Isochain Burn Count: Week 2

I completed the second week of Burn Count. Results:

Day A drills:

Romanian Deadlift Low Angle: 25s, 110lbs
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 23s, 40lbs
Drag Curl: 24s, 20lbs

Day B drills:

Zercher Lunge: 21s, 40lbs
Chest Press: 35s, 35lbs
Seated Row: 40s, 50lbs

Lowered the Romanian Deadlift load from 130lbs. to 110lbs because I decided to try training with the bar at the lowest possible setting, by attaching the rotating carabiner assembly on the bar directly to the tension spring, instead of attaching the chain between the spring and bar. This lower angle increases the stretch on the hamstrings and makes this drill feel less like a regular deadlifht, which can happen when the bar is high enough. The lower angle also increases the load on the lower back muscles. This is one reason I lowered the load, as well as wanting to lower the risk of another low back injury. So far, thankfully, the back has felt fine after training.

Progressed in Shoulder Press working load from 35lbs to 40lbs.

I raised the bar one link higher for the Drag Curl, which put more load on the biceps, and thus dropped my hold time for a bit, but I finished the week with pretty much the same hold time in this drill that I had when the bar was 2 links lower - which had placed more load on the forearms. Having experienced Golfer's Elbow, I'm not keen on the forearms "helping" the biceps again in this drill.

After my Day A session on Monday, I skipped the single-arm heavy club work. My shoulder felt a little too easy to get out of alignment. After my Day A session on Friday, I did the club work and my shoulder felt a lot better. So lesson learned: Do the club work after Shoulder Press for joint traction for the shoulder.

Performance in the Chest Press and Zercher Lunge was about the same this week. I'm still not used to applying single-leg force with the thigh being parallel to the ground, or close to that angle. I'm still experiencing some soreness in the area of the MCL of my left knee when I walk. The knee feels fine during the Zercher Lunge. I'll keep doing at least one set of an easy variation of Shrimp Squat after Isochain work to try to reset the alignment of the hips, knees, and ankles. I will also see if I need to do my hip stretches immediately after Zercher Lunge and Shrimp Squat to prevent the knee soreness.

The problem with the Chest Press is the higher skill requirement compared to all the other drills I'm currently practicing. It seems that all of the following conditions have to be met:

• Bar should be at a good height so that the pectorals do more work than the shoulders
• Bar should be at about chest height but does not need to be close to the chest
  
• Forearms should be parallel to torso
• Upper arms should be touching the chest
• Elbows do not have to touch torso but should be in line with upper arms and hands
• Think of pulling elbows towards each other, without breaking alignment, then think of elbows being pulled away from the torso and up
• Anterior pelvic tilt might help, which would make sense as this action turns on the abs for pushups.
• Angle of the chain will probably be diagonal rather than vertical, because of the bar being pushed both up and away from the body.