Topic: Spinman's Buddyroe Training Log

[Brent Spinner]

I always try to stay active, but I haven't been on a well-though-out, regimented training program in a while.  After reading the stickies referencing Starting Strength and the Posterior Chain I felt it was time to bring my vertical jump back up, and to identify and go after some fitness and parkour goals.

Background: 

I started parkour back in March of this year, and although it is difficult to find training time with a demanding career and two kids I have been able to learn the following:

- Parkour Roll
- Dive Roll
- Safety Vault
- Wall Climbs (about 12 feet high consistently)
- Rail to Rail Precisions (about 7' distance)
- Speed Vault
- Lazy Vault
- Underbars
- Lache
- Kong Vault (over a standard picnic table the long way)



Specs at Start of Program:

Age:  36
Height:  5' 9"
Weight:  181 lbs.
BF %:  11%
Vertical Jump:  24"

Various:  I have never really squatted or done dead lifts much before because my legs were already disproportionately large due to playing volleyball, hockey, mountain climbing and skiing.  I have done a fair amount of lifting for upper body strength however.



Parkour/Freerunning Goals:

- Turn Vault
- Dash Vault
- Double Kong
- Front Flip (almost there BTW)
- Back Flip
- Reverse Vault
- Faster and Smoother Top-Out on Wall Climbs
- Kash Vault



Fitness Goals:

- 30" Vertical Jump (was my vert in college)
- Do 1 Muscle Up
- Do 20 Pullups
- 350 lb. Deadlift 1RM
- 300 lb. Squat 1RM (Ass to Grass - i.e. beyond 90 degrees)
- 250 lb. Bench Press 1RM
- 5.0 40 Yard Dash



The Program:

1.) Starting Strength - Initially I started with the Wichita Falls Novice Program, but after three sessions I switched over to the Original Novice Program with the following modifications:  pull-ups added to workout B, which alternate between 3 sets of maximum reps and 3 sets of 5 reps weighted with linear progression.
 
Starting Weights as per the SS Test:
Squat:  145 lbs.
Bench Press:  170 lbs.
Deadlift:  200 lbs.
Press:  100 lbs.
Power Clean:  100 lbs.


2.)  Plyometrics - after 7 sessions of SS I decided I felt strong enough to start plyo.

Exercises:
- Ankle Bounce (for warm-up and some reactive motion training): 2-3 sets of 30 reps
- Box Jump straight into Depth Jump:  36"to 42" (5-7 sets of 3-4 reps)
- Continuous Broad Jumps (2 legs):  5-7 sets of 3 reps.
- Full out 20 Meter Sprints:  5-10 times
- As I get stronger I may add single leg bounding...
-Parkour Skill Practice for Stated Goals


Program was started on 10/9/11

That's it for the program and other information.  Any feedback on the program is greatly appreciated.

-Brent   a.k.a. Spinman

[Brent Spinner]

10/23/11 - SS Session 7 Workout

Past Parallel Squat: 3 Sets of 5 Reps at 175 lbs.
Bench Press:  3 Sets of 5 Reps at 185 lbs.
Deadlift: 1 set of 5 reps at 230 lbs.




10/24/11 - Rest Day

[Brent Spinner]

10/25/11 - SS Session #8 Workout

Past Parallel Squat:  3 sets of 5 reps at 180 lbs.
Press:  3 sets of 5 reps at 115 lbs.
Power Clean:  3 sets of 5 reps at 115 lbs.
Weighted Pull-ups:  3 sets of 5 reps at 20 lbs.

[Brent Spinner]

10/26/11 - Plyometric Workout

Ankle Hops:  3 sets of 30 reps
Box Jump to Depth Jump 36":  6 sets of 4 reps
Continuous Broad Jump ( 2 legs):  5 sets of 3 reps
25 Meter Sprints: 3
Box Jumps 42":  2 sets of 4 reps

It felt good to do some plyo again, but I noticed some soreness in my intercostal muscles the next day.  Probably from the continuous bounding.  My legs felt really good the next day, though.

[Brent Spinner]

10/27/11 - SS Session #9 Workout

Past Parallel Squats:  3 sets of 5 reps at 185 lbs.
Bench Press:  3 sets of 5 reps at 190 lbs.
Deadlift:  1 set of 5 reps at 240 lbs.

Specs Update:
Measured my vertical jump the next day (10/28/11) at work - 26"
That's a 2" increase from my starting point!

[Brent Spinner]

10/28/11 - Rest Day

Two nights of 8 hour sleep and I still felt very tired = red flag.  Time for a rest.  As I've gotten older I've learned to do a better job of listening to my body, and to incorporate more rest.  I got myself in trouble last year by trying to push it too hard (a bad habit of mine), and I've found I see better gains when I proactively look for signs that I need a rest.  It feels weird to not work as hard and yet see better gains; almost like I'm being rewarded for being lazy.  Old habits die hard.

[Brent Spinner]

10/29/11 - Skill Practice and Plyo

Warmup:
Ankle Bounces - 3 sets of 30 reps
Weightless Squats - 2 sets of 20 reps

Skill Practice:
Kong Vault, Left Foot Takeoff - 15
Kong Vault, Right Foot Takeoff - 15
Kong Vault, Alternating Left Foot/Right Foot Takeoff - 10 each
Speed Vault, Right Foot Takeoff - 15
Speed Vault, Left Foot Takeoff - 15
Speed Vault, Alternating Left Foot/Right Foot Takeoff - 5 each
Rail to Rail Precisions, 7' 1" - 15
Dash Vault Practice - 10 attempts
Box Jump to Depth Jump, 36" - 2 sets of 4 reps.

I intended to do more, but my legs were starting to feel fatigued.  I should have taken more rest between vaults.  Guess I'll just keep working my way up.

All vaults were done over the vault box I made according to the SFPK Club's Design - 36" Trapezoidal

[Shamas]

I am liking what I am seeing. Your goals and specs were very well broken down, in my opinion.
I am posting to follow. Keep up the good work.


Be sure to check other people's training logs and ask questions if you want some variety or challenges to add to your routine.

Good Luck, Be Safe, and Have Fun!

[Brent Spinner]

Thanks Shamas!

I've learned a lot from the posts and the stickies in this forum;  there's tons of great info.  When I first started visiting here I didn't expect to find so much high quality information on training, conditioning and exercise physiology.  I've been pleasantly surprised to say the least!

Regarding your advice, I think I may add some cat hang dynos to my skill practice to help with wall climb top-outs.  My tool shed should work just fine.   

-Brent 

[Brent Spinner]

10/30/11 - Active Recovery Day

Considering I was feeling pretty gassed, and that I had a lot of yard work to do, I decided to have an active recovery day.  I spent 5 hours raking leaves, then did some parkour and hide and seek with the boy.




He likes to climb up the vault box and then jump off.




On to the next thing.



Practicing his precisions.




Then we played hide and seek, during which I snuck around using QM, wall climbed to the roof of the tool shed, and climbed onto the roof of the house via the two-story deck.

[Brent Spinner]

10/31/11 - SS Session #10

Past Parallel Squat - 3 sets of 5 reps at 190 lbs.
Press - 3 sets of 5 reps at 120 lbs.
Power Cleans - 3 sets of 5 reps at 120 lbs.
Pullups for Maximum Reps:  15, 11, 7

Felt pretty beat up today.  Lack of sleep, stress at work, addition of plyo and Halloween festivities all may have been contributing factors.  The bar slowed down on the last set of squats, and the last two sets of presses.  Pullups dropped off sharply by the last set compared to last time.  I'm going to focus on getting better sleep and then reassess the linear progression on a few of these.  I don't think I'm truly due for a reset on any of them yet, though.

[Brent Spinner]

11/1/11 - Skill Practice and Plyo - Goal Achievement!

After the warmup I decided to focus on Dash Vault attempts before doing the plyo just to give myself a better chance at progressing with them.  It paid off!  After about my 30th attempt I got my first dash off my left foot.  I still kept alternating the take-off foot, but was starting to hit all the left foot take-offs consistently.  Then near the end I was getting them with the right foot take-off too.  Eventually though I felt myself getting tired, and I started clipping my lead foot on the vault box on the way up.  Time to stop!  Next time I will work on leaning back even further and making them look prettier, as well as getting more consistent with the right foot take-offs.

Warmup:

Ankle Bounces - 3 sets of 30 reps
Body Weight Squats - 2 sets of 20 reps


Skill Practice:

Dash Vault Attempts/Dash Vaults - Alternating Foot Take-offs - roughly 45-50 attempts


Plyo:

36" Box Jumps to Depth Jumps - 3 sets of 4 reps
Continuous Bounding - 6 sets of 3 reps
40 Yard Sprints - 3


Cool Down:

Rail to Rail Precisions - 6' 8" To Practice Sticking the Landings - 15


Notes:

Besides being excited about getting the dash vault, I am definitely feeling more explosive in both jumping and sprinting.  I may be due to test my vertical jump again this weekend, and maybe if I'm really nice my wife will time me in the 40 yard dash.

[Brent Spinner]

11/2/11 - Rest Day

[Brent Spinner]

11/3/11 - SS Session #11

Past Parallel Squats - 3 sets of 5 reps at 195 lbs.
Bench Press - 3 sets of 5 reps at 195 lbs.
Dead Lift - 1 set of 5 reps at 250 lbs.


No danger of not getting all my reps, and the bar didn't really slow down that much.  A vast improvement over the last session, and I didn't reduce the weight increases for this session.  On 11/1/11 I started upping my protein and calorie intake. Seems to be working, so I'll keep doing it within reason.

[Brent Spinner]

11/4/11 - Modified Plyo Training

Ankle Bounces - 3 sets of 30 reps
Body Weight Squats - 3 sets of 20 reps
Box Jumps 36" - 2 sets of 5 reps
Box Jumps 39" - 1 set of 5 reps
Box Jumps 42" - 3 sets of 5 reps
Cat Hang Dyno's - 3 sets of 3 reps

Had a difficult time warming up, most likely due to the  temperature being in the 20's.  Gotta love Upstate NY weather.  My joints were a little too stiff after the warm-up to do a lot of reactive plyo training, so I decided to focus on box jumps for a little more intense explosive training.  Then cat hang dynos...talk about being humbled....  The results were not pretty.  Now I know what I need to focus on...a lot!  I might need to supplement the dynos with a lot of negative training first.  We'll see how it goes.

[Brent Spinner]

11/5/11 - SS Session #12 and Skill Practice

Past Parallel Squats - 3 sets of 5 reps at 200 lbs.
OH Press - 3 sets of 5 reps at 120 lbs.
Power Cleans - 3 sets of 5 reps at 125 lbs.
Weighted Pull Ups - 3 sets of 5 reps at 22.5 lbs.

Did skill practice after lifting:

Dash Vault - Made about 45-50 attempts.  Legs are getting parallel with feet above my head for the left foot take-off.  Legs are getting more parallel for the right foot take-off, but I have a ways to go to catch up to the left foot take-off.

Kong Vaults - 15 each for left foot and right foot take-offs.

Rail to Rail Precisions - 20 at 6' 8" to practice sticking the landings.

[Brent Spinner]

11/6/11 - Rest Day

Just raked leaves for 2 hours.  Got lots of sleep because the kids were at their grandparents' for the weekend.

[Brent Spinner]

11/7/11 - SS Session #13 and CHD's

Below Parallel Squats - 3 set of 5 reps at 205 lbs.
Bench Press - 3 sets of 5 reps at 200 lbs.
Deadlift - 1 set of 5 reps at 260 lbs.
Cat Hang Dynos - 3 sets - 4,3,3

Dynos were still tough but better than last time.  I've never worked them before, so I'm hoping for significant improvement if I keep doing them consistently.  After the last time doing them I felt some very good and isolated DOMS in my rhomboids.

[Brent Spinner]

11/8/11 - Rest Day

Decided to give my sore ankle another day of rest before doing any plyo or skill practice.  I'm opting to do SS on 11/9 to give it an additional day. 

The sore throat that started in earnest yesterday also convinced me to take today off.  Kids - collectors, incubators and distributors of disease... 

Maybe that's why 200 lbs. on squats was easy as pie on 11/5 and 205 lbs. on 11/7 was disproportionately tougher.

[Brent Spinner]

11/9/11 - SS Session #14

Past Parallel Squats - 3 sets of 5 reps at 210 lbs.
OH Press - 3 sets of 5 reps at 125 lbs.
Power Cleans - 3 sets of 5 reps at 130 lbs.
Pull Ups for Maximum Reps - 7,2,0 (F%#@)

Wicked sore throat and cold sweats, but no fever so I decided to do the workout anyway.  Felt gassed by the time the pull-ups came around.  Also have a pull in my right pec that was aggravated by the pull-ups, so I bagged the PU's during the second set.  Thus the shitty numbers - very frustrating...