June 27, 2022 – Week 4, Day 1

Band Pec Flyes/Wall Slides with Band/Band Y Raises (3 second holds)
lb’sx20/mbx10/µb’sx10
lb’sx20/mbx10/µb’sx10

Plyo Push-ups
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3

Paused Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
45x10
95x6
135x4
165x3
195x2
220x1
240x3
240x3
240x3
210x6

One Arm Half Kneeling Dumbbell Strict Presses w/ Band Rows (mb)
40x5/5
80x10/10
80x8/8

Neutral Grip Seated Dumbbell Power Cleans
40’sx5
70’sx5
57’sx10
57’sx10
57’sx10

Banded Push-ups
sbx12
sbx12
sbx12

Stretching

Comments: Not a great start to the week. I was hoping to get caught up but apparently the day of migration from one internet browser to another was moved up a day and as usual, my stuff wasn’t working. By the time I was able to get access, I only had 3.5hrs left in my day. So much for getting caught up. Ugh. Upper back, traps and neck are sore and tight from the farmer’s walk stuff (and I guess whatever was still tight from before that). Also had stiff QLs from that session as well that seemed to be loosening up but still pretty tight. Well this is the shortest of the workouts I have so with little in the way of knee stress, it shouldn’t be too bad other than the DOMS in the upper back. Triset with bands to start things off. Band pec flyes were fine. Not as smooth and easy feeling as they were last week but still a tone better than they were the first week. I made it a point to change angles of the movement to really get things moving well. Wall slides are feeling fine. Getting those shoulders nice and toasty. Y raises were kind of tough still. Hard to say if easier, harder or the same as last week really. I tried to think like I was stacking my back with an overhead press. I was going to need my shoulders and upper back to not be so tight. Plyometric push-ups were next. Still the same as the past two weeks with it being 4x3 with 60 seconds rest. I’m not too sure the intent here. I felt like I needed to do more powerful a push and I think I got that on the last set compared to the other sets. But it is hard to gauge whether I’m getting higher or if I’m just retracting my arms more to give the illusion of more height. Oh well. Outside for incline bench with pauses. These are such a temperamental lift. 1 second pauses with the plan here being 20lbs more than last week for 3x3 and then take off 30lbs for an AMRAP set 3RIR. Hard to tell what kind of day I’m going to have. Just have to have consistency with these. I’m getting to the point where I’m really starting to struggle on these as far as weight goes. I felt this was doable warming up. I barely got through it. It was that third rep on each set that about did me in. First two reps were fine and then it ended up being an uneven lockout (left first) in order to get through the sticking point and rack it. I’m really not sure how I was able to do this three times like that. I really didn’t want to miss a rep. I’d rather be overhead pressing but this is obviously something that needs work and if it improves, hopefully other stuff with upper body does too. So considering that those were RPE 10 (9.5 at the lowest), I made sure I was conservative on the AMRAP. That I knew I had 3RIR and not any guessing. Because that 3x3 probably wasn’t supposed to be that difficult considering. I just have to keep in mind that my incline numbers at home are going to not be the same as the numbers when I was lifting in the gym on a different bench that had places to brace the lower body. Back into the garage for the rest of the workout. Next thing was again the one arm dumbbell presses while in the half kneeling position but some changes. One was dropping the sets to two and increasing the rep range to 8-12. I was to add a band element to these to work core more. Essentially light band tension on the non lifting side with a rowing motion. Contract while pressing and relax when not. My first go at the setup worked perfectly so after a warm-up set I was ready. These were a lot tougher. Suggestion was I try to use more weight than last week without the band. This was the first week where I couldn’t match the reps on subsequent sets. It was 10lbs heavier and with the band distraction as well. But I finished in the limits. From there it was the neutral grip seated dumbbell power cleans. Still for 3x10-15 with 3-4RIR. No set weight so I figured I’d go up as 40lbs were getting too light. I made sure to do some testing to make sure my shoulders weren’t feeling funky before jumping into this. My hope I guess was that with how easy 40lbs was moving that maybe I could do 70lbs for 3x10 with 3RIR. That way I could avoid the loadable handles and not have to worry about securing weights. But that didn’t work out as 70lbs was way too much for that. So I had to use plateloaded handles. My hands were still kind of sore from Saturday. These loadable handles aren’t the friendliest ones. I got a metal splinter in the one hand that I got out with tweezers after I was finished lifting. The different kind of dumbbell also through me off a little. So then the last thing for the session was banded push-ups for 3x8-12 with 2-3RIR. Still using the strong band as that is about what I got as far as the heaviest tension. Aim was to just improve total reps from last time but hopefully get to 3x12. I figured that putting down a thin mat for the knees would make setup a little more comfortable and quicker. I was right. Managed to get 3x12 here. Put stuff away before eating pot roast and then stretching.