Oh my aching (in a good way) Back

Thursday marks my last resistance training day for the week at Physique Essentials.

Today the concentration is on the back. Traditionally the back day is not my favourite however I will admit I was looking forward to today because I knew there were more exercise changes ahead (as they say a change is as good as a holiday)

We started off in the normal fashion, assisted pull ups. Over the time I have improved on these, a little, and I certainly feel stronger in my back however they remain one of my least favourite exercises.

This was followed by wide grip pull downs which honestly I didn't mind, although I could certainly feel it in my back (even more so a day later as I write this).

Seated Cable Row then followed and I will admit that although these exercises are concentrating on the back I was feeling it in my forearms. At the end of the second set it was obvious that I had nothing left in me as the handle virtually flew out of my hands.

Prior to this new program part of my session included Barbell curls which I will readily admit I was NOT good at. This time around Josh has changed it up and we are doing dumbbell curls. Now every time I ever went to the gym I used to snigger at those people who would grab dumbbells and grunt and groan while watching themselves in the mirror........ Well I'm now one of those people.....

For a warm up, started off fairly light on the dumbbells and got through them OK. Then for the first work set we upped the weight by 2.5kgs on each side and boy did I feel it! I struggled through what I could of the set.

After a rest Josh got the 'workout bling' out (the wrist weights that add approximately a kilo) and I was thinking "Is he mad??? I could barely lift the last lot". He laughed at me as he assured me that we were dropping back in weight.......

I would love to say that I powered through the next set but that would just be a big fat lie. I should point out at this stage that Josh has an 'interesting' counting method. As I was nearing the 5th rep and starting to struggle a little he says,

"We are only doing 5", and the 5th rep finishes and he says keep going.
"We just need to get to 7", and the 7th rep slowly but surely passes.
And so it goes until I almost complete rep 10 (my forearm started stinging for some reason)

Now I pick on him for his counting ability however I will admit it helps encourage you. There seems to be a mental trigger where if you THINK it's the last rep somehow you have more power. It's weird

Oh and on the other side of things Josh does have an uncanny ability to keep track of the rep count even while talking and doing other unrelated things.

After the curls it was ab time. Josh disappeared around the corner and I prayed that he wasn't looking for the wheel............
time passes......
.....

He re-emerges with no Wheel (silent cheer). Instead it is plank time. When I started with Josh I could barely do 15 secs of the plank on my knees. Now we were doing 30 secs on toes. After a false start on the first one (not easy maintaining the plank position when laughing) I managed the 30 secs and then Josh informs me that we are doing the side plank (NOOOOOOooooo...)

It's actually not that bad :)

So that ends the run down of my training week. I won't necessarily blog every single day or every single training session. This weak I did simply to set the groundwork for the next 12 weeks. I will blog when significant things happen and will pop in every now and then for an update however I don't want to bore the one or two readers I might have.

Oh and on the nutrition front still travelling well (although I've still got to sort breakfast out :S)

Signing off....... take care, stay active, eat well and be healthy