January 5, 2025 - January 11, 2025 - Week 5

 January 6, 2025 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
30x2
60x2
90x2
120x2
150x2
No Pauses
180x2
210x3
210x3
210x3
210x3
210x3

Axle Strict Presses (beltless)
50x3
80x3
110x3
140x3
170x5
170x5
170x5

Ring Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)
bwx18
bwx16
bwx14

Band Y Raises/Band Triceps Pressdowns
µb’sx10/lb+(2)µbx25
µb’sx10/lb+(2)µbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Still doing my own thing so far. I’m pleased with how the Day 3 and Day 4 training sessions have been going. And mostly the case with Day 1 and Day 2. Just need to get the training max right for the overhead pressing and squatting and I’ll be feeling comfortable with doing my own training. This is the longest I’ve gone without coaching (not counting the 7 months or so where I was injured in 2016) since 2014. Around 2012 is when I did start using coaching though. But four weeks of training and haven’t fallen apart physically or mentally. Though overhead press has been close. This week was unintentionally made a deload in most sessions (Day 2 is still heavy) but it actually seems to work out in my favor being that way. I had used too high a weight for overhead pressing so the break and opportunity to reset and cut back will be helpful and I definitely need to take it easy on some stuff with how just about everything below my thoracic spine is sore from the deadlifting. I was surprised how tight my hips were the next day. I knew I needed to move around to get things to loosen up. Weight is up about a pound so I’d say I’m putting on some mass with the increased training volume and workload. Making it more likely that I just ignore what is indicated for under 265lbs weight class right now. I couldn’t just sleep Sunday (though I’ve been working on planning out training and that is keeping me busy outside of work) as my younger sister is hopefully prepping for a competition end of March. So familiarization with stuff and seeing where she is at. Have to wait until next month for the strongman gym for her so somethings  limited here but she managed to do what I was expecting and I feel that has her confidence up after what has been a pretty shit last few months for the family. Moving stuff around did show me how sore I was. I kind of knew some snow was coming Monday but didn’t realize it was going to be enough to cause panic. I had been ignoring the weather app on the phone as it has been letting me know of “snow in a few hours” since Friday evening for Monday. Stuff closed for Monday but since I telework, able to work from home and not given the day off. I’d rather work anyways. But with the snow, this would complicate training for today. This also being another reason I guess that it is good I’m not competing next Saturday. This would’ve been the last heavy axle session for that show and I know that having to do that in the snow wouldn’t be ideal. I had put down salt the day before and then shoveled snow during my lunch break. Put down some more salt after that as it was supposed to snow a little bit more after work. Time to warm up (another busy day at work). Knees achy. I mean sounding like a broken record here. But I was kind of expecting that with moving stuff around yesterday for my sister’s training. I had sat deep with a log as well to demonstrate technique so that was also a bit of mobility not quite warmed up haha. Shoulders a little achy but not sure if that is just from the weather and having shoveled snow. Kind of begging for a deload. But the muscles and such feel good if otherwise tight in the lower body. Again, axle push presses. As was the case about 4yrs ago, I had overreached in the first three weeks of training with Andrew and had a semi-deload to hopefully let me recover and then adjust things for the next block of training. So I kind of needed this for the reset and hopefully feel better about overhead. I had adjusted the training max by 20lbs after the last workout. Plan here was to warm up and do 75%x5x3. Initially this was going to be 225lbs but with the next max, this was now 210lbs. This was to be beltless and initially I wasn’t but I figured I’d stick to that as it was darn cold and I didn’t want to be fiddling with anything more than wrist wraps today. Did the paused first rep doubles working up like last week as that did seem to be somewhat helpful. I didn’t like how heavy things were feeling once I got up to one plate. I was using the metal plates as using the bumper plates to anchor the power rack. Easier to wipes those down from snow. Things seemed to be ok for the working sets. I do seem to have a tendence to push out in front on the first rep of the first set. But the other reps felt better. I’d say only issue I had after that was the last rep of the last set where I relaxed on the eccentric of the second rep so the bar was a little more away from midline going for the last press. I’m just glad that I didn’t have issues with slipping thanks to the salt. Instead of more push pressing, I was to do some strict pressing with the axle too. Beltless as well. 75%x3x5. I don’t really have a number to work off here so I estimated based off of training max for push press now and push press then (4yrs prior) and compared the ratio with the strict press number and adjusted accordingly. I’ve done mostly log strict for the past few months anyways. So these felt a little weird with the ROM. I was thinking initially these were too tough for what I picked to do but apparently I had a much harder time with the weight I picked back then comparatively that I’d say these were quite comfortable in comparison. I feel the first set was a little loose in form (I wasn’t staying tight) whereas I had better stability on the second and third set (feel second set was best overall). That was enough out in the snow as far as training. I put stuff away to give myself a little rest for the shoulders before going into the garage for the rest of the workout. Ring push ups. Same as last time with it being 3 sets of bodyweight with 3 seconds eccentrics and leaving some reps in the tank. But not as many this time. I think this is the last week of these before another variation takes over. I’m liking how these have been going and feeling each week. I’ve been kind of comparing the numbers to what I did 4yrs ago as I was doing better than I did on the inverted ring rows and I seemed to be keeping pace on the ring push ups. This workout I had an increased the reps a good bit from the previous session looking back so I was aiming to match or beat that. I wasn’t sure if that would be the case as I got 18 reps the first set but I managed to get that here as well. The rest of it would be seeing if I could keep the reps up from there. I did take a little longer rest (getting dinner ready) but managed to only be dropping two reps a set after that. I’m glad that my shoulders are feeling better with doing push up variations again and that my chest muscles seem to be responding well to the incline pressing and these. Bands to finish the evening. Only a superset this time. Underhand pull-aparts were dropped so only doing band y raises and triceps pushdowns. Y raises were going to stay as just the mirco bands but I felt after last time that I could probably do more band tension on the triceps like I did the last set last week. Had few pops and cracks in my shoulders and back structures doing the first rep of the y band raises. Triceps definitely felt more challenging this time with the added micro bands. Put stuff away while I waited for my dinner to finish cooling. Stretched afterwards.

January 8, 2025 – Week 5, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x5
135x5
175x3
225x3
265x1
315x1
365x5
325x5
325x5
325x5

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
40x3/3
80x12/12
80x12/12
80x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls (3 count eccentric)
2(mmb)+mbx15
2(mmb)+mbx15
2(mmb)+mbx15

Standing Band Abs
2(ab)x25
2(ab)x25
2(ab)x25

Paused Single Leg Hip Thrusts (2 seconds)
62x12/12
72x12/12
82x12/12

Stretching

Comments: The work week has been a slog. Tuesday felt like it should be Friday already with just the rush to get stuff done and today was no different from that. I’m trying to not stress about things but I feel I’m drowning but like I’m the least submerged maybe of the everyone that is drowning. Everything and everyone just seems to be on edge lately and more so with each passing day since November. As far as how my body was feeling, I guess ok. I was surprised how quickly the soreness in my hips seemed to just disappear overnight from Monday. I felt like I could do deadlifting again. But that wasn’t the plan today. Warming up felt ok. Still having some knee aches and such on some things but I guess less so than Monday session. I did alter things a little at the end for some more ankle/knee stuff. I figured if I’m going to alter things for the box jumping stuff on Saturday to prep, might as well try to get the knees feeling good as I can hopefully get them for the taxing stuff on this day. So starting off training was box squats with the cambered bar again. Last week of this before switching to a different squat (and deadlift) variation for this secondary lower body day. Actually I guess everything will be switched out for a different variation or targeting exercise. This was to be the “testing” day for these exercises (minus deadlift). So supposed to be pushing stuff here. I had adjusted my training max last week based off how things were feeling and going. For today, I was to work up to a top set of 5 reps (RPE 8 or 2RIR) and then drop 10% off that for 3x5. I didn’t want to overdo it here. My throat was feeling a little scratchy as I got some dry intraworkout powder that didn’t mix in the water well enough so that was a bit annoying. I was thinking that 355-365lbs would be where I’d be at with 2RIR with how the squats were feeling. Knees still achy but this was probably the best they’ve felt on these. So maybe I need to do the extra stuff. I just remember how stiff I was trying to sit down to the box at the beginning. When I got to singles, I felt that another 50lbs was there for sure for the top set. I didn’t get hyped up for this but getting that weight out felt comfortable. 5 reps came easier than I was expecting and I likely had +3RIR here. But I didn’t want to do another set. I’ve not tried going this heavy on a cambered squat bar in several years. This is 10lbs under the most I’ve done since my back injury reboot 2016. But I guess I’m just not very speedy with this bar as it feels like it takes a while to do these reps. Possibly I had the weights right before. But lighter seemed to do me good. I’ll just have to adjust my expectations on this variation next time I do this training block (assuming the rest of this goes as well as the first few weeks have). I came down from the high of the top set and the down sets felt tougher to unrack but moved faster if that makes sense. Kind of similar to how the down set on the wagon wheel pulls still felt damn heavy. No deadlifts as deloading this week so I got right into the accessory stuff. And this was going to be challenging. The volume was to be back up to what it was the previous two weeks and the indication was to try and get close to failure by the end of the last sets on these exercises. That was going to be easier make possible for some (weighted exercises) vs others (banded exercises) due to being able to adjust things. Bulgarian split squats with contralateral and 3 second eccentrics. My intent this go around was to do the 70lbs dumbbell after warming up set and do 4x12 to try to increase the reps and sets over last time. But I got in my own way and decided I wanted to go heavier. So I did 80lbs and pushed for 12 reps on the first set. I knew that it was going to be a struggle to hit those same reps for more sets and set it for 3 sets. And I thought I was feeling winded when I did these that first week with 15lbs. Boy was I wrong.  It has been a while since I’ve gotten into a walking death style shuffling between my rest periods on single leg exercises. I’ve forgotten that feeling and wish it wasn’t present again. I kept the rest between legs about the same (with periods of stopping to gasp and yawn) and then doubled that rest between sets or this wasn’t happening. It was literally failure to get that last rep of the last set for the right side. This kicked my ass and I had to lay down for a little nap until I was feeling ok. Like a honey badger sleeping off a cobra bite. Eventually I got moving again and got things setup for banded lying leg curls. These are also a 3-4 sets and plan was to do two lighter sets and then attempt to do the band tension I topped out at last week for two sets. That was the plan. But I felt I was spending too much time from the box squats and Bulgarian split squats that I should just do the top band tension and see how that goes. I was thinking 4x12 but decided I’d rather do 3x15 here. I was still reeling a bit from the previous exercises but I got these done. Banded standing abs after that. 3x25 here. I couldn’t really up the band tension with the setup so I just did the sets again but just trying to improve my intent with the reps and try to get a little more each rep and set. I felt like I made an effort here. I can’t say that was the same feeling the first week with the original setup. This one is much better here. Last thing being the single leg paused hip thrusts. Figuring out the long dumbbell handle works better at keep the weight secure on the one side definitely helped with progressing here. I was going to initially start lighter and make a big jump and aim to do 3x12 with same weight I did 2x12 with last week. But I actually looked at my PR records and anything over 72lbs would be PR for a set of 12 reps here. So I went with starting heavier and no warming up (I mean, legs and such couldn’t be more cooked at this point) with 10lbs jumps. In hindsight, maybe a warming up set was warranted as that first set felt a bit rough and had me wondering if I was going to be good to push the weights here. But more weight added and the second set felt smoother. 10lbs more and off to the races. I should mention I switched sides I started with on this exercise. 82lbs was definitely getting challenging but it wasn’t say as close to the limit as other things I did today. Put stuff away and prepped dinner before eating and then stretching.

January 9, 2025 – Week 5, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
145x3
170x10
170x10
170x10
170x10

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (0-2-0-2 tempo)
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
16’sx20/abx20
16’sx20/abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Continuing to be a dizzying mess with work. Just everything. But can only do what I can do. It continues to be cold and windy. So much so that I can feel a draft in the side of the wall where I work. It was getting cool enough that I actually put on some clothes besides just shorts in the late afternoon. So I knew it was going to be frigid and miserable outside. The wind is the issue with it feeling a lot colder than it is. Plus blowing all sorts of debris into my yard. So I was committed with keeping the warm ups on most of the time today, especially outside. Warming up felt fine. Knees not quite as stiff. So like least amount of stiff this week. I decided it made more sense to setup just about everything for training today rather than bit by bit as I had a feeling I’d probably cool off dramatically from putting stuff away for the outside stuff coming in to do the remainder in the garage. So as mentioned, this is a bit of deload for the upper body this week as well as for deadlift. Just happened to line up that way. Things won’t line up like this the next time around. But the early partial deload was definitely needed for the upper body (as far as overhead) to course correct. So just because “deloading” doesn’t mean super easy. With overhead stuff, it was lighter but more volume. Same here. Was to do 4x10 on the incline log pressing after warming up. Like I mentioned, essentially following 4yrs old training sessions with 20lbs less to adjust for where pressing is currently at. I was hopeful that this weight would feel comfortable enough that I didn’t need to take off my warm ups or gloves and use wrist wraps. I generally don’t use them on log incline stuff but had been lately. So this would be like my “beltless” overhead deloading I guess.  Thes felt fine. A little achy in the shoulders but felt less as I went and hardly worth noting. My shoulders have actually felt achy at times while working then this training. I could tell that my triceps were starting to get fatigued by the end here. Felt solid with the reps and no worries about missing a rep here. Took most of the outside stuff inside (saved some for later during rest haha) and into the garage. Inverted ring rows were up next. Now these I thought might be too easy on paper. Especially since I was going heavier than when I did these session 4yrs ago here. But I guess the extra reps made a world of difference. Even with body weight these got tough quickly after the first set. I could feel a little hint of “danger” in how fatigue was creeping in. I was building up a good bit of heat but kept the warm ups on (I did take them off to cool off slightly before the last set). So this was a bit surprising but I guess I’ve always got fatigue building on the higher reps on these kind of exercises, even when I’ve been in the weeds for sets on sets with lower reps. The triset was broken up this week and I guess going forward. Triceps get special attention while the shoulder stuff gets to stay as a superset. With the triceps, still the lying extensions with dumbbells but bringing in dreaded tempo work. Now I’ve done tempo modifications with eccentrics and pauses but these with tempo for concentric and eccentric and those be for the devil with how the fatigue builds. Starts small but you realize it is not fun shortly into the set. It makes it difficult to gauge an appropriate weight with the recovery between sets. Especially the first time in a while. I decided perhaps foolishly to stick to the same weight I was using. As expected, it got tougher each set. I didn’t do any wrist rotation because I was having a time with keeping track of the tempo and not losing count of my reps (another issue haha). I do feel I was in the RPE 7 range for the first two sets but the fatigue hit me hard on the third set and had to sit up for a moment to get fatigue out of my shoulders on the right side before finishing up the last two reps. Then shoulder complex superset. Dumbbell laterals and band face pulls. Just two sets but 20 reps per set and ideally a lesser effort range (RPE 6 vs RPE 7). The issue with the triset is that the shoulders also get fatigued with the triceps exercise holding the position and number of sets. Less sets and more reps with less exercises likely means I could actually use more weight and have it feel easier or about the same. So I took that gamble. And it seemed to be the right call. First set felt perfect and the second set I could tell that this is just as fatiguing in a different way as the triset. But I got a good shoulder pump here. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

January 11, 2025 – Week 5, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x1
24”x1
30”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
235x2
285x1
EMOM
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1
340x1

Romanian Deadlifts on Belt Squat Machine
90x5
180x5
270x10
270x10
270x10

Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows/Glute Ham Raise Eccentrics (4 showing, 8 seconds)
+90x15/bwx8
+90x15/bwx8
+90x15/bwx8

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

Stretching
 
Comments: Kind of glad this was kind of a deload session here with how stressful work has been this week. And it really doesn’t seem to be a let up on that stress. I had a stress dream Thursday night that was unpleasant. Everyone and everything feels like they are on edge these days. I made sure I got in my walk on Friday as I had been working through my lunch most of this week. I was thinking about quitting my job as I was drifting off to sleep Friday night. I know I need to get some sleep and destress from things when I’m like that. Again, a good thing I’m not competing next week. Drive out was fine, I was kind of surprised there wasn’t more commotion and traffic. Consistently been a fair number of people at the gym as of late. I don’t mind it. I mean, I’m not really using anything beyond machines and bars at the gym right now during my little offseason excursion here. I may need to figure out when I have moment what I want to add or subtract from the warming up for each day. As I had already added some things to the Day 4 training with the box jumps and a little to Day 2 for box squats, I may need to make the warming up a little more bespoke going forward as needed. The general warm up is still good overall body warming up. But I know that some things won’t be good if I add them in all the time and not let some things rest. I was feeling decent today. I think being around people that also enjoy training let me get some talking out beyond the frustrated cursing I do out loud to myself during the workdays. So while most of the workout was kind of a “deload”, there were some parts that weren’t. Like the box jumps. So the previous four weeks have been sets of triples with increasing height. The plan for this session was to work up to a max height triple. Assuming I stick to all 3 of the training cycles, I’ll be testing out two more box jumps like this. Based off how things have been going here, I felt that 30” was a good goal for this time. It would be 4” higher than what I was doing last week and only for a single set. It would still be I think 3-4” lower than my best successful jump from like 8.5yrs ago. I never really tested jumping back when I was competitive in volleyball as far as height. The last time I went for this height, I was doing doubles and on the last rep I hit the box weird (wasn’t anchored) and ended up fracturing my left elbow (avulsion facture). So no box jumps since end of July 2021 until just this training cycle. So a triple here would be a PR I guess. I did some bounding and such like last week. I did some other things to that I hoped would have things feeling good. I think that worked out well. The singles felt comfortable. I was nervous for the triple (I tend to be for the first sets of these anyways) but I told myself I’m doing this for fun and I enjoy this (borrowing what a friend said to me last week to help with my nerves). It took a bit of building up the gumption/confidence before giving that first jump a try and I got it. About 18 seconds after that to go for the second and about the same amount of time for the final rep to complete the triple. I should note that I’m trying to land with my hip crease above parallel. Trying to get measure of the power and not my ability to pull my legs up or be flexible. Same reason with keeping deadlift stance on the squats for now. Everything focused on getting the deadlift strong this prep. I was pretty amped from the success on the box jumps. Which I guess is kind of the idea with them in the first place. Then deadlift time. This was a deload with the plan being about 100lbs less than my top set for reps for EMOM singles. Light, work on getting things moving fast and giving myself a ton of touches at setup for a pull. Warming up my knees were feeling a little stiff. Maybe they are used to me doing more jump volume now before doing these haha. Anyways, once I got to the working weight, these were quite comfortable and I got a good sweat going. Deadlift is feeling pretty good right now. Secondary exercise deloaded as well. No elevated pulls this week. It was my choice of either a gm or rdl exercise for 3x8-10 at RPE 6. I felt that I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to deal with barbells and stuff here. I had an idea to use the belt squat cable setup for some rdls. The cable pulling away and being able to really sit back. No straps, no belt to keep it interesting. I did have to lug the 9” wood blocks on to the platform to get the start height better for the exercise. I probably didn’t need that if I had someone to work the handle but I didn’t want to bug anyone for that for what was just fairly comfortable reps anyways. These felt pretty good and I feel I picked the right weight for these for today. The rest of the session being the supersets. Not much changed here compared to the usual workout. Just one less set each exercise for the most part. The chest supported rows were no longer paused and for higher reps. I decided I’d use the weight I did last time and that was a good call here as these felt pretty tough with the added reps. Probably from doing the reps on the inverted ring rows too. Noticing the first set of these feels pretty rough cold so I may need to do something beforehand. The  glute ham raise negatives felt better and I think it was because the pad was at hole 3 showing (or 3.5) and not 4. It was a pretty noticeable difference here. These felt a lot better and I wasn’t feeling any stressing my ankles. I did make sure that I wiped my thighs down between the pairings to hopefully keep from sliding down. Last pairing was the seated band leg curls and smith machine planks. I had liked the strong bands on these last time and since only two sets, I felt I could muster that tension for both sets. Hamstrings are definitely getting stronger. The planks I will say didn’t feel like as much stress on my shoulders but I almost had a black out on the first set from placement but I toughed it out. The second set felt a ton better. Put stuff away and downed a shake before stretching my calves only (I like using the steps to do that) as I was potentially going to have to do some shoveling of the street and back patio to have things ready for my sister’s training tomorrow. I thankfully didn’t have to do much due to the sunlight. Stretched out afterwards.