The Big Four-O

G’day guy’s

No it’s not my age or my waist size! Its my 40th ‘A Life of Iron’. I hope you’ve all enjoyed my rantings on training and everyday opinions. I haven’t written as many as I’d have liked but, hey, life gets in the way…I said ‘life’ not ‘wife’, he he.

My life has changed considerably since I began writing these training logs. In the beginning I was care free and did pretty much what I wanted when ever I wanted. But as you all know not these days as things have changed. My spare time is precious and so I have to make the most of it, usually, in the gym or with my wife and little Lydia, just the way I like it.

Training is going really well at the moment apart from those stupid little injuries which we all pick up along the way. I jumped over a box at work on Friday (still thinking I was 17) and my knee gave a little twinge so I’m nursing that at the moment. I try to turn these things into positives and train other bodyparts that wouldn’t normally get the extra attention.

I haven’t done flat bench for ages, usually using the hammer strengh flat press instead so on Wednesday I gave it ago. 300lb for 5 reps and 1 with a spotter, the poor guy looked a little worried when I asked him for a spot but after explaining exactly what was required of him he relaxed a little. A common mistake individuals make when asking a complete stranger for a spot is expecting them to know what they want. The spotter doesn’t know you from Adam, so why would he know how to spot you? You must always explain exactly what and when you require it. Theres nothing worse than someone taking the bar off you when you’ve still got another rep to go! Or standing there with his 2 pinkies under the bar when its going to drop on your head at any moment. So its always worth telling them exactly what you want-your head will thank you for it later!

I trained legs really heavy this week ( before the knee twinge) which felt really good until 2 days later…aching wasn’t the word!

This was my workout.

5min stretching
10 min walk on treadmill, quick pace just to get the blood flowing.
2 x Seated Leg Curl (warm up)
3 x Hammer Strengh Squat working upto 6 x 20kgs a side for 8 reps
3 x Back Squat
1st set 100kgs
2nd set 140kgs
3rd set 220kgs or 5 plates a side for 4 reps
my body was shaking a little by now — time for Hamstrings!

3 x Lying Reverse Leg Curl
2 x Seated Hamstring Curl
2 x Stiff Legged deadlifts — 20kgs aside really going for the stretch

After this I did another 5mins of light stretching mainly focusing on my hamstrings.

Well I hobbled off home for my post workout grub. I read an article which said that after some considerable testing they found that 30% more protein is absorbed by waiting an hour after training before consuming a quick absorbing protein rather then slamming it down ASAP. So it looks like the window of opportunity has moved a little. I’ll give it go anyway.and let you know if I suddenly gain massive amounts of muscle! lol.

Well its daddy daycare today. My wife’s going to have her hair done so I’d better go and pay attention to the how’s and when’s of feeding Lydia.

Speak soon

Ian