Miss Piggys Battle for the Big Plates

Tuesday
I think I was not made for the heat...Monday night/Tues morning felt like a crazy heat wave.

Knee stability work-had quite a few problems with foot, ankle and knee this year, so really need to work on stability of knee and ankle.

knee drops, one leg squats onto a chair, balancing on one foot etc

Intervals on x-trainer
30 sec hard/30 sec easy x 4
one minute easy

Repeated the cycle 4 times= 20mins total

The one minute easy at the end of each cycle is my sanity break, def needed!!
Level 9-although it was HARD and heart is nearly JUMPING out of my chest, think I may be able to up the level next time.

500 workout
50 reps of each
Prisoner squats
sit ups
forward/backward lunge (thought these would be sooo easy, but no...they hurt!!)
pushups (all full, 20,10,10,10)
Reptile
Get Up (only a 2kg weight)
side V Crunch
Close grip pushups (had to do these from my knees)
tuck jumps
reverse plank knee tuck
...and finished!! phew

Friday 30th July
A lot of foam rolling over the past few days. Knee is feeling a bit better.I know i probably should have stayed away from the weights but I was up in the gym early for my boxercise class, so....

Squats
20kg x 8
25kg x 8
30kg x 8
35kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
47.5kgx 5 (didnt think I'd be able to do any more sets at this weight so dropped it back down to finish)
45kg x 5 (3 more sets)


Lunges
12kg 3sets 8

Lying leg curl with stability ball
2sets 20

Push Press
20kg x 12
22.5kg x 10
22.5kg x 9
22.5kg x 9
22.5kg x 8
22.5kg x 8

Supine row-someone was using the smith machine so did a barbell row instead
25kg x 12 (3 sets)

DB seated powerclean
4kg x 10 (3 sets) felt easier with the 4kg this time

Boxercise Class

Monday 2nd of August
Spin Class- yup I do love my cardio!! Max HR-185 Av HR-168

Decided to give a metcon or two a go today. Have been intrigued by the metcon thread for a while now and I keep seeing them in peoples' logs so decided to give them a go!

I went for Franley and Freddies Revenge

Franley
21-15-9
Airsquats
Burpees
5:32

Quads were burning throughout the airsquats, and I took quite a few breaks aswell..to be honest didn't try as hard as I should have. Was fairly out of breath after though.

Freddie's Revenge
I liked this one!!
5 push press- 20kg
10 Burpees
5 rounds
8:09
I have to admit I did a bit of stalling in this one in the 3rd round, the pushups in the burpees were more like belly flops and I dropped the push press to 17.5kg in that round too.

I did cop on though! went back to the 20kg pushpress for 4th and 5th round and kept good form on the burpees.

Overall: I think I'll try metcons again,...I just had a tendency to slack a bit doing them, maybe I'll get a bit more competitive as time goes on..

Finished up with some core work and treated myself to the hydro pool after

Wednesday 4th August

Today was a SHAMBLE!! Spent the day eating loads and loads of junk, which worked out **** cos when I went to the gym I had ABSOLUTELY no energy at all and was completely unmotivated.....lesson learnt, till next time.

I had a few things that wanted to practise before I started my session. This did not work out at all, all the equipment that I wanted to use was busy and I just wasnt bothered waiting.

Headed into the 'Ladies Gym' to do a metcon instead (I might just be converted) was going to do

"Jackie"
1000m row
50 thrusters
30 inverted rows

but...
Rower-wasnt working properly wouldnt display metres, did 6mins instead
Thrusters 17.5kg-hard but I like these
Inverted rows-couldn't do these,place too busy so didnt burpees instead-no bellyflops today.

Lots of knee work
(TKE, knee drops, one legged squats, adductor and abductor strengthening stuff and glute bridges)

Boxercise
Regular instructor is away, and let's just say the instructor we had was doing 1/4 pushups, chest was nowhere near the floor!!! Was a tad bit of a waste aswell.
I'll try get some padwork done tommorrow or Friday instead

Magic Eight Ball wrote: »

Nice work on the deadlift and dips.
Don't worry bout eating the junk, ate a 800g duty free tub of celebrations to myself in one sitting over the weekend! Had to be done!!

yep dat about equals the sugar load of yesterday!! I think it just has to be done some days:) Sure, I was even eating a mars bar updating my log yesterday...shhh!

First off I'll start by saying in my quest to get a pullup I've started messing about a lot trying to figure it out. I figured out on Wednesday that if I stand beside by bedroom door I can just barely reach the top of the door. so I was using this to attempt negative pullups, jumping up then pulling my self up until my chin above door and lowering slowly..tried it a good few times, seems to be working ok. SEVERE DOMS set in on Thursday night from this..so it must be helping somehow!

Friday 6th August
After watching Will Heffernan's video on knee prehab I had emailed him a few questions. He very kindly said that he'd have a look at my wonky knees if he could make a video about prehab/rehabby stuff. So I headed down to IP, and there was good and bad news for all.

The good news was for me- I am not royally screwed up or a 'car wreck' as Will would so kindly put it. Just a few hip mobility issues that are causing the knee pain. Will went through lots of mobility stuff to work on as well as some stretches.

Bad news for Will because my lack of 'car-wreck' issues meant I was useless.

Am absolutely delighted that there's nothing majorly wrong with me, gonna really work hard at the mobility and stretching stuff. I think it was this mind ease that helped me get 50kg x 5 (x4) for my squats. So, thanks Will! Very sound guy.


Squats
20kg x 8
25kg x 8
30kg x 8
35kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
50kg x 5 (4sets)
I actually thought I had done 47.5kg for 4sets last time, couldnt find those plates today so the choice was 45kg or 50kg went for the 50kg, got them nice and deep. Struggled on the last 2reps of last set though. Just shows I was being a wuss last time:)


DB Lunges
12kg 3sets 8
Might have to change to using a barbell next time. Have been doing these with the 12kg DBs fine but the 14kg DB's are just too heavy for my little arms..will try BB lunges next time.

Lying leg curl with stability ball
Forgot to do this

Push Press
20kg x 12
Once again couldn't find the 1.25 plates so had to go up to 25kg instead of 22.5kg.
25kg x 11
25kg x 10
25kg x 7
25kg x 8
25kg x 8
These hurt!

Supine row
Didn't count reps on this. Was trying different foot postitions. Have decided i really need to work on volume here so gonna try them flat footed with knees bent for a while and just go for 3 x max

DB seated powerclean
3kg x 12 (3 sets) There was no 4kg DB there today and I wasn't assed going over to the 'Ladies Gym'.

Intervals X-Trainer
The plan was 30sec hard/30sec easy x 4
1 min easy
repeat the cycle 4 times=20mins
BUT 10mins into it one of the instructors came over and started talking, obviously intervals went out the window then. Worst thing is i had taken out my earphones cause I couldn't concentrate listening to music..maybe I'll just keep the earphones in next time with no music playing and I wont get interrupted:cool::D

Boxing instructor was away so I did a Spin Class instead.
Excellent instructor, a lot of standing sprints and climbs. Could barely hold myself up on the bike after the push press from earlier.
Absolutely shattered in a great way!

Sunday 8th of August
A good day today!

Mobility Stuff
Leg Swings 3 sets of 8
Leg Sweeps 3 sets of 8
Hurdle Steps 3 sets of 5
Over and Unders 3 sets of 5

Deadlift:
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
50kg x 5
55kg x 5 (2 sets)
60kg x 5 (3 sets)
A personal trainer came over to me today when I was deadlifting to comment on my form..I'm delighted to say the least. I was kind of afraid that I'd start messing it up once I was upping the weights so it's good to know that I'm not messing it up...yet:D

DB Bulgarian split squat:
2 sets no weights-getting my balance
12kg x 8 (2 sets)

DB Romanian DL: 14kg x 11 (2 sets) Was going for 12 reps but the grip on these weights gave out after 11.

Dips:
3 x 12 with legs elevated and 5kg on lap

4 proper dips on parallel bars and then managed 1 tiny one (x 3)

Superset
Pulldown: 37.5kg 3 x 10
Face Pulls:30kg 3 x 15.

Metcon
Really like the idea of these metcons but haven't really got the mental strength for them yet,tend to take too many breaks when I know I don't really need them.
400 m run-treadmill
100 tuck jumps-did a bit of time wasting here, kept taking breaks when I didnt really need them:(
100 lunges
100 pushups-first 30 full pushups, next 60 on my knees, kept trying to do full ones but it wasnt happening, last 10 full..had to break them up into 2,2,2,2,2...yup a bit of work to do here:)
400m run-treadmill
A very embarrassing time of 18.54, will try it again in two weeks though..with something to compete against I'll probably try harder.

Some nice stretching

Tuesday 10th August
Feeling normal again today..thank God..really was in a world of pain..well soreness yesterday.

Mobility Work
Hurdle Steps 3 sets of 5
Over and Unders 2 sets of 5

Squats
20kg x 8
25kg x 8
30kg x 8
35kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
50kg x 5 (4sets)- Don't remember these being as hard last week, really was grinding out the last rep in each set.
52.5kg x 3 (just to see if I could do it)


Lunges
25kg 3sets 8
Tried these with the barbell today, felt ridiculously easy compared to using the DB's

Lying leg curl with stability ball
2 sets of 20

Push Press
20kg x 12
25kg x 10
25kg x 9
25kg x 8
25kg x 8
25kg x 7
Wasn't too happy with these..got more reps last time, just wasnt happening today

Supine row
Flat footed knees bent
O/H grip 13, 14
U/H grip 7, 10

DB seated powerclean
4kg x 12 (3 sets)

Really have a lot of work to do on the inverted rows, so decided to go for
21,15,9
Thrusters- 25kg
Inverted Rows

Really should of went for 20kg thrusters cos the 25kg was a bit too heavy for me, but I figured since I normally undershoot myself and pick light weights that I would stick it out.
Time: 12.12

Haven't had any knee pain in a week now..so am thinking about starting training for a 10k race in September..have never raced before, but seeing as I haven't been able to do any running for about 6months so far this year thought it would be a good way of getting back into it.

Going to do some light jogging this evening and if all goes well will try a 5k/6k run tomorrow...fingers crossed

Thursday 12th August
Hamstrings and Quads still a lil sore today.
AM
Mobility
leg swings 3 x 10 L+R
leg sweeps 3 x 10 L+R
Over and unders 3 x 5
Had to put my hands on the floor for the first two sets on both sides,...still feel a bit of 'sticking' as i push through
Hurdle steps 3 x 5

Was a bit pushed for time for the mobility work this morning, had planned on doing a bit more...but..I had a few people stare for a while, and then come over and ask what I was doing, why was I doing it, who told me to do it....blah,blah,blah:pac::pac:...I just wanted to get on with it:)

Spin Class
Great class-great mixture of sprints and then heavy resistance climbsMax HR 95% AV HR 85%

10 Assisted pullups setting 37.5kg (got a little ahead of myself here, couldnt believe when i got 10 in the 1st set, most I've gotten at that setting..obviously I crashed n burned in the nxt 2sets, had to break them up 5,3,2...a lot of work still needed here)
10 one legged pushups
x 3

5 Dips Parallel Bars (4 proper, 1 tiny )
10 one legged pushups
x 3

Spent a good bit of time stretching after...I HATE stretching but trying to at least do a little of it at least

PM-Light jogging this evening with friends.

Saturday 14th August
Lovely sunny day today so...a nice light jog this morning, with a good few suicides and burpees thrown in for good measure.

I'm heading on holidays monday morning and going paintballing for the day tomorrow but i really wanted to get another strength session in before I go...so

Mobility Work
Hurdle Steps 2 sets of 5 ( a lot of grinding and popping here )
Over and Unders 2 sets of 5 (managed to do nearly all of these without using my hands on the floor:)

Squats
20kg x 5
25kg x 5
30kg x 5
35kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
50kg x 5 (4sets)-Yup was still really difficult.
Couldnt find the plates to make 52.5kg and there was NO WAY i'd get 55kg. So stuck with the 50, glad I did cos I was really grinding them out..Could be because I only deadlifted yesterday?


Lunges
Legs fairly wrecked after the squats and the sun was beaming in the gym..so that made two good excuses to skip them:P

Lying leg curl with stability ball
2 sets of 20

Push Press
20kg x 12
25kg x 8
25kg x 8
25kg x 8
25kg x 7
25kg x 7
Wasn't happy at all with these, got WAY more reps last time

Supine row
Flat footed knees bent
O/H grip 15, 12
U/H grip 9, 10

DB seated powerclean
4kg x 12 (3 sets)

...and off to the sunshine for a week:D:D:D

gymfreak wrote: »

1hr easy running tonight with friends

yeh the easy part didnt really happen yesterday, it was lashing raining so we decided to change it up and did a fair amount of sprints, coupled with burpees...fun

Severe DOMS today, absolutely everywhere..especially my glutes and hamstrings..completely forgot to do any kind of stretching yesterday..so I suppose it is partially my fault:)

Wednesday 25th August
Mobility/stability stuff
Leg Swings 3 x 10
Leg Sweeps 3 x 10
Knee drops 3x 8
tried these again on a lower level 2 x3
One legged squat 3x 5

Really had to do something to loosen up a bit..
Boxercise class-pushups, boxing, pushups, burpees, pushups...and a hell of a lot more pushups

A LOT of stretching
especially..
Butterfly Stretch - I fecking HATE this one, it hurts like hell
Single Leg Groin Stretch
Seated Glute
Lying Glute Stretch

Friday 27th August
Set 20mins aside for mobility work and warmup..got distracted talking, so got nothing done

Squats
20kg x 5
30kg x 5
40kg x 5
45kg x 5
50kg x 5
52.5 kg x 5 (4sets)
Was pretty pissed off doing these, got really frustrated because I thought I'd done 52.5kg x 5 last time and couldnt understand why I was finding it so hard, had a few very close fails and had to rerack a few times during the final few sets cos I was being a wuss.
...funnily enough when I looked back on my log it was only 50kg that I did last time..so I guess I should be happy with it!!:pac::pac: must remember to read my log before a workout and not after:pac::pac:

Will keep with the 52.5kg for a while, got myself a spotter for next time aswell so that should help


BB Lunges
30kg x 8 (3 sets)

Lying leg curl with stability ball
3 sets of 20

Push Press
20kg x 12
25kg x 9
25kg x 7
25kg x 8
25kg x 7
25kg x 8


DB seated powerclean
4kg x 12 (3 sets)

Spin Class-completely SHATTERED after
Max HR 196 (100%) Av HR 177 (90%)

Sangre wrote: »

Why do you lift so heavy in your warm-up sets?

Sorry, meant to wb to your last post but got sidetracked. Yup, ya were right I was doing too many warm up sets I just never really noticed before. Have only been lifting for a few weeks now so not completely totally sure as to what I'm doing half the time.

The new plan is to only do 2 or 3 sets before my actually work sets so we'll see what difference it makes,.. hopefully:)

Will Heffernan wrote:

How's the little bit of mobility stuff working out for you?

The little bit of mobility stuff is working out just fine:)

To be honest i think I should be getting a gold star or something for it seeing as I attempt a bit most days. I think I'm getting better at most of it..I can even nearly do the over and unders without my hands on the ground! That has to be impressive:D

My hip is still making a horrible grinding noise when I rotate it though...probably why I dislike the hurdle steps...

Having absolutely no knee pain at all..and it is actually much more stable when I'm doing one leg squats and all that

And the stretches...well they're just a pain in the butt...literally:D

Thursday 2nd Sept

Bootcamp circuit 50 sec on 10 sec off, each exercise twice before moving on, completed 3 times
reps
rd1 rd2 rd3
Burpees 13/11 12/10 11/8

mountain climbers 0/0 0/1 0/1
(counted d times I stopped)

Prisoner squats 31/29 32/28 didnt get time

get up with 4kg 10/10 9/9 9/8

tricep dips legs on floor 37/30 38/31 didnt get time

run a length/sprint a length
4mins core

x 3
This actually tired me out more than i thought, was trying to keep the effort constant/beat my previous reps.... it hurts being competitive!!
Friday 3rd September
Mobility stuff
leg sweeps 3 x 10
leg swings 3 x 10
over and unders 3 x 5
hurdle steps 3 x 5

Squats
Plan is to warm up by lifting 50%, 70%, 85% and then going for it...whatever it is:D
wasnt arsed figuring out the maths...had left my brain in school so went for
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 5

Was feeling good so went and got an instructor to spot me for my first bodyweight squat...55kg
....only problem was..she didnt spot me right:(..she was taking some of the weight off the bar..didnt feel like 55..probably wouldnt of been able for it anyway but wanted to know how it felt
x5 (2sets)
failed on 3rd set and she tried lifting d bar off me instead of actually 'spotting me':(
left it at that and went at it alone for
50kg x 5 (2sets)
52.5kg x 5 (2sets)

BB Lunges
30kg x 8 (3 sets)
Should have upped the weight here:mad:

Lying leg curl with stability ball
3 sets of 20

Push Press
20kg x 12
tried breathing different on this, pausing at the top and getting my breath...worked a treat
25kg x 9
25kg x 10
25kg x 9
25kg x 8
25kg x 8


DB seated powerclean
4kg x 13 (3 sets)

Inverted Row
O/H 17, 16
U/H 14,8

Spin Class-
Max HR 192 (98%) Av HR 173 (88%)

Monday 6th September
Bootcamp circuit..didnt count reps..much of a muchness to the last one I did.

Tuesday 7th September
Mobility stuff
leg sweeps 3 x 10
leg swings 3 x 10

Squats
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
55kg x 5 (4sets):D BW SQUAT!!
Granted the depth on all of them was not perfect but its getting there..knees were starting to move inwards at this weight so was concentrating on pushing them out

BB Lunges
35kg x 8 (3 sets)
Think i can up the weight here

Lying leg curl with stability ball
1 set of 20
2 sets of 10 with one leg in the air....was all over the place..literally

Push Press
20kg x 12
25kg x 11
25kg x 10
25kg x 9
25kg x 10
25kg x 9
Might up the weight next time

DB seated powerclean
5kg x 10 (3 sets)

Inverted Row
was all over the place for this one...for some reason I get highly distracted for this one..gonna try 4 sets of 20 next time with as many breaks needed.

1 hour easy running with 12 100 yard sprints thrown in

G86 wrote: »

For 5 reps?!!! Fair fecking play!!:D:D

Yup! Was fairly pleased alright!! depth wasn't perfect on all..but i shall work on that.


Wednesday 8th September
Still havent figured out a routine since starting back work...completely all over the place.

Boxercise Class

Thursday 9th of September.
Had a day and a half at work today, so my head was all over the shop in the gym today. Didnt even finish strength session..will get it done tomorrow.

Deadlift
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
60kg x 5
75kg x 2, 1, 1, 1
75kg x 2, 1, 1, 1 Just can't seem to hold onto the bar..keeps slipping from my hands.

Any suggestions? Or is it just a case of me getting used to it?

70kg x 5 (2sets)

Was taking off the plates after this and the guy in the squat rack beside me came over to help..after we took off the two 10kg I said 'ah sure its grand can finish it myself' and lifted it onto the squat rack.
....I was told that I shouldn't have lifted it as I would hurt my back..:rolleyes:...seriously?? What do ya think I'd been doing with the weights on it:rolleyes::rolleyes:?? brain was melted so didn't even bother say anything/laugh..

DB Bulgarian split squat:
Skipped this..place was a mess. gonna do it tomorrow

Dips: [/B]
Paralell bar- 7, 6, 7, 6

BB Romanian DL:
35kg x 12 (2 sets) grip was grand-ish

Superset
Pulldown: 37.5kg 3 x 10 ...grip much better
Face Pulls:37.5kg 3 x 15. (skipped this..couldnt find the rope..yes..gym was a kip today)


Bootcamp circuit first two rounds 50 sec on 10 sec off, last round 30 on 10 off, each exercise twice before moving on, completed 3 times
reps
rd1 rd2 rd3
Burpees 13/12 15/9 10/6

mountain climbers 0/0 0/0 0/0
(counted d times I stopped)

Prisoner squats 32/30 35/33 25/30

get up with 4kg 11/11 10/10 6/6

tricep dips legs on floor 49/37 50/32

4mins core

x 3

Hanley wrote: »

Basically pick one, do it at the end of your deadlift workout, hammer it, and when you can progress no more pick a different one. I'd personally focus on kroc rows and farmers walks.

Thanks for that! will give it a go

Hanley wrote: »

Fairly simple really... your grip's not strong enough.

Had a feeling it was dat stupidily simple ...fairly annoying all the same