Isochain 6x6: Week 4

Monday session - Zercher Lunge performance was decent, despite one failed rep on the right leg. Seated Row performance dipped from Friday. My right shoulder felt fine during the 1st 6-second hold of the Shoulder Press, but immediately felt sore as soon as I released pressure.

That afternoon, I decided to test my 1-rep Max in the Shoulder Press at the middle angle, following the 1-rep Max protocol from The Ultimate Isometrics Manual. My official score, after recording the 3 attempts and calculating the average, was 69.9333 lbs. Compared to my official 1RM of 57lbs. which was recorded on 12/31/2021, the strength improvement is about 22.7%.

The reason I was training the Shoulder Press at the high angle was to see if it would relieve the pain in my right shoulder that can appear when reaching overhead at certain angles, and sometimes when I try to lie on my right side in bed when I'm going to sleep. The verdict so far is that it doesn't seem to be working as a pain reliever. I felt some shoulder irritation after some reps at that angle. I did not feel any irritation in my shoulders, after any rep at the middle position. So, I'm going to train at the middle angle for the remainder of this 6x6 cycle. It's a more satisfying angle to train at as well, because I can feel my muscles working harder and applying more force than at the high angle.

I forgot to set my alarm clock for the Wednesday session. I woke up just in time to get ready to go to work. So I did the 6x6 session in the evening instead. As part of the warmup, I practiced ATG-style split squats to try to improve my Zercher Lunge technique, as the Zercher Lunge is basically the same movement but with a load supported in the crooks of the elbows. I scored 79.6lbs max on the last rep for my right leg on the Zercher Lunge. I was not able to record a max force score for my left leg because I forgot to press the Time button to activate Timed Mode. After a few seconds of effort, I pressed the Time button, then pressed the AVG button by mistake. When I pressed the MAX button, the display read about 14lbs. The target load was set to 60lbs, so I should not have been able to initiated Timed Mode with only 14lbs of force. Hopefully I won't screw up next time! The Shoulder Press and Seated Row sets went better for me. It just felt good to feel my push chain working at 6x6 intensity for a full set.
I felt like the Friday session was a strong finish for the week. Right leg Zercher Lunge performance was ok, but my max on the last rep for my left leg was 90.6, which is a PR. I also hit a PR on the Shoulder Press with 73.8lbs on the last rep. My Seated Row performance was relatively more modest, but the max force was still nearly 10lbs. over the 1RM.

I've been trying a variety of hand placements for the Shoulder Press. I've settled on setting the hands at roughly shoulder width. Part of the technique is protracting the scapula, which activates the serratus anterior muscles. This hand placement seems conducive for the serratus anterior contracting harder and contributing more to the Shoulder Press.