October 4, 2021 – Week 12, Day 1

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1

Seated Axle Shoulder Presses (3 seconds negatives) w/ bands (+10lbs bottom/+29lbs top)
45x2
75x2
105x2
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3

Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns
sbx15/15
sbx15/15
sbx15/15

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds holds)/Band Face Pulls
45x10/lbx15
45x10/lbx15
45x10/lbx15

Hand Elevated Push-ups (11”)
bwx15
bwx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
abx20/20
abx20/20

Stretching

Comments: Week of the show. Winding down. Feel those nerves and anxiety. Trying to not let that take over things. Body aches don’t help matters as I feel like I’m not quite ready. If I had another month. If stuff just didn’t ache. Feeling like I should just not do the show. I have to remind myself that this is what happens. It happened the last contest. Deloading for competition sucks. Mental and physical stress. Knee is getting there but still not 100%. It at least hasn’t felt like it wants to explode recently. The day before, I did a ton of foam rolling for the upper back to try and get the left shoulder and neck to calm down as well as other stuff for the rest of the body. I do think that helped as I was finally able to “adjust” my neck and get some relief. Though still not feeling like 100% there either. So on to training. I wore a knee brace for this workout just to give more support and warmth to the knee. Just the right one. Also on the right side wore a compression cuff. Trying to keep things minimal for these next few sessions. Circus dumbbell stuff again. Really light. Advised to do 8-10 singles and work on the form and bracing like I should for a heavy lift. Leave the session feeling good about dumbbell. I setup my handle so that I had the weights spaced way out so that it was similar angle to how it will be with a big bell. I feel like these went ok. I could feel my right knee “clicking” on the dip for the left side but nothing really on the right side. I will be wearing my stiffest sleeves for this at the show. Inside for training in the garage. Seated axle pressing with bands again. Light stuff. Work up in doubles to 135lbs and do 5x3 with fairly short rests. I was told to press these fast and control the negative (as in didn’t have to do the usual 3 seconds) but I kept it that way so that reps remained consistent. This was easy but I was feeling some pressure on the ulnar nerve on the left side. Back was next but changed from the modified pull-ups to band work. One arm pulldowns. No holds or pauses, just 3x15. Highest band tension I have is the strong band so I just used that. Trying to think of pulling with the lats and locking the shelf for that side. Thinking circus dumbbell and some truck pull. Band tension was pretty light considering so I just did each set back to back so that fatigue made the last set within the difficulty range. Next was the superset of the btn presses with band face pulls. Back to doing just the bar and higher reps. Face pulls no modifications so back to doing them standing without pauses. Honestly, the bar stuff was right but I think the band tension too light for the face pulls. But it would be a big jump to the next tension so this worked out too. Thinking about opening up the shoulders. Push ups after that. Hand elevated. Two sets of 15 reps. Last time I’ve done these was to 18” with my jack stands and I did like 40 reps in one set so I lowered the height to the lowest setting to try and increase the difficult to be within parameters. Still pretty easy but honestly rougher on the shoulders compared to the other push-up variations I’ve been doing as of late. Possibly because those required more motor control so the irradiation made things feel better. Last thing bands for triceps. I knew that after last week that that band tension would work here. Left side still has some issues with control as far as the wrist rigidity but it is what it is at this point. Finished up with putting stuff away before eating and then stretching.