June 14, 2022 – Week 2, Day 2

Side Planks with Banded Clamshell (Dynamic, 3 second holds) 
mbx10/10
mbx10/10

Hip Airplanes (5 second holds, hand support)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Deadlifts w/ bands
No Bands
135x5
Added Bands (+20lbs bottom/+84lbs top)
135x2
225x2
315x2
Added Straps
405x1
455x1
480x1
432x3
432x3
432x3

Pendlay Rows
135x3
185x3
225x3
255x8
265x8
275x8

Goblet Split Squats with Band TKEs (5-0-0-5)
ab+10x8/8
ab+10x8/8
ab+10x8/8

Banded Belt Squat Marches
lbx60 seconds
lbx60 seconds

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx25/25 seconds
bwx25/25 seconds
bwx25/25 seconds

Dragonflies (5 seconds eccentrics)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Stretching

Comments: I really need to find a new place to work. The stress is going to kill me. Some unpleasantness at the end of the work shift had me pretty darn agitated for training. And this was going to be a longer workout just with the number and variety of exercises. So first thing was the warming up stuff. Side plank banded clam shells again. Same as they were on Saturday, just different location. Hot in garage and hard floor so I did these in side on the carpet. Not 100% sure I’m doing all parts of these right. Laying on my left side the movement feels slightly tougher. From there it was hip airplanes. Plan was sets of 10 reps with 5ct hold at end point. My balance for these is terrible and I gave up trying to do them unassisted after five tries. I could maybe do a rep but not be able to hold it for that long. So used the wall for my one arm to support. Still got difficult to do the holds here. I will say that my knees weren’t really bothering me and the few times this movement has come up as a warm-up exercise that my right knee has felt not that great. Hard to say if improving or if just not doing as much stuff yet on the knees after the last training cycle. Many possible factors. With that done, it was on to the weights. First thing was banded deadlifts. Work up to an RPE 7.5 and then do 3x3 with a small drop depending on how I was feeling. I haven’t done banded deadlifts in some time. At least not full deadlifts as I was doing those dimel deadlifts. Setup requires time and I needed to figure out band tension. Was to be 10-15% added at the top. The bands I had figured out with my setup were either too much or not enough so had to do testing. Based off my guesses, I figured monster minis would be exactly what I needed and I was right. I took big jumps with working up. I think I’m used to that from the frame pulls as I was using a lot more weight and usually doing other pulls. But plate jumps were noticed here. My thinking was that I’d be able to use about 500lbs for that top set but 405lbs actually felt a lot tougher than I was expecting. But I didn’t sometimes that first set with the straps and belt aren’t and accurate feeling of how I feel (especially with the Versa Gripps) so my hope was that 455lbs would be the bare minimum for this. That felt about the same but I knew that going for the original 505lbs I wanted to would be pushing it too far and not leaving plenty of reps RIR as I should be. So I split the difference. 480lbs and it would be 500lbs right off the floor at least. Felt about the same but I could feel my neck on the left side tensing up at the base of the skull. Exertion and also stress headache mixed with allergy headaches. A triple threat. Just having to adapt deadlifts feeling slow and heavy for me but still moving. I’m not going to be moving pulls fast enough for me it would seem. Elevated pulls feel so much better for me within reason. So since this was feeling slow and heavy, I went with the 10% drop for the triples. Idea was positioning, not trying to outrun the bands. My rests were under 2 minutes just from me pacing. I felt like I had 5-6RIR that first set and gradually down to 3RIR by the last set. Pendlay rows followed that. I took a little rest putting away some of the band setup (some dumbbells helped with keeping the weights from rolling down the garage floor). I wasn’t sure how these would go. I wasn’t sure if I’d need chalk. Been trying to not do the Pendlay rows with straps if I can as trying to do some rows with straps and some without. I like these without to kind of keep that mind-muscle connection and to hopefully have that grip connection carry over to picking up stones, sandbags, kegs, etc in a powerful manner to the lap when needed. At least that is the intent I have with these. I think another part of it is that these hit the ground every rep and maybe it just feels off trying to go again after that initial shock with straps rather than like with a deadlift or a row with constant tension. I was expecting to do more weight than last time if I felt good. Sometimes garage bar and weight feels heavier than commercial gym. Plan was 3x8 working from RPE 7-8 over the sets. I was fully expecting 225lbs to be my starting weight but it felt light and I decided to go 30lbs more and do 10lbs jumps for these sets. Sure some concerns with the biceps and forearms as they were still recovering a bit from last training cycle. Only the last set felt challenging on the last few reps. From there we moved on to single work. Which is usually split squats. They were but not the Bulgarian ones. Just on the floor ones. But holding weight in front for goblet squat. And a band for a TKE. And tempo. So a lot of moving parts. I’ve never done all these together and tempo work usually kills the weight I can do on exercises by a good bit (especially with concentric tempo). I had to find out how I felt and how I responded. One set might be easy but then accumulated fatigue builds and it becomes a struggle. Maybe this is painful on joints? Still have slight twinge in the lower left abdominals that is slowly recovering and this stance might exacerbate it. I felt I was using not enough weight after that first set but I didn’t want to jump the gun without seeing how things went on a second set. Balance was tricky and keeping track of several things. Trying to stay more upright in the torso, thinking about how the back foot ankle should move and how the front leg should bend. I can go heavier I feel just not sure if the progression should be the band or the weight I’m holding. What part is the more important part? The intent. I guess I’ll know for next time. I will say that of the lighter weight leg exercises I’ve done with tempo or involving split stance; these have felt the best on the knees overall. Banded belt squat marches were up next. Last time I did these, my belt snapped and I ended up having to use this hard belt that was digging into my hips something fierce. So I put on a soft belt around the hips to keep from having it dig in this time around. Plan was 2 sets of 60 seconds at RPE 7-8. I felt that the band I was using for the TKE portion of the split squats would be too much so I went with the light band. It was pretty easy for the first 40 seconds. I’ve done these as warm-ups with this tension (but looser belt) for 30-45 seconds but not longer than that. So that is where the fatigue came in. Second set was a bit tougher but by that I mean it was finally within the RPE 7 range. So wall sits after that. I’m actually digging these. They are hitting the quads and knees and glutes without being tough on my joints. I figured I could try and push my time up to 25 seconds this time. It seems this will be several weeks of it being twice a week from what I’m gathering with the progression being until I get to 30 seconds. Not quite there yet. Those extra seconds add up and are tough. Probably didn’t help that I was really sweaty. Only place with a space to do these is inside the house so on the soft carpet too. I can work the legs and no knee pain so I’m cool with that. At this point, I started getting dinner prepped as this was the last thing and I was allowed to take as much rest as needed to ensure quality or quantity. Abdominal exercise to I guess help with the position of arching back on block press. Enter the dragon fly (or dragon flag as I’ve seen it called). This was going to be a “I tried my best” as this was not going to be picture perfect with my long ass legs. I had to go outside as I didn’t have anything on the floor to secure and anchor and my feet would be hitting the ceiling of the garage on my bench. My first attempt the stitch in the lower abs on the left side acted up. I took a moment to assess and then did it again and no issues. Coach wanted me to do 3 sets of 4-8 with 3-5ct. I figured longer eccentric would make up for how poorly these were going to go and hopefully mean less reps. These things just wreck my abs and I know like ab wheels that I’ll feel them for like a week and then it will be time to do them again. I did surprise myself getting 3x5 with these that almost look like I’m doing something. Ate dinner after I put everything away and stretched.