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Topics - D4

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Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Lack of recovery with food and sleep

« on: November 16, 2012, 12:18:01 am »

Okay this is most likely from my paranoia.

I've been continually doing my normal lower body training routine, and just this past sunday, PR'd my all time squat, 265x5 @ 157lbs.

I started my new job this Monday that has me waking up at 5:30 am everyday. Before, when I wasn't working, I was waking up around noon and going to sleep really late. Trying to adjust my sleeping schedule, and the stress of a new job, etc... Mon, tues, wed, and today (thurs) I have been severely lacking sleep and not eating normally. Eating junk food mostly, and like 2 meals a day, and barely getting ~100g protein a day if I'm lucky.

Today I had my usual league game, and I really had low explosiveness and was pretty slow. Which lead me to this paranoid question to ask:

Is a shitty recovery routine (low protein + low calories + unhealthy + significantly less than normal amount of sleep) like I had since Sunday (my last lower body work) something that just SLOWS down recovery? Or can it actually have a NEGATIVE effect?

I'm probably being paranoid and just had an off day due to various reasons, and I'll prolly have a strong squat workout this coming up Sunday and if I adapt to my new sleep schedule, which will also allow me to eat better, I'll probably continue getting more athletic with my training.. BUT just have to ask to ease my paranoia.

ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Depth Jumps

« on: September 19, 2012, 07:47:13 pm »

Hey Lance & Adarq,

So lately I've been doing depth jumps twice a week as a reactive exercise/warm up for lifting. My gym has a nice area for depth jumping with boxes and stuff. Just a couple of questions:

1) Would you recommend doing something like 10~15 straight depth jumps with ~45 seconds rest between reps. Or like a 3x5 with 4-5min rest between sets?

2) There's nothing to touch or reach in there, is there any way to track of vertical progress other than filming (which is also pretty hard to tell)?

3) Because of (question #2) I don't know what box height I am jumping highest at or whatever, so I don't know which height to start at. I started at 18" and it seemed easy so after a couple sessions, I just moved to 24" and stayed here for a few weeks now. Is depth jumps something I can just stay at 24" and just keep doing them max effort and if I'm training right, I will just keep getting higher and higher staying at 24"?

4) Sometimes I have heard you don't really need to keep getting higher on the boxes? Should I just stay at 24" or is eventually moving up to 30" a good idea?

as always, thanks!

ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Push Press and Basketball

« on: August 19, 2012, 04:59:40 pm »

Lance, I remember in another thread pretty long time ago, you mentioned that push press destroys bench press in terms of carryover to basketball.

Not disputing this, I'm just curious as to why and how? Strictly for knowledge sake since I'm a basketball player.

Nutrition & Supplementation / Pre-Workout supplements

« on: August 09, 2012, 07:45:49 pm »

Anyone here use pre-workout supplements so they are energized fully for an optimal workout? Since I started working, I've been getting less sleep and it's affecting my workouts. My workout frequency isn't exactly that high so I need to make all my workout sessions count. Caffeine has little to no affect on me now, considering that I'm drinking coffee everyday at work on top of the fact that I'm naturally pretty tolerant to it to begin with.

I've heard of stuff like N.O. Fury (I think Raptor uses it), and C4 or whatever...

Any recommendations on a specific supplement?

- Also it'd be nice if you add in information such as if it includes caffeine, if you experience a crash later, how long it lasts in your body, does tolerant build up, etc...

I am pretty clueless and completely inexperienced with pre-workout supplements.

ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Shin Splints during plyo's

« on: July 09, 2012, 09:44:17 pm »

Hey Lance, 2 quick questions:

1) Have you had experience with shin splints before? They always start hurting during my SL bounds. During sprints they don't hurt though. They also hurt during basketball sometimes. Is this something where I can just keep fighting through it and my body will eventually adapt?

2) I started doing Natural GHR's at home, eccentrically, pushing off on the concentric, but I was wondering if I was doing it right. I looked at many videos and did my own research but still confused. Are you supposed to be able to work your glutes from these, or are natural GHR's just a purely hamstring workout?

As usual, thanks for the help.

Injury, Prehab, & Rehab talk for the brittlebros / Anyone ever get groin pain when sprinting?

« on: June 25, 2012, 04:10:23 am »

During my short sprint training during my plyo sessions, I get discomfort/pain in my groins.

Is there an explanation for this and anything I can do to prevent this?

ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Hyper-extended knee, rehab tips?

« on: May 18, 2012, 03:17:15 pm »

Hi Lance,

Have u had experience with athletes who hyper-extended their knees? I hyper-extended my right knee, and my left one feels prone to that same injury right now. The injury was minor but still, I can't do shit on it besides walk/very light jog, anything more intense I can feel pain. It's getting better every day, as I'm resting it, taking ibuprofen.

From my own self-diagnosing, I believe it was caused by 2 things:

1) I got too heavy/fat from eating a LOT lately trying to get my lifting numbers up. 160lbs at 5'8" for an ecto doing intense plyo's and training single leg jump, I thought might be a bit much. Do you agree?

2) I admit I made a stupid mistake, but past few months, I've basically just been doing full squats. I think I created an imbalance between my hamstrings and quads. So lately I've been doing leg curls and dead lifts (no squats cuz I can't squat with the knee like this).

I could be wrong, just my opinion on what caused it. What do you think, and what do you recommend I do to recover from it?

Thanks.

Injury, Prehab, & Rehab talk for the brittlebros / Hyperextended my right knee

« on: May 14, 2012, 06:38:46 pm »

Today, on a jump I hyperextended my right knee.. There is discomfort and pain on the back side and I believe this was due to me neglecting my hamstrings. I don't think it's severe though, no swelling or pain except in certain positions.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Depth Jumps

« on: May 12, 2012, 06:23:34 am »

In the grassy area at my school rec center where I do my plyo workout, there's only a bench I can do depth jumps on. It's only like 15~18"... There's nothing higher there.

I was thinking, when this bench gets too easy, can I do something like where I kind of jump off the bench like 6", mimicking a 21~24" depth jump? Or is there something else going on that it changes the dynamics and it's not really a depth jump?

Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Muscular or CNS fatigue?

« on: April 25, 2012, 03:39:49 pm »

Usually I do my heavy lower body day on Mondays, and allow my CNS to recover and do my heavy upper body day on Wednesdays.

This usually has allowed me to go all out on Wednesdays but today was different. Before lifting, during class I felt sleepy,tired,drained but instead of listening to my body, I decided to try and take an energy drink (monster) and go lift anyways since I've always been able to on Wednesdays with no problems. I had a shitty workout to say the least.

Now I'm mostly certain it's my CNS that has not fully recovered, but I wanted to make sure it's not my muscles that have not fully recovered.

Signs that point to CNS not being recovered are:
- Felt tired during class before
- Monster energy drink didn't do jack shit to me
- Although I had 48 hours of rest, Monday I did ME jump session (low volume) with heavy lower body lifting (squats + BSS) all while on caffeine <--- This was my first monday where I did ME jump session before lifting, therefore a more CNS taxing Monday than usual.
- Last time I did upper body workout was a whole 7 days ago (last Wed)

Signs that point to muscles not being recovered are:
- I know having DOMS or not is not an accurate indication of whether or not you're recovered, and although my upper DOMS went away by Sunday, I did a RIDICULOUS amount of upper body volume (compound + isos) last Wednesday. Usually I just do the main compounds, but I added supplementary compounds + tons of isos (wanted to experiment with how much volume I should do for a little hypertrophy)

I'm not 100% sure of my bad workout today because there are 2 new things that happened this past week. First time doing a jump session prior to lower body lifting on Monday + First time doing ridiculous amounts of volume on the previous upper lifting day.

I just want to make sure what's the cause so I can make the necessary changes and not waste workouts anymore.

Injury, Prehab, & Rehab talk for the brittlebros / Potential cause of lower back pain?

« on: April 20, 2012, 04:00:14 am »

Usually on my heavy lower body days, I just go all out on squats. This past Monday, I added BSS for the first time in a while. I had some lower back tightness/soreness the next day all the way until today (Thursday). During my playoff basketball game, my lower back was getting really sore/tight and it hurt a LOT to play. I've done heavy squats + BSS in the past before, but never experienced this.

Something to note: I only did BSS on my left leg this week, because my left ankle is still recovering from a sprain and putting it back on the bench to do BSS for my right leg, was very irritating and aggravating on my left ankle/ couldn't use it to stabilize.

Could that have something to do with it maybe?

If not, what other potential reasons can there be for really right/sore lower back pain days after a lower body workout, and one that gets really painful during basketball.

Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Jump Sessions before heavy squatting

« on: April 16, 2012, 11:07:41 pm »

I want to have jump sessions on mondays before my lower body lifting.

I've never done jumps/plyo's before lifting before so I'm not sure how much volume I can get away with without hurting my chances of PRing in the weight room.

If you know or have experience with this, I was thinking of shooting around/warming up for ~20 minutes, and then doing like 7 SLRVJ's (once my ankle heals), 5 DLRVJ's, and 3 SVJ's <-- ALL Max effort. Then I go to weight room and get on with my heavy squats/BSS etc...

If this volume is fine, will my warm up protocol on the squats stay the same? Or start heavier and less reps/sets?

Nutrition & Supplementation / Body Fat Caliper Testing on Yourself

« on: April 04, 2012, 06:18:28 pm »

Didn't really know where to post this topic...

Anyways, my school gym doesn't give body fat caliper tests, and as I have been cutting, I need to know when I am at 8% to get off my cut. I was thinking of just buying some calipers and measuring myself.

Is it hard to do the test on yourself?
Is it something simple enough that after reading some directions online, one will be able to get a fairly accurate measurement?

Nutrition & Supplementation / Cheat days on a weight/fat loss diet

« on: January 13, 2012, 04:41:08 pm »

I've heard mixed opinions on this matter. Currently I am on a diet to try and lose ~7lbs of fat. Eating slightly less, reduced carbs, eating cleaner, etc...

I have heard that it's good to take one cheat day a week where you can eat whatever and eat a lot to spike your caloric intake so that you prevent your metabolism from slowing down.

Is this true?

Do you guys recommend having a cheat day or just keep going strong 7 days a week?

ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A / Knees acting up after changing squat style

« on: September 06, 2011, 06:27:14 am »

Recently I switched up my squat to a narrower stance, like shoulder width and feet pointing straight forward. I was wondering if you've ever had experience with any athlete who had there knees aggravated due to this style of squatting.

I think it's the feet pointing straight forward, but I'm not sure. I think it's more comfortable having my feet pointed slightly outward. Does feet being straight forward or slightly pointed outward and etc.. make any difference? I just feel like pointing straight forward is more specific to jumping/sprinting.

BTW, I sit back on my squats, going past parallel and my knees just slightly goes over my toes.