Assessment

Another trainer is doing a runner! I've only been training with Mitch for two months, and now he's heading off to university, so he won't have the time to workout with me any more. And what a two months it's been. I've made incredible progress due to Mitch teaching me ways to improve all of the big lifts, by using a series of cues for each one. That's done wonders for my confidence, too.

As this was Mitch's last day at ABsolute Fitness, he decided to do the same strength assessment that we did in our first session, to see if I'd improved. All of the following routines were to determine my 3 rep maxes for each movement.

Here's what I did on Monday, June 30:

3RM (projected 1RM)
Back squat; a2g: 215lb x 3 (245lb)
Bench press: 145lb x 3 (165lb)
Deadlift: 275lb x 3 (300lb)

And this is what I managed today:

3RM (projected 1RM)
Back squat; a2g: 225lb x 3 (250lb)
Bench press: 160lb x 3 (180lb)
Deadlift: 315lb x 3 (340lb)

That's solid progress. I'm particularly pleased with the bench press numbers, as I felt like I'd stalled with these. All three lifts are 3 rep PRs. I've squatted 225lb to parallel before, for one rep. Before I started training with Mitch, I'd only ever done a one rep bench press at 145lb, so that's a big improvement. My 1RM for deadlifts was 325lb, but 315lb for three reps is pretty good.

To finish off today's session I did:

Floor presses
3 sets of 115lb x 5

Weighted neutral grip pull-ups
2 sets of 6 x 25lb

Full body - Conditioning

Personal torture with Paul.

I think this may be the toughest workout I've ever done. Hurt. Like. Hell.

3 rft; all at 95lb, no rack or dropping the weight
10 clean and press
10 floor press (bench presses, but on the ground)
10 thrusters
10 back squats
10 hang squat cleans
10 lunges (5 per leg)
Time = 37:27

I had to redo one rep - can't remember what it was - because I dropped the weight, rather than lowering it under control.

I "trained angry", which can sometimes be useful, but my focus wasn't 100% today because I had a lot on my mind. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference to my score, but I felt like I went as fast as I could from the start, rather than pacing myself as I usually would. Regardless of strategy, this was a frigging tough workout. It was my breathing that slowed me down more than anything, and the reason why I needed lots of rests. 

The technique on some of my hang squat cleans wasn't too pretty as my elbows were almost pointing down, rather than my arms being parallel to the ground. I can obviously do better at only 95lb, but damned if I can when I'm that bloody knackered. Still, I'm surprised Paul didn't call me on them!

It's now four hours after my workout and the pain is starting to set in, especially in my pecs. I might go swimming tomorrow, but I'm glad it's a rest day.