June 28, 2022 – Week 4, 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

Suited Deadlifts
No suit
135x2
225x2
315x2
Added Straps
405x2
Added Suit
465x2
525x2
571x3 PR+1lbs
528x2 (strap came undone)
528x3
528x3(strap came undone)

Pendlay Rows
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x6
285x6
295x6

Goblet Split Squats with Band TKEs (5-0-0-5 tempo)
ab+10x2/2
ab+40x2/2
ab+70x8/8
ab+70x8/8
ab+70x8/8

Banded Belt Squat Marches
abx60 seconds
abx60 seconds

Single Leg Wall Sits
bw+25x20/20 seconds
bw+25x20/20 seconds
bw+25x20/20 seconds

Hollow Holds
bw+10x30 seconds

Dragonflies (5 seconds eccentrics)
bwx7
bwx6

Stretching

Comments: Another day of training. Obnoxiously warm out and going to be that way for the summer. Ugh. Some additional fire/motivation with events posted for Nationals. Things lining up for what could be the most generous event setup I could ask for within reason for a big level show. But I still got to qualify for it. Might have made me feel a bit more amped for things (sweating through deodorant even before I started training). Could also be from trying to get caught up after the system issues the day before left me with like 3.5hrs to do a full days work. Some things were the same as they have been the past few weeks for stuff but one big change was adding back in the suit for deadlifts. So that was going to be something. But first the warming up stuff. Side plank banded clam shells again. Not sure if heat, dehydration or something else but my hamstrings cramped up on these the first set. They had felt a little like this last week but this was enough that I had to stop and straighten out the offending leg and then get back into it. Wasn’t a great start for things considering suit puts a lot of stress on the body as it is. From there it was hip airplanes. These had seemed to go well last week in the garage. Again, I managed to get some reps each side on both sets without hand support. But then the second set I just had numerous issues with balancing on my right leg. Even when holding onto the rack upright. It was very frustrating and it took me like three minutes to finally get 10 minimally satisfactory reps done. Then no real issues with the other side. So again, not a great start to this session. On to deadlifts. With PA’s Strongest, suits are allowed and that could save me some effort and fatigue. Suit work had been pretty consistent last year with only time not focusing on it was the off season stuff. This has been 16 weeks of no suit so there was bound to be some issues coming back into it. Traps and neck were still very stiff and sore from farmer’s walk and I was going to be putting myself in a tight suit. Fun. Plan here was to work up to a top triple (RPE 8, 2RIR) and then do 2x3 with a little bit taken off and over emphasize the eccentrics on the down sets. Geared my warm-ups around what I had done the last time I was setup to do something like this (11 months ago) and hopefully I was on point for it. Of course building in the option that incase I feel fantastic I go for some big PR here. Warming up was mostly fine. This barbell I’ve been using in the garage isn’t as nice as the one I keep in the sunroom that had been my all purpose bar so grip isn’t as good on it. Plan was doubles all the way up and to do plate jumps raw to 405lbs and then add the suit. And I thought it would be no big deal with the suit. Wrong. I think just because last few times the suit has only been absent for like a little bit or not at all or it is an elevated height so severe learning curve but damn did this suck. One thing was that the Versa Gripps didn’t help with how short they are so I couldn’t even “lasso” the bar to bring it in. Just so much pressure and I couldn’t get the bar to come closer to me or bring my legs in. The weight was too light that me trying to bully my way in wasn’t working and I had to sit down for a second to regroup and give it another shot. And this was my first warming up set with the suit. It felt awful. And I was seriously considering doing 495lbs as my top set with how bad this felt. But I had a plan of trying 60lbs jumps so 525lbs on the bar. This was a lot easier but still not feeling 100%. I didn’t feel like I had another 60lbs in me for sure. I didn’t feel I had another 50lbs in me for sure. Matching my PR of 570lbs for 3 was kind of the lowest I was willing let myself go. Maybe it will click this set? If it didn’t I’d have a very hard time. If it did, I’d definitely make things look stupid easy. I decided to add 1lbs in fractional plates just to make it a PR. Got set and went. It felt easier than 525lbs did and the first rep was the hardest of the pulls, with the second being easiest and third being in between. I feel I had 3RIR for sure here, maybe 4RIR. I would’ve liked to have hit a solid triple at 585lbs as my stretch goal plan but I need to build and not annihilate. From there it was time to drop off some weight for 2x3 with accentuated eccentrics. At least that was the plan. First set that first rep felt fantastic and I controlled it down. And then as I initiated the second rep, my right straps Velcro came undone and I had to set it down as soon as I got to lockout. This is the third time I’ve had this happen with this very strap on lifts in excess of 500lbs. I was initially going to just restrap and do the third rep but I felt that I needed to try again so that I had controlled negatives on all reps. So rested about a minute and did set of 3 reps. This was tougher than I would’ve liked with the ineffective rest and essentially having prefatigued and gotten the suit out of sorts. I fully rested for the true second set. Strap came undone again on that first rep. I just restrapped and kept going I was so frustrated with it. Still got in quality reps. I’m going to ditch the Versa Gripps for regular deadlifts as this is too many times this has happened and it could be an issue when it matters. I’m not going into this show expecting a PR as jumps are set 40-50lbs so I may not get the chance to go for a reasonable PR. But have to wait and see. 11 months later and not the best setup and feeling and I apparently felt I made this set easier than that set back then based off my training log notes. Pendlay rows followed that. I wasn’t sure how these would go after last week with how those rows had felt. But my arms and shoulders and such weren’t feeling sore and beat from the previous day’s stuff like last week so I was hopeful this would be ok. Plan here was to work up of 3 sets of 6 reps to a top set going from RPE 7.5-8.5. I figured based off of two weeks ago that my top set of 8 reps could be the first work set and then do the same 10lbs jumps each set. Still trying to keep this variation without straps for reasons. These kind of didn’t feel how I thought they would. Difficulty wise. First set felt about how I expected it to. Same with the second set with more weight. I guess I decided to show up for that last set and it felt like the easiest of the sets. No idea how that worked out. Tempo single leg work continues. No escape. Goblet split squats with TKEs. Continuing to be aggressive with increasing the weight used on these. Plan here was 70lbs. I knew I couldn’t just jump right into that so I did 30lbs jumps starting at 10lbs. Knees were cranky like last week and doing th movement was making stuff not want to do it. But I knew from last week that it will happen if I am smart about it. And with that, I was able to increase this by 60lbs from that first week. Obviously, this is getting to be exhausting with that kind of weight added. Just holding that weight up isometrically for the duration is creating fatigue in the upper body as well. Only had a slight balance issue on the very last rep of the very last set where I went down faster than 5 seconds and was out of position lifting back up. My understanding is I have one more week of these. With suit work taking up a good bit of time, it was getting kind of late so I started getting my dinner ready. Banded belt squat marches were up next. The setup I had done last time had been fruitful in reduction of discomfort around the hips. Again, plan was 2 sets of 60 seconds but at RPE 8. So I knew I had to up the band tension compared to last time. I think also reminding myself of the long distance stuff I’ll need to do for this show (as well as Nationals) kept me from feeling so blah and fatigued by the end here. Single leg wall sits next. Same as it was for Saturday with 3x20 seconds each let with 25lbs. Felt about the same really but less knee aches in the right knee. So that was good. Last bit of the session was abdominal/core work. Dragonflies were to finish but I was advised to do a set of hollow holds to warm up for them first. That seemed to be fine, just a little bit of a twinge at the end when getting out of the position. Dragonflies outside for just two sets of max reps. Same guidelines I’ve been following the past two weeks. Try to get more reps over the two sets. Lower back and hips were feeling tight from the previous efforts of the day. Understandable. I was able to get a few more reps added. These really get tiring. Put stuff away and got dinner ready. Stretched and iced knees.