February 22, 2023 – Week 18, Day 2

Warm Up Circuit

Suited Trap Bar Deadlifts (15”, straps)
No Suit
140x2
230x2
320x2
Added Suit
410x2
500x2
590x1
680x1
770x2
650x8

Safety Squat Bar Step Ups (12” box, 3 second eccentrics)
65x6/6
100x3/3
135x15/15
135x15/15

Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls (explosive reps, full ROM)
sbx14/14
sbx14/14

Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises (3 second holds)/Single Leg Calf Raises (0-5-0-5 tempo)
30x10/10 – bwx10/10
30x10/10 – bwx10/10

Stretching
 
Comments: Still not entirely sure what is up with the whatever (hip, back, groin, leg) but I either am tolerating it better or it is calming down a little. There was certainly some tension while walking the day before. However, increased blood flow and lower back tends to feel better if I’m moving around vs not. Haven’t taken any anti-inflammatories since Saturday. Joints and allergies a little on the up and down with the big changes in weather with pressure systems. Below freezing before the weekend, 60 on Monday and then snowing, raining and hailing today (seeing my breath moving car out of garage) with it to potentially get up to 70 degrees or above tomorrow. Last heavy deadlift workout. I was putting a big ask on myself with how I was feeling. I modified the warming up again. So did what I’ve previously dubbed as “drinky birds” as I felt that doing the side plank modified lying band clam shells would just irritate the hip more than these. The other thing was still the lat pulls but modified to include not just a hold but standing up as I had seen Drew do these as a movement prep and felt that would be good to add here. So with the plan here, it was again trap bar pulls. Work up in doubles to about 60-65% and then singles to a top set of 1-3 reps with 1RIR. I had 770lbs as number stuck in my head. It can be difficult to not go for the numbers when they call to me. I figured I had it if I could do 680lbs for 6 reps with what I felt was 2RIR or maybe more. I felt I had to have 800lbs or more there as well. I think my worry was one if I could hold up to it with aches and what not as well as the fact it was quite aggressive increase from even last time as well as that there isn’t a build up built from a single vs reps with a suit. I’d adjust plans but I generally don’t like to. This would call for me to do 90lbs jumps all the way up really. I was feeling some tension in the right side obliques and rib cage a bit warming up. Sometimes it does feel like that but goes away as I get more warm and serious and more support stuff comes out. My rehband belt was not really sticking so well together and kept coming apart. I also was testing things out with an additional pair of spandex briefs on to see if that helped any (not really). Just testing last minute things. With how things were feeling, I honestly was having doubts here. Feeling heavier than I was hoping. Like, rechecking to make sure I wasn’t off by 90lbs kind of heavy feeling as I was getting up there. Nope, I had the weights right. Last single was not the confidence builder it needed to be. But I’m stubborn. I know that the suit doesn’t get tired but I do. The ability is there, I’ve held heavier things. I got set and went for it. This was heavy. I felt this weight in my bones. Made sure I was controlled and didn’t try and go off the bounce with this weight for the double. Despite how heavy and hard this felt, I felt I had 1RIR and maybe 2 so maybe 1-2RIR. Then there was the down set. Options were to do a set with 2RIR using 15-20% less weight. Which would mean anything between 615lbs and 655lbs was fair game. I elected to go with 650lbs as that was potentially weight in hand for this (which I got confirmation from my friend that it was going to be the same weight as it was the previous time). I got distracted and accidentally hit record twice which meant I turned it off on this and recorded 33 seconds of just the weights sitting there while I’m breathing heavy finding a good song haha. These didn’t feel comfortable like when I did pulls three suited sessions ago. These were felt in my bones too. Called it at 8 reps. Definitely had 10 reps here. Options had been to do a minute but suggested was to keep it to one set of 8-12 reps with no grinders rather than breaking up the set like I might need to do in contest. The rep in one set was definitely the better option as suit work was just crushing me today. Thankfully that was all for the heavy stuff today. Back was quite tense from these so I did take my time  for getting stuff put away to setup for the rest of the workout. Unilateral leg work to pretty much finish up the session. Step ups again. Pretty much sticking to the same weight and criteria of eccentrics, box height and RPE. 2 sets of 10-15 this time around. I wasn’t sure how these would go as the motion of lifting the one leg up tended to bother/irritate the hip. But didn’t seem to do that. Maybe they were too beat from the suited pulls to care. My knees were feeling really achy after the stupid heavy deadlifting so I ended up doing more reps on the warming up sets. Also turns out I had the box an inch too high on the warm ups and had to adjust. Other than knee aches at the start (and worries about discomfort in the hip and just feeling wrecked from deadlifts), these seemed to be fine. Next up was single leg curls with bands. Same as last week. I had used the strong bands and goal was to hopefully add some reps to what I did last time. This band tension is quite harsh of a jump from the previous bands. Played it safe. These actually were the most stressful to what had been bothering the whatever it is I got going on. But managed to add 2 reps to each set from last time. Left side has easier time with these. Last thing was a super set again of the AT raises with kettlebells with holds and the inverted tempo calf raises. Same parameters as last time but I knew I’d need more weight for the kettlebell raises. I put a fat grip extreme on the kettlebell handle and that worked out great. Was able to use double the weight from last time. Calf raises were tougher I feel compared to last time. Put stuff away and got dinner ready before stretching and icing knees.