Workout with Sohee: Day 1

There’s something incredibly humbling about training your way to an injury.

You may have read about my journey to my first powerlifting meet. I’ve been working with my good friend Bret Contreras, and he’s had me following a daily undulating periodization (DUP) protocol that involves squatting 3x/week.

The first five weeks went really well – I was making steady strength gains and my training sessions were super fun.

But by week six, my hips were starting to bother me with the squats.

By week seven, I could hardly get through my warm up sets before I was forced to throw in the towel.

Ugh, yes, I was initially incredibly disappointed. I had followed the program to a T, never missed a day, and I’d been doing everything right.

But as it turns out, frequent squatting is not everyone’s cup of tea. For me, my body’s anatomy just isn’t built to support that kind of volume.

After a good deal of back-and-forth with Bret about what I wanted to do, I finally decided over the weekend that I wanted to move forward with my powerlifting prep. Right now, we’re looking at the USAPL meet on April 25 in Chandler, Arizona.

We’ll be making training modifications, of course. And for now, I’ve been instructed to lay off full-depth squatting and work on what doesn’t hurt just for the time being.

So I figured: why not turn this into something that we can all benefit from?

Over the next week, I’ll be sharing with you the workouts that I’ll be doing. I’ll also be posting the weights that I use for each exercise to give you an idea of where your own numbers should be, should you choose to do the workouts with me. 😀

I’ll be posting video clips on my Instagram. I encourage you to connect with me there to follow along:

>> instagram.com/soheefit <<

My training schedule this week is looking like the following:

Monday: Lower body lift
Tuesday: Upper body lift + 10-15min Lift Weights Faster workout
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Full body lift
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Full body lift + 10-15min Lift Weights Faster workout

If you feel like you’ve been stuck in a rut with your training or you’re simply looking to try out something new, this may be perfect for you to try out. Plus, it’ll give you a taste of the kind of #eatliftthrive workouts I like to do for myself and my clients.

Here’s a basic breakdown of my approach:

• primary focus on compound movements
• a blend of lower and higher reps
• lots of hip-dominant and glute work #bunz
• always lift as heavy as possible within the prescribed rep range while maintaining good form
• in and out of the gym in 40-60 minutes

#smarternotharder

Again, I want to remind you that I’m avoiding direct squatting this week due to my hip pain, so all the workouts that I do will work around that. And I want to show you that it’s absolutely possible to still get in effective training sessions even if you can’t squat.

Of course, be safe and make exercise substitutions and modifications wherever you see fit.

Here’s what I’ve got going on today –

Training Day 1: Lower Body

A. Dumbbell Bulgarian split squat 4×8-10ea (in lieu of full squats)
B. Block pulls 3×5-8
C. Barbell hip thrust 3×8-10
D. Kettlebell deadlift 2×20-25
E. Feet-elevated bodyweight glute bridge 2×30

From start to finish, this should take me approximately 40-50 minutes to get through.

Again, connect with me on Instagram for video demos of everything.

If you decide to lift with me, then be sure to use the hashtag #eatliftthrive so I can find you!