May 29, 2023 – Week 12, Day 1

Bottom Up Kettlebell Presses/Dumbbell Pullovers (3 seconds stretch)/Cobra Stretches (5/15)
15’sx8/20x8/bwx3
15’sx8/20x8/bwx3

Sandbag Tosses (Bottle Drill)
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1

Viking Presses (strict, facing away, hands 11” down handles)
+10(33)x2
+55(66)x2
+100(99)x2
+145(132)x2
+190(165)x2
+235(198)x2
+280(231)x4
+260(216.5)x4
+240(202)x8

Swiss Bar Chest Supported Rows
95x3
147x3
199x3
250x6
255x6
260x6

Dumbbell Lateral Raises
10’sx10
20’sx20
20’sx20

Incline Band Tate Presses (1 second holds)
lb+(3)mbx7/lb+(2)lbx7/lb+mbx6/lbx5

Stretching
 
Comments: Weekend was a little weird. I guess appreciating that I had a three day weekend and a half day Friday. I had obviously been feeling worn out from Saturday and I did make it so that I did ice my knees before I went to bed. Sunday I woke up like I was going to work despite falling asleep really late. I kind of ran out of things to do once I got chores done. I guess I got caught up on soft tissue work. I was feeling pretty darn sore and felt like it was needed. I also read a good bit and that seemed to make me sleepy and ten it got interesting and I perked up and read some more haha. In either case, whatever the combination of things was, I had a pretty deep sleep and slept like I felt I should’ve done Saturday evening as it was past 11AM when I did rouse myself from the bedsheet cocoon. Still feeling pretty stiff and sore. Have breakfast and then once I felt that had settled enough I’d start training. Kind of funny how just a few days of rest and getting some better training sessions done can bring out of the mental slump. I also was trying something out for my hair. As I’ve mentioned, there are some movements where the long hair has gotten in the way, even with the doo-rag. So I’m using some hair ties and seeing how I tolerate those sensory wise. At this point, I can tolerate it for a few hours but eventually it is too much tension and I got to take it off. Good to know for longer competition days and that the brand I have are easy to put on and take off without discomfort. Mobility stuff to start as I have been. I was feeling a bit stiff but no issues. I think the main thing was that the stiffness was just muscle soreness and that I had no issues with my smashed fingers. Fingers have scrapes and bruises but the swelling is pretty much completely gone. No issues holding anything or doing any of this stuff. Pressing felt strong, just felt tight on the pull overs and the cobra poses. My knees felt a little sore getting down on the floor so figured that I’d ice them afterwards even if not really doing much lower body stuff this night. So far so good. Outside for the bag toss drill. Same as last week but making sure of things. Making sure that I do just 8 total tosses, make sure I get on my toes each time and making sure that I break them up so that I have some rest. I’ve been just generally going from one to the next however long it takes to setup. Last time things felt decent and while not every one of them did I get on my toes, it seemed to help with things for the work session on Saturday. Fingers were good on these so another check in the plus column I guess. Just going to stick to 30lbs here. Plan is to do these every other week going forward I guess. Then it was time for the heavier lifting. Viking press. Strict press week. I was still annoyed with how last week’s top set went with push press. Plan for this time was to just do strict pressing and just drop down in weight for a few sets to get different things done. Work up in doubles to a top set of 4 reps (1-2RIR). Now if I went by how things had felt two weeks prior on these, then no reason 280lbs wasn’t happening. But there were issues at the top weight last week with the teetering. But I set things up for that. I was feeling pretty good but my left side was definitely feeling sore as more and more work was done. Last set before the top set did feel heavier than I would’ve liked. But I got set and went at it and I got it within parameters of RIR. So pleased about that. Options with dropping weight for down sets was 7.5-10% less weight for another set of 4 reps and then taking off another 7.5% for a set of 8 reps. With the 7.5% drops, it would be 20lbs drops so I went with that. I’d have taken bigger drop option if the top set had been too much. Managed to get these done as intended. Into the garage for the rest of the workout. Chest supported rows with the swiss bar. Notes had it be 3x6 at RPE 6-7. So I guess keep it the same or so. Light is what was indicated. It can be a little tricky when it has RPE listed and then light. So I was expecting to do 250lbs for these but it did feel easy enough so I kept adding 5lbs a set. I was kind of surprised about this considering the recently mooshed fingers and just my biceps being really sore from stone work. But I guess not having any issues with the fingers on viking press or these rows is also a good sign. I stuck to triples warming up this time and I didn’t feel like any set was a lot harder than the others like last week. Next was dumbbell raises for shoulders. Same as last week with it being RPE 6-7 for two sets. But rep range was adjusted to 12-20. Again, notes were to keep light and use the least amount of weight to hit these goals. So aim was to do 2x20. Warming up for a set of 10 reps felt good last time so did that again. First set I seemed to go a little slower than usual and then I sped up on the second set. Glad that my shoulders have been enjoying these the last few sessions. Last thing was the band incline tate presses but changed up. So only a 1ct hold on the reps but I was to do just one set of 20-25 reps using multiple bands and either adjusting where I was gripping them or dropping bands as I went to finish out the set. So a drop set that was to be challenging. On thing I figured would be the case was that using enough band tension to be in the need to drop stuff as I went would probably be rough on the left elbow at the start. I initially grabbed 4 mini bands with the light band but I couldn’t really budge that once so went with 3 mini bands and that was doable. I was tempted to stop at 20 reps when that was where I hit with light band with a single mini but I figured I’d drop that and do 5 more reps for the 25 total. Put stuff away before cooking up dinner and stretching. Iced knees before bed.