Game day: Won 48-0. Played the first 50 at tight head prop, had 10 minutes rest then subbed back on in second row.
Because we were dominant we didn’t stick to the game plan and got a bollocking from coach. Can’t afford to do that against better sides.
Solid scrummaging, only went backwards once, wasn’t lifted at all, and good straight back throughout. Much taller and slimmer than the other guy but pushed right through him.
Open play not as many opportunities to carry the ball as usual, but one of my few carries was a 10 metre run to try after a pass from a quick pen. Slipped by one man, ran through another, and got the ball down (there’s photo evidence of me dropping it as I dive then recovering just in time - front row handling skills). First try for the club
Sunday
Deadlift club
Frankenstein squats
Bar x some
Pulls
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 3
160kg x 2 Add belt
180kg x 2,3,4,5
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 10
60kg x 5
80kg x 3,4,5,6
Ss/ Chins
3,4,5,6
All I felt like today - knackered.
No game this week but probably a Saturday training session. Will have a few extra gym sessions this week to take advantage of not needing of be 100% fresh.
May test some deadlifts.
Think I’m coming down with something - was coughing a load today and suddenly felt sick halfway through my run, so I stopped halfway and walked the rest. Would help explain the quite sudden weight loss.
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 10
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 3 x 5
100kg x 3 x 3
80kg x 12
DB seated ohp
17.5s x 12
25s x 10
30s x 10
30s x 9
25s x 10
Decline bench
Bar x some
60kg x 12
80kg x 4 - shoulder felt weird
60kg x 2 x 15
Half the work is staying in position on the damn thing.
Only did these cos I thought I’d be too tired for dips.
Lateral raises
12s x 20
16s x 15
20s x 10
16s x 15
12s x 20
CGBP
50kg x 3 x 15
Everything apart from bench felt really weak today, and bench coulda been a little better.
Pause squats
Bar x some
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 8 x 3 - EMOM
Deads
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 10 x 3 - EMOM
Partial power squat (scrum sim) - just faced the wrong way on the hack squat and didn’t remove the stops. Bang on scrummaging body position.
50kg x 6
100kg x 6
150kg x 6
200kg x 6
250kg x 6
Chins
5,5,5,5,5,11 - PR - never gone above 8 if I remember right
Meant of go for a run but I was so tired when I got home and it was dark and raining that I blew it off. Felt guilty and did 5 x 20 swings on the 24kg later.
Nutrition fairly good - not getting enough protein in. Bodyweight is dropping well but weights are feeling a little weaker. Don’t know if this is linked or if I’m just needing a bit of a deload. Some lifts (read, chins) are feeling stronger. No match today so trained quite hard over the past week and going for some heavy pulls tomorrow. Will tone it down next week in preparation for a big game on Saturday - make sure I’m fresh for training and let some niggles rest. Can work a bit harder on conditioning.
Deads
80kg x 3 x 5
100kg x 2 x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 3 Add belt
160kg x 3
180kg x 3
200kg x 5 - niiiiice. PR is 12 with straps and at 10kg heavier BW. This is solid. Comeback PR? I dunno.
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 6
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
90kg x 5
100kg x 5 - bit of a comeback PR here too - previous best is 10.
80kg x 10
High bar - paused
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 3 Add belt
140kg x 3
150kg x 3
160kg x 3 - “tng”
Front squats - paused
100kg x 5 x 3 - feeling these out - it’s been a while. I’ve avoided them because they’re probably one of the lifts that make me go the most red in the face and that’s probably not good for my brain thing. Light weight for low reps I’m not too worried.
Preacher DB curls
12.5s x 12
15s x 12
17.5s x 12
Ss/ Rope pushdowns
Some x 3 x 20
Yesterday
Morning BW - 95.4kg
Free taster hour of Vinyasa flow yoga. Focus on hips. Bit underwhelming. Nothing I couldn’t have done outside of a class, and didn’t feel anywhere near as loose afterwards as I would if I’d just done 4-5 heavy sets of squats or deadlifts.
Today
Morning BW - 96.9kg - ate ALL the pasta last night.
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 8
60kg x 8
80kg x 8
90kg x 3 x 8
Incline DB
20s x 10
30s x 3 x 12
30s x 15
Shoulder press machine - had to adjust the seat height/set up a few times
“50” x 8
“60” x 2 x 8
“60” x 10 Dropset to
“40” x 8
“20” x 20
Laterals
16s x 3 x 12
Ss/ Rear delt machine
“50” x 3 x 15
Deads
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 3
160kg x 3 Add belt
180kg x 3 x 3
200kg x 2 x 2
Someone lent me some liquid chalk and that really helped, but we had to keep it stealthy. 200kg moving like the warm up weight it is - deads feeling on point the past week.
Power squat (scrum sim) - figured out a way to take the brakes off so bigger ROM than last time.
50kg x 10
100kg x 10
150kg x 10
200kg x 5
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 10
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
100kg x 3
105kg x 2
110kg x 2
100kg x 6 x 3 - technique wise bench felt good today so i just kept going.
Dips
BW x 8
10kg x 5
15kg x 5 - PR? Don’t think I’ve done them weighted before.
BW x 12 - PR. Best dips have ever moved.
DB seated ohp
17.5s x 12
27.5s x 10,10,9
Laterals
16s x 12
18s x 4 x 12
Ss/ Rear delt machine
50 x 20
59 x 20
68 x 20
73 x 15
59 x 20 Drop to
36 x 20
DB incline flyes
15s x 15
20s x 3 x 12
Incline Tate press
17.5s x 3 x 12
15s x 10
10s x 2 x 15
Good session on the heavier stuff. I barely ate today so started to flag towards the end but got a good bit of volume in on some BB stuff, then some stretching which felt great.
77kg gym staff member then benched 100kg for 2 sets of 10 and 140 for a double so I felt shit again haha.
Not gonna bother with an average weight for last week cos I’ve gotten into the bad habit of not waking up in my own bed so only weighed myself twice. Somewhere in the mid 95s. Training ok - two really good pull sessions and some satisfying benching recently. Slacking majorly on cardio because weather is miserable at the moment and I hate the treadmill.
Game on Saturday - we lost 25-10 to a much better team. Good performance from the group and I was happy with my game, especially out of the scrum. Quite a random group of forwards today and we weren’t working as a good unit in the scrum but open play we were much stronger than them.
Hurt my shoulder a bit making a hit - had some quite bad impingement the past few days but it’s getting better, and I made sure to keep it mobile between sets in my session yesterday.
Wide grip pulldown
Some x 3 x 10
Bench
40kg x 10
50kg x 10
60kg x 10
70kg x 10
80kg x 10
90kg x 10 - good. Warmed up super slowly and thought I was gonna stick at light volume to save my shoulder.
Seated row machine
4-5 x 10-15 with a final drop set
High bar
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 3 Add belt
160kg x 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1
1 inch deficit deads (smaller plates)
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 3
140kg x 3
160kg x 6 x 3 - EMOM Add belt
170kg x 1
180kg x 1
190kg x 1
200kg x 1
All I had time for but good on both lifts.
My shoulder is bugging me quite a lot, skipping rugby training thi week and probably the game.
Run on Wednesday and struggled again. 2.5km in 11 minutes and had to stop. Walked 1.25km and then started running again and did the final 1.25km in 5:15.
Yesterday I went to the gym and tested my shoulder out. Ton of shoulder girdle work - laterals and trap raises and rotator cuff stuff.
Highlights of 5 x 10 on dips which is a volume PR for sure. Didn’t feel good for much more.
Took some boys to the gym and taught them the 3 powerlifts as part of a teaching module for my course today, so light work was done on all 3 lifts.
Done an awful job weighing myself in the morning the past week cos I keep waking up in someone else’s bed. Few measurements taken in the afternoon have been in the mid 95s.
Not the best training week, got the shoulder injury. Still impinging a little bit but weight free it feels ok. Taking upper body easy. Run was naff, will hopefully do better tomorrow.
Seeing the neuro consultant about my head tomorrow morning - hopefully good news. Will push hard to get a definitive yes or no on weight training and not a vague “I’d rather you didn’t just in case cos then I’ll feel responsible”.
Today
Deads
80kg x 5
120kg x 3
140kg x 3 Add belt
160kg x 3
180kg x 3
200kg x 3 - worst it’s felt in a while but it’s still moving. Leg drive felt weaker than normal.
Rack pull - knee height, rounded upper back, straight legs.
100kg x 5
140kg x 5
160kg x 5
180kg x 5
200kg x 10
Run
1.8km - 7:50 - 4:23/km
Stop, walk a bit.
1.2km - 5:07 - 4:25/km
Felt massively out of breath and like I needed to vomit. Something is up to make my running drop off like this - either I just run 20% faster in the dry or I’m coming down with something.
On the bright side the doc doesn’t think my malformation is likely to bleed again, and he explicitly said that if I was wanting to take my weights a bit more seriously I could ramp them back up - without me having to ask. I’m choosing not to take this as him asking if I even lift.
Bench
Bar x some
40kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
90kg x 3
100kg x 2
105kg x 1
110kg x 1
115kg x 1 - comeback PR - 10kg off my best but 10kg lighter.
100kg x 3 x 4
Wasn’t gonna push past this with a dodgy shoulder. It’s still temperamental and I’m not sure what I’ll do for rugby this week. Definitely just a minor strain on the delt though. No pain benching, just on over head stuff. Keeping it moving and overhead loads light.
Incline BB
60kg x 10
70kg x 10
80kg x 3 Drop set to
60kg x 10
Dips
5 x 8
Laterals
10s x 10,15,20,25
Rear delt machine
41 x 10,15,20,25
Tricep extension machine
LOL x 4 x 20
Actually a good feeling machine. Didn’t have to worry about shoulder position cos it was locked in.
In the month before Christmas break I’m gonna do a 531 cycle to get back in the swing of things - squat, bench, deads, incline. So I’m finding some comfortable maxes at the moment. Will be interesting scheduling that around rugby - may do both squat and dead on Wednesdays and use Sunday for additional work when I’m not beat up from a Saturday game.
Squat max testing
Squat - warmed up with both techniques
60kg x 5 high and low bar
80kg x 3 high and low bar
100kg x 2 high and low bar
120kg x 2 high and low bar Belt on
140kg x 1 high and low bar
160kg x 1 high and low bar
180kg x 1 high and low bar - high bar moving well but didn’t want to keep fatiguing myself so stopped here
190kg x 1 low bar
200kg x 1 low bar - comeback PR - 27.5kg to go. More to spare.
180kg x 1 high bar and low bar
Bike
1k at a hard pace to make up for skipping rugby training tonight.