April 22, 2023 – Week 6, Day 4

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
10’sx10/10

Sandbag Tosses
30x1
35x1
40x1
45x1
50x3
50x3
50x3

Hatfield Split Squats
85x5/5
135x5/5
175x3/3
225x3/3
265x3/3
315x10/10
325x10/10

Pin Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 33” height, swiss ball)
85x2
135x2
175x2
225x2
265x2
265x2
265x2
265x2
265x2

Deadlift Grip Barbell Back Extensions (2 second holds, Versa Gripps)
65x3
100x10

Standing Band GHD Abs/Single Leg Standing Calf Raises
(2)ab+(2)lbx15 – bwx20/20
(2)ab+(2)lbx15 – bwx20/20

Stretching
 
Comments: Unnecessarily stressful week of work. In grand scheme of things, not that bad. I guess just used to things not feeling so stressful for a good bit now. All I can do is just keep at it and do what I can. With how things were planned for this weekend, it made sense to just sleep in. I needed it. Unfortunately, my guess on the weather didn’t pan out. It wasn’t to be until 2hrs later that the thunderstorm was coming. With there being a competition at the gym, it was either wait until 7pm to start training or train from home. While it was nice out at the gym, the storm would be there when it was time to get out there to train so it wasn’t really fixing things. My hope I guess was to get done with what needed to be done outside and have that be before the rain hit. I wasn’t fast enough unfortunately. And it didn’t seem like it would clear up for a few hours. Ugh. So at first, I did some testing of things with the sandbag. So I had bought three 5lbs sandbags so that I could add and take out weight as needed rather than have to deal with pouring sand in and out for a heavier bag (this for Nats with the max weight sandbag toss). The bags were a bit bigger than I wanted but I couldn’t really see putting down the additional funds for lead shot bags. But they do fit and can be retrieved. Eventually I decided to start training. Did my best to “delay” with the sandbag testing and mobility stuff for my knees and hips. But I had to start doing something or wait 2-3hrs to start training for when the rain would be done. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. One set and used a little weight on these. No rest between sides. There is still some irritation in the hips and inner thighs but tolerable I guess. I guess kind of same with the left shoulder. Left wrist/forearm has been a little sore since Wednesday end of workout. Just aches and pains. Anyway, it was time for sandbag toss. In retrospect, I think I misread what I was to be doing for these as far as weight. I’ll get to that. Initially I was just going to go at it with the 45lbs in the one bag I had the foresight to bring home. However, since I was messing with loading and unloading, I felt it was better to actually take weight out and start at 30lbs and add 5lbs and go from there. I was also not going to “react” and toss as I was expecting this to be the heavier day of these and because, you know, the rain. I made a mental note that I will need to treat different approaches as different styles of toss. Like with arm over arm, have a rolodex of skills. Before training, got some confirmation that for Regionals it will be 15’. So there were some inconsistency with warming up. I seem to have issues with these style bags (Cerberus) vs the other ones (Rogue). Depending on when the release is and if I get the form to be more like the bottle drill, the trajectory can be less an arc and could come right back down. So what had been indicate was to do 3 sets of 3 reps, either the same bag or a bag series. Now rereading the notes, it sounds like it is saying I was to warm up to the last bag in the series and I had assumed that meant the last bag in the contest series (50lbs) rather than I guess what might be a manageable weight for where I’m at. But I guess my thinking is maybe this is to get used to the movement of the heavy bag on this week and it will be lighter going forward. Of course the rain proceeded to really start coming down. Like harder after each set. First set after the headwrap came off, I just ditched it for the duration. My grip slipped on the last toss of that set so it was well short of anything (at least it went over 10’7”). Second set last one I held on too long. Last set the rain was coming down the hardest. My glasses came off on the second toss and it took a moment to get them out of harms way for the last toss (they had mud on them). That last set might have been my best overall as far as the tosses. I’d say 2 of them would’ve definitely cleared 15’ while 2 more were maybes. The rest nope with two definitely nope. It is what it is. Just getting hands on. This is my training best with this style bag (and might have been over 51lbs due to the rain but my scale might be a little heavy). I’ll need to think on some thoughts here as this will not only be at Regionals but also Nationals and I feel this is going to be a difference maker. Soaked to the bone and got everything inside and hung to dry before moving on to the rest of the workout in the garage. Which was humid as hell. Very tempted to turn on fans. But I held strong haha. Hatfield split squats again. Plan here was to work up in sets of 3-5 reps and do 2x10 at RPE 7.5. Some hesitation with the left shoulder/upper back feeling how it has as there can be some tension from the bar position and holding the rack uprights for the balance. Last time I did a 30lbs jump in weight and felt like maybe I had left too much after the second set. So I was looking at a 20lbs jump initially but then upon reconsideration that I was also dropping reps, I made it a 35lbs jump. I was keeping an eye on the knees as last time my right knee was really sore on coming into these after sandbag toss. No issues this time around. I was feeling really good on that first set but then my back foot slid slightly on the concrete and it jostled my front leg a little on the last rep and it spooked me a little. So I had to fight the thought of my knees giving out from my head for the rest of the sets. Which I think I did a good job of that by adding 10lbs for the next set and making that feel easier. This time both sides felt about the same. I’m quite pleased these are improving and hope to reap the benefits on moving events. Next up was the banded zercher goodmornings off of pins with the safety squat bar. I knew the setup I did last time off the sawhorses worked so just doing that again. Plan was same as last time (at the gym) with it being 5x2 with 255-265lbs added. I decided to just do 20lbs over last time. The added weight was definitely noticed but not detrimental I feel. Still able to get some ankle extension here. I know these are helping with the stone to shoulder as well as getting that hip drive to feel strong on other things. The “heavy day” for the back extensions. Just one set and higher RPE but much higher reps. Since it has been like 6 reps the past two times it has been heavy, it was a little tough to really gauge what I could do for more reps (10-12), especially with a longer hold times compared to the “light day”. I was thinking probably 95lbs but felt that since I had done that for the previous week, I’d add 5lbs for the ole razzle dazzle for 100lbs. This bench definitely not liking me on there with weight haha. But these felt good and hit the spots needed to be hit (glutes, hamstrings and lower back). I’d have liked to go for more but the longer holds definitely sapped me and called it at 10 reps. Last thing was superset of abs and calves. I had assumed it was like last week with my choice of flexion ab work but turns out it was to be the standing weighted abs (with option to do planks if abs still torn up from dragonflies). I had taken down my setup and got things ready for ab wheel as the setup I have for the standing isn’t as good as the gym. But then reading my workout I realized I needed to set things up for standing abs. It was a pain last time so I tried something different and that was a bit easier but still not the best. Calves seemed to be able to handle things this time and get in a lot of reps here. Put stuff away and did some chores before stretching and then iced knees before dinner. Iced them again before getting to bed late (late dinner).