Since I have lowered the weight and increased the repetitions to focus on muscular endurance training for my triathlon race, I want to push my lactic threshold as high as I can. Therefore, I have adapted the “Break Down” strength training protocol, lowering the weight after a set immediately and proceeding to extra repetitions until failure. Here’s the general outline of my workout.

• Bench Press: 2 x 15, 115 lbs. After each set, I immediately lowered 20 lbs. and did 5 more reps.
• Leg Press: 2 x 15, 90 lbs.
• Shoulder Press: 2 x 10, 95 lbs. Dropped 20 lbs. for the break down set
• Lunges: 2 x 15, 20 lbs. dumbbells
• Bend-over Row: 2 x 10, 75 lbs. Dropped 10 lbs. for the break down set
• 3-way Calves: 2 sets
• Pull-ups & Chin-ups: 2 x 10
• Abs

Doing the “Break Down” muscular training for the first time, I found developing patience to be the most challenging; Every set and repetition were to be done with a slower and more controlled speed than the usual strength training where each rep takes about 1 to 2 seconds only. Therefore, finishing each exercise seemed to take longer time. I spent 40 minutes to finish the above exercise routine yesterday. Even with less weight, I still felt pretty burnt-out at the end.