Force training under varied conditions

5/26

Squat 285x3x5
Barbell VJ and VJ complex

Sprint accelerations
One leg take off with longer approach
Holm hurdles with no hurdles

One leg take off dunk with longer approach

Notes: I tried to get really relaxed in the last seance. I think I made a breakthrough here. I jumped very high with the long relaxed approach and shortening up my last two steps while trying to jump more vertically. This is definitely the highest I've jumped post-injury and I think there's a whole world of improvement/movement variations that I'm beginning to discover.

First.

1rd

3st

#-suffix

5/27

Squat 340 (PR)


Notes: Decided to go for a PR attempt on a whim. This is still unacceptable though. I am wondering if I need to do something differently at the reversal. I kind of let it come on it's own so I'm tentative and still somewhat hesitant. I wonder if it's not like the DL where the start can make a huge difference -- nearly all the difference really. I have widened my stance just a little since anyone else reading this has ever seen me squatting. I believe that the tights do a good job showing true depth so I'll continue to squat in them.

I caught this on youtube--I'd be interested in hearing what others thought, but I actually thought it looked really good.

Input is always welcome. Thanks, Kyle.

5/27

PSn up to 120 for many doubles and singles

Squat 290x3x5
HBS pause in heels 145x4x10
GHR single set (felt lousy)
BW eccentric calves + stretching

Dubya wrote:

HBS in heels 145x4x10

wat

Squat 295x3x5



Glute ham gastrocs
Good mornings
Eccentric calves
Knee extensions

6/1

Squat 300x3x5



Notes: wider stance is helping my with this ankle thing and I like that my knees aren't bent as much but I am wondering if it's not making this hip flexor thing worse. These are feeling good though. I feel like the reversal is stronger (also more stable) and I feel stronger through the sticking point. I like to think of that is as an increase in both static and dynamic strength during the lift.

6/4

Squat 305x3x5



Notes: I don't want to write too much here so I'll just say that I've been feeling really beat up and achey this week but I'm almost positive it's not related to squatting. Felt horrible warming up until I had a couple plates on the bar. The 3rd rep of the second set I donno what happened. On video it just looks like I sink a little deeper. I think I just got carried away on the eccentric relaxation bit and all of the sudden I freaked out. I actually thought that I was going to miss the rep but the stretch reflex kicked and I stood back up. Makes me think about strength in different positions or whatever. . .

I'm fairly certain that I have tendonitis of my left quad tendon. Not exactly sure how I will proceed. I will take the safe route instead of pushing my squat progression into uncharted territory while the tendon is below 100%. I don't believe that squatting by it self caused this but everything is just too much too soon and I haven't had a break in a while.

6/6

Squat 310x2x5, 6



Notes: quad tendonitis didn't really bother me with some air squats and I felt no issues warming up. I really don't think squatting like this is the culprit although I should be a little careful since there is clearly tension on the tendon. I was actually able to stay in position on more of these reps. By that I mean that my torso angle didn't become flatter as my knees extend which puts my hips in position to bear more weight. Speaking of which, I should write about this in case anyone is reading this and it might interest them.

I've been calling this "Rippetoe's Paradox" and I really don't know what to make of it. If you're a little bit familiar with Rippetoe's stuff you know he wants you to "drive with the hips" out of the hole. What happens when people do this correctly is that they pitch forward slightly so the back angle is a little flatter after the burst out of the hole. Another way to describe this is that the knees and ankles extend without as much hip extension. If you come out of the hole and think "chest up" the reverse happens: the hips extend without as much ankle and knee extension. The paradox is that one would naturally think that the muscles acting on the joint resulting in the most angular velocity would be the muscles working the hardest.

What actually seems to happens is that you 'feel' the new position. I'm probably not doing a great job of describing this but what I mean is that say you're squatting in the style a la Rippetoe and you come up "with your hips" even though the knees and ankles are extending more than the hips. As you do this you're putting your hips in a position to bear more of the load. So the intention to use the hips doesn't actually use the hips immediately -- it uses the other moving parts early to set up the hips to share a larger portion of the load later on.

This is really odd to me but it's definitely what's going on as I understand it. The other day I used my achey quad tendon to test this. When I come out of the hole thinking "chest up"  (ie HIP EXTENSION, knee extension, ankle extension) the tendon hurt. When I came out of the hole thinking "drive with the ass" (ie hip extension, KNEE EXTENSION, ANKLE EXTENSION) there was no pain. Maybe this isn't so weird after all. It makes sense in a sense, but I'm still pretty confused  

And apparently I did an extra rep on the last set   

6/8

Squat 315 for 4, 1, 5, 5



Notes: I forgot to do my last rep on the first set which kinda cast a shadow over the whole session. That first set felt absolutely horrible. The weight felt like a million pounds. The other sets didn't feel so bad but they weren't great either. I had to rely on my hips on ALL of the reps to get me through the sticking point instead of keeping upright. I don't think I warmed up properly or the coffee didn't hit me. Oh well.

Not gonna squat any more because it is making my quad tendon worse. I did one last dunk session in flip flops on the concrete nice and easy (tendonitis is not in the jumping leg) and I took my squat progression to 315 for working sets/reps. Now I won't do anything else to make it worse but I really wish I could keep pushing the squats. 315 felt like dogshit yesterday but it doesn't look too bad on video and that was a bad day for me. I don't think I would fail reps for another 15-20lbs and I'd be due for another easy squat PR. I'm looking forward at this November meet. It's time to get healthy and actually train all 3 lifts so I can compete. I think that will be a great experience.

It's the right decision to get healthy first. You've made tremendous strides on your squat, and 315x5x3 (or whatever it ended up being), on a bad day no less, is pretty considerable progress in the amount of time you've been training. I remember you just starting out on these again a few months ago; if you get healthy and keep the grinding sessions in check for the future, you'll still see a big bump in training numbers before November.

I decided today that I can probably start deadlifting again.

12/6

Deadlift 405x3x5



Notes: I am really pleased with how this first day went. Hoping this doesn't bother my quad tendon.

6/15

410x3x5



Notes: This was really painful. Barbell flayed my palm and smashed my thumbs every time it set the bar down. Something about the plates I think. It felt slow and tentative for that reason. I've been replacing too many meals with candy and chocolate. Weight is up . . . I'm getting that soft, white, pasty look.

I took a week off (basically) but I think some running helped my quad  tendon more than anything as weird as that sounds. I think I'm going to do a day of LISS running for GPP and blood flow. Should help with my connective tissue issues?

6/23

DL 415x3x5



Notes: This felt pretty weird. I donno why the bar is motionless for that moment sometimes and separates from the ground smoothly other times. A got a sensation of being "on top of the bar" this time and I'm not sure I was in a great position? My weight has gone all over the place in the last 2-3 weeks. It's mostly water weight but I've gained like 20lbs, then lost it, then put a little more weight back on. I think I know what's going on. Probably isn't very good for my training though!

Other exercises in separate session: single leg partial squat (just on my take off leg not the leg with quad tendonitis), hip thrusts, eccentric calves

Notes: SLPS hits my glute so fucking hard! my achilles tendon is getting a little out of shape because I haven't been keeping up the eccentric protocol.

I like that "on top of bar" feel.  Crowding the bar just seems stronger to me.  To be honest, I'm really surprised your clean and deadlift form are so vastly different; those almost look stiff-legged.

When I hit the explosion phase of the PC I'm pretty straight legged too though?

6/26

Deathlift
420x5
420x5
420x5



Notes: I haven't reviewed the video really yet but the starts were all smooth. I was supposed to do this in the morning but I was feeling anxious about it and I started getting psyched up or whatever. Played a little ball and dunked it little (got my best dunks yet on this rim) in the early evening (hot as hell) and I didn't rehydrate enough which I didn't realize until I got to the gym. I thought I was going to throw up every time I took my belt off between sets. This was REALLY fucking hard. I felt my thoracic round excessively right above that inflection point in the spine kinda at the top of my belt on the 2nd set: 5th rep. That wasn't good but it wasn't too bad. Felt my lumbar flex excessively on the 3rd set 5th rep and I thought, "okay this is definitely bad but I can lock it out safely." I can't keep up the progression like this though. I'm not sure what I'll do. I have plenty of good options though. Not worried really. Also the bar swung away from me on that very last rep which made everything much harder. I weighed 179lbs tonight.

These are actually my fastest reps of the mesocycle. That's pretty cool. I'm definitely getting better at the start.