June 23, 2025 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
75x5
105x5
135x5
165x5
195x5
225x5
255x5

Narrow Grip Bench Presses
230x5
 
Inverted Ring Rows
bw+20x12
bw+20x12
bw+20x12
bw+20x15

Chaos Band Bradford Presses w/ Chains
45+22cx3
45+44cx12
45+44cx10

Powell Raises
17x12/12 
19x12/12
20x12/12

Band Triceps Pushdowns
sbx30 (neutral grip)
sbx30 (pronated grip)

Stretching
 
Comments: It was damn hot since Saturday. I thought Saturday had been quite brutal in the sunshine but Sunday was way worse. I didn’t want to do anything Sunday but I knew I needed to do some moving around as I was stiff and sore in my back and knees. I was likely not going to get to do any walking Tuesday since also going to be hot and I was going to be having to go in to the office for the currently once a month dumb thing. The “heat wave” was initially only going to be Sunday and Monday but been extended to Wednesday. I made sure I got to walking around noon before it got really hot on Sunday. Weight down slightly from last week. Training for this day was a bit changed from what it has been for the rest of the training prep. Some stuff just not recovering weekly. And I think it was going to be more apparent this week with the Saturday training session and having these next two sessions a day earlier than usual with recovery days from the previous week. My knees and lower back had taken quite a beating with the yoke and power stairs stuff with no knee sleeves or belt. I figured I’d need a bit of soft tissue work. Neck rehab was a majority of the warming up as this was not a lower body drive upper body session so there wasn’t really a need to work the knees and ankles as much. Perhaps let them recover a little. But still did the stretching and such. The heat was beastly so thankfully my changes didn’t have me doing any outside work today. Purely in the garage with three fans going at all times. So actually pretty tolerable. The rotation is trying to go off something that seemed to work with training as far as building up overhead press and that was with alternating bench press one week with the overhead press variation. I’ve not really been doing bench as worry about shoulder fatigue and such. Had been doing the four days a week and then dropped back to three days. And usually the variations had been board or log incline. Regular benching had not really been pushed and had been with chains and trying to have it be something done where it was more speed focus. My shoulders hadn’t really been thrilled with that stuff but that was also with I think not realizing the neck issue and not actively including stuff to stretch out my pecs during warming up. So axle clean and press one week, close grip bench the other. So for this first week, trying to not kill myself. So work up in sets of 5 reps to a top set of 5 reps which is hopefully well under what I can do. Ideally something that is 70% my max. That I should be able to do for 10 reps. Like I said, it has been a bit so I assumed I was down on press here. Decided I’d do 30lbs jumps starting with the bar and that should hopefully get me to 255lbs as my top set with those jumps. But things just felt a little off today with setting up on bench. I fiddled with the rack height a little but seems this is where it is right now. Oh well. Left shoulder was fine, right shoulder would get tight and need to crack my elbow from the tension building up after the sets. But this actually felt pretty good considering how things have been lately with benching. I don’t think changing the ROM would really do anything for the shoulder thing with how it was. Warming up was feeling ok. Could tell I’m out of practice with the reps. 135lbs felt fine and then of course adding 30lbs more things started to get a little challenging. I had not wanted 225lbs to feel like it had. That had been how I had hoped 255lbs would’ve felt. So I guess need to take things a little more serious. I didn’t get super hyped up or anything for these. Just a little more focused. I knew the plan here was to just get a break in session. 255lbs looks like it moved really easy on camera but it had felt a bit challenging on the last rep. I don’t think I’d have gotten 10 with how I approached that set and was feeling. But it is a starting point. Next was to drop 10% off that top set and do another set but bring my hands in closer by 2”. My close grip is already pretty close so guess call this narrow grip. I’m not sure. These were ok. Little hitch/hiccup with the last rep going up smoothly. Sticking point on these can hit hard with the close a grip. Like I said, a starting point. And hopefully I will feel more comfortable next time around. Since I had done horizontal pressing, it made sense to do horizontal rowing. Which would be the inverted ring rows. I’ve like doing these were I do reps for certain sets and then go for max reps on the last set leaving 1-2RIR. I wasn’t too sure how I wanted to start with these. On one hand, I’ve not done them in a few months and not sure how they’d feel from doing other stuff (left brachialis potentially calming down). Fatigue on these can hit hard as well over sets when not doing them consistently. But the other point is that I’ve been doing those cable rows and built those up a good bit over the past four weeks so I should be fine I think. I guess see how I feel touching them and go from there. So setup for just bodyweight but I knew just doing one rep that I was going to do 20lbs added in the back pack for my sets. Feeling good here. I knew I’d probably not set any PRs on the rep set with not really doing these and pushing things that hard on rowing exercises with all the other things stressing biceps. Did 3x12 and then an extra 3 reps for the fourth set. The rest of the workout was lighter stuff to hit shoulders and triceps. Trying to have the bench be the stressful stuff and the other week with axle the more stressful day. The first exercise was kind of a new one for me. I had planned to do this as something in my original off season plan before making an about face. I’ve done some chaos weight stuff but never really got a chance to be consistent with doing overhead. But the plan here was to do alternating pressing from shoulders and behind the neck with chaos band weight while seated. No back support. Not locking out the weight either so keeping tension on the shoulders the entire time. Something that works the shoulders but is easy on the joints and will hopefully promote blood flow and help keep shoulders happy. I felt that using chains would be the most “alive” weight to attach. I had no idea how these would feel but thankfully no discomfort. Fatigue definitely builds on these. It is also hard to keep track of reps as I’m counting a rep to the front and rep from behind as a single rep. I essentially miscounted on both sets. I had thought I did 10 reps the first set and then seeing as I did 12, I attempted 12 reps the second set and got 10 reps when I watched video. So that was a little confusing. The plan was 2 sets of 10-15 with it being RPE 6. So I feel like the RPE was correct for these then. I’ll likely try to get more reps and actually do the same reps each set. Powell raises were up next. I did just do these for the first time last week and ideally like to give them a week before coming back but it didn’t seem to make sense to have these with the axle press session as these are a bit more intense compared to say face pulls or other external rotation stuff. This is also a new exercise so there could be some quick adaptation here. Plan was 3x12 with a little more intensity than last time. I felt like last time I had overshot the effort I was to do here so I was contemplating doing the same weight or just a smidge more. It would seem that I had a better understanding of the movement or was maybe not so beat from other stuff by this point as I kept needing to add weight each set (a few lbs) to have things be the right effort. Even that last set felt easier than what I did last week. I wasn’t truly resting between sides so I imagine these could improve a bit more. I was kind of moving things along as it was still pretty hot (but not so much I had to change shirts) and because I had to get up earlier to go into the office the next day. Last thing being triceps. Just band pressdowns with idea being 2x20-30. I wasn’t sure what I would do here as far as band tension as it has been a bit here as well. I tested the strong band and it felt like it would work. I did the first set with my hands positioned in a neutral grip. I was a little surprised 30 reps was comfortable enough. I decided I’d switch up to pronated grip (definitely harder) for the second set. Took a bit more effort to get 30 reps but I did. It has been a bit since I’ve done them as triceps were lighting up from them. But not so much they were spasming afterwards like I sometimes have happen when I push triceps things and they can’t keep up with the effort/volume. Put stuff away and got delivery for dinner as it was too damn hot to cook anything inside and I wanted to eat now, not later. Stretched before going to bed.