So another lapse in training. Partial injury related, but mostly depression related. I did no training Saturday as I was feeling like crap and it got too late to train by the time I felt like training. Sunday came and told myself I would do the training and talk with Mr. Westerling about concerns. My knee was still bothering me at this point. Anti-inflammatories not doing much. Icing not doing much. Still could walk, just would get periods where it felt stiff and ached. So resorted to wrapping my knee in a brace for training. It was difficult to do some of the planned warm-ups and eventually did. But I gave up on yoke. I just had a moment where I realized that I was having to put 100% effort into moving what would be 55% of my best for only 25’. I had noticed I was irritable after the previous workout and I was trying to not take anger out on people. I had to walk away for a moment and then force myself to do this one more time, just so it would be closer to the driveway for me to unload it. I felt so done with it all. This wasn’t fun. I was hurting and it wasn’t even me doing something I was currently enjoying. Literally the first time I touched a yoke I did 700lbs and I was under 231lbs and yet here I am, needing to get psyched for 500lbs weighing 60lbs more. I can only take stuff for so long. I have a lot of anger but anger is exhausting so I usually just let it go. But I’m frustrated that I’ve stagnated in areas and regressed in others when it comes to strength. I seemed to have promise in 2017 coming back from that first injury with 2018 looking bright. Now I’m dreading exercises and seeing prep cycles needing to be even longer for competitions for me to be ready for the statically heavier stuff. 2lbs is how much I’ve added to my log push press since 2015. I got angry at myself for not meeting expectations. Ended up not really eating much for a few days. I had to spend time figuring out if the knee issue was serious enough to get an MRI or not, if I wanted to continue competing or not and where to go from here. I’ve been in a depressive episode since Christmas at this point. But I haven’t really been satisfied with training since the 2019 Arnold. I have this drive that makes me pursue more but it also makes the taste of victory dissipate at lightning speed. So never satisfied. I also tend to forget the stress of the current climate that lingers as well. All this lead to me withdrawing from the planned competitions (USS Nats, Clash of Tridents) for 2021. I spent all of last week reviewing options. Which meant I did no activity besides work. Most things I’ve seen about the knee (possible grade 1 MCL strain) is 3 weeks and should recover. Soft tissue work will help (more muscle/blood flow compared to LCL and ACL). So once again, trying my own thing. Tentatively looking at a competition as a goal for end of June to be a focus and see if I can get my ideas to work and not hurt me. My attempts so far have not been successful as I do too much. I think and hope I’ll do better this time around. Plan is to stick this out at least a month before deciding if I need to reevaluate. If it comes to that, then that might mean no competitions for another year to really build back up from the ground up.
2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
Mobility Prep
Axle Strict Presses
30x10
80x5
120x3
150x1
170x1
190x12/3/1 (rest pause)
2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
Mobility Prep
Axle Strict Presses
30x10
80x5
120x3
150x1
170x1
190x12/3/1 (rest pause)
Rack Chins (yoke, straps)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
87x5
137x3
167x3
187x3
207x3
227x14
87x5
137x3
167x3
187x3
207x3
227x14
Paused Band Face Pulls (2 count)
µbx10
µbx10
µbx10
Overhead Dicks Presses
95x7 (miscounted)
95x8
95x8
µbx10
µbx10
µbx10
Overhead Dicks Presses
95x7 (miscounted)
95x8
95x8
Paused Band External Rotations
mbx10/10
mbx10/10
Active Bar Hang (thick bar)
bw for 30 seconds
Stretching
Comments: So was not really sure what to expect with training today. Could be good, great or garbage. Warm-ups felt ok so that was promising I guess. They are good warm-ups. I think only going to avoid the step downs at this point because those hurt when I tried doing them last session before I gave up. Shoulder drill felt good. Sometimes this sucks after a break but it didn’t this time. So on to the experiment that is training on my own. Upper body sessions have a bit more volume of work since I’m doing just one day whereas lower body and event work kind of low volume but essentially one day over two days really there. So plan was to see if my idea would work on day one. Again, tentatively framing things around a competition in late June that has heavy log clean and press. Alternating weeks between stuff that uses the clean and leg drive and not. Made more sense to do the not week this week with the knee stuff. Even though not using leg drive, still put on knee wrap on the right knee just to be safe. Sometimes my knees have been achy just unracking weights. Wore warm-ups as it was well below freezing today despite it being lighter outside. So no real set warm-ups, just needed to be warm for the planned working weight of 190lbs for the strict press. I had agonized between doing this with log, barbell or axle and eventually settled on axle. It is ok to scuff up the axle versus the barbell, I have less “records” tracked for the axle versus barbell and work fuller ROM with the shoulders and more general strength as opposed to specificity. Give me some break from the neutral grip. While contest goal is log, I may not get there so need to keep options open. So top weight for max reps rest pause style. It has been many years since I’ve done this. Try to keep the first two sets 1-2 reps shy of failure and then rest 20 seconds and go again. I didn’t feel like I was going to get a lot that first set as my reps at the start seemed quite stiff and slow. I ended up with 12. I got a little extra rest on as I didn’t plan well for the wrist wraps and rewrapping them. Last set, I got a single, which was expected at this point and I had to attempt it twice to get it. Exhausting. As to be expected. Definitely noticed that I was feeling unstable in the midsection and upper back from doing all those reps and becoming fatigued. Stepped away from the higher rep stuff for overhead (that had been the case earlier last year due to back injury and then COVID). I was actually worried that this was under what I had done years ago (when first trying this out) but pleasantly surprised that this was better than recent and from back then too. From there, inside for back work. For back stuff, I’m sticking to bodyweight and bands and working on reps and volume. So this was more just to get the reps in. No max rep sets. Just 40 total reps. I’m not entirely sure on the progression plan but probably going up 5 total reps until at 60 reps and then drop back down with some weight added and go from there. But this was a needed break after the shoulder pressing. I could feel my right knee becoming less stiff during the workout. Back outside for incline log bench press. This I wasn’t sure about. 5lbs more than last time I did these and aim for max reps. Yes, before I was doing a lot of overhead but it was singles with minimal fatigue and using leg drive. This time, shoulders pre-fatigued from doing strict pressing for a lot of reps in a short period of time. So no clue if I was going to be able to do the planned weights or if my shoulders were too burnt. My hope is that I will attempt to the training (the opposing week isn’t as fatiguing for the shoulders this way). I could definitely tell working up in weight this was going to be difficult. Trying to keep these without wrist wraps for now. Despite the fatigue, I managed to put up a good number of reps. I had a close miss at number 15. Thankfully, log is easy to dismount when it gets stuck. So a few reps dropped off from the fatigue and increased weight. Continue to go up 5lbs and hopefully I can keep it to double digits for a few more weeks. Or even improve if I adapt to the stress. So the plan after that had been to finish up with shoulder and triceps exercise and then shoulder health stuff but my shoulders and chest and triceps were quite dead. So I figured rather than cool down to recover, I’d do some upper back work with bands to give them a break and work those antagonistic groups. Really light band tension as I haven’t done these in forever and doing holds seems to be super taxing, even with the light weight. Not certain if I will keep to this or try to increase the volume. The tension is enough. So after that, on to an exercise I haven’t done in a few year; overhead dicks press. This exercise seems to be good for the lockouts due to the triceps tension, core balance and time under tension for the shoulders. I was a little worried 95lbs would be too much but it wasn’t. I miscounted that first set but got the right number of reps the other sets. I could feel the muscles around the elbow getting worked really hard by the end. External rotations with the bands after that with pauses. Just a set followed by bar hang with shoulders retracted for 30 seconds. I felt 25 seconds was an odd number so made it an even half a minute. Despite all the stuff, this went fairly quick for a workout. Ate pot roast and then stretched. Iced knees before bed. Hopefully I’ve made the right decisions here.
bw for 30 seconds
Stretching
Comments: So was not really sure what to expect with training today. Could be good, great or garbage. Warm-ups felt ok so that was promising I guess. They are good warm-ups. I think only going to avoid the step downs at this point because those hurt when I tried doing them last session before I gave up. Shoulder drill felt good. Sometimes this sucks after a break but it didn’t this time. So on to the experiment that is training on my own. Upper body sessions have a bit more volume of work since I’m doing just one day whereas lower body and event work kind of low volume but essentially one day over two days really there. So plan was to see if my idea would work on day one. Again, tentatively framing things around a competition in late June that has heavy log clean and press. Alternating weeks between stuff that uses the clean and leg drive and not. Made more sense to do the not week this week with the knee stuff. Even though not using leg drive, still put on knee wrap on the right knee just to be safe. Sometimes my knees have been achy just unracking weights. Wore warm-ups as it was well below freezing today despite it being lighter outside. So no real set warm-ups, just needed to be warm for the planned working weight of 190lbs for the strict press. I had agonized between doing this with log, barbell or axle and eventually settled on axle. It is ok to scuff up the axle versus the barbell, I have less “records” tracked for the axle versus barbell and work fuller ROM with the shoulders and more general strength as opposed to specificity. Give me some break from the neutral grip. While contest goal is log, I may not get there so need to keep options open. So top weight for max reps rest pause style. It has been many years since I’ve done this. Try to keep the first two sets 1-2 reps shy of failure and then rest 20 seconds and go again. I didn’t feel like I was going to get a lot that first set as my reps at the start seemed quite stiff and slow. I ended up with 12. I got a little extra rest on as I didn’t plan well for the wrist wraps and rewrapping them. Last set, I got a single, which was expected at this point and I had to attempt it twice to get it. Exhausting. As to be expected. Definitely noticed that I was feeling unstable in the midsection and upper back from doing all those reps and becoming fatigued. Stepped away from the higher rep stuff for overhead (that had been the case earlier last year due to back injury and then COVID). I was actually worried that this was under what I had done years ago (when first trying this out) but pleasantly surprised that this was better than recent and from back then too. From there, inside for back work. For back stuff, I’m sticking to bodyweight and bands and working on reps and volume. So this was more just to get the reps in. No max rep sets. Just 40 total reps. I’m not entirely sure on the progression plan but probably going up 5 total reps until at 60 reps and then drop back down with some weight added and go from there. But this was a needed break after the shoulder pressing. I could feel my right knee becoming less stiff during the workout. Back outside for incline log bench press. This I wasn’t sure about. 5lbs more than last time I did these and aim for max reps. Yes, before I was doing a lot of overhead but it was singles with minimal fatigue and using leg drive. This time, shoulders pre-fatigued from doing strict pressing for a lot of reps in a short period of time. So no clue if I was going to be able to do the planned weights or if my shoulders were too burnt. My hope is that I will attempt to the training (the opposing week isn’t as fatiguing for the shoulders this way). I could definitely tell working up in weight this was going to be difficult. Trying to keep these without wrist wraps for now. Despite the fatigue, I managed to put up a good number of reps. I had a close miss at number 15. Thankfully, log is easy to dismount when it gets stuck. So a few reps dropped off from the fatigue and increased weight. Continue to go up 5lbs and hopefully I can keep it to double digits for a few more weeks. Or even improve if I adapt to the stress. So the plan after that had been to finish up with shoulder and triceps exercise and then shoulder health stuff but my shoulders and chest and triceps were quite dead. So I figured rather than cool down to recover, I’d do some upper back work with bands to give them a break and work those antagonistic groups. Really light band tension as I haven’t done these in forever and doing holds seems to be super taxing, even with the light weight. Not certain if I will keep to this or try to increase the volume. The tension is enough. So after that, on to an exercise I haven’t done in a few year; overhead dicks press. This exercise seems to be good for the lockouts due to the triceps tension, core balance and time under tension for the shoulders. I was a little worried 95lbs would be too much but it wasn’t. I miscounted that first set but got the right number of reps the other sets. I could feel the muscles around the elbow getting worked really hard by the end. External rotations with the bands after that with pauses. Just a set followed by bar hang with shoulders retracted for 30 seconds. I felt 25 seconds was an odd number so made it an even half a minute. Despite all the stuff, this went fairly quick for a workout. Ate pot roast and then stretched. Iced knees before bed. Hopefully I’ve made the right decisions here.
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