Hey guys, I am a former DBHammer Forum member (site is dead practically now). I will give a background of myself. I played soccer my whole life and dedicated practically everything I have to it. The game was my life for 16 years. My goal was to play D1 ball at a top 20 school which I accomplished going into my freshman year. I attended Saint Louis University where we were consistantly ranked in the top 10 the whole season and made it to the second round of the NCAA's. I think our highest ranking during the year was 7th at one point. I took that year as a Redshirt and thought I would eventually play for the Billikens. Coaches didn't think I would possibly play till my Junior or Senior year and I didn't want to wait that long to see the field, so I transfered. I got lots of looks from probably 20-30 schools and finally narrowed it down to Pitt, Syracuse, Florida Atlantic, and Winthrop. My grades were very marginal which limited me a lot and hurt me with Winthrop. In the end I ended up committing to Florida Atlantic where I thought I would be able to train with the ADARQ, but things fell through and I decommitted. I went back to the Syracuse coach and was offered a scholarship and couldn't turn down the opportunity to play in the Big East as I also fell in love with the school. Going into preseason I was the starter and ended up starting the first 5 games of the season (keep in mind I am a goalkeeper) and had the time of my life before I sprained my ankle on a freak play against Cornell. I was having the time of my life playing against schools like BC and South Florida and UConn. We ended up finishing 3-15, head coach got fired, new coach came in next semester and after 6 weeks of living hell conditioning 5 days a week, and passing a 7:06 2k fitness test while running my fastest mile in 5:30 my scholarship was cut. I thought soccer was done for good and my Division 1 career pass right before me. I took a leave of absence from the team for 2 weeks to really think about things as without aid I couldn't attend Syracuse even as a student. I filled an appeal that took the whole semester for the outcome. In that time, I decided to stay with the team and practice for something to do in the mornings and also met a girl who is now my former ex. At the end of the spring season my groin was really bugging the crap out of me so bad that I couldn't even kick a ball. 3 weeks with this pain, I tore my adductor brevis in the last game of the season. Most pain of my life and I thought my athletic career was over. I couldn't run for 2 months or even bike. So I focused on my upper body as I never did really with soccer and made some sick gains. I then knew a coach at Gardner-Webb University in NC who wanted me to come and play for him although I was coming back from the worst injury in my life and would have to sit out a year due to academic eligibility of transferring twice. So I went to school out in NC and am there currently and met the worst coach of my life. I was promised scholarship for the following year after sitting for the whole entire academic year. It took nearly 8 months or so to get back to the point where I could actually jump and do anything full speed, lift hard and heavy etc. Currently I am done with soccer for good and am focusing on becoming a pure power machine. I am a ex sci major and consumed by the field and have been for the past 4 years of my life. I am interning out at College of the Holy Cross outside of Boston this summer with their staff in the weightroom and can't wait for the experience. I am also attending the Boston Sports Medicine Performance Group conference june 3-4th and will try and make some connections for grad school. I got connected out there by the infamous Carl Valle and he has been a great mentor to get me ahead in the field thankfully through a connection with TWhite03. Before my injury the last time I tested was in Jan '10. I hit a 325 squat, 215 bench press, 17 strict chin ups from dead hang, 3.9 30m, and 29in SVJ. This was all at a body weight of 192 at the time. Later that spring I ran a 5:25 mile at a body weight of 195, and shocked myself as I hate running. After recovering from my injury a full year later, my stats are as follows: BW: 195 350 bellow parallel squat, 230 bench, 100lb Chin-Up, 31SVJ, probably a 35in RVJ estimated. I have a 7'10 reach in shoes and highest touch standing on vert tech is 10'5. I currently was on a program that my S&C coach had me do the football offseason program from when he interned at Wake. It was a density program that really got me back to my old levels before I was hurt and helped my surpass my old PR's
After this last cycle I tried to do a APRE/Hypertrophy 4-5 week phase with my lower body. I haven't been able to do a bench workout in probably 2 months due to a wrist strain that hasn't really healed but I can do anything pulling oddly enough. So I have been basically been doing body building for my upper with trying to really blow up my back and get some nice Bi's and a solid V. This cycle that I am on I did 10RM APRE for the first two weeks and was the hardest work i've ever done. My two sets the first week were 2x12x265, and the second week I went up to 2x10x275, then last week I did more of a 4x8 with three sets above 75% with 265x8, 2x8x275 and was a grueling workout. Yesterday I did 135x8, 185x5, 225x4, and then 265x9, and 285x8. All of those worksets are PR's and I have put on a few pounds with this set up making sure I eat enough. Following this phase I plan to go more strength oriented. On my other leg day foor the week I have been doing snatch grip deads in a 4x5 fashion starting at 225 the first week and then add 10lbs per week. For plyos/reactivity I would attempt dunks/jumps at school twice a week on wed and sat's with my buddy but now since I work out at a tiny bally's I just do tuck jumps, Depth drops/jumps and squat jumps.
Yesterday's workout Mon May 23rd
Warm-up
Squat Jumps 2x5 (Arch has been bugging me)
Squat barx10, 135x8, 185x5, 225x4, 265x9, 285x8 PR
BSS 3x8 40's
Manual GHR 3x6
My Goal for the summer is to add 5-10lbs, Parallel Squat 405, SVJ 35 and throwdown whenever with not 100% effort, and get a jacked back for when I can start benching again I will have a nice base.
