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That hip injury sounds fuked up. Hope it gets better soon!

Thanks mate. It's more of a niggle than an injury so hopefully it clears up soon. I've read online of other people who've had the same problem and just tried to squat through it and it got worse so playing it safe. It's basically a combo of:
- (relatively) weak hip flexors
- posture while squatting (I may not have been sitting fully back when I squat recently)
- more foam rolling and stretching needed

Jumps:

6 SVJs - highest around 32''

8-10 DLRVJs - highest 34''

2 hrs of bball

I was pretty happy with my jumping today, not too far off my best despite a disrupted training schedule over last few weeks. I didn't try any SLRVJs though because I my shins were slightly sore from playing bball, but I think they're good to go now.

You should try to keep your head looking forward on the depth jumps (instead of looking at the ground), you'll do them better.

Yep for sure. It's funny, whenever I video something I always forget to do something right like keeping my head up more.

I took a few days off because my shins were still sore after the weekend, as well as my right heel, which was a bit bruised. But they're good now.

Gym:

I tried some squats today but my hips are still bothering me. I got up to 130kgs for a few reps but my hips would start hurt once I got below parallel. It's annoying because the weight feels like nothing (i.e. no problem for quads) but the hip pain is making me stop. I talked to the PT at the gym and he reckons I just have been going too heavy and my hip flexors haven't kept up. He suggested doing some hip cable extensions and hip thrusts every workout to strengthen them before going back up to 130kgs+. So that sucks but at least I've identified a weak point I can work on.

Hip cable extensions: 3x8-10/leg@18kgs

SVJs: 2x6

Core - planks, leg raises w/5kg med ball

Training of last few days:

Track:

Warmup

Few short sprints

1-leg bounds: 4x20-30m LRLR

2-leg bounds: 2x5-6 for height

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMNMRdsqvjw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMNMRdsqvjw</a>

1x5 for distance (with bit of height)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50zeeT3bZs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50zeeT3bZs</a>

Depth jumps: 2x6@~22'' (mem card filled up at 4th rep)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMyq-TArWZw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMyq-TArWZw</a>

My single leg bounds aren't worth showing, but from watching the vid I realised my dorsiflexion is OK on the left but way worse on my right leg (which makes sense) so gonna try and focus on that. On the other hand, given I still suck so much I might dump single-leg altogether and just focus on double leg for awhile 

Next day I foolishly did a 4km charity run - OK except it was on asphalt so it gave me some mild shin splint pain. Felt good enough to jump after I iced them a bit so got some jumps in that afternoon. Feel pretty good today considering but decided to take a rest day to let my legs heal a bit.

Quote from: acole14 on May 09, 2012, 06:59:45 am

Quote from: Mutumbo000 on May 09, 2012, 03:39:00 am

Thanks for the advice!
I'd never consider doing smolov though coz i'm defs nowhere near smolov level. Even if i was I've got rugby 3x a week so I wouldn't be able to do it. I looked up the texas method- http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_texas_method
It seems like a good program but the trouble is I always feel shit on Mondays so I don't think I'd be able to handle that volume, and than on Friday it's probs not the best idea to max out coz I got games on Saturdays. I'll do that program in the off-season though because I like the look of it. When i was searching for Texas Method I came across this othr program called Madcows.
http://stronglifts.com/madcow-5x5-training-programs/
I'm going to incorporate Madcows into my training. I'll probs modify it a bit but I like the theory behind it of squatting 3x a week but having 1 of those days as like a recovery day and than still getting a 5lb weight increase a week. But yeh ultimately I just want to get my squat from the 1.5x region up into the 2x region.

Yeah madcows is another one. I reckon that could work for you if you were to do it. I've looked at those programs and yeah they're difficult to fit into your regular sporting life (unless your sport is powerlifting lol). Smolov is just ridiculous. Any program that starts with 3 consecutive days of squats is gonna be bloody hard.

But yeah once you get to 2-2.5x I think you'll see a big increase in your SVJ because it's mostly a strength jump. From memory I was at prob 26-27'' (or less even) before starting (couldn't get close to rim standing), but then when I started squatting heavy it got to around 29'', then consistently 31'' when I got to 140kgs for reps, now ~33'' max. So if you're at around 30'' now, then you could put quite a few inches on when you get up to 2x.

Yeh with smolov I don't see the point of anybody doing it unless their weightlifters or powerlifters. Well I guess also if somebody is an experienced lifter who's facing a massive plateau haha. With madcows I'd follow it exactly how it's templated except instead of working up to max set I'd work down from a max set after warming up but still keep the same amount of volume if that makes sense. I also wouldn't follow any of the assistance stuff coz i don't really need it atm since all I'm focussing on is bench and squat and my bench is actually going fairly well.
I'm not even at 30" SVJ yet lol I'm still only at around 28" but I can grab rim off SVJ coz I got 7'10 standing reach at 5'11. To increase my SVJ up 5 inches to like 33" I think i'd probably need at least another 50lbs on my squat while staying at the same bodyweight. Only 1 way to find out though

Sounds good mate, get after it!

Gym

Calf raise: 1x20@70kgs, 1x20@110kgs, 1x20@140kgs, 1x20@150kgs  

Clean:1x5@50kgs, 1x6@60kgs, 1x6@70kgs   (even though it's still pretty crap)

Max SVJs: 2x6

Pull-ups: 3x10

DB shoulder press: 3x10-12@30kgs

Core (planks, leg raises with med ball), foam roll, stretch

Edit: Oh and when I've been writing clean I mean power clean (start on ground then catch above parallel, maybe 1/4-1/2 squat max)

Quote from: acole14 on May 07, 2012, 06:06:14 am

Gym:

Foam rolling warmup, light UB stuff

Squat: 2x8@70kgs, 1x@6-7@110kgs, 1x6@130kgs

GHR: 2x10@25kgs, 2x10@35kgs

Jump squats: 2x8@20kgs, 2x8@30kgs

SVJs: 2x6

Foam roll/stretch

Low volume squats today, just one heavy set, felt fresh enough to do some extra jump squats and SVJs (found a good spot in the gym to do them).

Lol 130 lightweight for you man. You do sets with 160 for reps so 130 isn't heavy. I wish 130 felt light for me instead it's like close to my 1RM. How long did it take you to squat as much as you do?

Haha yeah I guess, it just felt heavy because I haven't squatted above that since I hurt my leg a couple of weeks ago; I've probably lost a bit of top-end strength, plus my hips are still bothering me a bit. It's taken me ages to get to that level though, I started squatting about two months or so (can't remember exactly) before I starting journaling and was pretty much at your current level, just getting around 1.5xBW. I got some beginner's gains to get me up around 140kgs for reps, then I plateaued for a few months, and only in the last few have I got it higher. I've gone up and down with it for sure, but I guess it's like that with lifts unless you fully commit to raising it, maybe by using Smolov or Texas method or some crazy program like that.

So yeah I guess what I'm saying i don't stress too much about your numbers because so long as you're consistently lifting and trying to PR (+eating right), they should go up. If you really want to boost them up think about doing Smolov jr or a similar squat-specific program. But you gotta decide whether it's a goal you want (or need) to go for.

Gym:

Foam rolling warmup, light UB stuff

Squat: 2x8@70kgs, 1x@6-7@110kgs, 1x6@130kgs

GHR: 2x10@25kgs, 2x10@35kgs

Jump squats: 2x8@20kgs, 2x8@30kgs

SVJs: 2x6

Foam roll/stretch

Low volume squats today, just one heavy set, felt fresh enough to do some extra jump squats and SVJs (found a good spot in the gym to do them).

Track:

Warmup

Bounds: LRLRx3x30m

DL bounds: 2x8,10

I had a game of soccer beforehand in whcih I played basically the whole game. Good for lots of sprinting but I was pretty stuffed, I took a video of my bounds but had no energy so they weren't as good as a few days ago: crap dorsiflexion and just couldn't hold them very long. Next session will be better.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vt9P2zj024" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vt9P2zj024</a>

How has your dorsiflexion been improving in the bounds so far?

Have you been doing any direct glute strength exercises? Like Lance's glute iso hold, hip thrusts, KB swings, even dumbbell vertical back BSSs or straight leg deadlifts (more on the hamstring side here, but still no quad involved)?

I'm planning to do moderate to high volumes of glute dominated exercises every day and see how my quad dominance reduces.

I think they are maybe a little better. I'm making a conscious effort to focus on dorsiflexion during warmups. I'm definitely holding the bound longer by keeping my foot extended and not worrying so much about the increased force on landing. Plus I've had no pain or anything after doing them now. I'll film my next session so you can see.

I haven't been doing glute-only strength exercises as such. I sometimes do some glute bridges before squatting and get a good burn in the glutes from lunges and squats, as well as sprints. But yeah maybe I should throw a glute exercise in 1-2x a week and see how that helps.