Not Just a Man's World

As expected I only got one workout done and it happened right at the end of the week, the day after getting in from four days of walking.

Glorious gorges near Scafell

Intimidating rock faces among the Scafell massif

Tough ridge walking with unreliable weather

The summit of Pillar – one of our high spots

It was a tough walk so I was surprised that I managed as much as I did on my return.  However, a week of eating larger meals and, importantly, loads of carbs (because that’s what is most easily accessible in the pubs) which will have created lots of water retention, meant that I was weighing 53.5kg on Saturday morning rather than the 51.5kg I had weighed on the morning of my previous workout a week and a half earlier.  That alone could well have a lot to do with how well I performed.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Saturday)

• Back squat: 86kg – 1×4 – I had slightly crooked right-favouring form getting out of the bottom of the squat, but other than that I was pleased and surprised with my strength given how physically and mentally tired I felt after the walk I’d done Tuesday-Friday. Of course, being loaded up with carbs and water, weighing nearly 2kg more than when I set out on my trip always helps.
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×11 – these are starting to get easier to maintain good form.  My biggest issue now is keeping hold of the bar for the full set against the pull of the resistance bands.  I could use straps but I think it’s probably doing me some good to improve my grip again since it has started to weaken a little.
• Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×3-4 – I did 8×4 and was, on the whole, pleased with the reps. Sometimes they were a little weak or low, but it was most often due to laziness rather than an inability to lift the bar. However, I did feel complete exhaustion in the muscles by the end of the final set.
• Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg) – By the end of my hip thrusts I was pretty worn out. In particular I had been pleased that my lower back had stayed as strong as it had and I didn’t want to push my luck, so I decided to stop there and not do the split squats.

Plan for this week

Workout 1:

• Back squat: 88kg – 1×3 (or match 87kg)
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×12
• Hip thrusts: 124kg – 8×2-3
• Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Workout 2:

• Back squat: 83kg – 1×6 (or match 82kg)
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands tripled, 90kg – 3×6
• Hip thrusts: 124kg – 8×3-4 (one more than last workout)
• Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg) (at least one more than last time)

I unexpectedly squeezed in three workouts this week.  The nice thing about this summer-period workout is that I felt I had it in me to do the extra workout, rather than needing several days to recover.  In this way I feel better about missing workouts next week when I’m off walking again.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Monday)

• Back squat: 87kg – 1×3 – this was much better than the poor form I had when I last did 87kg for 3 reps.  As with last week’s workout, it may have been assisted by weighing in at half a kilo heavier than last time I tried lifting this weight, but I think I have settled a little better too.
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×8 – this was much better with the reduced resistance.  I even felt my hamstrings working properly, so I’m going to build this up some more and then start to build up the resistance a bit more gradually.
• Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×2 or 3 – I did 8×3 with this and was really pleased with my form.  So pleased that I thought I’d go for 8×4 at my second workout.
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×20 (each leg) – this really burned in all the right places!

Workout 2: (Wednesday)

• Back squat: 82kg – 1×6 (or match 81kg) – this was strong, although a couple of middle reps were a bit lopsided as I briefly got a bit lazy about making myself push through both sides evenly.
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×9 – I was having a little trouble keeping my lower back under control and not flexing at the lower back. However I did find on my final set that if I kept a faster tempo then I could keep better control over my lower back so I will experiment with this a bit more.
• Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×3 or 4 (one more than last workout) – I had to really concentrate to squeeze my glutes hard enough but pushed out 8×4 and was, overall, pleased with my form on this.
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×15-20 (each leg) – ouch!  I’m not sure what hurt more – the burning in my legs or the pain on my shoulder where the band pulls back down.  Either way I managed 15 reps, finding the left-leg-forward set particularly hard work.

Workout 3: (Friday)

• Back squat: 84kg – 1×5 – this was pretty brutal, perhaps something to do with weighing in a kilo lighter that morning and also having a huge dinner that was still sat in my stomach. I am not convinced I quite got to depth on the final rep which was grindingly slow.
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×10 – I tried the faster tempo on this for the final workout of the week and certainly found this worked better.  My lower back was still a bit achy by the end of the final set but until then had felt much more protected.
• Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×2 or 3 – I did 8×3 in the end but I gave serious consideration to stopping after the first 5 sets because I was so hot and tired. Fortunately I managed to dig deep and extract just a little more willpower…
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×20 (each leg) – I could definitely feel this burning in my legs again but with some judicious padding form a jumper I didn’t suffer from any pain on my shoulder this time.

Plan for this week – this is likely to be a single workout week

Workout 1:

• Back squat: 86kg – 1×4
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×11
• Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×3-4
• Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg)

This week was the test for the new programme.  Could I go away for a 4 day walk and get back and straight into the gym.  Would I have retained strength based on the lighter programme I did the week before?

As it turned out, the workout went well and I even got an extra rep on my squat.  Perhaps it was because I was full of an extra kilo of weight from all the carbohydrates I’d eaten while on the walking trip.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

• Back squat: 85kg – 1×4 – This felt really strong so I did 5 reps.
• Band resisted rack pull: No bands/Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8 – I did a repeat of 3×8 with the skinny bands folded over in three.  However, I was still feeling the strain at the top of the movement which was affecting my form on the descent.  My weakness in deadlifting, RDLs and rack pulls is in my back, especially my upper back, not my legs.  Moving straight to the amount of resistance created by the skinny band three-times over was too much.  At the end of the workout I remembered that I had thought of reducing the resistance by doing the bands in double rather than triple fold.  I’m therefore going to put the weight up a bit but decrease the resistance slightly so that I can build up strength where the weakness is.
• Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4 – Much better form this time.  I’ll never know if it was because of the extra body weight or the fact I got distracted by Chris between exercises and ended up taking a 15 minute break before I started this.
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×15-20 (each leg) – I did 15 reps, simply because I’d forgotten that I intended to do as many as possible up to 20 reps.  They felt easy so 20 reps next time then on to the next resistance level I think.

Plan for this week – a 2 workout week this week

Workout 1:

• Back squat: 87kg – 1×3
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×8
• Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×2 or 3
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×20 (each leg)

Workout 2:

• Back squat: 82kg – 1×6 (or match 81kg)
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×9
• Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×3 or 4 (one more than last workout)
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Having put up a plan last Monday for this week everything changed.  I realised that this was my final week before I start my full schedule of summer walking for the walking company, so I needed to spend this week perfecting and finalising my summer maintenance plan.  I’m aiming for a single, effective workout that could be done twice in a week when I am home but will give me sufficient results when I only have the time or ability to fit in a single workout for the week.

The result of some plotting and scheming with Chris is something that looks very much like my previous deadlift workout but switching the deadlift to a band resisted rack pull and, to keep the single leg work from the reverse lunges removing my high rep back squats and instead putting in a high rep set of band resisted split squats.

Both the band exercises are higher repetition exercises since they are both more bodybuilding-style exercises.  The bands create extra resistance throughout the movement so that you are working to your limit all the time without the moment of rest that you get at the top of a deadlift or squat movement.  In addition, by replacing the deadlift with the band rack pull I will be pulling less weight.  My body should get less beaten up making it possible to do this twice a week when I’m home.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

• Back squat: 80kg – 1×6
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands, 80kg – 3×8 – I should be able to put the weight up on this quite quickly as I wasn’t struggling to get it off the rack but at the top of the movement when the bands were at full stretch I felt like the bar was being ripped out of my hands.  An excellent workout for my grip ready for when I go back to heavier deadlifts.
• Hip thrusts: 110kg – 8×4 – since I have been really unhappy with my form on these recently I decided mid-warm up to stop increasing the weight and do 8×4 with the weight I had got to because the bar was at a weight that was starting to bruise my hip joint but the form was excellent with a good hyperextension of the hip joint.  I’m going to rebuild the weight in large increments to 120kg and then in smaller increments and hope that this time I can hit 130kg with better form.
• Band resisted split squats: Green and blue band – 1×15 (each leg) – I could definitely do more reps and a tougher resistance on this, although I need to be really careful that my lower back doesn’t do the work.  I will work up to 20 reps and then add some more band resistance (cycle through adding a third band using the skinny, then pink then blue band and so on).

Workout 2: (Friday)

• Back squat: 83kg – 1×5 – for the second time this week I found my squats really hard on the final couple of reps.  I’m definitely hitting the top of my ability for this rep range given the weight loss phase I am unintentionally also having at the moment.
• Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8 – I really struggled to prevent my lower back from curving as I put the bar down again from this.  I am therefore going to (i) ask Chris to watch me do a few reps next time and (ii) try some reps with no bands/even less band resistance to get the form built up first.  I think the problem lies with the tension at the top of the movement and subsequent impact it has on me coming back down afterwards.
• Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4 – these were surprisingly tough to fully extend on towards the end of the workout so I think I’m keeping this weight the same for next week’s workout.
• Band resisted split squats: Green and blue band – 1×20 (each leg) – These were easy but I was feeling fire in my glutes and hamstrings by the end of the set!

Plan for this week – I will definitely only get 1 workout in this week, if that.

Workout 1:

• Back squat: 85kg – 1×4
• Band resisted rack pull: No bands/Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8
• Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4
• Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Another week in training and another week where I slowly work my way back to pre-walking strength.  Squats are still a little bit ropey on the heavier, lower-rep ones so I might repeat these weights for 4 and 3 reps in a fortnight, bringing 6 and 5 reps up to being in sequence 2kg behind them.  Deadlifts are going to take time to come back and as for hip thrusts – well… who knows what I’ll do about those.

Despite all that, I can’t complain too badly.  I’m only really aiming to stay in maintenance and hold my weights where they are over the summer while I do several hundred kilometres on my feet, working through walking season.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

• Back squat: 85kg – 1×4 – I only just managed to complete this.  Reps 1 and 2 were fine. On rep 3 I thought I would try to keep a bit more upright but overshot, making it incredibly hard. As a result the final rep was virtually impossible, however I got down and back up, though perhaps not as sturdily to depth as usual.
• Partial back squat: 118kg – 3×2 – While my penultimate warm up set of these went a little bit awry, the final wamr up set and the work sets went well.  Although I felt like I was being buried under the weight on the final set.
• Reverse lunges: 42kg – 3×8 – This went well with my left leg feeling much more stable than last week.
• Assisted glute-ham raises: Pink band and half black sling, 3×6 – these were fairly easy this week.  Thank goodness!

Workout 2: (Friday)

• Back squat: 87kg – 1×3 – Well this went better than my first workout of the week.  I’d been doing some dedicated upper body rolling and had some sports massage on my lower body in between, so perhaps they helped.
• Back squat: 72kg –  1×9 (or as many reps as possible) – a good effort but there was no way I could manage any more than 9 reps.
• Sumo deadlift: 94kg – 3×2 – these were far more solid than last week although I could not have done anything heavier.
• Hip thrusts: 130kg – 8×3 – it was a pleasure (I think) to be able to do my hip thrusts this week, having terminated my workout after two sets of sumo deadlifts last week.  That said, I wasn’t excessively happy with my form.  I’m not convinced I reached full extension on very many reps, or at least I’m certain I failed to get to complete hyper-extension.  I need to debate with Chris whether I am better to drop the weight and re-approach this or whether I should try an alternative set/rep scheme rather than this one that I switched to.

Plan for this week

Workout 1:

• Back squat: 80kg – 1×6
• Partial back squat: 200kg – 3×2
• Reverse lunges: 42kg – 3×9
• Assisted glute-ham raises: Pink band and half black sling, 3×7

Workout 2:

• Back squat: 83kg – 1×5
• Back squat: 72kg – 1×10 (or as many reps as possible)
• Sumo deadlift: 96kg – 3×2
• Hip thrusts: 132kg – 8×2??