Alan H's training log

[Alan H]

OK, missed my Friday workout 'cause of garbage at work, so I've had four days off. I saw Myles' video of him throwing on FB, so I decided to chuck some stuff too. So todays workout was a mishmash, but it was good.

Open stone...couple of two-handed warmup heaves backwards and forwards, them "Mikes Toeboard Drills" and then I don't know what to call 'em so I'm gonna call 'em "Grasshopper drills" because that's where I got 'em from! Then I did about 6-8 full-on throws... 29 - 31 feet

LWFD... did 5 first turn-release -into-the-ground drills and then 8-10 full two-spin throws. All were about 42-45 feet, not bad for this early int he season.

Into the weight room...

bosu lunges and push back... 5 x 80 each leg...it's time to move on from this

hip abduct/adduct... 2 x 10 x 150 pounds "on the stack", each leg

back squats... 2 x 6 x 170

incline db press... 8 x70, 6 x 70

hanging leg lifts... 2 x 10 lifts

rowing machine... 7 minutes finish with a 1 minute sprint.

The rest of this week...two more lifting sessions will be "heavy". I'm going to push a big stack in the leg press (310 lbs) and really go for it on the upper body Wed and Fri. I'll suck at throws practice next Saturday, but that's OK. Starting next week the goal is slightly lighter weights and moving them *Fast* through Mid-March when we start up twice a week throwing practice.

********************

Kilted Kiwi, I'd Love to be 17% BFI! I've instituted a couple of lifestyle changes and I am carrying them out for a month. No late night donuts, no pork carnitas at lunch...eat more fruit and vegetables. I weigh 292 with a 38% BFI, lets see where I wind up a month from now.

[Alan H]

Starting week two of the low-fat, high protein diet. Let's see if I can't trim down that spare tire around my gut by ten-fifteen pounds.

Today was an upper body & core day

big stretch...quads and gracilis. Damn, they were tight-tight walking over to the gym. I think I'm gonna go home tonight and roll around on a foam roller on my ***. OoooOOOoo feel so GOOD. I gots me one tight *** right now. Gotta bust that up, some.

Lunges, NO BOSU, big pushback, walk backwards.... 100 lbs on barbell across shoulders, 8 each leg

sit ups on inclined board, 25 pound plate...did 15 YEAH!

lat pulls on Roman chair: 55 lbs, 15 each side

incline DB press 8 x 70, 3 x 80 **finally** did 3 reps of 80 again

Russian twists on incline board ... 2 x 10 w 12 lb medicine ball

curls 8 x 100, 6 x 100

upright rows ... 2 x 8 x 80 and that last one *hurt* to finish it... a good kind of hurt.

bench rows ... 7 x 90 each arm, 5 x 90 each arm...lousy form, I should back off to 85 pounds and do 'em right.

seated flys ... 8 x 190 "on the stack", 7 x 190 "on the stack"


*******

Friday, big stack to push on the leg press, go for 310 lbs 8x, 8x and follow it up with 7 minutes on the rowing machine to keep the gracilis loose.

[Alan H]

OK, this morning I read Myles Wetzel's response to my post in another forum about finding what works for you and I decided to quit pissing and moaning about squats and try some variations. So after I did some box jumps I walked over to the squat rack and piled up a nice, easy 130 pounds. Front Squats....OH-KAY, then...NOT. Arms do not bend that much. OWWWW. Ow. NOT.

So I says to myself...Alan, try some Zerchers. Forget about the video you just watched of Craig Smith zerch squatting 650 pounds and load on something light and just do a few. Well, these went a lot better, though not great. So I'm going to creatively work around this and quit griping about it. Hot gym chicks don't like gripey old men.


Today
2/19/2010

box jumps...x 10, 30 inch box

zerchers squats... 7 x 130, 5 x 130

situps with 25 lb plate on incline ... 14

hammer wind core crushers.... 10 each direction with 10 lb medicine ball

incline db press..... today was my day to go for it, just blow the doors out and see what I could do with 80 pound dumbells. Answer: diddly. d-i-d-d-l-y....I pushed them up there twice. I gots no gas left in the tank, burned it all earlier this week.

push-ups, fast, feet on 20 inch box....15.. no gas

triceps cable pull-downs....2 x 10 x 57 on the stack

cable chops (for lateral strength) lo to hi, hi to lo... 10 chops each way, each side, L&R....that's 40 chops with 53 lbs on the stack

and that's all I had the engines for, today. It's been a hard week. The upside to this is that when I recover from this, I will be that much stronger. Every single time I grunt and really bust a gut to move a weight just a **little bit further* to lock it out, is another half inch on the field on Game day

[Alan H]

OK, today...three hour throws session today. I'm pretty ripped up from the past weeks lifting so I went kind of easy, still....man and I exhausted and sore. I need a couple of recovery days.

Today I threw and coached some new(er) guys, though the guy from the NASGA newbie forum didn't show up.

40 minutes of stone drills...toeboard drills, stepover drills, A-line drills

40 minutes of LWFD, single spin, first spin-stop...two spin-stop and full throws.

40 minutes of hammer...YAY...got my new Bobby Dodd 16 pounder out.

and about half an hour of caber. I managed to pop the 15 foot, 70-pounder over two times out of four even though I was out of gas. OK, so one of those was just *barely* over.

Farlander from X Marks came out, and is showing big improvement. He's much better balanced with the hammer now, allll-most picked the beginner caber, as is smoother and more in control with both LWFD and open stone. Guid on ye, Mike!

[Alan H]

THE THREE WEEK PROGRAM TO WORK ON SPEED AND STRENGTH
three weeks of large-fast motions combined with my usual core selection, followed up by a week of rest/vacation to heal up....and then we start regular throws workouts, and the "off-season" is **OVER**

Today I tried some front squats with crossed arms and 150 pounds.. They're OK, a bit uncomfortable, but that's all right. I think I'm going to mix 'em in now and then for variety. Thanks to guys who suggested 'em.

OK.... Today's tea party

quadriceps stretch, then...

fast back squats, really accelerate up off the floor... 3 x 6 x 180

fast incline db press ... 3 x 8 x 60 I need to move up to 65

lunge/jumps ... front/side/transverse... 6 x each side, serious heart rate buster

Core Selection:

lat pulls on roman chair... 15 each side with 55 pounds, move it FAST

hanging leg lifts ... 2 x 12

hammer wind core crushers on roman chair... 10 each way with 10 lb medicine ball

leg press 2 x 8 x 310 "on the stack"

rowing machine...wanted 10 minutes, bailed out at 8 minutes.

[Alan H]

Went in to day for Personal Trainer session #2 with demigoddes Cori, but somehow the reservation system kicked me out, so I just did an easy movement day. However, I tried some dead lifts for the first time in a very long time. I followed them up, immediately with 9 minutes on the rowing machine and I feel OK. We'll see how it goes tonight, but maybe that combination would work and I could do at least some light deads.

2/23/10

deadlifts...3 x6 x 150 ...was hard but OK, I could probably do 180 without busting a gut.

rowing machine... 9 minutes... love me some rowing, it's great for the hip rotators

Hungarian Core Blasters....live dangerously... 15 x 60 lbs.


buncha easy rubber band work on shoulders with huge ranges of motion, which is good...and I ever tried "rubber band dead lifts"...pointless. They might not be pointless for some folks, but they're pointless for me.

[nh_maclean]

Have you heard of Stronglifts? You doing Deads made me think of it...

It's a great site if you want to do a 5x5 but it's even better for 'showing' and 'telling' how to do certain lifts (not that you're saying you don't know how to do them... but thought I'd throw this out there to you or to anyone else following your workout journal since it's got good technique.)

A buddy of mine pointed me in this direction when I kept screwing my lowerback in Deads - and now I'm hitting numbers I never thought I could hit before without hurting myself (miracle upon miracle!) http://stronglifts.com/how-to-deadli...per-technique/

I've also found Rack Pulls http://stronglifts.com/how-to-perfor...lls-technique/ really helped me with strengthening my lower back and prepping me for going heavy on Deads...

(Also has stuff on squats, front squats, box squats, etc.)

Anyway - keep at it - looking good!

[Alan H]

Have you heard of Stronglifts? You doing Deads made me think of it...

It's a great site if you want to do a 5x5 but it's even better for 'showing' and 'telling' how to do certain lifts (not that you're saying you don't know how to do them... but thought I'd throw this out there to you or to anyone else following your workout journal since it's got good technique.)

A buddy of mine pointed me in this direction when I kept screwing my lowerback in Deads - and now I'm hitting numbers I never thought I could hit before without hurting myself (miracle upon miracle!) http://stronglifts.com/how-to-deadli...per-technique/

I've also found Rack Pulls http://stronglifts.com/how-to-perfor...lls-technique/ really helped me with strengthening my lower back and prepping me for going heavy on Deads...

(Also has stuff on squats, front squats, box squats, etc.)

Anyway - keep at it - looking good!

Thanks!! I just bookmarked that dead lift how-to page. At this point, I won't be going for big weight numbers. That will wait until next winter. for now, if I can deadlift, say 200 pounds fast, and squat 200 pounds fast, I'm happy. It's more speed I'm going for from now on, than big numbers.

However, I still gotta do it RIGHT.

[Alan H]

DAY TWO of the three-week program to make me almost as fast, though not as strong and not nearly as good-looking as Detroitpete.

lateral bosu squat jumps ...3 x 20

lateral/forward bosu lunges ...... 6 each side w/ 70 pounds

triceps cable pull downs...2 x 10 x 65

windmills ... 2 x 10 x 25

db overhead press ... 2 x 8 x 50 each arm

seated flys .... 8 x 205 "on the stack", 6 x 190 "on the stack"

cable chops, hi-lo, lo-hi .... 2 x 8 x 42 lbs "on the stack", each side..total 32 chops

Elliptical stairstepper; steepest and hardest settings.... 10 minutes

[Alan H]

I have to say, this winter has been the hardest work...I mean extended physical activity work... I have done in my adult life. I have never been so disciplined in the gym as I have been in Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb.

This had *better* pay off, come the Woodland Games at the end of April.

I continue the speed and agility work through Friday March 12th. Then I have one week of throw and lift March 15 -19. I'm going to squat/row...dead/row... fast sumo deads/snatch/row MWF and throw T-TH. I should be totally crushed by the weekend.

We're gone on vacation from the 20th to the 24th. I'm going to hike, eat, sleep ten hours a night and sit in the hot tub for four days and recover. When we get back I start the general In-Season routine, which will be throw T-Th and lift on Friday, probably alternating fast squats and deads with their accompanying rowing/elliptical work and a general, light core series.

We shall see.