Officially starting; 1st February 2014.
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Can’t wait!
Hi friends,
Welcome to the first official post of this years version of “The Cage”. For those that don’t know me, I am a 31 year old semi-pro football player.
The season is not starting until April, so at the moment I am in pre-season mode. I am running WS4SB, 3 day a week template. Today is my rest day so I don’t have much to report.
The following is my training schedule that I have been following for the past 2 weeks (will change as soon as team training starts (which should start up in the next 2-3 weeks));
Monday: am; skills
Tuesday: am; Max effort upper body. pm; hill runs
Wednesday: am; skills
Thursday: am: repetition pup body. pm; pull-ups/push ups superset & hill runs
Friday: am; skills.
Saturday: rest
Sunday: am: Max effort lower body
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Nice, I’ll be following!
Glad to see you back at it.
Got a few questions, but I’ll save those for later.
In the meantime enjoy.
pjlife, kgildner, and young n, welcome to The Cage. We go hard.
All recommendations, suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
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Saturday, 2nd February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Max Effort Lower Body
- Agile 8 and foam roll etc, 7.5 km bike ride to the gym.
-Squats
Ramped up to one max working set of 5 x 80 kg.
-
Bulgarian split squat holding dB infront.
3 sets of 10 x 15 kg. -
Single leg deadlifts with kettle bell
3 sets of 10 x 12 kg
-Ab circuit
4 continuous rounds of 30 sit-up on swiss ball and 12 reps of leg raises.
-
Farmer walks
15 meter walk. 4 x 45 kg dB in each hand, 1 x 47.5 kg dB in each hand -
Bike ride home
notes: Good session. Will increase all weights next week. I know my squats are piss weak, but for those that do not know me I have a history of lower back issues etc. My legs could probably handle a lot more weight although my core can not. I am hoping to be squatting 120 kg plus before the season starts, but I will be approaching this slowly to minimise risk of injury.
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[quote]theBird wrote:
All recommendations, suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
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I hate to sound like a smartass, but I missed the post where you stated your goals.
I understand your in the off/pre season and that you are following WS4SB.
But I do not recall reading anything regarding your goals or what you want to accomplish in this off/preseason time period, Uncle bird.
If you could be so kind.
[quote]theBird wrote:
notes: Good session. Will increase all weights next week. I know my squats are piss weak, but for those that do not know me I have a history of lower back issues etc. My legs could probably handle a lot more weight although my core can not. I am hoping to be squatting 120 kg plus before the season starts, but I will be approaching this slowly to minimise risk of injury.
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You do know there are other ways to hit the legs besides squats you know. But again that depends on what your trying to accomplish.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Saturday, 2nd February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Max Effort Lower Body
- Agile 8 and foam roll etc, 7.5 km bike ride to the gym.
-Squats
Ramped up to one max working set of 5 x 80 kg.
-
Bulgarian split squat holding dB infront.
3 sets of 10 x 15 kg. -
Single leg deadlifts with kettle bell
3 sets of 10 x 12 kg
-Ab circuit
4 continuous rounds of 30 sit-up on swiss ball and 12 reps of leg raises.
-
Farmer walks
15 meter walk. 4 x 45 kg dB in each hand, 1 x 47.5 kg dB in each hand -
Bike ride home
notes: Good session. Will increase all weights next week. I know my squats are piss weak, but for those that do not know me I have a history of lower back issues etc. My legs could probably handle a lot more weight although my core can not. I am hoping to be squatting 120 kg plus before the season starts, but I will be approaching this slowly to minimise risk of injury.
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Definitely will be following. You ever tried looking at different variations than the standard squat? The Ben Bruno article has some good tips.
[quote]Ironwarrior25 wrote:
Definitely will be following. You ever tried looking at different variations than the standard squat? The Ben Bruno article has some good tips. [/quote]
For awhile I only did single leg work while I was suffering from lower back issues. At the moment Im squatting pain free, so I feel I should do as the program says and squat. Im not sure why my back is feeling so good at the momentâ?¦ maybe its the extra mobility work I have been doing??
Im not aiming to squat 200 kg plus, but I feel if I can reach 120-150 kg, then it could only help me. Im going to go easy on the leg side of things due to the heavy work load on my legs. I rather be injury free and moving freely, than squatting massive numbers.
[quote]young n wrote:
I hate to sound like a smartass, but I missed the post where you stated your goals.
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My main goal is to be the best player I can be this season. In football skill is the most important thing. Skill can overcame fitness and strength in most situations. So I will be concentrating on improving my skills and touch. Although saying that I am not going to ignore the physical attributes of the game and need to make sure Im in proper shape. I need to be able to run and last 90 minutes.
My strength levels are most probably adequate at the moment for my sport, and hence my goal with the gym work is to maintain strength and stay healthy. Any improvement in strength is a bonus, but I need to be careful I don’t put on too much weight on as that effects my game. At the moment Im sitting at about 93-94 kg. I think my ideal playing weight is probably more like 91-92 kg. Although saying all that, I believe I should be lifting heavier numbers at my current weight, so I don’t see how I can not maintain/increase strength while keeping a similar bodyweight.
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I was wondering if you had a log or not. Since I’ve started my mobility has progressed incredibly and my front squats look worlds better than they did at the beginning and I’ve had absolutely no back pain. Check out my first FS video I posted compared to the one I just posted this week to get a look at those moter patterns I’ve been talking about.
If you’re not already doing it you could try pause squatting during your warmup sets. Some other people in logs have been doing it and it’s helped me a lot in taking my low back out of the movement.
If you don’t mind could you post a vid of your next squat session? I’d love to dissect your technique and give you some pointers.
Good luck bird, I’m following.
[quote]CroatianRage wrote:
Good luck bird, I’m following.
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Welcome to The Cage buddy. We go hard.
I will post some videos next Sunday when I squat next. I don’t pause at the moment when I squat, although I do squat down to a box to help me keep my depth constant. Your input will be appreciated.
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Monday, 3rd February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Skill Session
This morning my legs were a little sore from yesterdays gym session, so I treated today as more of a recovery session. I spent 10 minutes warming up with passing the ball with the wall and then progressed on to some turns and shooting practice. I then did some dribbling between cones and finished off with some A-skips and B-skips. I always stretch and do some ankle rehab at the end. Today everything was done at about 65% intensity.
The main aim of my “Skill Sessions” is to obviously better my skills. I concentrate on specific moves and turns to beat players, and also just general control of the ball. As the season gets closer I will be introducing a speed component to this day in the attempt to improve my speed. In the next few weeks these sessions will became more structured, while at there moment its just more about getting my “touch” and “feeling for the ball” right.
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Tuesday, 4th February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Max Effort Upper
-
Agile 8 and foam roll etc, 7.5 km bike ride to gym
-
Bench press
Ramped up to max working set of 3 x 105kg. -
Weighted chin-ups
3 sets of 5 reps with 12.5 kg -
S/S; dB rows and face pulls
4 supersets of 10 reps at 27.5 kg with the rows, and 12 reps at 35 kg for the face pulls. -
Barbell curls
3 sets of 10 x 35 kg
notes: Happy with this. Will increase all weights next week, except the barbell curls where I struggled for the last 3 reps.
PM
Conditioning
-
Agile 8 and a quick foam roll etc.
-
8 repeats of hill runs, walking back down for recovery.
It takes me about 40-43 seconds to run up the hill which is about 150 meters long, and about 2’30 to walk back down.
notes: I was aiming for 9 runs on the hill, but by run #8 I was really struggling. My goal is to be able to run 10-12 repeats before the start of the season.
In other news, my first team training is this Thursday night, and I have entered a team into a 7-a-side competition on Saturday afternoons. The 7-a-side team will comprise mainly of my team mates, so it will be good for us to play together. On top of all of this my training gym partner needs to change training times due to work commitments, so Im going to have to re-arrange my program around a little.
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[quote]theBird wrote:
Tuesday, 4th February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Max Effort Upper
-
Agile 8 and foam roll etc, 7.5 km bike ride to gym
-
Bench press
Ramped up to max working set of 3 x 105kg. -
Weighted chin-ups
3 sets of 5 reps with 12.5 kg -
S/S; dB rows and face pulls
4 supersets of 10 reps at 27.5 kg with the rows, and 12 reps at 35 kg for the face pulls. -
Barbell curls
3 sets of 10 x 35 kg
notes: Happy with this. Will increase all weights next week, except the barbell curls where I struggled for the last 3 reps.
PM
Conditioning
-
Agile 8 and a quick foam roll etc.
-
8 repeats of hill runs, walking back down for recovery.
It takes me about 40-43 seconds to run up the hill which is about 150 meters long, and about 2’30 to walk back down.
notes: I was aiming for 9 runs on the hill, but by run #8 I was really struggling. My goal is to be able to run 10-12 repeats before the start of the season.
In other news, my first team training is this Thursday night, and I have entered a team into a 7-a-side competition on Saturday afternoons. The 7-a-side team will comprise mainly of my team mates, so it will be good for us to play together. On top of all of this my training gym partner needs to change training times due to work commitments, so Im going to have to re-arrange my program around a little.
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Nice benching. Have you done much training over the off season or are you hoping to build things up throughout preseason?
What position do you usually play?
[quote]Ironwarrior25 wrote:
Nice benching. Have you done much training over the off season or are you hoping to build things up throughout preseason?
What position do you usually play? [/quote]
Thanks mate.
I had 3 months for the off-season, where one month was just recovering from injuries, and then for 2 months I was teaching my girlfriend to lift by doing Chris Collucci’s beginners program. I concentrated on rep ranges of 8-12 and my main aim of this was just to stay healthy. Im pretty happy with my base strength so I feel preseason is enough time to build on this.
I usually play in midfield or defence. Just depends what the coach has available.
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Wednesday, 5th February 2014.
Today I had scheduled a skill session, but had decided to rest instead.
I have my first team training tomorrow and my legs were a little sore from my hill runs. In the next few days Im going to have to re-aarange my schedule due to a few different factors.
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Thursday, 6th February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
Repetition Upper
-
Agile 8 and foam roll, 7.5 km bike ride to the gym
-
incline dB press
4 sets of 27.5 kg, reps of 12, 12, 12, 8. -
superset inverted rows with rear felt raises
3 sets of BW x 8 reps, and 7 kg x 12. -
lateral raises
3 sets of 7kg x 10. -
supersetted dB shrugs with dB curls
3 sets of; 25 kg x 10 and 17.5 kg x 10 -
wrist curls
PM
team soccer training
First team training session for the year. We just had a quick warm up and played a low key 7 vs 7 game.
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Sunday, 9th February 2014.
TRAINING
AM
-
Agile 8 and foam roll, 7.5km bike ride to the gym.
-
Barbell squats.
Built up to a max set of 3 x 90 kg.
Was aiming for 5 reps, but for some reason this was heavy. I know its piss weak, but for the first time in a long time I am squatting well below parallel. -
Back leg elevated BSS
3 sets of 10, holding 17.5 kg dB in front of me -
Hamstring curls.
3 sets of 10, 40 kg. -
Ab circuit.
30 swiss ball crunches followed by 12 leg raises. 4 rounds. -
Farmer walks
5 x walks of about 15 meters holding two 45 kg dBs, 60 seconds b/w each walk.
notes:
Pissed off that my patella tendonitis pain has returned. Probably should of not have squatted but I wanted to get it done, and now I have 2 weeks before Im scheduled to squat again. I really need to keep up my mobility work, as when I don’t little nagging injuries seem to surface.
In other news I weighed myself at the gym today and I weighed in at 93.5 kg (fasted). This is way too heavy for me to be playing football at. I really think that I need to get down to 90-92 kg to be able to run around for 90 minutes with sufficient agility. Im going to try achieve this by been stricter with my diet and upping my football/conditioning work.
Due to a number of factors my schedule has been re-arranged. This is not confined but Im considering this;
Monday: Rest/low key skill session
Tuesday: AM: skill/conditioning PM: team soccer training
Wednesday: AM: Max Effort Upper
Thursday: AM: skill/conditioning PM: team soccer training
Friday: AM: Repetition Upper
Saturday: Rest/7-a-side competition
Sunday: AM: Max Effort lower
As for my diet I will be following my modified IF plan.
I fast generally from 8:30pm at night to 11:30am next morning.
- 1st meal I will be protein source(usually eggs) plus once piece of fruit. Aiming for P:35 C: 20 F:20
- 2nd meal will be protein source plus green veges, plus one piece of fruit. Aiming for P: 40 C: 20 F: 20
- 3rd meal will often be a pre-training meal, so I will be aiming for about P: 30 C: 80-100 F: 20
- 4th meal will be my last meal. Often meat plus carb source. Aiming for P: 40 C: 80-100 F: 20
BCCAs before and after morning trainings. On double session days I will consider adding more carbs or maybe allowing some nuts.
Thoughts people??
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