Here’s how week 3 went down.
Monday 18th Jan – Julia Buckley workout
Six Pack Shred core focused workout. I love this one and fits perfectly into my morning and the rest of my training.
Typically, having finally got a referral to get a scan done, my knee felt the best today that it has in ages! Still need to find out what’s causing it but it’s encouraging all the same.
Tuesday 19th Jan – PT session
Today Jess showed me a few new moves that are going to appear in my programme over the coming weeks. Rack pulls are lifting the barbell off the safety bars of the rack. They really work on the hip extension part of the deadlift.
Rack pulls – 4 @ 80kg, 4 @ 90kg, 4 @100kg, 1 @110kg
Barbell hip thrusters – 3 sets of 6 @30kg
Strict neutral shoulder press – 1 set of 8 @2x8kg
Single arm Bent Over Row – 1 set of 8 @16kg
Weight plate and KB towel grip
Hanging towel grip
Realised from the rack pulls that my glutes don’t fire up very easily, I really need to work on activating them, so that’s something to work on.
Wednesday 20th Jan- Rest day
Had an appointment with my GP who referred me for an MRI which is good news. I have health insurance so managed to organise a scan for Friday afternoon.
Did some hip focussed yin yoga tonight and my glutes also appreciated it. They were a bit sore after the rack pulls and hip thrusters last night
Thursday 21st Jan- Strength Endurance session
Cluster Deadlifts, 70kg, 3 reps EMOM for 3 mins
Cross trainer for 2 mins (fast with low resistance)
4 rounds
KB Goblet Squats, 10kg, 10 reps EMOM for 3 mins – my knees weren’t too keen on these
KB swings for 2mins 16kg then 12kg
3 rounds
Grip work
Towel hold with plates 50kg 3 rounds of ~30secs
I haven’t done much endurance/conditioning work recently and it showed – this session was super tough.
Friday 22nd Jan – Julia Buckley workout
Pheonix #1 –upper body with a focus on chin and pull ups. I love this session, it’s so short but SO tough. Not sure if I’d made any progress from last week or not but it totally did me in in just 20 minutes. That’s a sign of a good workout!
Julia has announced that her special winter offer of membership for less than £10 per month will be closing either at the end of February or when the 400th member joins. There are new people signing up every day so if you’re thinking about signing up then I’d recommend getting in now before the price increases.
I had the MRI scan on my knee on Friday afternoon. The results should be with my GP by Wednesday so fingers crossed I’ll know what’s going on and double fingers crossed that it’s nothing serious.
Saturday 23rd Jan – Strongwoman session
Keg carry – 20, 30, 40, 50, 65, then 75kg. The 65 and 75kg were both very challenging to get off the floor but once I had them into position the carrying aspect was OK. James then suggested I do 75, then 65 then 50 back to back to see how it felt – it felt horrible. I have to do 50, 60, 70 for sandbags so although they are a different challenge to pick up I feel confident I can at least carry the weight.
Duck walk – of all the things I have to do I think this may be the easiest. It’s awkward for sure but 60kg is pretty easy, it’s all about the speed
Tyre pulls – 55kg, 65kg, 75kg, 85kg, 100kg – these were really good fun
Sunday 24th Jan – overhead strength session
I’m just back from the gym and am very pleased to report that I got two new PBs. 50kg in the overhead press and 22kg in the single arm dumbbell press. I nearly managed the 24kg one as well, but not quite. Given that last weekend I couldn’t get anywhere near the 22kg one I’m delighted!
That feels like a really good week of training. It’s great to see progress and my confidence is also growing. The words on my vest say it all – I can I will!
From Strength to Strength 
Great training week!