February 13, 2020 – Week 11, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Hatfield Squats to box (18”)

60x10

150x5

240x3

290x3

340x3

390x3

440x3

490x5

Romanian Deadlifts (top start)

45x10

135x5

185x5

225x3

275x3

315x3

365x2

Added Straps

405x12

Pulldown Abs (pulldown station)

70x25

100x20

130x15

Side Planks

bw+35x60/60 seconds

Stretching

Comments: This month has been wearisome. Not to say there haven’t been good things but it just seems like little things keep piling on. Back is acting up on me. Not sure why as it seemed to be ok if not a little stiff from sandbag loads on Sunday. But I guess getting on the floor to play with my young niece was not a good idea for it as it feels not that great. Got some symptoms at times. I did end having to take some ibuprofen before bed to see if that helped at all. I really don’t want to back track. Another late workout start due to the oversleeping in the morning to make up for the undersleeping at night. I also had ordered new compression shorts as the one’s I’ve had for about a decade finally split a seem on the right inner thigh. However, the fabric on these new ones are bit shear and I’d get put on some watch list if I went out in public. So ended up having to wear the new with the old ones on top. Gym was pretty crowded. Going upstairs, I was confronted by a large poster board sign that indicated no recording devices allowed among other things. Seeing as how I’ve recorded my training for visual feedback in some way since 2004, I was not pleased with this. Especially since I’m trying to keep my form on point with video and I send these videos to Mr. Westerling for training. So unless I decide to train elsewhere during the week (very inconvenient) I’m going to only be able to film on the weekends and maybe sneak something on my phone for PR sets of important exercises. I was definitely a powder keg at this point so really didn’t want people to talk or even look at me. Warming up at least felt fine. Hatfield squats again. Same as last time in that work up in triples to the top set of five. 10lbs more this time. Going for that small increases as much as I can. Keep doing work, keep progressing but not beat things up for other stuff like deadlifts, rdls and event work. I was a little concerned about the lower back. This is an exercise that I can do with good form and not feel painful even when my back is feeling like crap. Just don’t want to be pushing things or having it feel like I got a lower back pump going. I didn’t have that or feel like my one cheek was higher than the other. Knees didn’t really bother me and I kept moving these well and at a good pace. Controlling the negatives and moving up fast. The ceiling feels high for these but again, not a comp lift, just training. Romanian deadlifts next. My back was a little stiff as I had mentioned. But doesn’t seem to be a problem with these. I was definitely not feeling my best on them though. Maybe the back was hampering things. I ended up belting up earlier than I had originally planned on these. I did use chalk for the double at 365lbs. 405lbs for the rep set. I had told myself that most I’d accept here was a dozen. Ten would’ve tied my PR from a while ago. But that had been no hard belt, no straps but it had been with worse form and was not the pause style I’ve been doing. This weight felt difficult. Every rep felt difficult. There was definitely one rep where it went forward on me in the beginning. Slow and steady. I got 12 and tried to do one more for the baker’s dozen. But I knew it wasn’t happening as I started that rep as I was shot and the only way I’d get the lift was if I broke my form substantially. Risk of back injury and it would become more of a deadlift with a hitch than the planned exercise. So ended up just setting the weight down. So 12.5 reps I guess haha. This would be the first time in 11 weeks were the projected max on the bigger lifts (overheads and rdls) has gone down. Trying to keep positive despite the little irritations. I know that the high rep stuff is going for hypertrophy and getting tendons and stuff ready and that it isn’t always a set increase based off the high rep stuff to the one rep stuff. As long as I’m healthy, I still got time to work on that aspect. 19 weeks to go I think. So hamstrings were sore from that effort. Pulldown abs next. Reps the same with them being high but adding 10lbs to each set. Needed these today. Help with the spine and hamstrings. Give a nice deload while doing them. I did have to deal with some youngsters having on to it when I was going to do my last set. The rope attachment does look out of place on the pulldown station but still. I was younger too but today I just wasn’t in the mood. Last item was side planks. The plan being 30-60 seconds. Kind of wanted to push this a bit heavier with the 35lbs weight. More to just simmer in my anger of not being able to record my training tonight. This was challenging. Didn’t hurt so that was good. Again, way too many people. I literally had people bumping into me while I was holding these planks. I just wanted to eat my Mississippi roast and do my recovery work and sleep after this.