July 22, 2023 – Week 4, Day 4

11” Floating Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
115x3
175x3
225x3
285x3
335x6
335x6
335x6
335x6

B-Stance Romanian Dumbbell Deadlifts (same side)
60x5/5
90x3/3
120x12/12
120x12/12

Yoke (beltless)
210x125’
270x50’
330x50’
Run Ups
400x100’ in 17.03 seconds
400x100’ in 15.96 seconds
400x100’ in 16.19 seconds

Hip Belt Backward Tire Drags/Monster Mondo Leg Presses
50x200’/300x25
50x200’/300x25

Stretching
 
Comments: This work week had been mentally exhausting. And I had to pretty much resign myself to having to still do stuff from this week on Monday first thing. Which wasn’t a great feeling considering that I still have overdue stuff (despite assurances from my supervisor that I’m good). Especially with getting back my usual workload and having to come into the office for the monthly dumb all day meetings/trainings. Deferring those feelings until later. But feel them impeding me when I’m off the clock even as it felt like it took a lot of time to just decompress from the day. No soft tissue work Friday as I had a lot of things to do and it was way to late by the time I got my act together. For training, I was debating going out to train as I could do the workout at home and likely the gym hours next week won’t be ideal with some kind of powerlifting meet. However, I decided it was worth going out to train to get out of the house and test things on competition style equipment, even though like 13-14 weeks out from Nats. Nothing requiring timeliness so I just accepted that I’d sleep in and hopefully it wouldn’t be too late in the day. I needed the rest. I allowed myself to relax with the weather being the same all day so no rush. Drive out was fine. Not many people there considering I was about 2hrs later than I usually show up. Which was fine by me. I didn’t feel the need for mobility work to warm up here. I guess that I didn’t feel I needed to do that for my knees this day or Wednesday is a good sign. Starting things off with the trap bar floats. 5 second eccentric with brief pause about 1-2” off the ground and adjusting the pick height with a platform. These had gone surprisingly well last time. It was to be the same RPE but now for 4x6. I figured I’d stick to just a slight increase and try and keep that for all the sets unlike last time where I went up each set because the weight was too light at the start. Things were feeling a little tougher than I would’ve liked. Perhaps soreness from Wednesday and Thursday sessions. I think I stuck to this weight as well because it was like the front squats where I was to indicate the RIR on the last set. It was feeling tougher each set. But then it was time for the last set and then it decided to be easy. Perhaps because it was the set that mattered. Like it felt easier than the last warm up triple. I don’t get it. After the fact, I realized that I accidentally took shorter rests than I had planned (2 vs 3mins) This taking shorter rests than intended would be a theme for this day it would seem. I also had forgotten why last time I had worn my thinner belt vs ratchet belt and that was because I wouldn’t be able to fit the ratchet belt over the briefs when those end up being used. But not a bit deal, I didn’t notice much difference between the ratchet belt without briefs and normal belt with them as far as how I felt breathing or bracing. Next was b-stance rdls. No acceleration reps. I wasn’t feeling so uncertain about things compared to the first week considering I did that time and with the vacation stuff doing banded variations of this movement. Same as last time these came up with lower RPE for 2x10-15. I was thinking potentially of pushing these a bit more to the lower end of the rep range as likely doing this workout at home next weekend so rather get something that would be good to setup at home on the handles I have. I didn’t feel like I needed to do as much warm up as last time. Probably because I knew that I was doing more and wasn’t second guessing. I started with the left side since that felt tougher by a good margin last time. Turns out my right side wanted to be the tougher side this time. Could also be fatigue from the overly heavy unilateral rows. I took longer breaks here compared to last time but even then it was shorter rests than what I was trying to do. Guess I’m moving better between sets when pacing even with feeling DOMS in my legs. Grip actually ended up being the thing that was fatiguing first here. In the finger tips on the last few reps of the last set for my right side. I may need to chalk up my hands next time and treat things more seriously. It is difficult to meet the trade off in keeping the RPE on the lower side and not applying the stuff for the heavier weights. Yoke was up next. I think this was the main reason I came out to train (that and seeing if anything mentioned on the chalkboard about gym hours next week, which wasn’t shown). I have yokes at home but they aren’t the thick crossbar type usually at these bigger shows. Trying those little things that are contest stuff for contest events. Like wearing a shirt from last year’s nationals to get used to the fabric (sensory stuff, I got to prepare myself to wear clothes I don’t usually wear). I wanted to test the grip shirt I got last year that is allowed at Nationals. I’ve not used it for yoke and I’ve had issues with using my older shirt on yoke with it sliding. As well as seeing if my hair in a tie would affect things as well. Might as well figure things out now rather than when it matters. The plan here was to do 3x100’ with 2 minutes rest and beltless. Preferably straight shot runs. That last bit was the part that was going to be a pain. 50’ runs are easy inside. Fine with drop and turn for 100’. But need to take the yoke outside for the longer runs. So that requires moving a lot of benches out of the way to clear a path and then walking with 210lbs implement. So setting up was a chore and counting as a warm up set. The weight of the yoke didn’t inspire confidence. Additionally, with it being an odd number of runs, if I started at the shortest distance from putting stuff back for the 100’ runs, I’d have to carry the empty yoke essentially twice the distance I did setting it up. So I did warm up runs after that. Which was probably a good idea even if doing light weight. I was considering adding knee sleeves as knees felt a little achy. The short runs got me feeling better under the yoke as well as making sure I had the pick height right. It has been over a year since I last touched yoke. George was there so I was able to have him time and give commands. Odds are that this will have a run up rather than getting set under the yoke and I noticed a little late in prep for Battle at the Bridge last year how much it cost me in bracing tightness not practicing that more. Goal here was to do 315-405lbs really just to get used to things again. Things went about as well as I could’ve hope here. I didn’t have to put everything away as other people were going to be using the yoke outside that George was coaching/training. Last thing was light sled work. Well it was to be. Same as last time I was out at the gym but there were notes mentioned based off discussions with Drew about plans for competition cycle about potentially doing leg press machines for same RPE range for 2 sets of 20-25 reps. This was to be 2x150-200’ at RPE 3-5. My plan was to do the tire sled again empty but on a tougher setup and see if that was tough enough and if not then I’d superset with leg presses. The tripod to my camera broke about 15 seconds into the first run and I ended up having to hold my phone after that point. The drag felt way too light even going up a steep uphill. Like, easier than last time. Curse getting my legs conditioned. So I reset the tire by carrying it back down the hill and got into the leg press. Slight aches in the knees (I usually wear different shoes and knee sleeves here) but felt fine and honestly got more blood pump in the quads compared to the drags. I decided no rest between these as the drag was so darn easy (I also didn’t want to stand around with the camera for 2 minutes rest). Drag felt same level of ease second set, leg press was feeling tougher but less knee aches. Ordered a new tripod but might take a few days. Stretched out before driving home.