March 23, 2025 - March 30, 2025 - Week 4

 March 24, 2025 – Week 4, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
46x5
76x3
106x2
136x2
166x2
196x5
222x3
248x4

Dips
bwx5
bw+35x3
bw+70x8
bw+70x13

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
40’x5
56’sx5
70’sx5
90’sx12
76’sx12
76’sx12

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
206x2
256x2
306x4
306x4
306x10

Prone Dumbbell Retractions/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
15’sx15/22+mbx20--20
15’sx15/22+mbx20--20

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess I decided to completely skip 264lbs and get under that weight from the 265lbs range to 263lbs range. So I guess safe to say I’m solidly in the margin for 120kgs weight class now. It has been since 2023 Nationals that I’ve been this light in bodyweight. I’ve not been actively trying to not be as big since June last year so kind of gives you an idea how even going back to regular diet and some modifications can take a while to return to baseline. My shoulders were feeling quite achy coming into this session after Saturday. This had been a first true running through of the fingal fingers and farmer’s walk stuff as the previous time had been “deload” weights. So that did have me a little nervous about training. Honestly, the axle push pressing is the thing I get the most nervous about each week at this point as I worry that that will be the barometer for recovery. Still dealing with stiffness in the neck and more so the left side. It is manageable but kind of wish it went away. Warming up and mobility was fine. I was actually feeling not so bad with that stuff and maybe I wasn’t going to feel so off. Today for the overhead was the 5/3/1 day of the cycle. So heaviest day of the rotation. I was feeling even more nervous than I was last week here. Ugh. I was trying to not have things be rebound reps on the top set so maybe that was also having me stressed. Once I got to working weight, my biceps decided to get sore. I was kind of figuring this would happen since it was a big jump in weight with the fingal fingers and just not used to doing them. Good thing this contest doesn’t have a clean and pressing event or any other loading event so I can safely work up. Weights were feeling a little heavy in my hands but I didn’t let that phase me. I was getting the reps but perhaps a little bit holding my breath too much. Top set was normally a weight that wouldn’t stress me out but ever since my overhead took a hit, nothing seems to be a sure thing. My last week doing the previous prep I had to redo 240lbs as I missed that on the first attempt. This had been a tricky weight to do during that time too. Just told myself any reps is fine here. I seemed to be fine for the first two reps but then I pushed the third rep out in front too much and couldn’t get it. I had to step forward to catch it and regroup. I was really worried I was going to miss it again and only get 2 reps here. I got the third rep and decided to rack it since I missed it initially. But I didn’t feel good about that. I rested for 10 seconds and unracked the weight again and got one more rep. There was certainly not much left in the tank here after the missed rep so lockout was a bit tough. Overhead continues to need work it would seem. I was able to get 3 or more reps over the goal numbers on the top sets for these first three weeks so I can increase of the next round a good bit (10lbs vs 5lbs). I will potentially need to see how things are going the rest of this week if I need to modify to include deloads in this training prep (I was kind of hoping get through this contest prep and then implement them regularly). I didn’t feel like I was having bad nerves this week after the axle stuff and was able to move on to the rest of the workout without feeling like I had to come back down. Dip time. I was leery about how these would go with how my shoulders were feeling. Back up to “deload” these would be doing higher reps with the slingshot or dropping a lot of weight from it. These have been going well progression wise at this time with the 2 sets plan and adding 5lbs each time. I was able to match last week with more weight so guess keep moving on up. Get the lockout and pressing stuff strong. Moving on to the chest supported dumbbell rows. Still tempo work and warming up with sets of 5 reps. But a change here. Plan was to work up to a top set of 8-12 reps with 1-2RIR and then drop by 15% for 2 matching rep sets. Last time I did this particular progression, I went the heavier route for lower reps. Seeing as how biceps kind of really sore, I figured I’d aim to get the higher rep range end of things. I decided to chalk up here for these “working sets” considering I was going to try and go up in a weight a good bit and because my hands were feeling a bit sore from the farmer’s holds Saturday. These holds with rows are quite exhausting and slowing down the concentric is equally so. These were not fun but necessary. Back outside for rack work. Seated lockouts with the axle. I got a lot of reps last time so I had to bump up the weights. I was nervous here as again, this can be something where not getting in the right spot will make this a ton harder to do. I had noticed that last time with my sets prior to the rep out set. So much so I was shocked I got so many reps on that set. My shoulders were feeling things at this point so I had a feeling these could be tough. But the sets of 4 reps felt better than last week had with less weight. So I wasn’t too concerned I would have a bad time here. Certainly some fatigue here at this point with all the overhead and lockout stuff but I was still able to comfortably get past the goal weight here so I live to fight another day of adding weight to these and the dips. If only this progress was as apparent as my actual contest tested overhead stuff. Last thing the superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands). The reps and sets had changed on these last time. 10lbs dumbbells on the retractions was just not cutting it with no pauses and such, My kettlebells didn’t feel great doing these either with having to palm the bastards to really work. Then I remembered I could just grip 5lbs plates together. That worked. A little more weight on the dumbbell for the band triceps combo. Definitely feeling fatigue (more so the right arm). Achy shoulders didn’t really come into it. I feel it is important I keep these in with the lockouts for the walking up of the finger. Put stuff away and ate dinner as I needed to get that done earlier than usual since I had to go into the office for the monthly collab day tomorrow. Stretched out as well.

March 26, 2025 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Jack Pulls (straps)
160x5
250x3
340x2
430x1
520x1
594x3
520x2
520x2
520x2

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
125x3/3
195x3/3
245x10/10
265x10/10

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bwx3/3
15”
bwx3/3
18”
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
50x8/8
50x8/8
50x8/8

Stretching

Comments: I forgot to mention that another co-worker had passed away on Monday, bringing the total to 3 in the past 6 months. Which is up from the 1 in the past decade from before. Kind of cold too that their information was removed from call sheets and such before COB the same day. Just realize how bad things kind of are with work. But the in office day wasn’t as bad as it could be. I wasn’t feeling like crap. But I did try my best to get some sleep for this session today. Heavy stuff and then having to make sure I adjust schedule for my sister’s competition on Saturday. Warming up is pretty consistent at this point with getting ready for lower body sessions. I noticed I had a bruise on my right knee that potentially happened from Saturday session. Not effecting anything. Skater jumps to start off the session. Feel like I’m not having as much of an issue with knee discomfort from one side to the other. From there, it was on to the big dumb deadlift. Plan was big jumps in weight and aiming for a top set of 3 reps leaving 1-2RIR. I had hopes of what that might be from last session. I realized I may have gone too heavy that heavy session. I’m also realizing that basing progression based off a past suited cycle was probably not wise either. I was not feeling great in the lower back working up today but I’m stubborn. This is what I had setup for the plan so I was going to try and do that. Too late really to rewrite stuff in the moment you know? Plate jumps and low volume. My last single before the working set I wasn’t confident I could do the weight I had planned here for the reps or keep it in the RPE range. I will say that the feeling of my lower back vertebrae feeling like they were gnawed on had abated as I did more weight and added support gear. The concession I ended up making here for my ego was lower the weight a little so that I was doing 90% of contest weight. This didn’t go great but it could’ve been a great deal worse. I could’ve not gotten it to budge or missed reps here. First rep was rough but the second rep felt smooth that I thought I had the third no problem. This was building up a good bit of pressure so I wasn’t really able to keep rigid and go right to the next rep either. I’m not sure if that is because of how out in front the weight is that it puts that pressure. The third rep was very close to not happening as I got that stanky leg jerk thing going and I’ve had it throw me off and miss a weight. But that didn’t happen this time. But RPE 10 is not what I was aiming for here. I also blacked out a little had to catch myself after I got done. Drop down in weight was easy enough as it was the last single I pulled before this triple. Doubles this time. Felt tough but move well. On the last double, I swapped in my more flexible belt and the figure 8 straps to see how that felt. Not much difference but not feeling the bar slipping any with the straps but the trade off being I can’t get out of them if needed quickly with how thick the bar is. If that makes sense. Realizing that the jack stands likely feel harder/deader than the setup I used the first two sessions. A bit annoyed with myself but not sure when I will have a breather to step back and figure out what needs to be adjusted so the prep doesn’t go off the rails. But considering a deload. Fingals and farmer’s work I did last week really kicked my ass in places I wasn’t expecting. From there, moved on to b-stance trap bar rdls. Continuing to escalate these. Still 3 second eccentrics and no support gear. Getting to the end of this exercise in the prep. 8-12 reps (as was to be the case I guess last time) for the sets. I’ve been finding that I like to add weight for the second set because I can. I felt it made sense to do bigger jumps here to get to the weight I wanted to use. I’m not sure why I thought that I had done more for my 10 rep sets last time I did these but I was apparently matching the PR on the first set and going 20lbs past it the second. The bigger jumps warming up did feel rough but that could also be just still feeling the thick bar jack pulls. Grip was tough here but not so much as I had some chalk residue from the thick bar stuff. One more week of these and pushing them a little more. From there moving on step downs. I was hopeful here that I could get back to 18” for the height. I was encouraged by how last week went here despite how achy the knees had felt. I did some reps with the lower box heights and got up the courage for the 18”. Moment of truth. Could I do it and if so, without a lot of pain. Answer being yes. These were certainly tougher with the greater ROM and the knee angle. Balance also tough for the last bit here. I happy I got back to this. I’ll have to see about adding weight at this height now I think. Landmine bar twists to end the night. I had done 50lbs added because my intent was to get a little over contest bag weight (and I was considering doing tosses on the heavy weeks with 50lbs). This did feel a bit tougher than what I did last week. But that could be from just this week being the heaviest considering recovery wise from the Saturday session and what was done with overhead and deadlift efforts. I’m not sure if I will keep these in as I may need to change course to work on what I feel is lagging elsewhere in my program considering that bag throw has been feeling good and progressing while deadlift isn’t as much. Put stuff away and stretched out before eating.

March 27, 2025 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses (head through on last rep only)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
215x2
215x2
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
205x5
185x5
185x5

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked, pin 20)
sbx12
sbx12

12” Log Landmine Presses
logx3/3
log+25x3/3
log+50x10/10
log+60x10/10

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)/Band Triceps Pressdowns
12x15--15/lbx15/lbx30
12x15--15/lbx15/lbx30

Stretching
 
Comments: This was a great session of training. I was somewhat tempted to push out the day to train because I wouldn’t be training Saturday due to going to West Virginia to help my younger sister compete. But it didn’t seem like a good idea to train Friday evening when likely I had to get up really really really early Saturday morning. So sticking to the normal day. Shoulders still feeling stressed from fingal fingers. I’m kind of flabbergasted how much that wrecked my shoulders recovery wise. I was just kind of hoping that I was good by this point. Warming up for the workout felt fine. The heavier week for log press. No bands, still trying to lean back with strict style and hold at lockout on the last rep. Head through only on the last rep. Plan was to work up in triples for 5rm but leaving 1-2RIR. I had felt maybe I was a little too eager last time and probably should’ve been a little lighter. My plan was 30lbs jumps here so 210lbs but I don’t know why I was thinking more. Initially, empty log felt kind of crap. But then it was feeling pretty good after that. So then I was wondering if I should go something like switching to 20lbs jumps after 180lbs so that I’d do 220lbs. 180lbs didn’t feel so easy that that was a good idea. So 210lbs. But then I talked myself to do 212lbs. And then 215lbs. And that ended up being just garbage. Unracking that weight just felt off but I still went for it. I couldn’t stay in the lean back position and had to stand up fully before going for another rep. It was too much stress on my body holding breath and I took about 30 seconds to recompose myself and tried it again foolishly to only get another double before bailing. I was really thinking of packing in the workout and thinking about what I need to do to not have this happen again. But told myself to finish out the session and do what I can. I probably need to deload stuff after how the heavy deadlifts had felt. I took off 10lbs and that seemed to be good but then I got lightheaded and had to rerack after the fourth rep and take a breather before doing the last rep. 20lbs off for 2x5 and those seemed to be okay. I’m just annoyed with how crap log strict press was feeling. From there it was the band assisted pull-ups. No more tempo work. That was really tough stuff even with a bunch of band help. That stuff tends to put a lot of strain on my forearms (especially the left side). Still using band assistance and dropping to just 2 sets here. Plan being 8-12 with 2-3RIR. I figured it was probably best for higher reps at this time. These were feeling quite good mostly. My left shoulder for some reason was feeling “crunchy”. Not pain but wasn’t feeling like how I’d like a shoulder or joint to be feeling. This could be stuff from the deep tissue massage still combined with the fingal fingers stuff. I don’t know. But hopefully that isn’t something that is now the new thing I have going on. But other than that, felt good on my body elsewhere and seemed like my back was strong. Second time then with the single arm log landmine press thing. Plan was to add weight and drop 2 reps. I felt like I could do more weight here now compared to last time. The setup I have is not ideal I think for going really heavy on this as the anchor point could pop up if not careful. The increased weight did mean I had to recruit more bracing in my body to be stable to press. Forearms didn’t feel the same after doing these like last time. Getting the weight started from the bottom (which isn’t where it is at the start on shoulders) is a lot harder than when in the position. It isn’t so bad pressing. I don’t think I can really devote the energy to this with the recovery issues as I feel like other things offer more bang for the buck so to speak. But not sure. So I wanted to see if doing log in my landmine press setup one arm at a time would be a good one. Plan is low RPE and decrease the reps across the cycle. I was initially going to do 3x12 but decided to drop the sets to 2 instead as I feel like unilateral exercises like this are pretty taxing on the full body. This was awkward with balance so not a lot of weight needed. I’m not sure if this will be something I keep the rest of the cycle. It does hit things a little differently since you need to have an open palm for the pressing. So forearms hit while doing these. Shoulders, triceps and pecs. But like I said, have to see if this is worth it going forward or if the effort is put to better use elsewhere. Last bit of the workout was adjusted. Dropped the dumbbell for the triceps stuff and put band stuff in with the leaning laterals and face pulls as a triset. I could tell my shoulders were fatigued with how the tendons were feeling on the leaning lateral raises. This weight shouldn’t have felt this difficult. Face pulls and triceps band stuff felt like they should. I felt hungry and ate a decent dinner after putting stuff away and stretching. Feeling a bit stressed this week and needing to find time to decompress.

March 30, 2025 – Week 4, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x1
24”x3
25”x3
26”x3
27”x3

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
45x26’8”
45x27’2”
45x28’0”
45x28’2”
45x26’6”
50x27’2”
50xscratch
50x29’0”
50x28’2”
50x27’7”
50x28’5”

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 33” height)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Paused Monster Mondo Leg Presses (2 seconds)
100x5/300x5
150x5/450x5
200x10/600x10
200x10/600x10
200x10/600x10

Rolling D-Handle Hangs (2” handles)
bw for 5 seconds
bw+26.5 for 51.50 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Friday was odd. I was thinking about training and noticing I was getting irritated with seeing people progress again. I was finding it hard to put aside time to address some things. Having to put them off temporarily. Not ideal. I had to get to sleep early Friday as I had to get up at 5:20AM Saturday for the drive out to the competition. Not ideal, but not for me. My left shoulder blade felt funky (not pain) and it was weighing on me so I was trying to distract. The competition was at a gym with a lot of stuff so I was doing things there to make sure it was ok. It was a good day for my sister and seemed to validate the training she had done for her as there was a lot of stress and emotions. I took some ibuprofen for the ride home but still didn’t fall asleep until after midnight. I needed to get sleep if I had any hope of training on Sunday going well. I woke up like an hour before my usual work time and managed to make myself sleep another 2.5hrs after that. Usually I indicate weight beginning of the week but since this is already Sunday, I checked before I went to the gym. I apparently ate a good bit this week as I got back up to 269.4lbs. So like 6lbs gained lol. I’m sure that isn’t going to stay there as I should be back to regular schedule of eating. Training is going to be a little off due to gym competitions this coming month. So Sunday training going to be the norm for a few weeks I guess. Drive out wasn’t bad and there wasn’t many people there. There were moments I was all alone. To be expected. My body was feeling better than it did the day before thankfully but I was nervous and doubtful that I was doing things right. I worry that I’m spinning my wheels again. Warmed up for the session and got some things setup beforehand (namely the throwing space). Box jumps to start off. I wasn’t sure about these staying after thinking on what needs work. I honestly wasn’t expecting these to be good with how my bounding warming up was feeling but stuff was feeling pretty good by the end. 4x3 but not a max effort obviously. I had done same height last time and that was needed with how things were feeling. I felt pretty good and only did a single jump at lower height before going for what I did last time. If this felt as good as it did, then I was likely going to add 1” each set. This felt like the most consistent I’ve felt on these and the least amount of hesitancy between reps on the jumps. Knees did seem to feel a little achy as I went. Not sure what I’ll do next time with how these felt. So outside for throws. It is a bit annoying that people are changing the weights in the bags. I can’t locate my 5lbs sandbags to adjust them either. I don’t really need them right now but I will in the future. Really I was just looking so that I could do a decent light weight toss to warm up. My 30lbs bag was lowered to almost 20lbs so that wasn’t really much help. I did some Cariaoca as well as some rotations with the bags. I did chuck the 20ish bag twice with one going over 45’. So plan for the heavier session was to do 5 tosses at 45lbs and then try to do 5 more tosses at 50lbs. Try to take a little break between those clusters. I applied some liquid chalk to my hands as it was a bit humid out and I wanted to keep my hands dry. Last time I did my heavy day here my “35” (40lbs) were coming up short by a good bit and I started off rough with 45lbs. But I guess I’m getting more consistent with these as right off the bat I was in pretty good territory. By my third throw, I had beaten my best at this weight and followed that up on my fourth throw. Started to wane a little but all tosses were 26’6” or better. Then the 50lbs bag. This is a Rogue Fitness bag vs the Cerberus Strength ones I’ve been doing most of the training so far with. This may be closer to what is used at show but not sure. I was shocked that I got over 27’ on the first toss. Keep in mind my first toss with 45lbs two weeks prior had been under 16’. I did then scratch my next attempt. So maybe it was a fluke. Need to be consistent. I then got 29’ on my next throw. I audibly said “holy shit” after I saw it get very close to 30’. I made sure to weigh these afterwards (the 45lbs actually coming out to 46lbs) to make sure I wasn’t throwing a light bag. I guess the Rogue ones fly further with their design. Not including the scratch, I averaged further with the 50lbs bag. I think it is a good idea for me to toss both styles of bag I think. Build up to more volume with the 50lbs. I stopped at 5 there as I could tell I was getting tired with this kind of weight. Put stuff away and moved on to more gym based stuff. The ssb thing I do against bands making an appearance. Last time it had been really light on purpose and plan here was to actually have it be some working weight. Which meant adding 40lbs. I was having some issues with my upper back/neck feeling tense last time but also feeling a bit lightheaded. I thankfully didn’t have that issue this time around. It also didn’t feel awkward not holding onto a swiss ball so that was good as well. I was actually feeling pretty good and light on my feet that I was actually getting some air time working up. Not on the working weights. I felt like this was good work. It did take until around the fourth set before I felt like I was getting everything right at this weight. Or so I thought. Apparently I was to be doing 5x2 and not 5x3. Oops. Put that nonsense away and got onto the machine superset I did last time on this session; seated tempo leg curls and paused leg presses. I’m glad I was able to do these last time with minimal issue. I need to find ways to work my legs without aggravating tendons and such. I’m not sure if I will continue to pair these after this session (not because it isn’t working) but just I was looking to push some things more. I wanted to use more weight on the leg press portion as I feel I need to get that up. The leg curl is limited in what I can put on it but leg press can really add a lot of weight. It is 300lbs empty as well. So I wanted to try and add 150lbs to what I did last time. But drop 5 reps from the sets and try and get that done. This could be a tall order. My right knee was feeling a little achy after the ssb stuff but not so much that I couldn’t do these. This actually wasn’t too bad. The leg press actually was feeling better and less achy as I did sets. Leg curl felt like a lot of tension at the start but was comfortable as I did the reps. I was tempted to do more reps for both on the last set but figured it was better to just get the work done and see about improving next time. 50lbs/150lbs is a big jump from one session. Last thing then being grip. 2” thick rolling handles coming into play again. Last time was heavy but leaving seconds in the tank and totaling about 45-60 seconds between 2 sets. This time it was just work up to one set of over 45 seconds leaving less in the tank. I didn’t do myself any favors for this one as I was messing around with grip stuff at the gym on Saturday. How could I not when they had all the Captains of Crush Grippers and an Inch Dumbbell replica? I was able to pick up the Inch dumbbell with each hand once and close a 200lbs rated gripper. Fun but not conducive to doing a grip hold the following day. I could tell my forearms were a little sore but I should still be good with what I expected to hit. I actually went a little heavier as I was initially going to use the weight vest but thought better of it as it could potentially stress the traps/neck area like last time. So did dip belt with kettlebell. I was able to go beyond the goal of 45 seconds and if I went to failure I’d probably be close to a minute. I put stuff away and cleaned up and drank my shake before driving home. I had stuff to do from this week still and not a lot of weekend left. Stretched when I got home. Not sure what changes I need to make but I have some ideas.

March 16, 2025 - March 22, 2025 - Week 3

 March 17, 2025 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x5
60x3
90x2
120x2
150x2
183x3
209x3
235x6

Dips
bwx5
bw+35x3
bw+65x8
bw+65x13

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
40’sx5
56’sx5
76’sx10
76’sx10
76’sx10

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
190x4
240x2
290x4
290x4
290x13

Prone Dumbbell Retractions/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx15/20+mbx20--20
15’sx15/20+mbx20--20

Stretching
 
Comments: Sunday was a bit odd. I had a hard time getting myself to go to sleep but eventually I did. I also made myself sleep in a little later after my body woke me up around when I go to work. This managed to get me 2hrs more of sleep. Weight a little less than last week so I’m within .5lbs of 120kgs class now. Thankfully we didn’t get much of the storm in the area. I didn’t think we would really after seeing the weather maps and where it was coming from in the west. It was going to be hitting mountains so we got mostly bluster and very little rain. The high winds did enough to kick up allergens so I had to take meds in the afternoon. I wasn’t expecting to be without my supervisor or friend at work today and of course dumb crap gets pulled when that happens. But I handled it. But was stressing about training. Again, not for anything that has happened really. Just anticipation of what is to come. I had mentioned I was a bit surprised my lower back was sore and stiff as it was and how long it felt like it was taking. I had thought I got conditioning up with the deadlift block but apparently not in the way that mattered. I just may need to adjust that for recovery depending on how this week and the next go I guess. But this wasn’t lower body, this was an upper body session. My left side of my neck was tight and tender again after doing a lot violent shrugging and not so violent shrugging Saturday. But again, not in a way that I knew would affect the training. I mean, same as last week. I didn’t reaggravate it warming up for the session either so that was good. What I was anxious about here was that I didn’t get 7 days rest from the last time I did this workout. I also had 2 days break from the last pressing session vs the usual 3 days. This really shouldn’t matter but it is stuff I’m thinking about. I’m already anxious with overhead pressing and the 5/3/1 modification I’m doing for axle is not something I’ve tested before really. I had hoped that it not being a tested event right now and I’m still offseason training that would give me calm but it doesn’t. I had noticed I was anxious the first real week and found wearing the support gear early was helpful in getting used to things. Other than my neck, I was feeling pretty good. A little sore in the left forearm (zerchers I got some air so some bruising). I was surprised that my legs weren’t feeling that sore after I had done all the paused leg presses Saturday. Warming up was fine but my knees did start to get achy and the weight was feeling heavier than I’d like on my wrists and shoulders. Making me think I was maybe overdoing it. This was the 3’s week. So again, preset numbers with the top set being for reps with leaving something in the tank. The working up sets felt consistent unlike last week where I got really nervous going for the top set because of how the penultimate one had felt. I was still nervous however. The previous two sets had moved well. Maybe it felt a little heavier than I’d have liked as I essentially went for rebound reps immediately and stuck with that for four reps before going back to more controlled. I feel that I was too nervous and did that rather than keeping things controlled as I tend to push out in front of me when I do rebound reps (which is fine for say viking press). The lockouts feel harder with those when it is out in front. The lockouts were solid on the two addition reps I did. I hesitated for a moment and then decided to rack it there. I had hit my minimum of 3 reps over the intial 3 reps for the set. I’m sure I had another 1-2 reps but I didn’t want to chance it as I was pausing on the chest a good bit for those two reps and I could fatigue and accidentally miss a rep. I also noticed I was twitching a good bit from nerves and it took me a bit to calm down after that as I was setting things up for dips. Trying to just keep working things and building. I’ll need to be more mindful of that and I think it was a good call to call it there. Move on to things that cause me less nerves. So that meant weighted dips again. No QL issues so I guess it was a bit of a fluke with what happened the one time. I had done better than I was expecting last week so adding another 5lbs to the weight. Keep riding that out as long as it works really. I felt like I was confident enough to not need to do a warm up set with the sling shot. A little rough but ok. I honestly wasn’t feeling as strong as I did last week and was kind of ready for things to be just getting by. Everything leading up was indicating that. First set with the work weight was fine but not having me thinking I was going to be beating last times reps. Color me surprised when that ended up happening. Ok. So I guess just needed a warming up. I could be back to 100lbs on these by the end of the training cycle if things keep going well. Moving on to the chest supported dumbbell rows. Still tempo work. Same as last time with being 3x10 with 3 second holds at contraction and moving with control. Warming up with sets of 5 reps. I decided I’d go to plateloaded dumbbells to increase by a little as I don’t have matching dumbbells past the 70’s. I forget how the plateloaded handles can feel “heavy” initially but weight still moves. These were pretty challenging. Still controlled everything. Keeping an eye on the arms and back. These went well enough. I know that this work is going to pay off. It always has with light weight rows on a tough variation and then being set loose later. Back outside for rack work. Seated lockouts with the axle. I got a lot of reps last time so I had to bump up the weights. These can be tricky with breaking the weight off the pins and if it is too far out in front, it will either be too difficult and sap you or it just won’t budge. The first two sets were pretty darn humbling. They felt tough by the end. I actually had to readjust the second set as I couldn’t get the weight moving first try. So I was thinking that perhaps I was doing too much on the overhead with this and that and those. I was for sure thinking I’d need to repeat this weight next week with less volume working up. But again, it seems I was just needing those other sets to get ready. Because this felt easier than last week with less weight. I was kind of dumbfounded it felt as easy as it did. I don’t know what to think haha. But I guess I’ll be continuing to add weight here and the dips and keep pushing to get my glorious lockout power back again. Before moving on to the superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands) to end the session. Some changes here. Two sets now and the reps for both exercises increased by 5 reps. Also no more holds on the dumbbell retractions. I was initially going to do just the same weights as last time but I felt like I could put more weight on the triceps stuff considering how dips and lockouts went. The 10lbs dumbbells were way to light here for the retractions, even for 15 reps. I don’t really have dumbbells though that would give much ROM if I tried the plateloaded ones so I decided I’d try my kettlebells. Too much wrist torque holding by the handles but palming them worked and was really challenging when I did them. I guess I’ll try that for both working sets next time. Triceps were able to handle a slight increase in weight and the extra reps fine. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.
 
March 19, 2025 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

15” Yielding 2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps, 3 seconds 3” off the ground)
115x3
165x3
205x3
255x3
295x3
345x3
385x3
425x3
425x3
425x3
425x3
425x3

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x3/3
155x3/3
205x12/12
225x12/12

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bwx3/3
16”
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
45x8/8
45x8/8
45x8/8

Stretching

Comments: March weather fluctuates a lot as it can be over 70 degrees or possibly snowing within the same week. The mood swing month. It has been warmer for the most part but thankfully not so much that I have to turn on my AC (yet). Hopefully I can hold off on that until my old one is replaced next month. I had been wearing a jacket between sets of push press on Monday with how windy and chill it was to stay warm and yet I was about ready to sweat today for training. Warming up is pretty consistent at this point with getting ready for lower body sessions. Skater jumps to start off the session. I know that I will drop the volume on these in a few sessions and likely change what I do. I feel these are beneficial (along with the landmine bar twists) for getting things to not be so awkward/stressful on my body with doing a rotating spin for the sandbag toss. I feel I do have an easier time with landing on my left foot vs my right foot with these. From there, it was on to the big dumb deadlift. Last time I realized the setup that best mimics pulling from tires was not ideal with getting things done quickly and that I’d have to adjust the “blocks” as weight is added to keep it at the right height. I do feel that is beneficial to get pulls in at that setup but doesn’t need to be every time. Save that for when it is really light or when it is for low volume and testing a max effort. So likely I will go back to that for the last heavy session that will be closest to contest conditions. This is the “lighter” week for pulls so it also didn’t really make sense to have the bar extenders in use. I’d be able to get the weight I want on the bar with not running out of space. Also using the jack stands for elevating the pull. It has been a bit since I’ve done this particular variation but I felt like it was very good for me with the end result for the competition. So I’ve been doing pulls against bands and pulls where I’ve paused on the concentric in recent history. But it has been like 3yrs since I’ve done pulls where I’m pausing on the eccentric and finishing the lift (not like where pausing on say and rdl and it is the end of the lift). When I last did these, I set the pull height 3” below contest and pulled fast for triples but paused for 3ct at the position the contest bar height would be on the eccentric before setting the weight down and do the next rep. So that was what I was going to do here. Not having this setup on the wheels or with the bar extenders did allow the bar to move a bit more freely. I also realized that my jack stand pin holes may not be the heights I thought they were based on assumption. I’ll have to check when I need to use more than the top slot but that appears to be an inch higher than I thought it was. So I had to increase the platform height I was thinking for 15” pulls. Working up with 40-50lbs jumps in triples took a bit and I was wondering if that was a good idea with the lower back fatigue. I admit it has been a bit since I’ve done them so I can’t exactly remember how these felt. I will say though these felt tough and the finish on the bar was scraping up my legs. But I got used to the toughness of the movement and it became better. Last set actually felt the best of the sets. It will be interesting if I’ve gotten used to this bar and the pull height when it comes to doing the heavy week again. From there, moved on to b-stance trap bar rdls. Still keeping these light but going up 50lbs from last week. 3 second eccentrics and no support gear. Plan still being 8-12 reps per set with a decent few in reserve. I didn’t realize that I had dropped my reps the last time I did these in a training cycle to 10 reps so technically anything over 155lbs for 12 was a PR. I was not feeling as beat compared to last time. Expected since I was using about 180lbs less weight on the exercise beforehand. I was going to do just 205lbs here but it felt strong so I went up 20lbs again for the second set. Definitely getting challenging in the grip here but still feeling strong. I feel like I can push these another two weeks and probably need to change things up. From there moving on step downs. Still working on increasing the ROM on these. My hope was another 1” to these if possible. I would be back to the minimum range I was aiming for but ideally want to get back to 18” and then try adding weight there. I guess I could go more ROM and no weight but I know the plyo box setup is sturdier than the bench I’d use and that would have to be done outside for clearance purposes. My right knee was feeling pretty achy on just 12” block warming up so I was nervous that I may need to stick to the 15”. But I gave it a shot and while the first set was predictably rough, I felt I got better as I went. Which tends to be the case in these kind of things. I was feeling so good after the second set with how these went I was tempted to go up another 1” but figured I’d save it. This is still a good training stimulus and I can keep progressing. I got other things that will be hell on my knees with heavier weight so it isn’t like this will be detrained. This is important to get back to pain free ROM here. Landmine bar twists to end the night. I went up to 45lbs added so same weight as the contest bag. I don’t really plan to go much above this as just need to be used to moving weight in this way. This was actually moving quite well today. I’ve had times where I’ve done these and I had to set the weight down before doing the other side and give myself rest. I’m not proficient enough with moving to be able to alternate sides each rep and I don’t feel like that would benefit me with what I’m trying to do. But I was able to go from one side to the next after completing the reps without setting things down. So got through these quicker. I may just put 25’s on next time to get 50lbs so that it is easier loading (I did a 25lbs and two 10lbs) and roughly the same. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

March 20, 2025 – Week 3, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
91x3
121x3
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
151x3
151x3
151x3
151x3
151x3
151x3

Band Assisted Pull Ups (2-2-2-0 tempo, pin 15)
sbx10
sbx10
sbx10

Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second)
45x6
95x6
135x3
185x3
225x6
225x6
225x6

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
21’sx5
36’sx10
36’sx10
36’sx10

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)
12x15--15/lbx15
12x15--15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Feeling a little sore in the upper back and forearms. Some worries that I’m overdoing the elbow extension/flexions as I’ve had golfer’s and tennis elbow before (plus the bursitis in the left elbow shudder). I messed around a little with the warming up to try and have things feel good. I think this was a bit closer to what I want things to be like for this session with the exercises planned. Banded session for strict log press. Again same bands as last time (and throughout this prep) with a little more weight than last time for 6x3. Following the guidelines of not putting my head through until the last rep of the sets and holding lockout position for 5 seconds before putting down. Only the long holds on the working sets, just brief holds the working up stuff. It looked like it was going to start raining so it behooved me to get through things quickly if possible. These didn’t feel bad. I feel like I had my balance much better this time around. I wasn’t finicking about with the pressing (as sometimes I get concerned if it doesn’t feel fast). I think I was not quite getting as braced as I could on the first reps with unracking the weight. I refocused my efforts for the last set and it made it the best of them. Got to work stripping down this setup so I could get on to the other exercise I was doing outside; band assisted pull-ups. Same as last time with 2-2-2-0 tempo with plan for 3 sets and leave 3RIR. This would be the third week of doing these and I feel I have gotten better at them each time. So my hope was that kind of progress again. I was likely to be changing the variation of band assisted pull-up after this week as this can be stressful on the forearms with the tempo (especially the holds). Definitely felt like a smoother movement and having better control. Managed to get 10 reps for the first two sets pretty easy. It was a bit tougher for the third set but figured I’d finish off with this as 3x10 before changing things up. Getting in the endurance grip work with these tempo rowing and pull-ups as well as the trap bar rdls. Put stuff away just as it started spitting and it did start to rain a good bit later so it was the right call to not dillydally about after the sets or try and just go in the garage and take care of this stuff later. So into the garage I did go and doing the soft close grip board pressing with pauses. Last time had been purposely light. It would depend I guess how I’m feeling and how these are feeling. My initial plan was to do 20lbs more and aim for 3x5-6. Which would be no problem with how 185lbs was last time. Assuming that nothing felt off. I’m doing a good bit of triceps and lockout stuff lately. So far, I seem to be handling it. I’m wondering if I should do these every week rather than the landmine log thing but undecided on that. See how next week goes I guess. Trying to keep myself not having things max effort all the time. So no wrist wraps on these for now (none on dips too right now either). As I was working up, I decided I’d jump up to 225lbs for the sets and aim for 3x6. This would likely be closer to the true intensity I should be at and give me an idea of progression going forward. I’d like to have these be something in future training preps so this is kind of building back up familiarity. The rest of the session was essentially the same as last week. Incline triceps extensions with 3 second eccentrics. 3x10 this week. I know from past experience that going from 12 to 10 reps on tempo stuff for triceps is hardly a change. Sticking to having a heavier work up weight rather than just my 10lbs dumbbell does seem to help some here. Elbows felt a little achy but seems to be the case once I get to this kind of weight with them and I stick to slow eccentrics. It does seem though I’ve indicated in my training notes to switch out dumbbells for bands on these going forward. Give a bit of a break as I’ve been doing them for like 15 weeks straight now I think. Superset to end the evening. Leaning laterals with pauses and half kneeling band face pulls with pauses as well. Reps increased on these. I know how tough adding 3 more reps on paused work for the shoulders is so I figured it was best to drop the dumbbell weight down to the empty handle. Band I can adjust as needed really. Initially feeling too light but that fatigue catches up with you quick on these. I tried to go right into the second set of these but my shoulders were fatigued hard and I stopped to take a brief walk and come back like I normally do for my 90 seconds or so rest periods so I could actually put in good work. Put stuff away and got dinner ready. Stretched out.

March 22, 2025 – Week 3, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
40x29’2”
40x29’0”
40x31’5”
40x28’9”
40x28’0”
40x28’10”
40x32’5”
40x31’6”
40x28’10”
40x34’0”

Fingal Fingers
EMOM
400x1
400x1
400x1
400x1
400x1
400x1
400x1
400x1

Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
100x30’/30’
140x30’/30’
190x30’
230x30’
EOMOM
280x30’
280x30’
280x30’
280x30’
280x30’
280x30’

I-Beam Farmer’s Holds (24” pick)
297x5 seconds
347x31.37 seconds

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Backwards Sled Drags (turf)
sb’sx50/405x75’
sb’sx50/405x75’

Stretching

Comments: Pressure in some places and not in others as far as this training session. Since my younger sister is in her deload for contest prep with the show next weekend, I didn’t have to rush things as far as getting out to the gym nor did I have to adjust priority as far as my own training. I’d be able to train earlier with more energy rather than after a few hours of helping and be able to sleep in if needed due to work week stress. But there was also things related to how rough a training session this could be with setup. Ideally, I wouldn’t have both fingal fingers and farmer’s walk the same session but this ended up being necessary for recovery purposes elsewhere as well as making sure that I could have stuff available when needed. But I do recall how much tougher on the body last time I did this workout was and that had been the lightest this was ever going to be this prep beyond not doing them at all. I got to bed later than I wanted so I decided to not set an alarm and wake up when I felt like it. Odds are I wouldn’t sleep in too late as I’m sure guilt would subconsciously get me up at a reasonable time. So I slept in about an hour later than I had been getting up the past month or so for training. I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t many people at the gym today. Thankfully enough that are savvy enough with strongman stuff for what I needed. I did warming up a little different this time as it didn’t make sense to do all the warming up at the start considering that one exercise required a bit of setup and it wasn’t first. So I did most of what I do warming up for the session before getting to work. So first up being the bag throws. This requires consistent work and thankfully I can recover from this from weekly sessions. I feel if this was toss over bar, I’d need to alternate actual movement with assistance movement to keep recovery good. As I’ve probably indicated, I’m trying to alternate “heavy” and “light” weeks here with the bag throws. One of the bags is a smaller sized bag and not entirely sure what bag is going to actually be used here. So this was the light week. I’m also not indicating number of throws in my “plan” and really just going by feel. Minimum of 5 if a bad day and up to 10 if the iron is striking hot. It would appear that someone added 5lbs to the “35lbs” bag last week which would explain why I was feeling like I was underthrowing that so much. I weighed it to make sure after I saw someone label it as 40lbs in a video. Can’t trust nothing when it comes to strongman gyms lol. I had noticed I felt stiff last week (probably from heavy deadlifts) so I did some Cariaoca crossover drills (I’ve done these sometimes at bigger shows to warm up) and some just rotating in place with the bag. I think that did help. I feel that I get more comfortable and consistent with these as I do them. The thing I’m trying to get is so that I feel the tension of the bag going taut before I get to the final spin/release so that I can get some more power into the toss. I kind of didn’t listen to my own set idea of when to stop as my worst distance toss was my fifth one and it had been a decline for two attempts in a row from the best one so far (3rd throw). But I’m glad I didn’t as I seemed to get better and had three more tosses that went even further. So four out of ten tosses going over 30’ is a good day. Last toss being the furthest. But I knew to call it there as I got more stuff to do and the amount of spinning was definitely starting to fatigue my right knee. Seeing as how my light bag is now only 5lbs under the contest weight (just shy of 89% contest weight) and really using it because it is smaller sized on this week, I may go heavier on the heavy week so that I’m doing some tosses with 50lbs. Do some at contest and some over it. Our 50lbs is a different bag (Rogue) compared to most the other ones (Cerberus) and it could very well be a Rogue bag for the toss. They handle differently as well. So from there, inside the gym for the tough stuff. The first of the tough stuff being fingal fingers. I had gotten assistance from two other people with setting this up because it is such a pain to do so. And I got it setup after I warmed up to get it out of the way so I didn’t have to fret much after the bag throws. Also to make sure I had help as people could leave before I actually needed to do them. I couldn’t get it by myself with the 300lbs finger so no way was I getting the 400lbs finger solo. So the plan here was to do EMOM singles. Initially I was thinking 10 but figured I should probably drop volume considering the farmer’s walk. I also had to think about what I was realistically going to be doing here. I’m already doing pressing stuff twice a week so this would be a third pressing session. I also feel like the finger for the contest is going to be tough from videos I’ve seen and this isn’t going to be something I can speed through. Rule of thumb being twice the reps I want to hit in a minute. The most someone has done the 500lbs finger so far has been 3 reps and when I did the one show in October 2021 the winning reps was 4 and I got 3. So 8 singles should be enough. Have to see. Just because the weight for show is 425lbs, doesn’t mean it will equate to what I have here. I know this from having a really tough 350lbs finger when I could do the 400lbs I have access to easy. I’m realizing that I’ve not really touched fingers that much and really it has been less than 10 times total including in competition. I’ve had bad luck with my first time fracturing both pinky fingers and then not being able to touch them again for like a month and a half and then dropping out of the contests I was doing due to back pain. Then the second time I only got to touch them once 4 months out from show because I fractured my left elbow after taking a fall on box jumps in 2021. Which is the last time I’ve touched a finger besides two weeks ago. So almost 50 months since I last touched this particular finger. The issue was going to be just getting it to the shoulders. Grip is an issue and I’m trying to not be pulling with the biceps. I do know that I can add some weight to this finger before trying the 500lbs one. I feel I will have to give that one a shot at some point in prep to make sure I can do the contest one with the specs. Even with the setup help, still took a bit to get ready. I did some warming up here with specific things and I was a little worried that my shoulders were going to be too cooked here. So there were nerves. This can be a bit rough warming up because it isn’t easy to swap out fingers if wanting to work up in weight. I don’t think there are two stands for these anymore either. See how things went that first one and kind of decide what I could handle. That first rep a little shaky but I got better as I went on these. I was still worried I’d miss the catch from the high pull on these all throughout. Last one was the best one so a little hyped for that. Took a bit to tear things down but it gave me time to recover before doing farmer’s walk stuff. After the light session last time, I knew that I needed to get myself used to picking up the weight consistently. The pick has been tough for me always and there is some hesitancy in it ever since I tore stuff in the right hamstring a little over a year ago. But also not doing these with much volume in the last year or so has also been to my detriment. Deadlifting isn’t enough as top weights there raw is not even working weight I’d need to just stay consistent. Not going to work about the loading my own weights thing until I get a bit more sessions in with just doing decent weight farmer’s. So borrowing from something that I had done in prep for 2022 Nationals when had heavy deadlifts and heavy farmer’s with the farmer’s being 160’ course with drops and picks every 40’. I had only worked up to 290lbs for runs (but did 330ish for picks) and managed to finish the course despite skipping a workout to recover (I had felt like dropping out). I was thinking about the work capacity here and what weight I wanted to be handling here. Even though contest is saying it is only 25’, it really is more like 30’ since have to go through to the end each time. Not going to cut that from the considerations here. So plan was to do between 277-297lbs for 6 runs of 30’ with EOMOM rest. I was initially going with odd numbers since planning to use the I-beam handles. But figured that handles may not be like that so going with the lighter handles that are lower pick height. Most shows are going to be that and considering the deadlifting I’m doing is elevated, best to keep working where most lifts will be at. I tend to do better if it ends up higher even if training from like 3” lower. Initially warming up I was gripping near the front of the handles as I had been doing that with the longer frame stuff in the past. Feels a little rough and not as much lower back maybe. But the angle made things not so great with lowering the handles because how high they were in the front. These had just been rewelded so didn’t want to damage them stupidly so I went back to back of handle grip so I could control the drop better. First set was slowest. I got faster with moving with the weights despite there being fatigue built each time. I didn’t rechalk for these sets as I felt like I’d probably have a hard time doing so during the event. Hard to say if I got this right as far as work for recovery and going forward. Have to see how I handle other stuff I guess before I do these next time. So after that, I had planned a farmer’s hold. Initially was going to be 40 seconds or so but then after the event was announced to being the current thing, it didn’t make sense to do that long and 30 seconds should be enough as I need to build up strength for farmer’s vs endurance at this point. I elevated the pick height a good bit and swapped in the I-beam handles here. The working up set was really rough on the lower back. This is why I try to work up to weights after doing stuff from lower as it hits stuff differently. Like this felt downright terrible on my spine but I trusted myself that I could handle what I was asking here and went up 50lbs for the hold. This felt better than the 297lbs did picking it up. Like no issues. I was wondering if I went too light here. It did start to get challenging near the end so this was about what I needed really. I’ll have to think on how I want to progress with things here as I may end up doing elevated pick and holds but like short holds and multiple picks and then a hold. Have to see how I handle things these next two weeks. Since I wasn’t in a rush and I had some time (like it wouldn’t be turning dark if I stayed to stretch when driving home) I moved right on to the last thing and left the farmer’s stuff to be cleaned up when I was done there. I had liked how the pairing of band leg curls and backwards sled drags had felt when I did them two weeks ago. So doing that again. Decided to just do more reps on the leg curls since this is the thickest pair of bands (and to try and have it feel more like the reps/time of the drag) and put like 70lbs more on the sled vs last time. Things felt good here. Got a good pump here and I didn’t really rush to get on to the second set. Wanted to try and treat this like a superset where I rested between the pairing. This is the kind of conditioning I need for my lower body to be ready for these kind of events at this competition. Finished the second run through and slammed my protein shake before putting stuff away. Stretched out at the gym before driving home.

March 9, 2025 - March 15, 2025 - Week 2

 March 11, 2025 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x5
60x3
90x2
120x2
145x2
170x5
196x5
222x9

Dips
ssx5
bwx3
bw+30x3
bw+60x8
bw+60x12

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
40’sx5
40’sx5
70’x10
70’x10
70’x10

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
186x2
226x2
276x4
276x4
276x11

Paused Prone Dumbbell Retractions (2 seconds)/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: Bit of a different start to the week. I’ve probably mentioned before that I tend to take off the day after the country does a time shift related to daylight savings. Initially just when we would “lose an hour” but figured this past year and going forward that “gaining and hour” just as valid. I need more than a day to adjust. So taking personal day on Monday. This was planned. A deep tissue massage was not and that was a gift from my siblings and really this was the only day where I felt it would work as start of contest prep and never been to the place before. But had to be scheduled midday so that meant I wasn’t going to be able to train and have to move the workout to Tuesday. I know it is not a good idea to workout after that kind of massage. It has been like 6yrs since I’ve had one and it seems I needed it. . I may be scheduling another for either right before or right after competition in May. Sunday I walked and did stuff around the house. Now 1.5lbs from being in 120kgs class again. Did nothing Monday and just relaxed and drank a lot of water. Had regrets with going to work just from the start but got through it. It does feel nice having some light when going to train after work now. I made some adjustments to warming up after thinking about it and seeing what was tight from the massage. I’ve essentially done foam rolling for my hamstrings every workout minus Day 3 sessions for a bit since the hamstring pull/tear from a year ago per directions from Mr. Westerling. I’m wondering if that is really needed every time. A general warming up is ok but the more targeted things I’ve been doing have been feeling better so adapting to that. While that all was good, I seemed to have tweaked my neck moving one way during the beginning of my warming up so now I got a stiff neck after just getting all the tension out of it the day before lol. But I know it will calm down eventually and this isn’t that bad. Just have to see if this is something that will require anti-inflammatories to get to sleep or not (it did not). Then time to train. I was nervous for the axle push pressing. Like anxious during the work day and bordering on getting eye twitch. I was worried that I’d be underperforming here and that I made a mistake. This was the only thing of this session that was stressing me out really. And probably the only thing this whole week. As I mentioned, trying a modified 5/3/1 thing here. I did the deload session last week and the next three weeks are planned out and then will determine the adjustments after this first three week cycle on what to adjust the training at. This will give me a chance to test this out since no true overhead press event for the competition. For those aware with 5/3/1, training max is 90% of max for the numbers generally and this would be the 5’s week. Preset numbers with the top set being for reps with leaving something in the tank ideally on that last set. Nerves were getting to me and I wasn’t feeling that great doing these. More so it wasn’t feeling as easy as it should be. Trying to balance from being overly invested and apathetic with my intent. Top set the weight felt like I wanted it to feel for the most part. I didn’t really stick to one method of pressing. The first two work sets I had done no rebounds but I just went with whatever I was feeling like on the rep set. Started with rebound and then went to the reset style. Stopped at 9 and I’m certain I had one more there for sure. This is what I was hoping to be getting at here so this was a relief. A relief until next week. Into the garage for the next few things. Weighted dips again. I took a break with them due to how my QLs had felt and to just kind of deload appropriately for the most part for upper body before turning up the intensity this week. My plan with these is to work up to the weight for the day and do one set for certain rep range and then do another set for reps leaving something in the tank. And as long as that is at least 1 more rep than the first set, I increase the weight 5lbs for next time. I’ve done this kind of thing in the past to get up to over 140lbs on this exercise so I know I have a decent ceiling here that I need to fill out again for pressing power. I wasn’t too sure how these would feel with the tense neck situation but it was no bother. Actually felt loads better compared to two weeks ago when I did these and tried to rep out the first time in a while. Rowing up next. I had done light stuff with a superset last time. No superset this time around. Just rowing. Chest supported dumbbell rows with controlled movement and 3 second holds at contraction. I didn’t want to deal with loading and unloading the dumbbell handles so I just did my solid dumbbells to start and did a few sets with the 40’s before going for the 70’s. It has been a while since I’ve done these. My right biceps was definitely feeling fatigued by the end of the third set here. Back outside for rack work. Seated lockouts with the axle. I had thought I had things figured out with last time but upon review, it does seem that the ROM was less than I thought it was. So I did have to adjust that a little so that it was in a more applicable range to assist my overhead training and not just fatigue me with overload. So last time had been to just get a rough idea of where to start and now we start building. Plan was warm up and do 2x4 with the weight last time and then a rep set. Seems to be a common theme on this session in the week hmm. My plan of progression is if I get above a certain number of reps, I increase the weight by 5% or so for next time. If not, I stick to the same weight but reduce the volume working up. There was some anxiety with the initiating of the sets but felt good once I got the weights moving and my confidence built. This can be tricky because of how tough the breaking the inertia can be with reps but I think I called it just right. I’ll definitely be going up for next time. Before moving on to the superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands) to end the session, I started getting dinner ready. Again, thankfully nothing from this session made the neck issue feel worse. This setup was the same as last week with the reduced reps on both exercises and increase hold times for the one. I used a little more secure collars on the dumbbell for the triceps for peace of mind with me shaking it like a baby rattle behind my head. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Hopefully my neck calms down in quick order since I unfortunately have to follow this session up with heavy deadlifts tomorrow.

March 12, 2025 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps)
170x5
260x3
350x1
400x1
440x1
490x1
530x1
565x1
607x1
554x3
554x3
554x3

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x3/3
155x12/12
175x12/12

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bwx3/3
15”
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
35x8/8
35x8/8
35x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Neck still tight but I guess better. I knew that it being that way wasn’t going to effect the training session from past experience. I had pretty much done the exact workout I was going to be doing today last week at a much lower intensity so I didn’t really feel there was much in the way of surprises here. I did some more foam rolling for the lower body (included calves and quads with hamstrings). And then circuit work again. Skater jumps to start off the session. Seeing as how the rotational throwing is likely what I’m doing, I’ll be keeping these in for a bit to get used to the powerful push and landing from one foot to the other. I did try to do some light bounding first to get things feeling more elastic but didn’t really seem to work. Just getting them started seems to be the issue for me with making sure I get that first push off good. I’m not trying to be doing these quick rebounding side to side as trying to get powerful jump and then absorbing that impact safely. So about the same as last time. Then the big dumb deadlift. As I mentioned, it is an 18” pull off tires with a 2.5” thick bar. I thought the setup I did last week was a good one as it did feel like how lifting something off tires does feel. But I only went up to 350lbs for easy singles. The plan for today was to work up to a top single (RPE 7) and then do 3x3 with 7.5-10% less weight. My thinking was to work up in plate jumps and then do 40-50lbs or smaller (as the plan was to make smaller jumps to the top single to make sure I wasn’t going all out). I know the setup looks extraneous with the wheels, pads and bar extenders. But it seems to work. The bar extenders are kind of crucial in that the 2.5” bar by itself it light and doesn’t have long loading pin space on it compared to my axle or barbells. So it beefs up the initial weight and allows me to put enough weight on there to get to contest weight for this if needed. I think I mentioned last time that I was surprised with the setup in that I thought I’d need to be standing on stuff to get it to be at 18” but the weight was sinking it down that it didn’t. I guess I didn’t think it would sink further with more weight added as I thought the foam was pretty dense. But with it being on just one set of wheels rather than evenly distributed, it was bound to compress more. I notice it might be low after I got above 400lbs. Speaking of which, I wasn’t feel like I was a fresh as I wanted to be here. I didn’t think that farmer’s walks with as light a weight I did would get my lower back. Maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. This unexpected need to adjust the setup with risers to correct back to 18” did eat up time. This pull height is a lot of lower back for me and this bar being as thick as it is does not help that strain. Just working up I knew that the weight I was aiming for as top weight would be outside of the comfortable single parameters so I adjusted. I also was able to wear my thick ratchet belt from Jenkins now that I’ve dropped enough weight to wear the new rehband belt with it. I’m not convinced that the less stiff multi-ply belt is better or worse here. I took smaller jumps so that I didn’t end up selling myself short here on the top single taking a 50lbs jump. I ended up having to add 2 risers under the pads to account for the compression for the top single. It might have been a bit heavier than I should’ve considering how I was feeling and hot it felt but this was not a max single I know I had another 2 reps in me if push came to shove. Just not sure I had three more is all. So dropped down to kind of in between the percents for the triples. I was shocked how tough that first rep of the downset was. I had to take a moment to collect my thoughts and be ready for some really rough reps. But then then those next two reps went up like they should. Second se the weights moved well but I could feel the bar wanting to escape the straps at this point. Granted, I had chalked them up for the top single only and anything left was gravy here but still felt like a fight to get things locked out here. I may need to do more so with liquid chalk and dry chalk and rechalk each set with this bar at these weights. Third set was about in the middle between first and second set. I hit about what I wanted to here for the most part. Just wish it wasn’t so rough on the lower back and felt easier lol. I’ll have to see if figure 8 straps are viable option here and potentially use my jack stands for training pulls to not have the setup issue inconsistency. I’ll just have to see how it pans out. But seeing as how much this takes out of me, it is a good thing I’m not really pushing the assistance work that hard on this day. Speaking of which, up next was b-stance trap bar rdls. Still keeping these light but going up 50lbs from last week. 3 second eccentrics and no support gear. These had been a test last time that I passed. This week being more of can I do anything after heavy deadlifts. And I can. I did a little more warming up than I was expecting to though. I plan to make another big jump on these for next time if feeling good. I took a little longer between sets than usual more so to just put stuff away and get some things ready for dinner and not because I was needing the rest. From there moving on step downs. This had been eye-opening for me with having the ROM be too much for me at this point from what I was able to do 2.5yrs ago. I ended up needing to reduce it to where it was tolerable and I still had strength to move. Which ended up being 6” lower. But not despairing. I knew knees weren’t in a happy place and working on that. I know this will get better. Today I’d start at 12” and if that feels better than it did last week, I’ll increase the height of the box. If not, option is to increase weight with the range I can do. Thankfully, these felt better so I went with the first option. Odds are that 18” was still going to be too much. So I did half that distance. There is discomfort but I still have strength in the movement (not having my knees just shut off). Additionally, felt better as I did more of them. So that is promising. The good news is that I can do 1” progressions from this height now if another 3” jump is too much. I’ll just have to see next week how these go. Last on the agenda for the evening was landmine bar twists. This was a maybe last week depending on if spinning around got more distance on throws and since it does, these are staying for a bit. Increased the weight. Could tell it has been a while since I’ve done some kind of rotational exercise like this. Keeping the smaller plates so that movement is not restricted around the hips. I think I’ll need to be getting over 50lbs added on this and having that move smoothly to master the weight I’ll be tossing for the sandbag with all the spinning and such. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Looking forward to a day off lifting to recover somewhat before I do another two days on to get back on schedule for this week.

March 14, 2025 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses (head through on last rep only)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
200x6
180x6
180x5 (miscounted)

Band Assisted Pull Ups (2-2-2-0 tempo, pin 15)
sbx8
sbx8
sbx8

12” Log Landmine Presses
logx3/3
log+15x3/3
log+30x12/12
log+30x12/12

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
21’sx6
34’sx12
34’sx12
34’sx12

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)
19x12--12/lbx12
19x12--12/lbx12

Stretching
 
Comments: The week has felt weird. Maybe because of the time shift. Maybe because I had to alter the training schedule around stuff. Maybe because of people calling off work. Maybe because my neck on the left side stiff tender. It had felt like it was Friday a day early. I was kind of surprised how sore/stiff I was feeling in my lower back area from the block pulls. Having me make adjustments so that I’m not burning out too early. I know I like to push hard and I have to setup limiters to keep me having something for the next time and adjust to accumulating fatigue. So that has meant keeping some things to leaving reps in the tank or dropping sets of exercises or removing them entirely to manage recovery. Only want things that will benefit. I will continue to fiddle with warming up stuff for sessions depending on need and what seems to work. I was somewhat tempted to try and get my workout in earlier in the day because usually I give myself some rest before the Saturday session and I couldn’t exactly do that this week. But I think I also realized I was likely going to be lifting later on Saturday anyways because of priority being to my sister (her last heavy week) for her competition at the end of the month. So after warming up, it was time for log pressing. The plan is alternating between triples with lighter weight with bands and free weight heavier for set reps and some down sets. Emphasizing lean back on the these and head through on the last rep only. Then adding 5 second holds at lockout on the “working sets”. I was pleased with how these had gone last week with the bands as I was expecting them to be worse than they were. I was a little nervous here as I was estimating what I could hit here for the plan but also anxiety about the rest of training cycle and if this would impact how the axle pressing sessions go. I feel like it is a delicate balance. But I need to not be stressing and just adjust when I notice and issue rather than worry about something that hasn’t happened yet or ever will. I know that pressing is down from what it was a few years ago so a little tricky to figure things out here. This particular session plan for the log strict press isn’t a 1:1 from a previous session. This was more of an extension to stretch out a session that didn’t have the opportunity to build up to this “peaking”. I was also debating what I was going to be doing here and decided to just see how it goes. So my two options here was to either do 3x6 with the RPE going from 6-8 across all three sets or to just aim for a set of 6 that is RPE 8 and then do 2x6 with 10-12.5% less weight. It kind of depended on how 180lbs felt as that was going to be the possible cut off point. I felt good enough there to give 200lbs a shot (which was a little over the projected range by 5lbs or so). I’m definitely not used to the lean back style for more than a triple at this time haha. Also not having the lifters on these is a little tricky as well. I was successful here though this was little tougher than I’d have liked it to be. I still feel it was acceptable effort range. So easy math and 20lbs off for the down sets. First set was super easy and felt great. Second set I got off balance and couldn’t just bang them out. That needing to focus and recenter did enough to distract me and I lost count and only did 5 reps here. Close enough and not going to fret about it. From there it was on to band assisted pull-ups. Same as last time with 2-2-2-0 tempo with plan for 3 sets and leave 3-4RIR. I had some expectation of how these would go after how these felt last week. Odds are that first set would feel pretty rough and the second set would feel really good and the third set in the middle. My hope here was that I adjust enough from last week that I can do 3x8. As I thought, this ended up how I expected with the sets and the reps I got. I was a little miffed that there was still tension in the left forearm near the elbow. I had just gotten deep tissue work done on Monday. It was more I think worry that my grip wouldn’t be recovered for Saturday session. These felt less awkward compared to last week. A new exercise after this. So I’m trying to get things to be sports specific and change up some things so not hammering away at the same thing every time. So board pressing one week and some kind of unilateral pressing the other. Trying to have stuff that would feel like it helps fingal fingers. I can’t be doing that one every week because of stress on body (needing to recover) and setup. So I wanted to see if doing log in my landmine press setup one arm at a time would be a good one. Plan is low RPE and decrease the reps across the cycle. I was initially going to do 3x12 but decided to drop the sets to 2 instead as I feel like unilateral exercises like this are pretty taxing on the full body. This was awkward with balance so not a lot of weight needed. I’m not sure if this will be something I keep the rest of the cycle. It does hit things a little differently since you need to have an open palm for the pressing. So forearms hit while doing these. Shoulders, triceps and pecs. But like I said, have to see if this is worth it going forward or if the effort is put to better use elsewhere. The rest of the session was essentially the same as last week. Incline triceps extensions with 3 second eccentrics. I had done 3x12 last time with a 5lbs increase from what I did 3x15 with. After how last time had felt, I knew I needed to try smaller jumps and perhaps warm up to it a little better so not so jarring. The platemath still kind of required a 3lbs increase so not sure how that would go. The increased weight for the work up set I do think was helpful. I got through the first two sets fine but needed a bit more rest after the second one to make sure I got through the third set of these. The emphasis on triceps and lockout has increased dramatically with switch from off season to contest prep so I’ll have to keep an eye on things here to make sure I’m not overdoing it. Superset to end the evening. Leaning laterals with pauses and half kneeling band face pulls with pauses as well. Same as last week but decided to still try to squeak in another 1lb to the laterals. I’ve been liking these. It is tricky with getting the face pulls the right tension to progress here in synch with them as sometimes it feels like too much tension setting up but then feels quite comfortable actually doing the set. Then having to factor in fatigue. Thankfully nothing made the neck issue worse this session. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

March 15, 2025 – Week 2, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x1
18”x1
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
35x24’7”
35x20’0”
35x26’0”
35x24’0”
35xscratch
35x23’6”
45x15’9”
45x21’9”
45x24’4”
45x24’0”
45x25’10”
45x25’5”
45x27’8”
45x23’3”

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 33” height)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Paused Monster Mondo Leg Presses (2 seconds)
120x5/300x5
150x15/450x15
150x15/450x15
150x15/450x15

Rolling D-Handle Hangs (2” handles)
bw for 5 seconds
bw+21 for 5 seconds
bw+41 for 26.04 seconds
bw+61 for 20.30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: With working out Friday after work and then having to get up to go out to Lancaster Saturday, I didn’t get the most ideal situation here for myself. Training got done and then having to cook dinner. Essentially it being a later day. I wasn’t going to push myself to get up early but be within reason. I needed to be rested for the most part. Still needed to get out there earlier to make sure my sister got her last event session in before competing and be able to get my stuff done so I could be back for family activities in the evening. I did end up hitting snooze a good bit. I had made sure I packed up stuff so really I only had to worry about getting the stuff that needs to stay cool ready for training. I also got pot roast ready so that I wouldn’t have to worry about setting that up for meals later in the week. Neck not 100% but tolerable still. Haven’t needed any meds to be able to fall asleep so that is at least the bright side of things. I know it will take time. Drive out was fine but foggy. It took a bit longer than I expected for my sister to show up but that was fine. I wasn’t going to start my stuff until she was done. Last two events for the contest at contest weight and she hit what I was expecting here. I shouldn’t have to worry about prioritizing training for the foreseeable future since she will most likely go back to general training until after the summer. But have to wait and see I guess with how things go. She knows here spring to summer is not convenient to do strongman stuff regularly and she worries about not putting in the effort needed in those circumstances. But there are possible shows that don’t require as much gym specific stuff. She wasn’t the only person I ended up helping with stuff today. I brought my deadlift suit for a friend to try while awaiting their custom one. I’ll do what I can if people ask. So then on to my training. My intent was to not have this be exactly a maximal effort of a day considering I knew I’d have a later start to training and being on my feet for hours moving equipment and weights around does add up to fatigue. So this was still ramping up intensity like last week but to a greater degree. I was also keeping an eye on things as I was still kind of surprised my lower back was feeling the way it was. I had thought that doing deadlifts twice a week with the other stuff I did would’ve conditioned my lower back to handle the recovery better but I guess not. But I also guess not used to pulling this much as I didn’t go over 525lbs during those past 12 weeks. So 80lbs over that is not nothing. Still good to know I can pull heavy lifts out of my ass if needed. But rather not have that and have hell to pay recovery wise. So did mobility work and warming up. This workout I was still not sure what to do. By that I mean, I felt that the alternating weeks were unbalanced as far as events. Odd week being bag toss, fingal fingers and farmer’s. This week was pretty much going to be bag toss (heavy) and Hercules hold with gym assistance work. Not to say the gym assistance work was going to be easy. The one week kind of has to be that unbalanced to consolidate stressors (namely lower back). Also with making sure there were people there to assist with certain things (like fingers). Swapping stuff around just made something not work. So I was trying to think of what to do to have it not feel like this was the “easier” week. So what I initially was looking at was having heavy single leg exercise like a hatfield reverse lunge/split squat like I’ve done in the past and have the “lighter” exercise like this be the step downs. But seeing as how my knees need more time to recover and getting non-painful ROM there again, it seemed like this would be overkill. Especially adding more spinal loading after how taxing those block pulls ended up being. So a little at a loss. Then I remembered I was wistfully thinking about how I was probably not going to be having box jumps for this prep. Well, guess what is back on the menu? So rather than weekly, this will be every other week. Nothing fancy, just regular box jumps. 4x3 and try to keep these consistent and maybe increase a little with end goal to be trying to improve the max triple. So the bounding warming up was done here. Even though I’ve been doing 30” on other variations, I was going back to 24” for the planned working sets. Especially since form feels a bit different compared to the other two. Knees and the movement felt a little stiff but I got better and more comfortable as I went. I didn’t feel like I had the same hesitancy that I did when starting these out again. So from there it was back to the bag throws. Last week I had been testing things out more thoroughly to see what style worked best for me. Spinning around seemed to average better and got my furthest toss there. So now having decided to commit to it, this was to be the “heavy week”. Not entirely sure if this is going to be custom bag at show or what but plan is to do lighter week with smaller sized bag at 35lbs and then heavier week with normal sized bag at contest weight of 45lbs. A little bit of pain setting up the throw space as I need to due to the rules for this event and possible zero. I was going to just go right to the heavy bag but something told me to do the lighter one first. Didn’t want to pull/tear something spinning around with the weight of a hefty toddler in on hand. I was also trying to watch more throw videos to get the wind up down. I do feel I’m getting more comfortable with spinning and my body spatial awareness. But I was not thrilled with how things started out. My intent was to do 8-10 tosses with the heavy bag. But I was just not clicking with the light bag today like last week. I was not getting the same distance. So I decided I’d do 5 good tosses (I had one miss) and then I guess see how the heavy bag went. I think that tempered my expectations on the heavy bag as I got my first sub 20’ toss on that. Oof. But after that one, I had none under 21’ for this weight. This is still a work in progress. I was thinking after already doing 6 tosses with 35lbs that I’d only do 5 tosses with 45lbs. But then I got over 25’ on that fifth toss so I figured it was worth a shot to see if I was finally awake and limber. A few inches shy of that toss the next attempt and thinking of calling it there. But I had felt like I just got one thing off that time and wanted to try another just to see if things clicked. Ended up getting almost 2’ on my distance there. So that was exciting. I called it after I lost about 4’ on the next toss. I was hitting the limit here today. This is going to be probably be a more of how things feel on the day so not going to set imposed limits like I would with say tossing for height stuff. This is less taxing on my body. Wasn’t quite done with the moving things fast and getting off the ground exercises. I’m not entirely sure what to calls these as they are fairly unique. I’ve been calling them ssb zercher gms but doesn’t quite get it right as these are quite explosive. I’ve heard some refer to them as strongman power cleans. I’d say closer to a high pull lol. I was introduced to these in 2023 and I’ve liked them as something to work triple extension with object out in front but saving grip and not worrying about biceps strain. A way to keep the aspect of loading events in without doing them for offseason purposes. My thinking here is that but also to get more volume in for the start of fingal fingers. It has been close to 18 months since I last did these so starting light with not a ton of band tension. I usually hold something like a swiss ball here as I’ve often been doing them for stones but not this time. So I wasn’t too sure what to do with my hands. I also forgot how much pressure these apply to the body so felt a little lightheaded. I may hold a light medicine ball next time. Could tell that I was fatiguing by the end of these as not quite as powerful. I wasn’t wearing anything besides knee sleeves (on arms for comfort and on knees because). The violent nature and shrugging up probably not the best thing for the neck. I do like these on these straps vs off of rack pins or sawhorses. Will be adding more equipment next time. I made a change to exercise order from what I had initially. I was going to do grip stuff here but it seemed to make more sense to do the machine lower body/leg stuff while that was warm rather than cool off from doing grip. Grip is fine whenever for me. I’ve had to tinker with the lower body stuff as initially I was looking at doing stuff like ghrs and sled drags every session. But then my right hamstring the one tendon was feeling irritated and it didn’t seem wise to do ghrs and stick to something less intense but still work hamstrings. Additionally, after seeing how farmer’s walk had felt and with the 18” block pulls, I felt that it was a good idea to try and get more exercises like leg press in to help with building up that start position. Some science based lifting indicated hamstring leg curls seated before doing knee based quad work could help with the aches so I paired tempo seated leg curls with paused leg presses. Plan was leaving reps in the tank for 3x10-15 reps. This was definitely needed. Not sure if I want to stick to higher rep ranges next time or try and go up in weight and aim for the lower end. I do plan on going heavier outside of this for leg presses later in the cycle. Last thing then being grip. Hercules hold at the contest is a bit unique. It is the fingal fingers being used and the weight is going to be the same for each class but the handles are getting thicker. So 2” thick handles. No plan to use the actual Hercules hold until the last session I do stuff because of pain setting it up and it won’t be the same setup anyways. What has worked has been doing rolling handle/bar hangs. I’ve done about as well on these in training vs exclusively Hercules hold in the past few years. So I got 2” thick rolling handles to use. No clue what to expect here. Plan was to work up in sets of 5 seconds to warm up and do 2 sets of 20-30 seconds with time in the tank and rest as needed to get 45-60 seconds of work done. Bodyweight first and it felt pretty easy. These were hanging a little lower than I’d prefer so I didn’t want to do any dip belt weight added if I didn’t have to. There were some weight vests so I put one on just to see how that changed things. Not much really. I put on both of them then for that first set. I meant for that to be a 30 seconds hold but I guess I counted a little too fast in my head. That was too easy so I did end up having to use a dip belt. I called this one just about right as far as the upper limits. I counted fast here too but I made sure that even if I did that I got it to be at least 20 seconds. This was definitely tougher and closer to the limit. I may need to do lighter stuff to get used to longer hold times in the event this is too easy for me. I am getting some time under tension in with tempo rows, pull ups and trap bar b-stance rdls. Not sure if combination of the zercher stuff and this having the weight vests on but my neck was getting stiff again so not great. But other than that, felt strong here. Just have to be smart with recovery. Got 2 months to go. Cleaned up and slammed a shake before driving home. Spent time with family and then got home to stretch and clean up. Going to need to get some sleep.

March 2, 2025 - March 8, 2025 - Week 1

 March 3, 2025 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
46x3
76x3
106x5
131x5
137x5 (misload)
157x5

Slingshot Dips
bwx20
bwx20

Paused Push-ups on Kettlebells (5 seconds)/Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
bwx12/40’sx12
bwx12/40’sx12

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (5” ROM)
26x3
136x3
186x3
226x6
246x6
276x6

Paused Prone Dumbbell Retractions (2 seconds)/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: I spent most of Sunday getting some thoughts together after feeling a bit down with how deadlift went and then seeing how poorly the SC pro/am portion of the Arnold had gone. A little disheartening to want to put in the effort to get back to that contest if that is how things are going to be. I made sure I got in a walk and soft tissue work as well as regular meals but I also had to debrief my mind of the training from the past week as I didn’t really get a good time to put it in writing until then. I don’t like that build up and I know if I hold on to it too long and not when planned it will stress me out or make me apathetic to doing the routine in the first place. So I knew it was important to get it done and adjust things. I knew that this offseason setup wasn’t the most ideal thing but it fit and it got me doing new stuff. The most important things though being that I was away from the strongman stuff long enough to feel like competing again and not completely loathe the thought of deadlifts like I had at the start. I will need to do somethings different next time and bit more planned out I think. It was pretty obvious I needed to deload and I think I need to space out the workouts in a way where I can recover better or put in planned deloads if I’m keeping intensity and consistency high with the sessions. Partial deloads don’t generally seem the way to go for me as I remember before with recovery that every day is kidney and liver day. The stress is going somewhere. After Saturday, I decided I was going to make the deload week more of a transition to contest prep than I previously intended. Test some things while making adjustments. I was surprised that my weight dropped some more from last week. 266.6lbs which is essentially 1kgs away from what I was the week after 2023 SC Nationals. 120kgs class (formerly 265lbs and under) seemed like a good bit away at the beginning of the year but now it seems a viable option. But I need to see if I can get myself through a competition prep and contest under my own plan first. Warming up I did a bit more on some things vs other things. I’ve kind of just did a set of something and moved on but this time I did some circuits of exercises. That did seem to be a better use of my time getting ready. Axle is the leg drive based pressing I’m continuing to use. My basis for this and not just doing barbell is the hope that I will be moving from this prep to another prep and odds are that next competition will have a pressing event in it. So keeping axle and log in this prep just so it isn’t so foreign in a 12 week prep besides the cleaning of said implements. With axle stuff, it is running a bit differently from everything else. Most stuff that is the events are rotating on a 2 week rotation. But the push press is going to run on a 3 week rotation with it being modified 5/3/1. Attempting 3 cycles of that with no deload besides this first week and the last week. Trying this out while I got the chance really. I was initially thinking of doing a top single to base the weights for this but I felt like it wasn’t a good idea and just estimate and get the rest and recovery in. So this was really light. I didn’t bother with any support gear whatsoever. Left upper pec was feeling a little off but things were feeling good. I’ve not really done reps beyond 3 here in a while. Trying to focus on my ankle and knees with how they move and trying to keep aware of my body placement. I got a little off balance in the middle of the second set of 5 reps. I adjusted the plates which inadvertently led to a 20lbs misload. It felt really good but I kind of knew there was no way a 25lbs jump felt that easy compared to the set before. And I was right. But the good news is still light and not really taking away anything. Comfortable and good. It will be for real next time. Into the garage for the next few things. Since I was deloading, for dips, I elected to not do them weighted and just wear the slingshot and do higher reps. The slingshot for higher reps is quite deceptive in they can cook the triceps while sparing the shoulders (which I feel need the rest). Keeping eye on the shoulders and neck here. I think not having weight dangling was also a good idea after the QLs seized up last week. I can’t confirm it was the weighted dips traction but better to give that a break as well until next time. Next was a pairing of old and new. Push ups with holds in stretch (hands on kettlebells) supersetted with paused chest supported dumbbell rows. Swapping of the guard really as won’t be doing rows on Saturday/Sunday going forward so moving here and dropping the push ups as adding some more pressing stuff incorporating chest on this day and secondary press day. I felt it was best to not elevate my feet and wear a weight vest. Definitely can see that these can be rough on the chest and shoulders with recovery as these concessions still made these tough to get the reps I did. Controlled eccentric and concentric (like a piston) with the paused rows made light weight feel challenging by the end. I kind of wanted to hurry things up but knew to stick to it. I could feel the heat coming off my body from doing them this way. Even though I’ve done rows twice a week for this, I’ve missed these haha. So normally I’d finish up with another superset but I was adding in another exercise I’ve done about a decade ago when my pressing overhead was at its strongest. So besides dips I was doing a lot of seated lockouts with 8” ROM. Most of the time it was with a log. But I’m doing log stuff on another day (and when I was doing log lockouts, it was with log push pressing and barbell strict pressing) so keeping this to axle since already out. Plan was to see how these felt and if viable for the training plan. Work up to a decent weight to start and build from there depending on what I get in the following weeks. I felt the best thing would be to do no support gear here as well and leave a fair amount in the tank. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that I’d be feeling as strong as I did here considering how pressing has felt. But didn’t want to overdo it. This is intense work and I need to make sure I stimulate and not annihilate. Superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands) to end the session. I was initially looking at changing things up here but the exercise replacements I had in mind didn’t feel like how I was expecting them to be so I’m going to stick with these for a bit longer. Last time I had kept things the same as far as the weights. Reps were decreased for both exercises this time but some modifications. The prone retractions were now for 2 second holds. Surprisingly, these felt easier than doing the 1 second holds for more reps. I guess getting used to it. Or less stress before getting to this point. I increased the weight on the dumbbell and that seemed to go well. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out.

March 5, 2025 – Week 1, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps)
167x5
217x3
257x2
307x1
EMOM
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x12/12
105x12/12

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear, 12”)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
25x8/8
25x8/8
25x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Feeling ok after Monday session. I mean, most of that was light I feel. Like 50/50 actual work and lighter stuff. I forgot to mention that I’m scheduled for a deep tissue massage next week which will be the first I’ve had in 5yrs. Last one was before the 2020 stuff and just never got back into. My siblings pooled money for one for Christmas gift so not going to let that sit. Get work done before pushing the weights for the contest prep cycle. I was not expecting it to rain so much today but didn’t really effect things here. This workout was changed a good bit from what I originally planned as this was to be testing of front squat and pushing the accessory lifts that I was working on the past three weeks. But after the deadlift didn’t go as planned (and even before that I guess), I was not digging how I was feeling doing stuff and worries about muscles and joints and I decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation to stick to the rigid schedule here. So this would be a light break-in session for the new stuff. I had a feeling I’d probably change things during the session as this was not as set in stone for me as say the upper body sessions. The warming up/mobility things I adjusted here. I liked the way my knees were feeling after doing the circuit Monday so I stuck to that and did another pairing for bracing stuff as well on top of static stretch stuff. Then to the session. The first exercise was initially one I was going to do this week. Skater jumps/hops were something I did in contest prep for SC Nats 2022. I’m not sure of the efficacy for the event for that particular show but I thought they may be worth doing now since I’ve been acclimated to box jumps and such. My thinking here is that need to land with soft knees and explosive lateral movement for say hip adduction/abduction. Reason I wasn’t initially going to do them this session is because I’m not sure exactly what style of throwing I’m going to be doing for the sandbag toss for distance event at the competition. I have a feeling it will be spinning throw that makes the most sense but I’ll test out how I’m actually doing this Saturday with spin throws and overhead throws. If I’m committing to spin throws, I think these will be helpful to get that power transfer going. Took a little to get the feel of these down again. I didn’t want to just do side to side with little amortization as I also wanted to work on absorbing and giving hard push offs too. So some of column A and some column B. Then on to the weights. The deadlift event at this contest is indicated as being 18” pull with truck tires using a 2.5” thick bar. I know my straps would work on 2.375” from past experience but I wasn’t sure about 2.5”. So I did end up getting a bar to spec. What I figured would feel most like contest would be using my bar extenders and wagon wheels and putting the wheels on crash pads. This does feel a bit like how some implements using tires have felt to lift. I was expecting to need more adjustments with getting to 18” but it looks to be that the compression was enough that the pads were all I needed. Plan here was just light stuff. Get used to the setup and do 10x1 with 50-60% of what I think I could do. The bar thickness is a little off-putting with getting the straps on and with it being out in front. More so than an axle. So probably a good thing I got this bar for this contest prep. Singles here were quite easy. This wasn’t something I needed to really be amped up to do. I was glad I wasn’t so burnt from the deadlifts Saturday that it affected things here. These felt comfortable like they should and I got a lot of touches at strapping onto this size diameter bar. It takes me less than 10 seconds to get setup and I can probably cut that in half if I really wanted to. Next week I’ll work up to a conservative single to see where I’m really at here. Contest is 660lbs and I know that is doable for me. Now if this were a regular session, I’d probably take my time with tearing down and moving on to the next thing. But this was going to be lighter stuff and I felt it made more sense to just kind of keep moving right along and getting work done so I can get to eating dinner and cleaning up sooner. Another deadlift variation in the form of b-stance trap bar rdls. I’ve liked these when I’ve had them before. Starting these real light with plans to work up in weight. 3 second eccentrics. With the farmer’s walk event as it will be, I’m trying to have this be more an accessory for that with grip and stance. No support gear of any kind. Work these until I get up to the above 300lbs and closer to 350lbs weights on that. These can be almost calming in a way and I can tell that I’m getting a good grip session over the course of the sets as while one side gets the rest, grip is getting a short rest. Another reason for these. The b-stance lets me adjust my position and where I’m placing stress in the lower body with my feet/ankles/knees. I kept these almost comically light for this session. I know my hamstring tendons have been getting beat up with the training I’d been doing. I know I can do a good bit more but will build things up over a few sessions I think. See how things are recovering as it goes. From there moving on to single leg exercise. I know that the work effort put in with the past few weeks have been taxing on my hamstring tendons so I figured I needed to do a change up here and give some rest. I’ve done mostly bodyweight single leg exercises before that were more so single leg than just other leg doing work and being support. My plan was to use an exercise that I had done before when I had to do heavy deadlifts and farmer’s walk in a prep that I recall not being so harsh on my knees. And that was step downs with foot to the rear. Really it has been those and lateral style in the past and those had been more so a thing for me in a few preps in the last few years. I figured I could go right back to these since I’ve been doing the split squats and I had been doing step ups in the prep before that. Turns out I was wrong. The emphasis is different with step downs and step ups. I was just not able to tolerate the discomfort at a certain joint angle. I guess the knees have had enough of my buffoonery it would seem. I was a little frustrated with this and attempted to see if lateral style worked better. I was then thinking about doing step ups instead and maybe do Bulgarian split squats. But I recalled that I can always make adjustments as needed. So I lowered the box height from 18” to 12”. That seemed to put me back in a tolerable ROM and keep to it. Happy I was able to find a solution here. As far as next time, I’ll have to see if I can tolerate an increase in the ROM (I can make it 3” higher safely) and if not, I’ll work on weight at the shorter height and then go back to try and increase ROM. Ideally get back to doing 21” on these but 18” would be fine too. I kind of wanted to wrap things up here. I was initially going to do the last two things I did last week with the ab wheel and banded lying clam shells. Then thinking I’d add in hamstring band curls seated style. But eventually went with what I’m thinking of doing if I find that rotational swings for the bag toss work best and that is landmine twists. It has been a bit since I’ve done these as well. I figured I’d test out the attachment I got so that I’m not grinding up my floor and barbell ends when I do exercises like this. It was a little haphazard and I do need to have it in a corner to keep it stable. These were pretty easy and I kept things loose. But cautious with how these would feel tomorrow with how my QLs had gotten really tense last week. Put stuff away and ate before stretching.

March 6, 2025 – Week 1, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
87x3
117x3
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
145x3
145x3
145x3
145x3
145x3
145x3

Band Assisted Pull Ups (2-2-2-0 tempo, pin 15)
sbx6
sbx6
sbx6

Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
185x5
185x5

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
10’sx6
31’sx12
31’sx12
31’sx12

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)
18x12--12/lbx12
18x12--12/lbx12

Stretching
 
Comments: Now this session, I had every intention of doing the workout I had originally put down for this day for what was to be the last week of the off season prep (is now first week of contest prep). It was close enough really to what I was going to be doing so I could just stick to it and be no worse for wear for next week. My intent was also to increase the intensity of the session from Day 1 and Day 2 to be more inline with actual workout intensity. But I got a feeling to just change the first half of the workout to be like how I’ll do this contest prep. One to make sure that certain things worked and felt good and the other being I was feeling a little tired of all the incline log bench presses and I didn’t care for how I felt last week one bit. I don’t feel like that this week but it was a bad mental taste so figured I’d just swap what dangling keys I had in front of me. I did a little bit of the circuit warming up stuff but obviously a bit different from the first two sessions this week. No lower body stuff really needed to be done. Foam rolling, bands and bodyweight stuff for the upper body. Really windy today outside. Besides Day 1, the rest of my training days are kind of alternated (light deadlift/banded log with board presses/ fingal fingers and farmers vs heavy deadlift/log/banded zerchers, leg press and Hercules hold). Generally, log strict press is like riding a bicycle for me. It has been many months now and I was doing it with lighter band tension. I seemed to feel really strong (not strongest mind you) with my log press when I was doing alternating banded sessions and heavier sessions without bands. Focusing on the lean back style and head through only on the last reps of the working sets with holds. I feel like this is a good switch from incline log press to these and keeping myself in the loop with log so that not so strange when needing to do this for an actual event. Log strict, axle with lower body drive. I checked to make sure the bands were still hitting the tension I had measured them years ago at. Plan was 60% of my projected max (242lbs) for 6x3 with no head through until the last rep of the sets and holding lockout position for 5 seconds before putting down. I wasn’t too sure how these would go considering like double the band tension I had been using on these. I was going to be essentially using 20lbs less (common theme with pressing) than I had when I last did these sessions. But that is where I’m at right now. But working hard to rectify that. I didn’t feel like I should wear a hard belt for these or wrist wraps. I definitely didn’t need them. I know these weren’t perfect reps each set. It will take time to get used to balance point on these lean back style pressing but I did feel powerful. It wasn’t like these were bad when I wasn’t perfect on the lean back reps but these felt nice a crisp when I was on point with them. From there it was on to band assisted pull-ups. I’ve not been doing vertical pulls for a few months now. And when I was doing them, they had been the band assisted kind. I know I can do pull-ups with weight but it would be lower reps and I’m trying to get myself feeling stronger and get better muscle control of things. I tend to find that the band assisted keep me from “swaying” with momentum when I pull up to the bar. My plan is to do most of the pull-ups with band assistance and eventually getting to doing regular pull-ups at the end so that I can have this like dips back in the training program. So I needed to do these in a way that was not terribly taxing to start but still difficult. So that meant a lot of band assistance but really making these slow. So 2-2-2-0 tempo it was. The concentric and eccentric aren’t that bad but that hold at the top is where things get difficult. I was initially worried I was doing too much with how the first felt. My intent was to leave 4-5RIR on these and was hoping for 8-10 reps. 6 was where I stopped. I forgot how annoying getting onto the heavy band setup is when I have it up this high off the ground. The second set felt easier by a good bit and then third set felt about in the middle. I should hopefully be able to improve on these next week. Another new addition to the routine with board pressing. Well, kind of. So I initially got a gymnastics bar pad to use to makeshift a shoulder saver bar when I was going to do incline pressing instead of log and board press stuff. That only was about 1 board height and my boards are currently propping up the yoke toss tower in the backyard. But I have the foam slant boards and those fit together great. So I can make a 3 board height with hard foam stuff combine with the bar pad. I wanted to just see how things felt with doing these close grip with pauses. I want to try to keep these manageable considering I’m doing lockouts on Day 1 sessions. These are to be every other week though. I wanted these to be similar to how the b-stance trap bar rdls were as far as difficulty. These felt ok warming up. Doing the presses to this height I could feel the triceps in that sweet spot that I feel needs to be worked to get pressing back up. This did take a little longer than I was expecting as I was making dinner between sets and had a kitchen mishap and had to clean up a mess. It is good to see things are working out as planned in the training at the moment. It will be a different story as I get more sessions in at 100% intensity. The rest of the session was essentially the same as last week. Incline triceps extensions with 3 second eccentrics. 3x12 so a drop in reps. I went up 5lbs from last week and that increase was noticed. Again, these seem to feel better than the lying version. Which is why I kept doing these and changed my mind from doing just band pressdowns. I got through these fine enough. Smaller increases I imagine going forward. Superset to end the evening. Leaning laterals with pauses and half kneeling band face pulls with pauses as well. I was initially going to use the same weights as last week because I had just changed the week sessions and there was likely more shoulder effort involved. I also felt it was probably best to just do 2 sets of each because of that. Shoulders tend to be what gets fatigued first for me and harder to recover. I did decide to add 1lbs to the dumbbell I was using and try to increase the tension on the face pulls. These didn’t feel as “enlightening” as last week but still good work. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

March 8, 2025 – Week 1, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Depth Drops to Box Jumps (12”)
18”x1
18”x1
24”x1
24”x1
30”x1
30”x1
33”x1
33”x0
33”x0
36”x0
36”x0
36”x0
36”x0
36”x0
36”x0
36”x1

Sandbag Throws (overhead style)
35x21’7” (foul)
35x24’1”
35x20’6” (foul)
35x23’3”
35x27’9”

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
35x23’8” (foul)
35x29’0”
35x28’2” (foul)
35x34’8”
35x25’0”

Fingal Finger Muscle Cleans
300x4
300x3
300+15x3
300+15x3

I-Beam Farmer’s Walks (18” pick, loading weight)
117x25’/137x25’/157x25’/177x25’
117x25’/137x25’/157x25’/177x25’

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Backwards Sled Drags (turf)
sb’sx40/330x75’
sb’sx40/330x75’

Stretching

Comments: I had decided to transition to contest prep a week earlier than planned because of how I was feeling at the end of the off season prep and I didn’t want to devote anymore time/effort to that when I could be trying out new stuff that wouldn’t have any pressure on me with the first week. I knew I needed to not go full bore this week as this was to be kind of a deload week for lower body stuff in the first place and need to see if some of the ideas even make sense. With my younger sister coming into the last two intense event session weeks for her competition (this week and next), it doesn’t make sense for me to be trying to push 100% on this stuff (at least not everything) as I’m still a good bit out and I got to see how the pieces work. I take the duties as being a coach very seriously. And I wasn’t really sure how long it would take for what I was planning to do either but I was in no rush. This was the least organized of the sessions for this week as I just had rough guidelines really and wasn’t sure if I would be sticking to them or not. I ended up doing a good bit of my warming up before then being a coach for a few hours. So I had to warm up again for my session. I’m not sure what I’m doing with box jumps. My initial plan is to not include them but then I felt maybe I should as something to keep in the mix. I kept them in for this session since it was one of the items from the offseason I did want to see the finish through on since I had done 12 weeks of the 3 variations. Bounding stuff to warm up. Seemed to be fine with doing 2 singles at each height. Plan was a top single. I had thought these would be my highest jumps but not really. I seem to like the seated ones best for height. But these are I feel are probably better than my regular box jump. I just get tripped up with the depth drop and redirecting. 33” I got first try but I wasn’t satisfied with it as it wasn’t a balanced land. I think realizing it wasn’t a secure a platform to jump to is why I couldn’t get myself to commit to it after that and I decided to move on from there. I felt like I had to try 36”. These are definitely something where I get a mental block and have to override it. The previous setup instability and then just how any distraction of people being near me throws me off when going for these kinds of jumps was frustrating. But I stuck with it. I didn’t care if this ended up being an above parallel landing. In the span of about 5 minutes, I missed it 6 times but got it on the 7th. I wouldn’t do this on something like a max deadlift but I kind of needed to get over it and do it. I wouldn’t have been able to have this many chances if it was wood or metal plyo boxes. Then on to actually testing some events for this competition. Sandbag toss for distance up first. I’ve not had enough experience with toss for distance but seeing as how just about every highland games athlete does a rotational toss style, I figured that would be the ticket here. But don’t want to go off assumptions. With the competition, the setup is 8x8 space to throw from and the lane the bag needs to land in is 10’ across. Foot fault out of the box, 0. Bag fouls, 0. No redos, only one attempt. So there is some pressure on this one to find what works and drill it so that don’t take a goose egg. I setup cones to get the box dimensions and the lane and set markers at 15’ intervals to 60’. I knew I wasn’t getting that far just from how my attempts last week inside on the turf were. Plan was to do 5 tosses overhead style and 5 tosses rotational style. Regardless of if good or not. See what feels like what and average distance and from there pick what I’ll focus on. Also attempting variations on things to see if that works better. I was kind of surprised that I fouled the same amount on both styles. I would’ve thought I’d have screwed up the rotational more than the overhead. That’s not to say that I didn’t have trouble with coordination and spatial awareness with the rotational style. Same percentage of good/foul and 5’ greater average results with the rotational style. I feel like I could get a little more out of the overhead style with increased mobility in the thoracic spine and getting my lower back to not be so tense but that could be a losing battle here and seems less strain on my body with rotational style. I also feel like event fatigue is less a factor compared to overhead style with how I seem to rely on things. I was pleased that I got one toss over 30’. I’ll need to watch some more throw videos I think to try and get this ingrained. I feel like I’ll be doing this weekly, just not sure if keeping same intensity each week or varying. But plan is contest weight bag next time. From there I was back inside to setup another event; Fingal Fingers. It has been since 2021 that I’ve really touched this. Today I was just going to see how things felt and use the lightest of the fingers at the gym. This event is such a pain to setup by yourself as the implement is darn heavy to move by yourself. I eventually had to ask for help to get the pivot pin situated. I’m seeing I’ll need assistance for this one every time if I need that for the lightest finger. Plan was to not walk with the finger but to essentially do muscle clean and presses. 4x3 is what I had indicated here. No support gear and testing out my new receiver gloves. I’ve kind of learned that wrist wraps can help with the overhead portion but hamper that transition from the floor to the shoulders with decreasing mobility. I did get to finally try out something I’ve been wanting to do for Fingal fingers with doing backwards gator walks with feet in those fitness discs. Who knows what kind of warming up you’ll be able to do or if you don’t have one to work on. It’s okay but definitely not good enough to replace. Could see it as a warm up coupled with medicine ball clean and presses. I was a little nervous with the clean with it being crushing strength and biceps. But I was fine and these went up easy. So easy I did an extra rep apparently. I had an idea after that to see if I could perhaps load weight on this setup without having to swap in the next finger. The gym has three fingers (300lbs, 400lbs, 500lbs) and they get 2” bigger in diameter as you go up in weight. When I did my last competition with a finger, they had loaded weight to make if feel like a set weight in the front and I found it quite challenging compared to heavier weight at the gym. So I may need to see if I can get up to 500lbs. But if I can add some kind of weight to the lighter ones, I could perhaps not need to worry about that hassle and stick to the 400lbs finger for prep. The sandbag didn’t fit in the 300lbs pipe but it probably could for the 400lbs. A 15lbs slam ball was able to fit and that little amount of weight was noticeable immediately. Not 100lbs more but enough that it feels like somewhat in between. It does need to be reset every rep but that is fine with me as I will most likely be doing EMOM singles as I expect it to be heavy. I couldn’t fit a bigger slam ball so stuck to 15lbs. Like I said, may not be an issue with the 400lbs finger which I intend to use next time. I had some help with tearing down the setup thankfully. I may need to set this up first thing to make sure people are there and try to catch people before they leave. Though the 400lbs isn’t as difficult to get to. One to one last event. By this point, I had already washed my hands of rust, dust and grime for the third time. Farmer’s walk is back. Contest is a bit unique in this event in that starts really light but increases 50lbs per hand every 25’. And you have to add the weight to the handles yourself. Max distance in 90 seconds with these factors and no drops in the 25’ range or you are done. 50lbs jumps gets heavy fast. I wasn’t going to be doing that for this first session and likely not until much closer to the show as I feel I need to build up my ability to repeat picking farmer’s at this kind of weight again. But I did want to see what I’m dealing with time wise with having to add my own weights. I also didn’t want to go full speed as trying to see if my right hamstring is chilling out on me. Also, all the farmer’s handles (besides the Jenkins one) have been rewelded so that means I have the 18” I-beam handles again. Oh joy. So plan would be empty handles and do 25’ and add 20lbs to each handle and repeat that 3 times. So last run would be 60lbs heavier than what I started. Then do it one more time for good measure. I also didn’t have any support gear for this one. This event is going to be as awful as I thought it would be. I could tell immediately that my steps and the muscles that were getting sore and fatigued matched the motion I felt doing the step downs on Wednesday. So going to need those for sure. Lower back was feeling fatigue as were my legs. Grip was fine and dandy. I move a little faster on the runs the second set rather than purely casual pace and it felt like less fatigue issues that time though still lower back. I was able to complete that second one in a little over 60 seconds. So I should have time to get in 4 runs and have time for a 5th in contest, which is the most I’m expecting to have a shot at budging with that being 400lbs per hand. Last bit was just a pairing of exercise I’ve been having my younger sister do with hamstring curls and backwards sled drag. I do the stuff I tell her to do too. Next week plan is to do ghrs instead of leg curls but I may hold off on that as I want to make sure my hamstrings aren’t getting irritated in the tendons from them and recovering. Someone else had been doing sled drags and I told them to just leave it out as I’d be doing them later. I wasn’t sure what weight was on there but it looked like enough for what I wanted to do. This ended up being pretty good. I feel I may need to keep in sled drags just to keep my legs conditioned for the farmer’s walk event. Downed a shake, put stuff away and stretched my calves before driving home and finishing up stretching.