What Have You Done to Dominate 2014 So Far?

Things got pretty hectic at the end of 2013 there so once again I'll endeavor to be more regular in 2014 but I'm pretty sure I've said that every year since I started this!!

Anyway I was looking back on what I've done so far this year and thought I would give it some air time on here so you can maybe take some idea's or pointers from it.

Background - for those new to the site I'm naturally an explosive guy and not geared (not care) towards anything over 10secs. I can get away with it a little bit in footy from being able to read the play quite well and possessing pretty good skills but NO MORE. Back when I was a young'en I was the same but I also had very good aerobic capacity which fuelled my anaerobic capacity and I would finish top 5 in all our 3km time trials and was 1st or 2nd in speed and repeat speed.

Now I want that back!

Block 1 - September 1st to October 19

Focus - Sprinting and Back Squat Strength

What I Did:

Sprinted 34 out 42 days with a mix of starts, acceleration and max velocity drills. Speed needs to be trained every 5 days just to be maintained and considering I barely trained last year, my sprinting speed was almost snail pace. All up I sprinted just under 6kms in that time.

Last off season I got my back squat up to 130 odd kgs and wanted to get that back there as soon as I could so I didn't have to squat heavy the entire off and pre-season. I tested at 113kgs in the last week of the season so I had a bit of work to do. I squatted 31 out of 41 days and that included a blown back 1/2 way through that I battled through like a trooper. In the end I managed 128.5 which is close enough in my book.

I also did  hip thrusting block where I did some form of glute or hip thrust for 35 out of 41 days not really going for numbers but rather feeling every rep of every set.

Results:

10m sprint went from 2.2 to 1.6secs and 40m sprint went from 6.22 to 5.56secs so excellent results there. Bare in mind that they weren't professionally timed but i think they're pretty close the way I film it and time it off the video.

I also did daily training of the foot/ankle complex to improve stiffness which i think helped tremendously. I posted about here but have read a lot more about it since and I think it deserves another go.

Back squat tested at 113kgs the week before the program and retested at 128.5kgs after the program. The most impressive part of this was that i didn't have lift higher then 122.5kgs during the program to get it up that high. Frequency and sub-maximal training rules!!

It was a pretty full block as I also tried out a sub-maximal but not as frequent bench pressing program just to hit the upper body with something. The big surprise here was that I didn't have to go over 85% for any of the program either and went from 100 x 1 pre-program to 100 x 3, an projected increase of 9kgs in 4 weeks!

Takeaways:

If you wanna get faster then sprint, and sprint frequently but obviously it requires some expert programming which I'll be providing very soon so look out!

Also if you have the luxury, and if you want it enough you'll make sure you do, then high frequency sub-maximal work could be the answer you're looking for in getting stringer quickly. And without the nervous system burn out and joint pain.

Block 2 - October 20 to November 23.

Focus - Triphasic Training

I ran a whole pre-season of this last year and as it states in the manual, only the one's who can go the hardest for the longest, survive as it can beat you up good and proper (which it did). The constant heavy loading gave my back hell but just a very dull ache not an actual injury or anything. This year I decided to do a shorter block of it.

What I Did:

Instead of doing a whole 26 weeks + the in season model for another 12 or so of it, I cut it back to 5 weeks as a top off for my new back squat strength. I decreased the %'s down a bit too. So I ended up doing 2 weeks of eccentric focus, 2 weeks of isometric focus and 1 week of concentric focus each with french contrast training too.

I also continued with sprinting 3/week with a tilt to the max velocity side of things in regards to volume break partitioning and I introduced some tempo runs to work on my aerobic capacity with footy training coming up soon.

Results:

Back Squat tested at 131kgs for memory but it's not about the numbers with Triphasic it's about change of direction and rate of force development on the field. Bench Press tested back at 100 x 1 for memory.

Takeaways:

I think you can get the same out of applying the principles in any program then running the entire program in regards to eccentric and isometric loading.

Block 3 - November 24 - December 21

Focus - Sub Maximal Explosive Lifting

What I Did:

Again using sub maximal load I started heavy in week 1 and decreased the weight each week to up the velocity of my lifting to hopefully carryover to training for early next year. Again I sprinted 3/week again favoring max velocity work a bit more then starts and acceleration. I also kept up the tempo runs which increased with volume each session.

Results:

I peaked in week 2 of this program but there was a lot of "getting it done before Christmas" going on so my focus was lost a little but the speed of most of the reps in week 2 was excellent.

Takeaway:

You can lift heavy, but you can't lift heavy fast. So drop the weight 10 - 20% and focus on acceleration because if you do anything as slow as a maximum squat on the footy field, you won't be seeing the ball too often.

Block 4 - December 11 to January 11

Focus - Repeat Speed

I have 2 sessions of this to go so I'll update this at the end of the week.

A long one for the 2014 comeback but let me know what you've done and what you still hope to achieve in your preparation for season 2014.