9/100 - a very gymmy day

And so it came to pass that, due to my being a bit of a dozey-arse in the whole Planning and Organisation aspects of life, today I started the day with a pre-work one hour personal training session, and finished the day with a post-work two-hour gym session with a powerlifter who competes at a national level. Umm... Okay... This is new...

The session this morning was a great mixed session, focusing perhaps more on upper body; things like bench press, dumbbell press and flys, incline press-ups, plank-walk-ups, and battle ropes, but including a bit of cardio on the stepper machine to finish. The bench pressing was fab - I knew I'd lifted a couple of sets of 8 reps at 25kgs when I was working out with Paula on my hols, but remember, as far as I was concerned my best ever bench press was a couple of years ago when I managed two reps at 30kgs. Today, I lifted a couple of steady sets at 20kgs, 25kgs, and 8 at 27.5kgs, then the bar went up to 30kgs, and I managed 5 full reps!!! PB! *happy dance* - We stopped there, perhaps because I was happy with that, and perhaps because Ben knew there were further plans in store for my shoulders over the rest of the hour. Also, my form wasn't ideal, I bend my wrists a bit too much, and need to focus on that, which is definitely something I will work on. Great session though.

My timetabling rubbishness meant that as soon as I finished work at about 5:15pm I was off down to the office gym, to meet a lass I'd not met before. I had reached out at work for a potential workout partner, as I really realised that now I'm final starting to get in the gym more, I need to be a bit more consistent and structured with when I go and what I do, and having a little bit of accountability that comes from having plans to meet someone in the gym, would work for me. I mentioned I largely did functional training and weight training, and got a reply from a girl who focuses on powerlifting. So, after I had done a bit of a warm-up on the treadmill and stationary bike, we met up tonight in the office gym... And it turns out she competes for Scotland, and can squat the combined weight of me and an average sized Labrador dog. And I'm not exactly a feather... HAHAHAHA!! I was a little starstruck, I think, watching her carry out her training squats, deadlifts, bench presses, chin ups, and dumbbell rows. We did squats at the double rack together, and the differences between the depth of her squat and mine was glaring. We spoke for a bit about deepening my squat, and she gave me some tips etc. that I can definitely work on. She kept adding weight to the bars, but I decided to stick at 30kgs and just focus on the depth rather than the weight. It's lighter than I would normally lift, but I think tonight it was right to focus on the depth. I did 4 sets with the bar, and probably another 2 or 3 full sets of body weight squats, or ones holding a kettlebell to my chest. By now she had moved on to her deadlifts (omg wow) but I decided I would just do some more squats and really call it a bit of a day - I was feeling the morning's session a little, and didn't want to go mad. When she got to her bench presses, she asked me to help her lift the bar safely, so I helped lift the 55kg bar into position (I think probably close to my one rep max on deadlifts, and there she is benching it!! for training!!) and watched her do her sets. She's liftimg heavy weights so she might do, say, 3 sets of 2 reps. Lower reps, higher weight.

In between her sets, we chatted a little, and she chatted to other guys using the weights, and I just sat and listened, lol. I'm hoping I didn't come across as a bit of a fangirl, but - as with the ultrarunners or speedy 5k-ers I hang around with from time to time - I just love listening to 'normal' people who are passionate about their sport, and especially those competing at a high level.

My plan is to work out with her once a week, and I think having a proper structure around my training week will do me wonders. Ben has written me a training programme for lower body, upper body, and circuits, so I'll start building my week properly around the gym, and see where I go from there. I already beat ONE personal best today, the rest are there for the beating.... (I really must start writing this shit down...) x