December 11, 2011 - December 15, 2011

This week has been a busy one; hopefully there will be a little bit of down time with the holidays coming up shortly. Late night of video work Monday, job interview on Tuesday and a med check and more video work Wednesday. So I have some catching up to do. I guess the most important things are that I have two upcoming contests planned (Brute Strongest Man and Viking Fest) in early 2012. The regular event training will certainly provide new challenges for my training, especially since I’ve been doing so without events for several months now.

December 11, 2011 – Events

Dynamic Warm-ups

Axle Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
72x5
122x5
172x3
222x3
272x1
272x1
272x1
307x0,0
308x0,0
308x0,0,0 (no cleans)

Conan’s Wheel
CW+400xpick
CW+490xpick
CW+580xpick
CW+580x3 laps (169’6”)
CW+780xpick
CW+780x1.5 laps (84’9”)
CW+1000xpick
CW+1000x3 picks
CW+1000x3’

Atlas Stones
270(18”)x3 to 50.5”
350(20”)x1 to 50.5”
407(20”)x1 to 50.5”
522(20”)x0 to 47.5”
522(20”)x0 to 47.5”
407(20”)x3 to 50.5”

Comments: This was my first real event training session since my birthday in early September. Apparently the crew in VA are going to have to move out of this gym to make room. It sucks but it sounds like they will have a new place to train, just means I got to drive a bit longer when I come down to train. I got one thing right and just about everything else wrong. The plan was just three events, some sort of overhead, conan’s wheel and stones. I just had a horrendous amount of suck on axle. Just embarrassing and awful. Lot of mistakes, hell I failed three times to clean the last weight before I called it quits. Just made me angry. After having time to reflect, I have a plan for overhead training on event days. Going to go with a 5/3/1 rep scheme that should hopefully give me enough practice at push press form as well as overhead reps. On to conan’s wheel which was the only event that went right and it started out great. I did what I thought was the contest weight for a decent three laps but then I was told that the weight was going to not include the apparatus. So I added another 200lbs and got 1.5 laps. That was where the smartness ended though as I heard someone mention that another competitor had done the conan’s wheel with 1000lbs on it. Being smart would be just doing a set of picks with that weight but I did several; one an intentional pick and the others actual attempts to walk with it. The weight was compressing me so much that pick height I was using for the other weights was too high to walk with it. Lowered it one and got about three steps before it just wobbled me like a ragdoll. Someone noticed that my start stance was fairly wide and thought that I might have issues with transitioning into a walking stance. He is right so I’ll have to be mindful of that next time. Then came stones and I was going to finally get a chance to try out the Shaw Strength Stone Sleeves. They work well and stick to the stones but it can be a hassle to get them on as you need another person to help. Cleaning the tacky off is also a
chore and I’m not so keen on using a tough scrubber on the leather. The tape I had on to protect the Velcro was just garbage, it was oily and kept coming apart so I elected to do low volume. Picking up the
stones was pretty easy but obviously my extension was off a bit. In another rookie mistake, I tried the 522lbs again. I figured I had made the long trip down might as well try but it was just plain stupid. Not
even close. I did three reps with the dusty 407lbs stone and stopped when the tape just slid off into my hands. Obviously I was disgusted with how I did but I can only improve upon this session. The soreness
in my arms was intense and has only recently went away.

December 13, 2011 – ME LB

Dynamic Warm-ups

18” Front Box Squats
45x10
95x5
135x3
180x3
215x3
245x3
275x1
305x1
335x1
355x1
375x0
375x1 (spotter help)
380x1
352x2

Cambered Squat Bar Goodmornings
200x8
230x8
240x8
270x8
300x8

Seated Cable Rows (straps)
215x12
245x12
275x12
305x11 PR+5lbs

Comments: Didn’t feel so hot and I don’t mean just the incredible soreness in my arms and back lingering on from events on Sunday. Still having some stress, eye twitch still there a little. Felt like I had a
mild cold but pressed. As I’ve mentioned before several times, I despise front squats. Doing them regular style? No real improvement. Use a harness? Torn oblique. I’m honestly giving them another shot at the urging of Jenkins and doing them to a box with straps. I still hate them with the intensity of 10,000 burning suns. My goal was to do 375lbs as I had plugged that in as the weight to base my speed day
stuff. I’ve only done them to a box twice and one of those times was with the harness. It felt heavy all night leading up to the goal weight. First attempt with it I got stapled. My training partners said the negative looked perfect haha. At this point, my right shin was really sore. The pain was very similar to when I had Osgood–Schlatters. I decided to switch out of my wrestling shoes and wear my work shoes. That seemed to make things feel better. Next time I’ll do these with oly shoes. I got mad and had a go at it. A little trouble at the bottom but it flew up but I knew it wasn’t all me. One of my side spotters had given a nudge at the bottom. I had to decide if I wanted to “count” it and do my down set or try again. I decided to try again with more weight. I got angry, slapped my face and just moved it. Really tough but I got it. Banged into the j-hooks on the one side haha. I wasn’t paying attention when it came time for the
down set and I accidentally had 10lbs extra on the bar so that was a tough fought double. The plan after that was sets of eight on snatch grip deadlifts but I changed my mind to csb gm’s. See, I had been hoping to use the thick squat bar for a deadlift variation to give a contrast to the whippy deadlift bar. Didn’t work out so I’m going to make snatch grip deads a ME variation instead. That’s where csb gm’s come in as I’m not using that bar for squats. These went well, went real deep on them too. I screwed up my math on the one set so I practically did the same weight for two sets. No biggie. Rows reactivated the soreness in my arms. I can’t wait until my arms are used to event training again. Didn’t have time to stretch.



December 14, 2011 - Extra Workout

Walking - 32 minutes

Band Face Pulls
IW#1'sx100

Band Press Downs
IW#1'sx100

Band Straight Arm Lat Pulls
IW#1'sx100

Comments: Made sure I got this workout in so I could help the recovery process. Bands were tough to do and were quite dead.

December 15, 2011 - ME UB

Dynamic Warm-ups

Close Grip Barbell 4-Board Presses
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x3
225x3
255x3
285x1
315x1
345x1
375x1
405x1 PR+10lbs
420x1 PR+25lbs
435x0
365x1 (misload)
380x3

Swiss Bar Incline Bench Presses
130x5
160x5
190x5
220x5
250x1 (suck)

Seated Overhead Cable Triceps
70x12
85x12
100x12
115x11 PR+5lbs

34 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: Felt a lot like Tuesday and I wasn’t sure how I’d hold up. Board pressing can always be odd, especially the 4-board/5-board region. Really happy to hit over 405lbs on this finally. Had a bit of an issue on my down set as I put a 25lbs plate on one side and a 10lbs plate on the other. Stupid. Rested a bit and hit a triple. Incline was another story. I really suck at it and more so when it is after heavy stuff. I need to get used to that. I’ll make smaller jumps in weight next time and aim for a lighter weight until I get used to this. Perhaps that will work better. Triceps felt strong on cables. The chain tore a bit of the preacher curl bench on the set with 100lbs so I put an extra shirt over it to keep that from happening again. Stretching felt good.