Not Just a Man's World

Following on from last week’s post this was the second week of my four week bodyweight workout experiment.

Anyone who read my Work-Life balance post the other week will know that I have radically changed my program.  I had two main reasons:

1. a bodyweight equipment-free workout that will be effective and which I can bring out whenever I need it would be useful for those weeks when I am away with work; and
2. I couldn’t face my workouts any more.

I was struggling to keep any momentum and, after nearly five months of excellent progress on the last program, my body and mind needed a complete change.

This week

The extent of the imbalance between the glutes on my left and right side has started to show up in this second week now that I’m used to the exercises and I’m putting up the weight.  I’ve also finally got a bit of traction on my lat development this week so hopefully my pull up numbers will start to go up again at last.  There’s nothing more dispiriting than several weeks of the rep total holding in the same place when that rep total is noticeably lower than the rep total you were doing before.  By the time this post goes live I will have done my first bodyweight workout of the next week and will know if my hopes have come true!

Lower body workout

• 10 sets of 3 reps, Pistol squats – I’m still only doing 5-7 sets because there is no point in putting these up while I am still unable to do them on my left leg without pulling hard on the doorway to get out of the hole by the third set.  Especially since I’m using the doorway a little bit even on my first rep.  However I can now do all the reps on my right leg without holding on or touching doorway for balance.  I just need my left glute to catch up now.
• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Single leg curls from high bridge – evil, evil exercise.  By the end of the second leg workout this week I was doing rep totals of 23, 15, 10.  Since I hold each rep for a count of 5 at the top (to really work the glute) and do the whole of a set on each leg before taking 20 seconds rest and starting on the next set, this is now taking a decade to work through.  My observation is that I need to find a way to progress on this with resistance so that I can drop the number of reps again.  I’m wondering if there is a way to tie in a resistance band since I can easily take those on away jobs for a hotel room workout.
• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Single leg knee-extension from plank position – this is really tough, not because of the leg element (though they are usually burning by the end) but because of the stress it places on the abs, holding a plank position throughout.  As a result my rep total hasn’t increased much, sitting around the 7, 5, 4 range.
• Hip thrusts, DC training style – I’m struggling to do this twice a week, and I think I may swap it with the single leg knee extensions since missing those out once a week is better for me than only getting one set of hip thrusts in during a week.  My main problem is that I do a bike ride and leg workout on Saturday, a long walk and upper body workout on Sunday and then do Krav Maga on Monday night.  No wonder that I’m struggling to get through a whole workout again on Tuesday night.

Upper body workout

• 10 sets of maximum reps, Pull ups – I did get a couple of sets of four reps out this week but in return dropped to a couple of sets of two reps at the other end of the workout.  However, my lats felt more engaged (and more pumped) at the end of the workout than they have for some time so I’m hoping that they have finally got the message and will start putting some muscle back on.
• 10 sets of 4 reps, shifting to 4 sets of 10 reps, Press ups – I’m down to working on 8 sets of 6 reps now having easily completed 9 sets of 5 reps.  I was surprised that I got out 5 sets of 6 reps before I started dropping reps and hope that it won’t be long before I can drop another set (and increase the reps by another one).
• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Inverted rows on slings – By the time I get to this I am pretty fried so I’ve only added a rep or two this week.
• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Reverse skull crusher on floor – Once I had settled into this and realised that the way to survive it is to have your knuckles wedged up against a wall (so that you don’t slowly slide forwards) I’ve found that I could increase the reps significantly.  I’m now doing 7, 6, 4 and see scope for rapid improvement.

Grip

• Holding a sling with weight hanging off it in the grippers – I’m working with our easiest grippers (100N) and have quickly found that I could increase the weight.  By the end of the week I was holding 2.5kg for 20+ seconds in each hand.  I’ve got another week with this, putting the weight up each time before I move to max reps with the grippers, increasing the reps or gripper-tightness each session.
• Fingerboard dead hangs – these are nothing short of painful, but I have studiously added a couple of seconds to each of the narrow row hangs and easily added ten seconds or more to the big block hold at the end.  I’m hoping this work will really pay off next time I go rock climbing!

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty-two (bodyweight 3)
2. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty-three (bodyweight 4)
3. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty (bodyweight 1)
4. Powerlifting progress 2010: week thirty-five