July 29, 2023 – Week 5, Day 4

11” Floating Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
85x3
135x3
195x3
245x3
305x3
355x6
355x6
355x6
355x6

B-Stance Romanian Dumbbell Deadlifts (same side)
60x5/5
100x3/3
130x12/12
130x12/12

Monster Mondo Leg Presses
300x5
400x5
20 Second Sets
500x9
550x9
600x9

Band Assisted Quad Fallbacks (5-1-0-0 tempo)
lbx8
lbx8
lbx8

Stretching
 
Comments: This week was a bit more relaxing compared to the week before. But a different kind of stress. It still had to deal with the routine disruption of going into the office which kind of made stuff outside of work get behind slightly. I did want to catch up on sleep but knew I needed to do other things. Temperature and humidity were brutal on Friday and I went for a lunch break walk since it would be 5 degrees hotter if I waited until after work to do it. I was also wanting the time to think as the last details for Nats were posted at Midnight on Thursday so my mind was going a mile a minute thinking about that. I knew I needed to take care of chores as well as do stuff for physical and mental health (walking and soft tissue work and write ups). The planned training for this week wasn’t really much different from what I would probably do with no events. Nothing requiring assistance so I could’ve slept in. But I wanted to get out there and see if I could talk with the owners about setting up stuff for the stone event for Nats (carry and load). Also give myself some time to get measurements and test some things. Drive out was fine. I took time to see if there was enough space for the stone carry in different spots as well as testing platform heights. I also checked some things in regards to the wheelbarrow options. Still have ton of thoughts I need to pin down. Unfortunately the owners weren’t there to ask stuff. I’ll need to figure out what exactly to say. Really humid today, I probably should’ve brought another shirt just to wear something dry afterwards. Starting things off with the trap bar floats. 5 second eccentric with brief pause about 1-2” off the ground and adjusting the pick height with a platform. Been liking these. It would appear I got another week of these before switching gears. Same as it has been but increased RPE. I had initially read this as 3x6 and had gone for a 20lbs jump for that. Only realizing it was 4x6 again when I was ready to go for the first working set. It is hard to gauge the RIR and such on these because of the long eccentrics and how fatiguing those are. I started lighter just to get in an extra set. I brought the belt I’d use for these this time around. I’m not entirely sure why but it feels like because it ends on the pause that I feel like I can do more. The yielding stuff does seem to be good for me on pulls. Still had slightly shorter rests than planned besides the last set where I took a moment to wipe down all the sweat I had on my face, arms and legs. Again, getting that second wind on the last set where I felt I left too much in the tank. Felt like I was perfectly fine with the first few sets. Similar to how ssb squats have felt too. Might just be a thing for me. In either case it is good that I’m using more than 50% of the minimum I’m willing to accept from myself at the show. And that setup will be much easier than what this is. Took time to recover with all the sweat to rehydrate and put away weights as the next thing was the b-stance rdls. No acceleration reps. Slightly higher RPE and still 2 sets. Rep range 10-12. I figured I’d go the heavier route. See how things felt and determine which side felt behind to start with. Right side seemed to be the one to start with. Warming up I took bigger jumps as plan was to just use the heaviest dumbbell at the gym. With the sweat issue and knowing how things felt last time with my grip, I went for the liquid and dry chalk combo. Made a bit difference. This felt easier than last week with more weight. The second set was obviously tougher than the first and there is fatigue from one side to the other. Not sure what to do with this being the heaviest dumbbell that isn’t a circus dumbbell if this exercise continues. Probably need to adjust things to allow continue progression. Then it was time for leg press. Haven’t had leg press pop up very often but it might be the best thing for the moment as far as building up the legs with my levers. With how the days are set for Nats, the second day is going to be really lower body intense. Need to get wheels to match. This was more a testing week I guess. Last week wasn’t really expected but it was good for me to get some idea of things. The knee sleeves were going to be needed to ease comfort. So the plan here was to do 3 sets of no acceleration reps and keeping my body in the face and hands as relaxed as possible. And just do 20 seconds of reps. The most I’ve done on this leg press has been 500lbs for paused reps. This is a very beefy leg press at 300lbs empty sled weight. The initial bench setup was for a much shorter person so I had to adjust it after the first set. I tend to use my arms to assist with getting the weight up to lockout and I don’t count that as a rep because of how low the start position is for me. Essentially the bottom of the movement. Which would be fine I guess to do some starting strength and increase rate of force development. But I don’t think that was the plan here with the focus on time of work. I think part of this is me not really used to leg press for many years as the weight feels like a lot but moves smooth and I need to adapt to that a bit. I think my making sure I took appropriate rest here (said to do 3 minutes) lead me to resting a little too long. I just kept adding 50lbs and was hitting 9 reps in the time limit each time. Last set felt like one where there was some strain at times to hold composure. Last thing was quad fallbacks using band assistance. Last time had been to warm up with more bands and do pauses. This time was more reps and indication to do slight pause but accentuated eccentrics (3-5ct). I just jumped right in to these. Made sure I put down some foam padding as last time I got a bit of friction burn on my knees. My ROM seemed to be better this time around as far as getting all the way down. Of course taking the longer eccentrics. I was thinking of using less tension for the next set but I wasn’t too sure how fatigue would be between sets as I’ve never done these tempo style. I figured best thing would be to adjust the location I held the band to increase the weight I was moving and reduce the assistance so I could make the reps and sets harder as I went. Only did that for a few the second set and for all of them the last set. This, like the Nordic curls, I feel best when there is some slight band assistance involved. I took time kind of putting stuff away as it was a bit early in the day. Contemplating if I was staying to stretch or going home. I decided to go home so that I could potentially get another meal in and stretch at my leisure.

July 27, 2023 – Week 5, Day 3

Alternating Dumbbell Bench Presses/Bird Dog Dumbbell Rows (2 second holds)
40’sx6/6 – 40x6/6
70’sx3/3 – 80x3/3
97’sx7/7 – 122x6/6
97’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
97’sx10/10 – 122x8/8

Seated Log Pin Presses (no back support)
87x2
117x2
147x2
177x2
157x2
157x2
157x2
157x2
157x2

Iso Seated Log Pin Presses (7 seconds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Y Raises to Hold (10 seconds)
87x3/32’sx10/mb’sx10
87x3/32’sx10/mb’sx10

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Just going to be hot and humid for a bit to end out July I guess. Feeling a bit of yesterday and  I was starting to think maybe that this workout might be tougher because I had bumped up the weights last time. Fans on for this session. I didn’t try to move things along that much as I knew that it would be taking a bit for setup of certain things. Starting off with alternating dumbbell bench presses supersetted with bird dog rows. Less sets but to be more weight. Last time doing this pairing. Plan was to do 2x6 and then max reps leaving 2-3RIR on the last set. Considering how well 90’s had felt on the press, I wasn’t sure what I could really load up with the weights I had and still have the weight for the row. Working up was easy enough. I made bigger jump with the rows since I knew what I was actually going to be lifting and not misload by 20lbs. I actually had to double check the weight after Drew was mentioning it as being impressive and more than he had done for the exercise. The most I could load up the dumbbells and still have the same weight for the row (no sense going heavier) was 97lbs. Felt a little unwieldy the first set. I definitely miscounted and did an extra rep. The damaged 2.5lbs plate came apart and I had to use my rest to fix it with athletic tape for the second set. Row was challenging but not quite as daunting as last week getting it started. As I knew it could be done and wasn’t thinking it was only 102lbs. Second set the pressing felt really easy. I was worried I miscounted that set. Rows felt about the same here. Last set was max reps but leaving 2-3RIR. I was not expecting to be doing double digits on the pressing. Left side was feeling a lot stronger compared to right side. It was more the right side that was struggling/slowing down that stopped the set. Left side felt like it could do a lot more. Reviewing video, it does seem like there are some differences in how each side carries the weight. Such as flexibility of joints and rigidity. Rowing was challenging but got through it. Took a bit to tear things down inside but I needed to to get ready for other stuff but also to recover a bit in this heat. Left shoulder was feeling a bit achy from the last bit of effort from this first part of the workout. But I knew it would be ok for the rest of the workout and would feel better with some food and sleep. And time. I had setup some things outside partially because it wasn’t business as usual. I was to do some log pressing first. Seated pressing off of pins for doubles. Low RPE (4-5). I think my hope here was that stuff was going well and that I’d be using no less than about 147lbs for this. This was more to see where I was and for building forward. It sounds like this will be the secondary day for pressing with the log focus. I was trying to figure it out with these workouts where the main pressing would be as sometimes it has been the beginning of the week and other times the middle. I felt for this lower effort that I should use no support gear at the moment and potentially reset each rep on the rack and roll it up to mimic the catch of racking the log from a successful clean. I was debating between 20-30lbs jumps. I decided to go with 30lbs jumps so that I could potentially do the log plus a pair of 45’s. I was just feeling so-so and was feeling like I’d do the 5x2 with 147lbs but that flew up. So I was fully prepared to do 177lbs for these 60-75 second rest sets. Bu it didn’t feel like it should here. Power off the chest was great that first rep but then it got all funky on me passing the point where I’ve been doing these iso presses at and balance wasn’t great and locking out wasn’t feeling that crisp. The second rep was even worse. Yes, I could’ve kept going but it wouldn’t have been the crisp reps at the lower end of effort to do so. I was a bit annoyed that it felt like the disconnect between the 147lbs and 177lbs was so vast. But it does seem like there needs to be work done to get into log pressing shape besides just some iso voodoo stuff and strange mobility emphasis pressing. Dropped the weight down 20lbs and essentially went about doing these as EMOM really. Maybe shorter than that rest as it was like 40 seconds between sets. I’m still not comfortable/confident with the pressing abilities after the past few contests. Not starting at zero at least. The triplet pairing outside was next. Dropped down to just two sets this time. Log iso work, dumbbells and bands. Some modifications, mostly for the log. Advised to lower the pin height another notch so it would be 2” lower. Also having the effort time be increased from 5ct to 7ct if I wanted to (I did). As far as the other parts, the RPE was increased a good bit. Enough that I felt I had to increase things a bit more than I was (or wasn’t) and this was especially the case since one less set to build fatigue over. The log stuff at least felt comfortable again. I guess it should with how these have been. Though the wasps were making me a little anxious. Increased the dumbbells for the laterals up to a nice 32lbs. I was feeling good that first set, like I could do the 40lbs but I knew there was a steep drop off from this triset with how each thing hit the shoulders. Namely the pair of the laterals followed by the band y raises into hold. I think if no hold these wouldn’t be that bad. I’ve kept those the same because adding weight to the laterals and shortening rest has been enough to keep the difficulty up. But wouldn’t cut it this time so I had to increase the bands. And lord did increasing bands to the next band thickness was a trip. I was aware of how tough this kind of thing can be from past holds with bands and bumping up the tension for shoulders so that was thankfully not an issue. I was kind of looking forward to how this would feel with my achy shoulder. This was a lot of tension to hold the position. As expected, the second go through was tougher for the dumbbell and band portion (log felt about the same). Last thing was triceps. Same as it was for last week. Again, trying to make things tougher sticking with the mini band for tension and the rep range and effort. Stepping forward more, taking shorter rest. I actually hadn’t intended to take as short of rest as I did this time as I thought what I was doing would take more time (putting away some weights). I was definitely feeling fatigue in the triceps by the end. Put stuff away before cooking dinner and stretching.

July 26, 2023 – Week 5, Day 2

Paused Hatfield Bulgarian FFE Split Squat (3”, 2 seconds)
65x3/3
95x3/3
125x3/3
155x3/3
185x10/10
185x10/10

Front Squats (3-1-0-0 tempo)
65x3
95x3
125x3
155x3
185x8
185x8
185x8

Nordic Curl Negatives
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Kettlebell Power Pin Swings
125x7
125x7
125x7
125x7
125x7
125x7

Hollow Rocks
bwx31/19

Stretching
 
Comments: So the monthly come into the office for the day came and went. Wasn’t nearly as bad as last time. I was under a lot of stress/pressure at the time last time. It still is incredibly dumb and I knew it would be a very unproductive day but I had resigned myself to that and just accepted that and did more low intensity cardiovascular stuff on Sunday to make up for not getting to do it Tuesday. Just eat a hearty dinner when back home and realize I probably won’t have time to do soft tissue work until the end of the week. I didn’t need the fans on Monday but boy did I need them for today. Going to be hotter and muggier as the week progresses. From the sound of things, this workout will get some adjustments going forward as far as exercise priority. Namely swapping the first exercise and second exercise (unilateral quad dominant exercise and front squat exercise). But for this time still as it has been. Paused hatfield ffe Bulgarians. No set weight given this time, indicating RPE 6-7 (4RIR) and for 2 sets of 8-10 reps. Last time with the set weight, the weight was definitely a lower effort for me. But probably needed due to the beach break and just how my hips were feeling. My ROM had improved on these so that was some extra there. I did keep in mind to not have this weight I ended up doing be more than the weight I would do for the tempo front squats next. I’m glad my hip/inner thigh weren’t feeling anything like last week. I was expecting to be in the lower rep range here but I just seem to push things on these. Even when I know how exhausting these become with more reps and having another set of these. No cramping this time around. Legs were definitely feeling a little more worked over compared to last week. Also breathing a bit harder. Then it was on to front squats. Still tempo work. Really the same as last time (though reps weren’t posted) with it being a linear progression. I felt I had to bump these up to match with what I did on the hatfields. Last week had been getting used to these after the slight break and the volume. That had been easy and I could afford for these to get a little tougher. So I did go for this to be the same weight. I made sure to take longer rests compared to last week. These were getting challenging as I went. Like the first four reps would be easy and then it would just feel tougher each rep after that. Trying my best to not short change the tempo. But I am glad I got through it with the appropriate RPE. Lower body training has been feeling good. Granted it could just be the lower weights with the tempo work that is giving the joints a break which is often the case with my offseason based training protocols. Starting to enjoy the squats again. Nordic curls were up next. Same as last time. And the time before that. Slightly anxious that lower legs would be not happy again but that didn’t materialize. No cramping and felt fine after the first set as per usual. It does look like some changes for next time to finish out before swapping exercise. Then swings. Same as last time of shorter rests and 6x7. I decided to add more weight and go from there as I couldn’t really make the rest shorter with the same weight as last time without just doing all the reps together. I feel I’m getting better at initiating the swing so I don’t have to do and building up motion. Did use the 35’s so slightly bigger diameter but didn’t seem to be a steep a learning curve compared to the first time. Last thing was the hollow rocks. Last week of this oddity. Same rep goal. My hope was to finish out on two sets with less than 90 seconds rest to get the 50 reps. Managed to get that done. Ate a roast before stretching. Joints have felt good so I’ve not felt compelled to ice stuff in a few weeks now.

July 24, 2023 – Week 5, Day 1

One Arm Half Kneeling Dumbbell Strict Presses w/ Band Rows (3 second eccentrics)
10x4/4 (µb)
40x4/4 (mb)
70x10/10 (mmb)
70x10/10 (mmb)
70x10/10 (mmb)

Feet Up Swiss Bar Bench Presses/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
90x3/40’sx3
130x3/70’sx3
180x12/95’sx12
180x12/95’sx12
180x12/95’sx12

Landmine Bar Twists/Dumbbell Windmills
63x6/6 – 40x6/6
63x6/6 – 40x6/6
63x6/6 – 40x6/6

Stretching
 
Comments: Weekend was somewhat productive to recoup. I knew that I’d not have the ideal week having to come into the office for the day on Tuesday (disrupts meals, work and exercise schedule) so I made sure to not only do light yard work on Sunday but also fit in a walk to make up for Tuesday likely not having anything besides job. But was feeling pretty good besides just general soreness from training last week. This may very well be the last “off season” week before Nats prep goes into a higher gear. Starting things off with tempo and band row overhead pressing. Plan was slightly higher RPE (3x8-10 with 3RIR) and my hope was my shoulders and elbows feeling less out of it. My thinking was to try and do the 70lbs again and make them feel easier and get more reps. Another thought was to scale the band row part of things so that I was actually doing something with that beyond distraction. So equivalent band tension related to the weight being pressed. Also a few more reps warming up. This seemed to go much better compared to last week. I started to notice that sensation I get deep in the shoulders and elbows on tempo work where it feels really warm and I feel like I’m producing a lot of body heat. Like slow cooking those joints. I don’t recall this sensation when doing lower body stuff with tempo, I think only overhead pressing. But I know that I’m getting good work on this style of work when I feel that. Or at least I tell myself. I felt comfortable enough to go for 3x10 here. And that seemed doable and keeping it at the right RPE. I will say that I was definitely not leaving 3RIR guaranteed on that last set as fatigue set in. More that fatigue in the stability and when that happens, locking out the arm becomes a lot tougher too. But I don’t think it was too much. I had reps left at least and I didn’t miss any reps. Supersets after that. Feet up swiss bar bench press paired with chest supported dumbbell rows with no acceleration reps. I was initially thinking based off how things felt last time to do 10lbs more for the pressing and try to do 3x10-12 and same weight for the rows. Mostly because I felt the pressing I had room to improve and the rows had been a bit tougher than I would’ve liked and I had pushed the grip/rowing a bit this past week with the b-stance rdls and the misload on the bird dogs. With the benching, I also felt since I was increasing the weight each set last time that I should see how I felt with the same weight all sets with more weight, similar to how I did things with the trap bar stuff Saturday. But I guess I decided to go up in weight on the rows and if felt like a bit much, just do 3x10. So benching to start it felt ok, but not so easy I wanted to do increase each set. Rows surprisingly felt easier than 7lbs less last week. Second set of bench had me regretting I didn’t increase weight as it felt so easy but by the third set fatigue was starting to hit and it was about where it needed to be at that point. Rows were about as they were overall compared to last week just slightly easier.  The landmine bar twists to start and then into windmills to finish out the session. Same guidelines as last time but I felt I needed to increase the weight so that I wasn’t having stuff feel too easy on the bar twists. I also didn’t want to keep things the same weight on the windmills. But it was either use a dumbbell or go outside to safely use the kettlebell handle for overhead stuff. I figured I’d just use dumbbell. I feel I picked appropriately for both this time around. Dumbbell is definitely tougher than kettlebell on windmills. Even though I had this feeling tougher compared to last week, I was still feeling pretty good and was getting into the music so the last set actually was moving pretty darn easily. Put stuff away and cooked dinner before stretching. Have to get to bed early because of stupid reasons of going into the office for another unproductive day.

July 22, 2023 – Week 4, Day 4

11” Floating Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
115x3
175x3
225x3
285x3
335x6
335x6
335x6
335x6

B-Stance Romanian Dumbbell Deadlifts (same side)
60x5/5
90x3/3
120x12/12
120x12/12

Yoke (beltless)
210x125’
270x50’
330x50’
Run Ups
400x100’ in 17.03 seconds
400x100’ in 15.96 seconds
400x100’ in 16.19 seconds

Hip Belt Backward Tire Drags/Monster Mondo Leg Presses
50x200’/300x25
50x200’/300x25

Stretching
 
Comments: This work week had been mentally exhausting. And I had to pretty much resign myself to having to still do stuff from this week on Monday first thing. Which wasn’t a great feeling considering that I still have overdue stuff (despite assurances from my supervisor that I’m good). Especially with getting back my usual workload and having to come into the office for the monthly dumb all day meetings/trainings. Deferring those feelings until later. But feel them impeding me when I’m off the clock even as it felt like it took a lot of time to just decompress from the day. No soft tissue work Friday as I had a lot of things to do and it was way to late by the time I got my act together. For training, I was debating going out to train as I could do the workout at home and likely the gym hours next week won’t be ideal with some kind of powerlifting meet. However, I decided it was worth going out to train to get out of the house and test things on competition style equipment, even though like 13-14 weeks out from Nats. Nothing requiring timeliness so I just accepted that I’d sleep in and hopefully it wouldn’t be too late in the day. I needed the rest. I allowed myself to relax with the weather being the same all day so no rush. Drive out was fine. Not many people there considering I was about 2hrs later than I usually show up. Which was fine by me. I didn’t feel the need for mobility work to warm up here. I guess that I didn’t feel I needed to do that for my knees this day or Wednesday is a good sign. Starting things off with the trap bar floats. 5 second eccentric with brief pause about 1-2” off the ground and adjusting the pick height with a platform. These had gone surprisingly well last time. It was to be the same RPE but now for 4x6. I figured I’d stick to just a slight increase and try and keep that for all the sets unlike last time where I went up each set because the weight was too light at the start. Things were feeling a little tougher than I would’ve liked. Perhaps soreness from Wednesday and Thursday sessions. I think I stuck to this weight as well because it was like the front squats where I was to indicate the RIR on the last set. It was feeling tougher each set. But then it was time for the last set and then it decided to be easy. Perhaps because it was the set that mattered. Like it felt easier than the last warm up triple. I don’t get it. After the fact, I realized that I accidentally took shorter rests than I had planned (2 vs 3mins) This taking shorter rests than intended would be a theme for this day it would seem. I also had forgotten why last time I had worn my thinner belt vs ratchet belt and that was because I wouldn’t be able to fit the ratchet belt over the briefs when those end up being used. But not a bit deal, I didn’t notice much difference between the ratchet belt without briefs and normal belt with them as far as how I felt breathing or bracing. Next was b-stance rdls. No acceleration reps. I wasn’t feeling so uncertain about things compared to the first week considering I did that time and with the vacation stuff doing banded variations of this movement. Same as last time these came up with lower RPE for 2x10-15. I was thinking potentially of pushing these a bit more to the lower end of the rep range as likely doing this workout at home next weekend so rather get something that would be good to setup at home on the handles I have. I didn’t feel like I needed to do as much warm up as last time. Probably because I knew that I was doing more and wasn’t second guessing. I started with the left side since that felt tougher by a good margin last time. Turns out my right side wanted to be the tougher side this time. Could also be fatigue from the overly heavy unilateral rows. I took longer breaks here compared to last time but even then it was shorter rests than what I was trying to do. Guess I’m moving better between sets when pacing even with feeling DOMS in my legs. Grip actually ended up being the thing that was fatiguing first here. In the finger tips on the last few reps of the last set for my right side. I may need to chalk up my hands next time and treat things more seriously. It is difficult to meet the trade off in keeping the RPE on the lower side and not applying the stuff for the heavier weights. Yoke was up next. I think this was the main reason I came out to train (that and seeing if anything mentioned on the chalkboard about gym hours next week, which wasn’t shown). I have yokes at home but they aren’t the thick crossbar type usually at these bigger shows. Trying those little things that are contest stuff for contest events. Like wearing a shirt from last year’s nationals to get used to the fabric (sensory stuff, I got to prepare myself to wear clothes I don’t usually wear). I wanted to test the grip shirt I got last year that is allowed at Nationals. I’ve not used it for yoke and I’ve had issues with using my older shirt on yoke with it sliding. As well as seeing if my hair in a tie would affect things as well. Might as well figure things out now rather than when it matters. The plan here was to do 3x100’ with 2 minutes rest and beltless. Preferably straight shot runs. That last bit was the part that was going to be a pain. 50’ runs are easy inside. Fine with drop and turn for 100’. But need to take the yoke outside for the longer runs. So that requires moving a lot of benches out of the way to clear a path and then walking with 210lbs implement. So setting up was a chore and counting as a warm up set. The weight of the yoke didn’t inspire confidence. Additionally, with it being an odd number of runs, if I started at the shortest distance from putting stuff back for the 100’ runs, I’d have to carry the empty yoke essentially twice the distance I did setting it up. So I did warm up runs after that. Which was probably a good idea even if doing light weight. I was considering adding knee sleeves as knees felt a little achy. The short runs got me feeling better under the yoke as well as making sure I had the pick height right. It has been over a year since I last touched yoke. George was there so I was able to have him time and give commands. Odds are that this will have a run up rather than getting set under the yoke and I noticed a little late in prep for Battle at the Bridge last year how much it cost me in bracing tightness not practicing that more. Goal here was to do 315-405lbs really just to get used to things again. Things went about as well as I could’ve hope here. I didn’t have to put everything away as other people were going to be using the yoke outside that George was coaching/training. Last thing was light sled work. Well it was to be. Same as last time I was out at the gym but there were notes mentioned based off discussions with Drew about plans for competition cycle about potentially doing leg press machines for same RPE range for 2 sets of 20-25 reps. This was to be 2x150-200’ at RPE 3-5. My plan was to do the tire sled again empty but on a tougher setup and see if that was tough enough and if not then I’d superset with leg presses. The tripod to my camera broke about 15 seconds into the first run and I ended up having to hold my phone after that point. The drag felt way too light even going up a steep uphill. Like, easier than last time. Curse getting my legs conditioned. So I reset the tire by carrying it back down the hill and got into the leg press. Slight aches in the knees (I usually wear different shoes and knee sleeves here) but felt fine and honestly got more blood pump in the quads compared to the drags. I decided no rest between these as the drag was so darn easy (I also didn’t want to stand around with the camera for 2 minutes rest). Drag felt same level of ease second set, leg press was feeling tougher but less knee aches. Ordered a new tripod but might take a few days. Stretched out before driving home.

July 20, 2023 – Week 4, Day 3

Alternating Dumbbell Bench Presses/Bird Dog Dumbbell Rows (2 second holds)
40’sx5/5 – 40x5/5
70’sx3/3 – 70x3/3
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6
90’sx6/6 – 122x6/6

Iso Seated Log Pin Presses (5 seconds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Y Raises to Hold (10 seconds)
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/28’sx10/µb’sx10

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: The work week has been exhausting and draining. And I had just had a break from it. Ugh. Too many things require my attention and I care too much about stuff. Aching for the weekend at this point. I’m not looking forward to next week as I will get absolutely bodied by work once the restrictions are lifted and also have to into the office for the day Tuesday for the monthly thing that is pointless. Just got to block that out for a bit. My nieces were visiting for a moment and I took the brief time I could afford right after work to play with them for about an hour. This was a session I could afford to push later since it was usually a quicker session. I didn’t set things up like I usually do as I wanted to give myself some rest to recover between stuff and set things up as my intent was to the stuff in the beginning a bit more. And I was also feeling a bit of the day before. Starting off with alternating dumbbell bench presses supersetted with bird dog rows. This got changed with increasing the RPE and going to 4x6. Seesaw was the correct way for these and notes were to do them with no acceleration like I’ve done for some of the dumbbell exercises. So I knew that I couldn’t do solid dumbbells this time around (at least not for benching) to have things be of appropriate difficulty. I’d see how initial stuff felt and then go from there. I did think that 90’s might be a gamble but considering that I did extra reps by mistake on the warming up, I felt pretty good. As far as the bird dog rows, I was initially going to do 95lbs with solid dumbbell but figured that I might as well use a plateloaded handle for that too and not worry about moving those dumbbells around. So that first pressing set felt pretty good. I was kind  of surprised by how a 20lbs jump didn’t seem to be that much. But then the row didn’t feel like that at all. It was a bear to move it around. Trying it initially my balance just wasn’t there and it was really annoying me. Eventually I seemed to get it together and get the reps. The other side was slightly better. It was then that I looked at the dumbbell and realized my mistake. I had intended to do 102lbs and I had put 122lbs on there. I’ve never tried more than 80lbs on bird dog rows. So that was a big whoopsie. But I still felt that even with that blunder that I could handle this weight for the sets. I did seem to feel better as I went with the rows other than it being tough. Pressing I could feel that I was getting tired over the sets but still felt strong. My mid section was quite worked from these (especially the rows). The problem for next time is figuring out how to progress here as this pretty much used up all the small plates I had. I could see maybe adding up to 6lbs more on the dumbbells. I think I’d be cool with the dumbbell weight being the same (or less haha). As mentioned, I didn’t attempt setting things up for the other part of the workout before starting so that I had a little break in the session. Which was a good idea. However, I did at some point taking apart the dumbbells have the weights pinch my left pinkie finger so that wasn’t great. The triplet pairing outside was next. Log iso work, dumbbells and bands. Same as last time, essentially. The RPE was increased on the dumbbells and band portion but with these kind of exercises, very minimal adjustments needed to really impact that. One of the things suggested was potentially lowering the height I was pressing into on the log iso work if I felt off the chest was more an issue for me as far as the midrange. So I did lower it by one so about 2” lower. I am pleased that log is feeling comfortable when pressing. There does appear to be a hive of wasps in my outdoor rack on the back left side and they do not enjoy it when I do the iso log work. I wouldn’t mind this exercise sticking around. But not sure on how it is improving the press other than I like it and it feel comfortable. Increased the dumbbells by 2lbs as I figured that would be enough to make it difficult by the end and that being harder would make the fatigue in the shoulders make the band work feel tougher as well. So no need to increase the band tension. Shoulders feeling pretty good considering. I was expecting some tension or things feeling impinged coming back after not doing much direct shoulder stuff and from the tense shoulders and neck (similar to how Monday session had felt). But it seems recovery and being in my own bed is helping that. Last thing was triceps. Band stuff for overhead. Thankfully the rep range was increase (15-25 reps) for the two sets. There was also indication for short rests. So that suited me just fine. Sticking to the mini band as suggested and stepping forward to increase the tension. Neutral grip because log. I tired to make a conscious effort to not just let the band whip around when ending the set as far as my shoulders.  Put stuff away as I started cooking dinner and stretched before bed.

July 19, 2023 – Week 4, Day 2

Paused Hatfield Bulgarian FFE Split Squat (3”, 2 seconds)
65x5/5
115x5/5
155x8/8
155x8/8
155x8/8

Front Squats (3-1-0-0 tempo)
65x3
95x3
125x3
155x8
155x8
155x8

Nordic Curl Negatives
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Kettlebell Power Pin Swings
113x7
113x7
113x7
113x7
113x7
113x7

Hollow Rocks
bwx30/16/4

Stretching
 
Comments: Yeah, so work was a bear coming back to it. I had 83 missed calls alone. I’d say the bare minimum of things while I was out was done and done late (like a week late). I actually logged in Monday at Midnight just to prune the e-mails down as I knew it would take hours to resolve things while I was out and I had a full plate with work as I was trying to not have a lot of things to be covered while I was out. No breaks besides restroom (I did have meals). I have a feeling I’m going to do this all week and maybe even Monday as well to get things caught up before I start getting additional work (which I still was getting due to interoffice politics). For training, I did bring out the fans after not using them Monday. It was getting muggier and I think the brutal pace with work had drained any tolerance (or tan) I had built over the past week to heat. This session had suggested weights for stuff this time around. Drew had not necessarily been available to review beyond numbers initially due to his own trip situation but commented that ideally I shouldn’t be doing more on the single leg variation of choice than the front squats so as not to over tax the CNS of the core. Still using the same exercise of paused hatfield ffe Bulgarians. RPE was lowered slightly from last time with the plan being 3x8. But weight was suggested to be 155lbs so I went with that as I didn’t expect to be using more than that for the front squats with the modifications. I was initially worried when I started to feel the same sensation I had in the left side inner thigh/hip when it got aggravated doing the bigger diameter stone deep laps in prep for PA Dutch this year. I’m not too sure what would be the cause of it as didn’t feel this at all during vacation training. My thinking was maybe too much stress on the hip flexors/abs from the hollow rocks and the paused dead bugs but it might have just been going up 30lbs on the half kneeling presses Monday. Who knows with my body these days (years). Also not helpful when my left glute/ham cramped up when I was doing the lift on my right side for the first set. But thankfully none of this seemed to be an issue or get worse. This was certainly easier compared to last time and I didn’t feel like I had to undo my soft belts to breath and recover. Probably because less weight and less reps. I definitely could’ve done more weight to be in the RPE range. But I guess this is fine for a first true session after the deload vacation break. I should also note that ROM and ease of it getting the deep stretch felt a lot easier than normal. Then it was on to front squats. Still tempo work. Slight increase in the RPE and some changes. Increase in sets (3x8) but decrease in the eccentric (3 vs 5). But I do feel that last time I did push things a bit too close on the RPE range so I did stick with 155lbs to be on the safe side. Again, coming back. Wanted to make sure stuff was feeling good. There are aches in the left knee but manageable and I feel like not as bad as would feel if bar was on my back. Plan was to take 3 mins rest and report back RIR on the last set. I was a little paranoid that I would take too long rest (kind of happened last time sucking wind) but I ended up doing closer to 2 mins. I felt good on these. Nordic curls were up next. Same as last time. It does seem like these are starting to hit the point where a change up is needed (and it looks like from reviewing the next thing that that is already known and planned for). Lower legs were feeling a little more agitated than usual because I had been doing different exercises while on vacation as well as doing 3 miles walks in sand so things had been feeling a little more worked. Such as my left lower leg (tib and sometimes the soleus) cramping slightly. Well decided to cramp up on the first set so I had to take a brief break to shake out the leg before resuming. There was some slightly concern in the back of my head because of what had happened that one time when doing these and my lower leg strained. I have to keep telling myself I can keep going and that these get better as the sets go. Then swings. It seems the focus is less on the weight and more of increasing the volume and power while decreasing the time it takes to do so. As in, shorter rests being the suggested method of progression and then adding weight once that is at minimal. Since this was 6x7 and the suggested was 112lbs, I decided to just see how this went with all the 25’s I could fit on the handle I have and aim for the shorter side of the rests. The smaller plate diameter certainly makes the setup and go quicker without worrying about clearance. The weight wasn’t feeling heavy but I could feel some fatigue accumulating from the repeated effort. I inadvertently took shorter rests than anticipated. I had meant for it to be 75 seconds and ended up being more like 50 seconds. I guess the timing I had from pacing previously was from when my legs were fatigued more from the previous exercises. I’m not too sure how to proceed as I’m not sure if this is just an off-season thing or if this will be something that will continue into the contest prep. Last thing was the hollow rocks. So I did get confirmation that back and forth is one. I’ve gone a bit more used to them from being every other session on vacation. I can do them on hard floor. I wasn’t too sure if I maintained for higher reps but I guess I did here. Almost to the point where I can do all the reps in two sets. I guess I got one more session of these before something changes. Cooked dinner and stretched before bed.