This week it was announced the UK would go back into lockdown for a month.

Of course this has a lot of implications, the main impact for me (apart from seeing family) is closing down the gym again…

This is quite frustrating as this is the second time I’ve got on the verge of breaking through three long term strength milestones.

The March lockdown made me lose this strength and  since the reopening I’ve been working hard to get back to previous standard.

My bench strength exploded, resulting in meeting a long term (two year) goal to bench 100kg.

This was very satisfying as it’s always been a weak lift, where I’ve struggled to make improvements on my upper body strength.

My squat has also improved, recently smashing my long term goal of 150kg, actually getting a 155kg in a last ditch attempt a couple of days before the gym closed.

The worst has been the deadlift.  It’s 5kg short of my previous personal best of 185kg, which is a disappointing outcome, which I partly blame for my lack of patience.

Since the gym reopened I knew it was on borrowed time, so have been getting carried away doing too many sessions focused on 1 rep maxes.

This has resulted in tanking my body pretty hard and not getting in the ground work to grow.

Damn… I really wanted to hit 200kg before it closed again…

What we control

I am annoyed about going into lockdown again, not just because of the gym, but because there are a few special occasions that take place in November/December for my family, which won’t be happening.

But times like this just make me think back to the article I wrote for Tribe Media about what we control.

There are things in life that are beyond are control, but we are free to choose how we react to the situation.

So, here I am looking on the positive…

Another lockdown allows me another opportunity to rest and recover using a “lighter” workout routine.

The first lockdown gave me the opportunity to rest up niggling pains I’d been ignoring.  I had underlying back pain that I’d put down to “sleeping funny”.

Three months away from heavy lifting made these pains disappear.

There is also the return gains to look forward to.  When I’m not working out I feel fat, but when I get back from resting, the same thing always seems to happen – I look better than ever.

Lessons learned

A final positive is the lessons learned from the first lockdown.

I spent far too long in denial thinking things would go “back to normal” soon that I never bothered setting temporary goals to reflect on the changes going on.

Not this time.

In the next month I will:

• Do a mini cut (94kg to 89kg) while I’m not lifting heavy.
• Have a chocolate “fast.”
• Adapt my current gym routine, to a workaround home workout.

During this time I’m writing an extra weekly post to talk about what I’m getting up to as I try to keep fit and healthy at home – I hope that this inspires you to do the same.

In the meantime, let me know what you’re up to while everything is shut!

Wishing you the best success!

James @perfectmanifesto.com

<<next post in the #ukinlockdown series: Resilience, Realisation, Recovery and Readjusting>>

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