What does the rating mean?


Lovely uppers session this morning. Ended up waiting nearly 15 minutes for the bench as some PT to took his sweet time bringing his client back and forth between the bench and something else at the other side of the gym.

Bench: 85 x5,5,5,4+1,4+1
Incline bench: 65 x8,8,8
Pendlay row: 60 x10,10,10
Seated cable row: 39 x12,12,12
Incline machine press: 40 x12,12,12
Peck deck / read delt flies


I reckon I'd have got the 5x5 on the bench in my normal gym. I don't like the bars or set-up in the place I'm using at the moment.

Its the stroke rate per minute. Its the number in the top right of the screen.



Doing a 2km test you will be going flat out rating 28/30+ strokes a minute

Endurance pieces you will rate lower

Ah, gotcha. I thought it some sort of quantitative scoring/grading of your effort, not just the rate.

Good heavy lower session this morning.

Felt pretty poor to start with. Groin on both sides didn't feel great. Left one was pinching on the concentric movement, and the right one was just tight and a bit sore. Loosened up eventually, though.

Squat: 135x2,2,2, 140x1,1,1, 130x5
DL: 170x1, 180x1, 185x1
Hip thrusts: 150 x10, 3 sets
Ab work


Happy with that top DL, haven't pushed past 180 in a long time. Shoulders a bit sloped, but felt OK.
I bought smelling salts with my belt for the craic. Gave them a go this morning cuz I wasn't buzzed enough. Holy shit, they smell bad, but they do the trick.

I did a hilly off road half marathon yesterday. My back and hip flexors are absolutely singing today with every movement

2:18 which is a long way off what I would expect at a "normal" half marathon

Had a great time - I love running off-road and this one was proper muddy and had lots of stream crossings and great scenery

A friend of mine did the Box Hill Fell Race over the weekend. I looked at the profile on his Strava and just though 'fudge that'.

Saw that on strava, thought the course looked pretty cool.

Had an oopsie moment this morning. Was trying out my belt for heavy benching, just to see if it made any difference.

On my fourth set I failed and the safety bars are just below my chest height as the next setting up is too high. Normally if I bail I can hollow my stomach a bit to let the bar reach the pins and then I can sit up.
This time, of course, my belt was in the way and I got stuck for a moment. Heaved the bar over the edge of the belt and sat up, but I managed to pinch a roll of fat between the bar and the belt on the way. Now I've two lovely bruises right at the base of my rib cage on each side.
Needless to say, I didn't wear the belt for the sets following that.

The belt didn't even noticeably help. Thankfully I don't think I was caught on camera.

Bench: 95 x2,2,2,1+1,2, 85 x5,5,5
Pull up@ +10 x5, 3 sets
OHP: 60x3, 65x2,2
Pendlay row: 70 x6, 3 sets
Cable pullovers: 22.5 x12, 4 sets

Anyone with experience of Huel? I’m thinking of using it to replace lunch.

I'll be honest, I was expecting to hear you'd sharted at the bottom of a squat.

Good session for me last night, strength seems to be coming back even with only 2 strength based sessions a week.

Bench
1x5 122

Safety bar squats
1x5 140
5x5 112

Db rows
3x12 35

Curls

Last week I had serious gas during a squat session. Was farting away merrily at the bottom of each rep. Bit risky, TBH.
There was a girl on the platform beside me being shown how to do DLs by a PT. I had headphones on so was blissfully unaware of how loud I might have been.

Taken up MMA and Submission Art Wrestling at 55 and a break of a few years from martial arts training. Need a lit of work on flexibility for shrimping etc. Cardio held up a lot better than I deserved too.

Great session this morning. Had a good sleep and got my head right for some heavy lifting. Also tightened my belt by a notch, Christmas bloat has definitely come down.

Squat: 140x3, 5 sets
DL: 180x1, 190x1, 1
Hip thrusts: 150 x10, 3 sets
Ab work

Took two hours with decent breaks between each set, but they all felt good apart from the last DL, which was horrible. Don't think I'll push that hard on DLs again for a while, wouldn't be healthy to do that too often. Was more an exercise in stubbornness than good lifting form.
First time I've shifted 190 in a couple of years. Can feel myself equalling that lifetime PR of 200 sometime soon.

Edit for youtubez of the main lifts. That last DL really was awful.

A bloke I’m training has put 70lbs on his bench in 10 weeks. I’m pretty happy with that.

Bench: 95x2, 97.5x1, 100x1, 102,x1,1, fail 102.5, 85 x5,5,3
Pull ups: +10 x6,6,6
OHP: 60x3, 65x3, 77.5x1, 70x1, fail 75
Pendlay row: 70x6,6,6

Lifetime PR on the bench; two singles at 102kg.
Absolutely smoked the 70kg OHP and got greedy going for 75. PR is 72.5. Form was off for the attempted 75 and I didn't both going for it a second time.

Nolanator thats great effort .

Mr Flaps your trainee must be stoked.

Got a belt and wrist straps and tried them out there the other day. I'll need to play around with the belt a bit to find the best position but it definitely helped with squats and deads. The wrist straps for deads were an absolute game-changer, my grip is usually the first thing to go but I was able to pull more than I have in months and hold it at the top comfortably for 10 seconds.

They're an absolute game changer for any DL variation. I even use them for high volume RDLs which I do at a considerably lower weight than my grip limit. Holding a moderate weight for 8+ reps is tough and my form goes to shit. With the wraps it really allows me to focus on the right bits of my doing the work.

I'm loving my belt. I'm fairly certain that my squat has improved in the space of a month simply because I'm bracing better through the reps and making sure that I'm driving cleanly up out of the hole.

Are there any gym exercises anyone could recommend for improving agility? Rugby days are definitely over and I'm looking to make tennis firsts so need to trim down and increase speed (as much as early middle age allows).

Slight caveat is that the gym is quite busy with classes tying up the floor area and jumping on boxes etc is a bit difficult to manage - I was thinking more of machines, static weights and body weight exercises that would get neglected muscles up to speed.

I'm increasing cardio fitness - mostly bike and cross trainer - in duration and intensity, but have to go easy on rower. I hurt my back quite badly about 5 years ago, disc cleaned up and two nerve roots damaged so my left calf is noticeably weak - this, combined with laziness and life getting in the way has left me quite out of shape as my usual sporting pursuits are out of bounds. This does mean any suggestions are likely to be beneficial.

You won't get agility from static weights, probably the reverse.

Calisthenics (sp?) and plyometric body weight stuff, yes like jumping onto boxes, would be more what you need IMO

Dammit. I'm a member of one of the cheap pay and play gyms and getting floor space is nigh on impossible. I'll look into alternatives.

I assumed that leg presses etc would be helpful in terms of pure strength, am I barking up wrong tree?

In terms of pure strength then yes weights is the way to go (although I'm definitely not your man on that) It was more the agility side I was thinking of. Strength training will give you a base to work from for the other stuff.

You can improve explosive power quite a lot doing banded squats, bench etc. Also things like jump squats, as well as obvious stuff like Olympic lifts and the derivatives. The latter need good coaching, though.
Improved explosive strength will feed into agility, but you still have to learn the movement patterns, co-ordination etc.

The only way to get more nimble on your feet is to practice it. Ladder drills, sprint/change of direction, reaction drills etc will all help a huge amount, without actually directly training explosive strength. Losing weight is also significant.

I thought someone would be along to say I was talking nonsense again Agility is one of those terms that means slightly different things to different people I suppose - In terms of a second row getting off the ground for a lineout compared to a climber or gymnast could all be described as Agile

Nah you're right in that the only way to get better at changing direction, pace, bouncing around the place etc is to actually do it.
Having a good strength and, in particular, power foundation will definitely help.

The co-ordination for the movements can only be learned by doing the movements, though.

Stuff like depth jumps are good for improving reaction times and speed. Set up two boxes/benches a few feet apart. Stand on one and drop down on to the floor between them and then explosively jump up on to the other one, minimising the amount of time your feet are in contact with the floor.
You can take this further and try jump sideways after the "landing" on the floor.

All sorts of ladder shuffle drills will help your foot co-ordination, lightness on your feet, quickness of thought and movement etc.

Other stuff like bouncing on the balls of your feet in the middle of cones in a plus shape. Have a buddy call out left, right, forwards or backwards at random, where you sprint in the indicated direction and then return back to the centre of the plus.


You can make up loads of stuff, but it all has to make you move, so that you can improve how you move.

Edit, another thing could be skipping? In addition to decent aerobic stamina, it'll improve you're bounce on the balls of your feet. It's a nice light and quick movement. Start easy with double hops for each skip and build it up, increasing rope speed, removing the double hop, going for double unders etc.

Watching him trying to be cool about it was hilarious.

Ta for advice - I'll keep going with the weights but will get some movement and bodyweight-based stuff added.

Our gym do a load of different classes, some of which involve jumping type exercises - these are the classes which take up all the floor space. If I can't beat them I might just join them.

Our tennis captain also does some group coaching, one of which is tennis cardio. I'll see what that involves, it might just be intended for yummy mummies but it may have some agility stuff.

I note there's an emphasis on calf strength (getting onto balls of feet) - my injury has weakened my left calf so this should perhaps be a focus. Calf raises combined with some jumping/skipping should get things going.

Is there a circuits class in your gym? That's a good way of getting lots of total body movement and doing it while fatigued. It's one thing being quick on your feet for a few seconds, it's another entirely to do it when you're gassed.

I did circuits in my gym over the summer and really enjoyed it.

They have, slightly awkward times and seems to get booked up quickly but can definitely give that a go at some point.

They've got another class called 'The Blast' which has no more detail but just the name scares me.

They've also got a beginners' session that I might attend to get some advice on squat etc technique and of any useful derivations. Think olympic lifts are outside my comfort zone!

Seems like you've the right idea. Just move more and get used to bouncing around on the balls of your feet. Make a habit of stretching your ankles in the evenings before bed. It'll help. I've started doing that with my groins in the last couple of weeks and it does feel a lot better.

Have a look at ladder drills if you can. Doesn't need to be in the gym. Could be on flagstones outside somewhere. Look up some basic ladder SAQ drills and start them slowly and build up the speed.

Beginner strength intro stuff is only as useful as the person giving it. No harm, I guess.

Full Oly lifts are definitely in the intermediate to advanced stage, IMO. Stuff like push press is much less technical and can still help develop that explosive full body movement.

Just back from the class at the gym, a few bar exercises (shoulder press and bent row for 45 secs intervals) but the bulk were bodyweight and agility - jump squats, rapid step-ups, burpy into jump etc.

Only 30 minutes but no way I could do much more, the bar exercises were pretty easy but the jump squats - done straight after box lunges - were a killer. If nothing else, showed me just how out of shape I've got. Reckon this'll be of more use than pushing weights about though.

Ta for pointers Nolanator

Last night I did a fairly brutal 30 min erg that was (2 mins at full tilt followed by 4 mins at UT1 stroke rate 20) x 5

Finished off with some upper body weights.


Rooooooooar

An erg routine I got from a sports physician some years ago when I was unable to cycle was 90s on/90 rest x2. 60s on/60 rest x10. 30s on/30 rest x4. I did that for a month and my straight 30 min time went up by several hundred metres after a couple of months when I couldn't budge it.

Any time I've done circuits classes I've found the weighted exercises a piece of piss. I'm usually a good bit stronger than you're typical circuits class goer, given that lifting is my main activity.

Sometimes, though, you'd get a series of stations that are killers when done sequentially. Sprints, burpees, squat jumps, skipping, star jumps on a high jump landing mat ( ), etc all one after another. Lungs and legs in ribbons after those.

One time we finished with the Sally up/down challenge for BW squats. The play Moby's Flower and you squat up or down depending on the line of the song. I found it fine to do, but there was a ridiculous burn by the end.

Another one is the Roxanne Burpee challenge. Do a burpee every time they say Roxanne, towards the end it sucks.

Did some light conditioning tonight.

Yoke walks 365lbs 60yards x 5

Sled push 250lbs 60yards x 5

Farmers walk 22lbs 60 yards x 5

KB windmills 44lb 3 x 15

AB wheel 5 sets of 6

4.7kgs lighter than 4 Jan - 16hr IF seems to be working.

Now done two weeks of MMA/grappling which is 2 +hrs Mon - Thu - enjoying it but showing up lack of flexibility and also body weight control. I can easily pick up the 90kg guy but not so fast when it involves moving my fat arse against gravity. Still if I can keep the weight loss up I will find in two months it will come together nicely. Now just wanting to get back into 531.

Agree with your advice on agility (and the foundation of strength for it). Definitely need to throw in unilateral strength work as almost all agility is based on single leg force application. I really like a lot of the stuff Wareing's Parisi Speed School put up on Instagram.

I used my new safety squat bar the other night. I’ve not used one for about 9 months, holy f**king DOMS Batman.