From good shape to great shape

Patto

Cool, good luck with the exams!

Patto

Wed, 07-May-08

Recovery Session

Cycle 5 min, 25 minutes of 75% tempo runs with full recovery between runs 3x100; 2x100,1x200,100; 100, 2x200, 100; 2x100, 200, 100; 100,100 Cycle 10 min. Total=2100M, av HR=145.

Easy session. Did these in a park on the way home from work. I didn't get a chance to get out at lunchtime. I don't usually do these tempo sessions on a Wedneasday as I usually have DOMs crippling my glutes and hamstrings. It actually wasn't a bad idea, I felt good afterwards, the great weather cheers me up no end too. DOMs not too bad either after easing off the volume on the Squats a bit on Tuesday.

Patto

Fri, 09-May-08

DB Bench press 70lbx3, 75lbx3, 80lbx3, 80lbx2, 80lbx2, 80lbx1

I went home to Cork for the weekend and did this wokout in the Carrigaline Court hotel. No barbells or squat racks in this little gym so I had to work on the fly alot. It was interesting to pick a dumb bell that equated to a 77.5kg Barbell. I had to deal with the lbs to Kg coversaion as all the dbs were in lbs. I thought it would be around the 70-75lb mark. I could have lifted the 75s all day, the 80s (36.something Kg) were a better fit but maybe a small bit heavy. Thats a total of nearly 73Kg which is only about 5Kg off what I lift with a bar.

Chin Ups 102x3x6 (PR), 105x1, 108x1

BW+7Kg, I got all 6 sets. Nice PR. tried the Bw+10Kg and BW+13Kg just for fun.

Incline DB BP 60lbx5x4

Looks gained a small bit from last week. Impossible to say for sure.

One arm rows 80lbx8x4

These actually felt a little heavy.

DB curls 40lbx5x5

These were fine, just about at my form threshold for 5x5s

Dips 99x5x5

Used Bw+4Kg, tried to push for 6 reps, failed on set 2, just did 5s after that. I'll up the weight to 6 or 7 next time.

Took the rest of the weekend off, so that was only 2 lifting sessions this week. I needed a deload a bit anyway. Played a game of golf on Saturday in Bantry. I played crap but I think Golf is such fantastic game, what a course, great weather and incredable scenary. Such a contrast to pounding weights in a stuffy gym for the last 8 weeks.

Patto

Tues 13/6/2008

squats 100x5 (PR), 90x3x5

Went for the 100x5 with a spot, didn't need the spot so that’s a PR and my June 1st target met 2 weeks ahead of schedule. My form is a bit off, I'm too quad dominiant and taking the weight off my qlutes and hams too quickly. I think I need to work on box squats for a while to improve this. Dropped to 90s for the 3 rep sets. That was the right weight I think.

That is my June 1st goal achieved. Thus pretty much ends the purpose of this blog. New program tomorrow.:)

Romanian deadlift 90x5x4

RDLs were fine, trying to load up the hams and glutes here as much as possible.

Lunges 60x5x4

Upped the lunges to 30s in either hand, this is the right weight. Looks like I've made a bit of progress here.

Seated Calf raises 145x10x4
Single leg hip lifts 10x4
Roll outs 15x3

Again these were fine.

Plank 30x3

Planks have come on a good bit, 30 breaths feels easy. Doing 15s on each side too.

Weight 211Lb BF 7mm (About 8%) Body fat has crept up a bit in the last two or three weeks.

Patto

Wednesday, 14-May-08

Went through the new stuff of my new Program with Dominic (aka Transform). I was shattered after the squats on Tuesday and thought Dominic would take it easy on me. Not a chance:eek: The new program will be very different from the last with two high intensity circuit type sessions and I'll put in a power session at the weekend as well with box squats and plenty of oly lifts.

That brings to an end my blog. The idea was just to do one training cycle. Thanks to Dominic for the programs and all the support, advise, motivation and inspiration. I'm sure he gets sick of my questions and phone calls from time to time but he is always there to answer and advise and is worth his weight in gold to me; always keeping me grounded and on track. A great guy and a superb personal trainer.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this blog and those who encouraged me along this short path.

Key Results:
Squat: from 85x3 to 100x5
Bench: from 75x3 to 77.5x4
Chins: from about 97x3x6 to 102x3x6
Deadlift: dunno didn't do any heavy deadlifts. Must do a 1RM test soon.
Body fat: From 8.2% to 8.1%
Weight: From 208Lb to 211Lb

So where to now? My overall goal is to get to all thise magic numbers by the end of the year bench 1RM 100Kg (should get thjis one easy), Squat 150Kg (very ambitious), Deadlift 180-200Kg (ambitious) and Chin 12 reps (should get this one too). Following on from that I want to work on some power stuff and improve things like my vertical jump etc and if I'm in good enough shape I'll probably have one more crack at a half decent level of gaelic football. I'll be 33 next Jan so I'm thinking I might have two good seasons left in me. I reckon to get to those numbers I'll need to go up to 100Kg with the same body fat of better. And I'll need to start doing more conditioning work. Some of these goals are really ambitious. At the moment I'm looking at a some of Eric Cressey's DVDs, I thought Will Heffernan's Blog was very interesting, I'm going to keep an eye on what these guys are at and see where all this takes me.

Some of the new stuff from Wednesday:
A1 Deadlifts 60x15x6

A killer after the squats yesterday, would never have done it only for Dominic being there.

A2 Push Up Rows 15x8x6

These very just as tough as the deadlifts
A3 crunches 10x10x6

A bit easyer than the first two but still tough at the tail end of a triple super

B1 Barbell Chops 30x8x5

These were tough enough, interesting excerssie

B2 Push-ups off rings 6s5x6

Did these with rings, very tricky

C1 One arm overhead press 15x10x4

These were fine really just a bit of a twinge in my rotator cuff on the right shoulder. Need to keep an eye on that.
C2 Dragon Flags 6x4

These are grewsome. Interesting development on the reverse curls.

Roll outs 5x2

Did these as a development on the rings. Interesting.