Not Just a Man's World

I’m still spending time getting back up to speed with my lifting following my holiday.  I’m only doing two workouts a week for the time being and there was a lot of lost ground to regain.  After all, on my first squat workout post holiday I found myself squatting the weight and reps that I had achieved on my first squat workout this year.  6 months of careful work lost in 3.5 weeks!

To get back to where I was, I am doing a single workout format, with some minor tweaks to my assistance exercises, concentrating on doing both back squats and RDLs at every workout.

This was another positive week.  I feel like my progress has settled down and I should hopefully soon be back on the programme that I should actually be doing.

Plan and results for last week

Workout 1: 

• Back squat: 73kg – 8×2 – I got it!  Excellent!
• RDL: 80kg – 8×2 – Another set of RDLs successfully in the bag
• Kettlebell overhead press: 16kg – 8×1 – Despite my 8×5 with the 12kg kettlebell last week, I still couldn’t get the 16kg to move with an overhead press on my right arm.  I’m now trying a new technique (because yet more reps or sets would be ridiculous).  For this workout I did 6 singles with the 16kg but with a bit of a jerk from the knees, turning them into push presses.  The aim is to slowly reduce the jerk until they are overhead presses having learned in the process to stabilise myself underneath the weight.
• Hip thrust: 115kg – 6×4 – I didn’t do this.  The workout is taking so long that I’ve just had to mothball hip thrusts until my squat and RDL is back on track.
• Pull ups:  No weight, 1 set, as many reps as I can do – 5 reps.  Not bad, but not great either.

Workout 2:

• Back squat: 73kg – 1×3, 7×2 – In the end I did 2×3, 6×2.  Very pleased.
• RDL: 80kg – 8×3 – Done without a fuss.  85kg next week.
• Kettlebell overhead press: 16kg – 8×2 – Well I did 8×2, but as I mentioned before, they were push presses rather than overhead presses.
• Chin ups:  No weight, 1 set, as many reps as I can do – 5 reps.  If I can do 5 reps with pull ups I should really be able to manage more than that with chin ups!

 *****

Plan for this week

Workout 1: 

• Back squat: 73kg – 4×3, 4×2
• RDL: 85kg – 8×2
• Kettlebell push press: 16kg – 8×3
• Pull ups:  No weight, 1 set, as many reps as I can do

Workout 2:

• Back squat: 73kg – 6×3, 2×2
• RDL: 85kg – 8×3
• Kettlebell push press: 16kg – 8×4
• Chin ups:  No weight, 1 set, as many reps as I can do

Related posts:

1. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty-one
2. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty-three
3. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty-eight
4. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty-four