GreenMatt

Male - 87 kg BW - 1RM of 150 kg.

Male - 87 kg BW - 90 kg Bench Press (1RM)

Alas - I need to post my latest, so that I can stay on the leaderboard. Unfortunately, it's stayed at 60 kg but I'm now at 87 kg! Too much icecream....

Matt

Over the last year, I've let my fitness progress go a little bit - for the two years before that, I was really killing it as a runner. However, November 2016 was officially the first month since July 2015 that I did over 1000 minutes of exercise (not including walking)! Huzzah! Back on the road to athletedom!

Good shout - I'm in Farringdon, so Bethnal Green is pretty convenient. I may well check it out.

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks - both of these replies are really helpful. I'm coming at this from an ultra-running background, so I couldn't be more of a fish out of water if I tried. That's part of why I want to give it a go, though!

I'm currently in Central London, but will be moving out to Kent in September. Not entirely sure whether I'll be trying something before then or not. Certainly need a few months of specific training to get to a place where I won't be embarassed....

Hello all,

Does anyone on this forum know about the British powerlifting scene? I am interested in perhaps going along to my first powerlifting meet - I'd probably come last, but I think it'd be an interesting and worthwhile experience. However, there appear to be about ten different federations, and I've no idea which are reputable and which are run by one guy in his basement. Can anyone cast some light on the situation?

Matt

Mixed feelings from me - despite being a little heavier (82 kg) than this time last year, which was the last time I posted virtual powerlifting numbers, I came in lower on squat and deadlift. This wasn't at all a surprise - until recently I had been running/doing fairly light weights and high reps - but still a bit disappointing once I'd finished. At least it gives me a good baseline to work from now that I have decided to get back into powerlifting style gym work!

Squat: 115 kg

Deadlift: 130 kg

Bench: 80 kg

Needs work!

Matt

Hello NF hivemind!

I'm just looking for a few opinions on whether I am being foolish currently or just experimenting in a fairly sensible fashion.

I've bounced around different kinds of fitness over the last few years. For several years I was a decent marathon and ultra-marathon runner. Then I got into Crossfit, and from that, ended up doing some powerlifting...basically your typical 5 x 5 linear progression programme.

More recently, I got very busy at work and didn't do nearly as much....kept up a bit of lifting and running three times a week (minimal distances), but nothing else. I'm now trying to get back into things, but thought I would change things up a little and try 3 x 10 type training, along with maintaining my current level of running. My basic goals are to lose some body fat whilst maintaining muscle, and to look a bit better in the process.

Currently, I do three sessions a week in the gym, with 3 x 10 reps of:

Session A - Pull Ups (actually 3 x 5!) Front Squat, Standing Overhead Press, Deadlifts, Preacher Curls

Session B - Chin Ups, Back Squat, Bench Press, Dumbell Rows, Standing Barbell Curls

I also do three sessions of running a week, 5K a time.

This is all a long winded way of asking - is it sensible to look to change one of those weight sessions into a more traditional 5 x 5 'heavy' strength building workout? Or should I stick with 3 x 10? Or - is what I'm doing now bonkers, and should I start all over? Any thoughts appreciated....

Matt

It's really difficult to say which would be the best/worst - it depends entirely on your own preferences, fitness, and landscape sensibilities! The PCT is definitely the biggest challenge of those, I'd suggest....whilst I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from taking on a massive challenge, if you don't have much experience I'd recommend starting with something else.

Numbers 2, 3 and 5 are all on my list.....and I set out to do LEJOG in the summer of 2014. I managed Land's End to Jedburgh (i.e. all of England) before I ran out of money....but I'd certainly recommend it. It's an amazing way of getting to know the country, and looking at the weather map afterwards and knowing that you've walked all that way under your own steam is pretty awesome...

Matt

Not quite what I meant, unless I'm misunderstanding the article. That seems to be more about speedwork generally, and largely for milers and above - I'm looking for a training plan specifically for a 200 metre race. As I understand it, that form of training is very different from speedwork/intervals that would be done whilst training for a 5K....

Hello all,

Until now, I've been a long-distance/ultra-distance runner. I've completed 2 marathons and 2 50 milers, as well as lots of shorter distances. However, I'm on the lookout for something different....and since I do some lifting as well, I was wondering - why not try training for a few months in a sprint discipline, like the 200 metres? It might shock my body into some different development, and it'd be a fun change to the routine.

The only issue is that I'm finding it more challenging than I expected to find a decent 'beginners' training regime for the sprints. There are lots of things that seem to assume that you are either 9 years old or on the cusp of the Olympics, but not much for a thirty something interested in starting from scratch (albeit with a decent strength/aerobic background). Anyone have any ideas?

Matt

So - we did the Crossfit Total WOD at my Crossfit affiliate the other day.....which is 1RM back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift. To my surprise and delight, I PBed on all three of the lifts for a 330 kg total!

This working out thing seems to be having an effect....

82,140th in the world. Not exactly what I dreamed of, but hey, I guess I've only been doing Crossfit for six months.....I'll be back next year!

You'll be fine....well done for having the courage to try it out!

The key thing to remember is that there will inevitably be a lot of things that you can't do, and that you need to scale - even if you're already an uber-athlete. This is fine, expected, and everyone goes through it. Just celebrate your *own* progress and try not to compare yourself to other people. Oh, and have fun!

Ugh - got 62 reps on scaled - many fewer than I was hoping for. I went out too fast (again) and completely burnt out. OH well.....can't win em all!

Thanks all. I think the specific issue I was experiencing was a deadlift posture thing, despite my trying really hard not to round my back. I have dialled down my deadlift weight a little and not had a recurrence since. I am just going to need to be careful with DLs, I think.

Handstand push ups aren't really an option for me, so I shall stick to scaled. Hoping we can use two bars, otherwise fiddling around changing weights after every 10 reps will be a nightmare!

Really busy at work at the moment, so no time to get to the box this evening. So I am planning 50 burpees for time. How horrible could that be?

Matt

I definitely suffered from trying to do too many wall balls at once. If I did it again I'd start off by breaking the wall balls into sets of 10 and putting the ball down in between those sets for a few seconds...then breaking the single unders into sets of 100 at first and 50 later on. Once the wall balls start feeling really hard, break them down into sets of 5, and so on....

I built up a big lactic debt in the first few minutes and didn't really recover!

Well, I did it. 539 reps, scaled. As ever with these kinds of AMRAPs I was a bit disappointed, as just a few more wall balls would have gotten me loads more reps in a short time from the skipping. Tactics tactics tactics! Despite telling myself to break up the wall balls early, I did too many reps in a row....will I never learn?

This one would be great if I hadn't done so many push ups on Wednesday....my arms are still aching! Ah well, it'll be character developing.

Fair enough.....I will try upping the calories and see what happens. I'm extremely used to high volume training, but not powerlifting - I'm an ex ultra marathoner! LOL. Probably biting off more than I can chew.

That sounds horrendous, islandgirl...! Just back from:

Every 3 minutes, for 21 minutes:

20 push ups

40 single jump ropes

100 metre run

Ouch.

My recovery is pretty good - I get 8 hours of sleep a night and get plenty of protein.

My programme on a typical week at the moment looks like:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - First session of 5 x 5 stronglifts

Wednesday - Crossfit (run about 2.5 miles there and back)

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Crossfit Open (run about 2.5 miles there and back)

Saturday - 5K race or 5K jog

Sunday - Second session of 5 x 5 stronglifts