December 7, 2017 – Week 2, Day 2

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

16” Box Squats
45x10
115x5
185x5
260x5
340x5
375x8

18” Axle Rack Pulls
92x2
182x2
272x2
362x2
Added Straps
452x8

Smith Machine Weighted Planks
BW+104x30 seconds
BW+104x30 seconds

Side Plank
BWx60/60 seconds

Stretching

Comments: A little tight and beat from Tuesday’s workout. Been noticing my midsection becoming quite sore after these past two first workouts of the week. Wrist and hand thing kind of flairs up at times but not at rest. Warmed up on the AMT. 160bpm highest reading. Calf raise followed. Calves were very tight but still easy. Feeling pressure in my palm on the right hand. Box touches with a wide stance after that. These felt good. Then regular body weight box squats. Knees a little achy but ok. Felt like the platform was wobbling slightly on me. Might have just been an odd setup this time. Then regular stance box touches. Getting better at the full movement. Band rows after that felt good on my back. Trying to get my full hand around the band on the right side. I’ve been lax in having my pinky finger around the band. Need to consciously engage it. No wrist wraps for push-ups again. Most pressure is in the palm of the hand. No wrist strain. Hip airplanes felt good on my tight hips. Then on to the workout. Pretty simple plans. Only potential changes to what I was doing was changing up bars if my hand didn’t like something as I was confident with the movements. First thing being box squats. Three sets with set percentages of my estimated 1rm (as I haven’t done one yet) for fives and then go by feel after that for a good set of eight. Can be tough to gauge. I feel that gun to the head scenario I could do four plates now for eight but it wouldn’t be a “safe and solid” set. There would be breakdown in form, there would be blood. Very happy that the bar on my back didn’t bother my wrist or hand at all so big relief there. 340lbs felt pretty good but I could tell that more reps was going to be tough. I eventually went with 375lbs as it was 100lbs more than my post injury best of 275lbs for these reps. Granted that was no belt and during the first training cycle, it still shows a good improvement in lower body from where I started. Definitely got hard on those last two reps but not max. I think I had at least two more reps at this weight if I went full ugly but that isn’t the plan. Next up was a rack pull variation. 18” height with the axle. Working up in doubles to a decent set of eight with some in the tank. The usual controlled and slow negative but a bit different in execution. First rep normal but then going for the subsequent reps from where I stop it on the pins and going again. No resetting my stance. Feel the idea is similar to something I read Bill Kazmaier did with rack pulls in doing them from the position you’d be in at that point and not that optimal position to pull more weight. Requires a bit more control throughout the movement. Working up sets were the alternated grip, switching each set. Got to say that my right hand was having a hard time with the last set without straps. Little concerned that it isn’t back to normal. But I didn’t have any chalk so maybe that explains some of it. Got to watch it. Strapped in for the last set. Christ that was rough. Left side of my upper back cramped up and feels like a slight pull almost immediately. Good to know my figure 8 straps work on the axle. Not as easy as I would have liked but I think I got done. Then abs after that. I didn’t see anyone in the gym that I knew well enough to trust putting weights on my back for planks but then I got an idea. I could just put weight on the smith machine and place that at the spot where it would be toughest and hold that weight. Little tricky setting up (I put a bar pad on so I didn’t have a single stress point so narrow) but it worked well. This was harder than when I was doing it with 153lbs. Might be a keeper since I don’t have to rely on anyone for assistance with the weight. Finished up with side planks. Kind of missed these, kind of not missed these. Left side is harder to hold but that really hasn’t changed much. Just glad to be done with the workout so I could go home, put some Icy Hot on my upper back, stretch and eat some of my mom’s turkey meatloaf she made me.