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451
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: November 30, 2013, 06:31:47 am »
Played 3 on 3 basketball for 2 hours. I probably shouldn't have and got some rest instead. Felt good for the most part. I did find myself wishing to be quicker though, i couldn't shake off defenders or keep up on defense. Squatting probably doesn't do anything for the ability to move side to side quickly huh? I had a chance for a dunk but i didn't have the hops to do it. Going to rest and recover now and get ready for week 6.

Bodyweight: 94.5kg 

452
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W5D3
« on: November 29, 2013, 07:33:59 am »
Training
FS 1x130
BS 6x2x120
BP 3x92.5 (PR)

FS notes:
I wasn't super tempted to go for a PR today. I am weary of injury for what would have been a meaningless PR today. On another day the PR would be worth more, say once i've wrapped up RSR.

BS notes:
Just the rx.

BP notes:
I can't understand how i've been easing off bp big time due to injury, and then i can go in and do a heavy PR set just like that.


5 weeks down, just 1 left! Only one hard workout left, monday's. Then testing a new max on friday.

453
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: November 27, 2013, 10:21:54 am »
Just came back from jumping. Had let 2 hours go since squatting but I had to wait home before I cud go out and jump. Got it in rushedly but amazing session. I started off very rusty. MY svjs were weak and wack. RVJ were amazing. I was dunking as strong and smoothly as I could remember back when I was a lightweight. Felt so good. I could have become that explosive guy i wanted to be, who could do a powerful jam off a coupla steps, albeit now i weigh a man size ~100kg. Imagine that, me dunking at ~100kg. I'm not supposed to be able to do this shit. Sure i'm not in danger of doing a windmill at a bodyweight of 260lb like our Chris Hickson. I'm never gonna be that strong etc. But i've got closer right now that i ever imagined.

Can't wait to see my abs again   :ibjumping: :ibsquatting:

454
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: November 27, 2013, 09:03:05 am »
obviously those things are true and being lighter is easier on your joints. i'm just recommending that you treat weight loss almost as a side benefit of getting in shape, rather than focusing on weight loss as an end goal. shift focus to conditioning (and may i add: sport-specific conditioning) and maybe do some light calorie restriction if you really want to, but don't actively try to lose 20kg this time around. just my two cents.

I get what you're saying. It's just i've seen so many people on the internets who are very overweight and afraid of cutting who fool themselves into thinking they can get fat loss  thru training alone without actually doing the hard work on the food side of the equation. But I know what you are describing is true to a certain extent. Anytime you add in conditioning when you haven't been doing it, say thru playing ball, then you'll lose SOME bodyfat from the addition of that extra activity and/or the special role of conditioning. And since I have been doing zero conditioning that's going to be even more true for me. So i accept that and agree. But I also know that if i'm 10-20kg overweight (say from 10% bodyfat) then i def will have to do a lot of dieting to get down to my desired level of leanness.

But i'll do something different this time and i'll take your advice for a change and TOTALLY allow my body comp changes to come from playing ball and in training for ball. I think if I can get down to around 15% bodyfat without actively obsessively dieting then i'll spare myself and everyone around here a lot of annoyance of being that dieting guy. Lets give it a shot. See where it takes me.

Maybe you have never been really lean... but all those symptoms you mention (and more) come right back when you get really really lean.  Leaning down to under 5% makes me feel like I have a cold and everything starts to hurt.  You will REALLY miss the lack of fat when you land on your tailbone on the basketball court.   You might jump higher; but for a contact sport I would be cautious about cutting too much fat.  Especially preseason.  It will go away during season a bit anyway.   You have added appreciable muscle (hopefully) since the last time you cut to 75kg....  Trying to get your weight down close to there again might result in some levels of leanness that you just don't want.   

I think i'd never get that low bodyfat without using a lot of drugs. I just dont have that sort of metabolism. Plus i'm old now, 30 years old. 5% now is nuts. I'm just after 10% or so. And if you're thinking how is this guy 6'3" talking about getting down to 75kg again and not being some ridiculous low bodyfat level, it's because we saw last time that i wasn't THAT lean at 165lb. I hadn't even started to getting rid of stubborn bodyfat around my chest and  lower back. I didn't have a full six pac. This time around it might be different cause i've gained some mass (hopefully) but you never know until you actually get there and see.

Btw last time i was cutting, i actually achieved my best vertical jump at around 83kg. My lifts then were very low in comparison to what they are now. As in what was a 1RM then is an easy warmup now. So hopefully around 85kg i'll actually be pretty lean and athletic. I have gained some mass in my legs, they aren't as stick like as before. But i know from experience everyone thinks they're big and strong after a bulk, and it takes the cold reality of a cut to see the truth once all is said and done.

Being under 5% to play basketball  :o that's insane. Personally I feel a million times better playing at ~180-5lbs ~10-12% bf as opposed to 210-215lbs ~18% bf, man that was a bad time.

Yep! Same here. Btw awesome work with the cut, very impressive results brother.

Anyway i'll take LBSS advice. Let me wrap up RSR next week and then we're going head first into bball training mode!!!

455
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W5D2
« on: November 27, 2013, 08:37:56 am »
Training
FS 1x132.5
BS 1x152.5 (PR), 2x142.5 (PR), 3x1x142.5 
JUMPZ 8xSVJ, 8xRVJ, 10xRVJ (total jumps 26)

FS notes:
Felt real strong on front squats today. I really wish I could have gone for a PR today :( but I had to save myself for the challenging RSR worksets. The remarkable thing is that 132.5kg was done after a 125kg warmup which was nice and easy up from a double of 110kg. Which is to say, i was primed for a front squat PR today but alas I could not attempt one for fear of ruining my backsquats!

BS notes:
The good news is I got the 152.5kg PR more or less as a matter of course but perhaps it cost me the chance to get a bunch of doubles with 142.5kg as I planned. I wanted to get 4 doubles which would equal 8 reps just 1 rep short of the rx, and if you add in the heavy max single that would make 9 reps total as rx (3x3x142.5). I ended up doing a total of 6 reps, 3 short. I was totally spent by that last single so I didn't attempt any more. I could have done backoff sets but everything felt so heavy I just didn't feel like it, esp knowing I have to go out and jump later tonight.

The fact I did less volume than planned, and without any good mornings, I feel means i'll be able to attempt a heavy front squat on light day friday. Maybe even a PR set of 5 or 3, i will see how it goes, if my back feels nice and fresh i'll do so otherwise no drama stick to the light sets as RX.


456
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: November 25, 2013, 09:40:10 am »
I totally agree with you. You can play at any bodyweight (PAES) lol. But in my experience the body takes a far greater beating playing at a high bodyweight. Joints, ankles and knees especially take a huge pounding. Knees start to ache, ankles start to break. Spine gets shaken up too. Risk of injuries goes way up. Last summer when i was a lightweight (@165lb) i was pretty much unfit and yet i could play a full court game without much loss of performance. Actually that's not fully true, i had to pick and choose whether to play good D or O but the point is i could just depend on my low bodyweight to make up for my lack of fitness. But that's not something I want for this summer. I need to be properly fit -- regardless of playign bodyweight. Ideally i'll have low bodyfat and superb fitness, regardless of my eventual bodyweight whether it is 75kg or 85kg -- which one it is remains to be seen.

457
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W5D1
« on: November 25, 2013, 08:15:57 am »
Training
FS 1x120
BS 6x2x120

FS notes:
My form was abysmal, really really bad. I think due to mobility or something. I ran my usual mob sequence, maybe i could have done a bit more but I am at a loss why form can be good one day and terrible another day.

BS notes:
Quite challenging from set 1 thru to 6. Not what you want for a light day. These workouts are becoming quite hard to recover from, not what i expected for such low volume. But at least I got thru it today unlike the last light day when a warmup of 120kg was a 1RM and I had to end the light workout early during warmups.

Not doing any upper body work today, i need all my recovery resources to go to my legs, buttocks and lower back to get thru the next heavy session.

458
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W4D3
« on: November 23, 2013, 06:56:12 am »
Training
FS 1x130
BS 1x147.5 (PR), 6x2x135 (PR)
JUMPZ 7xSVJ, 7xRVJ
BP 4x90

FS notes:
Didn't have any pop on that 130, which meant once again i wasn't explosive/athletic today.

BS notes:
RX was 4x4x135, but if I forced that i would have good morning'd the last 2 reps on on the first sets and definitely all of them by the 4th set and this would have made me useless for another week or so while my lower back recovered. So i made the decision to adapt the program to myself and did 6x2x135 instead. This meant I got the majority of the volume done, and stuck to the 6 sets thing i've been doing so far, which I really like. It does mean I was 3 reps short (inclusive of the 147.5kg rep). But i figure if you add in the fatigue from the FS set and the BS max that it evens out. I def could have forced another 2 sets but at the cost of lower back fatigue. So the upshot of this is that by wednesday I should be good to go for the next heavy day.

Ok i'm really hyped right now. I'm gonna do some jumps. So glad I did 135kg workout today and not yesterday or monday, it was the right decision. Yesterday i wasn't fully recovered. Monday i would have fallen behind on the RSR schedule. This way I maintain the schedule, made allowance for my recovery needs and feel good physically and mentally which is the best part.

JUMPZ notes:
I started off really badly. I couldn't land a single SVJ dunk. Which made me sad. But then I remembered to make rigid my core, and then I finally got one.  And then another. That made me happier. RVJ came next, had to rush thru them quickly cause it had started raining. I was dunking them pretty well once i made sure to speed up my approach.

Came home and weighed myself just to check what i was - and lo and behold the scale said 95kg!!!!!!!!! Lol. The last time i weighed myself i was around 92. Did i really gain 3kg of bodyfat in less than a week? I'm gonna say what every fat lifter says, "just bloated brah" but it is worrying me a little. I was ok being around 90kg, even up to 92kg but 95? That's not good. It means i'm 20kg overweight and with so little time left til the bball tournament, i'm quite concerned. But the good news is that i'm not far from finishing this program, just 2 more hard workouts left. And they're not volume ones so i dont need to eat much if at all. I won't start cutting til i'm done with the last session but it does mean i'll start watching my diet a lot sooner than i anticipated.

BP notes:
Thought to try a heavy day for a change, i hope it doesn't aggravate my chest injury again. But it felt good, strong. Next time i'll go for 5 reps to equal my previous PR!


Good news is I can dunk more or less the same as I could before but now i am 20kg overweight. So my strength has def gone up with bodyweight. Bad news is this is cutting it very fine for getting in shape for the bball tournament. I dont think i'll get down to 75kg by then, but i can realistically aim to be sub 80kg maybe even close to 75kg if I eat clean for the next 145 days straight. I can do that, i have the discipline. I just wanna make sure i've done enough to get a double bodyweight fronty by then.

update: The next morning my bodyweight is 93.6kg. Which is still too high but i can live with it for the moment. I am obviously fat but I don't think I look that fat. Maybe i've gained a decent amount of lean mass. Otoh could just be water more than muscle. and fat too. Will  know what's up when cutting.

459
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W4D2
« on: November 21, 2013, 08:43:29 pm »
Training
FS 1x120
BS 1x120

FS notes:
Ugliest 120kg i've done in a long time.

BS notes:
If FS was bad, BS was 3x as bad.


So for the first time on RSR I failed to get thru the LIGHT session of 6x2x120 which had become a cakewalk. Lower back was the weak link. It hadn't recovered from monday's 5x5x127.5kg death by squat morning.

On friday do i go ahead and attempt the scheduled 4x4x135 or repeat wednesdays 6x2x120 and delay the 4x4 til monday? I dunno.

460
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- W4D1
« on: November 18, 2013, 12:35:53 am »
Training
FS 1x130
BS 1x142.5 (PR), 5x5x127.5 (PR)
JUMPZ 18 total
 
Salient workout notes:
Going into the workuot with < 5 hours of sleep. Taking 200mg of caffeine only. My rate coding is close to nil right now. I feel like a pussy and haven't got an ounce of aggressiveness in me right now. I think i might be in love :s I tried to psyche myself up by listening to some youtube videos but it didn't really work.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoZwMZhc4RE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoZwMZhc4RE</a>

FS notes:
If the FS is a measure of how powerful I am on a given day then today I was a 2/10. Even warmups were hard. I struggled with the 130. This is not a good sign for THE HARDEST MOTHERFUCKING SQUAT SESSION OF THIS WHOLE PROGRAM!.

BS notes:
Was to do 140kg as a hot-up for the 5x5 workset but I thought to go for the PR of 142.5 just to make it a nice 15kg difference with the worksets. Btw this was a really heavy rep.

Then onto to 5x5x127.5, From the first rep to the last this was a hard workout. I was too weak and not ready for the toughest challenge of the RSR. I hella good morning the shit out of the last rep from set 2 onwards. By set 5 i was doing mostly good mornings. But I got it done.

Anyway I think i'll go do some jumps now, just to see where my vertical is at right now. I haven't jumped in over a month (partially from reading KF post and reminding myself that squats+jumps did a lot of good for me so I should go back to it.
Jump notes:
I would have to look it up but that was the first time I jumped in over a month (!). It was probably the worst jump session i can remember in a long time. I landed like 3 SVJ dunks and i think maybe 2-3 RVJ ones. Which is to say this was a very mediocre session.

I don't need to do as much jump volume as did today. Next time i'll do 10 reps, and taper off jump volume with RSR.

461
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / chasing athleticism -- RSR-W3D3
« on: November 16, 2013, 07:30:10 am »
Training
FS 1x130
BS 6x2x120

FS notes:
No sleep + zero caffeine => really tough front squats. ALL warmups were challenging :o I almost fainted holding 147.5kg, had this banging/ringing sensation thru my skull, so weird. It did make 132.5kg feel lighter on the rack, but i couldn't get it up. Get it up, haha.

BS notes:
Ok. Form was satisfactory.

Progress Summary:
Halfway thru this thing..


Next workout will be the hardest of the whole program. Bring it on. All i need now is 2 good nights of sleep. I haven't slept properly since tuesday. And not at all since the last workout :/ I get about 4-5 hours a night, brokenly, if that, just don't seem to be able to sleep. nNext up is - 5x5x127.5 -- i'm not really worried for some reason, i think after getting 6x6x120, my confidence has accumulated. Form is good right now too.


462
None of these guys are in valgus. Knee-in action to initiate the concentric is NOT VALGUS COLLAPSE. It's a controlled push of the knees inwards to recruit leg musculature and improve leverage.

463
You can say whatever you want to say but "efficient" is not the same as "good for safety and muscle building purposes". Maybe if you want to lift the most possible weight and win in your category as a WEIGHTLIFTER (not as an athlete that uses weightlifting to build muscle for his athletic endeavors) then yeah, you can go overboard with "efficient" and "unsafe" technique.

Looking at it the wrong way. If this technique is fundamentally sound enough for other men to lift extremely heavy weights safely then maybe it's good enough for the rest of us with our more modest loads. But you're completely off the mark this time. This method of lifting recruits more LEG musculature - these guys have very strong quads and highly defined VMOs. This is what we look for when training for athleticism!

Quote
Would a guy trying to win his powerlifting event risk pulling with a bent back on a deadlift his final attempt? You bet he would. Would he be smart to try to do that continuously every day he trains? I don't think so.

Why are you muddling the issue by introducing deadlifts? Round back deadlifts have a place in training, as do straight back ones. They're a tool whose use depends on the needs of the lifter. Off topic, let us stick to squats.

Quote
Same here. Yes they will go to their max and allow the knees to cave in if that means winning the competition etc.

pls go. you're being an idiot. Go and try it out and see how you feel about it, even if it's with the empty bar. Get a tendo unit, see if it gives you more bar speed. Explore it, dont apriori reject it out of dogma because some asshole who came out of crossfit wrote a book saying you must saying you must keep knees out.

Quote
And no, just because 200 kg is their 60% 1RM is NOT easy for them. It's still very hard, even as a low % of their 1RM. It still might bring up some issues they have in maintaining proper form, even as elite as they are.

nah, they're pro weightlifters they have the best form going around, they live and breathe this shit. revise your theory that they don't care about technique when doign these heavy lifts and reconsider that maybe they have to lift that way to move such heavy weights out of necessity and efficiency considerations.

edit. I'll just add one last thing on this post. If you lift 60% of 1RM, you have less muscle recruitment than if you were lifting 90% of 1RM. Maximum muscle recruitment happens at 100% of 1RM. Or when you are lifting near a RM for a given percentage of 1RM. So an 8RM has near enough 100% muscular recruitment as you get closer to rep 8.

Now what does this mean for our knee-in vs knee-out discussion? It is when the lifter requires 100% of muscular recruitment, especially of the legs and VMOs that's what knee-in gives you out of the bottom of a squat, that extra kick to initiate the ascent of the squat. And this is why you see an exaggerated knee-in action on those limit weights (for reps or max), because you must recruit more muscle than at 60% when you can relax the need to recruit as much muscle.

464
Yeah but you're taking extreme examples of maximal lifts and making them look like they're picture perfect. That's like taking my max deadlift attempt and say "look at this guy: he deadlifts his max with his back bent so therefore a bent back should be the proper form".

The reason i'm using limit attempts (for the most part) is because that's when you see the true form under heavy load. For these guys the form for a few reps of 200kg is like 60kg for us mere mortals, utterly trivial, they can do those with any form they please EVEN SUBOTOPTIMAL KNEES OUT FORM. But to observe their true form under stress you have to look at limit reps/weights. Those higher rep sets as reps get slower and more challenging as the set goes on. Or the really heavy PR maxes. That's when you see how they lift with the most efficienct technique.

Quote
They get their knees in because they aren't able to keep them out due to going to their max. If they were able then they'd either lift more or not be at their max.

That's not a valid counterargument. Absence of proof isn't proof of absence.  It's not even a scientific argument because those proponents of knees-out action haven't tried anything out before proclaiming against the knees-in action. If you had, like many others who have embraced a knee-in action out of the bottom of a squat you'd notice how stronger and more explosive it is instantly. People are getting PRs from the mere change. The fact is the facts dont bear out that theory, if anythign they contradict it. The onyl thing you can conclude from lighter/easier sets where knees can stay out is that it's not challenging enough to warrant more efficient technique. That's all.

465
Russian PL:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRRijTU86aU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRRijTU86aU</a>

Once again, knees-in out of, followed by knees-out to lockout.

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