Like a dream coming true, I finally got back into the gym yesterday having not seen one for 6 months and in the last 12 months only been in for the odd session here and there. Wow! What a difference it makes being in a stable, cool, large environment with every piece of kit I could ask for – I literally didn’t know what to do with myself!
Another session today, where I spent the best part of 90 minutes in there. My sessions were not that long though, in fact no-where near, but with my new agility warm up and the time spent resting between strength work, add some supplementary work and today’s short conditioning, you’ve got yourself a decent amount of time spent. Still it’s fine as I have no-where else I need to be right now with the wife working and littlen’ back in school.
So yesterday marked the beginning of the 5-3-1 that I started [or attempted to start] back in June. However the first few months [2 cycles] were hit and miss due to the environment I was trying to train in. I picked up where I left off though and continued the progression by adding 2.5kg to my presses and 5kg to my squat and deadlift. I was pleasantly surprised that I don’t seem to have lost much in the way of strength in the past 3 weeks out of lifting. Maybe a rep or 2, but I can live with that.
Deadlift and bench press were nice yesterday getting some higher reps, doubling the required number on the final lifts. Much the same for squats and military press today, although the squats felt the weakest out of all the lifts.
Because I was fitting 4 days lifts in to 2 days I kept the supplementary work to just 1 exercise on each main lift and today hit some conditioning on the erg after squatting which isn’t ideal, but there we are. Just a few minute blasts to stay in the game and keep on top of it, nothing too crazy. Used a new erg with PM5 too which was nice.
My plan for the next 2 cycles [2 months] is to work 4 days a week in the weights room on the 4 lifts mentioned above. Supplementary work will match the body part worked along with progressing with my core work. The second part of the training is the ‘conditioning’ or ‘attempt at getting enough 2k pace back to race in November!’ The question still remains the same of, “Will 2 sessions a week on the non lifting days be enough?” – time will tell.
Now my advice to others would be to find a goal and stick to achieving it, but my main goal for the foreseeable future is strength using the 5-3-1. The erg work is my conditioning work and just so happens it fits with the upcoming RN Champs. If I was absolutely 100% committed to racing and hell bent on winning, I would be rowing as much as my back would let me [maybe 3-4 times a week] and churning out work on the Wattbike. However, like I said the plan right now is to get strong, I just need to be careful that the erg work doesn’t completely trash my legs resulting in a knock on effect for squats and deadlifts.
Should or should I not race in November, there after I will decide where to go from there. It could be to dedicate twice a week on each lift for strength, it could be to keep things the same, it could be to race again somewhere else. Hell it might be to do something completely different! However for now I know what I want to be doing and simply can’t wait to get back in the gym on Monday!
Think big, lift heavy. Cheers.
