That's more like it Tuesday.

Carrying on from yesterday's encouraging session, I had the traditional lack of rest day and straight into deadlifting.  Last week and in previous weeks, I've been meaning to dig out some straps and give those a go to see if I could pull a little easier.  So, I set off to the gym, got there, ran back, picked up the straps and went back to the gym.

Tonight's squat is an 'easy' squat session aimed at recovery from last night's exertions.  Followed by the overhead press, then into the heavy deadlifting.  All topped off with a sit up session, to keep the core strong.

So, the session:

Squat: 70kg, 85kg, 100kg, 100kg
OHP: 40kg, 50kg, 55kg, 60kg
Deadlift: 85kg, 100kg, 120kg (s), 140kg (s)
Situps: 2 x 30 @ 10kg, 2 x 30 @ 15kg

The squat was easy enough - making sure that I used correct form, contracted my core and got the hips past horizontal.  Standard after squatting more than that yesterday.

Overhead press was OK, but I went for a slightly narrower grip that brought the elbows in slightly and the weight went up with no real issues - looking forward to trying that technique next week with more weight - maybe I've been doing it wrong.  I'll be doing a bit of research into the correct mechanics to work the shoulders properly.

Deadlift felt good on the first 2 sets and I did these without the straps as I don't want to rely on the straps.  But for the last 2 sets, I used them.  They were fiddly and it took some time to get a decent and tight grip.  I personally think that they're a little bit too short, but I'll persevere and see whether I get on with them.  The straps seemed to make the exercise easier and I managed to get back to the weight that I should have been pulling last week (in fact, I failed at 140kg last week), this week, I managed to get the full set of 5 out.  I have a good deal of confidence that I can get to that 170kg target soon.

Sit ups were OK.  I managed them without too much fuss and did more reps and volume than last night.


I enjoyed the session tonight and it was good to get a little confidence in all of the exercises.  I've re-started taking the creatine and (on a workout day) taking Pulse v4 by MyProtein.  I plan on taking the Pulse pre-workout/rugby/rugby training and for this week, I'll be topping up the creatine as I'm on the loading phase.  I'm aiming at 10g creatine per day for the first week, then I'll take another month of 5g per day and we'll see if either the placebo effect, or the creatine helps me make some gains.  I'm not overly bothered which one happens, as long as the result is some gains.