Adarq.org

^Thanks man. Yup, that's all that is to it, keep pushing hard and gains will keep coming.

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3 November 2016

Bodyweight@session : ???
Soreness : none
Injuries/aches : none

1½ hours full court basketball.
As expected, fitness level is skyrocketing just from not smoking. This is really great. I didn't gas-out at all this time. And i didn't skip any plays either, was chasing/following all fast breaks, playing active role ( off the ball, screens etc ) in all plays. It is amazing, you get to enjoy basketball so much more when you have the lungs for it.
Jumping was horrible though. Did a few rim jumps, total disaster: ~22'' SVJ , 26'' RVJ, barely touching rim, WTF! Ingame was the same thing, didn't get any blocks at all for the first time this season. Rebounding was bleh too. This is VERY demotivating, destroyed the good mood i had from the first paragraph. Training every year all year to jump high and then you get shit like that!
Maybe it was a CNS thing ( maxing out DL previous evening plus a very poor sleep night, 4-9am ). Or maybe i am not recovering well from hitting legs in the gym 3*week. I am leaning towards CNS because everything was a bit off, thinking vs doing had a big lag.
Ok, just a bad bball day, let's not make a drama out of it, see what happens next week.

7 November 2016

Bodyweight@session : ~85,5kg
Soreness : none
Injuries/aches : none

ATG SQUAT:
4@85kg ( +2,5 kg )
7@70kg ( +2,5 kg )
7@70kg ( +2,5 kg )
-Beast, best squat session of the year by far, heaviest AND best form.

BENCH PRESS:
5@70kg
5@70kg  ( +1 rep )
5@70kg
16@55kg
-3x5@70 ties lifetime PR. I was 2-3kg heavier too back then so....   

DEAD-HANG PULLUPS:
10@BW ( +2 reps ) , season best, ties lifetime PR!
7@BW
7@BW  ( +1 rep )
WIDE GRIP LAT PULLDOWN: 17@140lbs
-Beast.

STANDING CALF RAISE MACHINE:
12@BW+65kg  ( +5 kg )
12@BW+65kg  ( +5 kg )
11@BW+65kg  ( +5 kg ) , ( -1 rep )
-Second week on the row adding weight. VERY strict with form/ROM hence the fail at last set.

reach doing 6x1 with current max ( 140 ) and perfect form.

DB SHRUGS:
Z-BAR CURLS
TRICEP PUSHDOWN
C2 ROWER

Didn't do any of those. Instead, figured it would be more beneficial for me at this point to spend the 30 more minutes i had to spare at the gym doing....
FOAM ROLL: IT band, quads, hams, glutes
STATIC STRETCHING : every leg muscle!
-Felt awesome. Sooo much tightness, sooo much pain and sooo much release.
   

 

10 November 2016

Bodyweight@session : ???
Soreness : none
Injuries/aches : none

1½ hours full court basketball.
Very indifferent day. Fitness was good but not better than last time, maybe a bit worse. Legs were looser than recently, so foam roll and stretch does work ( no shit! ), but not loose. Jumping felt a bit better than last time, but it was still bad. My game was bad too, i built my whole game ( offense and defense ) around high jumping all those years. Having a ~10'1'' max touch renders that invalid, so i get demotivated and also kinda useless.

Next day , legs are toasted again, VERY tight. OK, i am tired of this. I am making recovery ( stretch and foam roll ) #1 priority on my training. From now on, It will be OK if i miss a squatting day but it will not be ok if i don't stretch/SMR. DAILY!!! I will try to keep this up till Christmas, see what happens. If legs are still tired/stiff/tight/under-performing by then, i will go to check them at a sports doctor.

Word.

nice.. interested to see how this goes. it's the "psychology" change that'll make the difference.

I personally have just reverted to focusing entirely on my quads (with just a little calf/hamstring).. that seems to give me the best bang-for-my-buck. I have a few weird side effects of stretching my hamstrings: hamstring tendons can get achy or painful, calves can tighten up. Also stretching my calves seems "iffy", sometimes it helps, sometimes it causes problems. So the weird thing is, it seems that stretching my quads seems to be something that "always provides benefit" - it almost seems like a cheat code.. i feel so good when I loosen them up.

so ya I think that's the key, experimenting with several flexibility/recovery techniques and then finding the stuff that provides the MOST benefit.. once we find that, then we can focus more on that, and then just throw in a few other things to be safe.

14 November 2016

Bodyweight@session : ~86,25kg
Soreness : none
Injuries/aches : none

ATG SQUAT:
4@87,5kg ( +2,5 kg ) , season best!
7@72,5kg ( +2,5 kg ) , season best!
7@72,5kg ( +2,5 kg ) , season best!
-Aaaand , top set is now over BW 
Stretching works, legs feel much fresher and stronger. Still tight and buggy but much less. I think if i keep this up i will see a huge difference.

BENCH PRESS:
5@70kg
5@70kg
5@70kg
18@55kg   ( +1 rep ) , high-rep 
-My best benching session EVER!

DEAD-HANG PULLUPS:
9@BW ( -1 reps )
8@BW ( +1 rep )
7@BW
WIDE GRIP LAT PULLDOWN: 17@140lbs
-Total reps for 3 sets tie 
I am at limit strength here. Maybe i should switch my 3xF to weighted and change drop-set from pulldown machine to unweighted pullups ( possibly with less ROM for more reps? ).

STANDING CALF RAISE MACHINE:
12@BW+65kg
12@BW+65kg
12@BW+65kg  ( +1 rep )
-Got my 3x12 but it was tough, gonna keep being ultra strict with ROM and form and add weight when i dominate this one under those circumstances.

RECOVERY : just some quad stretching, like 5 mins total? too little but better than none.

^ A couple statistic notes for this session that i missed.
-All squat sets were season best!
-The 24 total reps of dead-hang pullups ( which i re-did previous week ) tie lifetime PR.

Recovery stuff:
15 November , PM : 15 mins it bands and quads foam rolling , 15-20 mins legs stretching.
16 November , AM : Light dynamic warmup + light quads stretching.

nice!! the stretch-lyfe is working well for you so far, it seems.

the quad-stretch cheat code.. seems real. 

17 November 2016

Bodyweight@session : ???
Soreness : none
Injuries/aches : none

1½ hours full court basketball.
Fitness improved again. If i also worked on it i could bring it to all time best, but i am very close to that even by just not smoking and balling once a week.
Legs much looser. Shit works very good! Felt faster smoother and bouncier. Felt in-game jumping was better, got a couple of blocks after a while and also rebounding was improved.
Then, at the end, although very fatigued, I decided to do a couple of rim jumps just because i felt bouncy. BAM, repeatable 10'5''/30'' , season best, 2016 best, didn't even feel maximal.     

Gotta keep at this recovery priority, just a week and it is already paying off. Still very tight, have a long way to go, but i'll take that road!