December 04, 2012 – Day 1, Week 1
Dynamic Warm-ups
1) Strict Presses – Up to several sets of 225x3
2) Barbell Close Grip Bench Presses w/ 50lbs of Chains – 245 for sets of 3
3) Parallel Bar Dips – bw+45x3x6
4) Neutral Grip Pullups – bw+10x5x5
5) Incline Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows – 75’sx3x15
6) Chinups/Incline Curls – bw/25’sx3x6/15
7) Isometric Abs
30 Minutes of Stretching
Comments: First day of training. I was uncertain how things would go since I had just done three weeks of workouts and going straight into this. Haven’t been doing much strict pressing, mostly jerks as of late since switching from push pressing. Working sets were about 30lbs less than my best triple so I knew it would be interesting. I knew it was doable. First set felt like garbage. Nerves I think. Came back for the second and just made it look stupid. Confidence restored. I was content and none of the other sets felt that easy. Complacency I think. For benching, I didn’t do any warm-ups. I figured that since the weight wasn’t that bad I had just done a lot of reps with close to the same weight (minus chains) on overhead strict pressing, I’d be fine. Only issue I had was the first set as the chain weight at the top was kind of a shock from the weight I was using on overhead. Really quite easy, speed weight if I felt like it. Didn’t take much rest for the dips as I had been using more than twice that weight for more reps and sets last week. Unsure of the intent of these yet, whether it be something light or if just testing where I’m at with them. Imagine this exercise will be difficult next time. I had some concern about the pull-ups, since my right biceps had been acting up the last time I tried pull-ups. No issues this time which was good. Incline chest supported rows were next. Weight just flew up for the first ten reps but got really tough for the last five. My back is explosive, not too used to higher reps at this time. Hopefully this changes. The superset was just plain torture. The chin-ups were fine but damn those dumbbell curls. Light weight and high reps make Craig something something. I’m not too sure what these are meant to help with for my strength but these were the toughest thing in the whole workout. Finished up with the iso holds. Used to do these several years ago. Not much to say here other than I looked at my watch earlier on each set to see how much time was left. Good deal of stretching afterwards.
December 06, 2012 – Day 2, Week 1
Dynamic Warm-ups
1) Squats – Up to several sets of 410x3
2) Olympic Pause Squats – 300 for sets of 6
3) Weighted Crunches – 100x3x12
4) Axle Cleans – 226x3x3
5) One Legged Dumbbell Deadlifts – 75’sx2x3
6) Land Mines – 25x4x8
36 Minutes of Stretching
Comments: Yesterday was just a butthole of a day. Work was stressful, my cold got worse, I threw up my lunch and the Crossfit/Strongman gym was doing a kids night so I couldn’t do any squatting. I felt tons better today. I was nervous going in to the squats as the week before I had worked up to a tough triple with 10lbs more than the working sets and was having issues with 90lbs less for the work sets. I stayed positive and it turned out better than expected. This time the second set was the worst set. Breathing quite hard and my legs and glutes were cramping. Weight was light for the pause oly squats but the fatigue in my legs had me a little worried. I wasn’t’ sure with the crunches what style I was supposed to do. I elected the behind the head style with a dumbbell. Used to doing situps, crunches have a really short range of motion. Might actually be a good thing as less stress to the lower back and it will help me get my upper torso stronger for pulls. Next was my choice for events at 70%. Didn’t have much to work with at the Y (had meant to do this workout at strongman gym) so I decided to work on implement cleans. Arms were sore from Day 1 so I did axle rather than log. Really hit or miss with these. Hard to explode when legs were dead from all the squats. Whatever, the goal is strength and just keeping events light to stay familiar with them. Dumbbell deads were awkward. I’ve done RDL’s this style but I figured it would say RDL is that was how I was to do them. Just got to get used to the motor patterns for this lift. Weight was easy but I was wobbling like a fawn learning to walk. Not that that is a bad thing. I can see these helping the pull off the ground with how much force I have to put into to it to break the weights. Landmines were just ho hum. Shoulders were more sore than abs from these. They were still quite fatigued from Day 1. Did a ton of stretching after this one.
December 07, 2012 – Day 3, Week 1
Dynamic Warm-ups
1) Savickas Presses – Many singles with 175
2) French Presses – 90x3x15
3) Band Pull-Aparts – 3x12 w/ Monster Mini Band
4) IYT’s – 5’sx3x12
5) Rope Cable Face Pulls – 90x3x10
6) Incline Tate Presses – 40’sx5x15
7) Hanging Leg Raises – 3x15
31 Minutes of Stretching
Comments: Hard to get psyched for this workout like the previous two as it is was mostly high rep stuff on isolation lifts. Went to the chiro before this workout. Used to do the z-presses a lot when I started out but stopped because it wasn’t doing much for my press. Rest was only 30 seconds and since my legs were sore, I just sat on the ground the whole time rather than get up between each single. Shoulders were sore the first few and I was actually having some trouble keeping the bar close to my throat. Dent in the rack pins I think. Could have kept going and going if I had to. I was slightly unsure with the triceps work. Elbow extension based stuff tends to bother me but I pushed onward. I did these seated with no back support. I know there are several variations of this lift though. I let my elbows splay outward. Really big pump in my triceps. From there I went to the scap band work. I only had my monster mini bands but they were a decent challenge. IYT’s were interesting. I’ve done similar lifts like this but rarely as one big set. Essentially 36 reps a set and I started to feel these by the end. Face pulls were way easier than I expected after all the upper traps stuff. Like using the heaviest resistance on a rowing machine. Warming up really. Tates were another iffy one for me. Never tried this much weight on them as I usually just plain suck at elbow extension. I also read it as three sets but it dawned on me upon review that I had to do five. Really awkward lifting. Weight wasn’t much issue but the complexity was beyond my reptilian brain at the time haha. I’m sure I’ll be much more graceful next time. Finished up with leg raises. Did my best to give the exercise the proper respect and not treat it like a cool down. Not bad. Stretched to finish the day.
December 08, 2012 – Day 4, Week 1
Dynamic Warm-ups
1) Deadlifts – Up to 555x3
2) Deadlifts – 495 for sets of 3 with short rest
3) Dumbbell Shrugs – 120’sx3x15
4) Bent Over Dead Stop Rows – 275x3x5
5) Glute Ham Raises – bwx3x6
6) Farmer’s Walk – 252 for sets of 200’ (turn at 100’)
7) Atlas Stones – 335 for sets of 6 (58”)
8) Yoke – 700 for sets of 50’
Comments: I was extremely nervous going in to this workout. Just half of this workout was going to be a ton of effort to complete. I’d mention this and told it was not impossible, just very tough. The weights were being based off of my all-time best pull and I felt I was not at that level yet. I had missed a 600lbs pull six months ago. I was going to give myself another day of rest but the opportunity to get the workout in today was too good to pass up. Jenkins was going to be training events that evening so that meant I could go to the strongman gym to train. I went to the local Y to start the workout. I decided to go back to just grip and rip style for deadlifts, at least for the time being. I’m not aiming for any contests until Spring and when I have a specific event, I’ll keep that in mind for the training. Despite being beat up from all the squatting, I felt good on the pulls. 555lbs felt like an all-out effort in keeping strict form. Had to step back to get myself ready for the third rep. The speed pulls actually had me more concerned than the heavy triple with the short rests. The fear of failure can be paralyzing. I took a long rest to psyche myself for it and pulled the first set easy. Made short work of the second. I noticed a slow down on the third and they got harder with each set. I switched my grip half way through. Hands were understandably sore from this. Shrugs were almost like a rest period, really easy. Unsure if it was just from being so pumped from the pulls or what. Felt like I could have done all the reps in one set if I had to. Rows were weird. I was trying to hurry to get to the other gym at this point. I used straps to save my hands and to keep me from pulling with my biceps so much. First set was awkward, should have done some warm-ups I think. Staying bent over like that for the whole set made me feel nauseous. The other two sets were much smoother. Beat feet across the county line to the other gym. Jenkins was leaving but I got to stay and do the rest of the workout. Glute hams were pretty much just active rest while I setup the farmer’s walk course. I was really dreading these since I knew I would be beat from deadlifts and my legs were clumsy from squatting soreness. Farmer’s generally don’t have turns much anymore but I knew that the idea was to build up the grip strength. Took really long breaks between the runs. First run I made it most of the way back before I dropped them. Fell a bit shorter of that on the second run. The final run was just awful. I never recovered from the turn and the implements got caught inside each other so I was really off balance and dropped them short of the halfway mark on the return trip. My hands were just raw and throbbing at this point and my second pick was poor, dropping them about 20’ short of the end. Repicked and finished it. Took a while setting up stones and putting away the farmer’s walk stuff. Never tried putting on the stone sleeves solo. I couldn’t get them tight enough to keep them from slipping which made the stone lifting much tougher than it should have been. Despite all that work, the picks and the extensions were spot on for the most part. Took a lot of effort to clean up before going to yoke. Did picks to warm-up. My quads cramped up hard just doing those. I did the two runs with 700lbs without issue. My upper back on the left side did start to bother me about 15’ from the finish on the second set. Including the driving time, this workout took me 5 hours to complete. Super exhausted and it was way too late to get in stretching if I wanted to eat dinner before 12:00AM.
No comments:
Post a Comment