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I have played rugby for a number of years and after a recent injury I payed John a visit. I have known John for a number of years as he has been associated with the Rugby club , fulfilling roles such as the club Personal Trainer.
After taking a few minutes to think about this. I explained to John that I am going to the gym and working hard 5 times per week, but I wasn’t really seeing any results and I felt weak when lifting weights.
John asked me what I was doing at the Gym I explained that I was doing best lift.
Warm up
-2/3 of maximum weight 10 reps.
Maximum weight 2 reps
3rd and 4th set 3/4 maximum weight 6-8 reps
(Then repeated on incline and decline bench press)
John then went on to explain about making sure my vertical pushing and pulling was balanced with horizontal pushing and pulling . He also said I should be doing just 5 reps at a time.
I went back to John to tell him this.
5×5 reps 82.5kg
When I did achieve this – the next time I then did chest (this was 4 days later)
I then increased the weight by 2.5kg. In between each set I added the pull exercise (pull-ups).
But because I couldn’t complete the full 5×5 rep set I made sure that I was doing 25 reps in total.
2 sets of 3 reps
8 sets of 2 reps
3 sets of 1 rep.
The Results?
I have stuck at it and after 6 weeks I have bench pressed 5×5 reps of 112.5kg. I was more impressed with my first set of 5 reps and pull ups. I plan to continue and hope to get a personal best lift of one rep of 132.5kg. I am also hoping to start using weights on a belt for my pull ups. I will post again my progress.
I would like to thank John for re-lighting my motivation of working out again and showing me it’s not amount the quantity it is about the quality.Andy Dows
Dowsy has done really well the past several weeks….and the improvement can be seen by many.