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Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

when I was 200lbs at the gym I also jumped 32 inches as well....
that gives me 6918.77 watts...

so my power is definitely down from dieting...
I should be jumping 33-34 inches now

plug that power output with a 75kg 165lb bodyweight and my VJ jumps up to 91.8 cm 36.7 inches !!!!
 
Saturday 3rd May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 2 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 86.2kg 189.6lbs in shorts and t-shirt

Getting colder now, as winter approaches.... a little warmer today, so I could wear shorts

Outdoor BBall court - one right next to park with a bent rim - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

42mins hours total

did lots of dribbling, working on the inbetween my legs move, mostly from left to right, as that is hard for me! Did that for 30mins, with a few shots.

Then did some jumps - only got in 10 or so. Felt flat.
Jump well down, like at least 4 inches... couldn't even touch 9'8"...ie the lowest part of the bent rim!!!!
If I was jumping like last week, I probably would have got my wrist close to the rim :(

I think the deadlifts earlier in the week did a number on me.
Starting to notice a pattern here, I only jump well every 2nd week or so, ie on my "light" weeks...... sucks

Knees feeling even better this week. Ankle mobility work is really helping. Getting closer to 100%. Less jumping today will help too
 
4th May 2008

feel ok - a little achey in my posterior chain, lower legs/feet and upper back.

weighed 86kg 189.2lbs this morning
waist is 34.25 inches measured loose, down 0.25 inches

Surprised my bodyweight hasn't gone up that much compared to last week - because I have eaten more calories this week, more meat and especially from carbs at night, so I expected more water bloat - especially last night, I really pigged out on the lamb chops and mash potatoes! :D
Even a little bit of junk food after training or walking.....

Waist is down 1/4 inch as well without actually dieting hard. That's around 1lb of fat lost. Hmmm this 25min moderate speed walking 4-5 times a week is working pretty good :)
Hope it continues.

With this http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
it puts me at 14.9% bodyfat. Tanita still showing around 22.7% Bodyfat, but it seems to be highly dependant on water levels I've noticed.
If I measure my waist like I used to, tightly, I get 33.5 inches. So I'm far leaner than I have been in years. Still have a long way to go though.

This walking reminds me of my experience many years ago, when I got my Jump soles. Yeah I was one of those ill informed BBallers who wanted to up his hops with platform shoes....
The program it came with didn't do jack, and me like most Ballers think calves = hops. So I started walking around in them for 30 mins 3 times a week at the park, in the middle of the night so I wouldn't look like a fool :D
My calves did get a little bigger and my hops didn't gain one bit, but funny enough after 3 weeks, before I stopped doing this, I lost half an inch off my waist with no change in diet! In fact I was gradually getting fatter around that time.
LOL, one the guys I played with thought I had grown because my appearance had changed!

But back then I also sat on my butt quite a bit during the week and only played BBall for 2-3 hours either 1-2 times a week on the weekend.
That's the key moving around a bit more, even low intensity stuff will do the job without sapping you out.
Although walking in Jumpsoles is a little more taxing than regular walking, your heart rate and breathing is quite a bit higher
 
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Tuesday 8th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 3 - Day 1

Decent workout.

Body weight at gym - 193lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

4 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x 8
lateral deep lunge 2x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - no Belt

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3
Back Squats - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4

controlled
Front Squat - 225lbs x 2
rest 4mins
Back Squat - 225lbs 2x6 (+1 rep, +1 set)

Well squats felt pretty hard and slow today!
All the bars at my gym are bent and curved. The one I used today is nice for deadlifts and back squats, but bad for front squats, the bar dug into my left collar one and made me feel like blacking out!

2nd rep on 225lb front squats felt quite hard in the sticking point area, so I doubt I can do more 3 reps with 225lbs right now.
Back squats didn't feel much better, slow and hard, but form was good, and I didn't even feel my lower back working, just mostly my glutes. When I lower down I kept expecting my lower back to feel achey, but it never came - Sweet!

Judging from today I doubt I can do more than 8 reps with 225lbs if I went all out. So my 1RM is no more than 315lbs. About 1.6x BW.
Hmm, and I'm vertical jumping at least 31 inches, 33 with a step and 35 off a run. Lets see what happens to my hops do when I get my squats back up to 295lbs x2 on front squats and 295lbs 2x6 on oly back squats......and continue leaning down to 180lbs....

video of the main worksets and one set of the single leg kneeling deadlifts - plus a bonus :D
The 225lb squats felt hard and slow, but somehow they look easy and fast in the video - interesting.....
right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...5_2x6_SLKneelingDeadlift66x8paused_6May08.mpg


Single Leg Lifts

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x33lb dumbbells x 8

single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x33lbs dumbell x 8

kept the same weight, was tough, so will stay here a while, as I push up my squats. Back look rounded in the video, but it doesn't feel it.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches


dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BW 15 reps with a slight hold at top on each rep

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 2kg dumbell x9 (+1rep)
Push ups on bench 2x6 (+1 rep)
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm Cuban rotation
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach - 25lbs x 9 (+5lbs)


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

35 secs each side - up 5 secs - still freaking hard as hell! Gonna take some work to get up to a min hold...

Leg lowering AB exercise - slow tempo
warmup - supported leg raise x 8
1.5 mins rest - 2x5 reps
could get my legs all the way to floor without my lower back coming off the floor for 2 full sets of 5

Stretching for whole body
 
Don't feel too bad, not sapped or drained, just a light fatigued feeling.
Every muscle in my body is achey. My upper hamstrings and glutes are really sore, followed by my foot muscles, calves and quads. Then my upper back and cuff muscles.
 
LOL hamstrings and glutes still pretty sore.....


some BBall court pics from last year - when I was 210lbs or so, so pretty fat.
You can see my flabby gut in the last pic :)

I'm 5'9" in the Nike Free 5.0 trainers I was wearing, with a 7'2" standing reach with one hand stretched as hard as I can.
174cm 5'8.5" if you want to be exact, barefooted.

This is the outdoor court complex I sometimes play on. There are 6 full outdoor courts, and one indoor court nearby but you have to pay to use it.
The courts where I mention 8 foot netball rims at the back.
Which you can see in the pics. I can obviously get my head easily over it.
Actually, 2 weeks ago, I could put both arms over that 8 foot netball rim, right up to the middle of my tricep off a one step 2 legged jump :)
Off course being 20+lbs lighter means I jump a little higher these days, but I'm a lot weaker though.....

Bottom of the this backboard is 9.5 feet. Some have 9 feet backboards

me standing under the rim
CCJ_OutdoorBBallCourt_standing.JPG


standing vertical jump peak
CCJ_OutdoorBBallCourt_VJ.JPG


off a 3 step jump
CCJ_OutdoorBBallCourt_3stepJump.JPG
 
woo finally hit 85kg 187lbs on the dot yesterday afternoon, although I was quite dehydrated. But still fully carbed up diet wise. So even my carbed up bodyweight is heading down - the walking is doing something even on higher calories :)

A little heavier today though, I'll see how much I weigh before I head out to BBall, but still lighter than last week. Almost a pound drop.

I hit a few dance moves earlier today, and that light footwork and feel for the groove is coming back. When I felt like a clutz last week. I think it might be due to all the walking - enhancing lower body reactivity :D
 
Saturday 10th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 3 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 86kg 189.2lbs in shorts and t-shirt

wanted to head to the court with the 8 foot netball rims, but like last week it was overtaken by little girls playing netball comp....grrr then had to drive in frustrating traffic to the other court!!

Outdoor BBall court - one right next to park with a bent rim - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

50mins hours total

did some dribbling, a few shots and some moves with moderate effort jumps in them for about 20 mins.
Felt pretty good, snappy and light on my feet. Dribbling is getting decent.
Much better than last week...energy and power wise!

Then started jumping harder, and was disappointed with my lack of hops, but it seemed I just need a long time to warmup, because after a while my legs started to feel powerful. Feels a lot more explosive and solid when I jump now

Did 20 or so max effort jumps, mostly running and 3 step jumps, with a few one step, running one legged and standing jumps.
All about the same, but my one step jump has gone up an inch on this court, very easy to get up without having to put much effort and speed into it. while my Running jump is shocking now, no higher than my one step jump :(

Something doesn't feel right as well, I was jumping much better when I was 200lbs, relative to my bodyweight. I can't put my finger on it. Just lacking oomph. I'm gonna have to go back through my log and see what I did back then. I know I was jumping more back then with my 2 a days training sessions for a while, and I did a lot of paused explosive squats. Although I was stronger, could do 245lbs for 9 reps paused, so about 40lbs stronger than I am now.
Still didn't think it would make that much difference.... I also jump off the balls of my feet now, whereas back then I rolled from heel to toe.

Left before I exhausted myself and get injured. Hamstrings were still a little achey today.
Knees felt great, right knee is about as good as it's gonna be, close to 100%. Left knee about 90%. No aches when I jump or land.
I had a massive foam roll session on Thursday and pushed myself past the pain barrier with my trusty cardboard roll :)
Definitely noticed it today, both upper and lower body felt much more supple and loose.
 
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11th May 2008

feel decent - a little achey in my posterior chain, lower legs/feet and upper back. Spinal erectors as usual are sore. I don't know if it's from BBall or my Part time job, where I have to lift and carry stuff quite a bit. Or both...
But overall I feeling better and better today as the weeks roll by, with the foam rolling, mobility and flexibility work, and lighter bodyweight.

8 hours sleep + 2.5 hours lying in bed = nice sleep, and rare thing for me - that helps :)

weighed 85.3kg 187.7lbs this morning
waist is 34 inches measured loose, 33.25 tight - down 0.25 inches

sweet another 1/4 inch off the waist from last week and at least a pound of bodyfat dropped. Still got some gut (visceral fat), but the visual changes are getting more and more noticeable. Collar bone is starting to stick out more and more :)

With this http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
it puts me at 14.5% bodyfat. Down 0.4% from last week
 
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Tuesday 13th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 4 - Day 1

Solid workout! Didn't feel the greatest, but it went well.
When my bar complex warmup goes well, and those power cleans snap up the workout tends to go well

Body weight at gym - 194lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

5 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x 8
lateral deep lunge 1x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, switched to oly shoes 135x2, 185x3
Back Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, switched to oly shoes 135x4, 185x4

controlled
Back Squat - 225lbs x 10 --> hard grind on last rep

Decided to switch back to squatting in oly shoes on this "heavier" workout, as the Nike Frees don't feel so stable. And for a different stimulus, you certainly have to focus more on sitting back as you go down, but you can use a narrower stance without overtaxing your ankle mobility.

warmup sets didn't feel so good, so I wasn't that confident on doing anything great. But the 225lb main work set went well. Slow controlled eccentric, no bouncing at the bottom (some reps were almost paused) and minimal rest between each rep at the top, except before the last rep, took a 2-3 breaths to brace myself for the big strain. I went all out here and just made the last rep. Slight quad pump, but massive glute pump - not good for bodybuilding but great for jump power :D
Lower back did get worked pretty hard on that last rep, but clean form, and no good morning.

My trusty rep calculator has me at a 300lbs max, but I tend to squat 20lbs more. Especially with the way I repped today with minimal rest and controlled reversal. So 1.65x bodyweight squat.
No wonder my standing vertical jump hasn't changed much as I have gotten lighter and leaner. I've always been able to hit 385lbs before at 200+lbs, 1.8x BW.
Getting back up to that ratio should move my VJ up to 33-34 inches, I hope.
385lbs at 180lbs would be even better, 385lbs at a shredded 155lbs would be wicked. 40+ inch vertical jump wicked :)

My frontsquat max is always around 80% of my backsquat, so 255lbs should be my max. No wonder 225x2 feels so hard, and the 185lb sets today not so easy.

rested 10+ mins before deadlifting


Sumo Deadlift - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - doubled overhand hooked grip

3-4mins rest
explosive up, semi dropped down - 111lbs 2x3, 161x3, 198x3, 243x3

explosive up, semi dropped down - outer feet lined up with outer rings. 4 mins rest
1) 293lbs x 3
2) 293lbs x 3

I had planned to just use 263lbs for the main sets since I was sure I would be tired from the squats.
Legs and glutes felt like jelly, and lower back pumped from the squats during the earlier warmup sets, but when I reached 198lbs I seem to get a 2nd wind, and 243lbs felt good.
Slapped on 50lbs and just blew up the 293lbs sets like nothing!! Felt so "light" and fast, like I could have squat cleaned em. Surprised me!

Squats warmed me up nicely, but seemed to jack me neurally even though I went right up to failure on em. Granted I did rest a long time - didn't feel like it though.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches


dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BW 17 reps with a slight hold at top on each rep

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 3kg dumbell x9 (+1kg)
Push ups on bench x6, on floor x 8
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm Cuban rotation
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach with a hold - 30lbs x 9 (+5lbs)


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

35 secs each side - still hard....but a little easier

Leg lowering AB exercise - slow tempo
warmup - supported leg raise x 8
1.5 mins rest - 2x6 reps (+1 rep each set)
could get my legs all the way to floor without my lower back coming off the floor for 2 full sets of 6

Stretching for whole body
 
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moderately sore and achey all over, but not sapped or drained - that's good. I did just the right amount of work. I think I could have avoided doing that 10th rep on squats though.

Did some self massge on my legs and hips a couple of hours after the workout, that may have helped. Foam rolling on Thursday - which I have been doing every week.
 
oh yeah - anything I can full oly squat for 13 reps I can powerclean, so I guess that means I can't even powerclean 225lbs anymore...



Powerclean PR is around 245lbs with a fairly high catch - so I got some work to do strength wise.

13 reps with 245 = 365lbs + 20lbs I always max out over the rep calculator = 385lbs 8-)
 
had a massive fullbody "foam roll" session with the cardboard roll
Did just about every single major muscle group.
Overall, it doesn't seem to be as painful now

man it took a whole an hour, almost a cardio workout in itself! Should burn a few calories :)
So tired now. Upper body feels like it has done a few sets of pushups, from propping yourself up as you roll out the lower body. I wonder if a proper foam roll might be better here?

The cardboard roll is good for manual pressure on the top of your thighs and lower legs, and using it for the upper body against the wall. Which I don't think a proper foam roll is so good for

Might have to split up the foam rolling into separate upper and lower body days.
 
revelation this morning - I could reach directly upward and touch my hands together with elbows locked painfree in both shoulders!
Plus my feet point directly forward now without forcing it, and no tension in my lower back and hips.

I bow down at the altar of "Foam Rolling" !!! :)

Man months of stretching, cuff and scapular work helped to a degree, but the pain and tightness remained. 2 hardcore, painful sessions of foam rolling, self massage on my pecs and neck/traps improved things dramaticly! The improvement in range of motion is pretty amazing.

Upper body feels a lot stronger too - CNS must be shutting down the muscles before, from the all the scar tissue and adhesions jamming everything up.
My throwing, pain free range of motion has increased a lot. Should help my BBall shooting a ton as well.

I wish I had gotten into regular foam rolling a lot earlier, would have saved me a lot of frustration the last 2 years. My body was mess a month ago and getting worse every week.
Now I feel confident I can reach my goals! Feeling almost as good as I did in my teen years, a few more weeks of this and more mobility work and stretching, and I should be back there :D

articles
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=475832
http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1303.cfm


vids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stEfs08PvIk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7QMW6Qebs
 
new version Do Win oly shoes - these have a lower heel height, so inline with the Addidas and Power Firm shoes.

Might get me a pair to replace my worn out Addidas - they look sweet in black 8-)

blackshoe2.jpg


blackshoe1.jpg
 
16th May 2008

new lowest bodyweight today, just before my first pig out meal.
Dehydrated off course.

84.5kg 185.9lbs

Like clockwork, down 1lb from last week! Progress is nice so far, since I started the 25min walking, consistent :)
Still pretty flabby, around 14% Bodyfat at a guess, but I think time for some new progress pics.

Man can't wait to hit 80kg 176lbs! At this rate I might end up at my high school bodyweight of 70kg 154lbs if I don't regain anymore muscle mass. But I'll be a whole lot leaner, ripped to shreads! LOL, wonder if I'll be able to fit back in my old high school clothing whne I get there, especially the shorts, which I haven't been able to in sometime :D

Looking forward to tomorrow..... lighter bodyweight + stronger legs + improved tissue quality from foam rolling = more hops?

Forecast is for late showers, so gonna have to hit the BBall courts early!
 
I found a nice place to "foam roll" my upper traps, the rounded corner of my kitchen bench top
Works great on my glute medius and lower back too.

Just found out my dad has this $4000 massage bed type thing, that heats up to 65 degrees and then rolls this hard ball or something under the bed against you body! High tech foam rolling I guess. Gonna try it out. It has a 40 min program or you use it under manual control.

I'm just amazed I can now raise my arms overhead without my lats tugging under tension.
And this morning at my part time job, my upper body felt so much stronger, I didn't feel anywhere near as tired from all the lifting, carrying and throwing. And hardly any shoulder pain from impingement at the extreme ranges of motion in hard throws. This means I will have more energy left for BBall this afternoon as well.

I do feel a bit sore from all the foam rolling though
 
Saturday 17th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 4 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 85.4kg 187.9lbs in shorts and t-shirt

Nice drop in bodyweight from last week. Shame it didn't help :(
Didn't feel so good today.

Outdoor BBall court - one right next to park with a bent rim - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

1 hour total

did some dribbling, a few shots and some moves for about 30 mins.
Dribbling continues to improve, but I felt flat and lethargic.
Shooting felt good, finally free of shoulder impingement on hook shots!

Then did 20 or so jumps of all types. No pop in my hops today. Probably down about 2 inches from last week, and that's with me being lighter and a little stronger. Technique was sucky too.
Heavy week strikes again...those deadlifts always kill my CNS. I should jump well next week, going by the current tends...
 
18th May 2008

Bodyweight up a bit today due to pigging out at my Dad's birthday get together at a restaurant, but I made sure I drank Diet Coke :)
Most of it food and water weight I reckon, so it should go by the end of my low calorie part of the day.
Might get some progress pics done today.


felt pretty decent this morning, the first thing I noticed when I got out of bed was soreness and stiffness in my ankles/feet. That went after a while, but everywhere is not as bad as usual. Even my spinal erectors felt much better. Just an overall mild achey feeling. Even my knees didn't ache walking downstairs, without a length warmup....

If Foam rolling works so well why not do more of it? :)
When I went to the kitchen to get something to eat and drink this morning, that stone kitchen benchtop's curved edges, and corners did the trick.
This works great for most of my upper body, upper part of my glutes/hips and lower back. A bit too low and the wrong angle for my lats though.
My 3x21 inch card board roll does the rest of the work on my lower body. I'll pickup a tennis ball and cricket ball (put em in a sock) for my foot sole muscles and calves.
I also find sitting on the stair as I sometimes do to put my shoe on works pretty good for the glutes and hips. Prop one leg up on the other and lean and roll to one side, and the hurtin is there, especially on concrete/tiled steps.
I have a proper high density 6 inch x 3 feet foam roller on order for other things like thoracic spine and more gentle rolling from the larger size.

Did some mobility drills to get the body loose and muscle temp up. Worked on lower back and hips glutes first. And then went beserk and hammered my whole upper body, even my obliques, abs etc.
After I finished I could do a full circle with either arm without any clicking, popping and pain spots!

good 30 mins of work there I think, nice bit of cardio early in the morning to get the calorie burning underway :p
Your lower body does get hammered a little crouching down to use the bench top for foam rolling though.

Will do my lower body later today before I go for my 25 min walk.

The mostly painful and tight muscles were my upper traps, front delts, biceps and the rear part of my shoulder where the cuff muscles are. Not a surprise they are ones causing all my shoulder issues and limited range of motion...
That's what years of sitting in front of a computer does - it puts your front delts and biceps, in shortened state for long hours and they soon tighten and knot up. Plus the traps get all tight from the hunching forward.

And then when try and do mobility and thoracic work, stretch em, or do cuff work, you run into shoulder impingement issues, so it becomes a catch 22 situation. Only foam rolling and massage can fix it, then you can stretch, do mobility work and scapular+cuff work to complete the cycle.

Surprisingly, my pecs and triceps hardly hurt at all.
I still wonder how I got up to a 295lb close grip bench with no arch and leg drive in such a condition...maybe when everything is fixed up I can closegrip bench 315lbs at a 155lbs, or whatever weight I end up when I lean down that is 2x bodyweight ! :p
Short arms = pressing leverage advantage 8-)
 
this new Eric Cressey article nails it on the head

http://www.t-nation.com/article/performance_training/the_proactive_patient

Tip #2: Your Shoulder Pain isn't Just About the Rotator Cuff.

Hopefully people have come to realize that while the rotator cuff is where it frequently hurts, it's not always the cause of the pain. Case in point, in a 2006 study, Kibler et al. reported that 49% of athletes with arthroscopically diagnosed posterior superior labral tears (SLAP lesions) also have a hip range of motion deficit or abduction weakness.(2) How often do you see therapists do hip mobility drills with shoulder rehab patients?

With that in mind, if your shoulder hurts, ask them how their rehab program addresses each of the following:

1. Scapular stability.

2. Thoracic spine range of motion.

3. Cervical spine function.

4. Breathing patterns.

5. Mobility of the opposite hip.

6. Mobility of the opposite ankle.

7. Overall soft tissue quality.

8. Glenohumeral (ball-and-socket joint) range of motion.

9. Rotator cuff strength and endurance.

Most therapists will be quite good with #1, #8, and #9. If more PT's simply added #2 and #7 to the mix, things would come around much quicker for most patients. The other four are just a bonus.
 
Also I find massaging the eye muscles (with eyes shut), along with some eye movement drill patterns (up and down, left/right, diagnol top/bottom and full circle) and focus exercises ( ie focus on your finger and then quickly focus on something 10 metres away, back and forwards as fast as you can - like pushups for your eyes ) also improve the eye health and eye sight quality pretty dramaticly!
And keeping your eyes focused on an object while you move your head up/down, left/right, in circles and then look left/right and focus quickly on something on each side. I do the eye massage after each set of drills/exercises
Then do the same with one eye covered etc

After all these years of sitting infront of a computer, I'm nearly at 20/20 vision with this stuff, which I do before I go on my 4-5 a times a week 25 min walking :)
Plus a whole bunch of mobility work and scapular wall slides and pec/lat stretches and my hip flexor stretch/glute activation move

This is like my health and well being battery
 
Oh yeah I also did my forearms on the benchtop, makes sense to me as we use a forearms a ton, and they sure were tight and painful!
 
I found a small Mini Basketball pumped up fairly tight works great as well for foam rolling. There are some small ones, but the one I used was volleyball sized.

probably the best thing so far for getting at my lats, serratus, and triceps
Hits the upper hammies better than anything else so far, the size of the ball stretches the hams as well. Works the hips, glutes, quads and IT band nicely, but more gently than a PVC pipe type roller even with your whole bodyweight on it.

best thing so far for the inner thigh, adductors and VMO. The height and dimensions of the ball allows it to put a decent amount of pressure on the inner leg even when your fully relaxed on the floor and it's small enough to not get in the way

And you don't get as tired as with a foam roller, since you can balance on it and hold onto stair rails or use your leg to help a bit.
Some bodyparts can be done fully relaxed, lying on the floor
 
Did more "foam rolling" tissue work on my upper body on the kitchen bench top, or self myofascial massage. And the mini BBall on my lower body and lats, serratus, triceps etc

Squatting off a chair or toilet seat without using your hands to help and with a narrow stance is now pain free! Man it's been a couple of years since that has happened.....
That's probably the most painful part of a narrow stance squat ROM, right at parallel
Left inner knee used to scream, and the right now and then in some stances

I think it was caused by my glute medius being really tight, because that's what gets tight when you sit down a lot.
It is really sore when I foam roll it.
Tight glute medius pulls on IT band and boom knee pain.
But I foam rolled every muscle in my lower body, and been pushing my ankle and hip mobility hard, so who knows :)

All this time, I'm thinking quad/ hamstring imbalance, weak VMO or some other crap that is popular these days, err it was none of that....
And stretching doesn't really seem to help at all. It doesn't loosen up the muscles like Foam rolling and massage does. Or stretching only works until you've unknotted the mucles with foam rolling/massage

Noticed I can get my knees up much higher, when I tuck my knee to my chest and it feels easier to do so without my lower back rounding. Must be from the looser glutes. That should help my full squats a lot too form wise - get rid of the tail tuck at the bottom

Looking forward to squatting tomorrow and driving back up my leg and hip strength, and beyond! 8-)
I have so much more confidence in my squatting and jumping now. Good times
 
Last edited:
Azinine said:
I gotta get a foam roller...
Click to expand...

LOL I don't even have one :)

I'm using a 3 inch carboard roll, but PVC pipes work just as well, a bit hard and painful, maybe wrapped in a towel would work OK. Or put something soft under it to reduce the pressure, like a mattress
tennis balls in a sock, small firm balls etc all work well too.
Household objects like the kitchen benchtop I use is even better for upper body

I have a proper foam roller on order though, a heavy duty high density one. Most foam rollers are too soft and get crushed by someone heavy.
 
Tuesday 20th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 5 - Day 1

Good workout. Upper definitely felt much stronger and looser from all the foam rolling! Plus I didn't even feel as tried and beat-up afterwards
Hang powerclean in warmup complex felt snappy once again --> strong workout

Left my green mini-bands at home, so had to skip the exercises as noted below with the bands...

I did a few vertical jumps between the warm up sets on squats, and my highest was half an inch under my gym best when I was a touch over 200lbs....meh

Body weight at gym - 192.5lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

4 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
(skipped) behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x 8
lateral deep lunge 2x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - no Belt

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3 switched to oly shoes 225x1
Back Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4, switched to oly shoes 225x1

controlled
Front Squat - oly shoes - 245lbs x 2 (+20lbs)
rest 4mins
Back Squat - 4.5 mins rest -
1) Nike free 5.0 trainer - 245lbs x6 (+20lbs)
2) Oly shoes - 245lbs x 6

Warm up sets on front squats with 185lbs and 225lbs felt crazy hard, didn't do my confidence any good, but 225lbs on back squats were fairly easy as they should be for something you can do 10 slow reps with. Although that hasn't always been the case for me, 10RM tended to feel pretty hard in the past....

So I decided to slap on 20lbs. And 245 on front squats scared the hell out of me, but I said "lightweight" to myself and nailed it - that always works :)
It was pretty hard though, definitely a 90% zone lift. Used the better bar for fronts today, so no collar bone jabbing and blacking out issues.

Back squats were hard, but in a good way. Didn't like the way the 2nd set felt with oly shoes. The elevated heel felt strange, too much quads, but kinda makes it easier.
So when I get to about 275x10 I should be back to my strength levels when I was jumping my best at 200+lbs, or 245x9 paused back then. Good for a 245lb power clean.

Video of the main worksets - depth looks a lot lower than I have ever squatted before, butt looks to be 6 inches off the floor! In a pretty narrow stance too.....foam rolling for the win :)
right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au..._FrontSquat245x2_Backsquat245_2x6_20May08.mpg


Single Leg Lifts

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x35lb dumbbells x 8

single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x25lbs dumbell x 8

Upped the total loads 4lbs. Felt pretty easy for some reason, will go to 40lb dumbbells next time.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches


dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BW 20 reps with a slight hold at top on each rep - way easier and more stable!

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 2kg dumbell x10 (+1rep)
Push up plus on bench x6, on floor x 10
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm seated Cuban rotation into press
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach - 30kg x 10 (+1 rep)


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

40 secs each side - up 5 secs - hard, but not bad.

Leg lowering AB exercise - slow tempo
warmup - supported leg raise x 8
1.5 mins rest - 1x7 (+1 rep)
could get my legs all the way to floor without my lower back coming off the floor for the whole set

Lat machine situp
warmup - BW x12 - going progressively lower each rep
BW x 8 - paused middle and bottom

Stretching for whole body
stretches felt different, due to the foam rolling, easier and less painful.
Overhead shoulder range of motion has improved .
 
Feeling drained - red, swollen and dry lips --> cortisol is up

moderately sore all over - upper back, calves/feet, upper hammies, glutes and VMO the most

25 min walk today, no foam rolling
 
I did end up doing some "foam rolling" last night

tried out a tennis ball, seems to work well for some upper body parts against the wall. Can't quite hit the upper traps, but front delts, biceps, neck muscles, and upper back/scapular/cuff region. It's not as deep and hard as my kitchen bench top, but useful.

Pretty useless for the lower body though, not quite big and firm enough to give enough pressure, except for the calves and side of lower leg, and lower hammie/calf tie in area. Hit my upper outer calf area pretty hard - peroneus - really sore there. Worked that area for a while, and straight after my ankle mobility improved a lot

Found it ineffective for my feet/ foot arch - way too soft. But I am used to my 3 inch cardboard roll which is hard and painful. Also the edge of my bathroom tub works great as well :)
Might try a golf ball.

Lying on the floor and rolling around a bit hit the quads and hips pretty good, especially if you bend the knee to prestretch the muscles. But I do have pretty big and bulgey legs and hips so YMMV. made my hammies quite sore though from all the "static leg curling".....

Think I will split up the different types of "foam rolling" into different days.
The most hardcore and painful methods - my 3x21 inch cardboard roll for lower body, and kitchen bench top for upper body on Sunday. It's tiring and makes me sore, so on the weekend is fine, and I get Mondays off.
During the week I'll use my mini BBall, tennis ball and proper foam roller.
And split up my body in different areas so I can spend more time in each muscle, other wise it just takes too long. When I get more loose I won't need to do it as much.

----

anyway things continue to improve at my part time job, getting easier on my body, range of motion improving, and just feeling stronger
 
I'm new to "foam rolling" and all I've used so far is a tennis ball. Like you, I haven't found it very effective on the feet. Golf ball is a great idea and I will try that tomorrow. Other than that, the only lower body area I couldn't really get was my hamstring area. Not sure why but it felt like I couldn't apply enough pressure in that area. It's certainly possible that my muscles are sufficiently loose in that area but I doubt it.

Anyway, you're the reason I googled foam rolling a few weeks ago so I would just like to say "thanks!".
 
Azinine said:
I'm new to "foam rolling" and all I've used so far is a tennis ball. Like you, I haven't found it very effective on the feet. Golf ball is a great idea and I will try that tomorrow. Other than that, the only lower body area I couldn't really get was my hamstring area. Not sure why but it felt like I couldn't apply enough pressure in that area. It's certainly possible that my muscles are sufficiently loose in that area but I doubt it.

Anyway, you're the reason I googled foam rolling a few weeks ago so I would just like to say "thanks!".
Click to expand...

The hammie area is hard for most people to get too. You need something bigger so you can apply enough pressure to it, but not too big. I think a small mini BBall pumped up hard could do it. Or a shotput? :)
Then stack one leg ontop the other to put more pressure on it

Tennis ball seems to dissappear into my lower body flesh - too fat I guess :D
Eric Cressey said most people don't get knots there - but I want to hit it to straighten out some scar tissue as it sure does get sore a lot for me after workouts. Maybe the fingers would do the trick :)
Maybe try hanging the hammie on the top edge of a bathtube and sit on it - that orta hurt real good :p


I myself wished I had gotten into foam rolling a few years ago! Everyone should do it, you'd reach your goals much faster and be injury free
Unless you can afford ART or Rolfing every week...
 
My Comffit foam roller came in, got it cheap from Ebay
One of only 3 types I've seen here locally.

Looks good, works good from a quick test. It's spongey on the outside, but firm on the inside so should resist getting squashed.
Definitely a lot more comfortable than my ghetto carboard roll :)

I just rolled ontop just then with both shins on the foam roller, with all my weight off the floor and it doesn't wreck like my carboard roll would, but you can still feel it working. So definitely worth getting one.

Now I have a device for every type of massage needed :p
 
Golf ball works great on the bottom of the feet!
I found I had 2 trigger point areas that hurt like hell - the foot arch area and directly across on the outer edge of the foot.

I guess the golf ball is the next step from the tennis ball for the other areas of the body, when it no longer hurts and provides enough pressure :)

noticed something interesting while lying in bed last night

After all this foam rolling and self massage, my feet no longer turn outwards while lying totally relaxed. They used to rotate so far out that they almost touched the bed. The balled up glute medius was pulling it out I think.
Now my feet point almost vertically even when fully relaxed! Not quite 100% vertical, still kinked to the outer side, but I'm still tight.

Same for my upper body - now I can get my thumbs pointing up and close to the body - whereas before there was a lot of tension and some pain in the left shoulder, when I forced myself into the same position. Still not easy and fully relaxed to get there, but I've got a lot of tight and painful trigger points in my muscles still to work out.

These are pretty good indicators of tightness
 
Saturday 24th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 5 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 85.6kg 188.3lbs in partial winter clothing

Felt pretty average today, a bit tired, but better than last week.
Tweaked a muscle in my right foot in the morning not long after getting up to go to my part time job, I think when I walked downstairs. Didn't bother me when BBalling, but it did right after, when I walked to the car and it sure aches a bit right now when I roll my foot!

wanted to go to the court with the 8 foot netball rims, but again it was taken over by a little girls netball comp! :(

Outdoor BBall court - one right next to park with a bent rim - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

1.25 hour total

1) did some dribbling, shooting and some low intensity moves for about 30 mins.

2) did 25 or so jumps of all types for another 30 mins, resting about a 30secs to a min between jumps, 1-2 mins between some cluster of jumps.

standing vertical jump is up a little. No change to my one step jump, but it's more consistent, running jump was horrible. I am not transferring my run up energy into the jump very well anymore, and I can't seem to do a fast run up on this court, while I keep doing this high jump hopping and skipping crap :(
And then brake before getting into the jump. Gotta get this sorted.

Definitely felt like I was muscling my jumps. Very quad dominant....maybe squatting in oly shoes is not such a good idea.....legs felt kind heavy'ish.
Maybe I'm still fatigued from the squatting a few days back.
I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much right now, just gotta get my strength back and keep leaning up. And then when I switch back to my paused explosive squats, I'm gonna peak out my jump higher than ever.

The Good - legs felt strong and solid. I landed pretty deep in a few jumps with heels off the ground was able to lock up fast and stable and then bounce out of it.

3) then I did 15 mins or so off high intensity game speed moves around the hoops. Dribbling, drives, low post moves, double clutch shots and tip ins etc nonstop. Was able to sustain my power, speed and shooting touch for the whole time. Fitness is pretty good now.
And my knees and legs felt like the way they used too many years back. No issues at all. Thank you foam rolling :)


Next week I think I'll go back to that school yard court with the 10'2" and 10'4" rims. It's close to my house and no one ever goes there. I honed my running jumps pretty good there a few months back. Or I can do my BBall stuff there and then hop back home, since it's so close and do my jumps in my garage entrance like I did last year. The ceiling is 10 feet.
 
been doing some thinking

365lbs x 8 on full oly squats at 75kg 165lb bodyweight would give me near Squat Dr 46+ inch vertical type hops :)

squat Dr - 385lb powerclean at 210lbs = 1.8x BW

365lbs x 8 = 455lbs 1RM at least
455 x 0.65 = 295lbs power clean at 165lb = 1.78
455 x 0.43 = 195lb high catch power snatch

195 divided by 165lb (BW) = 1.18
1.18 x 39 inches (hip crease to lockout in high catch powersnatch for me) = 46 inches

so 46 inch vertical jump :p
I'd be really happy with 44

I know I can get down to 80kg 176lb at least. 165lb might be a push, we'll see

it seems to work out well for Squat DR himself. I believe he has a 600+lb oly squat. 600 x 0.43 = 258lb high catch power snatch
258 divided by 210lb (BW) = 1.23
1.23 x 39 = 48 inches

He said he can touch the top of the BBall square (11'6") off a standing vertical jump, with a standing reach of 7'6", and can get his head to the rim at least off a run, at 5'9" so it sounds about right :)

I've gotten close to 400lbs before, well my PR of 330x8 would be over 400lbs. 455 is a long shot, which leads to a 365lb front squat, well see....
My quads might end up too large though!
 
Last edited:
25th May 2008

Don't feel too bad - not even that sore even though I upped the volume of BBall stuff yesterday. Things are looking up.
My tweaked right foot muscle doesn't hurt at all?!

Pretty crap sleep though - I lay in bed for 8+ hours, but only about 3 hours of real deep sleep

Lots of heavy duty foam rolling and self myofascial massage today for whole body. Especially my mid and upper erectors with the tennis balls and thoracic spine. One area I haven't hit as hard yet. And my upper traps, gotta get that elevated shoulder girdle down.

weighed 85.7kg 188.5lbs this morning
waist is 33.75 inches measured loose - down 0.25 inches from 2 weeks ago

Like last Saturday I was invited to another birthday at a restaurant yesterday, pig out time! So my bodyweight this morning is a lot higher than it should be, from food and water weight. I thought I'd be fatter, but all that did was slow my progress in half still managed to drop 1/4 inch of the waist from 2 weeks back!
regular walking + foam rolling does burn enough calories after all :)
Finally under 34 inches. Only 4 more to go to reach my goal.
5lbs per inch of waist for me usually, should get me down to 165lbs.
then I might gain a few more back from all this lower body work.

With this http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
it puts me at 13.9% bodyfat. Down 0.5% from 2 weeks ago

Looks about right. I think I will wait till I get my waist to 33 before I take some progress pics. Still way too chubby for my tastes. Skinny fat...especially now that I have no upper body size...


took a few other measurements - height is 5'8.5"

waist 33.75
Wrist - right 6 5/8
Forearms - 12
Arms - 15
Neck - 15.5
chest - 42.5 - lats flared
Hips/Glutes - 39.5
Thighs - 26.5
Calves - 16
Ankle - 8.75

my arms are still holding steady with no direct arm work and not much upper body work as well.
Isn't the BB'er ideal neck=arm=calves? and arms = wrist+10inches?
Wrist will come down to 6 inches when I get lean, lots of fat there, and I just have to bring my arms back up to 16 inches. Not that I care :p

compared to my post from a few weeks back
I weighed 87.4kg 192.3lbs this morning

I took some cold measurements straight out of bed

waist 35 inches
Wrist - right 6 6/8 , left 6.5 inches
Forearms - 12 1/8
Arms - 15.25
Neck - 15.5
Hips/Glutes - 40.25
Thighs - 26.75
Knee - 15
Calves - 16 1/8
Ankle - 8.75
My left arm is actually leaner than my right side, hence the different wrist size

compared to back when I was around 215-220lbs
Wrist - 7
Forearms - 13
Arms - 16.75
Waist - 39+
Hips/Glutes - 43
Thighs - 29.75
Knee - 15
Calves - 17
Ankle - 9+

Big decreases everywhere. Some of it is muscle, but mostly fat. My upper body is smaller since I don't train it that much, mostly in my chest, but there is still a fair bit of muscle there. Legs still look pretty big.
I'm at the halfway point now, and will probably have a 5.75 - 6 inch wrist when I get down to a 29-30 inch waist. Yeah I have some pretty small bones and joints, almost like a female.... :D
My dad's frame and bone structure literally dwarfs mine.....he's like a mesomorph. Guess I take after my mum, but I got my dad's legs and calves. Better for jumping and explosiveness I reckon :)


4 months or so after I started training - 2nd August 2002

around 180+lbs
Height - 5'8.5"
Wrist - 6.75
Forearms - 12 - 12.25 left/right
Arms - 14 7/8 - 15
Neck - 16
Waist - 33
Hips/Glutes - 39.5
Thighs - 25.75 - 26
Knee - 15
Calves - 16 - 16.25
Ankle - 9
Click to expand...
 
What about Kelly Baggett?

He said he squatted around 400lbs or a touch over at 160-165lb bodyweight - I don't know the exact number when he was jumping at 42 inches. He told me a long time ago he powersnatched 165lbs without much practise at it, but I don't know how much he dipped to get under it

but 0.43 x 405 = 174
(174 divided by 160) x 39 = 42.4

it's pretty accurate you know :D
At least for me and a few others as we are all around 5'9"
 
a certain tension and ache in my back has gone after I "foam rolled my mid and upper back spinal erectors today with a tennis ball. I just lay on my back and inched my way down the spine, with the tennis ball on either side of the spine. Lay on the painful spots for a good 40secs to a minute each

my erectors were pretty damn tight, in a way stretching doesn't help with


The fastest kid I ever coached in my life, never ran track. He ran at 3/4 speed one day at the end of an off-season practice and hit an EASY 38 sec 300 with very little effort. That same kid ran a 10.5 FAT 100 the year after I left. Just showed up at the meet for the coach to try it out and ran a freakin 10.5 Fully Auto time. Of course it was really bad timing for this mentally weak kid. It was a very good meet and he got 3rd......never ran again. 42inch vertical....weighed 175lbs at 5 foot 9 and olympic squatted 440 ass to the floor. Incredible.......sorry for the rant.
Click to expand...

more and more I am seeing a certain bodyweight, height and full oly squat strength level combo that gives a vertical over 40 inches

this many examples of guys jumping over 40 inches at 5'9" with certain strength ratios on the full olysquat must mean something 8-)
 
Tuesday 27th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 6 - Day 1

Pretty average workout, crappy sleep last night, but I made progress. A tad long, Sumo deadlifts to blame.

Body was achey during the workout. And afterwards my glutes and IT band felt tight'ish. So when I got home I used my proper foam roller and went over my lower body and upper back/lats 8 times. The foam roller is fairly soft and doesn't hurt me much anymore, except my IT band and outer quads. That made all the aches and tightness go away and I felt great afterwards. The cardboard roll and tennis ball would probably kill me :)

Body weight at gym - 192lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 2 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

5 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x8
lateral deep lunge 1x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3
Back Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, switched to oly shoes 185x4, 225x2

controlled
Back Squat - 255lbs x 8 --> hard grind on last rep

225x2 felt pretty easy, so I knew I had to up the weight 255lbs. No problems, just made the 8th rep. Been a long time since I had 255lbs on my back, and it finally feels good again, rather than scary heavy, unstable and plain bad like it has the last year or so. The foam rolling and self myofascial massage with tennis and golf balls has done a lot more than just make me looser....


Looks like I gained a rep from the 225x10 I did 2 weeks ago.
Rep calculator has me at a 315 lbs max, but I tend to squat 20lbs more.
335lb max, so at a 1.77x bodyweight squat now.
Front squat should around 265lbs, 80% of my oly back squat, seeing as 245x2 last week was pretty hard, it looks about right.

Gaining about 5lbs a week it seems. Not bad considering I am on a calorie deficit and only weight training once a week. Fairly low volume too, certainly nothing like 5x5, 3 times a week :D
BBall and jumping helps too, I suspect.....
110lbs from my goal of 365x8.... at least another 6 months away...
It's also gonna take that long for me to lean down to 165lbs, or <30inch waist whichever comes first. Just in time for some Christmas dunking maybe ;)

Video of the main worksets of squats and deadlifts
right click on link and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...acksquat255x8_SumoDeadlift329_2x3_27May08.mpg


rested 10 mins before deadlifting


Sumo Deadlift - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - doubled overhand hooked grip

3-4mins rest
explosive up, semi dropped down - 111lbs 2x3, 161x3, 198x3, 243x3, 293x1

explosive up, semi dropped down - outer feet lined up with outer rings. 4 mins rest
1) 329lbs x 3
2) 329lbs x 3

329lbs was pretty heavy, did have to strain a bit, and form was shoddy, especially on the 2nd set. Will go back down to 293lbs next time.
I do these just to keep my posterior chain up to snuff as my front and back squats rise. Plus they help my squat, a bit like a box squat actually :)

Deadlifts should be over 400lbs now. I always max out 70lbs over my oly back squat 1RM, even with my short arms. So over 2xBW bodyweight.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches


dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BWx22 reps (+2 reps) with a slight hold at top on each rep

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 4kg dumbell x8 (+1kg)
Push ups on bench x6, on floor x 10 - paused top and bottom
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm Cuban rotation
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach with a hold - 30kg x 9


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

40 secs each side - bitch'n hard

Leg lowering AB exercise - slow tempo
warmup - supported leg raise x 8
1.5 mins rest - 1x8 reps (+1 rep)
could get my legs all the way to floor without my lower back coming off the floor for the whole set

Lat machine situp
warmup - BW x12 - going progressively lower each rep
BW x 9 (+1 rep) - paused middle and bottom

pretty easy will add 10lbs next time

Stretching for whole body
 
My sleep problems were a result of a muscle or back spasm - mid spinal erector cramping up real tight :(

Same happened last night again - I wonder if the "foam rolling" is the cause. Like my body trying to realign itself and forcing some muscles to shift to a new length etc
Only does it when I lie down on my back, on the side is not as bad. Standing and sitting is fine... makes me almost don't want to lie down anymore....

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

crap sleep as I mentioned above, so I feel a liitle tired. Moderately sapped feeling from yesterday, but not drained like 2 weeks ago.
Moderately sore all over, but again not as bad as 2 weeks ago.

probably will not do any major foam rolling and massage today.
25 min walk and some mobility drills as usual
 
Again last night - I had terrible sleep - the pain was almost unbearable
My ribs, spine and all the muscles around em were hurting bad. On my back, or side, it didn't matter :(
Since I woke up so often I did remember some weird dreams...

It's almost like my body has been freed up a bit from the foam rolling and massage that the body is realigning my posture and forcing the muscles around my spine and ribs into positions they haven't been in for years and they're not liking it...
That's what you get for trying reverse bad posture and life patterns, along with scar tissue and adhesions from years of training ontop, in a short space of time.....I hope that 's it anyway...
It started 3-4 days ago. Hope it gets sorted soon, as I need the sleep bad!!

On the positive side - I did more massage with the tennis ball last night on my upper body - delts, deep into the shoulder with arms rasied, biceps, pecs, side of lats and back of the shoudler/scapular - and the pain in those areas is way down. I have to dig the tennis ball in deeper and harder to get 75% of the pain I had before, with a light tough.
The less pain I get, the better my range of motion seems to be.

Was able to finally do a scapular wall slide - cold - pain free in both shoulders. Still can't get my arms that high, but it's a start. When I can keep my arms against the wall and touch em together with my arms locked out above, then I can safely do jerks, behind the neck presses and snatches safely. And hang from a rim after a dunk :)
Although I'd want another 2 inches of shoulder range of motion for safetly. Enough to do an overhead squat with a narrow grip or shoulder press from the bottom of an oly fullsquat

Foam rolling and massage session planned today for lower body. Benchtop work for upper traps. Tennis ball work for the lower traps and glutes, which gets in there better than just using a roller. Did this last week and found a lot of trigger points in the main glute bulk, not just the glute medius
 
everyone seems to be on the high frequency bandwagon these days, from what I see, what about low frequency? It seems most people overreach from squatting pretty easily - I certainly do
My once a week workouts seem to work well right now, but what about every 10-14 days after you get past the late intermediate stage?

seems to work well for this guy - he is 5'8" 190lbs, drug free, and d**n strong for size 335lbs x 20 reps on rock bottom oly squats training once every 2 weeks. Strong core too...

even with a short rest inbetween each rep, that's impressive. I bet he could get at least 12 reps if done continuously
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvq_8HpsOpA

I reckon his low frequency allows it to keep his quad size down relative to his strength levels and high reppage - good for us concerned with power to weight ratio :)

drop set in the same workout after the above!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzesp5MaeEc

315x24 in a different workout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2Hq7zH6kE


his comment

---

typical recent squat workout DONE ABOUT ONCE EVERY 2 WEEKS:

Warm-up:
135 x 35
225 x 30

stretch hips

Work sets:
315 x ~20
365 x fail (~10), 2 sets

Personal bests at various points (not all in the same workout!); bodyweight ~197lbs:
495 x 2, 475 x 5, 455 x 9, 405 x 17, 350 x 25, 315 x 32

----

Because that is the optimal interval for gains, as determined by experience. Actually, anywhere between 10 and 15 days works well but I will actually be weaker if I take less than 8 days between leg workouts.

----


something to ponder...
 
same sleep issues last night! My ribs and intercostals etc were painful. I woke up around 1am, and go tin some pain killer (panadol) and then I was able to fall asleep.

I figured out the cause - its the actual act of foam rolling and self massaging against the wall that is causing the extreme soreness!
Holding the positions on the foam roller and tennis ball against the wall is not unlike a plank or bridge hold for 40secs to over a min. The fatigue adds up...
The pain started when I did that massive 2 hour long full body foam roll session last week.

Gotta take a few days off to let the poor muscles recover :D

I also got to try out my dad's $4000 massage bed machine. It great for the back. It heats up the massage bit to 65 degrees, which you can feel through your clothes, nice and relaxing feeling. And then it slowly runs up and down your back from the tail bone to your upper neck. Hits the entire spinal erector. Really works the thoracic spine mobility well. Kinda hurts, it works pretty deep, but also relaxing at the same time. I almost fell asleep after the 40 min auto program :)
Definitely gonna use it every week now the day after my workout. You can use it for the lower body too if you want, and front etc

anyway body feels pretty good apart from my ribs, and sleep, hope to jump well tommorrow....
 
Saturday 31st May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 6 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 85.9kg 189lbs in partial winter clothing

A little heavier this week. Maybe regaining some diet lost muscle mass from the squatting and stuff.

went to the schoolyard court with a 9'6" backboard and 10'2" rim on one side, and 9'8" backboard and 10'4" on the other - played on the lower side :)
Pretty dusty and dirty compared to the last time I was here, when I was over 200lbs, so couldn't really do running jumps at max speed.

Didn't feel the best, but not too bad.

After I got back home I remeasured my standing reach - facing a wall with body against it, and then reach up and stretching out my right hand as hard as I can - I got a standing reach of 7'3" and 7'4" in Nike Free 7.0 Trainer version... My reach has improved by 2 inches from the foam rolling and self myofascial massage!
That's good and bad - good in that I only need to jump 32 inches to touch a rim, bad in that my VJ today is now lower than it used to be since I can reach higher..

Outdoor Schoolyard BBall court - 9'6" backboard, 10'2" rim - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

1 hour 20 mins total

1) did some dribbling, shooting and some low intensity moves for about 30 mins.

2) did max effort jumps of all types for another 40 mins, resting about a 30secs to a min between jumps

was able to match my highest vertical jump touch here, but I'm 10+lbs lighter now and my reach is better... so I'm worse off. Off course like always I always jump like crap on my "heavy" training week.
Running jump and one step jump both an inch down from bests here. Dusty court didn't allow for fast approach speeds, but I didn't end up jumping any higher off a run vs with 3 steps.

So with my new higher reach my vertical jump was pretty low by my standards today.
On a standing vertical jump, I could get the base of my fingers over the bottom of the 9.5 feet backboard, so I touched 9'9+"
With my 7'4" reach that comes to a 29.5 inch vertical jump

hope for better next week as I always tend to jump better on the lighter training week.

Also landed very deep, almost to parallel in a lot of my jumps, flat footed and sitting pretty far back - very strange, that's something I never did before. The last time I was on this court back in my fatter days I always landed on the balls of my feet with hardly any bed in my legs. Must be all the squatting doing this...but I do feel strong and stable and can freeze the position.
Although back then my jumpers knee was pretty bad, so tended to avoid landing deep...

-----

I had a predicted max of 335lbs on full oly squats last workout based on my 255x8 in a controlled style.

Using my VJ formula - 335 x 0.43 = 144lb high catch power snatch
144 divided by my 191lb bodyweight (estimated with shoes on) = 0.75
0.75 x 39 inches (distance from my hip crease to catch position in a high catch power snatch) = 29.4 inches

So a 29.4 inch predicted vertical jump base on my full oly squat - pretty darn close :D

Just need to keep upping my full oly squat and things will fall into place.
If get my squat back up to where it used to be at 385lbs, that would be a 34 inch VJ today. Enough to grab rim standing.
455lb full squat = 40 inch VJ with my current bodyweight. Wrist to rim.
My goal is 44 inches, as that will allow me to just dunk a BBall 2 handed standing under the rim, but 46 inches will really allow me to flush it down with force anytime, and get head close to the rim off a run, 50 inches! ;)

455lb squat at a lean 165lb bodyweight would do it nicely...365x8 here I come.... although technically 365x8 would equal a 475lb squat for me....

It almost works out to be 1 inch gain on my vertical jump, for every 12lbs I gain on my full oly squat if my bodyweight stays constant.... :p
 
Last edited:
tehkevroy said:
damn how tall are you ?? with a 40inch vert you should be able to dunk
Click to expand...

I don't have a 40 inch VJ yet, but when I do I'll be able to just dunk it.
I'm 5'8.5" but I have short arms for my height, which is a big factor.
 
feel ok, despite the crap sleep from a neighbor having a party all the way to 1am......

hardly sore at all, just an overall worked feeling. Sweet, the looser and better aligned I get from foam rolling and self myofascial massage with tennis balls and crap, The less soreness and damage I get from BBall and jumping.

Did some deep massage work on my upper traps on the bench top, glute medius, TFL and frontal ab wall/Obliques. Lots of pain spots in the lower ab area, obliques and on each side of the belly button! Painful golf ball work against the bottom of my foot.
Then some tennis ball work against the wall on my glutes and deep inside into the piriformis, again mega pain!
Make me feel really good afterwards though

will do the rest of my lower body on the foam roller this afternoon, and tennis ball work on the rest of the upper body msucles, then my usual 25 min walk to help me lean up. Might hit up my dad's massage bed for my back :)
 
I remember reading that you recently bought a "proper" foam roller. What size did you get? I know that you can choose between a 3' and a 1' version... I was thinking that the 1' would be sufficient. What do you think?
 
Azinine said:
I remember reading that you recently bought a "proper" foam roller. What size did you get? I know that you can choose between a 3' and a 1' version... I was thinking that the 1' would be sufficient. What do you think?
Click to expand...


3 feet, the extra length is handy, just more flexible so you don't run out of room

proper foam roller is best for the legs - quads and IT band to start, otherwise a PVC pipe etc would be too painful :)

get a good one like this
http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx?ID=4592&rnd=32&kbid=1186

you can also get other weird things to do massage with :)
http://www.fitter1.com/Catalog/Category/11/MassageAndTherapy.aspx
 
Old Power snatch video - my form sucks, but I did hit 173lbs back then, with a 385lb full oly squat . Had no chance with 187lbs :)
173lbs is not clean, but around that time I could do singles with 165lbs clean and snappy wih minimal dip to catch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjPDJn0ZLiY

if my formula is correct then when I hit 170lbs bodyweight and at least a 315x6 on full squats I should be vertical jumping at least 38 inches...
 
Hmm, power snatches, where you don't actually catch them, like my 187lb miss might not be a bad power exercise... :)

pretty safe too

maybe even pull a string or band across as a height target :D
 
coolcolj said:
Hmm, power snatches, where you don't actually catch them, like my 187lb miss might not be a bad power exercise... :)

pretty safe too

maybe even pull a string or band across as a height target :D
Click to expand...

Col, may I ask why you are focusing more on squatting for reps? Is this because of precaution for your joints, does heavy lifting do too much damage, or is it a change in philosophy?
Also, when you power snatch, why don't you focus on lifting from the hang (easier technique and immediate explosion required) or doing snatches with a clean grip (easier form and easier on the joints)?
 
arnoud57 said:
Col, may I ask why you are focusing more on squatting for reps? Is this because of precaution for your joints, does heavy lifting do too much damage, or is it a change in philosophy?
Also, when you power snatch, why don't you focus on lifting from the hang (easier technique and immediate explosion required) or doing snatches with a clean grip (easier form and easier on the joints)?
Click to expand...

I find I gain strength faster, easier and more reliable with higher reps.
Since 5RM = around 90% zone, I try and avoid that area because I burn out fast there. The heavier the lift and closer to 1RM, the less leeway you have with form breakdown, so less risk with lighter %
High % also tends to freak me out more, so that also drains me more as well.
Along with greater "damage" to th joints etc.

Having said that frontsquats I do every 2nd workout are pretty heavy for me :)

Just going back through my log, and training experience, the times I made the best gains were always with higher reps and lighter loads in the 70-80% area. And not going too long straining hard every workout.


I don't bother with oly lifts anymore, I find them pointless overall. If I do them it's just for fun. Saves me a lot of time, as I only do weights once a week right now, so i work on strength. When I bBall that's when i work on my power and speed/reactivity.
If you jumping regularly your already working on RFD, speed and reactivity in a specific manner. Especially if your speed/rate dominant person like me, where you transfer strength gains into power increases straight away

http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/olympiclifts.html

with snatches you definitely need good thoracic spine and shoulder mobility. If you stand and lean again a wall, and can't touch the back of the hands and arms against the wall when locked up overhead then your risking serious shoulder injury when you snatch, and you won't be able to dip down much.
I can't touch my arms agains the wall in the snatch position, so that rules out any snatching for me. Still fixing up my shoulders
 
Tuesday 3rd June - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 7 - Day 1

Ok workout, felt a bit funny, but body felt good overall. I felt less bloated and more slender. Bodyweight drop confirms that, and I looked leaner in the gym mirrors :)

Pretty tiring though today. Energy not as good as before, lacked the snappy feeling.

Body weight at gym - 191lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.5 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

4 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
(skipped) behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x 8
lateral deep lunge x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - no Belt - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3, 225lbs x 3 sec hold
Back Squats - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4

controlled
Front Squat - 225lbs x 3
rest 1 min
Back Squat
1) 225lbs x 2
rest 4mins
2) 265lbs x 6 (+20lbs) --> hard strain on last rep
rest 5mins
3) 265lbs x 6 --> gut busting strain on last rep!

Did all sets in Nike Free 5.0 Trainer today, no oly shoes.
Legs felt nice, a kinda smooth loose feeling. Fronts on 225x3 felt strong and solid. The 3 sec hold a few minutes before helped a lot, felt much lighter on my shoulder. Will do that from now on.

Overdid the weight increase on back squats though, should have used 255lbs. Today is supposed to be a sub-maximal, volume session. 265 was right on the limit for 2x6. Will stay here the next time I do this workout in 2 weeks until I hit 275x8 on my other workout. But I'm gonna try for 255x2 on front squats in that workout.

Gotta learn from my past mistake, where I made over ambitious poundage jumps, and let the weight rule over form and function. I definitely used more quads and back today on the main worksets, compared to mostly glutes in the warmup sets....


Single Leg Lifts

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x45lb dumbbells x 8

single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x45lbs dumbell x 8

Upped the total loads 20lbs. Well I was gonna use 80lbs, but the gym has no 40lb dumbbells. Well 90lbs was way too much, I really struggled to maintain form and it was meg hard!!!


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches


dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BW 24 reps (+2 reps) with a slight hold at top on each re

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 4kg dumbell x9 (+1rep)
Push up plus on floor x 12 (+2 reps) - paused top and bottom
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm seated Cuban rotation into press
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach - 30kg x 10


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

45 secs each side - up 5 secs - hard as usual...

Lat machine situp
BW+10lbs x 8 - paused middle and bottom

jumped straight in as the planks warmed me up nicely, 10lbs was easy. going up to a 25lb plate next time. This exercise helps my front squat a ton!

Stretching for whole body
Noticed much less pain in my shoulders when semi-hanging from the chin bar
 
Well I feel mildly drained today - too much straining yesterday....
Slight hot/dry burning feeling in my lips ---> cortisol rise

My whole body is sore - upper hammies, glutes and lower spinal erectors the most, followed by calves, quads, abs/obliues and upper back.

Joints feel ok though, certainly nothing like they would feel like after such a session as yesterday, last year. Did a session on my Dad's massage bed for my back a few hours after training, so that helped as well.
 
Full Squat:215lbs 6times.
Bodyweight:163lbs
Height:5'9 1/2
Standing vertical:25inch


How think Per how many lbs added on my 6 reps full squat will make me gain 1 inch of vertical?
 
tehkevroy said:
Full Squat:215lbs 6times.
Bodyweight:163lbs
Height:5'9 1/2
Standing vertical:25inch


How think Per how many lbs added on my 6 reps full squat will make me gain 1 inch of vertical?
Click to expand...


lets put my Vertical jump formula to work :p

215x6 = 250lbs 1 rep max with my rep calculator, if your explosive, you may max out 20lbs more, but lets use 250 for now

250 x 0.43 (high catch powersnatch % of full squat) = 107.5lbs

107.5 divided by your bodyweight = 0.66
0.66 x 39 inches = 25.7 inch vertical jump

damn, pretty accurate :Chef:
So you VJ form is pretty decent

you can use this formula yourself to get a rough idea of strength levels needed.

Lets say you want a 38 inch VJ, while keeping the same weight, usually your bodyweight will go up a little though as you get stronger, but you can minimise this.

Just reverse the formula
38 inch VJ divided by 39 = 0.974
0.974 x 163 = 158.7lbs high catch power snatch
158.7 divided by 0.43 = 370lbs full squat

so you'll need to rep 320lbs x 6 on squats to get there
105lbs from where you are now. 38-25 = 13 inch gain
105 divided by 13 = 8lbs per inch

just a theory, it may not work out, but at least you have a guide :)
 
if you don't think strength training will help your hops read this -

I came across this Volleyballer's stats and posts


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

Age: 17
Years playing: 2

Height: 5' 11 3/4"
Weight: 146 lbs
Standing Reach: 7' 8 1/2"
Touch: 10'10"
Level of Play: high school
Squat: 305 lbs
Sumo Deadlift: 315 lbs



Quote:Well, before i ever lifted a weight or began to play volleyball i could touch 10' @ 5' 11". So i had pretty average vertical i guess, so i don't think that i'm exactly a "natural jumper". But my vertical has exploded ever since i started training westside barbell style(power lifting). I used to hate my weight, but then i found out it poses an advantage when i raised my strength to weight ratio. So my suggestions are training westside barbell style, or i have an ascending-descending power training. If anyone wants a copy of the ascending-descending power training routine, or info on the WSB routines, just PM me. Some people argue that you cannot build explosiveness in the weight room, but you cannot argue with results. I've seen a power lifter weigh a little over 300 pounds, about 5'10', with an 800+lb squat that could dunk a b-ball with two hands without taking an approach. The guy had about a 42" vertical, and all the training he did was in the weightroom. Watching that huge guy dunk made me a believer no doubt. I'll start a 7 week long training cycle next monday, and will post a log for it after every workout(it should be 9 weeks long, but i'm going on vacation for two weeks, and probably won't have anywhere to train).



well here's my results from training:

before:..............after:
weight: 146........weight: 157
touch: 10' 9.5".....touch: 11' 0.5"
squat: 305.........squat: 370(broke the school record with that one, but they wouldn't let me put my name up because i'm not in football...grrrr)
Sumo deadlift: 310...... deadlift: don't really know for sure because i haven't maxed out on this on yet, but i hit a set of 5 with 365 a month ago, so it should be in the low 400's
bench: 195.........bench:235

My weight at one point was 162, but i put on a little fat so i had to burn that off to get to my present weight
 
Just reverse the formula
38 inch VJ divided by[[ 39 ]] = 0.974
0.974 x 163 = 158.7lbs high catch power snatch
158.7 divided by 0.43 = 370lbs full squat


is the [[ 39 ]] related by the height of a person or its just for your Formula?
 
it's the distance from the hip crease, before the bar shoots up to the catch position in a high catch powersnatch
as shown in the video of me doing it a few days back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjPDJn0ZLiY

I'm around 5'9" so it's fairly standard catch height for most people. Taller people use a wider grip on the bar, so the distance ends up being about the same
 
also taller people with propotional leg lengths will generally jump higher than shorter people for a given level of strength. It's to do with the length of legs etc

so this formula works well for people around 5'9", if your shorter you'll need greater strength, and vice versa if your taller with longer thighs, femur
 
damn glutes and upper hammies are still pretty darn sore!! Everything else is not so bad
Foam rolling and self Myofascial massage session today, entire lower body and selected upper body
Plus and my usual 25min walking afterwards
 
Well I did some foam rolling for my whole lower body yesterday, and some tennis ball massage work for some of my upper boy as well. d**n I think it took 2-3 hours! :o
Must have burnt quite a few calories :)

anyway I was doing my tricep and found this spot on both arms, inbetween the bicep and tricep on the outer side, which is partly part of the outer tricep, that hurts so much from a light touch that it feels like someone stabbed my arm!! Massive trigger point cluster there, extremely tight. Even touching it now with my fingers wrecks. I already know why as well - holding my arms up, in a semi reverse curl position, for years typing on a computer keyboard and using the mouse, uses this muscle area a lot....

Probably has a large influence on benching and pressing moves me thinks

calves, and outer side of the lower legs still hurts like a pregnant dog as well, so tight and dense collection of trigger points everywhere. After every foam roll and massage session here, my ankle mobility just gets better and better

body is still a mess, just a lot better than it used to be. Man I was in pretty bad shape a month ago!

d**n hammies and adductors are still pretty sore...
 
My vertical jump formula rocks!!! At least for guys around 5'9" 8-)


gi2eg

sick formula, worked for me.
5'9
183lbs
27 inch standing vertical
300lb full squat
Click to expand...

mldj

I have to agree this formula is spot on for me, so lesson learned :) You da man.

5'8.5"
150 lbs bodyweight
300 lbs full squat

((300 * 0.43) / 150) * 39 = 33.5

Or for us, european folks 85 centimetres, exactly how much I jump
Click to expand...


it looks like 2xBW full oly squat = a 33-34 inch vertical jump for people with good jumping form and decent explosiveness.
 
Saturday 7th June - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 7 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 85.9kg 189lbs in partial winter clothing

same weight as last week - either I'm at maintenace, of I've gained some muscle mass from the squatting, so re-comping a bit. Waist measurement tomorrow will confirm

finally managed to play on the outdoor court complex with 8 feet netball rims at the back of each hoop. Netball chicks on a break today I guess...


Outdoor BBall complex - with 8 foot netball rims at the back - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer

65 mins total

1) did some dribbling, shooting and some low intensity moves for about 25 mins. Dribbling is getting pretty darn good, almost superstar point guard good, but maybe not in a real game :D
Can dribble between the legs, behind and in front, in all directions, with or without spins, decently with either hand now. Practise makes perfect, even just once a week...

2) did max effort jumps of all types for another 40 mins, plus some dunks on the 8 foot netball rims, resting about a 30 secs to 2 mins between jumps

pretty flat today, that last workout's fatigue from all that straining still lingering around nervous system wise. Legs felt ok though, landings were great - feeling soft and stable, pain free and I can freeze and lock up a 1/4 squat landing instantly, and then bounce out into 1-2 smaller hops if I so desire. Definite sign of the recent strength gains coming through there.

Lethargic feeling = no hops. Down 2 inches overall from last week which is already lower than my recent best! My running jump today was at least 3inches lower than the highest I have jumped here at 200lbs...
standing VJ an inch lower than my best here, and one step jump also 3 inches lower. Some big gains are in the works soon, I can tell
Running jump not transitioning well from the run to the plant and jump, I can feel a braking, laggy feeling, wasting the run up speed. But everything feels smooth and soft/floaty feeling.

Improved my running one leg jump 2 inches though. I just changed my form, from a stiff legged snap off the ball of the foot, to a more relaxed, heel-toe drive with a slightly bent take off leg.

next week is week 8, so I might cut back on the Sumo deadlifts to allow a bit of a small deload. But I think I will soldier on until I hit my short term goal of 295x8 on full oly squats and do a proper deload, moving into more power/jumping work to peak out my jump. I will be at a 385lb 1RM by then, around 2xBW if I stay at my current bodyweight. According to my vertical jump formula I should be jumping around 33-34 inches, +2 off a step and sometimes +4 off a run. Enough to grab a 10 foot rim a little bit from a standing jump. Will have a bit of fun on that 9'8" court when I get there :)
 
8th June 2008

Fee OK, slight fatigued feeling, but not too sore overall.
Waking pulse was 58 bpm, that's pretty low compared to how high it would get back when I used to push myself well into overreaching, up into the high 60 bpm. So while I'm fatigued for explosive and fast stuff like jumping, it's not bad enough to effect slow movements and strength gains yet.

weighed 85.5kg 188lbs this morning
waist is 33.5 inches - around belly button - down 0.25 inches from 2 weeks ago

I ate a lot last night, volume and calorie density wise.
Drop in waist size surprised me, I sorta expected it to go up as I have been eating more the last few weeks, and haven't been able to do much walking due to the rain. I suppose all the long foam roll sessions make up for that :)

Upper thigh measured at 26.5 inches, hips/glutes 40 inches (+0.5)
Leg size is the same, so I have gained muscle mass there with a drop in waist size, and obviously my glutes are bigger.
Legs feel and look bigger too. So I'm hitting and recruiting the right muscle properly for jump power - the glute :)

I'm not in bad place really, eating enough to fuel strength gains, and size (not really important, but it helps my strength) but low enough to still lean up at a rate of 0.5lb a week, and drop my waist 1/4 inch every 2 weeks.


With this http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
it puts me at 13.5% bodyfat. Down another 0.5% from 2 weeks ago

waist/torso is starting to look real streamlined, still no sign of abs though, but they feel like they're sticking out more
Who knows, my strength and fat loss goals might be achieved around the same time :)
With a 26-27 inch thigh on a 30 inch waist, most probably


some foam rolling and self myofascial release planned today - mostly upper body. Raining agin, so no walking I guess :(
 
hehateme000 said:
whats ur program for vert bro??
Click to expand...


read my freaking journal! :chomp:

basicly - squat one day, and jump 4 days later :p
I only squat once a week

always trying to get my full oly squat as high as I can relative to my bodyweight and practise jumping regularly. Focusing on recruiting the glutes, getting them as big and strong as I can. Then every so often I cutback on the squats to reduce the fatigue and peak out my jump and see where it is
 
coolcolj said:
read my freaking journal! :chomp:

basicly - squat one day, and jump 4 days later :p
I only squat once a week

always trying to get my full oly squat as high as I can relative to my bodyweight and practise jumping regularly. Focusing on recruiting the glutes, getting them as big and strong as I can. Then every so often I cutback on the squats to reduce the fatigue and peak out my jump and see where it is
Click to expand...


Haha my bad, ill read through it bro :)

thats good cuz in my training routine im only gonna do legs once....so when u jump 4 days later do u see how high u can jump or do u do exercises? or do i need to read over ur journal :p
 
yes read my jounal, like I posted just above what I did at BBall yesterday....

but I just do max effort jumps to practise my form and see how high I get. I do all types of jumps, standing, off one step, 2 steps, running off one leg etc. practise dunking on low rims as well, when I get the chance to.

all sports specific stuff

right now I don't do any jump exercises, but later on I might when I deload from the strength work to peak out my running jump
 
coolcolj said:
yes read my jounal, like I posted just above what I did at BBall yesterday....

but I just do max effort jumps to practise my form and see how high I get. I do all types of jumps, standing, off one step, 2 steps, running off one leg etc. practise dunking on low rims as well, when I get the chance to.

all sports specific stuff

right now I don't do any jump exercises, but later on I might when I deload from the strength work to peak out my running jump
Click to expand...


awesome bro, well since im tryin to bulk up should i focus on strngth and size and forget about speed until i wanna cut? because my whole program will be different when i wanna cut (training, diet, etc.)
 
I also foam roll and self myofascial massage and release with tennis balls and stuff on my off days - aids recovery, keeps my fascia loose, reduces scar tissue and adhesion build up and keeps me injury free, especially jumpers knee!
All stuff that helps you stay healthy so you can train effectively

and go for a 25min walk on non training days, except the day before my BBall session
helps recovery and helps me leans up
 
hehateme000 said:
awesome bro, well since im tryin to bulk up should i focus on strngth and size and forget about speed until i wanna cut? because my whole program will be different when i wanna cut (training, diet, etc.)
Click to expand...

up to you, I would try and maintain movement efficiency and skills, because it takes freaking forever to regain if you neglect them completely! I speak from personal experience. And sometimes you might never regain them to the same level...

strength gains won't transfer to the movement if you don't practise it regularly
 
coolcolj said:
up to you, I would try and maintain movement efficiency and skills, because it takes freaking forever to regain if you neglect them completely! I speak from personal experience. And sometimes you might never regain them to the same level...

strength gains won't transfer to the movement if you don't practise it regularly
Click to expand...


ok ill work on that then, since im tryin to play college ball soon. Thanks bro ill be readin ur journal from now on!
 
Excel sheet with my vertical jump formula
also added an entry to calculate the squat required for a desired vertical jump and bodyweight

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/coolcolj/Temp/CCJ_Vertical Jump formula.xls

I need a 520lb full oly squat for a 46 inch vert at 190lbs....
495lbs at 180lbs bodyweight which is quite possible
455lbs at 165lbs bodyweight is pushing it a bit size wise. :)

Should add an entry box to allow the "39" value to be changed. It's the distance from where the bar is in the hip crease (while hanging down in the snatch) to where the bar ends up overhead for someone who's roughly 5'9".
Proper snatch grip width has the bar sitting the the hip crease, with a slight forward tilt.
 
did some tennis ball work on my upper body today - upper back, triceps, side of arm and pecs

same for my feet and glutes/hips, and rolled the shins and worked the crap out of calves/side of lower leg with my cardboard roll --> very painful!

pretty tired after that. Will do the rest of lower body on Thursday, a day after my workout.

Did some scapular wall slides and was able to get up further up the wall with my arms, finally above parallel!!
Internal rotors starting to loosen up
 
Tuesday 10th May - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 8 - Day 1

Didn't feel that energetic, or that strong, but made progress. I usually nap before I head to the gym, which freshens and loosen/relaxes me, didn't today. Had this achey kinda feeling in my body, probably from all the foam rolling and massaging

Shifting the bar from the squat position over to the front to do hang powercleans in my warmup complex was pain free today, ie pressing up from a behind the neck position - sweet! Slowly, but surely I'm loosening up and fixing up my shoulders

slight deload workout, cut back on the sumo deadlifts

Body weight at gym - 192lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 1.75 hours
Workout rating - 7/10

General warm up -

3 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 8
behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x8
lateral deep lunge 1x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

3x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3
Back Squats - in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, switched to oly shoes 185x4, 225x2, 245x1

controlled
Back Squat - 265lbs x 8 (+10lbs) --> hard grind on last rep - Bodyweight PR

Upped the load 10lbs from this workout 2 weeks ago. Nailed it, but it didn't feel easy, and I wasn't sure I would make all 8 reps. Had to grind it up a little, but I almost paused a little at the bottom on the 8th rep, so not bad at all.
185lb front squat sets in warmups felt pretty easy compared to 2 weeks ago as well.

Rep calculator has me at a 330 lbs max, but I tend to squat 20lbs more.
350lb max, so at a 1.85x bodyweight squat now. Up from 1.77x 2 weeks ago.
30lbs to go to hit double bodyweight for the first time in my life!
Front squat should around 280lbs, 80% of my oly back squat. Approaching 1.5xBW

Should be able to powerclean 225lbs again, and powersnatch 150lbs with a high catch, minimal leg bend to catch it.
So with my vertical jump formula, I'm good for a 30.5-31 inch standing vertical jump. About 1 to 1.5 inches under a 10 foot BBall rim :)
I might get it this weekend, if I can recover by then....

rested 10 mins before deadlifting


Sumo Deadlift - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - doubled overhand hooked grip

3-4mins rest
explosive up, semi dropped down - 111lbs 2x3, 161x3, 198x3, 243x3, 293x3

cut back on deadlifts today, to unload a bit. 293lbs was cake for the legs and hips, but sorta heavy for the upper body.
Deadlift should be around 420lbs.
2.22x bodyweight


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches

Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 4kg dumbell x10 (+1rep)
Push ups on bench x6, on floor x 14 (+2reps) - paused top and bottom
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm Cuban rotation + press
single arm lying on back subscap rotation
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach with a hold - 25kg x4, 35kg x 10 (+5kg, +1rep)

dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BWx24 reps (+2 reps) with a slight hold at top on each rep


Side Plank hold
warmup - each side x 5 reps

45 secs each side - bitch'n hard, obliques burning towards the end

Leg lowering AB exercise - slow tempo
warmup - supported leg raise x 8
1.5 mins rest - 1x9 reps (+1 rep)
could get my legs all the way to floor without my lower back coming off the floor for the whole set


Stretching for whole body
 
so much for deloading the Sumo deadlift, I feel drained as hell!
I think pushing hard on the upper body stuff added to the overall fatigue

Didn't sleep all that well last night. Took an hour longer to fall asleep, and I woke up an hour early! I've been waking early for the last week or so. Not good

Sore all over, but not that bad in my lower body, more in my upper body. Calves are always pretty sore, from what I have no idea?!
Even after the 8 rep all out squat set yesterday I wasn't feel that trashed and pumped in my legs and glutes. Starting to adapt I guess

just a 25min walk planned for today. And a nap if I get can get em...
Might get to use my dad's massage bed as well.
 
Thursday 12th June

did a ton of foam rolling and tennis ball work today - then a few stretches for each worked part, 25min walk afterwards, which felt great. Getting so mucher looser and smooth now. Walking differently, with this bouncing gait, I haven't had since I was in high school.

worked heavily on the bottom of my feet with both my cardboard roll and a golf ball (each one does something different). Not so painful now with the golf ball

glute, glute medius and hips with a tennis ball against the wall. Still some pretty painful tender spots

Obliques - front and back, surprisingly sore as hell. I found these seem to influence my back tightness and ache when bending over to pickup something off the floor. Back doesn't seem to ache anymore when doing so, after I finished.

calves/ outer lower leg - tennis ball first and then cardboard roll. The whole calf is still like one massive tender spot! The upper peroneal is pretty nasty

tibs - foam roller, not too bad, but right side has a massive tender spot around the ankle area. Probably caused by my old ankle injury...

IT band and frontal/outer quads - started with a tennis ball against the wall, picking up selected spots, then the Mini BBall, for the full length of the muscle and then finished off with the foam roller. The whole muscle is still pretty tender, but now the overall soreness and tightness is down, I can find specific trigger points that hurt much more. They all seem to be towards the upper area. The outer, upper area of the quad is especially painful

VMO, inner thigh, adductor - used my Mini BBall, volleyball sized one to start and then a bit with the foam roller. Damn still really extremely painful, but the ball pushes right into the thigh.

-----------

A little quote related to trigger points and sore spots


recently returned from a trip to see Dr. Allen. Wow! If you are ever planning a trip to Chicago, you will learn more in 90 minutes than you will in a year. Naturally, 90% went over my head. Dr. Shawn probably thought I was mentally challenged since my mouth was open the whole time...not speaking but just dumbfounded.

I have been sending some video clips of my son to Chris for some time and something caught Chris's keen eye and he recommended that I schedule a visit with Doc Allen. Sure enough, his left foot and leg had shut off and he wasn't able to land and bounce off his left leg. His right leg was stiff at impact but the left leg was landing bent and landing on the side of his foot. After close to 2 hours, Doc Allen was able to turn on number of firing units. Dr. Shawn could tell just by looking at my son just standing that the left foot had collapsed. Why? Because the body was compensating for a number of "tender" spots in the glutes, hams and quads...as well as a ton of tender spots in the foot...many micro spots where the big toe is attached. The body's natural protection mechanism was kicking in to keep from further injury. He walked out of their with both feet in optimum position. I wish I was able to retain more, but one thing Dr. Allen guaranteed, was that my son would be running faster once everything was back to snuff. He recommend some daily treatments of treating tender areas with "The Stick" as well as manually manipulating the foot with one's own fingers, as well as rolling the foot on a golf ball a couple of times per day. He has one more week of this type of treatment before we submit a video. I know Chris and Dan have been hammering about fixing the broken links before strength training...teaching proper position before training. It certainly will change my training in the future. I had a ton of kids with poor position but their parents want to see their kids getting stronger and faster...but in hindsight, I didn't do anyone any favors. I would have been better off staying with lunge drops, and ISO's before even thinking about introducing weights. I think James Colbert was a lot more keen than people gave him credit for. (too bad he isn't posting anymore) In conclusion, Dr. Allen said without both feet operating optimally, it is almost impossible to get full hip extension if one leg is compensating for the other. I hope I don't misquote him, but he said if there (there wasn't) was hip extension at toe off, he would have run off the track and not straight. Doc, let me know where I need to edit misrepresentation of my ramblings
 
inner thighs starting to rub together again :(

I noticed it the day after the last workout. Adductors getting bigger again.
Thought it would never happen again after I started leaning up and my thighs dropping under 29 inches
Gah my legs will get much bigger as I gain more strength, but I have more fat to drop to offset that...
 
coolcolj said:
Vibram Five fingers for that real barefoot feel in a shoe
Click to expand...

Weird. I must say that I wouldn't wear those in public. It also looks like they wouldn't fit me properly since my 2nd toe is a good 1/4" longer than my big toe.
 
it's supposed to give you the barefoot feel, and foot strengthening from that, but with protection from heat and objects etc

Sorta what a Nike Free is supposed to do, but even more so :)

Imagine playing street Bball in a pair :Chef:
 
Saturday 14th June - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 8 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 86.7kg 190.7lbs in winter clothing

Butt freezing cold today! Went back to the court with the bent rim.


Outdoor BBall court - one right next to park with a bent rim- 9'8+" front, 9'11" back - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer


50 mins total

1) did some dribbling, shooting and some low intensity moves/jumps for about 25 mins.

2) did max effort jumps of all types for another 25 mins, resting about a 30 secs to 1 min between jumps. Did a set of 3 continuous jumps in place touching the backboard at the end, 2nd and 3rd jump dropped about 4-5 inches from the first jump.
Started to feel slightly fatigued at the end, about 2 inches lower overall, but legs not too sore.

Jumps about the same as the last time I was here. Didn't feel flat, but not that fresh and snappy. Court was pretty dirty and slippery so running jumps had pretty slow approaches.
Landings getting softer and more effortless by the week. Usually my leg muscles get this inflamed feeling after I get a good 5 or so max effort jumps in. I always thought this was normal put it down to just fatigue. Well today I hardly got that feeling, everything just felt soft and cushioned, after I was fully warmed up. I land, freeze the position, some pretty deep landings too, and squat back up casually. It's definitely down to the foam rolling and self myofascial release I've been doing each week. Even though I still have a lot of trigger points and sore spots left to work out, the difference is night and day to where I was 2 months ago and and the last 2 years!!! Especially when it's cold like today, my foot arches would get really tight and achey in the past, even back many years ago. Not even a hint of of that today.
Doing some pogo hops feels like I'm walking on water or something! :)

Still have that funny issue where I can touch over 9'8" on the backboard with a standing vertical jump, but can get anywhere near the 9'8+" bent part of the rim, if I test there...
My form must change or something.

Something else....I'm beginning to wonder if I still max out 20lbs over the rep calculator on full oly squats...only one way to find I guess...
330lbs vs 350lbs could make a big difference to my calculations and estimates
 
also something I noticed the today and day before - there is a definite connection between the obliques and the lower back. My whole oblique is sore to the touch, trigger points etc, and everytime I massage it with my hands or do release work with a tennis ball my lower back feels nice and loose.
 
Sunday 15th June 2008

feel slightly fatigued, but overall not too bad.
Mild achey feeling all over, feet, calves, quads and glutes and upper back the most sore. I don't seem to use my hamstrings to jump as much these days compared to when I was jumping my highest in my 200lb days, and all tight and knotted up as well. I think it's because I don't dip as low as I used to.... or maybe a result of the foam rolling and glute activation work.

some upper body tennis ball release work planned today, and might do some calves and glutes/obliques if I have time.
Take ages if I work a good amount of my body in one go - like 3 hours!!
Better than sitting on your ass I guess, and it does burn more calories :)

25 min walk as usual on my rest days. Shopping with girlfriend early in the day........

--------------
Fiddling around with my Vertical Jump formula and based on my personal experience with dropping bodyfat/weight - bodyweight itself isn't that big an issue, unless your really fat.

For me I gain about an inch for every 5 lbs I drop. Hardly seems worth the effort, and chance of loosing muscle mass/strength while doing so. And power when you get too lean.
You can gain that inch by increasing your squat 10+ lbs, vs spending 5 or so weeks dropping 5lbs...

Dropping 10lbs of fat will gain you 2 inches, while you can gain 5lbs of muscle and gain at least 30 lbs on your squat and net a 2 inch gain on your VJ or more

If your around 10-11% BF, I think there is not much point getting leaner to gain a couple of inches of VJ, unless your naturally lean
 
foam roller wedged against the neck and wall works well. I know ART people start there to loosen up the chest etc.

My neck muscles are sure sore as hell!
 
coolcolj said:
foam roller wedged against the neck and wall works well. I know ART people start there to loosen up the chest etc.

My neck muscles are sure sore as hell!
Click to expand...

a little tip from someone

lay down on the roller with it against the back of your neck. look up down left and right. pay close atterntion to where the sternocleidomastoid attaches at the base of the skull

the SCM is, to a large part, the muscle that pulls your head forward.
Click to expand...
 
Tuesday 17th June - Micro Cycle 8 - Week 9 - Day 1

decent workout, getting stronger. But a tad too long and dragging at the end.
Might have to split off the upper body stuff, or cut some stuff out... but I hate coming into the gym to do wussy upper body work...

Shoulder no longer hurts when doing face pull as detailed below, so will start to do them regularly now. Thank you tennis ball self myofascial release work and foam rolling!


Body weight at gym - 191.5lbs in winter clothing
Workout time - 2 hours
Workout rating - 8/10

General warm up -

5 min moderate speed walk on treadmill
My hip flexor/glute activation move
1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
scapular pushup on bench x 10
(skipped) behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x 10
lateral deep lunge x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk

2x10 seconds rope skipping - 30secs rest

45lb oly bar complex - slow clean pull, GM onto toes, high hang powerclean, military press - 5 reps each


Full Front and Full Oly Back Squats - shoulder width stance - no Belt - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer

alternating sets between front and back squats, 45 seconds rest between each. Then 2-3min rest between each pairing

warmups
Front Squats - Bar x5, 95lbs x 3, 135x3, 185x3, 225lbs x 3 sec hold, 225x1, 255x 3sec hold
Back Squats - Bar x5, 95x4, 135x4, 185x4, 225x2

Front Squat - 255lbs x 2
rest 3 min
Back Squat - controlled
1) 255lbs x 1
rest 4mins
2) 265lbs x 6 medium strain on last rep
rest 5mins
3) 265lbs x 6 --> hard strain on last rep

255x2 on front squats was kinda hard, felt heavy on the shoulder, but could have tripled it today. More taxing for my upper body than legs.
265lbs 2x6 was kinda hard on back squats, but a lot more relaxed, slower on the way down, and nowhere near as gut busting as they were the last time I did this workout 2 weeks ago! Getting noticeable stronger, and that's after 255x2 on front squats with a 255 single.

The tennis ball release work I did on my obliques and glutes helped big time. I couldn't even feel my lower back working at all today. Lower back just felt so loose and ache free. Thoracic spine seemed to be less bent/caved as well.
Was able to keep my chest up nicely on the 1st workset of backsquat, but didn't focus on that on the 2nd set.

40lbs off from my short term workout goal - frontsquat 295x2, 295lbs 2x6 on backsquat. That will put me a touch over double bodyweight full oly squat, if I stay at my current bodyweight. Good for a 34 inch vertical jump :D
But I'm tightening up my diet, so that I slowly go down to 80kg 176lbs over the next few months. I hope.

I guess this shows you can get stronger training once a week. Although I do a reasonable number of jumping 4 days later at the BBall court. That definitely helps my leg/hip power/speed. They feed into each other
My legs have gotten a lot bigger though, just regaining size I think :)
And not eating any protein powder, or much protein at all, around 100g if that :p

video of main worksets
right click and save first to avoid errors
http://www.members.optushome.com.au...ntSquat255x2_OlyBacksquat265_2x6_17June08.mpg


Single Leg Lifts

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x40lb dumbbells x 8

single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x40lbs dumbell x 8

load was about right for both. Worked my obliques pretty hard too.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches




Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff 4kg dumbell x11 (+1rep)
close grip triangle Push up on floor - paused top and bottom x 11
Lying L-Flye cuff rotation
single arm seated Cuban rotation into press
single arm face down on bench subscap rotation - hold at top
single arm lying on side cross body raise
low pulley cable row to stomach - elbows flared, hold at body - 35kg x 11
facepull - palms facing - like this http://www.t-nation.com/article/performance_training/pushups_face_pulls_and_shrugs&cr=
with a hold - 15kg x 11

dip shrug - 5sec hold + 3 reps, BW 26 reps (+2 reps) with a slight hold at top on each rep

Side Plank hold

50 secs each side - up 5 secs - hard as usual...

Lat machine situp
BW+25lbs x 8 - paused middle and bottom

semi-hard, but solid, no pain anywhere. These used to hurt my lower back a bit. Again thank you tennis ball self myofascial release work and foam rolling! :)


Stretching for whole body
 
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