GOAL
GET STRONG
EAT HEALTHY
SLEEP LIKE A BABY
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Kyle's relentless pursuit of maximal relative strength
Started by Kyle Courville, February 4, 2011 · 32 Replies · 2,518 Views
Please critique plans. 
Baseball season officially ends tomorrow. Serious training starts day after tomorrow. 
I will try to do the WODs in a SSC template. I am thinking about substituting Dynamic Upper Body days and HS days for intense shoulder prehab to fix what pitching destroyed. My basic structure will be
1. Dynamic warm-up
2. 6 basic statics
3. Statics(front lever,back lever, L-sit, Straddle-L)
4. WOD(Possible prehab on dynamic and HS days)
5. Prehab
6. EAT
Change of plans
I have put a good deal of thought into my training. I now have specific goals and a plan to reach them. I have decided to not follow the WOD for now. My goals are the front lever, back lever, and HSPU. However, right now I need to allow my tissues, especially retractors, to recover from a stressful baseball season. This led me to making a lazy SSC. I will use easy progressions, a variety of exercises, and more time between workouts for this cycle to help make sure I get back to building strength safely after this cycle.
I will use a monday/wednesday/friday schedule. Basic template will be dynamic warmup, 6 basic static positions, workout, prehab, and maybe some light massages or trigger point therapy. Monday will be focused on horizontal push and press. Wednesday will be a light circuit for blood flow and recovery. Friday will be a vertical push and pull. Prehab will consist of retraction, protraction, arm circles, and lower trap activation
Monday:
A1 Tuck Back lever 60 sec
A2 Tuck Front lever 60 sec
B1 Horizontal row 3x5
B2 Horizontal push 3x5
C1 Negative Back Pull 3x5
C2 Negative Front Pull 3x5
Wednesday:
2 rounds each 12 reps
A1 Horizontal Push
A2 Horizontal Pull
A3 Core Variation
A4 Lower Back Variation
A5 Squat Variation
A6 Assisted NLC
Friday:
A1 Bent Straddle L 60 sec
A2 Low L-sit 60 sec
B1 Box HSPU 3x5
B2 Pull-up 3x5
C1 HLL 3x5
C2 RLL 3x5
Suggestions, critique, or insights are highly welcome.
Look through Eric Cressey's blog. He trains a lot of pitchers, and I know a young one there who trains there now. Sounds like really good stuff, especially when having to know what and what not to do with the shoulder and bodies of pitchers.
Thank you for those links Blairbob. I am familiar with Eric Cressey's work, but I could definitely use a refresher. I really like to pitch, but I rather gymnastics. This is why I am contemplating on ending my baseball career this year. I want to keep my shoulders really healthy. Even though I have not had anything other than a minor tendonitis problem last season, I am not sure if I want to chance it. My coach is really ignorant about the human body, and I woud hate to tear or mess up something that would hinder me in gymnastic work.
On a different note, a cool carry over from gymnastic conditioning was that the shoulder work and bicep preperation over last summer allowed me to throw much harder, longer, and to my suprise without pain or soreness after being on the mound. Before I did gymnastic conditioning my arm was always sore after pitching. In this season, however, I was amazed with my recovery. Another interesting thing happened that may or may not be related to the straight arm work. My natural throwing angle dropped from overhead to sidearm. Throwing sidearm is supposedly harder on your shoulder tissues, especially the bicep. I think this may be attributed to straight arm work. It would also like to mention that I had not progressed past a straddle-half front lever or a flat tuck back lever.
Yep, straight arm work really seems to carry over well in a few sports. Baseball and wrestling armbars for two.
Now I get to have a really lazy time over the next 8 - 24 weeks. :x Thanks to some spontaneous shadowboxing I just strained my left ac joint. 
After it occured I immediately took a hot shower evaluating and exercising my painless range of motion for about 10 - 15 minutes I then started contrast bathing/showering for a total of 8 minutes. Hopefully, it will heal very quickly. Now I will be patient while doing three things
- maximize blood flow
- minimize inflammation
- keep good posture
Shoulder injuries are really depressing. Why couldn't I have just sprained a toe?
Have full ROM back with no pain except a slight pain at 90 degrees flexion. I already started my rehab. I am really impressed at how much my knowledge of the body has progressed. If I had been in this situation a year ago I would have been in panic mode. For the time being I will focus on lower trap activation, serratus anterior acticvation, overhead shrugs, external rotation, stretching pec minor, stretching external rotators, posture, and hip mobility. My two big problems are my terrible ROM for internal rotation of both arms and anterior pelvis tilt. My internal rotation in the sleeper stretch is at max 45 degrees. :oops: On the upside my lower traps are pretty strong. 8) Hopefully, when I dial in my posture I will stop getting these acute injuries. I don't think it is any coincidence that I got this injury right after getting up from being slouched over at a desk reading a book. (It seems impossible to read a book with good posture.)
I woke up really early so I decided to do some light early morning rehab.
Sleeper stretch
Slizzardman's pec stretch
Hip stretch (not sure what it is called but upperbody was vertical with arms overhead while lunging)
Scapula push ups inclined x 10
Prone cobra? 4 sec x 10
Overhead shrugs x 10
External rotation(isometric) 4 sec x10
I am not sure if there are variations of the prone cobra. The prone cobra I did was basically the superman position with thumbs turned up towards the sky and hands are close to hips. This is a pretty good low trap exercise.
I am now at 95%. 
No pain on any exercise. I feel stronger since fixing posture and doing rehab. I now do prehab every night and morning. I started working out again. I want to do the WODs, but I start football Monday. I will see what kind of conditioning we will do. I hope it is not too much. I will still do some gymnastic work. I may have to cut out some sets but I want to do something. I now stay at a weight of 147 - 150 pounds. I did not gain much if any fat and did not get noticeably bigger. I was recently stuck at 137 pounds. It is really funny because I don't look like I weigh 150. Some people think I look like I weigh 130. I don't know if my muscle mass or bone mass increased.
I think you need to decide which sport you want to pursue and train for it. I guess it may depend on what position in football and your goals in football. If they are mainly to have something fun to do till baseball, sure.
If football is your goal, you need to add lifting in there somewhere. And getting bigger to survive would probably be a good idea.
Blairbob said:I think you need to decide which sport you want to pursue and train for it. I guess it may depend on what position in football and your goals in football. If they are mainly to have something fun to do till baseball, sure.If football is your goal, you need to add lifting in there somewhere. And getting bigger to survive would probably be a good idea.
Thanks for the concern, Blairbob. I know I do a lot of things, but it is my last year of high school. I would really like to savor every opportunity given. I will also run track and play baseball. Training won't really interfere that much. I will do some hypertrophy and strength work over the summer for football.(I am already pretty quick and powerful ) In football I am the punter and safety, so its not too dangerous. After football I will train skill and prehab for baseball in spring and train speed for track, also in spring. I know it's a lot, but I can handle it. I rather be moving around too much than too little.
true, back in HS my last year I tried to stay busy from summer till spring by training to do cross country and wrestling. it honestly would probably have just been better to strength train but I didn't know any better (but luckily I had have a weights class).
Blairbob said:true, back in HS my last year I tried to stay busy from summer till spring by training to do cross country and wrestling. it honestly would probably have just been better to strength train but I didn't know any better (but luckily I had have a weights class).
I wish my high school had wrestling. :cry: I owe a great deal to people like you on this forum a great deal for helping me realize that strength is the way to go. Before I came to this site I was definitely one of those "100 pushups with questionable form is better than 5 really intense pushups" guys. :oops: Thanks to Coach and this forum I have developed a good understanding of strength training and how to apply it. Hopefully, with my gymnastic advantage I will be able to excel at all three sports. After the final season it will be just gymnastic training and maybe a martial art like bjj or muy thai as a college class.
@blairbob
I'm very intersted in your point of view, can you explain me better why lifting weights is better/faster to get bigger? isn't it just about being able to pick the right intensity bodyweight exercise to apply the right modality from the prilepin's table? Am I making too simple?
swarovski said:@blairbobI'm very intersted in your point of view, can you explain me better why lifting weights is better/faster to get bigger? isn't it just about being able to pick the right intensity bodyweight exercise to apply the right modality from the prilepin's table? Am I making too simple?
Blairbob is most likely recommending weights due to football being a hip oriented sport. With the olympic lifts and power lifts the general consensus is that you will be able to stimulate more strength and hypertrophy in the lower body much quicker than with bodyweight variations. Basically, you only have so much bodyweight that you can use in leg exercises. There are some variations which can stimulate great strength gains such as Ido's shrimp(?) exercise. However, close attention to form is needed to perform correctly and there will probably be a longer learning curve with these types of exercises. It is probably easier to teach high school kids a proper squat and deadlift. Bodyweight still will have its place in my prehab, but far raw strength and power weights are much more convenient.
kyle, I can understand how size is important to american football, I played rugby for most of my life. But trust me if I tell you that there are far more important qualities on a pitch, speed being the top one. Regarding legs, the only body part where weight training seems to be a superior form than bodyweight, I have to say that in ball sports we first have to be able to have quick feet, agility and the ability to express power while sprinting, things that you can't develop or even hinder under a barbell. I never believed in weight training even if I had to do it, if I have to chose some form of resistance training to make my legs bigger, then I'll keep mountain biking like I've always been doing, at least I get the downhill after the climb...
I'm pretty sure that is someone had ever exposed me to SLS or NLC progressions during my days, I bet I'd have been better at my sport than with what I got in return from messing around with weights.
swarovski said:kyle, I can understand how size is important to american football, I played rugby for most of my life. But trust me if I tell you that there are far more important qualities on a pitch, speed being the top one. Regarding legs, the only body part where weight training seems to be a superior form than bodyweight, I have to say that in ball sports we first have to be able to have quick feet, agility and the ability to express power while sprinting, things that you can't develop or even hinder under a barbell. I never believed in weight training even if I had to do it, if I have to chose some form of resistance training to make my legs bigger, then I'll keep mountain biking like I've always been doing, at least I get the downhill after the climb...I'm pretty sure that is someone had ever exposed me to SLS or NLC progressions during my days, I bet I'd have been better at my sport than with what I got in return from messing around with weights.
I respect your opinions and experience. I also agree that quick feet, agility, and power are key. However, what I find that works best for me so far is olympic lifts combined with sprinting and agility drills. I use SLS and NLC as prehab to keep my knees healthy. I still have bodyweight movements in my program because I feel that they are important for stabilization and injury prevention.
if you believe and enjoy what you're doing then it will work for you to some extent. Still, training time it's a finite resource and you need to prioritize your sports requirements in the 4 domains: physical, technical, tactical and psychological. Think hard and plan smart to achieve peak performances.
AC joint still lets me know it is not 100% every once in a while. I am now ready to begin my lazy SSC. I will do it for 12 weeks to solidfy physiological adaptations, because I have suffered one too many sinew injuries from progressing neurologically faster than my body could handle physiologically. This cycle will be focusing on volume, prehab, and perfect execution of exercises. I will post my workout once I finish designing it.
On a different note I also have to workout with the football team over the summer. I will try to do my best to stay away from bench and military press. I absolutely hate bench press for three reasons.
1. I suck at them 
2. They ruin all of my shoulder prehab
3. It somehow determines which person in the gym is a superior specimen (so and so has the best bench press around; he is therefore the strongest, most athletic, and throws the best punch around) :?: :? :roll:
Thankfully, I like my football workouts. They are pretty easy and allow me to train gymnastics. Mondays and Wednesdays are workout days and are mostly lower body. However, I also have baseball games on Monday and Wednesday.
I am doing straight arm work Friday since I am fresher that day, and Saturday is for bent arm work. Main focus is on front lever and planche secondary with a minor focus is on back lever. My front lever is feeling very strong and I know I will have a solid one for time by the end of the year.
I have been eating tons of food lately, most likely to compensate for increased level of activity. I am eating at least 3000-4000 calories a day. I am eating lots of eggs, milk, peanut butter, and other cheap foods. The only down side is that I have been giving in to sugary foods. My sleep cycle has changed a little also. That is my body's sign of increased stress for me, but with all the foods I eat and rest when not working out I am bound to compensate to the increased workouts. My gymnastic workouts are short and intense. I have been favoring straight arm work lately. I won't start handstands for two months, because I need a one month break from baseball before I regain overhead stability in my shoulders. I can probably start earlier, but I like to play it safe.
My straight arm workout looks like this
A1. Front Pull to flat tuck front lever hold for 30 sec
A2. Straight arm press from support to tuck planche hold for 30 sec
B1. HLL 3x5 -full range of motion though I still use my lats for the moment
B2. Press from support with straight arms to tuck Planche 3x5
I've recently added in BP to my routine via 531. I have been very wary for years about BP as a few years ago it would simply hurt even at weights not 80%.
Don't go wide on the BP. Stay shoulder width without the elbows flaring out. Have them track to your body like a pseudo planche pushup.
Or you could do DB press.
Blairbob said:I've recently added in BP to my routine via 531. I have been very wary for years about BP as a few years ago it would simply hurt even at weights not 80%.Don't go wide on the BP. Stay shoulder width without the elbows flaring out. Have them track to your body like a pseudo planche pushup.
Or you could do DB press.
Thanks for the tip. I always do bench press with my arms tucked in towards my sides. My 2 unofficial rules for bench press are avoid it at all costs and never go heavy. Luckily, in our football workouts we have not used the bench press yet. I am glad to see that most of the workouts are based around explosive movements and sprinting.
Yep, the program I was under worked BS, BP, the olympic lifts, occasional super squats, sprinting, and some shrugs and curls. There might have been pullups involved but there was no DLing in the phase I was in but we did work lots of clean/snatch pulls and jump shrugs.