June 21, 2022 – Week 3, 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

Yielding Deadlifts (3 seconds off the floor)
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x2
365x1
Added Straps
405x1
445x3
445x3
445x3

Stiff-legged Deadlifts (dead stop, straps)
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x8
365x8

Bent Over Rows (straps)
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
330x7
290x12

Goblet Split Squats with Band TKEs (5-0-0-5 tempo)
No Tempo
abx2/2
abx2/2
ab+40x8/8
ab+40x8/8
ab+40x8/8

Single Leg Wall Sits
bw+10x20/20 seconds
bw+10x20/20 seconds
bw+10x20/20 seconds

Dragonflies (5 seconds eccentrics)
bwx6
bwx5
bwx5

Stretching

Comments: Still not the best situation with work but it’s what I got. Running the other scenarios isn’t really coming up with workable solutions with things as they stand. I was really feeling the blahs at work with the amount of work and just everything else going on. Have to try and not let it stress me out so much. I was feeling pretty beat today from the previous session. Mostly the right shoulder and elbow area. Feeling stiff and sore from training. Feeling it in internal and external rotations. Other side also stiff but not nearly as sore. I didn’t want to use topical stuff or take anything so I ended up doing soft tissue work during my lunch break. Joints just feeling more “inflamed” then usual. Or at least more so than last two weeks. So first thing was the warming up stuff. Side plank banded clam shells. These along with the wall sits seem to be the lower body exercise du jour this cycle. I feel like as I get better control of my body, that I’m able to make these more focused on the intent and make the muscles targeted work harder. Just noticing from week 1 to this week the difference in the side plank brace position is startling. Not sure if that is good or anything though haha. From there it was hip airplanes. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do all the reps and sets without some kind of support but I was still going to give it my best. I moved into the garage for these to give me a bit firma terra to work with. I managed to get some reps both sides without assistance but they weren’t great and they were few. I did then try and use less support to get through these. Last week I had my hand on a wall the entire time and this time I adjusted what I needed depending on the situation. With those done, it was on to the weights. Deadlifting. Bringing in something from the one training cycle before last with yielding pulls. I had done them with an axle for PA Dutch and those had been interesting. So these would be from the floor and and I was to pause at the floor (rather than 3” above it). I wasn’t too sure how things would feel as my forearms were kind of stiff and felt like tendons were a little inflamed still. Thankfully no issues with shoulders or arms in deadlifting setup or execution. Deadlifting felt slow that first set but some reps the weight didn’t feel heavy or slow. I just have to accept that deadlifting for me is going to be more often like chunky rather than smooth peanut butter. This wasn’t the end for pulls. There were more. SLDLs time. But not on a platform or doing the whisper touch for constant tension. These were to be done with dead stop and reset of brace and setting lats each rep. So there wasn’t really a rhythm to set here. This would not be ideal training if I was going for a max rep set but I think that was the point. I was breathing a bit after the first set (I guess rebracing that many times is exhausting) but I felt like I was better the second set. Just a feeling. The next exercise I wasn’t looking forward to was bent over rows. Just because my forearms and were feeling not great at the elbow inserts and my right shoulder still feeling stiff from yesterday from the seated dumbbell power cleans. Partly because it probably wasn’t going to feel good and partly because I was probably not going to use as much weight as I have done on these. So half and half mental and physical hurt lol. Plan here was work up to top set of 6-8 (2RIR) and then take off 10-15% for 10-12 (3RIR). See how I felt as I went. I was allowed to have these be a little sloppy but not a lot sloppy. In the end, I feel that I got too sloppy to move more weight for my ego but in my defense, these weren’t the sloppiest rows I’ve done in the past year even. So a little walk back win in my own head. So went in feeling like crap in the areas that get the burnt of the stress and managed to make the weight feel like nothing on the top set walking it out and get in some decent reps. And nobody died. Tempo single leg work. Goblet split squats with TKEs. I was chastised a little indicating I should push these a lot harder. I had felt they were light but didn’t want to overdo it first time trying this movement. Coach indicating that he had been advised to do about 80lbs for rehab purposes for his knee so I got some ground to cover here. Knees were screaming getting into position so I did some bodyweight only reps without the tempo pacing to just get them moving. Perhaps the thing that happens when I add more weight and the joints shut-up would happen. I think it might be that either I release more endorphins because I’m treating it seriously or that my body irradiates when more weight is used. Not sure on the science. Not sure if it even matters. But 40lbs was doable for me. I was tempted to add more weight but I felt that going for 30lbs jumps in the session wasn’t wise (next dumbbell) and I’d seen that there were some issues with using plateloaded dumbbell previously for stuff that can put the wrists in a precarious position. I also wasn’t expecting it to feel better each set and adjusting weights on those dumbbells securely would’ve taken up more time then I was allowed to be resting between legs or sets. So despite having these not feel great for the knees at the start, I was able to up the weight a good bit. I’m hopefully I can continue that trend to that goal weight mentioned for these or beyond in the time I have with this exercise.  So wall sits after that. Weight added this time. I felt that 3x20 with 10lbs would be a place to start. I have 10lbs bumper plates so I can lay them right on my lap, assuming this is where I can add the most weight. Knees were a little achy and these were quite tough from the get go. But I seemed to adapt and these felt more within reason by the end of the sets. Last thing was those darn dragonflies. Same as last week. I knew this time that I needed to do some movement first before going right into it with whatever flairs up in the lower abdominals on the right side. So that was some reverse crunches and other such things just to get things warm. Long breaks between sets here. These are tough to recover from. I managed an extra rep over the three sets compared to last week. My abs didn’t feel like they were going to explode from tension or feel so sore that I was worried I’d get a cramp taking off my shoes later. Put stuff away and ate pot roast before stretching out. Iced the knees before bed too.