Sled push/pull:
EMOM for 10 mins with +20kg
2x1/1 with +40kg
Have horrible DOMS, especially in my quads, from Friday’s workout so went in to get some blood flowing. Nothing too difficult. Probably needed another 10kg on the sled for the EMOM to push my conditioning hard but 20kg was enough for what I wanted to achieve.
Conditioning definitely is better but they still suck. Plus, they’re hard in kind of a different way. I don’t think swings get my heart rate up as much and doing them so much has probably made me pretty efficient at them which takes away from the conditioning aspect somewhat.
Purposely did the RDLs double overhand for this first session to limit myself rather than jumping straight into the deep end with straps. Interestingly, my range of motion on RDLs has increased. I no longer feel lots of tension in my hamstrings as they’re stretched and I could easily touch the floor with the plates. My glutes felt a lot more involved also, I’m guessing due to all those swings.
Smith behind neck OHP:
15xbar
19, 14, 17x +10 (350 method, 2 min rest)
Lat pull-down: 21, 17, 15x36 (350 method, 2 min rest)
Bench press: 8x40, 15x50, 8x50 (2 min rest)
Dumbbell curls: 2 sets
Sled push/pull: EMOM for 8 mins with +30kg
Good workout, boring to read. Few things to note for future reference:
Might look at moving BB rows to my other upper body day so I’m not doing them the day after RDLs and farmers walks.
2 min rests on the 350 sets feels a bit too long so I will probably use 90s next week and keep the weight the same. 2 mins is about right for the rows and bench.
Will progress the bike starter by adding a minute each week until 4 mins then I will just push harder.
The sled was about the right weight. My legs were really struggling at the end but my lungs felt ok. I need to have a think about how to progress this. I was thinking go to 10 mins next week then add weight, go back to 8 mins and repeat but I might throw some burpees in there. Last time they had me breathing hard - I will see how they effect me later this week and then evaluate.
The bike stuff was tough but I quite liked how it had me sweating straight away. It’s also a nice way to do some extra conditioning but not lump it all together at the end of the workout.
First, today should be a rest day but I’m going away Friday to Monday so doing all four workouts back to back. Then, it should have been hill sprints but the hill is mud and grass and it’s been raining all day so it would not be suitable. Instead, I thought of some stuff to do at the gym 15 minutes before I set off and ended up with the above. All in all it was pretty good - it challenged me and I’m probably a bit fitter for it.
The 100kg deadlift surprised me. I skipped 90kg planning to take 10kg jumps after 100kg but the first rep of it nearly didn’t happen. The reps with 60kg and 80kg felt faster than ever so perhaps I’m just not used to heavy weights right now. Either way I strained and I got some strength and conditioning work in so it’s all good.
Giant set - 2 rounds Box jumps: x5 Crunches: x8 KB swings: 8x24 Ab wheel: x5
RDL:
8x20
8x40
8x60
8x80
13x90
Walking lunges: x30, x20
Hack squat: 12, 15x30
Farmers walk: 2x+20, 2x+30, 2x+40
Spent Friday to Monday on holiday and did lots of walking. I took Tuesday as a rest day because I felt pretty run down. Then yesterday I helped my girlfriend move into her new house so today was the first workout of the week.
I’m pretty happy with how this day plays out. Everything went ok but missed out on an RDL PR when I should have had it. On the way down for rep 13 I lost tightness a bit and it was hard to get back up after that. Even so, pretty sure I could have got a 14th rep so there’s still room to up the effort.
Messed around with feet placement on squats - I went from the top to middle and felt it much more in the quads. Top set of farmers felt heavy but was fast.
Giant set: 2 rounds Lateral raises: 15x3s Dumbbell curls: 15x5s Close grip press ups: x8 Rear delt swings: 10x3s
Airdyne bike: 4x20s on/10s off, 4x10s on/20s off
Versus last week I improved on pull-downs, dumbbell bench and dumbbell rows so good result. Bench press felt a slower than I’d like but the top set wasn’t too bad. The very last set was about as good as I’ve ever done so hopefully that’s a sign of good things to come.
That question mark for the first set of dumbbell press is because I lost count. I realised i had counted 11 then 9 and had no idea how many reps I’d done.
Rest doesn’t include time taken to jog back to start
This was good. I made it up as I went along using my jumper as a marker. I started with it where I thought would be good to run to but it was actually pretty easy. Decreased the rest and it was a good difficulty but wanted to try a bit more for the last few runs.
Instead of doing the bottom half I did the top half but misjudged how far it was - the top section was more like 2/3 than a half and it is much steeper. I think because the gradient decreases slightly at the top it gives the illusion of not looking as far. I’ll attach pictures below. Actually ended up being good as a challenge though and that last run was a killer. I must have taken at least two minutes to walk (stumble) back down the hill. I haven’t been out of breath like that in a while.
Pictures below from the bottom and top of the hill. If you look carefully on the second pic you can just make out my black hoodie on the floor.
Hammer chest press: 15x30, 10x30 (pause at bottom)
Good workout - numbers up from last time again. The smith overhead press is quickly becoming one of my favourite exercises. I struggle to feel my middle delts but that destroys them and it’s easy to load and progress too.
I haven’t had as much rest as usual recently and I’m starting with a cold so I decreased the number of sets slightly. Tomorrow will be an off day then legs on Tuesday.
I gave my all to this workout and in return it destroyed me. Old RDL PR was 11x100, last week was 13x90, matching my PR with 90kg. Both were as close to failure as I could get on the day. For the top set today: rep 6 was pretty tough, on some days I’m sure I would have stopped there; rep 10 I was telling myself just one more, match your PR; rep 11 I said one more, just beat the PR; by rep 12 my arms felt like they were being ripped off but by this point I couldn’t stop until I had to; rep 14 felt like it took a minute but I got there. Now I keep thinking maybe there were more reps - maybe I could have done a 15th rep, it just would have felt like it took 2 minutes. I really wish I had got a video and had planned to but forgot.
Every week I feel like I can push harder than the week before but I always feel like I could get at least one more rep. Failure is like a constantly moving target.
Aside from the RDLs and all that rambling, I’m really liking how the giant set at the beginning plays out. It gets my heart rate up and it hits my core hard. I intended to do more sets of farmers walks, initially 6 mins EMOM but I was done by that point so cut it short. Any extra would have just been unnecessary work I’d have to, and struggle to, recover from. Whole workout including going to the toilet took 53 mins so I kept a good pace too.
Bench press felt slow, even on the back off sets but I increased in weight and/or reps on the other main exercises.
Rowing machine was good - I did it because the sled track was in use. I may keep it in weekly because I noticed all my other conditioning is with <30s intervals so some 60s+ work will be good.
Superset Dumbbell curls: 10x5s, 10x5s+static hold Hammer curls: 10x5s, 20x5s
Sled push/pull:
EMOM x6 mins w/ +30kg Rest 1 min
4 lengths push only w/ +30kg
Going to start recording PRs for the bigger exercises now I’ve had a couple of weeks doing them. The sled pulls were absolutely destroying my quads so instead of 8 mins EMOM i did the last 4 lengths push only with no rest. Blew up my glutes and hamstrings too.
