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Didn't play ball on Monday night due to back. Our top scorer also didn't play and we were playing the top team (we're 2nd to them on ladder). We got smashed 61-16. Really felt for the guys who played but oh well.

27/08/2013

Back is still bugging me but I thought I'd better get into the gym to get it moving around and get some blood flowing.

Warm up
90/90 hip lift- 3x20s (not sure if these are really helping or not- don't think they're hurting so they'll stay for the moment)
Lunge ISO holds- 30s each leg
rollover into v-sit
yoga warrior 3 pose (don't really know how to describe this movement but osteo recommended)

Circuit- 3x8 with just bar
bent row
high pull
front squat
ohp
good mornings- hammies were super tight and sore so used the GM as a way to loosen and stretch. Worked really well.

Incline press
bar x 8
40 x 8, 8, 8
super conscious of back during these but they felt good. I used a slow tempo with a pause on the chest to reduce any bounce and chance of hurting the back more

BB Curls
3x12@20

Quick stretch and done. Back not feeling too bad and I'm hoping it'll get better as the week goes. I plan to do a few more sessions like this one to keep the body moving.


 

So I've been thinking a lot about where I'm going with all this training stuff. At the end of the day I've been taking 1-2 steps forward and 1-2 steps backwards for the last couple of years. This is all due to training consistency and injuries. I figure if I can put together some consistent training I will hit/exceed all my goals. So the plan is as follows:

- get injury free and try as hard as possible to stay that way through foam rolling/SMR/whatever
- two dedicated non-negotiable days in the gym per week. Day 1 Front Squat and Incline Bench/Day 2 Deadlift and OHP (each day I will do an additional assistance exercise for each lift)
- a third negotiable day in the middle which will be skill based and or maybe to finish with more conditioning stuff. I've been wanting to learn an olympic lift but also do more handstand work and levels and shit. This is the day to do this. Can even turn this day into bis and tris if I really want.
- accept the fact that I will need to do some focused conditioning/cardio/whatever work on a regular basis. As much as I hate it I'm always gassed at various stages of a basketball game. Really no point in having a decent vert if I can't use it 5 minutes into the game. I've always gotten around this cause I'm tall and will still out-rebound/block guys late into a game but really if my hops could hang around for a longer period I'd be a much more dangerous player. Realistically I think I can make good strength/vert gains whilst improving my work capacity/whatever.
- diet will be to facilitate strength gains without being too over the top. From now till Christmas I will use the time to build my strength back up. I then have a 4-6 week break from ball over Christmas which I will use to add some size.

And that's pretty much it. I've sucked pretty hard this year in terms of training. Have taken huge steps backwards but there's still a good 4 months left for me to make a good go of it.

given my training pattern relative to my goals i'm the last person to be telling you this, but if you want to learn handstands or whatever you're better off doing it a little bit at a time, every day. your stamina will suck at the beginning anyway, so you might as well do a whole bunch of little chunks rather than having one day a week where you hate yourself because after 15 minutes you can't do it at all anymore.

Yeah good point. It's something I used to do quite frequently and have been wanting to add in for a while. The same is probably true for the levers and such. I'm probably better off doing small pieces inbetween other exercises rather than on a specific day. You've got me convinced (how easy was that).

Now what do I do on the middle day now? Guns it is!

That fat guy should be playing rugby.
I can't remember ever being fouled out of a game but it must've sucked especially when the fouls are soft. Doesn't help playing without any subs either.

The Program
So here’s what I’m thinking going forward. As I mentioned previously I will have two non-negotiable days for my training. This is where I’ll do the bulk of the lifting that really matters. On the third (middle) day though I can practice things and get some additional work in. I also want to use this day to keep the back squat in the routine with a few singles/doubles/triples. I figure this shouldn’t take too much out of me if I keep the volume pretty low. This additional day I want to keep flexible should I become inspired to try out some new lift/skill/whatever. I have some short term goals too which will pretty much get me back to places that I have been before:

Short Term Goals (by Christmas):
Front Squat- 100 x 5
Incline Press- BW x 6
Chins – 10 continuous reps
Back Squat- 1x130
Deadlift- 3x150
Military Press- 1x70

Day 1- Tuesday
Front Squat- work up to top set of 3-5
Incline Press 3x6-8
Chins 25 reps total
RDL 3x8-12
Windshield Wipers 3x10
BB Complex or Hill Sprints
(complex = row, hang clean, FS, military press, BS, good morning)

Day 2- Thursday
Back Squat- work up to 1-3 sets of 1-3 reps (depending on how feeling on the day). To be heavy but not gut busting slam my head against a wall to get excited heavy
Handstand work
Front Lever work
BB Complex 5x3 (work up to a heavy set of 3 reps)
BB Curls 3x12
Push Ups 3xmax
3km run

Day 3- Saturday/Sunday
Deadlift- work up to a top set of 3-5
BSS 3x8-12
Military Press 3x5
Chins 25 reps total
Windshield Wipers 3x10
BB Complex or Hill Sprints
(complex = row, hang clean, FS, military press, BS, good morning)

As far as the reps go, on the main lifts when I hit the top number I will increase the weight (5kg jumps for everything but military press which will be 2.5kg). When I don’t hit the top number I will stay at that weight till I do. When I reach an appreciable level of strength I will most likely switch to a 531 style of programming for the reps and loading. I don’t think it’s worth it right now but believe I should make some solid progress over the next 3-4 months in the lead up to Christmas to get back to almost where I was before I can implement 531 style then.

I understand that I will not progress as quickly strength wise given the additional cardio/conditioning stuff I am doing but then again I don’t lift huge weights so really I’m sure I can make pretty good progress here. I’m pretty excited about adding in some running and sprints. I don’t think I’ve ever come close to overtraining in my life so I’m not really too worried about putting this in. I actually don’t think I could overtrain on this program. I will just need to pay extra attention to nutrition and recovery.

Recovery: I will aim to do some sort of stretching/SMR/foam rolling every day including pre and post training stuff.

Nutrition: I have been following an IF style of eating. The main problem here is that I get distracted during the day with work and don’t end up eating anything. Then when I get home I just don’t get the time to eat properly meaning some days I get 3,000-4,000 cals and others I get 1,500. I need to make a concerted effort to get around 3,000-3,500 every day. I’m sure this will do wonders for my strength and recovery.   

Plyos: will look at that again once I’m fully healthy and training consistently. I don’t see any need to incorporate just now. Will play it by ear and maybe add some after 6-8 weeks if all is progressing well.

Obviously on top of this I will be playing ball once a week and will probably have a shoot around once a week for 30-45 mins. LBSS had the insight to suggest I do more handstand and lever work throughout the week instead of consolidating it into one day. Originally I was sold and was going to intersperse it in between other lifts. Given my lack of ball skills lately I will actually dedicate this time to getting some ball handling drills in. Something I can quite easily spend a couple of minutes on between sets of the first 1-2 lifts each day. This should provide me with some good practice. I figure any practice is better than all the practice I haven’t been doing at the moment.

I think most of this makes sense. If you’ve got any feedback or think I’m an idiot please feel free to let me know. I’m sure there’s heaps of holes in my programming so would welcome some constructive criticism.

Ball game last night. Lost by 7 points. Another blow to my fitness chances. Hyper-extended my right knee with 2 minutes left in the game. Ridiculous amount of pain but no pops or crackles. Went straight off and iced it when I got home. Not a huge amount of swelling today and can walk pretty well. Some pain when bending it or walking down stairs but only a 5/10 on the pain scale. Fingers crossed some anti-inflams will help me get sorted but I'm not liking my chances of playing next week which is our first final. From the research I've done it looks like a 2-3 week standard even for just a minor hyper-extension.

If anyone else has had something similar please let me know what you did for recovery.

15/09/13

Finally got in the gym again. Compromised training given my knee and back but managed to get something done.

Warm up

RDL
bar x 10
40 x 5
50 x 5
60 x 5, 5, 5

Incline Bench
bar x 10
40 x 5
50 x 5
60 x 5
65 x 5
50 x 10, 10, 7

Chins
Small sets up to 14 reps before back started to nag at me. Am super conscious of the back atm so called it off.

Did some dribbling drills inbetween sets. I'm actually worse than I thought. Don't really notice during a game as most of my dribbling is 1-2 dribbles then a shot. At least the practice should get me somewhere then.