Adarq.org

welcome back! and congrats on the third (and final, lol) kid. my wife and i are starting to try to have our first and i'm trying to pack in some races and other stuff this year before that takes and we've got a little whippersnapper around to take care of.

it is amazing that this place is still going. adarq hasn't signed in since august 2023. as vag once put it, it seems like he's "loved up" and living his dream life on his little farmstead in florida. although, i stopped using instagram and facebook a while ago so i'm not even sure how he's doing. should check in, come to think of it. anyway, huge shoutout to him for letting us keep coming here.

Thanks, good luck with it. I love being a dad and my kids are great but yeah, it definitely keeps you so busy that exercise usually gets squeezed out of the weekly schedule often. So that's wise to fit in a few bucket-list athletic achievements before it happens for you!

just be careful to ease back into jumping, tendinopathy tends to flare up bad after a long break. Body doesn't like sudden spikes in loading rate.
Patella and achilles in particular

Training last week:

Day 1: Squat 3x10 @ 80kgs, 1 x 10@60kgs --> this is pretty challenging, had to drop the last set down to maintain good form and not overdoing it. I'm going to stay here for a few more sessions.

Day 2: BSS 3x8-10/leg @ 16kgs --> pretty easy

Day 3: Squat 5x5@90kgs --> pretty good, I could probably do 95kgs but not 100kg yet.

Every session:
Back ext 3xF @ 10kgs --> usually getting 12-14 reps here. Nothing new but this such a good exercise for isolating the hams. It's hard to load much more than 20kgs but I think reps to ~20 at that weight will be good.

SL calf raise 3x~20-25/leg @ 12kgs --> same as above.

Abs and some KOT stuff with a slant board as a cooldown.

I'm going to try to test my SVJ this weekend just for fun. I'm thinking of doing this routine really consistently until I hit 4x10 @ 100kgs, 5x5 @ 120kgs, then test again.

On back extensions, hold a barbell in your hands with a snatch grip.
Also putting a weight on your head makes it much harder, due to the longer moment arm

I do that with my ghetto back extensions 
https://i.imgur.com/bpVvMvu.jpg

Thanks, I actually read that in your journal and gave it a go, unfortunately the frame of the back extension at my gym gets in the way of the bar about halfway down. The bench is also wedged in next to some other machines so the bar knocks them a bit at the sides, so it's a bit awkward. I like the idea though.

Thanks for the tips CoolColJ.

Training last week:

I've felt pretty good overall, definitely getting some "beginner's" gains so I'm dropping the BSS-only session and changing it to 4x10 and 5x5 + BSS across three sessions/week:

Day 1: Squat 5x5@90kg, 100x3, 90 // BSS 3x10/leg@16kgs
Day 2: Squat 4x10 @80kgs (this was pretty easy so going up next time)
Day 3: Squat 5x5@100kgs // BSS 3x10/leg@16kgs (also felt pretty easy, I feel like 5x5@105kgs is doable.)

Each session:
- 3xF back ext. @ 10kgs, working towards 20+ reps for 3 sets.
- SL calf raise 3xF/leg @ 12kgs, getting about 30/25/20 reps here.
- some anti-rotation and leg raising ab exercises.

BW: ~78kgs

I'm mostly getting volume up, 4x10 and 5x5 are great for this. Eventually it'd be nice to hit 4x10@100kgs - I think that's the most I've done for 4x10, and ~125kgs 5x5.

An essay on vertical measurement:

I missed testing my SVJ on the weekend, aiming for this weekend. I've been thinking a lot over the last few years about the well-worn topic of the best way to measure vertical. It's something so fundamental but also very difficult to accurately measure compared to a horizontal jump.

Hang time based calcs with video are more popular now but are still hit-and-miss. The variance is always going to be high - even with 120fps+ footage minimum there's too much uncertainty about when exactly to start and end the jump (foot up/down, toes touching etc.). These have been discussed a lot here. (Vag had some good corrections in this thread.)

Never used jump mats, but regardless of their accuracy, they are prohibitively expensive.

[Head touch height - height] removes the standing reach error, but if you don't actually hit your head on the object, you need film to see how close you got.

I'd say the most common is [highest touch height - standing reach] (provided the jumper is accurately reporting their std reach). It is probably the most consistently accurate measurement. The major practical issue with this is getting access to a training space that allows you to jump at an object of known height.

Gyms can be OK if there's a jump target, but often space is an issue.

Indoor bball courts are great, but they usually cost money to access and aren't always clear enough to jump.

Outdoor bball courts are feasible but the ring height is usually variable and sometimes surface is an issue. If you have a good spot with a measured ring and not too slippery, then that's ideal.

Additionally, similar to head touch, when jumping at a ring or something of fixed height, you also need to know how much of your hand you get over the ring - usually not a huge issue but knowing exactly how high you touched is better. Vertecs are obviously awesome for this but are also awesomely expensive. Home-mades are doable (I've done two) but they are very labourious.

Thus (and don't laugh), I am considering buying this:



which I found by searching amazon for 'vertical jump tester' just for fun. Super cheap, has a small but sufficient range of 25cm, plus suction cups. I have a spot outside I could put this for jumping at. Could be a bit of fun to track SVJ vs squat again, maybe not as serious as in the past but I do enjoy this type of training while the weather is cold. (It's also a very time-efficient training. I simply can't fit in >1hr long runs etc. yet.)