April 19, 2023 – Week 6, Day 2

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
110x4
200x3
290x2
380x1
430x1
470x1
510x1
560x3
560x3
560x3
522x5

Dimel Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x5
315x15

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds, 2” above parallel on concentric)
65x2
115x2
155x2
190x2
230x6
230x6
230x6

Dragonflies (5 second eccentrics)
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess I was feeling ok today. As mentioned, the week could be a quite stressful one. WSM happening is somewhat of a welcome distraction. Haven’t had to put on the garage fans yet. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. I guess alternating 3x3 and 3x5 on these. Same as it has been. 5 second eccentrics. I decided to add a little foam mat to where I put my feet so that maybe I’d be slightly more snug against the axle setup I have. I think that worked. Trying to get more comfortable with these and get not only the eccentric but the ROM control. From there it was axle pulls for the “heavy” week. With the proposed plan of 85%x3x3 and then 80%x5, I felt that a lot of warming up sets would be counterproductive with this much volume at this high a percentage. Granted, the numbers are estimates and I’m pretty much rounding up and down to whatever is the easiest thing plate math wise for me. Pretty much having things be about 650lbs estimated max. So it would’ve been a little over 550lbs for the top weight. But why do that when I could do 560lbs and it would be no small plates. Essentially the same at this weight and exercise right? So I did plate jumps to start up to 380lbs and then did 40-50lbs jumps again. Despite how they sometimes feel or look, it does feel like I could get 2-3 reps more. So does seem like I’m still on the track or maintaining what is needed. First set felt slow but strong. Second set felt faster but I could tell these were tough. Last set I was feeling the fatigue but I felt the strongest of the sets (got a little leg shake starting). Got a little bit of a contact bruise on the left knee from the axle again. Axle does feel like it is tougher but at the same time, I feel less insecure about lifting it compared to a barbell off the floor. Even though this is only 4” difference. Took off 40lbs and then thought better of it and put 2lbs back on so that even if this felt tougher than last time I did a top set of 5 reps, it would be slightly more. Fatigue factor, I’d say that was feeling pretty hard hit from the triples with more weight. I felt similar to what I did last time when I started out with this weight for one set but the legs were a bit cooked and the leg twitch was more present on that last rep compared to the triple. But I made it through another axle pull session. Can be a bit annoying with how much effort I put in for what would be a PR for me and others I’ll be competing against are doing reps with. But I have my strengths. So since this is the heavy week, no rdls this time with the axle. I guess that is saved for the light week. Notes said to work up to a low RPE set of dimel deadlifts (10-15 reps and snappy). I’ve done most I think 295lbs for 15 reps without bands added (those were a thing for a bit that helped with suited pull work). I figured I’d see how I was feeling but I was looking at 275-315lbs. Warming up was a joke so I went with 315lbs. It can take a few reps to get the groove down. Felt really easy. Pauses on the way up squats were next. Same as last week as far as about the same RPE and 3x6. 1-2ct pauses where I’ve been doing them. Plan was to do about 225lbs for all the sets as that felt like a good effort last time and that was after a few sets at lighter weight. I then thought better of it and if I was going to do straight sets that I’d add 5lbs so it was more than last time. Left knee was feeling a bit sore but seemed to go away as I got up to this weight. First set felt light on the back but was feeling tougher than I would’ve liked as far as the movement. Second set felt heavy on my back but was a lot easier. If the movement had felt like this on that first set, I’d have inched up in the weight of the course of the sets like I’ve been doing on these. Third set felt the best but my legs were feeling pretty worn by the end of these with those heavy pulls. Back had seemed to be fine, the legs being what was getting tired. Last thing was dragonflies. Ugh. I still wasn’t completely recovered from them from last week. The ab work on Saturday probably didn’t help. But the soreness felt like it was completely gone. Until I did that first rep of them haha. It was to be the same as last week but I was just aiming to get 6 reps each set correctly this time around and be done with it. I know I’ll adapt to these pretty quickly though. Put stuff away and tried something new for dinner (new but stuff I’ve done) to see if this would be a good meal rotation. Little more work but seems like it will work. Stretched and iced knees before bed.