November 25, 2022 – Week 5, Day 3

Swiss Bar Incline Bench Presses (3-1-X-0 tempo)
45x5
75x5
105x3
135x3
165x6
170x6
175x6
180x6

One Arm Standing/Braced Dumbbell Rows (3-3-X-0 tempo)
56x3/3
83x3/3
110x8/8
110x8/8
110x8/8

Push Ups on Kettlebells
bw+20x22
bw+20x16

Paused Band Face Pulls (2 seconds)
abx20
abx20
abx20

Dumbbell Zottman Curls
10’sx5
30’sx10
32’sx10
34.5’sx10

Stretching
 
Comments: Thanksgiving come and gone. Past few years there has been no traveling involved for it. In the past, it has been generally going to Virginia for gathering but with changes in the world and just the family in general, it has become a bit fractured into what is convenient for everyone. This year was kind of muted affair in that maybe half of who was here last year. Some couldn’t make it due to circumstances, some had plans for shared time and others no longer with us. But about the same in that family visits and I eat dinner earlier than I usually would and feel sleepy afterwards. Which gets the sleep cycle off. I’d be screwed if I had to work the day after as I took a sort of nap and then got a second wind at like 10PM so it was closer to like 1AM that I was able to doze off finally. But rested for training. Workout plan to be similar to last week in exercises and execution. Which has very much been a common refrain this training cycle. Really I think the only times that each week is about the same but “a little bit louder now” is during these off season periods. For whatever reason, this one has felt the most monotonous and I know that may not be factually correct if I go through trainings. Just maybe because nothing has stood out to me as needing special equipment or the strongman gym atmosphere. At this point, I’m sticking to no support gear besides straps and knee sleeves until my workouts no longer are designated as “pre hab”. Swiss bar incline bench with tempo worker again. As was the case for tempo based benching that one cycle, the plan here seems to be lowering the eccentric time to allow for weight increases. Plan here was to do 155-165x4x6 leaving 2-3RIR and then report back. I was hoping that I could do the top end here. I had every intention of listening to the weight suggested unlike the rdls on Wednesday. As I felt that I was closer to this being the case. So plan was 30lbs jumps working up in triples. But decided to do 2x5 and then 2x3 as far as working up. I think I was worried about 135lbs being too much before the top set since that was working weight two weeks ago. But I felt if I skimped there, then I had no business doing 165lbs. Got excited for this first set as 135lbs didn’t feel as easy as I wanted it to (it didn’t feel right compared to the previous jumps). And I blew it away. Like, wasn’t even close. So I decided to increase by 5lbs a set. Or at least until it felt like I may not be in the RIR range. That second set had me doubting that a little. But then the third set it felt really easy the first four reps. Felt good on that last set. Going up 30lbs from the previous week. I’m liking this bar for incline work. There was some achiness in the shoulders but it went away as I did more and more. This wasn’t the discomfort I was having with the barbell or axle. Triceps felt strong today. As was the case last week, cleaned up that stuff and it was into the garage for the rest of the workout. One arm rows again. Slight adjustment to the tempo. Plan was 3x8 on these. I elected to swap out the handle I was using for these to the shorter one just because it would be closer to what I wanted to use with both sets of my heavy 25’s on it as opposed to the longer handle. I felt that dropping two reps on these would allow me to make this jump planned to be in the right range finally. Got amped up for these as well. Definitely feel that I got the weight right for these after those tough two weeks of 10’s on these. Heavy stuff done and on to the lighter stuff.  Push ups again. Same as last week but advised ok to push the RIR a little higher. And that this was the last week of these. I was originally planning to do just bodyweight on these again but felt that I could get into the middle range with 20lbs added this time around. These went well enough. Band face pulls followed that up. After last week, plan was to get 3x20 with the average band or at the bare minimum improve the total reps over the three sets. But if I got 20 reps the first two sets, I was going to do my best to get 20 reps for that last set. Band face pulls feel good when you get the motion to feel smooth and the tension is just right. Too much or not ready for it and it pulls you out of position and tends to become more arms. Assuming these again next week, may move up to strong band and see how I handle that tension. Last thing was biceps. Switching to a style of curl that I’ve not done I think since 2015; Zottman curls. Palms up concentric and rotate at top so reverse curl position for the eccentric. Plan was 3x10 with 3-4RIRs and controlled motion. I’ve not really done much direct biceps stuff with weights and it has been sporadic. I had a feeling I could do more than the incline curls but I had to test out the movement to see how everything felt first and make sure nothing hurt or felt odd. Success with that. I assumed 40lbs would be too much today based off how warming up felt and knowing how my biceps tend to fatigue hard. But 30lbs turned out to be a bit too easy. I had used smaller plates as I was worried that the bigger diameter stuff would feel odd with the rotation aspect so doing jumps to test 40lbs for the last set weren’t really there or in the best interest right away. But definitely there for next time. Put stuff away but didn’t stretch right away as my sisters and my nephews wanted to go walk along the creek so I got in some walking around for 30-40 minutes as well before getting home to stretch out.