Saturday - Train Hard....
...You know the rest. Just be the best (you can be)...
So, after the long and exhaustive (and slightly alcohol fuelled) day of ANZAC 2014, I got up a little slower than normal. Still made it in time to get the first train outta Crib, bound for Melbourne.
My plan - Train Legs at Fitness First's new platinum gym on Flinders Street, collect my bike from Cycles Galleria and come back to base. I stuck to my plan and gained more than sore legs...
LEGS DAY!
Arrival at the gym at 1000h was nicely done. I had jumped off the train walked around the block (Swanston, Collins, Elizabeth, Flinders Streets) and smashed down my pre-work out drink - it was good warm up walk which was followed by some quick dynamic stretched as I changed into my gym gear. I have to say, the new gym on Flinders is wicked - great facilities, great people - check ito ut even as a guest its worth it.
I went up to the "big boys" area of the gym since it was quiet, and did some free-squats to get my legs in shape, then headed over to the new leg press machines. I was feeling really focused and very strong in the leg dept today. My confidence with legs has never been great, especially since recovering from my torn hamstring during NEOC last year! After a quick 20kg warm up set of 15 reps I did 5 sets (12 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 10 reps, 12 reps). I reached a pretty good weight in set 3 (for a novice) - 140kg, and felt comfortable, then on the 4th and 5th sets I removed 20kg each set.
I returned to the squat rack, set up a 20kg barbell with 15kg on each end in preparation to do squats. At that moment a massive dude came in and jumped onto the rack next to me, my image in the mirror was lost to his huge size, so he offered to alternate his sets to allow me to use the mirror so I could work on my technique - he was called Ryan, a cool guy. The dude he was training with (well there were four dudes and pretty cool chick actually), Kieran, offered to coach me through a legs session and so I joined in with the group - learning heaps! Kieran continued to assist me with my lifting tech and showed me some new moves, which I'll be sure to include (since they really gave me a great workout today).
After squats, reaching around 90kg on the bar (45kg each side of the barbell), I moved to calves and really let rip! I wasn't going heavy, but I was really enjoying the larger pyramid sets. I returned to the barbell on the squat rack. I loaded up my barbell, and after some guidance from Ryan and Kieran, I did two types of dead lift. The first set of dead lifts was a glute strengthening dead lift devised by an American trainer from Winnepeg! Ainsley McSorley has an entire Glute exercise regimen, but I incorporated just a few of her routines today, to test the water. This dead lift was a barbell Romanian dead lift. The smaller movements in this exercise really tweaked the hamstring and really worked my core. I only lifted around 50kg all up, but I could really feel it work my legs. The second, given by Ryan, was a full dead lift - amazingly he was lifting 230kg, whilst I was lifting around 70kg! Still, I'm new to legs so I was enjoying the coaching and technique development!
After a quick set of Ainsley's Squats using a fit-ball against a wall, performed slowly in 3x15 rep sets (which burned so much in my quads), I grabbed a 25kg bar and performed a set of my own 'crazy lunge pyramid walks'... lol. 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 reps on each leg, stepping forwards on each set. After travelling around 20-30m and covering 43 reps per leg, I stopped, turned and returned to the start point. I did three sets of these, each time with about a minute or so rest between each. Kieran guided me on my posture during the lunges, and really assisted in pushing me through what ended up being a really intense leg burnout! I concluded my legs workout with hamstring curls. I performed these on a machine, doing 8 reps each set. I started at 30kg, then 60, 90, 120, 150, 170kg. My legs were actually shaking as I stretched and hydrated!
Chest Builder
I was working hard, feeling really charged up. I enjoyed the workout and was going good guns. I decided to push my chest sets a little harder and longer. I started with the inclined chest press bench. I continued with pyramid sets. I lifted 50kg x 10 reps, then 70kg x8 reps (for 2 sets). I started feeling the struggle of lifting without a spotter, and (low and behold) Kieran appears to give me the encouragement I needed....I then reduced to 60kg for a fourth set of 10 reps. I finished with 50kg for a final 12 reps! As I moved from inclined to flat bench, with awesome energy and motivation, I repeated the same sets and weights - my chest was really surging and I felt like I had started to build on my normal chest workout. I concluded my bench workout with a slow, arduous declined chest press. I started with 50kg, then upped it to 60kg. I then added 2.5kg per set, until I was at 70kg, each set being 8 reps long. This really made me feel the burn!
I left the "big boys" area and headed to the cables and dumbbells for conclusion of chest. I did my normal pectoral flyes and added a set of dumbbell inclined flyes to finish. My chest was done for!
Final Burnout
I went down to the open area to do abdominals and my new burnout. I started with the burn. I picked up the 10kg tubie thing with handles, and did the arm burnout I mentioned on my recent arm workout blog.I did two sets of around 3 minutes, feeling stronger. I obtained two 32kg kettle bells to tweak my obliques before heading on a short walk (farmer's walks to strengthen my abs). After two laps of the gym, I remembered there was an actual device to do farmer walks using free weights. Utilising this, I walked 25kg per arm back and fourth in the astro turf area. On completion of the farmer walks I finished with some lower abdominal lifts and left for a needed shower. I left the gym at 1320h... lol :)
After replenishment of aminos and protein drinks, I headed to collect my bike. Shortly after I was eating a yummy steak and fries with a well earned coffee for lunch.
Another big, educational day with lots of energy spent. Time to sleep!
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