April 20, 2023 – Week 6, Day 3

Dumbbell Windmills
40x5/5
40x5/5

Close Grip Axle Floor Presses
31x2
61x2
91x2
121x2
151x2
181x2
211x2
241x2
271x2
301x3
301x3
301x3

Dumbbell Z Presses (5 second holds last rep)
26’sx3
40’sx3
56’sx3
76’sx7
76’sx8

EZ Curl Bar Pullovers (breath holds in stretch)
33x10
38x10

Band Half Kneeling Face Pulls
abx10
sbx15`
sbx15`

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess probably a good thing this is supposed to be the shorter and less stressful workouts of the week. I was definitely feeling the effort put in on the deadlifts and other stuff the day before. Probably not helping with work. I also think I was a bit surprised with some of the plan trainings coming up. Left shoulders and upper back on that side were feeling tight and stiff so I was hesitant with how things were going to feel as last week there were some things I noticed that felt not great. Wrist and elbow on the left arm also feeling a little more achy than I would’ve liked. But not really much can do about that other than monitor and rest when I can. Despite abs being sore with the dragonflies, hardly noticing them compared to how they felt last week doing this workout. Windmills to start things off. Same as last time. I picked a different spot in my garage (space with the inset light) and started with a wider stance right off the bat so not fiddling around with weight overhead for clearance. I also did more of a clean/swing motion to get into position rather than like pressing it. This did seem to go better this time around as far as comfort in the shoulder. I was fully expecting that but it wasn’t that bad. It was a lot better compared to last week. No issues with the right as per usual. I will say though that the actual movement itself felt tougher, which probably has to do with the heavier deadlifting. I could even tell my legs were feeling heavier just from training. Close grip axle floor press after that. The heavy week. I was figuring it would probably be something like this but maybe not as heavy. I don’t know, it just seems since last year that pressing for things like floor pressing or benching for the heavier side of things has been tough. Plan here was to do 5lbs more than the 5rm I did with like 2RIR for 3x3. Work up in doubles. Again, doing 30lbs jumps as that seems to work out just right. Lockout was starting to feel tough at about 241lbs so not great. I knew I could do this but odds were this wasn’t going to be comfortable. They all felt slow but video says the first set was looking really fast. I’d say the last set was RPE 9.5-10 really. The chain work last week had felt really powerful and my chest muscles were sore from that. These felt more like elbows and triceps. I know these aren’t the main exercise but I need to keep improving and moving heavier stuff so that the stuff that I need to do in competition improves and gets better. I know this is to be helping the lockout for the viking pressing. I guess doing multiple sets over 300lbs again is a good thing here on a pressing variation. No missed reps, no injuries. Next was z presses with dumbbells again. Holds just on the last rep. I remembered this time only to do triples working up. I felt that if I was to progress here, I needed to add weight and do these with the plateloaded handles since I did my 70’s for 2x10. Plan was again 2x6-10 at RPE 7. So I initially was going to do just two work up sets but then realized I was making too big a jump and went with a more reasonable jumps. I think I figured out a way to do these where the clean isn’t taking so much out of me to get into position. I mean, it still sucks but it’s much better. Offset them on the crash pads upright and then get my thighs under them straight and knee raise them up. Better than nothing I guess. I was kind of surprised my shoulders were feeling ok with these today. Sometimes the left one is “clicky”. I was expecting these to be harder that I felt I cut the set short that first set and didn’t stop at 7 the second set. I do think this is the most weight I’ve actually tried on dumbbell z presses. So despite my concerns with the shoulder, things were still ok. Then the “restorative” stuff. Since shoulder wasn’t feeling like it was catching and maybe have better awareness/control, these wouldn’t feel off. About right on that assessment. I was thinking I should’ve gone a little heavier after that first set and was thinking that a 5lbs jumps was probably not going to do anything. It actually felt like it was the right amount of weight added with the fatigue I was feeling in the triceps. Last thing was the face pulls. I knew I needed to use strong bands for it to be anything really. Left shoulder a little tight so I did do a few more reps with the average band then I was initially planning before doing the work sets. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before stretching.