Friday, 5 August 2011

Strength and Performance Session 5

Today is a rest day. Thank goodness for that.
I had S&P on Monday, a race on Tuesday, a race on Wednesday, S&P yesterday, followed by work for the rest of the day. Rest and recovery are on the cards today. All day.

After getting to the gym, Z knew that I'd been racing for the past 2 nights and asked if I wanted to have a reduced session, some kind of body weight circuit in lieu of the workout that had already been written. Had I been really totalled, or had the session been a ridiculously hard Strength session I would have taken him up on the offer. However, This is only the second week of rehab work, and not much of it is going through my legs which were going to be the parts of me that were tired. I thanked him, but said I'd just get on with what was written down. No issues.

The warm up quite rightly took ages. It is a key part of the workout and warms up each part of the body thoroughly. In my case there are a number of extra exercises and stretches to do, each focussing on a particular movement, and bringing it all together at the end of the warm up to make the shoulder girdle work together as a cohesive unit in the correct way as opposed to with muscles pulling in the wrong direction/ being lazy/ not quite doing what they are meant to be doing.
From there it was the same as last Thursday, increasing weight where I felt I could, but making sure all the movements were deliberate, intelligent, focused, and that each rep was a rep and not being cheated on.

4 sets of
8 step backs (7.5kg in each hand)
5 wide grip pullups (1 chain)
8 lower trap extensions (still working on lower trapezius activation, even in the workout)
1 min rest between each superset

3 sets of
15 Glute bridges (feet on bench)
15 prone, pronated rows- (5kg on each)- that was HORRIBLE toward the end.
1min rest between each superset

3 sets of
15 KB swings- (20kg)
30 seconf plank - on each side
1min rest between each set.

No prowler this week, but we did the ropes. 20secs of double arm wave, single arm wave, internal and external rotations and finally starjumps.
even with a minute rest between each one, it was exhausting. Different to the prowler, and more difficult in the last 5 seconds of each exercise.
Feels good though.

And now, back to some serious recovery. Had a new foam roller arrive today, a more solid one than the current model... this could be amusing. Painful, but amusing.

Monday, 1 August 2011

Strength and Performance Session 4

Back on it today. Much the same as last Monday, but heavier.

The warm up and Lower trap activations seem to take a long time. I guess thats the point. I need to make the muscles work in the correct order, and educate them in the right way before I start working out. That way, the muscles fire correctly, instead of trying to do the wrong thing in the wrong order and end up straining themselves.

All good fun.
The Goblet squat was done with 12.5kg (12)
Pull ups- neutral grip, with chain round me (6)
Pull aparts (12)
4 sets

Then

RDL at 14kg on each hand (12)
Neutral prone pronated rows 7.5kg each (12)- the hardest thing of the whole work out
1m plank
3 sets

Then

Scapula push ups (12)
KB swings 16kg, then 20kg. (15)
2 sets

then 5 there and back on the prowler with 20kg on, All high except one which was low, but no grip- so went back to high. 1m rest between each run.
That was a bit of a jelly leg finale, but I reckon give me a week, and that will be fine again, and we'll have to up the weight.

Bradwell fell race tomorrow, then Cracken edge on Wed. All go this week!

Saturday, 30 July 2011

Black hill

Out for a walk today, nav practice, looking for a few plane wrecks and some distinctive navigational features on the hill.
First up was a shelter on the north side of the hill, then over to a downed Sabre, bearing off to a trig point.
On the way over to the trig point we came across a Swordfish wreck- and right next to it, a short eared owl. It was about 4ft away from me, staring with big orange eyes.
Then it flew away.

From the Swordfish we went directly to the trig point, then down to a couple of spot heights and onto a couple of wrecks of Meteors.
2 wrecks, and a lot of wreakage.
Found a good few trods around the areas, walked over to a rocky out crop, then down into a couple of cloughs and back to the car.
About 11km in all, and a good few hours out on the hill.
Time well spent.