July 28, 2022 – Week 8, Day 3

Mouser Block Presses (one clean)
Weights
25’sx5
40’sx3
Block
124.5x1
149.5x1
174.5x1
199.5x1
224.5x1
224.5x1
224.5x1
224.5x1
224.5x1
 
Axle Push Presses
116x1
166x1
206x1
226x1
246x1
266x1
286x1
 
Half Kneeling One Arm Lat Band Pulldowns/Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls/One Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
abx20/20—mmbx20 – mmbx20/20
abx20/20—mmbx20 – mmbx20/20
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Another session where I had nervous energy and was anxious. I think I was less anxious than I was initially expecting to be. Last two shows, this day has been the heaviest overhead press day number. So I think I was expecting this to be a heavy single for the block press and I know that a lot can go wrong on that movement. Perhaps still leery with how axle was last cycle. But this wasn’t the case for this workout exactly. I had made sure to get soft tissue done on my lower back after the heavy pulls on Tuesday. Another release of tension was that it appears I was approved for recertification of teleworking for another 8 month cycle. That had been a source of stress for me as denial meant abrupt changes right after this contest. I had intended to do this workout during my lunch break as it was lower volume and so I could insure I wasn’t caught in the rain as it was going to be storming off and on. But work was such that I didn’t really get to stop and worked through my lunch. Watching the weather radar map and tried to get things ready as quick as I could to start training. I only set up things for the block as I had a feeling that I’d be subject to a delay due to rain at some point. But hopefully after the block work. So as has been the case, I do some reps with other things before touching the empty block. Did the 25’s with handles and then 40lbs dumbbells. For the dumbbells, I did a thumbless grip to have things mimic the movement a bit more. Making sure I was sitting down into a full squat on these warming up stuff so that I wasn’t shocked when needing to do so on heavy stuff. The plan for today was to do 5x1 with the lightest weight of the block press medley, or thereabouts. 224.5lbs is close enough to 225lbs. Idea was to do 60-90 seconds rest but if I felt like it, I could do the last three singles as cluster reps with 30 seconds rest. As long as everything was moving easy and good. I knew I could do this weight for EMOM if needed so I did want to see how shorter rests would go. That is one thing I didn’t really get to do because I don’t have multiple blocks and resetting breaks up the flow. I was trying to be more aware of how the body moves when lifting the block and getting that pop to catch and not have it be by chance I guess. Smacked myself in the chin with picking up the empty block. Good thing I have a bit of a beard for some padding there haha. No missed cleans, no strain being felt in forearms and biceps and knees feeling good. Got out the liquid chalk for the working weight. Feeling decent. After three singles, it was time to do the cluster reps. And that was where I encountered a hitch. Maybe it was sweat but for whatever reason, when I did the pop and catch, my thumb ended up on the same side as my other fingers. I usually have the thumb under the block. More control and balance. Never been in this position before and I think that led to me being a little uncertain of how secure and stable this was. Nothing was stacked and stable and it was a struggle to lock out this but I was able to hold it. Well that just ate up a chunk of energy and I wasn’t to have anything feel tough today. Worrying that I ruined my prep with that lift. Same thing happened on the last one as far as the thumb issue but this time I just went with it and didn’t overthink it and it went up just as easy as it should. It was a good thing that I did shorter rests for those last two as it started to rain as soon as I finished and it became a downpour shortly after I was able to haul the block into the sunroom. It was going to be a bit until the rain stopped. If it was light rain, no problem but this was hard rain where it was leaving standing water hand having it churn into a white color from the force. So not ideal for overhead pressing. But storms this violent can only last so long so I knew it would pass in about 15 minutes. So I put stuff away from the block and got things ready to move outside for the rest of the workout. Axle again. Plan here was to work something decent to overload and prime for block. I should be able to lift more on axle out of the rack vs block. I was to wear what I’d wear for the block press so that no compression cuffs or knee sleeves. There were a few different metrics given that kind of made it hard for me to really figure out what weight to be using here (even though the notes said don’t worry about it). I was to work up to a top single that was something I could recover from. The different parameters given were RPE 7, 80-85% and ideally heavier than the last block in the medley. RPE 7 will vary from day to day and exercise to exercise as that would be maybe 3RIR. 80-85% of my 1rm that I’ve actually hit in training in the past year (310lbs) would have that be 248lbs – 263.5lbs. The last block in the medley is 275lbs. And the suggested weights were 205lbs, 225lbs, 245lbs and 265lbs. So a bit confusing but a range. I ended up doing more lifts to work up due to the rain delay. My plan was to do 20lbs jumps once I was at the 206lbs range like written as example. See how things go. If feeling froggy, do another jump over 266lbs because Nats opener is 285lbs. It can be hard to gauge with these. I was also not sure because of how tough those banded axle push presses have been. Knees a bit more achy on axle vs block. Not the best camera setup to compare both to see but I imagine I do more knee forward on axle vs block. There seems to be some issues I still have with axle. Rushing setup because worried that if I’m slow or take too long, I’ll have it stapled. It must move quick. Left shoulder felt a lot better than it has the past two weeks. I felt like my last single was borderline RPE 7 (3RIR) as getting 4 would be a recent training PR. I sent video to Drew again because paranoid like with deadlift. He indicated it seemed to be acceptably within the parameters but that I should spend more time getting settled and setup after walking out the weight and that it will probably help me in the long run. I’ll need to keep working on that and correcting bad habits. From there, the rest of the workout was light band stuff. The exercises from last week were now a triset. One arm lat pulldowns into face pulls into one arm overhead extensions. Two sets of each with it being 12-20 reps a set and 5+RIR. Also told to use less band tension than usual and no pauses. So I knew this was going to be sets of 20 for everything. No rest between exercises after I got stuff setup. Had a fast paced song playing as well. Started cooking dinner as I put stuff away. Ate, stretched and then iced knees before bed.