July 7, 2024 - July 20, 2024 - Week 5-6

 July 8, 2024 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
No Bands
87x5
Add Bands
90x3
120x2
140x2
160x2
180x2
180x2
180x2
180x2
180x5

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
95x5
135x5
185x3
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
225x5
225x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x2
260x5
260x2 (misgrooved)
260x5

Band Face Pulls
lbx30
lbx30

Stretching
 
Comments: I wasn’t expecting the temps to be staying as high as they have been. But I guess I’m kind of used to it at this point. I had felt fine besides staying up late on Saturday (right knee was aching a bit). So Sunday was ok and getting things in order. Weight is down slightly. Plan is to drop some additional calories as I’m no longer trying to bulk. So dropping the milk and yogurt after I run out this week. This week’s training going to be a little different with the upcoming week of beach time. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be doing training while there or not and it seems the answer is not. I wasn’t sure because I had just deloaded for a contest and only four weeks back to training. But indication was the break would be good for me and I’ve been training consistently and hard even with the brief deload. So two workouts this week and then just one workout next week to get in a full three sessions of a normal week. I woke up to bad allergies for Monday. Which was not ideal with how much more hectic work has become with the new requirements. My supervisor is also out so it seems that other people are taking advantage of that to pull crap that wouldn’t be happening while they are here. Oh well. The allergies I can’t tell if allergies or if just a really weak cold. I’d rather not take all the meds because it can mask some things for recovery purposes as well as increase blood pressure (not ideal). I took some Dayquil in the afternoon as I was starting to get a sinus headache and I needed to focus on work. So feeling mostly ok when it was time to train. Warming up was ok. Nothing to really mention here. Starting off the actual training was log strict press. I was advised I could add support gear as needed to continue progressing. I think with how things are planned that I will attempt to do this block without anything and start using stuff next block on the stuff I feel I need it on. The log work was to be with the bands from last time and with 10lbs more than last time. But inverting the reps and sets. So 5x2 instead of 2x5. Similar to what I was doing with the axle and log stuff for Regionals prep out of the rack. As has been the case, I was given the option to rep out the last set up to 5 reps. I was initially going to just do 30lbs jumps but my right shoulder wasn’t feeling great and I switched to 20lbs. The blood pressure thing was noticeable here but I seemed to get better as I went. Things finally seemed to feel the right bit with everything by the fourth set. Then the last set. I was getting myself a little worked up here. This was the best set. I’m not sure what got things to click or be in the right spot but this felt perfect and the weight was feeling like something I could do like 10 more reps here. So I was happy with how that had gone. I’m always nervous that my shoulders are going to be sucky one of these sessions like what happened at the beginning of last prep with overtraining on the overhead supports and lockouts. Happy these continue to feel good and feel like there is improvement. From there, it was into the garage for chest supported barbell rows with pauses. Same as last time with it being 2x5 and the 2 second holds at contraction. But adjusting here as advised to only do the 2 second holds on the working set. Otherwise, just brief holds warming up. So slightly different warming up. I think I was not sure if that warming up would be sufficient for the expectation of the holds. Suggested was 5-10lbs more than last time. I figured I’d do 10lbs so that I was doing 225lbs. The first set felt ok and I think the second set actually felt better. So this also was good. Benching was up next. Same as last week but adding 5lbs. I figured I’d make some adjustments here as Mr. Westerling felt I wasn’t getting tight enough and that it could be the reason for some shoulder aches and that could put shoulder in less safe position. I researched a bit and I think it came down to how I was holding the bar not being as conducive to providing tension throughout the entire upper body (false grip) and that this “normal” width benching is not letting me stay tight. I was advised I could make adjustments to what feels comfortable. So I decided I’d bring my hands in (not quite my close grip bench) and see how that went. I also setup the chains a bit better I think. With the amount of time fiddling around with setup in the garage, I did turn on one of the three fans to cool things off a bit. This felt much better and I wasn’t feeling that sensation of “heavy” on my wrists like when I’d go up in weight. The changes in weight felt reasonable to me as I went up. I didn’t feel the need to add my wrist wraps for comfort here. I was however noticing my lower back was really tight on the left side. I feel this is likely from the farmer’s walk picks. But first noticing it on anything. So a little gingerly getting up. Time for the top sets. First set felt decent and I was feeling confident. Second set I setup slightly off and I kept misgrooving so I racked the weight after two reps. I took about 30 seconds to reassess and went back under the weight to get the second set. Not as crisp as the first (obvious after doing more reps). But I think I’m going to stick to this style going forward for my benching. Feels safe and I feel “stacked”. Triceps also feeling it. Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. Outside for these for ease of teardown. Reps increased to 25-30 for the two sets. I do like how these seem to light up this one spot on my shoulders and upper back in the first few reps. Like it is getting work done and is “reversing” the stress from the pressing. Doing 30 reps the first set I knew the second set would be tougher. Put stuff away before realizing that my roast I got wasn’t going to be edible and had to make a new dinner from scratch. Then stretched.

July 10, 2024 – Week 5, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps)
No Bands
135x5
Add Bands (+7lbs/+42lbs)
135x3
185x3
225x2
275x2
315x1
365x1
405x5
405x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx25 L
bwx25 R

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx40 seconds L
bwx40 seconds R

Crunches
bw+35x35

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+20x20

Stretching
 
Comments: Work continues to get worse with the stress being added. Received an e-mail from management with less than 30 minutes left in the day (Tuesday) indicating that a process that has been in place since before I started working here (over 12yrs) is changing effective the following day (Wednesday). Apparently meeting with the one supervisor here as team tomorrow to discuss the change and field questions/concerns. Which doesn’t really matter as rarely do things revert back just because we say it doesn’t work. It just all seems to be happening when the other supervisor is out… Just more work and stress. Very tempted to call of sick the rest of day today and tomorrow. But I’m not. Allergies were at least back under control. Been staying hot and humid. I didn’t want full blast fans on but I felt it made sense to have the one oscillating fan like I did Monday for benching on for some air flow with how humid it was. Again this workout seems to line up with a storm coming through but at least this time I wouldn’t be worrying about rain until after the workout. But it was getting a bit gusty. Warming up felt fine. Just keeping an eye on everything. Up first was deadlifts. Same as last time with it being with bands and for 2x5. Not required to be beltless but I wanted to keep it that way at least for this session and possibly the next to finish out this block of training that way. Plan being same warming up with it being 40-50lbs jumps with the weight to be 405lbs. Same bands as last time. Attempting the same form as suggested last time with trying to have the knees forward more. I can certainly say lower back was feeling a little stiff. Some knee aches too. This could just be high stress stuff with work and hopefully I can relax all next week. I feel it might have been present last time but it felt more apparent this time with how the first rep feels vs the subsequent reps with this style. The last single with 365lbs had me a little concerned with how these sets would go. Possibly fatigue from Saturday farmer’s walks. Just not feeling like everything it “tight” that first rep. That first rep with 405lbs did not feel smooth and fast to me. I was kind of worried about how it went but then the other reps were like it should. Seems to be the stretch reflex with this style works well and consistent. The second set that first rep felt a lot better and the rest of it felt fairly consistent. I kind of hoped these would feel a little easier than they did but this has been a 90lbs increase in a month (not including the bands added). Looks to be just one set next time. The humidity was definitely increasing the sweat factor and I was needing a towel. I ended up turning on a big fan in the sunroom/patio area for more air flow. Didn’t make sense to turn on more fans in the garage since the rest of the workout wasn’t going to be in there. Outside for step ups. Still doing bodyweight on these but more reps. It sounds like next time weights will be added and more volume. I had mentioned last time that my knees were feeling fairly good and I had been tempted to do these without last time. I decided I’d do that this time and thankfully there was no issues here. Set of 25 reps each side. The additional 5 reps was noticed. It is kind of funny that this number of reps on these are what I had worked up to when I had to rehab things back in 2016 to get back to some form of training. But that had been 50 reps total alternating legs and going with not specific control or intent like here (fast up, controlled down). More sweating and on to the next thing. I had taken some breaks last time to space things out to make sure that I wasn’t lifting while it was raining. I figured this time that I wanted to get through these a little quicker so that I wasn’t doing them when the rain hit (and get to dinner prep sooner). Wall sits were next. Single leg and advised to keep at bodyweight. Goal to add 5-10 seconds to last time for the progression. 30 seconds had felt tough but that was the first week and I didn’t set a timer to really be focused on so just went with 30 seconds. I set the timer for 40 seconds so that I had that option there if I made it without issue. The added 10 seconds was noticed here too haha. Really any time after 30 seconds felt about the same. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. I went with the metal plate this time around. Rep range was increased to up to 35 reps. Reverted back to breaking the reps mentally in chunks of 5 reps. Felt my mid section feel like it was going to cramp but it didn’t. No hip flexor tightness this time around. Hanging knee raises to end things. This is where I kind of accept a break has to happen to get the stuff outside setup. This time I was to add weight to the movement. Still doing them with holds. Suggested had been to either secure weight to my thighs or hold a weight between my thighs. I asked if I could use the leg/ankle weights I had instead and that was given a go. The 20lbs weights definitely pull me down a bit so I have even less clearance unweighted on these. I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as difficulty here but was pleasantly surprised that I could get 20 reps with some in the tank. Put stuff away and got dinner ready while attempting to dry off and keep cool from the sweat and heat. Stretched later in the evening.

July 20, 2024 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (Casual Pace)
200x50’
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x50’
600x50’

Sandbag Loads (57“)
175x2
225x2
275x5

Sled Pushes (turf)
75x50’
(60 seconds rest)
185x50’/185x50’
185x50’/185x50’
185x50’/185x50’
185x50’/185x50’
185x50’/185x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: A week away at the beach with family. This is something I’ve only been doing more recently as I had to go all the time when I was younger and then when I didn’t I didn’t. But since 2021, I’ve made it a point to do it. 2022 I got overly stressed with things and ended up getting a bit sick with stress so I cancelled. But last year went well and I feel like this year did as well. There are things I enjoy about it but I can’t be stress free away from the comforts of home and routine. My lower back felt tight the entire time and eased up on me on the drive back home. Last year, I had done bodyweight and band workouts. I was told to do none of that this time around and that was probably for the best honestly. I attempted to get 2 mile walks on the beach and/or swim in the ocean and/or pool every day besides the first and last day. I wasn’t too sure how things would feel after taking a week off essentially and jumping right back in as if nothing happened. I forgot I had set my alarm and hour early so I reset it and slept for another hour. Drive out wasn’t bad. Lot of cloud cover and seemed to be cooler than it had been. I wasn’t really expecting much and just went through the motions with the warming up stuff. Good bit of people now that other people are back from deload and getting closer to the late summer/early fall shows. The humidity was noticeable today so I was sweating a good bit. Starting things off was yoke. Plan here was 600x2x50’ at casual pace and about 2 minutes or so rest between sets. Continuing with no support gear of any kind as well. I thankfully didn’t have to move too much stuff around for training today. 100lbs jumps and just going as I felt. I was keeping an eye on my lower back as that had been tight all this week. The casual pace coupled with doing without support gear seems like the smart thing right now with how things were feeling. A little bit of knee aches but nothing major. I felt like the second set I felt better as far as the sensation of weight on my body and being able to control how I was moving with it. Next was sandbag loads. Really sweaty so took my time without stripping down the yoke. A bit of nerves as I was feeling gassy with this working up. Plan was to do one notch higher as far as the loading height (so 57-58”) since that would be closer to what a good extension height would be and no longer doing atlas stones for right now so don’t have to match the heights. Suggested was to do 250-275lbs for just one set of 5. I could repeat the same weight and go to the higher load height. But I’d rather just get it over with on the 275lbs bag. The sooner I get done with it, the sooner I can get to the fuller bags above that weight. The 275lbs bag as I mentioned is underfilled by like 25lbs so it is quite loose for the size and weight of the bag. So it isn’t a quick pick up type thing. And it is the bag I tore/strained the right hamstring on earlier this year. 50lbs jumps warming up with doubles. I also lapped and walked the bags over besides the top weight bag. The picking up of the 275lbs bag was going to be the part of this that required effort as the loading and such wasn’t going to be so bad. As expected, I did have to take my time with getting the bag secured before lifting. So it didn’t make sense to run around like a loon here. Of course, I’d have liked for the pick to lap to be easier and quicker but work with what I can and what I got. I wasn’t really able to “take my time with putting stuff away” after that as someone needed the lanes but I did still needed to setup for the sled work. I was not looking forward to this. Continuing to be 5 sets of 100’ with 60 seconds rest. With the pushes, 50’ with two sleds with the space available is the best option here. Have to use 10-20lbs more than last time. Last time, I had not felt like the weight was moving fast that first set like I was hoping so I kind of was prepared for that to be the case this time around. As has been the case, last set of these I’m really dragging. Each set I was getting slower by like 2 seconds with the last one being a good bit more than that. I could tell this was going to be rough on the second set but kept pushing. Almost retched in my mouth after I was done with this. Despite how I feel, it does seem that I recover from the ordeal fairly quick. Ate the food I brought with me and put away stuff and helped out before driving home to stretch out.