Week 3 of the Rite of Passage was one of the best weeks of training I've had in a while. Started on Friday with a Medium Day of presses. Got all the reps, rolled the dice for an 8. Banged out 166 swings with the 88. All time best. Saturday messed around with some squats and swings with a 70 for variety day. 50 squats, 100 swings. Sunday Easy Day of Presses, no sweat. Rolled a 9 for snatches.
Yes, I used gloves, chalked them up. Did sets of 10 on each side put the bell down for 20 seconds do it again. Did 131 in 9 minutes. Again, not even breathing that heavy. Grip was surprisingly strong. form excellent. Monday I did hill sprints. 10 of them with 4 different routes. Tuesday, my legs ached. On Tuesday I did heavy day later in the day at 6 PM. Had a business trip in Hartford and almost held off until Wednesday. Glad I didn't. The bell was flying up on my presses. Did 5 ladders in 55 minutes. Rolled another 8, this time did 176 swings with the 88 in 8 minutes. No grip issues at all.
Took Wednesday off to rest, Thursday was a variety day. Did 5 sets of backup presses with the 88. Backup means, start pressing the bell and then use your off hand to lightly assist. Once I got the bell in motion, I took my hand off the bell and did a 5 second descent back to the rack. Did about 8 reps total on each side. My swings have been going so well, I decided to do the Simple and Sinister test. I have never followed the program, but in order to reach "Simple," men must achieve 100 one hand swings in a row switching hands every 10 reps and then doing 5 Turkish Getups on each side in 10 minutes with a 70 lb. bell. Accomplished that a long time ago. I decided to try with the 88. I finished the swings in 2:47. My legs were complete jello and my heart rate was 186. Rested 5 minutes, banged out the getups in 7:30. The "Sinister" goal is 106 lbs. Never getting there, never buying the bell. I felt like I was in control of the 88, not the other way around.
Feeling pretty proud of myself, I started week 4 of medium day yesterday. Did my rows first with the 88, started my pressing, on rung 4, on the left side. pop. Pulled muscle between my shoulder blades, just to the left of my spine. Stretched out, started ladder 2, twinged a little more. Put the bell down, popped 2 aleve and that was all she wrote. Today, it feels a lot better, but not 100% Would love to go running or sprinting but we had 4 inches of rain last night, it's raining now with gust to 40 MPH. Not happening, just will rest up, probably until Monday.
Same thing happened last year. I did back squats, 10 reps at 315, two days later, back injury. Old age has a way of fighting back. Not worried, I won't lose strength, I basically own the 70.
If you warmed up properly, you wouldn't have pulled a muscle.
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