The deload week that wasn't a deload.

Was supposed to deload this week BUT this is my last week of holiday before i start uni and placement again (up in Bangor). Therefore it makes sense to push hard for the last week and then rest next week. The downside of this is that i'm getting demotivated as this is the 4th week in a row of heavy training so i'm carrying niggles and i'm overall exhausted. The other reason i trained this week is i had a session on Monday with Rob and i trained with Bish on Wed and Thur so managed to gather enough motivation from this.

Monday - Deadlifts
Event session heavily focussing on deadlifts.
Got a new 1RM farmers deadlift - as you can see from the photo below, the handles are maxed out. Thats 465kg altogether. Just for a deadlift. No walking with that. Bish did film it but the software on the iPhone blipped and it was lost forever :(.

After this we did some duckwalk deadlifts. We started on 150kg and finished on 190kg doing 5 'power' deadlifts to emulate the Power Stairs event where you lift the weight up a set of stairs. We then did a 5m waddle. We were restricted to indoor training due to the snow outside.

To finish this part of the workout we did 'Crane (or train??? im not sure) Wheel' Deads. These are exactly the same as normal deads. The crane wheels are 85-90kg each so the weight was 190-200kg. I did one set of 10 reps with these. There was more in the tank and i'll be aiming for 20 overall as there is likely to be a similar event in the novice competition (some sort of deadlift for reps).

After this we did some log (technique is improving alot but we didnt go heavy) and some atlas stones without tacky. This meant we had to stick to the 105kg stone so we did a few sets for reps and then called it a day. We finished with pinch grip. See the video below. I got the 75kg deadlift. Failed the 85kg and then the 80kg. The pain is all through the thumb as this is the weak link. Im not too fussed on grip now that i can deadlift more or less freely without wraps but it is a really good potential asset so i think i will include it sporadically in my training.




Wednesday - push
Traps were in absolute agony today. We were supposed to be practicing jerk technique so worked to a heavy single then did some swiss bar incline lockouts (need to get a photo of this). We finished with single arm strict dumbbell press and dips. No new 1RMs here to report and i was feeling particularly demotivated today. Probably due to the severe DOMs and the lack of progress (though to be fair, i shouldnt expect to improve every time...)

Thursday - Squats
Today was supposed to be going through the motions as it's the last day of training before deload week  (apart from sunday, obviously) but Bish needed to get a 1RM front squat and a 1RM back squat so we could set some goals for him. We both worked to a front squat 1RM and then changed to back squat and kept going up. I failed a 225kg attempt front squat... I literally gave up half way down during the squat and just kept going, dropping the bar into the safeties... That was epic fail. I felt drained and pretty crap, more mentally then physically i think. However we kept working up to a back squat heavy single and i felt good at about 270kg so i thought i might as well finish on a high and get a 1RM back squat (again.... i got 280kg just last Friday). So i put 285kg on the bar and did the rep but didn't quite make parallel -  no lift.  However it felt comfortable. SO.... i put 290kg on the bar and got Dave in to call parallel for me. Basically as soon as i hit parallel he shouted and i shot back up. I got the rep comfortably enough so thats a 290kg squat 1rm. 300kg here we come. All of these were done with knee wraps and a belt.


Bish got some solid 1RMs as well and is also improving massively in both front and back squat despite a niggling groin injury. We finished the session with good mornings for sets of 5 reps done with speed during the concentric (upward) phase and glute ham raises on the lat pulldown machine. I HAD wanted to bail after the squats but i promised myself that i would stop pussying out after squats and Bish called me up on it so i had to.

Solid session. Events on Sunday then a week off to deload and grow. Going to have to check the gym up in Bangor and try to fit everything in around the medicine. Should be fine ;)