4 Month Personal Training Updated: Endurance

As you guys know if you follow my Instagram, I have been posting more and more fitness related content as I have continued to embrace my strength training with my personal trainer Sarah of That Squat Bot. I visited her three times a week at Train Heald Green, in Manchester, which is a specialist strength training and cross fit gym.

My fourth monthly training plan developed for me by Sarah has been based on Endurance. She knows this, but it’s not been my favourite, as it’s included more ‘cardio’-like exercises and hell, we all know I’m not a fan of cardio. There’s little I like less than being out of breath, hot and sweaty but in the pursuit of fitness (who am I kidding – in pursuit of growing the booty!) I have persisted.

What is endurance training?

Endurance training is all about training yourself to exercise over a lengthened period of time, for instance, completing more reps of a lift but at a slightly lighter weight. It aims to work the aerobic system over the anaerobic system, which as I understand it, is why it often feels more ‘cardio’ like.

Why is endurance training important for strength training?

Endurance training is important as it helps improve strength training through increasing your ability to do more reps of strength training for longer, by helping you to become less fatigued. Not only does this help your body to improve the weights you life and for a longer amount of time, by being less fatigued you are less likely to experience injuries that can happen when your body becomes tired through exercise.

What endurance have I been doing?

My endurance training has been a mix of my usual functional strength training – whilst starting to learn more technical Olympic lifts such as a snatch – alongside super sets of what I would consider cardio (although cross fit or cardio enthusiasts would probably disagree!). For instance, I would do a usual warm up, then do more reps of weights at a lower than PB weight, bilding up eat time (e.g. 5 sets of 5 box squat reps or 3 sets of 8 deadlift reps) followed by a 3 rounds of a super set mixing 3 different exercises together without a rest (e.g. 12 calories on the air bike followed by a sled push then a sled pull). The super sets have been my least favourite part, especially when doing sets of 21-15-9 reps i.e. 21 wall balls, 21 calories on the rowing machine, 21 barbell front squats, then 15 of each then 9 of each without a break.

My 4 month personal training results

Although I haven’t physically noticed any weight loss since my first check in, Sarah measured me for the first time since May this July and during that time I have lost another 4cm from my waist. And, get this, grown the booty by 4cm. I have to say, although I don’t feel slimmer the booty is looking great and Sarah has been proudly pointing out parts of my body that are looking strong, such as my shoulders and delts (she took the pics above just to show me!).

Strength wise, at the end of this cycle Sarah has started commenting on how I suddenly seem to have gained strength and confidence. I do feel a lot more confident and am really enjoying learning the Olympic lifts which are more dynamic and technical. She’s been pushing me to more PB’s without me really knowing and said she’s excited to now start ramping up the weights I’m lifting as she knows I can do it now. I’m looking forward to it.