January 30, 2020 – Week 9, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Hatfield Squats to box (18”)

60x10

150x5

220x3

270x3

330x3

380x3

430x3

480x5

Romanian Deadlifts (top start)

45x10

135x5

185x5

225x3

275x3

315x3

365x1

Added Straps

385x15

Pulldown Abs (pulldown station)

60x25

90x20

120x15

Side Planks

bw+15x60/60 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I need to get sleep back on track to normal hours. Been finding it hard to get to bed before 12:30AM most nights. Been subsidizing my sleep by hitting snooze for about an hour to make up for it. Something has to give as I know I that is a dangerous game of getting to work late. Eye twitches have been back but I’m not sick and I think that is less from anything going on with my body and more to do with not getting enough sleep. I’m still making progress on things so that is good. Bodyweight has been consistently above 280lbs in the morning and above 285lbs in the evening. Maybe I’ve finally gotten above that 275lbs plateau in bodyweight? Hard to say though as I’ve been heavier in the past but it didn’t last very long. Another late workout start due to the oversleeping in the morning to make up for the undersleeping at night. Been keeping up the icing for my knee(s) and walking. Seems to be getting better with me being aggressive with that and soft tissue work. Gym was pretty crowded where I wanted to be. Warming up at least felt fine. Hatfield squats again. Kind of cramped quarters with gym bros deadlifting, again. No set weights and reps for the hatfields other than working up in triples and doing 10lbs more than last time for a set of five. I was thinking less reps needed to warm-up at the beginning if I kept the reps consistent on the way up. I messed up my math at the beginning as the plan was 50lbs jumps all the way up after I started doing triples. I was 10lbs shy of that and had to increase the jump for one set. Other than my knees feeling achy, this was good. I had not packed my ratchet belt (thicker) in my haste so I was a little concerned if my other belt would provide enough support to keep my back rigid and be able to brace my abdominals. No real issues there. Nice and controlled and fairly speed concentric. This is the most I’ve done on these since I’ve started doing them again. Not really saying too much when this is about 100lbs under my best for this rep range. But that is fine for now. It is doing the job it needs to do and I have plenty of time and room to progress safely. Romanian deadlifts next. My back was a little stiff on the left side after the squats so I was a little concerned that this might be too much today. See how things feel and go from there. Only a 20lbs jump on the top set. Still doing the holds and breath at the top of each rep. Trying to not use straps until that top set to keep building up the grip. The work up sets had a bit more reps and weight than I was expecting. Triple with 315lbs and a single with 365lbs before going for the reps. I tested out chalking up my hands to see if that would help with my grip on the bar with the straps as it is a long time under tension. It felt heavy as it usually does. Happy with 15 reps. Would’ve been happier if I matched or beat my reps from last time with this increased weight. It was definitely my limit today at 15. Next time it will be 405lbs for reps. That had been a tough set of five a few weeks ago. Pulldown abs next. Not the last item of the night this time. Reps the same with them being high but adding 10lbs to each set. Added challenge there, especially with the slick rope. Felt good on my spine. Not sure why but the 120lbs set was tough on my midsection. I had felt like nothing those first two sets and it was more hamstring stretch and spine deload. Last item was side planks. The plan being 30-60 seconds. I had been advised that if it wasn’t challenging with just bodyweight, I could add a little weight to my hip. So I did that this time. Definitely a difference in the sides as my left is the injured side but the right side is the one where I’ve strained things in my obliques in the past and it seems to fatigue faster. Minute on, minute off and then minute on. I may use more weight next time so that I’m using 25lbs. Home for food, stretching and recovery work. Probably another late night for me.

January 28, 2020 – Week 9, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Axle Strict Presses + Push Presses
PVC
22x10+5
Thick Bar
42x3+2
62x3+2
Axle
82x3+2
102x3+2
122x3+2
142x3+2
162x3+2
182x3+2
202x3+2

Axle Strict Presses
222x3

Axle Push Presses
222x15

Pulldowns
60x10
90x10
130x5
170x5
210x5
250x25 PR+1 rep

Precor Pec Flyes
125x10
165x8
205x5
245x27 PR+3 reps

Cybex Eagle NX Rows
120x10
170x8
220x5
270x25

Safety Squat Bar JM Presses
60x10
80x10
100x10
120x10
150x20

Stretching

Comments: Had little more activity than usual outside of my normal routine. As in stuff in my comfort zone. Little traveling, different foods, different beds. Left hip is feeling less tight but still has that sensation at times that it isn’t where it needs to be or there is a gap. Right knee is sore at times. Doesn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason to it. Just decided to be sore Saturday evening after training. Been icing more frequently. I had this before when I was training for East Coast Most Powerful in 2018. It seemed to go away after a few weeks. But with all that, I wasn’t sure if training would be on par. I was really tempted to just take the day off and just sleep. Warming up felt pretty good. Knee wasn’t bothering me on most things. I meant to do foam rolling but I forgot in my haste. I had overslept to make up for weird sleep and that meant I had to go to the gym later. Axle to start things off again. Same as last time, just working up to 20lbs more for the top sets on the strict and push press clusters. Both racks were in use. The one I wanted was the one with the lifting platform as I can adjust the height. Bunch of younger gym bros doing deadlifts but I was able to workout while they were lifting. I did end up getting roped into reviewing technique and advice on deadlifts. Knees were aching on push presses. Strict pressing felt ok. I was doing my best with loading my hips and not my knees for the push pressing. Lockouts were feeling pretty good. Like log last week, top weight was done for a triple on the strict presses and then after 5 minutes rest, max push presses. I seemed to not be in a rush. I did put on my copper knee sleeve to help with the knee on that set. I didn’t rush my setup. I did have some balance issues but I was able to recover. No lower back stress on these reps so that is good. Definitely had more there but it felt like a good place to call it. I knew this was an improvement for me. The rest of the workout had 10lbs added to the top sets for each exercise but the weight jumps were bigger to cut down on fatigue. Just like before. Goal being more weight and try to get a lot of reps. With the pulldowns, following the first few sets in quick succession and then take a breather for the top set. Honestly, it’s what I’ve been doing with most of these now. I felt pretty darn good on the pulldowns this time. Last time, I didn’t feel like I was getting the reps I wanted and today I felt like I wasn’t going to have a problem. I think it was more my grip this time than my back really. One more rep was good, especially since I went up a lot on the sandbag rows. Next was flyes. No wait for these, which was great considering that I was lifting later. As mentioned the last time, this time was going to be the stack for the top set. I felt fatigue sooner than I expected but managed to get some extra reps. It will be interesting trying to use extra weight on these the next time around. Right into the rows. Luck to not have to wait here, though I could’ve probably used it as my back was pretty fatigued now. Weights felt heavy today. Big jumps in weight. My top set weight felt like low teens was where I was going to end up but I kept on grunting out the reps. Last thing for the day was triceps work. This was a new exercise for me was ssb jm presses. I’ve done these before and they seem to feel good. Previously I had done these with chains as a floor press variation. The bar just seems to be the right groove for me. I forgot which way to set it up and that made it off at first haha. Plan here was like standing tate presses to do several sets of 10 with short rests before doing a top set of 15-20. Not with a top weight. I have more experience at the standing tate presses to get an idea of what that is so a bit of trial and error with the ssb jms. Much closer to my limit I think on these with the top weight I chose. Right arm definitely the lagging one. Felt pretty good besides the knee issue. Home to stretch, eat and do recovery work.

January 25, 2020 – Week 8, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack

Mobility Prep

Yoke (casual pace)
drop and turn at 50’
200x100’
300x100’
straight shot
400x50’
straight shot (increasing pace)
500x50’ in 13.61 seconds
500x50’ in 10.82 seconds
550x50’ in 9.25 seconds
600x50’ in 9.03 seconds

Sandbag Rows
110x10
160x5
210x3
225x22

Sandbag Loads (54”)
150x10

Sled Drags (turf)
165x93’
165x93’
165x93’
165x93’
165x93’
165x93’

Stretching

Comments: I had felt good the night of training on Thursday. My left hip doesn’t feel like it’s tracking right though now. It was something I felt after doing the leg pressing for that side but it seemed to go away during the workout after “walking it off” but felt it Friday. Not painful, just tight and stiff and feels like it’s not where it’s supposed to be. Like a gap some times when moving to the left or shifting that way while turning. I can walk no problem and bear weight no problem. It’s not a good thing probably. I still want to keep options open but it seems any time I feel confident that I get a reminder to not be in a rush. Only a man. Makes it very hard to commit money to something like entry fee and memberships when I have no idea if I can be healthy. Several hundred dollars lost due to the most recent injury relapse. I stayed up later than planned and I just couldn’t force myself to get out out of bed (I had set an alarm for 8:30AM) until 2hrs after my alarm went. So quite a bit later than usual to go train. Yet again, surprised to see a lot of people there at that time. way. Started out with warm-ups. I added in some things that I hoped would get my hips right. But no dice there. Hip swings sometimes seem to traction things just right with the momentum. Didn’t feel the need to foam roll. I think I was in a rush as I had really overslept and had plans for a phone call and I wanted to get at least started with training before then, rather than wait until after that to start. Yoke again. About the same as last time but instead of stopping at 500lbs for the top three sets, I was to go up to at least 550lbs and maybe 600lbs if that felt ok. Not full speed yet. I think that I just kind of kept the first few sets at that casual pace and then worried about speeding up with the heavier stuff. I only got so many gears to keep increasing my pace. I was definitely at a fast clip pace when I got to 500lbs versus last time. I got that run in before getting a call. Got a bit cold from that I and I think I was a little distracted as I forgot that I hadn’t added weight to the yoke. So kind of screwed myself up there. My plan was to go up a gear in my gait each set and try to beat the previous time for the set with lighter weight before it. So I ended up doing 500lbs twice and that meant I’d have to go even faster with 550lbs and hopefully 600lbs. I didn’t know if I could work up to say half a gear under top speed. Hip wasn’t throwing me off but I think I was favoring the one side. In either case, 600lbs felt comfortable. A little over 1.5 seconds under my best time so again, not bad here. Next up was rows. This time, I was to do the same thing but add 10lbs more to it. That seemed easy enough. First two sets weren’t bad. Just placing at 10lbs plate on the top and go. But that didn’t seem to work on the 200lbs sandbag. The short way hold isn’t as easy to balance a weight as holding it like I was going to load the sandbag. It just kept sliding off the front. I couldn’t really think of another way to do this other than wrap a band around the bag but that seemed tricky and might make it weird to grip it depending on how secure it was. So I said screw it and went for the next heaviest bag of 225lbs. This was technically more than I was to be using for next session even. This is much heftier bag. Quite a difference between this one and the 200lbs bag. Felt I was getting tired quicker than usual. Still did the thing of going until my fingers gave and then switching to having my wrists under it to finish up. Still got over 20 reps so still good. Happy this is still going over to the heavier bags. Question is what about next time? Will I be able to get this kind of reppage on say 250lbs or 275lbs or even 306lbs? Next was something I had been still worried about. Loading. That triple extension that I seem to suck at and just use my back to do. Only 150lbs on the sandbag and to 54” but still worrisome to me. What if I get myself back to zero because of this? But I need to try. If I can’t then I can’t and I know that this is not the year for me to compete. Rather than just use the one sandbag, I elected to do both of the 150lbs sandbags. They are shaped differently and I kind of need to work on that pick-up as that requires setting things each time, rather than one set and go like with rows. The pickup was so easy on these. But I made sure I was methodical and really worked on getting my hips and ankles to work on that extension. Also practicing bracing. Only problem I think was that I scrapped my leg and had a bleed going. No issues here but it could be delayed like last time. So fingers crossed. Last thing some conditioning work. Sticking to inside with the turf. Weights are lighter but the setup and put away is easier and really this is more to work on the legs and breathing as well as embracing the suck. Based off how the pushes felt, I figured this was appropriate weight for the sled drag. Knees were a bit sore by this point. Turned out to be a bit lighter than I wanted to so I figured I’d do an extra set so that the weight would be back at the plate tree I got them from so I didn’t have to move so much stuff around. Felt pretty easy.  After putting everything away, did a 50 rep set of no weight reverse hypers, 90/90 breathing for the intraabdominals and some band traction of my left hip. I kind of forgot to do the bar hangs.  I got home and was ready for a late dinner and stretching with recovery but that had to wait as I had to help with unloading a moving truck. So ate big dinner, did what I could for recovery work and went to bed hoping I would recover. I got a few days before training again.

January 23, 2020 – Week 8, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Deadlifts

45x10

135x5

185x3

225x3

275x3

315x2

365x1

405x1

440x1

Added Straps

475x5

Precor Angled Single Leg Presses

186x5/5

276x5/5

366x5/5

456x5/5

546x22/22

Hanging Knee Raises

bwx41

bwx41

bwx41

Side Planks

bwx60/60 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Heading into this day, at least the day and night before that is, I wasn’t feeling too confident. I was still experiencing some symptoms that I really wanted to go away or stop. Doubts of being healthy enough for Nats this year. Not sure but I guess I got something right that I wasn’t feeling completely off. Granted, I was way more sluggish getting up and I had no idea why. I ate well, I only walked so why feeling like I was hit by a truck? Meant I’d have to rush the morning and come back after work to get ready. Oh well. But I was feeling pretty confident by the time I got to the gym. Not sure why. Just felt like this was just another day of work. Maybe I know the drill by this point with the deadlifts? Or that “full feeling” I have across my upper back, shoulders and back of my arms just has me feeling powerful. I was worrying I spoke too soon about the slingshot dips being pain free on the shoulders as the left one has been a little achy and tight. But that could just be from going hard at it so quickly. I need to savor the progress at the slow cooker pace for now. Learn what works, build slow so as not to destroy what I’m rebuilding. I think that my knee aches have been feeling better icing them once every day rather than just days after I train. So warm-ups felt pretty good. No foam roller today. Was hoping that using my car buffer later would make up for that as I was already running late. Deadlifts to start things off. 20lbs more for the top set this time. Slow, steady, control being the name of the game. I was advised I could speed things up but I’m feeling more comfortable with the controlled negatives and holds. Especially paired with the rdls for higher reps and these for lower reps. I’m also kind of the mind that I’ll be pulling max single regardless of being under 275lbs (unlikely now) or SHW for USS Nats. Not going to be timing issue with that 60 seconds I imagine. But trying to pull faster. Get the break off the floor not feel so robotic with this different style of pull for me. I think I’m getting better at that. Keep reopening the scab on my right shin where the bar hits. Every time and usually on my warm-ups. Working up the same. I felt like the top weight wasn’t going to be enough with how easy 225lbs went up. Granted I got pulled back to Earth as I went but that felt nice and speedy. Trying my best to work up double overhand until the top set and then bring out the straps. Progression being the belts and then chalk after hard belt add. I knew I had this top weight. I was tempted to go for 495lbs but not deviating since new stuff is being added. Need to be smart here. Slow down on that last rep but the first rep didn’t feel as rough as past two sessions. I definitely had at least another rep in the tank. Maybe three. I still have 210lbs more to go (or 170lbs) for the deadlift. Constant climb. Sigh. Anyways, on to single leg presses. Advised to keep progressing but only go up 5-10lbs from last time. No problems on that. Last time felt like bonesnappingly heavy lifting it off the pins. No interest in going up 20lbs a leg this time haha. I continue to be surprised with how heavy I can go for the high reps and have this not bother my lower back. Did 90lbs jumps to see if that wasn’t as harsh as the 100lbs jumps. Still feels heavy at the top set but not as bad. Maybe I’m just ready for it to be grinding my bones to dust. Left side hip was just beat and worn by the end. Limping a little from how tight it was afterwards. Before with the much lighter weight, it was my muscles and me not being conditioned that had me walking funny. Now it’s like disfiguring heavy. As per usual, the right side had an easier time with it. Now usually hanging knee raises end the day but not the case. After that was to be side planks for minute each side. So I only went for 1 extra rep each set on the knee raises so that I could see how I felt on the side planks. Knee raises felt good. Get a good workout for the hip flexors, stretch out the spine, shoulder and work the grip. Side planks felt fine. I had been doing these a little over a month ago for shorter time but greater frequency. I had stopped when it seemed that my rehabbing was too much for me to train and recover. I may use weight on these next time. Feeling good about this session. Just hope that my body is ok with it later. That delayed onset “now this hurts” seems to take 72hrs. Home for food, stretching and recovery work.

January 21, 2020 – Week 8, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

12” Log Strict Presses + Push Presses

Dumbbells

25’sx10+5

35’sx5+5

Log

90x3+2

110x3+2

130x3+2

150x3+2

170x3+2

190x3+2

12” Log Strict Presses

210x3

12” Log Push Presses

210x16

Neutral Grip Pulldowns

60x10

90x10

120x8

150x5

180x5

210x5

240x16 PR+6 reps

Slingshot Dips

bwx10

bw+70x10

bw+135x10

Neutral Grip Precor Chest Supported Rows

110x10

160x8

210x5

260x5

310x26 PR+10lbs

Standing Tate Presses

15’sx10

25’sx10

35’sx10

45’sx20

Stretching

Comments: I thought the 3 day weekend would let me get caught up on sleep it did. Briefly. But for some reason I couldn’t fall asleep Monday night and ended up going to bed at 1:00AM. I needed to get more sleep if I wanted to train so I slept in later than I should’ve. Like an hour later. Luckily I wake up with enough time to dawdle in the in the morning if I get up without hitting snooze forever. But I knew this meant it was going to be a long night as I’d have to come back home after work to get ready for the gym. Aches and pains. Lower back not liking me and I’m hoping it is more from just having to shovel Saturday than anything else. I had taken ibuprofen on Monday morning and night. Foam rolling when I got to the gym. I knew I was in for a late night as I said. Both racks were being used. Hopefully they’d empty by the time I needed them. Warming up felt good for the most part. I haven’t felt the urge to modify it like I’ve had in the first few weeks when I had different aches, pains or ailments. Log this week so on to that. Strict and push presses and then a top set of push press was the basic plan though a bit different.  Warmed up with dumbbells before heading into the rack. Knees were achy at the start on the push presses. Strict pressing felt good for the most part. I was dealing with some stomach cramping/queasiness so I elected to add the belts and support stuff for my midsection earlier than usual to get used to my breathing changing and not have surprises. I didn’t want a sweaty mess repeat like with axle. Maybe it’s because the weight is climbing and I’m aware this ties to an actual event. I don’t get freaked out about pulldowns and rows like with the competition type lifts. So for the last set of strict, no push presses after. Just rest for five and then go to the push presses. My initial lift off the rack was muddled. I could tell my legs weren’t cooperating with me today as my balance was off that first rep. To be expected when I did the sled work just Sunday and had to use a lot of calves to do those sets on turf. I wanted more reps but this was still satisfactory in that the projected max is higher still. This is just work. Work to build. Building that base back. I can say that the upper body is back to where I was or better I think on most things. Can’t say the same on lower body. I’m not going for broke on these with any grinding reps. Pulldowns with the neutral grip. Weights and work up were adjusted to have big jumps and less reps. Feeling my back pulling strongly here. I think I end up using more lean back on these versus regular grip style pulldowns. I’ve not really pushed the weight and high reps on this variation so my best with this weight was only 10 reps. I knew that had to be crushed today. Next was kind of a new one for me. The plan had been to do weighted push-ups with light band tension but I was also given the option to do weighted dips with the Slingshot. I had done these twice before. Once for very high rep sets with body weight and the other was with weight to test things out. That had been when my back seemed to shift into a better spot and I felt some relief. So I obviously wanted to do these after that. Especially with my back feeling a little off. I was advised not to do too much. Just three sets of 10 reps and not to a max set of 10 reps. The Slingshot seems to let me do dips without any shoulder pain while still working triceps hard. Was only planning on doing like +90lbs or +100lbs for that top set since I did 12 with +90lbs that one time while testing. No weight felt like nothing so I decided to do +135lbs. Adding weight was a bit trickier for the setup. Trial and error. It will be smoother next time. I feel like these are the hatfield squats for the upper body pressing muscles. Heavy but I can move fast. That top set was heavier than expected but well within my abilities. After that was chest supported rows. These were feeling better than last time. I had felt pumped up last time and now I didn’t. Every set I felt strong. I felt like I was going to just unleash on that top set and I did. Just rowing like there is no tomorrow. Last thing was standing tate presses. Some additional triceps and shoulder work. Plan here was warm-ups and then a weight I could do for 15-20 reps. I did the first 3 sets with no rest to get the joints warmed and then took a break before doing the set with 45lbs. It was way easier than I was expecting. Felt good. Home after all that. Decided to eat most of my dinner first (delicious Mississippi Roast) and then stretch as it was late. And I wanted to have another meal before bed. Things feel like they are coming together. I just really hope that my body will let me keep going.

January 19, 2020 – Week 7, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack

Mobility Prep

Rogue Farmer’s Walk (16” pick, increasing pace)

23x150’ (turns at 50’)

113x50’

203x50’

253x50’ in 15.04 seconds

253x50’ in 11.74 seconds

253x50’ in 10.03 seconds

Stone of Steel Rows

138x10

205x29

Prowler Pushes (turf)

220x93’

220x93’

220x93’

220x93’

220x93’

Stretching

Comments: I was exhausted it seems. I had every intention of going to train early Saturday morning but the weather conditions seemed dicey. Especially for “coming back to where I need to be” training rather than “competition peak of my life” training. This ended up with me sleeping until 2:00PM Saturday. Body aches. Symptoms of numbness in the left leg still present. Annoying for sure. I didn’t expect there to be many people when I got out to train and there weren’t. Or in general. But I felt pretty good considering. Warm ups were good. I forgot to foam roll. Maybe I didn’t need it. I probably do though with how tight things are. Farmer’s walk to start. Kind of the same as last time but different. I did the empty handles for the 150’ turn thing instead of a 100’ straight shot again. No idea why I didn’t have that on my camera but it wasn’t there when I got home after training so oops. Plan being 50’ runs again. Like with yoke, top weight for three sets and building up speed each set. Big jumps in weight like the yoke. Doing the commands and hand timing again. Pick up much tougher on farmer’s vs yoke. Granted, I’m using lower handles than usual and I’m gripping in the center to make this tougher for now. This was much easier than last time. I guess maybe because I knew I could do it. Person giving commands isn’t someone I usually have assist so they were a bit different paced. But that isn’t a problem, just more training. I was at least getting myself to get the timing on point, even with my more gradual start on the farmer’s walk picks to brace. A bit harder to control speed on farmer’s walk as unlike yoke, my grip can give so harder to go slow and then speed up. I think I went to fast too soon on the warm-ups so I was little faster coming into the heavy sets. Tricky to gauge. I haven’t used these particular handles for timed runs in a while so hard to say how much slower but probably 3 seconds is a fair guess. I felt good with how I felt after these all things considered. Stone of steel rows followed that up. Empty implement to start for a set of 10. Wasn’t as “wobbly” as last time. Maybe because I knew that could happen that I was more focused. The plan had been to get this thing up to 211.5lbs and I assumed that I did that by putting in a 45lbs plate and a 25lbs plate. I’m not sure that I thought as I had assumed that I only put in about 50lbs last time and due to how the weights are, got it above 190lbs. So maybe I put in 55lbs? In either case, I didn’t weigh this until after I was done. I was slipping a bit more than usual on this today. It wasn’t like it was warm outside. We just had snow and it was only slightly above freezing. I ended up having to regrip a few times. Just didn’t have enough to get one more rep. Got “stone rash” (can you call it that if the stone isn’t a stone?) from how much I was squeezing and it was slipping on me. Ended up weighing only 11.5lbs more than last time. Damn. Still more weight than last time and more weight than the sandbag rows from last week. Still not keen on extensions over bar to height as things seem to feel tender with the increasing weights. Just going to do the prowler and sled stuff on turf for the time being as long as it’s while I’m at the gym out in Lancaster for event work and as long as the distances are more than 50’. Just too much of a hassle dealing with the tiny door, the parking lot, and moving all kinds of weights around by myself. So it was five sets of prowler pushes with 60 seconds rest. I’ve forgotten how much tougher this can be as I needed quite a bit less weight. All rest were actually under 60 seconds. Idea was to move at a steady pace and not full speed. Honestly, my legs felt heavy and I didn’t feel like I could go much quicker for the distance than trudging beast of burden speed. But finished things without having to stop or take weight off. So success? I know I will need less weight for drags to keep speed since it is slightly uphill and downhill depending on the direction. Did empty reverse hyper for 50 reps again and then 25 5 count holds of 90/90 diaphragm breathing before doing some hangs before driving home to stretch, do chores and recover. Hopefully I can continue progressing here.

January 16, 2020 – Week 7, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Hatfield Squats to box (18”)
60x11
150x8
240x5
290x3
330x3
380x2
420x1
470x5

Romanian Deadlifts (top start)
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x3
275x3
315x1
Added Straps
365x16

Pulldown Abs (pulldown station)
50x25
80x20
110x15

Stretching

Comments: Body is feeling beat up. Maybe not as much as I felt on Tuesday. But achy in my joints. Back feeling a little better maybe. Hard to say. It is annoying that it seems to be up and down with the symptoms. Foam rolling, needed for sure. I had meant to ice my knees the night before but I ran out of time. Need that sleep. Obviously I’ll stop if this feels like bad pain. Can be hard to stay motivated when things feel great some days and then you get those symptoms to reemerge and essentially slap you in the face. Eye twitch came back a little bit in the one eye. But got to keep moving forward in some capacity. Warming up at least felt fine. Hatfield squats again. Alternating between these and deadlifts has been good so far. Especially building back. These kinds of squats seem to be the best thing for me right now to still work things heavy. I was trying something different with holding the rack for the hatfield squats. Trying to find something that is easier on the fingers. Lower back was feeling pump today. Not in pain but very tense and tender. Holding lower on the rack like I was doing didn’t allow me to stand up straight or keep my upper back as tight so switched back to the old style. I was a little distracted on that first set and did an extra rep by mistake. Same thing as before with the set work up sets and the plan being a set of five with 470lbs. Little hesitant at times. Last single moved well. Every rep on the 470lbs felt heavy but seemed to move easy on video. Not sure what that means. Weights will be more intense from here on out as no longer sticking to this weight from planned stuff. Romanian deadlifts next. Still big jumps on these. I was a little nervous how these would go with how tight and tense my lower back was, especially after the squatting. 50lbs jump from last time for the top set. Back actually felt good on these. Trying to not use straps until that top set to keep building up the grip from the layoff. As I was going up a bit in weight, I figured that it would make sense to add some support gear earlier on to get used to the breathing. Stuff was feeling heavy but moving well. Top weight felt really darn heavy. Like I’d get 5 reps. Just kept going though. Got five so now aim for eight. Got eight, aim for ten and so on. 14 reps here would equal the projected max for last time but I wanted more. 16 is where I got before my grip gave out. Grip and upper back had had enough. This is good. Would’ve wanted to get to 20 reps or something but still progressing. Not as winded and didn’t feel like the same crap I did on Tuesday’s workout. Smaller jumps this coming month ahead as we got to this point now. Last item for the day was pulldown abs. Same as last time. Same weight, same reps. Which is fine. I was looking forward to this as a way to deload my spine. Didn’t do it as much as last time I think because my back was stiff and tight. Still felt good. Home for food, stretching and recovery work.