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Old Novice - Russ Campbell

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Topic: Old Novice - Russ Campbell
Posted By: The Hulk
Subject: Old Novice - Russ Campbell
Date Posted: 9/18/20 at 8:14pm
I hope to inspire people. No throwing background. Late 2018 was intro to HG. I am currently on week 2 of a pre-comp period - 2x2 week mesocycles. In 3 weeks I'll do a practice comp.
A little background:
40 years ago - 480 back sguat, 550 deadlift, 330 bench; 365 hang power clean, 405 rack clean, 405 jerk
20 years ago - 375 front squat, 265x3 power clean, 292 clean, 305 jerk
Now - turning 65 in 2021! Hoping to be competitive. - 175x3 power clean, 120x3 push press, 220x5 Zercher squats
Best throws from 2019: BS 22, OS 25, LWD 30, HWD 22, LH 60, HH 48, WOB 11, Sheaf 16, Caber 17-70

I've spent 4 weeks doing lifting to build up strength, this week was focusing more on power. 2x throwing (stones, hammers, weights for distance) and 2x lifting (power snatch, power clean, pulls, squats, push press). Next week I will be 3x lifting and 2-3x throwing. We'll see if my fitness level holds up.



Replies:
Posted By: TheJeff696
Date Posted: 9/21/20 at 2:10pm
Welcome back to NASGA!!

-------------
Jeff Kaste



"I think there's a Squatch in these woods..."


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 9/22/20 at 4:12pm
Thanks Jeff. So after doing a lot of pulls and squats the last 4 weeks, Monday's weight session never got above 80% and only 1-2 reps per set. And no I didn't  have any reps in reserve. I was just tired. Basically a light day of push press, power snatch from blocks, clean pull and zercher squat. 
Tuesday was throwing. It's been a while but my strength work makes my throwing feel better even if the distances aren't great. I kept it simple to start, Braemar, fooling around with a step back and modified SA for open stone, 1 and two turn LWD, and 1 - 3 turns of heavy hammer. Transferring strength from Olympic lifts, and continuing to work on throws technique is my focus for the next few weeks.Then I'll take a couple weeks off to reset and set some strength goals for year end.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 9/25/20 at 11:01am
So that was a rough week for me. Three days of lifting - 80-90% with an emphasis on speed, 1-2 reps. Then two days throwing, messing around with a variety of techniques. But I could tell by my sleep that my nervous system was being fried. So after that big week I am hoping that supercompensation kicks in over the next two weeks before I do a solo mock competition. Next week will be 2 days lifting - fast, no more pulls - just hang snatch & clean, push press, squat & 2-3 days of throwing. The last few weeks I have added 1 set of squat jumps to the end of my squat workout with 20% of 1RM. It makes feel like I can fly. While this week took a lot out of me, my Friday lifting workout was the best of the three. Another surprise was my morning aches and hip/groin injuries seemed to fade away. To me success is making progress, injury free. Hitting my marks will be the goal in 2 weeks.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/02/20 at 11:52am
So after a tiring week last week, I decided to take last weekend completely off - I sat around doing nothing. What a mistake! After feeling loose and healthy despite being a little over-trained, my hip flexors seized up and I had a few other aches and pains. I have to take days off more seriously - i.e. train lightly, move around a bit. So the first few days this week were painful. Despite this I had 2 very good, fast, 80-90% weightlifting workouts. I had planned only 2 or 3 days of throwing but I find that light throws help me heal so I threw 3 days this week and I plan to throw this weekend as well. Another reason for the increased emphasis on throws is that I haven't fully made the transformation from weightlifting strength to throwing strength and my technique is very rusty with the lack of competitions this year. I'm also experimenting with a wide variety of throwing techniques - partly for fitness, partly for fun and partly to see what feels most comfortable and has the most upside for me. Next week will be programmed like a competition week with just 1 day of weights and light throwing every day. I have managed to keep up my strength so that should carry me over. So we'll see where we are at the end of this week. Then I'm going to take 2 weeks "off". Not really. No heavy weights & no full throws but I've got a lot of things that I'll play around with.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/06/20 at 1:46pm

As I work through this pre-“competition” week, my thoughts are already turning towards my goals for the rest of this year. I’ll then use the next two weeks to transition to a program to help me to move forward.

First, my goals are two-fold. Throwing goals and weightlifting goals. My throwing goals are based on three benchmarks. The qualifying standards for the World Masters, the 10th best result by an athlete in my category in 2019 and the best result in my category. My strengths and weaknesses relative to these benchmarks are pretty clear. I then divide the throws into two categories that I call strength throws and technical throws. So if I’m relatively poor in sheaf, WOB and Braemar I know that I need to improve my strength with weights. Since I’m awful in almost everything, my first priority is actually WFD and Hammer. Sheaf and WOB are just behind.

My weightlifting goals are similarly based on three benchmarks. In this case I use the qualifying standard for my class for the World Masters Weightlifting Championships, the winner of my age/weight class in 2019 and the record holder in my age/weight class. Using ratios and percentages I can figure out what my goals are for a variety of lifts. For example, if the winner had a 210 pound clean & jerk, his 1RM back squat is estimated to be 295. A triple would then be estimated at 265. That would be one of my benchmarks. My weakest lifts are actually the speed lifts – snatch & push press. So while pulls and squats will be 50% of my training through year end, in the new year power will have to be emphasized. I am hoping that more muscle in the coming months will translate into more power later.

So for the next two weeks my priorities will be active rest and physical prep for the program for the rest of the year which will emphasize heavy strength work. General fitness activities will include tennis, basketball, and the elliptical. I am going to try a variety of squat variations – back, front, overhead, zercher, Jefferson, frog all with an effort to develop my legs in different ways and get greater depth in the squat. Finally I’ll spend more time on mobility and flexibility. As always my priorities are to minimize injury, allow for only modest overtraining (I am especially vulnerable to working out too hard), and staying focused on my weaknesses.



Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/09/20 at 1:32pm
So I had my little personal test competition on Friday. I am very happy with my prep with one major exception. My strength & speed felt good, I had supercompensated so I had the endurance to do all the throws, and my little injuries were not noticeable after warming up. I did a weightlifting workout on Wednesday and my last throws were on Monday. I think this paid off in freshness. My WFD throws were awful though. I knew that was going to happen because my workouts over the last few weeks in this throw were terrible. I think that not throwing WFD in competition & therefore in training this year has been my biggest setback. So I'm generally happy where I am at this point - close to all-time bests. As mentioned, the next two weeks will focus on squat variations, some athletic stuff & mobility. I've already programmed my weights and a little throwing through year end with another test competition in mid-December. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/13/20 at 2:20pm
I have been thinking about my prep for competition day last week. I think I know where I went wrong with my WFD. My pulls weeks ago were going well ie. they were getting stronger with good form (I do snatch & clean pulls as an alternative to deadlifts). In fact I felt that my pulls were improving too quickly compared to other lifts. Also my hang clean has always been very good. So I backed off pulls and 80%+ hang cleans too soon in retrospect. It's really hard to keep the balance right between throwing and weights and also between emphasizing particular throws or particular weightlifting exercises. While focusing on weaknesses is definitely a priority, it can't be the only priority. Everything else has to be kept up.
So in December when I prepare for another mock competition day, I am going to keep pulls in the program longer but probably only in the 90-100% of my 1RM clean range so that I sustain power without losing my hard - earned strength from previous weeks. Hang cleans will also get a little more attention with low volume but higher intensity than the last go around. The other change I'll make is to my throwing schedule. I felt like my throwing didn't come together quickly enough. 3-4 weeks out I was only throwing 2-3 times a week. As a relative novice, the throwing patterns aren't instinctual for me (Also research says that older athletes have more difficulty with acquiring and maintaining skills). 1-2 weeks out I do throw almost every day. But I'm going to try adding throwing every day to my program 3-4 weeks out from a competition. Now I know what you are thinking. I'm adding more volume to my weights and throws in the competition period and risking fatigue. As I mentioned before I know that I am vulnerable to over-training (whether it's because of age, too aggressive goals, poor conditioning, or an inability to recover). But keeping the volume of pulls and hang cleans and throws on the low end should help to mitigate the effects of fatigue. Volume is usually considered to be a bigger contributor to fatigue than intensity. And I am not adding anything to competition week so that should also help to supercompensate and be fresh and rested for competition day. I am much more patient than I used to be. A bad workout used to be very upsetting to me. Now I realize that small & medium workouts - even if unplanned - are essential to recovery, injury prevention and progress. These days bad workouts on one day are often followed by good workouts on the next day! And more importantly long term progress is unaffected by a so-called bad day. I would never have believed this was possible in my younger days.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/17/20 at 5:17pm
Spending a lot of time thinking about the next phase of my training. I am enjoying light squatting and other physical activities for another week but I've also been re-reading a lot of material on strength building. One of the major challenges with this sport, it seems to me, is that max strength & power are obviously critical but it is difficult to spend enough time on building strength because of the complexity of the throwing challenge.
Building strength & power is usually relatively straight forward. Squats, pulls, presses are fundamental. Then transitioning to power can be accomplished with the Olympic lifts, squat jumps and specialty exercises. Many athletes in our sport follow what hammer/discus/shot put throwers do. But I am throwing heavier weights than what the hammer/discus/shot put throwers contend with. And since they spend 50% of their time, I'm told, lifting weights, I need to lift weights even more than that. I need to be relatively stronger than them. OK so my program of lifting and throwing should in theory tilt towards more lifting.
What throws a wrench in this model is that we have so many events. Even if we collapse stones, WFD & Hammer into 3 events there is still WOB, Sheaf and Caber to contend with. So there are 6 events at least. And max strength & power won't necessarily translate to throwing further. So it seems that I have to add more specific strength exercises - as many of you do. But that's a trade-off that erodes core strength & power. For example, football players have to run around the field for a whole game. But if they spend too much time training for running, their strength will be compromised. If a lineman has to block a powerful defensive tackle, he wants to be in tip-top strength condition at that moment. So my conclusion is that I too want max strength & power not specific strength in small muscles. As I transition towards a competition, I will add more throwing - even overweight implements for specific strength. (Ask me about my 28 lb shot).
To summarize, I only have so much time & energy to train & recover, I need to overly emphasize lifting, I have to achieve some undefinable minimum standard of strength and power to be able to optimally execute the technique needed to throw, and when I transition to sport specific strength I'll throw overweight stuff.
So my weight training for the next 6 weeks after this next week of slacking will be focused on lifting with only occasional throwing. I like doing small workouts more frequently - 5 days a week with variations of snatch, snatch pull, clean, clean pull, squat, press each performed 2x a week. I'll stick mainly to 5 reps for squats and pulls and 3 reps for Olympic lifts. Heavy days will be 90% of 1RM, Light days/weeks no lower than 60%, averaging around 80%. My goal is to hit lifting goals as I described in an earlier post.      


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/22/20 at 12:24pm
I fooled around with some different squats over the last two weeks but the big news for me was returning to depth jumps. I haven't done them in a long time and they are risky for big/old guys. After squats, I used a modest 8" block to step off. I felt it afterwards. I am going to add these in to my program later on when I am in a power-building phase. This is an advanced exercise so my sets/reps will be low and I'll pair squat to get the post-activation potentiation with the depth jumps.
So back to serious lifting next week. I know that this first week will start slowly after 2 weeks "off". I'll follow a two week program, followed by a deloading week. The standard mesocycle is 3 weeks on/1 off but I get bored easily and 2/1 suits me better. Monday - 80% objective-snatch-3 reps, clean pulls-5 reps. (My percentages are based on my perceived best for the day. Example - if 200 is my recent 1RM snatch , that would imply 3 reps of 160 is 80%. So 160 is my theoretical 3RM best. That is my goal and upper limit for the day. I won't go beyond 160 even if feeling good. And if 150x3 is all I can do, I stop there. I keep reps in reserve). Tuesday-90% objective-Press-5 reps, Squat-5 reps, Wednesday-80% objective-Olympic only-snatch-3 reps, Clean-3-reps, Thursday-80% objective-Push Press-3 reps, Snatch pull-5 reps, Friday-90% objective-Clean-3 reps, Squat-5 reps. The following week will have the same exercises but with slightly higher intensity/lower volume.
Generally I target 3-5 working sets per exercise.  


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/27/20 at 12:04pm
It's interesting (to me). Two weeks off plus a week prior of tapering & yet my strength is within 5% of recent highs. I know in theory that strength persists longer than other qualities like speed but it's still nice to know that it is also true for me.
I seem to be settling into the rule of two. I do two 90%+ days per week, I train each major exercise twice a week, I do two weeks on/1 week deload.
Just read an academic article that showed that performance after tapering with either light or heavy weight training for two weeks showed no difference. There was some impact from heavy training on important variables like strength, power and RFD but these didn't translate into better performance on competition day. The study looked at throwers. Again, I think that using our heavier HG implements would accentuate the gains shown and if tapered properly would result in better performance. The key part I think is making that transition from strength & power training into specific strength for throwing our implements & then speed - call it RFD, impulse, explosiveness - whatever. This transition probably takes a little more than 2 weeks. In December, I'll lift heavy weights up until 1 week out (High intensity but low volume) & I'll start overweight throws 6 weeks out to translate power to specific strength.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 10/30/20 at 10:59am
So I finished my lifting loading week with next week being a "performance" week which means a lot of 2-3 rep sets across all exercises. I scheduled 2-90% days this week and 3-80% days this week. This high level of intensity caught up with me Thursday night and resulted in a poor night's sleep. So Friday's workout was more like an 80% day than a 90% day. I always use my perceived best for the day to calculate percentages (like the Bulgarians did) and I know if I'm on track based on my reps in reserve. So if I'm targeting an 80% day, which generally means 3 reps in snatch/clean & 5 reps in pulls/squats, I can tell if what 1RM for today is if I fall short on reps. If I squat 4 reps at 80% & it's tough that's it for this so-called medium day. 80% based on daily 1RM with reps in reserve is supposed to be a recovery day. Someone once said that one workout won't make you a success but one workout can ruin it.
One of the reasons that I keep volume in the 2-5 reps range and intensity in the 80-90% range is that more recent research suggests that results are better if there isn't too large of an inverse relation between volume & intensity. The traditional way of thinking was that as you move through the phases of training, volume starts high/intensity starts low and volume gets reduced as intensity goes up over time. I admit that my way of calculating percentages of 1RM mean that intensity argueably dips below 80% on medium/easy days & deloading weeks but I never want it to dip below 60%. 60% or less results in detraining. I know I need recovery days/weeks but I also know that consistent/persistent effort at 80%+ is what enables progress.
Recently read a book on timing in which it suggested that your workout should be at the same time each day and don't take weekends off. I'm good with the same time every day but after training 5 days, I feel like I need a break. Ideally, I should move my Friday workout to Saturday but I probably won't! What I have learned the hard way recently though is that doing nothing on weekends makes me tighten up and really doesn't help recovery. So I have to do something. For me, the elliptical is convenient and keeps things moving.
Further confirmation of my plan to develop specific strength later this year is that apparently Brian Oldfield was a believer in overweight implement throwing. More core, then specific strength is important first for me in order to have a base for strength-speed/power with the competition implements.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/01/20 at 1:18pm
Just read an e-book called Thrower's Guide to Strength Training by Louie Simmons. Definitely worthwhile checking out if you aren't already familiar with the Westside Barbell approach to lifting and throwing. His training ideas were built on weightlifting and track & field programs & modified for powerlifting. The science is based on the same research that I am familiar with. And since the roots are w/l & t/f, it's not hard to reverse engineer his recommendations back to suit my needs. I found that the programs I've created for myself to date are easily "transmuted" into his world. So after my 5 day performance week and a deload week over the next 2 weeks, I'm going to try a cycle that echoes the Westside approach. What I like especially is that the program seamlessly integrates strength, power & throwing together & by slightly varying exercises avoids accommodation & staleness/injury. I've got some adjustments to make to accommodate my age, experience & so on. But it's not a big leap from 5 days to 4 days with 2 max & 2 dynamic days. I'll start this 2-3 week program in mid-November & slide right into a pre-comp phase. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/03/20 at 1:05pm
I am going to complete this week, but I am going to change up my previous plan for next week. I am not going to do a deload week next week. Instead I'm going to move directly to a 4 day week with 2 max & 2 dynamic days. I think that I've gotten stale and I want to shake things up. I am pretty much injury free so its time to push - not harder exactly, but differently. I'll think about what goes into the max & dynamic buckets a little more and post my plan for the next 2-3 weeks. To preview - squats, pulls and presses are in my max bucket while snatch, clean & push press are in my dynamic buckets. But there are some elements that I still want to work out.
The more I read the more I realize that there are a million ways to structure training. And for most people almost everything works! The very elite are in a different category - but that's not me. For me, I don't want to meander all over the place. I have a whole life to live and it's not just training. I want to follow the most efficient path to success. For example, I could do 1 set of 20 reps of 10 different random exercises once a week and I will get get fitter & stronger. But the research says that multiple sets, less than 6 reps, specific exercises for strength & power and 3+ days a week lead to better results in strength & power. So I am on a quest for the optimal program that is not perfect but at least stays within the guardrails of what thousands of years of practice, sports science and really smart, experienced, successful coaches suggest works.


Posted By: Larry Satchwell
Date Posted: 11/05/20 at 6:48am
Russ, I understand what you’re saying about sticking to a routine and not jumping all over the place.  I think it’s great that you’re looking at different programs. But as you read these philosophies take note what age group they’re talking about. For us older guys, you’re 64, I’ll be 69 in January, recovery is a lot longer than those young bucks.  So don’t get discouraged if what you’re doing doesn’t go as fast as those programs/ articles say they should.  Keep grinding and listening to what your body is telling you. Just my 2 cents worth.  


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/05/20 at 12:16pm
I agree with you 100% - and thanks for commenting! I need some feedback and there is no right answer. I am old and weak as you mention (!) and so I am trying to be deliberate about how I approach this. You have probably noticed that my program cuts a lot of exercises and volume (especially). But now I think I need to broaden my exercise portfolio somewhat to avoid getting used to things and  stalling out (accommodation). But I also want to keep getting stronger in the core exercises (squat, pull and press) and also more powerful (snatch, Clean, push press). In order to keep my workouts shorter (less than 45 minutes) I have been training 5 days a week. I think that that is either a little too much or maybe I am organizing the workouts wrong. For example I did try push days and pull days and that was a killer for me. I can't do power clean, clean, clean pull and squat on the same day! (Extreme example). But I still think that I can tweak the organization of my workouts. The objective once again is to get stronger, then more powerful, then fast while merging in specific throwing strength & technique - all while staying just slightly over-trained & most importantly injury free.
So I am moving from 5 days to 4 days without increasing volume so I am reducing total weekly volume by 20%. However I am moving to 2 maximum days - which means 100% single in 2 exercises over two days. This is a step-up in intensity. And then there will be a supporting exercise on those two days as well. Example - If the max day is 100% squat then pulls for reps may be second exercise of the day. The last two days of the week are dynamic - typically up to 3-5 reps at 80% in exercises like snatch. The other major change is to add more variety but all within the same category. So for example, I'll do Zercher squat one day, front squat the next within the same week. One of these will be a maximum and the other day lighter for reps.
So the idea is to transition and not leap from program to program while staying in tune with what is working and what isn't. My current staleness was a wake-up call to me that something needed changing.
I appreciate you comment about doing what I can and not expecting the results that younger lifters get. In one of my previous posts I mention how I set weightlifting and throwing goals so I know where I am going and what others my age achieve. Small improvements are acknowledged and welcomed by me! Making progress, staying healthy and feeling like an athlete are my real goals. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/05/20 at 3:07pm
OK So here is my program for the next 3 weeks. 4 days a week, 2 maximum days, 2 power days, 2 throwing sessions on the max days. This isn't intended to be perfect & I may need to make adjustments as I go through. My objective is to strengthen squats&pulls, keep up power, & start building specific throwing strength. The specific squats vary from workout to workout & the height of various pulls & cleans also varies to introduce some variation.
Week 1 - M-Throw overweight WFD, Squat, Pull;T-Throw overweight Hammer, Clean&press, Shrugs; Th-Front squat, depth jumps; F-Push press, Pull
Week 2 - M-Throw overweight WFD, Squat, Shrug; T-Throw overweight hammer, Press, Pull; Th-Power Clean&Front squat, depth jumps; F-Close grip snatch, Press
Week 3 - M-Throw overweight WFD, Squat, Pull; T-Throw overweight hammer, muscle snatch, Press; Th-Deadlift&power clean, depth jumps; F-Power snatch, power clean & push press
So that's it - Max squat&max press 1x a week & reps for everything else.



Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/10/20 at 12:12pm
So my first two days of the week have gone well. I am out of practice of going for max singles but I was happy with my squat and press. The pulls and shrugs were easy and so I pushed them a little harder for triples with close to maximum. The overweight WFD and hammer were a shock to my system. I am not in throwing shape and my rotational muscles are weak. But that is the point of doing overweight stuff. For the next three weeks I'll use overweight implements on my max strength days. I keep the throwing reps low because I am trying to build strength and just ease back into throwing. And the truth is that I'm focusing on drills with the overweight implements, not full throws at this stage. I've also decided that it makes sense to add light throwing implements to my dynamic/power workouts on Thursday and Friday. That adds two days of throwing and is consistent with the effort to add power.
Again, I keep volumes low, intensity high and my recovery ability seems to be much better compared to my previous program. Of course the proof will be in my throwing results but for now I'm happy to balance building strength & power with both the weights and the implements.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/14/20 at 4:04pm
So moving to 2 max strength days and 2 dynamic/power days plus 4 days of throwing (!) - 2 overweight, 2 light weight WFD/hammer, should have wiped me out. But surprisingly this turned out to be a pretty good week from a recovery/sustainability perspective. In fact I was feeling too good on Thursday so I ended up doing a lot/too much throwing and this undermined my Friday workout. So Friday I just focused on hang clean and push press to 80% and then threw the light hammer. The integration of strength/power/throwing generally worked. The throws are just another exercise on the day, not a separate thing. Of course I wonder if this program is too complex but I'll know in a few weeks if I'm trying to accomplish too much at once by hitting strength, power and technique all at once. There is no doubt that I'm not optimizing everything but we'll see. I think that I can still tweak the organization of exercises and I'll continue to introduce variation. I am going to try to find and focus on weaknesses without allowing my strengths to diminish. So I'm not trying to set records but just bring everything up to a similar standard. Overall, my attitude is that if I can get the work in, recover and avoid injury, and keep everything moving forward together it should translate into results.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/16/20 at 2:05pm
This was a tough day. It was a maximum strength lower body day. And I upped the ante by having 2 exercises where I strove for a max single. So I did rack half squat singles until it was basically an isometric push against the bar. Then I did power clean singles from a box with a wide grip. I finished off the weights with some triples of good mornings because I feel that my pulls are not progressing. I haven't done any of these exercises for a while so the maxes were nothing great.
I am adding variation but every exercise has to be related to fundamental strength & power so the exercises are always standing, closed chain, low reps. Further variation is added by varying grip distances, leg stance, & height of starting position.
After a short break I went out and did a few turns with an overweight WFD which was in keeping with the max strength focus of the day.
My mindset is that there is no such thing as a bad day. I do my best even if my max single on the day is just 80%. Every workout contributes to either recovery or building a base for the future.
Tomorrow is another max day but this time for upper body. So I'll do presses from the rack to a max single, muscle snatch to a max single and then triceps extensions with a barbell for triples-probably not too heavy. I am adding in triceps extensions because I feel that I'm getting a little stale with press and I want to push it to a higher level. Finally, I'll do some overweight hammer turns.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/17/20 at 5:16pm
When setting up my 4 day program I had Monday as a Max lower body day, Tuesday as a Max upper body day, Thursday as a Dynamic/power lower body day and Friday as a Dynamic/power upper body day. Didn't work. I was rested but not ready for 100% squats and pulls on Monday and too tired for Friday upper body after a power day on Thursday. My thinking initially was that strength would be early in the week and power later in the week. But as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not good with only push or pull days and this sequence felt similar. Strength two days in a row and power two days in a row wasn't for me. So next week, I will move the days around to help with recovery. Monday will be upper body power, Tuesday lower body strength, Thursday upper body strength and Friday lower body power. Upper body Monday/Thursday, lower body Tuesday/Friday, strength is Tuesday/Thursday and power is Monday/Friday. The only part that seems off is strength but the one day break should help. We'll see.
So Thursday this week I'll do speed clean pull, & a combo of front squat + depth jumps plus light WFD. Friday will be close grip snatch & push press with light hammer.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/20/20 at 1:31pm
So what have I learned so far based on my weightlifting  experience, the science of strength & power development, insights from other strength sports and my limited experience with Highland throwing. In summary, this sport has lots of little wrinkles that differentiate it from other strength sports in terms of preparation before we even get to technique. So, my preliminary conclusions that inform my training include: 1. This sport is conducted entirely standing on your feet so all core exercises should probably be also standing up with power coming from the feet on up. Accessory/supplementary exercises - eg single joint exercises for triceps can also be used afterwards. 2. Strength is the key to power. We have to be stronger than Olympic throwers because of the weight of the implements - so more strength work is necessary. And we need strength for rotation too. So I use overweight implements in combination with my strength days. 3. Strength & power means low reps - 1-3 reps in all of the core exercises. Some argue for higher reps for assistance exercises but I can't see the justification. I can build muscle (hypertrophy) without higher reps. The evidence supporting the benefits of hypertrophy in building strength & power seems to be pretty thin. In the long run it helps, supposedly. 4. But strength is only the beginning. I then need to translate that strength into power like a weightlifter can generate. And since we are throwing lighter implements than what weightlifters lift, I also need explosive strength which I can get from doing exercises like power snatch, push press and depth jumps. 5. Here is another very tentative conclusion. Everything I've read says that technical exercises like throwing should be done when you are fresh - so before a weights workout, at a much different time of day or even on a different day. But at least outside of competition prep periods this timing doesn't make sense to me. If I have to throw a heavy WFD, Hammer or WOB at 3pm, I am not fresh as a daisy! My strength and technique have to be dialed in all competition day long so I need mental and physical endurance. So to prepare for the burden of the competition I incorporate overweight or light implements at the end of every weightlifting workout. Its not ideal from a technique and speed perspective but this preparation reflects the reality of this sport that drains your energy over a full day. As an Olympic-style weightlifter it was easy for me to rationalize doing snatch at the beginning of a workout because the snatch was not only technical and requiring speed, it was also always the first event on competition day. In Highland Games I don't have this certainty.
So next week, I will lift and throw 4 days. Monday is a power day - muscle snatch, clean & push press both for triples with triceps work to supplement. I'll also throw a light hammer. Tuesday is a strength day with singles in Zercher squat and a clean pull variation. Good mornings will supplement and I'll also do drills with an overweight WFD. Thursday is also a strength day but upper body. So press and upright rows for singles, bent over rows for triples and an overweight hammer. Friday is a power day with snatch pull, power clean & front squat for doubles/triples and depth jumps, finishing off with a lite WFD.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/24/20 at 12:18pm
Good workout today. It was a good choice to move my max strength/singles day to Tuesday and use Monday for power & reps. It was almost like Monday was a warmup for Tuesday. So I set new PRs in both squat and clean pulls for singles today. It is not my primary objective to set records in any one exercise because I want everything moving higher together. Strength, power and explosive potential. I also mix up exercises, grip & stance width, and pin heights on the rack to avoid staleness or injury and so this makes hitting new records more difficult. Everything is always different. But because everything is closely related, every exercise continues to edge up. More specifically, I've added good mornings which I think are the reason for the bump higher in squat and pull. Perhaps surprisingly, my fatigue levels have improved. I sleep better at night these days. And yet I am training 4 days a week with 2 max single days and 2 power days plus throwing. I also pay close attention to how I am feeling each training day. I watch the speed of each lift which is an early warning sign. If I start slowing down, I am approaching my maximum for the day. I also try to keep reps in reserve so I don't exhaust myself one day and then can't train for days. I'll follow this routine for a couple more weeks and then I'll shift into a pre-competition period for 3 weeks. Then I'll be able to test if all of the stuff I've been doing has a real effect. But I'm very pleased with how I feel - feel good-train good-perform good is my hope. And I'm having fun!


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/24/20 at 3:05pm
Here is some more things that I think I "know". 1. I can't train at 100% all the time. That was my standard approach for most of my career which hindered progress. But de-loading can also be a trap. Under 60% of 1RM or taking time off is counter-productive. In just one week, speed/power and coordination start deteriorating. And then I'd have to work like a maniac to get back to where I just was! So the compromise is never stop training but add lots of variety within the bounds of the needs of the sport. 2. Avoid adding exercises that are counter-productive. A friend of mine was a world-class weightlifter who late in his career added running to his program. This was counter-productive. 3. It's my weaknesses that are holding me back. Some probably can't be overcome to my satisfaction - e.g age, lack of mobility, lack of work capacity - but that doesn't mean I have to give up. And while I'm constantly re-calibrating what needs to be done to overcome relative weaknesses I have to maintain what I've got that is good. 4. Stay open-minded. What has worked so far won't always work for me. How will I transition from the best program for me right now to the best program for me in the next period of time. But just because I'm open-minded doesn't mean I should be empty-headed. I see lots of programs out there that have no rational basis or proof for why they work. And lots of exercises that are fun or cool to do that would just erode the limited energy I have. If I have only so much time and energy I need to spend it on the things that are most likely to contribute to performance & longevity in sport.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 11/27/20 at 4:26pm
So it was an interesting week. Before I moved to this 4 day a week program, you may recall that I felt exhausted, slept poorly and felt that I was sliding backwards. Now the balance is much better although I still need recovery and medium days to make it through. Now the tiredness feels likes it is more functional as opposed to dysfunctional. I am tired because my body is re-building from workouts that are productive. As they say, I am leaving it all out on the field/in the weight room. The end of my workouts is the end. If I was younger I might try to build more workout capacity but at my age that probably isn't the best idea. I am trying to find the optimal amount of training that enables both performance and long term health. I have picked up one tiny injury that I'll have to work around - a slightly sprained wrist. But it doesn't affect my stone throwing so it isn't a big deal.
I purchased a rebounder which will be delivered next week. It's like a mini-trampoline except you don't jump as high. It's meant to develop explosive strength from jumping by building both eccentric as you settle and isometric strength as you wait for the rebounder to return energy to jump, with low impact on the knees and ankles. There is research to support the use for athletes to develop vertical jump and also balance. I think that it will be a good complement to my steady diet of squats & Olympic lifts to translate the strength and power into a faster impulse after landing.
Next week as usual Monday is upper body power - Close grip snatch, push press, triceps all for sets of 3 plus lite hammer. Tuesday is lower body strength - back squat, block snatch pull - all for singles, good mornings for triples & overweight WFD. Thursday will be upper body strength - clean & press, muscle snatch - both for singles, upright rows for reps and overweight Hammer. Finally Friday is a lower body power day with hang pulls, zercher squats & depth jumps with lite WFD to finish.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/04/20 at 12:40pm
An unplanned rest this week. I mentioned that I've been feeling a little tired and I assumed/hoped that it was functional over-reaching that could be reversed quickly. So I had an unexpected test of my assumption. The first two workouts this week were nothing to write home about. I did the movements and struggled to get over 80%. Then I had a shingles shot. It knocked me out for 36 hours with chills and fever. But I felt better on Friday and trained and had a great workout. So my over-trained state was temporary, reversible and means that I continue to build capacity for the future. So as it turns out, I had an unplanned de-load 1/2 week. It's nice to have theory about over-reaching reflected in how my body actually responds.
So next week I am going to change the focus just a little. I am going to do mainly exercises that are a close complement to Olympic lifting. The idea is to re-build lifting technique and power and speed in the groove. I'll still do max strength and max power days. But a max strength day will have power clean instead of slow pulls. And for back strength I'll add in good mornings. So Monday will be an upper body power day with muscle snatch, close grip snatch and triceps along with lite hammer. Tuesday will be max strength with power clean, front squat and good mornings and overweight WFD. Thursday will be max strength upper body with push press, power snatch, upright rows and overweight hammer. Friday will be lower body power for reps with back squat, clean pull & bent over rows with lite WFD.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/06/20 at 12:02pm
I am always searching for insights into training for this sport. In 2016, Dan McKim wrote an article on the lifts that are most important for HG in his view. Tier one were hang snatch and clean which are central to my programs too. Tier two added bench press and back squat. Instead of bench press which I know is a staple of throwers, I think standing press, push press are better because they are performed standing up. And in Tier three, McKim added strict overhead press anyway. The rest of his list included pulls, trap bar jumps, cable/banded pull-throughs and backward sled drags. I include pulls but I substitute for trap bar jumps which he used for the plyometric effect. I would be concerned about overloading the trap bar and not getting enough power development which is best realized at around 80% of 1RM. Hang snatch and hang clean are probably enough to build power. Adding depth jumps, which are probably the gold standard for explosive strength, would also be helpful. I have also purchased a rebounder which is a lower impact way to develop explosive strength. I have seen others do cable/banded pull throughs to great success in WOB. I don't have access to this equipment but I wonder if working with an overweight WOB would have the same result. Pull throughs and overweight would have different movement implications so it would be interesting to see which has the most impact on results. I would also note that people who I have seen do pull throughs seem to do a lot of reps which is counter-productive if I am trying to build strength & power. Backward sled drags he says are to develop quads. Again I don't have easy access to this equipment but I do front squats, Zercher squats so for me quads aren't a major concern. I recently read that keeping your front squat at 85% of back squat is one way to measure quad/hamstring balance. Overall, I'm interested that his list of core exercises is fairly basic and oriented to strength & power development. There aren't too many highly specific exercises. I think that overweight implements are a better way to get that more specific strength needed for throwing. And since strength is the primary way to add speed and power, core exercises such as McKim suggested, and tossing overweight implements seem to be the best path for me. I enjoyed his recommendations and find them helpful to calibrate what I'm doing. Again, I have to constantly remind myself of my goal here - maximize progress in an efficient way while avoiding injury.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/08/20 at 3:59pm
Since this is a power week, I am trying to move all weights as fast as possible. I'll probably add another power week next week. It may be my imagination but my rebounder makes a great warmup/cooldown/explosive power/injury rehab device. It's fun to use, easy to adjust difficulty, and a way to get things going in my workouts.
As a part of my education, I've taken another look at the books available from HG athletes to see what they recommend as far as weight training. I've got the books by Pockoski (2013), Vincent (2013), Beech (2017) and Overfelt/Riley (2019).  The consensus seems to be 3 days a week of lifting weights. On the one hand, that is manageable for most people and is I'd say, the minimum prescription for a strength athlete.  Even at my age I think 4 days is better. I don't know where 3 days training came from but it seems really old-school to me - inconsistent with the evidence of what science and practice say is needed to get stronger. The consensus supports reps in the 3-5 range with some authors recommending maximum singles from time to time. The exercises recommended by all tend to be the big 5 (squat, bench press, deadlift, snatch, clean & jerk) and closely related complementary exercises. To avoid staleness & avoid injury I can add a lot of variation around these by adjusting my stance, grip, partial movements, and so on. I am very cautious about adding other exercises that sap my energy and are likely to contribute little to my throwing. However, from other sources there is something to be said for adding a few exercises to support weaknesses that many of us have (eg, lower back, hamstrings), that I have specifically (legs), or that help avoid typical injuries suffered by HG athletes (eg. rotator cuff).


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/13/20 at 5:00pm
I know I'm missing some pieces and in the next few weeks I have got to think about how to re-engineer my workout schedule to accommodate what's missing. I feel that I need to throw more, pre-hab more to avoid injury & mobilize more. I know what all of these pieces entail but how to fit them together is like a puzzle. I am not a world-class weightlifter who has the time & energy to train 9x a week and sleep 12 hours a day. So I have to scale my expectations back but still do what needs to done for performance & more importantly health & longevity in the sport. Solving the puzzle is fun for me.
For example, just figuring how to organize my weight training in recent months has been a revelation. Getting stronger & more powerful while avoiding injury (touch wood) & training consistently has been an unattainable goal for most of my life. Now it's happened. And so I'll take the next steps to fold-in throwing, pre-hab & mobility.
For next week, I'm going to do another what I call a power week. It's all about moving the bar fast. Last week everything felt fast but weeks of focus on pulls & squats meant that my techniques were sloppy. Pulling 300 has a different pattern than 200. It shouldn't but if pulls are emphasized too much technique falls apart. So I'll do one more week of fast moving power & then go back to slow, strength development. The change is not dramatic in terms of exercises, weights, sets, reps but I feel a noticeable difference. For example - one push press and one standing press a week makes for a different week than doing one of these twice. So next week will include M-80% Upper body - push press, power snatch, T-100% Lower body - Hang power clean, Front squat, Good mornings Th-100% Upper body - Muscle snatch, Close grip snatch F-80% Lower body - Back squat, Snatch pull, Bent over row. 80% usually means I work up to doubles/triples, while 100% means singles to my max on the day. This seems like a lot of intensity but there's no pressure. To me if 100% on the day is 80% of my recent max, I'm OK with that. I'll try for more but I am happy either way. My goal is to do the right exercises without getting stale by doing exactly the same ones over and over, in the right order, at either a triple or single intensity each week. The relatedness of the exercises and the whole body comprehensiveness of the program also addresses the dual objectives of strength & power.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/19/20 at 3:47pm
I try not to get too excited or depressed about my training. A "bad day", I call a recovery day. A "good day" I think of as just one of my two maximum days each week. Nobody gives me a medal for a training PR and no one is looking or cares when I feel like crap. It's just all part of the long-term mix that goes into building my capacity to perform better.
Speaking of performing, for weeks now I've been throwing on a low boil with light and overweight implements. But we are approaching the new year and I am hopeful that we'll have some safe events at some point next year. So just as I've successfully integrated strength & power into a weekly microcycle, I want to integrate throwing in a more serious way. As my screen name says, I am an old novice and getting & keeping technique and specific strength is no joke for me. I still believe that core strength & power should have priority because of the weight of HG implements & also my diminishing muscle as age marches on. But since I'm late to the party in developing a consistent technique and throwing things I've got to prescribe more throwing. I'm also going to move my throwing from the end to the beginning of my workouts so that I'm fresher technique-wise. This is after doing throws at the end of workouts for many weeks to build strength & endurance. I'm also continuing to explore mobility exercises which will be after my workouts. John Odden - a Pro & record-holder, taught me the Throwers 5 mobility exercises as well as many others at his HG training camp and I'm going to look carefully at what I need to prioritize based on my greatest needs and the demands of this sport. Finally, I'm going to do one more power-focused week partly because I'm feeling good, partly because the emphasis on power versus pure strength is reviving my technique/co-ordination + speed, and partly because it's Christmas week and I deserve to take my foot off the gas pedal - at least until the following week. So this week will include M-80% Upper body - Fast standing press, Muscle snatch, Wide grip Upright row, T-100% Lower body - Power clean from blocks, Front squat from box, Good mornings Th-100% Upper body - Push press, Hang power snatch, Bent over rows F-80% Lower body - Back squat, Snatch pull



Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/27/20 at 12:44pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/02/21 at 4:41pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/04/21 at 3:55pm
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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/09/21 at 2:00pm
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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/15/21 at 12:30pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/16/21 at 12:48pm
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.

 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/23/21 at 5:20pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/27/21 at 11:19am
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 1/30/21 at 2:39pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 2/01/21 at 12:32pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 2/07/21 at 12:28pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 2/13/21 at 4:36pm
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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 2/20/21 at 11:33am
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 2/27/21 at 4:49pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 3/07/21 at 3:03pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 3/13/21 at 2:39pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 3/21/21 at 1:02pm
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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.  


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date 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.


Posted By: Larry Satchwell
Date Posted: 5/28/21 at 7:03am
Congratulations, I see you made the start list for the worlds.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 5/28/21 at 9:21am
You know, I feel honored to be invited. I know that there are tremendous athletes out there that compete at the highest level year after year in the HG. And I admire what can be accomplished at any age. My personal hero is Marcel Perron who at the age of 87ish, has the highest rating/lifts I've ever seen in weightlifting adjusted for weight and age. And I remember training with him when he was an "old guy" back in the 1970's! I have competed at the World Masters for weightlifting. And I'm thankful that I can do it again at another sport. I'm always curious about what I can do if I put my mind & limited physical skills to it. That's why I recently became a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist to help understand how to optimize what I have. So far in my short time in this sport, my biggest thrills have been invitations to Pleasanton and now, the World Masters. My Grandpa Campbell from Glasgow would be proud.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 5/28/21 at 2:52pm
My bad. After recently talking about how conscientous I am about rest and recovery, I went ahead and upped my volume etc a lot this past week. I went from a week of 3x throwing to 3x with weights and 2x throwing. I backed off on daily volume and intensity but the overall week was a noticeable increase. Good news is that I survived and feel pretty good. Each workout wiped me out but I felt mentally and physically ready by the next day for my next workout. And stayed largely injury free. Nothing that undermined a workout. It's good to know now that I can survive an overload week like this. So I'll pick up the same routine for next week. MWF are Olympic lifting/power and 2 days of throwing with light implements. The week after will be a deload week with 3 days of throwing only with overweight implements. But first I have to get through next week.  I really like the addition of a couple sets of plyo,etrics at the beginning of my workout. During these power weeks I am doing fast plyos - hops, depth jumps. During my max strength weeks I'll add in slower plyos like squat jumps and standing long jumps - both are great for strength from a standing start. So next week will be M - plyos, Clean & jerk, Squat; T - Throwing light implements; W - plyos, Snatch, Jerk, squat variation; Th - Throwing light implements; F - Plyos, Snatch variation, Squat


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 5/31/21 at 12:46pm
So a couple of things. I've now do plyos at the beginning of my weight training workout. Since I always wear weightlifting boots for training I just started jumping with them on. Probably not the best idea. So now I go barefoot. If I did huge volumes of plyos, proper footwear would be better in the long run but for the number of jumps I do I should be fine. Today I decided to continue the barefoot motif and I did front squats to a box and clean & jerks barefoot. I don't think I'll do this all the time but I noticed something interesting. I focused on pushing my knee ahead of my toes on the eccentric portion of the front squat and also pushed the knees forward as far as possible on both the clean and jerk. I think that it helped stretch and I felt more powerful on the lifts as I had a deeper knee bend than usual especially on the clean/jerk. This focus and knee action also reminded me of some reading I've been doing lately about the "shank" which is the angle of the shin. Apparently this is a topic of discussion in sprinting circles. Having a steeper shank angle ie knee as far forward of toes as possible/practical adds to force development. Not a bad thing for throwers either. Speaking of technique, I've seen too many videos of throwers doing hang cleans. I've always loved hang cleans. But the technique used by many is awful and its something that I try to stay acutely aware of for myself as well. Many throwers turn the hang clean into a reverse curl and wide split catch. This is bad for a lot of reasons but the biggest reason from a sport performance perspective is that it won't translate to throwing. Nothing we do resembles a reverse horizontal curl and lateral leg split on the catch. Lousy technique is also a recipe for injury. Whenever I am tempted to do this I just go back to exercises like upright rows, muscle cleans, & mid-thigh clean pulls etc to get back on track with the proper triple extension & vertical pull. Lastly, there are some fundamental movement screens out there that claim to predict the probability of injury. The argument is made that unless you fix deficient movements you will get injured. Seems logical. But there is no proof in the research that it is true.  It's very hard to materially improve movement characteristics and the effects wear off if the effort to improve is not sustained. So I have a certain range of movement that I will live with. For example, I can't sit in the full squat position. However I don't need to for HG. Where I have significant problems I will focus my attention using foam rolling, dynamic warmups, full range of motion exercise and static stretching on off days. But I am not going to try  to fix everything. I don't need to and I am no likely to get injured than someone with better mobility than me.  So I can focus my energy elsewhere.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/02/21 at 11:54am
A long-time friend of mine is a competitive 65 year old tennis player & knows of my weight training background and education. He has always been reluctant and skeptical about weight training. But since the pandemic he's been training at home with 35lb dumbbells. He asked my advice. Perhaps surprisingly to most people, tennis is a power sport. As an example of how to prepare, I sent him a copy of an Andy Roddick weight training program. Essentially I told my friend that he has to lift heavier weights faster. (he's not going to do it of course! Lack of interest and it would be too much work). A top - ranked tennis player's training program is probably not a good model for the average tennis player anyway. The analogy for me is that I cannot copy a top ranked HG athlete's program and expect to get results. Genetically I was probably not ever going to be a top thrower. Add aging as just one additional variable and there is no way I can follow a top throwers program. Another alternative that I could consider is copying another thrower's training program who is more similar to me. However, there are many variables that require differences in each individual athlete's training. What I have done instead of copying others is build up a program that is unique to me. If I look back over my training log posted here, there has been an evolution in my training. As much as possible the variations in my program have been built off of training principles that have been validated by scientific research. So I've attempted to keep my need for individual variation within the boundaries implied by research. So for example, my program has never contemplated very high rep/very low load sets.  I think my program will be unique to me but that it's effectiveness will be bound by general principles. Doing the opposite would be a big mistake for me - a general program using my own unique principles.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/05/21 at 11:27am
So I've completed my 2 weeks of power/Olympic lifting training - 3 days lifting plus 2 days throwing. Week 1 was exhausting but manageable and week 2 was quite bearable. No records but everything was moving fast and reasonably smoothly. Little strains and aches deserve a deloading week. So next week will be throwing only - 3 days. I'll use heavy + overloaded weights. For me that means a 28 lb ball, a 28 lb hammer and a 56 lb WFD/WOB. I'm not at all concerned about how far I heave these things. It's more about developing strength in my core and all the little muscles that enable rotation, hingeing etc. Before I can have power or even proper technique I have to be strong enough. Weight training is great but my strength also has to be specific to the sport. So now a week of focus on throwing strength. Then the following 3 weeks will be back to strength training - 3 days a week plus 2 days of throwing light implements. Ideally I'd like to continue to throw heavy implements on the 2 days in concert with my focus on strength training but I think that it would be too much load for me. So I will get some technical throwing in 2x a week which will also serve as a "rest/recovery" day from heavy strength training.  One issue that I have been considering is throwing volume. A lot of throwers do a lot of throwing practice. First of all I don't have the energy/endurance/whatever to do 50 throws in a practice. Secondly, I'd struggle to recover. Third, I wouldn't be able to throw with maximum intent each time. So my technique would vary. In my Olympic weightlifting world, we do few 100% lifts whether measured by our goals, past performance or strength on the day. Similarly the great sprint coach Charlie Francis, kept the number of all-out sprints for his athletes low. So following this line of thinking I am keeping the number of throws per practice low and throwing with maximum intention. Now both Olympic lifters and throwers have to do more to build capacity and I am too by throwing over weight stuff and lifting for both strength and power. Fewer, "better", all-out throws could be better for me than 50 lower intensity, variable technique throws. I haven't seen any research to support this but I know what lifting 80% of 1RM is and I can closely duplicate the technique of a 100% RM lift. I am not so sure that an 80% effort throw is anything like a 100% effort throw. Bottom line, is 50 - 80% throws the same as 10 - 100% throws? I guess I'll find out the hard way. The consensus in the business though seems to be throw more, not less. One last point is rest. I don't know how I could do a throwing workout with appropriate rest/recovery periods between throws if I do 50 throws. I think the temptation would be to do these throws one after the next and therefore build endurance, not strength/power. On the other hand, 10 throws with a 3-5 minute break between throws is more manageable. This work - rest ratio is not only consistent with building max strength and power it is also more consistent with the time between throws at a meet.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/09/21 at 12:19pm
Just one more workout with overweight throwing this week as my de-load week winds down. It is really a positive feeling that I can turn and feel confident with overweight stuff. So while the technique is different, the strength is building for HG. Next week I'll turn back to strength lifts 3x and throwing with light implements 2x. Something new for me will be trying to take it easy the first week. I haven't really paid attention to the need for a transition from one block to the next before. So week 1, I'll be patient with myself. But I'm hoping to break new ground on the squat in the next block during week 2-3. Another addition this week will be slow plyos. So my weight workouts will start with bouncing on my rebounder to wake up, then jumps off a low box and hitting a deep position (long amortization), and standing long jumps. Both of these plyos are emphasizing a slower stretch shortening consistent with some of our HG moves eg. WOB. So Monday - Heavy day -  Warm-up, plyos, squat, press, upright row; Tuesday - dynamic warmup, throws with light weights; Wednesday - Light day - warmup, plyos, squat variation, inverted rows, press variation; Thursday - dynamic warmup, throws with light weights; Friday - Medium day - warmup, plyos, squat, press, bent over rows


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/17/21 at 2:58pm
I have one more workout left this week... I always forget how exhausting the first week of a new block of training is. No matter how in shape you are, new exercises, volume, intensity, sessions or whatever represent a shock to the system that was just settling into a comfortable - too comfortable - groove. And every new block I begin with a sense of euphoria which makes me push too hard, too soon - this is the block that pushes me to world beating heights! No, it is not. Just start easy and make progress week by week is the better way. While pushing all out I am also conscious of not micro-managing everything. But I do try to introduce little changes. This year I've actually learnt how to do a warm-up that elevated my body temperature and prepared me to throw without annoying my brain by doing things that feel like a waste of time. But after my warmup, there was a temptation to go straight to throwing. What I forgot was that just like training for power & strength rest is also important. So today I took a 3-5 minute break after warming up and before throwing. One of the hazards of training mainly alone is the feeling of urgency to get the workout done. It's also easy to rationalize that I'm building cardio endurance by doing things quickly. Unfortunately endurance & strength/power are enemies for strength athletes. There aren't many marathoners that can compete with me in the caber toss I suspect. Another little detail that I have incorporated into my workouts is pre-hydrating. With the extreme heat these days, of course everyone is probably on the alert to stay hydrated. But as I start my morning workouts, I am already dehydrated from not drinking fluids since the previous night. So I drink a bunch before heading out to lift or throw. Dehydration is harder to recognize in your body as you get older and so drinking a lot before I'm thirsty is important. So next week will be another strength week with 3 days lifting and 2 days throwing. It should be a little easier than this week. Although if I have excess energy knowing me I'm just going to use it to push volume and intensity. Lastly I've been thinking not about my next block of training even though its weeks away but also the competition season which for me will begin in mid-September. So starting August 1st I'm going to flip my training from 3 days lifting/2 days throwing per week to 3 days throwing/2 days lifting. I think that I can keep up and maybe even increase my strength and power with 2 days a week even if its just a little bit. But I need more throwing. So from the beginning of August, I'll keep with alternating strength and power blocks but weights only 2 days a week. It may be possible for other people to reduce the weights down to 1x a week for a few weeks but I'm not sure that I can keep up my strength by doing so little. One more thing. I don't know yet if there is a payoff for all this thinking and action that I have been doing since I started posting here. I know I've been better in terms of individual elements like strength, power, mobility, technique etc but as a package I feel like I'm in pretty good shape. Here's a small but perhaps telling example. I have seen a material improvement in my standing long jump. That's an indication of my explosive power for not only jumping but also accelerating from a standing start. Useful qualities for throwing. Whatever my results turn out to be this fall, I feel like an athlete and I feel fit for my sport.  It's nice to have goals but for me it's all about the process. Results will look after themselves.    


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/24/21 at 6:30pm
A bunch of random thoughts this week - a few more than usual. One more workout this week in this strength block. I started off the week well but ate something bad and it drained my energy for a day or two. But next week is my third and final week of strength work and I will push as hard as I can. Since I was doing relatively slow strength work I decided to try something different. I think I've talked about it before but I read another article about how we tend to emphasize hips and knees and neglect the base of the kinetic chain - feet and ankles. One way to work these is to go barefoot. I know John Odden is a big proponent of barefoot training as well. So I did my plyos and weights barefoot - though not throwing (It might be an interesting experiment to go barefoot but the surface would have to be right e.g. not grass!). On the nutrition side I think that I do a pretty good job on protein. I buy tuna, salmon, hard boiled eggs, chicken and basically stay focused on adding protein every chance I get. Twice a week now I throw in an area that requires me to descend a slope. So to finish off my workout I run back up the hill carrying my implements. This adds a little cardio and also builds some explosive strength just to finish off the workout. Finally something that I should do that I don't do is foam rolling before training. Its a great addition to a warmup. Now that I'm so proud of the fact that I actually do a warmup unlike the past, I really should add foam rolling. My first reaction to adding something is no, why bother? But I don't really have any excuse - I already own 3 foam rollers! So maybe I'll start doing this again during a de-load week when I'm a little less obsessed with my workout of lifting or throws. I keep building one step at a time. It will be nice when all of this comes automatically and I don't have to think about what to do anymore. But maybe that's a pipe dream. Every step of the way requires a re-consideration of goals and re-calibration of my efforts.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 6/29/21 at 3:38pm
So my third week of this strength block is going well. Some new PRs. I felt that the first week was a struggle (as is the first week of every block due to the change in exercises, volume, intensity and so on). And since my blocks are on the short side - 2-3 weeks - I really don't feel like I can afford a week of getting back into the rhythm of a new block. So I have a thought. I do a de-loading week at the end of each block which I am currently using as an exclusively throwing week. What if I add a couple days of light (60% of 1RM) lifting to that week doing the exercises coming up in the next block? So for example I am finishing off my strength block this week and a de-load week will be next. So I'll throw heavy & overweight implements for de-load week because the weights are relatively light compared to my strength training. Then I'll also add 2-3 sessions with 60% and low volume power exercises as preparation for the following two weeks of a power block. That way, the movements are familiar and I don't waste a week getting back into gear. So my de-load week will have more volume but limited intensity so it should still help to recover from the last block and rehab any niggling little injuries that may have developed as well as acting as a prep week for the next power block. I'll do two weeks of power. I was thinking that I needed to do 3 weeks of power to see results because of the wasted first week that I felt occurred under my old approach. But with a prep phase combined with de-loading I should be able to go all-out during two weeks and see real progress. I won't do plyos during the de-load week though just to give my body a break. But plyos will be part of the program in the next power block. One final thing. I've been doing light weight throwing 2 days a week during this strength block. And I'll switch to heavy/overweight throwing during the de-load week. But I am considering adding heavy weight throwing 2x a week during the power block since the gym weights lifted in the power block are a little lighter. This is probably tougher to do than say but I'll give it a shot. If I can manage 3x a week of power and 2x a week of heavy weight throwing it should be helpful. I'll monitor my sleep pattern to see if I'm overdoing it but I'd really like to combine the weight training program with the throwing program in some logical way. I'm hoping that throwing light weights acts as a way to physically recover from heavy, relatively slow strength work, while throwing heavy weights may act similarly helping to recover mentally and physically from fast, medium-heavy power work. We'll see if I have the work capacity and it pays off in injury-free results.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/06/21 at 4:38pm
So I'm in my deload week- throwing heavy weights 3 days MWF, and very light 60% of 1RM snatch+clean&jerk on T and Th in preparation for the next 2 week block emphasizing power. As usual I may be pushing too hard - especially for a deload week. But if I need to back off a little one or two days this week I'll do it. For now I feel fine. There are a couple of hiccups this week to deal with that will affect the timing of my training including extreme heat but I'll work around them. My attitude is that I'll always do what I can. Keep moving forward, back off if something doesn't feel right. One other thing that I've noticed is that somewhere along the way to my great surprise I've actually improved my work capacity and recovery ability. I've never in my life had either. My workouts have always been short, intense and exhaustive. My body has actually learned to prefer more frequent short workouts - currently 5 days a week. I think that this schedule is better for developing and maintaining my neural pathways that sustain what little skill I have. Interestingly, more frequent training seems to also help my flexibility/mobility. On the other hand, I am acutely aware of the risks of overdoing it. My training should be a net positive to my life and not detract from the other 23 hours of each day. But it is nice to see that I can continue to learn and improve what I've got.





Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/07/21 at 12:26pm
I have never been very flexible and after 50 years of sport and lifting weights I have developed arthritis in my hips. The combination of pain and mobility declining even faster finally prompted me to do something about it. Or rather my wife told me to. So I was referred to a physical therapist. Of course my hip mobility is terrible but just one session with a therapist was therapeutic. Of course I'm going back, and I do exercises daily. Other people I'm sure know the benefits of PT already and I know I'm ignorant and late to the game but better late than never. I do the static stretching moves recommended after working out when I'm still warm. Most importantly, throwing already feels more comfortable. Generally I'm skeptical that so-called functional training is good for anything but general fitness and I think that an over-emphasis on mobility takes time and energy away developing, strength, power, speed, agility etc. that is needed for our sport. I know that this is controversial topic. But I have the mobility I have and there are limits as to how much I can improve and sustain any improvement made. The major exception in my opinion is where mobility prevents me from throwing or where an injury - like my hip - impacts not only throwing but also exacerbates the injury, reducing my workload and forcing more recovery time. In this case I think it's worthwhile and necessary to add work on hip mobility to my training. On the other hand, my shoulders are pretty immobile but I can still throw stones relatively well, my shoulders don't hurt and I work them a lot so I'm less concerned/obsessed with improving shoulder mobility for this sport. I'd rather spend the time that could go to shoulder mobility on incline presses, push presses, squats etc. There are lots of things that we can do as athletes that promise improvements but I think that athletes and coaches have to make judgement calls about what is needed for a particular athlete at a particular time. You can't do everything and not everything is going to help a specific athlete. I think that you take the minimum necessary prescription not the whole drug store.     


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/10/21 at 9:27am
Still doing the hip mobility stuff. Next week will be 3 days with the PT plus I do it on my own every day.  It is helping with pain management a lot. I now need to keep intensity high for both throws and weights to train my mind & body to work together to overcome the memory of pain that has now greatly diminished. Past memory of pain plays with your head and limits progress. So I'm looking forward to this week with getting back to power training. This will be my last block before I kick into a higher gear with some pre-comp blocks beginning in August. So I'll do the next 2-3 weeks in a power block. M-dynamic warmup, fast plyos - depth jump with vertical leap, horizontal jumps/hops, heavy day (90%+) - snatch, clean & jerk, squat; T-dynamic warmup, heavy throws; W-dynamic warmup, fast plyos - depth jump with vertical leap, horizontal jumps/hops, light day (60%) - snatch, incline ballistic push up, squat variation; Th-dynamic warmup, heavy throws; F-dynamic warmup, fast plyos - depth jump with vertical leap, horizontal jumps/hops, medium day (80%) - clean, push press/squat jerk, squat


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/17/21 at 1:02pm
So three days of physical therapy was added to three days of weights and two days of throwing last week. Needless to say this sudden increase in volume took a lot out of me - essentially it was an overload week. I am expecting that next week will feel a little better but the load will be the same or maybe even a little higher. While doing all of this isn't optimal from any perspective, its all necessary for different reasons and I do feel that I am developing the capacity to train longer and harder. And since there is a time between workouts, I am maximizing the various effects. Weights are M/W/F morning and physical therapy is M/W/F late afternoon. Throwing is T/Th mornings. So next week will be another power week like last week and then I'll do a de-load week. Starting at the beginning of August, I'll have 7 weeks until a competition so I'll alternate a strength block of 3 weeks+1 deload & then finish with a power block of 2 weeks with a de-load week before the competition. I finally starting warming up with a foam roller and it's made a huge difference. Since I workout in the mornings, a foam roller and a dynamic warmup get things moving very well. I used a vibrating foam roller at the physio and I was impressed with the aftereffects. So I've purchased one to use at home and I'll use it with my warmup. I have a fairly fixed dynamic warmup now - jumping jacks, split jumps, hip circles, torso circles, knee lifts and hip hinge+squat (WOB motion) that works pretty well for warming up for throwing. But I think that I need to lengthen the list of exercises to avoid boredom and build more patterns for the long run. I see the dynamic warmup as integral to my long term success and every exercise should be about more than just the daily workout but also about building athletic capabilities. I've also added static stretching after my workouts with a focus on hip mobility which is my greatest need. Another area for investigation for me is medicine balls. I know that Olympic throwers use medballs as an integral part of their training. At first thought, I feel that I'm getting all of the rotational work and power I need from throwing. And I'm not sure what I'd take out of my program to make room for medballs. But I'm going to set aside my initial skepticism and look for research that supports the use of medballs as an alternative or supplement to my training. Maybe I need to make room for it. Medballs are certainly a popular modality in the thrower community. I am really happy with the addition of plyometrics - hopping, jumping both vertically and horizontally to my program. They act as part of my warmup and I feel that they are contributing to my athleticism for throwing. I don't need to do a lot of reps/foot touches to make a difference. Lastly, I am still enjoying alternating blocks of strength and power. with deloads between each. I feel that it gives me time to build strength/power because of focus and yet it staves off boredom and overtraining. In the offseason I will probably change it up but for now it allows me to have a structured approach to preparing for the frequent competitions in this sport. Otherwise it's hard for me to get the mix of strength, power, speed, technique etc optimized to be ready for game day.


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/22/21 at 4:52pm
So I've found a few articles on the use of medicine balls for throwers and there does seem to be a correlation with throwing. (But does throwing help with med balls or vice versa?) Med balls are used by a wide variety of athletes who throw things or rotate and there is research to support the use of balls. While that's interesting news to me, I still wonder about how med balls compare to other possible modalities. What makes me curious is that med ball studies typically use relatively light balls e.g. 3 kg/6.6 lbs. So the effect must be for power not strength. But if I'm trying to build strength as a precursor and foundation for power, med balls will be ineffective because they are too light. So it makes me wonder if throwing overweight implements or ballistic exercises e.g. bench press throw or ballistic pushup (maybe even squat/power jerk) might be better than med balls?  This brings me to a bigger issue. It's always surprising to me how little we really know about everything. It's hard to prove what's better or equal or worse for our training prep because research just hasn't been done for any number of reasons. That leaves the door wide open for opinions, anecdotes, & experience that may or may not be generally applicable or more importantly applicable/helpful to me! So I try to start with the research & slowly add or delete elements from my program. For example, I just can't train like a collegiate thrower - I just don't have that kind of work capacity. And there are limits to what I can takeaway from others too. There is such a thing as genetic superiority in athletics - it may be/probably is the most important thing! Bottom line, I try to identify and stick with fundamental principles and calibrate them to keep making progress and staying in good health. There is always a risk that I may be underachieving because I don't follow someone else's program. But my view is that you don't have to motivate a competitor - like me. If anything I have to hold myself back with periodization, rest and everything else. One last analogy that I once heard. Sometimes I get a little jealous of what other people have accomplished. But I have to keep in mind how the whole athlete is performing. Have they suffered from serious injuries, or have they performed well in the short - run while jeopardizing their long term health? One last point, because of the physical therapy that I am doing for my hip, I have had to pare back my weights and throwing this week. But the physical therapy still includes leg exercises that at least maintain strength. And I carefully monitor my work/rest ratio on each exercise so that I am still in the strength/power zone. It's OK that I've had to re-calibrate my program, because I should be winding down a little anyway in preparation for August 1 when I start a pre-competitive phase. I need to be as healthy and pain-free as possible to accomplish my ambitious agenda in the weeks leading up to Games. I am cautiously optimistic.



Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/26/21 at 12:37pm
So this is my de-load week and as usual I am going to change things up to reflect my current needs and longer term goals. My intention is to throw light implements 5 days this week. Physical therapy is 3 days and I get some leg strength work in there as well as stretching. So in the mornings I'll throw - keeping the volume low for strength/power and with maximum intent. The idea is to understand how my patterns are and each workout - like anyone else I guess - I try to focus on a couple of keys. Next week will be the start of  strength block - but with just 2 days weights and 3 days throwing. This is my pre-competitive plan. I still think that I can get stronger with just two days a week but I really want to focus on throwing strength and a comfortable pattern for each event. |No plyos this week but I continue to do a dynamic warmup. I've already put a lot of pressure on myself to do well this fall but I have to be realistic. It's been awhile since I've competed or even thrown all the events (Remind me what a caber is again!? It used to be my best event). And I've got this nagging hip deterioration. But my attitude has to stay positive. So what if I don't throw PRs? It will be fun, feel great to compete again, see old friends and revitalize my connections to the culture and the sport. And as always it is intriguing to me to see what I can do. 


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/27/21 at 12:25pm
Watching the Olympics is always inspiring. But I'm not one of those athletes. I was talking to my physio about the stories that we hear about the unbelievably fast recovery that many of them make from injury. I commented that the state of rehab has advanced so much from earlier times. I've seen presentations by strength coaches who bridge the gap between physio and performance by pushing the rehabbing athlete very quickly to return to play and how successful they are in doing so without re-injury. My physical therapist has worked with elite athletes though and his comment was that they are on a different level than me. I may train frequently but nothing compared to an Olympian. Their ability to recover is superior to mine. This whole conversation around injuries is very important to me. If it's a choice between a personal record and avoiding a serious injury, I vote to preserve health. I'm really not very good when I am unable to walk onto the field because of injury! If it's a choice between unplanned over-training and doing a little less to avoid the risk of injury, I'll do a little less. My program has to be progressive in both volume and intensity. I'd love to train for hours - imagine what my work capacity, power, technique could be if I could! But right now at least - I can't train for hours. And having endurance isn't really a useful attribute for throwers anyway. I want to get steadily better in every way and keep building the foundation brick by brick. My enjoyment comes from being on the field of play and competing. Over-training & injuries undermines my goal. One other thing. Maybe I'm going soft but I'm starting to re-think a little my obsession with lifting maximum weights. I've heard over and over that you aren't training to be a weightlifter - you are training to be a thrower. The primary/fundamental lifts don't offer much rotational work for example. So this is where medballs and overweight throws may help even though they don't increase my squat. Another element that is easy to overlook is that I need an un-measurable continuum of maximum strength and quick reaction. In the literature this is referred to as the force-velocity curve. Everything starts with maximum strength (eg. squats) but to throw you need quick lifts (eg. power cleans), ballistic lifts (eg jump squats), and speed (plyos). I've previously discussed how I think HG throws require a mix of strength and speed that varies by event. But if I hit all points on the force - velocity curve - relatively slow movements like squat through to very fast plyos like sprints or plyos I'll cover all the bases. I'm not sure that I'll be able to figure out which part of the curve that I should focus on but I know that it is possible to do this. But I don't have the data to judge whether it is my back squat or sprint speed or something in between that should be my focus. Lastly, I tend to focus on the lower body development but recently I've notice that doing ballistic incline pushups has transferred over very nicely to my stone throws. My presses had stagnated and there was little carryover to my throws or noticeable improvement.      


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 7/31/21 at 1:58pm
So that was a fun "de-load" week with 4 days of throwing and 3 days of physical therapy. I have a big strength week and 3 week block coming up so we'll see if my non-deload week undermines my progress. And this week promises a lot of volume. So M is foam rolling + dynamic warmup + throwing in the morning + physical therapy later in the day. T is foam rolling + dynamic warmup + slow plyos (for strength eg, vertical jumps, horizontal jumps), and sets of 5 upright rows, ballistic pushups and a squat variation. W is foam rolling + dynamic warmup + throwing in the morning + physical therapy later in the day.Th is foam rolling + dynamic warmup + throwing in the morning. F is foam rolling + dynamic warmup + slow plyos and sets of 3 push press, bent over rows and squat + physical therapy later in the day. I also try to remember to do static stretches after every throw or weight workout. This all seems like a lot but I've reached this point progressively and I'm not too shy to back off a workout if I'm just too tired in order to avoid overtraining and injury. It wasn't so long ago that I never warmed up, never did plyometrics and never stretched. I think I've developed a more balanced & well -rounded program without ever losing the emphasis on strength and power. With age I am losing pretty much all of whatever physical qualities I had but the bottom line is that I do enjoy throwing  heavy things and everything that I'm doing is attuned to that objective. The key part is focusing on the major physical deficiencies and correcting them while keeping the rest afloat. Then pulling it all together - in combination with tapering - to be at my best at game time. One last thing, I don't talk about technique because I am still (and always will be) an old novice so most athletes I meet know way more than I do about throwing. However what I do know is that I can't even get into the positions needed and make the movements required without having some minimum physical qualities. As my training has progressed I feel like I am improving my capacity to acquire technical skills. I have attended a few throwing camps and read the literature so I know a little of the theory. So throwing practice along with improving physical capacity should lead to enhanced performance.        


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 8/03/21 at 12:13pm
I find that it is really helpful to write things down here so that it prevents me from doing the same thing over and over when my near term goals may demand a re-think. I am doing what I call slow plyos during this strength week to build concentric-eccentric-isometric strength. So I do vertical and horizontal jumps from a bent knee position with no use of the stretch reflex and when I land I hold the position for a few seconds. In my next block where the emphasis is power my plyos will be oriented towards max speed with stretch reflex actively used and minimal ground contact eg. a series of hops. On the continuum between max strength and max speed I think that I am squarely in the middle. Because of years of Olympic lifting I have relatively good power. This accounts for my strong caber pull. But my weaknesses lie at the ends of the spectrum. I was never especially strong nor particularly fast - and these have both become relatively worse with age. So my slow and fast plyos are part of my solution. My weight training for this strength block has been pared back to 2 days - one day I'd call max strength and the other day ballistic. So Tuesday is my ballistic strength day with sets of 5 in fast upright rows, sets of 10 incline ballistic push-ups which at my bodyweight offer a good challenge and sets of 5 fast Jefferson squats. This is a fun day for me! I then leave the weights alone until Friday. Sets of 3 or fewer in push press, bent over rows and front squats. I think I cover all the bases with these. Lastly, my physio progress has been wonderful. I've cut back my sessions from 3 to 1x a week just to be sure that I stay on track with my static stretching at home. Pain has diminished 90% and I feel that my movement is much better. I'm never going to be a yoga instructor but I have restored a lot of function with the help of my physio. One of the nice things of seeing a physio with experience with athletes is that he offers a sober second opinion. For example, in one of our discussions I described the hammer event. He was appalled and felt that it presents a high injury risk. I talked about how I mitigate the risk by warming up, by keeping my revolutions low (in the strength/power zone - 3-5) per throw and reps per workout and by spreading the load over the week rather than concentrating it in one session. He may be too cautious but it did remind me that HG throwing has one of the highest injury rates in strength sports. Again, my goal is to improve performance and stay major injury free and I constantly re-calibrate my workouts to meet that dual objective. Always the trade-off between longevity in the sport and short term performance.    


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 8/28/21 at 12:05pm
I think that this will be my last post for awhile. I've been through a journey as an Old Novice and I've arrived at a way station. I've explored a lot of the literature, science, practical recommendations & experience and tried my best to make sense of it, which included becoming a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and attending several throwing camps. Here is a summary. I never used to warmup. I now start with foam rolling. Then I do my dynamic warm-up that prepares me for the workout by mirroring the body movements that we use in HG in each of the three main planes of motion. I throw 2-3 times a week. I keep the throwing reps lower than typical of others in this sport for a bunch of reasons - to avoid acute injury, to avoid overuse injuries, to throw with maximum force to closely replicate the competition throw, and to build strength & power. I believe that there is good evidence that overweight throwing is important in developing the strength needed - especially in the off-season. Only once the strength foundation has been built can power improve. I can't get much faster but I can get stronger in the ways needed for HG. I have settled on a block periodization plan for my weight training, alternating 2-3 week periods of strength & power with deload weeks between each. That enables me to build max strength and strength-speed - both of which are necessary for our sport. I never do more than 6 reps in any exercise. Again my focus is strength and power. I have also added in plyometrics for speed-strength and even speed. I do what I call slow plyos (no use of stretch reflex) during strength blocks and fast plyos during power blocks. I focus on what I call the big 5 (press, squat, pull, clean, snatch) and close derivatives. Strength in all the little muscles can be developed most effectively with overweight throwing. Finally, I stretch the most troublesome/sport-limiting parts of my body - in my case my hips. While I'm not quite there yet I also believe in the importance of a proper taper in preparation for an event. Why do all of the prep work and then not be 110% physically and mentally on event day is my attitude. I think that this is a reasonable and justifiable program. I think that it has general applicability to others. The modifications that I make reflect my training status, injury history, age, and few other specific elements and this would be true for anyone else. As I have said many times, my goals were always performance and staying mainly injury-free for sport and overall longevity. It's sometimes hard to balance these two. Keeping it simple, specific, efficient and focusing on what I need to do next helps with the balance.   


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 9/03/21 at 1:03pm
One more thing! I just came across this in the strength research and tried it out and I think that it's a fantastic insight. When ever I've tapered before a competition, I've always felt that I am losing something like a little bit of strength. I've just accepted that it is a price that you pay as you reduce volume and intensity as the competition comes closer. Well there is a answer in the strength research community. The last week before your taper starts you do an overload strength week - high intensity and volume and that carries your strength through the taper period. So in my case, I had done a 2 week period focusing on power in the weight room. The next week was an overload week focusing on strength in the weight room. I pushed the weight intensity and the volume as much as possible. Of course, now I'm tired but now I can feel sure that my strength will last over the next two weeks leading to competition day. So next week will be primarily about power and the following competition week will also emphasize power with good intensity and low volume. The evidence is that the overload week right before the tapering period makes a big difference in results. I thought that this was a very helpful insight.    


Posted By: The Hulk
Date Posted: 12/20/22 at 4:51pm
"Train Hard, Revisit Later" ebook is FREE on amazon until 12/31/22

FYI only. So I was a little bored and I decided to take all of my blog posts and publish them as a book! It is available on Amazon as an e-book and as a softcover. It's called "Train Hard, Revisit Later: Revisiting a Highland Games Athlete's First Training Diary". Of course, you don't have to buy the book because it is built on my blog posts contained here!



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