Training has been going ok, if not spectacularly well since the New Year.
One of the adjustments I have made is the time I train. When I was living in Geneva, my apartment was just a 10 minute bike ride from my office. That was not only very convenient, but it allowed me to train during my lunch hour. For me this is always the best time to train because it is when my energy levels are the highest.
Since I moved outside of Geneva I can no longer train at around midday. Instead I have been going to the gym either early morning (at 7:00) or training after I have finished coaching in the evening, either at 20:00 or 21:00.
To be honest I would prefer not to train either early in the morning or late at night, but I would rather do that than not train at all and hopefully I will adapt in the coming weeks so my energy levels can increase.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m really focussing on my strength levels and I’m doing maximum effort strength workouts three to four times per week, supplemented with short (six to eight minute) metabolic conditioning workouts with a strength bias. I have used www.crossfitfootball.com to find some inspiration with regards to the metcon workouts.
The strength workouts rotate around the push press, front squat, deadlift and power clean. I am using the 5/3/1 template which was made famous by Jim Wendler from Elitefts.
I really enjoy this type of training and I hope that in the coming months it will pay dividends with some nice linear strength gains.
Here is a video I shot recently of one of the metcon workouts. Unfortunately my mobility is still very poor and I daren’t deadlift from the ground yet, hence the reduced range of motion deads in the video.
The workout was as follows:
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of
1 deadlift at 5 rep max
1 strict pull-up
3 deadlifts at 5 rep max
3 strict pull-ups
5 deadlifts at 5 rep max
5 strict pull-ups
I went a little bit shy of the 5 rep max on the deadlifts as I had never done a workout like this before and wanted to ease into it slowly. My 5 rep max is around 120kgs but I opted for 100kgs instead. I finished with six rounds in 20 minutes.
