May 29, 2018 – Week 4, Day 1

5 Minutes Expresso Interactive Upright Exercise Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

16” Goblet Box Squats
20x25

Shoestring Romanian Deadlifts
45x20

Band Rows
MMBx20

Push-ups
BWx15

Bodyweight Plank
20 Seconds

Biceps Stretches
20 Seconds
20 Seconds

Front to Back Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Side to Side Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Axle Jerks
72x1
92x1
112x1
132x1
152x1
172x1
192x1
EMOM Style
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1
212x1

Chest Supported Rows
100x10
150x5
190x3
240x2
280x1
330x8

Barbell Bench Presses
50x10
100x5
150x3
200x2
250x1
300x6
1 Second Pauses
250x6

Wide Grip Hang
bwx62.98 seconds PR+4.69 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Mind was not in a good place last week. Thankfully I was able to catch up on much needed sleep (I slept for 13.5hrs Saturday night) so while still not happy I was at least allowing myself a chance to recover. I think that the everyday pressing is getting to be too much for my pressing muscles as it wasn’t until after all this sleep that my triceps and shoulders started to get sore and twitch like crazy. Upper back was feeling like it needed to be cracked all day. Granted my hamstrings were a little too. Right knee a little swollen from the resting the power keg on it but no issues or pain as far movement. Left thumb is sore from the keg loads since that is the side with no handle. Not joint pain like my right thumb has had when doing circus dumbbell so I know it will heal up. But it was a good thing that I got all the time to sleep and relax as this day started off poorly. Due to poor planning on the cities part (I commute to work) I ended up having my normal 15 minute drive to work take over and hour. I live 5 miles away. By the time the work day was over, I really wanted to hit the gym haha. Still stupid humid in the gym. Picked a random course on the virtual bike. Not a wise decision as it ended up being a very “hilly” course. Heart rate got up to 162bpm. A bit more effort than expected here. Need to pick the one I did last time. On to the warm-ups. Started off upstairs as I wanted to avoid being in the sauna a bit longer. Calf raise stuff is still pretty easy. But they were very, very tight. Change made to the box squats. Advised to do them with a 20lbs kettlebell held goblet style. Same stance but push out the knees. Hardly noticed the added weight on these. Maybe it acts as a counterbalance? Meant to film these but didn’t bring the camera with me. The barbells upstairs were in use so downstairs for RDLs with a barbell. Some reps felt better than others. Some reps I think I was mimicking the squat more with knees out as opposed to hips back. Then more normal stuff like band rows and push-ups. These felt alright. Then a short plank hold. Easy but working on keeping everything flexed and tight. Sweat pouring by this point. Biceps stretches and then the hip swings out in the hallway. I was dripping sweat from my hands after this little warm-up. I had to wait a little after that for the power rack to be available to start the lifting part of the workout. Plan was to do axle jerks out of the rack. Warm up to 70% and then EMOM workout. I had thought about doing singles with 20lbs jumps or more reps with big jumps (44-25lbs jumps). The bumper plates I needed were in use so I did the 20lbs jump singles plan. Took a little bit to have the axle feel comfortable on my shoulders from the rack. Empty axle I was feeling like crap and worried that 70% was going to be 110% today. Left inner thigh felt tight on the “sploot” jerk but not painful. My twitchy right triceps cramped up on my last warm-up. Not good. I stretched and massaged it as best I could and hoped that it wasn’t going to be an issue on the workout. Jerks actually felt pretty good once I got going. I did have to rub my triceps and lat insert on a barbell between sets on some reps. Sweaty hands wasn’t helping with this. I think only one rep where I feel that I let the weight go in front of me too much. I miss these sessions from before. But there is a time and place it would seem. Rows after this. Usually this is volume sets but this time it was more like what I did with bench and floor press where I do what I need to work up to a decent set. Holding back obviously. 6-8 reps with something I could hit for 9-10. I figured the plate-quarter-plate jumps would be fine here. Second time doing these since the biceps injury and last time my upper back was wrecked from gardening. A little hesitant at the start of the sets but felt great and even my top set was easy. Well within the margins I’d say. Next was bench. The one bench downstairs I can use was in use. So upstairs with the weird plates. Same parameters as chest supported rows. I figured 5lbs more than last time wouldn’t be crazy. I was wrong. My right triceps was not helping today. Also my hamstrings kept cramping on me. I’m still drinking a lot water, eating a lot of potassium and 21gs of BCAAs a workout. They mostly stayed under control (unrack was a little less forceful). But the legs attacked me on the top set with 300lbs. Lost all stability and eeked out six reps. Not what I was planning, expecting or wanting. Down set went much better with pauses. I stopped at six to keep it matching. I was honestly just going to go for six unless I felt really good with the previous set anyways with how the triceps was feeling. Last thing for the day was the grip hang. I wasn’t sure what to expect here. My left forearm was very sore from the explosive pulling nature of the ejector seat keg clean the sweat from the axle had torn a callus on my right pinkie finger. Left thumb still sore too. This wasn’t the day I was expecting to break a minute. I did a longer count and I managed to get past the minute mark. But I wasn’t certain until I got to check the video. Finally got past it, now I can add some weight. Of course the day wasn’t complete as when I was taking the bar off the top of the power rack, a piece of it chipped off and fell into my eye. Had to flush it out with water and saline solution. I really just wanted to get home to stretch and eat my non-judgmental meatloaf.