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
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
(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
6’sx5
10’sx5
16’sx10
16’sx10
16’sx10
Plate Lu Raises
10’sx12
10’sx12
10’sx12
10’sx12
10’sx12
10’sx12
Dumbbell Tate Extensions
40’sx15
40’sx15
40’sx15
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.
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.
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