This week seemed very tame after last week’s niece-related excitement. I’ve got a new project in the pipeline which I can’t really divulge here yet, but it does mean that I’ve got my head down and am working pretty hard most days. The benefit of the project is that my days are far more routine than they had been earlier in the summer, resulting in far more consistent times of day and days of the week for my workouts.
I’ve got about 8 weeks of consistent workouts ahead of me before the next hiatus so it will be interesting to see how it goes. One of my silly targets for the next few months is to get to the point where I can do a glute-ham raise without assistance. It’s a bit like the goal of doing your first pull-up. It’s one of those things that’s really easy to do once you don’t need assistance and you can start adding weight or reps to use the bodyweight exercise to it’s greatest potential, but it’s really hard to get there first – always just out of reach.
Results for last week
Workout 1: (Monday)
- Back squat: 81kg – 1×1 – easy! In fact, I did wonder if I should really have at least 2kg between my 2 rep and 1 rep efforts…
- Back squat: 58kg – 1x max rep effort (minimum 8 reps) – I managed 9 reps this time for the new weight. Finally I’m getting near weights where the official rep grouping of 8 rising to 12 is a real challenge.
- Hip thrusts: 110kg rest-pause method (10s rest) – I did manage to count this one, despite having no niece to shout out the numbers at me, and pushed out 9,5,4. By the end of it I was capable of nothing more than crawling out of the gym on hands and knees to request Chris’s assistance with setting up the glute-ham bar though it did eventually recover enough to manage to walk again. On the down-side, my rep total is 18 which is still over the 15 total that marks a new weight, so yet again this weight will be going up and I must make sure I do a more thorough warm-up now, given the size of the weight I’m shifting.
- Assisted glute-ham raises: Blue band support & one full yellow sling + half black sling, 3×6 – I got Chris to watch me do these and he confirmed that my form is absolutely fine and very smooth with no bum-leading moves. Thank goodness! These also felt far easier than last week. I think I must finally be adapting to the new assistance level.
Mid-week rowing: (Wednesday)
- Concept 2 intervals: 5x30s (60s rest) – target 2.00.0 – much better than last week and almost back where they were before my 3 week break from rowing. Also my most consistent set of numbers ever achieved so I’m really pleased: 1.59.7, 1.59.7, 1.59.9, 1.59.5, 1.59.5, 1.59.5, 1.59.5, 1.59.5.
Workout 2: (Friday)
- Back squat: 72kg – 1×4 - again completed with ease, except for a major stumble as I headed into rep 2. A brief pause while I reset my feet though and reps 2-4 then came out without any trouble.
- Back squat: 58kg – 10 reps completed but they were definitely challenging and I was fighting my back from doing the work by the last few reps. I wonder if this is due to the higher rep heavy set I did first.
- RDL: 85kg 3×8 – despite my doubts I did manage to survive this, although I increased the rest period slightly to compensate for the extra time spent under the bar. I’ll be glad to go down to a lower rep number again next week.
- Assisted glute-ham raises: Blue band support & one full yellow sling + half black sling, 3×7 – Easy(-ish…)!
Plan for this week
Workout 1:
- Back squat: 77kg – 1×3 (or at least match 76kg)
- Back squat: 58kg – 1x max rep effort (minimum 11 reps)
- Hip thrusts: 115kg rest-pause method (10s rest)
- Assisted glute-ham raises: Blue band support & one full yellow sling + half black sling, 3×8
Mid-week rowing:
- Concept 2 intervals: 8x30s (60s rest) – target 1.59.4
Workout 2:
- Back squat: 81kg – 1×2 (or at least match 80kg)
- Back squat: 58kg – 1x max rep effort (minimum one more rep than workout 1 or 59kg 1 x min 8 reps if 12 completed at workout 1)
- RDL: 87kg 3×4 (should feel very easy)
- Assisted glute-ham raises: Blue band support & one full yellow sling + full black sling, 3×4
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