The Bird Cage 4. Onslaught

Training Training Logs
81

Congrats on the win.
What position are you playing? If I remember correctly you said it was defense or defensive mid, or somewhere in the back. Am I the only one surprised/ happy for you? Regarding your match performance.
How many shots did you get on goal? Was the game plan to be more aggressive? Team wise?

I know this is just a preseason game, and I didn’t watch you play so only you will be able to answer whether a move to winger, in the front, is actually a possibility based on your performance.

This is the preseason, you want to be fresh for when the season starts. Off-season is the time to push the bounders. Alpha is competing in a different sport altogether. Even though he runs (hills), lifts, attends “team” practices just like you, his body might respond differently than yours to certain stress(ors). Maybe he has found his sweet spot.

And maybe you have or have not have found yours yet. Remember the body has a certain cap limit on stress, whether that be from physical (lifting, running), digestive (GI issues), mental (something on your mind got you worried, maybe work), or emotional (your ex who is now pregnant with somebody’s baby has a new-found interest in you all of a sudden).

The off-season might be the time and place to figure out one’s “limit.”
Ever notice how after a match one is more sore then the hardest (team) training session that season, even though training is very similar to the actual match, you’re still running, kicking, passing, dribbling, shooting in a training session (assumption about training sessions*) That’s is because the CNS responds differently during a match as to training session, different types of stressors, different types of people. Remember there is a difference between five 5 minute rounds and 90 minutes of continuous movement.

There is a lot of stuff I’m leaving out. I tried to paraphrase. Hope I don’t come off as an asshole.

But this is your training so only you will do what you will do.
If you got any questions. please post.

Anyways keep up the good work.
Stay strong

82

[quote]theBird wrote:

[quote]Ironwarrior25 wrote:
Hey man, training is looking good. Good effort on the floor press as well, decent weight for that volume.

Was that your first time with a rumble roller? Got mine a couple of years back and it has done wonders for the back (rowing has a habit of screwing it up, particularly doing sweep as the left side of my back has developed more than the right)[/quote]
Thanks mate. I was happy with my recent floor press effort.
Ive had my rumble roller for about a year now, although I don’t use it that often as I don’t find it any more useful compared to my normal foam roller and PVC pipes. Although I have now realised that it is very effective for my upper back. Do you use it for any other body parts?

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Mostly the upper back, but occasionally the glutes if I don’t have a tennis ball handy. Also found it useful for hamstrings, especially after I did my left hamstring in last year, it still has a tendency to get tight. If I don’t keep it loosened with the rumble roller, it becomes very noticeable when running.

83

young n; Thanks for your kind words my friend. Your advice is always welcome here. I usually play midfield and sometimes centre back. I prefer to play midfield. I only had 2 shots on Saturday night. At the moment our team still has not appointed a coach and hence we are struggling to be organised, on and off the field, leading to lots of arguments in the changing rooms. I agree with you regarding recovery, but as it is preseason I want to see how far I can push my body (without injuries), and I feel this can only help me for the season.

Ironwarrior25; I will try the rumble roller on my hamstrings. I find the hamstrings the hardest part to roll.

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84

Monday, 17th March 2014.

TRAINING

Rest Day

  • Legs feeling fatigued today. Stayed up late last night watching ManU vs Liverpool, so I missed 1-2 hours of sleep. Was considering in squeezing in a pull-up/push-up workout, but I thought it would be best to rest today and prepare for another big week at training. Will take some Z-12 before bed to help me get some more restful sleep.

DIET

12:00pm: Quest bar
3:00pm: 880 grams of grilled snapper, okra, squash and spinach salad, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, 4 gluten free crepes, 28 grams of pecan nuts, and an apple.
6:30: 290 grams of ground beef and vegetables, 2 cauliflower pizza/tortilla bases, and cookies and cream skinny cow ice-cream.

Total macros: P:182 C:170 F:90
Total calories: 2,290.

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85

Hey I didn’t mean to shoot you down from that type of training.
But please do give it shot, it will be interesting to see, all the best.

Stay strong

86

[quote]young n wrote:
Hey I didn’t mean to shoot you down from that type of training.
But please do give it shot, it will be interesting to see, all the best.
[/quote]
Its all good bro. I appreciate and value your input.

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87

Tuesday, 18th March 2013.

Going to keep this update short. Came home from work this afternoon and it was like a demon possessed me and I started to eat everything in sight, including a box of cereal, 2 apples, a banana and half a jar of peanut butter. This does not happen to me as often as it used to, but every 8-10 days I tend to have an episode of overeating. I think I just need to bump up my daily caloric intake to prevent this from happening.

Anyway, today I did pull-ups/push-ups superset in the AM and I then attended team training in the PM. Team training was very dire and boring. I only attended training as I had a go at a few players on Saturday nights game for not attending training sessions. After tonights training I have come to the conclusion that it is still not worth my time to attend training twice a week without a proper coach and a full squad. Due to todays “eating massacre” I estimate I have take in close to 4,000 calories.

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88

Thursday, 20th March 2014.

Hey bird-watchers!

Just another brief up-date. Today I skipped team training and went for a 30 minute run along the foreshore myself. Haven’t been feeling the best in the last couple of days and I needed some “me-time”. Didn’t count my macros today, but I guess I got close to 2,900 with enough protein.
Anyway, I am seriously considering not playing football this season. For various reasons, but mainly as my current club is very dis-organised and the players are very uncommitted. I will continue to attend team training sessions on Thursdays for the mean time, but I have started to make plans for a life without football.

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89

Friday, 21st March 2014.

TRAINING

PM

  • Agile 8 and bike ride to the gym.

  • Bodyweight dips; 10, 12, 12, 10.

-Superset lat pull downs and face-pulls.
4 supersets of; 10 x 60 kg for the pull downs, and 10 x 40 kg for the face-pulls.

  • dB Military Press
    3 sets; 10 x 20kg, 10 x 20kg, 8 x 20kg.

  • Superset dB shrugs with dB curls
    3 supersets of; 10 x 27.5 kg for the shrugs, and 10 x 17.5kg for the curls.

  • Didn’t do any farmer walks as the gym was too crowded.

notes: Decent session. Im thinking about changing my routine to more of a a in-season routine, although I suppose this depends on if I am actually going to play football this season. If I do play, I am considering the WS4SB in-season program or a program that I saw on the forums here which involves 2 sessions a week based on dips, pull-ups and front squats. Any other suggestions?

NUTRITION

A few changes happening here. First of all I am changing the title of this section from “diet” to “nutrition”, as I am not on a “diet” and I don’t want to enforce any negative connotations towards my eating habits. Secondly my new caloric target will be 2,500 on days I train(most days) and 2,300 on days I don’t train. I will have a re-feed once a week(high carb and protein, low fat), although if I am feeling run down I may include a re-feed in the middle of the week. This will involve a free meal which will usually be chicken samiches or pasta with mince.

12:30pm: 5 eggs(-2 yolks) and an apple.
3:00pm: 220 grams of chicken breast, cabbage salad with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and cabbage salad, and an avocado.
4:30pm: Quest protein bar.
5:30pm: Tuna and 4 gluten free crepes (pre-workout)
8:00pm: 150 grams of grassed steak with 300 grams of baked sweet potato, and cucumber, tomato and onion salad (dinner and post-workout).

Total macros: P:190 C: 185 F: 95
Total calories: 2,460.

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90

Saturday, 22nd March 2013.

TRAINING

AM

Solo Skill & Conditioning

  • Agile 8 and a quick foam roll.

  • Warmed up with some ball to wall passes, and then proceeded to do 5 sets of cone dribble, 3 sets of doggies with the ball, practiced some moves with the ball and finished off with 4 x 350 meter sprints, walking 100 meters in between each run for recovery.

notes: Good session, but I really need to spend more time not he ball.

NUTRITION

6:30am: Coffee and BCAAs (pre-workout)
8:30am: Whey, oats and a banana (post-workout).
11:30am: Quest protein bar.
1:00pm: 210 grams of chicken breast, broccoli, pickles and olives.
3:30pm: 120 grams of t-bone steak, peas and an ounce of pecans.
6:00pm: Going out to dinner with my GF to a nice restaurant before watching the basketball. Ideally to obtain the total of 190/200/80(2,500), I will need to eat a meal that consists of 35/100/30(840). I will do my best.

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91

Monday, 24th March 2014.

TRAINING

AM

Max Lower

  • Agile 8 and bike ride to the gym.

  • Barbell hip thrusts.
    Worked up to 5 working sets of 5 x 70 kg.

  • Reverse barbell lunges
    3 sets of 10 x 50 kg.

  • Hamstring curls.
    3 sets of 10 x 45 kg.

  • Ab circuit.

notes: Good session. Almost time to change the routine around. Will have a better idea regarding my footballing future in the next 2-3 weeks and hence will be able to make some decisions on the direction I want to take with my training.

DIET

6:30am: BCAAs and coffee (pre workout)
8:30am: Oats and whey shake (post workout)
1:00pm: 5 boiled eggs (minus 2 yolks) and a Quest protein bar.
3:30pm: 150 grams of corned beef and broccoli.
5:00pm: 6 brazil nuts.
7:00pm: 1.5 cups of rice, and grass fed mince meat with cabbage, and an apple.

Total macros; P:150 C:185 F:81
Total calories: 2,200.

notes: A little low on the calories and protein, although I had to guestimate dinners numbers so the actual number could be higher.

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92

Hey chief! Sorry to hear about your difficulties with your club. I went to Doherty’s today! I wasn’t actually planning on training, but went for a wander through the city centre and came across it and thought I had to go in seeing as you had suggested it. It was really awesome, saw the biggest guy I’ve ever seen there. Take care

93

[quote]furo wrote:
Hey chief! Sorry to hear about your difficulties with your club. I went to Doherty’s today! I wasn’t actually planning on training, but went for a wander through the city centre and came across it and thought I had to go in seeing as you had suggested it. It was really awesome, saw the biggest guy I’ve ever seen there. Take care[/quote]
Hey Furo,
Yer its an awesome gym, owned by some old skool melbourne gangsta’s. Nothing beats doing a top set of squats while you listen to a train roll over the top of the ceiling.
For those that don’t know, the gym is situated underneath one of the main subway stations of Melbourne.

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94

Tuesday, 25th March 2014.

TRAINING

AM

Solo Skill & Conditioning

  • Agile 8 etc.

  • Was not “feeling” it this morning. I think I was still recovering from the leg session from the day before. I did some cone dribbles, doggies, practiced some shooting and finished off with 4 reps of 350 meter runs, walking for 90 seconds for recovery between each run. I wanted to finish off with some short sprints, but m legs were done, so I finished off with some stretching instead including some 3rd world squats which I want to to try do everyday.

PM

I did not attend team soccer training. A coach has yet to be appointed and we are still short on numbers, so I will stick to my plan of only attending on Thursday nights. Im starting to plan what I will do if there is no football this season. I am thinking of maybe Jiu Jitsu for something different.

NUTRITION

Accidentally went over by about 300 calories today, although it was all good quality food.

6:30am: coffee and BCAAs (pre-workout)
8:30am: oats and whey (post-workout).
12:00pm: 240 grams of corned beef, 10 olives and half an avocado.
2:00pm: An apple.
4:00pm: Approx. 250 grams of ground beef with about 3 cups of cabbage.
7:00pm: 230 grams of snapper, 460 grams of sweet potato and a bowl of green vegetables.

Total macros: P:210 C:200 F: 125
Total calories: 2,850.

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95

Wednesday, 27th March 2014.

TRAINING

AM

Max Effort Upper

Started a new cycle today. I really enjoyed the choices of exercises I have chosen for this cycle. As you will see heaps of barbell work. Weights were on the lighter side, but that gives me plenty of room to increase over the next 4 weeks. This will probably be the last cycle of WS4SB before I choose a more appropriate in-season template.

  • Agile 8 etc and bike ride to the gym

  • Military Press
    Worked up to 3 working sets of 5 x 50 kg.

  • dB bench press.
    4 sets of 12 x 20 kg’s.

  • Superset barbell rows and rear delt flyes.
    4 sets of 10 x 40 kg for the rows, and 12 x 5 kg for the rear delts.

  • barbell curls
    3 sets of 12 x 30 kg(only managed 10 reps ont he last set)

  • TGUs
    3 x 15 kg, 2 x 17.5 kg and 1 x 20kg.

PM

Solo Conditioning Session

Went for a 25 minute run, finished off with 6 x 30 meter sprints. I would of liked to have done more sprints, but dinner was in the oven. Really enjoyed this session. It was raining lightly, but I really enjoyed been outside as the sun was setting. I know jogging/running has received heaps of criticism lately on T-Nation, but I remember I used to do these running & sprinting sessions 2-3 time s a week, and I remember been much fitter for it. I will try and do this 1-2 times a week.

NUTRITION

Allowed myself some extra carbs today, especially around the workout windows, as I had planned on doing 2 training sessions today.

6:30am: BCAAs, coffee and half a Finibar (pre-workout)
8:30am: oats, whey and a banana (post -workout)
11:00am: Quest protein bar
12:00pm: 5 boiled eggs (minus 2 yolks)
1:00pm: 5 brazil nuts
2:30pm: 210 grams of salmon and 3 pickles
4:30pm: Tuna and 1 cup of brown rice (pre-workout)
7:00pm: 140 grams of t-bone steak, 300 grams of sweet potato and some asparagus (post-workout).

Total macros: P:221 C:220 F:80
Total calories:2,530

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96

Thursday, 27th March 2014.

TRAINING

PM

Team Soccer Training

  • Probably not even worth logging. We played a 9 vs 9 scratch match with the players available. Most players at training tonight were no better than “B-team” quality and the quality of play showed that. I didn’t get much of a workout and I might as well consider today as a rest day.

DIET

11:30am: Quest protein bar and 5 brazil nuts.
1:00pm: 140 grams of t-bone steak and broccoli
2:30pm: Quest protein bar.
5:00pm: Chicken sushi, banana and coffee (pre-training)
8:00pm: Girlfriend’s Chicken and cashew, including 200 grams of chicken, an ounce of cashews and 2 cups of rice.

Total macro’s: P:165 C:255 F:75
Total calories: 2,440.

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97

Good work going on here. Great physique, especially considering its not your main priority. One question? How do you only eat half a Finibar?! Those things are delicious.

98

[quote]Austinsprodigy wrote:
Good work going on here. Great physique, especially considering its not your main priority. One question? How do you only eat half a Finibar?! Those things are delicious.[/quote]

Hi Austinsprodigy, welcome to the cage. We go hard.
Thank you for your compliments.
Eating half a FINiBAR takes tremendous will power. I often plan to eat only half a FINiBAR but end up eatiing the whole bar. On a related note, I have ordered a new batch of FINiBARs. Im going to try the dark chocolate flavour for the first time.

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99

Friday, 28th March 2014.

TRAINING

AM

Solo Skill Session

  • Did the usual cone dribbles and doggies with the ball. Practiced some moves and some ball to wall passing. Finished off with 5 repeats of 350 meter sprints, and then 5 repeats of 5 push-ups followed by a 12 meter hill sprint. Ball skills not up to where I want them to be, but my touch is slowly coming back considering Im not getting much out of team training at the moment. We have a friendly match on Saturday night against a team that have been climbing up from the lower divisions in the past few years.

PM

Repetition Upper

  • Agile 8 etc.

  • Bodyweight dips; 12, 12, 11, 10.

  • Supersetted 4 sets of pull-ups with an extra 5 kg (8,8,6,4), with 12 reps of face pulls at 35 kg.

  • Lateral raises; 3 sets of 10 x 7 kg.

  • Supersetted 3 sets of incline hammer curls (10 x 15 kg), with dB shrugs (10 x 27.5 kg)

  • Ab circuit; 4 rounds of; 30 swiss ball crunches, 12 leg raises and 12 renegade rows.

NUTRITION

7:00am: BCAAs and coffee (pre-workout)
8:30am: Whey and oats (post-workout)
11:30am: Quest protein bar
1:30pm: 5 boiled eggs minus 2 yolks, and 8 brazil nuts.
3:30pm: Tuna and avocado in a greek salad with no dressing.
5:30pm: A banana (pre-workout).
8:00pm: Girlfriends chicken and cashew, including 200 grams of chicken breast, an ounce of cashews, 1.5 cups of rice and heaps of veges.

Total macros: P:200 C:200 F:100
Total calories: 2,550.

notes: Feeling good. Hopefully will get a solid nights sleep in preparation for tomorrow nights friendly match. I will take 3 Z-12’s just before bed to make sure.

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100

Saturday, 28th March 2014.

FRIENDLY GAME

We lost 0-5.

The opposition were fitter, faster and more organised. I really can’t see how we are going to improve this year as we still don’t have a coach. We spent 30 minutes in the change rooms after the game arguing about training attendance, although I don’t feel this is going to make a difference. Im really complimenting taking this year off and try another sport/hobby. Personally I played ok, although I feel I lacked in fitness and was a bit slow of the mark at some times. I was feeling my right knee patella tendonitis at times, although the shitty warm-up probably didn’t help.

NUTRITION

I have decided that one day a week I will not count calories and I will do so on the day I have a “free meal”. I will still apply my eating principles to this day, but obviously be less strict with the numbers.

11:30am: 5 egg omelette with chicken and cashew filling.
2:30pm: About 200 grams of grilled chicken with satay sauce and 2 medium size organic sweet potatoes.
3:30pm: An ounce of macadamias and an apple.
5:30pm: A finibar (pre-game)
6:30pm: Gatorade (intra-game).
8:30pm: Free meal; I ate about 800 grams of roast lamb with a cucumber and tomato salad, 2 beers, followed by 2 massive bowls of my girlfriends homemade apple pie and ice-cream.

notes: Im feeling kind of guilty after all that apple pie, but I have to remind myself that it is only once a week and that massive increase in carbs/calories will only help keep my metabolism on its toes.

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