Cortese, thanks on both accounts. I’m glad I’m back to the squat. It’s not necessary, but it’s so damn convenient.
Cheetah, thank you as well. And bobsled just seems like the natural place to go if you don’t have the SE (and some of the top speed) for the sprints.
You’re gonna need to get cha cake up on the sprint tests. Are you allowed to run in a wind tunnel? 
As I’ve said before, I think this is a great move for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re on the roster within the next year. I think that your skills really line up well with the demands of the sport and now you can eat all of the extra value meals you please on your way to 220!
With regard to your book, I highly recommend that people pick it up. You’ll save yourself about 3-4 books by reading Roger’s, very well done in my opinion.
Also for your reference, the strength testing grid tops off at 440 for 3 reps with the hip crease below parallel. I imagine you should have that in your pocket with another 30-40 lbs. on your squat.
Thanks Tom. Now everyone else, read and listen to this very wise man’s words. 
Mort, you have a point. 
I think that most of those guys are probably 10.6-11.0 100m men with great acceleration, not all that different than RJ. For reference, I went to school with a guy who ran 6.39 with their timing method but ran a 11 flat 100 meter last year. I think you could simulate bobsled time by starting the watch upon first foot contact rather than first movement.
He’s going to have to get his clean up a lot AND get a lot of push work in before he’ll make the roster. Depends on how we define “make the roster” I guess. A friend of mine is on the USA bobsled team and it is going to take a shitload more than just a decent squat and 30m to make it, esp. when he isn’t going to get one of the top 30m times.
Oh yeah, good luck, RJ! It definitely is probably more suited to you than pure sprinting. Might want to try building or constructing a sled like the push sled because one of the main selection factors on which sled you’re going to get into is your push time.
October 22nd, 2009
Upper Body Focus
Condition:
Ugh. Going on 20 hours of sleep for the past 5 nights combined. I feel great though. Enthusiasm is high.
Warm Up:
Some push ups and chin ups
Some ab coordination work
Workout:
A1) Push Ups w/Extra ROM (hands on cinder blocks, feet on a step)
3 sets x (8, 8, 5) reps @ BW+75 lbs, rest varied
A2) Different Types of Chin Ups, Pull Ups, and Whatever
3 sets x Failure @ (90 lbs for one set, 45 lbs for two), rest varied
Cool Down:
Some more ab coordination work
Shoulder prehab
Notes:
Not too bad today. I added weight on the push ups (I weighed myself at the bottom of a rep and got 235 lbs), and my chin ups went well. 90 x 6 is a new PR. 7 might have been in the cards, but I didn’t push it. I’ll get it soon.
Here’s a video of my top set of chins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SziLMevvgRs
Fogelson,thanks buddy. I may have to construct a sled. Shouldn’t be too hard. And I wouldn’t worry too much about the clean. I cleaned 225 lbs to reset the bar after I failed on my last squat session (the 10th rep with 315) and even though I was tired, the bar moved like it was unloaded. I don’t think 285 or so would be too hard with a couple of weeks practice at the form. Maybe I’ll do cleans next session. Kind of hard without bumpers though.
Try 285 and tell me if you think the same. Put some mats or something on the ground and just take a step or two forward once you’ve cleaned 285 and drop it onto those. Or even just rack it. If you’re only doing 1 rep, it shouldn’t be an issue. 225 is a looooooot different than 285. This is coming from someone who does reps @ 275.
Oh, I know it’s a lot different, but I could barely stand upright and I still nearly busted my teeth with the bar. I couldn’t do 285 now, but within a couple weeks, I don’t think it would be outrageous.
I agree, I could drop all ol’s for 6-8 months and hit 275-295 within 2-3 weeks of training.
You’ve also cleaned >300lbs. RJ hasn’t cleaned 255lbs IIRC. There will be plenty of people at testing (if the top people are there) that can clean 150kg, albeit a full clean or nearly so.
Doooooooo it.
AnyOne have an indepth review of the book? Or are you providing a preview RJ?
You don’t think if he got his squat up to 400-500lbs he wouldn’t be able to power clean 275 in 4 weeks?
If he got up to 500lbs, sure. I don’t think him being able to do 405 on the squat is going to get him 285 on pc in 4 weeks. If he is doing some other sort of comparable power work and he can get tech in line, perhaps, but quite doubtful IMO. He’d need to be doing at least 445-465 IMO to get 285 in that short of a time w/o having done it before or doing it now.
RB, rep calculators have me at 410 lbs for the squat (315 x 9 reps) and that’s with a close stance. I agree. 275 shouldn’t be hard after a few weeks. All I know is that I’ve never really cleaned before, but when my squat was ~50 lbs lower I snatched 202 lbs.
Trackfan, there’s no in depth review. Tom White said it pretty well on the testimonials, but no one has given it a full review yet.
I will tell you that it’s worth the price though. I know how that sounds coming from the guy selling it, but I’m being honest.
A buddy of mine flew down for the trials and had great success. Its funny because he is a small guy (170) and relatively small lifts, probably 285 front squat, maybe 225 clean, decent vertical (36"-38") but had the best speed out of all the recruits (6.64 the way they tested it).
His pb in the 60m was 7.14s, but the way they tested 60m he ran it in 6.64. None of the new recruits could break 7.
The interesting thing is that when testing their pushing speed with the various sleds, he had the fastest 30kg sled push out of the recruits and tied the guy that cleans 180kg for fastest 60kg sled push. I asked him how he could do that and he said once you build momentum on the sled, even though he’s slower at the beginning, that he’s the only fast enough to keep up with it.
I would say having the speed and building strength on top is a great asset. And if you’re one of the guys that doesn’t have all the speed you need the big numbers in the lift. Front squat is what they use in their testing.