January 18, 2023 – Week 13, Day 2

Warm Up Circuit

Paused Trap Bar Deadlifts (15”, 2 seconds, straps)
140x3
230x3
320x3
410x3
410x3
410x3
410x3
410x3
410x3

Hatfield Bulgarian FFE Split Squats (2”)
65x3/3
115x3/3
155x3/3
195x3/3
225x10/10
225x10/10

Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls (explosive reps, full ROM)
lbx20/20
lbx20/20
lbx17/17

Paused Ab Wheel (2 seconds)
bwx13
bwx10
bwx7

Stretching
 
Comments: So Monday didn’t end well for me. Not in a training sense, just more in a I wasn’t expecting to have a panic attack sense. So when I was seen for the elbow bursitis on 10/19/22, I had been told I could come in to get it drained as needed and that if it filled back up in a week that it was probably needing surgery and more like a month, then that was fine. It ended up being more than a month and then I just kind of put it off due to the holidays and not wanting to derail things. I had expectations from how things went last time. Did not get same medical provider. I recognized them but wasn’t sure if it was a bad or good recognize. It would end up being a bad afterwards. The tone of voice didn’t change but I got a sense that him seeing me to drain my elbow was an inconvenience and strongly suggesting that I get surgery (while indicating this was not pushing it and that last resort). Indicated he put a note in my chart to consult surgery option if I come back in for this. Now last time I was here, it was antiseptic swab, needle in and drain clear-ish fluid quick and using the same needle inject corticosteroids and I was done with no pain whatsoever. This time, I get sprayed done with cold spray and then get needle jammed in me and the vial fills with blood. Then he attaches another to drain another vial of my blood while squishing the area to try and push more stuff out. It feels uncomfortable and I wasn’t prepared for blood. I got light headed and dizzy and break out into a cold sweat instantly. Blood is on the patient table as well. Doesn’t bother with a band-aid or injecting any corticosteroids and just wraps the arm up in ACE bandage with a baseball sized amount of gauze. States too much stuff in there to inject anything so given 30 days of anti-inflammatories to take orally. And my elbow as now hurting. So wasn’t feeling great going into Tuesday and just trying my best to not linger on it as surgery option would be 4-6 weeks recovery and there really isn’t a good time for that if I want to compete competitively this year (and I have less years each year). So I am trying to keep my arm wrapped and compressed during the day and wearing the copper arm sleeve on the arm while training to see if that helps on top of the anti-inflammatories. But if I’m not in pain, I will put this off longer as that was a very uncomfortable experience for me and next time I won’t go as a walk-in and schedule to meet with a specialist. So thankfully discomfort has lessened since Monday trauma. On to training. Warming up wasn’t specified but I did the same stuff I’ve done the past few weeks with a slight modification as to not lay on my elbows and put pressure there. Trap bar again. Look, it’s going to be trap bar every week until I’m done with this training cycle. Anyways, this was a break from the heavy every week approach. Plan does appear to be going forward to do a lighter week and heavier week. Lighter week being paused speed reps and the heavy week being suited work. Now for this, it indicated to use 50-55% of my max on this and do 1-2ct pauses right off the floor and speed through the lift. There was also the suggestion that if I felt bands would work and I could set things up for that to lower percentage 5% and add 10-15% in bands. I had intended to initially just do straight weight plan as it was easier math if assuming 750lbs for the 55% range and setting up bands can be a pain. But then I thought about it more and decided I did want to do bands. But for whatever reason, I was not able to get the setup to be as secure as I was getting it in the past. Maybe bad spot on the garage floor. I couldn’t get the band tension to be enough and then when it was it would move the anchors. So after about 20 minutes or so (I did this before warming up) I gave up on it and went back to the no bands option. Worked up in triples for the planned 6x3 with 75-90 seconds rest. My right knee was feeling a little uncomfortable today. I had not done icing this week for my knees on the account of assuming that since I’m taking anti-inflammatories for the next 30 days that that would cover it. May not be the case. Despite that, I feel these went fairly well with good control. Then on to the front foot elevated Bulgarian split squat hatfields. For these, advised to work up in triples to 2x8-10 at RPE 8-8.5. I had a thought of going for 225lbs here. 20lbs increase. Again, I thought this might be too much considering things and goal was just 2x8 really. However, I again got through these better than expected. The shoulders do get a little bit of stress from the rack holding and having the ssb dig into them when doing that. I will say this was definitely the closest I’ve felt that I was getting to the appropriate effort ranges and not taking into consideration the taking breath away aspect of it between sides and sets. I’m glad these continue to improve. It does appear that next week is the last of them for right now and switching things up to something less taxing as we get closer to contest peak. Next up was single leg curls with bands. Seated this time and notation on these was to do them explosively with full ROM. I’ve been good about moving fast but not always the all the way back part of it with leg curls with bands. Usually not going to full extension and the band tension being enough that can’t really get it much further flexed but good enough for government work. Plan was 3x12-20. Light band was what I figured would be good here. First set was way too easy. I moved the bench away like 6” and that got things cooking. Left side was handling these a lot better than the right side. Moved the bench back a little more for the last set. I felt my right leg slowing down and fatiguing and stopped at 17 reps. Would’ve liked to have done 3x20 but I knew I needed to call it there. Left side had no problem with matching that. Last thing was abdominal work of my choice. Suggested stuff like planks, reverse crunches and dragon flags. I was worried about those because of the elbow situation. Planks direct pressure to the bursitis and the reverse crunches and dragon flags needing an anchor point that I’d hold from behind my head with elbows fully flexed and that motion hadn’t felt great the day before. Plan with these were to just kind of add some work to hit them to balance things out with the lower back emphasis happening now. I had also tried to think of a motion that was similar to atlas stone extension as far as strain and dragon flags definitely fit the bill. But so did ab wheel. I had forgotten about that exercise. Or perhaps tried to because of how much those cause DOMS in my lower abs. So decided to do those with pauses for 3 sets of max reps leaving 3RIR or so. As expected, I did good that first set and declined substantially on the following sets. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Used the flawed logic of not needing icing for knees as the previous days and to also try to get to bed sooner.