Yeah, I was being careful about using too much back. I find that if I brace my abs when I throw the right muscles end up doing the work. My glutes are absolutely trashed right now.
And yeah, I will do a higher volume of throws later, but my back was already tight from studying and making the medicine ball immediately prior to training, so I didn’t want to overdo it.
The weight will have to stay. 23 lbs may be a bit much, but the ball is sealed up. In any case, it’s lighter than PCs or snatches.
December 10th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
My right knee is 100% better, but my glutes are still sore. I might be busy all day tomorrow though, so I still need to lift today.
Warm Up:
Some RW Drills
Some activation drills (mostly non-tripods)
LOTS of plyos
Workout:
Medball Tosses for Height
3 sets x 5 reps @ 23 lbs, 180 sec. rest
Back Squats (close stance, full ROM, start a new set every 3 minutes)
4 sets x 3 reps @ 365 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
SL RDLs (slow, focusing on stretch)
2 sets x 9 reps @ 95 lbs, 120 sec. rest
Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Until my abs were sore
Cool Down:
Some more activation drills
Mild plyos
Notes:
I wore myself out with plyos today, hence the lower volume of throws. My explosiveness is coming along nicely. After I reach my strength goals and shift to a real explosive block things should take off nicely.
Speaking of strength goals, I’m going to stick with 365 on the bar for a while. I could probably get 7 reps with it right now for an all out set, but I want 4 x 7 (starting a new set every 180 seconds), before this spring rolls around. This should allow me to hit 365 x 15, which puts my projected squat max close to 550 lbs. With that type of strength I could broad jump 11’+ pretty easily.
That’s all there really was to note. Oh, except that single leg RDLs really suck. I can feel these working despite the puny loading.
1-leg RDL’s are no joke. Tough exercise! Nice work, RJ. Keep up the great work.
No they are not. I can’t recall any exercise shredding my glutes so quickly and with so little weight.
And thanks, John.
me? 
if so what for?
WrCortese’s first name is John as well.
ahhhh that makes sense, I didn’t think I had contributed anything worthy of thanks 
December 14th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
I suspect my body doesn’t like me for a number of reasons right now, not least of which is my inability to get to bed before 2 AM. Still, I feel great.
Warm Up:
Some RW Drills
Some activation drills (mostly non-tripods)
LOTS of plyos
Workout:
Medball Tosses for Height
4 sets x 5 reps @ 23 lbs, 180 sec. rest
Back Squats (close stance, full ROM, start a new set every 3 minutes)
4 sets x (4, 4, 3, 2) reps @ 365 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
SL RDLs (slow, focusing on stretch)
2 sets x 10 reps @ 95 lbs, 120 sec. rest
Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Some x A lot
Cool Down:
Some more activation drills
Mild plyos
Notes:
Ugh. My strength levels are climbing (1 more total rep on squats), but they’re doing it slowly now that I’m reintroducing a lot of plyo volume. It’s kind of frustrating not to be able to add 2+ reps per session, but it’s inevitable that gains slow as non-weight-training volume goes up.
Still, to liven things up a bit, I think I’ll start doing density work on the squats. Next session will be something like 10 x 2 with 3 minutes rest between sets, then the next session I’ll do 2:30, and then 2:00, and so on until I either get to 1 minute rests or get bored, whichever comes first.
Again, SL RDLs are killer. These wreck me worse than squats.
December 19th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
Didn’t get to bed until 3 o’clock this morning. My weight is also a little low too, but I feel great.
Warm Up:
Some RW Drills
Some activation drills
More plyos than usual (to supplement lack of medball throws)
Workout:
Back Squats (close stance, full ROM, start a new set every 3 minutes)
4 sets x (3, 4, 4, 3) reps @ 365 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
2 sets x 3 reps @ 315 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
SL RDLs (slow, focusing on stretch)
2 sets x 8 reps @ 100 lbs, 120 sec. rest
Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Enough x Plenty
Cool Down:
Some more activation drills
Mild plyos
Notes:
14 total reps over 4 sets with 365 today. The reps were easier than last session too. It looks like 1 rep per session is all I can add. Not a lot, but the strength gains will add up quickly.
I couldn’t do medball tosses today (too much snow), but I made up for it by raising my squat and plyo volume. I made sure most of the plyos were p-chain dominant too.
Not much else to note except that my lower abs have hypertrophied noticeably over the last few weeks. All the ab work is having quite an effect.
I screwed around on the pull up bar today and played with a fairly heavy DB as well. Nothing structured, but I got a good upper body and trunk workout in.
I also went for a run at 11PM. I walked/jogged/ran about a mile and a half and did a few sets of stairs (each set was 70+). This was the first time I’ve run in months, and it felt damn good. My abs were doing their job, my pelvis was in the right place, and I felt like a spring. Massive gains in glute and ab strength seem to have served me well so far.
More running/jogging and stair sprints today. I counted this time around and the staircase has 108 steps with 5 8’ long horizontal landings.
I know I’ve been doing quite a bit of plyos, but everything below the knees is feeling it already. No pain, shin splints, or anything like that, but the running is putting a pounding on my feet and ankles. I’ll adjust to it quickly though.
December 24th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
I got plenty of sleep past night, but my glutes are still mildly fatigued. I feel great otherwise.
Warm Up:
Some RW Drills
Some activation drills
Quite a bit of plyos
Some kips, flips, etc. (just for fun)
Workout:
Power Snatches
I just screwed around for a while before deciding my crappy bar made them worthless
Back Squats (close stance, full ROM, start a new set every 3 minutes)
4 sets x 6 reps @ 335 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Enough x Plenty
Cool Down:
Some more activation drills
Mild plyos
Notes:
Well, I wanted to do power snatches today, and I even worked up to over 200 lbs with a fair amount of ease, but I didn’t like the way the bent bar felt when catching the weight. So, these are out too. It looks like I’ll be sticking with throws and jumps.
On the back squats, I was tired of using 365. The reps weren’t high enough for me. After dropping back down to 335, it felt much easier. 4 x 6 with limited rests was a pain in the ass. If my numbers from over the past few months have any consistency, 4 x 6 with this rest scheme means I can do one all-out set of 13 reps (I did 4 x 6 with 315 the session before hitting it for 13 and then 14 reps). That would put my projected max somewhere around 480-485 lbs. Not too shabby if you ask me.
After that, I was going to do SL RDLs, but I really need to give my glutes a rest. They haven’t been fully recovered in weeks now and I think that might be why my strength gains have slowed. I’m going cut back on the glute volume for a while and let them recover. Who knows, I might have had a 500 lb projected squat in me today if not for all of the running and stair sprints earlier in the week.
Merry Christmas everyone!
December 27th, 2009
Upper Body Focus
Condition:
I feel good. My legs are still heavy, but they’re almost back to 100%.
Warm Up:
A few sets of chin variations and some push ups
Workout:
Chin Ups (Dead hang, start a new set every 90 seconds)
10 x (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 7) @ BW
Single DB Overhead Presses
Several x Lots @ 65 lbs, rest varied
Ab Work
Quite a bit
Cool Down:
Shoulder stretches
Notes:
I haven’t been as consistent with upper body as I should be, but I have been doing odd sets of presses, chins, and gymnastic exercises here and there. As such, my strength is still pretty good, but I need to get going with this stuff again.
Overhead presses weren’t bad and chins went well too. Fatigue builds quickly with such short rests. For the ab work, I messed with some new variations and found a couple I like. That’s pretty much it.
December 30th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
I feel good. I got to sleep about 3am, but what are you gonna do?
Warm Up:
Some RW drills
A little bit of plyos
Workout:
Power Clean
Worked up to a miss at 330 lbs. Max made lift was 300 lbs, tying PR
A bunch of other stuff
Cool Down:
Light plyos
Notes:
Well, after failing with 150kg on the cleans (I didn’t really expect to hit it), I spent the rest of the workout screwing around with a ton of different exercise variations. After this session I’m going to put squats on the backburner and spend a couple of months focusing on glute and hamstring hypertrophy. I don’t know what exercises I’m going to use just yet, but I’ll figure it out.
Gonna have to work hard for those next 30lbs…
Not too hard, I think. A little form practice and some more muscle on my glutes, hams, and erectors should do the trick.
And for those who are interested, my training for the next couple months will probably look like this:
Warmup
Plyos + Weighted Jumps
1 & 1/2 Squats, 3 x 5
RDLs, 3 x 10
Single-Leg RDLs, 2 x 10
Ab Work
I’ll probably use the same weight for squats and RDLs the whole way through. I think I’ll start at 275 and try to work my way up to 335 over two months or so. When I can do 3 x 5 on 1 & 1/2 squats with 335, I’ll be considerably stronger than I am now. Oh, and I’ll keep the rest periods I’ve been using, meaning I’ll start a new set every 3 minutes.
This setup will allow me to get the heavy weights off my back and should seriously bulk up glutes and hamstrings.
As for my upper body, I’m just going to keep working on overhead DB presses and chin ups.
Great journal. Brings back many memories for me as a former boblsed athlete. Good luck with your training. You seem to be on the right track. Are you going to attend a try out during the spring?
Thanks. If finances allow, I’m going to try to attend a tryout sometime this summer. If I can max out their combine charts, I’ll definitely try to make my way down from Alaska.
You should get an early start and email someone at USBSF, sure they are competing right now, but if you can email your numbers and stats you might get some luck with finances. I believe the contact there is Darin Steele. I could be wrong though.
Sweet, thanks for the advice. As soon as I come out of the strength block, get my explosiveness where it should be, and start sprinting again, I’ll definitely shoot them my numbers.
Again, wow, thanks for the heads up. Any help getting to the trials would be awesome.