Week comencing 21st Jan 08

Hello everybody(?) Welcome to my blog! Being a Personal Trainer, i thought it would be nice for my current and prospective clients to get an insight into my own training regime (and a little bit of life thrown in) , so anyone who is interested can see that although i do expect great effort and constant improvements from my clients, i expect the same from myself. But i am not a whip wielding ogre, i am a nice person really!



So here it is. My first entry in a diary to rival the greatest memoirs of our time, Anne Frank, Bridget Jones, Adrian Mole etc. This is my current regime;



MONDAY-BACK

WEIGHTED WIDE GRIP CHINS-15kg/13reps, 15kg/10reps

DEADLIFT-140kg/8reps, 140kg/6reps, 175kg/1rep

BARBELL ROW-90kg/15reps, 90kg/12reps

LOW PULLEY ROW-70kg/8reps, 70kg/6reps



TUESDAY-CHEST

BENCH PRESS-100kg/8reps, 100kg/6reps, 105kg/2reps

INCLINE BENCH PRESS-80kg/9reps, 80kg/8reps

WEIGHTED DIPS-30kg/10reps, 30kg/9reps



THURSDAY-LEGS

SQUAT-8 sets/3reps, 50% of max=60kg (explained below)

FRONT SQUAT-60/20, 70/20, 90/3, 100/3, 110/3, 120/3

ROMANIAN DEADLIFT-90kg/12reps, 90kg/10reps



FRIDAY-SHOULDERS&ARMS

SEATED DUMBELL SHOULDER PRESS-27kg/8reps, 27kg/8reps

LATERAL RAISE-15kg/10reps, 15kg/9reps

REVERSE FLY-supersetted with the above for 12-15 reps

BARBELL CURL-40kg/12reps, 45kg/8reps, 50kg/5reps

CLOSE GRIP BENCH PRESS-80kg/12reps, 80kg/10reps



The big compound movements (squat, bench, deadlift), always remain the main focus of any strength/powerlifting routine, but never neglect assistance exercises. By assistance, i mean the exercises that will help the major lifts, by strengthening the muscle groups involved in these lifts. For example, dips and close grip bench will assist progress in the bench press, good mornings, romanian deadlift and lots of abdominal work (amongst others) will assist deadlift and squat etc.

Over the next couple of weeks i'll begin a bonafide power lifting routine, utilising 50% speed training in the squat and bench press, this is where you use half of your maximum weight and lift it 3 times as fast as you can. safely! Each 3 rep set should take the same amount of time as a maximum 1 rep lift. Speed=Power baby! Plus your joints will last because of the lighter weights involved.
But you cannot forget the assistance exercises like good mornings, partial bench and deadlift, all of which get very heavy and require care when performing. One last thing, when using 50% training you ideally need chains, two of them to secure to each end of the bar, 5-6 foot in length and weighing 15-20 kg each. The reason for this is when your standing (squatting), you are supporting an extra 30ish kg more than your 50%, but as you squat down the bars weight decreases, and as you power up total bar weight increases again, thus offering more resistance in the stronger portion of the movement and less in the weaker. It's a very effective training system for building strength, and although not a bodybuilding routine, will put muscle on you too. Where there is strength, muscle is never far behind!
I'm gonna do some training footage this week, that is if my training partner Ben gets off his lazy arse and actually does some training! Better not say too much, he'll come at me like a confused sailor from the future, he'll be like 'ooh what year is it, where am i, where is my sonic jet boat?'
Enough. Later, Nick.

Introduction

This blog will act as my training log and will be updated every week.