A3 - Accumulation, Week 3... A Short Week With a Whole Lot of Metal

s was previously mentioned in the last sesh report, this one was a shorter week due to missing a few days with getting caught back up with glorious work after the days off from it last week. 

Ah, life. Ye vicious cycle.

Anyhoo, short as it was, got to introduce a new movement and have a little fun with the skeeeeeewats.

Missing training days leading up to a meet is both (1) bad, and (2) kind of a bitch as you try to decide how to reenter your training cycle. Luckily, it is both (1) early in the training cycle, and (2) new movements week. How I am running the program (and I think how Louie, et al, run it), main movements on max effort days are generally changed every few weeks to help prevent adaptation and to encourage strength balance.

That said, I am no expert on block periodization, so I was unsure of where to pick up with the program after the break resulting from grandma's passing and the surrounding events. You will generally hear different philosophies on the matter, but conventional wisdom is to either pick up where you left off or to skip the days yous missed and truck forward as scheduled. With training being scheduled pretty tightly leading up to the meet, I decided to do a blend of both- I picked up where I left off, but skipped the dynamic effort days of the scheduled week so that my following week could start as scheduled.

As an aside, I have been listening to some ridiculous metal lately. Take Archspire, for instance...

Blagow.

A3A - ME Squat, 8/21/2014:

• Warm up, stretch - about 5min
• Cambered bar wide stance squat to high box - worked up to 5x330lbs + 3 chains/side
• Same movement - 5x330lbs, 4x10x240lbs

I haven't done cambered bar squats in forever and it took me a minute to get grooved into these, but they are good work. Also nice to give the hips a little break and do them to the high box.

I will say one thing, though- it is rough walking these out in a wide stance. Once the weight was getting up there, it was harder to get it unracked and step back in the same wide stance as earlier sets. Now that I have some reps under that bar I am an expert, of course, but getting used to it was just a barrel of monkeys.

Skeewatz -

Metal - 

Which is kind of funny because of how this week went.

But we'll talk about that in the next sesh report.


A3B - ME Bench, 8/24/2014:

• Warm up, band traction - about 10min
• Incline barbell pin press - 3x5x165 + 1 chains/side 
• barbell row - 4x10x145 
• Incline dumbbell bench - 4x10x50 
• Shoulder series + twist x 2 

Pretty straightforward sesh, bench still lagging and reintroducing the movement didn't help too much. Looking at last year's program notes, looks like I did the pin press for 3x5x155lbs + 3 chains/side. This time around, I went up a little in plate weight, but couldn't get the chain going as heavy as last time. In fact, I ended up having to move the chain down to the bottom on the last two sets as the shoulder and triceps on the left side were fatiguing quickly.

For accessories, moved to barbell rows as, honestly, people were hogging both the cable row and the T bar rows.  

Oh well. 

Barbells are good. Barbells are reliable. 

Also learned a little addition to David's shoulder series we have all grown to love so much. Homeboy Jason (PT/chiro) was in lifting with a buddy and recommended. Hard to explain, but is essentially a close grip, single band external rotation. To properly isolate the movement, you just about have to be on your knees and elbows. Hands close together, gripping a single section of band with pronated grip, externally rotate the hands by externally rotating the shoulders. It's a little bit of a rough mind/body movement connection to make, but when you do make the connection, it's a nice addition to the regular shoulder series. 

Boom. 

Go forth and metal it up a notch.