September 23, 2013 – Overhead Event Training

Things are getting serious now as the contest isn't just some far off date now. Got to get some things I'm trying out and I have to get some more structure for events besides the yoke and farmer's (those are perfect). For dumbbell, I'm going to try to focus on just my strong side from now until the show. For the hummer tire deadlift, I'm going to be trying out a deadlift suit and hopefully be able to up my weights a bit in training. Stones, well, I think that will be every other week with one being heavy to low platform and the other being light to high platform. The event is a little different as it isn't most reps with heaviest stone wins but total weight lifted in 60 seconds. For instance, if someone does 10 reps with 300 over 60", they would need to do either 9 reps with 350 over 48" or 8 reps with 410 over 40". Might as well work both the high and the low load (low is still 50" for me haha) to prep. That leaves the two grip intensive events (car deadlift hold and arm-over-arm). Going to put these in the week I don't do stones (week 4 is a rest week). Car deadlift hold pick up is supposedly 18" which should make it quite a bit more manageable for me to pick it up. Arm-over-arm is a bit tougher to line up so I'm going down to Brute Strength Gym on 10/27 to do a plane pull for charity. I'm going to try and do it as an arm-over-arm pull and this is probably my only session to do it. Just got to keep lifting, pushing it and waiting.

Dynamic Warm-ups

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Left Side Only)
20x5
20x5
50x5
80x3
110x3
130x1
145x4
145x4
145x4
145x4
165x2
185x0
185x2 PR+5lbs

Axle Jerks
180x3
230x8
230x8
230x8
230x8

Band Triceps Pressdowns
LBx25
LBx25
LBx25
LBx25

Face Pulls
LB+MBx25
LB+MBx25
LB+MBx25
LB+MBx25

27 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: After some debate with myself, I'm going to only do my left side (strong side) for circus dumbbell leading up to this contest. My weaker arm is 15lbs behind for a max lift last I checked and expending energy is probably taking away from pushing the side I'm going to use at the show. A little weird just doing the one side. Both biceps became extremely sore once I got up to working weight from stone training on Saturday. Surprised myself with how fast 165lbs went up, I think I was really excited prior to the lift because I became airborne looking at the video. I screwed up on my first attempt at 185lbs. The first mistake is that I cooled down too much from my previous set. My father had stopped by the gym to talk with me. The second mistake was not chalking up my shoulder. When I went for my initial drive, the dumbbell slid, so I had to readjust and expend more energy before attempting to press. I rested a bit and decided to give it another shot and hit both reps; first one solid, the second one shaky. Happy with that as I'm better at singles and it means I'm getting better. Biggest lesson learned is to just bath in chalk like a chinchilla before circus dumbbell haha. Moved on to axle work. I wasn't sure how this would feel since my left side would be ready (but fatigued) while my right hasn't really pressed anything yet. Didn't seem to be an issue. First set was the roughest and I got better at driving under the bar as the sets went on. On set three, I felt and heard a lot of snaps and pops in my legs around my knees and ankles. Band work was next and while it is getting easier, I'm going to keep the tensions the same until it feels as easy as when I used mini bands. Good amount of stretching for hamstrings to finish up the day.