Month 2 Recap Part 1

We've just finished with the high volume / high intensity week 3 of month 2.

Due to some spasmodic attendance because of holidays, house moving and even a shopping basket accident, not everyone managed to do the full schedule this week but they'll make up for it next week.

Our main lifts for month 2 were sumo deadlifts for lower body, 3 board bench presses for upper body press and chin ups again for upper body pull.

For sumo deadlifts, Lachy managed a 10kg improvement on week 1 with 95kgs x 3 reps. I managed to get 130kgs x 3:

I think i could have gone another 5kgs too and I don't know why I didn't!! Tim and nick will do a 3 rep max early next week.

For 3 board bench presses Lachy improved 5kgs on his week 1 lift to get 60kgs x 3 reps. I managed a 5kg improvement for 90kgs x 3:

For chin ups I maxed out at a +40kgs x 2 reps.

For the first 2 months we have used some contrast sprints with the prowler where in month 1 we used a heavy arse sled drag paired with a 10m sprint. This month we used a heavy arse sled push paired with a 10m sprint:

We also threw in a few lighter sled drags paired with a 10m sprint:

Other highlights included:

• Lachy's double standing long jump x 5.19m
• Lachy's 31 reps for his first set on tricep death today, 6 more reps then week 1

Tim and Nick will be back in next week so I'll be sure to update you on their progress.

Month 2, Week 3

Time is flying at the moment as we're already headed into the main week of Month 2!!

I detailed days 1 and 3 of the program last week but forgot to take any footage on day 2 so I took some this week so here's what we do on a Thursday evening which is the upper body repetition method session.

After our foam rolling, joint mobilisation and muscle activation exercises we go into some muscle stiffness and quickness exercises with one of them being speed skaters:

We followed that up with some max effort and repetition chin up work then it was onto some bench press supplementary work courtesy of Dave Tate at Elite Lifts with tricep death:

To finish with we did a tri set of DB Chest Supported Rows, 2 DB Shoulder Press and Side Step to Pallof Press Isometric:

As mentioned above week 3 of each month is where the magic happens so I'll be sure to update you on each person's 3 rep max numbers for our max effort exercises of month 2, being sumo deadlifts, 3 board bench presses and weighted chin ups.

Month 2, Week 1

The week just finished saw us starting the 2nd month of the Aussie Rules Training Off Season Training Program.

I did some small alterations to the original plan as each session seemed to be going for 2 hours which isn't a problem, but I need to get home a decent time of a night with my alarm going off at 5am every morning.

So now the weekly schedule looks like this:

Day 1 Full Body - Max Effort Lower and Max Effort Bench Press Day

Day 2 Upper Body - Max Effort Chin Up and Upper Body Repetition Day

Day 3 Lower Body - Lower Body Repetition Day

Tuesday still went for 2 hours but days 2 and 3 were a lot shorter so it still works out well.

So Monday we started off with some quickness / stiffness exercises with Low Barrier On/Off Jumps, Low Barrier Lateral On/Off Jumps:

Low Squat Sprints:

Then we went outside for some 20 and 40 meter sprints:

And some Jump Squat to Overhead Medicine Throws:

Moving inside we moved to some Sumo Deadlifts paired with some Double Standing Long Jumps:

We also did some 3 Board Bench Presses, Dumbbell Reverse Lunges, Supine Single Leg Bridges and Swissball Circles.

I forgot the video camera on Thursday so I'll go into that day next week but I remembred Friday which was lower body day so again we started with some quickness / stiffness exercises such as diagonal and square jumps:

For plyometrics we did a Double Bound:

We followed that up with a Heavy Arse Sled Push paired with 10m sprints and then finished up with some Glute Ham Raises which we did last month and Side to Prone Holds:

I'll definitely video everything else next week so look out for more action.

1 Month Down, 4 To Go - Week 4 Recap

So we just finished week 4 tonight (I'm going away tomorrow so we wrapped it up tonight instead of Friday) and we had an up and down week.

Lachy couldn't handle the grog and got sick from a big Derby Day here in Melbourne and Nick couldn't gather the courage to swear loudly at his boss when he told he was staying back late Monday night so it was Bluey and I for Monday / Tuesday and then we all made it for the Thursday.

So for the last week we have a deload week where we drop the weight and volume for the max effort lifts and decrease the volume while maintaining intensity for the assistance exercises.

Bluey only start a couple of weeks ago and hadn't down a lower body session yet so he did a regular week with no deloading and I went silly and maxed out on the Trap Bar Deadlifts. The highlights this week were:

• Bluey blew the Stand Long Jump record out of the water with his first jump, making a 260cm effort!!
• Bluey also set a 3 rep max of 95kgs with a few reps left in the tank on his very first go at them
• I blew up 150kgs on the Trap Bar Deadlifts which was a great effort from my hands/grip. My hands are not only tiny, tiny, tiny but there is also no ligaments, tendons and nerves in the right hand so my grip holding up (which doesn't for 150kg traditional deadlifts) is a big win for me.
• I also tried some chains work for my dynamic effort bench press as suggested in this article:

We also managed to load the prowler up with even more weight then last, although my carpet doesn't like as you can see here:

I'll make some small changes to my original program for month 2 and we'll hit it hard starting next Tuesday.

Some Comparisons

So for shits and giggles, here's some comparison's to some of the stuff I acheived in the first month of the Aussie Rules Training Off Season Program and some other blokes from the world of youtube.

My 220kg Heavy Arse Sled Drag

This blokes 540kg Heavy Arse Sled Drag

My 150kg Trap Bar Deadlift (here's my 135kg x 1, didn't record the 150kg set)

And this bloke's 315kg Trap Bar Deadlift

My 255cm Standing Long Jump

And this bloke's 334cm Standing Long Jump

My 68cm Single Leg Box Jump

And this bloke's 132cm Single Leg Box Jump

Probably not even half way to some of these blokes and at age 33, a small business owner, a wife with Gillian Barre Syndrome and 10 month old at home, I probably won't get much closer to these guys but I'll still give it my all because I only need to be better then the bloke I'm playing on, not any of these blokes.

So what goals are you working towards?