November 2, 2022 – Week 2, Day 2

Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (beltless, straps, 3-1-3-0 tempo)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x8
205x8
205x8
205x8

Paused Inverted Ring Rows (1 second)
bwx13
bwx10
bwx10

Kettlebell Windmills (3-1-3-0 tempo)
15x3/3
15x3/3
35x6/6
35x6/6
35x6/6

Paused Dumbbell Lateral Lunges (3 seconds)
10’sx8/8
10’sx8/8
10’sx8/8

Walk
15 minutes

Stretching
 
Comments: Felt some stress from the work day unfortunately but didn’t figure it would affect me much at all. I’ve been relatively low stress since Nationals concluded. And not for a lack of trying by myself or my work haha. Anxious to do some “real” training again but know the lid needs to stay on for at least a month to be safely ready to put my body through the rigors of a tough competition season. Plan revised a little. Arnold isn’t definite and I’m a good bit away from a spot in the rankings from Nationals. If I don’t find out by Christmas, that is a no go just because of stress reasons with getting ready and securing things (like hotel since that is pain during the Arnold). So the PA Dutch show is happening again this year and has really good events for me. Like I can win it because of how the events are. I had no say in picking events for this show despite home gym (promoter didn’t even answer me if it was happening this year). Then it does appear that PA will have a regional show middle of June. So may just repeat last year with doing shows in PA. I don’t know events for that show yet but hopefully will know by Monday next week. Hopefully they are good events (not even for me, just stuff that doesn’t suck or are boring). The only other Regional I know about isn’t really a good spot to get to with other things going on but still 2 others that I don’t know when or where (1 PA, 1 AL and 1 CA).  Time to workout again. As mentioned last time, this is pretty much a repeat of last week with more weight or added stuff to make things that were too easy tougher. RDLs with snatch grip again. Plan was to 4x8 with 10-20lbs more than last time and leave 3-4RIR and note RIR on last set. Advised to take a little longer rests. Tempo work on these is rough. I felt that lower reps and being prepared for things this time around that I could more accurately assess what I had left in the tank. No belt on these. Sounds like I’ll be switching to a different variation next time because of how hard these are on the upper body. Even with straps on, these tax my forearms as well as my pinkies and ring fingers. I realized that some of the difficulty and hesitation may be from distraction of worry that the straps will slip and I’ll drop it. I made sure to chalk up my hands and the straps and that seemed to resolve that. Sometimes the less approach is not the best approach depending on the focus and intent. But I’m doing things without the copper sleeves for knees or arms and no belt right now so the fact things feel fine enough without that is good sign. I know I’ll rely on them more as I get further into getting back up to speed. Next up was inverted ring rows. I must have made these look too sloppy as I got a pause penalty added to these. But really it is just another way to use same weight but make tougher. Control and pauses on rowing really cuts down what I can do but pays dividends when I get allowed to do things with a bit of swing to it. Which is why I can use like 90lbs for stricter things and then need like twice that when allowed to use my body. With like a week between to catch up if needed. Things felt really good that first set. I was to do the same 3x10-15 with 3-4RIR with the pause. I stopped myself as I felt that I might fatigue hard after that first set and I was right. Those two sets of 10 reps after that really easy set of 13 reps were a good bit harder. From there to the tempo kettlebell windmills. Same as last time but indicated to warm up so that I was using my top weight or so as working sets. I had been hesitant last time since not really sure what I could do and stuff was kind of stiff. I ended up doing two sets with the 15lbs kettlebell to feel good and then got the heavier stuff. I purchased a kettlebell handle that I can load up with weight. But it is long so kind of have to be careful with getting it to the overhead. Also with the metal plates and how they jut out, I felt it was best to wear some kind of forearm padding. My elbow sleeves seemed to fit the bill. These seemed to go pretty well. Left side shoulder felt tighter, right side hamstrings felt tighter. Hopefully I didn’t make too big a jump here. It felt tougher but manageable. Next was the last thing with weights for the evening and it was dumbbell lateral lunges with pauses. Last thing besides the scheduled walk was those lateral lunges with pauses. Dumbbells again and 3 second pauses with alternating sides. I was worried these would make my knees ache like last time. Same weight as last time as instructions were to have better quality of movement and reps. I think I accomplished that as the movement felt more flowy. More natural. Less aches in the knees too. Put stuff away and went for a short walk as instructed to finish things up. Ate dinner, stretched and iced my knees and left elbow before bed (have to realize with the elbow that it isn’t just pressing but rowing that stress things).