Saturday 17 October 2009

Body by Science Session 17: Longer Rest Spoiled by Other Exercise?

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 16th October

17th BBS Big 5 session:


Session 18*Session 17*Session 16Session 15Session 14Session 13Session 12Session 11Session 10Session 9

Session 8Session 7Session 6Session 5Session 4Session 3Session 2Session 1

LbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTUL

LbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTULLbsTUL
Pull Down155
1551:431551:451551:48155-1551:551551:511551:491502:131501:51
Seated Row1201:441201:421152:021151:561151:311102:021002:15803:08
Overhead Press60
601:32601:43601:5060-601:36601:44601:48601:38601:36
Chest Press951:37951:52951:39902:01901:391001:111001:17901:28
Seated Row105
1051:261051:421051:48105-1051:481051:391051:381101:291201:04
Pull Down1451:561451:461402:091352:111302:151301:561252:151102:26
Chest Press85
851:24851:19851:2085-851:32 *851:1485(1:10)901:13951:03
Overhead Press601:33601:28601:37601:49601:37601:38601:4480, 700:35, 0:25
Leg Press340
3401:33--3302:193301:42330-330-3301:333202:14320-
Leg Press3102:303002:012903:242802:12260-2503:02230, 2704.312002:57
Total Time
11 mins9 mins11 mins3 mins8 mins8 mins11 mins14 mins10 mins

25 mins14 mins25 mins25 mins22 mins28 mins27 mins
Rest period
9 days13 days14 days (8 for legs)20 days (for legs)7 days7 days7 days7 days8 days

9 days11 days6 days8 days7 days7 days8 days
Notes
Running at the weekend, swimming on Tuesday and bad sleep may have eroded benefits of longer, 9-day rest. Could have done more on legs but demoralisation set in. No leg due to recent fell face and another on saturday. snagnation across the board. Fatigue from race? Rest period too long? Calorie deficit? In spite of alcoholic weekend, some good progress. Could legs have benefited from the weekend laziness? Chest is blue because it's the best time on the correct machine. Leg press only this week due to recently skipping it - but no upper body because seeking longer rest period overall. Full session next week. No leg press because recovering from race. *Chest press not on ususal machine so may have affected time. Still feel like stagnation rules. No leg press because race on Sat. Stagnation on all exercises suggests 7 days rest no enough. Or not enough calories?Finally got that 4th rep with OH press. Because the chest press was in use, did leg press before chest and chest press on a different machine. Lack of progress in pressing is mitigated by pulldown and leg success. Overhead felt better even tho TUL staticLess rest and a change in exercise order threw timings into disarray. Surprised by Overhead Press not being better

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering. Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps. First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.


"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red =
got worse
Blue =
improved
Black =
weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: 6 scrambled organic, fre-range eggs + chopped pear & cinnamon, 40 minutes later.

So 9 days of rest (instead of 7) did not appear to make a difference. I did not feel well rested during this sesson and although I more or less maintained strength on Chest Press and Pull Down, Overhead Press and Seated Row regressed a little.

Leg Press was okay - I managed over 90 seconds, having upped the weight by 10lbs. I reckon I could have squeezed out another 15 seconds had I not failed on the final rep. I attribute this failure to demoralisation, since there was definately a tiny bit more under the bonnet at that point.

However, during that increased rest time I spent 2.5 hours running in the mountains (5 days before) and went for an intense swimming interval session (3 days before.) And I have been sleeping badly.

Aside from these factors, there is the underlying possibility that my currently being in calorific deficit is making it harder to make gains. If this is the case, then I must be satisfied with maintaining strength until I have reached my body fat goal, which I expect to be November.

In the meantime, I will do no exercise except walking until Friday, when I will do another full BBS workout. It will have been only 7 days rest, but holiday plans give me no option. This will still be a good test, to see whether staying away from other exercise (and hopefully getting more sleep!) makes a difference.

2 comments:

Lightning said...

Trouble is , theres nothing to post about while you rest . You will have to start another blog .

Methuselah said...

"Rest Now Live Later"?