Here’s how week 5 of my training went.
Monday 1st February – Julia Buckley workout
Pheonix #2 this morning via Julia’s online gym. This one was upper body focused featuring pull up and chin up holds. It was a great workout for such a short session! I was dripping with sweat and my HR through roof. Felt great at the end.
Tuesday 2nd February – PT session
This session was all about the max deadlift!
I warmed up with 5@60kg then the weight jumped up quite quickly to 3@80kg 2@95kg and then straight to @110kg (new PB!) I tried at 115kg – the bar came off the floor but I couldn’t get it past mid shin level. We took the weight back to 110kg and I managed another rep.
I’m very happy with a new PB – 5kg more than when I tried 3 weeks ago. Just need to keep working on the hip extension and glute activation.
Seated Cable pull downs 3 sets of 8 @30kg
Romanian Deadlifts – 6@40kg, 6@50kg
Wednesday 3rd February – Julia Buckley workout
Six Pack Shred #2 – core focussed session that I really enjoyed. I even tried the mat jumps and a couple of other HIIT moves this week – my knees didn’t complain so that’s good. Burpees may be on the horizon 😉
Thursday 4th February – rest day
And I took it as total rest.
Friday 5th February – Strength session at the gym before work
I always struggle to do a very heavy session when I’m pretty much straight out of bed so I’m pretty pleased with how it went.
A – 95kg rack pulls – 5, 6, 8 – cannot begin to explain how hard this was at 6:45am!
B – 60kg Hip thruster – 6,7,8
C – 60kg RDLs – 6, 8, 8
D – 36kg Lat Pulldown 3 sets of 8
E1 – Single arm fat grip dumbbell row 3 sets of 8 each side with 12kg – only just managed the last couple of reps on the 2nd and 3rd set as they were falling out of my hands!
I had a bit of a fuelling issue today as well. I had scrambled eggs and a wholemeal bagel after my workout this morning which really filled me up so I didn’t fancy much at lunchtime. One of my bosses wanted to see me at lunchtime and suggested that we go to the canteen – there’s not much there that I like or want to eat so I ended up getting a plate of various salads but without any protein so lunch was basically a plate of veg and dressing.
At about 3:30pm in the afternoon I suddenly felt like I was going to fall asleep at my desk – I haven’t had an energy crash like that in ages. I realised that I’d really not had that much to eat given the session I did this morning and definitely not enough protein. A strongwoman cannot live on vegetables alone!
Saturday 6th February – Strongwoman session
My back was feeling a bit sore from the rack pulls on Friday – I had intended to do some more this morning but decided against them until my back has recovered.
I worked on two different things today – log press and then farmers walk. Log press I worked up from the log on its own through to 47.5kg. I failed at 47.5kg twice but was determined to do it as I’d done it once before. My third attempt went up relatively easy so I had a go at 50kg – that really nearly made it but I bashed the log against my forehead in the last part of the move so decided to call it a day!
I then moved onto Farmers Walks. I’d tried this just after Christmas and struggled with 110kg. In the same session I managed to lift 120kg off the floor just but couldn’t walk with it at all.
Today, as if by magic 120kg felt pretty easy so I tried at 125kg and then 130kg. 125kg was fine and I got over halfway on the 130kg before my grip failed – I hadn’t been holding properly from the start really. Another new PB and just 10kg away from competition weight
Sunday 7th February – squats, HIIT and grip
I’m just back from the gym. I decided to try some back squats today – not tried them since my knee injury – kept them relatively light at 40kg and did 5 sets of 5 with some mountain climbers straight after just for fun.
Then I did a modified version of Julia’s Ignite #5 using the TRX to swap in some moves that aren’t so good for my knees still. It’s a descending rep protocol where you do 5 moves 10 reps each, then 8, then 6 etc down to 2 reps. the 8 and 6 rep sets are the hardest – I really didn’t think I’d make it through to the end!
I finished off the session with some grip and carrying work. I tested out the 20kg single arm KB raise just to check I can still do it (I can) then carried a 24kg kettlebell zercher style, some 16kg dumbbells with the fat grip on them farmers walk style and then some overhead single arm carries with the 16kg dumbbell.
I finished off with some 50kg towel weight plate holds to completely annihilate my grip, which pretty much worked. My poor hands are a bit of a mess.
From Strength to Strength 