That’s still a fair amount of volume.
How light does this feel? Have you got stronger in the past couple of months?
I was thinking that you may start tired but will be WIDE awake after,and you were.
Still looked intense to me.
Cant wait to hear all about it! The food part sounds goooood.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
That’s still a fair amount of volume.
How light does this feel? Have you got stronger in the past couple of months?[/quote]
I find it difficult to say how heavy or how light except where i am up against my maximum weights.
My trainer (when i was working with him0 used to use a scale similar to the pain scale we us in the hospital ie 1=no pain 10=unbearbale. I think i was working at around 6/10 on the squats.
Do remember that i am making rapid beginners gains and either getting stronger or just getting used to handling weight.
At the end of the 150 reps i did think about doubling it and calling it one of gym jones 300 workouts …then common sense prevailed.
Cheers all.
[quote]UpScale wrote:
I was thinking that you may start tired but will be WIDE awake after,and you were.
Still looked intense to me.
Cant wait to hear all about it! The food part sounds goooood.[/quote]
And totally wide awake several hours later when i should have been zzzzzz…
[quote]big nurse wrote:
[quote]UpScale wrote:
I was thinking that you may start tired but will be WIDE awake after,and you were.
Still looked intense to me.
Cant wait to hear all about it! The food part sounds goooood.[/quote]
And totally wide awake several hours later when i should have been zzzzzz…[/quote]
Bummer…Im finding that when i am finishing a training session, I wish I had that feeling in the beginning and not the end. Hope that made sense? Maybe a longer warm-up? hmmm maybe Im answering my own question.
That last shift was a tough one, very tired this morning but that is after 7 nights worked out of 8 + cadet nights and training sessions nearly every day, some days twice !!.
I had thought to go across the road (literally 200 yards) after my last shift…and then saw the bus pulling in that would have me home in 10 minutes.
Bus 1 gym 0 this morning and definitely going to be a rest day.
Tomorrow may well start with an early morning fasted cardio walk in the woods, then either some rucking sessions (nice firewood to be had right now) and/or a conditioning or body weight exercise session later on.
Very glad that set of shifts is over though.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
That’s still a fair amount of volume.
How light does this feel? Have you got stronger in the past couple of months?[/quote]
Wondering about volume !!–specifically whether it might or not be better to do short workouts with very low volume and high weight or as i did with lighter weights at speed-almost cross-fit style.
To be or not to be !!!
Brain a little frazzled at the end of the working week.
maybe back to my internal rules of training as is at present ie :
keep is simple
Keep it big (compound)
Keep it heavy (although yes i did break this one) so maybe new rule no 4 = keep it quality and i a allowed to break 1 rule only !!!
Think i need to go back to bed !!
With your wacky schedule, it’s a wonder you have the energy to do anything. Oh yes, and are you sure you’re eating regularly? A few missed meals will sabotage any plan.
Having done afternoon shifts in the past I know how difficult it can be to fit lifting around them (let alone nights).
You deserve a lot of credit for doing so. Don’t train too hard on your holiday, remember it’s supposed to be a rest aswell.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
With your wacky schedule, it’s a wonder you have the energy to do anything. Oh yes, and are you sure you’re eating regularly? A few missed meals will sabotage any plan.[/quote]
I am eating more than i ever have, and generally better quality most of the time although this week i have had intense carb cravings and just want to eat everything that i shouldn’t.
On a night rota i eat fairly soon after getting up(which is a light 'main’meal), then if i go to the gym i will usually have a high gi snack immediately and if well organised will follow that with some protein (favourite is a chick drumstick). I have a light meal (big filled bap) around midnight and a second one around 0300 and then a breakfast of fruit, cottage cheese ,sometimes a few walnuts , dab of honey , spoon of creme fraiche–around 06-07 ish depending on workload.
On days off i try to revert quickly to a ‘normal’ eating pattern based around whatever training i am doing although if would admit that lunch doesn’t always happen properly.
Generally i am coping less and less well with the night pattern which is a concern as it’s well recognised that the rotating shift pattern is very bad for health.
Today as it was a nice day i spent some time asleep and some time outside getting some whole body vitamin d production–one of the main problems of night workers = low vit d.
Long lay-in and sleep deficit catch up, finally woke up very dry and groggy-quite normal and much akin to jet lag.
Work of the day is load carries .
First carry 95 lbs / 20 minutes uphill.
‘Treat’ lunch day with partner.
Later :
Managed to get in an unexpected bonus gym session on the way to the cadet detachment.
Working on the theme of last weeks ‘150’ rep routine i had a go at extending it to a ‘200’ rep routine. :
Rear squat alternating with kb squats 6 sets total of 10 r. (40 then 59 kg on rear and 25 kg kb)
Then deadlifts
Sets of 10 at : 50 60 70 80 90 and 80 kg
Then bench
set at 40kg 6 sets of 10
Finishing work
Kb squats 2x10 of 25kg
Press up 2 X10.
Ran out of time but would have gone for a ‘300’
Totally zero energy day so had the day completely off.
Instead had a sofa day with some good reading,
Just as well as the grass field near the house had a huge pollen bloom today (strongly allergic) so when i did go out to cut some new poles for my big camp tarp i was back in the house itching/crying and with a really thick throat–horrible combo with the jet-lag post nights.
Back to that nice air conditioned gym tomorrow but definetely not via the woods walk.
[quote]big nurse wrote:
Totally zero energy day so had the day completely off.
Instead had a sofa day with some good reading,
Just as well as the grass field near the house had a huge pollen bloom today (strongly allergic) so when i did go out to cut some new poles for my big camp tarp i was back in the house itching/crying and with a really thick throat–horrible combo with the jet-lag post nights.
Back to that nice air conditioned gym tomorrow but definetely not via the woods walk.[/quote]
a day of rest…
Sounds like some local honey is in order for you.Great for the pollen issue, well supposed to help anyway.
[quote]UpScale wrote:
[quote]big nurse wrote:
Totally zero energy day so had the day completely off.
Instead had a sofa day with some good reading,
Just as well as the grass field near the house had a huge pollen bloom today (strongly allergic) so when i did go out to cut some new poles for my big camp tarp i was back in the house itching/crying and with a really thick throat–horrible combo with the jet-lag post nights.
Back to that nice air conditioned gym tomorrow but definetely not via the woods walk.[/quote]
a day of rest…
Sounds like some local honey is in order for you.Great for the pollen issue, well supposed to help anyway.
I have heard about that, i usually have a dab of honey with my breakfast anyway. I am though not convinced : for it to work i believe the idea is that bees would have grazed on the relevant plants–in my case it is the long grassses that get me and as far as i know bees don’t graze on grass–might be wrong…lifelong problem so far.
looking forward to getting away to where there is very little grass-wher we are going on holiday right next to the sea in pine forest–much heavier pollens that i don’t seems to be allergic to.
[/quote]
Todays plan : load carry and day walk was a bit of a non starter what with the grass pollen kicking off.
Looking over my training plan i had done pretty well everything planned except for 1 conditioning set and 1 load carry so after thinking about and planning next weeks work i thought why not start the weeks work today with a modified plan ?
Plan for the week was a ‘hard’ training week : last week before holiday weeks.
What i felt like doing was a lifting session 'going heavy so i did just that (remember heavy for me is a very relative term compared to what you guys and gals are doing)
Workout :
Bench doubled with get-ups (chin up to bar set on power rack, heels on floor)
Bare bar warm up.
10 @ 30 kg
10 @ 40kg
5 @ 45 kg
5 @ 47.5
4 sets of 3 reps at 50 kg
5 @ 45 kg.
Alternating each working set with 5 get-ups.
Then :
Bent over barbell row alternating with push-ups.
Bare bar warm up
10 @ 40 kg
10 @ 50 kg
Then 5 X 5 @ 60 kg
Alternating with 5 sets of 10 push ups.
Then
Lat pull down alternating with more push ups.
Warm up at 45kg
5 sets of 3 reps at 75kg. (new working ‘best’ weight)
Alternating with 5 x 10 push ups.
Then
Standing cable push down (tri-delt work_ alternating with bench supported single arm dumbell row.
Lost count but something in the order of :
Cable push down sets 5 X5 at 45 kg
Dumbell row pyramid centred on 30kg db.
Finishing work 10 minute treadmill tempo run (1.3 miles)
No new pbs set but a lot more overall workload at higher weight–felt pretty solid and hard work.
Walking home afterwards i had a continuing re-think about what i am doing with my training after doing a lot more reading, thinking now that i need to be working in 2 directions at the same time ie
Pure strength --so some sessions at heavy end of scale but lower reps and more rest–or at least a complimentary opposite exercise during rset.
Strength/endurance work-lighter weight with high volume.
So this week as an experiement for a hard week now looks like :
- Upper body ‘heavy’ low volume
2 Lower body high volume ‘light’
3.Upper body high volume ‘light’
4.Lowe body low volume ‘heavy’
- conditioning work as time allows.
Is it my imagination or is your bench starting to creep upwards? If so, you’re beating my record. My bench took absolute years, literally, to get through those numbers.
Well–last week i peaked at a single rep of 50kg on bench, today i didn’t go any higher but did push out a few sets at that weight which was i intended to do. I din’t feel confident enough to load any more weight on and will probebly work at that weight for a few weeks now until i a mastering it and pushing out sets of 5 reps.
If anything is is simply the workload that is up overall, definitely feeling it now–heavy arms !!.
Diet seems back on track today after the carb binges of the previous week.
Monday measuerements.
Weight 83.4 kg waist 36" ok–just noticed i use kg for one and inches for the other.
Hang on a mo…
183.4 lbs.
So far that is about 38 lbs of fat loss and 8 inches off my waist in the 18 months that i have been working on it although only 5 months into lifting.
Not able to do a bf measurement but the skin/fat fold that i use as my main guide (difficult to describe but ant/lat diagonal belly ) is 22 mm.
So a fair bit of fat to go yet, i can see a target weight beginning to appear at somewhere below 180 lbs (175-178) if i can keep it to fat loss and keep the apparent gains in lifts going up.
Way to go, Nurse! That’s great work. 36" waist . . . now there’s a long lost friend . . .
Second part of todays work was to do the 1.5 mile speed test. New time of 10.13, couldn’t quite get it under the 10 minutes but then i had already done a lower body ,high volume ‘light’ workout.