Today

Last week I had trouble with the cleans because I think my rest time was to short.  So I added 30 seconds to my rest time and cleans went a lot easier.  I'm not going to add any weight this cycle, right now I'm just doing 50 kg for sets of five.  Of course, next week I'll be doing five sets of five then I'll unload for a week and then when I come back comeback I think I'll do sets of three.  So in this next phase it will be three sets of three, four sets of 3 and five sets of three.

Monday, December 10th

The start of the second week of this new phase, I decided to go up a little bit of weight on the snatches only because it was a little easy on week one.  This worked out fine.  As a matter of fact they almost felt easier than the first week.  Probably just reestablishing my technique.

Friday December 7th

First Friday of the new cycle, I went pretty light with my jerks and snatch balances.  Since I'll be working up to five sets of five and snatch balances tend to hurt my shoulder sometime I'm keeping these pretty light.  With the jerks I will eventually work up to a heavy single that probably won't be for a few months.  The snatch balances will never be heavier than maybe triples.

On Wednesday I.......

Worked out again at Restor Fountain Valley (John Horsly has a platform there) and this was cleans and front squat day. Three sets of 5 x 50kg for the cleans and 3 sets of 5 reps x 60kg for the front squats. I very happy both felt easy especially the front squats. I had been front squatting AFTER back squatting all through the fall and now they feel easy by themselves.

Sorry for the silence

I've been working on a project that might change my career path, so I haven't had time really to concentrate on my blog. After doing a couple months of hypertrophy work, sort of your off-season GPP work, I started my second year of seriously dedicated Olympic lifting. Last summer I got up to about 75 K clean and a 55 kg snatch.  I didn't really squats back squat or front squat too much for several months.  So in this off-season I got up to several sets of eight with a hundred kilos in the back squats and sets of eight with about 60 kg in the front squats.  Now it's not as high as I wanted to get to but as December rolled around and this project I've been working on looks like it's coming to fruition I decided to go back to the Olympic lifts a little earlier and start off a little more structured.  So Monday of this week.  I did three sets of five in the snatch and three sets of five in the back squat.  I stayed pretty light in the snatch because I want to be of the get up to five sets of five in a couple weeks and I'm know I'm not in shape to handle really to much more weight.  In the back squat I was able to do  225lbs for three sets of five, which is all right and Ill work up to five sets of five with this in the next couple weeks. This lighter work with more volume for these lifts hopefully will help me get to my goals of a snatch of over 60 kg and a clean of 90 kg or more.  Well that's all for now and I hope to update you soon on the facility I'm working on.

Back to the beginning!

When first considering what you do after back surgery following physical therapy must get good direction from someone who has had the surgery you had and had the issues you have. Bad backs normally have a few things in common. One, poor core strength. Two, normally the person with the bad back does not move properly. Proper movement patterns also known as movement efficiency is the key to decreasing your risk for back injury. Core strength and proper movement patterns are not hard to learn but they must be directed by somebody who knows them intimately. This is why I would recommend myself or any of the people I have spoken of in this blog to help you regain that independence you once had. At this time I will go over a few exercises that you could find on the Internet examples of which should give you a good idea as to what people are talking about when they talk about core work. Learning how to execute a bridge or a plank could be the difference between back pain and full dynamic movement without any pain. Now movement pattern that is often spoken about in terms of reducing back injury risk is the hip hinge. This is an easy movement to learn especially for those who have had any kind of dance or athletic jumping background. The key is the pelvic tilt. The pelvic tilt is controlled by a number of muscles wanted particular is the psoas.The psoas is a long strong muscle that attaches near the top of the femur and then the lateral anterior aspects of the lumbar spine. This muscle often becomes shortened and weakened due to sitting all day long. The hip hinge is performed by placing a dowel four feet long behind the head and running along the spine to the buttocks. The dowel should remain in contact with the back of the head spine between the shoulder blades and the SI joint at the base of the spine as you flex your hips and your knees. This is the hip hinge simple but some people just have trouble in this motion. Practice this and it will go a long way in decreasing low back discomfort.

New Blog

I've started a new blog. It's called "Training the Older Athlete". It's will be all about training the over 35 athlete that involved with anaerobic sports like basketball, volleyball, tennis, weightlifting and so on. I will still blog about my come back from back surgery and my torn quad repair. But this new blog will have more training tips to help you continue to play the sports you love!

Offseason training for the older athlete (summer sports)

Remembering that recovery is the key for the older athlete's success, these workouts should be three days a week at most, four if you are doing no other physical activity. A good split to start out would be legs, upper body push and then last w/o of the week would be pulling exercises with deadlifts of you can tolerate them! This is my third week in and today I did 2x10 back squat @ 192.5lbs and 2x10 front squat 122.5. RDL's 135 x 10)3 plus 10)3 bw calf raises.

Notes of the past week!

I am now OVER the 90% Dr Kramer said I should expect to achieve after my torn quad tendon. I've been doing 75kg cleans for a while now and this past week I did an easy 55kg snatch. I have done an 90kg clean some years back but that was with straps so I'm counting my 80kg clean I did before my back surgery as my PR. My PR snatch is 57.5kg.

One month down, two to go!

I love summer. Hope it's been good for you. I'm taking this week off from lifting because I was feeling a little overtrained. Next week Donna and I are taking the chalet (a small camper) up to a Wilton to see some friends and play a little volleyball. We'll be near I think the Cosumnes river so maybe some fishing and hiking.

More PR's

Today I worked out at the former Sports Club Irvine now known as Equinox. With a non needle bearing bar and plates that really didn't fit the bar (I'm spoiled) I cleaned 75kg and jerked 61kg (I don't jerk too much). I did the cleans off the platform not the 3" boxes I've been using to put less stress on my spine. All feels fine!

Sharing and encouragement!

This blog is meant to show that someone over 30 (I'm almost 51) can after devastating injuries can come back to a relative high level of fitness. Remember now I tore my quadriceps (all four thigh muscles) away from my knee cap.

DO NOT BE DECIEVED!

If you are an athlete over 31-35 years of age you CAN NOT exercise away a bad diet. I had a conversation this last week with an athlete who has qualified for the 2012 Olympics in London and he/she was trying to keep his/hers weight down mid season doing cardio when they are involved in an anaerobic sport. A couple things, a bad diet is not limited to too many calories. It could be too little protein, too little fat, wrong kinds of protein, wrong kinds of fat, too little carbs or the wrong kinds of carbs. It never ceases to amaze me that in this day and age, elite athletes are still getting BAD advice.

More good news

Monday(5/21/2012) cleaned 72.5kg x1)3. Wednesday snatched 50kg x 1, 52.5 x 1, 50 x 1. Now my strength is going up faster in the clean then the snatch. Fyi my goals are 90kg clean and a 60kg snatch.

Things have been happening

Since my last post in April my hitting and blocking have improved and I attribute that directly to the fact that I'm easily cleaning 70k for doubles and snatching 50k for multiple singles.

Just a note.

Monday cleans, 52.5 x 3, 57.5 x 3, 62.5 x 2, 67.5 x 2, 70kg x 1)2, felt great! Wednesday snatches, 30kg x 3, 40 x 3, 42.5 x 2, 45 x 2, 47.5 x 2, 50kg x 1)2, no problems!

This Saturday what you've all been waiting for......

Nilo's play volleyball (or any sport) pain free workshop! This workshop is designed to help you prepare to play any sport pain free! This Saturday April 14th at 4pm at #1 Corporate Plaza drive Newport beach (Fashion island, Newport Center). Hope to see you Saturday!!

Pain Free workshop

Play Volleyball
Pain Free
A pain free workshop to play
Any sport PAIN FREE
Learn the newest techniques in preparing to play any sport pain free!
Saturday, April 14th @ 4pm
Nilo Lins, NCSA CPT*D,
USAW Sports Performance Coach
Is your host
· For Details call 714-321-0770
Or visit: nilosbacksurgerysurvivalguide.blogspot.com

This workshop will take place @ #1 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100

Newport Beach, CA

Please RSVP by April 7th

For the record

My back is jacked and has been since Sat. the 4th of February!

Apologize and other stuff

I'm sorry for misleading you, I had every intention of holding my "pain free sports" clinic back when I posted last (September) however some personal things arose and I was delayed. I do hope to hold this clinic soon but as of this posting I have no date set. Some other musing I want to share with you. As a personal trainer I am still surprised when people don't know the difference between carbs/fats/proteins. But that is not what THIS is about. It is about the poor advice I see athletes, young and old getting from trainers who should know better. The main problem I see is fear. Improving the application of force is not an easy thing but once it's taught is effects will be immediate. Once your movement patterns, joint mobility & stability are up to necessary standards, the ONLY true, safe and efficient way of increasing strength, power and rate of force production is through barbell squats, pulls, cleans, snatches and upper body jerks and push presses. Plyometics and medicine balls come AFTER one develops a strength base.