March 29, 2018 – Week 7, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor 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

Biceps Stretches
20 Seconds
20 Seconds

Axle Strict Presses
72x5
110x1
130x1
150x1
170x1
190x1
210x1
230x1

Squats to 16” Box
45x10
135x5
185x3
225x1
265x2
318x2
371x2
424x2
477x2

Wide Grip Deadlifts w/ bands (straps) (band tension = 99lbs)
155x2
245x2
335x2
335x2
335x2
335x2
335x2

Stretching

Comments: Just tired all the time. Hitting snooze button a bit more liberally. Hopefully when it finally is time for the recovery time before the contest I will super-compensate. Day in and day out grinding. Still got aches in my right knee. Left inside of leg/hip has been feeling off since Saturday off and on. Car buffer daily on the upper body and legs and anti-inflammatories when needed. Warmed up on the AMT. 154bpm highest reading. Wearing the knee sleeve still during workouts. Calf work was pretty easy but right wrist a little tight. Hamstrings really tight on wide stance box touches. Box squats felt ok but knees ached. Regular style box touches felt ok. Little knee ache at the start but felt okay as I did the reps. Band rows were ok. Pushups not so much. Right pec cramped up immediately on the first rep. Stretching it out and trying to massage it the rest of the workout. Not sure what that was about. Hip airplanes were needed. Hips were tight as well as my hamstrings. Lost my balance once on the left side. Finished up the prep with biceps stretches. Found a slightly better setup to stretch this time but still not as good as the old setup with the smith machine. First item up was axle strict presses. Still pressing work but less stress on the knee. Empty axle felt fine but as weight went up, the unracking of the weight put more and more stress on the right knee. Same plan with 20lbs jumps as most of the pressing has been. With how log strict went, I was hoping that I would be close to that, despite not doing much axle work. 190lbs and 210lbs felt pretty good so I was surprised how difficult 230lbs felt. I think the knee bugged me on the unrack and I used more shoulder to get it off the j-hooks than I’d normally do. It looked a lot faster on video than it felt but I called it there. Weight went too far away from me off the shoulders so it was a lot harder. Not going to beat myself up on this since not much focus on strict pressing. Most pressing has been log since I qualified for Nationals in 2017 haha. Squats to box next. This was going to be interesting using the new “old” power rack. I think a few people weren’t sure it would hold up to much weight. It will take some getting used to as it is deeper but not as wide. There isn’t a back to it like the old one that I could put my feet up to so that I knew I was right under the bar. J-hooks are a little deeper so I can’t quite get the bar at the right spot as before on my back so walkout was a little tricky. I forgot that I was to do controlled negatives on the warm-up with the bar until I was about five reps in haha. I was also watching my knees and legs on these. The options had been working up in heavy doubles, speed doubles or skipping completely if my knee was acting up too much. I hate deviating from the plan. I was noticing little difference between the increased weight and discomfort so I kept pushing it to stick with the original plan of doubles up to projected 90%. Odd weights to stick with percentages. Everything felt heavy. Having thoughts like my left leg would just collapse under me on some of these lifts. Obviously didn’t happen but fatigue everywhere is definitely letting doubts seep in but I’m pretty good at blocking them out. Heavy stuff felt slow and heavy. Second to last double I got a little too far forward on the last rep trying to go up fast and had to stumble it back to the j-hooks. Last double felt pretty darn heavy. But maybe another two ugly ones in the tank if the world depended on it. Last thing for the day being the wide grip band pulls. Wasn’t as concerned about giving these everything I had this time as my right hamstring wasn’t feeling as off as it did last time. Right knee was a bit achy at the bottom getting setup but nothing actually lifting. This was also a bit tricky setting up as I worried I couldn’t setup like I usually do with the bands. There were band pegs but not wide enough to stretch the bands enough. But I made it work with using the band pegs and a dumbbell to be almost the exact same tension as the previous setup. I wasn’t expecting that haha. These don’t get any easier. By the time I got to my first work, set I had a little bit of an audience so I couldn’t look bad now. Taped my right shin to keep from bleeding. Second to last double the second rep wasn’t as confident as the other lifts. Just happy to be done the workout. Got recovery burritos and then home to stretch, relax, eat and sleep.