January 16, 2023 – Week 13, Day 1

Paused Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (3 stages, 2 seconds)
26x3 R
26x3 L
26x3 R
26x3 L
26x3 R
26x3 L
26x3 R
26x3 L
26x3 R
26x3 L

Axle Push Presses w/ bands (+22lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
36x3
66x3
96x3
126x3
156x3
156x3
156x3
156x3
156x3
156x3
156x3

Band Assisted Pull Ups (pin 24)
sbx10
sbx10
sbx8

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
26’sx10
46’sx6
63’sx11
48’sx20

Paused Side Plank Lifts (6 seconds)
40x3/3
40x12/12
40x12/12

Stretching
 
Comments: Off work for holiday. Considering the things planned, it was a good thing I think that I wasn’t having to worry about work. I’d get to do the stuff in the early afternoon and have time to do stuff in the late evening. I had been putting off getting elbow drained until after the holidays and then realizing a little late that not open on weekends now (but hard to gauge if the clinic and office are same hours). So plan was to do that after training since I knew I’d have to abstain from training for 24hrs afterwards assuming same result as last visit in October. This was also first workout taking into consideration not doing circus dumbbell at working weights each week. Granted, this may get adjusted further after more discussion of plans. I’ve been a bit paranoid with shoulder soreness. Anyways, the plan here was still to do form work with circus dumbbell. Drew is a big believer of drilling the skills of movement on things like circus dumbbell weekly or even a few times a week. So this was pretty much to do as to keep the goal/intent fresh. 26lbs is the handle with 10’s added. Suggested was 4-5 sets of 3 reps. I decided to do 5x3 and added in pauses at three places to really drill that down. Feel where I am in each. I wore wrist wrap on my right wrist because that is still not quite there. Being below freezing Saturday and then above 50 today doesn’t help with joint aches either. Knees seem to be aching a bit on the dip and I do wonder if that achiness is affecting leg drive. I’m noticing with the pauses and light weight that there are some differences in the sides. I tend to press better with the right side if the dumbbell is able to be placed on the midline. Left side is more comfortable and I tend to splay the left foot out as I move from rack to dip drive. Left elbow also seems a little slow to lock out. I was also not lowering these back to the shoulders each rep and just letting it fall down so as to have less fatigue and maybe not bang and bruise up my shoulders more as well. Next thing was another overhead I wasn’t too thrilled with; axle. Specifically, axle push press against bands. Indication was to do 50-60%x6x3 and have it feel like RPE 6-7. I was pretty much already going for just 50% because these band push presses had been wrecking me hard when I was doing them. Trying to not think about things too much. Just move weight. Not equate sensations with previous performance or trainings. There were aches in the shoulders, wrists and knees. I feel I got better with moving as I went but there were concerns of this being too hard or too much. Even though it wasn’t. For all intents and purposes, this was moving well enough and like it should for the goals. I guess concerns that I’ve not been able to demonstrate pressing consistent with what I have hit. But with the knees situation, I may need to start wearing the sleeves for leg drive pressing with the increase in weights for lower body stuff and increase in knee stuff from event work. The rest of the workout was more in line with what I’ve been doing the past few weeks with the switch to contest prep. Moved on to band assisted pull-ups. Same as last week with the plan being 3x8-10 with 2R. Can’t lower the bands any more besides changing band or just not using one. Barely any assistance on these now anyways. But I think having that there is some cue for me to not rush the eccentric or try and shorten the ROM to full deload at the bottom. Aim with same assistance was to add more total reps. First set felt a little tougher than I would’ve liked, second set I pushed a little and last set I scaled back due to the pushing the second set a bit. 3x10 will come and it will be comfortable when it happens. Into the garage to finish up the day. Lying dumbbell extensions. Same as last week with two top sets (10-12 and 12-20). Notes were to use same weight as last week and attempt to improve reps and quality of reps. So not really an option to add reps to the down set but for the top set yes. Good was weights didn’t feel as heavy in the hands working up this time. I did more reps because elbows were feeling achy. Put on wrist wraps for both wrists for the working sets as hope was to maybe take my mind off it feeling heavy and perhaps add some stability for the right wrist. Top weight still felt miserable and went for an extra rep. I didn’t use the bolt on collars as those had made the rest break too long between the first and second set changing out weights. I feel I got it closer to what was needed this time. Down set definitely felt easier compared to last week. Last thing for obliques with paused plank lifts. Same as last week. I attempted a different cushion setup for the left elbow situation but that didn’t really work out. I ended up doing a few reps each side to acclimate to the discomfort and then be able to do the sets. As has been the case, it feels less uncomfortable as I go. But the stuff that gets worked on these got worked hard. Had a protein shake (new delivery had half the wrong flavor) and then stretched out before heading out to get elbow drained. I’m fine but man, things didn’t got as expected with that.