March 17, 2018 – Week 5, Day 3

5 Minutes Schwinn Airdyne Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

16” Box Squats
BWx15

Regular Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Band Rows
MMBx20

Push-ups
BWx10

Hip Airplanes (supported)
BWx5/5

Biceps Stretches
20 Seconds
20 Seconds

12” Log Strict Presses
Swiss Bar
45x10
Log
100x1
120x1
140x1
160x1
180x1
200x1
220x1
240x1
260x1

Medley (Sandbag/Keg/Prowler)
200x60’/200x60’/275x60’ in 36.74 Seconds
250x60’/250x60’/325x60’ in 42.33 Seconds
300x60’/300x60’/375x60’ in 42.15 Seconds

Prowler Pushes
225x100’
225x100’
225x100’
225x100’
225x100’

Stretched

Comments: Knee bothering me but it’s manageable. I’ve had worse pains haha. Really tired. I had hit my snooze button five times the day before when I always do it once for work days. Ended up sleeping in later than expected this day too. Doesn’t really bother me to walk and I think the hamstring is doing a little better now. Drive out to Lancaster took a little longer due to construction. Only few people there for strongman when I started but more came in as I was doing my warm-ups. My dad gave me one of his copper infused knee sleeves. Like me, he doesn’t know if the claims are true but it will keep the knee warm. Also wore my arm one too as I wanted to stay warm for medley work outside. Warmed on the bike. Easy and felt good. Best it has every felt. Usually I feel like I’m breathing a bit or my legs can feel sore but it just felt peaceful almost. Calf raise work was good. Right calf is still tighter than left. I think that is also stressing the knee and I’ve been working the car buffer there too. Sumo box touches no issues. Hamstrings were really, really tight on these but felt good. Box squats also felt good. I was expected some knee aches but not much really. Regular box touches felt ok. More hamstring tightness and I had more knee aches here than box squats. I figured that might be the case due to more flexion of the knee here. Band rows and push-ups felt great. Hip airplanes were easy. No balance issues. But tight hips again. Stretched the biceps. Good. Not nearly as tight as they have been. Same with shoulders. On to the fun stuff. Originally the plan was to do log clean and push press like I have been doing and top out at 280lbs. But plans changed due to the knee and this was changed to strict press with the log out of the rack. Little tricky haha. The gym doesn’t have a rack that I can press in and nothing like the squat rack at the Y. The jerk blocks don’t go high enough for me either so I had to get creative. I used the two yokes for my “rack”. They aren’t quite even as far as height so I had to have the one on rubber mats to get it somewhat even. Warm-up set with a swiss bar. Log strict the idea was 20lbs jumps to a top single that wasn’t a max lift but a nice and powerful lift. I had a general idea of what I could do based off of training but can be hard to gauge. Knees were achy but I figured this would be the case getting the log off the yokes but it got better as I did them. I’ve done “strict” work on log before but I’ve either had knee bend or used the momentum of picking the weight off the rack to press so not really that strict. I wanted these strict. I paused the log for a moment after the lift off the rack and really tried to get my chest muscles into the lift.240lbs went up ok and probably would’ve been a good one to stop on but I wanted more. I figured if I got into little more excited that 20lbs more would be nothing. Mimicked the movement a few times and then got the log up and put it up about as easy as 240lbs. Pleased with that I I feel I had maybe 20lbs more there for a max. Took a bit to put the log away. I knew the medley was going to take time to setup. The sandbags had all been adjusted and reweighed. I did picks with the sandbag and the keg to see if it bothering anything in my knee or biceps. Same with the prowler drag. The workout came to a screeching halt though as my one training partner injured his left biceps doing a really light keg medley. He was distraught and I did my best to rationally explain things. Hopefully it is only a partial tear and he can recover quickly. But I have the feeling lingering with my own arm but I have to push it to the back as best I can. Medley work finally ready. Originally this was just going to be two sets with one really light and then contest weight. Another set in between those was added. Sandbag I reverted to my previous style of grabbing the top knot with my one hand. I’m leery of putting additional stress on that biceps at this time, especially with stones added to the mix. Up and going and easy transition to the keg. I had been thinking about these all this week on my walks in my head. Keg I didn’t carry as high since I had to put it back down and upright at the end rather than load it. I figured I’d have more control this way. The prowler drag was interesting. The weight listed for the contest is light but it might be changed. However, it could be just back loaded like I’ve seen in some videos. This makes the usual style of pulling work against you since it lifts to front up and has less points of contact. So the lean forward style I used seems to combat that effectively. I’m training both styles just in case. So not bad for the first run. Upped the weights on everything 50lbs for the next run. The wind changed direction so I had to reset my camera setup so it wouldn’t get knocked over. Almost had an equipment malfunction as the top knot on the 250lbs sandbag (the old 230lbs one) felt like it might snap but I got it up to my lap no problems. I had a bit of a misstep with the keg. The course had been reversed for this run so when I approached the keg, I was on the opposite side. That is my stronger side but I still want to avoid unnecessary stress to that biceps so I adjust my pick up on the fly. Oops haha. No issues with the drag. Then the big run. Contest weights for sandbag and keg. Don’t have a 300lbs sandbag just yet so I ended up duct taping 25lbs bag of lead shot to the new 275lbs one (previously 253lbs). I just needed it to hold for one run haha. A strongwoman competitor and friend, Paula, helped me set up the last run. I was impressed with how well she was moving the 250lbs and 300lbs implements. I was really worried about that stupid sandbag as I don’t know if I would’ve been able to get it up again if I dropped it. But things worked out better than expected. No issues on anything other than the sandbag being harder than the previous one to lap and carry. Last thing was some lightish prowler pushing. Was going to be a single stupid heavy sled drag but with the knee this was modified to this for today. Five sets of 100’ with a minute rest. Probably could’ve gone heavier but it felt good. Home to stretch eat and maybe fall asleep. Looking forward to deep tissue massage on Monday to be ready to go for the second half of this training cycle.