted one of the the protein drink meals with greasy lamb chops, doesn't seem to have changed the results of the diet. Fat, fruit, veges and protein, it's all good.

12min walk, mobility work and easy stretching today.

 

[d-dub]

Im watching with interest to see how this diet plan works out for you. Seems to be effective so far.

It's possible you have some strength drop if your ROM is greater on squats. That video set defenitely looked alot lower than some of your previous stuff a while back.

 

[coolcolj]

Im watching with interest to see how this diet plan works out for you. Seems to be effective so far.

It's possible you have some strength drop if your ROM is greater on squats. That video set defenitely looked alot lower than some of your previous stuff a while back.

it's only 2 inches extra in the bottom part which isn't the hardest part anyway, my sticking point is further up in the middle. Might drop 2 reps tops off my 330x8 rep max! Still I can't squat 330x6 right now..
And remeber I did pause 325x3 recently with a rep in the tank after pausing 315 for 3 reps also

Being overeached, then overtrained and then sick does that.....add in a diet as well

I should be jumping at least 3-4 inches right now. If I'm not jumping at least 12 inches higher when I get under 180lbs I'm gonna be pissed!!

 

[coolcolj]

Crappy, tired and beat in the morning thanks to not enough sleep and tiring part time job. Not too bad in the afternoon though after a few naps.
Hamstrings and adductors still pretty sore.

weighed 92.5kg 203.5lbs straight out of bed in underwear

Really pigged out last night. I needed that, been feeling weak lately. Will do so again tonight

 

[coolcolj]

Feeling better. Finally feels like I'm over the sickness and overtraining, that annoying cough is still lingering around though.
Body feels prettty good, just some upper back soreness from my part time job yesterday.
Supposed to train my upper body today, but I feel like jumping around more than anything to be honest. Training Upper body = snorefest!
Looks like I'm become a jump freak again like back in the day. A good thing indeed

weighed 92.6kg 203.7lbs straight out of bed in underwear
waist = 36 inches
BodyFat = 16.9%

Pigged out again last night. Well it looks like I didn't lose that much fat when I was sick, just a lot of muscle mass. That's why my strength levels are down so much. Still got another 6 inches of my waist to drop, so about 30lbs of fat.
Hope to get my waist to 35 inches and bodyweight udner 200lbs over the next month, and so BF% down to around 15.

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 11th March - Cycle 4 Get Lower Body Strong + Get Lean - Week 4 - Day 1 - Lower 2 Power/Assistance - Micro cycle 1

Back into it, time to regain my leg strength. Pretty good workout overall.
I'm switching to a fixed weekly setup now, instead of the 3 days a week rotating scheme I was using before.
2 Lower body days with an upper body day in the middle, plus light lower body. So I'm training my lower body 3 times a week and upper body once - alternating between 2 upper body setups.
Just have to be careful of burnout. Volume, and workout times will be lower now, plus I won't be going as gut busting as before. When the loads get heavier, I'll be deloading every 3 weeks, and eventually every 2 weeks. After that I'll probably go even more complicated when it comes to that...

Getting pretty good at the dynamic mobility stuff, an ROM has vastly improved!
Moving the reverse lunges and ab work to my upper body workout on Tuesday. Might do the light box squats then as well, not sure. Have nowhere else to put em, probably redundant...Forgot to do toe curls so will do em next workout


Body weight at gym - 205lbs
Workout time - 1.25 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

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 full squat at bottom on toes

1) standing Side leg raise x 8 each side
2) dynamic stretches and swings, rocking on side of ankle etc
3) Prone Scorpion - x12 each leg alternating
4) Braced Scorpion under - x8 each leg alternating
5) "hurdle" over and unders x 5 each direction and each type
6) glute bridge x 8
7) back extension x 5 + 6 twisting to each side
8) sit up complex on swiss ball
9) Single Leg SLDL mobility walk
10) various hops, prime times, running in the spot drills, low altitude drops and depth jumps


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 255lbs

a) Speed hops on a 3 inch step x 5 to start, later sets moved to a 9 inch step

rest 1min
a) standing Vertical jump,
b) one step VJ
c) running one leg jump
d) 3 step vertical jump

2 hard sets total. Overall jump height about the same


Clean grip Front Squat + Full Back Squats - sneakers - no Belt

warm ups - frontsquat 3 reps, rerack, rest 15secs, backsquat 3 - Bar , 95lbs
frontsquat 2 reps, rerack, rest 30secs, backsquat 2 - 135lbs, 185lbs

frontsquat 3 reps, rerack, rest 30secs, backsquat 2 reps
1) 225lbs

Full Oly Squat
2) 255lbs x 7 --> medium strain on last rep, rest 5mins

in oly shoes
3) 255lbs x 7 --> hard strain on last rep

Used a shoulder width stance on Front Squats, can't believe I can do it like that in flat sneakers. Hip and ankle mobility is so much better!!
225lbs felt moderately hard.
Full Squats feeling better, strength is coming back. Can really feel the soleus stretch at the bottom when in sneakers due to the extra depth now.
Stay here next time till I get 2 sets of 8, then up to 275lbs and repeat until I hopefully get 315lbs for 2 sets of 8. Then strength should be about where it was, and I should be getting some vertical jump PRs then...

Power Cleans - in sneakers

Powerclean + 2 High Hang powerclean - 135lbs x 2 sets

My Fav bar for cleans is bent, so the bumpers no longer slide on without jamming Sucks, as I don't feel so confident in going heavy on these if I ever have to max out.
So I used metal plates with the bar today, at least that spins better with the loose metal plates.

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Good Mornings onto toes - high bar, sitting back enough for toes to come off the floor - oly shoes

warmups - BW x5, Bar x 5, 95lbs x 3

Down to parallel, 3 to 4 sec pause at bottom and hold at top on toes
135lbs 2x5 - 3 mins rest

Can go much lower now, just about parallel, for the same reasons as my full squats I guess. Less one rep, but longer holds. Can really feel it more in my hammies now. Lower back pretty trashed too, especially after squats...
Maybe if I only did front squats this session, that wouldn't be the case...

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lower body, abs, lats and lower back stretches

 

[coolcolj]

Good amount of sleep, over 9 hours, rare for me, but I still look and feel tired..
Feel ok, a tiny bit sapped, this is how I want to feel at the most. No longer want that drained feeling from large volumes. But things may change when the loads get heavier as my strength returns.
Got some red welts on my chest coming up again, gotta keep my eye on that. They're always around when I start to overreach....hormone and stress thing.
Not too sore, achey feeling all over, but upper hammies are pretty shredded up, and lowerback.

weighed 92.4kg 203.28lbs straight out of bed in underwear
waist = 35.75 inches

Waist dropped a bit since yesterday. Face and neck starting to get that narrow look. My legs measured 27.5 inches that's an inch down from before I was sick. No wonder my ROM has changed on my lower body moves and why my leg strength is down so much...lots of muscle mass loss there, 1 inch is a lot! My arms have hardly shrunk in comparison, just the bodyfat drops in size, and I hardly ever train em!

Also yesterday my lower legs are feeling a lot stronger and bouncey. Super springy calves when I land, my heels don't touch the ground at all, and zero shin splint issues from doing the running one leg jump at max effort. Calves actually measure smaller now 16.5 down from 17 inches, mostly from fat loss I gather, but my soleus is a lot bigger. It seems the hold I do on my toes in the Good Mornings are building up my soleus more than my gastrocs, doesn't make sense to me... maybe soleus is the key muscle after all, definitely is for posterior shin splint issues

12 min walk, mobility work, and easy stretching after planned today