November 28, 2017 – Week 1, Day 1

Break from Nationals was needed but a lot going on. Next tentative contest setup is Iron Goliath on 2/10/18. Training may be a bit different with not as much direct focus on contest specifics so that my overall game can improve. Will be my first USS show. Goal is to try and qualify for both SC and USS Nats for 2018. But I have hit a bit of bump with getting the flu and having the wrist injury. Flu put me out for about two weeks. Only able to work two days since I got back from Las Vegas (excluding this week) and work piles up. Got x-rays when I got back and another set to make sure as pain really wasn’t going away. Same results but prescribed anti-inflammatories to deal with the pain. Which they are doing but the side effect is stomach issues. I can deal with it. So training is back but I may need to modify and make adjustments on the fly with how my wrist and hand recover and with how I deal with the work stress too.

5 Minutes Percor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

16” Box Squats
BWx15

Regular Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Band Rows
MMBx20

Push-ups
BWx10
Hip Airplanes (supported)
BWx5/5

12” Log Clean and Push Presses
105x1
125x1
145x1
165x1
185x1
205x1
225x1
245x1
265x1
285x1
305x0
305x0

12” Log Clean and Holds
305x1 (10 seconds)
325x1 (10 seconds)

Pulldowns
50x15
80x8
100x8
120x8
140x8
160x8
180x8
200x8

Narrow Grip Bench Presses
45x15
95x3
145x3
195x3
245x3
295x3
Pauses (1 second)
245x5

Stretching

Comments: I was not sure how today was going to go. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to do this workout up until the morning of and even then that was questionable. But the anti-inflammatories have really taken a lot of the pain away so it was worth a shot. I mean, it is a bruised wrist if the doctors are to be believed. Plus I was really excited to get back to training. Really excited. Warmed up on the AMT. Heart rate got up there. Got up to 169bpm. Definitely been away for a while. Calf raise work after that. Easy, not much stress on the wrist but the time under tension was getting annoying. But nice and easy for the ankles and calf muscles. Box touches with a wide stance after that. Really working on getting a powerful movement, finishing with glutes at the top. I had been lax on that thinking that just the dynamic stretch of the hamstrings was the most important part. Then regular body weight box squats. Took a little bit to get used to these again. Not as much knee stress as I get from the squat therapy stuff. Then regular stance box touches. Much like the wide style but feeling a lot more in the quads at completion. Band rows after that felt good on my back. Put wrist wrap on my right wrist for the push ups. I wasn’t able to do them without it trying at home (before the meds) so I didn’t want to push it. Went well. Hip airplanes were ok. Little balance issue and lost my balance once on my stronger side. Then on to the workout. I had a backup workout to try and work around the wrist and hand issues if I couldn’t handle the pain. First item was log clean and push press. Singles going up 20lbs each time to a max was the goal. Only issues I noticed was the lapping of the log with my wrist and hand. Wrist wrap on after the first set on my right wrist. Unable to squeeze with the ring and pinkie fingers of the right hand. Then as the weight got heavier, the tilted log technique wasn’t working as it rocked back out to balanced so I stopped doing that at a certain point. Made the clean harder than I would have liked. Wrist wrap held up but I needed to take it off after each set. 265lbs wasn’t that tough but my elbows dipped down and I knew I had to fix that for the next set. That didn’t feel like my limit. 305lbs felt good on my shoulders (clean felt off) and I was shocked I missed it. Just couldn’t lock it out with my right side. I gave it another shot but it wasn’t close. Would’ve been a 5lbs PR for this variation. But I guess this is ok considering I just recovered from the flu and dealing with the hand/wrist issue. But man is log frustrating as hell. Next up was cleans with a hold at the top. I had wanted to do heavier but with failing at 305lbs twice, I went with that weight to start. I of course gave the push press another shot but no go and just settled in for the hold. Not bad. 325lbs was a lot harder to clean. Again, I think with how I had to grip things might have been the cause. After that was pulldowns. Haven’t done these since the first training cycle. Start light and work up to a decent weight. Plan said sets of 5-8 to 90% of what I felt a 5rm would be. Hard to gauge. I underestimated myself with my wrist. Discomfort for sure but more weight didn’t seem to be any worse than light weight. Stuck with sets of eight and ended up doing more than planned for number of sets. I feel I could go heavier but form was breaking down and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t all herky jerky with the movement and had the back muscles working. Then on to narrow grip bench pressing. This was going to be tricky as the movement already puts a lot of stress on the wrists. Grin and bear it. Able to get the wrist wrap tight enough to just have the pressure on the palm of the hand which I know is just bruising. Plan here being a conservative 3rm and then do a light set of five with pauses. I had a spotter sooner than I would usually need as I wanted to make sure I didn’t drop weights on my face if my wrist wasn’t having any of it. Beggars can’t be choosers but I don’t know if the guy I asked knew what he was doing haha. I hit the numbers I wanted to do on this so that was victory of some sorts. So I survived the first workout back. Home to stretch and eat recovery burritos.