November 10, 2020 – Week 13, Day 1

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep

 
Axle Clean and Push Presses
28x1
48x1
68x1
88x1
108x1
128x1
148x1
168x1
188x1
208x1
228x1
248x1
 
Axle Push Presses
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
 
Rack Chins (yoke, straps)
bwx5
bwx16
bwx16
bwx16
 
Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx15
40’sx10
70’sx20
70’sx20
70’sx15
 
Paused Floor Band Trap 3 Raises/Paused Band External Rotations (right/left)
µbx15/mbx15/15
µbx15/µbx15/15
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Well here is hoping that it was allergies the past few days. I certainly feel better without taking stuff so good sign I think. I had low motivation to do anything at work today. Mostly because I had the next day off and I was thinking about WSM (really has become a love/hate situation haha) and my own training. My training was going to be a bit of a change up. Trying to work the soft tissue stuff in for the hamstrings with either foam rolling or the car buffer and icing knees once a day if I can manage without cutting into my sleep. Warming up has been adjusted quite a bit now. A majority of it is working towards knee health. Backwards treadmill stuff feels good for the knees and is not subject to issues with weather haha. This was followed by a lot of lower leg drills. Obvious weakness in the Anterior Tibialis. Also advised that the platform stuff I’m at the highest planned adjustment so success there. These days have also had things adjusted to reflect the day. So this warm-up had upper body emphasis. The shoulder drill with the dumbbells with no holds feels so much more natural and less jarring. Axle for today. So the previous plan had been push press for 2 and then strict press for 2. This appears to be too much for the knees right now so axle is going to be push press and the other week will be log kind of strict style. I also added tape markings on my axle so that I could keep an even grip with it getting so dark out right now. Getting new lights installed for out back so in the meantime, using a flood light to provide some illumination. It is crazy that not even 6:00PM and it is pitch black outside. It felt warm outside. With doing push press on the axle every other week, weight is going to be picking up quickly. Today the plan was 80% of my PR in training for the top single on weight. Pressing felt nice. I didn’t feel like I had any reps like last time where lockout was hard or I felt off. Consistency with the clean is where I’m running into issues. I’ve learned in the past to commit to a particular style from warm-up to finish (ie, don’t do DOH power cleans if you are going to need to do a continental for your top weight). I’m doing cleans from hang for the continental. At the start, I can get light enough weight up to the flip point with no effort but then I hit a point where I can’t and I have to do a two bump. It’s hard to make myself do a two bump when the weight is light as I’m trying to make the 2nd pull explosive to get on to my stomach and minimize the time that the under hand arm is in danger. The new belt I’ve noticed has as downside in being thicker and wider than my older belt. It provides fantastic support but it can be trickier to clear for axle and trying to put down a log under control. I had no issues with the belt on at 228lbs. Didn’t need it there but need to get used to it and the breathing changes. For the top weight, I added on my wrist wraps (not super tight) to get used to that feeling again. I haven’t worn them in over 3 months. I ended up missing getting above my belt with 248lbs and ended up having to pull DOH to get it after the miss. Once I got it to my stomach, it was pretty easy and I felt strong. After that was push press from the rack. Same rep and set scheme but lowered percentages. I think this is because of the changes in the pressing and because the increase per month for the top set is more aggressive going forward. I took off a good bit of the support stuff for these. Usually the first set feels rough but didn’t this time. Perhaps dropping the weight from the top set helped. Usually I feel like I get better each set on these. I can’t say that was the case this time. First set felt like my best set. Not to say the other sets were lacking or anything but I didn’t feel like they started out ok or poor and got crisper. Last set I got a little off balance and had to pause a moment before racking it. I might have had shorter rests than usual as I was trying to put stuff away between sets. Into the garage for accessory work. Rack chins again. My right biceps was feeling a bit stressed from the axle stuff. Also could be from the aggressive soft tissue work the night before. Plan was to do 3x16. I think I had my setup on an uneven patch in the garage as the yoke kept on shifting. I didn’t feel like this was stressing the tendons like last time. I could feel a good stretch in my biceps though. Usually the first set doesn’t feel the best. It did this time and I got fatigued as I went. Last set was a tough one to get the reps haha. After that, incline bench press with my dumbbells. Easy warm-ups. Plan for this time around being first two sets for 20 and then 15 for the last set. I kept rests a little shorter than normal. Mostly because I didn’t have as much stuff to put away like I usually do and I had to leave some stuff outside for the end of the workout. First set felt great and was super easy. Felt like a piston. Second set there was obvious fatigue and last set holy crap was that a tough one. My chest felt that stuff. Same with the shoulders and triceps haha. It took a little bit to calm down before I could have enough ROM in my shoulders and arms to get the last item for the session done. Last item was a triset using bands for the external rotators. Had to do these outside as the one required rigging something overhead. First part was doing trap 3 raises while lying on my back. So pulling the bands downward and holding for a second. I tried this with mini bands first but could tell immediately that I wasn’t going to survive a round, let alone two. So went with the micro bands. That was good and challenging. I didn’t realize until I was done that I had scraped my knuckles and had some blood welling up. Now the other part was the external rotations and I was to do the weak side first followed by the strong side. Oops. I guess I had those mixed up or I thought they were. Now I thought I could do the mini bands on these. I was wrong. That first set was way tougher than I thought. I did make sure I got 15 reps but they weren’t great and I had to pause a few times. I realized that I need to do micros for both exercises and switched that out for the second set. The stress of the minis really ate into the recovery on the second set. I’m hoping it is better next time with appropriate band tension. My shoulders felt so tight and stiff after all this. Ate dinner and then stretched, followed by icing my knees, shoulders and elbows.