I was desperate to get some leg work in today as it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I squatted for reps. One of my main goals in today’s session was to give the legs some work for maintenance and to stay in some sort of ‘condition’. My fear is that when I get back to the squat rack in 2 weeks time, I can’t walk for days after and will have to neglect some volume to ‘re-condition’. I accept I will have lost a touch of strength and that was already apparent today.
It was a tough session mind, using a blood shunting tri-set, squat, hinge and press format. Blood shunting is using opposing muscle groups and a lower/upper split to pump the blood into one part of the body and then try and force into another. It’s pretty unpleasant. I kept the rest periods to 1 minute too for some intensity, I needn’t have bothered, after half way I extended the rests to 90 seconds.
I needed a squat so went for front squat then into RDL(Romanian deadlift) and then plyometric press up. 10 quality reps on each using 60kg on the squat and hinge and then body weight for the plyo press ups. The RDL’s were far too light, but hopefully got the desired effect in the hamstrings by stretching them out and then contracting hard. Like I said a minute or so rest in between and 6 sets total. After, I went for some core work.
Again, it’s been a while since core and I certainly don’t want to lose the core strength I have gained over the summer. One of the few positive points to come out of my time away was the transformation of my core strength. Don’t get me wrong I’m not claiming to have a torso of steel, but it’s a million times stronger and functional than it has been in my rowing days. Lesson for all rowers here – work your core through 3 planes of movement under tension.
It might of been the fatigue from the blood shunting session, but I certainly didn’t feel as strong as I thought I would. Suitcase deadlifts, land mine rotations and Saxon bends using a heavy weight (relative) and for lower reps. Looking back the Saxon bends should have been Russian twists to hit the 3 planes of movement I mentioned above. Still, it was nice to stay in the game with the core work especially after rowing a few pieces recently.
That’s all folks.
