PHASE 7
WEEK 25
13 Aug
Vert Test – LR 70cm
Lateral Drills – 2 x 3 sets
Bound/Sprint – 6 runs
Depth Jump variation – 3 sets
Jump Complex – 3 sets
I was so, so disheartened after yet another mediocre vert test. I could jump 73cm a few weeks ago and since I haven’t magically got worse I put it down to not peaking. Rather than force it I stopped trying and went straight into day 1, which caused me some minor Achilles pain in the bound/sprint. I’m sick of feeling like my body is falling apart so I am making some changes in this phase.
14 Aug
Clean Variation – 3 sets
Pistol Squat Variation – 4 sets
Nordic Curls – 4 sets
Calf Raise – 3 sets
I do love me some nordic curls. This was short and sweet, I didn’t really feel a benefit from the clean but the other three were great. I filmed my nordic curls and they’re way less impressive than they felt, so lots of gains to be made. I’ve seen kneesovertoesguy go all the way down and that’s a reasonable goal (maybe not in the next four weeks!).
15 Aug
Barefoot walk/jog 1.65mi
Foot Drill – 3 sets
3x Core/Mobility supersets
The biggest change I’m making is with my feet, I was told by a masseuse that I have collapsed arches and that could be adding stress to my Achilles as well as causing problems further up the body. She also cleared my adductors as not being tight, which means that when I feel them during exercise that’s just weakness and I can add in exercises to fix that.
16 Aug
Jump Bible Warm Up
Lateral Drills – 2 x 3 sets
Bound/Sprint – 6 runs
Depth Jump variation – 3 sets
Jump Complex – 3 sets
Eccentric Calf Lower – 10 x 10 secs w 15kg
The jump bible warm up was my favourite so far and I went back to doing it at the start of leg day. I’ll be doing it every time but not necessarily writing it in my journal. This was way better than Thursday, I felt decent. I realised I don’t need to go to the court for the lateral drills so having four weeks without testing my vert will allow me to focus on the exercises. I finished with an Achilles strengthener, weighted calf lowers (2 legs up, 1 leg down) going really slowly and beyond parallel, so foot is half on a platform.
18 Aug
Clean Variation – 3 sets
Pistol Squat Variation – 4 sets
Nordic Curls – 4 sets
Calf Raise – 3 sets
19 Aug
Barefoot jog 1.65mi
3x Core/Mobility supersets
It was a non-stop jog today at ~10 min/mi pace. Good first week, I am loving how short the sessions are as the lower body ones are about an hour each which suits my schedule a lot more.
Here’s the pistol variation, I now do this barefoot as I’m trying to remove shoes from as many exercises as is sensible