Creation of an Explosive Mofo - My Training Journal :)

[coolcolj]

Felt like crap this morning - poor sleep, dog woke me up twice

Not drained, but a little sapped...I barely did anything yesterday - relatively speaking
and I'm pretty sore - hamstrings and upper traps especially!

yeah I'm always sore, I don't think I've ever been sore free after a workout ever since I started training, no matter what I did

 

[KOArtist]

So have you been staying away from oly lifts recently?

 

[coolcolj]

So have you been staying away from oly lifts recently?

yes to save time and energy, and I don't think I really need to do them anymore with all the jumping I already do. You only have so much CNS reserve and adapative capacity, so you have to spend them wisely - go for the bang for you bucks stuff

 

[coolcolj]

Saturday 8th March - Micro Cycle 7 - Week 3 - Day 2

Bodyweight = 89.2kg 196lbs in shorts and t-shirt

well I didn't reach the bodyweight I wanted to be...but I am carb loaded right now, large serving of spaghetti last night...so in that regard this is the lightest carb loaded bodyweight at BBall so far

pretty warm today - I warmed up fast, didn't need to do as much dynamic warmup stuff and drills as usual. Partly because I'm fresher as well from taking it easy this week. The heat started to get to me towards the end.

Lots of little girls playing netball around the place - and just me playing bBall in the middle

Outdoor BBall Complex - one with 8 foot rims at the back

1 hour total

started with shooting and easy 2 handed dunks on the 8 foot rims .
Then some jumping - some standing, more one step and plenty of running jumps. Added a few running single leg jumps, apart from the usual layups and dunks off one leg I have done.

I played in my Nike Free 5.0 trainers today for the first time - been using the 7.0 trainers which have a thicker more spongy sole - more cushion. And the 5.0 trainers felt much better, harder, more solid, lighter and I felt like I had better control and instant response to what I wanted to do. Just floated around the court with the ball on a string, direct mind to concrete connection

The stuff I did in the first 30mins felt great, shooting was much better. My upper body mobility feels better, I can do hook shots now without feeling resistance from my lats, and I'm no longer getting a impingement ache in my shoulder.
Foot work, speed, agility quickness and dribbling were awesome. Felt snappy as hell. So I am definitely fresher - it could be the 5.0 trainers as well....
I did some awesomely explosive double clutch moves under the rim and made the shot. Lots of "hang time"
I did those moves planting my feet left - right, but when I did the windmill dunks on the 8 foot rim, I plant right - left. My body seems to adjust itself depending which side I approach the rim etc.
But I do a running jump for max height without the ball I always plant left-right and it feels funny and not too smooth...

But the jumps I did at the end were even lower than last week
I was probably too fatigued by then, but I'm just lacking the ompph right now. The diet perhaps is killing my hops, but quickness, agility and snap is much better - so it is weird. Explosive strength is down, but quickness and agility is much better. Funny.
I seem to be reluctant to bend my knees much, when jumping, and especially when I land. Totally straight legged landings.....got some sore calves now.

I finished before I killed myself like last week. I didn't have to do any static stretching afterwards. All those hybrid active isolated type stretching I've been doing is working well, during the week, everyday just about.

 

[coolcolj]

Feel surprisingly good today - a litle achey, but upper body is not feeling as sore it was after bball. The extra mobility is helping a lot.

Achey spinal erectors, hamstrings and feet.

I think I will not focus too much on my max effort jumps until I get to my target bodyweight and BF% and get off the diet. Just focus on my BBall moves, dunks on the 8 foot rim, and BBall style jumping. For some reason the jumps feel different the jumps I do within a BBall context, even though are both max effort, the BBall style jumping seems to be more relaxed and less taxing on the body. I feel a lot more explosive and snappy when I do them, I feel god like
And a lot less frustrating mentally....

I forgot to mention that running around in the Nike Free 5.0 Trainers feels a lot better, you can run on the balls of your feet like you should. A lot like how sprint spikes force you to run on the balls of your feet.
For some reason the 7.0 Trainers make you to run heel-toe and the cushioning sole makes it hard to run on your forefoot. You would thick the thicker sole would make it better to run on, but it doesn't for me...

I am thinking of returning to my protein powder + fruit based Intermittent fasting/Warrior style diet hybrid. I dropped weight fast back when I used, and it was reliable and kept me pretty full. For some reason eating more real food makes more hungry right now. Time to spend some money of a large bucket of complete proetin blend again... whey doesn't work well as it doesn't mix thick and keep you full.

 

[coolcolj]

Tuesday 11th March - Micro Cycle 7 - Week 4 - Day 1

Cranking up the volume and intensity once again.
Workout was surprisingly good even though I did feel a bit tired, and didn't get a chance to nap before training.
Felt stronger all round, compared to the last months worth of workouts, and that's on a calorie deficit too!

Didn't feel too tired as well, when I left the gym, surprising given the loads I used today.

Bodyweight down a pound from last week and I looked leaner too in the gym mirrors

Body weight at gym - 197lbs
Workout time - 75 mins
Workout rating - 8.5/10

General warm up -

My hip flexor/glute activation move

1 set each of my usual dynamic mobility exercises

lateral deep lunge 1x10

single leg RDL mobility walk

3x20 rope skipping

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



Rotating sets between each exercise, complex style
3 to 5 mins rest inbetween each on the main worksets


Clean grip Front Squats Squats - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - no Belt

warmups - Bar x 5, 95lbs x3, 135x3

controlled
1) 185lbs x 3

Been a while since I front squatted, but I still have the feel for it, and feels even better now with my greater mobility. 185lbs was quite taxing on the upper body though, but didn't feel too hard.


Medium stance Full Squats - Nike Free 5.0 Trainer shoes - no Belt

warm ups - bodyweight x 8, 95lbs x4, 135lbs x 4, 185x4, 225x2

controlled down, paused, explode up
1) 185lbs x 3
2) 225lbs x 3
3) 255lbs x 3 --> hard strain on last rep

Squats much better! Feels really different - mostly felt it in my glutes and abs. I could arch my butt back at the bottom quite easily. Something I've always had problems with. Must be due to the hip flexor/glute activation move I've been doing 2-3 times everyday
Upper back felt stronger and more solid from all the sumo deadlifts I've been doing as well.

Had to strain quite a bit with 255lbs, so not that fast. But it was a good type of strain, unlike last time I did 255lbs...



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

explosive up, semi dropped down - 89lbs x3, 155lbs x 3

did a few bodyweight full squats x3 and low 9 inch box jumps x3 inbetween the earlier warmup sets

explosive up, semi dropped down - outer feet lined up with outer rings.
1) 205lbs x 3
2) 243lbs x 3
3) 293lbs x 3
4) 333lbs x 3

Felt solid and much stronger than before. The squats didn't even tire me at all, even though 255lbs on paused squats was close to maximal. They seemed to help more than anything. 293lbs flew up, and 333lbs was way easier than the last time I did it, felt pretty fast. I didn't video it, but it felt close to a 1sec concentric.

Last time I did 333x3, it felt like a max effort lift and my upper back collapsed forward make my pecs ache. So time to increase the peak load to 343lbs next time, and my main loads to 303lbs and try and get that to 0.8 to 1 sec concentric time.


Extra stuff, Cool down, upper body and stretches

bench dip shrug x 10
scapular dip shrug - 10sec hold + 3 reps, BW x 20 --> solid and easy!

1.5 mins rest between each side
single leg kneeling deadlift - 2 sec pause at bottom - BW x 5, 2x10kg dumbell x 8
single leg RDL - 2 sec pause at bottom - bwx5, 2x10kg dumbell x 8

fairly tough as expected after the squats and deads


Stretching for whole body - hybrid active isolated type stretching and some static stretching

 

[coolcolj]

feeling sapped and a little drained, which I expected.

Achey all over - really sore glutes and hamstrings, and mid upper back, followed by calves, VMO abs and rear delts

 

[coolcolj]

remeber that 5'9" guy I posted before with the 46 inch standing VJ and 50+ running? I finally got a video of him jumping!!! Really impressive
LOL finally we seem him on video jumping!

Really impressive!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zizMVDaiBhU


--

old stats

from a running jump

stats -

5'9"
201-208lbs depending on what time of day.
squat raw and top of thigh to parallel 740
front squat 545
powerclean 384
olysquat over 600lbs

and from a standing jump...

 

[lanny]

how do u jump that high? =.=

 

[coolcolj]

how do u jump that high? =.=

look at his strength and power stats relative to his bodyweight

and it's not natural either, he had to work for them