July 5, 2023 – Week 2, Day 2

Paused Hatfield Bulgarian FFE Split Squat (3”, 2 seconds)
65x5/5
105x4/4
140x3/3
170x10/10
170x10/10
170x10/10

Front Squats (5-1-0-0 tempo)
65x3
95x3
125x3
155x8
155x8

Nordic Curl Negatives
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Kettlebell Power Pin Swings
122x8
122x8
122x8
122x8
122x8

Hollow Rocks
bwx28/14/8

Stretching
 
Comments: Tuesday was nice to have time to get things in order for the trip as well as catch up on some things as well. Also time with family. Granted going to have a lot of time with them coming up shortly. Work has been less stressful due to the pull back in responsibilities and this has allowed me to focus on certain things rather than every fire that pops up during the day. Almost feels like how it was before the change from specialized tasks to caseloads. Almost. This had been the toughest workout last week and would be the case this week as well but I knew I’d handle it better. It is always the first session when it is quad or lot of rep focused stuff with tempo for lower body especially. Not to say I wasn’t feeling some soreness from Monday’s session. Last time the air quality had been poor and this week it was in the 90’s so I decided to bust out the fans for air flow and circulation. I had been a pretty darn sweaty mess last time. Starting things off was my choice of unilateral quad dominant exercise with some tempo involved. Not specified but assumed that this was to be the same as last week to have something to build from.  So same thing again with the convoluted paused hatfield ffe Bulgarians. Higher RPE and more sets but rep range reduced to 8-10. I felt that I should still attempt to aim for the top end reps at this time during this off-season period. I didn’t have to do as many reps to work up if I didn’t want to. I settled on a 15lbs jump as being sufficient here. See how it felt as sometimes I feel better on these kind of things as I go. I also took my belts off completely between sides and sets to see if that helped with my breathing and recovery between sets. If it did, it was negligible. I was a little worried at the start as the ssb kept wanting to tip off my shoulders. Maybe the shirt I was wearing was too loose. Things seemed to be fine for the working sets. I got through the first two sets feeling fresher compared to last time but definitely got the fatigue in me for that third set. Then it was on to front squats. Same as last week with 2x8 but higher RPE allowed. Feeling here was that I should still be having pre-exhaustion/fatigue from the first exercise but be better adapted compared to last time. I went for a fairly big gamble/jump with 20lbs increase. Probably was cutting it close at the end on these with the 5 second eccentrics and pause. Core and upper back were fatiguing hard by the end of these, especially the second set. Trying to be cognizant of my body position on these with that long down time I have doing the rep. See how my knees are feeling and think where I want things to be moving and what is probably too tight. I was taking breaks tearing down and putting stuff away and setting things up so that I could get a breather as well as keep hydrated with fluids. Not treating these lower body sessions like the upper body where I’m trying to keep those moving quickly and be short and sweet. Nordic curls were up next. Same as last time. Slightly nervous as my lower legs and hamstrings were feeling tight from Saturday stuff still. That potentially meaning I’ll strain the small muscles in the back of the knee. That has only happened to me once but once bitten, twice shy. Trying to get just the barest touches on these to continue to improve. Power pin swings up next. I had contemplating taking one of the power pins from the gym while I was out there (I’m fairly certain they are mine) but reconsidered as I figured that these weren’t specifically for power stairs and more for building up endurance in this motion for not just power stairs but bag toss. I also felt like those handles would rub skin raw with how the setup was. So sticking to my kettlebell setup. Not a ton of space on it for weight but I feel I got enough space to not worry about for the moment. Plan was again to do 5x8 and try to keep to same effort as last time with a linear bump in weight. I felt that maybe I had not used enough weight last time. All 25’s on the pin was only slightly more than last time and I’d have to swap out weight next time anyways so I went with 25’s and then one 35lbs plate. Felt I had a better idea of what I was doing and control. Noticing with the increased weight the dynamic stress on the grip. Again, hopefully I’m doing this right. I can fit another 27lbs on there before having to swap back to the 45’s. Last thing was the hollow rocks. I’m not 100% sure on these but figured I’d treat the back and forth as one rep just in case. I changed my orientation in the room which lead to me hitting the wall some reps and trying to scooch back. Managed a few more reps before my first break. Tried to take less than a minute rest compared to last time. Got the 50 reps and attempted to cool down as I cooked up dinner and then stretched.