It’s getting to be an exciting time in the offseason right now as I come up on my first week back to throwing!
I’ve been working on some more general strength qualities, power production, targeted mobility, and tissue prep to better prepare myself for the demands of intense throwing. I’m feeling better and it was a great mental break to step away from throwing for a few weeks, but I’m ready to get back to it now.
This week was the first week of my new lifting block which involves an isometric focus during my main lifts. Just like the previous block when I used slower eccentrics, followed by a maximum intent concentric contraction, this block involves a fast eccentric followed by a focused isometric of about 2 seconds, then a maximum intent concentric. This is still part of Cal Dietz’s idea of Triphasic Training in which he talks about having a steeper V with respect to the speed of transition from eccentric to concentric during a movement. Basically, the faster you can transition between these contractions, the more power you can produce. In this block the focus is on stopping the eccentric contraction quickly, and then moving as fast as possible.
Like I said in my previous posts, I think this style of programming is useful, but it’s difficult to say how much of an impact it’s having on my power until I test my power metrics after my next block. The greatest benefit to me seems to be the focus on the speed and quality of each rep. My volume has been relatively low because hypertrophy isn’t a need of mine at this point and strength work in the 3-6 rep range does a pretty good job of maintaining muscle mass, it just doesn’t add very much.
My mobility has been improving since I’ve made it a significant focus of my training. I’m excited to see how the improved range of motion and ability to get into more extreme positions affects my throwing. The tissue prep may be an even bigger help though as being pain free should add velocity even without a serious change to the throwing pattern.
I start the on-ramping portion of my throwing program tomorrow and I’m very excited to get back to the sport specific portion of training since that is the most important part for me at this point in my career. Tomorrow will be light in terms of volume and intensity and will basically be technique work. I’ll be using some light plyos and then relatively short catch play as I work on acclimating to throwing stress and changing my patterns.
Anyway, thank you for following me on my journey to the show and check back early in the week for more content!