1/29/13 - wfd

Training @ 1215p

49# wfd
*one turn x10, avg 46
*full x8, avg 47, best 51

28# wfd x6, avg 79, best 84

These felt good, especially after not touching a wfd for over 2 weeks. Training has taken a back seat to the new born and my 2 year old so it was really nice to get out for 30-40 minutes and get some reps in. Focus was a dialed back sprint with a huge finish. I tend to juice my sprint so much that I either lose position for the finish or I slow the implement down for the finish and in either case, the distance significantly decreases. The one turns were a good warmup. Was able to really focus on catching it high and accellerating through the low point. The full tosses with the 49# felt great. Very easy and slow first turn, about 70%ish sprint with a big big finish. The 51ft toss was pretty nice. Did the same thing with the 28#. Really have to dial the sprint back on these. On my last toss I tried to really get after the sprint and I lost the position for the finish and just dropped the weight. Dialed the sprint back to about 80% and really hit the finish hard for a nice 84'5" throw. That's more like it. Anxious to start getting out there more often but things have to slow down at home first so I can get back into a normal routine. Until then, I'm pleased with how things have held up.

1/26/13 - snatch/clean

Training @ 1030a

Power snatch from floor up to 225x1x4sets
Hang clean up to 275x1x4

That's it. Wanted to do some heavy box squats but my 2 year old was being a handful and I just didn't have enough time. Also wanted to get out and throw a little but rained all weekend. Ugh. Looking forward to getting to work with some implements soon. Deloading next week but will still throw a little.

Snatches felt good. Getting a good bump and explosion before dropping under the bar. Still a bit of a press-out. Feeling faster and thats what counts. Hang cleans felt ok. Still trying to get a feel for the better form. Watched a lot of oly vids and noticed how they pull the bar into the crease of their hip before the 2nd pull. Tried this and things turned out much much better. Worked up to a few singles at 275 without much issue. Still more work to be done. I'd like to get this number up to 365 or so by mid-season.

1/23/13 - de deadlift/de bench

Training @ 1245p

Flat bb bench (w/ dbl efs mm bands) 135x3x4, 155x3x4, 175x3x2
2" deficit deadlift singles 275 275 315 315 365 365 405 405 405 405

ring rows
ring push ups
ring dips

Bench felt good, didn't feel like setting up the minis so I just kept the monster minis setup that I already had attached. A bit more top end than I was expecting but I kept it fast nonetheless. Deads felt really good. Went up to where I could feel it slow down and just did 4 singles at 405. When I got to 365 I noticed I was breaking off the floor slow. Focused on really being aggressive on the pull. Remove the tension from the bar, then boom, violent pull. Carried over well on the heavier pulls and felt faster than usual. Going to keep these in the mix.

Anything on the rings are tough. That is all.

1/21/13 - me fsquat/me ohp

Training @ 12p

Front squat up to 495x1 [pr], 405x5
12" Log press up to 300x1[pr]

Gms
pullups

Great session today. 20# PR with more in the tank. Shut it off at 495 but am shooting for 525 by the end of March. Cut it a tiny bit high as I was worried about slapping the bar off the pins. I should've just moved the pins down but oh well. I still hit parallel so I'm ok with it. next time I'll drop a bit lower though. Log press felt good. Need to get more leg involved, def had an issue locking it out. Was fun to do something different for ohp though. Was supposed to be speed bench today and heavy ohp tomorrow but switched it up. Will do speed bench and speed deads for my next session.

1/18/13 - de squat/snatch

Training @ 12p

Hang power snatch up to 215x2x3
19" box squat w/heels up 225x2x2, 275x2x4, 315x2x4, 365x2x2

band curls


First things first, I'm a proud father of two boys now. My awesome Mrs had our 2nd baby boy on 1/16/13 at 2:06am. He was 20.5" long and 8lbs 6oz. We named him Xander William Sullivan. Start to finish, labor was a shade over 3 hours, she did so well with it and I couldn't be prouder. Took time off of work until the 28th to spend with the family and get a good schedule in order.

Now onto the workout. Snatches felt really good. Just wanted to work up to a heavy double then do a few sets of it. Working on pulling it as high as I can and very little knee bend for the catch. Figured I could've gone up to 225 but I've never doubled 225 before and wanted to work with something comfortable for now. Will push a bit heavier next time. Really liking these as of late. Need to add in some cleans soon, maybe as a warmup for front squats, hmm.. got to figure something out. Was going light on squats and decided to try out the "heels up" method I've seen Vierra do in his training video, just to see how it felt. I liked it. Going to add this in on a semi-regular basis.

1/15/13 - me deadlift/de ohp & stones

Training#1 @ 415a

Strict ohp to 265x1, miss 275, 225x5
Below the knee pin pulls to 635x1, miss 675, 585x3

Seated db ohp
Bb Yates rows
Bar twists
Hanging leg raises

Shouldn't be missing lifts but they felt strong. Need to make better judgements on when to call it. Pins were set at bottom (knee level) and I was standing on a 4" box. I like these. Really forces the lower back to stay strong to break it off the pins. Will go a bit lower next time, maybe stand on the box + 2" plates. Up to 115s on seated db ohp, nothing impressive but that's progress so I'm happy with that. Up to 365 on Yates rows. Wanted to go to 405 but its been a long time and was pretty fatigued already. Did extra row sets in lieu of db rows.

Training#2 @ 730a

Footwork drills for stone
*180 drills
*south African drills
*full spin drills

Focus on driving linear and crossing my right foot across my body, landing on the outside of my foot then slamming the left leg around hard while driving my right knee around and forward. Also worked on holding my upper body back. Feeling separated and getting comfortable in that position. Can feel the weight transfer into my left for a block. Improvements. No actual stone tosses.

Hammer notes

http://youtu.be/brBv6aNitnU?t=3m22s

http://youtu.be/EYSwTyqF9Us?t=17s

http://youtu.be/HYuGw_FkoJw?t=21s
http://youtu.be/pt7c8GHRqsE

Interesting, the one thing every one has in common is that on their third wind going into their finish. None of them drop their head back down. They keep it up, drive the right knee and pop the hip. I wonder if dropping my head down is causing me to bend at the hips just a little so rather than being able to sink hard, drive the knee and block hard.. instead I'm breaking at the hip, sinking, then my hips have an extra 2-3" to travel before I can hit the block hard..

relevant or not? We'll see at my next hammer practice.

1/14/12 - de fsquat/me bench & hammers

Training#1 @ 430a

pulled out the Power Factor today, oh yeah!!!

Front squat (w/choked EFS monster mini bands) 185x2x4, 225x2x8
Floor press up to 345x1, 275x8

GMs
DB incline bench
Pullups
Dips

Fsquats felt good, about 90% reps over 3ft/sec. Anxious to keep pushing these and get faster. Floor presses felt awful. The cold weather has my right elbow extremely stiff. As soon as I got to 275 on my way up I felt a very sharp pinching. Relaxed and massaged it and went up to 315 and it went away. On my way back down started feeling it again. So annoying. Hit the incline db press with 130s for my last set of 6 reps. Felt good to get that heavy with them, it's been a long time.

Training#2 @ 715a

16# hammer x12
14# hammer x4

Did rounds of 3x16 and 1x14 for 4 total rounds. Didn't pull out the tape at all, just focused on positions. Trying to smooth my entry up still so I go right into a relaxed 2nd wind. Also trying to drive my right knee forward as well as to the left. This helped as I was able to keep the hammer on my right side instead of allowing it to drift left (which is exactly what happened whenever I would drive my right knee in to the left). Focused on being relaxed and whippy. My finish is still off. It's very choppy and just looks like I'm trying too hard. I'm always coming out of my left hole and catching myself falling to the right. Need to center my gravity better to utilize full leg power on the finish, rather than just a finish that consists primarily of my right leg. Still work to do here. This is going to be a big season for me with hammer though. Seems I'm making pretty good gains consistently here.

1/12/13 - throws

Training @ 2p

15.5# stone
standing x9, best 43
full spin x9, best 48

Talked with Jon O'Neil on Thursday or Friday about my stones. He mentioned I need a stronger block. Need to load my left leg a little more at the front and really focus on pushing my left hip back. So that was the focus on the standing tosses. I feel I definitely got this working, but seemed to have lost some height. Not a tough fix so I'm happy with these. On the spin, focused again on driving straight and pushing my right leg across my body while keeping my foot as forward as possible. Focus on holding the upper back and using my left leg block to "uncork" myself. Progress.

56# wfd x6-8, best 42

Trying to clean up my entry on these. Very chopping on my others. Watched a lot of vids of Vierra, Brock and others and noticed their entry is very smooth and relaxed. I feel like I fixed the entry but it threw off my timing of the sprint and the finish. More work to be done here but def made a little progress.

28# wfd x6-8, best 80

Getting tired by now, avg was about 75ft with a big one at 80. Feeling off on the finish, just not driving it down. Just need some more reps here with the new entry.

caber 20ft x100# x6, 3 turns

Never turned this caber before. Very little taper to it but a great practice caber. Same caber that Andrew Hobson and Mike Susmark used to practice with all the time. Nailed every pick, felt very easy controlled in my hands. Driving the caber was a different story. Ended up chasing it every time. Got it turned three times, but still felt off. Def need some more work with this but I have my confidence up now and I'm anxious to get after it again.

1/10/13 - me back squat/snatch & hammers

Training#1 @ 430a

Pause back squat up to 500x1, 405x5
Hang snatch up to 225x1, 185x3

done. lulz.

205 snatch felt great. No leg splay, little dip, good strong pull. 225 snatch felt pretty shotty. Got it to my forehead and pressed it out. Worked on keeping wrists curled in a little and that helped keep the bar path closer.

depth check on 500 pause squat? lol

Training#2 @ 715a

16# hammer
*winds x4
*full x12ish, best of 124

12# hammer x8ish, best of 128

First 6ish throws went really well. Low effort, focus on being loose, long and whippy. Started getting after it and just hit a wall. Got incredibly hungry, didn't have any water with me and just overall felt like shit. Kept going and just dialed back the effort level again focusing on tech. Still not driving my right knee hard enough. Need to get smoother. Took video but I look like ass so I just deleted it. haha.

1/9/12 - wfd

Training @ 7a

56# wfd
*one turn x12, best of 40
*full x12, 43

49# wfd x10, 48

56# wfd x3, 42

28# wfd, 80

First off, Landrich's 49# wfd is awesome. It's the same feel as a 56 but unnoticeably (yet somehow noticeably) lighter. I really liked this. Found it was easier to hit positions, yet still had the same weight and "drag" a 56 would have. I noticed on my fulls that my orbit angle was lop-sided with the left side (if looking from behind out towards the field) drooping down below the right side. I know this is affecting not only my sprint but my finish. This was absolutely simple to fix with the 49lb weight. I was just kind of spinning around in a circle for my first turn and that was keeping the whole right side of the orbit a bit lower than the left. Fixed it by counting a bit harder with my left shoulder coming out of the back into the first turn. That raised up the weight on the right side which carried through the entire throw. Noticeable difference as soon as I did it. Dropped one at 48 and another at 47 and went back to the 56# for a couple tosses. First was high 42ft then a couple at 41ish as by then I was getting very very tired. Avg was about 76-77 with the lwd, was just missing a pop for the finish. Killed it on my last one and was just shy of 81. I need to make 85 work all day long. Still more work with the lwd needed. Going to start dialing back my hwd and increasing lwd volume.

Squats and hammers tomorrow. Yess!!!

1/8/12 - me ohp/de deadlift & stones

Training#1 @ 5a

Push press up to 325x1, 275x6
2" deficit deads (w/ EFS short avg bands) 315x2x8

seated db ohp
machine rows

Satisfied with the push presses. Not a pr but an improvement since last time and that's what I'm looking for. I'd really like to push this much higher over the next 3 months. Deads felt solid. Speed wasn't terrible but definitely not great either.

Training#2 @ 715a

15.5# stone
*standing x10
*full spin x12

Few things differently on both styles. On standing tosses I focused on really pushing my right knee in hard to separate as hard as possible. Also delayed my left arm just a little bit to get better separation. Best was about 42ft without a reverse and going about 80% so it felt good. Trying to get hips square to the trig while keeping my upper body back as far as possible. On full spin, really focusing on the middle transition and finishing by driving my right knee forward into my left side block. I think I made some progress today but will have a couple experts review. On the ostone biggest difference I did was instead of turning my knee in (towards 9:00) and sweeping my whole leg across my body as if I were going to side kick someone, I instead drove forward and pushed the inside of my knee/groin area across my body so that my foot would land facing 11:00. It obviously didn't, but the mental cue I think worked. From there I could get my foot turning and focus more on driving my right knee to the trig and into my block. Still far from great but I'll take even the smallest of improvement. Hit a couple 46s without much effort, just really trying to separate and get a long push on the stone.

1/7/12 - me fsquat/de bench

Training @ 430a

Front squat (w/ JS choked avg bands) up to 405x1, 315x2
Narrow grip bench (w/ EFS doubled mini bands) 135x3x3, 145x3x3, 155x3x3

GMs
Pullups
DB incline bench
Dips against mini bands


Feeling incredibly stiff this morning from throwing so much at the clinic. Compounded by not throwing hammer for 2 weeks then taking 50+ throws through the course of the day. Feeling overall beat up so I opted to lower the bar weight and utilize my avg bands for some top end work. At about 365 I realized I couldn't breathe with the bar on my shoulders/throat with the bands attached, that made it incredibly difficult to make the weight, although 365 really didn't feel too bad. Moved up to 405 and felt like a train on my front delts. Came out of the hole fast but hit a wall just as fast. Pushed through the band tension and while I was locking it out I started to black out. Hurried up and racked it after lock out and stood there for a minute while everything came back. Very weird, need to figure out a different breathing pattern if I'm going to do more of these. I dropped down to 315 for a set of 6-8 and after the 2nd rep I was getting very lightheaded again. The added tension at the top of the front squat is much different than just bar weight and makes it very tough to get a breath. Maybe I'm just being a pussy, that's entirely possibly.

Speed bench was pretty fun, really the only type of flat benching I enjoy. Db incline was good, though stabilizers are still catching up. Was going to go throw stones this morning but it was fucking cold and I just didn't feel like it. Tomorrow's another day: speed deads & heavy push press then no skipping stones.

1/5/12 - hammers & clinic

Training @ 7a

16# hammer
*winds x5
*full x20

14# hammer x8

Working on a nice, slow, smooth entry and guiding the ball to its low point off my right side. From there, trying to drag the ball across me. If I nail the entry and first wind, I get incredibly whippy and can improve speed really well. If my first wind is off, everything goes down the shitter. The other thing is the finish. Once again, I'm going way early. This tells me I'm not dragging thorugh the low point and posting off my left leg. I know what to do so that's the good news. Still more work to do.



Had the clinic afterwards and was a great success. Lots of good throwers showed up and I genuinely hope they took something away from the clinic. I feel I was able to help everyone in at least 1 area of every implement. We didn't use a tape measure so I don't know if anybody hit PRs or not. I do know that by the time we were done, their positions looked incredibly better. It is now up to them to practice and drill so they can bring it out on the field with them. I threw ***A LOT*** as well since I was demonstrating. Feeling very very very beat up. Had a great time with great people and made a few bucks to put towards traveling to games this year. I'm thankful for all of that.

1/4/12 - wfd

Training @ 7a

56# wfd
*one turn x12
*full x 12, best of 44 with majority at 40 & low 41s

28# wfd x12, best of 79 with majority at 77s

Nothing big here, just getting the reps in so it feels smooth and natural again. Working on leaning to my right and sinking for a longer finish. Very little pop on these, feeling pretty beat up from the week. Lwd #s are unacceptable. If I want to be competitive, I need to be a guaranteed 85ft every time. Going to start spending a lot more reps on lwd in the near future. Need to sync up my timing. My drive to zero and sprint phase of the lwd throw is great but when I get to the front, the weight is moving so fast I'm actually slowing it down to hit the positions and I lose so much speed. It's very noticeable. Also, I notice the low point drifting off my right side out of the back and it is shortening up my sprint/finish. I hadn't caught this and must have slowly gotten back into this bad habit. An easy fix since I know what to do so I should have that under control. I definitely feel that is hurting my lwd numbers much more than my hwd #s.

1/3/12 - snatch/back squat & stones

Training#1 @ 430a

hang power snatch up to 135x3x3
back squat 425x5x3

clean high pulls
step ups
bb shrugs
hammerstrength preacher curlzzzzz

Just working tech on the snatches, good high bump and 2nd pull, feeling more powerful. Will start pushing these in the next couple weeks. By the time I got to the clean pulls, my upper back was pretty toast so keeping tight was an issue. Bumping way too low and getting a weak pull. Scaled weight back and hit a set with good tech. Squats felt miserable. I'm not really enjoying the way I'm training right now. Just going through the motions and not really looking forward to the gym anymore. This needs to change, I used to really love training and this program isn't very conducive to that.

With that said, I'm going to revert to how I trained in the past: work up to a heavy single (not necessarily a max or all time PR, just a heavy single) then drop down in the 75-80% range and hit a high intensity max-rep set, then shut it down with that lift and move on. I'll go heavy on front squats and back squats while doing some speed worth with bands on deads and presses in one week, then the following week go heavy on deads and presses while doing light, banded speed work with the squats. Going to transition into this next week. Looking forward the gym once again.


Training#2 @ 715a

15.5# stone
*standing x10
*full spin x12

Mixed feelings here. Standing tosses are meh, not a huge huge focus of mine right now. As I transition into more dedicated stone-only sessions, I'll spend more time on standing tosses. The spin wasn't a nightmare but it wasn't great either. No real breakthroughs. Physically I'm drained from a tough week. Mentally, I can see what needs to be done.

3 big things to work on for this to come together (in no particular order):

1) Hold my upper body back longer. I need to really really push my left arm across my right side to hold my upper body.
2) Try to land with my right toes facing 10:00 or 9:00 that way I can keep my foot turning, versus landing in 7:00-8:00 position, waiting for the foot to absorb impact, then begin turning.
3) Push my right knee forward for the finish. That should load my left for a big block.

As always, lots of work to be done. Really looking forward to the next season. I hope to bring a decent game for my pro debut in Phoenix.

1/2/13 - ppress/deads & stone/wfd

Training#1 @ 430a

Ppress 255x5x2, 255x7
Deads 505x5x2, 505x7

30" box jumps
Seated db ohp
Bb rows
Db rows

Good sesh. Pretty wrecked from Monday but you'll have that. Think I might start pulling from a 2" deficit again as it seems I've lost a good amount of leg drive breaking the weight off the floor. I'll play with it next week and decide then. Ppress felt solid.

Training#2 @ 715a

15.5# stone
*standing x8
*full spin x10

Not terrible. First time throwing stones in close to 3 weeks. Working on getting my left around fast enough to snap my right into position for the finish (right knee forward, left loaded for a big block). Also trying to hold my upper body for longer. Still need to get my left around more heel/toe-ish rather than straight on as to open the hips better. No big throws just sweeping the dust off. Stones will be the focus for the next few weeks.

56# wfd
*one turn x6
*full x10, best of 44

First time throwing wfd in a while too. Felt good to get out there, though the positions took a while to hit. Never really got a hold of any of the one turns. Towards the end of the fulls I was getting there but still missing the drive to zero at the finish. Need to get lower and more lift at the end. No worries, easy fixes now that I'm back into it again.

12/31/12 - fsquat/bench

Training @ 430a

Fsquat 370x5x2, 370x6
Narrow grip flat bench 290x5x2, 290x8

Gms
Incline db bench
Dips
Pull-ups

Rained last night, too sloppy to throw. Annoying. First day back after the deload, felt really good to get back in there. Took my time through all of it. Everything felt good.

Got family pics done last week. Came out great. Baby is 37 weeks and counting. Very soon, getting excited.