Workouts for Saturday 30 January to Friday 5 February

This is the fifth week of workouts after Christmas and I am going to hold to my New Year’s Resolutions (how are you doing with yours by the way?) and enforce a deload period on myself. I can’t quite bring myself to do a full week (!) but I’ll have a go at deloading quite hard on the Tuesday and Thursdays.

My goals

For what it is worth, my current goals are:

a double bodyweight pull up;
a 2.5x bodyweight conventional deadlift; and
bench 100kg (220lbs).

Progress so far and notes

Bench - really easy again this week. I have no idea what is happening but everything is still going up nice and easily and there was something left in the tank at the end for an extra rep on the last set. I’ll just nail 90kg (200lbs) for 10 sets of 2 reps this week and then start my max effort programme again in earnest.
Weighted pull ups – OK, if a bit ugly. For my 5RM, I hit 45kg (100lbs) with nose to the bar on the last rep so 46.25kg (102lbs) should be on the cards this week. In the past, I’ve been good for 6.25kg per rep, so that puts me at 70kg 1RM at the moment with a bodyweight of 80kg. So in terms of pure pulling strength, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before, with an estimated total of 150kg. In terms of percentage bodyweight, I’m a bit down on the summer when I was pulling 70kg at a bodyweight of 72.5kg, for a total of 142.5kg.
Deadlifts – what can I say? Lifting 165kg for 10 sets of 1 rep on 1minute 30s was possibly one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. I am writing this about an hour after completing them and I still feel nauseous. I’m going to try and break through the 170kg barrier by working up to a 175kg (385lbs) single this week. Sooner or later, it’s going to start moving but it’s getting really frustrating in the meantime! After this week, I’m going to try a 3-week sumo cycle to see if that has any effect.

Deload strategy

I’m definitely ready for some time doing something a little easier and a bit different. I find the straight sets quite hard on the mind compared with max effort work.

To keep my brain amused, I’m going to have a go at a couple of exercises that I haven’t really done that much before:

Zercher squat – now that I have a fat bar, I will try and learn how to do zerchers. This is partly because of my recent inclinations towards strongman types of training and partly because there aren’t many types of two-legged squat I can do successfully. Learning the zercher properly will double that number…
Floor press – I tried this a while back and couldn’t get my head around it. I’m going to have another go and perhaps use bricks to hold the bar up at the right height for my elbows. I like the idea of being able to use heavier weights than for a normal bench press but I need to get the technique down first. I might use my new fat bar if I can.
Hip thrust – I’ve been doing glute bridges for a while and I think I need to change things about a bit. So I’m going to switch my glute bridges for hip thrusts in my next cycle. Having not really done them before, I thought I’d try them out in my deload week first.

Without further ado, here is the workout plan

Saturday – Upper (max)

Exercise	Weight	Sets	Reps	Rest	Detail
Bench	90kg	10	2	1min30	-
Pull up	46.25kg	3	5	3mins	Work up
RDL	110kg	10	5	1min30	-
Hanging leg raise	5kg	3	3	3mins	Work up

Sunday – Lower (max) and partial deload

Exercise	Weight	Sets	Reps	Rest	Detail
Deadlift on 2” plates	175kg	3	1	3mins	Work up
Hip thrusts	50kg	5	5	1min	-
Glute ham raises	Blue	5	5	1min	-
-	-	-	-	-	-

Tuesday – Deload

Exercise	Weight	Sets	Reps	Rest	Detail
Zercher squat	50kg	5	5	1min30	-
Inverted row	-	5	5	1min30	-
Floor press	70kg	5	5	1min30	-
-	-	-	-	-	-

Thursday – Deload

Exercise	Weight	Sets	Reps	Rest	Detail
Zercher squat	50kg	5	5	1min30	-
Inverted row	-	5	5	1min30	-
Floor press	70kg	5	5	1min30	-
	-	-	-	-	-

The Garage Gym Online