Getting Back into Shape: Day One – The Basics
I’ve decided I need to get back into shape. The next wrestling show is on the 28th of July and I’ve lost around 5kg of good weight and seem to have collected some bad along the way. I’m not happy with the trade off…I must have been drunk when I agreed to it.
So I shot down to Apollo Gym in High Wycombe, to start the painful process of getting fit and strong again, as well as trying to develop a physique more suitable (both visually and technically) for wrestling. Despite deciding to focus on some chest and back work to begin with, I started the session with snatches. I did this because they’re a full body workout, a great way to limber up and, if I ever want to get better at them, I need to do them before I’m exhausted.
Once I was firing on all cylinders, I moved onwards – to the classic bench press. After all, this isn’t necessarily just about getting functionally stronger and more capable at movement, but about getting back into decent shape at the same time. So, bench pressing it was. I started light, however, to try and coax my body back into movements that, frankly, it doesn’t enjoy.
In what some might call A CRAZY MOVE, I then proceded to follow up the bench presses IMMEDIATELY with lat pull-downs. You see, these give my chest and triceps a chance to rest and recover for the next set on the bench, but keep the intensity my the workout high, to help me burn more energy and fit more exercise into a smaller time. It also better replicates the intensity of a wrestling match.
I then worked my way through the pec deck machine (which I maxed out – yeeehaw!), chin-ups and a varity of rows, followed by some specific biceps-targeting exercises, to capitalise on having exhausted them on the chin-ups. I finished my 2-hour workout with some 40kg dumbbell snatches and an abs session that would cripple a goat. (Seemed like as good a goal as any).
Overall, a good first session back! Thumbs up. Four stars. Well done.