Wednesday, September 15, 2021

September 14, 2021 – Week 9, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 second eccentrics)
65x3
115x3
165x3
205x3
255x3
305x3
355x3
355x3
355x3
355x3
355x3

Paused Deadlifts (off the floor, 2 seconds)
135x2
135x2
225x2
315x1
Added Straps
365x1
405x1
455x2
455x2
455x2
455x2
455x2

Suited 16” Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
No suit
225x2
315x2
405x2
Added Suit
495x2
565x2
635x3

Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Hollow Holds
mmb+µbx11/bw+20x30 seconds
mmb+µbx11/bw+20x30 seconds
mmb+µbx8/bw+20x30 seconds

Paused Seated Band Hamstring Curls (3 seconds holds)
abx53

Stretching
 
Comments: Today didn’t start off well. Considering how yesterday for work ended with me inadvertently being sidelined for half a day. Woke up with a head cold and it wasn’t until after lunch time that the pressure in my head went away. I had taken Dayquil fairly early in the day and it didn’t feel like it was doing much other than scratchy throat stuff. I can’t tell if I was feeling better or if the meds were finally working or combination of both. Same mobility stuff as last few weeks. I was noticing I was breathing a little heavier doing things like going up and downstairs earlier in the day and some of the mobility stuff felt a bit tougher cardiovascular wise. Joints were stiff but not as achy as they could be. Again, not sure if feeling better or if meds masking stuff. Workout started off with ssb squats. Back to 5x3 with accentuated negatives and a belt this time. So a little more weight than last two weeks of squatting. I’m very anxious when it comes to squatting and it has been that way since I had the knee scare ealier this year with my left knee giving out on me. Knees ache and squats worry me. Maybe the two times I week squatting is beating my knees up too much. It is hard to say though as I used to squat regularly and then it became pretty much all box squats with front squats regular style. Then just squats to boxes. And it has been that for years. So pretty much every time I squat, I feel like I’m spinning the chamber on a gun with an unknown number of bullets. Left knee has been about the same for weeks and seems ok. Just aches. Right knee is the one that is worrying me. It was the one that initially been hurting back at the beginning of the year when I just quit training for a bit due to the pain and wearing a knee brace to do some exercises. Trying to do stuff but also not ignore stuff. Right knee has just been feeling a little off since I did those sissy squats. I guess right where the quadriceps attaches at the knee on the inside of the thigh. MCL area. Belt seems to make the squatting feel more stable. My right knee was feeling discomfort warming up and I felt like I should stop if it got worse. But as seems to be the case, I do more weight and more sets and it goes away. I don’t know if that is good or not. In either case, after getting over the fear of my knees exploding, squats seemed to go well. On to deadlifts after that. Real deadlifts with the pauses. No more harness right now. 5x2 for these with the holds right off the floor. 30lbs increase over what I did with the harness. I knew this was going to be tough. Warmed up how I felt would be the best option to get ready and to minimize fatigue. Squats should have gotten me fairly warm but I knew not always the case as the last time I did combo of squats and harness pulls it didn’t work out that well. Big jumps at the start to get used to things and then smaller jumps with singles. These felt heavy but I was able to keep things going. Hamstrings just felt these hard with those break and hold. Probably closer to 1 second holds on a few of these. Next up was suit work again. But not the usual thing. Most of my suit training with deadlift has been alternating weekly with suit on and no suit. Only times I can think of doing different was when I was doing my own training for hummer tire deadlift and when prepping for failed attempt at USS Nats 2019. I figure in this case the change was to help with having the shortened time frame to work with due to the elbow and wrist injury 6 weeks ago. Plan here was to work up in doubles to a top set of 3-6 reps with 12-16” height. Idea being to work the range where the suit gives out. Usually when I do block pulls with the suit, I make it tight but with how this was to be done, I kept them the same tightness I use for my training from the floor stuff. So I get stuff but it isn’t the most. Reviewing video and talking with Drew, determined that 16” would be the height to work. Big plate jumps until I put on the suit. It was feeling pretty tight today. I was anxious about the top weight as I felt that doing less that 635lbs was going to not be good enough. I know that is silly. First rep always feels tough on block pulls and then other reps are better. I was trying to not just clang and bang these and get it to feel like I’m working the sticking point. 3 was the bare minimum I was willing to accept for the day. I’ve done 635lbs to this height raw for a double in the past. It was an absolute max double and I was wrecked for weeks. So one more with reps in the tank was the minimum. Straps did better with chalk so didn’t feel like I was losing anything this week. Second rep was best rep. Third rep was tougher than I’d like to go for another so shut it down there. Weight is just over 90% of what I want to pull at the show on the deadlift assuming all goes well. Unlike overhead stuff at the moment, I seem to be pretty good at gauging things when it comes to deadlifts and squats right now as far as leaving reps in the tank and knowing when to walk away. Lot of compound heavy stuff today. Superset of band assisted Nordic curls with the hollow holds again and taking big breaks between the supersets. Told to lower the band tension so that I was in the 8-12 reps range on the Nordics. I guessed right with downgrading to a monster mini and micro band. As is always the case, first set feels really rough and slow but I tend to do a good bit of reps. Really feel the hamstrings and tendons working hard on these with less assistance. Really fighting on these. Surprised I was able to match the reps on the first set on the second set. Eventually the fatigue caught up to me with the last set. Used the 10lbs kettlebells to add weight on the hollow holds. Didn’t feel it as much as with the 10lbs rubber plate but could just be that I got used to it. Last item of the session was the paused leg curls with bands. Still 3 seconds holds but now I was advised one set of 30-50 reps. I figured it made more sense to use one band for both legs rather than use less band tension bands as they are thin and cut into my legs if doing a long set. I chose average band for these which in retrospect, I probably could’ve used the strong band. But they felt tough by 15 reps and I just kept going and going. I lost count like 4 times. I was so close to 50 reps in my head despite that and went until I got at least 50 reps. It could’ve been between 47 and 54 reps (ended up being 53 upon review) for all I cared. I figured my tendons would be tight the next day from that. I left stuff out again as it was kind of late and I wanted to eat and get to sleep. I got impatient waiting for the meatloaf to cook that I ordered some wraps and soup to supplement (not that great, live and learn). My right knee was feeling tender once I got to stretching so I’m a bit wary of that. Iced them both before bed. Going to keep an eye on things and do what I can to see if it just sore and recovery work will help or if this needs something more. Hopefully not.


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