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October 31, 2011

10*31*11 Another Bachelor Party Success

object in mirror may be closer than appear
So I am stoked that I only have like three friends cause if I had to do to many more of these things I would be broke or dead or both.  Any way we packed up and headed out in the MW(good friends band allows us to use there tour van for trips.) van to Gainsville Fl. for Fest 10.  The van has seen better days but eats up the road miles like a boss.  Missing a big portion of front driver head light area, rear passenger lights don't work, floor is unclean-able, and guarantee if a black light went in this thing it would glow like Chernobyl.

always on the road

I was picked up at 3:00am to head out.  This surly group of mutants I call friends got there straight from a local bar and a night of partying.  We loaded up and hit the road.  With a giant cooler between the driver and passenger seat full of fun we were sure to have a great time.(no one drinks and drives on these trips, but drink and sit in a van yeah that kinda happens.)  All things went smooth on the trip down other than a small traffic stop for texting while driving.  Ill have him know I was tweeting not texting, Noob.  After getting our warning for the above mentioned technical difficulties that the van has we were back on our way.

We got to Gainsville around 2pm and got some food at Satchel's this pizza place was pretty dynamite.  With a belly full of carbs and 3 now hungover dudes out of 6 we trekked to the hotel and decided to rest up a bit then go get our tickets.  We had been reading on the twitter that the line was a 3-4 hour wait for registration but they were at lest selling beer in line.  We got in line at 6 with a plastic bag of beers and settled in.  Luckily the line went smooth and we were out of that situation in less than an hour.

there was rumor to be ice in bottom...still unproven
Moving down the street to the venues we were planned to post up and watch Kid Dynamite, Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music and I think someone else but my brained turned off from all the luke warm PBR and BO.  All the bands put on a great show and it is good to see people get out and enjoy shows.  I had a hard time when the scene changed and it was kids all standing around looking uninterested at a show they paid to get into.  Oh well.   At some point after repeatedly skipping the mile long bathroom line and walking in and pissing in the sink like an adult I found my self now shirtless and making super drunk text to friends about god knows what.  Sorry Dunc and Jim.  I think on my last trip to the head I found my self out side hailing a  cab and heading back to the hotel solo.  Things are a bit foggy after that.
Hey Capt




Saturday-

Started as I suspected it would with a disabilitating headache and waves of dry heaving.  I cured this with a cold shower, 6 extra strength excedrin, some gatorade/pedialyte, and breakfast buffet of coffee and bacon covered things.  As per my normal routine now, I know I will not be drinking to any heavy extent for the remainder of the trip.  Come 4:00pm we had regrouped and made our way for some food at a local mexican joint.  This place was delicious but had way too much soccer on tv. "In America, people fucking hate soccer. And honestly, that's the way it should be."  Kenny Powers
Tim Barry


We made our way to secret show of A Wilhelm Scream they put on a great show and more kids smashing into each other having a great time.  After that Dead to Me then off to sit at an empty bar and have a couple before Tim Barry went on.  Tim Barry put on a great show.  Everyone in our group is much more familiar with him than I am, I will be changing that now.  Time plays american folk now and come across as genuine as and musician I have ever seen.  He also was the front man for an old punk band Avail.  After watching Tim we decided to head back to the hotel instead of watching a sure to be disappointing show by Against Me.  I really like them and would have loved to see them 6 years ago.  There newest stuff is a steaming pile.  At the hotel we figured sitting outside at the pool and destroying our way through the rest of the booze that we packed would be the smart move.  As we sat down to play some dice I wandered off to the hotel bar to get change for the dice game.  Sitting in the completely empty bar is this kid bar tending and Tim Barry.  I got my change and told him how much I enjoyed the show.  He said thanks and asked what are we getting into.  I told him pretty low key hanging out at the pool.  He asked if I would mind if he joined us.  So Time joined our group of 6 and hung out with us telling stories and laughing and making fun of each other.  This was truly the high point of the trip.
what a sweaty dude factory would look like

Tim Told us a story of this awful stripper in Atlanta that gave him a black eye by using one of her giant tits and punching him through it.  Then acted this situation out on the bachelor of our group.  Tim giving Patrick a lap dance was a hilarious moment I won't forget anytime soon.  Here is info on the Stripper who is famous for smashing beer cans between her tits.  Clermont Lounge Blondie is listed under notable employees.

This is Blondie...she likes to party
After hanging out with Tim and moving forward things got cloudy.  There was pizza ordered to the pool.  Some Belgian guys, canadians, some dick from Kentucky, and an actual girl showed up.  These were like Unicorns at fest often talked about but rarely seen.  I guess heavy set bearded dudes with band tattoos and bad hygiene are not there ideal situation.

After eventually passing out and waking up to find two members of the group outside still partying (dead behind the eyes big time) and hanging out with an ex-con land walrus names Ian.  Ian had spent a handful of years in jail for what we are not sure, and makes his own Ian's Party shirts.  It is a Danzig logo with a giant beard on it.  We decided to drag the two hyper mutants at the point off to breakfast since one had developed some weird sway to his step which seemed to keep him moving and awake and the other was eating sun chips out of Ian's beard and a pine cone that I suggested him eat.  Also was attempting to put on a Parkour exhibition for us, this was not successful.  I know I'm a great friend.  Only one made it to breakfast the other's body failed him in the hunt for his wallet and passed out sitting indan style on the ground.  Sitting this way for more than 10 seconds leaves me crippled so I can't even imagine passing out like that.  After breakfast the other one finally gave up and fell asleep in a chair.  We gave them about 15 min of rest then began packing there stuff for them and coral them into the van to start the 10hour drive home.

The drive home was pretty uneventful other than a couple of side door moving vomits.  All in all another great trip with great friends.  I am however getting to old to handle this much fun for that long every day.
zombie also a spitter
At some point a mans got to eat.. front back pack

October 27, 2011

10*26*11 LAB 4.2 OH some pressing with Video

So after taking a day to do some cardio (spin bike sprints) and recover a bit more from the squats I am feeling pretty good right now.  Today's RX'd training is 10x10 OH I decided to push it again on these and see where I fall.

am cardio:
13.1 miles on spin bike couple 2 sets of intervals (10 sec sprint, 50 sec recover x 10)
watching season 1 of the walking dead.

Pre workout shake-
protein
Modern BCAA usplabs
Jack3d- This is a great pre workout and the green apple flavor is donating part of the proceeds to Wounded Warrior.  Last year USPLabs donated over $700,000.00 to Wounded Warrior.  This is one of the few charities that I believe in.  To show my support next month any income made from ads on my BLOG I will be donating to Wounded Warrior.

Standard warm-up:


Training:
Push Press:
bar x 10
135 x 10 x 2
185 x 10 x 2
225 x 10 x 2
275 x 8 (rep PR)
185 x 10 x 2

*pretty happy with this considering all of the reps prior to get there.  I am  going to have a week of Rep max testing after My next 4 week cycle and I will not do all of the sets of 10 to get there.  I think this will be pretty good.

CG foam Bench:
135 x 10
185 x 10 x 3
225 x 10

Pullups: 50 reps
14, 12, 13, 8, 3  Really want to get to where I can pull this off in 4 sets consistently.

KB rows (added short red band to KB)
5 x 10

I'm a little wired off of the coffee this am.  Sorry for the long post and chit chat.  Just need to Dead Lift today and then head out for Bachelor party tomorrow.

October 24, 2011

10*24*11 LAB 4.1 squats and some vomit and blood

So squatting tonight went well I guess.

Standard Warm-up:
lots of low back stretching since I spent 9 hrs in the truck for work today.  Also having a bit of a twinge in my right hamstring near where all the scar tissue is from ACL surgery, hopefully this is all breaking up.

Squat: as planned I decided to push it tonight

bar x 10
135 x 10 x 3
225 x 10 x 3
315 x 10
405 x 10
505 x 10 not going to do under 500 PR
This set felt awful 1st three were ok and the rest felt like Max effort singles.  Legs were real shaky after 8.  I am hoping to see what I can do with 585 in 5 weeks.

This resulted in the rarely seen cousin of the prowler flu.   It is the awful high volume leg pump FLU.  Just as bad after blowing my nose out last set and trying to catch my breath and bearings for 30 min I puked and all is right in the world.

accesory lifts:
breathing heavy x 30 min
speaking jibberish x 10 min
puke x 1
nose bleed x 1
cold bath.

I have video of the squats and will post tomorrow.

*NOV tip-  Earn the right to come to the gym squat and leave.  JW



October 23, 2011

10*23*11 weekend fun times

So I really didn't do much of anything this weekend and it was everything I could hope for.  I bought myself a new xbox360 game (Assassin's Creed 2, yeah its 2 years old but I want to play the new one so this will kill some time and catch me up on the story) and played it pretty much all weekend.  Other than that we cooked some fajitas, went to eat with my folks a couple times, and went to my cousins wedding.  I also got my left foot tattoo finished.  Now keep plugging away at my back and then on to something else.

Other than that I spent some time doing cardio.

30 min a day on spin bike.
did some intervals usually 10 second sprint on high resistance and 50 sec recover low resistance.
All of this was followed by a ton of stretching and rolling.

I have one more week of 10 x 10 then I get a deload week full of cardio.  Things with the diet seem to be going well.  I had to change a couple of things but all seems good.  I have another bachelor party next weekend Friday till Monday.  We are packing our shit into the big van and heading to Gainesville for Fest 10.  There are a ton of bands playing and even a couple I want to see.  This shindig should be similar to SXSW with better weather.

Fest 10 schedule

With all that said I am going to try to kill myself this week with the lifting may do some testing on the Squat and Pull.  I'd like to be able to take 585x 10 but that's not in the cards yet.

October 21, 2011

10*20*11 LAB 3.3 Day of the deads

So again a lifting partner was available so things went off course a bit.  Oh well.

Standard Warm up:  chilly in the garage 45*
added 10 min extra spin bike


Training:
Deads:
bar x 10
145 x 10
235 x 10 x 2
275 x 10
295 x 10 x 2
305 x 10 x 2
all under 3 min rest

cleans:
225 x 5 x 5

Seated Box Jumps:
3 x 10

single leg jumps:
3 x 10

After this I had a delicious lunch and then went to the tattoo shop to watch Dant do his family crest on his ribs.  6 hrs of fun, and since I can't sit at a tattoo shop with out getting something done I finished my left foot.  So now my feet are officially done and dedicated to my wonderful wife.

I am excited that it seems my plan of finishing all of my open tattoo work this off season is coming together.  I now just have to finish the rest of my back and I am done for a bit, till I start the left arm and chest.

Getting you feet tattooed feels by far the worst of anything I have had done.  Dant however looked pretty awful getting his ribs done.

October 19, 2011

10*18*11 Training LAB 3.2 OH Upper

Today I had a couple of friends in town to train with.  Since I rarely get to train with other people it is always fun and we end up doing a bunch more extra stuff just messing around.  Both of my friends are PTs in Texas.  So I always get a kick listening to all of their book learning.  Clearly they both got their grade 10.  Funny how since everything they do is dealing with old decrepit people they believe in general health style of training.  Oh well they are both in shape and take care of themselves and neither are pretending to be some type of athlete.

Standard Warmup-


Training:
OH:
bar x 10 strict
135 x 10 x 2
185 x 10 x 2
205 x 10 x 5 push press
speed >2.8ft/sec

pull ups: 50 reps
10
12
10
8
6
6

Sligshot pushups: all tricep
3 x failure

facepulls:
3 x failure

handwalking the rack:
3 x failure

Conditoning:
sorinex war hammer 28#:
3 x 10 each arm
battleing ropes:
3 x 1 min

October 17, 2011

10*17*11 Training LAB 3.1

So another day of high volume squats.

Warm up-
5 min spin bike
jump rope x 100
standard rolling and stretching
jump rope x 100
repeat stretching

Training:
Squat:
bar x 10
135 x 10 x 2
225 x 10
275 x 10
295 x 10 x 5
cut rest to >3min

Good Mournings:
using avg band very strict and accelerate hard up
5 x 10

Dead lift:
trap bar with red band:
135 x 10
225 x 10
295 x 10 x 3

Thoracic stretching:
mostly laying on the ground cause of the crippling LBP and almost vomiting due to leg fatigue.


* I am starting with a nutritionist soon.  I have never been able to get this quite dialed in.  It seems that no matter what I do diet wise or cardio wise dropping excess BF has never happened.  They think that they can help me and get me down to where I want to be BF wise and continue gaining strength.  I am going to give this 100% and see what happens.  I will get more into this the more I get into it.  All I did today was fill out questionnaires and paper work.

10*17*11 USPLabs



Just got a new shipment of supplements from USPlabs in.  Can't wait to put all of this to work this off season.  Really going to try and make some big gains this year and throw far all next season.  For anyone out there curious about USPLabs products I can answer anything I can.  I love all of there products and they are a great company that supports strength athletes.  Take care of the companies that are out there also working for us not just trying to get your money.

thanks

10*17*11 Stone MTN Games

Finished my week with lifting on Wed and Thursday.  Stayed on course so nothing interesting.  I have a video of Wed upper training and I will post that.



Thursday I got a contacted mid day to see if I was interested in heading to GA. to compete at the Stone Mountain Highland Games.  This is one of the games I have always wanted to do as an AM, but never had the chance for whatever reason.  So to my surprise I got the invite to come out and compete since Eric Frasue was not able to come due to an injury.  Part of the games with Highland Games in the Pro class (especially being a rookie) is to be flexible and able to go last minute.  So Friday morning I packed my stuff and rolled out.  8 hours later I was in GA.  To keep my expenses down on a trip like this is key so I used hotels.com and found the cheapest place I could near the games.  $35.00 for the night.

This hotel was super shady.  It is one of those that you could can live at monthly for $600 a month.  It seemed like more of a halfway house.  I am not 100% on the type of residents but I got asked 3 separate times if I was a bounty hunter and what was the reward for helping.  *shakes head*  So at least my room came with a plastic covered mattress and roaches in the bathroom.  I set myself up for a good coma with night time shake and melatonin after a delicious steak in town.

Sat morning headed to the games and the weather was great all day.  Had a great time throwing with this group of guys.  Very laid back atmosphere to it and we all spent the majority of the day busting each others balls pretty well.  Here's the throwing breakdown.  I didn't video the games cause when I got to the filed I remembered my tri pod was in my truck and that was at least 100yrds from where I was. ( So lazy)

open stone 28# pound awfulness:  36' 1st
hwfd: 44' 1st
lwfd: 84' 1st
22 hamer:  97' no blades 3rd
caber: 1:30 4th 3 guys nailed 12:00
sheaf: 30' took a couple shots at 33' 1st tie
wob: 17' 1st

1st overall this was a great time and getting to throw with a talented group like this always makes you better.  I was happy to throw pretty decent despite all of the high volume stuff I have been doing.  I still dead lifted on Thursday  I told myself I would not break from my off season training to throw so I am not going to.

October 13, 2011

10*11*11 Q&A Olympic Lifting for the athlete.

Despite their popularity among the athletes, in you opinion, do you think the oly movements carry over?


I enjoy the oly movements because I think they're fun, but I have specifically left them out of my off season training So I can focus on other aspects such as conditioning, hypertrophy, speed, and strength.  I personally don't find they carry over as much as throwers put emphasis on them because I throw "OK" numbers but have pretty pathetic oly movement numbers in comparison.


Is it a coincidence the top throwers have incredible Olympic lifting numbers because they are just that powerful and explosive ( read huge/fast/deads/squats/ohps) or do you feel they are the top throwers specifically because of the movements, all technique aside obv. Thoughts?


-JSully


Do I think the Olympic movements carry over for athletics.  This is not as easy as a yes or no answer, but so we can move on the short answer is yes.  The Olympic movements the snatch and the clean are tow movements where the full body is being used to generate force through the ground on two legs.  This type of explosive power is seen in almost every sport.  It is also an issue of body awareness and getting muscle to fire in a specific order, both of these things are also incredibly important in sports.  For the athlete not competing in an weightlifting competition I do not see the benefit for focusing on the second half of the movement.  The ability to drop under weight and catch it is specific to weightlifting.  I personally like doing a variety of full lifts and pulls from the floor and hip.  This is for no other reason than my clean has always been a good indicator of where I am speed and flexibility wise.

Remember training is not a job or any of us.  (chances that is you are a professional athlete ie. making your full living off of your respected sport, you are not reading my blog.)  So it needs to be something you enjoy and are passionate about.  So "doing them because you think they're fun" is a prefect reason to do them.  You say that you are focusing your off season around conditioning, hypertrophy, speed, and strength.  Personally the Olympic movements fulfill all of the criteria that you are trying to accomplish as an athlete.  This is the exact reason so many Crossfit workouts use the clean or snatch.  It recruits a ton of muscle activity and can be done relativity light weight for great cardio.  For the athlete I would rather see someone doing high rep sets of pulls then going to run 2 miles.

I don't think it is a coincidence that the top throwers have pretty good Olympic numbers.  Be careful saying things like incredible numbers because that is not true.  There are no guys who's main focus is throwing that can walk out on the platform at a weightlifting meet and even compete with top weightlifters.  A 2x body weight clean and jerk is pretty common for top weightlifters, I am willing to bet there are no throwers that are pulling that off.

The top throwers are good at Olympic lifting cause they have been doing it for 10 years as well as training hard.  Most of the top guys spent time playing sports in college and most throwing programs spend a lot of time doing the Olympic lifts.  So they also spend 4-5 days a week throwing.  One is not necessarily going to make you better at the other.  If you are a competent thrower and you technique is good then being faster and stronger is going to benefit you.  The Olympic movements make you faster and stronger.

You can't say technique aside especially when dealing with Olympic lifting and throwing.  These two things require technique over absolute strength so much that if you can make big jumps just focusing on technique.  It is all about being efficient with the strength that you have.

-Matt

October 12, 2011

10*11*11 Training throwing with Video

Today's training was nice, Andy came this way for work and we had a chance to throw together.  It is always great to have anyone come and throw with me.  We had a chance to work on a couple things like unsuccessfully turning my caber, ostone, and lwfd.  All in all it was fun the legs are still not firing on all cylinders from the squatting but that is the plan.  Despite all of that the throws went well.

Caber x 8 best of 65*  BOOO!  this puts me 0-2 vs the caber

Ostone:
stand:  x 6 best of 51' using shot
Fulls: x 6 best of 59'  switched to the stone the shot was beating up my hands

LWFD: x 6 best of 85'


Now a sexy video for the ladies....
lean, like a gazelle... 

October 11, 2011

10*11*11 Q&A Throwing Open Stone

Question:
I am looking to improve my Open stone.  Should I change glide to Spin?  Tips for learning the spin?  South African Vs. Full Spin?


-Chadwick


I spent a lot of time last year working on my open stone.  Again the one key thing to improving the throws is taking tons of throws, I'm talking 4 days a week 3 events a day.  Some days I take as many as 20 throws per event.  This volume is something you will have to work up to.  Other than tons of throws are quality throws.  Remember throwing far is a side effect of doing things correctly.

Glide to Spin?  Well I have thrown with both, glide during college and spin now.  I throw further spinning than I did gliding.  The spin is a much harder technical throw than the glide.  Typically body type has a lot to do with what technique is going to work better for you.  If you are 6'5"+  the glide should work just fine.  around the 6' mark I like the spin.  It really depends on what your strengths are.  Glide is also going to work better for a less technically sound athlete with less body awareness.  Spin is going to benefit a speed thrower who can get into the positions.  Both ways have been successful for a long time. The last Olympic gold medal was won by a glider, just FYI.

Tips for learning the spin.  I seriously recommend watching a ton of You tube clips.  Here is one of my favorites below.  This is a great slow HD video of some of the top guys.  They are all doing the spin but each throw varies quite a bit from athlete to athlete.  For the beginner (if you did not throw  at the collegiate level, you are a beginner) working on the glide I would watch the Werner Gunthor video series.  This is going to be great in establishing a lot of the basic key points.   Any thing you can find from college coaches like Don Babbit or Jud Logan.  There are more out there these are two of my favorite.

South African vs. Full Spin?  Lots of highland games guys throw with a Modified South African (MSA).  This is a much easier to learn for most people than the Full Spin or a correct glide.  For me personally I can't get much more out of the MSA than I can a standing throw.  I see lots of problems with this Technique for the highland games.  For example the line of power from the back of the ring to the toe board changes direction.  This works for most all of the throwers because they don't throw very well.  All of the power in the spin is generated in leaving the right leg long out of the back and kicking it through to start the hips moving.  This part of the throw is eliminated in the MSA.  Learning the full spin is much more difficult and takes lots of time.  (I am still pretty bad at it.  I threw 60'+ but in the grand scheme of throwing this is just above avg.)  I think learning a proper glide will benefit most throwers more than the MSA, but again it is harder to learn and you have 8 other events.

October 10, 2011

10*10*11 LAB 2:1 high volume legs.

Today was sweet got my head together for lifting.  These high volume days take a bit more mental preparation than my normal routine.

Pre workout shake:
jack3d +Modern BCAA

Standard Warm-up
added a spin bike to my arsenal.
extra rolling

Training:
Squat:
bar x 10
135 x 10 x 2
225 x 10 x 2
275 x 10 x 4
305 x 10
PF > 2.8 ( I am not living and dying by these numbers at this point in my training.  However having that feedback each rep makes me push each rep as fast as I can.  This takes far more effort than I would have expected.
Next week the bulk of my work sets will be at 305# so I did my last one there.  Also cut down my rest time to under 3:00 min.

Good Mournings:
135 x 10 x 3
95 x 1 x 2 strict on form
legs were feeling wobbly already and the low back pump was brutal.

Dead lift: Trap bar w/ doubled red band:
135 x 10
275 x 10 x 4

Russian Twist:
135 x 10 x 5

Conditioning:
10 min recovery ride on spin bike
sprint intervals 10sec on 50 sec recovery x 10 (change resistance for sprint)

Done legs were absolutely fried and low back is trashed.  Having the spin bike is going to be nice now I have another option for cardio without leaving my home.

October 09, 2011

10*6*11 Training "picking it up and putting it down" with video

Here is my training from last Thursday.  I have been busy and didn't post I wanted to put the video up of the volume work for those that care.  Either way here is what happened.

Standard Warm-up
banded good mournings

DeadLift "LBP"
bar x 10
145 x 10 x 2
235 x 10 x 2
275 x 10 x 5
PF<2.8 ft/sec

Cleans:
145 x 5
165 x 5 x 5
PF<3.3ft/sec

Good Mournings:
145 x 10 x 5

KB swings 116#
116# x 10 x 5

banded hamstring curls/glutes:
2 x failure



10*9*11 Trophy Kids

Trophy kids trailer
Chris Bell's new Documentary:
also did Bigger, Stronger, Faster I expect this to be great.  It brings up some interesting questions and here are my thoughts on it.



This type of stuff blows my mind.  I understand trainers taking advantage of a market like this.  What I don't understand parents A. trying to live vicariously through there kids athletic achievements.  B. Parents thinking that making your kid focus on a specific sport at 5 years old is going to do anything but burn the kid out.

I remember growing up and I think my brother an I were in circumstances that play out like this type of thing.  We both earned scholarships to D1 schools for athletics and competed for 4 years and Andy went on to play in the NFL.

We always took sports seriously but we always played for us.  There was never a push from our parents to play or compete in things we didn't want to and if there was it sure wasn't cause we were wasting an opportunity to play in college or professionally.

I keep using the word "play" and this is what is lost now .  We both played everything growing up soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and track.  These naturally filtered down to only playing basketball (rec league with friends for fun off season), football, and Track.

Parents are missing some key things kids just need to be outside playing period.  Organized sports are good and I never remember a time that I wasn't participating is something.  The purpose was to keep us from sitting around the house after school playing video games and being fat(which we both still managed to accomplish.  We showed them.)  Also it may be harsh but some kids are not cut out to play at the next level.  There is no amount of pushing or special coaching that is going to accomplish this.  I recommend kids playing sports and just having fun.  If your kid is talented enough and has the desire to continue playing at whatever the next stage that is then it can be addressed if it what they want to do.

I just see this situation stealing childhood from so many.  I am far from some liberal that thinks everyone needs to just have fun and play games with no score keeping.  Competition is good and brings out peoples weaknesses or makes them better.  I just can't imagine that when my kids becomes an adult that when he or she thinks back on youth athletics that they have any type of a sour taste in their mouths.  I will be curious to see when this class of kids that have been pushed like this grow into adults and see what they do with their kids.  I bet this fad of kids combines, and 5 year old NFL style camps will be gone.

October 06, 2011

10*6*11 Q&A general training

Hey man just read your blog keep it up man it's a great read. I agree with your truing for purpose even though I don't play any sport to the level that you do I like to train for general functional/athletic strength. My question is do you include any rotational ( lifts, chops, cable rotations) hip stability ( single leg exercises, glut max/ med training) core ( plank, side plank, superman) and plyometrics ( box jumps rotational box jumps lateral/diagonal jumps) My interest is mainly with truing for golf swing which correlates a lot with throwing ( motions and muscle activity ) in which these things I have mentioned have an important part in. Just wanted to give you something to think about adding to your routine.


-JP


OK I will try and go through this point by point. 


My question is do you include any rotational ( lifts, chops, cable rotations) hip stability ( single leg exercises, glut max/ med training) core ( plank, side plank, superman) and plyometrics ( box jumps rotational box jumps lateral/diagonal jumps)?


As far as rotational lifts are concerned the only thing I do is Russian twists.  (Barbell on the back and turn and turn back.)  This is really it.  All of my "rotational strength" comes from sport specific training.  Throwing the events takes care of anything I need.  I think the rotational stuff is more a factor of flexibility.  The more flexible you are the more separation you can create between upper and lower body thus creating torque for power.


In regards to hip stability.  I think Squatting, Dead lifting, and Overhead Pressing take care of this.  Doing these heavy compound movements build strength and force you to stabilize everything.  I think there is a place for single leg stuff mostly for flexibility, injury rehab, or muscle isolation like body building.  I have never done anything for aesthetic purposes like body building so I really don't know.  I just look at the sport that I play and I am never needing to do anything off of just one leg.  Therefore I will be training off of both legs.


"Core"-  I hate this word.  It is definitely important, but to much emphasis is put on it.  If you are squatting, pulling, and pressing heavy then your core has to be strong.  There is no way to squat 500 x 10 without a strong core.  With that said doing some accessory work is always good.  Just remember it is an accessory.


Plyometrics are great.  I try and do something like this a couple times a week.  There is an old saying "If you want to be strong SQUAT, if you want to be fast JUMP."  This stuff is important for any sport.  I can't think of any sport that you would not benefit form having a stronger back, legs, hips, and shoulders.  Now people also get out of hand with box jumps.  You see videos of guys jumping on a 60" box and this is not as much a show of how high they can jump but how quickly they can get there feet up and hip mobility.  You would benefit just as much from exploding up and lading on a 24" box and save yourself the chance of injury.  
      Rotational jumping I personally can't think why I would do this.  I can think of a couple of applications, but the risk of injury to the knees and ankles seems to out weight the possible rewards.  Now doing speed work on the ground for agility is great stuff.


My interest is mainly with truing for golf swing which correlates a lot with throwing ( motions and muscle activity ) in which these things I have mentioned have an important part in. Just wanted to give you something to think about adding to your routine.


The golf swing generates power the same way the throw does.  So base training would be relatively similar. The important things would be flexibility in the lower back so that the shoulders could get behind the hips.  The more separation that is created here will have the greatest impact on generating club head speed. 


But you have to remember that no amount of time in the weight room, flexibility, explosiveness, or speed will make you a good golfer.  You have to spend time playing golf and practicing golf so that the time you spend training will affect your game in a positive way.  They key thing is that weight Training is GPP (general physical preparedness) for the athlete.  If what you want is to improve at your sport I recommend spending the majority of your time actually practicing the sport.  For example hitting a thousand range balls a week will make a bigger impact on your game than doing a 500# squat or a 400# bench.  This is no different than if you played basketball taking a 1000 shots a week is better for you then lifting in the gym.  


Keep your focus on what it is you want to accomplish.  Set some goals. And test yourself and be accountable.  Hope this helps.

October 05, 2011

10*5*11 off day with active recovery and throwing

No lifting today.  This is good cause I am physically trashed from the last two days.  Everything is going just as planned.  Lifting is feeling good.  I am getting lots of blood flow and muscle fatigue without any joint pain.  This should continue for the next couple of weeks.

Diet-  Things have also been good on this all week.  I know "3 days Matt you truly are a martyr for your sport" but truth is diet is where I typically fall short.  I am like a fucking drug addict and I have to think about eating clean one meal at a time.  The biggest difference that come with this for me is further educating myself over the last couple years of what good food is.

The one time while I was throwing in college and tried to drop weight one summer I went from 265 to 239 in three months.  This is the lightest I have been in the last ten years.  I did this by not eating breakfast and doing 100+ miles a week on my road bike while still weight training hard.  My main source of food was fat free hot dogs, whole wheat fat free buns, fat free mayo, and home baking potato chips.  That and cans of fat free Chef Boyardee Ravioli.  Needless to say my lifts did not stay up and my throws went to shit.

Now my typical diet when I am focused on being clean is a bit more smart in regards to Macros, and by that I mean Lean Protiens, veggies, and rice or pasta.  I will do a write up on typical day of food for me.  That will come later.

As I said earlier I did not lift today so I did some active recovery work.

Standard Warm-up
Dynamic stretching in the field


Throwing:
16# shot:
overhead back x 10
front (w/ toes against toe board) x 5
stands no reverse x 5
stands w/ reverse x 5
fulls x 5
best of 55'

hwfd:
one turn x 5
fulls x 5
best of 40'

22#H:
winds x 5
fulls about 75% x 10
working on position and getting back around pulling with the feet.
best of 101'

All and all today felt technically pretty good. I did not expect to throw well I'm so sore it hurts to sit down.  It is not the time to throw far that was three weeks ago at worlds and the body came through for me with 4 PRs.  It deserves a break from that so the focus can shit a bit.  The goal of throwing right now is just solid training reps.  I want to stay in about a 90% distance range on everything all off season.

October 04, 2011

10*4*11 LAB1.2 upper

Today is day two and my legs are starting to get that awful deep soreness.  I know it will be the worst tomorrow.  I will be lucky if I can descend to the toilet without falling back.  Today's upper went pretty good other than getting pinned on my 9th set of bench under 185 with red bands.

Pre workout shake:
Standard warmup:
added shoulder mobility
added elbow rehab stuff
Training:


OH Push Press:( This is the lift that I feel translates the most for all of the throws for me. )
bar x 10  x 2
135 x 10 x 2
185 x 10 x 6
PF majority above 2.8ft/sec

*Push Press is a little dip in the legs and drive up through the bar over head.  No second bend


Pull Ups:
50 reps
12,10,10,12,6


Bench: using doubled micro mini bands (orange EFS)
bar x 10 x 2
135 x 10 x 2
165 x 10 x 1
185 x 10 x 3
185 x 8 x 1 (got pinned.... big fail I had to slide out from under it... LIKE A BOSS
135 x 8 trashed

KB Rows: 116# KB
5 x 10 each arm

BB stuff:
rack walks  harder than expected.. rear delts should be trashed.
triceps extension


I skipped conditioning today cause it got late, and I was tired.  I am off of lifting tomorrow so I will go run hills  and do my stretching outside.  I may do some light throwing as well.





October 03, 2011

10*3*11 LAB1.1 lower

So today is the start of my new training program.  I am happy with it, but all of that is a theory until it is over with to see results.

LAB1.1-

pre-workout shake-
1 hour staring at pictures of Dan Mckim celebrating as world champ


Warm up-This will be done everyday
jump rope x 100 between each stretch
foam roll
stick
jav stretch
dynamic stretching
philly ball

Squat-
bar x 10 x 2
135 x 10 x 2
225 x 10 x 1
275 x 10 x 5
all using pf with the majority of reps above 2.8ft/sec

Good Mournings-
135 x 10 x 5

Deadlift- red band used
265 x 10 x 5

Russian Twist- 
135 x 10 x 5

Conditioning:
Prowler x 10 >1min rest. @ 30yrds


*total training time from warm up to shower 1hr 30 min.  I could have cut this down quite a bit took longer to recover between sets squatting than I will next week.


PWO-
Ambient temp shower
tons of MODERN BCAA
water
dinner
1 hour staring at pictures of Dan Mckim celebrating as world champ

October 02, 2011

ARTICLE: D.I.Y. CABER


DIY Caber
by Matt Vincent

           I spent a couple hours this weekend building myself a caber to train with.  After talking to a couple people who have gone this route it seemed like something I could do with the tools that I have on hand.  My goal is to make a training caber that will last for the better part of a season.  I also want it to be heavy and hard enough to turn that I have to really go for it.  It turned out pretty sweet and I took about 15 attempts at it today.  It is a serious stick 20' x 128 lbs no taper.  I figure if I can get good at turning this then I can handle anything I will see in a contest.

What you will need:
      #1.  3 pieces of untreated lumber 2 x 6 x 20' (length can vary depending on what you want)
                 -untreated so that when you get splinters they don't get infected and it will be way to heavy.
      #2.   4 big tubes of Liquid Nail
      #3.   4" Deck Screws x 50
      #4.    Electric Drill
      #5.    Skill Saw
      #6.    Electric Sander and 40-60grit paper

driving like an asshole
Step 1-
  Find a Lumber Yard that sells 2"x6" pieces at your chosen length.  Get these monster pieces of wood home.  I don'town a trailer so I just wedged them in the back of my short wheelbase truck under the tool box and over the tailgate.  I looked like a real asshole driving with 14' of 2"x6" hanging out the ass end of my whip.  Oh well, it's just a small cost to be the boss.

Step2-
plenty of Liquid Nail
   Cover one board in 2 tubes of liquid nail.  This may be excessive but, it isn't going to hurt and I don't care if it is pretty.  They did end up being pretty by the way.

Step 3-
    Place a board on top of it.  After getting it straight I went and put about 5 screws just to hold them together tight.  I placed a couple 100# weights on them and let them sit for about 15min.  With the screws don't put them on the end that you are going to use as the bottom, I left about 5 feet.  Since you will be doing some shaping with the skill saw you don't want to cut into heavy duty screws.

Step 4-
   Repeat Step 2  and 3.  Now you and really fill these bastards full of screws.  Still leave them out of the 5' you are going to be using as the bottom.  Now let it sit in the sun or whatever you have for about 15 min.

Step 5-
1st cuts
   Take your skill saw and set it to cut at a 45* angle.  I started at the bottom and went about 5' up gradually making my way out of the board.  Do this for all 4 sides.  Now repeat this for the bottom end so you will cut all 4 sides perpendicular to the cuts you just made.  This will shape the end of it and make it kinda round.


Step 6-
    Break out the Sander and start to shape it and smooth out the bottom.  I only sanded good on the end where I would be holding it against my shoulder and the bottom for my hands.
SANDED...SMART!!!

Step7-
    Have a beer and admire your work.  Then let it dry for a day.  Then go throw it... I know this is more than one step, but I'm tired.

PS I have not turned it yet.  So I successfully built a challenge caber.
Step 1
Step 3 FAIL!!!
Step 2 "the Pick"





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