June 7, 2023 – Week 13, Day 2

Iso Deadlifts Against Pins (straps, to 15.5”)/13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/ bands (straps, +26lbs/+79lbs)
No Bands
135x1 second/110x1
Add Bands
135x1 second/160x1
135x1 second/250x1
135x1 second/340x1
225x3 seconds/430x1
225x3 seconds/430x1
225x3 seconds/430x1
225x3 seconds/430x1
225x3 seconds/430x1
225x3 seconds/430x1

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x7
155x4
205x2
245x2
295x5
295x5

Paused Seated Band Hamstring Curls (band each leg, 5 seconds holds)
lb’sx12
lb’sx12

Roman Chair Sit-ups
bwx15
bwx15

Stretching
 
Comments: This was a bit of a weird one. The day, not the training. Woke up to the sky just looking hazy. Apparently a reason for that. Wildfires in Canada and the smoke drifting down this way. I think this the first time that I’ve gotten an air quality alert warning. Supposed to get worse as it got later due to the smoke settling as the temperature dropped and should be ok for most everyone by Friday and everyone by Saturday. So I guess not the best day for training but not the worst. If this was say Saturday or even my Monday workout it would be a problem with how much outside time there would be (especially the gym being open air). I did take precautions in that I had three floor fans going to circulate air (mostly to push out) besides the light duty one near my work station and pretty much all the ceiling based fans as well when I was training. Also got another call from the people trying to schedule me for the gastroenterologist and I told them not interested as I didn't agree to this referral and I've been trying to get an answer from the doctor for going on a week now. But they know I don't want it and and said they'd make a note for my doctor about it. Sigh. Mobility warming up I did some hip/hamstring stuff similar to what I did Saturday. The plan was the contrast training protocol. Isometric pulls alternated with banded axle pull doubles. 60 seconds rest between the exercises (ended up closer to 90 seconds) and then 2-3 minutes rest after the two exercises were done. Lunch break to setup again. Probably the quickest I did it. One because I knew better and two because the not good air. I couldn’t do the iso pulls inside the garage so I did venture outside for those. But I figured that the total time would be under 10 minutes total where I’d be outside and it wasn’t all in a row either. Anyways, this got adjusted. A curve ball in how I was expect progression. What I was expecting was increase in weight, dropping sets and increasing the iso height another inch. So right partially. Only the band pulls went up in weight (not percentage based). 6x1 with 425-435lbs. Same bands I’ve been using. I wasn’t sure how they would feel after pushing singles with the bands last week. Maybe I’m used to, maybe I struggle. The iso pulls increased in sets too and the pull height was increased 2” from last time. Weight was dropped back down a bit (205-225lbs). Notes being the decrease was due to increasing the sets again. Maybe this combo is working. On the iso pulls, it does look like I’m budging my rack slightly on the initial pull (225lbs and pulling into over 780lbs). They felt like I was good from the start after the warming up. Band pulls since the weight was a bit odd, I had to alter the warming up slightly. It took me about half way in for me to kind of get the ideal pull form to have things feel strong. So that was the majority of the session and then it was time for squats and then lighter stuff (but not super easy stuff). Plan here was to hopefully have things feel a bit easier than last time. It had been 65%x3x3 with pauses so this time around it was to be 65%x2x5 without pauses. So it should go better yes? Not really. Warming up was feeling fine but I noticed that even when I added a belt that it wasn’t feeling drastically better. Usually stuff might feel crappy and then feel better when I get to the sets where I put on a hard belt. This time, nothing felt heavy on my back but I felt slow and my knees were feeling achy. I was to indicate RIR and man that wasn’t something that was feeling good. I put down like 3-4RIR that first set with how much I felt like I was struggling. Second set was a good bit better but it wasn’t how this weight should normally feel. I indicated 5RIR. Looking at video, it doesn’t look nearly as rough. Those little hesitations on the movement felt a lot slower/rougher at the time. So maybe not that bad off. But this should’ve felt a lot easier compared to last time and it did not. Felt about the same. Banded leg curls with long holds after that and same as last time with 2x10-12 with 3-5ct holds. I might have been further away from the band anchor point this week compared to last as these did feel a little bit tougher. I do like how these cook the hamstrings  and seem to help the knees feel better. Last thing was roman chair sit-ups. Just 2x15 this time. I tried a different way of anchoring this. Initially it seemed it didn’t work as it kind of “settled” after the first rep or two but then it didn’t keep moving so I guess it did work. Slightly harder than I would’ve liked but this is the last week of them as the deload proceeds. Put stuff away but just left the car outside since I didn’t want to let in more “bad air” and I was going to need the garage for training tomorrow anyways. Cooked dinner and stretched afterwards. Iced knees before bed. I do wonder if I’m pushing things too close to competition with how things seem to recover. I was initially thinking that as far as my legs (quads and knees, not hamstrings) as I seemed to be doing well with the upper body stuff with the current split. But then all my joints started to ache and I figured I don’t know what is right and just need to get some rest.