After weeks of toying with weights and tip toeing around any real 1RM’s, today I finally went for it.
The road has been a long one…..7 and a half months to be precise, I now and only after some careful weight selection and steady strength work have my mid-section felt up to some heavy weights.
So what was it????
It was a Back Squat.
Not my best move pre-pregnancy with a Pb (personal best) of only 70Kg.
I tend to have a high bar position across my shoulders which mean my squat is heavily depending on my quads. A lower position on the other hand lends more help from the glutes and hams. I think it comes down to a personal choice as I have never been fond of a low bar, it’s up to you.
I always start with a first set of 5 with just a naked bar (thats 20Kg) With 70Kg in mind I quickly whack on 40Kg for 5 reps and then 60Kg for 3 and then 65Kg for 1.
65 felt good so I bumped it up to 70. Again no problem. I was happy I had reached an old target and started to feel maybe I should leave it there.
Thanks Chris for the encouragement!
A little voice from the other rack (namely Chris) said no way just pop the little 1.25′s on.
I came this far I may as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wouldn’t say it was an easy 1RM but I think maybe I could have squeezed, even if it was just a .5Kg more on top. Hey next time at least I will have somewhere to go with the bar.
I felt pretty cuffed with myself after that and steamed through 3 sets of 15 deadlifts with 47.5Kg on the bar.
We then finished with some clean high pull practise. It’s been a while since I have done some of these. It took a while for my co-ordination to come back but I got there, for 4 sets of 3.
Clean Pulls
As a side note a friend of mine Andreea has expressed her boredom at her usual weight routine and has found some inspiration in the training Chris and I are doing.
For Andreea and anyone else using my posts as a training guide I want to mention (hopefully this is obvious??) that the amount of weight I personally lift is no indication of what you should look to lift. For anyone beginning a weight lifting routine I suggest you ask for some guidance from either myself or a trainer in your gym as weights need to be skill and ability specific.
You can email me for advice at sally@crossfitlondonuk.com
For a look at the class programmed at my Monday night Crossfit class just click.
Sally Dixey is a Crossfit London Coach
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