Been really struggling with training consistently. When I do train, I’ve been bitching it. I think it’s a combination of a failure to set solid times to train and not setting myself up for success with appropriate food and music in training.
Thursday 27th of Jan ME Upper (Q4)
2-Board Bench w Narrow Red Band / Low-Box Seated Broad Jump
Bar x 25 / 2
40 x 12 / 2
60 x 5 / 2
70 x 5 / 2
75 x 5 / 2
77.5 x 5 / 2
80 x 5 / 2
Very happy with the 80x5. Had the rare luxury of a spotter so felt comfortable pushing.
Best broad jump measured 293cm (9’7") from the heel. Pretty happy with that
High-Incline DB Press / SA Cable Row
15s x 15 / 50 x 15 ea
20s x 11, 6, 8 / 60 x 10, 12, 15 ea
Neck Lateral Step-Outs / Manual Ecc Overload Sleeper ER
Red Narrow band x 2 x 15 / 3kg x 2 x 15
The neck thing was basically me anchoring a band to a rack, and then looping it around my head so that I was side-on to the band (i.e. the band was applying a lateral flexion moment to my neck). I then stepped sideways away from the band whilst holding my head upright. In a way, this is like the neck equivalent to a pallof press.
This session did feel a lot better than others recently. I think having my headphones in and listening to some proper music, as well as actually blocking-out the time of day to train really helped me
@TrainForPain I was just going through the “Rate my Workout thread” and just wanted to say you’ve always got great takes. I always love reading your posts.
I didn’t want to bring that thread too off-topic so thought I’d just tag you here
From a soccer coaching perspective, I would say you are nailing it. Your lower body is focused on jump height, which helps for sprinting. You do lots of sprinting.
My only advise would be shorter sprints for more de acceleration training. But I noticed you train in blocks. When I have the chance to include sprints in team training I do it on shorter sprints with change of direction and ball touches to train controlled de acceleration. Too many injuries happen in soccer with players running full speed and then blasting into another player, because they can’t control their de acceleration and the ball.
Absolutely agree with you RE sprint distance, and really appreciate your input mate!
Hammie pulls occur during upright acceleration (as players near max V), at max V and during certain contact mechanisms. The risk:reward ratio as such may be too high for consistent high volumes of long sprints. That said, regular exposure to long sprints in training helps reduce hamstring strain incidence. Like you then, I never really ask my team sport athletes to sprint longer than 30m (maybe 40m) in training. If we go longer than 40m, we’ll be using “sprint floats” with sit more at 90-95%, rather than 100%
Moreover, your point on deceleration is excellent and I completely agree. Being able to rapidly reduce speed prior to a COD is essential. I believe some recent data shows it may also reduce incidence of hamstring and quad strains as well.
And something else. If your sport has lots of running like mine, I would recommend more LISS or LISS oriented block. It really helps with strengthening some joints and muscles and does increase work capacity. I really train this with not competitive small sided games, making room for less sprinting, but higher tempo games for my team. But I myself will go out and do my stretching session combined with a LISS run.
Aerobic power runs help also in the conditioning and recovery ability. As an amateur coach I can really see how most of my players lack recovery after a sprint. They gas after a couple of sprints and have no power to shoot, tackle or make a decent pass due to a lack of recovery.
Paired these with various presses but they all felt a wee bit shit so not bothered tracking. I think going forward I’m just going to stick to some kind of push-up
Sidelying ER / Sidelying IR
3 x 3 x 15 / 5 x 2 x 15
Curl Iso:
minute ish with barbell then dropped to Ez bar, then dropped to strict Ez bar curls to failure
Used this time to read through the first block of programing and nutrition guidelines from my new coach, Austin Jochum. His process has heavily influenced me, so I thought it best to learn from the source and dive into his programing. Looking forward to it.