April 28, 2022 – Week 7, Day 3

Axle Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
50x2
75x2
100x2
125x2
150x2
175x2
200x2
225x2
250x2
275x2
275x2
280x2
280x2

Axle Incline Bench Presses
(6 second eccentrics)
30x2
55x2
80x2
105x2
130x1
155x1
180x1
205x1
230x1
(4 second eccentrics)
190x3
190x3
190x3

Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 second eccentrics)
40’sx5
70’sx3
88’sx10
88’sx10
88’sx10

Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (low anchor point)
mmbx15
mmb+µbx15
mmb+µbx15
mmb+µbx15

Dead Stop Axle Floor Triceps Extensions
66x5
106x10
106x10
106x10

Stretching
  
Comments:  I went to bed earlier than usual because I felt that rest was more important than spending time doing all the soft tissue work I felt I needed to do. I did some but not all. My legs have them DOMS from the Bulgarian split squats with tempo. I was determined to not have today feel like two weeks ago. When I had my first workout back to doing axle clean and press. Missed a clean at 230lbs and at 260lbs. Didn’t feel I had that explosive pop. Stuff felt grindy. And once I got the weight up, I missed a rep the first go around on the press and had to go again. So very rusty and feeling like my goal of 335lbs was a pipe dream. Coach says it will come back fast with my abilities and my dad says I’ll hit 350lbs. Words aren’t actions but words can lead to actions. Last week with axle went a lot better. Thinking about the parts and adjusting wardrobe (grip shirt under shirt). But still not quite where it needs to be. Today was to be similar to two weeks ago with it being one clean and then pressing for reps. Doubles with the planned working sets to be 225lbs, 250lbs for 2 reps each and then 270-280lbs for 3x2. I went with doing 25lbs jumps up the whole way and would see how I felt. I did want to do 280lbs to be somewhat back on track with the original plan (20-25lbs increases). I am feeling more confident with the intial first pull. Not worried I’ll miss getting over the belt. Kind of accepted that I need to do a few bumps to get this to the shoulders so commit to the form now and go from there. I had been thinking about axle cleans for the past two days. I needed these to go right. So first set with 275lbs started fine enough but then it came time for the flip. I hesitated and bumped it up a little more. I feel like this had me a bit off when I was able to flip it to the shoulders for pressing as I could only get that first rep to get above my head as it was going forward. Not good. Settled and went for another shot at it and it got up higher but I had to step forward to catch myself and maintain balance. This was certainly not feeling like 2+RIR. Second rep after that one did go up better but it wasn’t easy. But at least I didn’t miss the clean at all so far and I was able to recover and get the reps here. I wasn’t sure how these would go. I guess my hope here was that like last time I got a bit better and the presses felt better (until the last set when I tried my elbow sleeves on). Second set felt like it should. Clean was right, got set and the presses were done with 2+RIR. So I figured I’d go up to 280lbs for the next one. This was about the same as 275lbs was other than the flip. It definitely felt harder, like it would roll out of my hands catching in the rack. Not being able to get my arms rotated under it. Presses felt about the same. So with those somewhat good vibes, I decided I’d do 280lbs again and break from the programming. I wanted 3 good sets. Get another rep at the clean with 280lbs. I didn’t like how the presses felt with 275lbs that first set. I think I went a little too soon here as the clean felt slightly tougher this time and my pressing wasn’t as powerful. Can’t confidentially say it was 2+RIR but it was better than 275lbs was that first set. I am noticing that my style of push press is putting things out in front more with quad and hip drive and not much ankle. My ankles seem vestigial at times. Just duck foot it with planting my feet. Been using oly shoes for pressing since 2009 because that was the thing to use. Not sure if switching out would help but I worry about doing that now this far into a training cycle for a show. This kind of testing seems more an off-season inquiry (which will hopefully be after this show assuming I qualify for SC Nats at it). Taking things into consideration, this is only 10lbs off my best double with this particular axle and setup (4/2020) and 30lbs under my best single. From there more axle but incline benching. Still messing around with accentuated eccentrics here. Advised that this is to do more overload and time under tension for my triceps in the pressing range for overhead on the axle. Weights I’m using are a good bit lower than log but I’m trying to be consistent with getting my top weights above 200lbs consistently. With the start of the training cycle being with the chaos bands and not really knowing what I’m about on axle incline had been a rough start. But I seem to know better with weight choices now at the 7 week mark of it haha. So for today, it was work up to a top single of 5-6ct on the eccentric (RPE 8) and then take 15-20% off and do 3x3 with 3-4ct eccentrics. Always going for the slow burn. I had originally thought to do 30lbs jumps and then maybe 20lbs but I liked how the 25lbs felt with axle beforehand so did that here too. Ended up doing probably a 7 seconds eccentric for that top set. Left biceps was feeling sore on these probably because of the motion and stretch of the pecs and shoulders and from the heavy axle cleans (it is my under hand grip). Down sets felt pretty good. Usually they feel pretty rough on these but today was good. Into the garage for rows. Still chest supported dumbbell rows for 3x10 at RPE 7-8 with short rests. But not full tempo. Only accentuating the eccentrics for these so I could bump up the weight. It is really kind of crazy how much more I can do when some of the limiters are taken off on these. I was initially thinking 70lbs here but tested things and they felt too light. So using close to 90lbs for these after doing about 40lbs. Still trying to think of these pulling into the upper abs like the axle clean. Always that. That cue is a must. The axle flip help face pulls were next. I’m not sure what to really call them as the more I try, the more verbose the description becomes. So the plan with these was go to 3x15 but add pauses and control the eccentric. I wasn’t sure how much this would effect things so I did just a monster mini but that felt too easy (but I still did 15 reps to make sure as fatigue is tough to gauge). So I figured I’d still be able to add micros each set like last week. Wrong. Adding one micro made it a whole lot tougher and I decided I’d do all three working sets with it.  Last thing was for triceps. I did a warm up set since the reps were dropped to 3x10 so load was going to increase. Added weight is starting to be noticed on these. Put stuff away and had hibachi for dinner before stretching and icing my knees before bed.

April 26, 2022 – Week 7, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Safety Squat Bar Squats
66x5
116x5
156x5
206x3
256x3
306x6
306x6
306x6

Deadlifts
155x3
155x3
245x2
335x2
385x1
425x1
Added Straps
465x1
515x4
465x4
465x4

Titan Fitness Frame Deadlifts (16” pick, straps)
295x2
365x2
435x2
495x2
545x4
545x4
545x4

Offset Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (3-1-3-X tempo, barefoot)
10x12/12
10x12/12
10x10/10

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

Seated Band Hamstring Curls (5 second hold every 5 reps)
sb+abx25
sb+abx25
sb+abx25

Stretching
  
Comments: Left shoulder and neck area still just kind of tight. No pain just tight. Was a little late in getting things started for training but not that much I guess. Mobility stuff felt fine. Starting things off with ssb squats. 62.5%x3x6 with 2 minute rests. Things from last week seemed to work pretty good with getting things to not feel super achy so I did that again before starting squats and then higher reps then I usually do for the working up sets. Less weight than last week but more reps. If anything, shins and ankles were feeling achy. Especially the left one. But as usually the case, as I get warmed up, those go away mostly or completely. As has been the case, first two sets feel about the same and then the last set feels easy. Good bit of reps left in the tank. I think 3x10 would’ve still left me with some reps in the tank on the last set even with 2 minute rests. From there it was on to deadlifts. Now usually I’ve kind of had stuff sort of setup for the next exercise but I was finding that moving quickly from squats to deadlifts to more deadlifts wasn’t really conducive to keeping fluids down during the workout. Especially since with it getting warmer, I am sweating more. This usually means nothing once I start and then for the accessory stuff. So I didn’t have things setup this time to give myself some active rest. I’m thinking that constant moving actually is helpful for me lasting longer on contest or event days as that is hours of not laying or sitting down. Always in motion. Any ways, it was regular deadlifts again. Plan was to do top set of 4 with 2RIR and then 10% off that for 2x4. Suggested for top weight had been 515lbs. I had to fight with myself a little on this. 515lbs for 4 isn’t a PR but 520lbs for 4 technically is for post 2016 injury. Feeling a bit of that “I need to be stronger, I should be stronger, I must be stronger” feelings. I’m doing my best. Warm up and see how I am feeling was kind of the mindset so that I’d stop thinking about it so much and just get work done. I felt that I could deal with going for 515x4 and knowing that I could do 2 more reps was better than pushing too hard with 5lbs more after I went heavier probably than I should for last time two weeks prior. Deadlifts had felt light up until 335lbs. Not sure why they felt heavy after that point so suddenly. Top set weight didn’t feel nice and easy. They don’t look so bad on video but these felt slow and heavy and like I was mostly back on them. Maybe 2RIR but it would be all out effort for sure and probably some hitching, ramping and crying. 50lbs off for the down sets didn’t feel like I took anything off honestly. Just all felt heavy. I have to remember that this is not the focus right now. This is to maintain and keep building after all the last few contests being suited stuff. From there it was on to frame deadlifts. The lighter week. Suggested was between 505-545lbs for 3x4 done EOMOM style. My intent had been 525lbs to split the difference and have it be RPE 7-7.5. However, I messed up my math and I didn’t want to make really odd or small jumps after big jumps so I went with the higher weight end. I was also practicing the quickdraw strap in style here just in case. I don’t know how show will run so just keep the strapping in fast primed in case. I think it would also help me keep thinking speed with that added element like when it was no straps earlier in the cycle. Weight felt heavy but it was moving well. It finally felt light on the last set. From there it was the accessory work of the evening. I had been happy to see no more goblet squats. Bulgarian split squats instead. I was ok with that until I saw that these were to follow the same tempo and breathing guidelines and then I was not a fan haha. 3 sets of 8-12 reps with 3-4RIR. And to do them barefoot. Well for me that meant socks which is close enough. I wasn’t sure how these would feel with the 3-1-3-X tempo without knee sleeves. Thankfully it was tolerable so I could do them without. I knew I couldn’t load up the weight on these from past experience so I went with a single 10lbs kettlebell. From the last time these were part of training, it had been 5-0-5-0 tempo and I was just a mess at the end of each set with the most weight being 15lbs. So I knew this could be tough but I also knew I was getting better with recovering between sets on these kind of exercises. Did one leg, took normal rest and then the other leg followed by normal rest (about 90 seconds). So each leg treated as a set. So about 18 minutes total to get through those sets with how long the sets themselves take. I was good with 12 reps those first two sets but my muscles were fatiguing hard by the third set. I could do 12 but it wouldn’t be with 3-4RIR on those and I also figured my legs would be super sore already. I could tell as I was walking like one leg wasn’t working each time I was done and kind of hip jaunting around until blood flow returned to normal. Feel these more in my glutes and legs in general compared to the goblet squats. Next was bringing back an old favorite; Copenhagen planks. 3 sets of 20/30 keeping RPE 7-8. Missed these. I had an idea to wear the knee sleeves as sometimes the strain of supporting my body on the right leg caused knee pain. This eliminated it completely. I went with 30 seconds for the sets as I knew I could do it. Of course realized when I finished that I forgot to set the camera to film it. But it is just a plank isometric exercise so nothing really missed here. Finished up with seated band leg curls. Both legs in concert this time with sets of 25 reps with hold every five reps for a 5ct. I figured that a strong band by itself would be too easy considering I was able to do 30 reps with one leg. Adding band tension to that certainly increased the difficulty. Last set felt best but that might have been because I took longer rest and knew how hard these got by the end of the set. Put stuff away, ate dinner and stretched before icing knees before bed.

April 25, 2022 – Week 7, Day 1

Band YTW’s
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

Axle Strict Presses (head through on last rep only)
51x3
81x3
111x3
141x3
171x3
201x5
201x5
201x5

Axle Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (3 seconds, head through on last rep only)
171x5
171x5
171x5

Pull-ups (0-1-0-1 tempo)
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4

Paused Ring Push-ups (feet elevated on bench, 1 second)
bwx15
bwx15
bwx12

Defranco Band Pull-aparts (30 seconds on/30 seconds off)
mbx16
mbx17
mbx17

Band Triceps Extensions (facing away, rack)
ab+mmbx30
ab+mmbx30

Stretching
  
Comments: Kind of a low key day. Left shoulder seemed a bit stiff. I think this is just how things will feel with frequent axle clean work probably. I think that might be how things were when doing them in the past. Or not. I just might be how my joints are at this point. Good days and bad days. Shitty ankles, shitty shins, shitty shoulders, shitty knees. If it doesn’t get worse while doing stuff then good to go I guess. So had plans for today’s session to do it early in the day (during lunch break) as I had an eye doctor appointment (nothing wrong, just haven’t gone in like 15yrs) after work and I’d rather not come back from that (no clue how long it would take) and then train and probably get to bed late. Weather seemed nice today so first half of workout would be outside (other part inside just to make transition quicker from exercise to exercise). Band warming up was fine. Was feeling good. Only two sets this week. I got paranoid that I had stopped short that second set as usually it feels harder so I did an extra rep after stopping. I didn’t need to do that as I had hit all the reps. Oops. Axle press was next. As like last week, work up to 3x5 of set weight and report back RIR on the last set as per usual. 30lbs jumps and triples all the way up. 15lbs more than last time. I was tempted to just do 5lbs more on top of that so I’d not need small plates but I made myself stick to the plan here as 15lbs is a decent jump for strict pressing. I didn’t feel like pressing was off on any set this week. I seemed to have ironed things out. More strict presses after that with holds at forehead height. Plan being 10lbs more than last week for 3x5. But since I was going against the clock, I just did 30lbs less than the strict pressing before so that I could make a quick weight change. Rests were to be 2 minutes for both the sets before and these but it was closer to 1.5 minutes for most of them. I’ve been trying to make the pause sets be like down sets of the first exercise and keep the training stimulus going. So 3lbs heavier than planned. Felt fine the first set and getting tougher the second. Third set was feeling good but then I just seemed to hit a wall at the 4th rep and couldn’t get my shoulders to cooperate for the fifth rep and had to set it down to get breath and go again. That was a struggle of a rep. After that was pull-ups with inverted tempo. Plan here was 7x4 with bodyweight and aim for the sets to be 7-7.5 RPE. Keep note of rest periods. Slightly less than 90 seconds rest on these. Again partially to get through workout in time and also because it was easier to keep pace that way. So RPE did probably get above that. Other factors would be just forearms and biceps being worn from sandbag work and grip stuff from Saturday. From there it was on to ring push-ups. Same as last week with the reps and sets (3x12-15) with 90 seconds rest. I had not done pauses as was indicated. Kind of buried in the workout text. Slight pauses but I felt I had to make up for not doing them at all last week so I did 1 second pauses to insure I was doing the work. Felt fine first set but felt fatigue on the second set. I could tell I wouldn’t be able to get 15 that last set with it being the same level of RPE style so I stopped at 12 (as that was about as difficult as the second set for 15). Moving right along. Defranco band pull-aparts. Same as last week with it being 3 sets of 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest between sets. Goal being to do more reps in those sets compared to last time. Felt a bit more machine like on these and increased the total reps by 6 (50 vs 44). Last thing was band triceps extensions. 2x25-30 at RPE 6-7. Had been too light last time so went with more tension. Probably could go up some more here. It does get a little tricky if I’m doing the setup on the yellow rack as it will creak forward under the initial pull and then stays put after that. Put stuff away and ate lunch. Stretching after work and eye doctor appointment finished.

April 23, 2022 – Week 6, Day 4

Lateral Stepdowns
bwx3/3 20”
bwx10/10 32”
bwx10/10 32”

Safety Squat Bar Squats to 20” Box (5 second eccentrics) 
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
345x3
345x3
345x3
345x3
345x3

2” Deficit Stiff-legged Deadlifts (straps)
165x5
215x5
275x5
325x10
325x10
325x10

Sandbag Over Bar (56”)
250x1
250x1
250x2
250x2
250x2
250x2
250x2
250x6 in 27.15 seconds

Bearhug Step Ups (12”)
bwx3/3
50x3/3
125x12/12
125x12/12
125x12/12

Glute Ham Raises
bwx3
bw+10x10
bw+10x10
bw+10x10

Makeshift Go-Really-Grip Machine (2 second holds)
214x10
214x10

Rolling Bar Hangs
bw+21 for 45.77 seconds
bw+21 for 33.20 seconds
bw+21 for 27.90 seconds

Stretching
  
Comments: Mostly caught up at work so I was able to be a bit more relaxed I think the past few days. Which was probably good because while my stuff was caught up, not the case with others and needing my ear for a good bit of the day that it left me very little time to do my own stuff. Potentially looking at a different job that would be a promotion potentially but really am adverse to moving from where I’m comfortable. Things are setup so that I can do the things I enjoy. I slept in a little bit as my lower legs have been tight and not really shutting up. Mostly the right one with the tibs being tense. So that kept me up a little (and eating 6 chicken sandwiches for dinner probably didn’t help with getting to sleep haha). I wasn’t in a rush today like last weekend where I had stuff that required assistance in the form of help and making sure I had the Hercules hold setup. I did have things to do after training but on my own time. I was a little anxious about my knees and such with the drive with them feeling tense already but that was fine. I know that even if I’m not directly thinking about it, the subconscious is as I had a dream a few days ago being told my knee was “dislocated” and I’d need surgery. Even when I’m not awake, my mind makes up scenarios to stress me out. But I keep moving forward. I go there and I was surprised that there were still people from the group training at this time but they left before I got into anything serious. So starting things off was lateral stepdowns. 2x10 this week. Not sure if this will be the case going forward as a way to reduce volume on them and keep intensity or what. I did a bit more warming up as far as mobility stuff. Oddest thing was that my left knee was the one that was aching more than the right when it came time to do the actual exercise. Just can never tell. I was slightly concerned that I was feeling winded on these. Sometimes the extra reps in a set are enough to make that happen. I think I was worried that my capacity on taking in oxygen and recovering would be at a compromised level today which wouldn’t be fun with stuff planned. From there I moved on to the squats with the ssb to box like it has been the past two weeks. 5x3 with the 5 seconds eccentrics. Been going up 15lbs a week. I’ve a feeling that this will probably be done in waves like end of last cycle with squats to keep me fresh but working hard and primed for the events. But no clue if another wave of these or if I’m completely off base. I’d expect some changes as I get closer as while the weight here isn’t something that would be considered super heavy, the accentuated eccentrics are taxing. There were instructions this time to do shorter rests and I felt I was able to stick to that. I’m noticing that as I get more warmed up that I’m better able to control how I move. Not to say I can’t already but my knees are stiff and achy and I tend to be more forward lean at that start vs where I am after 1-2 sets where I can really sit back and feel like I’m not in a fixed plane. Stiffys for deadlift accessory work was next. 3x10 with 1-2” deficit added. I wasn’t looking too forward to these. Primarily because last week I had to do 2x15 and I took a long break between those sets and I felt worn out and this week I was to stick to 2 minute rests between the sets. So I was expecting a good bit of unpleasantness here and then having two other unpleasant fatigue inducing exercises to follow. The idea was to do these touch and go with the whisper touch to keep constant tension as has been the case. However, I feel that I’m probably still cutting most reps shy of that whisper touch. I do not have good proprioception for that range it seems and I’m worried I’ll hit the ground and bounce it. Trying to limit that feeling with having a very stiff bar and weight setup so no bending. Used the 55lbs squat bar this time with the kilo plates. I did more reps warming up than I had originally planned but they felt good so I stuck to that. I didn’t feel too bad on these honestly. Didn’t really feel much fatigue at all in the posterior chain. Which was a good thing considering that sandbag was up next. I wasn’t looking forward to it but that is on a scale. Looking forward to it more than two weeks ago but not more than four weeks ago haha. I think the point for me was that this was more weight but back to doubles and while there was a 6 rep set at the end like last time, I was allowed to rest fully before do it. EMOM doubles are a lot easier than EMOM triples, who knew haha. So the plan here was 250lbs for the sandbag. Now the gym has two style of 250lbs sandbag; one being like the 225lbs bag which is the Ironmind style and the other being a compact Titan Fitness Velcro style. Considering that the more compact bag was probably more like contest conditions (265lbs compact), I figured it made sense to use the 250lbs to get used to that feeling. The 275lbs bag at our gym is smaller size too (but not as compact due to lead shot) so working specificity here. As that being the case, I figured that warming up with the 225lbs wasn’t really going to be too helpful for the different style 250lbs bag. So I did two singles as warm-up. The planned workout of 5x2 then began. I was still a little hesitant at the start on the first lift but saw that I didn’t need to be by the second. I got a little too confident as I rushed the second set first lift and didn’t quite get it all the way over to roll and it came back and had it pinned but eventually let it down to reattempt. Easy second rep but I cursed myself out for messing up and making me have less time to recover. I’ve seen before how much this can cause a domino effect on the following sets. However, I was very efficient with things and was getting my doubles done in less than 10 seconds so I was fully recovering between doubles and the missed rep was barely a footnote. As for the timed set, I was nervous but not really about the set itself. Sure, I might have a bobble happen but that wasn’t the end of the world. I wanted to get commands and time right away rather than figure it out later from editing video. There was only one other person there and she was a light weight powerlifter that that I know is a friend of friend but I didn’t want to bother anyone I don’t know. And I know how I come off appearance wise so I was stressing about that before asking and I over explained what I was going to do as well I feel. I didn’t die from embarrassment so that was good. I also really did well on this. I was shocked that I got 6 reps done in under 30 seconds. I’m going double digits at the show for sure. I will make people work for their points. So I was quite pleased with that. Essentially contest weight for all intents and purposes. Step ups with sandbags again. Same as it has been. My options were to either increase the height a little or increase the weight (not actually listed choices for the program, just my thoughts on progression here). I figured I wanted another crack at 125lbs here as last time I got like 2 reps and stopped that first week. I decided to do some warm-ups to hopefully have things not feel so sudden going from nothing to all the weight. It did help a little. Oddest thing here was that the reps felt hard that first set but as fatigue built and I got to breathing heavier, I seemed to do them quicker and easier. Like I knew that I was racing the clock of fatigue with holding the sandbag and gassing and I got faster despite being tired. So that was something. Next was my choice of exercise using the ghr bench. Either ghrs or doing hip hinge back extension. Whatever I felt needed work. I felt like I wanted to test things with doing more than negatives with the ghrs and I felt that sldls were covering the other part of things. Goal was 3x10 with RPE 7-8. Did a few with just bodyweight to feel things out and then held a 10lbs weight to do the sets. Not much to say here. Last bit of the workout was grip stuff. I was to do two different exercise; one because that seemed to be what I needed to work on and the other potentially because I don’t seem to shut up about it when training for Hercules hold. So first exercise was the crush grip setup I did before. 2x10 with 1-2 seconds hold and RPE 7-8. Seeing as how the weight last time felt good compared to the heaviest weights I did with Hercules hold, I stuck with that weight and just did 2 second crushes each rep. That extra time did add up. The last one was rolling bar hang. I did them as part of short prep for a Hercules hold when I didn’t have access to it and I absolutely crushed it. Even though I have the setup now, I don’t know if it will be similar and this is another way to train grip and not be as taxing. Previously with this, what I had done was just do one all out set and call it a day with only near the end adding a set with hook grip after that just for additional endurance work. Go up in weight added once I hit a minute at a given weight. I got up to 22lbs added for a little over 47 seconds in that prep. This was up to me as either to do 2x45 seconds or 3x30 with 1:3-4 rest ratio, depending what I felt was better for building grip endurance in my experience. I elected for the 2x45 just because of it being closer to what I did. I accidentally went heavier on my weight to use here and ended up being close to my top weight (and I weighed a few lbs less too) but I got the first set of 45 seconds casually. Not so much the second set. My forearms just seemed to lock up on me and I barely got over 30 seconds. I took an even longer rest after that to try another set and that one was less than 30 seconds. Well I got over 90 seconds of work so enough there. Stretched out before heading home.

April 21, 2022 – Week 6, Day 3

Paused Axle Clean and Push Presses (clean every rep, 3 seconds at sternum in dip for clean)
30x3
60x3
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
210x3
210x3
210x3
210x3

Axle Push Presses
210x1
235x1
260x1
285x4
257x4

Axle Incline Bench Presses (3 second eccentrics)
30x3
60x3
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
210x4
210x4
210x4

Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3-0-3-0 tempo)
46’sx10
46’sx10
46’sx10

Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (low anchor point)
mmbx20
mmb+µbx20
mmb+(2)µbx20

Dead Stop Axle Floor Triceps Extensions
95x12
95x12
95x12

Stretching
  
Comments: I was anxious and looking to redeem last week’s effort with axle clean and press. I wasn’t sure if axle clean and press would be a thing for this workout until the day before as sometimes those movements are too taxing to recover from week to week with the stress on the biceps and such. I had felt fine after Tuesday’s session but then my body just decided that my knees and lower back were going to be achy Wednesday. Thankfully sleeping seemed to resolve the lower back stuff nicely. Knees not so much. I wanted a good day of training when I did see it was clean and presses. I spend a period of time during my lunch break doing mobility stretches and foam rolling on my right lower leg. Doing the dorsiflexion wall test, I’m 2” closer to the wall to touch with my right knee vs my left knee. I’m really not sure what to do to even things out as it is quite apparent when in the bottom of a squat as it shifts things with one side being hyper mobile and the other not. Doing too much can also be a problem if I try to overcorrect. More isn’t always more. On to the actual training for the day. Axle clean and press every rep to start. 50lbs less than last week for this “lighter” week as far as clean and press emphasis. Paused but a little different. The previous time that a “pause” was done for these was super light and it had been just at the sternum and on the shoulders for a 1ct. This time, it was just the sternum but while doing the “dip” for the last pop to the shoulders of the continental style. Before I got to that, I had to figure some things out. I needed to be explosive on that pop. Knees need to be springs that coil. They hadn’t been last week. I felt stiff, slow and immobile. Not me. I wore my grip shit under a t-shirt with a large decal on the front and chalked the crap out of the shirt. This would hopefully be a better situation. I did look at federation approved shirts but they are sold out in my size so not going to worry about that (I have the oldest models so they have been improved). I tried to move the crash pads out a little so that perhaps my stance would feel less claustrophobic. I don’t do a lot of lateral transfer for getting under weights though. The plan here was to use the style I’d use for max effort work for form work and to wear what I’d wear for that kind of effort. I would need to see what felt fine. I wanted to see if I could pull this off with compression cuffs for the elbows and knee sleeves. These did feel a lot better compared to last week. Those pauses were killers though. A lot of tension on the knees holding that position and keeping things tight to my body. I was told to not rush things and go at my own pace here and that reps in the set were more so I could have recency of mind and tactical senses to readjust. Axle goes a bit more AWOL compared to log when on the pads as those first two sets I had to reset it as it kept falling off. After the first rep of the second set, I finally reverted to doing two bumps up the body instead of the one. I won’t be doing just one at heavier weights. The press felt easy every time. I was definitely getting that feeling of the rack being violent. This was a step in the right direction but I still feel like this is how 260lbs should’ve felt last week and what I need it to be feeling like now for me to be sure I can blast up a PR. More axle after that but out of the rack. I wore what I had been wearing on the axle clean and presses for these. As has been the case for me, warming up on clean and presses doesn’t seem to really carry over to warming up for out of the rack. Weight feels heavy on my shoulders and my knees are achy. Not the best thing when the plan is to do a top set of 4 (1-2RIR) and then drop down a little for a second set. My plan here was to do 280-285 for the top set. Anything over 280x3 would be a technical PR on this axle out of the rack. Did 25lbs jumps as singles. Stuff was feeling heavy walking out but was going up smooth. Had to tell myself that that first rep is going to feel heavy and will probably not be as fast as other reps. I was right. That first rep was feeling heavy and went a little in front of me so I didn’t feel quite confident to just bring it right back down for the next rep so I took a breath to focus and brace. That second rep flew up like it was nothing. Third rep was a little slower and was harder to lockout. It was in that range going for the next one that it could stall or fly up honestly. It went somewhere in the middle of that with the lockout being a little tougher than I would’ve like. 1RIR is a possibility here but I may have cut it too close. Seeing how close I was to the razor’s edge on that, I went with 10% drop for the down set. It felt heavy and my triceps were feeling the fatigue but it was finished and ok. From there it was axle on incline. This has been a rotating door of variations this training cycle. I was told do these with no boards for ease of motion (unless I felt I could do more weight with the boards and I honestly don’t know at this point so I didn’t) and 3 second eccentrics. Work up to 3x4. 30lbs jumps as per usual and trying to keep pushing to get comfortable in the low 200’s range on these. Get consistent. These seemed to go fairly well. Only rep that I felt wasn’t as crisp was the last rep of the last set. Goal had been to get extra triceps work on the eccentrics. Chest work on the concentric. Into the garage for rows. Same tempo rows as last week. Advised to increase a little as needed to keep within the RPE range of 7-8. I went with 6lbs more using the plateloaded handles. The added cue to think of these as pulling into the body for the axle on the continental was helpful lightbulb moment. I feel like these might have been easier than last week so I guess I will have to continue progressing on these. The axle flip help face pulls were next. Once I got used to the sensation, I think I got ok with going up in band tension. The pull down is an odd feeling and it kind of through me last week at the start. I noticed that the tension from last time was way too light now so rather than do another 3x20 and treat that as a warm-up like last week, I figured I’d just add a little band tension each set. That seemed to work out fine. Last thing was for triceps. Same as last week using axle with the deadstop. No warm-ups I felt were needed this time. Went up a little bit in weight as well since it seemed the cumulative fatigue was the biggest factor last week. Put stuff away and got dinner ready. Stretched and iced my knees before bed.

April 19, 2022 – Week 6, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Safety Squat Bar Squats
70x5
120x5
170x5
220x3
270x3
320x5
320x5
320x5

Paused 1+1/2 Deadlifts (3 seconds, 3” below knees, straps)
135x2
185x2
235x2
285x2
335x2
385x3
385x3
385x3
385x3

Titan Fitness Frame Deadlifts (16” pick, straps)
295x2
385x2
475x1
545x1
605x5
545x5
545x5

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (3-1-3-X tempo)
52x10
52x10
52x10

Dumbbell Lateral Lunges
bwx3/3
40x8/8
40x8/8
40x8/8

Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls (5 second hold every 5 reps)
sbx20/20
sbx20/20
sbx20/20

Stretching
  
Comments: Been a fairly calm week as far as work so far. Mobility stuff was reduced by one set which was fine by me. Starting things off with ssb squats. 65%x3x5 with 90-120 seconds rest. Last time my knees were super achy warming up so I figured that I should do more reps to get my knees warmed up. I also sat in full squat position a little beforehand too. My right calf is really tight compared to my left so that puts a good bit of stress on things. The extra reps seemed to do the trick here. Goal was to try and have things feel a bit tougher compared to last week and have RIR be lower with the shorter rests. Definitely felt heavier but the last set things felt quite easy again. Not as easy as 25lbs less did last week but still felt like a good warm-up. Wonder if I should be concerned that I seem to need a few working sets to feel primed for some exercises? Or maybe it is just me not going full bore the other sets and knowing this is the last one or the one that matters? From there it was on to deadlifts. Not the usual deadlifts. It sounds like the plan here is rotating floor pulls and accessory stuff to work where I’m lagging. So since heavy pulling last week from the floor (relatively), this was assistance stuff. This was an odd one as far as deadlifts go. Best I could say is this was a half deadlift with a hold at the point I stopped and then put it down and then immediately did a full deadlift. That was one rep. 65% for 4x3. I’ve done pauses on deadlifts before but not stopping the movement and restarting. At least not together. I’ve done “halting deadlifts” as part of some Sheiko workouts but they didn’t seem to do much for what the intended purpose was. I’ve always wondered about breaks off the floor for deadlifts as an exercise as that does seem to be where I make or break a deadlift. I’ve never missed a lockout if it got above my knees. So this was that plus needing to brace at the point I struggle at. I wasn’t too sure how these would go. I wore straps all sets as my forearms and grip were still feeling Saturday, Thursday and yesterday. I’ll be working grip specific stuff plenty so not too concerned about that (I’ll still gradually add straps for regular style pulls). I want to make sure I was focusing on the right parts for this. The third rep of each cluster was a lot harder than the first two. I think I realized by the last of it that if I treated each sequence truly as one rep and not try to do them all together, that it would be more consistent. I was right. From there it was on to frame deadlifts. Silly me for thinking last week was to be the “heavier” week for them. So plan here was 40lbs more than top set last week for a set of 5 and then take off 60lbs for 2x5. I was to notate RIR on that top set and the last set. I felt that I didn’t need to do as much warming up for frame this week so I started out at 295lbs and did plate jumps to 475lbs. Stuff was feeling pretty light. Did a single with the downset weight before getting set for the top weight. Right knee was feeling a little achy on these. Balance on these is a little weird with the back pick so I can’t be going as fast if it was balanced out but that is fine since there won’t be split times for the reps, just number of reps and the weight at the show. I don’t want to overestimate what I can do on these but it does feel like this is one I can grind out reps on if needed as I felt I had another 3RIR in me and maybe more. I know this isn’t my top form on these as I’ve done about this height frame with 85lbs more in contest for 8 reps back in 2016 (before the back injury). I’m at least feeling more confident in my bracing and picking things up from all the heavy frame work with straps from the last training cycle. I’m interested to see if I can get into PR range on this at show time when it matters. Tempo goblet squats again. 3 sets of 10 reps keeping 3RIR. Same everything as far as the form, tempo. I went up a little more from last week on these and that seemed to be just fine. Not really noticing much difference between 40lbs and 52lbs on these honestly. The controlled movement itself seems to be where most of the difficulty comes from. Dumbbell lateral lunges were next. I was advised I could up the effort a little if I wanted but I figured I should stick with this weight as the knee tenderness in the right knee is tolerable at this point and I feel like I’m getting a good training effect with what I’m using. Just got to keep fine tuning it and get things feeling a little better each time. I was really feeling out of breath after each set this time around. Finished up with single leg band curls. Bit different this time. Sets of 20 reps but to hold every five reps for a 5ct. That added up quite a bit over the sets. Last set was quite tough. But those holds feel like they are working what needs to be worked in the hamstrings. Put stuff away before starting dinner. Stretched and iced knees before bed.

April 18, 2022 – Week 6, Day 1

Band YTW’s
µb’sx10
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

Axle Strict Presses (head through on last rep only)
36x3
66x3
96x3
126x3
156x3
186x5
186x5
186x5

Axle Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (3 seconds, head through on last rep only)
158x5
158x5
158x5

Pull-ups (0-1-0-1 tempo, 28 reps total)
bwx6
bwx5
bwx4
bwx4
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3

Ring Push-ups (feet elevated on bench)
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Defranco Band Pull-aparts (30 seconds on/30 seconds off)
mbx13
mbx15
mbx16

Band Triceps Extensions (facing away, rack)
abx30
abx30

Stretching
  
Comments: Family stuff for Easter. I knew this would be a thing so prepared for that but I think I did want a little bit of rest to recoup a little more but these are important moments. Can plan for the time but no idea what will be happening in that time. I did expect that I’d be chased and chase my nephews (my calves were so stiff from Saturday) but not that I’d have to push one around in grandma’s wheelchair pretending to be British or having to paint squishy foam dinosaurs. There was also some added stress where my router wasn’t working and I had to spend over an hour to get it working again as if that wasn’t working, I couldn’t log in to work Monday. Despite all those things, I made time for that and for all the things I needed/wanted to do for Sunday. Monday was fine. Fairly quiet. Between 97-99% chance of rain. Thankfully I could do most of the workout in the garage. Band warming up was fine, other than hitting my hand on the garage door track and needing a band-aid. I did get a little distracted on the second set as I was worried I’d do it again and almost lost where I was. Outside for axle work. Freezing rain so it was a good thing these were strict presses and I’ve gotten things down for these to be very minimal movement. Also no bands this time so didn’t have to worry about additional setup. Plan was 5lbs more than last week with bands for the top set for 3x5. Report back RIR on the last set as per usual. 30lbs jumps and triples all the way up. Abdominals were still a bit sore/stiff from Thursday and Saturday. Pressing didn’t feel as smooth at the start and got a little better as I went. Finally clicked for the last set. From there it was more strict presses but this time with holds at forehead height. I’ve done these before but it has been 2 seconds whereas this was to be 3 seconds. 3x5 here as well and same thing with it being 2 minutes rests and gauge RIR last set. I was expecting these to be a lot harder than they were. I think because it would require me to be in the position of lean back more and I’ve noticed that breathing and bracing over more reps is tough. Not sure if a time or rep thing with that. But these felt pretty light comparatively. That is not to say that these got a good bit tougher as the sets went on. Still felt like I had more reps there in the end though. You know the drill, packed things up in to the patio sun room from outside and then back into the garage. So pull-ups again with inverted tempo. Same as last week but total reps increased to 28. I decided to try and start the first rep like normal rather than do the first part as the 1 second dead hang. My hope was that doing it that way where I ended on the 1 second dead hang would be kinder to the biceps and be able to have it be less jarring and work on the lat control better. My forearms around where the ulnar nerve is are sore from Hercules holds I guess. And maybe axle cleans. I didn’t quite stick to RPE 7 on the first few sets. I seem to recover enough from RPE 8-8.5 on pull-ups to do 90 seconds rests to repeat. After seeing that I’d have to do 1 rep set for the last one if I stuck to 4’s, I went to 3’s which was definitely more like RPE 7 to have it be a set worth doing at the end haha. From there it was on to ring push-ups. It has been a bit since I’ve done these. Advised to do them with feet elevated so that I was parallel to the ground at the bottom of the movement. Said to do 3x12-15 RPE 7 with 90 seconds rest. I may have glossed over about getting a good stretch here. I was initially worried that I’d struggle to get reps here as my core was feeling fatigued. But I guess that was just a feeling as this was quite easy. Only the last set did I start to feel fatigue in the shoulders and triceps. I think I haven’t done a variation of these since the first training cycle. Another exercise that has been absent was the Defranco band pull-aparts. Those were from the end of the second cycle. These weren’t for reps though, they were for time. 3 sets of 30 seconds with 30-45 seconds rest between sets. I figured I’d go for the 30/30 approach. Didn’t feel bad the first set, got tougher the second set and was pretty tough the last set. But not as difficult overall as I was expecting things to be. Last thing was band triceps extensions. 2x25-30 at RPE 6-7. Went with average band and got those two sets pretty easy. Put stuff away, wiped down the wet stuff and put that away too. Eye round roast for dinner followed by stretching. No icing tonight.

April 16, 2022 – Week 5, Day 4

Lateral Stepdowns
bwx3/3 20”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”

Safety Squat Bar Squats to 20” Box (5 second eccentrics) 
80x3
130x3
180x3
230x3
280x3
330x3
330x3
330x3
330x3
330x3

Yoke
Casual Pace
200x50’
200x50’
Normal
300x50’
400x50’
500x25’
550x25’
600x50’ in 7.88 seconds
600x50’ in 7.50 seconds
600x50’ in 7.43 seconds
600x50’ in 7.26 seconds

Hercules Holds
100 for 10 seconds
150 for 10 seconds
210 for 10 seconds
280 for 10 seconds
320 for 11.30 seconds
320 for 17.93 seconds
320 for 19.20 seconds
280 for 25.00 seconds
230 for 46.77 seconds

Stiff-legged Deadlifts (straps)
160x3
210x3
270x3
310x15
310x15

Belt Squats
90x15
140x15
180x15

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching

Comments: Still a bit annoyed about how axle cleans went. Just not expecting to be struggling that much. I’ll be fixated on it until it is right. Other than that, I feel on track for everything this show. So it isn’t that bad I guess that only one even of the five is not quite where I want it to be. But it is fixable. But I may have to lower expectations for what is possible at the show for axle. But anything over 290lbs will be a most 2016 injury PR for contest (but not for training). Training for today was a bit unusual in setup and I’ll get to those parts as they pop up in this haha. So one of the things was that the local biker gang was having one of their required meet ups and that meant that parking would be difficult if I came at my usual time and didn’t secure a spot. Also wanted to get there a little earlier so that I could confirm things were setup and ask questions about one of the implements. Drive out was smooth. Again, a lot of people doing the group setting training. I’m not entirely sure which show they are prepping for but it honestly seems like no rhyme or reason. Everything being worked up to until only a few people could even do it. I saw circus dumbbell and axle deadlifts without straps while I was getting ready. So starting things off was lateral stepdowns for 3x8 at RPE 7. I feel I’m getting pretty good with these as far as warming up. Balance felt off the first set for both sides but then felt fine. Got easier as I went. Last set for all intents and purposes could be classified as a warm up with how it felt. Squats with the ssb to box again after that. Same as last week as far as 5x3 with 3-5ct eccentrics with 15lbs more. No set rests but I kept them similar to last week. Went up 50lbs again in triples with the 5 seconds (I was tempted to go with the easier plate math but didn’t). I feel like my knees weren’t as tight and I could actually control how and where I moved as I did the descent to the box. Definitely getting the hamstrings a workout here. I could also feel my abdominals getting fatigued from the bracing but that could also be just experiencing some soreness after battering them with the axle on cleans two days earlier. Yoke next. Well not right away. The group was using yoke and the lane. The other lane was blocked for someone doing farmer’s walk. We do have three yokes but only two really are used due to the thicker crossbar. And I like to be event specific when I know the stuff being used. The other yoke that I could use was in the corner behind stuff and about 10 people. I didn’t make sense to move it outside since the loading dock area I could go on had some motorcycles on it and bikers were out there eating. My plan was to do shorter rests for the work sets and my height would require a lot of changing around and then probably cool down waiting to go again. So that ended up being an hour before that stopped and I was able to get on with my workout. Goal was yoke with belt this week, 600x4x50’ and try and pick up pace/speed more each set. Rest 90-120 seconds between. Knees were a little stiff after waiting so long but got back under me as I worked up. Unlike last time, I did want to see what my numbers were on this since closer to contest weight and I felt like I was going faster each run last time. Still not implementing the run up at this time. I did try and see if raising the pick height was viable since not a crushing weight but even empty and with a good stride it would occasionally graze the bottom so don’t want to risk that. Working sets for yoke felt really good. Each set I got faster. My last two runs were even faster than my best time with this kind of yoke with this weight for this distance. So that was good. I think I was even taking less rest than 90 seconds on some of these sets as I was raring to go. I feel like I could’ve done 100lbs more and it would be no problem to do this same workout (just not as nimble and fast haha). Up next was a new one for me to actually do in training; Hercules hold. The gym has a setup but rarely used as it takes up space and requires two people to help with spotting. I’ve done well on the two times I’ve done this event in competition but always felt it was too light. Had this compulsion of feeling the weight pulling my apart. It is unknown what the setup will be for the contest at this time but the promoter indicated he wanted it heavy so that not going over a minute and I can dig that. But can be hard to gauge so best to train for a hard short trip and a long boring one. My past training has been mostly rolling bar hangs. So I now have the opportunity to practice on a setup. I didn’t really know what to expect. Never used this in contest. I didn’t do more research on what numbers people have done on this until later. Best I could recall was that Evan Singleton had done 270-280lbs a side for over 70 seconds. For comparison, he's done about that time on the Giants Live setup when it has been between 180kgs-200kgs. So I figure this could be a tough setup. Drew said I better beat his times. So the plan here was to work up in sets of 5-10 seconds holds to get a feel for things and then do 2 sets of 20-30 seconds at RPE 8.5 and then 1 set of 45-60 seconds at RPE 8. I felt that the empty implement was going to be too light (50lbs) so put on 50lbs a side to start. I was feeling good and starting taking bigger jumps. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just done 280lbs for my working sets with how things ended up. 6 plates a side and I thought I had the tension even on each side but I guess not as my right side wasn’t and got pulled off. I was able to recover but lost it shortly after 10 seconds. Reset and try again. This was better but still not what I wanted. I counted too fast and didn’t really have any seconds in reserve on that one. The third attempt I got it and I felt I had time left. I again counted too fast here as I thought I was at 22 seconds. I let go on that one because I could. Now I thought that taking off 40lbs a side would be enough to get me in the 45 seconds range. Nope, fatigue after 10 seconds is crazy. Ugh, so dropped down to 230lbs and was able to get into the time range with seconds to spare. I was kind of annoyed by that. Forearm fatigue is a thing with this one. Kind of the same issue I had with the behind the back barbell holds in that I’m not a great gauge on what my limits are. Again, I think 280lbs is probably going to be the upper limits on this for stuff. No hook grip as not the intent but if that is allowed (awaiting event video rules), I’ll be sure to try that again as that was great success. I don’t feel so bad with how I did when I realized that even my light set was 30lbs more per hand then what the gym had a contest with this in 2019 and I’d still have put up a decent time with that weight. Accessory work for the rest of the session. Only one exercise was listed as Drew had second thoughts I might be too worn out from setting up yoke and Hercules hold that this was the only one. But two other exercises were optional for the quads. Stiff-legged deadlifts were first up. 2x15 with the whisper touch style. I used the kilo plates and the bench bar again. Asserting dominance haha as there were some powerlifters there (but they were doing squats and deadlifts). I ended going a little heavier here. I tried my best to make these hard and push the weight out a little so as not clinging close to my body. I wanted the stress on the core and hamstrings. I was to report RIR on the second set and allowed to take as much rest as needed. I had taken a good bit of break as sldls for higher reps seem way more fatiguing than rdls. I also had a lot of weights to put back from Hercules holds. Tougher than I’d have liked but not so concerned with weight on these. Felt I had 5RIR. So first optional was belt squats. My choice, 3 sets and either low or high reps. The belt squat machine is a little cramped and I don’t like how it pulls facing the machine (pulls down and forward) so if I’m doing a squat as opposed to rdl or marches with it, I will turn around. My knees weren’t prepared for these after all the other stuff. I’ll need to remember that next time. It was like I had to break my legs the first few reps before my body was like ok, this is fine and felt the leg muscles working. I wasn’t expecting that and forgot to film. I wasn’t going to do another set just because I didn’t film it so I decided I’d go up each set for the three sets with it being 15 reps. From there, a return of an exercise with the quad fallbacks. Just two sets and I did 12 reps. These felt fine. I did have my everything cramp up on the first set after like four reps and had to reset but other than that, it was fine. Stretched before heading home. Took care of groceries, ate a late afternoon meal before my sister came over to train in the garage. After that dinner and iced the knees before bed.

April 14, 2022 – Week 5, Day 3

Axle Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
50x3
80x3
110x3
140x3
170x3
200x3
230x0 (missed clean)
230x3
260x0 (missed clean)
260x3
260x3
260x3
260x4

Axle Incline 2-Board Presses
(8-1-0-0 tempo)
30x2
60x2
90x2
120x2
150x2
180x2
210x2
(4-1-0-0 tempo)
168x5
168x5
168x5

Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3-0-3-0 tempo)
40’sx10
40’sx10
40’sx10

Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (low anchor point)
mbx20
mmbx20
mmbx20
mmbx20

Dead Stop Axle Floor Triceps Extensions
66x6
88x12
88x12
88x12

Stretching
  
Comments:  Not what to make of today. As far as work, feels like I’m drowning but it stuff just stops for a day I can get back above water. But it seems this month is going to be one where stuff isn’t fun. Not sure if another issue like last week is going to be present tomorrow. Trying to not think about that too much. It is exhausting just the inanity of it all. Maybe I’ll just have things piss me off Thursday afternoons and then have to take off Fridays to recover for Mondays. So on to training. I was looking forward to training. Getting to put the full movement of axle clean and press together. So how things were and try out equipment to see if it helped or hindered me. Plan here was to work up to 260lbs for 3x3 (one clean) and then do 260x4-5. Take my time. Don’t rush. Good technical work. And I thought no problem. Grip shirt and setup the axle like it appears it will be at the show (on 6” crash pads). No discomfort and doing 30lbs jumps. I figured triples working up was fine. Since I haven’t been using a belt for the past four sessions with axle push presses, I felt it was best to add it earlier than I’d plan to just to get used to that again. That last transition from sternum to shoulders on the continental wasn’t feeling crisp. It felt awkward and slow. Not smooth, more of a catching gear than a lubricated socket. Added the elbow sleeves on for 230lbs. Got it to the point for the flip and I missed it. I couldn’t get it. 30lbs under what I was to do and I missed it. I went with more of a hang clean to start the second attempt and I got it but it was a struggle. Took off the sleeves for the working sets thinking that had been the problem. Nope. Same issue without the sleeves with 260lbs that first time. Walked it off and came back. This was not easy and it became more of a roll on to the shoulders rather than the usual pop I do. That sucked and I actually missed the first try at the press. I’m thankful that there has been a lot of pause presses and just working on bracing and walking out that keeps me from tossing baby out with the bath water in those circumstances. Second set went a bit better on the clean and much better with the press. Third set improve slightly on that second set. So I figured I’d try the sleeves on last time for the last set which was to be AMRAP but indicated only 1-2 reps over the triples here. Sleeves were a mistake. Missed the clean first attempt and then ended up just belt cleaning it to get enough momentum to get under it. Sleeves messed up how I press on an axle I guess. Work great for log though it seems. So this was a frustrating start to the session. Not sure what my issue was here. Yes, it has been over 14 months since I’ve done an axle clean and press. I think I’ve usually had a shirt on top of my grip shirt in training. Maybe I’m pulling up too high now with where I was originally getting it. I know I’m not totally screwed but it definitely puts a damper on things. Need to clean this up and fix it ASAP. From there it was axle on incline. This was a bit of an odd one. So what was listed was to do pin presses with axle on an incline. Start from the top and rest on pins with them being 3-4” above the chest. And do long negatives. 8ct for a top double and then take off 20% for 3x5 with 4ct. I was annoyed with how axle clean and press went and I was worried that lowering to pins would mess me up with how I have to really watch myself on incline pressing with an axle or barbell as far as the bar path. Since plan was start at lockout, I had an idea. I’ve seen some people doing board pressing on incline presses. Maybe that would work. I could use the 2-board and pause it there for a 1ct. That seemed to work. Hopefully this substitution is fine. That long of an eccentric was a bit tricky to figure out and get used to. 210lbs I think was barely in the effort range of 7.5-8 RPE (180lbs would been fine). Down sets were quite tough even with the lowered tempo on the eccentrics. I also didn’t wear the wrist wraps on these. Shoulders were getting burnt by the end of these. Into the garage for rows. Still dumbbell rows but a change-up. Old one with the bench chest supported rows. I like these. But of course tempo has to be added to everything these days. I’ve never done tempo rows so I wasn’t sure what to expect here. This was to be 3x10 at RPE 7-8 with short rests. Seeing as how it was about the same as the goblet squats, it would probably be same amount of time to do a set as the rest period. I went with my trusted 40’s on this. Definitely felt too light that first set but it was the cumulative effect of fatigue I wanted to see. Got closer to the effort range by the end but it was more a lactic acid thing in the elbows and wrists with the biceps and forearms getting a good workout as well. It seemed like it was sputtering rain outside so I started to move some stuff into the sunroom. But it never really got going. The next thing was a twist on the face pull. Half kneeling style. Advised to anchor the band about a foot off the ground so that there was constant downward pull. I was to keep my arms parallel to the ground. Hope with these was to get that feeling of having to flip the axle from sternum to shoulders. I can definitely see that with how these felt. I had to use a light band tension on these as I could tell that even stuff that would be light for normal band face pulls would be too much. I was also not sure how I would handle explosive reps with slight pauses so I did a full set of 20 reps with a mini band but could tell it wasn’t enough to be considered a working set. A monster mini was much better test. Last thing was for triceps. No EZ curl bar but advised not worth purchasing one and I could use a barbell or axle. Using small plates for these to get a larger ROM. 3x12 with short rests like the rows. These felt fine. Some balance issues at the start. Trying to keep control and keep constant tension on the triceps while lifting. I think I got better at that as the sets went on. Or I just felt like it was as I got fatigued. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out.

April 12, 2022 – Week 5, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x5
295x5
295x5

Deadlifts
135x3
135x3
225x2
315x2
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
445x1
495x5
445x5

Titan Fitness Frame Deadlifts (16” pick, straps)
115x3
205x3
295x3
385x3
475x5
525x5
565x5

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (3-1-3-X tempo)
46x10
46x10
46x10

Dumbbell Lateral Lunges
bwx3/3
40x8/8
40x8/8
40x8/8

Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls
sbx30/30
sbx30/30
sbx30/30

Stretching
  
Comments: Allergies were pretty bad today but tapered off. A lot of sneezing but not something Dayquil says it will help with so just had to deal with that (nasal spray and Claritin D weren’t helping). Having to talk a lot and working that I was worrying I’d strain my jaw from how much talking I had to do. Had to take breaks to drink water and let my jaw rest before getting back into it. Days like that I wish it was purely just the data processing part of things. Getting warmer and out and finally my house is starting to get above 68 so time to wake up the AC so things don’t get stuffy. Knees and such didn’t seem to cranky today with the mobility stuff. Sometimes I have tension in the right knee at the start but didn’t have that at all today. Really doesn’t have a rhyme or reason to it but more good days then bad days. Starting things off with ssb squats. No pauses. 60%x3x5 with 2-3 minutes rest (I was going to need all that rest once I got warmed up). Doing normal speed squats is odd with all the tempo stuff being most of what squats are for me. Feels weird at first and then natural and then like I’m cheating because it feels so easy. Knees were super achy at the start of them. I think that I might need to do more reps at the lighter weights when not doing tempo modified stuff so that things wake up timely. They were fine by the time I got to the working sets. These felt quite easy with last set feeling super easy. Like a good warm-up. From there it was on to deadlifts. The plan for this session was to work up to a top set of 5-8 with 2RIR. Give me that rep range so that it was ok to undershoot. Don’t over do it here. Then after that set, drop it down a little for a set of 5 reps. 7.5-10%, smaller drop if higher reps. Keep things 3-4RIR. So I had been thinking about this since the day I got this workout. I really wanted to do 495lbs for a set of 5. Heaviest floor pull without suit since starting with Drew for a regular ass deadlift is 500lbs. 500lbs is close enough to 495lbs. I figured I had that in me after doing 455x3x5 with 2 minutes rest. But in the event I was feeling like crap, I gave myself a range to work with. Last single with straps would be between 440-455lbs and then top set would be 475-495lbs. I felt well enough on my last single that I could do it with some reps left. Or I had better. Got the Mortal Kombat techno theme playing. Floor pulls have definitely not been a focus raw with every contest being suited deadlift. I hit what I needed and felt I had the 2RIR there but I know this needs improvement. Felt that legs and lower back weren’t in synch. Some of it could be from knee discomfort that has been present off and on and bit and posterior chain could be fatigued from Saturday with the sandbags and sldls. 495lbs was heavier than 455lbs was last week. I mean, it should be, but it didn’t “feel” as heavy that first rep or so compared to that first set with 455lbs last week. Took off 50lbs for the second set. It is hard to recover from heavy deadlifts. But I seem to be getting better at this and not be such a matchstick man (I don’t mean that in the conman sense, more in a match stick only good to light up once type thing). From there it was on to frame deadlifts. Heavier stuff here. Plan was work up to 3x5 with 3-4RIR on that top set or so. Work up over RPE 6-7.5. I had an idea of what I should be able to do here. Now unlike how I was doing them for speed work (no straps, center grip), I’d be doing these more how I would for contest to get used to things (straps, back of the handle). My plan here was work up in triples with 90lbs jumps to what I felt would be ok weight and then see how that felt. I wore the versa gripps on all sets. Get an idea of how these feel for reps and side grip. I guess still paranoid that they’ll come off like that one time. But I’ve had no issues since. Knees weren’t aching nearly as much as these have tended to do to me from the past few weeks after tempo squats. There are things I’m thinking about for contest but I won’t really know until I see how things go day of (how fast loaders will be, balance, etc). I hit the numbers I was expecting here which is good. I know I got a lot of wiggle room here to improve over the next couple of weeks. At this point, I opened up the garage to get some air flow. I was sweating a good bit. It isn’t hot enough to need the fans at this point and it was not that much cooler outside anyways. Tempo goblet squats again. 3 sets of 10 reps keeping 3-4RIR. Same everything as far as the form, tempo. I decided since I had miscounted a rep last time that that weight was too easy and since the changing of plate placement on the dumbbell made it easier on the wrists, I decided to increase the weight a little with the plateloaded dumbbell. I also really tried to focus on the upright posture and getting knees over the toes at the very bottom of the squat with the pause. These seemed to go pretty well. I may be able to go up some more for next time. Dumbbell lateral lunges were next. Lessons I learned from last time were applied again this week. I’m recovering better as I wasn’t as out of breath between sides that I had to set down the dumbbell between sides. Just took a few breaths and went on to the other side. Left side is progressing great on these. Right side there is tenderness in the inside side of the knee. It has been a known issue on other exercises but this is a bit more direct. I can tolerate it and I seem to be able to recover enough from this exercise. I do like the lateral ankle movements. At this point, I feel benefits outweigh the negatives. Finished up with single leg band curls. Goal was to have these 20-30 with 3-5RIR. Strong band again. I switched up the legs as far as which one I started with. Didn’t seem to really matter as the second leg is fatigued from the other side anyways it seems. I was a bit surprised that I got 3x30 with my strongest band. Put stuff away and ate burritos for dinner. Stretched and iced the knees before bed.

April 11, 2022 – Week 5, Day 1

Band YTW’s
µb’sx10
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

Axle Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only) (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
41x3
71x3
101x3
131x3
161x2
191x1
181x8
163x8
163x8

Pull-ups (0-1-0-1 tempo)
bwx5
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4
bwx4

Paused Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Presses (3 seconds off the shoulders)
40’sx10
40’sx10
40’sx10

Paused Band Pullaparts (3 seconds)
mmbx12
mmbx12
mmbx12

Paused Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (2 seconds)
40x6
86x12
86x12
86x12

Stretching
  
Comments: Well it was a pretty stressful end to the work week last week. Weekend did me good as far as deloading and venting. Still annoyed but it is what it is and that is hopefully not something to review for another 4 months. I’ll go crazy fixating on that and I can’t have that stop me from living life at this point. Warmer weather today. YTW’s with bands for 3x10 on these with brief pauses again. No mess ups this time (with counting or being too close to the camera). As has been the case, first set feels the best usually with these and then fatigue builds up over the sets quick. Axle with bands next. Change from the past two weeks. Plan here was to work up to a top set of 8 (1-2RIR) and then take off 10% for 2x8. Report RIR on both that top set and the last set. I was also advised that if I wanted to that I could do a single 5% heavier than the proposed top set to prime things. I figured that was probably a good idea. So I set things up to be 30lbs jumps up to 10lbs heavier than the planned 8rm so that I could do the single and then take off 10lbs for the set. Stuff felt heavy today. It felt heavy but moved the same is best I can explain it. Like stuff felt 30lbs heavier than what I was lifting but video (and the fact I was still able to hit the reps) said it was what it was. Warming up I was thinking damn this feels heavier than usual. Even though I’ve been doing 5lbs less for sets of 5 for several sets with about 2 minutes rest this was feeling tough. Shoulders were feeling a lot of fatigue today. I’m noticing that with the lean back style, that I can seem to brace with a breath for like 4 reps or so before I need to rebreathe and brace again. I might need to figure things out a bit better and I wonder if off season work with the lean back style for higher reps might be good to work on that issue. Shoulders were feeling fried by the end of this and the last set was harder than the top set I feel as far as RIRs. From there it was on to pull-ups. This was adjusted. Temp kind of with a hold at contraction and hold at stretch. Make things harder but perhaps get a stretch and work the full ROM for tendon and ligament health. Plan was 25 reps total over how many sets it took to do them. Keep sets to RPE 7 so expecting 2-4 a set. I took the usual rest I do between sets of pull-ups for this (about 90 seconds). I started with the pause at dead hang and then initiated the set. What I was noticing that unlike other times where the first rep is the easiest, that rep seemed to be much harder and then the second rep was the easiest. Last time I did pull-ups after the event session of sandbag stuff, they were quite sore. Sore even just having my arms bent to rack the axle to press. Not so this time. Right biceps still chirps a little (usually just the first rep) but not as much. I didn’t feel like I needed to use compression cuffs for these like I’ve been doing on paused holds. I did tend to go close to say RPE 8 on these but I felt I was able to recover enough to repeat the effort so most of my sets were 4 reps. When it comes to pauses, I think I like these more than just pauses. Since it was warm and sunny outside, I didn’t move to the garage for the rest of the workout like I usually do. Get some sunlight.  Seated dumbbell presses again but changing the variation. Pauses right off the shoulder. Plan was 3x10 with 3-4RIR. I went off what I thought I’d be able to do for that from the last time (and only time) I did these. That was for 2 second pauses and part of a superset. I did the 40’s for 12 and was struggling when it was to be RPE 7. I think that it being a superset and me trying to do them nonstop played into that. I feel my shoulders are better suited to the demands now. But I still went with 40’s this time just to make sure. The axle stuff had felt heavy and fatiguing so not sure if this was a good day to push shoulder stuff or if they would cooperate with me. Guess I was wrong on that front. It was too easy. Last set was the only one that really got close to being in the RPE range and that was more from me taking fairly short rests compared to how I normally do the seated presses (taking more time to reset them). But good to see how much this weakness has improved from 9 months ago. Paused pull-aparts after that. Same as last week. It will be a bit before I feel like I can move up in band tension on this and I’ll probably just try to grab more band to increase difficulty before attempting to add more bands or swap out bands. Last thing was triceps with the dumbbell. Same as last time. I figured that I should stick to the same weight. I also tested to see if putting 5’s instead of 10’s on the dumbbell made things feel better ergonomically and it did. No real wrist discomfort and was able to do the sets with no issues or needing wrist wraps. I did rush the first rep of the first set as I heard the weights shift on the dumbbell and the startled me as I thought it was coming apart but it wasn’t. Finished things up in a timely fashion, put stuff away before cooking dinner and stretching. Didn’t feel like I needed to ice the knees today.

April 9, 2022 – Week 4, Day 4

Lateral Stepdowns
bwx3/3 20”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”

Safety Squat Bar Squats to 20” Box (5 second eccentrics) 
65x3
115x3
165x3
215x3
265x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3

Stiff-legged Deadlifts (straps)
160x3
204x3
270x3
314x3
380x8
380x8
380x8

Sandbag Over Bar (56”)
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x6 in 40.22 seconds

Bearhug Step Ups (12”)
100x15/15
100x15/15
100x15/15

Glute Ham Raise Negatives (8 seconds)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8

Makeshift Go-Really-Grip Machine (1 second holds)
214x10
214x10
214x10 (15 seconds hold last rep)

Stretching
  
Comments: So this week didn’t end well for me. Not in a training sense, that was fine. Work related crap. Thursday had a pointless (I felt) mandatory training that was scheduled for 2hrs and went over that 25 minutes and then immediately after that I had to speak with my supervisor briefly about apparently logging in to my shift 63 seconds late the week before. That continued into something the following morning. Never been tardy in the almost two years of teleworking. I’ve only ever been late to work to a single job once before and never again (besides the time I was stuck while a train switched tracks or an accident closed the highway). Anyways, the results of this appear to be that because of this, I will not be eligible to continue the teleworking most likely when up for re-evaluation middle of August as I will have a “corrective action conference” on my file within the last 12 months. Never ever had one. Never had any disciplinary stuff at any other job. I’ve been working at this job since 2012. I have no real options of recourse. So after that call in the morning, I stewed for about 30 minutes (and vented to my co-worker and friend) and decided I just wasn’t going to be productive or in the mindset and took a mental health day. Hopefully taking a day will have me cooled down enough to work on Monday but no promises. I know that this bullshit is because they want to have everyone back in the office and try to get the older employees to quit so they can hire new people that will lack seniority for perks and not have the higher pay scale. They lost productivity of over 26,100 seconds and counting for 63 seconds. Enough venting about that for now. So training for today. Still feeling the gut punch from the day before and I didn’t want to go train. I slept in for about an hour contemplating getting out of bed. Piling on worries. But I did get myself to leave the bedsheet cocoon. Driving and out to train and kind of surprised there was a sizeable crowd of people there. Mostly newer people. Like training in a group setting. I had been thinking about how something felt different with this training cycle vs last training cycle. I think what the difference is that no one else at the gym is training for the same show as me. Past three had people (though the second one had all those people drop out) so there was some competition and companionship. Not much of anything is being posted by people competing in this show besides axle. But sometimes I’ll be alone. Getting a bit too reflective. So starting things off was lateral stepdowns for 3x8 at RPE 7. Did some of the same things as last week to prep as that went well. These are getting easier and the rest between the sides less and less. Best these have felt so far this cycle and I know I said that last week. Squats with the ssb were next but different from what has been done. Box squats but not quite. I wasn’t to fully sit back and relax or to simply do touch and go to a box. Using the higher box height from past box squatting cycles. Goal here was 5x3 with 3-5ct eccentrics with something RPE 6-7 with 90 seconds rest. The suggested was 315lbs so I did that with 50lbs jumps and did 5 second eccentrics with it. Idea was to work more posterior chain dominant style as my coach felt these were a good result last cycle. It took a bit to figure out the depth and pacing as the ROM is a lot shorter compared to a full squat. There was a lot of tension being produced with these so these felt tough but they moved fast when I released the trigger. I was able to keep the timed rests and recover easily enough from these so I think this was done right. Deadlift accessory work was next. At the point in the cycle where making the switch from frame on this day to it being during the week at home since I have the same frame there as here. That will get heavier as opposed to the speed work that has been the case the past three weeks. So deadlift variations will be moved to this day instead. I guess. Not sure what variations it will be per se. For this week, it appears this was an introductory week for stiff-legged deadlfits. Last time I did these was 9 months ago as part of prep for PA’s strongest. Only did them three times that cycle. So I did have some idea what to expect here. Plan was 3x8 with it being RPE 6-7, 5RIR. Now my original plan had been to do triples with 40-50lbs jumps with 365lbs being the goal (40lbs under my 8RM with like 2-3RIR). However, I felt a certain way. I wanted chaos. No powerlifters in the area today. So I started with picking a 50lbs bar instead of 45lbs bar. Then rather than use bumper plates, I decided I’m using the kilo plates. And mismatched collars. Using a stiff, off weight bar with calibrated plates and mismatched collars for an accessory exercise. I think I went with this to make the weight as inert as possible without using a solid axle. The idea was to do these touch and go with the whisper touch to keep constant tension. So with the change in bar and kilo plates, I ended up 15lbs heavier than I had originally planned and also less sets to get to that weight. First set definitely was 5RIR or more and fatigue built over the sets where maybe I wasn’t quite there for the last set. I wasn’t feeling like it was the hamstrings that were fatiguing. They have had worse. It was more the bracing of the core, lower back and glutes. Another factor being that difficulty of the movement can be altered by whether I just let the bar stay in contact with my body or if I actively force it out in front (I did that for a few reps on the last set just to see). Sandbag after that. I was not looking forward to this. I saw I was lacking last time and biceps had been decently sore afterwards from rushing some lifts. This was going to be worse. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. So last time had been 8x2 EMOM with the 225lbs sandbag. Same weight but now it was 4x3. But that wasn’t all of it. There was a fifth set that was also following the EMOM protocol and that was do a set of 6 reps and time how long that took. The exhaustion factor is probably exponential with going from singles to doubles to triples with EMOMs, especially with a more complex movement with a long range of motion. So I was going to have to do a timed set after being more fatigued then last time. This was going to suck. Anxiety was high as I knew that one messed up rep leading up to it would be a domino for the others and I’d not recover. I was going pretty well. Last of the 4 sets I had a bobble with the first rep so that definitely sapped me a little and had me breathing really hard going into the timed set. I feel like I’m some sort of predatory dinosaur hunched over like I am before each set. Trying to be close but also not fatigue my back. Only had to side load one rep in that (fourth rep) and that did take a bit out of me and I felt a little slow down after that point. I managed to get that set done in 40.22 seconds, so a little under 7 seconds a load. Would be close for 9 at that pace but 8 would be safe. Good considering the fatigue from pre-exhaustion. I was tasting metal in my mouth after that and needed a good bit to get breathing back under control. As far as the numbers, I was averaging before that set under 6 seconds a load average so better compared to last time which was just over 6 seconds. After this was step ups with the sandbag again. I took my time after the onslaught of the sandbag loads as I was remembering how much these sucked last time. But as with most things that suck, I seem to embrace them. Goal was same as last time with a bit more difficulty. I stuck to the same weight as last time and same box height and was hoping that these would be better. Knees were a good bit achy but these were easier this time. Had less issues being aware of where I was each step. Only by the last set did I feel like I was having issues holding the sandbag due to sweaty forearms. Not sure (if these remain) what best option of progression is here. Increase the box height or increase the weight? So usually, the last thing for the session has been glute ham raises negatives so far. But apparently this is going to be the last week of them. I guess I’ll miss them? 3x8 with bodyweight for 5-8ct but you know me. I do the longer time. So the true last item of the session was grip work of my choice. Advised to do 3 sets of it. I was told to not do stuff I’m good at if I could. I’m really good at static holds (have a hard time letting go of things figurately and literally haha) and most of strongman specific stuff is having grip endurance or grip strength with it being usually a hold aspect. I didn’t want to do grip gimmick stuff, I wanted to do stuff with application. Intent. I indicated that as far as grip, I guess my weakness would be wrists (extension mostly) and crushing (I suck at grippers). I can be quite relaxed when I hold things. Same tension holding a 630lbs frame and carrying bags of groceries. Which might be why I don’t fatigue like others. So I figured I’d work the crushing grip. There wasn’t really stuff to do that here but I recalled a machine that IronMind makes that was for this. I figured I could makeshift that and that is what I did. Using a smith machine and a power pin that we have for power stairs and duck walk, I did a free weight version. Worked great. Did 3x10 with 1 second “crushes” and then for funsies did a 15 seconds hold on the last rep. I did also do some light sandbag carries (125-150lbs for 30’) for a few sets to help Jodi reset her course for conditioning work (pairing sandbag carry and loads with aerodyne bike sprints) and that was easy enough to do relaxed. Apparently her contract as a travel nurse in the area ended and she will be leaving so that is a bit of a bummer as I liked having her at the gym as a serious competitor. Stretched out before driving home. The knee issues and adjusting things (stretching, wearing the copper sleeves driving and altering position every so often) seem to be making the drives home more tolerable.

April 7, 2022 – Week 4, Day 3

Axle Push Presses (beltless)
36x3
66x3
96x3
126x3
156x2
186x2
216x2
246x1
276x5
248x5
248x5
248x5

Paused Axle Incline Bench Presses (2 second pauses)
26x3
56x3
86x3
116x3
146x3
176x3
206x5
206x5
206x5
206x5

Birddog Dumbbell Rows
40x6/6
80x12/12
80x12/12
80x12/12

Dumbbell External Rotations on Incline Bench (2 second pauses, 3 parts)
10’sx4
16’sx8
16’sx8
16’sx8

Band Lateral Raises/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away, rack)
mb’s+µb’sx25/ab+mmbx25
mb’s+µb’sx25/ab+mmbx25
mb’s+µb’sx21/ab+mmbx25

Stretching
  
Comments:  Today was kind of the first real big overhead session. Other sessions this cycle have been set percents. Was feeling a little bit of something Wednesday afternoon. Like the air was feeling stuffy in the house. Like allergies or super weak cold. Seemed fine start of the day today. Realized weather was going to be rainy all day so I had to do a judgement call on training time. I went with late morning training as I had a mandatory training for work immediately after lunch for several hours and I figured that I’d probably be really annoyed by that and I’d be really frustrated if the rain was a downpour at that point so that I was staying up later. I already had decided that once the overhead work was done, I’d go into the garage. I feel I made the best choice here with training time as after I finished it started raining really hard and it rained really hard like an hour after my shift ended so I’d have had to wait until like 6:15PM to even start training. So axle to start things off. Still beltless at this point. But as mentioned, a change in that it wasn’t percentage based. Work up to smooth 5 rep top set (2RIR) and then take off 10% for 3x5. Notes indicated that this rep range is kind of the one where people tend to rush things. Become cowards of fatigue. No rebound reps. Treat this like five singles with short rests if necessary to have each rep feel powerful. It was wet and despite it saying “no precipitation” there was quite a bit of it. But not enough that it would keep me from training safely. I did squeegee the water off the patio to start. Plan was same warm-ups as last two sessions but keep 30lbs all the way up. I forgot I was to stop doing triples early and so I moved up the reps so that I was doing a double with 216lbs instead of a single like I have been doing. I believed I could do this weight for these reps with these conditions. But it a good bit of weight with these conditions. So I get anxious and excited. That first rep my lockout didn’t feel as powerful as it should. The next two reps it did. My lower body drive and shoulders felt good but my lockout was feeling it today. I got my reps but I didn’t feel confident that I had 2RIR. I feel 1RIR was a safe bet with how my lockouts were. The weight definitely felt lighter dropping off 28lbs but those reps were pretty tough. Legs were feeling fatigue as well as the triceps. I was getting tired and breathing heavy. But I got them done. The stuffiness was coming back around this time. I still feel on track for a big axle lift with how things are going out of the rack. Will have to see how the cleans and such go since I’ve not done an axle clean heavier than 96lbs I think in over a year and a half maybe. I also have to remember that these have been without any support gear besides my wrist wraps. So had to move all the stuff into the little sun room to get it out of the rain and dry some stuff off before continuing in the garage for the rest of the session. Axle incline again. But no chaos weight. And longer pauses. What was listed was 5lbs more than the total weight from last time for 4x5 with 2 second pauses on the chest (or where ever felt comfortable). I wanted to just deal with 30lbs jumps here so I went 5lbs heavier. I figured that even with the longer pauses, the removal of the chaos bands should make things feel like I have 3RIR on these. The bar path still feels alien to me but I’m getting better. I think having it be more stable helped me at least after the initial set. First set had me a little concerned that this was too much. Familiar feeling of “dead zones” in the movement that I’ve had in the past with incline pressing with barbell and axle to a lesser extent. I figured it out for the remaining sets but didn’t fully commit I think to the tactic to make these work for me until the last two sets. I have a bad habit of relaxing too much on paused exercises but I’ve gone better with correcting that on most things. I was not focusing on that with these as I was kind of just letting it sink into my chest. What needed to be done was have it just touch my chest and keep tension the entire time and that made a world of difference on these as the last set felt the easiest. At this point the stuffiness was becoming annoying and I took some Dayquil to clear my head a little. Birddog rows again. Listed to do 80x3x10-12 with 3RIR. I knew that was going to be just 3x12 after last week. Those extra reps each set did add up to be a bit more fatiguing than I expected. Not so much for the usual culprits (biceps and forearms) but for the upper back, neck areas. These still seemed to be fine. External rotations with the dumbbells after that. 3x8 again. I figured for this time around that I should try a warm up set rather than jumping right in because even though light weight, the torque from the leverages is decent. This did seem to help as no issues on either the warm up weight or the working weight as far as any discomfort in the shoulders. Last was superset pairing of band laterals and band triceps. Now I thought I had the same bands as last time but I guess not. I mean, I did for the laterals and reps were much improved. I had more tension on the triceps then I did last week and somehow got 3x25 (goal being 3x15-25 with 3-5RIR so 3x25 for both). Put stuff away and waited until end of the work day to stretch out, eat and ice knees.