This was a lot easier this time as I have gotten used to the movement. I alternated with the 90/90 stretches. Much easier to put my left leg up tonight. I held the stretches longer on it just to give it more work. I still can’t quite relax the muscles in my left leg to allow it to lay down more.
speed DL - 270x1 (8x)
Quick.
db lunges -40x7,65x7,40x7x10
The 65s were tough. I should start wearing knee pads when doing lunges.
dragon flags - not much to say. Did them.
DB suitcase DL - 60x10,75x10,40x10
Kinda tough. Hard to resist the pull to fall over.
I was disappointed with this. It seems like I’ve gotten weaker on squats.
rack pulls - 315x3, 405x5,445x5,405x7
However, these rocked. I didn’t even have much trouble on 445. Somehow my body figured out how to pull without me thinking about it - locking the shoulders back. Made it so much easier.
front box squats - 95x3,135x3,185x3,195x3,185x3 (2x), 175x5 (2x)
Nice variation.
seated 90/90 stretches
I can’t do my left leg as easily as my right. I think my right leg is a little more externally rotated. I don’t know if it’s a birth “defect” or loose muscles. I’ve really started noticing just how much it affects me. I see my foot slightly rotate when I walk, when I setup for squats, when I drive. When I intentionally rotate it back to parallel, I feel “something” - not pain or discomfort, just something. I guess it’s my muscles firing to hold the position whereas they’re relaxed in the default position.
For the most part, no. I do perform a couple warmups before the main exercises each workout. For upper body I do forward & backward arm circles to warmup my shoulders. For lower body I sit in the bottom squat position for a 10-15 secs, alternate pulling my knees to my chest, and doing these “extreme” lunges and holding their position.
If an exercise is presribed as part of the workout, then I do perform it (e.g. the seated 90/90 stretches are part of Phase 3).
Disappointing. I seem to have gotten weaker on squats even though I’ve improved on front squats and all lunges. I’m not sure what the deal is. I struggled on 285.
[quote]gabex wrote:
What do you do for rest periods? Thanks[/quote]
On warmup sets I rest only as long as it takes to change the weight. On speed sets I take about a minute between sets. For heavy sets I take 2-3 minutes.
Disappointing. I seem to have gotten weaker on squats even though I’ve improved on front squats and all lunges. I’m not sure what the deal is. I struggled on 285.
[/quote]
Could just be an accumulation of fatigue, you’ll get a much better idea where you are at once the program is over.
Felt good. Able to increase wt on heavy sets to 215. They went up slow but solid.
cable rows - 160x5, 180x5, 160x7
Good rows.
db push press - 65x3, 60x5, 55x5x7
Tried 65. Got 3 solid reps instead of 1 shaky rep, so that’s good but couldn’t finish the set. Still, happy to see my shoulder strength increase at least a little bit.
straight arm pulldowns - 55x12 (3x)
I still haven’t figured out the stance on these. I stand staggered to try and balance both forward and back, but it doesn’t seem to work 100%. These are tough and I haven’t been able to progress on them.
Phase 3 is done. I’ll put together a summary tomorrow.
Pin press 125x3 215x2
Neutral cable rows 160x5 180x5
Db push press 55x5 60x5, 65x3
Str arm pulldowns 55x12 60x12
Db extensions 25x10 –
I was able to progress on just about everything. I can’t wait to start Phase 4. I will be going on vacation in April, so I have just enough time to complete the program (and hopefully make huge gains on my final numbers).