So time ran away with me in the build up to Christmas, and as a result it has been a while since I posted a training diary excerpt. But here’s some details on my Christmas Training at Egerton’s Garage Gym.
Christmas Training
I won’t try and recall the day to day training from this period. Instead I’ll just give a summary of how training has been going.
In fact training went very well in the final block before Christmas..
My goal was to be at my strongest ever by this point, in terms of full body strength. I would argue that I just about managed to achieve that. I tested myself on various lifts in the last few days before the Christmas break. The tests were a mixture of 1RM tests and also tests for reps at a specific weight. Here’s some of those test results:
Bench Press 1RM Test – 19th December 2021 – 126Kg (previous PB was 123.5Kg)
Bench Press PB for reps at 100KG – 19th December – 15 reps (previous PB was 14 reps)
Viking Press PB for reps at 40KG – 20th December – 16 reps (previous PB was 14 reps)
Chin Ups PB for reps – 20th December – 18 reps (equalled the previous PB of 18 reps)
All of the above tests were upper body tests. So I think it is clear to say that, in terms of upper body strength I was at my all time strongest by Christmas. However, it was really my goal to be at my strongest all over – including the lower body.
Deadlifts
I did also do some Deadlifts on the 20th December as part of my Christmas training. I did a few single repetitions at 170Kg, which felt comfortable enough. However, I didn’t want to risk anything by pushing for a max weight. The reason why I didn’t want to risk anything is that I have done very little Deadlifting recently. I tweaked my back slightly when Deadlifting at the end of October. I recovered well from that. But, by the time I was ready to Deadlift again, the weather was mostly wet and so no good for Deadlifting outside.
However, if I had decided to push it, and see what weight I could Deadlift; based on how 170Kg was feeling, I am fairly confident I would have been able to manage a PB 1RM for the Deadlift. So it is certainly debatable… but I feel reasonably happy that I just about met my goal of being at my strongest ever in terms of full body strength.
All Weather Training
Back on the Deadlifting front though.
Clearly I need to be able to Deadlift without disruptions due to the weather. My Deadlift base is outside, which is why it is currently weather dependent. This wasn’t much of an issue during the summer, and I was able to Deadlift regularly and make good progress. But it has resulted in progress stalling recently. Therefore, my plan is to invest in some outdoor bars or plates for Egerton’s Garage Gym that can be used regardless of the weather.
The gym currently has a set of high end premium bars and bumper plates. So, you can understand my reluctance to expose them to all weather conditions, since I am keen to keep them in top condition. However, it is possible to purchase galvanised bars for outdoor use. I bought my galvanised Viking Press machine from Rebel Strength. This is permanently kept outside, and is showing absolutely no signs of rust. Rebel Strength also make galvanised olympic bars and I know they are able to accommodate custom orders as well. As such, my next purchase for the gym is likely to be a set of galvanised bars and plates that can be used outside in all weather conditions.
Running Training
Once that order has arrived, that will allow for a renewed commitment to the Deadlift training. In the meantime, my plan is to have an increased focus on running training. As such, going forwards, for the time being I will be aiming to run 4 miles every other day. This will gradually increase over time. But even this level of running training is more than I have been doing. As such, due to the increased running training, I will have to decrease some of my upper body strength work. The first thing to be de-emphasised will be bench press training. A reduced focus on bench press should be enough for now, but as the running training builds up even more and as the deadlift training is re-introduced, further decreases in upper body work will be necessary.
In terms of my training over the Christmas period itself. I did not do any strength training at all for a full week. I did a couple of four mile easy runs and that was it. So I have had a restful Christmas week, and I am ready to get back at it.
The next update will hopefully be a return to the normal style of training diary updates following this Christmas training post.
Until then,
Stay Strong,
Tim Egerton I York Personal Trainer I York Sports Massage Therapy
The EGG
Egerton’s Garage Gym
Foxwood Personal Training, York