Training log May 18th, recovery week

This recovery week hit just right for me. I was extremely tired during most of it, I slept like a baby, ate like an ogre and reduced my training volume. Lo and behold, I actually put on a bit of weight.

Recovery weeks help me relax, manage my fatigue and evaluate my workout plan.

During my normal training weeks, I like to workout twice a day, one strength and one cardio session. It's nice to take the foot of the gas pedal from time to time.

I could train less, and not have to take deloads (the gym bro word for recovery weeks) but where is the fun in that?

On top of physical rest, my mind gets a week off as well. When I think about it, most of my thoughts are training related:

• How am I going to fit my two workouts in today around my personal training schedule

• When am I going to eat

• Have I eaten enough

• Did I meal prep enough

• What weights did I lift last week

• How am I going to progress this week

It's nice not to think about that for a week.

We are Sunday, so in theory, when I hit the gym tomorrow, I should be able to lift the same weights if not more, than two weeks ago.

Oh, and believe it or not, I got two cardio sessions in!

Here is the rundown of last week's workouts.

I did the workouts as last week with 80% of the load.

Monday: bench, paused deadlifts, dumbbell rows

Felt extremely tired, like the air was thicker and just moving from on part of the gym to another was hard.

Weight on the bench was good, I was focused on leg drive and engaging the lats.

Paused deadlifts are just hard, lighter weights or not.

I almost didn't do the dumbbell rows.

Tuesday: Weightlifting and squats

Kept all the weight the same for my usual weightlifting technique drills

• Over head squats

• Hang snatch

• Hang clean

The full cleans have been crushing me in the last couple of weeks and it was very, very nice to go lighter.

I did something a little silly with my squats. Since the weights were lighter, I played around with isometric holds at the bottom. I went down and stayed at the bottom for 10 seconds before coming back up.

It felt so good, such a great stretch and I felt my muscles burn in a new way. My glutes were sore for days after this, which is fine, but not really my intent for my deloads.

Anyways, I'm keeping those long paused squats for my usual training, they'll make amazing finishers.

I manage my four by four cardio routine that day on the spin bike.

• 10 min warm up

• 4 rounds of 4 minutes at 110% FTP with 4 minutes break

• 10 min cool down

This session took me 50 minutes and went by pretty quickly.

Wednesday: bench press, pull ups, seated rows

Instead of doing weighted pull ups I did 5 sets of 10 regular pull ups. Lats on fire by the end. Deloads are also a good way to have fun with your training plan. Explore new moves, try some different techniques.

The bench felt great, and the seated rows were a good way to finish off the mid back.

Thursday: Deadlifts, lat pull down and incline rows

This was the only day that actually felt hard. My energy was starting to go back up but the deadlifts took it right back.

My wrist and grip felt weak during the lat pull downs and rows.

I also went for an easy run.

Friday: skipped

I had 6 personal training clients in a row and then a friend in town, so I skipped this workout.

Plan for next week

My main lifts (squats, cleans, bench, deadlifts, pull ups) are dropping in reps and going up in weight. The weight increase will be small and it'll suffice for the sake of progressive overload.

My auxiliary lifts with remain the same weight and I'll try to bang out a few extra reps.

Namaste,

Clem