The powerclean is one of the many tests he has to do in Bobsledding. 330 is the max.
Trackfan, I figured I’d be able to get 285 because in my mind, you should always be able to clean at least 66% of your squat without much difficulty (if you squat deep and narrow without a belt). 285 was around 2/3 of my projected back squat when I made that claim, so I figured it’d be easy enough to shoot for.
And I don’t like cleans. The only reason I’ll do them at all is because they’re a tested lift. I don’t think they’re good for developing much in the way of strength or power, as far as sprinters are concerned at least.
I only cleaned yesterday because I wanted to see where I stood in relation to the bobsled testing charts and 300 lbs seemed like a good stopping point. I probably could’ve gone heavier, but I had no reason to.
Tell that to Ed Coan and a ton of others who have used plenty of sets of 8-12 to build maximal strength. Plenty of them have used 20 rep squats and the like as well. The problem with comparing the 60 is that it has a huge portion that is non-upright running and purely maximal acceleration without really factoring in top speed, while you’re doing the same lift regardless of whether or not it is 1 rep or 100 reps (not changing the musculature involved like in early acceleration). If you took a flying 10 and a flying 150m, I bet you could pretty accurately predict the best flying 10 from the 150m time within +/-.02 at absolute worst, more like +/-.01. This is just like you could pretty accurately get a 1rm from a 15rm and a 15rm from a 1rm. There will be some give and take, but the general underlying qualities are really similar and specific (ie skill) training would account for the rest.
December 5th, 2009
Upper Body Focus
Condition:
I feel really good. I slammed my right knee into something, so it’s a bit creaky, but it’s coming back around.
Warm Up:
Push Ups and Chin Ups
Some shoulder stretches
Workout:
DB Incline Prone Front Raises (Neutral Grip, slow tempo)
4 x 12 @ 13 lb DBs, 180 sec. rest
Chin Ups
Just messing with form on a few variations, rest varied
Cool Down:
Shoulder stretching
Notes:
I don’t like the way my posture is starting to look. I’d like to throw in some rowing movements too, but I can’t get enough ROM on any of them I’ve got available. I could do DB rows, but I can’t load my DBs heavy enough. I’ll figure something out.
And on chins, I was looking for comfortable variations that sync up my abs and lats (for stabilization purposes). While doing this, I found out my rhomboids are weak. I can’t even do one slow tempo chin to my sternum. Ugh. Like I said above, I’ll figure it out.
December 6th, 2009
Lower Body Focus
Condition:
Not the greatest today. My knee still hurts from where I hit it, I spent far too long hunched over my textbooks, and I haven’t eaten enough. Still, I’m ready to go.
Warm Up:
Some RW Drills
Some activation drills (mostly non-tripods)
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)
5 sets x (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) reps @ 345 lbs, ~150 sec. rest
SL RDLs (slow, focusing on stretch)
2 sets x 8 reps @ 95 lbs, 120 sec. rest
Ab Rollouts, Levers, Etc.
Until my abs were sore
Cool Down:
Some more activation drills
Mild plyos
Notes:
Well, since I hit my short term goal of a projected 2.25x BW squat, I’m shifting gears a little. Taking a cue from a friend of mine, I’m incorporating throws into my routine in lieu of OLY lifts. Despite the fact that the loading isn’t too great (23 lbs), the acceleration of throwing for maximal height more than makes up for it. 20 full effort reps was tough as hell.
After that, I was a little more tired than usual for squats, but they went down without a hitch. I wanted to take it easy today.
Things are going well all around.
Too heavy of ball for MB throws IMO. You should be using ~16lbs at most right now, probably lighter. Most people use WAY too much lower back when doing throws for height, OHB, or BLF and overloading the movement like that isn’t going to get you the progress you want I think.
Training looks good though, keep it up.
Also, you can probably do significant more volume on the throws in this set-up. Today was probably a good starting point, but you should be able to handle 40-50 throws fairly easily.
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.