July 18, 2022 – Week 7, Day 1

Wall Slides with Band/Band Y Raises
mbx10/mb’sx10
mbx10/mb’sx10

Push-ups (3-0-3-0 tempo)
bwx10
bwx10

Incline Bench Presses
45x3
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3
220x3
245x3
225x3
225x3

Seated Dumbbell Strict Presses
40’x5
58’sx4
70’sx3
83’sx8
83’sx8
83’sx8

Paused Banded Face Pulls (2 seconds)
abx15
abx15
abx15

Band Internal Rotations
mmbx20/20

Paused Banded Triceps Push Downs (2 seconds)
sb+lbx15
sb+lbx15
sb+lbx15

Stretching

Comments: Didn’t feel depressed Sunday or today and work wasn’t that stressful. Considering that I hadn’t planned to be here today or tomorrow, I didn’t have anything scheduled so anything I was working on was catch up. It has been humid the past few days with it raining periodically for a little bit and then usually evaporating any water on the ground before it would then rain again. Training for today was pretty basic and was setup to be done at a commercial gym and substitutions provided if necessary. They wouldn’t be. Started things out with a super set of wall slides kneeling and the y-raises. This actually seemed to feel pretty good for the shoulders, at least the wall slides are. No indication of pauses/holds for the y-raises so I went with higher band tension and that was something haha. Push ups after that. No plyo this week. Not sure if a change for change sake or if reporting that they were a bit rough on the shoulders/biceps last week without pec flyes (or just general wear and tear from this training cycle). This time being two sets of 8-10 reps with tempo. Tempo work can be deceptively challenging. This actually felt pretty good on my muscles and joints. On to incline. Again, not too thrilled with these. I try my damnedest to keep an open mind and be positive approaching these but then I do them and it is just the same terribleness. Left shoulder has not been a fan of these for some time and not getting better. Plan here was not to have any expectations but of course I do as I have numbers and data and I want to keep doing more and more as that must be progress right? So this was to be work up in triples to a top set of 3 (1-2RIR) and then take off a little bit for 2x3. I was aiming for 30lbs jumps with the hope of doing 255lbs for the top set really considering the 3x2 I did with 245lbs. But that didn’t happen. I could tell at 165lbs that this wasn’t feeling that good and while still thinking I could just will more out of myself, I eventually went down to 245lbs for that top set. And even that was too much really for today as I got a good first rep, a tough second rep and then an ugly as sin third rep. I did better on these two weeks ago going for a set of five reps. And these went better last week. These don’t feel great and I don’t feel great during or after doing them (physically and mentally). They are inconsistent and I feel like I can do more weight on standing overhead. But there are frustrations with the left shoulder being achy for any kind of pressing the past few weeks as well as with the neck/upper back issue being present (less so as of late). Kind of hurried through the down sets to try and beat the rain and get into the garage. I did by a little bit but again, rain was kind of like how it has been and it only showered for a little bit. Dumbbell pressing was up next. Back support added this time around. Plan was work up to 3x8 with a weight that felt like 3-4RIR and then report RIR on last set. I don’t have a wide selection of dumbbells so I’m usually having to use the my solid dumbbells mixed in with my plateloaded. It can be a bit time consuming for the plateloaded to insure the weights are secured. I also don’t want to make too big too small of jumps, especially since the plateloaded can be a bit unwieldy compared to the solid dumbbells. So I decided that I should be okay with 8lbs more from last week and keep to parameters with back support. Back support did make things a little trickier with the shouldering in that I couldn’t use as much body language to get adjusted. The efficiency with the shouldering can make or break a set. Pressing felt mostly fine. Left shoulder achy and right side just having some balance and triceps fatigue issues. I was feeling a bit despondent after incline and these at least made me feel like I was doing something. Bands for the rest of the workout. Paused face pulls again for 3x12-15. Since I did a tougher variation last week (and then got sick) after doing these with the same tension, I figured I could try and see if I could match what I’ve done on these before with these kind of holds. I wasn’t expecting to get 3x15 on them but I did. Next was internal rotations. Just a set of easy reps (12-20). I’ve not really done these. It always seems to be external rotation and those are tough and often make my shoulders burn. I was able to make short work of this with a monster mini band. But I forgot to record. Oops. Last thing was triceps. I knew I needed to increase band tension as it was too easy last time (I was taking short rests to keep it artificially tougher). Again, surprised I was able to get 3x15 with this tension. But it was a lot harder. Put stuff away before cooking dinner and then stretching.