Nice quick lower deload at home.
Kettlebell Goblet Squats:
88x12x5
Kettlebell Swings:
88x50x1
Seated Band Hamstring Curls:
2 minis x20x7
+ stretching
Duration: 15 minutes
Author ArchiveAh, deload week is here. Much needed. This 30 min session was a nice change of pace. Bench Press (some sets paused): CG Bench: Decline Bench Press: Incline Bench Press: Single-arm Kneeling Cable Rows: Cable Pushdowns: Reverse Cable Pushdowns: + stretching + yoga (60min) Duration: 90 minutes I awoke this morning SORE. Not just a little sore, but full body, hit by a train sore. Hips, lats (holy hell), shoulders, back, legs…sore. I have no idea what triggered this soreness, but I am wagering that my body just knows next week is a much needed deload and it has already started to go into rest-mode. Anywho, as I got moving around things eased up a bit and by the time I got to the gym I had forgotten (mostly) about any soreness I had. I mentioned earlier in the week that I wouldn’t be pulling today because of my torn up hand. Well, my hand has healed up incredibly fast since Wednesday and I don’t have pain gripping anything now, although the flesh is still baby’s ass tender. I decided to give pulls a try at the last second as I packed up my gym bag. Warmups were heavy, 515 felt like someone turned the floor magnets on, and 635 was ridiculously tough, although not heavy - more like doing pulls after squatting - fatigued heavy. I still managed to crank out a solid double, despite all the soreness and fatigue I was feeling everywhere and my hand didn’t rip apart. I am sure my constant thinking about my grip hampered things a bit. Anyways, since I decided earlier in the week to not deadlift I was psyched up to do front squats for some reason - something I rarely have ever done (probably can count my front squat workouts on one hand in the last 5 years). I figured even though I just did deads, front squats would still be a good complement to the hamstring/glute heavy pulls. It took me a few sets to get “comfortable” using a clean grip. I’ve never used a clean grip before, but it wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be. I have mobility issues in my right wrist due to a bad break when I was younger so I definitely have to focus on keeping that right elbow up more while squeezing my elbows in. It’ll take a while to find the ’sweet spot’ for this grip - sometimes I feel like I’m choking myself and other times my collarbone takes too much of the load. Regardless, all the weights I tried today were a cake-walk. I think when I get my grip sorted out I could go mid 400’s for a couple reps. After squats I did some strong ab work, then hit the dreadmill. Followed that up with some stretching and an intense 15-minute yoga flow involving all of the ‘hard stuff’ that I can do (crow variations, forearm balances, various headstands, eight-angle pose, etc). This felt fantastic. Deadlift: ATG Front Squats: Straight-leg Sit ups w/ BB held @ lockout: Dreadmill: + stretching + yoga (15min) Duration: 120 minutes Pretty sweet workout tonight. This is by far the hardest I’ve pushed my shoulder in the last 6+ months. I wanted to max out my seated shoulder press to set a baseline 1rm to work around. Everything felt strong and stable. I just missed 285 - 280 would have went, so I know where to ’set the bar’ now. Shoulder is feeling stronger every week and it feels good knowing I can attempt a max effort lift and still be OK. There is still some aches here and there…but getting better. After doing a bunch of seated overhead pressing I decided to do some db jerks (no cleans since my hand is still healing). I started out feeling exhausted with the 80 but as I went up in weight I felt stronger and more explosive. Ended up with a nice PR by manhandling the 140. I think I could have done the 150 with my right arm, but would have struggled with my left…I’ll save it for next time! After jerks I did a bunch of curls, then finished with some back work. Can’t do much in the way of good heavy pulldowns yet with the hand, but I still got some work done. Seated Overhead Press (bar starting at mouth level): DB Jerks: Standing BB Curl: Reverse BB Curl: Wide-grip Pulldowns: Hammer Chins: + stretching + yoga (60min) Duration: 140 minutes This workout completely wiped me out. There is something about heavy squat PRs that just wears you out like nothing else. I wasn’t planning on doing another PR attempt this cycle, but my 485 single felt so easy I just had to put something heavy on the bar. 545 is another 10lb pr over last cycle, and still doubled it. The doubles are getting harder and I don’t think I could have tripled 545. Still not sure where this puts my 1rm, though. After the squatting my left foot’s peroneus tendons were sore so I opted to pass on step ups and just did extensions. Finished the workout with some ab work, then went to yoga. ATG Squat: Seated Leg Extensions: Hanging Leg Raises: Standing Cable Crunches w/ Ab Strap: + stretching + yoga (45min) Duration: 105 minutes Decided to push bench a little bit today. Everything touch and go except for the first 265×6 set, which was paused. Tried a different setup today that seems like it’ll work. Felt like I was getting stronger as I got more used to it. 315 wasn’t too tough despite that being the heaviest I’ve benched in over 6 months. I focused on going really deep on neutral grip flat db presses, and these felt pretty solid. Did some light tricep pushdowns for the first time in a long-while since my tri/elbow seems like it is on the mend. It was hard to find a decent back movement to do since I cant really pull anything with my right hand, so I did some light pulldowns and then fingertip chins. Hit up the treadmill afterwards for some fun cardio time. Bench Press: Neutral Grip Flat DB Press w/ deep rom: Wide-grip Pulldowns: Finger-tip Chins: Rope Pushdowns (’hard tower’): Flat DB Flyes: Dreadmill: + stretching Duration: 90 minutes Any workout that involves a huge callous being torn off your hand is always a fun one. My back wasn’t feeling like handling any real heavy rack pulls so I did a handful of sets with 765. On my way down I decided to do shrugs with 585, and while this was easy, it completely ripped a huge callous off my right hand. This doesn’t happen often, and I’m glad. What a pain in the ass. I taped up my hand good and did one more light set of shrugs and then hit up the GM’s since my hand was done. Strict GM’s felt really solid and I hit a nice PR there. Ended the workout with some ab work, then went to yoga. Rack Deadlift (bar at knees): BB Shrugs: Strict GM’s: Decline Straight-leg Situps w/ Weight Behind Head: Decline Russian Twists: + stretching + yoga (60min) Duration: 140 minutes My shoulder was feeling very good today. 45lb increase over the last seated OH press session and everything still felt great (and pretty easy). After OH presses I decided to start doing wide-grip pulldowns again. I haven’t done these in a really long time, as they really hit the injury site hard. I did 6 light’ish sets and there was no pain, good stuff. Finished up with rear delt laterals and curls. Seated OH Press: Wide-grip Pulldowns: Rear DB Laterals: Standing BB Curls (first 4 sets shoulder width grip, last 2 close grip): Standing DB Curls: Standing DB Hammers: + stretching Duration: 60 minutes Good quick workout today. I like to use the 5’s week as a lower volume week for my legs. This worked out well as I think I tweaked my left adductor a bit doing some speed work on the double bass on drums last night, lol. Hit my squat targets, did some extensions and abs, then decided to do a few sets of step ups. Afterwards I ran a bit on the treadmill, then did some brisk walking. ATG Squat: Leg Extensions: Straight Leg Situps with BB Held @ Lockout: BB Step Ups to 16″ bench: Dreadmill: + stretching Duration: 80 minutes This was a pretty solid workout. Paused bench is feeling better and stronger. Seems to be directly helping my touch and go work as well this time around (hard to say though as I’m only doing rep work). Decline bench felt pretty tired, but narrow grip floor presses were decent. By the time I got to neutral grip db presses for the tris I felt recharged again. Good rowing to finish the session off. Paused Bench (last 2 sets touch and go): Decline Bench: Floor Press (narrow grip): Neutral Grip Flat DB Press: Seated Cable Row: Chins/Pullups (3 diff grips): + stretching Duration: 90 minutes |
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