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.