Thursday 30 June 2011. Thruster world record

Hilarious!

http://games.crossfit.com/features/videos/katie-hogan-and-lindsey-valenzuela-thruster-tiebreaker

Now don’t get me wrong. A 86KG thruster is impressive. Very. The thing that made me laugh is that I’ve seen athletes in China that have done a combination of thrusters+front squats+push presses+jerks at 130KG for warmups before moving on to jerking 160KG but don’t call it a world record. It’s like these writers and journalists, simply call it a world record because less than 0.5% of the training world population is bothered to do it.

Writers….ahh

Anyway, taking a week off training probably helped recovery a bit. Went back to the squat rack and decided to do pause squats.

Pause Squats. ATG

20KG x 2 x 5
50KG x 3
70KG x 3
100KG x 3
130KG x 3
150KG x 2
170KG x 1 (PR!)
180KG x 1/2 (Faillll…..back went forward)
150KG x 3 x 5

So in about 6 weeks, I’ve managed to get my pause squats from 150KG to 170KG. I’m pretty satisfied! No actually I’m very satisfied. That’s more progress than I’ve had for years.

Then I went to play rugby and had a SHIT rugby session. Couldn’t tackle. Couldn’t go low. Couldn’t run. Now I’m so sore I can’t believe it. Oww.

Monday 20 July 2011 Training

Box Squats

20KG x 2 x 8
50KG x 5
80KG x 4
100KG x 3
140KG x 3
170KG x 3
205KG x 5 (PR!)
100KG x 5 full squats, just to stretch the hip flexors a bit

Maybe just one or two more weeks with box squats before I return to the ass-to-grass squats. Hopefully, it would’ve reached at least 200KG for a single by then.

Flexed Back Extensions

1 set max reps
1 x 12KG KB x 15
1 x 15KG x 13

Towel pull-ups

A bunch of sets for fun

Kinda bummed that I won’t be able to go for training. Pbth.

Box jumps and it’s usage in athleticism

Straight and simple, I absolutely love the box jumps.

Credits: http://www.hardassfitness.com/2011/03/max-height-box-jump.html

In sports, having powerful triple extension (hip, knee, ankle) and explosiveness makes you a hard ass athlete. These three main joints must extend together to produce a vertical force (jumping, sprinting) or diagonal force (hitting, tackling). Box jumps allows us to train all three elements extremely quickly without a difficult learning curve.

Many coaches like to use the power cleans and snatches to emphasize on the triple extension, which is fantastic. I’m a former weightlifter myself, and I know how powerful it makes a person. However, seeing how many athletes do the lifts, it looks more like a “Hip bump and barbell swing” than a snatch or power clean. There’s no vertical explosion. It’s a horizontal explosion. Useful if your sport requires you to bang your hip into a wall or punch or to throw someone off your hip like in jujitsu. NOT useful in sprinting, tackling and jumping.

The box jumps are much simpler to teach, and equally effective. Loading parameters can be in the form of;

- Box height
- Weighted vests
- Start methods (Standard, paused, sitting, single leg launch, single leg land)

These variables make box jumps a tool that’s very easily modifiable and also extremely fun. Combine this explosive movement with a solid strength movement such as the deadlifts, squats and unilateral movements such as lunges and sled pulls, you’re in to developing an extremely powerful athlete.

Sauce

Other benefits of the box jumps include;

- Improving bone density and joint health (Impact used wisely, strengthens it)
- Improving flexibility (One needs to raise the knees high to get on the box)
- Improves coordination

It’s also  a great cardiac health builder if combined with other exercises in a circuit. BUT!

I really wouldn’t recommend is using the box jumps for higher repetitions like, 10-20 repetitions. Jumping is to improve explosiveness. After 6 repetitions or so, you’re going to jump a little lower and squat lower to slice right into the box. That sort of defeats the purpose of a box jump as you’re not actually maxing your explosive potential. In a circuit, I’d use box jumps as the first exercise, and move into more muscular endurance movements for the last few exercises.

Example:

- Box Jumps (5)
- Kettlebell Swings (20)
- Bear Crawls (10 meters)
- Squats (20)
- Farmers Walk (20 meters)

Till the next post, go do some box jumps! Now!

Wednesday Upper Body Hypertrophy

As I’m probably the skinniest guy in the team, I’m working to gain some more mass on my upper body. I think, my weight distribution is probably 70% lower body, so my upper body is really small and quite weak.

The goal of this day, is simple. To increase hypertrophy and get bigger because I’m smaller than an Irish leprechaun and no matter how strong my lower body is, I have a hard time against the bigger and faster boys.

Method:

- Bilateral and unilateral movements
- 3011 tempo
- Medium – high repetitions with multiple sets
- Unilateral super high repetitions movements to maintain balance
- Posterior and medial dominant shoulder movements to fix structural imbalance
- Pause at top of movement to increase muscle recruitment
- Swing the last few reps but still with pauses
- Increase weight, time under tempo, repetitions, sets every workout

Maintain for another 8 weeks before moving or if still progressing, go on.

Honestly speaking, the strongest men on earth, don’t actually train with the most complex methods. I’ve seen many really strong athletes and I’m not exactly the weakest guy in the office either. The consistent answer on most people and based on my own experience on how to get stronger, is to always overload a variable of any particular kind (Eg, weight, reps) and be consistent. Don’t drop out because that’s like taking 3 steps forward and 2 back. Pointless.

Bench Press (+) Scapula Retraction Push Up

Benching tends to tighten the anterior deltoids (front shoulders) and causes a pinching feel in my shoulders. I mix with scapula retractions to stretch the anterior deltoids and to strengthen the stabilizers.

50KG x 3 x 10
70KG x 3 x 8
70KG x 8 x 1 (Each rep, completely deloaded. To maximize power)

Incline Dumbbell Bench

2 x 20 x 10KG.

One set just to get a good stretch and some blood flowing

Pull-Ups

3 x 10

Rear (+) Lateral Raises

2 x 20

By now, I was pooped. Rugby tomorrow! Let’s see what happens!

Tuesday Lower Body Training

Lower body training, as the name suggests, is a training session that’s albeit still compound, is more focused on the lower body region. Movements can include squats, which is an extremely effective and powerful lower body exercise that’s been ostracised by many fitness communities because they deem it dangerous. However, if people can even die running in a field, how does one truly dictate dangerous?

Other useful movements include deadlifts, single limb work such as step-ups and lunges, sprinting, good mornings, kettlebell swings. As long as they involve the entire body to coordinate and improve performance. I mean, honestly how many of us want, muscles that are all show and no performance?

KB Loaded Box Squats

20KG x 2 x 8
68KG x 1 x 5
84KG x 1 x 5
148KG x 1 x 5
180KG x 1 x 5

The goal is to hit a 5RM with as many sets as possible. Having loaded kettlebells instead of plates, there was no way I was going to achieve my plate loaded squats because of the balancing factor required with kettlebells. My abs were working extra hard to just balance it, thus I was unable to sit further back and had to share some load to the quads.
Not optimal but I’ll get stronger and more balanced the next time.

Walking lunges

3×20 meters with 30LBSx2 dumbbells

The walking lunges are important to balance out the imbalances that can occur when we train with loads of bilateral movements. Among the issues that imbalances can cause; neural misfiring, coordinating problems, pain, discomfort and even injuries. Load need to be distributed evenly, and consistent misloading is like driving with an overinflated tire. Only it’s on your body.

Box Jumps

Box Jumps were done by adding mats that were at the thickness of approx 1 1/4″ each time. I hit up to 54″ and decided to call it quits.

I’ll keep a little more in the tank for Friday’s session.