StrengthWOD: A week of work so far
I know you're eager to see what we've been up to. You cannot wait any longer. Well, let me satisfy your curiosity. Here's the work done so far this week, including what I plan on doing tonight.
All in all, a nice plan is emerging. Adaptation is happening (Yay!). Mostly, I'm getting used to sets of 10. It's amazing, actually, how quickly these go from sucking to quite easy.
Monday, 2/6
1. Standing press to 205 for an easy 5.
I'm fighting my way back into shape on these. This load was heavy last week for some reason, so I didn't add top the prescription...I'm in no rush to stale out. This week, the reps came easy.
2. Close-grip bench press, 5 sets of 10 at 205
This is a very light load, but I'm not concerned with how much is on the bar for these sets of 10. I want the adaptation from the volume. If I add too much load, I won't adapt very well…Baby steps. The load will increase 10% or so in the coming weeks.
3. I’m pretty sure I did some rowing, but cannot remember just what I did. It doesn’t matter too much, actually. They call it assistance work for a reason.
4. Triceps extensions, 3*10
5. Airdyne, 3 sets of 30 seconds at 100 rpm
Let me tell you, these are brutal when you’ve been away from them for a while. My quadriceps were on fire for 10 minutes afterwards. Wow.
Wednesday, 2/8
1. Deadlift to 455 for an easy set of 5, then on to block pulls for an easy 5 with 500
I’m leaning towards a two-tiered approach for the deadlift. First, some work with carefully prescribed loads. Second, I’ll do some specific exercises thrown in for variation.
All of these loads tonight were very easy, no motivation required. That will change in the coming weeks as I ramp up the loads a bit.
2. Cambered bar squats, 5 sets of 10 with 300
I barely made it through this work last week. Also, I was sore for 3 days afterwards! But oddly enough, I breezed through this week. Go figure. The weight will stay the same for another week, then there will be an unloading week, then I’ll increase the load by 10% for another block of 10 rep sets.
That was it!
Thursday, 2/9 – The planned workout
So this is what I plan on doing tonight. The day is designed to complement Monday’s work.
1. Bench press to 305, reps will be around 5 but I’ll take more if it’s easy. It will likely be a bit too light.
2. Two-board press to 385 for 5.
This would be a nice marker for me. Last week I just did 3. Nothing maximal here, I’m just taking my time working back up on these exercises. Once it’s time to pursue some singles, I’d like to be back around 475 on this lift. I’ll likely never be back near my all-time best here. When I was quite a bit larger, I managed something around 550 on this lift.
3. Standing press, 5*10 at 135-150, easy work
4. Ski-erg intervals, 30 seconds all out*5
I should be doing some kind of pull-down, but I don’t want to. They are so damn boring. I’m doing these for the conditioning work, and for the novelty.
5. Prowler…why not?
Notes: Overall, there's a fair amount of work being done. You won't notice too much speed or maximal effort lifts. That's intentional. While all reps are done quickly, and there will be some heavy lifts and variation, I want to focus on the volume. Once I've adapted and have pulled all the benefit from this, I'll move towards more heavy stuff, and will dial the assistance work from 10's and 8's to 6's.
There it is,
Chris
