January 23, 2023 – Week 14, Day 1

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses
60x1/1
70x1/1
80x1/1
90x1/1
100x1/1
110x1 L
120x1 L
130x1 L
140x1 L
EMOM
152x1 L
152x1 L
152x1 L
152x1 L
152x3 L
110x1 R
120x1 R
EMOM
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x3 R

Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 second eccentrics)
65x3
95x3
125x3
155x6
155x6

Paused Band Assisted Pull Ups (2 seconds)
(pin 24)
sbx8
(pin 16)
sbx11

Split Stance Band Paloff Presses (10 second holds)
mmbx4/4
mmbx4/4

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
26’sx10
46’sx10
63’sx12
48’sx20

Stretching
 
Comments: So I was nervous going into this workout. That really does seem to be a common refrain of mine as we continue to push forward. Trepidation really. Having felt disappointment and failure. Sometimes it’s not even that I can’t do it but that I won’t do it with it being easy enough and allowing for me to have someplace to continue to progress and peak for when it matters. Hopefully as I continue to tick off the boxes so to speak of things this will become less an issue and it will be more just nerves for displaying it when it matters. What was of concern for this workout was circus dumbbell. It was kind of time to see if the changes had been worthwhile or for naught. First two weeks of pushing the circus dumbbell had gone well and then the third week it was terrible. I felt it was too much that I wasn’t recovering like I was when the weights were below 100lbs. So dropping volume and frequency. I didn’t feel that confident with things last week with switching to just doing circus dumbbell as form work and then axle push press with bands. Granted it wasn’t feeling super-duper awesome that week, it wasn’t where I was so bad that tossed the weights off the rack like I did leading up to Nationals last year. Thursday’s workout last week had felt like a nice break from things. But I was still not sure if I made the right call here and that maybe it was just my body not recovering from the heavy squats and stones Saturday. And I had done a lot more stone lifting this time around and it was heavier. And I was also not 100% sure about the elbow after the absolute buggery that was done to it draining it last week. The plan for this was to work up to a comfortable weight in singles taking 7.5-10% jumps to this weight and do five EMOM sets with it. The first four being singles and then the last one to be 1-3 reps depending on how I felt, as long as I left 1-2RIR and/or form didn’t break down. Also taking a moment back just to think on how to approach things, I made some adjustments. One was wearing the knee sleeves. I’ve not worn them in the past but I’m finding that even if I think I can “shut it off” when it comes to any kind of discomfort, it will be there and subconsciously limit how much I feel I can drive my lower body into the weight. The other was not lowering the dumbbell back to my shoulder. While this is a my preferred style with being quick and keep hold of dumbbell for staying stationary and reclean, I found it didn’t work for me two weeks ago and was throwing me off balance. Additionally, letting the dumbbell just fall to the floor cuts down on the amount of contacts of the weight “slamming” onto my shoulders. Which could help with recovery not having that. At least until I feel comfortable again. Had to temper expectations as I see the people I’m to be competing against looking to be ahead of me on this event. Like the first week, I decided to work up in 10lbs jumps. Things seemed to be feeling good. No wrist pain in the right wrist. Stuff was feeling mostly like it should. I gave myself a moment with the 130lbs to adjust as there is still not a seamless transition from the plateloaded to that. 140lbs went up decently and I felt that 150lbs would be shortchanging myself but didn’t feel like 160lbs was the way to go just yet. So added 12lbs and hoped I didn’t screw things up. That first single went up smooth and perfect and I felt that all was right with the world. There was certainly some fatigue being noticed on the subsequent reps (biceps were feeling stones). Put I felt like I could’ve repeated what I had done two weeks ago as far as the EMOM with this weight. Had a little issue with getting the dumbbell racked on the first rep on that last set. If I was following the form aspect, I would’ve stopped there but I got better each rep. Quite happy that I’ve got back to where I feel I was at the start of this and not lost much ground. Back on track is where I want to be. With the right side, same thing but I cleaned the 130lbs and it felt fine and figured that I should try 135lbs for the sets. That first rep with the actual bell does feel a little off. There is definitely fatigue in the arms for the clean from the stone work. Noticing less knee discomfort when on the left side vs the right. Just with how I have to balance and which leg takes the burnt of it. I know the right knee has more issues compared to the left. Same as the left side, I had issues with the position of the dumbbell on the rep set with the right. Eventually it clicked for me that the other side can be active. There is a lot of things to be thinking about with circus dumbbell but it is not just a one arm press. Once I started using the other arm to kind of “slap” the dumbbell into position, it was feeling really easy. Need to keep being a student of the sport and improve. But I was allowed this momentary feeling of relief. From there it was the behind the neck strict presses. Same thing as far as 3 second eccentrics but now 2x6-8. RPE was indicating a range of 7-8. I was going to do 135lbs and aim for 2x8 but I guess feeling good about the circus dumbbell, I just added 20lbs to my sets with the goal of doing 155lbs for 2x6. I’ve done light weight on these for a lot of reps with different tempos but I feel that I need to get used to not just weight but also in moving said weight from that spot. It is a different movement for me with the pressing. 155lbs was a bit challenging but I got things done I feel at the upper end of the range. So that is something. Moved on to band assisted pull-ups. This was a bit different. So this was two sets with one set being for 6-8 reps with 1-2RIR and a second set of 10-12 with 2-3RIR. These were to be 1-2ct holds as well. So first set was at the same setup I’ve been doing with the lowest I can setup the bands to assist. Those holds get tough and my abdominals are feeling the ab wheel and stone lifting big time. For the rep set, I was to increase the assistance. I felt just from how these had felt in the past with tempo that I’d probably need to move the band up a good bit to have me do enough reps with the expected RIR. So moved it up 8 pins. It was feeling easy at the start but this also got tough quick. I thought I was at 12 reps but wasn’t sure and rewatched to see I had stopped at 11 reps. Well, I needed to stop there as this was getting really tough. Into the garage for the rest of the workout (it was starting to flurry anyways). So first up was a change in the core work. This had been side bends and side plank lifts but while good, the side plank lifts were not good idea on the elbow. Especially since it seems more sensitive to pressure being applied since the procedure. So this was new with the paloff press. I’ve seen these used in more rehab kind of settings for building the inner abdominal muscles and for anti-rotational bracing. What was the plan here was to do these in a split stance and low reps but hold them for 10 seconds. These were deceptively challenging but good. I think I was initially worried these would be stressful on my shoulders because of my long arms but it wasn’t really and most of that effort was in the midsection and lower body. Last thing was lying dumbbell extensions. Same as it has been with notes still being to increase reps where I could and improve quality of motion. Also if I felt pain to stop or adjust to 3 second eccentrics. This I wasn’t sure how it would go really. I had been able to do these last week before the elbow visit but wasn’t sure how these would go after that. Doing higher reps on the warm ups to the working weight had felt like the best course of action with just how things felt the past two times. There was discomfort but not enough to make me stop. I put on wrist wraps on both wrists and a compression cuff on the left side. I managed to add a rep to the heavier set and the down set continues to move and feel easy. I wouldn’t miss this if this ends up getting dropped. Obviously I will have to keep a watch of things. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Even though knees were feeling somewhat fine, I still iced them just to be on the safe side and not just assume that the month of anti-inflammatories is going to take care of it.