April 7, 2018 – Week 8, Day 3

5 Minutes Schwinn Airdyne Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
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 Clean and Viper Presses
Dumbbells
10’sx10
20’sx5
30’sx3
40’sx2
Log
100x1
120x1
140x1
160x1
180x1
200x1
220x1
240x1

Yoke
300x60’ in 6.58 seconds
400x60’ in 7.34 seconds
500x60’ in 7.87 seconds
600x20’ in 3.60 seconds
700x20’ in 4.18 seconds
800x20’ in 4.94 seconds
900x20’ in 7.42 seconds
1000x40’ in 50.76 seconds (1 drop)

Atlas Stones (tacky)
237.5x1 to 52”
295x1 to 52”
330x1 to 52”/365x1 (22”) to 52”/375x1 to 52”
453x1 (22”) to 52”

Stretching

Comments: The day before had been very stressful at work. I set things up so that I could come home, eat and go to bed. No walking after work to try and let whatever is irritated in my left inner thigh calm down. I told myself once I was cleared to walk from the back injury that I wasn’t going to take it for granted and try to do a long walk frequently during the week. Those seven months of doing nothing were not times I want to revisit. I’ll see how things feel this coming week as I might just do bike work so that I’m not a complete slug as that doesn’t bother it. Walking doesn’t really either. Icing and warming in ACE bandage and massaging too. Trying to not use any or much anti-inflammatories as they mess with my digestion. Enough of that, on to training. Wore the ACE bandage on my thigh for the session. Knee sleeve off for now. Warmed up on the bike and that felt good. Not super easy but good. Calf raise work good and easy. Sumo box touches felt good. Hamstring really tight but no achy knees. Skipped box squats again. Removing from the warm-ups for the rest of this cycle until the issue can be reassessed. Regular style box touches also felt pretty good. Just tight hamstrings. Band rows good. Push ups were good. Much less shoulder ache on the right. Hip airplanes were easy. Stretched out my biceps on the yoke. Time for the weights. Log viper presses again. Warmed up with dumbbells again. Watching my biceps since sandbag work from last weekend had been a bit more stressful not doing the top knot grab style. Didn’t want a repeat of last time. Tweaked my form on the log with having the handles rotated much further away from me than normal. I forgot I needed that extra wind up for viper style. 20lbs jumps on the singles as per usual. 100lbs went up so fast I almost lost my balance. The drive from the hips and then the lockout was putting some pressure on my hip but enough to tolerate. 200lbs went up smooth. 220lbs, the weight I stopped at last time went up loads better this time. 240lbs up next. I had to step forward a little on the pick before lapping the log and then going for the lift. Got out in front of me but felt about the same as 220lbs did last week. Probably could match my PR on the day but that would defeat the purpose of the frequency. Stopping when it isn’t smooth anymore. Yoke was next. I had to wait a bit for one of the two yokes to free up. That was fine as I was in no hurry to do what needed to be done. I got under the yoke with the first weight and my right knee was achy so I put on the copper knee sleeve. Started off with 60’ runs before switching to 20’ runs. 100lbs jumps every set. 300lbs was faster this time, whereas 400lbs was the same time and 500lbs was slightly slower. 20’ runs were interesting. Weight felt heavy at this point. 800lbs felt really heavy, enough so that I had to check my math. 900lbs felt like I was going to break through the blacktop into a bottomless pit below. I was much slower on this than I wanted but I wasn’t as slow as I thought I was. I needed emotional support for the last set. 1,000lbs with the goal being 60’. 20’ more than contest distance. Even picking this weight up from post injury would be a PR. Last time I tried something this ambitious was almost 7.5yrs ago. It’s heavy but seeing the weight go into four digits is something. This was bone crushing, soul crushing weight. I’m not sure how I was able to even move under this once I broke it off the ground. Very slow. There was even a point where I just stopped moving entirely to try and get the weight to settle. Little past 30’ when it went down. Not good. In training, I try and avoid a repick on heavy yoke. If I do, I limit it to one. I was more overzealous in my earlier strongman days and I have fracture vertebrae to show for it haha. But I told myself that I could get to at least 40’. That would be good enough for me. It would be at least contest distance. Another agonizing pick and up and moving. I was going to the right side but I didn’t care as I was almost there. 40’ and that was it. I was exhausted and breathing heavy. Back was supremely sore. It was a lot of weight to put away and I’m very thankful that my training group helped me as it would’ve taken me at least 20 minutes. On to stones. I think the rest of the training group was kind of incredulous that I was doing anything after the yoke. But I needed to do stones. I didn’t have much time and this was to be potentially my heaviest stone session. Goal being one series close to contest conditions and then a heavy single. For sake of time I kept everything at 52” for the contest height. I had an idea of what to do before this but it really came down to how beat the yoke had me. I did two singles to warm-up. I don’t need much with stones to warm-up which is good as most contests lack warm-ups for stones. 295lbs I was too far behind it so it made it a little harder than it should’ve been. With how that felt, I went with one of the lighter options of the series I was thinking. 330lbs, 365lbs and 375lbs. I wasn’t sure if the 22” stone would feel harder than the slightly heavier stone. It did feel harder so make move that in the future if I’m doing another stone series. I made sure to not just bear hug lift the stones and get my arms over top of them. Then it was time for the heavy single. I could do the big stone from last time. But I really didn’t want to try it feeling this beat and miss it. The other option was the 453lbs 22” stone that was somewhat dusty as it was unsealed. No one had been able to lift it yet and it’s been sitting around for quite some time. If I miss this one, so what, I will be yet another person to fail on it whereas if I get it by some miracle, I’d be the first. I did my spread arm approach (I forgot that this helped on the bigger diameter stones) and went for it. It came off the ground and wasn’t slipping. I then lapped it. No issues. I got my arms adjusted and figured the hard part would come on the extension. But the hard part never came. Easily lifted. Again, I got a little excited, flexed and shouted stuff. I like stones and I’m so happy that I’m lifting this well after the long hiatus and only three sessions on them. This was a must do session for me. Heavy rack pull earlier this week followed by stupid heavy yoke and stones. Really gives me an idea of how the contest will be. Home to recover, stretch and rest. One more heavy week to go.