Pretty standard week but I made some mistakes in order of workouts and so forth. I was actually hoping to run a 55m race today since I had permission to go into work late but the ride I was hoping for didn't work out. It was a low volume week for this reason.

The one change I want to make is to always have a plyo day in between running and weight sessions. It seems to confuse my body & CNS a little much trying to do one after the other.

1/30/2012

Weights

Power cleans- 3x @135, 145, 155, 165, 170

Full Squat- 4x3 @ 280

No upper body lift bc shoulder felt beaten down from the cleans.

Comments:

The cleans didn't really feel great and my technique was off. I believe that my upper body has lost some strength because I've neglected presses and pulls for a while now. This made the cleans harder for sure so I'll have to do at least one press and pull ups each strength day.

The squat felt really good and the weight went up very well and pretty fast with some reps. I'm going low enough where I can get a bounce at the bottom which is something I couldn't do before, especially with this weight. I've never felt so many muscles worked when squatting before. I think its something I can contribute to the extra glute and hamstring work I've been doing for a while now. I can feel those muscles stiffen and absorb a lot of energy at the bottom. I'll try to increase my squat 5 pounds each day I lift but only if the weight goes up well.

1/31/2012

Plyos

Dynamic Warmup

4x30 meters high knees - these felt amazing, I was getting really nice pop with most contacts and held a steady upright torso
4x30 meters butt kicks- also very nice

Pogo Jumps - 3x6
Plyo Push ups- 3x5

Barbell Hip exercises
~ 4-5 medball plyometric core and flexor exercise

Comments
This was a great workout and my legs felt strong and stiff, a bit sore too though. After some thought, this is the set up I will use for hopefully a long progressive period  ....

Sunday -     technical weights, Plyos
Monday -     Weights
Tuesday-      technical sprint, Plyos, (no/limited contacts if recovery is necessary)
Wednesday- Sprints, max v
Thursday - technical weights/ sprints, Plyos (no/limited contacts if recovery is necessary)
Friday- 1- Acceleration 2- Weights
Saturday- off

I have a good feeling that this set up is going to work well for me. It ensures that I have most days focused on plyos which have always been my strength in terms of execution and could also act as recovery if I use the medball and limit contacts. Today was sort of a in-between day of medium intensity because I used some contacts and a medball variety. The setup also limits strength days to 2 a week which is smart since I have the tendency to overdue them and throw things off. Also have two days of sprints in there.

I just think its ideal for my overall athletic development and it fits my schedule too. When I miss a workout, I'll just move straight to the next and keep the days the same.

This is a pretty long and ridiculous writeup but hell, I love training so much and spend a shitload of time thinking and working on it that I better have a well thought out plan. If anybody is reading, I'd be happy to have your opinion.

I also now have a digital scale at home.

Morning bw this week has varied between 170-172, during the day I'm anywhere between 174- 177 which is sort of scary. It does seem that I've added some leg muscle but I've only done lifts and exercises specific to what I'm going for so I doubt it will hurt me.


Quads have always been decently big but now look much bigger. Back of the leg is much more muscular than it used be as I've targeted those muscles with greater emphasis.

You're right man I definitely need to get 8 hours of sleep and eat well. I'm pretty good with it for the most part but there are days when I get off track and it shows. Two of those scheduled days are low intensity/ active recovery or workouts I could skip if I'm not feeling it. As long as I get my main days in I'll be fine. I also do low volume high intensity work.

I haven't played ball for so long since I graduated and that has taken me away from vertical training. I'll get back to it for sure though, still have unfinished business with the rim. I've stayed on path with power training even though I haven't done any running vertical jumps for a long ass time.

I did pogos this week and they were among my best ever. It shouldn't take me long to get back to where I was and even higher once I do decide to get back into the jumping game.

2/2/2012

Plyos/ Recovery

5x - 30 meters high knees

5 medball exercises mainly focusing on core but also entire body

Plenty of foam rolling and stretching

I felt great in the morning but got progressively tired throughout the day and had a hard time making it through this workout. Hard to imagine that 5 very short sprints can take so much out of me but they did. No work tomorrow so 10+ hours of sleep and I should be good and recovered, or so I hope.

2/6/2012

Weights

Medball throws and box jumps for warmup

Power Clean- 5x3 @ 155

Bench Press- 3x3 @ 185 PR??

Box Squat (18")- 3x5 @ 315

Very good session. Next time I do cleans for 3+ reps I'll make sure to do them from the hang. Having to regroup every time to get three reps is annoying and not beneficial for technical development.

Pleasantly surprised with the bench press, its been over a month since I lifted chest and I pr'd. I have lifted 185x5 in the past when I used to bench frequently but I also didn't go all the way down so I'm quite sure that I'm stronger than I was then. It was obviously a 3 rep max though,

The first two sets of the box squat were somewhere in the middle between explosive effort and heavy strength effort. With the last set my CNS kicked in and they were very dynamic and fast. I even started making some sort of noise(kind of like a bark) but not really that loud lol. Very happy with these and good place to leave it off.

2/14/2012

Took this day off... Feeling tired so I thought it'd be better to get a good nights sleep for the sprints


2/15/2012

Dynamic Warmup

6x - Fly sprints --- they all felt high quality with one or two being exceptional, legs got really stiff after the 6th one..

Reactive hang snatch 5x, 3x, 5x (not reactive, paused) @ 95

I put too much weight on the snatch to keep it really light and reactive which would have suited the session better. I did 3x5 reactive the previous week when I couldn't do my throws. It felt surprisngly easy as I used to to do 65-75lbs using the same effort. I believe the consistency on the throws has carried over and allowed me to be more explosive.

Light plyo session/ recovery tonight then an exciting day tomorrow as I'm traveling back home where I really enjoy working out and seeing my family, and having home-cooked meals.

I'll try to make this update short: (haha, midway through I realize it wont be but its to help me get my thoughts out and analyze what I'm feeling and how I will proceed to improve myself)

I didn't make it to the meet thanks to a very unfortunate incident. Basically was supposed to drive my roommates car in the morning, he went out the night before and had his coat along with car keys stolen. I didn't find out until that morning and it was too late to take the train. Truthfully, although I was disappointed, I didn't feel like I was at my best. Probably because I tried to do too much the weeks before and sort of took the thrill out of it.

Started playing soccer again and my weight immediately dropped five pounds, I'm ~ 167lbs in the morning. Also dealt with some ridiculous flexor pain and all around tightness because I hadn't done any serious conditioning.

I also sort of tried tried to relive my college days and have been partying heavy on the weekends. I thought this would alleviate this sort of confusion and slight unhappiness I have been experiencing as of late but it only made it worst. Its been a very up and down month or so where I feel happy and excited for a few days then sort of confused and indifferent the next.

This Monday I went to the gym and lifted for the first time in 2-3 weeks. I thought I would have lost a lot of strength but surprisingly benched 185x3 with ease then went for 195x3 but had some idiot spot me and he helped out sooo much on the third rep. I'm not sure I would have had it, it def would have been a struggle. I then went crazy with upper body and did back, triceps, and biceps followed by everything else I could think of in terms of medball, punching bag, and what not. Enjoyed myself stupid and had a great big grin on my face the entire time.

Of course I paid dearly these past two days. Felt good for the first part of tuesday but got progressively tired and sore. Today I was literally a zombie at work and my CNS was just drained.

Anyway, I plan to keep getting stronger, more explosive, and faster because its just what I love to do. I also need to grow mentally and need to control myself and simply relax so I avoid all these ups and downs I have experienced as of late. Another thing I have noticed is that I tend to update this journal when things are going well but not nearly as much when they're not. I want to update at all times so I can elaborate on where I go wrong and hopefully get advice time to time.

I will also keep playing soccer 2-3 times a week because I will play intramurals and its my last chance to win it. I won my freshman year and came close a few other times, once losing a thrilling 3-1 game to the varsity D1 seniors that decided to play once they ended their season. I'm playing with my Albanian crew and they expect a lot from me so I definitely want to deliver.