But in those three hours I did all the major muscle gorups:

• Explosive 1/2 Push Ups (Wide): 10 x 2 sets
• Explosive 1/2 Push Ups (Narrow): 10 x 2 sets
• Jumping Squats: 10 x 3 sets
• Ankle Hops: 15 x 2 sets
• Press + Jerk*: 10 x 3 sets (the last set was to failure at 8).

* This is exploiting something called the static-dynamic protocol which I read about a few weeks back.  When you perform an explosive movement then by its very nature it doesn’t have the time to recruit many fast-twitch muscle fibres.  However, if you do a maximal strength exercise beforehand which activates many fast twitch motor units then you’ll be priming your muscles and CNS.

The result = more effective plyometric exercises.

Complex training is where you use a static maximal exercise followed by an explosive.  This has the added bonus of making your explosive exercise more powerful.

So here goes today’s workout:

• Single Clap Half-Pushups: 8 reps x 4 sets
• One-legged Ankle Hops ¤: 20 reps x 3 sets ( + 13kg dumb bell added weight)
• Push Jerk Θ: 4 reps x 2 sets

This was a much smaller set than last weeks and that’s mainly due to my extreme EIT workout yesterday and my muscle having not recovered.  Each rep was exhausting and I’m probably close to over-training.  Thank god tomorrow is Rest Day.

¤ Preceded by Calf Raise

Θ Preceded by Overhead Dumb Bell Press

Me Post Workout

Well we’re onto the fifth day of training.  I don’t know if its just in my head but I do feel better in some respects.  I’m not complaining either way!

Explosive Strength

• Squat Jump: 8 reps
• Single Clap Half-Pushups*: 6 reps
• One-legged Ankle Hops: 20 reps
• Push Jerk: 5 reps

I’m doing this circuit 4 times.

* I had to do half-pushups (where you put your knees to the floor) simply because I couldn’t explode high enough to do a clap with a normal push up position.  A half-pushup is a good one to do until I get better methinks.

One thing I noticed with the ankle hops is that as my legs tired the effort started to move into the quads from the calf.  It took some re-adjusting to get my calf to take the full brunt of the exercise.

Core

This is my third in the 6-day split and we’re back to the first one I did which goes like this:

• Crunches: 10 (hold for 5 secs)
• Lying Hip Swings: 20 reps
• Plank: 30 secs (35 on second set)

I’ve started to notice a difference in my core already.  It feels a lot more….’solid’ – for want of a better word.  I can feel it move and shift with more force.  I don’t know if this is all in my head but this is the hardest workout regime I’ve dedicated to my core (pathetic I know!) so maybe I’m getting the newbie-accelerated benifit of it.

— UPDATE —

Forearm

I couldn’t help sneaking in a forearm killer later on.

3 sets and I did better than last time too with the reps being:

2 + 2 + 1.5