We had a practice run with Workout B tonight...oh boy!
We started with our usual 5 min warm up run on the treadmill. My training partner/brother-in-law had to warm up on the bike instead, as, true to form, only one of the three treadmills was working tonight.
There was someone on the squat rack when we had warmed up. As this was only a practice, we weren't bothered about having to change the order of exercises and went on to oh presses. It is often the case though that people use the squat rack to stand at when doing all manner of exercises, most of which do not need to be done there at all. Tonight's chap was doing barbell curls and looking in the mirror at the back of the squat rack while doing them.
We managed to do 5x5 with the bar on OHP, fairly easily. I instructed my bro on form to the best of my knowledge!
Then I asked the guy from the squat rack if he would be done soon and he was done, so moved off for us.
We did squats with the bar, 5x5 again, trying to watch our form. I noticed on a couple of sets that I looked a bit unbalanced, like the bar was further forward on one side than the other. I'll have to watch that. Managed to feel the strain in my hams and glutes on many of the reps and not so much on others, so will try to improve form with time.
Next we tried deadlifts. We used a 20kg plate at each end, laid flat on the floor to raise the bar, which had 2 10kg plates loaded onto it, as per the SL5x5 ebook. I still think it needed raising further, as the bar was at 'upper ankle' height, rather than 'mid shin' height. May need to stack up more plates on the floor next time. I noticed my bro was rounding his back a bit, especially on the way down and the low bar height may have contributed. We both did 1x5 ok.
Next we had to try to find somewhere (anywhere!) to do chin ups. We managed to get one of the smith machines onto it's highest setting and by bending our knees, we just managed to hang without touching the floor. That was the easy bit! I hung there, then pulled myself up and as my chin passed the bar, my right bicep twinged quite painfully - not too badly though, maybe a 5 out of 10 on the pain scale! My bro is heavier than I so he didn't manage to move his weight up more than an inch or two. We decided then to do some negatives instead. We used a bench to get into the 'up position', then slowly lowered ourselves back to earth. Did 3 of these before moving on, both with sore biceps!
We then both managed 3x30secs Prone Bridges, although I didn't find these too hard, my body did start to shake for the last few seconds of each set!
We are starting for real next Tuesday, making sure we do the exercises in order, using starting weights again. I intend to take my measurements and
possibly take a photo of myself in my pants(!!) on Sunday, when the pump from today's session has calmed down and I am at my natural unpumped best
Take care,
Mark
