July 5, 2022 – Week 5, 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

Yielding Deadlifts (3 seconds off the floor)
135x5
225x3
315x2
365x1
Added Straps
415x1
465x2
465x2
465x2

Stiff-legged Deadlifts (dead stop, straps)
315x2
365x2
405x5
405x5
405x5

Bent Over Rows (straps)
155x8
205x6
245x4
295x2
335x7
295x12

Goblet Split Squats with Band TKEs (5-0-0-5 tempo)
ab+40x2/2
ab+80x8/8
ab+80x8/8
ab+80x8/8

Single Leg Wall Sits
bw+25x30/30 seconds
bw+25x30/30 seconds

Dragonflies (5 seconds eccentrics)
bwx7
bwx7
bwx7

Stretching

Comments: As my one co-worker would sometimes say, I had a lot of quit in me this day. All my problem joints were aching besides my lower back. I had done soft tissue work on my upper body (and some lower body) the night before after training which I usually don’t do (save it for off days). I did adjust the pillow for sleep and that might be the start of a fix. But it was hard to concentrate with the left shoulder neck issue being present. I did do some foam rolling during my lunch break. I wasn’t feeling it today. Probably thinking about the day before training too. Is this worth it, is this fun, will I be ready? I think I’m the only person in my extended family that has pursued this kind of athletics this long and not had surgery. And it’s not like I do a sport that pays well. Or anything. I pay to play. So left shoulder and right knee feeling shitty today. Not looking at this as being a good day. Stopping if I meet resistance. So first thing was the warming up stuff. Side plank banded clam shells as per usual. Same as it has been. Only had the one leg cramp on me once on the first set for just the one side. From there it was hip airplanes. Last week I had a ton of balance issues on the one set. Balance seemed about average that first set. Second set I don’t know what happened but it just seemed to click and I almost got all the reps one side without needing a support to balance. Just couldn’t get a full 10 done. Other side I got about half of them without it. That kind of improvement did put a little pep in my step. With those done, it was on to the weights. Yielding deadlifts again. Same number of sets with 20lbs more but doubles instead of triples. Warming up wasn’t feeling too bad. But once I got over 3 plates, things started to feel heavy. I’d like 80lbs more than this to feel as heavy as this weight did. It was a little discouraging to have it feel so heavy and slow. It was slow last time but not heavy. Maybe the band pulls with that much tension took it out of me for this second day? The weight felt the same but seemed smoother I guess as I went on these. Deadlifts are so weird to me. From there on to the sldls with them being dead stop. Rebrace and try to not have leg drive. I did less sets to work up as I felt like I was decently ready. My first work up set felt a little harder than I was expecting but then I realized I didn’t have all the usual support gear on for that set and the next work up set felt easier. I wasn’t too sure as this was more sets and a big jump from last time and 20lbs more on the more traditional deadlift style had felt heavy. These actually were pretty good. I did notice that I got a little bit of leg drive on the second rep of the second and third set and then I course corrected to make sure I didn’t do that after that. On to rows after that. Thankfully, my biceps and forearms and everything weren’t feeling terrible like they did when I had to do these two weeks ago. Same thing as last time but just trying to do more weight. I was figuring I’d go 5lbs more than last time. Rather than sets of 5 reps working up, I did pyramid with dropping two reps each step up. Hoping that would get enough warming up and accumulate to heavier stuff without fatigue. I think what clicked for me on these vs last time was a set goal rather than not just having pain. I had hit my belt on the one set and that audio cue as well as tactile sensation worked for me and so I just kept aiming there and it felt better. I managed to add 5lbs to last time’s numbers. I did consider going for an 8th rep on that top set but I knew it would be a really crappy rep if I tried and called it. Down set felt good too. I probably could’ve gone a little heavier there but I wanted to make sure I hit the higher rep ranges here. Tempo single leg work. Last week of the goblet split squats with TKEs. My goal was to do these with 80lbs. If my knees would let me. My knees have been getting increasingly cranky on these as the weight has increased. And with Saturday training needing my knee sleeves to do wall sits, I already decided I’d wear them for these. Another thing was adjusting my stance so back leg wasn’t as stretched back. The knee pain was coming not from the front leg but the supporting leg when doing these so I tried to take that out of the equation. The movement for the front leg isn’t really that difficult but holding that kind of weight in the goblet position for that long (sets take like 90 seconds) is getting very exhausting. But I made it through it. Home stretch. Started to get my dinner ready at this point. Wall sits after that. Same as Saturday with it being 25lbs for 2 sets of 30 seconds. Taking no chances so kept the knee sleeves on. No knee pain wearing them thankfully but that doesn’t take the difficulty of the movement away. Those extra 10 seconds are brutal. Last thing was those darn dragonflies. Back to three sets of them. I noticed that the lower abdominal twinge sensation is essentially gone. Kind of proves that I take a while to fully recover from things when I keep working out as that was almost 7 weeks from when it started to when it ended. Managed to get 3x7 on these this time around. Taking long rests so that I can hopefully recover from these. Put stuff away, ate dinner and stretched before icing knees before bed. Hopefully the neck/shoulder thing is on the upswing.