It’s been 69 weeks (hey-oh) on this journey so far.
This week was similar to last week. It’s been weird, but mentally refreshing not throwing. I love throwing, so I obviously miss it, but it felt like I was just banging my head against the wall trying to get healthy and it wasn’t happening. So, having things that I can focus on and take small victories from, like moving the bar as fast as possible, jumping far, and throwing med balls hard has been great. I feel like I’m manhandling some relatively heavy weights right now, I’m jumping far, and my body feels pretty good, so there are a lot of positives to take away from training right now even though I’m not throwing.
As I mentioned last week, I’m taking some ideas from Cal Dietz and using my first two training days of the week and doing eccentrics with my main movements. The idea being that I need to improve how quickly I accept force in order to be able to generate more force, and generate it faster. So far I think the biggest improvement has been my intent on every single rep. In the past I would be on auto pilot sometimes, but with my current program the rep range is relatively low and the whole purpose is power development. A big part of power development is the neurological adaptations that take place. But, in order to make these adaptations happen at the highest possible level you have to move the weights or other implements as fast as possible.
It’s hard to say whether or not the eccentrics are making a big difference yet, but it’s so early in the program that that’s to be expected. When I test my power numbers after the first 9 weeks of the program (three blocks-eccentric, isometric, concentric) I’ll have a better idea of the effect this style of training had on my body. I can definitely say that my body feels good and I think that’s a result of the focus on quality of reps, and a little less volume than I’ve used in the past. Even though the eccentric reps are very taxing, my program is balanced enough and the volume is low enough that I can recover from it and still push hard in the next training session.
Mobility and tissue quality have been the other focuses of this program so far and they’ve gotten a significant amount of my time. I do a mix of mobility sessions and static stretching, because I need to improve my passive ROM, but then also be able to use that range dynamically. I’ve been doing tissue work myself and also getting some ART from my wife (the real MVP), and I think both have been helping as I’ve seen some improvements in ROM and a reduction in tenderness in some areas, but the real test will be getting back to throwing and feeling good.
The other thing I’ve changed recently is the way I eat and how much I’ve been eating. I’ve been tracking my calories again and trying to maintain my weight for the most part, and maybe drop a little bit of body fat. My whole life I’ve had to work really hard to gain weight, but that’s not the case anymore and my diet needs to reflect that. I got used to eating a lot of calorie dense foods, so I can get a lot of calories in a day without it seeming like very much because the volume of food won’t be super high, so it’s important that I track or I’ll gain weight pretty quickly. I feel like I move pretty well between 208 and 215 so I want to stay in that range while getting a bit more lean. Even though pitching is gravity aided, so heavier guys (in terms of lean mass, generally) tend to throw harder, it reaches a point of diminishing returns.
Thank you for following me on my journey to the show, and check back later this week for more content!