Adarq.org

Primetimes:

Make sure you are starting from a dead stop.  No running in AT ALL.  Start from a standstill. 

At first, each ground contact will make you barely move.  As you keep going, each bound should start taking you farther/higher and farther/higher until you reach your max potential.

You should feel the glutes working.  If the glutes are not working, it most likely means the hamstrings are too weak and your collapsing at the knee.  It may not seem like it at all in real life, but in a slow mo video you'll see it.  A small degree of knee flexion turns the movement quad dominant.

If you can't get to your glutes from the beginning progression, doing certain stuff prior to primetimes to potentiate it is ideal.  Sprints work well.  Make sure throughout the primetimes, you are engaging your low abs hard, to keep pelvic position neutral

I start my primetimes from a dead stop. I can feel the glutes firing but during the end of the stance phase (the end of the concentric contraction of the glutes), not really during the initial ground contact. I'm getting pretty far on each step, but not very high at all. I have the same issue with my Alt. bounds. I'll do some sprints to potentiate the movement next time. I am not sure if I am keeping the pelvis neutral, but i'll focus on that. With alt.bounds though, my pelvis is definitely not neutral, should I be focusing on keeping it neutral during alt. bounds too?

1/18 (cont.)

>90degree banded hip flexor iso: 3x30secs each leg

30 minutes 3-step SLRVJ. Only managed to hit 27" twice, and strangely enough it was after I moved my initial starting position about 3 feet back from when I previously did these. My hip is collapsing a lot. I'm pretty sure by unstable SI joint has something to do with my very poor SLRVJ performance.

2x 20m sprint, some SL hip thrusts between jumps

1/19
weight: 178  really have to diet more seriously

wake-up MEBM squat: 225x5, 225x20

+6 hours

SI resets x3

parallel squat (3RM attempt):
215x5, 235x3, 245x3, 265x3, 280x3, 290x3, 300x3, 305x3, 310x3? 

So 305x3 was pretty easy, but I took a bit of a stumble on the last rep of 310.. I lifted the weight up all the way but I dunno if it counts..
Also, I took maybe a 5 second break between reps 2 and 3. Regardless, 305x3 is still a PR! Cranked my back a little so I couldn't do the rest of the workout..

Chest press: 200 2x8, 210x6

Why are you doing those?  Primetimes are alternating leg... LRLRLRLR.  Stiff legged single leg bounding continuously on the same leg (LLLLL or RRRRR) is very intense and you are not at that level yet.  Master primetimes slow, then master them with more speed, until you master them with a running approach that's fairly fast THEN you can try continuously doing them on the same leg. 

You are collapsing at the knee.  Recording videos is always good, but with these exercises it's very easy to 90% tell by yourself with accuracy if you're benefiting from them -> by noticing if you are feeling the glutes do the work.  If you are not feeling them in the glutes, it's fairly accurate to say you are collapsing at the knee and turning them into a knee extension exercise. 

Most people don't even get to stiff legged LLLLL or RRRR bounds.  Primetimes (LRLRLR) is sufficient for many to get their hamstrings ready and do proper sl bounds and then just progress the sl bounds to progress their sl jumps/sprints.

Wooooooow. I had no idea that I was supposed to do alternating legs. I did them like this last time too. No wonder my hamstring is fucked up. Shit.
I thought these weren't as high intensity because I was getting very little distance with them.

edit: looked over earlier posts and saw that you indeed wrote alternating legs..My bad. Should have read a little more carefully.

I dont like his 20 sec iso hold at the top neither but his other exercise where you just do weighted standing knee raises and hold the top for 2-3 seconds ifor 8-10 reps is what worked for me in the past to conpletely rid my groin pain during sprinting. These exercises are not necessarily slow twitch. If youre using proper intensity to be challenging for 20-30 seconds, its still max strength and not endurance. You dont call 30 sec weighted planks slow twitch do you just cause theyre an iso? If bodyweight is too easy, just add weight to the iso hold for hip flexors.

Hanging or captains chair knee/leg raises work well too focusing on getting the thigh above parallel. If ur gym has cable machines with an attachment that can be hooked onto ur foot, u can do cable knee drives. Look em up on youtube.

Yeah I'll add in some hip flexor stuff on my dynamic weight room day. I'll try out everything and see what I like best.

If youre using proper intensity to be challenging for 20-30 seconds, its still max strength and not endurance. You dont call 30 sec weighted planks slow twitch do you just cause theyre an iso?

These next few paragraphs are overly theoretical, i'm probably wrong about everything.

I honestly am not so sure i agree with you about this. 30 seconds is a long time. I have never done weighted planks where i collapsed under 25 seconds, but if I tried to do a weighted plank where I collapsed at 10 seconds, the weight would probably be A LOT higher than a plank where I collapsed at 25 seconds. That's the sort of exercise i could see as max strength. But it's really difficult to load up a plank to that extent without the plates sliding off each other.

I think iso's are even worse for max strength because the same fibers are being trained. In a concentric or eccentric movement, the joint angle changes, which means that different clusters of muscle fibers are being trained. At the top of a squat, there might be more lower quadricep activation, at the bottom of a squat there might be more upper quad fibers activated or whatever. But in an iso movement, the joint angle doesn't change, so the same fibers are being trained, IMO this leads more towards slow twitch.

Anyway this discussion is more about IIB(X) fibers, which have few mitochondria, fire fast, and recover very slowly. These types of fibers are used at high intensity power output. I think the type of muscle fibers that would be most beneficial for hip flexors would be IIA, because they are best adapted for fast, repetitive, low intensity movement, which is the way I see the swing phase in running. Apparently bodybuilders have a high amount of these fibers. Almost all the information from this last paragraph is from Supertraining by Verk.

So, IMO, for hip flexors iso's would be ok, but i dunno about other muscles.

1/16
BW:176

20 min jog

SL-RDL (L,R): 135x5, 155x4,5 (failed one on the left leg..what the fuck), 135x5, 155x5

DL con, SL ecc calf raises (2 min breaks): 135x5, 225x5x2, 205x5x2

Squat (3min breaks): 245x5, 265x4x5, 275x5, 285x5
5RM PR, 5x5 PR

Eccentric adductor raises: 90secsx3,
Si reset circuit: x3

You don't fix it in the jump itself.  The jump itself is making mistakes due to specific strength factors that you fix with exercises that specifically address that issue.  For example, getting good at primetimes then sl bounds, really loading up the hips will fix pretty much everything you said.

I understand this, I'm just trying to figure out exactly what I need to work on to fix these issues, and to what extent knee and hip collapse are problematic. I only did a few jumps with no knee bend, to see what would happen. 95% of the jumps I did what felt natural.

I recommend doing hip dominant stuff before quad dominant stuff.  You can do all the hip dominant stuff you want, and then do depth jumps and still do them with optimal firing patterns.  Doing quad dominant stuff will have a larger post-exercise impact on firing patterns IMO.

I recommend doing some glute activation + sprints before doing primetimes. 

Also, again as mentioned before, don't think TOO much about keeping a straight as a leg as possible.  The knee should never really be completely locked.  It will be VERY MINORLY bent but it's about initiating all movement from the hips.  Flexing the hips up explosively, then extending them down explosively.  Did you feel it in the glutes when doing these?  If not, make sure to adjust the intensity so you are getting the proper benefits. For example, don't use a running start until you master it without a running start

I see your point about doing glute-dominant stuff before quad-dominant.

I'll do glute activation before primetimes, but what do you think about doing glute activation before SLRVJ's? I know it will help me jump higher in the short term, but I'm not sure if it will carry over to regular SLRVJ's done without prior glute activation.

I did feel the primetimes in the glutes, although not as much as I would have liked. I didn't do any of these with a running start.

i agree with merrick again, only thing i'll add is about ultimate: of course improving SLRVJ will help. skying for a catch or D (and always catch your Ds, of course) is always going to be quicker and easier off one leg, and if you can improve your efficiency at getting up off one it can only help. it's weird to even think about DLRVJ to high-point a disc in a game, outside of a "500" situation on a huck where everyone is slowing down into a clump. that happens, of course, and you're tall so i imagine people go to you deep on the regular, but much more often you're going to be trying to sky one on one, or on a swing that gets away from the throw, or something like that.

also, this is voodoo that i have no scientific basis for so take it with a grain of salt, but improving your SLRVJ will also improve your layouts, which of course are basically always SL because they are almost by definition done out of a full sprint.

if i ever go back to ultimate, i'd switch away from focusing on DLRVJ toward sprints and bounds, agility, and SLRVJ, in that order.

For me, getting a DLRVJ off in stride is easier and more guaranteed than an SLRVJ. I have a history of being really uncoordinated when it comes to the SLRVJ: I get the stride lengths/speeds mixed up, and I either end up putting out a 20" SLRVJ which is generally not good for anything or unexpectedly having to jump off my off-leg or out of an awkward position.

Also, I think bounding probably has a crazy carryover to layouts.. Both movements are heavily reliant on tendon stiffness and they both have a focus on horizontal movement.

I'm using my offseason to lift so I can do more Ultimate specific work during the season. I wish I could focus my efforts on sprints, but it's just not possible with my groin. I dunno about agility.. IMO ladder work is not specific enough to have a great carryover to ultimate. Also, I would add aerobic endurance as one of the first important things in my training list.

1/15
BW: 176.6
injury: groin a bit

SIJ resetsx3, eccentric adductor raises x90sx3: If I do SIJ resets a certain way, my groin pain disappears completely for some time

22 minutes at 8:00 mile pace. 2.75 miles

dynamic pull throughs: worked up to 180x8 (8 total sets)

hang power clean: 135x5, 145x5, 155x3, 165x3(losing form), 145x5x3

jump squats: 45x5, 95x5x5

Your SL jumps:

1) Rest between jumps more as mentioned before.  You don't need the recommended 45 seconds as I don't like it neither because you start thinking too much, don't stay warm, etc... but AT LEAST 25~30 seconds.

2) You running in for nothing.  You're decelerating at the end pretty bad and that pretty much negates all the steps before it. 

3) Whether it's weak hamstrings or weak quads or weak ankles or whatever, you are collapsing in the plant at the knee (most likely weak hams).  IMO you will only be reinforcing negative movement patterns this way if you keep doing them.  I'm sure you're not feeling the jumps in your glutes right?

4) IMO the solution lies in the same method as double leg jumps.  Start with a shorter approach.  Do a 3 step jump.  At first, do not worry so much about getting as high as possible, because you need to develop the rhythm to accelerate on each step.  Go slow- fast- faster.  Keep practicing those 3 steps.  That'll set up the penultimate step properly where you ae ACCELERATING into the plant unlike you are doing now.

SLOW- FAST - FASTER / rest ~30 seconds between jumps.  With the amount you currently rest, you're jumping in a fatigued state and increasing the chances of collapsing at the knee.

Once you get those 3 steps down in a smooth fashion where you are accelerating with each step and don't have to think about it, you can start adding in steps.  Just add 1 step at a time (basically t0dddays method), only adding steps if you are capable.  Eventually you might be using a 5 step running approach, or a 10 step, but everyone has a different ideal amount.  No one will eventually end up using 30 steps or anything like that lol so don't stress it if you aren't getting higher from adding steps once you get to 5+ steps.

I'll definitely rest more, I hadn't read your earlier post when I did these jumps. No I'm not really feeling the jumps in the glutes. Incidentally, I hit my previous PR by doing SL hip thrusts between SLRVJ sets, which probably means there's an activation problem there.

I'll focus on getting the 3-step approach down and strengthening the hams.

Yeah, pretty much a super basic homemade vertec in my backyard lol. I can adjust it from 20"-50"

1/12
BW: 173.6 PR
Injury: groin a little bit
SWDC: lots of .05's and a .04 which is good for me

Because of the bodyweight PR and the great SWDC time, decided to go for a SLRVJ PR

SLRVJ (R)- hit 27" once in the first set, after that couldn't even hit 26". reaaal bad 

-Throwing for 45 minutes

Daily SI circuit:
-SI joint reset cycle x3
-Eccentric adductor raises 90secs x3

Superset x3:
--Bird Dog Plank x45-60secs each side
--Banded Clams x10 each side
--Glute Bridge 320, 340, 380 x10 I'm out of weights and these are still not too difficult

Clean pull:
135x5, 155x5,3
back felt funny right around the area where I have injured it 3 times, so I bailed on the rest of these and jump squats. I'm likely hyperextending it

Is there some kind of SLRVJ progression like the t0ddday method for DLRVJ or anything like cues I can use to work on SLRVJ technique? I'm thinking about doing only SLRVJ for the rest of this block.  I'll upload a vid of my jumps with my next post, my laptop is currently being uncooperative

Nice!

What was your previous PR? 29"?

Also 20g creatine?  You don't need to do the "loading phase", just take 5g a day.

What are kneeling 10lb plate tosses?  Are you throwing plates around?!?!

Yeah, I hit 29" for the first time ~3 months ago. Ok, I'll take 5g from now on. I don't have a med ball so I just used a 10lb plate instead. These are the dynamic hip extensions that T0ddday posted about in LBSS journal.

edit: Apparently I hit 29" back in May. Damn, time really flies.