Background: I work at OSU as a graduate teaching associate and lift at Ludus Magnus. I am a raw lifter who competes in the 105lb weight classes, and am currently prepping for my next meet (when grad school finally gives me a weekend off) . Currently, I am in the process of trying to accomplish my lofty lifting goals,survive graduate school, and teach undergraduates about what I really love, TRAINING..
Eccentric Block Week1: The speed work days
DE UPPER-Monday
Warm up-General
1.Stepper
Warm up-Specific
2a. 3 x 15 SA row
2b. 3 x 15 incline DB bench
Training -DE Upper
3. Contrast speed bench, football bar, no leg drive, various grips
8x3+1
1 set:
X 3 reps x 50% x 4 count eccentric
X 1 rep +20lb heavier x no eccentric
Circuit-3 trips
4a. X 15 curls
4b. X 5 Arnold shoulder presses with DB with 5 count eccentric
4c. X 5 ultra wide lat pull down with 5 count eccentric (1 rep: protract-retract-rep)
DE Lower-Wed
Warm up-general
1. Stepper
Neural prep
2. Full clean with pause below knee + clean from hip with full catch
5 x 1+1
Training
3. Contrast speed squats with eccentric, high bar, belt-less
9 x 2+1
1 set:
X 3 reps x 135 x 5 sec eccentric and explode up
X 1 rep as fast as possible (155 for first three sets, 165 for sets 4-6, 175 for sets 7-9)
4. Clean to speed eccentric front squats
5 x 1+2
1 set:
X 1 X Full clean with catch in bottom (so quick drop down, pulling under bar) then exploding up
X 2 X maximal eccentric front squat And explode up
Done.
Gosh darnit, it finally paid off..
Why minimal assistance? Because it was a kick a** session. In the back squats with the high bar, every rep my upper body was so upright and I was really stabilizing each rep from some new increase in abdominal strength I must have acquired over the last training block. For those that don't know, my biggest squat vice as is falling over in the hole due to:
(1) a weak upper back (2)) lack of integrated core strength). Thus, this was a huge victory. I was pretty pumped.
On the note of "integrated core strength." What that means is my core is strong, very strong, on isolated movements like planks etc. However, in the past, I've struggled to tap into that core strength when doing movements with high velocity. As a result, I decided the best move programming wise was to step back and not train my core in an isolated fashion. Instead, I spent the past year programming tons of beltless work, and tons of front loaded work. Today it finally felt like it paid off. No one ever said training adaptations were easily acquired..