I’m a complete beginner here so any help … you know.
When one starts loosing weight (I’m not saying fat) at the beginning, when do you lower the calorie intake? After a full week?
This is 14 day plan. I know this will effect my performance but that is the way it goes. I’ll try to make up by using TONS of creatine/BCAA and other yummy staff.
[quote]Nian wrote:
Well, the first thing that jumps out at me from the pics are your well developed quads next to your non-existant hamstrings. Do more hip/hamstring dominant work: Good mornings, stiff/legged romanian deadlifts, one legged hypers. Do 2 of this kind of exercises for every 1 knee dominant movement you have in your proram.
And I’m not sure if the explosive work will help you much at your current srength level. As Kelly Baggett says, get the horsepower before you get cute. If I were you’re trainer I’d focusing on bringing your deadlift numbers up (since you didn’t have access to have a squat rack+it’s an excellent exercise to bring up your lagging posterior chain).
The back looks good, you got great lat development. I also notice that it looks like you’re almost in a shrugged position when you’re “relaxing” in the 4th pic. I’d guess that you’re super tight in the shoulder and upper trap region. Maybe some dynamic stretching before each tennis session to elevate this?
I’ll just ignore the calf pics.
Btw, I love the fact that you’re taking your conditioning seriously.
Hope this post has been helpful[/quote]
Thanks a lot, Nian. I don’t know what you mean by : “non-existant hamstrings”. I thought I had a good pair. I’ll look into it. How does a well developed in proportion with one’s quad look like???
You’re probably right about the shoulder/upper trap region. Do you know any good stretches? Stretching the way I do probably doesn’t do it.
Maybe I was exaggerating a little, but it’s very clear that your quads are dominating your hamstrings. I attached a pic of a dude with excellent posterior chain development: Tyson Gay, the 100 m world champion. See the smooth leg development? Check out any top lvl sprinter and you’ll see the same.
Anyway, something that has worked for me is incorporating 2-3 posterior chain exercises for every 1 quad dominant exercise. Maybe your leg day would look something like this (using the ws4sb template). Heck, don’t be afraid do to some extra posterior chain work on your upper body days.
A. Dynamic movement: Flying sprints
B. Full squat: Work up to a 3-5 rep max
C. One legged deadlifts: 2 x 12
D. Romanian deadlift/good morning: 4 x 6
E. Abs or whatever
Another variation (Which I would put you on if I was the one making your program)
A. Dynamic movement: Broad jumps
B. Deadlift: Work up to a 3-5 rep max
C. Pistols/Split squats: 2 x 5-8
D. Reverse hyper/Pull throughs: 3 x 8-12
E. Same
As for the shoulder/neck/trap stretches, try googling around. My tip is to do manual neck stretches (and try making a habit of breathing through your nose and down into your stomach instead of elevating the shoulders when you breath). Work on loosening up these areas while strengthening the lower traps & the scapulae. Have a couple of sets of seated row supersetted with high rep face pulls or scapular pushups be your main pulling movements on your upper body days.
I’m going to change this:
My numbers will NOT be:
BW: 165
P: 247.5g
F: 110g
C: 30g
Cal: 2100
Per meal:
[49.5g/22g/6g] x 5
I’ve realized that protein is too high. So I’ll lower it to 165g. To keep the 50-50 ratio on protein/fat I need to lower the fat as well. It will put me on very low calorie diet. At least low for me. Now I’m eating around 2 500 - 3 000 calories.
So I think I will keep the fat the same:
[quote]Nian wrote:
Anyway, something that has worked for me is incorporating 2-3 posterior chain exercises for every 1 quad dominant exercise. Maybe your leg day would look something like this (using the ws4sb template). Heck, don’t be afraid do to some extra posterior chain work on your upper body days.
A. Dynamic movement: Flying sprints
B. Full squat: Work up to a 3-5 rep max
C. One legged deadlifts: 2 x 12
D. Romanian deadlift/good morning: 4 x 6
E. Abs or whatever
Another variation (Which I would put you on if I was the one making your program)
A. Dynamic movement: Broad jumps
B. Deadlift: Work up to a 3-5 rep max
C. Pistols/Split squats: 2 x 5-8
D. Reverse hyper/Pull throughs: 3 x 8-12
E. Same
As for the shoulder/neck/trap stretches, try googling around. My tip is to do manual neck stretches (and try making a habit of breathing through your nose and down into your stomach instead of elevating the shoulders when you breath). Work on loosening up these areas while strengthening the lower traps & the scapulae. Have a couple of sets of seated row supersetted with high rep face pulls or scapular pushups be your main pulling movements on your upper body days.
Hope I’ve cleared some things up.[/quote]
Thank you!
You have definitely cleared it up!
I do pistols, split squats, deadlifts, one-leg Straight-Leg Deadlift at the moment but I do for every hamstring ex. 1 quad ex. When you play tennis it’s all quads.
I’ve got “functional Training For Sport” by Michael Boyle. I’ll look into it and just pick some good hamstring exercises and do 2-3 for every 1 quad ex.
I’ve googled the stretches.
Would sprints help with my hamstrings? What about one legged forward jumps?
Yes, sprint should help you develop your posterior chain, since sprints are genererally a posterior chain activity. BUT some ppl have such a messed up flexibility and muscle balance that they make sprinting a quad dominant activity. Since the quads have a vertical component, these ppl will look like they’re bouncing down the court instead of floating across it.
Don’t get me wrong now, quads and the anterior chain are very important for moving around, especially during the acceleration phase, it’s just that most athletes have horrible p chain development compared to a chain.
For more info on the sprints, read the 50 yard dash article by TC.
