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Old Novice - Russ Campbell

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/21/20 at 3:05pm
In my effort to round out the best program for me, I've been searching for articles/research on how to prevent injury. But first I need to anticipate the frequency of injuries in HG. A study by Keogh & Winwood (2017) found that HG had the highest injury rate of any of the strength sports (Strongman was second). The HG evidence was based on a study by McLennan (1990) which found that tendinitis, strains and cartilage damage were the primary culprits. The fact that everything we throw is 1RM contributes to injury risk. We need to be very strong and more. Poor technique, overuse, imbalances & mobility also contribute to injury risk. My takeaway is building strength is important & relatively low risk, while perfect technique practice, limited throws, proper warmups & balanced development is needed. Another interesting takeaway from the McLennan study is the order of risk of the various throws. From highest risk of injury to lowest - WFD, Caber, Hammer, Stone, WOB.
In programming, I came across an excellent book by Everett (2016) called "Olympic Weightlifting". It's a comprehensive guide and it included a program for Masters Athletes that I found interesting. I like to look at programs that offer a different perspective from the ones I create. But the programs can't be beginner or too advanced either. I like some aspects of Everett's Master's program but would modify others. What I like - it's 4 days a week with 2 strength & 2 power days which is what I'm doing. So strength days are squat/pull/press & power days are Olympic lifts. What I don't like is his scheduling the strength days on the day before power days. So you do heavy pull/squat/press twice a week on the days before snatch or clean & jerk. This is acceptable for advanced athletes but not Masters - especially those whose primary focus is HG. I'd reverse the order of workouts which is what I do. I do the Olympic lifts on one day and if there is no interim day, I schedule the slow strength lifts on the following day. The other (small) thing that bothers me about the Everett program is the emphasis on doubles and triples for squats and pulls & even 5 reps for presses. I think that you have to push for singles once in a while. This increases neural & physical strength & also reduces the volume on the strength days so that you don't burn out. Overall, his program is not a bad model for a Master athlete to follow. 
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After 3 weeks of focusing on power, I'm ready to shift to strength again. It's hard for me to mentally & physically sustain a focus on power for long and I know that I need to move to a higher level of strength to make progress in power & throws in 2021. So this week will be different. I'm going to reduce the number of exercises I do for a few weeks to focus on the essentials. I'm also going to add in throws. After a general warmup, I'm going to do a small number of throws & then continue with my weightlifting workout. Because I have maximum strength and dynamic days and upper and lower body days I'm not sure which throws are best suited for each day but I'll guess what works for now and make changes in the following weeks if needed. So Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - hammers, standing press, upright row and bent over row. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - WFD, clean pull, back squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Sheaf, Standing press, upright row and bent over row. Friday will be Lower body/80% dynamic - WOB, power clean, snatch pull, front squat.
I've been reading about recovery and it's pretty amazing how many different recovery techniques exist. Unfortunately, all of them seem to work for some but very few for all and the research support is therefore weak. The techniques that do work for all and have strong support from research are proper nutrition, sleep, active rest/periodization. Everything else seems to work only for some of the people some of the time. Even more concerning to me is that some recovery techniques actively work to undermine the long term adaptations that I am hoping for. If I have a great workout and there is some inflammation - that is what is supposed to happen. If a recovery technique eliminates the inflammation in the short run, my body won't make new muscle in response to the training stimulus. So I have to be very careful about using short term recovery techniques to avoid derailing my progress in the long run.
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You can fool other people but you can't fool yourself. It was a good solid week of strength training but I skipped throwing. I have excuses but the fact is I didn't throw. I have to get at this. Next week will again be a strength week. Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - hammers, standing press, muscle clean and bent over row. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - WFD, clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Sheaf, Standing press, upright row and bent over row. Friday will be Lower body/80% dynamic - WOB, power clean, snatch pull, back squat. On the recovery front, napping and elevating my feet seems to be helping.
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In any sport (or any other human endeavor), you want to set priorities. I'm naturally pretty good at some things and woefully deficient at others, so as my training journey continues I am constantly reviewing and if needed, resetting my long term priorities. As I've discussed previously, I am pretty convinced that HG requires a lot more strength than competitors in shot/discus/hammer. So I have to get stronger by training harder which is confounded by my ageing. But strength training has to be a priority. As an aside, I've always been relatively good at generating power so focusing on strength most of the time will increase power when I begin a pre-competitive period. I try to move the bar quickly for all exercises. Strength is built based on what I call the big 5 (squat, press, deadlift, snatch, clean & jerk) and all closely related supplementary exercises. If I want tilt my workouts towards strength (as I am now), I substitute upright rows and muscle snatches/cleans for example for the Olympic lifts. While this core strength building is fundamental, I am cognizant that I need to build sport specific strength too. None of the big 5 exercises quite prepare you for two spins with a WFD. But again, I am intensely focused on strength building. So I use overweight implements. For example, this morning, I warmed up with a 16 pound hammer for a few throws. Then I put an 11 lb. plate (5 kilos) on the end and did rotations (no throws). I don't do many reps of this - first to avoid injury and second, keeping reps low is consistent with prioritizing strength. Maybe, if I was stronger I'd put a 10 kilo plate on the end. Because of the core work I'm doing, the 5 kilo plate was heavy but comfortable and will help to build rotational strength. That strength will be transformed to power when I remove the overweight and start focusing on power/speed closer to a competition. Of course, overweight exercises are detrimental to technique. However, for me, my relative weakness restrains my ability to execute great technique. First I have to get strong in the right way with core and specific sport strength and then later focus on technique when I have adequate strength to do so. In the meantime, I do start each throwing workout with light implements before I move to overweight so I am trying to work on technical throwing skills a little at the same time as building strength. The second priority for me is avoiding injury. My personal experience and the research suggests that injury rates are higher in this sport - probably for a lot of reasons. But bottom line, I keep my throwing reps on the low side per workout and try to do more workouts per week to reduce the risk.  My mantra for now is get strong and stay healthy. 
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A good week strength-wise but I am still slow about getting back to throwing. It is psychological - a little cold out, I have to travel a bit to throw, no upcoming competitions and I am still making progress with strength. Next week, I am going to add in some more dynamic exercises. I have been moving weights quickly even with my focus on strength but I also need to add a little more co-ordination too for athleticism and co-ordinated power. So instead of upright row, I'll add in muscle clean for example. Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - hammers, standing press, muscle clean and bent over row. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - WFD, clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Sheaf, Standing press, narrow grip snatch row and bent over row. Friday will be Lower body/80% dynamic - WOB, muscle clean, snatch pull, back squat.
I have been thinking about a few things. One is bench press. I don't get how it helps HG events. Standing press, push press seem to be more appropriate. In fact, I think that bench press could restrict my ability to turn the hammer. Weightlifters who need shoulder flexibility minimize their use of bench press for example. On the other hand, this exercise seems to be a staple for Olympic style throwers, HG athletes and strength athletes in general. I'll continue to look for the arguments for and against. But since open stone/Braemar are amongst my best events I don't feel an urgency to add bench press anyway given my (many) other weaknesses. Another issue that I am wrestling with is how much speed is required along with strength. For example, powerlifters move the bar relatively slowly while high jumpers try to maximize explosiveness with just their bodyweight as resistance. I see training programs from Olympic throwers that incorporate explosive exercises like trap bar jumps as an example. Given the heavier weights that HG athletes use, it seems to me that I should explosive movements that are weighted more heavily. trap bar jumps are a good example. Unweighted jumping exercises are probably less helpful. 
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So another good week where I added a little bit of power movements back in. I think I'll shift back to pure strength for a bit. I know that power will kick in when I need it and in preparation for competitions whenever we can get back to them. But for now, I still feel the need to get stronger. One adjustment I've made is that I was training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. The last few weeks I've been pushing Fridays workout to Saturday. I just need the extra day of rest/recovery so that I can get after the squat and pull reps. So this week Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - standing press, upright row and bent over row. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Standing press, upright row and bent over row. Friday will be Lower body/80% dynamic - snatch pull, back squat. I still target 1-2 reps on Max days and 3-6 reps on dynamic days. I also try to do 1-3 sets at whatever the max for the day is. I love my rebounder warmup - I start just easy bouncing and quickly get more aggressive and feel very warmed up for the session's activities. I like that the ground contact time is brief so I am hopeful that this warmup will also help my explosiveness.
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I've mentioned a few times now about the need for explosiveness in this sport. While I'm now emphasizing strength in my workouts, generating power is never far from my mind. But what kind of power is needed? We aren't sprinters or basketball players purely trying to minimize ground contact time and generating power quickly either horizontally or vertically. The weight of the implements and the technical/rotational elements of some of our throws forces us to sit and that ruins our ability to explosively move. But each event is a little different so our training has to reflect a wide variety of explosive exercises. Here's my very rough first draft of our events ranked from least to most explosive based on our ability to generate power. So, I'd say that the caber is the least purely explosive because the implement is heavy & the combination of braking/jumping down forces us into a deeper partial squat and so I don't think we get the full benefit of the stretch-shortening cycle. So we need a lot of strength to handle a caber. Next is WOB. Again the combination of the weight & the squat makes this more of a strength exercise. I think WFD is next. At least after that first turn when we have to be patient & sit & wait for the weight to come around, the time we sit is relatively long which again tilts the balance to strength versus power. Hammer, sheaf & stones seem a little different from the first bunch. The weight is relatively light for the most part and so I think the balance tilts a little more towards power/speed/quick explosiveness. If my breakdown is accurate, it's basically a 50/50 mix between quick power & strength. For the caber/WOB/WFD I need to think about generating power by getting stronger & exploding as best as I can with a heavy weight without the benefit of a quick squat & jump motion. The movement is limited by the amount of the weight or the slowness of the movement of the weight up & down & around my body which limits quick action. So the best gym exercises would probably be heavily weighted but explosive movements - clean pulls, trap bar jumps are examples. On the other hand, hammer, sheaf & stones would benefit from fast down/fast up training with lower weights for maximum power e.g. depth jumps, snatch, clean & jerk. So even if I'm wrong about my ranking of the relative slowness of the explosive portion of these events, it seems pretty clear to me that I need to have explosiveness training in a variety of ways ranging from bodyweight (e.g. depth jumps) to heavily weighted movements (clean pulls). Our movements require a wide range of explosive power because overloads range from light weights to heavy cabers.

 
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I feel I need a break so I'll do a de-load week. I'll limit my intensity to 60% (if I can hold myself back - I know I'll be feeling better and will probably push too hard). I'll still push the reps as much as I can handle. I'm also going to limit intensity by doing more power exercises. So this week Monday will be Upper body/60% dynamic - push press, power snatch and depth jumps. Tuesday will be Lower body/60% maximum - clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/60% maximum - Push press, power clean and depth jumps. Friday will be Lower body/60% dynamic - snatch pull, back squat, good mornings. I have upped the intensity of depth jumps a little by really emphasizing swinging my arms down as I land and swinging my arms up aggressively as I jump. For safety though - given my bodyweight & age, I limit the height. As an aside I went downhill skiing this week. Clearly my weight training has remodelled my body. I felt strong skiing but I had little endurance. I've been training for strength & power only for many months now. While I've never been keen about endurance or bodybuilding, I may integrate a little of these into my training at some point. While I try to keep focus on what's important & what I have the time and energy for, there is no doubt that for the sake of health & sport longevity I have to allow some of these other secondary but still useful elements to creep into my programming - but without entirely losing the strength/power track.
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Last weekend I watched some of the coverage of a track & field competition where Ryan Crouser set a new world indoor record for shotput. I saw him interviewed afterwards. He mentioned how he felt that he hit the double support phase very well and threw dynamically. He also talked about how he is in the heavy lifting part of his cycle and is also throwing overweight implements. He implied that as his training progresses through the season he'll throw lighter implements. The big weight training takeaway for me is the point about lifting heavy and throwing overweighted implements. If a shotputter throwing a measly 16 lbs. needs to lift and throw heavy, I need to do the same and more to compete in HG.
I also realize that somewhere along the way my max singles days and my multi-rep dynamic days seem to have merged. So I have ended up doing doubles on max days and triples on dynamic days. I need to focus on 3-5 reps on dynamic days and truly singles on max days. My body needs the variety - otherwise every day just feels like a heavy day.
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So I know what a de-load is supposed to be but I am pretty sure I am breaking the rules. I had a good week of lifting targeting around 60% of 1RM for all exercises. I told myself before each workout to just take it easy - lift whatever you feel like and if you want to stop, just stop. But my competitive instinct kicks in and I just can't help myself. I keep pushing the weight and especially reps higher. Otherwise I feel like I am too lazy and cheating my progress. I can't take it easy. I find myself talking myself out of doing more. "Save it for next time". Having said all that, my body still thanked me for taking some of the loading off this week. I feel good. So next week I'll stick with another power week and let my competitive spirit take over again. The other thing that feels really good now is my depth jumps. I jump from a low box and do either vertical or horizontal jumps after landing. I am trying to minimize ground contact time and really explode. This year my focus is on leg strength and power. I want to push my squats up as high as possible and pair that with depth jumps & Olympic lifts to get that explosiveness at various loads that we encounter across the HG events. So this week Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - push press, power snatch and depth jumps. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Push press, power clean and depth jumps. Friday will be Lower body/800% dynamic - snatch pull, back squat, good mornings.
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I don't always follow my workout plan exactly. I bounce around from front-back-zercher squats for example. I may combine clean pulls with power cleans. The intent is the same but I mix it up to avoid boredom and staleness. I also like the concepts of RPE and RIR. Rating of perceived exertion corresponds with % of 1RM so that helps me judge how tough my workouts are. Reps in reserve is a way for me to be sure that I'm not going 110% every time. I always try to feel like I could have done at least 1 or 2 more reps per exercise. Another way that I try to control my frenzy to max out every time is to monitor how fast my reps are. As soon as a set feels noticeably slower than the one before, I know that I am running out of steam. I may or may not choose to do the same or a higher weight for another set. I am not trying for a personal record every workout. It's the accumulation that matters not a particular workout.
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Skiied again this week and felt much better. Relentless weight training - even with some variation - needs to be supplemented with other activity. I just wish I could say that safe HG will be back sometime soon and I could add throws to my training. I think that the biggest contributor to my recent injury-free progress has been squats and depth jumps. I also stretch everyday. I am still on a power cycle. When I was last on a strength cycle I found that my athleticism suffered. I also tend to push hard with heavy weights and overtraining while doing strength moves really places a burden on my joints -shoulders, hips in particular. I'll probably continue my power program for another couple of weeks and then move to a deload 60% week before taking on heavy strength moves again. Monday will be Upper body/80% dynamic - push press, power snatch and depth jumps. Tuesday will be Lower body/100% maximum - clean pull, front squat, good morning. Thursday will be Upper body/100% maximum - Push press, power clean and depth jumps. Friday will be Lower body/800% dynamic - snatch pull, back squat, good mornings.
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So I am going to take a step back (or is it forward?). I've been curious about whether I'd make more progress with weights by training more often or less often. I was doing 5 days a week and then moved to 4. I'm going to move to three days as an experiment. So one day will be strength, one day power and one day I'll call it hypertrophy (really just assistance exercises). One of the reasons to move to 3 days is to open some room for some cardio. Skiing over the last few weeks has opened my eyes to the fact that I can't just be all about strength and power. So without leaving them behind, I'm going to add in a little cardio. Now generally cardio is not good for strength development. But I'll keep it short and intense and do it on off days so that it contributes and doesn't undermine my strength development. So Monday will be power - sets of 3 - power snatch, power clean, push press, squat, plyos. Wednesday will be hypertrophy - sets of 5 of upright rows, bent over rows, bench press and Friday will be sets of 3 with squat, clean pull, press. I'll fill in a few other days with cardio. 
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Since it was my first week doing 3 days there was a little stumble. I inadvertently scheduled a strength day before a power day. I planned for a squat/DL/Press day on Friday and a Snatch/C&J day on Monday. That doesn't work for me - it erodes my power day because I'm fatigued from max strength. So I did two power days this week and I'll re-start with strength on Monday, hypertrophy on Wednesday and power on Friday. I downhill skiied once this week and with fewer weight workouts my body thanked me. I also did two days of elliptical-very short workouts but interval training at high intensity. Basically I alternated sprinting with slower stepping. I want to get the cardio and power effects without eroding the benefits from my weight training. We don't need aerobic endurance for this sport. All of the events are over in less than ten seconds. We do need some ability to recover because the competition lasts all day. So interval training with high and low intensity supports both strength/power development and gives a little boost to cardio to help me with recovery between events over the course of the day. When a season of HG gets going, I'll probably replace this interval training with throwing. In effect I'm training 5-6 days a week but it really does not feel like it. My weight training days are 45 minutes each, while the cardio/elliptical is 15-30 minutes. The important thing is to keep making progress, injury free/preventing injury while not exhausting myself and ruining the rest of my day. Intensity high, volume moderate, three very different workout days and some cardio intensity make it fun too. So this week Monday will be sets of 3 with squat, clean pull, press, plyos. Wednesday will be hypertrophy - sets of 5 of upright rows, bent over rows, bench press and Friday will be sets of 3 - power snatch, power clean, push press, squat. I push as hard as I can every workout and I let the reps I can do dictate how heavy the day is going to be. If my objective is 5 reps and I can barely do three at a certain weight, I am done with that exercise. Save it for the next exercise or the next workout.
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I keep seeing videos of HG athletes doing high rep, partial movement exercises. Boy they must have some very specific weaknesses. Every rep higher than 5 or 6 is not going to help my throwing strength or power. Even my plyos are low reps with lots of rest between sets. And partial movements risk creating imbalances. Hang cleans and mid thigh pulls are very powerful moves but if I never do a full clean/power clean from the floor, I'm risking injury. Another puzzling thing I see is exercises that are very specific. No matter how close an exercise looks to our sport in a gym - it ain't throwing. I think I'll stick to basics in the gym - powerlifting/weightlifting/plyos and for sport specific strength, I'll use overweight implements. While overweight has benefits I think that there are limits to how much overweight I use to avoid completely overwhelming technique practice. I'm not sure how much overweight is too much but I can feel when the weight is not moving at all like a throw. I like my new 3 days a week with weights and 2-3 other days where I do active rest, stretching, interval training. Aches and pains are subsiding and I feel more motivated mentally. Since I started doing plyos I think that I've changed the diameter of my ankle/lower calves. I can jump further but my ski boots are tighter. My bodyweight hasn't changed and my lean body mass is higher so its not a weight thing. Even at my advanced age, it just shows that I can still alter my body to more closely suit the needs of HG. Monday will be sets of 3 with squat, clean pull, bench press, plyos. Wednesday will be hypertrophy - sets of 5 of upright rows, bent over rows, press and Friday will be sets of 3 - power snatch, power clean, push press, squat and some plyos.
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So this week I did my usual strength/hypertrophy/power days plus a day of skiing and a throwing session. A few twinges when I threw reminded me that I need to integrate some more prehab type exercises into my program. I'll also want to slowly add in overweight throws which are going to be essential for throwing strength. I've been pushing hard for weeks now and so I'm going to back off a little this week - make it an unloading week with roughly 80% of what I've been pushing and pulling.  I continue to wrestle in my mind with unilateral exercises. For example single leg squats may be more sport specific but I would risk creating strength imbalances and I'd probably end up using lighter weights. I will continue to explore the research for ideas about the benefits, risks and trade-offs between using unilateral/sport specific weight training and using overweight throwing implements. Monday will be sets of 3 with squat, clean pull, bench press. Tuesday I downhill ski. Wednesday will be hypertrophy - sets of 5 of muscle cleans rows, bent over rows, standing press and Friday will be sets of 3 - power snatch, power clean, push press, squat and some plyos.
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Still continuing on with my strength/hypertrophy/power days and I'm starting to add in throwing - one day a week for now but I will increase that as I move forward. I keep looking for research on using unilateral lifting. Supposedly unilateral lifting eg. lunges is often more sport specific. However when I think about our sport a lot of what we do is bilateral. Stones - we throw off both feet although one foot is forward. We do use just one arm so maybe a little extra upper body work on one side would be helpful. But do I really need to add another exercise if I'm doing presses/jerks already? WFD seems to be largely bilateral. I do hold the weight in one hand so argueably I could do some extra upper body work on one side to develop extra strength to hold & throw the weight. Hammer is bilateral. I don't see a need for working one side of the body more than the other. The same is true for caber, and WOB. Maybe sheaf has a bit of bias towards one side of the body - especially rotational strength - so there may be some benefit to consider some type of unilateral action. The problem is that the sheaf demands power more than max strength so you need a powerful rotational exercise that works the core. That's hard to find. And its literally back-wrenching. In summary, if I was an elite HG athlete who had maxed out bilateral strength & power and was looking for an edge there might be a place to add in some unilateral weight exercises. But I think I can get everything that I need from the standard bilateral exercises. Now if I was rehabbing or had a noticeable weakness on one side I can also see the need for unilateral work. Finally the other thing that I notice is that a lot of the unilateral work doesn't take advantage of the stretch - shortening cycle. It's mainly max strength work. It's hard to do very heavy power work with one hand. Even with dumbbells or kettlebells my two hand lifts are more than double my one-hand lifts and they are safer exercises. Barbells rotate.  Finally, I can probably get the unilateral work that I may be deficient in by throwing overweight implements - especially in the off-season. Sunday will be sets of 3 with squat, clean pull, bench press. Tuesday I downhill ski. Wednesday will be hypertrophy - sets of 5 of muscle cleans, bent over rows, standing press and Friday will be sets of 3 - power snatch, power clean, push press, squat and some plyos.

Edited by The Hulk - 3/13/21 at 4:36pm
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I fee like I'm swimming upstream. I turn 65 in a few weeks and my strength & especially power is under assault by Father Time. Since strength losses are apparently falling more slowly than power, I am tempted to tilt my training towards strength because it makes me feel better about myself. But I won't. I can only improve by beefing up weaknesses while maintaining strengths. While I lament my losses in strength/power, I get some comfort from looking at the results from weightlifting contests where it's apparent that I am still in good shape for my age in comparison to peers. So I stick with the program, do what I can do, continue to optimize my training to preserve and where possible improve performance while avoiding injury setbacks. The light of more Highland Games is also coming into view. I might even take a stab at signing up for the World Masters. Registrations for the November Games is May 1.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 3/22/21 at 10:03am
After yesterday's "Oh woe is me" lament, I have reflected on what is making me unhappy about my training. Bottom line, I think I've exhausted the possibilities of my parallel training - strength/hypertrophy/power each week. My strength has moved up but stalled, my hypertrophy has moved up (and probably could go a little higher if that was my goal - but it's not) and my power exercises are suffering because my technique work is only 1x a week. So I am going to shift my training to a sequential mini-block program. I'll do two weeks of strength followed by two weeks of power and so on. Each week I'll have a max/medium/light day. I'm expecting that a little more emphasis on strength will push me past my current ceiling. The strength will persist over the two weeks that I focus on power. The power block will allow me to dial back in my technique which is rustier than my 25 year old Eleiko bar that I use in training. Now I just have to slot in my exercise prescriptions for the new block format.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 3/27/21 at 10:54am
I've been thinking about squat jerk versus push press. The setup is similar but the last part is very different. The squat jerk is less about arm strength at the end of the movement so I can see how some people might argue that you still need need that arm power at the end of the stone throw. So that argues for the push press. However, the push press starts as a fast movement but as the weight gets heavier, the velocity slows considerably. That's the opposite of what I want when I throw a stone. I want max velocity at the release. So while I am not getting much arm work when I do a squat jerk (in comparison to a push press) I am getting that feeling of pushing through at max velocity. If I had to compromise I'd say push press is more of an off-season exercise (along with bench press) and squat jerk is for pre-season or the competition period.
So I am moving to a two-week strength block. My days will be messed up this week by other things but here is what I'm targeting. Monday (Max) - Squatx3, Bench Pressx3, Bent over rowx3; Wednesday (Light) - Pullsx3, Standing Pressx3, Upright rowx3; Friday (Medium) - Squatx5, Bench Pressx5
Tentatively - after two weeks of this strength block I'll move to a power block Monday (Max) - Snatchx2, Clean&jerkx2, Squatx2, Plyos; Wednesday (Light) - Muscle Snatchx5, Push pressx5, Clean Pullx3; Friday (Medium) - Cleanx4, Jerkx4, Squatx4, Plyos
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 4/08/21 at 11:45am
On track with my 2 week strength/2 week power plan. What I want to think about next is warming up. I've always hated warmups. Always seemed like a waste of time to me. Just wanted to lift weights and throw. And the usual idea of a warmup which is to go for a jog and do light calisthenics seems stupid & a waste of time to me ( and I hate jogging). But while I know that I need to warmup the body to be ready for all-out efforts there is a better way to do it. I want to do a warmup that not only gets me ready to perform right away but maybe also do exercises that will make me a better thrower in the long run as well. So for example, I like warming up on my rebounder/mini-trampoline. And I think that the bouncing helps with stretch reflex too. So I am not just wasting time warming up but I'm actually improving my explosiveness/power 3 days a week before my workout even begins - a win/win! I think that it would be productive to add a few more FUN warmups that also cumulatively enhance my performance in the long run. I've just qualified as a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and so I'm going to dig deep into their resources to find dynamic stretching exercises that I can add. The idea is to productively warmup for maximal efforts with fun exercises that also cumulatively make me a better thrower in the long run.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 4/19/21 at 12:17pm
I made a mistake on Friday. I am in the middle of a two week power block and so I incorporated plyos. But like anything else I pushed the envelope too much - as I do often. For the first time I did split jump plyos with 0, 22 and then 44 lbs. I am suffering now as my hip flexors have been sore for the last three days. More importantly, today I couldn't jump my feet apart to snatch or clean, I could barely squat and mentally I was burnt. I think that the last set was particularly inappropriate. The weight was too heavy anyway to contribute to my progress. Hopefully lesson learned. On another note I watched a conference where a leading researcher made a very compelling case for using jump shrugs over hang/power cleans. The arguments included both stronger concentric production and eccentric loading. I would'nt do CMJ shrugs as an alternative to cleans if I was a fulltime OLY weightlifter but as a thrower it's hard to argue that cleans are a better use of my time. Lastly, as I mentioned last time I hate warming up. Static stretching undermines strength according to the research so I'll leave it either to the end of my workout or for off days. Ballistic stretching is too dangerous for me. Dynamic stretching on the other hand has a lot of interesting benefits. It can warm me up using the range of movement that I'll be using in throwing, it can help to reinforce throwing patterns for the long run, it can get me in the right mental state and it's more interesting/fun than usual warmups. I wanted to create a mini-warmup (2-5 minutes) that I could use  before each of the throwing events. What I came up with is 1. 1x10 easy vertical jumps 2. 1x5 standing knee lifts to hip (each side) 3. 1x10 Movement pattern of open stone - in my case I use the step back technique so I go through the motion without any weight. 4. 1x8 Standing jump and land facing forward with hips turned either to right or left. I jump around to the left and then to the right keeping the shoulder/hip X-shape on each landing 5. 1x10 Hammer throw movement swinging my arms over my head and rotating 5. 1x10 Bend over with legs straight, when upper body hits parallel, bend knees into shallow squat and stand up straight. I usually repeat this series twice. The objective is to move slowly through the patterns which include squatting, jumping, bending, rotating, stretching and all within the limits of my range of motion and the throwing requirements. I learned a lot this week, keep my plyo obsession under control, consider power movements that may be easier & superior in some respects to OLY and derivatives and warmups can be both fun & productive in the short and long run.


Edited by The Hulk - 4/19/21 at 4:16pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 4/21/21 at 11:13am
"My eyes are too big for my belly". I always think that I can do more than I actually can and that the laws of nature don't apply to me. I was liking my alternating blocks of 2 weeks strength/2 weeks power and I thought that I could stick with this for awhile. While in isolation 2 weeks and 2 weeks seems reasonable, the problem is that they add to 4 weeks. And my body needs a rest after 3. So next week I'll do a strength block of 3 weeks followed by an unloading week and then start 3 weeks of power followed by an unloading week. This way I should be able to keep up my strength throughout and focus on technique/power for multiple weeks. The important thing is that I try to move the bar with maximum intent at all times - consistent technique, and appropriate speed and strength depending on the weight.
Another thing I've noticed. I've been having trouble racking the bar on my shoulders - it just won't sit right. I think I know the problem. During strength weeks I've been doing upright rows which I'm relatively extremely good at and I like doing them. Unfortunately what I've done is I've developed thicker muscles in my arms and made it difficult to rack the bar properly at my shoulders. Hypertrophy is a double-edged sword. Bigger muscles if built correctly with moderate reps and high intensity can be beneficial but hypertrophy in the wrong places may be detrimental. This is why I am so cautious about bench press. Bigger pecs may hinder my already pathetic hammer throw for example. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 4/29/21 at 2:10pm
A good week so far after last week's unloading. Now that I am back focused on strength, I can see & feel the difference. It's always amazing to me how our bodies respond so quickly and visibly to strength training.  I recently purchased 2 fairly new books - "Strength Training for Football" and the companion "Basketball" book - both endorsed by the National Strength & Conditioning Association so I know that the material is up-to-date and research based. I looked very carefully at the programs and the recommended exercises. No surprise, back squats and bench press feature prominently. And there is a long list of other exercises. But Olympic lifts and even their derivatives are not heavily emphasized either off-season, during pre-season strength and power or even in-season. I'm a big proponent of OLY and maybe I am too biased. But I am always surprised how these lifts are downplayed in power sports like football. Even basketball players can benefit from OLY. There is a continuum of strength & power from max strength to strength/speed to power to speed/strength to speed and I don't understand why snatch/cleans/jerks and similar exercises get partly ignored. My only guess is that they these OLY lifts are a little more technical - a little tougher to teach/learn/sustain proper form and so people go looking for a way out. Jump shrugs for example are a good alternative. But I believe that the triple extension of hips/knees/ankles that we need in HG for example would be best trained with OLY. But clearly I am swimming upstream versus current recommendations and practice. I think that lousy or non-existent weightlifting technique risks transferring to practicing our sport and heightens injury risk. Speaking of making progress, I would dearly love to incorporate plyos into my current strength phase. I think that starting my workouts (post-warmup) with a few bodyweight squat jumps, standing long jumps & double leg hops would be an excellent way to improve strength for the HG events. Most of the upper body plyos are focused on power rather than strength so I haven't considered them for this strength phase at all. However, I just don't have the energy to add even the lower body strength plyos to my workouts. Maybe if my conditioning improves a little, I will be able to add them. I do incorporate other plyos lower & upper body into my workouts when I am more focused on building power however. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/07/21 at 11:41am
So the second week of this strength block has shown improvement over week 1 which I'm happy about. Hoping for a great 3rd week now before an unloading week. I've decided that my unloading week will be a lot different. Instead of lifting weights I'm going to throw 3x and mainly use overweight implements (after warming up with the lighter weights). My strength work is fine but the overweighted implements will help build the little muscles that I use to throw. After my unloading week I'll do a 2 week power block with a heavy OLY emphasis, followed by an unloading week. My strength block was 3 weeks + 1 unloaded while the power block will be 2 +1. The reason that I'm doing one less week in the power block is that max power can only be sustained for a couple of weeks so I want to be at my best before neural fatigue sets in. I really prefer the sequential block approach as opposed to the max strength-dynamic-hypertrophy approach weekly. I find that I make more progress focusing on strength separately then power. My body seems to prefer it as well. Fewer little injuries. And to avoid detraining, I keep up bar speed during the strength phase and I keep up squat intensity (though not volume) during the power phase. It's still a couple weeks away but I am going to incorporate plyometrics into my power block so I get everything from speed to strength-speed dynamics. I need slow and fast plyos to compete in HG. Looking forward to competing again in the coming months.


Edited by The Hulk - 5/07/21 at 3:38pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/13/21 at 11:58am
I've been taking supplements for a long time - though not the same ones. I started with expensive protein powder and brewers yeast in the 1970's. I have no interest in banned supplements but I often think about what else I could take to either enhance training or competition. The main thing I focus on is protein. The rules of thumb suggest anywhere from 1.4 to up to 2.7 grams per kilo daily (if simultaneously trying to lose weight) - in any case its a lot of protein. There are limits to how much my body can process at one time and there are limits to how many meals I can squeeze in in one day. So I think that keeping my focus on protein is both a priority and the most effective thing. Protein keeps the carbs I need under control and eating fish, chicken keeps the bad fats under control. A supplement that I do use right after training is BCAAs. Leucine in particular is associated with building muscle in the research literature and I feel that it does work for me. I occasionally remember to take a multi-vitamin and fish oil. The only supplement that I wrestle in my mind with is creatine. The literature seems to support its use and effectiveness especially for a sport like ours. However, I had an experience that I associated with creatine use back in the 1990's that makes me reluctant to use it again even though the current research suggests that there is no connection. So even though creatine is probably at the top of the list of effective legal supplements I'll pass. For competition, caffeine is probably the safest legal supplement. But I have a couple of issues. First, coffee is not an effective way to deliver caffeine. Caffeine pills work better. But second, I don't want to mess around with my heart. It's bad enough that I get over-excited to train and compete, the last thing I need is a stimulant. Bottom line, I have been at the supplement game a long time and tried many different ones over the years. Very few have had a noticeable impact in my view. And I'm at the stage now where I am more concerned about longevity - in sport and in life - and less concerned with short - term performance enhancement. Further, I've seen first hand what can be accomplished by athletes who don't use banned supplements and first hand what has happened to those that did use illegal supplements. Short term performance was followed by a short life. No thanks.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/20/21 at 11:49am
So after my 3 week strength block, this unloading week has been fun. No lifting just throwing/drills with heavy/overweight implements. My whole body feels good. While throwing takes a lot out of me, its nice to feel athletic and the stress is much different from lifting. So the next two weeks will be a power block. I'll focus on Olympic lifts & squats. But I'm going to pare back a little on the volume so that I can add in 2 things - plyos and throwing. On Monday Wednesday Friday I'll start each workout with my dynamic warmup then do plyometrics to add in some fast stretch shortening cycle work. Then I'll do Olympic lifts and squats. Fast plyos and slower olympic lifts should cover the range for building power. Tuesday Thursday I'll do short throwing sessions and in keeping with the power focus of this training block I'll only use the light implements. After 2 weeks of power, I'll take an unloading week again with no weights but again using overweight implements. So next week looks like this M - Heavy day - Hops & depth jumps, Clean & jerk, squat Tuesday - Throw open stone, light WFD & hammer Wednesday - Light day - Hops & depth jumps, snatch, push press, squat variation Thursday - Throw open stone, light WFD & hammer Friday - Medium day - Hops & depth jumps, snatch, Clean & jerk, squat. We'll see if I can survive this for two weeks. As always my objective is to improve performance without injury. To do this I'll take a step back ie reduce volume on days that I'm not up for the effort. One way that I monitor effort is by watching how fast the bar or implements are moving. If they start noticeably slowing even with maximum intent it's time to back off the workout volume for the day. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/24/21 at 3:23pm
I typically only record what I am doing. But what's in-between bouts of "doing" is equally important. Rest & recovery is important across my entire effort. At the big picture level, I have slowly migrated to block programming with 2-3 weeks on and one off at the end of each block. To really get away from the program and unload, my weeks off are now planned as overweight throwing - no lifting weights or anything else. So that's how I currently plan for recovery at the mesocycle level. I am also alternating strength and power blocks. Power blocks take a lot of you neurally and its relaxing to back off and focus on building needed strength. During each week, my lifting is 3 days and they are heavy, light and medium days to put in some rest and recovery. Individual workouts vary in volume and intensity but I make no apologies for backing off further if I'm tired, slow, injured etc. I also rest up to 5 minutes between sets. There is no need for endurance in this sport. Every event is over in seconds and preparing for 27 throws doesn't require the aerobic endurance of a marathoner. I am exaggerating a little because it is true that aerobic conditioning (at least a little) does help energy restoration. But too much cardio undermines strength and power. What I am still thinking about is rest between reps. I have fooled around a little with taking 20-30 second breaks between reps at near-maximum intensities. So instead of doing a double, I can maybe get 4 reps. I think this works well for strength building and the research supports this approach. What I am less sure about is tempo lifting - slow down/stop/fast up as an example. I just don't know yet if this is good for strength and more importantly power development. I'll do more research. It seems to be more of an off-season thing. Lastly I am intrigued by chains and bands. I don't have the set-up to do these available. I have tried to do these a few times - just not sure if they made a difference in the short-run. The research seems to be very promising and there are lots of strength athletes who swear by chains and bands. But until I have access to safe equipment, I'll pass for now. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Hulk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/26/21 at 11:36am
Like I imagine other people are doing, I'm easing my way back into throwing shape. I have signed up for 3 competitions this fall. Whenever I start ramping up though inevitably I get injured. I can't compete if I have to sit because of injury. So I've learned the hard way - especially with aging - that I have to warm-up. So I have created a dynamic warmup to raise my body temperature and slowly do movements that resemble throwing within my range of motion. Secondly, as excited as I am to compete, Rome wasn't built in a day. So increases in volume, intensity, speed with lifting and throwing have to be measured. I try to keep increases from week - to - week at less than 5%. And new exercises are introduced slowly - with low volume/intensity/speed. As much as possible, I also try to do most exercises through a full range of motion. Lastly, I used to have a weightlifting coach who was a stickler for perfect technique - on every rep of every set of every exercise. One of the benefits of this approach is reducing the risk of injury. I know that I'm still going to get injured - strains, sprains etc. There are lots of other things that I could be doing that I aware of. Improving mobility for example and monitoring imbalances between opposing muscle groups. I try to accomplish both of these through my workouts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Larry Satchwell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 5/28/21 at 7:03am
Congratulations, I see you made the start list for the worlds.
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