Not Just a Man's World

This was the final 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. work-related things at the moment mean that it would be handy to have a bodyweight equipment-free workout that will be effective and which I can bring out whenever I need it – a completely new program like this needs a testing period of a few weeks to make sure it is effective and none of the exercises start to aggravate anything (eg. does it contain more push ups than my elbows can survive?); 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 final week of the bodyweight experiment and lots happened.  I discovered a whole new world of pain when Bret posted up a timely reminder about good form, I finally started to get some traction with my left glute (thank goodness). 

I also only did a half week since I decided that it was finally time to take some proper rest (rather than resting because I happen to be sick and then claiming that was my “rest week” from workouts).  I’ve actually made it a full rest week too starting straight after Krav Maga on Monday night and running through to Krav Maga next week, so week 34 will also be a half week.

I’ve put some specifics about my lower body workout below because it proved to be an interesting workout after the change in form, but rather than write about every single exercise I did this week I’ve then drawn some conclusions about the bodyweight workout.

Lower body workout

• 10 sets of 3 reps, Pistol squats – I couldn’t have been more pleased.  Chris had said during the week before that I was starting to improve on these and, on my first leg workout this week I got out the first rep of each set on my left leg without hauling on the doorframe for assistance.  My glutes are taking some notice of me at last!
• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Single leg curls from high bridge – I watched a video by Bret Contreras at the end of last week.  Having invented the hip thrust he was getting tired of other people being “experts” on what good form is.  The video served as a timely reminder for me of what constitutes good form for hip thrusts. 

  It struck me that the form for the leg curls is similar (and having seen his Glute Goddess workout video since then, it is essentially the same as one of the single leg hip thrust exercises that he does) so I tried to put in practice the points from his form video.  I lost some reps but I felt burning in my hamstrings and lower glute area that I’ve never felt before.  And I also didn’t end up with a sore lower back so this is clearly the key.  Thanks for the well-timed training tips Bret!

• 3 sets of maximum effort reps, Single leg knee-extension from plank position – Having nailed the form on my curls I didn’t have the same exhaustion in my abs and lower back before starting this and suddenly my total reps increased by 150%!  It’s all in the way the exercises work together!
• Hip thrusts, DC training style – Having totally fried myself on curls and also bearing in my that my for had probably been starting to falter, I dropped the weight a bit more to 70kg this week and also lost some reps but I was pleased that the quality of what I was doing was probably better for my glute development in the long run.

Conclusion – does the bodyweight workout meet my needs?

Definitely.  I was looking for something that was completely different to what I had done before to give my mind the rest it needed from getting under the bar every day but I didn’t want to lose a load of strength.  Of course, exactly how much strength I’ve lost will be found out next week when I go back to the metal.

More importantly, I wanted to find a way to be able to keep working when away from home so that I can avoid feeling like I’m missing workouts.  As a stand-alone programme for a single week’s workouts I think these workouts were spot on.  I do have my doubts about how helpful they are for a long-term progression, but then that was never the intention and there are always ways to add a little bit of weight once you’ve got to a number of reps that isn’t sustainable (eg. hold a bag with my laptop and varying amounts of paperwork in it.

Along the way I also started to resolve the problem with my glute imbalance – I’m seriously tempted to keep the pistols in for a bit longer while I continue hitting that.  Whatever I do in the new program it will need to include some single leg work for a while.

Related posts:

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