Tights on Ice

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119

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!

120

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.

121

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.

122

Gonna have to work hard for those next 30lbs…

123

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.

124

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?

125

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.

126

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.

127

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.

128

January 4th, 2009
Lower Body Focus

Condition:
A bit sleep deprived, but otherwise I feel great.

Warm Up:
Some RW Drills

Some activation drills

Workout:
Jumps (mostly broad jumps onto boxes)
About 25-30 total reps

Test CMJ (head measured)
Worked up to 32.5" (head touch of 8’9.5")

Hill Sprints (on ice, in TJ spikes)
4 x (30+30M), 240-300 sec. rest

1 & 1/2 Rep Back Squats
2 x 5 @ 275 lbs, ~240 sec. rest

Single-Leg RDLs
2 x 10 (per leg) @ 95 lbs, 120 sec. rest

Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Lots x More

Cool Down:
Some more activation drills

Mild plyos

Notes:
First training session of the new year and I’m happy with the way things are going. I tested my CMJ and got 32.5", a 3.5" PR when measuring this way. This is a nice little boost, especially since my quads haven’t hypertrophied too much. Seeing where all the muscle mass is accumulating, I wouldn’t be surprised if my SLJ was up by 8" or more.

After that, I got in my first sprints in a long time and they felt good. Getting started with awkward, but once I started doing a mini fly into each run, they started going well. For the first time in my life, my abs now feel strong enough to hold everything in place while running. This is awesome.

And by the time I got around to lifting I was a little tired. My body is nowhere close to being used to sprinting yet. I took it easy on the weights volume, but I think I did enough. 1 & 1/2 rep squats are hard as hell. Even 275 gave me some trouble. I like these.

Also, when reviewing the video, I just noticed how huge my glutes are getting (it’s especially noticeable when I’m setting up to squat). I look like a model for “King” magazine. :stuck_out_tongue:

Here’s video from today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBqVWF6BUZI

129

be careful doing starts/hill/sprints if you have bad traction… might do more harm than good. slippery surfaces can be horrible for sprinting. teaches girl power outputs (way of avoiding slip)

130

Yeah, without a short fly-in, they were useless. I’m not even sure how effective the “good” reps were. Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to find a solution.

131

If you plan to do any running on ice you may want to get some bob spikes. They’re pretty expensive and hard to find. Also, running on ice to train… Not necessary at all because at no point during course of a bob season will you run on ice for training unless they are runs down the track. But if you want to do some running on ice look at bob spikes. Much better traction than you’ll get from any track spike. You’re training is really interesting and I enjoy reading your journal.

132

I wish I weren’t training on ice, but I’ve got no real alternative right now. The only indoor track is too far away and far too expensive to use. I’ll probably be able to work something out when I go back to school next week though. No need to buy bob spikes just yet.

And thanks. I like your journal (and the old ones here and at ET) too. You’ve put up some amazingly fast times.

133

Do you have access to any basketball courts or long hallways (I think I recall you saying that you did have some hallways at school)?

134

Basketball court availability will depend on the team schedules, but I will have hallways to run in along with the hard rubber track around the ice rink. Next week I’ll probably start taking advantage of them.

135

I don’t know if I read over it or not, but what is your weight at right now? What are you trying to get to if you’re trying to put weight on?

136

I’m not really focused on gaining weight, but I am letting my body do its own thing, and that appears to be the direction it’s going. I was 213.4 lbs straight out of bed this morning. While I have no real goal, I think I should top out at around 220 lbs or so.

137

My lower back is screwed up, mostly around the SI area. I think I did it with the 1 & 1/2 squats. When I shifted into an RDL/GM position on the half reps I may have overloaded the area and I’m paying for it now. It may have also been from the sprints, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Other than my back, I’m sore in some places I haven’t felt for a while. Sprinting was rough, especially since I gained so much weight and didn’t even try to ease my way into it. It’s always like that after a layoff though, and my back never suffers, so I’m going to place the blame on the squats. I’ll have to watch out next time around.

138

January 8th, 2009
Lower Body Focus

Condition:
My back is still tight. I shouldn’t train today, but I’m too stubborn to do otherwise.

Warm Up:
Some RW Drills

Some activation drills

RFI Drills

Workout:
Jumps (mostly broad jumps onto boxes)
About 20-25 total reps

Repetitive DB Jump Squats
4 x 8 @ 25+25 lbs, 120 sec. rest

1 & 1/2 Rep Back Squats
2 x 5 @ 280 lbs, ~240 sec. rest

Ab Work

Cool Down:
Mild plyos

Notes:
My back loosened up during warmups, but I could still feel it during the workout. Still, the loading didn’t seem to do anything to it and it feels no different than before I worked out. I don’t think I did any additional damage. Even the 1 & 1/2 squats were solid.

I did leave out sprints, SL RDLs, and altitude landings, just to be safe. The rotational and shock loading from those movements were too risky. I’ll see how I’m feeling later, but right now I’m glad I trained.