April 26, 2023 – Week 7, Day 2

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/ bands (straps, +40lbs/+111lbs)
No Bands
110x2
Add Bands
130x2
220x2
310x2
400x2
400x2
400x2
400x2
400x2
400x2

Axle Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 3 second eccentrics)
206x3
276x3
346x3
396x10

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x8
155x6
205x4
245x2
295x6
295x6
295x6

Dragonflies (5 second eccentrics)
bwx8
bwx6

Stretching
 
Comments: After the training session, the opposite side of my neck from the sore shoulder got sore and tight. That didn’t occur until I was near ready to sleep. I was able to sleep fine (other than a weird stress dream where I ate some strange pizza and puked in a trashcan and my hair was in the way and my acidic vomit was making the hair fall out). But made sure to do soft tissue work. Even with that, there was still some stuff going on in the shoulders. Tolerable but annoying. I also noticed that the top of my calves where they insert back of the knee were also feeling “twitchy” and a little sore. Maybe the calf work from Saturday I’ve not recovered enough from. Which didn’t bode well for the start of the workout. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. Still doing 5 second eccentrics but back to 3x3 for this workout. I was slightly concerned as things were feeling like the start of when things took a turn on doing these heavy eccentric stressed exercises for the hamstrings and it caused me to strain stuff in the lower legs. Thankfully the lower volume week. Even when I did strain on these, I was able to do just about everything else at normal intensity (I think leg curls did suffer for a bit). I made note that these were ok movement wise but had felt rough on the lower legs. From there it was axle pulls with bands. Notes indicate last of this particular wave. Doesn’t mean I won’t still be doing alternating weeks or band pulls to finish out. Just not what I’ve been doing. Plan was to do 6x2 with 2.5% more than last time (so 60%) with slightly shorter rests. As how I am, I felt it was easier to just do 20lbs increase again considering how I’ve been doing things. I mean, I guess it probably could’ve been 360-375-390 but I seem adverse to 15lbs jumps haha. Whatever. Point was that increase was consistent and the scheme adjusted. And maybe I get antsy about feeling the pressure as the competition gets closer on the deadlifting and pressing. No notes about controlled eccentrics this time. 90lbs jumps as I’ve been doing. The pressure from the band tension does feel unreal the first set but I get used to it and it feels like not a big deal by the end of it. Whether that means I pull faster or not I’m not sure. Usually I improve over the first three sets and then stabilize. This “speed” cycle was also intended to be heavier anyways with the band tension being much higher than normally used. Next was Romanian deadlifts with eccentrics (2-3ct). Used axle last time so sticking with that. This week a bit different in that one set but higher reps. So 1x8-10 with 3RIR. With the accentuated eccentrics, can be hard to gauge fatigue with more reps. I felt like just shy of 400lbs would be a safe bet here. I wasn’t sure about warming up. But I eventually did figure it out. I think I was trying to not do too much for what was next as well. Do enough to put my best effort for this top set but not take away from the next thing that would require effort and time. I think I called it right here with the weight choice. Not sure how these will be pursued going forward. Squats after that. No pauses, nothing fancy. Just straight up squats with the ssb. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Indication was to do 3x6 at RPE 5-6 and report RIR back on last set. Take longer rests with longer form plan being 3 more weeks of similar. Ok. I felt like I needed to do more reps than usual to warm up and when I say that, I mean compared to paused variations. With those, legs get toasty pretty good from just having to hold. And that is exhausting. I know I wasn’t going to be at my best for squatting considering it has been on the backburner and has felt not as strong since the last cycle wrapped up (that one day I stopped 90lbs short of planned work set). It has good and bad days. Usually the days when the back and knees are both not feeling worn. I was really hoping this low end estimate would work. I was finding it hard to get a good feeling going on these. I did start to get things to be a good effort by the time I got to the working sets. As has been the case often with squats (not all the time), first set feels rough, second set feels better and then usually the last set blows both out of the water. This ended up being the case. Despite feeling the most fatigued by the end, I made that set feel the easiest. Whatever haha. I guess I should be glad that I got in both decent squats and pulls for the session. At least as far as work/effort. Last thing was for core work. Dragonflies. These have wrecked havoc on my core since I started them again two weeks ago. But that’s a me thing. I need the eccentric abdominal work as it is obviously something that is lacking. Plan was just two sets this time. See if I recover better from that. I felt I would as I didn’t have soreness Saturday on tosses or abdominals like the previous week. These definitely seemed to feel better overall. I think I’m adapting to that stress. Put stuff away and cooked dinner before stretching and icing knees before bed.