What a week! This was one of the hardest personal training sessions I’ve ever done. My legs and arms were shaking during the work out and that evening my muscles were burning, they were on fire. I’ve never felt that intense sensation before. It’s almost a nice pain! I know that sounds strange, but you feel as though you’ve worked really hard and this is what it’s all about.
· Sumo dead lifts
We started with 40 kg to warm up, just doing a few reps to get the blood flowing. Skooby then started to increase the weight after each rep. 45 kg, 50 kg, 55 kg, 60 kg, 65 kg, 70 kg. I was only doing one rep at each increased weight and having a rest in-between. My technique felt strong all the way through and I was delighted to lift the 70 kg and do a new personal best. 70 kg is about 11 stone, which is more than what I weight!
After lifting the 70 kg, we then dropped the weight back down to 50 kg and did 5 sets of 5.
· Pull ups, walking lunges & seated DB press
I’m still using the purple band to provide extra support when I do pull ups. We did five sets of six reps. The good thing is I can feel myself getting quicker and stronger at doing the movement. We alternated each set with weighted (12.5 kg) walking lunges across the room, and seated dumb bell presses. For the dumb bell presses I was using 7.5 kg weights aiming to do fifteen reps which I just about managed to do on the first set.
We continued with the pull ups, walking lunges and seated dumb bell presses for five sets and by the last few sets, my arms were struggling with the DB press. Instead of fifteen reps, it was only ten and then on the final set, I could only manage eight and that was a massive struggle.
My workout was not over yet. I still had kettle bell swings and TRX pulls to go!
· Kettle bell swings with TRX floor pulls
3 sets of 15 kettle bell swings (16kg) followed by 5 TRX floor pulls (lying horizontal on the floor - the more horizontal you are the harder it makes it).
I was really pleased on the kettle swing that I started with the 16 kg for the first set, I then had to drop it down to 12 kg for the second but in the final round I went back up to 16 kg. I wish I’d stuck with 16 kg through all of the rounds. Next time!
This was a hard core session; even as I sit and type this my arms are throbbing as are my legs. Let the rest and recovery begin. But no pain – no gains!