August 2, 2023 – Week 6, Day 2

Paused Front Squats (2 seconds)
45x3
85x3
125x3
165x3
195x3
225x6
225x6
225x6
225x6

Barbell Lunges
45x3/3
65x10/10
80x10/10
95x10/10

Nordic Curl Negatives (7 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Kettlebell Power Pin Swings
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5

Banded Reverse Crunches (2 second holds)
µb’sx15
µb’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Quite a few changes to this workout compared to say Monday’s session. Similar but different. While work hasn’t been very stressful at all, there has been other things. My father has been not feeling the best off and on since before Regionals but hopefully they finally got it right what the issue was and he should be feeling better. This workout wasn’t so much of just get it done like Monday. This had some changes to it and would be probably more in line with what would be the case with contest prep. First thing was front squats. The order of operations here being the front squats and then unilateral stuff and the rest of things as rather than prefatiguing with the unilateral work. It was a good run. Front squats were somewhat normal in that only having to do pauses for them. It can be tricky figuring things out after doing tempo work on exercises and seeing what actually is doable when you aren’t doing weighted Tai Chi. Like, am I still about where I was the last time I did this exercise (over a year ago). My thinking initially was wanting to do 2 plates a side for the planned 4x6 with having it be RPE 6. But I figured it could be less than that considering just was doing 185lbs for the tempo work and that was pretty tough. Not doing the unilateral stuff with the warming up to that I think maybe had me feeling like I wasn’t quite warmed up just yet for the pauses on the front squats. Was looking at between 30-50lbs jumps really depending on how things were feeling. 40lbs jumps would get me to 205lbs, the minimum I was aiming for here. I was actually feeling pretty good after the first three sets and figured that if 165lbs felt good, I’d reduce the jump size so that I could do 225lbs. I was really hoping I didn’t overshoot it. I think I made the right call here. It is kind of amazing how much more comfortable the unrack feels from the first two weeks. The bar feels weightless on my shoulders and my knees feel fine. I was initially thinking the weight might be too light and add tiny bit of the sets but kept it there because pauses can be deceiving as well. Second set felt tougher, third set then was better as was the fourth set. Really it was like after 3 reps that it decided to get tougher on these. So that was the first part down. Now the unilateral work. Change here with the exercise choice. Standard barbell lunges. Thought being to remove some of the stability of the unilateral movement and increase the dynamic nature of it. Also trying to work in a range that I know has some discomfort. Plan being 2 sets of 8-10. It was my choice of bar really but I wanted to use a barbell. Been using ssb for so long and this wasn’t going to be something I’d be having low bar to do. Knees were quite stiff. Unilateral stuff is good to warm up bilateral squats but not vice versa it would seem. There was some tenderness in the knee joints in both legs at different spots and only on the back legs. For the right side, the inner part and for the left side the outer part. With how rough the bar was feeling, I went with just 20lbs more for the first set with the plan being to do that weight. I’ve gone a bit better with the pacing and rest for unilateral lower body exercises. Neither side really seemed to have an advantage as I did more reps. Kind of just telling myself that my knees won’t explode. I felt like 65lbs was too light/easy so I added 15lbs for the next set. That felt better on the knees as I was more warmed up I think and felt a bit closer to where I was to be effort wise. So even though I had done 2x10, I increased the weight to what I had hoped to be doing at the start for another set. I could tell fatigue was setting in at this point. Considering the ROM, how these felt and the disparity between the hatfield style vs no support style, it is clear to see that I can benefit from this style a bit more and let the other stuff take over for the heavier things. Nordic curls were up next. Last week of them being free standing. They have kind of just been the same for a few weeks and I’ve been fine with them not really progressing. More just knee health and keeping some hamstring work that wasn’t loading the spine. This last session before switching to a different variation was to do same setup but increase the eccentric from just controlled to 5-7ct. I was thinking this was going to be a little more intense and potentially tougher to recover from. And possibly rougher. But it actually went quite well. Really cooked the hamstrings and was probably the best these have felt since these were added for this prep. Maybe the intent like that is important. Then swings. Back to 8x5 and short rests. It was a little tricky to get 5lbs more on here. I don’t think I can really add more weight without swapping out to the 45lbs plates and even then it might be a total of 30lbs more. Probably not worth it with the even bigger diameter plates. These are quick and easy and I try to keep them moving. Like less than 40 seconds rest when I was to be doing like 60 seconds. If these are ending up being something that will be continuing or a bigger fixture for training going forward, I may need to invest in something to actually put some decent weight on these (safely). I could bring the pins from the gym home but I’d hate to take away from something that I know another person at the gym will be using to train for Nats. I guess I’ll find out more when next week of programming is discussed so I can plan accordingly. Felt easy but breathing a bit from just having to exert effort. You can’t exactly swing slowly. Last thing was probably a violation of the Geneva Convention. I think I feel that way about a lot of lower abdominal work. So this was a change from the hollow rocks. I felt I had built up some tolerance from those. This was to be some reverse crunches with holds and maybe adding bands if I felt I could rig that up. I did and I wish I hadn’t because it made what was probably going to be a very easy cool down exercise into something very challenging. Holds and tempo on lower abdominal exercises are just terrible for me. But I do it as it needs work and the off season sessions is where it can get a little more attention before event work takes over. I ended up hitting the minimum rep range here and having to rest pause the last set. Ugh. I can only improve from there. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before stretching. I was tempted to ice the knees but figured I’d stay the course for now.