I skipped the gym on Sunday.
I had a session with Pete on Monday morning. I began with a warmup on the treadmill:
- Walk x 1 min
- Run to 500 m
- Walk x 1 min
- Run to 1 km
I did some stretches and Pete told me I’d be lifting heavy weights in the session. I began with the first group of exercises:
- Front squat x 12 (15-lb weights)
- Leg extension x 12
- Rest and repeat two more times
The front squat is similar to the goblet squat but I was holding two weights close to my chest. The extra 30-lb weight was heavy – as if squats aren’t bad enough!
I had a water break and moved on to the next group of exercises:
- Chest press x 12
- Tricep pulldown x 12
- Rest and repeat two more times
I had some more water, and did the next group of exercises:
- Romanian deadlifts x 12 (20-lb weights)
- Hamstring curl x 12
- Rest and repeat two more times
After another short break, I did the following group of exercises:
- Lateral pulldown x 12
- Bicep curls x 12 (10-lb weights)
- Rest and repeat two more times
I did some stretches and went home. I had sore hamstrings and sore shoulders on Tuesday morning.
I had an earlier session with Pete on Wednesday as I had so many things to do – it was my last day before my trip to London. I got to the gym and he said ‘Cooper test!’ Oh, crap. I’d forgotten about that. I started with a warmup on the cross-trainer for 3 minutes. As I got to 3 minutes, Pete told me to go for another 30 seconds at a faster speed so that I was really warmed up. I did some stretches and then went back to the cross-trainer for the Cooper test. The last time I’d done it, I got to 1.96 km in 12 minutes. My goal was to beat that. I managed to get to 2.09 km in 12 minutes this time. I tried to keep my speed above 10 km/h for the whole 12 minutes, but did drop to 9 km/h a couple of times. But it was an improvement!
I had some water and did three sets (no breaks) of the following group of exercises:
- Jerks (combined deadlift/shoulder press) x 12 (6 on each side)
- Resistance high knees (my arms pressed against a wall) x 30 on each side
- Abdominal toe touches x 30
I had another 1-minute break for water and did the following Tabata set:
- Combined knee-up/twist x 20 s
- Rest x 10 s
- Combined knee-up/twist x 20 s (on the other side)
- Rest x 10 s
- Mountain climbers x 20 s
- Rest x 10 s
- Glute bridges x 20 s
- Rest x 10 s
- Repeat
After another 1-minute break, I got on the treadmill for 4 minutes:
- Walk x 30 s (6 km/h)
- Run x 30 s (8.5 km/h)
- Repeat for 4 minutes
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and there was just one abs circuit after that:
- Hip rolls x 30 s
- Rest x 30 s
- Double crunch x 30 s
- Rest x 30 s
- Scissors x 30 s
- Rest x 30 s
- Side bend crunch x 30 s
- Rest x 30 s
I did a few stretches after that and was done. I wasn’t sure if I’d work out in London (highly unlikely given past trips) so let’s see what state my body is in when I get back…
Low point of the week? Only working out twice – and having pizza on Tuesday night.
High point of the week? Improving on my Cooper test result of 4 weeks ago!
Weight loss? Meh.
Read more updates here.
Notes by Nectar 