Whats the heaviest weight in your gym?
Is it the 20kg plates, the 50kg dumbells, that fat bloke on the crosstrainer? At Wild Geese, it’s this:
What? It’s only 1.25kg?!?! How can that be the heaviest?!?! We’ve seen you deadlifting a big bar and doing silly things with large kettlebells?!?!
Ok, so maybe it’s no literally the heaviest. But just like the proverbial straw that broke the Camels back, this is the beast that stops the bar from moving..
5 days ago I wrote about the deadlift workout and how proud I was to finally be getting back to strength. Well today I repeated the workout but on the bar I added one of these mo&h$rf?cker’s to each end. On the last lift of the last set, it refused to lockout. I just couldn’t hold it long enough and the hip wouldn’t extend fully. The heaviest weight in the gym had done it’s job. In another 5 days time, I’ll get the little bugger, you’ll see.
As small as these plates maybe they can be of great importance to you if your reaching your max. To abide by the rules of progressive resistance, we must make in increase each and every time we step into the gym. The increase can come from reduced rest periods, extra reps or added weight. Adding reps is a great way to progress, nearly program I write for my clients involves a rep range, this will vary according to the clients needs but it’s usually 1-3, 3-5, 8-12 or similar. This gives the client something to aim for, start with a weight that can be lifted for say 8 reps and stick with it untill they can complete 12 reps. At this point they drop back to 8 but with a heavier load.
Sometimes you just want to stick to a specific rep range. I’m using 3 reps for my dedlift at the moment as I’m trying build explosive strength without increasing my mass. This is where the small plates come in handy. Tiny increases are still increases. Today I failed to lock out my last rep, so next week I’ll keep the weights the same but will finish every rep. After that, add another of the smallest yet somehow heaviest plate in the room. Thats progress.
Todays workout was slightly different to the last one:
Deadlift contrasted with Double Kettlebell Swings (outside the legs): Deadlift 112.5kg x 3, Double 32kg Kettlebell Swing x 8 Deadlift 122.5 x 3, Swing x 8 Deadlift 132.5 x 3, Swing x 8 Deadlift 142.5 x 2 (and 1 miss), Swing x 8
This was followed by Kettlebell Snatch, 16kg x 3 min each hand.
Looked a bit like this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8n-V3ixM4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Regards
Dave