December 15, 2024 - December 21, 2024 - Week 2

 December 16, 2024 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x8
60x5
90x3
120x1
150x1
180x1
210x1
240x3
240x3
240x3
240x3

Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds in dip)
210x3
210x3
210x3

Ring Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)
bwx12
bwx10
bwx8

Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10

Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: So time to push the work a good bit now after a week off almost completely besides walking and then a soft open of a week after that. It could all blow up in my face if my past history of trying my own thing has been an indicator. Hope or folly. Weight is up a little bit, possibly from dropping walking from 4 days to 3 days with training now 4 days. So still above 272lbs. I needed the weekend to get some reprieve from the work week slog. Not too helpful that because of the holidays that the in office day is moved up again. It snowed a little Sunday and I figured that it made sense to try and do most if not all my training during my lunch break today so that I was avoiding periods of rain and likely having some visibility while training outside. But more so because I wanted to eat an earlier dinner so I could go to bed earlier due to having to get up earlier. Warming up felt fine but there were sore spots. Legs feeling lactic acid and right side midback having that ribcage thing that seems to pop up every so often. Nothing that is of concern. Knees didn’t really ache that much today. Then it was time to train. Axle push presses. I could’ve done barbell but felt it made more sense for axle since been doing axle and less issues if weather elements get involved with the longevity of my axle vs a spinning barbell. Plan here was to warm up and do 80% for 3x3 and then rep set leaving 1-2 RIR with same weight. I’ve done this workout before in 2021 and I had been using my all-time best to base things off of. I knew that wasn’t wise with how things have been. Even though I missed 290lbs on a clean and press two weeks ago, I had felt like I could do 300lbs out of the rack two weeks prior to that on my singles. So basing things off of 300lbs. Feeling ok but things did start to feel heavy out of the rack. It is a bit different from the feeling of just cleaning the weight and having it on the shoulders vs walking it out. I was trying to not get hyped up for these. Trying out different belt combo for overhead as well. The first triple felt heavy but was probably my best one of the day. Usually the weight feels better as I go. It kind of did but it just seemed like I was making mistakes after the first rep of each set. Second set the second rep got out in front of me and I had to walk forward a little to get it and that sapped things for the third rep. Third set the second rep got a little off balance at lockout so it didn’t come back down in the groove for the third rep so that took a little more effort. Now as mentioned, the last set was to be a rep set. I was not really trying to hype myself up as I tend to get nervous. I took twice the rest I was doing between the sets to see if I recovered a little better. I guess not used to the reps after months of singles. The first two reps seemed good but I guess something was off on the third rep and lockout was a struggle. I hesitated briefly after that before deciding it was smarter to just rack the weight. I guess I’m a bit further away from where I was hoping things would be as far as competing in late April at the earliest. But I got the work done with no misses and I’m going to have to get nice and friendly with this on a weekly basis. The next part of the session was more axle push press but with being paused and without belts. Dropped down to 70%. I was not sure how these would go after I didn’t have things go as swimmingly as I’d have hoped for regular axle push pressing. Well thankfully these felt fine on the shoulders and no belt wasn’t an issue. I could tell by the second set that my shoulders and triceps and upper back were definitely feeling fatigue. Could also be from hitting myself in the throat unracking it the second set. Third set I went and forgot I was to do paused reps and caught myself and reracked the weight to do it again. This was definitely a challenging set in regards to having the lockout endurance and strength. But no missed reps. My hope is I adapt to the new demands otherwise I got to figure something else out. Or just do training and not worry about it. Inside to finish things up (I put stuff away later). As I had mentioned last week, the rest of the workout was not much changed from what I did. Ring push ups. I had done 3 sets leaving reps in the tank at bodyweight. This time same thing but adding in tempo in that lowering these to 3 seconds on the eccentric. In the past, I’d always go for more time but I figure I’m pretty honest with my counting so 3 seconds is probably someone’s 5ct. Thankfully as I was expecting, these did feel better this time around. Not quite the numbers I had back in 2021 but a start. From there it was on to bands. First thing being a shoulder (rotary focus) superset of underhanded band pull aparts coupled with band y raises. Light bands here. These kind of surprised me last time so I was ready for the sensation and fatigue this go around. I think that was good as these did seem to feel better and I felt I had better control. Last thing was triceps. Just band pressdowns. Similar to last week in how these felt. First set fine, second set tougher. The second set felt less “awkward” in how the humerus was moving around. Didn’t seem to trigger my triceps to be firing like last time after the session. Put stuff away and ate lunch. Stretched after work.

December 18, 2024 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x5
135x5
175x4
225x3
265x2
308x5
308x5
308x5
308x5

Paused Deadlifts (3 seconds mid-shin)
135x2
185x2
235x2
Added Straps
289x3
289x3
289x3
289x3

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
15x12/12
15x12/12
15x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls (3 count eccentric)
lbx15
lbx15
lbx15

Standing Band Abs
sbx25
sbx25
sbx25

Paused Single Leg Hip Thrusts (2 seconds)
40x8/8
40x8/8
40x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Well the week wasn’t off to a great start. After Monday’s training session I was starting to feel like I had really bad allergies or a cold coming on. To the point where I took nasal spray. I was also not feeling to hot mentally after feeling like the axle pressing was much harder than I was anticipating. Had me thinking that maybe I need to adjust the weights there. And of course had to go into work the next day so not ideal to be feeling that way and maybe getting a cold. So I took Dayquil and that helped me get restful sleep. Enough quality sleep that I was able to relax and realize I can just adjust things as needed with training. Took allergy meds minus Dayquil for work and it took like 4.5hrs before they helped. Another dumb day at work. Dark by the time I got home so no walking. I had kind of wanted to do that as I figure I’m going to be more sore this training. Soft tissue work was needed and my neck on the right side started to ache and feel tight at work too. I took more Dayquil for bed to hopefully let me sleep well and relax some muscle tension. Felt better today but still feeling some of the past few days. This was going to be a longer training session since last time I didn’t do the main part of the workout as feeling things out. Warming up felt fine enough. Shoulders and triceps are sore. Tendons in the shoulders are a little inflamed so it has been a while. Starting off training was box squats. It has been a few years since I’ve done a squat with any bar on my back. The suggested here was work up to 70% for 4x5 and aim to move each rep as fast as possible. Also suggested to use a specialty bar that ideally wouldn’t stress the shoulders like a regular barbell. My choices at home would be the csb and the ssb. I figured I’d mess with the csb as I’ve actually not used it for a squat since I got it at home. I’ve done maybe one set of good mornings light with it and then most of the time as an anchor for makeshift viking press (not the wood one I have available now). I’ve used the ssb for years and wanted to try something different. Also because a possible option for a strongman competition end of April has a squat event so at least something like a bar on the traps would be a good idea in case. I estimated what a max would be based and it is possible I went a little higher. It could very well be over a decade since I last did a csb squat of some sort. This bar is a bear to move around as it is quite dense weighing 85lbs empty. I was worried I might pull something getting it out of the corner in the patio sunroom to bring into the garage. While heavy moving around, not bad squatting with it. My right knee was a bit achy on these working up. I was trying to keep my stance similar to deadlift as these are to be the secondary session for deadlifts. High bar placement feels most comfortable. Low bar felt like it would slip. The bar is slick so I added athletic tape so it had some grip since no knurling. Also trying out the different belt combo as well. I was not sure how the working weight would feel but thankfully the last weight felt really good that I had the confidence to do what I was planning on doing. I also decided to use the wagon wheel weights. Only because it looked cool really. Have fun with things and use the cool stuff for training. The csb with how it shakes back and forth does make it tough to go fast but I felt like I could do more reps each set. Just out of practice is all. Third set I rushed it a little and had it low bar and walked it out and it felt unstable so reracked and did it high bar. I felt I was feeling better with the movement as the sets progressed. I was definitely feeling a bit winded as I’ve not done any squats like this for maybe 18 months. It has been lower reps and not with weight on the back either. I have a feeling I will adapt. After that was done, then it was time for deadlifts. Paused deadlifts with pause at midshin ideally. Trying to get my form tight like I was having it during the first few weeks of the last cycle. My right knee was a bit stiff at the start but loosened up as I went. The pause was feeling a bit high on the warming up sets. But things were clicking perfectly on the working sets here. One thing I’ve missed with the pause pulls is that it has me focus on my body position in the moment which helps with getting my lats, glutes, hamstrings and lower back in the picture. The rest of the workout was going to be lighter stuff with either light weights or bands but that doesn’t mean it was going to be easy. This followed closely to what I did last week in structure. First being Bulgarian split squats. Contralateral loading but adding 3 second eccentrics. I figured it was probably best practice here to do the same weight I did last week without accentuating the negatives as while not terribly difficult, it had left me winded and very sore that week. Parameters given was 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. See how it feels and go by what I feel will be something I can progress on. I had to take off some layers of clothing as while it was around freezing, I had made the garage a bit of a hot box from the squats and deadlifts and I was feeling like I might overheat. I was kind of surprised I got the first set of 12 so easy. Fatigue was building over the course of the sets but not to the point I was worrying. I did stop at 3 sets as I felt that I was getting that fatigue on the last few reps on that last set and I still had several exercises to go with adjustments from last time. Likely I will adjust the weight to see if it does get to be something that 12 reps isn’t quite easy to get. The trial and error last time with leg curl setups was not wasted in that I had a workable option to do here with the dip belt. Same thing in that using the same resistance as last week because of how the shock felt doing it and expecting the eccentrics to make it tougher. I felt quite powerful on these. Also 3-4 sets but 12-15 reps range. I did start to feel fatigue by the end of the third set. My hamstrings tend to hit a wall hard at times on band stuff but I can also push out reps when I get to that point. I was a bit surprised this felt as swell as it did but I’ll need to review what band tension I can increase things to. Ab work was a bit different from last time as that had been the Roman chair and this time I was actually doing the stand weighted abs. Which ended up being bands again. I have limited options here. I was going to see if I could get away with doing average band but that was too easy so had to use my strong band. That was also quite easy but it made due. I think I was just focusing on the movement here and feeling my knees adjust with the hip flexion. Did 3x25 with no problem. I’m not sure if I will really bother with trying to increase the band tension like I may end up doing for the leg curls. Last thing was the single leg hip thrusts. I didn’t take any short measures here as I assumed after waking things up last time that I could actually do something here. I did have to put sandbags down to keep the bench from moving on me with weight. 2 seconds holds at lockout. I rewatched videos of how I did these a few years back to see how the balance was working. Left side was feeling stronger than right which was a bit of a surprise at first. But I think that may be that I wasn’t having my stance matched and only figured that out on the last set when I paid attention. Then right side felt better. There is still a balance factor I’m noticing in the lower back and abdominals. Put stuff away and stretched before getting my dinner together. A later training session but expected and planned for.

December 19, 2024 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
200x8
180x8
180x8
180x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+20x8
bw+20x8
bw+20x8
bw+20x8

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions/ Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Like Monday, I ended up making this a lunch time training session. This is the shortest of the workouts I do ideally contrasting with the lower body sessions taking a while. Right knee was a little stiff from yesterday and that was kind of expected. But I wouldn’t be using my legs doing the actual workout beyond my warming up and mobility stuff. Training at lunch so I could be free after work for a family meal out with visiting out of state family. My allergies kind of been up and down throughout the day this week. I didn’t get to bed as early as I would’ve liked yesterday. But no Dayquil. Ended up taking some nasal spray in the late morning today. I was sort of worried with the session because of how this is the first in long while that I’ve implemented a secondary pressing session and I was still feeling my shoulders and triceps from Monday. Warming up besides my achy right knee was good. Still stuff sore and tight in the upper body from Monday. This session was similar to Monday in that this was a repeat of a workout from over 3yrs ago. This was actually closer to the thing than Monday since I didn’t drop an exercise (because I’ll be doing it Saturday). I thought it would colder than it was so had warm ups on but there was some sun so I took them off when it was time to lift some weights. Log incline can be fickle but it seems to be the least fickle of incline pressing for me. Leg drive pressing Monday and incline benching Thursday for now. At least for this current training cycle. This seemed to work well enough in the past after I got adjusted to the new workload. Work up in triples to a set of 8 reps leaving 2RIR and then drop down for 3x8 with 10% less. When I did this back then, I had not anticipated how much fatigue would be present from the previous workout and overshot what I could do but called it and dropped down to readjust. My hope this time around would be to adjust accordingly based off of that and potentially be ready for working with even lighter weight. My hope here was that I’d work up to 200lbs, which would be 20lbs under what I did 3yrs ago. I know my pressing strength is down and adjusting to reflect I’m probably 20lbs off my best on overhead. I wasn’t feeling terribly confident with how sore my triceps were feeling. Shoulders were not thrilled to be pressing again either as tendons still a little inflamed from Monday. But also trying to not get hyped up here like the rest of my training as best as I can so that I’m not burning myself out. I was ready for 180lbs to be my weight for today but it didn’t feel that bad and said fine, do 200lbs. it was in the cards for me today for it to be right in the range it should be. This made things easy for me weight wise as I could just pop off 20lbs for the other sets. Not a worry of strength but just whether I can fight through the fatigue and keep going. I was definitely slowing down near the end here but made it through the stuff that I was in doubt about. Into the garage to finish up the workout. Inverted ring rows again. Going to get good, familiar and comfortable with these again. Plan was to do 4x8 this time around. I know these can feel terrible one session and then very strong the next. Sometimes even within the same workout. With how these felt last week, I was planning on just doing bodyweight here. But I did figure I’d see how I was feeling. Somethings felt a ton better compared to the break in week. I did one rep with bodyweight and felt it was too light for what I wanted to be doing here. So backpack with 20lbs added to my chest. I used to lay weights on my waist for the longest time on these but man does the backpack make this much smoother. I was surprised how good that first set felt. I was thinking about adding weight but figured I’d see how fatigue played out on the next set as this can be one of those where the fatigue factor is high near the end. Second set told me it was best to stick to same weight this time around. As I do these, get better with moving my body in space and recruiting my back rather than having my arms do the work. So this was nice to have this feeling this strong already. I’ve got a ways to go to back to what I was doing on these but this is acceptable start. And it felt good. Last thing was a triset. Same one a last week but instead of two rounds it was going to be three rounds. I wasn’t looking forward to this because of how much this fatigues all those little muscles. My triceps feel stupid by the end and shoulders and such just feel full of lactic acid by the end. It is a lot of reps and not a lot of weight but it feels like a lot of work. I’d probably not be as leery about this if my triceps didn’t still feel sore and toasted from Monday training. If I get through the triceps part no issues, I’ll be fine. First set no issues other than just the fatigue building. Keeping an eye on my triceps as they get more fatigued each set. Lactic acid building on the laterals and face pulls. Managed to get through three runs here without issue. Put stuff away and ate lunch. Stretched when I got back from dinner.

December 21, 2024 – Week 2, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
12”x1
18”x1
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
370x5
395x5
420x5

14” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
305x1
345x1
395x1
Added Straps
435x5
435x5
435x5

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raise Eccentrics (5 showing, 5 seconds)
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8

Seated Band Leg Curls/Smith Machine Planks
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Out of state family is visiting for the holidays which is nice in seeing family but also adds some challenges with scheduling things. But I’ve kind of gotten used to that being the case around Thanksgiving and Christmas so it isn’t as stressful on me if it is unexpected. I think my family is aware of that for me so I get some heads up on it. Because I really do want to spend time with them. Work has just been super stressful lately (I referred to being the back nine of this year sucking to my younger sister) that it is impacting stuff outside of work. Got slammed with work Thursday afternoon (and system went down again) and had to spend most of Friday resolving those issues on top of issues that popped up that day. Suffice it to say I got stuff from Friday to work on Monday, Monday is going to be busy and going to have my work cut out for me this coming week and next. Even with the workload yesterday, I made myself take my lunch break and go for a walk to clear my head and to get some steady state cardiovascular stuff in. 4 training sessions a week cuts the days down to 3 now and with having to go into the office Tuesday meant just 2 days possible. But family time and food has been good. I was a bit beat so I ended up having to get stuff ready in the morning before going out to train rather than the night before. It has been 2 weeks since I’ve gone to Lancaster to train. I took off the one week (also gym was closed) and the workout was so light and basic last week it didn’t make sense to use gas when I had to go into the office this week. This would be a moment of truth workout for me as this one is a bit different from what I was doing with the split in training. I managed to survive the 2nd upper body day but the next hurdle would be how I do with this deadlift session on the weekend. And it won’t be the last hurdle with doing my own training. Even if not training specifically for anything, I was feeling upbeat in that I’d be seeing my own friend training out there. She hasn’t been out to train since September due to offseason training (coming from Philadelphia). She would be returning some implements she had borrowed to train for Natural World’s and SC Nationals. I was a little late with getting out there but it appears we got there about the same time. Drive out was decent, just quite cold. Sun out so I was hoping I was feeling warm from that rather than maybe catching something from one of several sick people at my parent’s house right now haha. It was warm enough in the gym I didn’t need to wear my warm up to warm up. Felt mostly good. I was a little leery about the right knee as it has been a little tight/achy from the box squats. Starting off the session with box jumps. I had added these last week because I felt I needed to get an idea how I handled these since these are to be a CNS primer for deadlifting. I was quite stiff last week and I was surprised how difficult getting airborne was for me. The planned height felt intimidating. I have a better setup and selection (and inside) for box jumps at the gym. I knew not to use the small setup after my tumble in 2021. 18” looked a lot lower today so I figured I should be comfortable with going higher. I was nervous here but I managed to get 24” successfully with no misses for all sets here. This is technically a PR for reps in a set. I’ve done singles and doubles before. So this was encouraging. I’m not too sure how I want to progress here (little increase or just same height) for the next few weeks. The workout plan is to do 3 blocks with a different box jump variation each block. From there, moving on to deadlifts. This would be interesting. Last time I touched deadlifts was the wagon wheel pulls with 445lbs and they felt terrible. So bad I felt like quitting training with how much effort was needed. This would be week one of the deadlift plan with using a training max. Work on deadlift without getting super agitated and building up to a rep max ideally with 500lbs at the end of this. Starting things off would be sets of 5 reps doing floor pulls at set percents and then more sets above that from elevated pulls. I was also trying to do the same belt combo from push pressing and box squatting. 315lbs felt a little rougher than I’d have liked but 370lbs felt comfortable. 395lbs felt a little bit heavier but still felt comfortable. I was noticing that the first rep was feeling not the best but the subsequent reps were feeling pretty darn good. I do have issues with that on floor pulls with that first rep. Top weight being 420lbs for the day. There first rep was the toughest of the reps today but after that the reps were smooth and comfortable. It has been a bit since I’ve pulled from the floor. I may need to keep some kind of floor pull in the picture in the future when training elevated pulls. So that was done and on to more pulls. 3x5 with a little more than the top set from 5” elevated (so 14”). Preferably block pulls. But I felt that was boring. Similar to the box squats, I figured that I have a whole gym of goodies, I’ll do what I want. So got the massive wagon wheels. I wouldn’t have to worry about stuff rolling off platforms and it would look badass. Make things fun. Rather than jump right into it, I went with warming up in singles with no straps (like I used to do). This was probably a good idea as this was definitely feeling like more lower back than I’d have liked. Not as bad as it was with the wagon wheel pulls last time. I do feel like I’m getting my glutes involved in the pulls better from that time as well. There is still feeling of compression in the area but these moved comfortably. So this was a good start to this. Just have to hope I can keep it together going forward as it won’t get any easier (besides the built in deloads). So that was it for deadlifts. The rest of the workout was supersets. The exercises were kind of the main reason I felt it made sense to have this session be at the Lancaster gym because of ease of setup and access and not worrying about substitutions. Paused chest supported rows and glute ham raise negatives. The paused chest supported rows were usually something on the Day 1 pressing session but it made more sense to have here I feel. I was initially going to do the Hammer Strength but remembered there was this one and it required a lot less weight to get a good workout in. Barely and weight needed to warm up which was good pairing with the ghr negatives. I feel I got the weight just right for the rows here as I got to the end of the sets. I also didn’t wear straps (I rarely do on the machine rows). The ghr stuff has been a while and I was trying to remember what setting I used to have these work for me. Suggested (the rows were set as 10 reps) was 6-8 reps and 5-8ct eccentrics. I figured since I was doing a lot of new hamstring stress to just do 5ct. Things were actually quite good here and I may need to adjust the setting to one notch closer and maybe do 8ct next time. Last superset was band hamstrings (seated) and weighted planks. No tempo stuff for the band curls which honestly a little unusual considering things but not going to complain. I brought two pairs of bands as wasn’t too sure what I usually would use and especially after ghr stuff. Guess I picked right for the first session. The planks I had the opportunity to use a smith machine. That has been a good setup for these when I don’t have someone to assist. I’ve used my axle and jack stands when at home when going heavy. Little trial and error. This ended up being a lot tougher than I was anticipating difficulty wise as far as weight. I estimated my best on a similar setup being 30lbs more than it actually was so that would explain things. Also placing the weight where I did is a lot more challenging then having it like I do with the backpack. Put stuff away and downed a protein shake before stretching out to get home and clean up for more family time.