December 5, 2017 – Week 2, Day 1

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

Axle Clean and Push Presses (1 clean)
72x5
116x5
160x5
204x5
248x8

Chest Supported Rows
100x8
190x8
280x8
370x8
(1 second holds)
300x8

Seated 12” Log Lockouts
150x5
175x5
200x5
225x5
250x5
275x2

Band Resisted Push-ups
SB+MMBx11
SB+MMBx10
SB+MMBx4

Stretching

Comments: Wasn’t sure how this workout was going to go. First week felt like I started slow and picked up steam as the week went on. Hoping to keep that going but again, hard to say with different and new movements that I haven’t tested my hand and wrist on yet. Warmed up on the AMT. Heart rate peaked at 154bpm. I only checked it twice rather than every minute like I have been doing. Calf raise work after that. Super easy, some pressure on the right palm. Box touches with a wide stance after that. Felt good. Then regular body weight box squats. Not as crisp as Saturday’s but still okay. Then regular stance box touches. These a little trickier at getting them to be fast and full movement but I manage. Band rows after that felt good on my back. No wrist wrap for push ups this time. Felt about the same as when I had it on as far as pressure on the palm of my hand. No wrist pain. Hip airplanes were good too. Felt some things shift in my hips so I guess I needed them today. Might have been from heavy yoke and stone of steel haha. Workout with weights now. First item for today was axle clean and push presses. No idea how the clean was going to feel so possible replacements were just push pressing out of the rack. But the cleans felt good and no wrist issues. Plan for the day was to work up to a good set of eight. Not done axle in about 21 months. But it is usually easier to put overhead just sticking point is higher than log. Good to get a slight break from log for a minute. But as always is the case, cautious with how biceps feel with this movement. Never injured on axle but got to be cautious. Can’t be careless. Took 20kgs jumps each set. Nicked one of my fingers getting my hard belt on for the last set so I had to take a short blood time break. They gave my two Band-Aids at the front desk. I was anxious as my biceps were feeling pretty tight now. Weight didn’t feel bad on my chest. I had to fight the urge to jerk the weight. Working on building muscle and getting the push pressing up. Very close to a max effort with the last two reps. I really haven’t tried going this high on push presses with the axle for this many reps. So technically a PR but again, never really pushed it in the past. Always trying to get weight up for contest to get a rep or two at the big shows. Then chest supported rows. Plan here work up to an 8rm followed by a lighter set with the usual holds. Something told me to take big jumps and I did. Probably good idea as the angle put a bit more stress on the wrist and fingers of the right hand then I was expecting. So wrist wrap on for the remaining sets. Heavy and hard set for that last one. The set with holds felt better with the light weight but still tough with holds. Then on to more pressing. Log work. Not going away. This exercise was seated in the rack and setting the log at the height where I missed the log at Nationals height wise. Working that sticking point. I started light but it felt easy. Maybe it is too high? It looks almost spot on with the video clip. I did somewhat small jumps as I know that these concentric lifts can get deceptively tough in an instant if you misgroove. But it didn’t happen and three sets became five sets and even that set was just starting to feel the strain. So up one more and those first two reps felt perfect as far as difficulty. But then the third rep was stuck. I tried moving it at least four times before calling it there. Last exercise was those darn banded push-ups. Aim being 8-12 reps for the sets. Hard to gauge as I can usually put out a good output on the first set but when I don’t do these for a bit, my endurance over sets fades quickly. I didn’t want to use any chains this time so I setup another pair of dumbbells with another band. I thought this would be anchored well. My second bloody finger of the night says otherwise as the 120lbs dumbbell became dislodged on the first rep. So had to use that second band-aid and reset and add 25kgs on top of the two pairs of dumbbells to keep the bands down. Such a strain on the upper back with those bands. Managed to get with the rep threshold for those first two sets but my power was gone by the last set as I tapped out at four. A lot of work done this session. Putting away the dumbbells, I definitely noticed that my grip with the right hand is not 100%. Going to have to keep checking and monitoring it. Home to stretch and eat.