November 7, 2022 – Week 3, Day 1

One Arm Half Kneeling Dumbbell Strict Presses (3-1-1-0 tempo)
12x5/5
32x3/3
52x10/10
52x10/10
52x10/10
52x10/10

Paused One Arm Half Kneeling Band Lat Pulldowns (3 seconds)
sbx12/12
sbx12/12
sbx12/12

One Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (0-2-0-2 tempo)
mmbx15/15
mmbx15/15
mmbx15/15

Front Foot Elevated Split Squats (4”, 3-0-3-0 tempo)
15’sx10/10
20’sx10/10
25’sx10/10

Suitcase Carries (10 second holds at start)
132x50’/50’
132x50’/50’
132x50’/50’

Stretching
 
Comments: A little miffed about not having the events for PA Regional show lie I was expecting to but I guess another week is fine (considering not for over 7 months). I guess it was just something to think about implementing into the plan. Curious to see if overlap between things (Arnold and PA Dutch). Switching to four workouts a week but not on the typical days as the 4th day is going to be least amount of volume and work. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Eventually I guess back to doing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Saturday when time for serious training. This is training right now and necessary to get things feeling right again and recover from the past year of training. Longer off season seems to be best for me as I felt like I was my most prepared and ready for PA Dutch this year after competing in October and then taking break. So similar thing here. But not every trying cycle is the same as new things are noticed and need to be addressed. And sometimes the big money stuff might hamper things. But good lord can this training be boring. Leaving plenty of RIR on stuff and consistency. Not going for broke. Even though no worry about trick or treat this week, I figured it was best to do the workout early and then rest of the workout after work because of the switch back to standard time as now it was dark pretty much right as work was finished. So this might be a thing on those days when I got training that requires moving distance and not just going for a walk. Feeling a good bit of aches in the shoulders and neck on the left side. The side that has been a bit like that ever since I fell doing box jumps last year. Also keeping track of the elbow issues (golfer’s and tennis). Plan was to get the upper body stuff done during lunch and then the lower body stuff after work. Being able to move through things faster, it made sense to accommodate that by having stuff setup for outside rather than do an exercise and then have to setup the next one. Been a few weeks since I’ve done training on the patio so I had to sweep off a bunch of leaves before getting things setup. Single arm strict presses while in the half kneel stance again. A lot of this very similar to previous weeks’ training with minor changes. Sometimes adding an exercise, replacing one or dropping one. So for these, the tempo was adjusted and sets were increased. Still 3 second eccentric and pause but not forced slow concentric so fatigue would be greatly reduced. I should be able to do more weight for the reps and leave plenty RIR. I felt that 12lbs jump would work out here to get 4x10 done. Plateloaded dumbbell sits a little different from the solid dumbbells. These felt fine enough. There was some shoulder tightness and biceps tightness at times. But power seemed good off the shoulder even if it felt not great getting it up to the shoulder that first rep each set. Almost missing axle pressing. Almost. I got at least two more weeks of this. Next was one arm lat pulls again. Same hold time but set reps per set rather than time. Knowing that, I knew I could bump up the band tension considerable. It was nice to get outside in the sun for this part of the workout, rather than it being darkness. This exercise has been a staple for me and kind of funny that band pulldowns have been a part of what built up things for the best arm-over-arm puller in the nation this year. Funny enough not really pushed during the last cycle and haven’t really pushed the tension hard lately. I’ll get used to these again. I feel able to push these a little bit more by taking breaks between sides. Need to realize that doing so isn’t showing a conditioning weakness; it is allowing both sides to get the work while having a slight fatigue going for the rest of the body that is bracing. I had mentioned changes and triceps exercise was a change. This had been the main reason I had elected to use outside for setup for both the band lat pulls and the triceps stuff. Plan was 3x12-15 with the inverted tempo that emphasizes the stretch and contraction. With elbows and such I went lighter just to make sure on these. I thought maybe too light initially but I could feel things tensing as I was doing these to stabilize the bands. Kind of crazy how much my triceps were twitching after I was done. Perhaps this needs to be worked some more. So that was what I got done before having to get back to work and save the remaining stuff for the after work. Kind of split nicely into upper body and lower body. So the tempo FFE split squats were up next. Same stuff been doing but decrease in reps. Barefoot feels like the way to go. Knees took a little bit to feel warm again after the break. I had not planned to keep pushing the weight up on these but I guess 2 less reps per set made things much more manageable. Continuing with trying to get things feeling good. Knees start off achy but eventually I’m able to get stuff moving well and with control. Honestly, doing exercises that require minimum weight but I can make them tough with tempo control is probably the best thing for me getting joints and muscles ready to start pushing the weights again. Last thing for the session was the suitcase carries. Had to setup lights and course. Lot of acorns and leaves in the street and I tried to avoid them for the setup. Plan was to do 3 sets of 50’ with 10lbs more this time. 10 second holds as well. Less time for the hold but more sets. Wasn’t specified but I assumed the 10 second holds at the start this time around to fatigue before moving rather than moving and then holding. Other than it being dark out and having to watch slipping on debris, these were decent. Put stuff away and stretched before eating a roast. No icing this time.