September 21, 2021 – Week 10, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Suited Deadlifts
No suit
135x2
225x2
315x2
Added Suit & Straps
405x2
465x1
530x1
595x1
650x0
540x3

Safety Squat Bar Pin Squats (48”) w/ bands (+40lbs bottom/+100lbs top)
No Bands
65x3
Added Bands
65x3
155x3
245x3
335x3
335x3
335x3
335x3
335x3

Seated Safety Squat Bar Upper Back Goodmornings (3 seconds holds)
360x120 seconds

Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (6”, sb)
70’sx15/15
70’sx15/15
70’sx15/15

Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Hollow Holds
mmb+µbx13 PR+2 reps/bw+20x30 seconds
mmb+µbx12/bw+20x30 seconds

Paused Seated Band Hamstring Curl (3 seconds holds)
ab’sx19 PR+2 reps
ab’sx16

Stretching 

Comments: Been doing what I can to get the knee to feel normal. Seems what I’m doing is helping as well as changes with training to help work around. Path is still forward. Allergies decided that I wasn’t to do much breathing or talking today so I had to take some Claritin after lunch. Mobility stuff was unchanged from what it has been. I just wore a knee brace on the right knee for that stuff. Deadlift with the suit. For all intents and purposes, this was probably the last heavy suit session before the show. Plan was warm-up in doubles to 405lbs and then do singles. Add suit at 405lbs. Knees a little achy but nothing that seemed to really effect things. 405lbs flew up and other than the pressure from the suit, I felt like I could do it for 50 reps. 465lbs also flew up. So I was thinking that maybe this was the day I pulled a PR. I was advised to do 3 working singles with last one being 10-15lbs left in the tank. Suggested being between 635lbs and 655lbs. I kept focusing on the upper end when I shouldn’t have. This wasn’t to be a max, it was to be tough single with the fatigue from the past two weeks. Power off the floor with the singles planned was good but I could tell that locking out that I was feeling it more and it was harder than I would’ve liked. I guess I thought I wasn’t going all in on it until the top single and I had another gear left in me. I was wrong. I was initially going to do 640lbs just to have something more than my best training pull but I took too long thinking about it and added 10lbs. Got set and pulled it but it stuck at the sticking point. I didn’t fight it too much there as I already knew I had made a mistake and trying to fight through it wasn’t going to be a good idea since I was to leave 10-15lbs in the tank. I should’ve just gone for 635lbs and not have a missed lift. This is the first time I’ve attempted and missed a lift from the ground with a suit. Never tried this much weight before. But legs have been feeling strong. I think I wanted to finally get that barrier hit in training. This is the third time I’ve missed 650lbs in my life with deadlift in training (first two times were no suit on deadlift bar). Nothing takes it out of you quite like a missed deadlift. I didn’t want that, especially with all the recent stress (and stress this training cycle with the unexpected). I know I have it in me when it counts as I’ve pulled over 650lbs three times in competition. Sure, I’m going to think about it and be annoyed. Had to tell myself not to try for 635lbs to “save it” as it wouldn’t do that at all and imagine if that was a missed lift after that? Also had to convince myself to keep doing the workout. Missing a deadlift (or any top single really) is a deep hole to climb out of. For the down set, the plan was controlled reps with 15% less than top single. Since I messed that up, I took what I should’ve done (635lbs) for the weight. Yep, I definitely took a good bit out of me attempting 650lbs as this didn’t feel easy. But I made the weight as controlled as I could. Then on to squats. Not how I was doing them. Advised to do them for 5x3 for RPE 7-8 with bands and above parallel to whatever felt ok for my knees. Ended up being 4’ off the ground for the bar height. So I figured I’d add a decent amount of bands so I didn’t have to go crazy with the bar weight as I can’t really trust these rack arms with staying level with real weight on them. I got some older knee sleeves that were smaller than the ones I’ve been using (as I never really intended to use the ones I have as knee sleeves but here we are) to help keep the knees happy. Took plate jumps as it took a bit to get things setup for this and I wanted to try and get through stuff quicker so as not to think on the deadlifts. 335lbs seemed to be perfect though I got off balance on the third rep of the first set as the rack arms dipped slightly (I went too far back) so I had to readjust and do the third rep and that was a lot tougher than it should’ve been. Other sets were better, though my camera didn’t capture some of them.  Upper back gms followed that. Took a bit to setup since I had to take off the weight and lower the rack arms a setting. Same as before with the 2 minutes. I added 5lbs just to change it up a little. This does feel like a full body exercise with keeping balance as there is definitely a stretch in the hamstrings leaning forward with it and keeping from falling backwards when contracting. Then it was the step ups with the TKEs again. After doing more band TKEs on Saturday with a lot more tension, I figured I could use that tension at home for this. Stuck to the same weight. What I did change was I kept the flat sole shoes on so that it was similar to what I wear when I squat or deadlift and I could feel my heel driving a little better. I also kept on the knee sleeves mostly because I had some bruising behind my knees from the nylon rope that was holding me up for the Spanish squats. These seemed to go well. I don’t think I can go up anymore in the tension and these are my heaviest pair or dumbbells. Superset of band assisted Nordic curls with the hollow holds again and taking big breaks between the supersets. The lighter tension from last week again for the Nordic curls. Told to go all out. I worked hard to get those extra few reps on each set. Hamstrings were going to be done. Hollow holds were quite easy today. Band leg curls again with holds after that to finish up the night. Hamstrings were angry at me on these, especially the first set. But I pushed on to get more reps than last time. I put stuff away before eating a pot roast and stretching. It was late so I figured it made more sense to sleep than stay up to ice the knees and I’d just do it tomorrow morning.