We had my parents in town this weekend for a visit (really they just want to see our son haha)
So I am going to be backlogging the next two sessions
This AM weight was 256.2 (Last Monday I woke up at 254.4 which was a high as a reference)
Friday – Chest
(Had to modify my workout a bit due to not having a spot throughout, I made sure I had a spot for my top set of flat bench then was solo the rest of the session)
Wanted to touch on flat bench as well for a second in terms of risk vs reward I know in a lot of camps its a no no and I am also not saying that I am above injury but I feel if you really hammer technique and only make calculated jumps based off of progress you are going to be fine. Not to mention for me I get more activation out of heavy flat bench then I do out of any single movement, I think for me it suits my limb lengths well.
Flat Barbell Press
Few sets with the bar
135 x 8
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 3
345 x 2
375 x 1
405 x 6
***typically would do a back off rest pause set here but I did not have the spot for it so I wanted to be safe.
Arsenal Plate Loaded Press (very slight incline)
2pp x 8
3pp x 8
4pp x 8 (since I cannot get a forced rep here I fought hard on the last eccentric for about 15-20 seconds)
***The rest of the workout I did with a 3 second eccentric and 1 second pause at stretch
3ppx x 8 (again with 20 second eccentric on last rep)
Both top sets were to failure just not beyond it
Incline DB Fly
50 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 8
80 x 8
90 x 7 (Failure)
Chest Supported Cable Fly
90 x 8
80 x 9
Loaded stretches
Saturday – Quads
Best session I have had on my legs since last early December seriously so for over a year. The work I had done on regaining the function of my hip joint has really helped. Not only in terms of blood flow but without my hip functioning properly I was not fully accessing the full range of tissue in my legs so its like I am now able to access them again which is really changing my range of motion and what I can feel firing.
Throughout this process I have really learned to not rush my leg training days, warming up properly for me is HUGE. For example with this knee hip issue that I have if I were to load 2 plates a side to the leg press at a time or three like I used to do it would be to much for my joints to handle and I would have to call the session early so now when I warm up I really warm up and regardless if its light or not on things like the leg press I simply just keep adding 1 plate at a time until I am at my working weight regardless of how heavy I go. I am adding bands to all my leg press work as well so this aids in not having to put on as much additional load due to the tension the bands add.
I also try to hit my adductors first now and that too makes a big difference I feel in getting them properly warm and having blood in them before starting any of the heavy main work.
I am doing my adductor work for now using the cable stack placing the D handle attachments low on both sides and doing adduction while sitting in the middle of the stacks with the D handles around my feet. At the same time I am also trying to force internal rotation of my hip joint to get my hips firing properly as well. (I can do a video to demonstrate this.)
Cable Adductors
3 working sets at 40lbs x 12 / 10 / 9 aiming to hold contraction for 1 count and 1 count at stretch
Single Leg leg Press (foot low on platform with red 1 inch band on each side of sled)
1p through 7pps x 10 each
Single Leg Leg Press (foot on middle of platform – keep bands on sled)
7pps x 10
8pps x 15
9pps x 15
10pps x 14
Hack Squat with feet lower on block
5pps x 8
6ppx x 7
Walking Lunges (bodyweight with short stride to emphasize quads having more knee travel)
50 yards x 2 rounds
(First time doing walking lunges in over a year)
DONE! Ill work up the volume a bit more here but was extremely happy with this session and really how my body responded. I have trained for months with zero pump in my left leg and I was waddling out so I was thrilled to be honest.
