Long session today, might have to cut some rest periods. I forgot my upper body warm up and believe that led to me failing to get the final rep of bench out. Everything else was routine and it’ll be nice to do round numbers instead of working with 8.5kg standard bar. Did have a stupid moment where I cleaned 60kg onto the squat rack with no collars, one 20kg slipped off and smashed my windowsill and the other followed shortly, making a large dent in my skirting board. I’m in this flat for another 4.5 months so i’ll do a nice cover-up job on it.
5 x 87.5kg
4 x 92.5kg
3 x 97.5kg
2 x 102.5kg
1 x 107.5kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 35kg
DB Windmills
1 x 12 x 10kg
2 x 10 x 12.5kg
Did several hours of digging earlier so my back had gone, could feel it twinging in power cleans but I kept my form tight and was able to complete a slightly lighter than usual set of them. Bench was ok, again it’s been a tiring day so I cut out squats, OHP and curls. Finished with DB windmills, wanted to try them last week but didn’t know the form and now I do.
Had a middle shift at work today so no time in the morning or evening to get to the track. I didn’t want to do nothing and if I did my normal weights i’d end up having to move the next day to compromise. This is what I came up with, the session would’ve probably been 4 x 300m so I went for a lengthy set of swings that was harder on my breathing than my legs. Haven’t tried lifting a weight yet but I feel pretty normal today.
Glutes were definitely hurting from KB swings yday and hamstring was tender so did extra foam rolling in my warm up. Once I got into it there weren’t many issues. Bench and certainly back squat could be increased but I don’t mind keeping it the same and saving some energy for my Thurs & Fri workouts. Pleased with today.
3 x 5 x 100m (30 sec/2.5 mins) average 15-15.5 secs
1 mile
6 mins 40 secs
Walking Lunges, 30m, 20m
High Knees, 30m, 20m
Ab Wheel 3 x 1 minute
My thighs and glutes were still recovering so instead of running the normal workout with mediocre times and risking injury in the flat out ones I did a tempo session. I’m trying to improve my stamina so i threw in a mile run at the end and was surprised by how easy I could do 6 min 40 pace.
As the session I did yesterday didn’t involve speed and as I can’t gym tomorrow I went back today and did this session. The first set of runs were very relaxed with focus on technique, done consecutively with a walk back recovery. I was looking for 15 secs per 100m for the first runs and under 14 for the second set so a little disappointed, but I was surprised how quickly I recovered between them. Ideally those series would be 45, 30, 15 and 40, 26, 12.
Plyometric session on grass, good co-ordination having not done it in ages and was pleased with the difficulty.
May 14
Power Cleans
5 x 72.5kg
4 x 72.5kg
3 x 77.5kg
2 x 80kg
1 x 82.5kg
Bench Press
5 x 87.5kg
4 x 92.5kg
3 x 97.5kg
2 x 102.5kg
0 x 107.5kg
Back Squat
5 x 120kg
4 x 125kg
3 x 130kg
2 x 135kg
1 x 140kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 35kg
DB Curl
3 x 10 x 20kg
DB Press
1 x 10 x 27.5kg
1 x 10 x 25kg
stopped - nerve pain
DB Windmill
3 x 10 x 12.5kg
Failed at final set of bench. I was hurrying it as I started at 9pm and I want to have a meal 2.5 hrs after so cut recovery and paid for it. My head was not in the game and i was just working through the sets without any focus. Pleased with squats, with my belt I feel so strong and the one rep at 140kg was nice and low. I did rows between sets of bench and curls between squats, leaving me with shoulder press (which I normally alternate with curls). As I lifted them overhead I got a tightness across my groin, like a cable being pulled inside me. I lowered the weight for the next set but this time the pull was enough to physically move my hips about a foot backwards, like i’d been kicked, so I did those reps and didn’t tempt fate any more. I’m not overly concerned as i’ve had a similar thing with heavy squats, it’s no doubt a combination of a few things but the volume of single leg hops on Sunday probably created some tension within my hip musculature and i’ll give that extra attention with the foam roller tonight.
Probably my best track session this year. Chased my training partner and ran hard enough to really struggle after the 150m. The 100m was into a headwind and I thought i’d take it easy or it’ll be another session where I can’t get off the floor for the 50m. It’s an equal pb for the 50m but I can’t help thinking I might have been able to dip under 13 secs for the 100m.
I’m having to shuffle my sessions again due to work, so i’ll establish an order in which to do the five sessions over the week but the days and times will vary.
After shuffling things around and having trouble with standing OHP I intended to change one or two exercises. That led eventually to a weekly plan modelled on WS4SB (the original). I was taking circuit classes one morning a week and getting shift work the rest of the time, but now it’s 3 mornings a week and I have enough of a structure to my week that I can set a template and stick to it. I split my acceleration session in half and put each half in front of my other two track sessions, as they are only 35 mins long. This created space for me to either do circuits or shuttle runs or tempo or stretches on one of the days.
As for today, I was a little miffed to not get double figures at 80kg but pleased with the rest of the session. Particularly happy that I can do chin ups by setting my squat rack to its highest level and using the bar, as it didn’t work for me last time I did that.
I always seem to jinx my weekly plans by stating them here so all i’ll say is ME Upper, ME Lower, rep upper, 2 x track and 1 x circuit/runs/recovery are in my typical week.
Pretty damn good session out in the sunshine. I took tenths off my hops, having done the previous set on grass, and felt good about the 30m runs. I hit all my target times in the first set of runs and was faster than last week in all six runs so the only thing bugging me at the minute is how hard i’m finding it to break 26 seconds. My best run of the day was probably the 14.1, which I absolutely cruised with minimal effort. Given the improvements I left out high knees and lunges.
I stepped on a slippery patch of floor yesterday and tweaked my groin, started to feel it in the 150m today, more in the 100m and the 50m was at 80% just to complete the session as it was seizing up a bit. Have iced it and will rest up and keep an eye on it. No sprints until Sunday so it’s not immediately going to affect my training.
Update: Injury feels more hip flexor than groin, it impacts my walking so could be a few days before I can run. Hoping I can squat tomorrow!
May 22
Bench Press
8 x 60kg
5 x 80kg
5 x 90kg
5 x 95kg
DB Bench
2 x 10 x 32.5kg
1 x 9 x 32.5kg
DB rows
4 x 12 x 35kg
Reverse Flyes
2 x 12 x 5kg
DB Windmill
3 x 12 x 12.5kg
I miss DB bench, really good to fail a set without needing a spotter. Initially only wanted 90kg for 5 but that felt easy enough to pop up 95kg, overall I thought it was a solid workout and each exercise had a weight that challenged me fully.
Hips aren’t much better and although I could squat I didn’t want to push my body in case it gave way and also because I wasn’t sure how much the rest of the session would impact me. In hindsight I could’ve done maybe 115kg or 120kg as an extra set and been fine. Reverse Lunge (front foot on a 3-4 inch block) was a little easy and 65kg was a better weight for that. Same goes for GM’s, not 100% on technique (wide or narrow stance, amount of knee bend) but I was using the right muscles and really feeling it so once I read up more on the finer details i’ll be happy to increase the weight. Plate hold was fun, zoned out for most of it.
Better bench than last week, extra rep on each set (60 secs rest if that wasn’t mentioned before). Floor press was easy, everything else was good and i’m hoping to do a track session tomorrow with some relaxed runs over longer distances.
This is my Friday tempo session put in to replace the speed session as my hip flexor is not 100%. I could walk fine yesterday and today was about hitting 20 secs/100m pace, which I was pleased about doing. Initially I was going for 500m but I did that in 1:37 so extended it to 600m, and could probably have done a 700m. I ran the first lap of the mile painfully slowly and was chasing my times from then on. Probably the first time i’ve done ab wheel properly, tilting the pelvis backwards and engaging the abs before I start. I felt those more than any other time i’ve done it so should improve my strength there.
Much better squats, still know I can go heavier but I don’t want to PB and then be tired the rest of the week so i’ll progress steadily. Lunges were tough, GM’s were too easy and my technique was almost right last week and I just changed to low bar position on my back, as with squats i’ll progress slowly. No trouble with plate hold, will do an extra 10-15 secs next week.
This was meant to be Thursday’s session but I did it early as I don’t think my hips won’t be up to sprinting until Thurs/Fri so tomorrow will be upper body or more likely a rest day.
Had elbow issues with floor press so got rid of it in favour of tricep extensions, which I enjoyed. Tried pallof press and felt pretty indifferent about it until about a minute after the last set, now feel like i’ve been kidney punched all afternoon. These are in place of landmines which are tearing up my skirting board in the corner of my weights room.
3 x 200, 2 x 200m (25.9, 27.6, 27.2, 26.6, 28.5) avg 27.2 secs
Ab Wheel Standing
3 x 6
Other session wasn’t working for me and I know where i’m at with this session. First run was surprising but after that it was what I thought would happen, and disappointing last run that took my average over 27 secs. I forgot to ease up on the first run as it’s always faster than the others unless you consciously save energy. I’d like all of them to be under 27 secs next time.