Train Now, Live Later

Body by Science Session 19: Back Rest Angle Affects Leg Press Significantly

2009-11-08T07:12:00.004Z

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 3rd November

19th BBS Big 5 session:

Session 20

*Session 19*

Session 18

Session 17

Session 16

Session 15

Session 14

Session 13

Session 12

Session 11

Session 10

Session 9

Session 8

Session 7

Session 6

Session 5

Session 4

Session 3

Session 2

Session 1

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Pull Down

155

1:42

155

1:50

155

1:43

155

1:45

155

1:48

155

1:55

155

1:51

155

1:49

150

2:13

150

1:51

Seated Row

120

1:44

120

1:42

115

2:02

115

1:56

115

1:31

110

2:02

100

2:15

3:08

Overhead Press

1:35

1:39

1:32

1:43

1:50

1:36

1:44

1:48

1:38

1:36

Chest Press

1:37

1:52

1:39

2:01

1:39

100

1:11

100

1:17

1:28

Seated Row

105

1:46

105

1:30

105

1:26

105

1:42

105

1:48

105

1:48

105

1:39

105

1:38

110

1:29

120

1:04

Pull Down

145

1:56

145

1:46

140

2:09

135

2:11

130

2:15

130

1:56

125

2:15

110

2:26

Chest Press

1:21

1:15

1:24

1:19

1:20

1:32 *

1:14

(1:10)

1:13

1:03

Overhead Press

1:33

1:28

1:37

1:49

1:37

1:38

1:44

80, 70

0:35, 0:25

Leg Press

340

2:15

340

0:55

340

1:33

330

2:19

330

1:42

330

1:33

320

2:14

320

Leg Press

310

2:30

300

2:01

290

3:24

280

2:12

260

250

3:02

230, 270

4.31

200

2:57

Total Time

12 mins

10 mins

11 mins

9 mins

11 mins

3 mins

8 mins

11 mins

14 mins

10 mins

25 mins

14 mins

25 mins

22 mins

28 mins

27 mins

Rest period

11 days

7 days

9 days

13 days

14 days (8 for legs)

20 days (for legs)

7 days

8 days

9 days

11 days

6 days

8 days

7 days

8 days

Notes

Rope climbing may have affected pull downs, leg press improvement may be limked to back rest position. Still in calorie deficit.

Low sleep & low calorie week & only seven days rest. Yet no other exercise between. Leg press first rep burned me out: maybe seat position wrong.

Running at the weekend, swimming on Tuesday and bad sleep may have eroded benefits of longer, 9-day rest. Could have done more on legs but demoralisation set in.

No leg due to recent fell face and another on saturday. snagnation across the board. Fatigue from race? Rest period too long? Calorie deficit?

In spite of alcoholic weekend, some good progress. Could legs have benefited from the weekend laziness? Chest is blue because it's the best time on the correct machine.

Leg press only this week due to recently skipping it - but no upper body because seeking longer rest period overall. Full session next week.

No leg press because recovering from race. *Chest press not on ususal machine so may have affected time. Still feel like stagnation rules.

No leg press because race on Sat. Stagnation on all exercises suggests 7 days rest no enough. Or not enough calories?

Finally got that 4th rep with OH press. Because the chest press was in use, did leg press before chest and chest press on a different machine.

Lack of progress in pressing is mitigated by pulldown and leg success. Overhead felt better even tho TUL static

Less rest and a change in exercise order threw timings into disarray. Surprised by Overhead Press not being better

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.

Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering.

Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps.

First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.

No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.

Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.

Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.

Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.

"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red = worse than last week
Blue = best time ever on that weight
Black = weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: 6 scrambled organic, fre-range eggs + chopped apple & cinnamon, 45 minutes later.

I was still alternate-day fasting leading up to this session and still working towards the goal of 11% fat, so I remain in calorie deficit.

I was not surprised by the slightly poorer performance on Pull Downs because I got carried away with rope climbing when on holiday between sessions. These were the videos (here and here) of the rope climbing. Shoulder Press, as ever, frustrates.

Paradoxically, since it's still a pulling exercise, I felt quite strong on Seated Row, securing close to my best TUL for that weight. I also came close to my best time for Chest Press.

None of this is cause for celebration because I am supposed to be progressing: but my thinking is that I am treading water in readiness for the increase in calories when I hit 11% fat. If I start messing around with exercise order or movement speed or intensity level at this point then it will be harder to judge the affect of the increase in calories.

Leg Press, on the other hand, may be a cause for celebration. Last session my TUL was under a minute because (I felt) the back rest was too vertical, making it very hard to get the first rep out. This time, I deliberately moved it back to a more reclined position and for the same weight my TUL was over 2 minutes. This is the one setting I had not been recording and I suspect it makes a big difference. I have now noted its position and will use that from now on.

However, since I have just come out of knee surgery, which requires me to wear a splint for 6 weeks, it will be a while before I do leg press again. Needless to say, I will continue with the other exercises in the meantime.

Hikes, Rope Climbing & Log Throwing in the Pyrenees

2009-11-02T11:50:00.003Z

We have just returned from another week in the Pyrenees, during which we enjoyed fabulous weather for the time of year. We stayed at the same place as we did in July, when I did some swims, sprints and hikes .

This time it was a working holiday - we were looking after the animals who also live at the place where we stay. You can read more about that in this post on Pay Now Live Later.

During the breaks between animal duties, Mrs M and I did two good hikes and I did some rope climbing, log throwing and sprinting, which were captured on video.

Walk 1

We walked from the Col de Soulor to the Lac de Soum and back (Google map satellite pic.) This did not involve more than a couple of hundred metres of elevation, but was a good warm up for the holiday, nevertheless. We were walking for about 2 hours.

This is a shot of the valley from the first part of the walk followed by a view (I think) over to the plain beyond the Pyrenees to the West . We encountered these horses on our travels: (they were not wild - they had bells on.) Here are a couple of further photos from the walk - an impressive rock field between the path and a ridge and an arty one of me waiting for Mrs M .

Rope Climbing

The next day I did some rope climbing. The video of this is shown in the newly added rope-climbing exercise post. I did this a few times during the day, more as play than as a workout - the swing in the video is located in the grounds of the apartment, so it was difficult to resist regularly using it because I don't have equipment like this at home or in my gym.

Walk 2 + Impromptu Hill Sprint

Later in the week we did another hike starting from the Col du Soulor, this time heading South. We ascended a few hundred metres then walked along a ridge (you can see this on the same Google map) in the foothills of a much larger peak, then descending to return to the starting point.

I did some gratuitous ridge scrambling at one point (this was actually quite narrow and Mrs M was not keen on the idea, so she stuck to photo duty) . There was a pleasant stream running through a gully we later passed across: , and once again we met some horses: .

On the way back I spotted a short but steep grassy slope that looked perfect for a one-off all-out dash. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was steep. I managed about two thirds at a full run before the steep gradient started to induce leg jelly, at which point I just hiked as fast as I could. It took about two minutes and was probably at about 80% max speed.

We were walking for about 2 hours.

When we got back, I captured this superb shot of the autumn colours from close to our apartment:

Throw, Sprint, Climb

Inspired by the rope climbing earlier in the week and looking for something to give me an all-round workout, I hit on the idea of a sequence of movements that involved all the major muscle groups and somehow made sense as a Primal/Paleo exercise. The result was a log throw, a sprint and rope climb - there is a video of it in the Throw, Sprint and Climb exercise post.

There is a hot tub at the apartments: . However, when this has not been heated in preparation, this is a very coooold tub. I did a couple of plunges into this after the workout .

Nutrition

I was fasting on some of the days, so there was not always post-workout nutrition; and I can't remember which meals were after which workout... but since the workouts were always in the morning, here are the breakfasts and lunches I took photos of: .

Those who follow me on Twitter will be familiar with the usual egg and tinned fish-focused fayre - convenience at the expense of variety.

That said, you can also see the last breakfast was leftover lamb steak and fried eggs - very tasty and a welcome departure from habit.

Body by Science Session 18: Maintenance amid Less Sleep, Less Food, Less Rest

2009-10-23T18:37:00.005+01:00

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 23th October

18th BBS Big 5 session:

Session 19

*Session 18*