This session was focused on my dead lift technique, which at the moment is bad! When I do dead lifts, I end up hunching over, and I can feel it pulling my lower back.
I need to remember... to spread my legs wide with my toes pointing out, bar to the legs, bend down, straight back, bum out, breathe in when you do the lift, (this helps to tense your stomach and engage your core muscles), pull - using your legs and push through the heels.
It was interesting as we did this, as mentally you want to lift the weight so much and you’re thinking motivational thoughts like, "you can lift this", "your strong!" but your muscles don’t/won’t to work! To lift the weight, when your leg muscles aren’t responding, you can end up changing your posture and your body will try to use other muscles such as your back to lift the weight up. This is when your technique goes to pot.
One thing he noticed was my gluts were giving out first, so we were going to start focusing in on building strength in these areas. By building up these muscles, I’ll be able to lift heavier weights.
One of the things I’ve noticed with weight lifting is how impatient I am. I struggle with the waiting in-between sets. My personality is such; I just want to get on and do it and do it right now. But what I’m learning is, if you give it a few minutes, you’ll be able to perform better in the next set. Rest and recovery are so important - It’s teaching me an invaluable lesson about patience!
Weight lifting takes practice, persistence, and regular sessions to improve, it’s not something, you can just do and be amazing at. You have to train, you have to build a solid fountain, you won’t be able to lift big weights, without hurting yourself unless you have the technique and knowledge on how to position yourself. It’s an interesting sport I can see why people do it, it does become addictive, as you’re able to monitor and see progression.
I know my dream of being able to do an unassisted pull up, is a strange one, and I was disappointed when Scooby said he thinks by the end of eight weeks I’ll only be able to do one. Now I understand why….
10 stone = 140 kilo, and trying to do that with just your arms is a big ask. But like anything you want to achieve, build a good foundation, get strong, practice, persevere, have the goal in mind, and keep taking steps towards it. What I’m doing here, every day, whether going to the gym or resting and recovering. Watching and recording what I eat, avoiding alcohol and recording my measurement and weight every day, this is all helping me to get to where I want to go.
I’m think I’m going to struggle watching my weigh go up. Ten stone is a psychological number for me; it’s what I’ve been trying to get to for years. I was ten stone, about five years ago and everyone said how amazing I looked. Now I’m so close. Ten stone one and I’ve got to eat more food!! Ahhhh I want to hit the ten stone and go slightly under, ok nine stone fourteen lbs! Not going to lie, it would be incredible! But the key thing I need to remember is I’m getting stronger and I’m going to look in the best shape of my life in a few weeks.
I can’t believe I’m already starting my second week. It’s true what they say, time goes by whether you want it to or not!
Session Details
· Dead lifts started off at 40 kg and moved up to 50 kg then added another 2.5 kg each side to take it to 55Kg. But I couldn’t lift the 55 kg. Back down to 50 kg, were we did sets of 3 reps until I couldn’t do it anymore.
· I placed the red elastic band around my knees. Sitting with my legs apart and holding that position for as long as possible. I though this would be easy - I’ll be sat here for a few minutes, nope ten seconds later my legs were quivering and I had to bring it in. We then started doing sets of five. Hold it for five seconds, release and do it again.
· Pull ups. First set was seven using the purple and red band. Next set, just the purple band, for six, rest then four, rest then another four.
· Using the dumb bells, lying on the bench, DB rolls, started with 10 kg, then increased to 12.5 kg. 15 reps, then onto shoulder raises, used smaller weights, started with 5 kg, but I wasn’t able to get my arms all the way back, for the next set, dropped the weight down to 4 kg, which was much better, form stayed for the first seven or so and then gradually got less and less. Towards the end, I was trying to use other muscles to lift the weights. (Sets of 10)
Progression Photos
Front
Back
Side
