Thursday, May 8, 2008

a nice change of pace

Decent sleep but not enough as I had to get up early to fight the traffic get my Z-Health consult. Weight: 178 lbs. Unfortunatly a horrific accident had me stuck in traffic for 4 hours before abandoning and heading back home. I left a cell phone message for my Z-Trainer, Luis, explaining the situation .. he later got back to me, was very understanding and we rescheduled.

Sumo DL 10 Day Linear PTTP Cycle: (lbs)
Cycle 2: Day 5: 190 x 1 x 5, 170 x 1 x 8

Sumo DL off 6" blocks:
170 x 6 x 1
170 x 1 x 2

The 1st two reps of the 190 were more difficult than the last three. The 170 felt very light so I added a few extra reps. I then did some off the block pulls with the 170. Again feels pretty easy.

I discovered a very effective therapy for pulled upper back muscle. I recently read an article about tennis elbow relief by using a tennis ball to massage the trigger points in the outer forearm by pressing the ball against a wall with the outer forearm and then rolling up and down from 3" under the elbow to about another 6" down towards the wrist. This was pretty effective and then I realized it should also work for my back .. it does!!

At work today I went outside with my co-workers 16kg and practiced some palm snatches .. very ugly scene .. much work to do on these!

16kg 2 x 3/3 palm snatches
16kg 1 x 1l/2r BUP

First inspired by Colin of the UK's experience with the 24kg one arm LCCJ and then by Rifs recent PR of 55 sets of the 16kg 15:15 VO2 Max 7 rep/set protocol, I went outside with the dogs this evening and had a great gasser:

24kg 1 x 32 LCCJ in 4:40 sec, switching arms every 5 reps
5 minutes rest
24kg 1 x 43 LCCJ in 5:20 sec, switching arms every 5 reps

I never put the bell down and did these Hard-style with a loud stomp on every 2nd dip. Again I have Howie to thank for lending me his Brett Jones "KB Basics for Trainers" DVD set. The snatch and jerk sections are simply superb. I started out the first minute of the second set too fast at 10 reps. I then slowed down to around 8 reps and gutted it out until I couldn't get the 44th jerk off my shoulder. In a previous cycle I was doing double 24kg LCCJ but was totally gassed after 5 reps. The one-arms really let you build up a nice work capacity.

Snatch Vo2 Max 15:15, 16 kg, 7 reps/set
27 sets
Total: 189 reps in 13:30

The last 10 sets were really taxing. I noticed that at this weight, my normally weaker left side actually is stronger snatching. This is because my right leg is considerably stronger than my left and I use it to push off from the heal during my left side snatch. With the 24kg, this isn't as big a factor as weaker my left shoulder fatigues first. In lieu of doing the ROP for 24kg MP, I prefer the explosive LCCJ sessions as it is easier on the elbows and will strengthen my shoulders. Also, around the 10th set, I changed my left side grip and was able to prevent any hand tearing .. I did not use any tape, glove or chalk .. I just forgot to.

For the second day in a row, I used the "Smitty" elbow rehab exercise to work the extensors of both arms heavily with 3 to 5 lb weighted canisters. These definitely hurt but I'm sticking it out at least through the weekend. I did tons of Z elbow circles to get relief and used ice a few times as well. I also did some Pony clamp holds and they hurt like hell as well. Interesting, is that previously, I had been a lot sorer and had a much less ROM. Tonight I was even able to do a few reps with my 4kg KB so something is getting stronger.


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Diet and Nutrition Log

Breakfast:
1 bowl of Kitchari with sweet potato and green gram curry
2 cups of coffee with tbs of 1/2 and 1/2
2 dates
1 banana

Morning Snack:
4 dates
4 oz Kefir

Lunch:
1 large bowl of pan-fried salmon, Sichuan shrimp with veggies, brown rice and sweet potato
1 tangerine

Afternoon snack:
8 dates
1 orange


Dinner:
1 small bowl of pan-fried salmon
1 small bowl of chicken and rice
1 large scoop of Kimbels ice cream
2 small handfuls of almonds

4 comments:

Colin said...

Hey Franklin

You've been doing a lot of good work since I was last on here. Making great progress.

Your post has inspired me right back to have a go at the timed snatches and jerks today.

Awesome work my friend.

Franklin said...

Colin,

Thanks so much! Words of encouragement go along way and are so greatly appreciated.

As for inspiration, your work recent DL progress has been nothing short of spectacular.

Colin said...

Well, not sure about spectacular but thanks. I'm very happy with how it's going so far.

Changed it up again a little, testing a theory.

Franklin said...

Colin,

Its all relative .. from my point of view its one thing to read about a singles program that has had some success, its another thing to watch it happen day by day and topped off by smashing a PR .. very exciting stuff.