Tuesday, July 6, 2021

July 5, 2021 – Week 17, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Viking Presses
+45(75)x2
+91(110)x2
+136(143.5)x2
+181(177.5)x2
+226(211)x2
+271(245)x2
+316(278.5)x2
+360(311.5)x3 PR+44lbs
+306(271)x3
+306(271)x3

Viking Strict Presses w/ bands (+36lbs (+27lbs) bottom/+45lbs (+34lbs) top)
+101(117)x3
+151(155)x3
+201(192)x8
+201(192)x11 PR+10lbs & 1 rep

Chest Supported Barbell Rows (3 seconds hold on last rep)
135x3
185x3
Added Straps
225x3
265x10
265x10
265x10

Band Ring Push-ups (feet on ground)
No Bands
bwx5
Added Bands
mmbx5
lbx5
abx20
abx18

Prone Dumbbell Retractions/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx15/19+mbx15/15
10’sx15/19+mbx15/15

Stretching
 
Comments: I don’t think I had mentally prepared for this workout. What I mean is that I had been under the assumption that this would be a routine deload week and had already expected it to be such like two weeks ahead of time. For the past 7yrs, I’ve had strength coaches that implemented deloads with the week before being minimal. From 2014-2016, it was essentially 2/3rds the intensity and the volume of the preceding week. At that had been done every four weeks. From 2017-2019 (when last competed) deload was done only for contest prep and was even more reduced with it being essentially 80% on press, 50% on squat or deadlift and then a conditioning workout that weekend. So assumptions from 7yrs. So imaging me my surprise when I saw that my last heavy day for overhead was today.  It reminds me of a comedy site article about Dock Ellis no-hitter on LSD in that the line-up he faced had the advantage of knowing what day it was and not being on enough acid to melt Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. I wasn’t but the desire to go into that deload mode was really strong. Last workout on Saturday whooped me good. Sunday I was feeling it still and Monday also. Holidays can get me out of my normal routine and that certainly happened. For instance, ended up having a dozen scrambled eggs with bacon tossed in for lunch and then entertaining a 6yr old with Dinosaur Bingo, Lincoln Logs and then a bunch of imaginary car battles. I almost took a nap on my parents’ couch before I told myself nope, you got to go do stuff. So despite a holiday off from work, I got started training as if I just got off work with the time in the day. I really needed the foam rolling. It was the most I’ve ever needed it for my upper back and it seemed to bring me to life haha. Split squat iso holds didn’t bother my knees nearly as much as I was expecting them to with running around after and away from small children. Other mobility prep was good. I think another thing was expecting intense workouts this week with the temperature going back up again (supposed to be cooler week of contest at least). So the pressing today was viking press. I guess I understand now why the secondary pressing day was a deload last week so that this would be pushed. Plan for the day was to work up in doubles to a top 3-5rm and then do two triples after that depending on what I hit. I didn’t feel like I could but I wanted to max out the setup with straight weight. It had been something I had been thinking about after that first session and I got 6 plates added. 7 plates is the utmost limit I have without adding bands or draping chains. I figured I’d do plate jumps and see how I feel. Despite some aches I felt at the start in my everything, I felt better and power was feeling good. Trying to do that press off the leg drive first rep. Not sure on the efficacy on it with the actual setup at contest. Another thing I wanted to test was see how knee sleeves felt as far as support on pressing. These seemed to be the least technical (in that not a worry about needing to clean implement from floor to shoulder). Honestly, not sure but perhaps due to it not being a large ROM like a squat it isn’t feeling like anything other than compression. When I setup to go for this big weight, the handle shifted and I panicked a little and stopped to retighten it to make sure it was secure. Plan was to leave 1RIR so I stopped at 3. Pleased with this (but could do better haha) as I didn’t expect the opportunity to give this a go during the cycle. Down sets was 15% less (ended up being what I did last week) since I went for the 3RM. These honestly didn’t feel that much different but looked a lot easier. I think shoulders just feel the fatigue from the heavier stuff. Not done with the viking press as then it was time to add on the bands and do strict presses. A little apprehensive since I got to loose with my bracing and aggravated my sciatica last time. But could also have been from running out of Nutra Disc at the time. But didn’t want a repeat. I wasn’t sure if I needed warm-ups or not but figured it was best to do some but not too light since this was the same pressing. Unlike last time, no multiset stuff. One rep set and then a max set. Rep set was definitely fatiguing. I was curious if I could get more or even match on the second set. I had not used the wrist wraps or knee sleeves that first set so that I felt like I had something in reserve. That set felt good and I felt like I had better control of my bracing. On to rows with the pauses again. Kind of. See, back to regular rows but told to hold at the end of the last rep but not to failure. I decided to do a 3 seconds hold. Felt easy warming up. It was not on the working sets. I think I didn’t think this was going to be too heavy as I had assumed I’d done this kind of weight before for these reps regular style. I had not, had gone with less reps and more weight. It was nice to get back to the regular rows. The holds were really tough. Middle set felt the best. Pesky mosquito was trying to get me when I was strapped to the bar. Push-ups with the rings and bands again. This time just two sets of max reps leaving 2RIR. It was at this point I started to get dinner ready and realized that I had forgotten to run my dishwasher before lunch like I had planned on doing. So DoorDash it was as I didn’t want to wait 2.5hrs for stuff to be cleaned. So with that settled, I ended up doing pretty well on the band push-ups. I was having some issues with the lighter band tensions but body seemed locked and loaded for the heavy stuff. Might have called it too soon that first set but right on for that last set. On to the last item of the night. The superset. Same as last week with two sets of 15 reps for each. I added another sneaky pound to the triceps. All that collars and fractional plates. Sometimes I do that out of boredom and make weight changes interesting on the lighter stuff. I hadn’t put on the fans in the garage for this as I forgot it was still pretty warm and muggy so I was a bit sweaty after this. And during this. Put everything away and ate dinner before stretching.


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