July 9, 2022 – Week 5, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (5 second eccentrics)
No Eccentrics
bwx3/3 at 7.5”
bwx3/3 at 9”
Added Eccentrics
bwx10/10 at 10.5”
bwx10/10 at 10.5”

Running Storks
µbx10/10
µbx10/10

Paused Front Squats
3 seconds
45x5
95x4
135x3
185x2
6 seconds
225x1
265x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
3 seconds
275x3
275x3

Deadlifts w/ bands (+40lbs bottom/+142lbs top, straps)
95x3
155x3
205x1
265x1
315x3
314x3
314x3
314x3
314x3

Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
Casual Pace
50x50’
50x50’
Normal Pace
100x50’
140x50’
190x25’
230x25’
270x50’ in 8.69 seconds
270x50’ in 8.69 seconds
270x50’ in 8.34 seconds
270x50’ in 8.32 seconds
270x50’ in 8.39 seconds

Paused Snatch Grip GHD Back Extensions (1 second, straps)
95x12
95x12

Leg Extensions
20x30
45x30
(up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x15 right
45x15 left
45x15 right
45x15 left

One Arm Hangs
bwx60 seconds left
bwx45 seconds right
bwx60 seconds left
bwx63 seconds right

Stretching

Comments: The left shoulder/neck/upper back thingy seems to have good and bad days lately. Felt fine the past few two days (could also be from the Dayquil) but seemed to feel out of sorts shortly upon waking up on Friday. Not a good match with the work stress added. Now normally I wouldn’t go with taking ibuprofen and applying Icy Hot for something like this but it was making hard to concentrate and I know that restful sleep was still needed from the stress I’m getting from work. Also my knees were feeling crappy so I didn’t go for a walk as I usually do on my off days for recovery and spent time doing soft tissue work and icing. I didn’t bother setting an alarm as I was just going to sleep as long as I could and not put pressure on myself. I swapped out a new pillow (I don’t think the new, new pillow was even the culprit but can’t be too sure) and that didn’t exactly give me instant relief. Just going to have to keep managing as best I can I guess. So not feeling the best with that going on coupled with the knees feeling off didn’t really have me jumping to go out to train. Some competitors for the next show have posted up some basic gym stuff and it will seem like I’ll need to work for the deadlift win. Perhaps the block press too. I feel I still have the edge on things but it won’t be easy. Just thinking that this would probably be the second to last week of my proposed off-season training before prepping for Nats if things had gone as I had hoped they would. But do what I can with what I got. I was very surprised that there as many people there today as there were. It wasn’t like I came in early. But as per usual, I’m almost by myself at the end of the session. Starting things off with how they have been on this day with the Patrick stepdowns. 2 sets this time again. I figured that I’d do some working up sets without eccentrics to get the knees cooperating a bit as I felt that my usual jumping right into the swing of things would not lead to happy good time and would perhaps let me work at these heights better prepared. Mixed bag I think. My knees were feeling cranky but things went surprisingly well considering. I also did these without taking a break between sets. So that was something. Next was an exercise that I’m guessing I completely screwed up judging by the response I got from sending the video to Drew haha. So these were listed as Captain Morgans/Running Storks and I tried my best from reading the description and watching videos. Am I this uncoordinated? That was the thought I had the entire time trying to make sense of what I was doing. And this was to be a twice a week exercise from the look of things. I ended up doing no weight on this and what I thought I was to do which is like 100% not correct. It happens. So hopefully I will do this correctly (or something different) next time. It felt as awkward as it looked. On to things that have me looking less goofy. Paused front squats. Bit different from last time in that I was to work up to singles for longer pauses (5-6) and then do the down sets with shorter (3). I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of setting up a rack in the gym and it was a lot cooler and better air flow in the “wind tunnel” so I setup for this on one of the beater bar on the free standing racks used for more Crossfit style workouts. I wasn’t too sure how these would go with the knees and just how block and axle had felt on my chest. I don’t think either of those issues really came up here. I did bigger jumps and pyramid the sets. Sets with reps I did 3 second pauses and then switched to singles and did 6 second pauses. That extra second does add a layer of difficulty. These were somewhat comfortable. The weight on this bar (bumper plates) did make things a bit wobbly and bouncy. Hard to gauge how many reps I had here (was to track RIR on last set of singles and down set) as most of the rep is the pause. All I can really say is that the last triple felt the easiest of them. Front squats have been going pretty well and hardly any real knee complaints doing them compared to other squat variations I’ve done in the last year. Next was deadlifting with bands again. This was a bit of a pain to setup but I kind of knew what to expect so it wasn’t as much of one. Still a pain but a lesser one. Same setup as last time with bar weight of 52.5-57.5% for 5x3. Last time I did these, I did triples all the way up. I figured that I didn’t need as many reps to get ready compared to last week (and the fact I did deadlifts earlier this week). Went a little bit heavier compared to last week. Still feeling ok. I don’t know, maybe the bar at home throws me off compared to a good bar in the gym. It just feels heavier at home garage. But that is fine I guess. These deadlifts went well. I was better with getting a little more rest between sets. Deadlift with suit for show could be good. But again, will have to see on the day as the setup could vary and I’ve apparently seen that I get more out of certain deadlift bar setups than others. As long as it’s enough and close I guess. From there on to farmer’s walk (after putting away the deadlift stuff). So last time had been brutal and probably necessary in the long run. Gave me an early peek at what training for National event would be like and just to get some of that work through it suck out of the way. Remind myself that I can do things. I had suggested that for this upcoming show that perhaps something akin to EMOM would help me better as doing long sets of multiple picks has me conserving energy to just make it through them rather than doing many runs and keeping them fast with short rests. So that was kind of what was in store for today. Not exactly EMOM but close enough as far as planned rests. 20lbs more than last time I did farmer’s on these handles. Goal was 3-5 runs of 50’ with short rests. Number of runs depending on if I can keep up speed. I was to stop if I went slower on two runs. George was there so I was able to borrow him to help with these as far as commands and timing. Warming up I hadn’t felt 100%. I wasn’t sure if the shoulder/neck thing would be ok or not with farmer’s walk. It was most likely not going to make things feel better. Also thinking about someone at the gym who apparently dislocated their shoulder on farmer’s a few weeks back. My right calf felt tight when I tried to go “normal” speed with light implements so that was also concerning. I did short runs just to get a feel rather than fatigue. I wasn’t expecting much here today with how I feel. But I seemed to do decent enough. First two runs I got the exact same time so that meant I was doing at least four runs. Then I started to get faster so five runs. Only due to me fatiguing more on the pick. It is a fine line I guess as far as doing enough and not enough with some moving events. Not the fastest I’ve ever been but it was consistent. I didn’t need to rechalk for these. I was done with the stuff that would need 100’s of pounds and on to the other stuff. I left the farmer’s out with weight for the moment so that I could proceed with the rest of the workout (put them away when done). Those back extensions with the pauses on the GHD were next. Same as last week as far as 1ct holds and 95lbs. Plan was 2x10-12 with 2RIR. I had an idea that maybe if I didn’t do a work up set, I’d be able to be fresher as this position is tough to be in. I was also thinking that this would be less time with the bar in the his way affecting my upper back. Perhaps that worked. But I was able to get extra reps on these. So that was nice. These still feel awful and terrible, even when I finish them. Next was an older exercise with some changes. Leg extensions but accentuated negatives. Warm up as needed and then do 2 up, 1 down method. I’ve done this before for lying leg curls and lower reps. This was more to make the knees feel good. I think. I had to use really light weight and wear my knee sleeves because the patella tendons were giving me fits lowering the weight under control. I knew I was going to need to ice my knees twice when I got home (I was already planning that after the farmer’s walk). Last thing was for grip. One arm hangs. Max time for two sets each hand. I elected to use a bar that didn’t have knurling on it as I felt that added grip would just make this too easy. I’ve never seriously done a one arm hang but I figured I’d be pretty good here. My hands were hurting but I think that was more to do with the thin handles on the farmer’s walks hitting that spot in my hands a little raw rather than holding. I was able to hold for a minute fairly comfortable with my left hand. Right hand I had some issues. I think the issue was that I let my body move too freely and that made it harder on my grip rather than keeping things rigid. I like to be relaxed on holds as conserves energy but it appears that sometimes control is needed so as I don’t lose more energy from outside factors. Similar to Hercules hold. I got spun around a little too much and I ended up with about 45 seconds with it feeling the same difficulty as the minute with the left (maybe a little harder). It was a little tougher to get another minute with the left hand for the second set. For that last set, I was aiming to match 45 seconds but wanted to see what would happen if I stayed tight to keep from spinning around on that side. This resulted in a big increase. Put stuff away and stretched before swapping shirts and driving home to do recovery stuff. Hopefully I’m not too beat tomorrow and this neck/shoulder/upper back thing calms down for me.