Friday 12 August 2011

Strength and Performance 7

Back to the gym for more of the same. This is the end of the 3rd week of the "foundation/preparation" stage of the game. Im continuing to increase weight on most of the things I'm repping, but there are a couple which I am obviously too weak on to even consider doing that yet- evidence of some interesting imbalances that continue to be in my system.

This week has been a week away from running and general cardio, which has been interesting. There have been times when literally all I have wanted to do was get out there and run in the hills or crank it up a big hill on a bike. However, with the osteo saying that I would have to be crazy to go on long impactful runs or long term rides etc, I thought that staying off them for a week or so would be a good thing. It can't do any harm in the long term anyway. As a fellow health professional I get sick of people not listening to advice, so I figured listening to his advice would be a good thing.

The upshot of it all was that I got to S&P nice and relaxed and ready for some training without the residual effects of a race in my legs from the night before.

I ripped through the exercises, though its interesting just how much sweat you can squeeze out of your body just by doing isometric contractions...
4 rounds of
8x reverse lunges ( with 10 and then 12.5kg)
5x wide grip pull ups with 1 chain, then 2 (ouch)
8x lower trap activations

then
3 rounds of
15x glute raises on a bench
15x pronated rows (5kg)
15x KB swing (20kg)
30s hold side plank (both sides)

The main thing that is annoying is that the pronated rows are still on exactly the same weight as when I started, and I'm still feeling totally done in by about rep 9 of each set. It just goes to show how weak the muscles in my back were in comparison to the rest of my shoulder complex, and the result of that was my shoulder riding up and impinging in various ways in a number of different movements.

As a finisher I did 10m prowler lengths on astro, with 20kg on, low push up and low pull back (which REALLY gets the hamstrings, then 10 sledgehammer reps on either side with a minutes rest between each one.
5 reps, but the 5th one, Z decided to "suicide" me.
3 cones along the way, push to the first, pull back, then the second, pull back, then the third, pull back and finally the last, pull back.
On the final pull back I had to stop twice because of the lactic build up in the legs (particularly the Biceps Femoris and Semi-mem and tend), never had to actually physically stop before, so thats something that I know I can definitely work on.
Still finished it and finished with the sledgehammer as well.
Jogged the length of the mill twice afterward to get metabolic waste out of the legs, and to check I could still actually move and run as well... the worst thing you can do after a workout like that is stop moving straight away- ie. go and sit in your car for 30 mins, like I have seen some people do.
Then foam rollering, and a post workout feed.
Feeling it today though... a bit tired (though that may also be because of the hours of treatment I gave yesterday as well)

Showing a friend the ropes tomorrow, taking him climbing outdoors for the first time. Hope the weather clears/stays dry.

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