It looks like you are going quite heavy, are you not supposed to get a 3-5RM on your ME days? I’d try to shoot for an “easy” 5RM and then go up each week instead of trying to kill yourself by going very heavy each time.
I think if you are doing other sports squatting once a week is more than enough, especially if you are doing athletics. You squat 1RM or 5RM does not matter, you legs just need to be strong enough to run fast and avoid injury.
Don’t forget sports sessions are hard on your legs so don’t worry about your legs apparently losing their strength: you are just adapting to doing strength AND conditioning.
Study your program and follow it. Don’t judge it after just a few weeks. Keep working !
@mr.v3lv3t I’m rotating a different max effort movement every two weeks and alternate between a deadlift and a squat so next time I squat will be front squat in two weeks. I expected to be slightly weaker just not this much. My hope is once I pick the movement up and do it more regularly again my numbers will go up.
@hypem74 I do usually aim for a 3-5RM but I’ve already squatted 5x100 so I did a double with 105 to set a PR but I didn’t want to completely grind out another rep. I’ve actually only been to athletics once so far and it was javelin which required very little lower body since we were practicing it stationary. I agree though once I try out sprinting (tomorrow) my legs will be a lot more taxed but with how the program is set out and how I feel now I’m confident I’ll be fine. I’m actually really enjoying the program and everything else has been great.
Yeah I feel like that will almost certainly happen for ya. WS4SB is a great program to build strength but probably not the best to display strength in specific movements. Best of luck!
3 sets of 2x200m @80% with 3 mins rest between reps and 6 mins rest between sets
First sprinting session and I jumped in at the deep end. On paper I was confident this wouldn’t be too bad, after all it’s 21 minutes of rest, but I was wrong. The other four people doing it were all good sprinters which is uncommon as there’s normally a lot of people taking it easy and just having fun. Anyway I tried to keep up with them and it didn’t go nicely for me.
Run 1: 31s Run 2: 36s Run 3: Missed Run 4: 56s Run 5: 48s Run 6: 41s
So runs 1 and 2 I went for it and tried to keep up with the other guys sub 30s runs- I think one did 23s on his first. This meant I was probably going closer to 100% than 80%. After run 2 my glutes were ruined; they hurt in a way I can only compare to being badly winded as in I was desperate for the pain to stop and nothing I did helped at all. After five minutes leaning against a railing I decided to miss the next run and slumped on the floor, something I now regret. By run 4 I learnt my lesson and took it very slow and by the end the feeling in my glutes had died down to a bearable ache. For the last two I went a little bit faster at what probably should have been my pace for them all. My glutes still ache now almost two hours later and a lot of my legs are sore so I’m dreading how they’ll feel tomorrow but I enjoyed myself.
My plan is to alternate between jumping/throwing and sprinting each week but the throwing coach is away next week so I’ll do sprinting again. I’ve not been going to kickboxing so I definitely want to add in some easier conditioning sort of work somewhere in the week. The athletics club put on a circuits class on Sundays which I’m considering.
Interval sessions are tough when you don’t know how to gauge your effort.
You’ll get used to it, don’t go too hard on the first sets and aim for consistency in your times. Don’t look at the fast guys, train and don’t test during training sessions !
Yeah I definitely agree. After the first run I was like right I’ll aim to have them all around 35s then I did the second and realised I’d messed up haha.
There’s always going to be a big learning curve when you start something new so I expect it. Thanks for your advice mate.
My friend joined the gym last week and invited me and another friend to try bouldering with him. I was planning on going swimming tonight anyway so I went along.
At first there was a lesson on in the climbing area so we went into the weights room to bench press. I did a few easy reps but nothing much, mostly just so I wasn’t stood around aimlessly. After that we went swimming and I swam about 10 easy lengths (25m) then we went in the sauna and steam room. Finally 15 minutes before closing we went bouldering which I really enjoyed. I climbed up three V0s and two V1s which were pretty hard for me. Apparently it goes from 0-8 with V8 being the hardest. I’m looking into getting trained enough to go in on my own and then I’ll probably go swimming and bouldering a couple of times a week as some easy exercise.
Skullcrushers: 3x10x10 Lateral raises superset with dumbell curls:
3x10x4/ 3x10x4
Ab circuit (3 rounds):
Lying leg raises x8
Russian twists x5 each side
Mountain climbers x5 each side
Lat pull down: 3x10x40
Good workout. Thought I got 48 reps on dumbell bench last week but got 44 which was a nice surprise, shame I couldn’t make it to 50 though. Probably just going to chill out this weekend and catch up on uni work then deadlift Monday.
Just means more room to improve! FWIW my buddy I climb most often with isn’t particularly strong at pullups and he climbs just as hard (sometimes harder) than me. Most important thing is to have fun and enjoy it.
That’s exactly how I’m looking at it. I’m always pushing myself in the gym and recently at athletics so it’s a way to have some fun and not worry about trying too hard.
Smith machine reverse lunge superset with BW hangs from thick bar:
3x10x20 each leg/ 2x15s
Back extensions : 3x10xBW
Swimming: 5x50m
Really good session, had a lot of time so went swimming after which was fun. Sets with 90kg and 100kg were PRs for deadlifts but I’ve not pushed them too hard before- 5x100 was a good difficulty. The lunges were horrible, not much to say about them and the back extensions I put the pad higher and focused on my glutes more, pausing at the top. Finished with steam room, sauna and then a cold shower.
Close grip bench:
10x20, 5x40, 3x60, 5x65, 5x70 (PR)
Dumbell incline bench superset with dumbell rows:
3x8x20/ 3x10x20
Crunch machine (30s rest): 3x10x10
Wasn’t sure whether to go with 67.5kg or 70kg on bench- 70kg was the right decision and there should be more next week. Missed facepulls because the cable station was busy.
6x150m sprints: ran 150m, walked back then repeated
400m cool down jog
Didn’t get any times this week but I’m glad because I felt rough going into it and went pretty slow. I think I’m coming down with a bit of a cold but happy to have got the work done. Walked about 5 miles today.
Lateral raises superset with dumbell curls:
3x8x6/ 3x10x6
Lat pull down: 3x10x30 Tricep push downs: 2x10x15, 10x15+10x7.5 dropset
Done in about 20 minutes, kept rest at 30-60s between sets. Did push ups with a close grip and triceps fatigued quickly, rest was easy assistance stuff. Had a 5 minute break then:
Bouldering: 45 minutes
They rearranged all the routes over the weekend so everything was new- they seemed a bit harder than last time. Did all the V0s easily but struggled with 2/4 of the V1s. I got one of them in the end but there’s still one left for me to tackle next week. My back and forearms are pretty tired now.
I think I’m going to miss athletics next Wednesday to go climbing instead with the climbing society. I’d rather not but it’s the only day they meet up so I figure it’s worth missing athletics once if they teach me enough to use the climbing facilities without my friend. I’ll hopefully do some hill sprints or something instead.
Pretty bored and wanted to do something active so decided to give this a try. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while as a benchmark for my conditioning level. I think I can get it under six minutes easy enough.
