August 30, 2021 – Week 7, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
50x3/3
50x3/3
50x3/3
50x3/3
50x3/3
50x3/3
50x3/3

One Arm Half Kneeling Landmine Presses (3 seconds negatives)
+25x5/5
+55x5/5
+85x5/5
+115x6/7
+115x7/6
+90x12/12
+90x12/12

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx17/17

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (5 seconds holds)/Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Cuban Rotations (3 seconds holds)
50x10/10’sx10
50x10/10’sx10
50x10/10’sx10

Supinated Band Front Raises
mmb’s+µb’sx20
mmb’s+µb’sx20
mmb’s+µb’sx20

Banded Pec Flyes
ab’s+mb’sx15
ab’s+mb’sx15
ab’s+mb’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
lb+mmbx20/20
lb+mmbx20/20
lb+mmbx20/20
lb+mmbx20/20

Stretching

Comments: Cleared to use both arms again but not exactly given instruction. Do as tolerated. So that unfortunately means that I have to do my own assessment of things. Knowing at least that the tightness in the forearm in scar tissue helps get a mental block out of the way. I know my wrist can handle stuff it wrapped up tight or using the wrist brace. With getting that information late in the week, kind of hard to get enough time to truly modify and adjust training. Stuff already setup for the injury training as it has been for the past few weeks. I’d like to get back to normal training but probably for the best that I do what I can to see where my arm stands. I am still in a bit of a state of flux with my plans going into 2022 but starting to sharpen and focus my attentions. Hopefully I will have it all figured out this week so I at least have a percent of a plan going forward after this contest. I want to see how this week and next go with my arm before deciding on October show (not about competing but about staying in pro or dropping down to open). Again, I added my own stuff to warm-up (foam rolling, PNF stretching). I also did some movement prep stuff with the wall slides, TKE step-ups and push up position planks (knuckles). Circus dumbbell to start things off. Really light for 7x3. I did this weight for both arms. Left arm I just needed to choke the crap out of my wrist with a wrist wrap. I didn’t intend to do these as one big set (one side then the other and continuous) but it just seemed like the right thing. I got more confident and automatic as I went on these. Left side was definitely a little slow at the start as far as feeling comfortable and having that crisp lockout but that seemed to go away after a few reps and sets. I was kind of pleased with myself that I was able to increase my pace rather than decrease as I went and it was all nonstop. Good conditioning. Into the garage for the rest of the day. I hadn’t exactly set things up as I was seeing if any modifications were going to be made for the training. There were none so on with the workout. Landmine pressing again. Plan was +115lbs for 2x6 and then +90 for rep sets. 3ct eccentrics on these.  I figured I’d try to match those with the left arm. I was able to somewhat keep up with my recovering side. Some stuff has maintained and other stuff has deconditioned. Only been doing the empty setup for the injured side the past two weeks. It feels slightly different on that side. The eccentric stuff was what sapped that side. Actually seemed like my right side was about the same that first set but then I realized I miscounted and did an extra rep. I decided on the second set to push it on the left to match that so that reps evened out. Right side had awoken after the first set and it was noticeably easier as far as control. Last set was to be AMRAP with 1-2RIR. I figured I’d try to push max with detrained side and then just match that with right. 12 seemed the limit for today after attempting a 13th rep. Next up was the single arm lat pulls while kneeling with holds. 3x12 and then max rep set. I realized I was going to be a bit behind having both sides working hard on the pressing stuff this workout. Trying to think that I’m training the fingal fingers on the landmine presses and truck pull on these lat pulls. Perhaps the fact that it wasn’t just straight sets made these easier for me this week. Not so monotonous. Trying to pull with authority. Super set of the little shoulder muscles. 5lbs added to the barbell for the BTN stuff. Keeping the weight the same on the rotations. These exercises get tough quick, especially paired together like this. Then bands for the rest of the workout. I think I thought that even with controlling the bands last week on the raises and flyes that it wasn’t going to be enough today. Adding band tension to both made them super tough. Left shoulder was noticeably fatiguing behind the right at this point. Normally it isn’t stressed much until this point in the workout. So not super satisfied with how the raises went with the increased tension. Left shoulder tight and sore. Pec flyes also felt tougher but I did increase the tension a good bit. It’s always a little tricky to figure out start on these and get the balance. Triceps I left the same tension as I have been. This was more to put the left side through the ringer. It was not used to the this kind of tension since most I’ve allowed was a mini band. It’s challenging for the right arm (which has been my lagging arm for triceps before the injury). The wrist brace didn’t provide enough support for this kind of band tension to keep my wrist from moving in a way that was still tender so ended up wrapping wrist wrap for these. This was very tough for my left arm but I got the reps done eventually. Tough for the left side but it is used to this. Put some of the stuff away but left other stuff out for tomorrow’s workout with how late it was. I just wanted to eat my pot roast. Stretched after dinner.

August 28, 2021 – Week 6, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+125(ast)x8
+125(ast)x8
+125(ast)x8

Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box)
65x10
165x2
255x2
325x2
385x2
435x2
485x2
485x2
485x2
445x7

Concentric Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (from deadlift height)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x6
295x6
295x6

Yoke
Casual Pace
200x100’ (drop and turn at 50’)
Normal
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x100’ (drop and turn at 50’) in 25.94 seconds
600x100’ (drop and turn at 50’) in 23.33 seconds

Yoke Holds
600x5 seconds
700x5 seconds
800x15 seconds

Seated Safety Squat Bar Upper Back Goodmornings (3 seconds holds)
355x90 seconds

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
70x6(3/3)
100x12(6/6)
100x12(6/6)
100x12(6/6)

Quad Fallbacks (12” target, 3 seconds eccentrics)/Copenhagen Planks
bwx10:bwx30/30 seconds
bwx10:bwx30/30 seconds

Seated Calf Raises (3 seconds holds)/Band Tibialis Anterior Raises
90x10/(2)lb’sx15
90x10/(2)lb’sx15
90x10/(2)lb’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: I was feeling irritable. I got probably the best news at my follow up that I could resume my strongman stuff as tolerated. I know the wrist will heal up shortly as it is the same injury I had to the right wrist in 2017 at Nationals. The real sigh of relief was with the arm and elbow. The PA had told me it was a fracture and while it still was a fracture, the doctor clarified it was an avulsion fracture (like what happened with my pinkies in 2019 haha). So that means my tendons are very strong and that the pressure I was feeling was from there being scar tissue and not anything that is actively tugging my biceps, forearm or triceps as the bone that was injured is not an attachment point for them. I had been hopeful that I’d be given the all clear at this appointment but not set in stone. So I think part of that irritability came in that I probably could’ve competed still at this August show. Other being that with this short of notice, it is hard to get training adjusted for the change. Then other little things like one of my favorite food places being closed due to a burst pipe, another no longer doing delivery to my area and just having this crick in my neck on the left side that just isn’t going away. I find it helps for me to figure out why I’m feeling a certain (negative) way to understand and not let it bleed into other things or on to people that don’t deserve it. Ink blots may look different depending on the lens you view them. I slept in about 20 minutes before getting ready for the day. Drive was a bit slow at spots. Good bit of people there when I started. Got set for warm-ups. Some of the fans were moved around. I was feeling warm which I was wasn’t sure why with it being slightly cooler than it had been the rest of the week. But humidity was high. I just seem to sweat a ton regardless. Warm up felt good at least. So starting things off with inverse leg curls. 3x8 again with the lower assistance I had used last time. Other than my knees aching a bit on the first set, these felt pretty darn good. Box squats with ssb after that to the high box. I think in my heart I was hoping for a break from these but nope. Plan was 3x2 with 5lbs less than what I did for the 4rm last week and then doing an AMRAP with 40lbs less (leaving 2RIR). I was hoping that at least warming up would feel similar to last week in that knee weren’t complaining so much. Nope, they decided this was bullshit. I did the same warm-ups as last week. This is the oldest my joints and body have every felt working up. Knees aching, left hip started aching. Like my bones were just dust. But sometimes all they need is a good ass whooping to shut up. 485lbs felt darn heavy but I got the reps. Video says it wasn’t that bad. On the last double, I had a little scare. As I was coming up off the box, I heard a “crinkling sound” to my left. I didn’t feel anything and there was no pain but I wasn’t sure what it was. Did something just go in my left knee? I tested to make sure my knee was ok and I was able to squat to the box without weight and into a full squat. No issues. I eventually told myself that it must’ve been someone crushing a water bottle or something (I’m still not sure as no one had a small water bottle today and I heard the same noise later when I was stretching by myself at the end of the session). I was a little spooked so I asked for side spots on the AMRAP set. Which felt silly afterwards considering how easy I was moving the weight. I didn’t expect it to be this easy. With how stuff was feeling today, I thought 4 reps was low end and 7 reps was a pipe dream. But after that first rep, I knew I had 7 no problem. Only stopped as I was getting pitched forward on number seven and I knew I had two more in the tank at that point. Maybe three. 445lbs for 10 on a ssb seems crazy to me but it looks like that is something I can probably do now. On to the next thing. Goodmornings from deadlift height in the rack. 3x6 this week. I kind of wanted to pick up stuff but I will obey the workout haha. These put more stress on the lower back and hamstrings then a lot of other things without adding stress to the wrist. Still wearing the brace just for extra support while training. These get tough fast with weight added. Like, the set with 245lbs felt so damn easy and then that first rep with my working weight had me reconsidering this being too light haha. I setup a pvc pipe for gauging my deadlift height and trying to keep my shins vertical. I was only three exercises into the session and I could already tell I was going to have stiff and sore joints tomorrow and probably the next day. Yoke returned after almost a month hiatus. I guess holding it seemed less stressful then running with it for the arm injury. The work arounds do seem to be working and honestly probably keeping me from breaking down. I had a mental block with yoke and I became obsessed with my times. Trying to not do that. Keeping track but it will come when it comes. So for yoke, the plan was to do whatever I needed to warm-up and then do 2x100’ with a light to moderate weight. My hope here was to do 600lbs for at least one of these runs if I felt up to it. My initial plan was to do 500lbs for the first run and 600lbs for the second. 600lbs would be 60% of pro weight and 70% of open weight and would be 75% of my best 100’ run. It wasn’t specified in the training if this was to be 100’ straight shot or not but I ended up doing it as 50’ with a drop and turn as that would be indoors (owner’s don’t want people doing yoke on the turf anymore so it would’ve needed to be outside). For warm-ups, I decided I wanted to do casual walks and then do 100lbs jumps with shorter runs. I used the lighter yoke for the casual walks that was set slightly lower for the pick then went to the beefier yoke for the other stuff. After 400lbs felt really easy, I thought maybe I do both 100’ sets with 600lbs and do 25’ runs with 500lbs and 550lbs. I stuck with doing 50’ and then went up to 600lbs. First run with 600lbs started off great but then disaster. One of the numerous ab wheel things was sticking out slightly. I had thought about getting it moved but it wasn’t that far out and I didn’t have any issues working up this whole time. Well I clipped it with the yoke and it about took the damn thing off my back but I held strong and course corrected. I was so pissed at this (I had seen a possible problem and let it go) that it had made what was a good run into a bad run and now I had just wasted time and energy but things happen all the time and I had another 50’ to go. Just under 26 seconds. Probably lost at least 3 seconds from the obstacle. Removed it for the second set and that went fine. Not my fastest. I can definitely feel that I’m not conditioned for 100’ runs at the moment but seem to be all set when it comes to 50’. Speed will come, the important thing right now is solid movement, confidence and comfort, which is what I’m getting right now. So after that was yoke holds again. I think this week solidified it for me that I can’t just treat these as a lockout exercise for yoke. That I can just walk into it after doing yoke. It deserves respect. The pick is not quite the same as with yoke, I’m trying to move with it once it is up and it’s kind of distracting from the weight as you play hot potato with the floor with each step. Yoke as coal walking haha. This is just standing up with it and holding it but bracing and breathing. That second part is fine. But knees and quads are feeling it after the other stuff beforehand. The plan here was work up in 5 seconds to 800lbs for 15 seconds. If I had not taken a little break after the yoke to help with setting up sandbag toss, I’d probably gone right to 700lbs but I did 600lbs and it was needed as that pick felt tougher than the runs. I was seriously considering getting my knee sleeves on for these. Video says these came up off the ground fast. Again, relative I guess. A brief respite from the lower body stuff for the upper back goodmornings. A little leery going into these this week as last week they didn’t feel so comfortable on the left side and the neck crick still present. But I’m going to keep pushing what I can so I added 10lbs more to it. I feel that this week (outside of the first week with less than half the weight) that this was the best control I’ve had as far as contracting the upper back and thoracic spinae muscles. So that was good. On to leg curls after that. Back to doing them with the 2 up and 1 down. Even though there was a lot of hamstring already today, I stuck with the top weight I did two weeks ago for all sets. That was a big ask with those 5 second negatives. Left side seemed to fair better with control across all sets. Right side seemed better first set and first rep or so but then faded hard in the sets. I need strong hamstrings and tendons for the suited deadlifts that I’ll hopefully be back to doing soon and to get my legs ready for moving faster on yoke and about everything else. Now the last bit of the workout was changed up. It has been a triset previously but now it has been changed into two supersets. The first being the quad fallbacks now paired with Copenhagen planks. Only two sets for each. With finding a way to make the quad fallbacks gentler on my ankles, I elected to go hard on them with making the target lower from 17” to 12”. This was a big ask not so much because of the flexibility/mobility or strength but just balance with going that far and my knees were really sore from everything else. This is the first time my knees have ached on these so it was a little jarring at first but I got the hang of it. Copenhagens were good. I remember there being a time these were challenging and I’d get pain in the left knee. This is two weeks in a row without that problem. Last pairing for the day was the seated calf raises with holds and tib raises. I decided for these that I’d keep the weight the same on the seated calf raises (actually thought about lowering it) because it was now a superset and not a triset so less time for recovery. And I then swapped out bands for the resistance on the tib raises as it was becoming too cumbersome and not a really good ROM with the kettlebells. Bands worked a lot better. Calf stuff was super tough, tib stuff was decent and could feel the muscles doing actual work this time. Long day. I was all alone at this point so put everything away and stretched out before driving home. Cooled off and ate a big dinner before icing my knees before bed.

August 26, 2021 – Week 6, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme, 3 seconds holds in bottom of dip and lockout, 5 seconds eccentric)
10x1 R/10x1 L
30x1 R/10x1 L
50x1 R/10x1 L
70x1 R/10x1 L
90x2 R/10x2 L
90x2 R/10x2 L
90x2 R/10x2 L
90x2 R/10x2 L
90x2 R/10x2 L
90x2 R/10x2 L

Single Arm Axle Lockouts (8” ROM) w/ bands
No bands
30x3
Add Bands (+16lbs bottom/+17lbs top)
30x3
Add Bands (+27lbs bottom/+31lbs top)
30x3
45x3
60x3
75x3
90x3
105x3
85x3
85x3
85x3
85x3

One Arm Dumbbell Bench Presses (5 seconds eccentric)/One Arm Dumbbell Rows (noninjured side) :  One Arm Band Rows (10 seconds holds, injured side)
OADBP – 10x5 R
OADR – 40x5
OADBP – 10x5 L
OADR – 80x5
OADBP – 40x5 R
OADR – 115x5
OADBP – 10x5 L
OADR – 145x5
80x12/10x12 – 170x8 (no straps) – abx11
80x12/10x12 – 170x8 (no straps) – abx11
80x11/10x11 – 170x16 (straps) – abx10

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (3 seconds holds, 3 seconds eccentric)
10’sx8
10’sx8
10’sx8

Iso Hold Lateral Raises (hold 30lbs kettlebell injured side)/Band Crossover Rear Delts
35x15/(2)µb’sx15
35x15/(2)µb’sx15
35x15/(2)µb’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns/Single Arm Band Hammer Curls
lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25 
lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25
lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Anxious to see what the doctor says tomorrow. Left shoulder sore for no reason (some light bruising showing around AC joint not sure why). Still doing stuff so whatever. Foam rolling and PNF stretches again. Needed the foam rolling for sure. Stretching was good but didn’t seem to get as loose as I was last week or earlier this week as didn’t reach the floor this time.  Movement prep added of the wall slides, TKE step ups and BTN with the empty axle. I spent time getting something setup before actually getting to work. It is possible that this was the time vampire for the day (as this workout ended up taking a long time and not sure why). Circus dumbbell again. Same weight as last week but sets changed from 4x3 to 6x2. Advised to keep holds and pauses the same but increase the eccentric portion to 5 if I could and try to get myself into position like I was reversing the motion of the press. That was a little tricky as completion is different from how it starts so trying to reverse that was a little tricky. I decided to start lighter with my warm-ups to practice that working up. Still 10lbs for injured side. I feel like I’m getting more comfortable with the other side with getting the rack positon and just contorting my body in a way that gets the lower body drive. Those negatives were tough. Into the garage for the rest of the session. Seated lockouts with my axle again but not quite. Some confidence back after last week making up for the screw up the week before. But this time it was adding bands (no amount specified by suggested mini or micro) for triples to a top triple and then do 4 sets after that for speed. I didn’t like how the micro bands had little variance at all so I elected for the minis as my working band tension. The bands did provide some balance but I still had trouble getting that balance point right to get the lifts off the rack so I had a few “test” nudges on these before I actually pressed it. Things were feeling good and I thought that 105lbs would be another work up set for me. It was not. It was finally at a weight that the test nudges didn’t really do much with figuring where I was. First two reps were good and then I just was struggling to get the last rep of the triple. I wasn’t stopping until I got it. I eventually did but it was ugly and unbalanced and cheaty (one side went up first). Dropped off 20lbs for the down sets. These felt solid. Not much to say here other than the bands do kick a bit haha. Bench and rows after that. I wrote down the numbers I did to warm-up for the benching wrong as I was definitely not doing sets of 10 reps to warm up. Plan here was work up in 5’s on the rows so matched that with the benching. For benchi this week, I was to stick with 80lbs and do reps with 2RIR on them so I didn’t have to stop at just 10 reps this week. I’m a little bit better on these now so I was able to get extra reps in that I usually wouldn’t I think. I was going for 3x12 across the whole thing but not to be on that last set. The rows I was to do 2x8 with the weight I did for last week and then strap up for the last set and rep out. Grip was feeling a little more fatigued than I’d like compared to last week but it held up and I got my reps. Back was feeling tired and I stopped on the rows as I felt like the next one I’d be pulling with too much biceps and yank/heaving it. Still added a rep from last week. Bands for the injured side and still doing the long holds of 10 seconds. I had planned on doing 3x10 again but I miscounted on the first two sets and did an extra rep each. Oh well. After that, it was on to Y raises. Dumbbells back in the mix on these. 3x8 with 3ct hold and 3ct eccentrics. I figured I could do 10’s since I did them for a set of 10 before the oopsie (but it was 1 set only). Left shoulder was ok, right shoulder seemed a little achy. Still finished this up no problems. Shoulder stuff continued. I increased the iso hold weight (and I think that is the limit for me there) to 30lbs and added weight to the dumbbell for the laterals after seeing how things went for it last week. I was also bold in doubling the tension on the rear delts (granted going from 1 set of micros to 2 sets). That was a good bit tougher and like the iso hold, probably the limit for a while there too. Last pairing was for the gun show. Bands for triceps and biceps. I made myself not add band tension to my injured side as just one more day to get my medical review done. I figured last week the band tensions were good for these rep ranges so stayed the same here. Got a good pump in the good arm. That arm has gotten bigger than my injured side. It was quite late so cleaned up the garage and had a big dinner and then stretched. Really want some good news so I can get back to attacking things again.

August 24, 2021 – Week 6, Day 2

Mobility Prep

 

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds, beltless)

75x2

125x2

165x2

215x2

255x2

305x2

355x2

355x2

355x2

355x2

355x2

Spud Harness Deadlifts

135x2

225x2

315x2

405x2

495x2

565x3

565x3

565x3

515x10

Safety Squat Bar Step Ups (14”)

75x3/3

115x3/3

155x15/15

155x15/15

155x15/15

Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Hollow Holds

lbx14 PR+3 reps/bwx30 seconds

lbx12/bwx30 seconds

lbx10/bwx30 seconds

Paused Seated Band Hamstring Curl (3 seconds holds)

lb’sx23 PR+4 reps

lb’sx17

Quad Fallbacks (17” target)

bwx5 (stopped due to discomfort)

bwx8

bwx8

bwx8

Sled Drag Work

295x5 minutes 

Stretching

 

Comments: Realizing that I need to find a middle ground in my thoughts. There are times with overestimation and underestimation that have led to rash decisions when it comes to my pursuit of strength. In general but also this year. This year I can kind of see it more clearly and try to not follow in the footsteps of mistakes I’ve previously made. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. You can come back quick but you may not have the endurance to maintain right away. Being forced to take a detour has me looking at things. I’ve previously mentioned how I expected this whole year to be getting feet wet initially and seeing if I still really wanted to do this. And then 5 weeks into training, I had the bug and wanted to compete and try for SC Nats. I tempered expectations and but still felt I’d podium at the competition. Winning was a bonus. Qualified but decided I wasn’t going to compete there. I had already stretched myself thin with committing to another show in August for fun (had to pull out) and then the show I had withdrawn from earlier in the year had openings again and I got back on the roster. I’m seeing that even if I was healthy to do both shows as planned, doing the one was going to take away from the other and vice versa. Though more apparent for the later show. I have to think on things a bit more but ideas are starting to solidify. On to training stuff. Woke up with my right knee feeling achy and stiff but thankfully that went away fairly quickly during the day. Same mobility stuff as last few weeks. Had all the fans going. I think it has been just above 90 every day this week and last when I’ve had garage training sessions haha. Started things off with paused ssb squats. Beltless doubles again. Dropped a set so now 5x2, with the 90-120 seconds rest. Still creeping up in weight with 12lbs jumps it seems. So I had to alter the weights a little rather than just doing the empty bar to start. No discomfort in the right knee. Left knee still doesn’t seem certain but it seemed better this week. I feel like I was a little deeper into the squat and able to hold rather than rest on my calves still. Might have been a bit more forward lean than last week. But still going up. Relatively light percentages compared to what I think I can do for a belted single on regular ssb squats but it is just 30lbs shy of my top double with pauses I’ve done so far. Harness pulls from the floor after that. Plan being work up in doubles with controlled negatives and then 3x3 with top weight followed by removing 50lbs for an AMRAP leaving 1-2RIR. Much like last week (and I guess the day before) I was tempted to add weight to these. Granted last week gave a range based off feel and to make sure it felt a certain way while this week had specific weights. So I stuck to that. I took big jumps on the doubles. I didn’t want to burn myself out after all the squats. These pulls can be weird as it can feel like it is going slow but moves pretty quick. The first rep is always rough. Perhaps because the slack fully comes out of the straps as it gets pulled into my body. It felt decently tough. On the rep set, despite feeling like I was going to puke from nerves, I wanted at least 8 reps. 8 reps with feeling like I had 1-2RIR at minimum. But what I really wanted was 10 reps with that feeling. I need to have things doing work that will result in +700lbs deadlifts. I could feel the hamstrings twitching on that last rep. Any more reps would be ugly and possibly have hitching, though not sure how that would work with the strap setup haha. Step ups followed. This time being 3x15. I thought it might be too much going for what I did last week for those reps. Was going to do 20lbs less but eventually talked myself back up so just 10lbs less. Those extra reps were tough. Knees were achy so I was a little hesitant warming up and at the start. I’ve been just resting between legs with the bar on my back but this time I felt that wasn’t going to be enough for me to recover so I did set it down between sides. I think part of my thinking with it before was that it wasn’t becoming a factor and a little “may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead” for the fatigue. But I did seem to get better as these went and probably could’ve done the weight I did last week. Superset of band assisted Nordic curls with the hollow holds again. I took a slight departure from how I normally do super sets in that I took a break between them. Reason being that the words were on the Nordic curls to leave nothing in the tank each set. So that was going to suck. And I wanted to make sure that I was getting in quality work and not just fatigued stuff. Hollow holds remain the same. I wanted to get double digits on each set after hitting such a high number that first set. Got to make these hamstrings strong. Band leg curls again with holds after that. Trying to beat the reps from last time. Hamstrings so tight after the Nordics. I lost count of what I was doing on the first set. I wanted to make sure I did 20 reps here and I went over that a bit haha. Second set I got an extra 2 reps. After this was those darn quad fallbacks. Still 3x8 with bodyweight. Continuing to progress on ROM on these. These did not start out well. Ankles were killing me. I tried to fight through it but I had to stop after 5 reps that first set. It has to be a good bit of discomfort considering I finished up the workout when I fractured my elbow and sprained my wrist a few weeks back. I adjusted the pad so that it was supporting my ankles and my knees to see if that helped. And boy did it. It was like almost peaceful. I was getting greater ROM and I was 10” further away than I was doing the weight before. Big difference. These actually felt great and I look forward to doing them. Ankles are still going to need some time to recover from overdoing it on the forced stretch I’ve been putting them through having them on the floor like I have been for these for weeks on end. Last bit of the night was sled work again. Lights on and all the safety stuff. I had it in my head that I should be pulling my own weight. Or rather, the sled should be at least my bodyweight. I had only gone up 5lbs last time after how much adding 20lbs to the sled sucked so not sure where I got the nerve to go up to 295lbs but I did and it felt about the same honestly. Just pouring sweat. Put everything away (yep, wasn’t so tired like last week when I left it all out) before eating a lot of pot roast and then stretching.

August 23, 2021 – Week 6, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R

One Arm Half Kneeling Landmine Presses (3 seconds negatives)
emptyx5/5
+20x5/emptyx5
+50x5/emptyx5
+80x5/emptyx5
+110x8/emptyx8
+97.5x10/emptyx10
+97.5x10/emptyx10
+97.5x10/emptyx10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (5 seconds holds)/Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Cuban Rotations (3 seconds holds)
45x10/10’sx10
45x10/10’sx10
45x10/10’sx10

Supinated Band Front Raises
mmb’sx20
mmb’sx20
mmb’sx20

Banded Pec Flyes
ab’sx15
ab’sx15
ab’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
lb+mmb/mbx20
lb+mmb/mbx20
lb+mmb/mbx20
lb+mmb/mbx20

Stretching

Comments: I’m in that state of uncertainty although I’m not sure if that is entirely accurate. More of a wanting to and not wanting to at the same time kind of thing. Is it cognitive dissonance or some kind of quantum state wanting? A more accurate thing may be that I’m like this because of the uncertainty of things. Myself (recovery), the upcoming event (COVID) and the future (what is next). I like having plans and structure and knowing there is something to follow. Progression, moving forward. At this point, I have no idea after this upcoming show in October. It’s something I need to think on and figure out my goals. The end goal is the same still, that hasn’t change but getting there seems tricky with a high bar of entry to leap over. But back to the present. Most everything seems ok from the last week. Left shoulder has a sore spot around the AC joint. Not sure what caused it or why just the one side. My thinking was maybe the pads on the hack squat as that was the only new thing I did and I noticed discomfort on the ssb stuff afterwards but not before. Still wearing wrist brace for training. Again, I added my own stuff to warm-up (foam rolling, PNF stretching). I also did some movement prep stuff with the wall slides, TKE step-ups and push up position planks (knuckles). Circus dumbbell again for light stuff. Same as last time with 50x10x2 and I did 10lbs for the injured side as my active rest. I had to talk myself out of doing any more than that on the injured side. Just another week. It wasn’t until later when I reviewed video that I realized I had only done 9 sets. Oh well. This was more or less form work and warm-ups so not that big a deal. In the grant scheme of things, this is like 25% of my 1rm on these. Into the garage for the rest of the workout. With fans going. Still in the 90’s and muggy. I had setup stuff before I got started with the circus dumbbell stuff. Landmine pressing again. Told to keep the long negatives and do sets of 5 up to an 8rm and then do 3x10 with a percentage of that. I took big jumps again and did the empty bar for the injured side with matching reps again. I figured +110lbs was a good number. 1rm said I couldn’t do it haha. Honestly I had at least another rep here and maybe two. But this was fine as the down sets were the killers. Just under 100lbs added and doing 3x10 when +90lbs has been the most weight I’ve been doing for less reps. Those last two sets were quite tough to finish. Next up was the single arm lat pulls while kneeling with holds. 4x12 again. I had been advised that this workout wasn’t really one that could be progressed at the moment other than increasing band tension. This is the “extra day” for upper body work. I figured with that reasoning, it was probably best to maintain the band tensions I had for stuff for this week as hopefully I get cleared to return to normal training this Friday. These holds against bands are exhausting. Especially over this amount of sets. Super set of the little shoulder muscles returned. Light stuff but with holds and pauses so this got tough quick. I mean, the first series is pretty easy and gets really tough with the burn in the shoulders by the end. I think that I had better awareness of the barbell this week compared to last week. Which is good. Kept same weight on the rotations. No need to go heavier with these. Then bands for the rest of the workout. As mentioned above, I was going to keep band tension the same. I figured it might be tricky trying to add bands to raises and flyes. Raises had felt pretty easy last week but I figured I could make things tougher by resisting the accelerated eccentrics of the bands rather than just moving to move it. Definitely made a big difference in the difficulty. Banded flyes are going to be hard to add tension to with how much I need and just my own body weight to brace. So controlling things here also worked quite well. Last bit was triceps. Stuck with mini band for the injured side. I didn’t do the controlled stuff on these as I knew this amount of tension was tough and would be tough to finish over four sets. Elbows have been quite achy since having to change things up due to the arm issue but that had been feeling like that at the start of this training cycle too. Band triceps twice a week is getting rough. First set was definitely easier than planned but I knew that my triceps fatigue quick and once they do, they suffer. So the last three sets were each harder than the last. My right arm is going to be so much larger than my left if I don’t get back to normal training soon haha. Put stuff away and ate big dinner. Stretched out before cleaning up.

August 21, 2021 – Week 5, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+180(ast)x3
+135(ast)x8
+130(ast)x8
+125(ast)x8

Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box)
65x10
165x2
255x2
325x2
385x2
435x2
490x4
417x4

Lying Leg Curls
90x5
135x3
160x12
160x12
160x12

Reverse Band Hack Squats (5 second negatives, LB’s)
emptyx5
+50x5
+90x5
+140x10
+180x10
+230x10

Seated Safety Squat Bar Upper Back Goodmornings (3 seconds holds)
345x90 seconds

Copenhagen Planks
bwx30/30 seconds
bwx30/30 seconds
bwx30/30 seconds

Quad Fallbacks (17” target)/Seated Calf Raises (3 seconds holds)/Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises
bwx8/90x10/44’sx15
bwx8/90x10/44’sx15
bwx8/90x10/44’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: I’m anxious to get back to normal training. Unencumbered and unbound. Starting to stress that I’ll essentially only have 6 weeks potentially of not doing optimal training towards my goal (assuming given the go ahead this coming Friday). So like four serious event training sessions left. Maybe two sessions in the deadlift suit. I’ll have to decide on if I’m doing the open or pro. Hopefully I only have this for another week. Can’t control that. In the now. A different day. Gym was closed until 6PM today due to hosting a powerlifting meet. Had to figure out logistics on whether it made sense to just go Sunday or try and figure things out for a really late Saturday. I went with the night training. So I slept in and headed out to the gym at 5:00PM. Got there with like 15 minutes until 6:00PM. Honestly, it looks like I could’ve gone in at that time but I waited until 6. Just two people in there so lonely evening of training.  Got set for warm-ups. I was feeling warm but not nearly as exhausted as I was feeling last week. It wasn’t until later I realized that some of the industrial fans were off so that could be why I was feeling better but still sweating like crazy. Looking at the workout, it seemed less like an event day and more like regular gym day. No event anything. Maybe this was due to it being late in the day to try and make stuff go easier. Also could be from reporting how beat I was last workout and also could be just that Drew wanted me to do more work on these things after I showed him all the machines at the gym. So starting things off with inverse leg curls. A way to do more Nordic curls. Or a variation I suppose. Had been doing negatives before the injury to the arm and then the band assisted ones at home. So these were to be a primer. I was advised to do 3x8 with 2RIR. I was hoping that I’d be able to use less assistance than what I needed the last time I did them. Which was also the first time I did them. I needed 225lbs of weight added to do them then. Didn’t care for them and I ended up needing to take a break from training due to pain relapse in my discs. That was October 2019. So just shy of 2yrs at this point. I figured with all the torture I’ve put my legs through, I should be able to knock off weight assistance. And I was right. 135lbs felt too light for me but I had thought that would be the top end for these so I took off 5lbs a set. So improvement of 100lbs on these. More so considering I was only able to do 6 reps then and able to do 8 reps with some in the tanks. So that was a good start. Then on to the high box squats with the ssb. I was a bit surprised these were to be this heavy again after how they felt last week. Plan was to work up in doubles to a smooth set of 4 reps and then do a drop down set of 4 reps. Some confusion on that last bit as the suggested had 40lbs less than top set while the instructions said 85% of top weight. Suggested was 485lbs for the top set based off what I’ve done these past two weeks. I was a little nervous about how the knees would feel but they actually felt good. Perhaps the hamstring primer is a good thing. I had been thinking that it would take away from these with the extra hamstring work. I felt good and didn’t feel like I needed as many work up sets. I usually do 50-40lbs jumps but I did 50lbs as my smallest jump. Smooth set of four I guess depends on the state of arousal as My last warm-up could be that if I didn’t get excited for the lift like I did for the top set. I went up 5lbs from what was projected. Push what I can. I knew I had this after the first rep (what to say after the unrack but that can be misleading with how these go). Only rep that wasn’t smooth was the last one as I got pitched forward. But I know I had at least another rep in the tank there. I went with the 15% drop just to be on the safe side for a pretty easy set of four reps. Then it was time for machines. Lying leg curls. Regular style, 3x12 with 2RIR. I tried to figure out what that would be after what I’ve done for reps and the last session with getting that negative strength up. I assumed that I could have done like 17 reps with 145lbs and that maybe added 3 reps to that with the past few sessions on negatives that came out to 160lbs and that ended up being perfect. Next up was a new one. Using the somewhat new hack squat machine. But using band assistance. Idea was just enough to make the empty sled feel almost weightless. Now the weight on the machine was behind so anchoring was a little tricky. I’m not sure how much assistance is given on these since I set it up at an angle using a rack and barbell. So the plan here was getting a full ROM and doing these with a long negative each rep. Warm-up in fives and then do 3x10 with the difficult increasing each set. I was very happy that I fit on this machine as that had been a concern as sometimes I am too tall for stuff (like every ride at Hershey Park). It can be tricky to gauge reps in the tank on stuff with controlled eccentrics like this. Also unknown as haven’t used this machine or done this movement in over a decade at least. Sometimes these machines that are plateloaded and have limits (no more than 700lbs) can feel different as weight gets added. With how my first work set went, I had thought that 20lbs was what I’d be doing but then I decided to push things and I’m glad I did as I got much closer to what I should be doing by the end. I expect DOMS by next weekend haha. Back to the safety squat bar. Upper back gms again. I had been told that I could stick at the same weight. Try and do more reps in the time limit and try to “contract” harder. I ended up going up 10lbs as I had an extra 10lbs on the bar from earlier. Still feeling strong but didn’t feel as “comfortable” on the upper back this time. Felt like it was digging in a little on the left side. I think I was also a little worried I’d lose it since my shirt was super sweaty as well as my hair. But I got it done. Now the next part of the session was for inner thigh muscles. Plan was to use a machine for this but this is one of the machines that they don’t have. So I was advised to do Copenhagen planks for 3 sets of 30 seconds. And it was then that I put it together that this was a leg exercise and not some strange abdominal one. I kept focusing on the plank portion. Duh. Things have improved with my knee as I get pain on these sometimes but none this time. I also believe this is the longest I’ve held these consistently. So that is a good sign too. Last bit was a triset again. I was not looking forward to doing the quad fallbacks. They had felt ok on Tuesday but that had been the case last week too and then my ankles felt like they wanted to explode doing them last weekend. So gun shy on these. I did have the option to do sissy squats but they weren’t optimal. They felt like they usually do. My left hamstring cramped up after the second rep, otherwise I think I’d have done them straight through without adjusting. Felt fine the other two sets. Just have to get that thought out of my head. The other partners in this were seated calf raises and tib raises again. I decided to push these. Stop messing around and just put 90lbs on the calf raises. For the tib raises, I forgot that I had done 16kgs last time and thought I had done 20kgs. Hardly noticed though. The ROM on those is small. Seated calf raises are becoming the hardest part as I get such a contraction on these that I worry I’ll cramp up haha. It was a bit past 9:00PM at this point (I left the parking lot at 9:15PM) so I took and assessment. I was a disgusting, sweaty mess that shouldn’t be in close proximity to people. I checked to see if any restaurants near my house that I liked were still opened and could deliver. My other option had been to go to Wendy’s and get a ton of chicken sandwiches. Primati Bros was open and so I ordered three big ass sandwiches. Drove home to eat those and then stretched out before cleaning up. I did end up staying up a good bit so that I could let that digest and so that I could get another meal in before finally going to bed. 

August 19, 2021 – Week 5, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme, 3 seconds holds in bottom of dip and lockout, 3 seconds negatives)
30x1 R/10x1 L
50x1 R/10x1 L
70x1 R/10x1 L
90x3 R/10x3 L
90x3 R/10x3 L
90x3 R/10x3 L
90x3 R/10x3 L

Single Arm Axle Lockouts (8” ROM)
35x2
55x2
75x2
95x2
105x1
115x1
125x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
135x1
120x4
120x9

One Arm Dumbbell Bench Presses (5 seconds eccentric)/One Arm Dumbbell Rows (noninjured side) :  One Arm Band Rows (10 seconds holds, injured side)
OADBP – 10x10 R
OADR – 40x5
OADBP – 10x10 L
OADR – 80x5
OADBP – 40x10 R
OADR – 115x5
OADBP – 10x10 L
OADR – 145x5
80x10/10x10 – 170x10 (no straps) – abx10
80x10/10x10 – 170x15 (straps) – abx10
80x10/10x10 – 170x13 (straps) – abx10

Y Raises (no weight, 10 seconds holds)
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Iso Hold Lateral Raises (hold 25lbs kettlebell injured side)/Band Crossover Rear Delts
32x15/µb’sx15
32x15/µb’sx15
32x15/µb’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns/Single Arm Band Hammer Curls
lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25 

lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25
lb+µbx25—mbx25/mmbx25—µbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Hey, at least my body wasn’t inexplicably hurting this time. Out of nowhere last week. I had been tired and exhausted Tuesday evening and with the rain off and on the following day, I just left what I had out out. So car got some outside time. So I had to clean up a little before I got ready. Foam rolling and PNF stretches again. This is definitely the most I’ve been able to stretch out as one side was able to kiss the ground twice on the second round. Means one side still tighter than the other.  Movement prep back to doing the stuff I did last week (wall slides, TKE step ups and BTN presses in split stance). So first item of the day was circus dumbbell pressing. Every day forever I guess haha. I want to go all out on this training to get this up to snuff. Especially with how easy 160lbs was my literal first week in training with it. Anyways, it was the tempo presses again with the pauses and holds and negatives. Just 5lbs more than last week. I took a bit shorter rests here I think as I decided I’d do my injured side with 10lbs as kind of active rest. I can handle 10lbs. Keep that movement pattern nice and grooved so that when (I’m 1 billion percent confident I’ll get over this) allowed to get back to it, I’ll be there. One of the things I’ve noticed with the controlled negatives is that sometimes as I get stronger, I get better at controlling it and can make it even harder. Which I think was kind of the case today. My shoulder and triceps on that side were screaming and steaming by the end. Had me a little worried I’d screw up the rack work like I did last week. Into the garage for the rest of the session. Seated lockouts with my axle. Last week had not been ideal. About only good thing was the last set for reps. Had confidence that it was a fluke as I was advised to work up in doubles and then singles to between 125-135lbs for an EMOM. 8x1. I so badly wanted to do it with 135lbs because of last week. The balance of lifting this isn’t difficult, it is finding that balance point to break it off the rack that is the tricky part. I seem to do ok once I find that spot. Started with 20lbs jumps for the doubles and then 10lbs jumps for the singles. I knew this was going to be tough regardless of what weight I picked with how getting that balance point right. And it was. There were times I didn’t think the weight was going to go up as I had to keep adjusting. I think the 6th one was the toughest as I had to try it three times to get it moving. But I got my 8 lifts in without deviating from EMOM timing. Plan after that was to drop the weight down a little for some rep work. Good stuff here. So close to matching reps last week with 10lbs more. On to the chest and back stuff. Kind of similar to last week but again, slight changes. When it comes to the group sets (2-3 exercises back to back) most of the time, it is light enough or the previous stuff has me warmed up enough that warming up in minimal and I can usually jump right in. This is not the case for this part of the workout. See, the row part for the good side was going to be heavy and pushing it. I was told to work up to the top weight in sets of five. So rather than do first set of the benching and then all these warm-ups on rows, I decided to pair them as my warming up stuff and then I could jump right into it with the working weights. I tested my left arm and I was able to do the 10lbs this week without discomfort so I matched reps with my good arm on the benching. The band rows I kept the same as I was told to adjust reps to match intensity and honestly, having sets that last about 2 minutes with mostly contractions is quite exhausting. No need to do more than 10 reps really haha. Benching felt better this week. Band rows and benching stayed the same across the sets but the dumbbell row was a different beast. So the plan here was do a tough set of 10 reps without straps and then put on straps for the next two rounds for max reps with 1-2RIR. This actually ended up being a PR for me despite not doing this particular exercise in over 2yrs. Straps on these are little weird as the balance doesn’t feel right so I do have to mess with it a little to make sure it is balanced in my hand. Like I have to do a little exploratory tug. After that, it was on to Y raises. No weights again. Despite that, I accidentally started the first set with 10lbs dumbbells before I realized that this felt a lot tougher than usual haha. Ditch those and started over. I figured out a better way to keep track of the reps since I don’t have to hold weight. Use my fingers haha. After that, it was a shoulder super set again. Dumbbell lateral and the band rear delts. I kept the band tension the same for the rear delts and the weight for the dumbbell lateral. More so because I had started lighter last week and I wanted to try holding more weight in the injured side in the positon I can hold it and I wasn’t sure how that would effect things. Didn’t really so I know for next week. Last pairing for the evening was triceps and hammer curls with the bands. Increased reps so I actually lowered the tension I was using on the triceps but kept it the same for the curls as I figured they were getting hit just once a week and could handle going harder again. Injured side is feeling better each week as I was able to do some band tension on that side for curls. Cleaned everything up and had Thai food again (I had ordered too much Tuesday and had some leftovers but not enough to fill me up so I got more). Stretched and cleaned up before bed.

August 17, 2021 – Week 5, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds, beltless)
65x2
115x2
165x2
205x2
245x2
295x2
343x2
343x2
343x2
343x2
343x2
343x2

Paused 7” Jack Stand Spud Harness Pulls (4” off the floor, 2 seconds)
135x2
185x2
225x2
275x2
315x2
365x2
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3

Safety Squat Bar Step Ups (14”)
65x3/3
105x3/3
135x3/3
165x12/12
165x12/12
165x12/12

Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Hollow Holds
lbx8/bwx30 seconds
lbx11/bwx30 seconds
lbx9/bwx30 seconds

Paused Seated Band Hamstring Curl (3 seconds holds)
lb’sx19
lb’sx15

Quad Fallbacks (17” target)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8

Sled Drag Work
260x5 minutes 

Stretching
 
Comments: Day didn’t start off great. I woke up feeling like I had a slight cold. Nasal spray wasn’t doing it so I eventually relented and took some Dayquil to make the day tolerable. Tree people were here so wanted to keep the headache to a minimum with all the noise outside. Wasn’t feeling the blahs so much today but I was still concerned about my knees and ankles. Been doing ice and soft tissue work. Mobility stuff to start off the evening. Again, mostly legs and some core work. Started things off with paused ssb squats. Beltless doubles again. 6x2, same as last time with the 90-120 seconds rest. I assume this was to be 70% (app was missing a zero). Knees weren’t complaining too much on me until I got up to the top weight. At that point, my left knee was feeling like it wanted to shift on me the first rep of each set but then no issues for the second rep. I’ve kind of gotten to that morbid state of “if it goes, it goes doing this” when it comes to anxiety about aches and pains. I know that these pause squats are hard on my knees with the holds in a position that keeps tension. But I got my reps in. After that was harness stuff. Last week was first time using it so this week looking at doing a variation based on observations from that first session. What seems to be working for the deadlifting had been heavy suit work and then raw paused work. Can’t do that for at least another week after this one. So this was to be the pause week. So for this, I was advised to setup stuff so I was pulling from a 1-2” deficit and holding for 1-2ct about 3-4” off the ground. So starting lower and doing a hold at essentially floor or slightly above, which is my weak point. I elected to use my Jack Stands and a higher platform so that I didn’t have to worry about the bar rolling or having to use a jack to put on weights. The plan was to do between 365-385lbs for these based off how 545lbs looked last week. Do 5x3 with no real set rest. Indication was that it was to be challenging but feel like I could build on this next time and so on. So I felt 365lbs was the minimum for me depending on how I felt. I also feel that I have mobility in the wrist to hold a deadlift with straps but trying that next week for the “heavy” week is probably not wise, especially when not cleared to do so yet. These felt pretty good. I had originally planned to do some doubles and then singles to warm-up but this is still a new movement for me so I just stuck with doing doubles. 365lbs felt way too light so I went and did 405lbs for the work sets. I didn’t want to go too far out of the effort range on these but these were pretty comfortable. I said it last week and I’ll say it again, even if I’m not injured, I have no problem with doing these as an assistance exercise. Though it will need to be seen if these help the intended thing I want them to help. Step ups with the ssb after that. I was a little nervous my knees would just explode on me. But no issues with just the bar so I figured I’d be ok to go. I went up 10lbs from last time and decided to do straight sets with that weight just to be on the safe side. Felt about the same each set. And maybe a little harder the first few reps of the first set getting used to it. I can go up I think another 30lbs before I’ll need to go outside to not hit the ceiling on these with weight haha. I got time I think. I was trying to get things moving along as I knew it would be getting dark pretty quick. Superset of band assisted Nordic curls with the hollow holds again. Last week wasn’t good enough apparently as I was told for the Nordic curls to do 2nd and 3rd set of them as max reps instead of just the last set like last week. More towels on the bar (maybe too many this time) and using my knee sleeves to protect my legs. Not much to say about the hollow holds really. Just they get tougher each set. Same can’t really be said for the Nordic curls as they are up and down. Another hamstring exercise added after that was band leg curls again. But with holds. Eww. So 3 seconds contractions and max reps with what something that would have me failing between 15-25 reps (1-2RIR). I wasn’t sure what to expect. The contraction was hard on these after the Nordic leg curls. Oof. Just managed to stick to the low end on these. Those holds sap me good.  After this was those darn quad fallbacks. Still 3x8 with bodyweight. Continuing to progress on ROM on these. I think I moved this out 1” further from Saturday. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to do these as I was still remembering how they felt on my ankles Saturday. Was going to break my ankles for knee health? More morbidity. But these felt like they usually do for me so I’m not sure what happened on Saturday that made them so difficult. Last bit was more sled drags forever. But now the sun goes away fast so it was pretty much just darkness. Turned on porch lights and got out reflective vests and flashing lights to make myself and my sled stand out. Added 5lbs to last time and I did a bit more alternating between backwards and forwards to keep from having things lock up on me from fatigue. So humid that I was just done after I pulled the sled back into the garage. Ate Thai food before stretching and cleaning up. Iced knees before bed.

August 16, 2021 – Week 5, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R
50x2 L/10x2 R

One Arm Half Kneeling Landmine Presses (3 seconds negatives)
emptyx5/5
+30x5/emptyx5
+60x5/emptyx5
+90x8/emptyx8
+90x9 (miscounted)/emptyx8
+90x8/emptyx8
+75x17/emptyx17

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx12/12
sb+mmbx13 (miscounted)/12

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (5 seconds holds)/Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Cuban Rotations (3 seconds holds)
45x10/10’sx10
45x10/10’sx10
45x10/10’sx10

Supinated Band Front Raises
mmb’sx20
mmb’sx20
mmb’sx20

Banded Pec Flyes
ab’sx15
ab’sx15
ab’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
lb+mmb/mbx20
lb+mmb/mbx20
lb+mmb/mbx20

Stretching

Comments: Arm feels about the same as it did last week. Still that tenderness in the forearm. There has not been dramatic improvement of things like there was from week 1 (sling) to week 2 (no sling). The only thing of note is some of the wrist pain has gone down in that I have more fuller range of motion without pain but there is still tenderness. I can also support myself if I keep my wrist rigid and straight. Like a knuckle push-up as opposed to hand flat. Also, I can seem to hold things like a bar in front of my body without it feeling like it is tugging. So maybe regular deadlifts again. But I figure I need to wait until it is back to a lighter deadlift session as opposed to trying it on a heavy week. I was also able to support empty ssb in the crook of my arms without discomfort. Still somethings are strong and others ache and don’t make sense. As it stands, I still plan on going for the follow up at this point. I was feeling the blahs today and yesterday. I didn’t like how low energy I felt on Saturday and having the knee pain. One thing at a time please. I do wonder if the increased squatting and other lower body stuff to combat losing use of one arm has increased the knee stresses to keep pushing things forward. I think a little bit of it was again feeling like I’m falling behind and not able to push things and that pushing things cases me to break. Part of that I think had me say screw it and eat like a Roman emperor for dinner the day before and just feeling not great until later in the afternoon. I wore my wrist brace for the workout as I will continue to do for extra support. Again, I added my own stuff to warm-up (foam rolling, PNF stretching). I also did some movement prep stuff with the wall slides and TKE step-ups. I didn’t do the BTN stuff this time since it was actually going to be an exercise during the workout so I did push up position planks (knuckles) instead. Circus dumbbell again for light stuff. Only given weight to do for good side as 50lbs for doubles. I told myself I’d do light stuff for injured side on the stuff I couldn’t in good conscious push or shouldn’t push. So that was again 10lbs for these for that side. I initially do a more casual approach the first set each side but eventually I just went with it being fast and explosive. Automatic. Like it was a game. Only rest really was time between sides. So my rest was doing the other side essentially. These felt good and crisp. Into the garage for the rest of the workout. With fans going. I didn’t have them going when I was warming up earlier but it was getting pretty muggy. Landmine pressing again. Told to keep the long negatives and do sets of 5 up to +90lbs for work sets. 3x8 and then take off weight for an AMRAP. I took bigger jumps this time around. I also decided I’d match the reps with the injured side using just the empty bar so that I got it doing some work. As with last week and also a common theme with counting reps and tempo, I miscounted one set. All my miscounts this week were extra reps. Max rep set also was to stay with same tempo. The work sets were to fatigue me. Still put up a lot of reps. I lost count here and thought I was at 15 reps. I stopped going for the next rep as I could tell it was going to be a grinder so I was at the 1-2RIR point. Next up was the single arm lat pulls while kneeling with holds. This had been one of the bigger surprises last week in that I was able to do them with my injured side no problem. And go really high on the tension on these. Last time it was 4x10 and I went up in tension each set. This time it was 4x12. I started right off the bat as more tension then what I finished up with last week. I did take a little bit of a break between sides by how I set things up. I’m realizing now that the unilateral upper body stuff (with greater focus on good side) may have also contributed to how my QL muscles had felt on the right side last week. Trying my best on these to work on pulling hard and fast. These are quite difficult and I’m not sure if I can really go up in tension without pulling down my rack with it anchored to the nines haha. I may be visualizing that I’m pulling a boat too. So up next was dumbbell upper back and shoulders. Rotations, with holds again but the new thing was BTN presses. Just the bar but that was enough. Idea being to work shoulders and upper back but also work mobility for circus dumbbell. This is one of the few overhead things I can do in the garage without hitting the ceiling standing. I was told to pause for 5ct behind the head so I was at the angle I’d have my arms to press with circus dumbbell. As with most things that are light and have tempo, feels not so bad at the start but I know it will be a pain by the end. I stuck with 10lbs of the rotations as I had no idea how the new exercise would fatigue things. It seems like a good call. Even though this was the lightest thing I did for the session, it felt the best as far as the shoulder pump. The rest of the workout was bands. I learned what I could do last week so I expected to increase the band tensions a decent bit compared to last time (not so much the triceps since been doing them a lot lately). Supinated front raises again. I seemed to do better with knowing what to expect. Biggest jump up in tension was definitely the pec flyes with bands. Had to get a good anchor point. Apparently one side is more stable than the other. This is one I’m not sure if I can or should go up in tension with how it feels. This seems more like a increase the reps and sets or perhaps do holds or tempo. Triceps to finish off the night. I’m finding that holding on to something with the side not doing the exercise seems to keep me more balanced and not trying to use that side to momentum it down. I didn’t increase tension on the injured side. I think that I should just maintain for moment as I’m still not supposed to be lifting with that arm. It got dark really fast last night. But I also work out a good bit of time. Put stuff away and ate big dinner. Stretched and iced the one knee before bed.

August 14, 2021 – Week 4, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box)
65x10
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x3
425x3
475x3
475x3
445x3

Concentric Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (from deadlift height)
65x3
115x3
165x3
215x3
265x8
265x8
265x8

Yoke Holds
210x5 seconds
300x5 seconds
390x5 seconds
480x5 seconds
570x10 seconds
660x10 seconds
750x15 seconds

Belt Squat Marches
90x10
180x10
270x10
360x10
450x30
450x30
450x30

Seated Safety Squat Bar Upper Back Goodmornings (3 seconds holds)
335x90 seconds

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
90x12(6/6)
95x12(6/6)
100x12(6/6)

Quad Fallbacks (17” target, 3 seconds eccentrics)/Seated Calf Raises (3 seconds holds)/Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises
bwx8/70x10/26.5’sx15
bwx8/75x10/35’sx15
bwx8/80x10/35’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Day put me through the wringer. I woke up feeling beat and not too sure why. If anything, it was the coolest it has been this week but I guess really humid. Perhaps just carrying extra stress I’m not addressing. The double-edged sword that is competition. It focuses the mind but at what cost? I want to do the thing so bad but I fear not doing enough and falling short. Already annoyed I needed to drop out of show that I had planned on not doing after I had to pull out of 4 shows between 2019 to 2021. I think another part of it is the uncertainty of things with COVID-19 cases surging again. This contest is in a populated area with many out of state people that frequent as well as there currently being 130 people signed up. I try to not think on it as there is not solution that is within my control. But enough of that for now. Wore the wrist brace so that I could drive with both hands this week. Again, traffic holding things up. But at least no construction like last week. At least going there. I saw on the other side that they were doing the same thing they did last week on the route home so I knew that I’d have a longer drive home than usual. Got set for warm-ups. I got them in the right order this time at least. But these wore me out. Like, I was working up a sweat doing them and breathing a bit heavy. Not exactly something I want when I was essentially doing the same as last week but everything heavier. So starting things off with the high box squats with the ssb. I was able to at least use a power rack with safeties. No one there at the moment was really tall enough to spot me if I needed it anyways. So plan for the day was work up in triples to 470lbs and do two triples and then take off 30lbs and do another triple. I kind of told myself I was just going to do 5lbs more so that way I was just dealing with 25’s and 45’s on this. My legs felt heavy and sore. Like I was just now feeling DOMS in them from Tuesday’s training. Like the walking and soft tissue work did nothing. And my knees were aching like crazy. I felt like I had to really control my descent to the box to stay in my groove. If I had been told to do last week’s training with work up to set of 5lbs, I’d probably have stopped at 425lbs as that was how beat I was feeling on these. I was also sweating like crazy. I ended up needing to hype myself up a good bit for these heavy triples. They felt tough but I still feel I left 2RIR on them and more than that on the last one. I can take being worn out but I was a little concerned with how achy my knees were feeling. I know to not get freaked out when stuff is aching or hurting but need to keep an eye on it. So up next was gms again. Concentric style from deadlift height. I was told this time I could wear a belt as long as it was loose enough for two fingers to fit. I was also advised to not shoot the knees forward to initiate the lift. So stiff-legged. I had done the knees forward stuff to mimic my deadlift so kind of two styles here. Left hamstring felt like it wanted to cramp up while warming up but no problems on the actual working sets. Good work here. Wasn’t that hard of a weight but with how I was feeling today, it was taking a bit out of me so I was breathing a bit heavy. Next was some event work specificity. Yoke holds. I knew these were coming eventually. Advised to work up in sets of 5 seconds to my work sets. I had kind of expected these to be heavier considering things (where I need to be in 8 weeks regardless of if I stay pro class or drop to SHW). But these were about right considering my current strength and familiarity with yoke at this point. I mean, it has been over a year since I’ve had anything over 650lbs on my back. Plan had been two sets of 10 seconds and then 15 seconds with 100lbs jumps from 550lbs to 750lbs but I decided to just do 90lbs all the way up as it was easier plate math. Just have to worry about 45lbs plates. Knees didn’t really ache like they did on the box squats but my quads were sore and feeling like it was heavy weight to pick up that 750lbs weight. I’ve done over 1000lbs on this exercise in the past haha. I count slow so I definitely was like 2 seconds or more over the hold time. Weird thing was this feeling of an “itch” across the upper back after I put the weight down on the longer holds. I guess just glad no issues considering how my lower back and deep core muscles had been feeling as of last week (especially Thursday). This lead back to belt squat marches. Holds to get used to weight and then the hard moving stuff with the marches. Plan was work up to 450lbs for three sets of 30 steps. Advised to do short step sets to work up. I decided to 10 steps. My right knee did not enjoy this. I think I’ve mentioned that the right knee has felt a little “off” since the week I injured my arm with coming off the box a bit sloppy. There has been some discomfort but strength is there and it wasn’t like a constant thing. This time it was and felt similar to how the knee felt at the beginning of the year but thankfully not as bad (I know this as I was able to pick up 750lbs with not needing max psyche up compared to needing it to do 500lbs then). There was more discomfort just stepping up to the platform to do the marches then the actual marches and that first set with just 90lbs felt more painful than any of the following sets. So that was weird. I was already leery about the belt squat with how the belt was pulling since I had a good bit of bruising from it last week and I didn’t want to have those deep muscles not be ready and recovered as I’d hate to have another session dominated by pain like Thursday last week. But despite these things, these felt better than last week. Then it was back to the ssb for more work on that. The upper back gms again. I was told to do just one set of 90 seconds with the holds and to use a weight that made this suck. Not sure if I achieved that. I did end up using 335lbs so 180lbs more than last time. Thing is, I think my thoracic erectors may be pretty strong for how well I do on stones and other loads. Like, the weight compressing my lower spine may be the limiting factor as I could move this pretty well. Not sure if these will continue or not. I was told by Drew he’d see if I got to suck level or not. Next bit was the lying leg curls with the 2 up and 1 down again. I was just drenched in sweat at this point and probably getting weighed down by my shirt and shorts. I figured that after I got through a set of these last time that I’d be better able to control the negative so I went up to the weight I had intended on using last time for these. And it was easier than 75lbs had felt last week. I was told to do with 2RIR on these and I kind of felt that this may not be enough weight for that so I went up 5lbs each set. Last set I think I finally got things to fully click with getting the two up to be fast and get thing shifted to the one leg without having it drop too far down. Though my right leg had some trouble with that on the last set. Last bit was a triset again. I was not looking forward to doing the quad fallbacks as they are twice in the same week the past two weeks. I think also wasn’t sure how the right knee would like them with how it was feeling. These felt the worst they have ever felt. I don’t mean that as far as my knees. Knees are good. My ankles are what hate me. I really had to rest pause to get through that first set. Took almost 2.5 minutes to get through it. Just so much aching and discomfort. It did feel better for the second set but that felt like how my first set usually feels on these. Third set I was able to get through without having to stop to readjust. My ankles really hate me now (especially the right one). The other partners in this were seated calf raises and tib raises again. Seated calf raises were to be with 2RIR and doing 3 seconds contractions. I thought that 5lbs more than last time would be good enough. Wrong. Close but I could do better. I forget that I can get better at these newer exercises sometimes haha. Went up 5lbs each set. Last set was definitely pushing the limits on these for me. I may need to adjust what I do for the tib raises as I had to go up to the 16kgs kettlebells (12kgs were too light this week but did them for the first set). ROM isn’t great. Might just need to do some tinkering. I took videos of the different machines at the gym to give Drew a catalog of what I have at my disposal. But really, who knows what will happen in the near future with stuff like COVID-19 and just my aching and falling apart body. Put stuff away and stretched before being on a longer than usual drive home and cleaned up before icing my knees.

August 12, 2021 – Week 4, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme, 3 seconds holds in bottom of dip and lockout, 3 seconds negatives)
25x1 R
45x1 R
65x1 R
85x3 R
85x3 R
85x3 R
85x3 R

Single Arm Axle Lockouts (8” ROM)
40x3
60x3
80x3
100x3
120x3
140x0
130x1
120x3
125x3
130x0
110x5
110x10

One Arm Dumbbell Bench Presses (5 seconds eccentric)/One Arm Dumbbell Rows (noninjured side) :  One Arm Band Rows (10 seconds holds, injured side)
80x10/135x10 – abx10
80x11 (miscounted)/135x10 – abx10
80x10/135x10 – abx10

Y Raises (no weight, 10 seconds holds
bwx9 (miscounted)
bwx10
bwx10

Iso Hold Lateral Raises (hold 15lbs kettlebell injured side)/Band Crossover Rear Delts
28x15/µb’sx15
30x15/µb’sx15
32x16 (miscounted)/µb’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns/Single Arm Band Hammer Curls
lb+mbx20—mbx20/mmbx20
lb+mbx20—mbx20/mmbx20
lb+mbx20—mbx20/mmbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Things didn’t start out great for this one. First was that the temperature was going to be the highest it has been here this year (was to get up to 100). The more pressing was that my QL on the right side was really sore and in pain. Not sure what exactly as it has been fine until I woke up. My thinking is that this is delayed from all the belt squat stuff last weekend coupled with the harness deadlifts and increase in the step-ups. I’ve had this kind of discomfort before and I know I can work through it and it should feel better in a day or two. I ended up putting on generic brand IcyHot and did some soft tissue work during the day. I got some stuff setup for training during my lunch and got my fans going to try and keep the garage cool. Wasn’t planned to have the mobility stuff but I wanted to do the same things I did Monday and I felt maybe it would help with loosening up the spasming muscles in my midsection. Some of it did seem to help. And I think this was the closest I’ve been with the dumbbell handles to touching the floor on the stretching. So first item of the day was circus dumbbell pressing. Told to use only 45% of max and since only able to use non-injured side, this was lighter. This was reps and done with pauses. Now I’ve done reps like this before in the past but usually I think it was only for singles. The added twist here being that I was to do a controlled negative. That was the killer here. Tons of mosquitoes out trying to get my ankles which is tough to stop when got just one good smacking hand. Into the garage for the rest of the session. Seated lockouts with my axle. Plan for today was to work up in triples, do 2x3 and then take off some weight to do some more reps. Plan was to do 10lbs more than last week. I was cocky and thinking that usually with balance and partial type lifts, I can improve a good bit from session to session and I was thinking that I’d actually need to do more weight to get the right difficulty. I was wrong. Now I’m not sure if the prior circus dumbbell work or the fact I did another upper body workout this week or that my father may have been helping more than I thought with balancing or the QL pain was inhibiting things but I just didn’t have the power today. Like, I couldn’t budge 140lbs off the pins. I gave it a few tries so definitely got some isometric work in before bringing the weight down in frustration to what I did last week and then only managing a single. So I took off 10lbs more to get a triple. Felt ok so I added 5lbs more for another triple. Maybe I was just feeling off so I tried 130lbs but it wasn’t going. Wasn’t happy with this but whatever, I got in three somewhat decent triples. Went to 110lbs (10lbs less than planned) and got the set of five easy enough. Then the last set was to be a rep set with 1-2RIR. Again, not sure why but this went well and got 10 reps. Stupid lockouts. The rest of the workout was about the same as last week. Or was supposed to be but modifications is the name of the game at this point haha. So up next was a superset. Like last week, difference in what I do with the injured side vs the noninjured side. First part was dumbbell bench press with one arm with the long negatives again. I did attempt to see if I could do anything with the injured side here (adhering to 3/10 pain max) and not go with the 10lbs dumbbell. Just too much stress and time under tension didn’t help. Oh well, worth a shot. So luckily I have an 80lbs dumbbell so I could stick with a solid dumbbell for these again. Plan being 3x10 leaving some reps. Really hard to do when it comes to longer rep sets with these long negatives. I realized last week that while I did do the right amount of reps, I didn’t do a negative for the last rep of each set so I had to correct that. I think I overcorrected as I accidentally did 11 reps the second set and fatigue got me and I had to take a breather to get the last rep on the last set. Kind of surprisingly how much more difficult this made things with balance and fighting to brace the midsection compared to last week with 10lbs less. Again, could be related to the QL discomfort. Then the other side of the coin. My good side got to do single arm ring rows last week but I was told I could do one arm dumbbell rows if I could setup a way that didn’t stress the injured side. I was able to figure one out. I’m a bit out of one arm row practice so I wasn’t sure what I could really do and the plan was 3x10. No RPE given as I think the plan had been the ring rows again. So I figured I’d just do something comfortable. That ended up being 135lbs so that was neat haha. Injured side got bands. Now it had been the elbow hook setup but seeing how I was able to grip bands for pulldowns ealirer in the week, I decided to see if I could do the same here. I could. I wonder if it is due to it not being really against gravity and more that it is the tension of the band I’m fighting. Who knows, but it does make it weird for figuring out things. I was stubborn here as I kept the hold time the same despite increasing the band tension and making it harder by gripping vs just using the elbow. Debatable on which is tougher for the hold as I think I can get slightly further back contraction on the elbow vs gripping it. So these were long sets. Maybe I wanted to hold it that long as I feel I’m not able to and allowed to do more event specific things for the show. After that, it was on to Y raises. No weights again. I like these as far as getting those little upper back muscles to wake up. But I stink at keeping track of reps when I have to count a few different series at a time so I apparently was one rep short on that first set when all was said and done. Shoulder super set again after that. Dumbbell lateral and the band rear delts. I had been testing things to see if I could progressively load the injured side some way besides just holding my arm out. Holding the arm out straight with some kind of weight isn’t working in either case. But bending my arm and having a kettlebell rest with the weight on the forearm works. So did that with the laterals. I think it also helped with the balance having that as I seemed to be able to push things a bit more on the healthy side. Band tension didn’t effect the injured side on the laterals so I used bands for both. I like how these feel, similar to the y raises. Last pairing for the evening was triceps and hammer curls with the bands. Same as last time but trying to increase band tension. Injured side not ok with doing curls but ok with the triceps stuff with less tension. Good side was having problems from doing this exercise already this week hard so took a bit of effort today. Curls seemed to feel more comfortable this time. It was so hot and muggy and late and I just wanted to cool off and eat so I left most of the stuff out for another time to worry about clean up and had a big dinner before stretching.

August 10, 2021 – Week 4, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds, beltless)
65x2
115x2
165x2
205x2
245x2
285x2
331x2
331x2
331x2
331x2
331x2
331x2

Spud Harness Deadlifts
135x3
225x3
315x3
405x3
455x5
495x5
545x5

Safety Squat Bar Step Ups (14”)
65x3/3
105x3/3
145x12/12
150x12/12
155x12/12

Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Hollow Holds
lbx8/bwx30 seconds
lbx8/bwx30 seconds
lbx10/bwx30 seconds

Quad Fallbacks (17” target)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8

Sled Drag Work
255x5 minutes 

Stretching
 
Comments: Well seems no worse for wear on the arm from yesterday’s training. So that is good. I wasn’t expecting today to be so damn humid though. Luckily, I’ve kept the squat rack inside the garage for right now as it started raining substantially shortly after I got off work. Like high winds and sideways rain. That kind of output can’t last too long though so I was hopeful that it would eventually end. Mobility stuff to start off the evening. Again, mostly legs and some core work. Right knee continues to feel a little achy and off but still have strength and stability. Started things off with paused ssb squats. Again, beltless for three count pauses. Doubles this week so worked up in that. 6x2 vs 5x3. First set my left knee was aching and felt like it might do that thing it does. Not exactly a great start when only using the empty bar to start. It didn’t and seemed to be ok as I went up in weight but it was in the back of my mind. The additional weight was definitely noticed on these. It is a low percentage of what I think I can do for a max single on regular style ssb squats but a good bit of what I could do with a pause this long and with a belt, let alone beltless. But I think this is probably important to do until I can get back to doing normal deadlifts. Speaking of which, it was time for a new substitute for deadlifts. Last week had been gm’s from deadlift position. This week was using a strap harness for deadlifts. This had been suggested to me back in 2019 when I broke my finger but just wasn’t enough time for it to really matter and get it then (as it was only needed for a single workout). This was the newer style of the spud strap. The older model was just this big strap that hung off the traps/cervical spine and not exactly adjustable. This one is and connects around the mid back. I saw this being used by Evan Singleton when he was coming back from a biceps tear. I had looked at other options but they were pricier and setup for just one side and specific to that one side. Not exactly practical in the event that my other arm ever has and injury or say both of them do. I had that same issue with my wrist and having to get another wrist brace for that side (billing is $85, will have to see if insurance covers it). So this was going to be very new and take some trial and error I think. Plan was not suit and work up in triples with controlled negatives up to 3x5, adding weight each set and leaving several reps in the tank each set. I initially wasn’t thinking I’d be going as heavy as I did. I figured that one of the things was not having a grip on it would lower the upper back involvement, despite that being the anchor point. I wasn’t expecting it to be this odd a setup to get into it (no instructions came with this). I realize that it would be near impossible to do these with a suit by myself Either have to have it set and squat down to get it on or stand up and then tighten the straps to desired length. Seeing how this felt with the setup, I deviated from my plan to do 40-50lbs jumps and did plate jumps up to 405lbs. I wanted to get a triple in with a belt before deciding what to do next. Was really surprised how these went after I started doing the sets of five reps. I was thinking I’d be doing maybe 20lbs jumps but I got into a good groove. First rep was the toughest. I learned that holding up higher on the strap as opposed to down near the bar was better for balance. Have to pull with control to keep balanced. Also have to get used to the pressure from above with the strap digging into the body. Not as much lower back and upper back involvement as a regular deadlift but hits the legs, hips and glutes hard. Might have gone a little heavier than I should for the appropriate number of reps in the tank on that last set. Similar but different. This could be a good variation to have even if I’m not injured as a supplementary lift. Next was step ups with the ssb again. I wasn’t paying attention I guess when I did these at the start. I blame the humidity (shirt was so drenched in sweat that it could be wrung out). So my intent was to do 125lbs as my “big jump” for last time and see how things were. Seeing as how I went from 75lbs to 105lbs over two sessions. I’m not sure how I thought the plate math was working out but I guess I thought that the ssb was 45lbs for some reason tonight. First set felt quite challenging. I think part of what has helped me on these besides knowing intent is treating each rep like a single and forcefully exhaling as I step up. Thinking about stepping through the box, stomping it as if my powerful leg drive will crush it as if it were made of cardboard. I seem to attach that kind of visualization to a lift and it seems to improve (similar to how block pulls have). This was a tough set and it was only after I was done and thinking about what I was going to do next that I realized I had misloaded by 20lbs. So I had gone up 40lbs from last week. Dang. So I felt a bit better about how that set went haha. I decided to go up 5lbs a set here since so close at this kind of exercise it seems that not much difference between say 65lbs and 75lbs when I did it that first session. Left leg is definitely a little bit behind the right in terms of strength. But this was good. I think this is the heaviest I’ve gone on single leg work in quite some time. At least not with this good of control and form haha. Superset of hamstrings and core again. Same exercises as last time. I don’t mind the hollow holds. They are a good challenge for the lower abs (I can’t yet load the upper body portion) and I have ankle weights if necessary. The band Nordic curls are so tough. Plan this time was the same as last week until the last set. Last set for the Nordics was to do max reps leaving 1-2RIR. Trickiest thing was getting the anchoring right so that it didn’t freaking kill my ankles and Achilles tendon area and still keep pressure so I could contract that area. Added knee braces to my ankles and used a knee brace wrapped in a towel and secured with a theraband. First two sets were tough. Not to say the last one wasn’t but it felt a little better as I think I got the bracing right this time. Managed to get two extra reps which honestly, wasn’t expecting as I tend to gas quick on these. After this was those darn quad fallbacks. Still 3x8 with bodyweight. Continuing to progress on ROM on these. I moved the target back I think 3” from what I had on Saturday. Oof, that first set of these continues to make me question my life choices. So very tough to do and the set usually is a little rest paused to get through. This is how I die, I think as I fold myself into an inverted stapler, in a yoga pose. Then the second and third set are like no big deal. So very strange to me.  Last thing for the evening was again sled dragging for longer than anyone should. Thankfully it had stopped raining and with how humid it was, a lot of that was already evaporated. Again, plan was 5 minutes of backwards and forwards dragging with harness around my waist. I stupidly added 20lbs to what I did last week. It was also a little slick to grip with the shoes. I gave myself less rest by sticking to one direction for about 2 minutes as opposed to trying to alternate every 30 seconds or so. This was quite tough. But I should have no excuse to not keep pulling on the truck/boat pull in October for the full 90 seconds if it won’t budge haha. Put stuff away and ate pot roast. Didn’t ice knees as I felt that the blood flow from the sled drags would be a good thing.

August 9, 2021 – Week 4, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R
40x1 L
10x1 R

One Arm Half Kneeling Landmine Presses (3 seconds negatives)
emptyx5
+20x5
+40x5
+60x5
+75x5
+90x11 (miscounted)
+78x10
+78x10
+78x10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)
sbx10/10
sb+mbx10/10
sb+mb+µbx10/10
sb+mb+(2)µbx10/10

Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Cuban Rotations (3 seconds holds)
10’sx10
10’sx10
10’sx10

Supinated Band Front Raises
mb’sx20
mb’s+µb’sx20
mb’s+(2)µb’sx20

Banded Pec Flyes
lb’sx15
lb’s+µb’sx15
lb’s+(2)µb’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
lb+µb/µbx20
lb+(2)µb/(2)µbx20
lb+mb/(3)µbx20

Stretching

Comments: I can be patient until I am not. Most of the time, I can do the wait for delayed gratification. But other times I can’t. Today I was allowed to take off the sling and the wrist brace and use as needed. But not exactly cleared to use my arm again. I was told I could test my ROM with it but to not lift for another 3 weeks. I’m kind of listening and kind of not. The PA that diagnosed this recent issue was the same that had looked at my knee when it was giving out on me. He had indicated it was potentially a torn meniscus or stretched LCL but that normally someone is in extreme pain when that happens. MRI and seeing doctor found nothing and determination was one side of the quads on that leg was overreaching. So leery that this also is an overly cautious diagnosis. I 100% believe that I have a sprained wrist. I’ve had this injury before and it took me 3-4 weeks (I still competed after spraining it on the first event at 2017 Nats) and I think I only took that much time despite the pain because I caught the flu at that Nats and couldn’t do stuff for two weeks. The elbow fracture is where I’m not sure. If fractured, it is very small (not 100% certain if a shadow or fracture per PA but he was like 90% sure) and in a spot that immobilizing the joint doesn’t seem to do much vs letting it be free. Sling was more to let it rest. And I had been testing my ROM during the week (christ I’m a bad patient) when I was allowed to take the stuff off to shower. I’ve already been doing things like typing and writing with the hand again and picking up items like toothbrush or a coffee mug. I’m telling myself not to go full bore on things at least unless I feel no discomfort of any kind. I did have intention of doing light band stuff with the injured side at least. At this point, I have full ROM in the elbow and only hampering thing is the that the forearm muscles tense up. My wrist does not have full ROM without pain yet and that was to be expected. Any honestly, full ROM isn’t required for what I need to do and I kind of what my wrist to not be all loosey-goosey. With that in mind, I had to make decisions on competition. While things seem good, I’m withdrawing from the August show. I’d be cutting things too close and a lot of additional stress that comes with it just not worth it. I am still planning to compete at the October competition though I may need to drop out of the pro qualifier portion and do the regular show. But I have up until 2 weeks out to make that decision. I may have only 5 weeks of solid unhindered training. So on to the training. Sleep wasn’t the best since I went “cold turkey” on the anti-inflammatories that night so I was feeling stuff that I hadn’t been. But I’ll get used to it. Midsection, lower back and hips beat up from last session. I wore my wrist brace for the workout. Initially, the workout was just going to be like my upper body day last week with going right into training without any mobility stuff. After talking with Drew, he gave me the ok to add some things. Namely, the foam rolling and the PNF stretching. I felt I needed these with the big emphasis on the thoracic spinae muscles with doing so much ssb stuff last week and potentially for this week too. Initially didn’t feel like I needed it at all but then I finally got stuff to relax and got to the deeper muscles that were super tight and sore haha. I also did some movement prep stuff with the wall slides and TKE step-ups. Also brought in the BTN split presses with the empty axle. These wouldn’t have been needed if I was not adding an exercise to the workout that hadn’t been programmed. I had been liking the motor learning circus dumbbell stuff and I figured I could do that stuff even with the not 100% arm. My main concern had been lockout and that seems resolved. I was told to do 10 singles with cleaning the dumbbell with good side (no assist from injured arm) and if I was ok, do the same with injured side (but use both arms). I decided to do it for both arms and picked 10lbs for injured side and 40lbs for good side. These felt good. So good I lost count of what I was doing and did 11 singles for each. Into the garage for the rest of the workout. With fans going. It had been like 90 I think outside so got a good sweat going too. So first up of the real workout was landmine presses. Kneeling version. I’ve done these in the past standing and maybe kneeling too. Pretty big weights for the standing version if I recall correctly. Like +200lbs. No clue what this or that is weight in hand. Not as important to figure out like viking press for event specificity. Told to work up in 5’s with 3ct negatives to a top set of 10 reps and then do more reps with percentage of that. Anchoring this was a bit of a hassle. I wasn’t sure what the weights added would feel like with the jumps but I guessed right. 90lbs felt good but I guess I miscounted and did an extra rep. Hard to keep track with counting negatives and reps when getting near limits haha. Went with 12.5% drop for the down sets. These got exhausting. Forgot my wrist wrap on the second one. Shoulder and triceps were feeling beat from these. Thankfully some rest with the next exercise being back focused. Single arm lat pulls while kneeling. Haven’t really pushed these. Plan was 4x10 each side if I could manage. Initially going to do much lighter band on the injured side (either gripping it or anchored to elbow like last week) but for whatever reason, this grip and the angle didn’t bother things in my wrist or forearm. There was some pressure but no pain. So screw it, I guess injured arm is game for this. My initial band tension wasn’t enough so I just kept adding. Honestly, the second band tension could’ve been enough for this but I’m kind of glad I kept pushing things. So up next was dumbbell upper back and shoulders. Rotations, with holds. It was an unknown if my injured side could do these. It could so I did. 10lbs was just right. Felt good. The rest of the workout was bands and more or less trying things out to see what sticks. First experiment was trying to work the anterior deltoids in the scapular plane. Initial thought was anchoring to elbow and supinating to keep in elbow crease. That wasn’t really working. I texted Drew to confirm intent as I wanted to test other things out. Pronated grip for injured side was not really an option, too much stress on the wrist and forearm. Anchoring at the elbow was putting stress on the forearm muscles that were inflamed. Oddly enough, the wrist brace and slight angling of hand to supinated actually was the only way that didn’t irritate stuff. So I did them that way. Always seen gymbros do these with cables and thought “what a bunch of tools”. Well I was the tool today. As I did with the lat pulls, I increased tension each set. Then next was band flyes. Essentially doing cable crossovers with bands. A little awkward but didn’t seem to irritate injured side so game on here too. Really got good contraction for the pec muscles. Balance is a bit tricky with these in that my bodyweight needs to be an anchor to keep from getting pulled back by the bands. Also kept increasing tension on these. Last bit for the day was single arm triceps with bands. I wanted to do stuff for injured side to just work ROM and light work so I did. Again, kept increasing the band tension but only really small amount for injured side. Put everything away before eating 3 huge burritos for dinner and then stretching. Hopefully I didn’t overdo things on the injured side but will have to wait and see.