May 17, 2023 – Week 10, Day 2

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
110x2
160x2
200x2
250x2
290x2
340x2
380x1
430x1
470x1
520x1
560x1
613x2
560x2
560x2

Dimel Deadlifts w/ bands (straps, +51lbs/+102lbs)
95x4
185x4
275x8
275x8

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x5
115x5
155x5
207x5
259x5
309x10

Band Assisted Nordic Curls (3 second eccentrics)
mmbx8
mmbx8

Standing Band GHD Abs
(2)abx50
(2)abx50

Stretching
 
Comments: Kind of funny reading what I put for this same workout (as in the Day 2 session) from two weeks ago about how stress isn’t helpful and makes things more present. And boy were they sure ever. I didn’t do myself any favors though. I had been having some disc compression stuff happening since Saturday but it seemed to not really be much but I could tell some stuff on the left side wasn’t feeling so great and nerves were firing having glutes and hips not as “smooth”. I think coupled with how this week at work ended up being stressful (my back up scheduled off for vacation so I had to cover them and my supervisor calling out sick the entire week) made things kind of boil over for me Tuesday evening. Stuff from that day kept me from falling asleep at a reasonable hour (work and disc stuff) and I was already worried about the upcoming session (heavy deadlifts) and taking a day off work the next day (wedding). So less than optimal sleep and trying to not “freak out” about the disc compression symptoms. A little late with developing a slight eye twitch. During lunch I did some dip station traction and that was only slightly helpful. I had done it after Monday session as well. I was seriously thinking about skipping this session. But how I feel is sometimes a lie. Sometimes a good beating will get things back on track.  I did take my time a bit here to mentally prepare and do mobility stuff similar to what I did on Saturday before training. Try to get stuff that won’t stop firing to be slightly less tense. Or make other stuff less tight so I can afford for other stuff to be rigid and tight. Goal for the day with the axle pulls was to work up in doubles to 60% and then do singles up to a top double (1-2RIR). I had put down doing 40-50lbs jumps all the way up with the top weight about 610lbs. Feel like this was a necessary progression to be on track for 675lbs to be a possibility at the show. I’ve done reps with 600lbs from different heights with axle with no gear but not over that. I’ve done 650lbs for a double with the 2-ply briefs which isn’t the same since I feel they gave a good bit of power off the ground. As long as things held up and I wasn’t in pain (or it wasn’t getting worse with weight) I’d push on. I know I can do 635lbs (that was kind of what I started with projected but switched it to 650lbs to be closer to what peaked could be). As I got up to the singles, I tried to keep things pretty the same each time. Trying to not get super hyped up until the top set. Not going full bore the last single up I judged based off of that I could do the double with the weight and then some ideally. I added a few more lbs with collars and the off weight 25’s. Would be really embarrassing if it was just glued to the floor. But I seem to be getting better with breaking off the floor. I was trying to control these on the eccentric a good bit too so this made things a little harder but that was good. Lockout felt a bit tougher on the second rep. Still feel I had at least a triple on this and maybe a fourth rep. Definitely that many if I didn’t control the eccentrics as much as I did. I was to do 2x2 on the down sets with 10% less weight, which would’ve been like 552lbs and I just decided to do 560lbs since that just meant taking off what I had just put on. Close enough. Definitely feeling hard this time around but used to it and knowing I can do a set of 5 each time (well maybe 5 first set and then only a double or triple the second after that). Put stuff away and moved on to the next thing. My rest being the time it took to tear down and setup the next thing. Dimels with bands. I wasn’t sure if these would pop up again as potentially was looking at being dropped depending on how I was recovering from these lower body sessions. Last time wasn’t really with bands but it was an option if I felt like it and I did feel like it. Because I liked how those felt compared to just straight weight. The movement just doesn’t feel like it is doing much for me with the short ROM compared to when bands are added to really ground me. I was kind of hoping that these and focus on the glutes and hips would kind of unjunk my disc symptoms. It has kind of worked on the banded zerchers before and has on these too at one point. Plan this time was same bands and add 30-50lbs to what I did last time with reduced reps. Usually, the first set isn’t the best as I kind of have to get used to the band tension and pressure (one reason I like these when peaking suit work). That second set just seems to feel better and I move better. I’m not just lifting, I’m training on that second set. The flow is continuous and each rep is more explosive than the previous using the overspeed eccentric like a perpetual motion machine. But that stuff away for squats. Just regular squats (but still using the safety squat bar). I think this was more to work up to a top weight but get more reps at the weights right before compared to what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing higher reps at the start pyramid style to more or less get things warm and not too fatigued for the working weights. I tend to do those working up weights with not locking out my hips and knees to kind of keep constant tension and just doing work to get my legs ready. Maybe because I did the usual mobility stuff at the beginning it felt less like I needed to do that this time around. But the plan was to do my last two warm up sets in sets of 5 reps and then the top set for 10 with 5RIR or so. I decided I’d just do 5 reps working up the whole way and I’d do them like I would on the top set as far as not just doing “pulse” reps. Might actually have me “awake” for the sets that mattered. I was initially thinking 315lbs for the top weight but was thinking it might be too much and that was before I was feeling the disc issues. These could be more stress compared to everything else I did really. So then looked at 295lbs. I then decided to give myself the option after the first few sets to do 50ish jumps so that I’d end up with kind of in between 295lbs and 315lbs. This was acceptable to me. It has been helpful to think of these helping viking press (thinking about how I’m holding the handles on the ssb) and as well as stone (to a lesser extent visually but more so physically). I think this was the right call this session. Band assisted Nordic curls again. 2-3 second eccentrics with aim for 2x8-10 at RPE 7. My plan was to try and add reps to what I did last week. Granted, last week was less heavy work beforehand. But I thought that it wasn’t going to be a problem. It ended up being a struggle to match what I did the week before on these. Maybe the band was slightly more worn compared to the one I used last week. What might have been the culprit besides fatigue was having myself closer to the band anchor point by a few inches. Maybe that made the difference. Last thing was ab work. My choice. Indication was flexion based with minimal eccentric. Really the only thing that I would feel fit that from what I’ve been doing was the standing band stuff. I tried a different setup to have kind of a pad back like when I’ve done these at the gym with the ghd base. Not quite that. Too much band tension would shorten the ROM I could do trying to stay put. So I decided I’d do higher reps. I wasn’t planning on needing to do 50 reps to get to the RPE 6 range but here we are. I actually stretched the bands even more for the second set to make it tougher. Maybe I felt that this would help even out the back stuff. Took setup down and did another round of dip station traction and that seemed to feel decent. It could also be that I got done most of the stressors (work and the session) that stuff finally started to calm down for me. Got dinner ready and then stretched. Iced my knees. Another later evening but I had taken off the whole day for the afternoon wedding so I could sleep in up to 2hrs and still have time to get everything ready.