November 2, 2021 – Week 4, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Wide Grip Romanian Deadlifts (5 seconds negative, straps, no hard belt)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
265x3
315x12
275x12
275x12

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Squats
65x5
115x5
155x12
180x12
205x12

Walking Lunges
bwx12/12
bwx12/12
bwx12/12

Paused Copenhagen Plank Lifts (3 seconds)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Paused Standing Band Hip Adductions (1 second)/Hanging L-Sits
mmb+µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmb+µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmb+µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds

Single Leg Seated Calf Raises (0-5-0-5 tempo)
45x17/16
45x20/20

Stretching
  
Comments: Stuff feeling stiff and tight. Not bad I guess but just noticing stuff. The left leg thing only bothers me when I do things that bother it so it’s nice that it isn’t like a constant discomfort like some things are. Some changes with this workout. Mobility stuff was good and different. The banded leg curls that I was doing before as part of the workout were moved to be part of this. It was interesting. Wide grip rdls up next. Same 5 second eccentrics and brief pauses. Or so I thought. It appears I was to do these with a normal hand spacing but didn’t realize until it was time to go and didn’t want to make the wrong assumption here. The plan was to work up like previously with 5-3 reps and then do a top set of 10-12 with 2RIR and then drop off a bit to do two matching rep sets. I had 315lbs in my head and when I get a number in my head, it is hard to not go for it. It was challenging to do for the 12 reps. I also had to check what I was wearing last time as far as support to make sure I wasn’t wearing more than I had been (just rehband). The downsets were quite a bit easier even though time under tension pretty similar for the upper body. After that  a new one added. Well I guess new for this year’s trainings. Zercher squats. Advised to use whatever bar I wanted and do work up to 3x12 with increasing weight. No belt. Controlled movement. I figured I’d be doing 200lbs minimum on these but warming up these felt like they were going to a lot more taxing than expected. Considering I was to leave plenty of reps in the tank and the movement wasn’t as fresh for me, I went on the lower end to insure I didn’t make mistakes and had quality movement here. It’s a strange movement. I prefer the ssb on these for comfort and stability. The levers I have do make these a bit awkward as I can rest the bar on my thighs fully above parallel and I’ve done these where I’ve used my thighs supporting it to get into a better advantage point for the lift (like a stone) but I know that that isn’t the intent on these so I had to be more conscious of movement so that I didn’t end up doing that. Left knee was a little achy on these. These are a deeper squat I think compared to what I’ve been doing with the ssb and maybe the hack squats to an extent. All angles. Into the streets for lunges. All the lights and caution stuff. I changed up the positions to see if that worked better. It didn’t as far as making it easy to view. It is just too dark outside. I did some mobility stuff before going. I didn’t need to do as much (and it wasn’t a lot before) due to the zercher squats being deep. Knees a bit creaky today but still good and controlled. Into the garage for the copenhagen stuff. Same as last time with the suggestion but I figured I’d do 3 second holds each rep as that felt harder than doing 1-2 and then a long hold at the end. Seemed a bit more consistent to me. The next thing was the previous session’s last thing. Superset of standing band hip adductions and hanging l-sits again. I had the stuff in the garage so the down time between the exercises (going from the garage to the porch and back) was minimized. I used the most band tension I used last time for all three sets this time, rather than go up. Just to see how that went first. My left quad and hip flexor were quite tight so the l-sits were still pretty tough. I don’t feel comfortable in adding weight to my legs yet as it is challenging enough still. Last thing was a time vampire and a new exercise for me. Single leg seated calf raises. Inverted tempo for long counts with the idea being to do 15-20 reps with weight leaving 3RIR. Really had to figure that out without doing the exercise before and with how long the set will take. From past experience on these inverted tempo long sets for calf stuff, it seems I can’t do much weight on them. Bodyweight for one leg and the ssb on my back for both legs has been tough. But the weight is light even added with the seated and point of the lever compared to say a machine. I went with just a 45lbs plate for this session. I’ve never done single leg work for the soleus muscle and it showed. My left leg on calf stuff generally seems to be stronger and have more endurance, despite having atrophy from nerve damage from the disc injury in 2016. My right leg is tighter but looks larger. It appears that the soleus was effected as the left leg is behind the right. With the amount of numbers to keep track off, I knew I wasn’t getting the right amount of reps done that first set. Could be less than 20, more than 20 or 20. So for the second set, I made sure I got it figured out and got 20 reps. Not that it was too hard to get 20 that first set, I just thought I was at that point with how long it was taking and I kept forgetting the rep I was one (as seen by not getting an even match with both legs). Ate dinner and then stretched. It was pretty late so left the weights out for next session.

November 1, 2021 – Week 4, Day 1

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
26’sx20/15’sx20
26’sx20/15’sx20

Barbell Strict Presses (beltless)
45x5
75x5
105x5
135x3
155x3
175x3
202x5
177x5
177x5

Barbell Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (2 seconds, beltless)
165x5
165x5

Paused Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings, 1 second)
bwx5
bw+20x5
bw+35x12
bw+35x10
bw+35x10/bwx4

Feet Up Close Grip Bench Presses
45x10
75x9
105x8
135x7
165x6
195x5
220x10
220x10
220x10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Lat Pulldowns (2 seconds)
sbx10/10
sb+abx15/15
sb+abx15/15

Paused Push Ups on Kettlebells (5 seconds)
bwx18
bwx16

Band Triceps Pressdowns/Band Biceps Curls
sb+mbx20/mmb’s+ µb’sx20
sb+mbx20/mmb’s+ µb’sx20
sb+mbx20/mmb’s+ µb’sx20

Stretching
  
Comments: The left leg thing still present but I guess not as much. Training this past weekend wasn’t as direct on it so maybe it is getting some rest. Again hard to say as it seems to be when it gets worked up. Right triceps just seems tense most of the time the past few days. Trying to get that to relax but it is hard to. Right side oblique and abdominals feel a little tense too. It has gotten a lot cooler out which is ok for me. Just means I don’t sweat as much. Starting things off with the dumbbell raises for shoulders. Not getting any easier but that’s on me for this one. Definitely felt a little easier I guess but hard to say with how these really get tough on that second set. I was advised to try and push up the weights on the rear delts. I guess more advised that I could as they seem to not take much out of the shoulders for pressing. These both get tough by the second set. From there on to standing pressing outside in the rack. Still beltless. I had to request some clarification on this as it had listed to do 80%x5 and then 70%x2x5 but had to push towards 5RM or so. The intent was to not hit a max on these but to leave some in the tank so stuck to the percentages. I felt that my warm-ups were better served this time around to get ready for the working sets. Just monged these sets. Maybe I took things more serious rather than interpreting it as a daily grind kind of thing for this off season stuff. But I made these look like a joke today. Or maybe my shoulders are finally starting to feel good again. The pause presses after that. Drop a set from last week and add 5lbs. Felt good, didn’t feel like I was in danger of losing any reps here. Just subconsciously thinking about the tight obliques and abs on the right side. Got to stay rigid in the parts that need to be and loose in the parts that need to be. From there on to feet elevate pull-ups. Working sets with 35lbs added with holds and leaving 2RIR on them again. I decided to do a few more reps on the warm-ups to get ready. Three sets again but I was to drop off the back pack and do reps after that. Didn’t expect to feel that good on the first set to get 12 reps. Got 10 the remaining reps. Pretty fatiguing trying to do more reps after the weight was dropped. Close grip with feet up next. I was bit surprised that the weight and reps weren’t that much considering the amount of reps I did last week. Maybe this is to alternate? So close to it just being two plates a side. Warm ups on these just feel so so and then work sets I felt powerful. Again, might be seriousness level or it could be the feeling of the wrist wraps on the work sets (I feel these are still very light weights). For the pressing stuff, I was doing 2 minute rests on the work sets and with it being not out of the realm of possibility, I did that for these too. Single arm lat pulldowns again. Same tension as last time. Only did the one warm-up set as the lighter band did nothing for me last time. These felt hard today. Inside for push-ups. Advised this time to extend the hold in the stretch position to 3-5ct. Of course going for the longer hold. I was kind of surprised that my numbers only dropped that little considering and even more so that the reps didn’t drop much from first and second set. Last item for the evening was bands for the gun show. 3x20 as opposed to 2x30. So I increased the band tension a little so it wasn’t super easy. Finished putting things away before eating dinner and stretching.

October 30, 2021 – Week 3, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Seated Leg Curls
20x10
40x10
60x10
100x5
140x15
150x15
160x15

Paused Band TKEs (1 second)
sbx15/15
sbx15/15

Lateral Step Downs 
bwx5/5 (12”)
bwx5/5 (16”)
bwx5/5(20”)
bwx10/10(24”)
bwx10/10 (24”)

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
275x5
275x5
275x5
275x5

Reverse Band Hack Squats (LB’s)
emptyx5
+50x5
+90x5
+140x5
+180x5
+230x5
+270x5
+320x12
+270x12
+270x12

Sandbag Roll-ups
150x3
170x3
200x3
225x3
250x3
275x8
275x8
275x8

Backwards Hip Belt Sled Drags
335x100’
435x100’
535x100’

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: Stress at work and just general bs in the amateur side of the sport made for an interesting week. Just a lot of uncertainty. Work stuff not nearly as bad as last week. The extra wrinkle of frustration was that my video editing stuff is giving me a ton of problems as of late and after trying for almost three days to get Thursday’s session processed, I just gave up on it. Computer is on its last legs as it had been lucky this one even worked after my other one (equally as old) had up and died. So hopefully the new computer arrives soon and I can get back to normally schedule programming. I’ll go back and try and upload for the sessions that end up getting missed. Still going to try to edit stuff in the meantime. I didn’t sleep in nearly as late today. I wanted to give the video editing thing another shot before I went. No go. I hadn’t done anything the day before as it was raining off and on pretty hard so no walking and I didn’t really have focus to do soft tissue work. So showing up at the gym at a somewhat reasonable hour meant I got to see a lot of my friends that train there. Balance still needs work. Workout altered a bit to try and let the leg thing heal. So rather than inverse curls, it was seated curls. Plan being to do 3x15 with increasing weight. Trying to be controlled so as not to aggravate things. Been a while since I’ve done seated leg curls (years) and I’ve never used the one at the gym before so I had to do a bit of testing. Which meant low weight and high reps to see how the movement felt. I started too light with the high reps I feel and was making small jumps at the start with it. I didn’t want to do a million reps to get ready so I took a bigger jump to see what I thought I’d be good with. I thought at first that I had picked too heavy a starting weight but by the end of it, I felt I was too light but that is ok with the irritation and being a new exercise. What I found that seemed to feel better with these (speed of movement didn’t seem to change how things felt, more weight related) was leaning forward on the contraction and back on the eccentric. Made it rhythmic for me. Next was TKE’s. Since not the step up version, I could do these with the strong band. 2x15 each side and I figured I’d do them back to back. Hold time not specified so I just did 1 second (I’ve done 3 seconds in the past) as it said to focus on a hard contraction. One of the things I had thought about with that regard was lifting my toes up so that my heel is the point of contact to increase the contraction. That seemed to do well. Though it wasn’t without issues haha. There were two little girls playing nearby in the crash pads and had made a bit tower out of them. One them then said “help me, I’m trapped” or something and I looked over out of concern and almost lost balance. Kids and their games. Easy fix is just do these at another spot with turf so that I have better traction (this was the rubber matting). Next was the return of a unilateral exercise from PA’s Strongest prep; lateral stepdowns. Only guidelines for this was to make them challenging enough that I felt my hips and ankles working to stabilize. 2x10 with bodyweight. I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did on these. Maybe the knee sleeves help get that feeling of the knees being crap or giving leave my head. I started low height and did more reps than I usually would to warm-up. Knees were creaky on the lower heights at first. I figured 20” was going to be my limits really after not doing them for a while and with how the knees have been temperamental since last cycle but I felt a good rhythm. Usually I’d do a single for the working height as that seemed to get the jitters out but I felt like it would be wasted energy and I was ready so I went for it with my PR height and did it quite easily. Then it was ssb squats. I had been advised here that plan is trying to alternate which of the two squats (ssb and hack) are to be pushed each week right now and hacks were the ones to be pushed this time. Not to say not making ssb stuff challenging. No tempo but still pauses. 2-3 for 4x5. I went with 3 seconds. Not sure if the addition of the stepdowns made a difference but I felt like my hips made deeper squats more comfortable. I had noticed that depth on pauses last week seemed to be higher than I thought they were. I have the mobility but my worry is that I’ll go down too far where I’m not keeping tension and relaxing on my calves. But squats are a training exercise for strongman in most cases and I’m getting all the points covered in one way or the other. Obviously if an event requires a squat, that will be to perfection. Next up was hack squats. This week same setup and work up in 5’s to a top set of 10-12 with the even tempo I’ve been doing. Then drop the weight down 15-20% for 2 sets, matching the reps of the top set. I took quarter-plate jumps as my plan was to do 320lbs added to the machine and this would hopefully give me an idea of how things were going. I feel that I probably had more in me for today. Probably not another 40lbs jump to stick to the parameters (maybe the lower rep end but cutting it close). It is good to see this progressing. Down sets were pretty easy, mostly just waiting until I had my lungs back. I’ll admit that some rest breaks went quite a bit longer than others today as I’d end up chatting with friends about stuff (strongman drama and technique help). I’ve apparently been good as I got to do some event specificity after that. Roll-ups for 3x8 with warming up how I felt I needed in triples. It said sandbag but indicated I could use a keg as well. With my planned contest being sandbag to shoulder medley, I elected to do the sandbag. Also less likely to get bruising on my arms compared to picking and lapping a keg. I wasn’t too sure how these would go. Left leg gets tight and picking up a sandbag is a lot of hamstring. I also wasn’t too sure how things would feel with the extensions. I was to control them back to the lap and explode up, leaving 3RIR. The picks being the tough part. Balance is a little tricky to keep this as a constant movement. But the rolling up was pretty easy. I had thought 250lbs would be where I was but it was way too light once I did my first extension with it (it’s a nice grippy and packed bag) so I went up to the tougher 275lbs bag. I was tempted to go up to the 306lbs bag (imagine the confidence of doing multiple sets with the heaviest bag in the series) but thought better of it as I needed to leave reps in the tank, this was the first time doing this exercise, and I know both the 275lbs and 306lbs bag are deceptively tough. I feel like the first and last set were the best of the sets. Maybe the last set getting the edge. Second set not as good. Up next was sled work. Departure from the 5 minutes stuff and back to heavy for a short distance. 3x100’ with increasing weight each set. Outside to get enough distance (plus the slight uphill/downhill on turf would make things tough). This was also not the competition style with hold it in the hands. Advised to make this lower body and use a belt squat belt harness. The patch of concrete is uneven so it is tricky to gauge stuff but I figured I could get it to work. So started with what I figured would be nice weight. Unlike when I have my hands, the start isn’t as smooth as far as using a chain through the body to break the inertia. I think I forget that sometimes as the weight isn’t that heavy to be able to do it for 5 minute straight like I’ve been doing. So I initially thought I overestimated what I could do but once I figured out it wasn’t a fast start, it felt like I went too light. So I went up 100lbs for the next set. Felt decent, some spots where I slowed down with the uneven pavement. I felt I could do it with another 100lbs. No more room for plates so I put a 100lbs keg on top of the sled. Fit right in the rim of the 100lbs plate at the top so it was secure. This was tougher than I expected. Just hitting those rough patches would bring me to a halt but not like enough of one that I had restart or stop from exhaustion. Just made it a tough set. But I got it done. Last item for the workout was the quad fallbacks. 2 sets of 6-12 leaving reps in the tank. Now that I’ve got these figured out finally, I felt that the top range wasn’t a problem. The left leg doesn’t care to be in the position to start initially so I did a practice rep (partial) before I really committed to it. Stretch felt good. No knee pain on these. Second set Teegan the dog came up beside me so I of course I gave her pets while I was doing the set. I can multitask. After putting everything away, I decided I should drive home and stretch there so that I could be home and not have to worry about traffic delaying me. Stretched out and cleaned up before having dinner with my parents. Got soft tissue work done and iced my knees before bed.

October 28, 2021 – Week 3, Day 3

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds eccentrics)
87x10
97x9
107x8
117x7
127x6
137x5
147x4
157x3
180x8
180x8
160x8 
160x12

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
10’x5
40’x5
60’sx5
75’sx5
90’sx5
110’sx8
95’sx8
95’sx8

Bench Dips (Feet Elevated)
bwx10
bwx10
bw+35x12
bw+35x12
bw+35x18

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Paused Band Face Pulls (1 second)
25x15/15 – abx15
25x15/15 – abx15
25x15/15 – abx15

Close Grip Push-ups (3 second negatives)
bw+26x15
bwx17

Stretching
 
Comments: Trying to keep allergies in check. Same with work stress. I think I’m managing. Starting point of the session was bands superset. Pec flyes with pull-aparts. First set isn’t bad but the second set of these gets tough. Hard to tell if my fatigue between sets was greater than last week. Still better than the first week. So on to log incline bench presses. Continuing with the 3 second eccentrics. Plan this week was work up to 180x2x8, take off 20lbs for another set of 8 and then go for max reps (1-2RIR). I decided to do the same reps and sets for the pyramid as last week. I feel like my right shoulder fatigue was greater compared to last week but not near what it was the first week. This week, it wasn’t specified for the 2 minute rests between sets but I decided to do that for the work sets. I was expecting to get 12-13 within parameters. Called it early so I didn’t have any possible missed rep situations or needing to rest pause or have nothing left in the tank like last week. It is really getting dark (I know the DLS is ending soon) but at least it seems cold enough to limit mosquitos. From there it was on to dumbbell rows again. Control being the name of the game. So for this session, I was to work up on 5’s to a top set of 8-12 with 1-2RIR with the holds. Using the bigger plates. Thankfully they don’t really seem to effect the ROM that much. I had thought that 90’s would be a good working weight but that set of 5 felt way too easy. I went up 20lbs from that which I think was too big a jump for what I wanted as I was aiming for the higher end of the rep range still. Just got in with the 8 reps on this. These can be quite exhausting and as the down sets with it dropped 15% were still quite tough. On the last set, I was of enough presence of mind to manipulate the dumbbells in a way the allowed for fuller ROM, keeping the plates from hitting the bench chest support early. Bench dips were after that. Same warming up as last time. That first set just feels so much tougher than the second. Like, maybe I’m not going to get through these. And then I’m all good on the second warm-up set. With how the backpack worked out for the feet-elevated pull-ups, I figured it would be a rousing success here as well for loading weight as opposed to laying on the lap directly. It was. Keeping control on these too. Keeping reps in reserve for the last set which was for max reps this time. The lockouts get tough on these. Back outside for the shoulder supersets. Leaning side laterals with band face pulls. I figured I’d go up just a little bit on the side laterals. The suggestion with the face pulls was to work on increasing the hold times for the reps up to 3ct before increasing the band tension. I had done just a brief pause last week and the plan this week was to aim for 1 second holds. Definitely gets tough. I can go heavier on the laterals I think but I need to progress with small amounts to be smart about it as the band face pulls get a ton harder with holds, especially longer holds. Last item for the session was back in the garage. The close grip push-ups with the accentuated eccentrics. Elected to use the backpack here rather than the chain vest method. It works a lot better. So goal was max reps with reps left in the tank (1-2RIR) with weight that first set and then no weight the second. I managed to match what I did on the first set with 4lbs more this week. Second set without weight I got more reps total but I was kind of surprised that I only got 17 reps. I guess it just how it is when I’m doing these close grip and adding the negatives like this. I was able to do near 40 reps without slowing things down. Put stuff away before eating dinner and then stretching.

October 26, 2021 – Week 3, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Seated Band Hamstring Curls (3-3-0-0 tempo)
ab’sx20
ab’sx20
ab’sx20

Wide Grip Romanian Deadlifts (5 seconds negative, straps, no hard belt)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
265x3
305x8
305x8
305x8
245x17

Walking Lunges
bwx12/12
bwx12/12
bwx12/12

Paused Copenhagen Plank Lifts (2 seconds)
bwx10/10 (7 seconds hold last rep)
bwx10/10 (9 seconds hold last rep)
bwx10/10 (3 seconds hold each rep)

Nordic Curls (self-assist on concentrics)
bwx0 (attempted but too much pain)

Paused Standing Band Hip Adductions (1 second)/Hanging L-Sits
mbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmb+µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds

Stretching
  
Comments: Things have been a lot less stressful so far this week. Maybe because there aren’t as many fires to put out or maybe me realizing that I was stressing myself into illness is letting me watch and catch the signs and course correct. Raining last night so allergies were acting up but took appropriate meds for that so I was good. Getting cold and windy now. As for my body, left leg thingy still happening but seems to not be as present. Tried to get working out as soon as I finished work as I knew this could a be longer session. Mobility stuff was good. Feeling some DOMS in the quads still from Saturday. Left knee was feeling achy which was a little odd. Not pain or anything, just an ache. After that it was on banded leg curls with tempo applied to the contraction and eccentric. Same as last week with the tempo and aiming for 3x15-20. But I was told to push it more on these compared to last week. So I upped the band tension considerably. I wasn’t sure how the left leg would like these as hamstring stuff involving knee flexion seemed to irritate things on Saturday. It did on these but not as much as other things have and I seemed to get used to it as I did them. Discomfort was minimal and hard to say if that if from getting used to it or endorphins from training or just other factors. But they felt good and I was surprised that I was able to do this increased band tension and match reps from last week and still be within the parameters of difficulty set. Wide grip rdls up next. Same 5 second eccentrics and brief pauses. Plan was to warm-up and then do 3x8 followed by a max rep set. Left leg tight but no pain or discomfort from doing these. The added weight was noticed. Actual lifting of the weight was pretty easy, just that control for these reps. Down set I knew was going to suck. It was going to be a lot of time under tension and odds were that it would be the upper body that would go before the lower body did with the amount of time. Even with straps, the forearms and grip get fatigued. Upper back also gets fatigued and when it goes, gripping stuff becomes a lot harder too. I know that is something that I’ll need to consider and put some attention to get my numbers higher on a grip hold event for time (I’m good but I could be better). But I hit the goal I was expecting to hit based off my own little guessing game. Into the streets for lunges. All the lights and caution stuff. This time, I did some mobility things before doing the exercise. Sat in a full squat for a little and did some knees over toes getting the ankles good and ready as well as making sure the leg discomfort wasn’t going to be a problem. Advice for this week was to stick to bodyweight and to slow down the movement if I could to increase difficult and to troubleshoot sore spots in the ROM. So I slowed things down and tried to get a smooth motion and work on getting the stride longer. These felt good on all sets. Only had a slight stumble in my tempo near the end of the last set when a strong gust of wind caught me off guard. Into the garage for the copenhagen stuff. Advised to adjust hold times to make harder if needed. So for the first two sets, I did 2 seconds like last week and then a longer hold on the last set. I think I did shorter hold the first set as after looking at the video, I lost count and I think I did like 13 reps instead of 10 that first set. Second set felt easier so rather than stick to the same for the last set, I did 3 second holds per rep. I knew that 5 second holds with this setup would be too much. Nordic curls were next. At least that was the plan. I wasn’t sure how these would go after last week. Plan was again 3x6 with bodyweight. There was discomfort but I was able to do everything last week after it. Went for that first one and just sharp pain in the left leg and couldn’t initiate the concentric. Took a few minutes to assess things and make sure I was ok. Called it there on that. Having pain isn’t lucky but this is lucky in that I didn’t make things worse or hurt myself to the point of needing to go to urgent care. I’m not entirely sure what is up. I felt it was best to just move on to the last thing for the evening rather than try to do a substitute exercise with my left leg irritated from that. So last thing was the superset of standing band hip adductions and hanging l-sits again. Advised this time to add a slight pause on the hip adductions and try to not rotate torso. It was raining slightly so I stuck to the garage for the bands. I also didn’t want to not use the Nordic curl setup since it uses a ton of weights. I have an ideal anchor for these. So I figured the best way to do these was to have something to brace my upper body with so that all the focus would be on the leg motion. That upside of that was by eliminating the balancing aspect, I could increase the band tension substantially from what I had last week. I also went with 1 second pauses as well and increased the band tension each set. Wiped down the squat rack each time for the hanging abs. Right shoulder seemed to be less irritated by these this week. I think the shoulder is finally getting better and recovering from whatever from the last contest. A bit annoyed I had to stop on the Nordic curls. I think they are just too much without assistance right now with the other things I do for hamstrings. Maybe in the future but not right now with what is going on. Ate dinner after putting all the weights away. Iced knees and left leg before bed. Took a few anti-inflammatories to see if that calmed things down in the leg after irritating it.

October 25, 2021 – Week 3, Day 1

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
26’sx20/10’sx20
26’sx20/10’sx20

Barbell Strict Presses (beltless)
45x5
95x5
135x3
170x3
202x3
202x3
202x3

Barbell Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (2 seconds, beltless)
160x5
160x5
160x5

Paused Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings, 1 second)
bwx5
bw+20x3
bw+35x10
bw+35x10
bw+35x10

Feet Up Close Grip Bench Presses
45x10
85x9
115x8
145x7
175x6
200x5
225x8
225x8
205x17

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Lat Pulldowns (2 seconds)
abx10/10
sbx5/5
sb+abx15/15
sb+abx15/15

Paused Push Ups on Kettlebells (2 seconds)
bwx23 PR+4 reps
bwx19

Band Triceps Pressdowns/Band Biceps Curls
sbx30/mmb’sx30
sbx30/mmb’sx30

Stretching
  
Comments: Needed the weekend to recover from the stressful work week. Going to keep an eye on that stuff and act accordingly going forward. Not let it get to me if I can help it. Disassociate if needed. It is just a job and even me working at 1% is better than just about everyone else’s 100%. In things that matter, the left leg thing still present. Again, not entirely sure what it is but I think it is strained tendons/ligaments or something from the Nordic curls. Some stuff is still tender. I should be grateful that it doesn’t affect me doing day to day stuff. Hard to say if it is getting better or not as I’m not frequently in the ranges that seem to get irritated until I do training stuff. Just have to treat it like the other overuse things as best I can. Starting things off with the dumbbell raises for shoulders. Not getting any easier. Last time was probably a bit fresher seeing as only had one mostly normal intensity upper body workout whereas this one now has a full week of it down. These are tough. I at least feel like I paced myself better on the second set as I didn’t have to take a breather during the set to let the fatigue leave my shoulders. No plans to go up in weight on these at this rep range. Weights are still challenging. From there on to standing pressing outside in the rack. Same as last week but some changes. No belt still and same kind of warming up. Three working sets and to notate how the RIR feels at the end. But this time 3x3 and using 80% of 1rm. Shoulders didn’t feel as fatigued this time but stuff did feel heavy on the shoulders. First work set felt decently tough and second set got a little off balance on the last rep. Last set felt great, felt the best of them. Maybe I need to do more warm-ups on these? I think my worry is that I will fatigue the shoulders prematurely on top of the fatigue already from the shoulders. I also think that my strict pressing has generally been low volume with my leg drive pressing having more. But assuming minimal to none for right now with offseason to let knees recover better. The pause presses after that. Really didn’t want a repeat of last time. Weight was lowered 11lbs but an extra set was added. This definitely went better. I forgot my wrist wraps the first set and then didn’t wear them on the second. Put them on for the third as I was feeling fatigue. Unlike the regular strict pressing, the fatigue is very pronounced on these with the 2 minutes or so rest. No weird oblique stuff and no missed reps. From there on to feet elevate pull-ups. This time to do working sets with 35lbs added with holds and leaving 2RIR on them. Paying attention I focused on the holds this time for all sets. I decided to forgo the draping around the neck thing on these and put weights in backpack like I was thinking near the end of last week. Worked like a charm. I of course forgot to film that first set. Holds are tough on these as per usual. Close grip with feet up next. Same plan with the warm-ups (bigger jumps this time) and then to do 225lbs for 2x8 and then a rep set with 205lbs. I was having some balance issues but that was more just getting things aligned. Felt pretty good. No clue where all those reps came from on that rep set. I feel I had 20 reps if needed. So that is neat. Single arm lat pulldowns again. I decided this time to go for even more band tension but thought it was best to do some warm-ups before jumping right to that. Hard to gauge sometimes with band stuff and holds what is enough or too much to get ready. Working sets were very hard but within the parameters. I don’ t think it is wise to go with more tension at this point. Left side still seems a bit stronger but fatigue seems about the same. It started to rain during that last set so into the garage for push-ups with pauses. I didn’t expect to increase the reps so much this time. These generally feel good. Still raining outside but not a ton. So the last thing for the evening was bands in the rain. 2x30 for both triceps and biceps. Same as last week. Kept band tensions the same. Got it done in and out so I could put stuff away and then eat dinner. Stretched and then iced my left leg and right elbow.

October 23, 2021 – Week 2, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+225(ast)x10
+225(ast)x10
+180(ast)x5
+180(ast)x5
+135(ast)x10
+110(ast)x10
+85(ast)x10

Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (9”, lb)
bwx15/15
bwx15/15

Paused Leg Extensions (2 seconds)
45x8
90x8
135x8
180x15
180x15
180x15

Safety Squat Bar Squats (5-2-0-0 tempo)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
275x3
315x7
275x7
275x7

Reverse Band Hack Squats (LB’s)
emptyx5
+70x5
+140x5
+190x5
+240x5
+290x10
+290x10
+290x10

Lying Leg Curls
45x8
90x6
135x8
180x12
180x12
150x18

Quad Fallbacks
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Sled Drag Work (turf)
235x5 minutes

Stretching
  
Comments: Stress at work was getting to me this week and got a reminder of that with my body deciding to rebel on me. The rumblings had started Thursday morning and thankfully didn’t really start until after training Thursday. Friday was a sucky day with my digestive tract being out of whack. No appetite and pretty much passing magma all day. Got about half of my usual meals down. On top of that, allergies hit me super hard in the late evening after work and I thought it was something more serious that would require a doctor visit to get meds but turned out to be just allergies and took a Claritin and started to clear up almost immediately. When I’m feeling like this, I do think I need to take the “mental health days” I threaten to take. Took some Nyquil to help things along and insure I got a solid sleep. I knew it was going to be a late start to the day for training. I needed to take care of some things before I went out to train anyways so it was early afternoon by the time I arrived at the gym to train. Again, no rush really as the session wasn’t really event work. Traffic was fine so that worked in my favor. No one really there today which was fine. They were people I knew at least so I could talk with them a bit to vent some haha (work and strongman shit). Mobility stuff was needed. Pairing of one legged rdls and deadbugs. Balance between sides needs that work. The pain thing I was concerned about was the left leg calf/hamstring insert or whatever it is that I made angry on Tuesday with the Nordic curl attempts. Was it going to keep me from doing what I wanted to do? Was my mobility going to be hindered, my strength down? Questions that would be answered. Starting things off with inverse curls, same thing as last time. Taking into consideration that last time was essentially me “fresh” as no real secondary workout of high intensity that week and post-contest deload and with my irritated whatever in the left leg, my plans were to try to do 5lbs less assistance on the last set. I did an extra set from last time to get more blood flow in the legs and tendons for the working sets. There was discomfort but I had full ROM and didn’t feel like my strength was hampered. Just may be irritated tendons/ligaments or something. These sets felt easier than I had expected them to be. I may need to adjust what I end up doing for the working sets, like take smaller jumps and start with less assistance. Maybe make +135lbs a warm-up set or something. After this was on to some step-ups with bands as TKEs. Idea was to warm-up the knees and see if this made them less grouchy on the leg extensions. So I thought these would be easy to setup here with all this stuff compared to at home (which is super easy) but I was wrong. First issue was finding something stable to step on to. Not trying to get anymore life alert preventative injuries here. Once I got that figured out, band tension I tried using was too much so had to swap out for a different one (I think it works better at home since I can weigh myself down with weights and this seemed to not indicate any weights to be added). Then had to move out a good bit to get enough tension on it. Once that was resolved, this was fine and easy. Indication was that if leg extensions still not feeling perfect that I’d be doing these instead. Next was leg extensions. I knew what to expect this time. Plan was to do 2x15 with 3RIR and same 2 seconds stuff. I read that and apparently ignored it and did 3x15 like last week. Oops. The only knee that doesn’t care for this is my right one and it is only on the eccentric and feels like it is the patella tendon. The thing is that these feel better as I do them and with more weight for some reason. Leg extensions are also a weird one for me in that it is a very unique sensation when they get fatigued and full of blood. The lactic acid fatigue feels way different. Whereas others it just feels like a burn, this is like a bubbling sensation of small things in my leg with mild venom stinging me. The bees as I dub it haha. But I know even at that point, I’m not close to finished and can keep on going through and eventually go above it. But these sets weren’t high enough for that to be a problem for me to have to push out another 15 reps on each set. It would be shame to ditch these but I will do what is best for me to be the best. Then it was ssb squats. The plan this time was to do max rep set with 10lbs more than what I did for working sets last time and then take off 40lbs and match those reps for two more sets. Would be easy enough if I stuck to 3 seconds on the eccentric like last time but as I mentioned, I hadn’t realized it was written as 3-5. And been doing the rdls with 5 so I figured I’d suck it up and do them for 5’s, knowing it was going to make this harder than it needed to be. But I think this is important to do as I’m seeing my ability to hold a brace tends to go as the sets go on and these altered tempos put what is only a moment in the movement into and effort. So goal was to do max set with 1-2RIR left. Definitely ended up on the closer to 1RIR as I felt my brace going on that last rep. Down sets weren’t much easier. Just that amount of time under the weight in those compromised positions. Not so much the muscles recovering between sets in the legs but more getting breathing back and having core recovered to go again. Next up was hack squats. Now most of my concerns about my left leg tendon thingy whatever were gone considering I was able to do the squats without issue but who knows how these would go. I’m just glad that I have a way to do these again. So for this week, 10lbs less than my top set last time for 3x10. I took smaller jumps warming up this time so I got in more sets to make sure knees were good and deal with anything that felt off and adjust accordingly before going up in weight. These feel odd in that the first rep is always the toughest feeling. Trying to gauge depth and how the knees are doing. After that first rep, no doubts of getting the rest of them. Last set, I was feeling my right side obliques wanting to cramp up on me near the end. Could just be from how hard I was working the bracing on stuff today. So after that was lying leg curls. This time 2x12 with 2-3RIR and then drop off 10-15% for max rep set (aiming for 15-20) with 1RIR. Like the inverse curls, the left leg was irritated by these but still able to do them. I did fewer sets with bigger jumps this time but kept the reps to the 8’s as I wanted to try 180lbs again. That first set I was definitely in the the desired difficulty and then the second set that was closer to possibly being outside of it. So took that into consideration for the down set and dropped off 30lbs. I was hoping to get 18 reps to kind of hit a rep PR (135lbs is my current I guess). Just got that. Winding down the workout here. The quad fallbacks again. Didn’t start off well like last time. I thought I had it figured out last time but nope. There was initially discomfort in the left leg area at the start but that went away. I kept falling backwards onto the bench. My center of gravity with this just wasn’t working. I had to think on what to do and think back on the changes I’ve made with this exercise. I had been doing these from the floor but that ended up being too harsh on my ankles. Then I went to using a 6” cushion to prevent that but it appears that doing this has changed the center of gravity and I don’t have enough weight on my knees to keep from falling over. So I went back to the floor but put cushioning under the ankles and it was like duh. Why didn’t I do this sooner? No discomfort, almost relaxing and I can almost touch the back of my head to the floor without any support. Last thing for the day was 5 minutes of sled drag on the turf. Alternate back and forth. I stuck to the same weight as last week after that felt way harder than I was expecting. My hope this time was to have it feel easier and move faster (ie get further). I succeed with that. I know I got further as last time I finished out on doing a forward drag and finished this time on a backward drag. I put stuff away and decided since it was late to save the stretching for when I got home (sooner to possibly get allergy meds and determine if I did have dinner defrosted or not). Stretched out and had dinner before icing my knees.