October 3, 2017 – Week 8, Day 1

5 Minutes Percor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx15

One Leg Leaning Calf Raises
BWx15/15

Regular Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Squat Therapy (16” Box)
BWx15

Hip Airplanes (supported)
BWx7/7

Band Rows w/Biceps Stretch
MMBx20/20 seconds
MMBx20/20 seconds

Push-ups
BWx15

Bench Presses
45x10
95x3
145x3
185x3
225x3
265x3
305x3
345x3
Narrow Grip
285x5

Chest Supported Rows (1 second holds)
100x6
150x6
200x6
250x6
300x6

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Presses
15’sx15
35’sx8
45’sx8
55’sx8
65’sx8
75’sx8
85’sx8

Band Triceps Pressdowns
SBx30
SBx30

Stretching

Comments: Body had been tense after Saturday’s workout. Luckily I had a deep tissue massage scheduled for Monday. Definitely needed it. Crazy to think that I’m using hundreds of pounds more compared to last cycle for just about every lift week in and week out. Forearms, neck and the muscles around my knee and shoulder joints needed it. Almost feels like a workout after a session. So I felt pretty good going into this workout. Warmed up on the AMT. Topped out at 153bpm. Calf raise work after that. Felt alright, no real issues. Just harder on the strong side. That side was apparently much tighter than my left side in the hamstrings. Box touches were alright as well. Some knee tenderness but I think that is less from joint ache and more from the bruise on my right knee from trying to “pinch” the stone of steel on that one attempt at shortchanging the pick and lap. Knees ached a bit on the squat therapy but that is kind of expected this first session of the week. Hip airplanes were good. They felt good on the hips as they have been this cycle. Band rows and biceps stretch after that. Stretch still feeling good and band rows felt easy. A set of push-ups to finish off the light stuff. More effort than I would like but still good. Started things off with bench press. Working up in sets of three to a 3rm. I had an idea of what I wanted to hit on this but it would come down to how I felt after the second to last set. The first reps on some sets felt a little off but then subsequent reps were good. Chest did feel a little tight from the massage but no issues. Second to last set of triples felt a little heavy but the bar speed was great so I went with my optimistic jump for the last set. I figured this weight was doable with how the reps with three plates went last time. First rep was a little tough but the second rep was much better. I ended up misgrooving the third rep and pushing too much toward my face too early. This ended up being an ugly rep that I had to maneuver around the pins to get back in the rack. I was not missing this rep. I had thought this was my old 5rm but looking at my records, this appears to have matched my 3rm. Granted there is only 5lbs difference between those two benchmarks, this is a good sign and was unexpected. Then moved the grip in for the last set. I didn’t respect the weight on that first rep as when I unracked the bar, it felt really heavy and it was more of a controlled drop than a conscious descent haha. Those were some tough reps but got the five and was ready to move on to the next exercise. On to static hold chest supported rows. 6rm for this time. Just went with 50lbs jumps on this to what I knew would be a hard top set. I took pretty short rests on these up until the last two sets when the weight got pretty serious. While this is my lighter and stricter day with the pauses/holds, still no less tough. Those holds are a bear as the weight definitely wants to pull me forward. Body feels like a furnace after the top two sets. A bit of change in the next exercise. Focus being on the peaking of my log for Nats so no circus dumbbell pressing for now. Old exercise from my first training cycle; seated dumbbell presses. Plan was to do a light warm-up and then do 4-5 sets up to a medium difficulty set of eight. I was aiming for more sets and reps for this session. I based off what I thought I’d be able to do with enough ease off what I hit that first training cycle. I treated every set like it was a heavy lift by just cleaning on dumbbell to the shoulders at a time. Left shoulder was certainly the more achy one on these but no pain. My expected top set was too easy so I ended up having to do another one. I wasn’t expecting that, otherwise I would have brought my dumbbell collars as the pair of 85lbs is mismatched (one is loose plates with thick handle and the other is longer with hex style bells). That was still pretty good and well within the level of effort for this set. Definitely have to rethink what I will use for next time. Finished up with band triceps. Had to rig something up as the power rack was in use. There was a barbell on top of the cable towers so I used that. I thought it would maybe roll around but it stayed put. Felt pretty good. Home to stretch and eat.