April 12, 2023 – Week 5, Day 2

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/ bands (straps, +40lbs/+111lbs)
No Bands
110x3
Add Bands
110x3
200x3
290x3
380x3
380x3
380x3
380x3
380x3

Axle Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 3 second eccentrics)
210x3
260x3
300x3
350x3
400x6
420x6

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds, 2” above parallel on concentric)
65x6
115x4
155x2
205x6
215x6
225x6

Dragonflies (5 second eccentrics)
bwx5 (miscounted)
bwx6
bwx6

Stretching
 
Comments: Still got some disc pressure symptoms. Had felt good after a few days after the last deadlift workout and then with the event work did get a little bit stressed again. I had kind of hoped that the dip station traction and the cobra pose position would alleviate it all but nope. I had to wake up early for the ultrasound which took like 10 times longer than it should’ve because it was a student/trainee doing it. I get it that they need to be trained but I wish it hadn’t been me. So find out in like two days I guess if anything. Temperature was warm and then got cold again and now it is warm like summer again. No fans just yet. At least not in the garage (running the one inside). Did some more dip stand decompression before getting things going with the workout. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. Still doing 5 second eccentrics but it looks like changed to 3x3 for this workout. It seems next week is back to 3x5 so maybe just alternating intensity this way. Lower legs were feeling a little tense (I didn’t do soft tissue work as needed to get to bed early). So maybe that or just not being as “serious” had that first set feeling a little rough. The other sets were much easier and better. Took slightly shorter rests than I would if it were the 3x5. From there it was axle pulls with bands. I think I got a slightly easier anchor weight setup for the platform and that seemed to work. I was a little anxious with the disc pressure going into these. Plan was to do 5x3 with 2.5% more than last time (well I guess since last time was 50-55% and the was to be 52.5-57.5% it could be up to 7.5% depending how I treated things). Same triples with big jumps and doing controlled eccentrics. The bands the first set added didn’t feel as crazy this time around. It was actually feeling really light until I got to 290lbs added. Then it started to feel like something. I went with 20lbs more than last time, even though more than 2.5% jump as it was easier plate math and would let me just do 90lbs jumps from the empty setup. That first set really does seem to be the rough one as far as breathing but after that I’m good and these felt quite solid as far as getting tight and pulling with purpose. Maybe also trying to focus on the intent of this workout to be “deadlifts, squats, abs and done”. So glad no aggravation with the lower back. Next was Romanian deadlifts with eccentrics (2-3ct). It was up to me if I wanted to keep this as an axle or not. I figured axle was best bet for a few reasons. One because of the specificity and that it will have the weight out in front a bit more. The other being that I don’t have nearly as much time with the axle for rdls and really keeping track of records like with barbell. So maybe not feel as much pressure to pile on the weight right off the bat. Plan would appear to be to push these on the “speed” week. Goal of 2x6 at RPE 6-7. Based off similar stuff and being on the lower end, I had figured that about 350lbs would work here. I was wrong. That was nowhere near enough weight. During my off season, beltless tempo rdls had been pushed to where I was doing 445lbs for solid reps. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that adding a belt would make things quite comfortable. So I added 50lbs for what I expected to be my working weight. Again, seems I picked too light. It was better but I ended up added another 20lbs and that finally got it in the right range. Similar to the hatfield split squats, I’m curious to see how these progress. Next was those odd pause squats. Still sticking to a low RPE for these. Aim is to keep these just as work and an assistance exercise and to adjust or pull back if it starts to feel like too much with both squats and pulls. This current plan seems the best course of action for now. I do think that if the goal is more the legs then there are other ways but if the need to work the core bracing and lower body working together under load, it has to be some kind of back squatting involved. So slightly increasing the RPE but dropping the pause from 3ct to 1-2ct. But also increasing the reps. I assumed I’d do better with the lower hold times but the added reps could be tricky. So played it safe again. I think I’m starting to get used to these as far as the motion and the beats of the movement. It still can feel a little off at times. But I’m starting to feel like I’m getting the exercise figured out. Last thing was for core work. Dragonflies have been absent for a bit. I think since at least when I first got the bursitis in the left elbow they haven’t popped up. Plan was the same (long eccentrics) and for several sets leaving some reps in the tank. I’ve done these outside because I figured I’d hit the garage ceiling. But I decided to check and I had enough clearance so just did them inside. Elbows/forearms definitely feeling these with holding the brace and just from the work of the pull-ups on Monday. I miscounted the first set and thought I did 6 reps and did 6 reps the other sets, even though this is a tough exercise for me. I know my abdominals will be quite sore. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before stretching. Ice knees before bed.