July 25, 2022 – Week 8, Day 1

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

Paused Axle Strict Presses w/ bands (1 second in rack) (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
28x3
58x3
88x3
118x3
148x3
148x3
148x3
148x3
148x3

Chaos Band Push Ups (feet raised 12”-rack)
bwx5
bw+31x5
bw+53x10
bw+53x10
bw+53x10

Paused Banded Face Pulls (chest height anchor, 2 seconds)
abx15
abx15

Band Internal Rotations
lbx20/20

Paused Banded Triceps Push Downs (2 seconds)
sbx20
sbx20

Stretching

Comments: Coming to the end of this. Always wanting more time. Make it better, be stronger, be faster. Getting to that point where I’m on the razor’s edge of being at my strongest and my most vulnerable. I may not have it for brute strength on overhead or deadlifting but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the stuff where you got to work be easy for anyone else to wrestle from my banana hands. At this time, there are 7 competitors for the show including myself. Assuming at least 6 actually make it to game day, top 2 qualify for Nationals. If less (3-5) then only the winner. I always want to win but realistically not always going to happen. I know very little about who I’m competing against in less than two weeks. But half of them could probably beat me on deadlift from what I can gather. Press is hard to gauge since it is a block. But I don’t see myself dropping points on the other three events to anyone showing up. This workout was a little bit lower intensity since really this week is the final touches for the rest of the events. More thinking about the deadlift and block press sessions coming up. This workout was more of a get muscles working and primed for the second upper body workout while not overdoing it. It was below 90 today so that was at least something. Band warming up to start. Wall slides as they have been. Left shoulder gets achy but eventually is cool with it. The y raises again but with pauses back in. I think I like them this way with the lighter band tension. From there on to the only real free weight exercise of the session; axle press. I was advised to either do incline press or strict press for these. Whatever I felt I’d recover from better for block later. Hard to choose really. Weight would probably be about the same really with how my incline bench. I decided to go with strict press to see how it felt for my shoulders compared to incline and to make sure I was getting good stacking as far as hips. Plan was similar to how front squats went with bands added to it (10-15%) for 5x3 with the same rest. I was advised to lower the weight if I felt like I was grinding at all here. Proposed weight was 55-60% and I split the difference for 57.5%. Doing these, I realize that I’ll have to do more axle/barbell strict press work to correct things a bit as my form is a little off from doing the lean back style last cycle. It doesn’t work nearly as well as it does for log. I press out front and don’t get under weight as well. So it felt like a two part lift rather than a single motion. But that could also be because these were paused reps on the shoulders. So unlike front squats, there wasn’t a groove or rhythm to it. I was stopping the flow every rep. Idea being that have to let weight settle for a block press. These seemed to move well enough. Thankful that my left shoulder didn’t complain on these nearly as much as it has on incline bench. Chaos band push-ups were next. I always get a little nervous when they list weight and no tempo and lower reps as that means I got to load up the back pack. Plan being 3x10 at RPE 7. No pauses, no eccentrics, no nothing. Just control. Seeing as how I did 40lbs for 3x12 with 3 second eccentrics last time these popped up recently, I knew I’d have to throw something on my back here. The setup from last time worked great. Left shoulder was a little tight but it usually just needs a moment with push up stuff to start to feel better. I didn’t need to use nearly as much weight for these as I was expecting to so that was good. Becomes a chore getting the back pack on with those kinds of weights added. It was then bands for the rest of the workout. No weights. Paused face pulls. Just 2x12-15 with the 2 second holds but advised to anchor at chest height as opposed to forehead level. Little different but I got the groove of it. Kind of neat to be doing paused work for high reps on many face pull variations with the average bands. Next was internal rotations. Just a set of easy reps (12-20) like last time. But make sure to film it this time. Advised to pin a towel with my elbows to insure keeping things locked and tight. I took the bold step of going up to a light band here (used monster mini last time). I was surprised I was able to do 20 reps here. Noticed left side has a harder time than the right. But I think this level of band tension is good one for now if this continues to be a thing. Work on making reps even better next time. Feel easier. Last thing was paused triceps pressdowns with bands. 2x15-20 with the 2 seconds. I figured that to keep the RPE lower compared to last time, just do 2x20 with the strong band. First set felt too easy but the second set was just right. Put stuff away and then went over to see my niece for a little bit before coming back to eat a massive pot roast and stretch.