April 5, 2018 – Week 8, Day 2

5 Minutes Stationary Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Regular Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Band Rows
MMBx20

Push-ups
BWx10

Hip Airplanes (supported)
BWx5/5

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Strict Presses
Plate Loaded Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme
15x1 R
15x5 L
25x1 R
25x1 L
35x1 R
35x1 L
45x1 R
45x1 L
55x1 R
55x1 L
65x1 R
65x1 L
75x1 R
75x1 L
85x1 R
85x1 L
95x1 R
95x1 L
105x1 R
105x1 L
115x1 R
115x1 L
125x1 L

18” Rack Pulls (straps/suit)
135x5
225x5
315x3
405x2
495x1
585x1
675x1
765x1

Stretching

Comments: Feeling low. Bummed about the last session but it wasn’t the main issue. The aches in the left side hip (outside and inside) were driving me nuts. Advised to not do anything that would irriate it further for the rest of this week. I’m thinking that the squats with the quick reversal may have been the culprit as I’ve been doing box squats for so long and when I was doing regular style squats, I was going below parallel by a fair margin. But this is just a guess. I wasn’t sure I was even going to do this workout. I wanted to sleep. Stress at work with changes. Achiness not feeling good on the car ride to the gym. No AMT today as while my hip feels better after it’s warm, it gets bothered by the motion. Played it safe and did a stationary bike. Not like the ones at the gym in Lancaster. I kept adjusting the intensity by more as I went. 135bpm highest reading I think. I’ll be better prepared for next time I think if I go this route again. Second workout without the knee sleeve on. Calf raises were easy. Some aches in my right palm. Wide stance box touches were ok. Less soreness, tightness and achiness in hips, hamstrings and knees respectively. Skipped the box squats as they were giving me the most issues relative to the other exercises. Regular style box touches were ok. Band rows after that. Biceps still a little tender but ok. A bit better from last time. Push-ups were alright. Not as much ache in the right shoulder today. Hip airplanes were pretty easy. Tight but not irritating things I think. Finished up with the biceps stretches. I sat down on a bench and used the uprights to stretch and this is the best alternative I’ve found so far. My other setup was in use by someone actually using the area as it was intended haha. Circus dumbbell strict presses again. I did just singles to warm-up this time. Started with the empty handle and did 10lbs jumps. I figured it was best to do this with how last press session went (both the last time I did these and the Tuesday workout) to get more work in. Felt better this time. Still rough going to the 25lbs plate size but felt ok. Plan had been just 5lbs more from last time. I’d settle with just that for the lagging side for both arms today. But things actually were feeling good in the upper body today. Hip/groin/hamstring/whatever was getting stressed bracing and maintaining balance for the press. I managed 5lbs more on both sides with some in the tank so within the parameters. Not sure if this will pop up again but I feel I’m close to doing the empty circus bell soon on both sides. Definitely on the strong side. Originally the next thing was going to be deadlifts again and trying to redeem myself from last time. But with trying to keep the peak just right and with how tried (physically and psychologically it seems) it was dropped and the usual warm-ups merged into the rack pulls. New rack had a height just at the height I needed so no standing on anything. The safeties are definitely gentler on the bars. No smith machine definitely made things interesting with getting the suit on this session. Definitely getting deeper and deeper into the suit each session. Started at 135lbs with 90lbs jumps. First two weights for sets of five, the next a triple and then a double. Never done reps in the suit since coming back from injury. I’ve done heavy doubles years ago and then reps with the straps down. Tried to treat these just like the other pulls this cycle with control and no loss of tension at the bottom and staying in position. Tough. Even as the weight got heavier with the belt on, I had better control of my upper back and shoulder girdle with fighting the suit. It is very uncomfortable and I’m definitely on watch for testicle bruising with how tight it feels haha. After 675lbs went up fairly well, I knew that 765lbs needed to happen. It had to happen. Took a bit of effort to break off the rack but it went up solid with no hitch. It will be interesting to see how this goes at the show with the deadlift bar off blocks versus the stiff bar off a rack. Put away all the weights and then home to stretch, relax and eat pulled pork before going to bed.