Cardio, Back + Biceps

Today I intentionally took it easy. I actually felt pretty decent, but it has been a long and tough week. I haven't trained with this sort of volume or intensity in a while, so I wanted to make sure I took the weekend to recover.

Started with cardio. I was thinking about doing some kind of sprinting or jump rope intervals, but in the end went easier than that - I just went for a nice long walk/hike, for about an hour or so. Nothing too hard, just got out and moving while still fasted.

Then, spent a little bit of time stretching. Not too long, but my right hip/calf/ankle has been really tight while squatting, and I wanted to take some time to loosen it up. I honestly think my biggest squatting obstacle right now is being too tight to easily get into the proper positions. So, I warmed up as normal, then did a butterfly stretch, some hamstring stretching, sat in the bottom of a squat, used the bar on my knees to stretch out my ankles, and finally specifically hit my ankle with a stretch against the rack. Definitely felt like I could have done more, but it feels pretty loose and good now, so that's good. I might have to simply work on specifically loosening it up monday before I squat heavy.

Finally, I decided to just do some easy, high-rep back and bicep work today. I feel like I did a lot of pressing and chinups this week, which is great except the pressing volume is way higher than the pulling. So I just did a TON of pulls today. Loaded up the cables and hit 20 x 20, 40 x 20, 60 x 20, 80 x 20, then 60 x 20, and 40 x a ton, pulling to different places (chin, chest, belly button) to try and really work all parts of my back. Felt good. Then, with 20 lbs on, I did 3 sets of curls, between 15-25 reps. Got a nice little pump.

Overall, easy but productive workout. Gonna try and recover well tomorrow, and then come back strong monday! Lets keep at it.