TacticalBarbell.com

Hi all,

Short background: I am 35 years old and play american football as my main sport. I do strength training and conditioning as support.

I did Dan John's Easy Strength program in the end of 2016 and it work so well. I stopped doing it. Since January I have been doing Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 but when the football season hit me I started to feel worn down; ending with me having to drop weight lifting exercises (barbell front squats and barbell presses) due to nagging injuries.

Looking for alternatives I wandered about Ageless Athlete and decided to give it a try. Been doing Operator I/A since Easter and have been wanting to start a log here since. I will start this log from today and try to add more background etc ad hoc.

Without further ado heres today's training:

Wednesday 3rd of May: Swimming class, 1150 m crawl in 57 min, mostly intervals.

Started swimming during a injury period back in 2014. Since then I have used it as a mainly off season condition thing and a break of pace from the jockness of football.

Thursday 4th of May Football practice, no gear, agility, OL drills, flag football; 1 h.

Just some for fun practice as we officially had the day of. Slow warm-up, light speed drills, some OL drills and some for fun flag football. One of those days which is more play than work. But great fun

Friday the 5th of May: Weightlifting; Operator I/A 4/9.

All weights in kg; rest as needed during warm-up, rest 2 min before work-set incl supersetted mobility work; work-set supersetted with mobility work.

Zercher squats
Warm-up 5*20, 5*25, 5*30, 5*35.
Work-sets 5*5*40 (last set felt like there was 2+ reps in the tank).
Supersets 4*15 shoulder dislocations.
Dumbbell benchpress (weight per DB)
Warm-up 5*10, 5*12, 5*14, 5*16, 5*18.
Work-sets 5*5*20 (last set felt like 2+ reps).
Supersets 4*15 band pull aparts.
Pull-downs with pull-up-grib
Warm-up 5*20, 5*25, 5*30, 5*35, 5*40.
Work-sets 5*5*45 (last set felt like 2+ reps).
Supersets 4*5 (each side) will mills with broomstick.
Deadlift with hook grip
Warm-up 5*60, 5*70, 5*80.
Work-set 5*90 (last set felt like 2+ reps).

I love the flexibility of Operator I/A. Using 5 reps for all warm-up-sets and 5 work-sets, this was a volume day as the next two days are going to be on the light side. The "rest as needed" during warm-up-sets and the supersetting of mobility work (expecially the band pull aparts) are probably playing a bit with the Golden rule (minimum 2 min of rest between sets when during strength work). Will need to keep an eye out for fatigue, when the weights get heavier.

Saturday the 6th of May: Swimming, 600m - 23m36s; 1 lane crawl, 2 lanes breaststoke; slow active recovery.

Sunday 7th of May: Sandbag shoulder carries

Supersetted:
Sandbag shoulder carries: 25 kg, .7 km, .4 km, .4 km, .7 km.
Walking: .4 km, .4 km

Carried the sandbag on the shoulder to the local track field. Changed shoulder as needed. Used walking around the field as active rest. A nice light'ish training session where I feel stronger after than before. Done this version three times now and feel lighter on my toes. First time I only carried the bag to and fort, second time carried it one time around the field, third time two times. Next time it is four times, and then a reset and difficulty increase.

Cannot increase the weight of the bag. Any ideas on a difficulty increase, which still keep the day in the light'ish region? Thinking light jogs around the field, or some paused squats for mobility.

Monday May 8th: Operator I/A 5/9, identical to the Friday session (except skipping the 18 kg warm-up lift on DB BP, as the weights where taken)

Tuesday May 9th: Football, agility and O-line drills, light 30 min session.

Wednesday May 10th: Swimming class, crawl, 850 m in 41:22. I am shit poor at it, so I try to focus on the technical things. A sore throat made this a less than optimal training session.

Have football practice tomorrow. Will warrior through the sore throat, and outside practice focus on recovering from it (tea with honning etc).

Thursday May 11th: Football practice, helmets only, 90 min.

Throat got a bit better today, but still in the light feber / sore throat level. Will have to really watch not overdoing it the next couple of days. The plan was high volume Operator I/A tomorrow, but might scale that down to a minimum volume practice.

What position do you play in American football?

J-Madd wrote:What position do you play in American football?

Started many summers ago on the D-line. The year after I was moved to O-line and played both tackles many years. This season I moved to another team and have been shifted in to the guard position. Funny how different guard and tackles play, but it is fun with new challegdes.

With the position in mind, I know my lifting numbers is not impressive. I have had to drop many excerises during the years due to injuries, and reset weights even more times, so now I just try to focus on what I can do, and not what I cannot do. And use sub-maximal weights to ease the strength up instead of forcing it.

I have six week left of the Spring season. I will be doing Operator I/A as strength, practises and games as conditoning and then some slow swimming / sandbag carries session as active recovery. During the summer break I will probably run some short of a base building block.