August 30, 2022 – Week 4, Day 2

Warm Up Circuit

Skaters
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Axle Cleans
78x2
103x2
130x2
130x2
130x2
130x2

Paused Bent Over Straight Arm Band Lat Pulls (2 seconds)
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

14” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
130x2
220x2
310x2
400x2
470x2
540x4
500x4

Paused 12” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps, 2 seconds 2” off the ground)
400x4
400x4

Paused One Arm Dumbbell Rows (2 seconds)
40x4/4
64x4/4
84x8/8
99x8/8
116x8/8

Posterior Single Leg Step Downs (16”)
40x10/10
40x10/10
40x10/10

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (6 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Stretching
  
Comments: I really wasn’t sure how today would go. I frequently say that. I have hopes for how things will go and I expect them to be done and met but I also know that I’m not a program and sometimes things happen and adjustments are needed. The thing that could be an issue was the right knee. It has calmed down a good bit since weekend training (it had been irritated since the event session two weeks ago) but never know. I had done exercises without discomfort before that week and then there was discomfort on them after that. So it was just some added hesitancy to get over that hadn’t been there before. Sticking to band clamshells and TKEs with bands as these seem to be the things at minimum that get things ready that need to be. I’ve taken kind of a split stance with the TKEs and working on not just the extension but the tracking of the knee. If my tendons get tight, my calves tighten and then it’s kind of a battle to get them to calm down so that I feel good there and recover. So skaters to start things off. I was expecting knee aches and I didn’t really get them thankfully. Some tightness in the right ankle. From there on to. Axle cleans. Increase in weight and switching from 3x3 to 4x2. I went a bit heavier than what was listed just for easier plate math situation. I was already doing 7lbs more than what was suggested for the 3x3 and now it would only be 6lbs more. I’m trying to not be so hesitant with gripping the axle. Stay tense and have a strong grip so that I’m not botching things before I even get it started. Light weight is one thing, need to get comfortable with the heavier stuff. Still using the 25’s for lower pick height that is closer to contest. Straight arm pulldown things after that. Lat control in the lower lats (I’d have discomfort the past two weeks) seems better. Trying my best to actually be in a deadlift stance. Noticing knees a bit achy doing that and ankle mobility issues with tightness of lower legs. Axle deadlifting time. When I feel on for block pulls and stuff just seems to be clicking, it is a great feeling. I rarely get that feeling when I setup for a deadlift from the floor with a barbell. It is a different feeling of when it is go time with a suit and without a suit. Short of it is that tonight I was feeling good. Last time I was given the “heavy option”, it had been 2” above working weight to kind of get used to heavier weights. For this session, it was at contest height and I was to work up in doubles to a top set of 3-4 (2RIR). Unlike the previous workout, the rest of the axle work was kind of based on how this went as far as percentages and reps. I was initially planning on doing plate jumps up to 380lbs and then do 40-50lbs so that top set would be 520lbs. I wasn’t initially thinking of trying more weight than what I hit on the 16” pulls. However, I realized that to get it so the 1rm would be roughly 90% of contest weight, I’d need to be doing about 540lbs for 6 so 4 with 2RIR would be around where I need to be. So add 20lbs to the setup and go from there. I already had done that for the banded pulls so it wasn’t out of nowhere. I started with plate jumps and by the time I got to 40lbs, I didn’t really want to do another 90lbs and then try 50lbs more. I was kind of bullying the weights around today. So to make it a smoother jump, I went with 70lbs for both of the last two jumps. This felt good. I even think I slowed down how fast I was going between the reps because I was worried that I was “bouncing” the weight (which I can’t do with this setup anyways). I felt like I maybe had 3RIR here honestly. Hell, maybe more if I didn’t want to do anything else the rest of the week. Hard to say as usually I feel pretty exhausted after I get kind of amped up for a deadlift set but still had that same kind of aggression for the down set. So the plan here was dropping down to 7.5-10% less and match the reps. So I got 4 reps, I was to do 4 reps with 486lbs – 500lbs. I decided for simplicity sake to do 500lbs. There was no respect left for that weight. Dropping the bar height down another 2” to get it to 12” for more of the 2 second pauses 2” off the ground. This took a little more time since last time I could just add the platform to it but I was already on one so I had to strip the weight down and put it back on. Unlike last time, this wasn’t based off of percentage from a projected max. This was to be 20-25% less than the last set and match the reps for two sets. So 2x4 here with 375lbs – 400lbs. Again, went with the larger number because it was easier math. And also because I knew I could do it. These were pretty comfortable and honestly, just an extra rep and 20lbs more than last time is good progress since that extra rep seems to get me on these pause sets. So good session for the axle pulls. With the heavy stuff done, it was time for the accessory stuff. Paused one arm dumbbell rows again. This time sets of 8 reps so plan here was again 1-2ct holds and working from 6.5 RPE to 8.5 RPE. Keep them strict. No chalk or straps or belts. Now unlike when I was doing sets of 10, I knew I’d need heavier weight than the solid dumbbells I had at my disposal. I’d need to use the plateloaded handles. In order to keep time between sets right, I’d have to plan those jumps in advance so that I’m not fiddling around. Did two warming up sets before getting started. Plan was 15lbs jumps (though more on the last jump as using the overweight 25’s). I thought I might have gone too light that first set but the second set was feeling right and the last set was getting close to being a little much perhaps. But all within the parameters. The holds keep me honest here. Then it was time for the posterior stepdowns. I wasn’t too fond of these after how crap my knees felt last week. Plan was to do 3x10 again and hopefully keep the same weight but lessen it if necessary to bring discomfort level down to 3/10 range. I recall that I did mobility stuff before I did these that first week but I don’t have notes that I did to be sure. But I did what I usually have done for split leg exercises; sit in a deep squat and try and get knees over toe in lunge position while stretching out the hips and top of the quads. It was tolerable. It wasn’t as good as it was the first week but it was a ton better than it felt last week. Hard to say if exercise choice/load and accumulation of work had anything to do with it but I’ll keep doing this for next time. Trying to control the eccentric as best I can. Last thing was the Nordic curls. For the past two weeks, I’ve done 5 second eccentrics. I decided I’d try for 6 second eccentrics for the 3x5 to try and progress that way. These do seem to make the knees feel good (if only for a little bit) and light up the hamstrings. Finished up putting stuff away and ate pot roast before stretching. Iced knees before bed.

August 29, 2022 – Week 4, Day 1

Warm Up Circuit

Axle Push Presses w/ bands (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
26x3
56x3
86x3
116x3
146x3
Cluster Reps (10 seconds)
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1

Axle Close Grip Bench Presses
(6 second eccentrics)
46x2
96x2
136x2
186x2
226x1
276x1
316x1
(3 second eccentrics)
253x3
253x3
253x3

Paused Halbert Dumbbell Raises on Incline Bench (2 seconds)
10’sx5
20’sx10
20’sx10
20’sx10

Plate Lu Raises
15’sx15
15’sx15
15’sx15

Incline Dumbbell Tate Extensions w/µb’s 
40’sx15
40’sx15
40’sx15

Stretching
  
Comments: Keeping eye on the right knee. Seems to be calming down a little. There will be some added stress this workout but probably the least amount really compared to the other sessions this week. Warmed up with the wall slides and y raises. There had been a tightness in the ribcage on the right side but not in the affected area but this was before training had started for the day. Then on to axle work. Pushing pressing against bands for cluster reps again. Same weight, sets, reps and rests. Idea was to “progress” with focus of intent on moving things very fast and powerfully. Not holding back and going kind of CAT. The past two sessions on the working up, I’ve kept the axle on the shoulders for the set but I felt that I should treat it more like the working sets and deload on the rack each rep. There was definitely an increased soreness factor. My left pec became tight and sore as did both of my shoulders. I figure this may have something to do with increasing the sandbag over shoulder inadvertently by 56lbs. I had also noticed that my left shoulder had felt more stiff/sore after that first week. But thankfully less aches. So with things feeling tougher, it was hard to say if I was truly progressing here or just feeling like I was still going fast. As with last week, last set felt the best. Not every rep felt like a single movement  every set as there were definitely times where I could feel it being a slight delay in the triceps locking out the weight. Putting that kind of output is exhausting. At the end, I’d say that RIR was about the same as last week but potentially slightly less just with how sore shoulders felt. Axle close grip benching. Last week of this setup with the long eccentrics. Plan was 5-6ct eccentric and then take 20% off that for 3x3 with 3ct eccentric. Assuming things went well here, I was expecting a 10lbs increase on last week with dropping off 2 seconds from the eccentric on the top single. I already had started things off at too high an RPE really but I just needed to progress here if possible and then switch to something else after this. The increases in weight really seem to hit hard on these. The last single before the goal felt like RPE 8 which is probably what I should’ve been using at the start I guess. It appears I may have misplaced my compression cuff set but I have one so that was good enough for the one elbow that needs it (right). I just like having both for symmetry and not having one arm being more mobile than the other. Got this rep though it was a little tougher. Down sets for triples. These I didn’t need to take long breaks really compared to the singles since the eccentrics cut in half. I feel like the first set it took a bit to get things moving right to be fast enough as opposed to a slightly slower tempos. Last set wasn’t the best because I was getting attacked by mosquitoes on my legs and neck. They do love to get me when I bench. Into the garage for a slight reprieve. Halbert raises back with pauses. Plan is to stick to 3x10 for a few weeks. I was given the option of increasing weight or increasing hold times. I elected to increasing weight. I feel that getting comfortable with moving weights for this position with a pause vs less weight with longer pause is more important since I felt I struggled with adding weight to this motion previously. The hold for longer would be more fatiguing but I can attach that motion with other exercises if emphasis needed whereas this motion itself is a bit unique compared to say a face pull with band tension. 2lbs added to these and it felt about the same as last week so that was good. Back outside for plate raises. 3x10-15 again, advised to go with 10’s and 5’s together if I felt I could handle it. Managed 3x15 again here. Soreness in the shoulders. Still control in the motion but certainly not as slow as when I was doing 10’s alone. Last thing was Tate’s again but with some modifications. I think this has to do with the lack of jumps for dumbbells but maybe this is also just to change things up. Changing to incline and given the option to add micro bands to it. I setup an anchor behind the bench. I was a little worried it would be awkward and cumbersome to setup and get dumbbells into position but it wasn’t that bad. Used the suggestion from last week with the hand to one side to increase ROM as much as I could. Still got 3x15 with plenty in the tank. It was more challenging compared to the standard variation. Put stuff away and tried to use Chipotle gift cards for dinner but they were out of all the ingredients (why even be open?) so came back home to cook dinner. Stretched and iced the right knee before bed.

August 27, 2022 – Week 3, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (3 second eccentrics)
bwx20/20 at 6”

One Legged Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts (opposite side)
40x5/5
80x10/10
90x10/10

Safety Squat Bar Squats
70x10
120x8
170x6
220x4
270x2
320x2
370x6
370x6
370x6

I-Beam Farmer’s Deadlifts (16” pick)
122x1
152x1
182x1
212x1
242x3
242x3
242x3
242x3
242x3

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Shrugs (16” pick, heels on slant board)
160x40

Sandbag Over Shoulders (left)
175x1
205x1
225x1
250x1/306x1
250x1/306x1
250x1/306x1
250x1/306x3

Sandbag Carries (turns at 50’)
306x100’
306x100’

Glute Ham Raises (4 pins showing)
bwx25
bwx15/8/2 (rest pause 15 sec/10 sec)

Stretching
  
Comments: I seem to be mostly over whatever had me stress crash. I say mostly as occasionally I will have some “fluttering” around the one eye that likes to twitch when stressed out and dreams that seem to be a mishmash of current things and things that in the past are stressful. Perhaps it because my birthday is coming up and it just is another day realizing I’m getting older, a reminder of mortality and that I’ve still not done the things I wanted to do over 10yrs ago despite my best efforts. So could be that but who knows. Just focus on the now as best I can despite there being distractions at every turn. So at least some good is that the strain situation from week one has gone down considerable where I hardly notice it. The not so good is that the right knee is acting up again and that isn’t fun. Been trying to do soft tissue work around and on the affected area and trying to help blood flow as well as keep inflammation down without anti-inflammatories for the time being. I knew training would be tough on it so plan would be icing and topical stuff when I got home. I was expecting the drive to be like last weekend with the lane closures but it. Didn’t come to find out they announced Thursday it was postponed so it won’t be for another 4 weeks before it is like that again. I had woken up to my alarm but knew I was feeling tired and turned it off and woke up an hour later. So I wasn’t really expecting people to be there really as I knew there were two local-ish shows going on and at least one person was competing at one of those. But there did seem to be some people there but mostly powerlifting. It apparently was 94 degrees when I got there but I didn’t really notice it. I was more focused on my right knee not being difficult today. So starting things off with the Patrick stepdowns. Controlled eccentrics to a low step on hard foam for a set of 20 reps each side. These felt good and thankfully no real aches either knee. Just seemed to get things feeling warm. From there it was the offset rdls with the dumbbell for 2x10. These had felt surprisingly strong last time and I was prepared for that feeling again if warranted. Plan was to do just 80lbs for both working sets. Warming up felt really easy but had to see how things felt. Felt good and went with 90lbs for the second set. Getting a bit more challenging. I think I was just pleased that my knees weren’t really barking at me. I’ll have to peruse the dumbbell selection next time if these continue and see if I need to stick with this weight as the dumbbells above this could be a bit odd in handle shape/thickness. Squats with the ssb again. I guess I made things look too easy last week as notes at the beginning of this training cycle had indicated probably not going to push these. Going up to 75% of projected max on these for 3x6. So going up 25lbs from week one. 15lbs under my best set of 6 at this point. And with the knee not being so pleased with me. My breathing didn’t feel hampered that week so that was a plus. But I was leery about the knee in that holding up to this weight for reps. It’s not like you know at the start, you got to do that first rep to see and it could a sudden oh no scenario. So takes a bit of intestinal fortitude to do it in that state and then repeat the effort several times. So there was certainly hesitation but knee aches seemed to not be that bad. Working up I knew I was kind of distracting/delaying with talking with people. But whatever to get comfortable. I feel I was a bit more forward today with the weight and that might be from aches trying to sit back more and keep the bar up. Even with that, it didn’t feel like the two-part lift from the first week. Or at least didn’t seem to be as noticeable or jarring. I felt I had 2RIR on each set. Plan had been 3 minutes rests and after reviewing things, I guess I overcompensated from past two weeks as rest turned into 4 minutes. I just can’t seem to get these right but I go until I feel ready unless really short rests and usually I get them right. But my 3 minutes just never seems to be 3 minutes and I don’t want a timer to rush me on the longer rests haha. I’ll go when I’m good and ready. From there it was on to the farmer’s deadlifts. Same as last time these popped up with it being 5x3 with 60-75 seconds rest. As written, the plan was to keep it no straps and go up 10-15lbs per hand from last time and keep these speedy. I know this is still the beginning phase and that need to build slow. Know I can do the things even if not right this second and that I can pour it all out when it matters. However, I felt I needed to change some things up here. Last week I had used the Titan Fitness handles and I felt they were uncomfortable in how they reacted when they were dropped and attempting to do reps. They bounced way too much for me. I had been fine I guess with this when I was training for the frame deadlift for Regionals as it was the only frame I really had access to at home and at home would be where I was pushing it. I don’t know how these handles at the show will be really but I imagine from watching them in use they aren’t going to bounce. So with the emphasis being reps at this point and for speed (I know things will switch up toward different days and stuff being “heavy”) that I try different handles. So I went with the I-beam handles. I did singles working up and did 30lbs jumps. So ending up with 17lbs more than last time. This could be great or a mistake. Really no in-between here. I mean other than getting bruises on the calves (had these last week from all the farmer’s picks as well as all the farmer’s deadlifts the week before), this was much more tolerable. I the bouncing wasn’t chaotic. I was able to keep to 60 seconds rests here and actually seemed to pull these quicker overall. Still feels decently heavy. From there it was to the farmer’s shrugs. I was kind of surprised these stuck on with how easy they were but the weight was increased a decent bit. Plan was a set of 40 reps with same setup. I swapped back in the Titan Fitness handles as to keep things feeling the same to gauge and because these feel the worst of the farmer’s handles that I have to use as far as the grip on them. The increase in weight was noticed but even with that, I still feel I could probably double the reps I did. Picking them up (while feet on slant board) and locking out might be a little more challenging than doing like 20 reps with these. So it was on to the sandbag over shoulder stuff. It took a bit of reading comprehension to ascertain what the plan was. Sometimes I’m given a range for stuff when coming back to it but it seems I was to do sets of medley with 250lbs and 275lbs and then do extra reps with the 275lbs on the last set.  I was kind of dreading the 275lbs as it just feels so heavy (and there is a reason for that). So plan was do singles to warm up and not really try and go competition speed between the implements as I knew that second sandbag would be a bear. I did locate a 225lbs sandbag (apparently they made one of the 250lbs Ironmind bags 225lbs). so that made warming up in singles worthwhile. I got set for these medley runs. Plan was 4 runs with 90 seconds rest between (plus the extra reps at the end of the last one). 250lbs up like nothing and mentally gird myself for the “275lbs”. Hell this feels heavy. So with getting that first one done, I figured that I’d pop 250lbs up quick and easy and then take my time for the “275lbs”. 250lbs was easy each time but the other bag was noticeable feeling tougher each time. The plan for that last set was to do 1-3 reps on top of what I did at the end for the heavier bag assuming they were powerful and not outside of 60 seconds. My thoughts on this was more to do the planned 1-2 and then take a short rest and then do the “extra” reps within a 60 seconds time frame. I knew that I needed to try for at least one rep. The first extra rep went up like one of the better reps really so I kind of took a moment to collect my thoughts and decided I’d try one more. That one was the toughest of the day. After that was done. I knew I had to weigh that sandbag. It felt way too heavy to be 275lbs. Turns out I was right. See, this bag had been 306lbs and at the time of the contest in March, it was labelled as 275lbs and I had assumed they took weight out of it. That was an incorrect assumption as it is still 306lbs. So a 31lbs misload. Also means any 275lbs sandbags I’ve done since middle of March to now has been 306lbs. I think I’ve found the true 275lbs but I don’t trust it to hold up to roughhousing so I’ll probably bring in my own for next time if needed. Then it was on to carries. So as you can kind of guess, this meant that when I did that 150’ run with drops every 50’, it had been 31lbs heavier than I had thought. Today I was to do 275lbs for 2x100’ with turns at 50’ and only rest 30-60 seconds between the two runs. Seeing as how I did that with 306lbs, I was going to stick with that. That I was using contest weight (3rd bag in the shouldering medley and 1st bag in the carry medley) for stuff for multiple reps/sets had me feeling a bit better. I’d just picked this damn bag up and over my shoulder 6 times already today so picking this up two more times to my lap wasn’t sounding that bad. The three picks for 150’ was way worse. My plan was do to these with the 30 seconds rest to work that conditioning aspect and I was able to do that. So from there last thing was glute ham raises. A little different this week. First set was to be done for max reps (1RIR) with good form and control and then I was to rest 2 minutes and do a second set to match that rep total but use rest pausing to get there so that no set was to true failure. Right knee was a bit sore and some swelling (to be expected considering) but was fine once I got into position. I’ve done 2x20 before but not with a more controlled eccentric. Got 25 reps and maybe I could go more but I was feeling like I’d start to ingrain bad habits beyond that. Endurance on these does seem to drop off over sets. Did about 15 seconds for the first rest pause and 10 seconds for the last one. Put stuff away and stayed to stretch out (to hopefully have right knee not so temperamental on the drive home) before heading home.

August 25, 2022 – Week 3, Day 3

Axle Clean and Push Presses (clean every rep)
46x2+4 (did 1 clean & 2 presses twice)
76x2
106x2
136x2
Cluster Reps (15 seconds)
166x1+1
196x1+1
226x1+1

Axle Push Presses
144x2
174x2
204x2
234x2
264x4
264x4
264x4

Seated Axle Pin Presses (6” ROM, No Back Support)
136x3
186x3
231x3
271x3
286x3
301x3
316x5 PR+15lbs

Push Ups on Kettlebells (feet elevated 12”)
bw+25x12
bw+25x12
bw+25x12

Dumbbell Cuban Rotations
6’x4
16’sx8
16’sx8
16’sx8

Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (5 second eccentric)
lbx10/10
lbx10/10
lbx10/10

Stretching
  
Comments: I wasn’t sure about this workout just from gut feeling. Last week, I felt like I had no power at all in the pressing muscles and lower back. So was still thinking about that, even though first workout of the week went well for pressing. The other thing was that my right knee was feeling sore and it wasn’t just aches. There did seem to be some swelling an inflammation in the muscles too. Perhaps giving me some distraction from the lower back/ribcage/whatever thing. Soft tissue work and plan to try and add some more icing on the off days to get things manageable with last resort being anti-inflammatories. I’ve been here before got back to somewhat normal/tolerable. The knees be good some days and other days not so good. But just kind of have to keep going. So as things stand, this is the “lighter” week for the clean and press but by no means the lighter week in general. Previous week one clean and press and this week clean and press every weight. Last time this was 50/60/70% for cluster triples and this time it was 55/65/75% for cluster doubles. I stuck to the same rest I did last time of 15 seconds or so. I initially forgot what I was doing warming up and realized that I didn’t clean every rep so I recleaned it and did another double. This was feeling less heavy compared to last week on the pull to belt and the cleans. Less weight but that time it felt like 30lbs more was on the bar. No chalk at this point. I think I also altered my initial first pull off the pads here as I had been doing was kind of breaking it off the ground slow and then accelerating below the knee. I’m thinking that doing that while may be for me to think of not pulling my biceps, has me more relaxed and not gripping as hard. First working double with the cluster time I had and issue with my do-rag and then forgot I was to take a break between the reps as I prepared to go again. Other than my right knee being not terribly happy today, these seemed decent. On the last double with the heaviest weight, I hesitated on the clean from belt. I can’t “feel” as good with this thick of material for the grip shirt so I thought from how it felt that I had missed my belt and was under it so I paused a moment to glance down. I saw I had it where I needed it and resumed. I got to start with more intent here to get it to the right position and get that clean and power right. From there, it was axle out of the rack. This had been a low rep set and a rep set at 80% last time this pairing came up. This time it was 3x4 at 85%. I kept the knee sleeves on for these as my knee was feeling quite sore and I’d rather not take away support. These ended up being fairly tough. I warmed up in 30lbs jumps with doubles just so that I got the feeling down. I think I’ve usually done triples when this weight has come up or about and then usually only one set above this kind of reps with RIR. Stuff seemed to feel heavy as far as shoulders and knees but even if I felt like I got stuck, the lockout was fine and had plenty to spare. I think I noticed to myself on a few of those reps where I had to take a moment to collect before going for the next how it was very much feeling the rotation movement in the shoulders of like a face pull or a y raise. It could also be that I’ve felt like I’ve had a very mild scratchy throat from maybe allergies for the past two weeks. I felt like I’ve done these and done these better before. But I know that sometimes that feeling and recollection isn’t true. Got it done, no missed reps. The seated axle pin presses with short ROM again. Something I had looked forward to at the start of this training cycle and now something that leaves me mildly frustrated. I can deal with stuff hurting or aching but not lack of progress. Last week with weights feeling heavy and weird, I missed reps on the last set of these when it was to be RIR. And the plan was to do AMRAP on more weight than last week when I struggled to get 3 reps. Plan was to do 5-10lbs more each working up set but instead of sets of 4, it was sets of 3. So seeing as how I failed at the weights and reps last week, I went with a 5lbs increase. The good news was that the pain part seemed to be not showing up today. So about two weeks was right for most discomfort to go. The not great was that the lightest set felt heavy. Great. But I pushed forward as I tend to do. Like someone too stubborn to see that the door clearly says “pull”. 15lbs jumps and somehow I got things to click. Getting that sweet spot and balancing has been tricky as the weight goes up. I could’ve stopped at four on that last set but I wanted to make up for the missed rep the week before so did five. Lighter stuff after all this axle work. Push ups again. Still using the same setup. I figured that even though I didn’t get 3x12 last time with 20lbs in the back pack, I’d add 5lbs just because. RPE was certainly higher near the end but I felt like I should push these a little more as I got one week left before they are dropped and this is the closest I got to incline bench that is comfortable. Cuban rotations were next. Same sets but decreased reps. Advised to go up in weight. With these small muscle exercises that have the shoulder capsule and most of it comes from the leverages of my arms providing the difficulty with resistance, I thought it was best to do a lighter set to warm things up a little before going with added weight. As that does seem to benefit me sometimes on these kind of exercises. Last bit of the workout was the long eccentric triceps with bands. No external rotation pairing this week. Added a third set on these with rep range 10-15. I kind of already knew that with increasing the tension and just knowing how the fatigue hits me on these that I’d be doing 3x10 to try and make it through. Triceps (especially the right one) get quite twitchy by the end and kind of spasm afterwards when I’m stretching (and sometimes lingers into the following day). It was good call doing the lower end this time around. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Stretched and iced my right knee. Going to have to keep an eye on that and try to get things to calm down.

August 23, 2022 – Week 3, Day 2

Warm Up Circuit

Skater’s
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Axle Cleans
76x3
96x3
116x3
116x3
116x3

Paused Bent Over Straight Arm Band Lat Pulls (2 seconds)
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

14” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/bands (straps)
No Bands
110x3
Added Bands (+45lbs bottom/+92lbs top)
130x3
220x3
310x3
400x3
400x3
400x3
400x3
400x3

Paused One Arm Dumbbell Rows (2 seconds)
50x5/5
70x3/3
90x10/10
90x10/10
90x10/10

Posterior Single Leg Step Downs (16”)
bwx5/5
40x10/10
40x10/10
40x10/10

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Stretching
  
Comments: Still got some stuff with that right side lower lat/back/QL/ribcage whatever but it does seem less present at least. The things that bother it still do but not on the magnitude they were this time last week so that at least seems like a good sign. Coming into this workout, right knee was bit achy. Could be just from having done farmer’s walk for several runs and just accumulated workload over a few weeks vs just one week and also that I had taken anti-inflammatories last week to test things for the discomfort in the one area that would’ve calmed down discomfort from tendons. With the warm up choice, sticking to band clamshells and TKEs with bands. I was noticing the knee aches on the TKEs. Start of the workout was about the same as last week so went through that. Skaters were mostly fine I guess. Maybe I wasn’t feeling as springy or perhaps I was just moving more forcefully. I was feeling aches in the right knee on these. Axle cleans after that. Same as last time as far as warming up and weights. I decided to switch the collars I was using as they were slightly sticking out past the plates and had put some gashes in the crash pads. I don’t know if I was moving these as explosively as last time. Inadvertently made these almost a fixed axle (no plate or bar revolving) from the combination of clamps with straps and the plates jamming. So that made the flip a bit different. Straight arm pulldown for the deadlift was up next. These had seemed to stress that area a bit last time. Still noticing it but more a feeling of tension as opposed to any actual discomfort. Rather than adjust band tension, been moving further back to add more. So from there it was time for the axle pulls. Last week had been the heavy week with pauses. This week appears to be the pulls against bands week. Plan here was using 14” contest height and doing 5x3 with somewhat short rests. Slight control to eccentrics. Plan was 60-62.5% in bar weight and 10-15% in band tension. On the low end, I was putting things as 635lbs for a single just based off of how 600x3 at 15” had felt earlier this year without a suit at the time. So this would put me at 381-397lbs and I didn’t want to do less (380lbs) so I went with 400lbs as that was easy to put on here. The bands being added was a bit tricky. I had a setup for deadlifts against bands that would be about halfway between the tensions but that was before I realized I’d have to adjust things. That was if pulling from the floor and to set things up for 14”, I’d need to stand a 4” platform with the setup for 18”. So I had to add more anchors to keep things down. With the elevated start height, band tension ended up being a little bit more. I will probably need to adjust things for my numbers for 12” pulls. These were feeling pretty good. Some tension in the discomfort area and I was a little worried it would have me cramp up or pull on the lat too much but once I got to the working weight with the hard belt, it was fine. Kept letting out grunts on the concentric. These seemed to go well enough for me. This was the only pulls for today and on to dumbbell rows. 3x10 like last week with 1-2ct holds. 5lbs less than top weight across all sets and report back the RIR at the end. This seemed to go well enough. Just work. It can be hard to gauge with long holds I find on rows but I felt decently good that I could muster out a good many more than I had initially thought by the end. The fatigue does add up but I seem to be good with it. The posterior stepdown variation was next. Having them not be so bad last time I figured I could warm up with bodyweight for a set and then do 40lbs for the 3x10. I’m not sure what happened here but my knees were really achy. I had felt last time that knee sleeves weren’t going to make or break last time and I wonder if I did some mobility work to get things ready first. Could also have been from anti-inflammatories. But there was discomfort and it did eventually get better over the sets, it was a bit unexpected. Left side had more trouble with stability/strength compared to the right side which was just achy in the knee. Last thing was Nordic curls. Looks like I was right in what I did last time so same thing. These do seem to feel good as far as the hamstrings getting work and taking some ache off the knees. Put stuff away and ate pot roast before stretching out. Iced both knees before bed.

August 22, 2022 – Week 3, Day 1

Warm Up Circuit

Axle Push Presses w/ bands (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
26x3
56x3
86x3
116x3
146x3
Cluster Reps (10 seconds)
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1
176x1+1+1

Axle Close Grip Bench Presses
(8 second eccentrics)
46x2
96x2
146x2
186x2
226x1
266x1
306x1
(4 second eccentrics)
246x4
246x4
246x4

Paused Halbert Dumbbell Raises on Incline Bench (2 seconds)
10’sx5
18’sx10
18’sx10
18’sx10

Plate Lu Raises
10’sx15
10’sx15
10’sx15

Dumbbell Tate Extensions
40’sx20
40’sx20
40’sx20

Stretching
  
Comments: Seem to be feeling better after sweating out my demons Saturday and getting back on routine and relaxing on Sunday. Still have some discomfort from the right side thing from the first week but it seems less and a bit more manageable. Mentally I was feeling a bit down just from how worn I had felt Thursday and just how tough and slow picks felt with farmer’s walk. But other stuff was fine. I think also just seeing people training these events and being this far out and doing more than what I’m doing for several sets. Then finding out they aren’t even HWs. I know I don’t always have that luxury of having contest weight be easy training weight. But I also know that I can peak and overreaching with the best of them but lord does it take its toll coming back down. Which was kind of evidenced with this past week of stuff with stressed related issues. Work was fairly smooth but didn’t get everything I wanted to get done. Forecast had rain but was lucky in missing that. Warmed up with the wall slides and y raises. Felt less issues in the right side discomfort area compared to last week. I was honestly surprised it calmed down (still have twitching and some feelings of eye twitch) considering how it was feeling going out to train on Saturday. Then on to axle work. Pushing pressing against bands for cluster reps again. But not quite the same. I wasn’t moving fast enough for the plan here so weight was dropped by about 10%. This was supposed to be fast and leaving a good bit in the tank and with how things went, I wasn’t doing that. So same band tension and instead of 6x2 doing 5x3 for the cluster reps. 10 seconds for the rest vs 15 seconds from last week. I did end up going up 5lbs more then what was planned based off the percentage because it was easier (just empty axle and adding 30lbs for jumps). With bands, these feel quite heavier than it would actually be in the rack position at the start. These were definitely moving today. Getting some violent lower body drive here. Front of my quads around the knees were getting muscle soreness. Could be just feeling stuff from Saturday with heavier squats and backwards sled work. Last set felt the best here. I think this was much more what to be done here. I think 8RIR is being conservative with how powerful these were going up. Axle close grip benching. Somewhat not looking forward to this but more I think because it trashed my triceps something fierce for the second press day in the week (but could’ve also been stress stuff) and that laying on my back does seem to add some discomfort to the affected area, especially if I try to brace and arch. Getting an idea of the progression here with the plan being to add a little more weight and potentially decrease the TUT with the super long eccentrics and then switch to a different variation. I kind of started too damn heavy I think and a bit hard to back step that now. Plan was 6-8ct eccentric and then take 20% off that for 3x4 with 3-4ct eccentric. I was initially going to do the lower end (6/3) but I think realizing there was another week and if I cut off 2 seconds that I’d not have much left for the next week to trim and then having uneven pairings of 7ct for the single and 3ct or 4ct not matching up made me revert to doing 8/4. That was the thought process and it sounds no less crazy in writing. But I think realizing that stupid things like that can make me do a longer route rather than direct needs to be mentioned, put out for scrutiny and make conscious effort to adjust for next time. So with the longer holds, I did about the same thing as last time and aimed for 5lbs more on the single and then the down sets. This single and last week’s were definitely not RPE 8 lifts. This week would’ve been easier than it ended up being if I didn’t press back too soon and hit the j-hooks and had to kind of take a less direct itinerary to reach the destination. So much for using axle to not be worried about numbers on this. The down sets felt decent other than the first rep of the first set. I didn’t have even spacing on the bar (I only have taped marked for grip for axle clean and press which also works for my deadlifts) for my grip so lockout was a little off on the right side and but I was able to adjust after that. Not much to say after that, it moved well enough. Down sets have never really been in doubt on these. Into the garage after that and I had the fans going as it was muggy and buggy. Halbert raises back with pauses. These had been decent enough last week and I was hopeful that with them feeling good, I could actually add some weight here and not have it become like it was when I first tried them. I was successful in that endeavor this time around. Back outside for plate raises. 3x10-15 this time. I was advised that I could use either bumper plates or metal plates. I decided to try the smaller metal plates and aim for 3x15. This felt a lot more natural to me as far as the movement goes. Realizing that odd numbering and unevenness of reps with over and under is a thing for me, I decided to say it wasn’t important here and just go with it. I didn’t want another hang up on numbers like with the tempo benching to show up. I think I’m getting better at recognizing my patterns. I know when a certain set or reps is important and when sometimes it’s just work and close enough is fine. Last thing was Tate presses. Advised to stick with the 40’s and go higher reps. So this ended up being 3x20 here. I took shorter rests compared to last week and gripped the hand to one side to increase ROM as much as I could. Put stuff away before cooking dinner. Stretched and iced the right knee before bed.

August 20, 2022 – Week 2, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (3 second eccentrics)
bwx20/20 at 6”

One Legged Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts (opposite side)
40x5/5
70x10/10
80x10/10

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x7
155x4
205x4
245x2
295x2
345x4
345x4
345x4
345x10

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
45x40’
45x40’
95x40’
135x40’
185x20’
225x20’
265x40’
265x40’
265x40’
265x40’
265x40’
265x40’

I-Beam Farmer’s Holds (20” pick)
298x5 seconds
338x36.16 seconds

Jog/Sprint/Jog/Backwards Sled Drags
50’/50’/50’/435x50’
50’/50’/50’/610x50’

Glute Ham Raises (4 pins showing)
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: I was not expecting big things for today as I wasn’t feeling that great. Physically mostly but a little mentally. I think it was a bit of a lot of things just kind of coming all together. Start of it being the rib/lat/QL issue that popped up so to speak on my first real workout back from the previous contest. So that is some added stress on top of things. It kind of comes and goes as far as flaring up and not too much rhyme or reason. There is some learned helplessness when there doesn’t appear to be control. Wednesday I got a fever blister, which is usually from me being stressed enough that my immune system isn’t able to fight off stuff like normal. Thing is that usually I get bit of a post competition stress wave that seems to hit like two weeks or so afterwards. Thursday I had to change up the routine (which even if I tell myself is necessary, it comes at cost) so working out early to make it after work to a friend’s event (another deviation, even if it is something I want to do). I felt wiped after that and stressed and so Friday I woke up feeling like I needed Dayquil to get things to be tolerable with talking and hearing people on the phone at work. Right eye twitch started too so I knew that for Saturday to be something, I’d need to get affairs in order and rest. So no walking as that would eat into things since I had a lot on my plate. With how training was setup, it wasn’t one that would be a longer session and I didn’t need anyone to assist with anything so I knew that I could sleep in. I wanted to have restful sleep and with the eye twitch, constantly clenching my jaw and teeth with the general feeling of a minor summer head cold, I took Nyquil. I had decent enough sleep but I was not feeling like this was going to be a good training day and I was trying to think of ways to not go out and train and just do it at home. But it wouldn’t be the same as last week for certain exercises to compare so that was enough to make me go. I saw on the way out that there was construction on the bridge coming home that had it down to one lane of traffic so I was kind of hoping that it would be back to normal on the way back (spoiler, it wasn’t). Drive took a little bit to get out there. It felt a lot hotter than it actually was when I was there. But sometimes when I’m feeling awful, I burn brightest. The stepdowns were like they have been. Good and fine. Not very taxing compared to some other unilateral work that has been done as warm-ups for training over the past year and half with Drew. But these seem to be low impact but get the job done as far as knees and ankles with the hard foam setup. The next part was where I realized that this might be one of those days where I feel crap but can do well as stuff. Next thing being offset rdls with the dumbbell for 2x10. My original plan here was to do 70lbs for the working set as I felt that 60lbs last time had been maybe a little too light. I did a warm up set with 40lbs and it felt way too easy but still wanted to be sure with 70lbs. It was quite easy so I went for 80lbs on the second set and that was only tougher to balance as opposed to the weight being terribly difficult. So I guess 80lbs or slightly more next time. I did notice that these felt easy but my air was taking a bit to come back between sets, which wouldn’t be a great for the next exercise. Squats with the ssb again. I got to use the good rack this week. Same weight as last week but doing 3x4 and then an AMRAP set (2-3RIR). The good was that knees still seeming to be cool with these with relatively little in the way of knees aching. Also these weren’t feeling like a two part motion on the concentric like last week. Bad was that I was sweating a ridiculous amount and my recovery between the sets wasn’t promising. Also my rehband belt I’ve had for over 10yrs finally broke on the Velcro on one of the straps Thursday so been a bit tricky keeping that secured by itself a the moment. Uncertain if I’m going to spring for a replacement or not as I tend to use things until they can’t be used at all. But the weight was moving well and feeling light. I was to do 3 minute rests and tend to not do that it seems. I thought I was walking slow enough to make the rest here be that but it was closer to 2 minutes (maybe 2.5 minutes) with only getting it to 3 minutes for the AMRAP set. These did seem to feel and move better as I went. AMRAP set I stopped when I felt the bar speed slow down noticeably. It might have been similar to last week really with it being like 4RIR. After I racked the weight, I was super gassed and breathing heavy. Felt like I was overheating so I took my time tearing down and setting things up for the next thing. Farmer’s walk runs this week. With how much these are going to be a part of this training cycle, I’ve been singing to myself “I’m fool to do the farmer’s walk oh yeah, I don’t want to do the farmer’s walk no more” to the tune of Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work”. Plan was to do 6 runs of 40’ done EOMOM style. As far as weight, it was suggested that I do something I know I can complete all the runs with but that the runs would be 7 seconds or faster. That last bit was what was going to be tricky. Even though the distance is shorter, my pick is the part where I am slower so even picking a lighter weight, I may still be not at that time. For this training cycle since I don’t have the exact handles (as I don’t think they even sell them) I’m using different ones for different things to try and get a rounded experience. I’m sticking with Titan Fitness for the lighter stuff at the moment. These handles feel tough in my hands with how the grips are but I think the show implements will be thinner but I know those can be rough on the hands for multiple sets. I wasn’t going to really know what my times were really here with going off of EOMOM rather than doing a “ready, set, go”. Right knee was feeling a little achy. My hope was that I could do 275lbs for these today (I feel that I could do 315lbs with the rests periods and squeak it out but it would be slow as a dead snail and I’d be gassed) but with how 225lbs felt in my hands, I knew that I’d have to go lighter. So I dropped 10lbs from that so I’d just be over 80% of the heavier set of farmer’s at Nationals. I went on my own time rather than waiting for the timer to beep. 10 seconds left and I’d count 10 seconds and go so that I was able to get my brace right and not be rushing things as that is a recipe for bad things. Especially with the ribcage issue. Picks felt slow to me but I felt like moving speed was decent. I think the thing was most pleased with was that there wasn’t any discomfort with this movement at any point for the irritated area. I can’t confidently say these were 7 seconds or less though. I was sweating a ton still and even with the liquid chalk, I had to reapply dry chalk a few times just to keep from having sweaty hands. My shirt was light blue when I got there and now it was almost navy blue with how much I sweated. Farmer’s walk stuff wasn’t done just yet. Time for a grip hold set. Plan was 30-40 seconds at RPE 8. Since I knew my lower back was feeling fuctiged (hence slow picks) that elevating the height 4” was probably best idea here. I swapped out the Titan Fitness handles for the I-beams since I think these grips are actually closer to what is going to be used. Most I’ve picked and held with these has been 352lbs and that was from a 22” pick height and I was doing 20” today. Seeing as how I wanted to do over contest weight of 330lbs, I felt that rather than jump right to whatever weight that I’d do a in between pick and hold from the runs since that was 146lbs jump in weight. This actually didn’t feel too bad. I counted to 40 in my head before I put the weight down as I didn’t need to be exact here. I could hold longer for sure. So that was nice. Next thing was low impact but skill work. Event at show is sandbag carries into a backwards sled drag. This was more to focus on the movements before getting to the sled drag. So by that, it was jog 50’, sprint 50’, jog 50’ and then backwards sled drag 50’. Plan here was two sets with the weight being something that took me 15-20 seconds to complete and then 30 seconds to complete last set. I figured I had things set for that but perhaps not. The good was that my body didn’t explode on the sprint portion. Weight felt like I hit it just right for the first set on the sled drag. But afterwards I was breathing heavy and I had to set it up with more weight and be ready to go in 2 minutes. I had already decided that I’d add 175lbs sandbag to the top of the sled for ease in loading. I was wondering if it was too much. Realized that I forgot to put on the soft belts like I’d have on for this that first set. Maybe that made the difference in things as the increased weight only felt slightly heavier and I didn’t need 30 seconds to finish that part of the course. Took a bit to cool down from this before the last thing of the day. Glute ham raises again with just bw for 3 sets of 8-12 with 3RIR. Same as last week. I was wondering if due to the Nordic curls if there would be built up fatigue here to make this more challenging. Not really. I decided to head home to worry about stretching rather than stay at the gym as I’d need to get home and cook planned dinner for at least 90 minutes and I didn’t want to be eating at like 8:30PM or later. However, the road had different plans. Construction was still going on and my drive home almost took 2hrs so I ordered food instead since it would’ve been like 9PM by the time I could get the roast done and save it for tomorrow. Apparently they were doing construction from last night and it will be until Monday morning. Didn’t see this news posted until I got home. And apparently they are doing again next weekend and then again like 3 weeks after that. I’ll need to keep note of that and find alternative routes those days because that was a pain being stuck that long. Stretched when I got home and ate 10 tacos and iced my right knee.

August 18, 2022 – Week 2, Day 3

Axle Clean and Push Presses (clean once)
66x2
96x2
126x2
156x2
186x2
216x2
246x3
246x3
246x3

Axle Rack Position Supports
226x5 seconds
256x5 seconds
286x15 seconds
286x15 seconds

Seated Axle Pin Presses (6” ROM, No Back Support)
136x3
186x3
226x3
266x4
281x4
296x4
311x3

Push Ups on Kettlebells (feet elevated 12”)
bw+20x12
bw+20x12
bw+20x10

Dumbbell Cuban Rotations
10’sx10
10’sx10
10’sx10

Paused Band External Rotations (2 seconds)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (5 second eccentric)
µbx15/15 – lbx10/10
µbx15/15 – lbx10/10

Stretching
  
Comments: This day was a bit of a crapshoot. Partly because I was rushing to get stuff done and also because I’m pushing through things. Social activity after work so I needed to do workout during lunch break and everyone showing up for morning appointments made that hectic to pull off. Other than the rib/lat/back issue that sprang up last week when this type of workout showed up, it was pretty good and gave me confidence. This wasn’t that workout. Starting things off with axle clean and press. Last week was clean every rep and that felt explosive and smooth (I actually hit my chin warming up last week and I’d probably have a bruise if I didn’t have the beard. Stuff just felt heavy today. Like 40lbs heavier than what I had on the bar. Plan was doubles up to 3x3 at 82%. It really does seem like rest days the stuff gets tighter in the whatever that acts up in the lower right side. Catching the axle for the continental part of the clean wasn’t terribly pleasant. It did feel better once I got the hard belt on. So while the clean felt heavy (I also wasn’t using chalk because rushing on certain aspects and felt this was too light to be relying on it) the pressing felt like I was at half power. I don’t usually workout this time of day and the sun was right in my eyes but that shouldn’t have affected things. I think I realized at this point that perhaps taking Aleve for the Tuesday workout had masked things a bit and that the pressing from Monday was a bit to recover from. I got the reps and sets done but I kind of realized it was going to be one of those days. So next wasn’t pressing but something to help get used to holding heavier weights in the rack and not rush to press. I’ve done holds and rack supports before, just not very often under Drew (only for circus dumbbell). Not starting crazy with these as these can be pushed quite a bit. Not overdoing it. So plan was 2x15 seconds holds with 92% of what I can press from the rack. I did two sets to work up with shorter holds. I was expecting these to feel rougher and I was tempted to just go straight to working weight after that first set but figured it was best to do another just to make sure that nothing was off. These felt comfortable. Only real problem was the jolt I felt from setting the weight back down that went through my body and that meant the area of injury. Low level of discomfort. From there it was the exercise that had been where this issue started, pin presses. I mean, I knew this obviously wasn’t going to feel great going in. Plan had been to do 4x4 and try to hit 10lbs more than my top set of 5 reps last week working up. I had only intended to do doubles up to the first set but I forgot and just did triples. Sun in eyes was worse here as looking up pretty much was staring directly at the sun. Balance was a little off. What threw me off was that the second to last set felt really smooth and easy. I just got everything to work here other than the very last rep being a little slow. It felt real good so I thought I was good for the last weight. Nope. Didn’t get things to work out that time. Area of injury started to be a bit more present and I just could get a triple when it was to be 4 with 1-2RIR. Ugh. Not great. Not even a full two weeks into this and already not meeting goals. Feeling uncomfortable isn’t helping that. Only thing so far this workout that was to plan was the exercise where I just held the weight. The heavy weight stuff was done and it was time for the assistance stuff. Push ups were the same as last week but idea was to push them a bit. So I added 20lbs to the backpack and put that on. That certainly increased the difficulty substantially. Could also be my shoulders and triceps are fatigued from things. Couldn’t in good conscious go for 3x12 like last time with the increased weight and have RIRs like I was supposed to. Cuban rotations were next. Same weight and reps, just trying to have more control and not have them feel bad or as fatiguing. I guess mission accomplished there. Last bit of the workout was superset of band external rotations and single arm triceps with bands and long negatives. Keeping the external rotation tension the same but was going to increase the triceps as I was thinking of doing the lower rep range there (10-15). Monster mini and micro seemed too light and I went with the light band with was borderline for this setup and the lower rep side of the rep range. Those long negatives really make the triceps twitchy. Not much to say about the external rotations. Put stuff away and back to work. I ended up stretching when I got home from the social event. Feel like I’m getting stressed out again and will probably need to do my best to recover and rest. Which isn’t really happening at this time pushing for Nationals with 3 previous shows peaked back to back.

August 16, 2022 – Week 2, Day 2

Warm Up Circuit

Skater’s
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Axle Cleans
76x3
96x3
116x3
116x3
116x3

Paused Bent Over Straight Arm Band Lat Pulls (2 seconds)
µb’sx10
µb’sx10

16” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
110x3
200x3
290x3
380x3
430x3
480x3
530x6

12” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps, 2 seconds 2” off the ground)
380x3
380x3
380x3

Paused One Arm Dumbbell Rows (2 seconds)
40x5/5
70x10/10
80x10/10
95x10/10

Posterior Single Leg Step Downs (16”)
15x10/10
25x10/10
40x10/10

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Stretching
  
Comments: I really wasn’t sure how today would go. Several exercises; some new, some old. Some with history. I was not sure how things were going to be with still having an issue with whatever is going on with the lower lat area pain. I know the cause of it and I wish it would get better faster. Maybe too much to ask. There hadn’t been that much concern until I was relaxing after the previous day’s workout. That area was spasming quite hard while I was stretching out. It wasn’t pleasant. Also having a constant “discomfort” makes it difficult to focus despite best efforts and it wears you down and stresses. I kind of made a plan that if this isn’t feeling markedly better by next week (two weeks afterwards) that I’ll need to reassess things. I can sleep fine and most things are not affected. So to see if pain relief measures beyond soft tissue work helped, I did take some Aleve liquid gels in the late morning and then applied Icy Hot a few hours later. The Aleve did provide some relief to aches elsewhere (left shoulder been feeling it since Saturday’s bag over shoulder stuff). I’ve pushed through a broken back before so I know that I can handle most things but if it feels like something I’m doing is making it hurt and making it worse, I’ll stop or skip it. So like yesterday, the warming up was up to me. Less specific but also more specific. Just indicated to warm up hips and knees. So for me that ended up being lying band clamshells and TKEs with bands. First thing was a new one for me. A bounding exercise called “skaters” which I think is because the landing position from bounding to one leg looks like how a speed skater does when building up speed. These were originally going to be used earlier this year but that had an abrupt change when instead of off season it was right into another competition to get to this point. I wasn’t sure what to expect here. I already was thinking stupid thoughts (not about injuries or pain, memes and stuff) and these were easy and kind of fun to do. From there more “explosive” work in that axle cleans were next. Low volume and very light weight. This had been a suggestion from old training where things seemed to be at their best for me with axle with everything coming together (can’t say the same for everything else that cycle though). I was initially going to jump right to the weight setting my axle on bumpers but realized that wasn’t a good idea really and that I could use this a chance to work a lower pick height which will probably be closer to contest (odds are they will be off of 14” wheels and not crash pads). These felt quite smooth and easy. Next was an exercise from right before the last show; straight arm pulldown for the deadlift. Instead of 3 sets, just 2 this time. I used the same setup. Of all the things I did today, these were actually the thing that irritated whatever it is I got going on the most and by a wide margin. However, this is very light and I felt that working these and getting and idea of what kind of “pull” or contraction was at issue. From there it was on to axle pulls. Deadlift medley has axle and farmer’s. What was indicated here was work up in triples to a top set of 5-6 (2-3RIR) with the bar 2” higher than contest to get a little heavier weights used. I had an idea of what I could hit here and be good but it would depend on how things felt working up. I was initially going to do 40-50lbs jumps but then plate jumps just seemed good and I did that up to 380lbs before going with 50lbs jumps at that point. While there was some concern that the weights could cause and issue for the whatever it is, I was fine doing these and that top set was great. Next up was more axle work. Indication was 12” pulls and doing 3x3 with 65% with 2 second pauses 2” off the ground (so at contest height). Now I wasn’t too sure what 65% was to be based off of so I decided to go off of the 585lbs I’ve been using for most floor based pulls. Even if 600lbs was used, it would be 10lbs more from what I was doing and not work it when 3 plates a side would work just fine. Block pulls just seem to click for me better compared to floor pulls and I know that probably has to do with leverages and such. After the pulls it was time for some dumbbell rows. Indication here was work up from 6 RPE to 8 RPE with 3 sets of 10 reps and pausing 1-2ct each rep. Emphasis on keeping these strict. I can put a good bit of heave and slop on rows and that benefits me on things like arm over arm and other upper back stuff but sometimes the controlled is needed. Putting in holds really brings down the numbers I can move on rows and that’s not even with making the form strict. I figured this was more of a thing to get the body ready for arm-over-arm while not doing it yet as it is an event I’m really good at. I figured that I could get away with using my solid dumbbells for either all or most of the sets here but it would depend on how things were feeling. I didn’t want to bother with straps or chalk or any support stuff as I figured this was probably to train arm-over-arm. The weight did seem to work out fine for this. Taking the same rest like I’ve done between sides and sets for unilateral leg work was helpful. A new stepdown variation was next. I’ve done them to the front and to the side but never to the back. So that was what these were. Now the plan was to do 3x10 with assumption of added weight to make them the right difficulty. My issue was making a secure setup that was the right height as I needed to use 16-20” box height. My bench is 21” and it was a bit of trial and error getting something 16”. I wasn’t sure how these would feel so I went with lower range. I tested with just body weight and felt it wasn’t so bad. I could probably get away with no knee sleeves but I felt it was best to not overdo it when I had more stuff this week that would stress the knees. I was kind of caught off guard with how easy I was able to move with 15lbs and 25lbs. 40lbs felt like something and probably where I’ll be at as far as working weight wise next time. Last thing was Nordic curls. I assume this was just to control negatives and use assistance to get back up as I know I can’t do one in good form at this point. I was a little leery about these as I kind of strained something in the left lower leg late last year on these. But plan was 3x5 and indication this might get changed depending on how trashed I report I am from pulls I guess. Now before I had bands assisting with my yoke but this wasn’t that. So setup was simpler. I realized that I probably could’ve had these be gentler on my Achilles tendon area if I had used an axle instead of a barbell for the anchor last time I did these. So I did these with 5ct eccentrics. Hard hamstring work seems to make the knees feel somewhat decent. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

August 15, 2022 – Week 2, Day 1

Warm Up Circuit

Axle Push Presses w/ bands (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
26x2
52x2
82x2
112x2
142x2
172x2
Cluster Reps (15 seconds)
202x1+1
202x1+1
202x1+1
202x1+1
202x1+1
202x1+1

Axle Close Grip Bench Presses
(8 second eccentrics)
46x2
96x2
136x2
186x2
226x1
266x1
301x1
(4 second eccentrics)
241x5
241x5
241x5

Paused Halbert Dumbbell Raises on Incline Bench (2 seconds)
6’sx5
10’sx5
16’sx10
16’sx10
16’sx10

Plate Lu Raises
10’sx12
10’sx12
10’sx12

Dumbbell Tate Extensions
40’sx15
40’sx15
40’sx15

Stretching
  
Comments: Well I wish that I wasn’t coming into this kind of prep after peaking for a show but here we are. I am still feeling training from last week. I was kind of hoping that the strained whatever in my ribs would have calmed down by now but it seems to not be the case. I’ll occasionally get spasms in the muscles and it can be quite painful. Legs and arms are kind of twitchy and were cramping a little the day before. Really isn’t a replacement for squats with a bar on the back as well as lockout work. The ribcage/lower lat/QL area thing seems to not have a rhyme or reason with how it feels as it feels ok training but when I relax it acts up. Left shoulder is feeling stiff but I think that has more to do with that being the shoulder I was tossing things over and the increased farmer’s walk stuff after just doing heavy farmer’s the week before. So for this workout and the next (Day 1 and Day 2 of the 4 day training week), the warming up is my choice so not something that is programmed. For this day, just 2-3 rounds of 2-3 exercises that I felt did the best of the variety of different things for different training cycles. With how shoulders feel, that most recent of wall slides and y raises seems the best so I’ll probably stick to that. Then on to axle work. Push pressing against band tension. Lower weight but still challenging with these bands. Plan was 60-65% bar weight with 10-15% bands and to do 6x2. But not quite that. Indication was to do cluster reps and to set things up so I didn’t have to walk out the weight with the bands. Pop under to stand up and then press. Take a few breaths and do another rep. Since I kind of like to put definitive times for things, I just did 15 seconds. These feel tough and heavy but they look piss easy on video unless I get out of the plane of the bands and even then it is hard to perceive there being any difficulty. So kind of similar feeling to those farmer’s pulls Saturday in that felt slow but moved fast. These axle push presses against bands feel so much tougher than the same straight weight at the top. Just have to get used to that and know that I’m not sliding backwards (which had been a worry last cycle when these first popped up in some regular frequency). Really hard to say RIR on these but I did feel my last double was my best. From there moved on to benching. This had been something that was showing up when my pressing was at it’s strongest back in 2015-2016. Close grip benching. For today, it was to be accentuated eccentrics and I was allowed to use an axle for these if I thought it would be more specific or feel better. Honestly, I went with it so that I had new numbers as I’ve not really done any flat benching with an axle. I’ve done floor pressing and incline with it. So if I felt my numbers were low here, I wouldn’t be so bummed about it. Now the plan here was to work up to a top single (1-2RIR or 30-40lbs left) for 8ct eccentric and then take 20% off that for 3x5 with 4ct eccentric. I was thinking that I could get to low 300’s here. I was basing that off of how these went when I did them on axle incline two cycles ago. However, I may have overestimated myself here and that had been 6ct eccentric. The extra two seconds matter. There was some discomfort with lying on the back but I got over it. As long as my shoulders, neck and anything else didn’t hurt, I was good. I may have gone a little too heavy here but it is hard to gauge on this what is left in the tank and sometimes I can just misgroove things slightly and a rep will feel a lot tougher and then the next rep goes up relatively smooth. So as far as how things went, I’d say it felt like I had 20lbs in the tank on that single. Those long eccentrics really seems to be like a slow cooker for the joints in the shoulders and triceps. I was able to get my reps with the down sets fairly well. That ended the heavier weight part of the session and it was more the little muscles after that. Into the garage. It was nice enough today that I didn’t need to use the fans. Halbert raises back with pauses. At the very end of the training cycle that used them last, I finally started to get the hang of them so I was hoping that I could pick up where I left off. It did take a little bit to get the groove and feeling ok. Not quite as good but loads better than how it had felt some times when I did them. Back outside for a new one with shoulders. Full ROM shoulder raises using plates. I hope I did these right. 3x10-12 depending on weight and with control. I used my 10lbs bumper plates since the video showed using this size. Obviously I will adjust if needed here. These were ok. Last thing was Tate presses. Kind of limited here since these work better with solid dumbbells. Plateloaded handles are way too long. So really this left me with 10’s, 40’s or 70’s. 10’s would be garbage to even warm up with but I wasn’t confident that I should go with 70’s after not doing these for while and these can be a little rough on the shoulders if untrained. Plan was 3x12-15 with 3-5RIR. 40’s were quite light and I probably could’ve done 3x12 with the 70’s but better to try that next time if warranted. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. I really hope this current discomfort alleviates soon. I think if goes into next week, I may need to get it checked out.

August 13, 2022 – Week 1, Day 3

Patrick Stepdowns (3 second eccentrics)
bwx20/20 at 6”

One Legged Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts (opposite side)
60x10/10
60x10/10

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x6
155x6
205x3
245x3
295x3
345x6
345x6
345x6

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Deadlifts (16” pick)
95x3
135x3
185x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Shrugs (16” pick, heels on slant board)
135x50

Sandbag Over Shoulders (left)
175x1
175x1
175x1
205x1
205x1
205x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1
250x1

Sandbag Carries (drops at 50’)
275x150’

Glute Ham Raises (4 pins showing)
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: Still feeling workout from Thursday. Triceps and shoulders sore as well as still having tightness in the QL/lower lat area (also intercostals). I’ve had that before and I’ve been able to work through it with no disruption. Plan was to get up and out to train earlier because I needed help bringing in a new piece of equipment from home. I have sandbags at home but more often than not, I’m training at the strongman gym and the only times I haven’t have been due to a contest happening that takes all day (usually powerlifting) or schedule conflict (like with vacation issue). Nationals has a lot of sandbag and going from 300lbs to 350lbs with no in-between would really suck. So I ordered some lead shot (which ended up being harder to get than it was 5yrs ago) to add to my 313lbs sandbag to try and get it to be around 335lbs. I didn’t add the lead shot to it at home because why would I want it heavier when I got to put it in a vehicle first thing in the morning (and then take it out)? I also wanted to be there earlier so that I could catch the owners and let them know I brought in a new piece of kit. But I guess that wasn’t an issue because the gym was having a “PR Party” and they were there most of the day. I generally don’t like going early because more people are there that are generally local and it gets crowded and warm. But it wasn’t as hot as it had been this summer so it wasn’t that bad considering what I’ve gotten used to this year haha. There were a lot of people so odds were high that I’d have delays in training either because of needing a piece of equipment or because I’d be involved with helping for a PR. Despite my introvert nature and getting annoyed at my own what I feel is snail’s pace progress, I will be the hype man if I know what is going on and be happy with you. I think maybe that’s why I generally don’t go to shows as a spectator or as a helper. It is exhausting and I’m always training myself. Any ways, I had to get to work today. It wasn’t a lot but it could be depending on things. So starting things off with easy stuff for knees with the lower height step downs. High reps for one set with eccentrics. Using the hard foam again. I haven’t felt the need to ice my knees so far but that could be just from not beating up the joints and inflaming tendons from the workload since I just did a show where I deloaded and now reloading. A small boy asked me what I was doing about halfway in (thankfully another child who is more gym savvy assisted in answering his inquiry) and the short answer is to prep for training because I’ve put some mileage on these joints whereas the long answer is one I’m not too sure on and have been asking myself for over a decade now. At this point, my folks showed up with the sandbag. They had gotten separately and were going to make it an ice-cream date (must be good ice cream to go out 45 miles one way) out of it so that benefited me as it would’ve sucked to try and load and unload this out of my car since the trunk is recessed and not flat like theirs. Much easier to get out of car vs getting in. Then back to training. Next was rdls with dumbbell. 2x10 but with just one dumbbell in the opposite arm. There wasn’t any specifications on like RIR or RPE here or set weights so I assumed that it was to be a decent weight but not something that would be determinantal to what was to come or to be so light that it was a warm up. I was planning to go heavier than I did but just holding say an 80lbs weight just felt a bit much so I went with 60lbs. I probably could go heavier here. I am happy that balance seemed to be decent here. I’ve usually done these with the b-stance rather than as a true one-legged lift. On to squats and surprisingly there was a rack open. Not the best one but it was one so I took that. I was a little nervous here just because I was switching up the squats again. Last cycle had been mostly front squats and that had felt good. But I’m guessing maybe somethings were missed doing them exclusively. So these were the regular ssb squats. Indication was plan wasn’t to really be pushing these. Considering that this show has a lot of picking things up. Plan was to do 3x6 at 70%, so just under 345lbs. Indicate RIR on the last set. I was a little concerned about the stiffness/discomfort in the right side but that didn’t seem to be an issue. My knees surprisingly weren’t too achy either. Again, could just be from getting some rest. Around this time was when I started to get that time suck going as people I know were setting up for PRs and I wanted to be there. It also I think helped me distract from thinking too much about squats. Squats were fine but felt slightly off. Obviously front squats helped maintain and possibly improve my leg drive but the mid-range transition was where it felt like it was less a smooth movement and became a two-part lift. It doesn’t look like it on camera really but it felt like it. I still felt strong and that I could hit more reps. Perhaps this is why bringing these back is felt similar to the sensation I was having with suited pulls in that while lockout was good, I was feeling like more back was needed at that point. Or maybe it is incidental. Last set I felt like 4RIR but because of the way the movement was feeling, I marked it was 3-4RIR just in case. Though I feel I could probably gut out more than that with ugly lower back wrenching form which isn’t ideal so keeping it as “good form” RIRs. Trying to be smart. These aren’t even that high of reps but it has been lower reps for the front squats really so this will take a little to get used to it. There was kind of a break here while assisting with Guy going for slightly above the current WR on circus dumbbell for the 90kgs class (and then a big jump above it attempt). Maybe because it was farmer’s walk stuff. I was kind of surprised these were showing up after just competing and doing this event last week. But this event is on both days of the show and I need to work on getting it so that the pick isn’t as fatiguing as it is to do well. And build up a reserve for the deadlift medley. No straps and I treated this as if it was the deadlift medley rather than the farmer’s walk medley. I guess. I mean, I wore the belt setup and knee sleeves I’m going to have for farmer’s walking but wearing shoes for the deadlift medley. I may keep on knee sleeves for the medley and just pull them down if/when attempting the axle so not in the way (medley isn’t split times, just reps and the second set of handles for farmer’s deadlift and the axle would be big PRs so not rushing). Plan here was to treat this like speed work with shorter rests (60-75 seconds) and do 5x3 with a weight that moved well. I’m not a fan of reps with farmer’s handles or frames as there just seems to be a tendency for them to bounce if I want to maintain tightness and not have my arms or core go slack. I went with different handles for this training as I feel that with doing increased frequency that these might be kinder to the hands in the long run. These didn’t feel that awesome to me. On the second to last rep of the last set, the “bounce” caught me off balance. It is very strange feeling how these feel and then seeing it look like it was nothing on camera. Very much a perception thing. Wasn’t quite done as I had some more farmer’s accessory stuff. Advised to do a set of 25-50 reps of shrugs with them and to drop weight to like half. Plan was for some more grip and to build up tolerance in upper back. And to emphasize a forward lean like when walking with the handles. I swapped into my moving shoes and decided to put a slant board under my heels to further emphasize that. I felt that dropping to 50% of what I was just using was going to be too light so I just took off 90lbs a side so 135lbs. These were very easy, like I could’ve done 100 reps here probably. From there it was on to a twist of a fairly new addition; sandbag over shoulder. Sandbag to shoulder was brand new to me starting this year and I feel I got decent at it in the three months or so for that show. So this is a little different in that tossing over the shoulder. Same but different. Drew indicated to still treat it like to shoulder rather than worry about having it go over biceps to the side and be a no rep. I took that into consideration but I felt that I needed to kind of go wild and see what worked here. There is a certain level of control needed for placement with shouldering and potentially having to do this with 350lbs vs 300lbs is also something that needs to be tested. Plan was to do 8-10 singles EMOM style with a light to moderate sandbag for form work. Since I’ve last touched sandbags here, it would seem that the 225lbs or so bag is gone or broke. So that meant that I’d either have to use less than 225lbs or 250lbs or more. When I first did sandbag to shoulder, 225lbs was my weight and it was decently challenging. But I have more experience and I don’t have to really think when doing this movement now. I ended up doing 3 singles at lighter bags to get a feel for this again and make sure I was good and then went for the more compact 250lbs bag. We have different bags and there are larger 250lbs bags that could be good for size prepping the 350lbs bag. The 275lbs weren’t going to be ideal with how they are either. I was familiar with this bag from two cycles back so I knew that the pick would be comfortable each time and I could focus on the toss over shoulder. It took a few tosses before I felt stable and like I wasn’t falling back over with the weight as well. This was kind of fun and I’m interested in seeing how this progresses. There was more sandbag after that and that wasn’t fun. It was to be a single set of sandbag carry with either the sandbag I was just using or slightly heavier. 150’ but dropping the sandbag every 50’ so I’d have to pick it up 3 times. I’m in a more of a feed vs speed mode for front carries with prepping for that max distance keg carry so I’m going to need a few sessions to get moving quickly. So I’d already done a ton of picks and laps so that didn’t really need warming up and I knew my speed and moving wasn’t going to be great so rather than potentially waste energy trying to get my legs moving faster, I just went right for this. That 275lbs sandbag with lead shot in it feels so much heavier than it is. The picks were the worst part of this. Moving and holding wasn’t bad other than me not being that fast. With that done, last thing was glute ham raises. Just bw for 3 sets of 8-12 with 3RIR. Indication was to control the eccentric and keep these strict. I did my best here. First set was a bit easy but the fatigue factor certainly made the other sets tougher. After the workout was done, I decided to put in the lead shot for the sandbag and get it weighed. Came out to 336lbs. Since it was still fairly early (and it would be still like 4.5hrs before my pot roast was done), I stretched at the gym before heading home. Mid back was tense laying on the floor so guess I got to keep an eye on things and work soft tissue stuff and get plenty of rest.

August 11, 2022 – Week 1, Day 2

Axle Clean and Push Presses (clean every rep)
60x3
90x3
120x3
Cluster Reps (15 seconds)
150x1+1+1
180x1+1+1
210x1+1+1

Axle Push Presses
168x2
208x2
248x3
248x8

Seated Axle Pin Presses (6” ROM, No Back Support)
136x3
226x3
276x5
291x5
301x5

Push Ups on Kettlebells (feet elevated 12”)
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12

Dumbbell Cuban Rotations
10’sx10
10’sx10
10’sx10

Paused Band External Rotations (2 seconds)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (5 second eccentric)
µbx15/15 – mmbx15/15
µbx15/15 – mmbx15/15

Stretching
  
Comments: There was some anticipation to this workout. It would be the first real workout back from the show. The one where effort would be needed. And it was training towards Nationals. It has been 5yrs since I’ve been. Not that I didn’t qualify in 2018 or 2021 (didn’t attempt to in 2020 or 2019). Last year I didn’t feel I was ready for it. I hadn’t gotten things back to where they were yet in pressing events and a few other things were under par. Honestly, last year’s events I still wouldn’t feel like I was ready at this point still. Things are lining up better for this one. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy training. The things I’m good at tend to be terrible to train. Finally starting to get a break in this fever high temperatures that have been endemic to this year. So much so that crops in my parent’s garden didn’t react as usual and I’ve barely had to mow my lawn. Probably good thing considering for training. So most of this workout was axle. I have to make up with axle fast. Only overhead event for nationals and it is for max like two shows back. I really had to sit and think here. I went through trainings as far back as 2015 to get ideas on what went wrong and what could be added to the new to lead to the best performance. So part of that anticipation was seeing if those thoughts and ideas worked. Starting things off with the full movement of clean and push press. Not going to bother with jerks. Commit to one style and hone it. So that is essentially the belt clean and push press. First thing was light and form work. Advised to do a triple at 50%, 60% and 70% and treat them like cluster singles. Another chance to test the grip shirt out. 50lbs wasn’t really enough. Need to see how things move and feel with this. Thankful it wasn’t beastly hot as it is heavy and dark material. Why they have to make all these things for support such dark colors? Hair was getting a bit distracting so I managed to shove it all up into my do-rag for a good bit of the session. Other than mosquitoes nipping at my ankles, this was comfortable and easy. I wore more than I needed here as far as support stuff as it was recommended to treat these as max and wear what I would for that. Turning the buckle to the side on the hard belt so that I don’t get that issue I had with it getting caught on the pull. From there, it was axle out of the rack. For some additional work. Plan here was just 80% for a triple and then a max rep set with 2RIR. Stop when slowing down. I was initially going to do a different working up but thing seemed fine with bigger jumps. I also wasn’t going for one all out set without touching the top weight first so that helped. I took off some of the support gear as not needed. Even though I don’t need a grip shirt for out of the rack stuff, I left it on just so that in the event that the fabric changes things any that I’m not getting out of sorts. There were nerves here. Not really been doing reps and there has been struggles with this kind of weight when I accidentally did it against band tension last cycle. And the first rep felt slow with this on the triple. Trying to not panic while walking out the weight (there are plans to address that issue). It felt better on the rep set. I felt it was fast the first 4 reps and then there was some slow down so as not to get off balance and fatigue after that. It still looks fast on video. Probably could’ve stopped at 7 and been fine but I wanted 8 so that I could say I could do 10 for max reps. So the normal pressing work was done and on to the thing I was interested in; short ROM pin presses. This seemed to be a constant in my training in 2015 to 2016 and usually with a log. Seated with 6” ROM and for reps, usually low. My form may not have been the best on say log clean and press but my lockout was good. That time frame I was able to hit 300lbs for a double at 2015 Nationals (as well as reps on a 200lbs dumbbell) and then got 320lbs on axle with a close miss at 340lbs. Drew did make some changes to this suggestion with these being without back support. Carry over would be minimal and wasted effort if weight’s end up being more than 20% over goal weight. Looking at 325lbs so 390lbs and under works. Same but different feel. Again, keeping grip shirt on just because. I initially thought the top setting would be needed but that was a little high so lowered it one. I had an expectation that I was going to be using 275lbs at least here. It can be tricky with pin presses as it could be a thing where a little bit more just won’t budge. Plan here was 3x5 working from 4RIR to 2RIR. So a little trial and error. It was one of those things where a certain weight was moving really easy and then the next weight wasn’t. I did attempt 320ish and it wasn’t budging for me. Some weights moved real easy but it is still a lot pressure as my back on the lower right side (like the QL) is stiff and tight from these. I got that immediate muscle soreness in the area right around the elbows and my triceps were kind of twitching. Not a bad soreness, like an untrained this is hitting what was being missed thing. So excited to see how these progress. So that was it for axle stuff and on to the reps and such. My choice of push ups and I went into the garage for these. Get a little reprieve from the mosquitoes. Replacing incline. Incline other than log has been not fun mentally or physically. Shoulders and neck have not enjoyed them when it is a bar or axle on the left side. But getting shoulder and pec work is beneficial so push ups seem to be the most friendly. So plan here being my choice to get some shoulder and chest work and keep it 8-12 rep range with 3-5RIR. So a bit of play. As far as ones that seem to feel good for me and not a headache setup wise (bands are good but a pain), I’ve really dug the push-ups I’ve done using my kettlebells. Get a stretch and open up the shoulders. However, I know I can do like 20 reps or so with RIR even with tempo and holds so I elevated my feet to make things interesting. Triceps were twitching but not that big an issue. My anterior deltoids were very sore and stiff. Felt too easy first set but the fatigue built up over the sets had this be right in the range for the last two reps. Probably add a little weight to back pack for next time. Rotator work after that with dumbbells. Cuban rotations and used the 10’s. Feel a little jarring and get tough quick over the sets. I rotated my position for the camera to get front, side and back video in case anything looks funky. Back outside to finish things up with bands. A superset of external rotations and triceps. Been doing internal and I’m a good bit stronger at those. Usually it is external and light weight. I forgot which side was the one that had issues keeping up but it is the left side. It has been a bit since I’ve done these. Towel pinch and holds. Not bad really, just takes a long time with the reps. Or so I thought until I did the triceps. So these were single arm as well but with 5 second eccentrics. My arms were shaking trying to control them this much. I think more from the effort I made them put out for the pin presses. Just had to kind of go into a zen state and they started to be fine. Put stuff away and made a brief visit to visiting family before back home to cook dinner and stretch.