Hoff's log

Members Area My Training Journal
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Hi all, I’ve been scavenging these forums for all the great information they have for awhile now. I was “referred” here by James Smith, who mentioned Charlie’s (huge) influence in some of his earlier materials I purchased to mold my football training. I’ve since spent some good time and money on Charlie’s products and have been trying to learn all I can about speed development.

I’ve spent the last four years playing division 3 football, had a quiet career (although I trained my ass off) and will be trying my hand at track for the first time since high school this spring.

In high school I started as an 800 guy (ran a 2:13 in 8th grade, a 2:02 as a freshman), didn’t run my sophomore year and came back about 30 pounds heavier at 185 as a 400 guy as a junior and my PB was 50.8 (consistent 51-52), so I’m not the fastest guy. I didn’t run my senior year because of shoulder surgery (thanks football) and haven’t run track since.

I’m planning on running the 1 and the 2 here, just for the sake of seeing where I stand speed wise (I was the second fastest guy on the football team, ran a hand timed 4.56 in cleats on grass) but I’m looking forward to the challenge and pushing my limits where the only politics involved will be a stopwatch!

Also, just for fun, I’m a neuroscience major/physical education minor and I’m obsessed with learning everything I can about training/physical development. I’m planning on going into coaching and teaching (high school biology) after I graduate.

Anyway, there goes my backstory if anyone cared to read it. This is more for the purpose of having somewhere to keep my records online than to have people dying to read my log, but I gratefully appreciate any and all words of advice/criticism/what the hell are you thinking from the community.

Have a good one everyone, hope I can be a part of the community Charlie would have enjoyed. I truly wish I could have told the man thank you for the influence he’s had on my training, philosophy, and the athletes I’ll coach in the future. It doesn’t mean much coming from me, but thanks Charlie!

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Training Status at the beginning (11/18/10)

It’s 4 days after football season and my body is banged the hell up. I’m still recovering from a pulled hamstring and some low back (glute attachment to pelvis) issues. I’m quite out of it training wise and am planning on easily transitioning into GPP and beginning acceleration work in about 2 weeks to let the body rest.

I’m also in the middle of a short experiment with a modified version of the Warrior diet, so if you guys have any questions about my experience on that let me know.

BW: 194-197 AM
Bench max: nonexistent with shoulder issues; 5x5 with 185 is painful but smooth
Squat: high box squat 405x3 w/ ease and pretty good speed; narrow stance free squats: hit 185x8 for 4 sets very smooth today (taking it slow with injuries); note best low bar free squat ever was 495x1 (May '10)
Clean: haven’t done since preseason, best max ever was 280 (May '10)
Training Status now
Track numbers: no clue
SLJ: will test in the next 2 weeks

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11/18 PM Lift
Narrow stance free squats: 4 (185x8)
-smooth and easy
About 1inch above parallel box squats for speed: 225, 315, 405 x 3,3,3
-again, very easy, 405 felt heavy on my back but shot up
Bench: 3 (135x10)

Did back raises on GHR or GHR’s between each set for 10-15 reps
Finished with some curls and 3 sets of light reverse hypers

Overall was a great session compared to Tuesday, body is feeling better, although still sore. Got “airrostied” this morning on my low back and hamstring and felt good afterwards (even though my guy beats the hell out of me every time). Things are looking up.

As far as a plan is concerned: I’m doing Charlie’s ab circuit from the GPP video at 2 days on 1 day off, doing the med ball circuit (low intensity) on my non-lifting days. With my lifting, I’m planning on riding my “novice effect” from being so detrained following the season as long as I can, i.e. I’m going to push the weight up every session (mainly on the free squats and bench) for as long as I can.

More later, have a good one everyone

4

11/19 PM Med ball/mini tempo/abs

Home for the weekend!

Warmed up, then did some hip mobility on my rack and some 45 degree back raises to get the blood pumping a little more (it’s a little chilly down here)

-Solo med ball circuit from GPP video x 1
-Did 4 “laps” up and down the front “yard” (I live on a ranch, it’s probably 50-60 yards long) of the following (striding to the ball after each throw)
Backward overhead tosses
Chest passes
Forward “scoop” tosses
Then did 4 laps of straight up overhead passes, so I just went down and back and threw it 4 times

Did some light bodyweight stuff: a set of pullups, pushups, blast strap scarecrows, back raises

GPP vid ab circuit x 2
Ab roller x 15

Notes: everything went easy. This is the first time I’ve run/jogged a little on my hamstring after the season and felt decent, light on my feet. Looking forward to moving a little more weight tomorrow.

Diet notes: another “solid” day of the warrior diet. Woke up at 194.8 after 5 heaping bowls of deliciousness+desert at Genghis Grill last night. Just got done with my training session so I’m looking forward to killing about 15 pounds of mom’s famous tacos.

I seem to be adjusting to the undereating phase well and am definitely feeling more “awake” during the day. Strength seems to be going up and I’m not “deflating” so for now things are looking good. I’m not sure how long I’m planning on riding out this experiment but at the moment I’m liking it. Too early to tell if I’m leaning up or not.

Hasta luego friends, have a great Friday

5

11/20 PM Lift

Was in and out quick–started my session in a rush to be able to have time to hunting with my dad. Still had a good day though.

Abbreviated warmup (legs were still sore, loosened up pretty well after warming up)

High bar narrow stance free squats: 205x8,8,8
Went up smooth and easy, a little more painful than I’d like as far as residual soreness from Thursday but felt good

Strict overhead press: 110x3, 125x3, 140x4; one down set of 95x20
I’m using 531 for my overhead press progression. Basically because I enjoy this and it’s a lot easier on my shoulder problems than benching heavy for some reason.

45 Degree back raises: lots between sets and 15 at the end with a bar on my back, squeezed on the top until my posterior chanulus maximus was sufficiently deep fried.

Band pull aparts (mini band): 20 reps between all sets with a big set at the end to make my neck shorter.

Then went out and had quality time with my dad. Was a good day.

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What school do you play for? TLU?

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No, close though. Trinity. We SUCKED this year (funny how that happens when politics become a bigger predictor of playing time than performance). Are you a “D3-er” as well or just curious?

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I was just curious because I’m from Texas as well. You mentioned you were a neuroscience major and TLU came to mind.

Looking forward to reading your journal. Good luck with your training.

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Thanks man, us Texans gotta stick together! Appreciate the words.

Sunday 11/21

AM “cardio” recovery work: 45 minutes of activity w/ avg HR of 126, tried to keep it between 120 and 130 for the session. Followed it up w/ PVC/tennis ball rolling and stretching on the legs, ass and hips.

Monday 11/22

PM Lift
High bar narrow stance free squats: 225x8,8,8
Felt really good, this was the first day I wasn’t sore since last Tuesday and all of these sets were strong. Substantial work in “get hyooge” range for the 4 headed monsters.

Bench Press: 155x10,10,10
These might as well have been considered “dynamic effort”; flew up fast. Trying to focus on taking care of my shoulder and working the weight up slowly. I have a tendency to come back too fast and strain my pecs and I want to avoid that this time around.

BW Pullups & 45 Degree back raises: lots… thousands? Did them between exercises listed above.

Messed around with some kettlebell clean and presses, did 2 sets of hanging leg raises and called it a day.

Overall feel pretty good, adjusting nicely to warrior diet as well. Feeling alert and energetic during undereating phase, hit some workout nutrition on lifting days (Finibar right before training, start sipping mixture of Scivation Xtend and creatine [the Biotest brand] 15-30 minutes before training and into the workout, follow it up with protein and dextrose afterwards).

Note: on morning ab circuits or med ball work I’ll train completely fasted and have whey with a slower digesting carb source like oats afterwards, then get into the undereating phase of the day like I normally would.

Bodyweight was 192.2 today, lowest it’s been in awhile. As long as strength continues to go up I’ll trust the plan.

Have a good one–stay fast

10

Tuesday 11/23

Off, traveling.

Wednesday 11/24

Following warmup, rolling, hurdle mobility drills

Explosive med ball throws: first time pushing these in a long freakin’ time, was hitting most of my backward overhead throws around 19-20 yards (8lb ball)

Strict OVH Press: 120x5, 135x3, 150x3; 95x12,12

Hang cleans: 135x6,6; 185x4,4
These felt good and strong. The seconds sets at each weight felt better than the first. Technique looked good (for me, that’s not saying much) on video. Really all that means is good triple extension and a nice easy catch (no excessive leg flaring crap)

T-bar rows: 2 plates x 12,12

Band pull aparts: lots

Single leg deadlifts: 2 sets of 10 each with 15 lb DB’s. Just thought I’d try these out for some extra hamstring work since I’m not doing any true “sprint work” for at least a couple more weeks

Notes: everything felt good. This was my first session that really focused more on explosion than simple strength work, and it’s pretty evident that I need to start getting some of my “pop” back if I want to be competitive in the spring. So far everything is going according to plan and I’ll start to incorporate power/speed drills next week and hopefully get rolling in the right direction.

Goal is 245 for 3 sets of 8 on Friday, should be a good lift day after the annual “bloat contest” that is Thanksgiving! Happy turkey day everyone!

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Thanksgiving Bloatathon (11/25)

After weighing in a bit dehydrated at 191.5 in the AM, got myself to 203 even by 9PM for a solid 11.5 pound “bloat”, winning the contest between my buddies and I. I will not be footing the bill at our next man-date.

Stayed out of the gym and had a good day with the family. Low back is extremely sore, not sure if it was the cleans or what. Not surprised about my traps being so sore though, it’s the all-too-common “just started the O-lifts again and can’t move my neck” feeling.

Weight was back down to 195 this morning and have been back on the Warrior diet track today. Looking forward to some squatting later.

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Friday and Saturday (11/26-27)

Friday was not a good day. I knew I wasn’t feeling it for some reason motivation-wise, and my low back was still extremely sore (bad sore, not DOMS). I worked up a bit on squats and decided to call it before my work sets to try and be SMART this time around.

I ended up doing some easy bulgarian split squats, some “assistance” shoulder work (easy) and called it a day.

Today was better, but I wanted to be smart and treated it as an active recovery day. It went down like this:

(Everything in this cluster was done in a rotated fashion)
-Prowler pushes (walks): 8 trips
-Med ball throws 5x3 backward overhead; 1x6 one hop, 1x6 2 hop throws
-Box… err… truck… jumps (jumps into bed of a truck, easy stuff)

Then did 800 reps of ab work.

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Sunday 11/28

Off, traveled back to school.

Monday 11/29

What? I actually RAN something???

After extensive warmup…

Accels: 4x10, 4x20; full recovery
Nice and easy on first day back, fairly low volume, huh? Everything felt good, although I could “feel” the hamstring where it’s bad. Nothing hurt, but I could “feel” it, I guess that’s as good as I can describe it. No watch or video today, I’ll do that next time now that I know I can survive it.

Strict OVH Press: 105, 120, 135x5,5,8

High bar narrow stance squats: 245x8,8
Dropped a set on these to see how my body reacts to the speed work. Everything felt strong though, especially the second set.

Stair jumps: (like box jumps but onto stairs) 4x3 to fourth step, nice and easy

Back raises and pullups: Chingos

Abs: once through CF circuit 20 on 20 off, averaged 25-30 per set; also some of the med ball ab/back exercises

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Tuesday 11/30

Good and long warmup, a bit sore/tight from yesterday

Tempo: 1600; I don’t know all of everyone’s abbreviations so I’ll put it how I can understand it: 4 sets of 3 runs (45 sec or so between runs) 2 minutes rest between sets.

100-100-200
100-200-100
200-100-100
100-100-200

HR numbers (Polar HR monitor/watch thing): approx took 17 minutes, AVG HR 149, max HR 190 (dayum)

Felt kinda outta shape out there but HR was back below 100 about a minute or so afterwards.

Is there a cheat sheet where we can find all of the abbreviations/code everyone uses here :smiley:

15

Wednesday 12/1

Good and long warmup, still a bit sore/tight. Back feels like hell so I’m pushing the next “high” day until tomorrow. Did a lot of soft tissue and flexibility work on my hips then…

Tempo: 1200; 3x100-100-100-100

Runs were on the minute, 14-18 sec on the runs, 10 reps of either pushups or ab work then rest until the next minute (averaged 15-25 seconds rest after each run). 1:30-2:00 rest between sets.

HR numbers: 14:30 total duration, AVG HR 154, max HR 176

Felt decent. Adding in the pushups/abs between reps kept the heart rate up more between runs, but overall it was pretty easy. Finished with med ball ab circuit and lots of stretching.

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Thursday 12/2

Warmed up, had a track friend come out and film some of the work and critique my technique.

Med ball throws
Backward OVH x 8 (18-24 yards w/ 8 lb med ball, 20-21 was the typical throw)
Squat throw x 4
Single hop throw x 4
Double hop throw x 5
Triple hop throw x 4

I could tell my broad jumping was stronger than the other day, felt pretty good considering how weak and non-explosive I’ve been feeling.

Accels (all were 10 yards)

4 x standing
6 x falling
2 x 3-point

I feel like we made improvements but I want to wait to put up technique fixes until you guys get to see the videos so you can form your own opinions without considering what my friend had to say.

Front squats: 135x8, 185x5, 135x10
My back just wasn’t having it today. Decided to take it safe.

Stair jumps
Single hop 2x4 (4 steps, easy)
Double hop 2x2 (4-4, 4-5, easy)

Bench: 135, 155, 175 x 10, 10, 2(10)
Still feel nasty tightness in my left pec while benching. Still not certain how I’m planning on progressing with this, but I’m seriously debating dropping bench for push press (to compliment the overhead press work I’m already doing).

Pullups: BWx12,10 (easy)
Abs on GHR w/ miniband: 20, 25 (tough as hell)
Reverse hypers: 70 x 8,10,10 (very easy, trying to be safe)

Stretch

Edit: forget to add bench in earlier

17

Just an update, took yesterday off because I slept for 3 hours and decided I’d train today instead. I also think I’ve come up with a solution for some of my training “issues”.

I bought the “Juggernaught Method” at EliteFTS (it came out this week), and I really like the progressions (basically a 3 week wave of 10 rep work, 3 weeks of 8’s, 3 weeks of 5’s, and 3 reps of 3’s; the final set of each day is a “controlled” attempt at rep records a la 5-3-1).

First off, I was planning on getting into an “accumulation” phase next week anyway (recycling squats back to a lower weight, doing 3x10 and trying to bump the weights higher than my last work at 3x8) because it’s evident that my back isn’t ready for heavy loads yet.

Secondly, I like having a program to follow, have done 5-3-1 exclusively in the past and loved it, but my goals right now align much better with the higher volume work (at lower intensities) in the Juggernaut method. I’m not ready for 5-3-1 type intensities yet with either my bench or squat, sadly.

So my plan for the next few weeks of training (on my high intensity days) is loosely outlined follows…

  1. First thing on every high intensity day will be rotate between these 3 days; volumes in parentheses are relative to that week: accels only (high), explosive med ball throws (moderate)/accels (low), accels (low)/flying sprints(low)

  2. Weight work lower body: back squat juggernaut method; other work dependent on progression with injuries (hooray for therapy on Monday)

  3. Primary weight work upper body (will alternate between these 3 days): day 1: Juggernaut strict overhead/weighted pullups (low vol) day 2: juggernaut bench (pec and shoulder willing, hoping this will be okay by starting so light)/strict overhead 5-3-1 (only required reps), day 3: Juggernaut strict overhead/high rep pullups

Again, these can and will be adjusted as necessary. Amount of time between high days will be dependent on feel. It may be every other day at some times and may be every 3 on a really bad week or after a multiple PR session.

Hoping to get the vids from the accels up tomorrow. Looking forward to training today.

18

Saturday 12/4

Was just gonna hit the weight room with my buddy on the track team for some easy work and my first strict overhead day on the Juggernaut method. Then he told me he was really sore from the 50 second time trial they (him and the guys that are working out with the track team already) ran yesterday.

The competitive side of me wanted to play too :smiley:

So we did the weight room work, went down like this:

Strict overhead press: 95x10,10,10,10,18 (with about 2-3 left in the tank); felt good, think I’m gonna like the Jugg method

Snatch technique work: 95x a few sets of 2-3; just testing these out

Then out to the track to see how far I could get in 50 seconds. We’re division 3 and it’s only December so most of the team (this includes our 400 and 800m guys) didn’t do too impressive. Apparently the farthest was about 388 and some of the guys I wanted to beat (also football players) hit 340-360, my buddy hit like 380.

I was dreading the hell out of it and fully expecting to completely die at about 250-300. Last year I decided I wanted my girlfriend to randomly time me on a 400 in the spring and I was complete toast at the 300 and ran like a 57-58.

Today was much better.

My buddy told me “how” to run the race, attack the first 60-70, cruise on the backstretch and then hit it at the end and it helped.

I “semi” attacked the first curve and “coasted” on the back straightaway, felt like I was floating–felt so smooth. I came around at 250 fully expecting to hit the wall at any moment but I kept coasting and felt great and got to 387-390 when he stopped me.

This probably isn’t impressive at all for the true athletes/burners on the site but for me this is pretty damn exciting. He told me I hit the 2 at around 23 and I was coasting. Knowing that this is my first week or so back running and that I feel like I have such a long way to improve makes this extremely promising for me. 49’s routinely win our conference in the 4 and 22’s in the 2 are competitive so I’m excited about the idea of actually being competitive.

Looking forward to future improvements, have a great saturday!

19

Monday 12/6

Got my hamstring “Airrositied” so decided to forego the intensive speed work and just hit the weight room.

Snatch: 115x2,2, 135x2, 2, 115x2, 2, 135x2
Nice and easy, trying to take care of the back and hamstring; work some form and get some good pop going

Strict press: 115, 130, 145 x 3, 3, 3
Just the required reps. Not bad.

Bench press: 135x 10, 10, 10, 10, 22
Had quite a bit left in me on the last set but called when bar speed dropped noticeably.

Reverse hypers: worked up to a set of 10 with 115. Not easy, but smooth

Back raise: 1 very deliberate set of 15 holding a 25 pound plate

Pullups or band pullaparts: 5 or 20 done between each set of presses, bench, and the hypers

Also, there was an issue getting files transfered from my camera to the computer, and Windows Movie Maker was just giving me a grey screen when I tried to plug the vids in. Also, quality dropped significantly when they transfered so I’m not sure what a good solution is. Will try some different solutions and work on getting some up ASAP.

20

Tempo Tuesdays 12/7

Ran on our soccer field, felt like it was longer and figured out it was 120 yards thanks to my trusty phone. Just stuck to low volume tempo with no extras because of having not slept more than 4 hours the past 3 nights (thank you finals). Felt good. Accels and squats tomorrow.

Did 1200 yards (4, 3, 3)
HR numbers: 10:28, avg 146, max 171