I figured it would be best to record my training so I can monitor my progress properly. My current goal is to improve strength and conditioning, and both to contribute to better rowing performance. Recent injuries to my hamstring and wrist have set me back a bit, but I am determined to come back from this and continue to progress. At the moment my pressing numbers are quite low as I have not done any heavy pressing for quite a long time, but my leg strength is returning. Currently my back is my strongest body part.
PB Lifts:
Squat: 145kg x 5
Deadlift: 160kg x 3
Bench: 105kg x 2
27/4/2010
AM
Light jogging and 15 minutes on the rowing machine at rate 20 before breakfast.
PM
Complexes: 8 reps per exercise, 3 sets
Power Cleans
Front Squats
Military Press
Deadlifts
Upright rows
Bench Press: 60/5, 70/5, 80/3, 85/4
Barbell Rows: 80/5, 90/5, 100/3, 110/1, 105/1
DB swings: 20/5, 25/5, 27.5/3, 30/9
Rear Lateral Raise: 10/12, 12.5/12, 12.5/12
3 giant sets:
Bicycle Crunches 20
Twisting Crunches 10 each side
Reverse Crunches 10
Finished with 10 minutes on the crosstrainer doing intervals 30s sprint 30s easy.
EDIT: Turns out bar I used for rows was only 10kg not 20kg so I did not actually hit a new PR. I am gutted because I thought I beasted the BB rows, but I only hit 110 not 120kg like I first thought.
28/4/2010
Today my only training was a 2 hour outing on the river in an 8 man crew. I did’t train in the morning as I wanted to put all energy into the high rate work on the river, but unfortunately the river had so many boats on today it was difficult to get much high rate work in.
I am still positive though as my wrist has not given me any problems from yesterday’s training and I hit a new PR on my barbell rows. That was the first time doing that type of training so I am hoping to have a better idea what to do next time I hit the weights, which will probably be Friday.
29/4/2010
30 minutes at rate 20 on the rowing machine. I managed to get 7770m, my average split was 1:55.80. I am quite happy with that as it is a new PR, I am just hoping I can carry on progressing. I have an assignment due in tomorrow morning so I will probably be up late tonight working on that, but I plan on hitting the weights regardless tomorrow as I need to stop making excuses.
01/05/2010
AM
2 hour outing on the river in a 4 man crew. Not the best outing, but got progressively better and there were changes in the crew again, but hopefully we will have some consistency and get used to rowing as a crew.
PM
Complexes: Cosgrove’s evil 8 using 30kg.
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bentover Row
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
Squats: 100/5, 110/5, 120/3, 130/1
DB Incline Press: 22.5/5, 27.5/5, 30/7, 35/3
Pull ups: BW/5, BW 5/4, BW 7.5/5 (Last set done as rest pause. I got 2,2,1)
5 minutes on the rowing machine doing intervals 1 minute easy at rate 20 followed by 30s high rate and high pressure all out sprint.
Notes:
Complexes were hard, but I am sure I can push it and use a heavier weight next time.
The squats were not too bad, but I was hoping for 3 reps with 130kg. Hopefully with some consistent training my squat strength will return. After the first rep with 130kg I felt my core struggling more than my legs.
Today was my first time doing weighted pull ups, but I am glad my gym has a chain in order to do them. On the last set I will probably stick to rest pause in order to help bring the weight up and get me used to doing them with heavier weights. The intervals on the rower were very short as I was exhausted and struggled to hit a 1:30 split on the sprint pieces, so felt it was best to only do a small amount.
02/05/2010
AM
2 hour outing in the morning in an 8 man boat. Awesome outing, one of the best we had. Wed did some good racecourse pieces and I was absolutely exhausted afterwards due to high rate stuff.
PM
Complexes: Cosgrove’s evil 8 using 35kg.
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bentover Row
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
Shoulder Press: 50/5, 60/5, 60/5, 65/5
Deadlift: 120/5, 130/5, 145/3, 162.5/1
Standing DB Bicep Curl: 17.5/8, 17.5/8, 20/6, 20/6
Hanging Leg Raises: 3 sets with reps 20,18,17
Notes:
Just 5kg extra on complexes made them ridiculously hard, I was so glad when I finished. I will probably stick with that weight for now and try and speed it up. I had to do shoulder press on machine because some guy with so much lifting gear like belts and straps thought he would use the only rack for over half hour doing deadlifts with only 50kg. He wasn’t even doing rack pulls he was just using the bar from the rack when there was a bar in the weights area anyway. I was even more pissed when the machine only went to 65kg. I probably should have done more reps, but I wanted to do some heavy sets with military press.
The deadlifts were awesome. I hit a new max with 162.5kg despite doing the complexes beforehand. If I can keep my numbers going up despite all the conditioning work at the start and long rowing outings earlier in the day I will be extremely happy.
03/05/2010
Just a light jog before breakfast this morning that took around half hour. I plan on doing some foam rolling and stretching later on to help with recovery. No rowing or weights today.
04/05/2010
AM
Rowing outing was cancelled due to one of our crew being ill so we ended up doing training on the rowing machine. We did pyramids on the rate starting and rate 18 and eventually bringing it up to to rate 32 and then back down. This was done over approximately 25 minutes. After this we did practice race starts on the ergs followed by 15 power strokes. Erg training is even more horrible in the morning.
PM
Bench Press: 80/5, 85/5, 90/3, 95/3
Barbell Rows: 90/5, 95/5, 105/3, 115/1
DB Swings: 20/10, 22.5/10, 22.5/10, 22.5/10
Lateral Raises: 12.5/10, 12.5/10, 12.5/10
Notes:
Nowhere near as intense a weight session due to an upcoming race on Saturday, as I do not want too much muscle soreness to limit my rowing. Hence no squats or deadlifts. Barbell rows are still going strong and I managed to equal my max with 115kg. I thought I could get a second, but it was just not happening. The DB swings were very difficult. The bench press was a huge improvement though and even 95kg did not feel too bad. A massive increase from last time, and it is good that my pressing strength is returning.
05/05/2010
PM
2 hour outing in 4 man crew. We did mainly racing starts and high rate stuff. I will probably not be doing weights till after the race on Saturday now.
06/05/2010
PM
Sprints on the rowing machine. Man how I hate ergs. We did intervals 90secs on, 30secs rest @ r24/26/28/30/32/30/28/26, so that is 8 intervals in total. For this I managed an average split of 01:43.90 and got 3462m over the whole thing. Then we had about 10 minutes rest and then another set of intervals. This time 90secs on, 45secs rest @ r26/28/30/32/34/32/30/28. My average split was 01:44.60 which meant a distance of 3440.
This was a really tough session, but I think mentally I wasn’t right because I reckon I can push it harder than that even though I wasn’t too unhappy with my splits.
07/05/2010
AM
1 hour outing in preparation for tomorrows race. We only did one racing piece today. I will posts the results of the race tomorrow and hopefullly I will be able to hit the weights again after that.
08/05/2010
First race was in the 8 man boat. Hugely disappointing race, losing by just over half a boat length. I know we can do better than that and we really should have won that race, which is what pisses me off.
The next race I was entered in a 4 man crew and we absolutely destroyed our first opponents by quite a few boat lengths. Unfortunately in the next race we came up against an excellent crew, clearly more experienced than us. We managed to stick with them on the first half, but they pulled away to a clear and deserved victory.
It was a good feeling to get our first head to head win in a regatta, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the weights hard in the morning.
09/05/2010
AM
Complexes: Cosgrove’s evil 8 using 35kg.
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bentover Row
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
Squats: 95/5, 110/5, 125/3, 135/2
Barbell Row: 90/5, 95/5, 105/3, 110/1
superset with
Romanian Deadlift: 90/5, 95/5, 115/3, 120/3
Bench Press: 80/5, 85/5, 92.5/3, 97.5/3
Extract:
Row 500m
10 power cleans with 40kg
Row 500m
10 power cleans with 40kg
Notes:
This was one of the most intense sessions I have ever done. I did complexes quicker, but I still need to speed them up. Squats were better than last week, but my core is still going before my legs and I end up with too much forward lean.
Not sure if it is slight bit of fatigue from complexes. Not used to doing heavy supersets, but was quite happy with the weights I lifted considering the short rest times and supersetting rows and romanian deadlifts. Bench felt good again and strength is returning quicker than expected.
By the time I did the 500m sprint on the erg I was totally fucked so I only used light weight for the cleans. I was hoping to do more, but I felt I was at my limit. I couldn’t even jog back from the gym, it was that intense.
Have you included that you didn’t go for a jog because you were too fucked?
11/05/2010
3 Rounds of:
5 Pull Ups
10 Dips
15 Press Ups
1 minute rest in between rounds, however only made 5 press ups on last round and had to make 2 attempts to get the 10 dips last time round.
DB Curl: 15/10, 17.5/8, 17.5/8, 20/6
Standing Military Press: 40/5, 45/5, 50/Fail (WTF?)
Lateral Raises: 10/12, 10/12, 10/12
20 minute rowing on erg. Managed to average 1:58.4 split.
Notes:
ABSOLUTELY SHIT SESSION! I couldn’t even finish the insert which is just embarassing. It has been a while since I have done dips and press ups, don’t think I have done them properly for months, but today’s performance was just shocking. Then the military press went from bad to worse. I don’t know if it is because I used to do it seated, but I was pressing 90kg from reps on the seated press back in October.
Wrist injury and lack of consistent shoulder pressing for many months aside, to fail on 50kg is appaling. I am not sure if too much alcohol Sunday night had anything to do with it, but I will do my utmost to make sure I do not have such an unproductive training session again. I can’t tell you how pissed I am right now.
I have a 2 hour outing on the water in a 4 man crew later on, hopefully that will be better than my training in the gym today.
13/05/2010
2k test today. My time was 6:52.4 which is an average split of 1:43.1.
This is a new PR, but it is kind of frustrating because I felt like I could have gone faster. After a 2k test you are meant to feel like your lungs are about to explode and your legs should be worked to the max, but I didn’t feel that way, like I have on previous tests. However a PR is a PR so I should hopefully be well up for weights tomorrow, as I am trying to get as much in before my exams start.
14/05/2010
AM
Light jog, took 23 minutes 23 seconds. I will keep the same route and see if I can knock this down to below 20 minutes.
PM
Complexes: Cosgrove’s evil 8 using 35kg.
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bentover Row
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
Deadlift: 120/5, 130/5, 150/3, 160/2 (missed the 3rd rep)
Incline BB Bench: 80/5, 80/5, 90/3, 92.5/3
Giant Set:
1a Crunches: 15, 15, 15
1b Bicycle Crunches: 15, 15, 15
1c Twsiting Crunches: 7, 7, 7 (7 either side for each set)
Weighted Pull Ups: BW/6, BW+5/4, BW+10/3, BW+10/2, BW+10/(3 slow negative reps)
Notes:
Complexes feel a little easier now so hopefully that shows an improvement in my conditioning. Disappointed to miss the 3rd rep on 160kg, but my back just rounded when I got the bar to my knees. However my deadlift numbers are still going good. Incline bench wasn’t bad considering it is the first time I have done it in a while. The ab work was difficult, but I may start trying some weighted ab work from now on and see if that helps my core in squats and deadlift. Pull ups were not too bad considering I left them to last. 10kg is an improvement so hopefully I will be able to keep pushing the weight up in those over time.
15/05/2010
12k outing in an 8 man crew. Apart from one good racecourse piece, a very scrappy outing, plenty of room for improvement.
16/05/2010
8k outing in a 4 man crew. Really good outing and really good power in the boat today, much better than the 8 yesterday. Training will probably be tapered down in the next couple of weeks with exams coming up.
17/05/2010
PM
Complexes: Cosgrove’s evil 8 using 35kg.
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bentover Row
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
Squat: 100/5, 115/5, 130/3, 140/1
Bench Press: 80/5, 90/5, 95/3, 100/2
Barbell Row: 90/5, 95/5, 100/3, 105/3
superset with
Romanian Deadlift: 100/5, 105/5, 110/3, 115/3
Hanging Leg Raises: 20,15,14,13
Notes:
Awesome session. Gutted not to get the 2nd rep of 140kg on squat as 1st rep felt good, but the weight is moving up and I am getting stronger at the bottom portion of the rep. Improvement on the bench again and glad to get back over the 100kg barrier. I almost had the 3rd rep, but needed help to complete it. My grip was killing on the rows and romanians and heavy supersets are not easy. I am reasonably happy with the weight though, despite grip being a limiting factor.
It was a welcome break from endless studying, but I have 4 exams coming up this week so this will probably be the last weight session for a week. I still some rowing training though so I will still be able to get some physical activity in. Once I have finished my exams though my focus can switch to training. My goals by the end of Summer are:
Deadlift 200kg
Squat 175kg
Bench 120kg
BB Row 125kg
2k erg time: Under 6.40
30 minute distance on erg: 8000m
I am not sure how realistic these goals are, but I will definitely work hard towards them.