Wow, did I just say that? It’s approaching with the quickness and now that it finally hit me, I couldn’t be more excited! In just 4 days I am going to be doing my very first competition at the Arnold Sports Festival. Super.
I’ve been staying pretty steady with my training, fitting in timed sets here and there, whether it be on a sunny weekend afternoon, after a short high intensity interval workout, or late at night, which for me can be anytime between 12am to 2am – yes i like to train at night & sometimes its the only time that my workaholic work schedule would permit…couldn’t be helped. I made the best of it.
Aside from practicing my timed sets, my workouts were quite varied and were anywhere between 20-40 minutes each, consisting of a combination of indian clubs, joint mobility moves, plyometrics for explosive strength, kettlebells, and good ‘ol bodyweight movements. Plus a few spin and hot yoga classes thrown into the mix.
I know it’s only been 7 months since I started doing long cycle timed sets but it’s been quite the journey already. I remember back when I had problems completing a 5 minute set or getting only 80 reps on a 10 minute set. To meet the IKFF rank, I need 110reps. For the past month or so I was stuck in a plateau of 117-120 reps. Good, but not good enough for me. Just this past weekend I was able to surpass it, hitting 128 reps of long cycle clean & jerk with the 12kg kb. A new PR for me! …and only 2 reps away from my goal of 130. Sweeeet!!
This week is going to be my week to relax.
Sunday was spa day. On Monday I did 1 round of a Spartacus workout (more about this in another post) followed by a 10min timed set.
The workout:
– 60 seconds of work, 15 secs of rest x 10 moves
– 16kg kb
1. speed skaters
2. figure 8s
3. mountain climbers
4. overhead squats
5. alternating windmill w/ swing
6. alternating clean & press
7. burpees
8. alternating kb swings
9. side step squats
10. jerks
10 min timed set of long cycle clean & jerk – 12kg
Then yesterday, I went in to see my athletic therapist for an MAT (muscle activation technique) treatment just to make sure i’m as strong/stable/balanced as can be. Biomechanics can make a huge difference in performance! Overall, I was very well balanced aside from a bit of tightness on my left shoulder and hip which was probably residual from the broken clavicle incident. Makes sense and would probably explain why I was not getting even reps on the left side. Now i’m tempted to put that to the test tonight just to see if performance improved as a result of the treatment. Other than that, I’m going to try taking it easy for the remainder of the time so I can be at my best for Sunday! I’m ready, bring it on! It’s going to be great!