July 17, 2023 – Week 4, Day 1

Well back from the longest vacation I’ve taken in about 2 decades. I tend to not take vacations unless they are holidays really and even then it is short and with minimal travel if I can help it. I don’t find the vacation relaxing. I don’t like abrupt change as I find comfort in the familiar and my routines. But I want to do things. Beach stuff I hadn’t gone in a long while before I went for a few days in 2021. Plan was to do the same for 2022 but I got myself stressed out and sick and cancelled. It had worked last time as it was right after a competition and was resting. That had been the plan last year but I wanted to push for Nats after not qualifying earlier in the year and I think that added to the stress. So to make up for it this time around, I took off a week and a day from work for 9 days (10 days for a day back to get back on track). Wanted to see how that was. As this was off season, I was able to justify to myself that I didn’t have to do serious training while away. It was probably a good thing I didn’t force anything as it would’ve been way too stressful to keep up the schedule. Especially with how much effort it took to unload everything that first day. I had to move the band/bodyweight workouts a day because of that. Those were under 40 minutes (alternated with 3 mile walks on the beach). It took about 2 days before I started to feel normal there and I was about overwhelmed after another 2 days and adjusted my output accordingly (less time outside, sleeping in). The addition of more people with different dynamics with the other people I think upped my stress. I justified to myself that this was a training camp as far as the beach walks, ocean swimming and band/bodyweight workouts. If I have to treat things in those parameters to do this stuff, so be it.

One Arm Half Kneeling Dumbbell Strict Presses w/ Band Rows (mb, 3 second eccentrics)
10x3/3
40x3/3
70x8/8
70x8/8
70x8/8

Feet Up Swiss Bar Bench Presses/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
60x3/40’sx3
110x3/70’sx3
150x12/88’sx12
160x12/88’sx12
170x12/88’sx12

Landmine Bar Twists/Kettlebell Windmills
50x6/6 – 30x6/6
53x6/6 – 30x6/6
56x6/6 – 30x6/6

Stretching
 
Comments: Good to be back home. Stuff fits like a glove here. As I took off work today as I figured I’d need a day back to adapt (especially with how booked this week back is going to be as well as all the work while I was out) so I ended up starting training earlier than I usually would. My left side neck and shoulder were still achy. It had flared up initially at the start of the vacation with the different bed and all the moving of things from vehicles up stairs that first day. It had seemed to calm down but I got tossed around a good bit the day before I left by the rough surf and had to plant myself at least twice to keep from being crushed. So that was probably why that was feeling a little off. While it was a bit warm/humid, it felt comfortable compared to the climate at the beach so I felt no need for the fans. One arm pressing in the half kneeling position to start things off. Tempo and band row as part of it as well. 3x8 with 3-4RIR. I took 30lbs jumps as was hoping that I’d be able to handle 70lbs here this time around. That was a bit of a rough start. Overhead pressing wasn’t really something that was hit in the workouts on vacation. I do think when I’ve pushed these more that I’ve worn wrist wraps but trying to avoid that for the moment. That first set on the left side with how that first rep felt, I was feeling defeated. It felt like a 1rm. But thankfully it was not and I kept pushing. Elbows and shoulders were a tad achy coming back. I took rests between sides and sets on these with the big jump up in weight. Right side had a better go of it. Second set felt better for the left side. Started to have balance issues on some reps with the left side the last set. Right side no issues and got better as I went. I would’ve been devastated if I had only got a single with 70lbs. Just having a bit of a rude waking up for my shoulders. May need to move back a bit for the bands. Supersets after that. Change to the first one. Had been push ups but with how the vacation sessions were, I was doing push ups a fair bit so this was changed to a feet up swiss bar bench press instead. Still doing chest supported dumbbell rows with no acceleration reps. I wasn’t too sure about the pressing. I’ve only done the feet up for a few sessions one cycle and that was with a very close grip and barbell. And can’t say where I am. Said to do 3x12 and keep it RPE 5-6 to start. Might not even do this again depending. I was initially thinking 180lbs but then dropped that back to 130lbs and then adjusted to 150lbs. I was a bit hung up on transitioning between the benching and rowing since both needed the bench. It wasn’t that bad after practice. Pressing I was setup a little too close as I kept hitting the uprights the first set. I adjusted after that. I was too light to start and added weight every set. The rows was about where I’d need them to be so no need to change weights there. ROM was shorter as I had to use the 25’s for the loadable handles. This pairing wasn’t that bad. As I had to setup stuff for that pairing, that meant I didn’t need to do much for setting up for the last pairing. The landmine bar twists to start and then into windmills. Lower RPE but changed to 3x6. I was initially thinking of the same weights I did last time because of the week off from them as well as it being a slight volume increase. But I could tell the RPE was too low that first set of twists and decided to add weight each set. Only need a little bit for that exercise. The windmills I was curious to see how my shoulders and core would feel. Good but it wasn’t so easy that I felt I was under the RPE like with that first set of bar twists so I kept weight the same for those. Ate lunch and put stuff away before stretching.