July 7, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5

Narrow Grip Bench Presses
247x5
 
Inverted Ring Rows
bwx3
bw+35x12
bw+35x12
bw+35x12
bw+35x17

Chaos Band Bradford Presses w/ Chains
47+50cx11
47+50cx11

Powell Raises
12x3/3
22x10/10 
22x10/10
22x10/10

Band Triceps Pushdowns
sb+(2)µbx30
sb+(2)µbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: I think I tend to forget that I get stressed out the week of something that I want to do and that getting ready for a beach trip should probably in the future be treated the same way as I would deload for a competition. I preface this with how I was feeling coming into this workout as well as after. 2021 was when I started going on the family beach trip as an adult rather than being forced to as a child. That had worked out as I competed and then went right to the beach to relax. Granted, I had a disc issue from training the week prior to competition and was only able to get it calm down once I got home and did some decompression on my dip stand. I made myself sick with stress in 2022 and missed the beach trip with trying to train through it for competitions in the summer to qualify for Nationals. I had trained through it but not like real intense workouts in 2023. 2024 I did nothing at all but I had been stressing about trying to qualify during the summer again. And here I am again with that dilemma. I had intended to do off season training so not having summer stress on top of deal with the temperature but I got that invite to World’s and I don’t know how many times I can get that again as I get older so doing this again. I thought I was being smart about it with training and planning the off time. But I guess I didn’t plan on the stress from losing more people at work and just the general insanity that is the current time I live in as well. I don’t do well with uncertainty. Saturday training didn’t really hit me until later Sunday and Monday I was feeling beat up in my upper body. Specifically my shoulders and upper back. I guess I needed to work in the sandbag stuff more gradually as the clean pull tosses really stressed my rotator cuffs. I was also feeling a bit annoyed with how some of the things went Saturday. Not as close as I thought I was. But this could also be from being tired and stressed. Really surprised I was 3lbs heavier than last week. Started things off with 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. Garage training day. Bench press session. I was hoping that my shoulders weren’t going to be an issue here. As ideally, I’d feel better with more sessions getting familiar with bench again. Shoulders were achy but not in a way that had me stopping if that makes sense. So same as last time in that work up in sets of 5 reps to a top set of 5 reps. Aim for more than last time but not so much more that this was a maximum effort. Saving something for when I do this workout again for a closer to actual 5rm. I should mention that my left wrist was still very annoyed with me from Saturday and I had been wearing my wrist brace on Sunday and Monday when I wasn’t doing something that would get me sweaty or when I was cleaning stuff or sleeping. I’ve had this before and know it heals up pretty well. But that I’d have to crank the wrist wraps hard and potentially sooner than usual with things like pressing. I really do seem to be having issues with my benching setup in having things feel right. I made bigger jumps this time around so that I could end up doing 265lbs or 275lbs with the 40-50lbs jumps (quarter-plate-quarter). I probably should’ve gone with 265lbs but I was already annoyed with how things were feeling and that 255lbs had felt as difficult as it did last time. 275lbs was not convincing in how it went. I seem to not keep my grip the same from warm ups to these top sets and I’m not sure why. First two reps felt powerful and then I had to kind of take a moment to focus after the third rep. I kept hitting the rack on the last two reps which made them a good bit tougher to lockout. Have to see how next time goes but I’m likely not adding much more here if this was any indication. Next was to drop 10% off that top set and do another set but bring my hands in closer by 2”. First rep was a little rough and then I kind of got things figured out after that. But also hit the rack on the last rep locking out. But it wasn’t as egregious and impeding. Well the benching was done and it hadn’t been that good. Hopefully the rest of the session would go smoother and not be as rough on the shoulders. This lead to inverted ring rows. Same as last time with the plan being 4x12 with option to rep out that last set if feeling good (leaving 1-2RIR). Shoulders were feeling a little achy but these were kind of in a way having stuff feeling a little better doing them. I went for 15lbs more than last time. These felt pretty good and moving smoothly. I did end up doing more reps on the last set compared to last time. I kind of expected that as these tend to get better as I do them. Moved on to more shoulder stuff. 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. I had issues with counting my reps last time where I thought I did the same both sets. The fatigue was noticeable from the first to second set. The plan was 2 sets of 10-15 with it being RPE 6. Noticed I also seemed to move faster the second set likely because of the fatigue and worrying I will miss the rep. I decided to add a little more weight to the setup from last time. I’m glad these feel fine and don’t have anything feeling weird. I thought I did 12 both sets but only ended up being 11. But hey, at least same reps both sets. This was also noticeably tougher with the 8lbs extra added with these kind of reps. Powell raises were up next. 3x10 this time around and lower intensity. I figured with how good things had been last time that I was adding weight each set, that 1lbs more than last time for my top set of 12 reps would be fine here. I did a warm up set as I figured this would be something that would be straining my shoulders since these feel similar to the motion of releasing a bag at the top. And I was right. I did feel like these were better as I went. Last thing being triceps. Just band pressdowns with idea being 2x20-30. I had done two different grips last time but didn’t really like how the pronated grip had felt so figured I’d stick to the close neutral grip here. Added some band tension since I got 2x30 last time. I thought it would be another 2x30 but I guess not. Fatigue hits hard on my triceps. Why trying to add some things beside big movement stuff with the isolation kind of things. My shoulders were kind of on fire from this workout. I was already contemplating moving my second training session out a day at this point to allow for recovery. Made dinner and stretched out before bed.