Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

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]

Vibram Five fingers for that real barefoot feel in a shoe

I might get this model - the original looked way too garish to wear in public, but this one is not too bad. The black one is perfect
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_KSO.cfm

I wonder what squatting and deadlifting in em is like?
Should be great for deadlifts

 

[Azinine]

Vibram Five fingers for that real barefoot feel in a shoe

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.

 

[coolcolj]

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

 

[coolcolj]

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

 

[coolcolj]

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.

 

[coolcolj]

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

 

[coolcolj]

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]

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!

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.

 

[coolcolj]

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
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

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