Conjugate/hypertrophy Training Week 3
TRAINING WEEK 3
- THURSDAY: UPPER BODY
- FRIDAY: LOWER BODY MAX EFFORT
- MONDAY: UPPER BODY DYNAMIC EFFORT
- TUESDAY: LOWER BODY DYNAMIC EFFORT
Somehow, my schedule became training every other day thing. It was due to my crazy schedule but my recovery is going well and I’m cutting off my training sessions due to time and not exhaustion so I think my body is responding well to the eod training.
Also, I’m getting a lot of “are you getting bigger?!” comments. “Yes, yes I am. Stronger too.”
My shoulder/scap is still a hinderance but here’s how I trained around it this week. By the end of the week, my entire body was sore. My neck was pretty wrecked but I took an extra day of rest with the holiday and I’m starting week 4 on a Thursday, because why not?
THURSDAY: UPPER BODY
My shoulder/scap was killing me but I didn’t want to miss training. This was a day for “autoregulation.” Here are the modifications I made to what was supposed to be MAX EFFORT:
DB FLOOR PRESS: 4x6 Increasing weight each set. I managed to get up to 70lb dumbells. For me, this is pretty light. Keeping my hands supinated helps a lot with the pain. The last set I dropped from 70’s to 35’s for an all out drop set.
DB STANDING MILITARY PRESS: 4x8
HEAVY DB SWINGS: 3x30-40 These are Mountain Dog Training “delt destroyers.” Keep your head up to disengage traps and use your rear delts to swing heavy dumbells back and forth, pretty much till you die. Crazy pump!
BANDED SERRANO PRESSES: 4x6 These are WAY harder than they look! Very therapeutic. Aim to keep your arms above your head. It helps if I draw my elbows towards my lower rib.
HANGING TOE TOUCHES: 1x9 These suck. Especially for a little tank like me. I don’t actually “hang” per se, I actually do a mini pull up and engage my entire back and abs the whole time. I use my hip flexors to draw my thick ass legs up and touch my toes to the bar in front (because my legs are too short to reach the next one).
WEDNESDAY: LOWER MAX DYNAMIC EFFORT: The deadlift is the most mentally challenging lift for me. It’s the one where I turn back into a weak, frightened little girl. I revert to believing the bullshit self-defeating lies I tell myself. This turned into a Block deadlift day. My deadlift has been sucking. Another auto-regulating day. Except, this time it wasn’t because of physical pain. It’s personal. I was hoping to pull 405 off a block for 4 reps. It felt great so I went up to 100%, which is 435lbs. I didn’t earn that today. But I got 405 for 3 reps instead. I’m grateful I got to train. I will keep trying. I also recently recommended a book to a friend who is in a toxic relationship. (Anyone looking for a book reference on recovery from alcohol, codependency, divorce, acoa, parenting, co-parenting with a narcissist (or two), step-parenting, special needs and learning disability parenting, addict child parenting and/or teen parenting, hit me up, I’ve read dozens that were helpful and many not so helpful). I had offered to study this book and workbook with her and decided I should purchase new copies so that I could follow along with her. I don’t know if she’s using the books or not as I never heard back from her regarding them, but I realized that God had just masterfully put these items back into my possession after having read them six years ago. What does my deadlift have to do with reading books about recovery? We are soon to find out. Anyway, here’s how my deadlift session went: MAX 3” BLOCK DEADLIFT: 1x1: 80% 315lbs 1x1: 85% 365lbs 1x1: 90% 405lbs 1x1: 100% 435lbs FAIL 2x1x 90% 405lbs 1x1x90% 405 FAIL I worked up with singles until I failed. Backed down. I went again till I failed, again. SINGLE ARM PULLDOWNS: 3X a bunch each side. Video shows a set of 1.5’s.
MONDAY: UPPER BODY DYNAMIC EFFORT FLOOR PRESS: 8x3 Plus banded wrists and a drop set on the last set. STANDING MILITARY PRESSES vs BANDS: 5x5x95lbs GOOD MORNINGS: 4x8x65lbs SINGLE ARM DB SERRANO PRESSES: 4x6 each side. Loving these, in a hateful way. BARBELL ROLL OUTS: a bunch, plus rolled my ribs, armpits, back and hips
LOWER BODY DYNAMIC EFFORT: SPEED LOW BOX SSB SQUATS vs BANDS: 7x3x50% 215lbs SPEED DEADLIFTS vs BANDS: 7x3x50% 225lbs UNDERHAND BARBELL ROWS: 3x8 PAUSED BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUATS: 3x3 each leg REVERSE HYPER MACHINE: 75 reps LEG DROPS OFF THE BENCH: 75 reps KETTLE BELL TIBIALIS RAISES: a bunch CALF RAISES 75 reps
This was a really great wo!! The earth, moon, and stars aligned, and I pushed hard. It took me 3.5 hours start to finish. It was as if I were in a trance.
I have been in agony ever since. It’s two days later and I’m just able to walk around but it takes a while to get up. I couldn’t sleep the first two nights because my spine from my neck to my tail bone throbbed in agony. My shoulder/scap pain so intense I had to concentrate on my breath to lower my heart rate, the pain was stabbing me. My husband did a great job massaging me (and reminding me of how I never hurt as much while I was bodybuilding, which is bullshit. Ok maybe it’s not bullshit but I don’t want to hear it).
I love training. The sound of iron, grunts, and pain. I’m powerful when I train. I feel EMPOWERED when I train too. Maybe I like physical pain. Maybe I need the pain. I loved this training session. I am grateful for it. I am nursing my body back to health so I can do it again. Maybe harder. I hope so! These statements will either resonate with you or baffle you. If you’re on this site, reading my shit, odds are you get it.
Please, let me know if you have any questions or comments! Thanks for reading along!
