Adarq.org

You'll get those numbers. You're a beast at squatting!

oh man that is shitty about your phd funding. 

I was going to go to the gym yesterday to do the 140kgx6 but was just too busy and stressed about next year. Just didn't have the mental energy to even think about attempting it. So I held off until today. I had a few good meetings with people but in the end they told me their labs are full already, so it was kind of a waste of time. Doesn't look like I'll be able to apply for start of next year, probably have to work for another six months then apply mid-year. Not ideal, but it could be worse. I know I will be able to get one with my grades at least, it's just timing and finding the right situation more than anything.

Gym:

Foam roll warmup/stretch

Activation: glute bridges, TKEs, core

Squat: warmup, 2x8@70kgs, 1x6@90kgs, 1x3@130kgs, 1x6@140kgs (+2.5kgs on last week)

KB swings: 4x10@16kgs

Back ext: 2x10@BW, 1x10@12kgs, 1x10@25kgs

Foam roll/stretch after

BW: 85.3kgs

Two out of three done, one more to go for this week. Today felt really easy as well, I was driving up really well with my glutes, could really feel them pushing up the last half of the concentric. You know it's a good rep when the weight plates shake at the top.

I haven't really decided if I will keep going with 3x/week squats for another week. It's worked well so far, I've probably put ~15kgs on my 1RM full squat with a BW gain of about 3-3.5kgs, so that's pretty good (full credit to LanceSTS whose post I derived this little setup from). Plus my hams, glutes and calves have gotten stronger as well from the full squatting and hopefully that will help with avoiding any patellar tendonitis recurrence, which is the main reason I wanted to build those muscles. I don't want to get caught in the trap of focusing on my squat numbers over my vert numbers though, so I'm thinking something like this:

Next 3-4 weeks (while finger heals):

Mon: General sprint workout

Tues: MSEM style squat (do fairly heavy x 6), calves, leg curls+GHR (light)

Thurs: General plyos workout (some bounds and DSVJ/SVJs, no running jumps yet)

Fri: Either the 1x6 or the 4x8-10 (leaning towards the 4x10 for this bit), jump squats, power cleans and RDLs when I can hold the bar properly again

Then when I've done that with no setbacks, do my [2weeksON/1weekOFF] block again with some variations, or maybe the program Raptor made for Nightfly which I liked the look of a lot.

LOL pretty weird... I mean, for your level, I guess 120 kg is like what 100 kg is for me. I'd still be very hard pressed to do 100x4x10 though.

Those 30's were still pretty fast and like you said you weren't wearing spikes so if you were that would've made the difference.

How does the mirror test work? If you can see your abs poking thru the fat does that mean you're not fat? If a barbell falls in an empty gym does it make a sound??

nice job on the 30's.

also, gaining weight = gaining some fat. if the mirror test is still okay and you can still fit in your pants then don't worry about it. you haven't gained THAT much weight, anyway.

Yeah true, only ~4kgs, it's more that it's been fairly rapid (for me anyway). I did some measurements this morning when I woke up:

Weight: ~86kg
Waist (navel): 79cm (still the same)
Neck: 41cm
Hips: 81cm

Est. BF%:

8% - http://tinyurl.com/8ppcppl

8.5% - http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/library/blbodyfatcalculator.htm

8.5% - http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Add on 1-2% because they're online estimates and it's prob 9-10%. So I think I was worrying about nothing. Good to keep track of it though as I start doing more explosive stuff.

Haven't posted in awhile, I did another gym sessions a few days ago (basically same as last time), and took a 5k walk the next day. Woke up and my knee felt sore again, kind of like the first time I felt it when I got a knock playing basketball a few months ago. Figured I might as well get it checked out by the doctor just in case it's something worse. He did the valgus test and a few other tests moving my knee around and, given the lack of pain, he diagnosed a mild sprain (basically what I thought), and that there was no need for surgery or MRI or anything like that (which I figured as well). I told him that I had been doing a lot of full squatting lately but he said it was pretty unlikely that the ligament was being aggravated by squats (he said it's more likely that muscle groups would give out before any damage would be done to ligaments). It was more likely going for a walk, which I don't do very often, stupid to go so far.

He said I could probably just go straight back to sport now but I'm going to be conservative and give it more time. I've still got this stupid mallet finger injury stuffing up my gym sessions atm anyway so I'm just gonna put training on hold until both that and the knee are 100% (prob two weeks max). In the meantime I will try and do what UB and core stuff I can and slowly bring in some assistance exercises when my knee is 100%. Frustrating, but you've gotta be holistic with vert training, otherwise you'll go insane.