Gym Progression #3

Another block done and dusted!

Just finished off week 17 and 18 of my gym program – Early Strength Season. Week 16 was skipped in order to link up my recovery week – in regards both gym and track. I will go into more detail on recovery week in a later post. It was important to get this sorted and now I’m fully linked up with my proper schedule – so I’ll need to maintain this and try not to stray off track again. Overall, still extremely happy with the results. I’m consistently improving each block and this is being correlated with running faster times on the track. The only non-consistent part of my gym programme is turning up late most sessions! Well, thinking now it’s actually a consistency but a bad one! I’m working on it though! I made it on time a few days ago for the first time in about three months so that’s the beginning of on-time progress in regards that area.

Another plus side this week was hitting PR’s in my monthly testing – involving medicine ball throws [forwards and backwards], jumps [single and double leg], and velocity [acceleration, pickup and max speed]. This test is specifically tailored to speed so hitting PR’s means that my speed should pick up on the track. This relates to the work I do in the gym and credit has to go to my gym coach who is doing great work with me in this area. It’s paying off and I’m slowly but surely progressing in all areas of my training.

I’ve also started to take more pictures and videos in the gym – even though my camera isnt great quality. I felt it was better for you to be able to visually see all the info I write and share the progression with me! I also add a lot of videos and pictures on the Facebook page – Build a Dean

In regards gym, I’ve seen progress both small and big again over the two week period. A lot of my progress was seen on the main lifts as opposed to the exercise specifically working on core and stability. This is to be expected though. The main lifts are the hexbar deadlift, weighted hip lifts and step up on my main program – while dumbell bench press and goblet squat are core exercises on my optional program. This isn’t to say that my other exercises aren’t important, but these are the ones where the weight I lift increases each week. The core and stability exercises are brilliant and I’ve certainly gotten better with them also! It’s just hard for me to gauge it and explain to you guys.

Hexbar deadlift progressed from 75kg in week 15 to 120kg in week 18 so I was very happy with this! Weighted hip lifts increased in a smaller manner – going from 120kg to 140kg but as the weight gets heavy on this lift it’s going to be harder for me to progress, as my body weight currently sits at only 69kg. I’ve managed to reach twice my bodyweight on this exercise though so I can’t complain. Step up’s also had a small increase of 10kg, going from 60kg to 70kg over the month block. In regards my optional program, I progressed from weighted push ups onto dumbell bench press. Weight wise, I was doing the push ups with a 10kg plate on my back but once I moved onto the dumbell bench I managed to work my way up to 22kg dumbells. The goblet squat had a les dramatic increase – going from 32kg to 36kg

​​Starting a new block next week! Updates will follow as per usual!

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Week 15-18 stats:

Body weight: 69kg

Weighted Hips Lifts :  120kg – 140kg

Step Up (Barbell) : 60kg – 70kg

Hexbar Deadlift : 75kg – 120kg

 Kettlebell Farmers Walks : 25kg maintained over month block

Dumbell Bench Press : 10kg – 22kg

Goblet Squat : 32kg – 36kg

SL RDL with Dumbell Row : 10kg – 15kg

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