The redemption workout

[Day 70]

It was raining in the morning so I opted for the gym instead of trying to ride in the cold/wet/slippery. Got a chance to get redemption for that pretty poor showing at the gym on Monday. Here's the rundown!

Today's Workout: AM Gym Sesh, ~1:40
Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 75#, 4 x 8/8/5/5 @ 115# (failed out on rep 6 of set 3, so I didn’t go for more than that on set 4)
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 55#, 3 x 12/10/8 @ 85# (still working towards that 3 x 12...)
• Deadlifts: 4 x 6 @ 155# (YAAAAAAAAAS; lift felt good, grip needs work and/or straps)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 @ 7 plates (need to go up on weight on this)
• Lunges (DB weighted): 3 x 12/side @ 15#/side, set 1 alternating forward/reverse, set 2 all forward, set 3 all reverse
• DB shoulder press: 3 x 12/10/10 @ 25#/side (how is it that I can do 3 sets of 8-8 drops at 25#-15# but I can't get 3 normal sets of 12??? More work to be done...)
• DB row: 3 x 12 @ 40# (up weight?)
• Incline bench: 3 x 12/10/8 @ 65# (I've been making some pretty great strides on these, pretty happy with how stable this lift feels now)
• Split squats (DB weighted): 3 x 12/side @ 15#/side
• Superset: 3 x 
• Bicep curls: 12 @ 20#/side
• Skull crushers: 12 @ 15#/side
• Superset: 3 x 
• DB lateral raises: 12 @ 12#/side
• Front plate raises: 12 @ 25# plate
• Band squats (bodyweight only): 20 

Hit Rate: 74/82 (90.2%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Lol I was there for a long time...I let myself take long rests and went for mostly straight normal sets. I had a really great time actually, I just happened to be there for a while. 
• Everything felt pretty solid today. Failing out a rep back squatting was kind of scary, but I just popped the bar back onto the guard rails and it was chill. I'm really enjoying finally having full depth instead of just hitting parallel and going back up. It's also convenient because stability at the bottom means if I do fail a rep it's not likely to hurt my back lol. We'll get back at it next week and try and work up to making the full sets of 8.
• I deadlifted all the weight. Am super happy about that. Gonna figure out what to do about the grip thing too...My grip was shot the rest of the workout so I kept the gloves off, which sorta sucks because my hands are still just like ew this is horrible. 
• I'm always reluctant to go up in weight on pulldowns but I really should...

Don't really have much else to report on. Morning swim and afternoon long run planned for tomorrow. Gonna prep for that standardized patient sesh now!

Much love,

Jess

Jess doing stability/accessory work? What?

[Day 51]

Today's Workout: Gym sesh! 90 mins (:
Summary:

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45#, 3 x 8/8/7 @ 85# + 12 push ups to finish (I probably should've kept going but uh they didn't feel too hot and this was an impromptu decision so I just let it go lol)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12/10-2/8-4/8-4 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 rounds, no rest
• 15/side steps ups (no weight, just focusing on hip stability; my L is better at this than my R)
• 15 band squats (20 on the last round)
• Shoulder press: 3 x 8/8 @ 25#/15# (the next time you do this, go for 30# no drop, I wanna know if you can do the extra weight, take extra sets if you really feel like getting all the reps in)
• Back superset: 3 x
• Straight arm cable pulldowns: 12 @ 6 plates
• Low cable rows: 12 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 x
• 10/side alternating single leg bridges (from the bench, again focusing on hip stability)
• 10/side lunge & hops (you need to GET HIGHER and work on single-leg explosive movements more in general)
• Incline bench: 3 x 8 @ 65# (okay this increase in weight came outta nowhere and felt so good it blew my mind, maybe it's just the extra rest between the upper body things and this lift but it was awesome)
• Lateral/front raise superset: 12/12 @ 12#/side and 25# plate
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts: 10/side @ 20# (single DB; you can probably go up to 12 with a little more weight)
• Arms superset: 3 x
• DB bicep curls: 8 @ 20# (well good to know I can do more weight than I've been doing...)
• Overhead DB tricep extensions: 12 (mostly broken somewhere though) @ 25# (Okay what exactly do people do with failing reps on this exercise? Do you just get stuck at the bottom and die? #confused)

Hit Rate: 56/60 (93.3%)

I think the notes say most of what I wanted to say. I did stability/accessory work today! Because I wanted to save my legs for tomorrow. I was actually super surprised by how challenging the stability work is. I usually don't wanna do it because I would rather feel like a badass and move lots of weight around, but I'm realizing that not only is it really valuable but it's really challenging, and that makes me want to do more. Will maybe try and find a way to more regularly integrate this into my schedule. Although my schedule is so packed I have no idea how I could actually possibly do that. We'll see.

The weekly recap!

• 1 swim, 1 swim time trial, 2 gym sessions, 1 run, 1 trainer ride, 1 outdoor ride, and 1 trainer brick for a total of ~10:45 in 8 sessions. 
• Um this was sort of a strange week, because my plans got wonky on Thursday and then everything just sort of shifted around strangely. I've stayed pretty on track though and I'm happy with how the adjustments turned out in the end. It's been good work, nothing to complain about here.

Morning long run with friends in the morning, gonna hit my first 10 miler of 2016. Then just lots and lots of studying and more meal prep so I have loads of food to get me through the week. Happy Saturday!

Much love,

Jess