July 29, 2023 – Week 5, Day 4

11” Floating Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
85x3
135x3
195x3
245x3
305x3
355x6
355x6
355x6
355x6

B-Stance Romanian Dumbbell Deadlifts (same side)
60x5/5
100x3/3
130x12/12
130x12/12

Monster Mondo Leg Presses
300x5
400x5
20 Second Sets
500x9
550x9
600x9

Band Assisted Quad Fallbacks (5-1-0-0 tempo)
lbx8
lbx8
lbx8

Stretching
 
Comments: This week was a bit more relaxing compared to the week before. But a different kind of stress. It still had to deal with the routine disruption of going into the office which kind of made stuff outside of work get behind slightly. I did want to catch up on sleep but knew I needed to do other things. Temperature and humidity were brutal on Friday and I went for a lunch break walk since it would be 5 degrees hotter if I waited until after work to do it. I was also wanting the time to think as the last details for Nats were posted at Midnight on Thursday so my mind was going a mile a minute thinking about that. I knew I needed to take care of chores as well as do stuff for physical and mental health (walking and soft tissue work and write ups). The planned training for this week wasn’t really much different from what I would probably do with no events. Nothing requiring assistance so I could’ve slept in. But I wanted to get out there and see if I could talk with the owners about setting up stuff for the stone event for Nats (carry and load). Also give myself some time to get measurements and test some things. Drive out was fine. I took time to see if there was enough space for the stone carry in different spots as well as testing platform heights. I also checked some things in regards to the wheelbarrow options. Still have ton of thoughts I need to pin down. Unfortunately the owners weren’t there to ask stuff. I’ll need to figure out what exactly to say. Really humid today, I probably should’ve brought another shirt just to wear something dry afterwards. 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. Been liking these. It would appear I got another week of these before switching gears. Same as it has been but increased RPE. I had initially read this as 3x6 and had gone for a 20lbs jump for that. Only realizing it was 4x6 again when I was ready to go for the first working set. It is hard to gauge the RIR and such on these because of the long eccentrics and how fatiguing those are. I started lighter just to get in an extra set. I brought the belt I’d use for these this time around. I’m not entirely sure why but it feels like because it ends on the pause that I feel like I can do more. The yielding stuff does seem to be good for me on pulls. Still had slightly shorter rests than planned besides the last set where I took a moment to wipe down all the sweat I had on my face, arms and legs. Again, getting that second wind on the last set where I felt I left too much in the tank. Felt like I was perfectly fine with the first few sets. Similar to how ssb squats have felt too. Might just be a thing for me. In either case it is good that I’m using more than 50% of the minimum I’m willing to accept from myself at the show. And that setup will be much easier than what this is. Took time to recover with all the sweat to rehydrate and put away weights as the next thing was the b-stance rdls. No acceleration reps. Slightly higher RPE and still 2 sets. Rep range 10-12. I figured I’d go the heavier route. See how things felt and determine which side felt behind to start with. Right side seemed to be the one to start with. Warming up I took bigger jumps as plan was to just use the heaviest dumbbell at the gym. With the sweat issue and knowing how things felt last time with my grip, I went for the liquid and dry chalk combo. Made a bit difference. This felt easier than last week with more weight. The second set was obviously tougher than the first and there is fatigue from one side to the other. Not sure what to do with this being the heaviest dumbbell that isn’t a circus dumbbell if this exercise continues. Probably need to adjust things to allow continue progression. Then it was time for leg press. Haven’t had leg press pop up very often but it might be the best thing for the moment as far as building up the legs with my levers. With how the days are set for Nats, the second day is going to be really lower body intense. Need to get wheels to match. This was more a testing week I guess. Last week wasn’t really expected but it was good for me to get some idea of things. The knee sleeves were going to be needed to ease comfort. So the plan here was to do 3 sets of no acceleration reps and keeping my body in the face and hands as relaxed as possible. And just do 20 seconds of reps. The most I’ve done on this leg press has been 500lbs for paused reps. This is a very beefy leg press at 300lbs empty sled weight. The initial bench setup was for a much shorter person so I had to adjust it after the first set. I tend to use my arms to assist with getting the weight up to lockout and I don’t count that as a rep because of how low the start position is for me. Essentially the bottom of the movement. Which would be fine I guess to do some starting strength and increase rate of force development. But I don’t think that was the plan here with the focus on time of work. I think part of this is me not really used to leg press for many years as the weight feels like a lot but moves smooth and I need to adapt to that a bit. I think my making sure I took appropriate rest here (said to do 3 minutes) lead me to resting a little too long. I just kept adding 50lbs and was hitting 9 reps in the time limit each time. Last set felt like one where there was some strain at times to hold composure. Last thing was quad fallbacks using band assistance. Last time had been to warm up with more bands and do pauses. This time was more reps and indication to do slight pause but accentuated eccentrics (3-5ct). I just jumped right in to these. Made sure I put down some foam padding as last time I got a bit of friction burn on my knees. My ROM seemed to be better this time around as far as getting all the way down. Of course taking the longer eccentrics. I was thinking of using less tension for the next set but I wasn’t too sure how fatigue would be between sets as I’ve never done these tempo style. I figured best thing would be to adjust the location I held the band to increase the weight I was moving and reduce the assistance so I could make the reps and sets harder as I went. Only did that for a few the second set and for all of them the last set. This, like the Nordic curls, I feel best when there is some slight band assistance involved. I took time kind of putting stuff away as it was a bit early in the day. Contemplating if I was staying to stretch or going home. I decided to go home so that I could potentially get another meal in and stretch at my leisure.