@Bagsy of course, I’m full of good ideas. But in all seriousness, the purpose of this year is to balance my training and give some training time to the stuff I avoid otherwise. Explosive work definitely falls into that category, especially as I approach middle age.
@mr.v3lv3t you really overestimate the force I’m managing to put into these jumps. Landing them is not currently an issue.
@Cyrrex my hip mobility might be good, but my explosive power and coordination are on a par with a damp teabag. I know nothing about jumping though so there might be a million other things I’m not considering, I just know I find it fairly easy to jump onto fairly high things but my horizontal jumps look like an OAP that’s slipped off their Zimmer frame. Just measured my hip and that box jump yesterday was about 42", with a fairly large margin of error.
It’s good that you’re realizing that. In my opinion box jumps are a great tool but done wrong by 90% of athletes. If you land in an ultra deep squat you’re not showing explosive power, you’re showing mobility.
The way my coach programs box jumps is “land in a quarter squat”, only go higher if you can land in a quarter squat. I agree with that approach.
It was unpleasant but more mental than anything. I was far from full out because little lady was painting at the time and I kept having to help her with stuff. My biggest soreness was calves, which surprised me. I can see some chest DOMs coming on though.
Axle/wagon wheel deadlift: some
Axle/wagon wheel Zercher full cycles: some
Press:
5 x 40kg
5 x 50kg
3 x 55kg
8 x 57.5kg
8 x 3 @ 60kg
Push press:
2 x 70kg
2 x 75kg
2 x 75kg
2 x 80kg
Dips:
5 x 5
JM Press:
3 x 8 @ 40kg(?)
Rear Delt rows:
3 x 15
JM Blakely triceps thingy
Curls: some
Notes:
Absolutely not recovered again. So what better way to recover than doing axle deadlifts and destroying my pressing muscles with some silly volume?
No idea on time or pace on the rower: screen wasn’t working. Ah well.
Walked into the gym and saw a new toy: an axle loaded up with two wagon wheels, what was I supposed to do? Played about with it a bit, grip was so, so much of a limiting factor which was a weird experience for me.
Press was shit. Seemed to struggle to get the right grip width and barely managed to equal a rep PR. Happened a few times recently. Probably time to give this approach a break anyway, it’s nearly testing time.
Push Press because I had time. Felt very “techniquey”. Ie. It was smooth and easy because I was well balanced and well coordinated, not because I was strong.
Dips felt like shit, not surprisingly I guess but I still thought I’d do better than that.
Rear delt rows on the lever row are awesome. I need to use them more.
Still like this approach for triceps.
In the interests of starting to address some even weaker points, I did some curls. Triceps are starting to exist, biceps are definitely not.
That doesn’t make alot of sense. You literally replicated your best result to date. Which means you have never been better.
I haven’t even tried anything close to equaling a rep PR or any kind of PR on any somewhat important movement in over 3 months. It will probably be a good bit longer before I do. If I did repliacte a press PR right now out of the blue, I would feel strong becsuse I knew more is to come
It’s worth remembering that my only goal on this block of training is to increase my press. To only train for one thing and still fail to increase it is frustrating, especially when it’s at such a low level.
Usually I have a few days off between Christmas and New Year and do a fake meet with the press thrown in as well. I’ll probably do the same this year, may not be the same time though because I don’t think I have much time off between Christmas and new year. Set my TMs for next years 531 too.
Incline press: some
Lat pulldown: some
Decline press: some
Rear delt flies: some
Lateral raise machine: some
JM triceps thingy
Hammer cable curls: some
Notes:
Only one more session of presses to do between now and Christmas. Didn’t do it today for a few reasons: my sense of completion will now force me to find an extra session between now and Christmas, but also I want to make sure I’m in a good place to hit it hard. Felt like lukewarm shite today.
Most of these were done by working up to 2 sets of 15 at a challenging weight but with reasonable form.
I’m getting pretty good at that JM thing, which is probably not the point. Last rep was a full 2 minutes long, 1 minute for the concentric, 20s peak contraction, 40s eccentric. I was shaking quite a lot by the end of that. And by halfway through. Actually, about 20s in.
Edit: just rewatched the video and it turns out I’m definitely half assing it and going too quick. Work to do there.
@simo74@ChongLordUno Work and kids mate. I work in retail so Christmas + CoVid + Borders closing = some very, very long days. Add in some issues with the kids not sleeping at night and it’s getting a little rough. One more sleep though.