I have been doing a lot more reading on strength training and Olympic lifting. While what they recommend does not fit into my training goals I am picking up a lot of good direction as to how to improve what I am doing. Specifically, power lifters recommend not doing isolation exercises but instead focusing on Olympic style lifts that have more bang for the buck. I am coming over to their way of thinking more and more and conducted a review of my training program to replace what I can consider low return on investment exercises with some of the core exercises. Today, I was supposed to do Goblet Squats and Side Lunges. I replaced them with regular Squats and Deadlifts.
The second adjustment that I made to my workouts was less of a concentration on time in between sets for strength training and more of a concentration on lifting heavy weights properly. This, in practice, made me run out of time (I limit gym workout time to 60 minutes) before I got to the 4th exercise set that I was supposed to do. I have no regrets since I believe that I got a lot out of my squats, deadlifts and step ups. I plan to keep the timing discipline in my kettle bell and running VO2 max days.
Lastly, my squat weight is ridiculously low but I am building up from the beginning with proper form. For my first set I started with just the bar and slowly moved up in weight set by set. To date I have always thought that I should continue to progress according to how I felt and what I was able to lift. My thinking has changed and I plan on following Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength advice and from now on will define what I will lift in advance of the workout. So, I know the max weight that I will reach on my 5th set and back out he weights on previous sets in order to get there. Today I did 7 sets in order to reach a max that was unimpressive. Next time I will take that max weight of 105, add 10 pounds so that I lift that on my 5th set and tell myself that my sets will be 75, 85, 95, 105, 115 after I warm up with the bar. The following week I will start at 85 and reach my max at 125.
Warm Up:
Leg Routine - Do 1 set at ½ weight for ten reps to warm up and focus on form, then 5 sets of 5 reps each at max weight.
Notes / Results:
- Time: 60 minutes.
- Weight: 194. Broke through the 195 plateau.
- Squats - Sets: 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 105
- Deadlift - Sets: 205, 215, 225, 235, 245
- Step Ups
- Previous high: 55 Goal: was 50, need to get to 60
- Sets: 45, 50, 55, 55, 55
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