Monday, May 21, 2012

Lifting Weights Away from Home

I recently spent around 10 days house sitting with my girlfriend, Cherie, for her brother-in-law's parents. Given that I usually lift weights at home and not at a gym, I wanted to take a couple of pieces of equipment with me so I could get some work done. I wasn't looking to break any new ground or anything, but I wanted to keep myself busy and not feel like I was being lazy.

The equipment I took with me:

  • 20kg kettlebell
  • Adjustable dumbbell with 40kg of plates (2x10kg, 4x5kg)
  • FatGripz
  • Chalk

The only thing I would change is bringing more plates. Last time I tried to press a 40kg dumbbell, without FatGripz, I nearly dropped it and left a dent in my dad's car which would've resulted in me getting a boot in the ass. This time I was pressing it with relative ease.

I wanted the workouts to be very simple:

  • Heavy-ish, low volume, 1-2 exercises at most. Mostly technique work with the dumbbell.
  • Hard conditioning. Just to gas myself given the low volume lifting.

Next time I would add some kind of bodyweight/gymnastics training to this.

Some of the workouts I did:

  • Fat dumbbell snatch 4x2 @ 30kg. Fat dumbbell clean and press 4x1 @ 40kg. 40kg bear carries 3-5 sets of 100-150m.
  • Fat dumbbell clean and press 6x3 @ 30kg, 4x1 @ 40kg. Bear carries as above.
  • Fat dumbbell clean and press AMRAP sets at 60, 75 and 90 seconds. Bear carries as above.
  • Turkish get-up 4x4 @ 20kg. Sprint 10 lengths of 20-30m, record time, repeat for 3-5 sets, etc...

This was a good opportunity to do some technique work for some strongman movements that I want to nail and don't usually prioritise at home. I hit all the reps I wanted to hit, and walked away feeling like I got some work done, and that's all I care about.