This is gonna be a stream of conciousness because im too much of a perfectionist to write out a proper introduction and itll never get done
Im a Strength and Conditioning student and Rugby League player. 2016 is going to be the most important year of my life academically (I graduate in May), athletically (This is my last season playing for my university side) and in general (moving on with life after uni etc.). Training is the one thing that has always evened me out as a person when things get stressful. Ive always kept a log of my training but since i have no training partners I have nobody to share it with.
I thought the start of 2016 would be a good time to start a log. Having a full years of training to look back on would be cool. Hopefully have some discussion and improve because of it too.
My programning is based around Conjugate Principles. 2 ME days 2 DE days and some conditioning. But alot of it is experimentation. I love what I do as an S+C coach and Im constantly trying out new ideas and methodologies.Note: this set up is liable to change come rugby season.
Not tested maxes for a while wouldnt want to guess butā¦
GOALS
Lifts:
200kg+ Squat
150kg+ Bench
120kg+ Clean
Rugby:
Captain (currently a co-captain but always tryna lead from the front)
Win the league (Gonna be a close one, could come down to points difference!)
Win Varsity Match Against Rivals (Biggest game of the year, fitting way to finish my uni rugby career!)
Ive been playing at centre first half of the season, looking at playing in the back row for the remainder so I put on some size + strength during the winter break.
Nothing else to say really. Doubt anybody has any questions; if you do fire away. (Might format this and make it seem neater later).
So I knew Iād manage to mess something up. I forgot to specify all weights being used are in KG. Iāll add it in somewhere on the first post after some slight reformatting (new layout has fucked with my posts for some reason).
Had to do my usual DE Upper and conditioning work session over 2 days due to time constraints and studying (got some exams coming up in about a week). Meant that I ended up doing more Upperbody accessories than usual but hey Iām not complaining!
DE UPPER BODY + CONDITIONING 05/01/16
Bent Over Row (Focus on speed!) - barx10 60kg x3, 70kg x3, x3, x3, x3, 60x3
Do these cause I still wanna maintain good control over my own body despite bulking up. Can definitely do more on this but my shoulders felt bad so cut it short.
Y, T, Ws - BW x30 seconds each position, x30 seconds each position, x20 seconds each position
Shouldve probably cut these short too. Thought I could hit 100x8 but couldnt and shoulders hated me for trying
Seal Row - barx5, 50kgx8, 60kgx8 , 70kgx8, x8, x8
First time trying these, thinking of using them as my primary movement for ME Upper soon. Had to make some ghetto rig out of some step up boxes and a free bench but they turned out feeling pretty nice!
CLEANING UP MY TRIPLE EXTENSION
Been doing full cleans now for about 6 weeks and its been frustrating. This session is only the 2nd time Iāve broken 80kg. The thing is I can stand up with 80kg like its a joke (we did a lecture on bar velocity in uni and I recorded 2.48m/s on an 80kg clean). For some reason whether its technical (transition is where I seem to mess up), mechanical (had a major ankle injury 2 years ago) or mental (being a little b****!), I canāt seem my head around these cleans (I suspect its a mixture of all 3).
My standing box jump is also a s*** show. I never truely triple extend its as if I just flex at the knee and my sheer height gets me on the box (feels and looks awkward). Same situation with the clean, I can jump the 35āā but can never get higher. Experimented with seated for the first time this session and they felt great. I absolutely floated to the top. Gonna maybe do a side by side comparison of standing vs seated next session to see whats going on.
Seal Row - 50kgx10, 70kgx10, x10, x10, x10 Still dunno what I think of these I get a good pump but the actual exercise feels weird. Feels like my right side takes over left side still feels fatigued afterwards though.
TIRED
I think the extra day of upperbody accessories hit me hard. Was pretty lifeless by the time I got to the pull ups and shoulders and left elbow were on fire. Lesson Learnt! Didnāt do any conditioning (didnt want to add the final nail in to the coffin) just decided to play around with bench with lighter intensity and more reps and work with the seal row again instead. 3 days of rest till next session while I study and take exams so should be nice and fresh for next week.
Once these exams are over I wanna start posting form videos and interacting with the forum some more. At the moment Iām just swamped.
THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY
This session came after the last exam of my exam period. Me and some friends went to a buffet to celebrate before hand and I ate way too much. Felt fat, slow and sluggish all the way through my prehab and squat warmups just hating myself for eating so much. Though when it got to 170 I smoked it which I didnāt expect (the food baby actually helped bracing against my belt!). Then threw on 180 which I havent hit in a while (due to illness and trying out boxsquats instead of regular squats for a few weeks) and that went up faster than the 170! Was happy with the lift but felt like my head was gonna explode on the way up (face was purple, eyes were bood shot and streaming, massive amount of tension in my forehead) so decided not to push it further and leave it for next week. Hit 2 singles on 170 (1 easy, 1 good morning-ed a bit) then originally planned on doing 150 for sets of 5. I hit my first 3 reps easy then was getting gassed came up on the 4th and started getting that light headed/āheads about to explodeā feel but said fuck it Iām not stopping now and grinded the 5th outā¦
Legit thought I was gonna pass out, I dont even remember racking the bar. I had to hold myself up in the rack while I got my shit together. Dont know if its the lack of sleep, over load of caffiene, the hype of exams or a combination of any of them but something was off. Never had that happen before. Fairly happy with the numbers I hit though.
Bike HIIT - 20 seconds on, 30 seconds off x5 , 2 rounds with 1 minute rest in between
Regain breath and eat peri-workout skittles x failure
Seal Row - 50kgx10, x10, x10, 60x10, x10
Bench - 60x10 80x10, x8, x8
DB External rotations āScarecrowsā - 2kgx12 , x12, x12, x12
DELOAD ALREADY!
All the warning sign have been here recently. Any sort of volume on pressing is hell on my shoulders. The coach in me is saying ādeload you idiotā while the athlete shouts āWeāeve not got long till the seaosn restarts get in as much work in as possible!ā. Gonna hit the ME for this week then take next week as a restorative/hypertrophy week for upperbody.
Good Mornings (no belt) - barx5, 60kgx6, x6, 80x4, x4, x4,
Plank Variation - BW xALAP, xALAP, xALAP, xALAP
Yielding Isometric Hamstring Curls (4 second holds at full and half ROM) - 36kgx5, x5, x5, x5
NEW CUES
Tried thinking about a different cue when working with the clean today. During the triple extension Iām thinking of making myself as tall as possible as opposed to ājumpingā with the bar. Could tell the difference but it felt like I may have been pulling with my arms a little (cant know for sure). I wouldve filmed this new approach to see if there was any difference but my phone crapped out and ran out of battery so wasnt able to get the box jump comparison pictures either!
Other than that same comments as upperbody session. Need to delaod soon starting to feel alot slower.
Bench - Barx8, 60kgx5, 80kgx5, 100kgx3, 110kgx1, 120kgx1, 130kgx1 Tweeked something around my right scapula so left it at that
Pullups - BWx5, x5, x5, x5
Conditioning: Bike HIIT - 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off x5 , 2 rounds with 1 minute rest in between
45 Degree DB Chest Supported Row - 30kgx8, x8, x8, x8 I originally wanted to do DB seal row for sets of 30 seconds after listening to Matt Wenning talk about doing sets of a minute for lat accessory work. But I couldnt find the bench I usually set up my ghetto seal row rig. These felt terrible could only feel them in my upper back
Bench - Normal grip - 60kgx10, x10, x10 Close Grip - 60kgx10, x10, x10 More playing with form, seeing how my shoulder felt, and getting a feel for high rep bench for future accessory work
Prehab: Foam roll, 1kg Ys + Ts x 20, external rotation stretch, pec minor stretch, left side only lat pulldowns x20 x20, bilateral lat pull downs x20, x20, x20
Welcome to T-Nation. Enjoy your stay and may the gains be plentiful. Now that Iāve gotten the welcome message out of the way. Iāve a few questions that may help flesh out your training log. What are your current stats(height weight etc)? Are you on any specific program right now and roughly whatās your training routine like? Answering this questions would make your training log a lot easier to read for a first timer(aka someone like me). Iāve browsed through the posts but I apologize in advance if youāve already covered the questions. Cheers.
EDIT: I seem to notice that deadlifts have yet to be mentioned thus far, is there any specific reason as to why?
Cable Pull-throughs - 20kg x12, x12, x12, x12, x12 First time ever trying these. Massive fan! Ridiculous low back pump and glute activation, just need to refine technique
Unilateral Hamstring Curl (Isometric hold at peak contraction and 45 degrees) - 35kg x5, x5, x5, x5
Torture Twists (3 count hold each side) - BW x4, x4, x4, x4
Hollow Body Holds - BW xALAP, xALAP, xALAP, xALAP
@Benanything :
Hey, thanks for the welcome! Yeah the first post was a bit of a mess but I just wanted to get it out ASAP otherwise I know I wouldnt have ended up making it!
Iām 6ā4, weight is fluctuating between 105-115kg depending on rugby schedule (and when you measure).
My training is usually conjugate based ie: 2 ME days 2 DE days, lots of weak point training ect ect. But with this year being as busy as its going to be its likely gonna be a case of on the fly āgetting it in when I can and going hardā.
Deadlifts will be coming soon. Iāve just got that 200kg squat in my sights and its so close I can almost taste it! Once I hit that Iāll begin rebuilding my pretty poor deadlift. Which works out quit nice because the new movement stimulus should mean I make relatively quick gains in that movement and make the log look good aha!
Prehab: Foam roll, 1kg Ys + Ts x 20, external rotation stretch, pec minor stretch, left side only lat pulldowns x20 x20, bilateral lat pull downs x20, x20, x20
Plyo Pushups - BWx4, x4, x4, x4
Bent Over Rows - barx5 60x5 80x3 100x3 x3 x3 80x5 x5
Bench - barx8 60x5 80x3 100x5, x5, x5
DB External Rotation - 2kg x12, x12, x12
6a. Chest Supported Rear Delt Flies x10 x10 x10 x10
6b. Mid trap shrug (3 Sec Eccentric) x10 x10 x10 x10
6c. Bar on Back of Shoulders Shrug (2 sec peak contraction) x10 x10 x10 x10
First Game Back
Had our first game back this week and ended up winning convincingly making the league a real possibility if we win our last couple of games! Not happy with my own performance, not been able to do alot of skill work due intrernship and university work and it really showed. Oh well did the job.