right programme over haul needed

PeakOutput

moving to university of limerick on sunday and will have access to their class sports facilities for 127euro a year(pretty amazing deal i think you will agree)

anyway iv beaten myself down to a weight im relatively happy with and now I have some new/put off goals to achieve.

in order of importance

1. get match fit for the basketball trials which i reckon will be 2 weeks from monday(so we are talking alot of hiits i think)

2. build general power and strength and get my calves back into jumping shape

3. lose a little more fat and put on a little muscle (this will go hand in hand with the above i assume)

now for the moment this will be a short term programme which will either be continued or changed depending on weather i make the basketball team or not(unlikely tbh)

what im thinking right is the usual squats, dead lifts and press's along with weighted calf raises and id like to get good at pull ups and they are a great work out so incorporating them would be great.

my problem is that i dont know which way to go 8-12rm by 2 or 3 sets OR 3-5rm by 6/7/8 sets ala hanley in his log.

I suppose I cant really get specific info on hiits until i know what make the machines are.

on top of this i hope to get into the habit of swimming in the morning.


i will use whatever instructors are in the gym for advice aswell but would like to have a fairly specific idea of what i am going to ask them for before i get there


edit; damn didnt realise it was that long

Smellyirishman

I don't think calf raises (alone) are going to help you much with your vert jump. I'd be inclined to look up some stuff on.. what the hell is it called... can't remember now >.< but it's all about fast explosive movements for sport, box jumps, stair jumps etc... that along with agility runs and suicides would be much more likely to get you match fit, IMO, than some calf raises.

I'd do large lifts like squats, deadlifts and pulls etc to build overall strength, but they're not gonna get you where you need to be without some sport specific training.

{EDIT} PLYOMETRICS!! God damn that was annoying me; Isometrics, Hypertrophy, I went through all the wacky names I could think of trying to figure it out.

PeakOutput

Smellyirishman wrote:

I don't think calf raises (alone) are going to help you much with your vert jump. I'd be inclined to look up some stuff on.. what the hell is it called... can't remember now >.< but it's all about fast explosive movements for sport, box jumps, stair jumps etc... that along with agility runs and suicides would be much more likely to get you match fit, IMO, than some calf raises.

plyometrics?

I'd do large lifts like squats, deadlifts and pulls etc to build overall strength, but they're not gonna get you where you need to be without some sport specific training.

ill be working on my skills as well as the gym work and i have a good idea of what to do with that already(will have suicides etc but probably not box jumps and things as i just wont have the facilities during those two weeks anyway)

Smellyirishman

PeakOutput wrote:

plyometrics?

Yep, I was editing my post as you replied .

PeakOutput wrote:

ill be working on my skills as well as the gym work and i have a good idea of what to do with that already(will have suicides etc but probably not box jumps and things as i just wont have the facilities during those two weeks anyway)

Fair enough, then I'm not gonna be much more use. I'd be inclined to go with higher reps (at a decent speed) to preserve a mix of strength and endurance. Personally, I find when I drop too low in reps my legs aren't fit for a match (GAA).

PeakOutput

Smellyirishman wrote:

Fair enough, then I'm not gonna be much more use. I'd be inclined to go with higher reps (at a decent speed) to preserve a mix of strength and endurance. Personally, I find when I drop too low in reps, my legs aren't fit for a match (GAA).

feel free to throw in some ideas aswell

right now im basically thinking of suicides for 15 mins with a certain amount of free throws between each one then defensive stance sucicides for 10mins with random jumpshots in between and finally some dribble suicides with lay ups in between for 5 mins. not much variance but hopefully it will do the trick

Colm_OReilly

Dude,

Crossfit it up!

My bias towards this program aside, you want to develop power, since Basketball requires a lot of short burst running and jumping.

Working high intensity stuff like the squat, presses, deadlifts etc will help build a solid core. You really want to keep the reps down to 3-5 as this will deliver the best power/strength work. 5-7 Sets.

Start training the Olympic Lifts, as this will help your vertical leap and power output no end.

Cut the calf work out. If you really want to work your calves, skip or do double unders. (here and here)

Sprint, variable distances with variable rest.

Definitely do pull ups and dips. Even though they don't have a perfectly applicable relation to basketball they'll help your body be more connected and secure. It will also help keep you healthier and freer from injury.

Stay away from machines.

Mix these elements in intense workouts, and you'll be more than prepared for basketball season.

Colm

Hanley

I don't think I have anything to add other than what Colm said...

I will warn you to ease yourself into heavy weight, low reps and high sets if you're not used to it. It's a bit of a shock to the system and if you're working in the 90+% range then expect some joint pain.

TBH most of my full range training during the year is done around 80-90% and ocassionally more.

Something along the lines of a Westside style system could be a great idea...

VERY bascially (since I'm a bit pushed for time);

Day 1:
Power Cleans: work up to a heavyish set of 3 (80-90%)
Squat: 50-60% 8x2 (move the bar FAST. Down slow, and up as FAST as fcuking possible.)
DL's: 3x5-6
Back Extenstions: 3x15
*supersetted with*
Hanging leg raises: 3-4 sets

Day 3:
Power Clean form work... lots of triple with <80%
Heavy squat: work up to a heavy set of 3-5 reps (take like 10kg jumps if you squat more than 140kg, 5kg jumps if you squat less)
Leg Press: 3x12
Some form of single leg work (split squats/lunges)
Wide stance Pull thrus: 3x15

Since the majority of your jumping power and strenght in general comes from your lower body that's what you need to concentrate on.

Do 2 days of chest/shoulder/tricep work. Make sure to do at least 1 lat and 1 upper back exercise on each day too. One day heavy for 3-5x6-8 reps and one day light with like 3x12-15. Use 4 different movements. Maybe chins and high rep (20ish) dumbbell rows on your "heavy" day and fat man pulls ups and face pulls on your "light" day.

PeakOutput

ok great advice so far but i should have pointed out just to be clear that other than the bad form stuff i have doing in my attic i have no free weight experience. now i have no problem getting the trainers to show me the form etc and sticking to it but things like olympic lifts and wide stance pull throughs sound very advanced/complicated to me.

if you still think they are the way to go then great im more than willing to jump in at the deep end i just want to make sure so i dont turn up on day one attempt something ridicolous and slip a disk.

also thanks for links but the videos you link never seem to work on my computer I assume you can find them all on the crosssfit site though ye?

Colm_OReilly

Yeah, they're crossfit wmv files so best to right click, save as.

Start light with the Olympic lifts, watch vids on youtube, practice, watch again, repeat.

As for the slow lifts, same again, get used to proper, controlled movement. If you can get that, you'll reap a lot more benefits than just moving something heavy.

I can't guarantee anyone in UL will know correct dl or squat form, certainly from what I've seen in commercial dublin gyms they don't. BUT, there is a room upstairs in UL's sports centre, the National Strength and Conditioning Centre or something to that effect. If you see coaches in there they'd be better to ask.

justsomebloke

Ok I am going to go slightly different here and say ignore Oly movements for teh time being. Due to the limited time you have between now and when you actually start the reason chances are you would see less benefits then just sticking with squats etc.
Basically oly lifts can be quite difficult to master so you are only going to be training light on them (or you should be) until you have gotten the movement down, which would probably be a few weeks at least.
So go with a slightly lesser weight on squats say but concentrate on powering the weight out as quickly as possible out of the hole and you will probably get better results from this in the short term.

Then during the BB season when you mighn't be doing heavy weights you could at this point try and learn the oly lifts

PeakOutput

i just had the idea of using the oly lifts with very light weights as a sort of a warmup to the rest of the weights. this would allow me to get used to the movements while not being a complete waste as I would have to do some sort of warmup for the weights anyway?

iv seen that national strength center room alright its were the munster rugby team lift but you have to be a professional athlete to get in as far as I can tell and its locked and empty unless its being used by one but I'll have a gander around their anyway.

I'm, fairly sure I know what is good dl form i know for a fact iv never done a good form press and iv never tried a weighted squat before so im sure that will be a disaster too but they teach sports science and pe teaching etc in ul so im sure ill find someone to help.

second last day in work today so im prob gonna spend it cruising crossfit vids and t-nation to try and get some more ideas

thirtyfoot

http://www.athletesunited.net/

This is a good site that lots of basketballers and athletes from other sports use.

Problem with the site at the moment but it was up this morning.

PeakOutput

cheers tingle ill give it a look during the day

Hanley

PeakOutput wrote:

ok great advice so far but i should have pointed out just to be clear that other than the bad form stuff i have doing in my attic i have no free weight experience. now i have no problem getting the trainers to show me the form etc and sticking to it but things like olympic lifts and wide stance pull throughs sound very advanced/complicated to me.

if you still think they are the way to go then great im more than willing to jump in at the deep end i just want to make sure so i dont turn up on day one attempt something ridicolous and slip a disk.

also thanks for links but the videos you link never seem to work on my computer I assume you can find them all on the crosssfit site though ye?

That would change things... drop the oly lifts and drop the speed work on he squats and just get stronger. Tis far more efficent than trying to learn the oly lifts to improve your power when you lack the neccessary strenght to be powerful...

As you said tho, they'd be a good warm up.