Training log April 27th - 5x5, weightlifting, and first swim back

Clem Duranseaud
Apr 27
4 min read

front squat in the gym — New shoes are working wonders so far

Last week of 5 by 5 on the bench, deads and pull ups and starting the feel more comfortable with all the technique drills on the weightlifting days.

Here is a quick recap of my current training goals:

Get stronger on the bench and deadlift
Increase my technique on the barbell snatch and barbell clean
Balance out cardio and strength workouts. I feel like a triathlon is looming in my near future, I'm not sure when, but it's never too early to train for it. Plus I really enjoy these endurance workouts.
Have fun and not burn out

Monday: strength workout

Bench press: 5 sets of 5. I was able to keep the weights heavier over the first two sets. Last week I only did one set at 120kg, this week I was able to do two. Sets 3 and four were also heavier than last week at 115kg.

Paused deadlifts: Although I went slightly heavier than last week, my main focus was to increase the pause from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Brutal.

I'm pausing at the angle where I fail my max effort reps, in the hope of building strength at that angle. I'm also focusing on feeling my hamstring pull after I start moving the bar again.

Dumbbell single arm rows: These are new in the cycle, in an effort to build my back muscles more. I enjoy training back quite a bit, and I haven't done these in a while.

Cardio: Spin class

Tuesday: Olympic Weightlifting

Tuesdays and Fridays are the same workout, focused exclusively on olympic weightlifting. I broke down the barbell snatch and the barbell clean into different technique drills and practice those.

I feel very clumsy with my snatches. The cleans are ok, I've been doing them for a while on and off over the past decade but now I'm realizing how much my technique lags.

I've been able to clean two plates before but that was a pretty ugly rep and relied more on strength than finesse.

Here are all the drills I do, usually two sets of five reps for each. Most of these are done with 30-40kg.

Snatch high pull
Hang snatch
Overhead squats
Snatch
Hang clean
Clean. The weights go up on this one, between 80-90kg depending on the day.

I finish both workouts with three sets of heavy squats. I want these days to be focused more on explosive power, which is why I chose to do the heavy squats at the end. I've been working with 115kg for these sets.

Cardio: 25 min of zone 2 cycle followed by a threshold interval spin class. Tres sweaty.

Wednesday: bench and back

I do two sets of max effort isometric bench press. I set the pins at the height where I fail my reps and practice pushing as hard as possible at that angle.

Both sets consist of 5 reps of 5 seconds with 15 seconds break in between them.

Then we have three sets of doubles on the bench. After doing 120 for 5 on Monday I thought I'd be able to do 130 for a double but that was not to be. I got a single rep and then worked with 125.

The other two exercises are weighted chin ups and seated rows. Again, the focus here is bodybuilding in nature. Those are two moves I enjoy doing and I solely picked them for that reason.

Cardio was just 5 bike sprints. I pedal as fast as I can for 10 seconds and take two minutes rest in between.

I was doing 10 the previous week but noticed a few things:

It takes forever, between the warm up, cool down and rest intervals, I was on the bike for almost half an hour
Power output dropped after the 5th set. Since the goal here is to maximize power output I'm thinking that doing less would be better. I don't know if I'm right. Maybe I'm being a delicate flower and just don't want to do 10

Thursday: back day

My heavy deadlift day!! My favourite.

I will admit though, five sets of 5 on the deads is intense. I do one top set close to a maximum effort and then drop the weights for the next four sets.

180kg has always been an elusive lift for me but I feel it's getting close with each week. I had to cluster my top set, which didn't make me feel super confident, but all my back offs felt easier than last week.

Lat pull down: one top set with three back offs.

As with all machines, the goal is to max out the stack. I'm close, got four plates to go. The trick with the lat pull down is to make sure you feel your lats pull properly. I'm not a huge proponent of mind body connection but this is an exercises that's easy to butcher if we let our egos get in the way.

Incline bench row: three sets of 8. Basic stuff.

Cardio: 1km swim. A bunch of drills with a continuous 500m swim. I'm always humbled when I think my cousin, who was a competitive swimmer would do 3km of drills before the actual workout. I'm just happy the pool I swim in is shallow everywhere so I can just stand up and cough my lungs out after all the times I inhale water.