June 18, 2011 - Events

I didn't workout/lift on Thursday or Friday since I was going to be heading down to train as Brute Strength Gym on Saturday. My night class got out a 9:00 so I had only time to eat and pack Thursday night. Left after work on Friday and got to Andy's a 9:00 (bad traffic and a torrential downpour made for a 5 hour drive) .Got up early and drove the rest of the way to Brute Strength. Me, Andy and his friend Jeremy. I was worried since my lower back was still giving me fits from Tuesday (damn front squats) and the long drive and sleeping on a couch didn't improve it. But Andy and I have been planning a trip down for months. Actually we were going to go mid February but I injured my hamstring and then he injured his in late March.

Dynamic Warm-ups

Circus Dumbbell Presses
75x1/1 (14")
75x5/5 (14")
115x3/3 (11.5")
115x1/1 (11.5")
125x1/1 (8")
125x1/1 (8")
146x1/1 (13")
155x1/1 (11.5")
150x1/1 (14")
135x1 (8")/146x1 (13")/155x1 (11.5") - R
135x1 (8")/146x1 (13")/155x1 (11.5") - L
175x1 (14") - R
175x1 (14") - L
135x1 (8")/146x1 (13")/155x1 (11.5")/175x1 (14") - R

2" Rope Arm Over Arm Pulls
465x80'
665x80'

Atlas Stone Loads
No Tacky
250x3 (18") to 52"
300x1 (20") to 52"
Add Tacky
300x1 (20") to 52"/315x1 (20") to 49"/330x1 (20") to 49"/360x1 (20") to 49"/381x1 (20") to 49"
440x1 (21") to 49"
510x0 (22") to 44"

Comments: The plan was circus dumbbell work, arm over arm and stones and if up to it, anything else I might want to do. I try to err on the side of more since it is a haul to get down here. For the show me and Andy are training for has dumbbell press medley that consists of varying size diameter bells with increasing weight. Getting this medley set was a bit of task and also a time vampire. The plan was to make the 13" bell the heaviest but the sand bucket to increase the weight wasn't there. Also, most of the clamps wouldn't work on the dumbbell handle so that was chore finding ones that would. Finally, the setup was a regular dumbbell with a Fat Gripz added to it (our 8"), a "small" Bigg Dogg Strongg dumbbell (our 11.5"), the sand loaded Slater Bell (our 13") and a plate loaded dumbbell handle (our 14"). Each dumbbell had it's own unique challenge so warm-ups were exhaustive. For instance, the 8" was really low so going from the larger diameter ones to it was quite a shock when recovering from the clean, the 14" rolled since it was plates and the 11.5" was a lot longer than the other bells, making the clean tough. From there went to arm over arm pulls. Andy decided we should use the 2" rope to make it tougher. We set it up so that we were on the ground as opposed to pulling elevated from a tire. Andy went first and he looked like he was going to die so I was concerned that this was going to be a hellacious event. It wasn't, at least not for my first run through. I'm pretty good at this event. Andy and Jeremy just did one run through so rather than hold up the show, I did just one more pull with an added 200lbs. I immediately regretted my decision as it was a hard pull. My arms were just cramping by the time I finished it. I wasn't sure I could hold on to stones even. I was cautious on stones since I knew that not only was my back tight but that I would also have to contend with about 6 hours in a car afterwards. Andy was having some issues with the stones, a lot having do with just getting back to stones after a lay off due to hamstring issues. Been there, he should be back to killing it in a week or two. I just ran through the series (similar to contest weight) and it wasn't bad. I decided I wanted to see how a heavier stone felt and rolled out the 440lbs stone. It went up way easier than I expected. Andy noticed that I twisted quite a bit to my one side and I think that was due to my back. Definitely got to keep an eye on that. 440lbs went up so well that I decided to try 510lbs. Just broke that off the ground. I should have just done reps with 440lbs in retrospect. After that, we went to Chipotle. I had three burritos and got some shut eye before making a long drive back home.