Becoming firefighter fit - Busy much?
By Louisa Roger, Marketing Manager
So I am halfway into week five and I feel exhilarated, excited and dead enthusiastic about the training still to come whereas just last week I felt exhausted and pretty stressed out about the whole project.
I am not going to bore you with how busy I was last week at work because everybody is ‘busy’. We almost use the word competitively these days. But in short the beginning of the week I was planning to try and fit it all in (work, fitness, family), until I realised I couldn’t.
It boiled down to a decision as to whether to put the kids to bed or go training. The kids won! Once I made the decision to drop a couple of sessions I felt better.
I am telling you all this because I truly believe to achieve your personal goals your health needs to encompass wellness in body and mind. In all seriousness, the training programme I am on via Opex Bristol takes a holistic approach to health.
Opex (although there are lots of other personal training programmes out there) takes into consideration your levels of stress and your life commitments when setting your fitness programme. So thankfully there was no comeback from my personal trainer when I said I was dropping a couple of sessions.
My advice to you is to know your stress points. In the same way that you don’t want to injure yourself physically by tearing a muscle with too many weights, you may need to make some tough decisions to ensure there is a good balance with those areas of your life that keep you centred.
Setting targets
Over the last couple of weeks, I have received some feedback on my blog. It’s been mentioned that I look pretty fit already and so if I am struggling with the programme then how are other women going to achieve the same goal?
There are a couple of things I would like to say here. In my experience of knowing lots of incredible women, and of course being a woman myself, we have this awful habit of comparing ourselves to the next woman.
Whether that’s how they look, or how they manage to have it all together, how tidy their house is, or how they get round to putting the dinner in the slow oven and were able to straighten their hair this morning.
How many times have I looked at a more curvy woman and thought I wouldn’t mind looking a bit more like that?
Firstly, lets stop doing that, start to compare yourself with yourself, measure where you are at now in terms of strength, fitness, having it together and then give yourself some targets of where you want to be. Not un-accomplishable targets set from those women who essentially don’t exist on Instagram, but achievable goals that are descriptive to you.
Secondly, you can’t make the assumption somebody is strong based on their appearance. In my first tests, Opex found that I was at a good weight and level of body fat but that my strength was an area of concern.
From a personal perspective, I am determined to greatly improve on this as your muscle starts to deteriorate slowly from the age of 40 and so I want to be starting from a much better point.
Before embarking on this challenge I have done lots of cardio exercises such as HITT, cycling and running but not weights so they will forevermore be part of my training regime. I work alongside many strong inspirational operational women and admire strength in a woman much more than a slight figure.
I want my daughter to know that I am going to the gym to get stronger not because I want my appearance to improve.
Where has all the time gone?
I am now in the middle of week five, with a slight blip in the training last week I have overall managed four hours a week. I am feeling stronger but I still have a lot to do, will test my baselines again for you in the next blog.
Here are the training sessions for week three and four.
If you would like a real-time schedule of what I am doing then follow me on twitter @Loularoger.
It’s also worth mentioning that you follow this programme and decide your weights at your own risk, I have support from Manuel and when training alone I carefully increase my weights.
Week 3 (w.c. 22 October)
Monday
3 rounds not for time:
10 calories on a bike
30”/side hold ankle distraction
8-10 Dumbbell Floor press
4 rounds of 8-12:
Dual Dumbbell Seated Press
Split Squat
Side Lying Powell Raise
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Running intervals on a treadmill:
400m in 2 minutes pace 12-12.5km/h
2 minutes rest/walk
X 4
Wednesday
3 rounds not for time:
10 calories row
30”/side hold ankle distraction
10-15 hip thrust. Hold at the top and squeeze glutes
4 rounds of 10-12:
Assisted pull up machine
Goblet squat
Dumbbell Row
Dual Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Dumbbell Floor Press
Friday
2 rounds of:
2 x 30”/side hold standing glute wall push
12 walking lunges
400m run at an easy pace
Running intervals:
2:30 minutes run at 80-90% effort
2:00 rest/walk
Repeat 5-6 times
Saturday
3 rounds not for time:
250m row
8/side plank rotations
6-10/side dumbbell shoulder rotations
4 round of 10 (or 12 if you can):
Strict Press
Dumbbell Row
Dual Dumbbell Neutral Grip
Ring Row
Side Lying Powell Raise
Week 4 (w.c. 22 October)
Monday
3 rounds not for time:
10 calories on a bike
30”/side hold ankle distraction
8-10 Dumbbell Floor press
2x 6-10 Side Lying Powell Raise
4 (or 5) rounds of 8-12:
Dual Dumbbell Seated Press
Russian Step up
Side Lying Powell Raise
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Running intervals on a treadmill:
400m in 2 minutes pace 12-12.5km/h
2 minutes rest/walk X 5
Wednesday
3 rounds not for time:
10 calories row
30”/side hold ankle distraction
10-15 hip thrust. Hold at the top and squeeze glutes. Add a kettlebell to your hips if you can
5 rounds of 10-12:
Reverse Grip Lat Pull Down
Goblet Squat
4 rounds of 8-12:
Dumbbell Row
Dual Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Dumbbell Strict Press
Friday
3 rounds not for time:
250m row
8/side plank rotations
6-10/side dumbbell shoulder rotations
4 rounds of 8-12:
Strict Press
Dumbbell Row
Dual Dumbbell Neutral Grip
Horizontal Pull up
Side Lying Powell Raise
3 rounds of:
8-12 Floor Press
Saturday
2 rounds of:
2 x 30”/side hold standing glute wall push
12 walking lunges
400m run at an easy pace
Running intervals:
2:30 minutes run at 80-90% effort
2:00 rest/walk
Repeat 5-6 times