5kgLifter's Log

[5kgLifter]

Weights skipped today, because the body feels like it is still in initially recovery stage from Wednesday's weight workout.

Apnea went well again this morning.

[5kgLifter]

Apnea table went extremely well this morning; next week I need to up the stakes by taking the base hold time to a further stage along the O2 table, and need to decrease in the recoveries in the CO2 table, in order to make both of them more challenging. Tomorrow, I will work out what my new max hold is and put the tables together.

It's Valentines, so I'm not doing my cardio, I'm relaxing with personal research.

[5kgLifter]

Study went mostly to plan today.

Started with the new CO2 table this morning, and apart from a couple of contractions on the first round, the remainder of the session went well.

Weights also went very well; the biceps appear to have just recovered sufficiently from Wednesday's workout...I tried something new on Wednesday which is probably what gave the muscles a good 'whacking'; it just proves it worked

[5kgLifter]

O2 table, this morning, went well, until I relaised the online program has a glitch and had worked out the first two holds at exactly the same length, even though the printout informed me that it was two separate durations...looking at last week's O2 table, I noticed that exactly the same thing had happened, so I will have to disregard the first time hold and then add one on manually at the end of teh table, that should sort the 'problem' out.

This evening's cardio was okay, actually good, but tiring.

[5kgLifter]

CO2 table caused a few hiccups today, mistiming mainly on the inhale and hold...nothing major, just infuriating. Weights went extremely well, since I altered the set-up for the week.

I decided that 3 lots of apnea-weight sessions was too high an intensity, so I cut it to 2, which doesn't sound like a lot, but on the Wedenesday (non-apnea weights day) I can do higher weights, and on Monday and Friday I get to do a lesser percentage incorporated with the apnea. And the cardio slots in nicely with this set-up: cardio HIIT (Tues/Sat) non-apnea cardio sessions; Thurs, apnea session at lower intensity for an hour.

So, this is the schedule:
Mon: apnea-weights (lower % of weight used normally)
Tues: HIIT (non-apnea)
Wed: non-apnea weights day (normal weight used)
Thurs: apnea-cardio (1 hour at lesser %; 5*5)
Fri: apnea-weights (lower % of weight used normally)
Sat: HIIT (non-apnea)
Sun: rest

[stikfigure]

just curious 5k: when you use the term apnea in your training are you going for anaerobic workout? (maybe I should read your complete journal - apologies if the explanation is in there somewhere...)
...I'm wondering how to do a cardiovascular workout without using the muscles of respiration....

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by stikfigure

just curious 5k: when you use the term apnea in your training are you going for anaerobic workout? (maybe I should read your complete journal - apologies if the explanation is in there somewhere...)
...I'm wondering how to do a cardiovascular workout without using the muscles of respiration....

No that's okay stikfigure.

The apnea parts of the training are breath-hold areas; odd sounding I know, let me explain. So my 5*5 is 5 steps on the stepper (which is actually 20 foot movements); first 5 are done holding the breath, second lot of 5 (20) done breathing...nose clip used throughout. As I get in to the workout and toward the end it really gets hard...however at the moment I am counting steps because there is just no way I can do 45 seconds (like some more experienced people in the sport), so am building step counts up, last time I did 6 (24) in a row, and once in a while I will see how many I can do before I need to breath. At college I will also climb the stairs, ensuring that it is not to the point of being taxing, or walk along a corridor, holding my breath, which give me some indication of distance travelled. This allows me to look back and see what sort of depth I may be able to reeach under water...of course, taking in to the equation the efforet needed for flipper work, so I either divide the distance by 1/3 or a 1/2...to give a more reasonable distance. This training is done in order to build up the use of muscles whilst breath holding, because it replicates what has to be done under water.

The weight training is done the same way, breath held throughout the lifts, but I may separate a set down in to 10 / 5/ 5 depending on how tiring it is etc.

And all the apnea elements are done with a lot less intensity because they are not for the purpose of intensity per se, but for the tolerance and ability to be able to get rid of lactic acid when doing freediving.

I hope that helped...if not just ask again, got to go have tea now

[stikfigure]

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

No that's okay stikfigure.

The apnea parts of the training are breath-hold areas; odd sounding I know, let me explain. So my 5*5 is 5 steps on the stepper (which is actually 20 foot movements); first 5 are done holding the breath, second lot of 5 (20) done breathing...nose clip used throughout. As I get in to the workout and toward the end it really gets hard...however at the moment I am counting steps because there is just no way I can do 45 seconds (like some more experienced people in the sport), so am building step counts up, last time I did 6 (24) in a row, and once in a while I will see how many I can do before I need to breath. At college I will also climb the stairs, ensuring that it is not to the point of being taxing, or walk along a corridor, holding my breath, which give me some indication of distance travelled. This allows me to look back and see what sort of depth I may be able to reeach under water...of course, taking in to the equation the efforet needed for flipper work, so I either divide the distance by 1/3 or a 1/2...to give a more reasonable distance. This training is done in order to build up the use of muscles whilst breath holding, because it replicates what has to be done under water.

The weight training is done the same way, breath held throughout the lifts, but I may separate a set down in to 10 / 5/ 5 depending on how tiring it is etc.

And all the apnea elements are done with a lot less intensity because they are not for the purpose of intensity per se, but for the tolerance and ability to be able to get rid of lactic acid when doing freediving.

I hope that helped...if not just ask again, got to go have tea now

ah. thanks for the details. I forgot you're training to free dive. better you than me!

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by stikfigure

ah. thanks for the details. I forgot you're training to free dive. better you than me!

Freediving, fun...just imagine no air tank hassle, *blub, blub, blub...pop* but only if I mistime any thing underwater, that won't be for about a year yet...swimming pool dynamic training first, once college ends.

This morning's table was not as easy as Tuesday, mainly because I realised I was not relaxed enough today, so will have to address that on Saturday when I do the table again. Hit 1:39 hold on my last hold on Tuesday, but not today...but i realise that times vary depending on the day/temp/time/mood etc...but a one minute improvement overall in the past two weeks is pretty substantial, so I'm still content...there's no rush.

This evenings cardio was also not so good, I was tired before I went up to do any, so when I got 25 minutes in to the workout and felt drained, I decided to call it quits at 30 minutes, instead of the normal 1 hour for this session.

So, all-in-all not a good day for exercise, but a couple of good things did come from it; I know what was hindering a good apnea session this morning, and I realise that the intensity was too high this evening...both of which can be addressed.

Since I've been running around all week, from one place to another, the cardio is just a bonus really...so I'm not too concerned, I prefer to listen to my body than to push it when it is clearly tired or just not in the right frame of mind for the particular exercise that's being done.

[5kgLifter]

This morning was a breeze... Before doing my table, I decided to experiment, to see whether controlled breathing affects the heart rate, which we all know it does, but to what degree and how soon it could be affected by slow, controlled breathing. So, here are my findings:

Before apnea session, and after some walking about:
85 bpm (seated)

After 15 minute apnea session, and during a breath-hold:
52 bpm (seated)

I think a drop of 33 bpm is excellent proof of just how much a simple programme of relaxation that involves slow, controlled, deep breathing can be of benefit for everyone...without even having to do any apnea. Thought I'd share those results with everyone.

Okay, back to topic, weights went well this evening...I may consider dropping the reps, but I managed to get done in just under the hour, so that's okay, but it depends how I feel over the next couple of days, after the body has realised just exactly what it has been through today. Eating us out of house and home at the moment, appetite has gone through the roof, quite literally...