Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Not as sore this time around after this Workout A, much less sore now 2 days on.
And not as drained, even if I had some pretty bad sleep on the night of the workout, with neighbours keeping em awake till midnight, meaning only 3.5 hours of deep sleep.....
Lots of hamstring and glute DOMS as per usual

my mid erectors have gotten way bigger since I switched over to low back full squats. I've got 2 lumber columns forming under my traps and lats, which I never had before

 

[coolcolj]

Saturday 29th November - Block 12 - Week 3 - Day 2

foam rolling at home before heading to the court. Legs, hips, calves, feet and cuffs/lats

Bodyweight = 91.2kg 200.6lbs in shorts and t-shirt

Willoughby Leisure centre outdoor BBall court complex - Nike Free 7.0 Trainer


55 mins total

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

2) 30 mins of max effort jumps, resting about a 30secs to 2 mins between jumps. Plus dunks on the 8 foot netball rims - off a dribble, off lobs etc
pretty much one after the other

Felt ok today, somewhat tired as usual, but a little beter than last week. Also a little heavier as well bodyweight wise. Dribbling good, but shooting was crap.

Jumping not bad. Moving jumps were a little better than last week, but still crap form wise.

I'm using my standing 2 handed jump as my VJ benchmark from now on. I do it against the 9 feet backboard, and standing away from the backboard so I can see where my hands go. Which does take a bit off the jump reach. Got the same as last week, both wrists an inch under the backboard.
Using a steel tape measure, I touched 9'7" with both hands.

Now I measured my 2 handed reach at home at 7'1" standing flush against the wall - 3 inches lower than my single hand reach - stretching up as hard as I can. If I stand back from the wall like how I jumped it drops 1.5 inches at least, from the reach, but when I jump I do propel myself forward, so maybe it doesn't make as much difference then....
Anyway 9'7" - 7'1" = 30 inches. And maybe really 31 taking into account of the angle of the arms reaching forward.

Not bad but still 2-3 inches under where I should be jumping for my strength levels according to my VJ formula usinga 405 squat and 202lb bodyweight ---> Vertical Jump Calculator

About a 9'9.5" touch with 2 hands off a short slow run. Didn't get a good attempt in, too tired byt then

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 30th November 2008

Good sleep. Overall achey feeling. Spinal erectors and upper back is trashed. Lower back was still somewhat over active yesterday. Feet feel good though - I did some toe crunches, gripping the shoes with my toes when warming up and it got my feet feeling great fast. Usually running around in Nike Frees on the balls of your feet, when my foot muscles are cold doesn't feel too good, but the toe crunches fixed that!


weighed 90.7kg 199.5lbs this morning
waist is 35 inches around belly button

With this http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/
it puts me at 15.3% bodyfat
Tanita scale = 24%(+0.1%)

measurements straight out of bed
Wrist - 6.75 inches
Ankle - 8 7/8
Neck - 15 7/8

Arms - flexed 15.5 (+1/8)
Forearms - flexed 12
Chest - lats flexed 44
Hips/Glutes - 41.5 (+2/8)
Thighs - 27.5 (+0.25)
Calves - flexed 16 3/8

no wonder why I'm heavier, my legs and hips have gotten bigger!
No excuses for my squat not to increase then, except if I don't get enough sleep that is. Looks like my prediction is coming true, my legs will end up at 29 inches for me to full squat 425x8, 525lbs. Then when I lean back down to a 30 inch waist, it should shrink back down to around 27 inches or something.
Another 100lbs on my squat to go, with the 325x8 I did this week.
Should add another 8 inches on my vertical jump. Then lean back down to 180lb will add another 4. That will get me my goal of dunking with 2 hands standing flat footed under the rim.

So you have 2 natural people - one sub 10% bodyfat 210lb guy with a 30 inch leg full squatting 620+lbs, and another lean 250lb guy with a 35+ inch leg full squatting over 750lbs. And both can jump through the roof. So having big legs isn't such a bad thing for my goals. A bigger muscle is a stronger muscle

 

[coolcolj]

Lower back was really tight this morning at my part time job.
I did all my usual stuff to get rid of it, but nothing worked. Then I pressed my upper frontal thigh into the wheel arch of the van to release my quad/recturs femoris, and held it for a good 30 secs, and it hurt like a bitch. very tight. Straight after I felt so loose in my hip region, and my lower back relaxed like nothing happened......

sometimes what you think is causing the problem, is not the source of the pain. Sitting down all day yesterday made my frontal quad area very tight indeed

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 2nd December - Block 12 - Week 4 - Day 1 - Workout B

Pretty good and solid workout. Amazing how much stronger I feel when I get a decent level of sleep and naps over the weekend.
Long workout though, but it didn't feel like it.

heavy duty 40 min foam roll session at home before heading to the gym

Body weight at gym - 200lbs
Workout time - 2+ hours
Workout rating - 4/5

General warm up -

4 min moderate speed walk on treadmill

1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises
behind the neck band pull aparts - green mini-band help 3/4 length 2x8
lateral deep lunge x8
situp complex on swiss ball
single leg RDL mobility + psoas activation walk
4 short runs of low effort prime times (stiff legged runs)

A few sets of hops in place - 2 legged and then single legged
3x10 seconds rope skipping - 2 legged then 5 reps single leg, each leg, then alternating legs - 30secs rest

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


Low bar Full Back Squats - shoulder width stance - Oly Shoes - no Belt

in Nike Free 5.0 trainer - 45 secs rest between sets of within each weight - slight pause at the bottom on most reps - BWx10, Bar x 8, 95lbs x4, 135lbs 2x2, 185lbs 2x2,
switched to oly shoes 205lbs 2x2, 225x2, 255lbs 2x1, 285x1, 315x1, 345lbs x 2 support, 345x1, 375lbs x 2 support

1) 375lbs x 2 (90+% of estimated 1RM - 405lbs)
3 mins rest

2) 7 sets of 3 - 70+% of 1RM - 3 mins rest
295lbs

video of main sets - but only first 4 sets of 295lbs, ran out of camera memory
YouTube - 2nd Dec 2008 - FullSquats 375lbs x2, 295lbs 7x3

Warm Ups felt kinda crappy, but better than last week. 345lb single in warmups felt pretty "easy and light", first time it's felt like that.
375lbs was pretty solid for a double, 2nd rep was quite a bit harder, but can definitely do at least 3 reps with it. Heaviest weight I have ever doubled so far.

295lbs still feels heavy'ish on my back, but I moved every set pretty quickly. Average concentric rep speed was 1 sec. Never moved 295lbs that fast before! And even the 3rd rep of each set didn't slow down that much like it normally would for me. Lower back started to get achey though on the last few sets.

Wonder if I can do 405x2 before he year is out?


Upper body/shoulder prehab stuff

Low incline dumbell face pull to forehead - elbows at 90 degrees, palms facing with a hold at top - 2x2kgx5, 2x3kg x 10

close grip triangle Push up on floor - paused top and bottom x 10

single arm face down on bench subscap rotation - hold at top
3kg x 5, 4kg x 10


Lat machine situp
warmup - each rep progressively lower - 3 secs rest between each BWx10
BW+15lbs x 8

 

[coolcolj]

sore all over, hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors and upper back extremely sore!
Feel pretty drained as well. I definitely overdid it yesterday. Had problems falling asleep last night and then woke up an hour early

 

[coolcolj]

I'm still really sore and stiff. I most probably will skip BBall/Jumping this week

might deload next week

 

[coolcolj]

Sunday 7th December 2008

Skipped BBall yesterday.
Upper back and traps pretty sore from my part time job. Posterior chain a little achey as well.
I get to rest the next 2 days, which is nice.


weighed 91kg 200lbs this morning
waist is 35 inches around belly button

With this Body-Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio and More...
it puts me at 15.2% bodyfat
Tanita scale = 22.4%(-1.6%)

measurements straight out of bed
Wrist - 6.75 inches
Ankle - 8 7/8
Neck - 16

Arms - flexed 15.5
Forearms - flexed 12.25 (+0.25)
Chest - lats flexed 44
Hips/Glutes - 41.5
Thighs - 27.5
Calves - flexed 16 3/8

Bodyweight has come up a little again, 91kg 200lbs on the dot, but it doesn't appear to be fat gain, just mostly water and a tiny bit of muscle maybe. Forearms have gotten bigger. Tanita scale BF% seems to have dropped quite a bit for some reason

Will go for a walk today and maybe some foam rolling and release work on my upper body and calves.

 

[coolcolj]

A quote from Kelly Baggett. I know Kelly has mentioned this before - but this is the reason why it's a good idea to gain some muscle mass and bodyweight, even if your goal is to ultimately propel your body around. Especially if your not gifted in body structure and leverages. To improve your Fastwitch to Slowtwitch muscle %

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The appearance of muscle density is just a characteristic of having lots of muscle fiber per unit area in conjunction with low body-fat. In other words, if you and I both have identical forearm length and identical body-fat and your forearms are 15 inches around at the biggest point and mine are 12 you will appear more dense than me. If you look at dogs you'll see that pit bulls, boxers, and bulldogs are all extrmely dense and powerful. They are the mesomorphs of the dog world. People with lots of FT fiber don't tend to naturally do well with endurance work, which extended isos are a form of.


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Well you can train for muscle density in as much as you can increase your muscle mass and lower your body-fat.

Yes, you can train IIB fibers to endure more, but they adapt by transforming to IIA. The difference between type IIA and IIB fibers isn't worth worrying about from a power/tension standpoint. In fact, if you're only measruing the ability to generate peak force (or maximum strength), fast twitch vs slow twitch ratio doesn't even matter. Rather, it's the total cross sectional area of ALL available fibers that correlates with success.

But anyway, when the IIB are recruited they almost immediately transform into IIA. Athletes don't express IIBs to much of any degree but sedentary people do.

As an athlete, what you really want is a greater proportion of all IIs over type I, since the type IIs do generate more force than type Is in explosive activities.

Someone with more types I's naturally excels at more enduring activities whereas someone with type IIs doesn't. The guy with more type IIs can just engage in more endurance activities, which will transform his IIbs into IIAs, and he'll then have all the benefits of greater type II fiber but with more endurance.

The guy with more type I's can really only increase his type IIs through hypertrophy. Take someone with a 50/50 ratio of slow to fast muscles in the thigh. Say he has a 20 inch thigh. Get his legs up to 25 inches and that extra 5 inches of muscle will all be type II fiber. So, now his thighs might be 65% FT and 35% slow twitch.

 

[coolcolj]

Supposed to have an easy deload workout on Tuesday, but I didn't feel like training, so I skipped it, and I'm glad I did. Body feels so much better now. Spinal erectors and lower back no longer complaining. Poor motivation = overreached state

Will probably skip BBall/jumping again this weekend, so I can get as fresh as I can given my lifestyle. Which isn't 100% fresh, more like 80-90%, but better than I have felt the last month for sure

Whenever my spinal erectors and lower back starts to ache a lot, I now know I am overreached, and not because of some posture issue or lack of a certain exercise, prehab move or stretching etc. Makes sense now - I use my back when I squat, at my part time job, and when I BBall and jump.

Based on how I feel, it looks like I can only tolerate 2 weeks of hard training. Which explains why my jumping is so bad and why I feel so run down and achey most of the time. Except after at least a 1.5 weeks without any training. I accumulate fatigue really quickly and the stronger I get the longer it takes for me to recover.

So in the next training block coming next week, I will have a very easy week, every 3 weeks.
That will also help simplify my training setup as well. 2x8 on squats one week, next week 90% x 2, 85% 5x2, then easy week, and repeat. Then once in a while I'll do my high volume session like I did 1.5 weeks ago and stop training altogether for at least a full week.
See how that goes, and then tweak things as needed.