July 20, 2023 – Week 4, Day 3

Alternating Dumbbell Bench Presses/Bird Dog Dumbbell Rows (2 second holds)
40’sx5/5 – 40x5/5
70’sx3/3 – 70x3/3
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6

Iso Seated Log Pin Presses (5 seconds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Y Raises to Hold (10 seconds)
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: The work week has been exhausting and draining. And I had just had a break from it. Ugh. Too many things require my attention and I care too much about stuff. Aching for the weekend at this point. I’m not looking forward to next week as I will get absolutely bodied by work once the restrictions are lifted and also have to into the office for the day Tuesday for the monthly thing that is pointless. Just got to block that out for a bit. My nieces were visiting for a moment and I took the brief time I could afford right after work to play with them for about an hour. This was a session I could afford to push later since it was usually a quicker session. I didn’t set things up like I usually do as I wanted to give myself some rest to recover between stuff and set things up as my intent was to the stuff in the beginning a bit more. And I was also feeling a bit of the day before. Starting off with alternating dumbbell bench presses supersetted with bird dog rows. This got changed with increasing the RPE and going to 4x6. Seesaw was the correct way for these and notes were to do them with no acceleration like I’ve done for some of the dumbbell exercises. So I knew that I couldn’t do solid dumbbells this time around (at least not for benching) to have things be of appropriate difficulty. I’d see how initial stuff felt and then go from there. I did think that 90’s might be a gamble but considering that I did extra reps by mistake on the warming up, I felt pretty good. As far as the bird dog rows, I was initially going to do 95lbs with solid dumbbell but figured that I might as well use a plateloaded handle for that too and not worry about moving those dumbbells around. So that first pressing set felt pretty good. I was kind  of surprised by how a 20lbs jump didn’t seem to be that much. But then the row didn’t feel like that at all. It was a bear to move it around. Trying it initially my balance just wasn’t there and it was really annoying me. Eventually I seemed to get it together and get the reps. The other side was slightly better. It was then that I looked at the dumbbell and realized my mistake. I had intended to do 102lbs and I had put 122lbs on there. I’ve never tried more than 80lbs on bird dog rows. So that was a big whoopsie. But I still felt that even with that blunder that I could handle this weight for the sets. I did seem to feel better as I went with the rows other than it being tough. Pressing I could feel that I was getting tired over the sets but still felt strong. My mid section was quite worked from these (especially the rows). The problem for next time is figuring out how to progress here as this pretty much used up all the small plates I had. I could see maybe adding up to 6lbs more on the dumbbells. I think I’d be cool with the dumbbell weight being the same (or less haha). As mentioned, I didn’t attempt setting things up for the other part of the workout before starting so that I had a little break in the session. Which was a good idea. However, I did at some point taking apart the dumbbells have the weights pinch my left pinkie finger so that wasn’t great. The triplet pairing outside was next. Log iso work, dumbbells and bands. Same as last time, essentially. The RPE was increased on the dumbbells and band portion but with these kind of exercises, very minimal adjustments needed to really impact that. One of the things suggested was potentially lowering the height I was pressing into on the log iso work if I felt off the chest was more an issue for me as far as the midrange. So I did lower it by one so about 2” lower. I am pleased that log is feeling comfortable when pressing. There does appear to be a hive of wasps in my outdoor rack on the back left side and they do not enjoy it when I do the iso log work. I wouldn’t mind this exercise sticking around. But not sure on how it is improving the press other than I like it and it feel comfortable. Increased the dumbbells by 2lbs as I figured that would be enough to make it difficult by the end and that being harder would make the fatigue in the shoulders make the band work feel tougher as well. So no need to increase the band tension. Shoulders feeling pretty good considering. I was expecting some tension or things feeling impinged coming back after not doing much direct shoulder stuff and from the tense shoulders and neck (similar to how Monday session had felt). But it seems recovery and being in my own bed is helping that. Last thing was triceps. Band stuff for overhead. Thankfully the rep range was increase (15-25 reps) for the two sets. There was also indication for short rests. So that suited me just fine. Sticking to the mini band as suggested and stepping forward to increase the tension. Neutral grip because log. I tired to make a conscious effort to not just let the band whip around when ending the set as far as my shoulders.  Put stuff away as I started cooking dinner and stretched before bed.