May 12, 2018 – Week 1, Day 3

5 Minutes Misc Stationary Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

16” Box Squats
BWx25

Shoestring Romanian Deadlifts
45x20

Band Rows
MMBx20

Push-ups
BWx15

Bodyweight Plank
20 Seconds

Biceps Stretches
20 Seconds
20 Seconds

Front to Back Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Side to Side Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Keg Clean and Push Presses
27x10
27x10
80x1
100x1
125x1
150x1
175x1
200x1
225x1
240x1

Keg Load Over Bar (62”)
250x1
275x1
300x1
325x0
325x1
350-325x1
350x1

Prowler 2 Pushes (turf)
165x93’
175x93’
185x93’
195x93’
205x93’

Stretching

Comments: Trying to out eat sleep and hard training it seems. Only slept in an hour past usual wake up time during the week for this Saturday. I had to get some things ready before driving out to the new training place. The app on my phone had me go a different route that might have taken longer than if I just went how I thought and the confusion of reading it I missed the exit the first time. I also wasn’t sure I was in the right place when I got there but it was. Took a good look around. I think this is going to be a better training place once I get settled in. A lot more strength stuff. Wish I lived closer as I think it would work for me doing all my workouts there. Not much in the way of cardio equipment but I only need that to warm-up. Not sure what kind of exercise bike it was but it didn’t really adjust to feel comfortable. But the elliptical machine and rower wouldn’t be so good with my hip/thigh I think. Felt good on my legs. Place was open air today so never got really muggy or stuff. Calf raise stuff is easy. Right side was really tight. Regular box squats after that. Felt good. As per usual, least amount of knee aches this day. RDLs with a barbell. Felt nice and easy. Band rows were great. Push-ups were ok. No cramping up in the pec this time. Easy plank hold followed by the biceps stretches. A little tricky finding a space to do the hip swings. I like how these feel on my hips, hamstrings and lower back. Better ankle mobility this time on the side to side. Then the weights. Today was essentially all about the keg with some sled work. I had hoped the power keg I’d ordered would’ve shown up this week but there were delays so I made due. Granted there were a lot of kegs at the gym so it really wasn’t going to be an issue for the first part. Keg clean and push press to start off the day. Plan here being to work up to a conservative single like the other press days. This is the one that I’m probably the furthest from getting at the contest at this time. This is the third time I’ve tried doing these in training and fifth time ever including contests. So still got a bit to learn. I did an empty keg for warm-up and I did it with staggered grip and alternated sides. I couldn’t remember if I went it my strong side or not last time as that was when I was dealing with biceps issues from the pull in January before Iron Goliath. Knees were a bit achy doing push press. I could essentially do anywhere from 5-25lbs jumps depending on the weight with the kegs here. All lined up like a dumbbell rack so I could just pull out the keg a I needed and put it back. I’m not sure what I did as far as my grip on the right hand that first keg but I managed to nick my thumb and had to tape it up to stop bleeding on everything. 150lbs was where I had some issues doing the clean and press style I had used last time. Just felt off balance and it took me a bit to feel secure to press. Clean wasn’t strong but presses felt okay. Like an even worse log press with the diameter of the keg and getting the lean back to engage the chest to help with the press. I’m not sure what clicked but I decided like mid set with 175lbs to try something different. Not going for speed as I’m not trying to one motion the keg. Treated it as if I was going to load the keg and then switched to pressing style. My go to was to switch my hand positon from what I was doing with the clean into a press style. Definitely will need some fine tuning. 225lbs went up well and that was about 90% of my current 1rm on this. 250lbs was not going to be a conservative max if I went for it. Luckily there was an in between keg of 240lbs. Figured that one was worth a shot. Balance was tough on this one. Definitely went down on my chest a bit away from my body when I finally went for the press. It was slow to lockout. Probably should’ve stuck with 225lbs but I don’t like the idea that I’m 50lbs off contest weight for this particular implement in the press medley. But I knew it was going to be tough when I signed up. Up next was keg for height training. Not working on max extension right now. Starting with the weight I stopped at for keg press and going up to contest weight of 350lbs on the keg. Yoke height was set to a height that if I had the keg up as if I were to press it, I could essentially just walk it over the bar. Turns out that height is 62”. Switched into my grip shirt and spandex shorts. Wanted to see how this worked on a keg as the grip shirt will be allowed at the contest. Hardest thing was just picking up the keg off the ground and lapping it. A lot of stress on my lats and trying to keep my arm straight so as not to stress my biceps. There was a hand truck at the gym so I was able to move the kegs around. I think it was more effort to move the kegs then to lift them. I then got to the heaviest keg at the gym of 325lbs. I didn’t respect the weight and I paid for it. I was lax on pulling it close to my body with how easy the previous weights were and I had thought it had went over the bar. It had not and with the momentum of having 325lbs that far away from my body I went down with it and it timed perfectly with the yoke recoiling back and hitting me in the temple. Knocked off my glasses and gave me a cut above my eye. Good thing I had my doo-rag on or it might have been a worse cut. 100lbs got added to the yoke to keep from being lifted so easily if I nudged it (I’m essentially going blind when the keg is up like that. I proceeded to get it easy after that. I was left with an issue in that I didn’t have a 350lbs keg. My options were either keep using the 325lbs keg and go up in height slightly or try and jerry-rig a one. I went with heavier. First attempt was to just put the 25lbs bag of lead shot in the lip of the top of the keg with the hopes that I would be able to keep it from falling out. Despite trying to keep it steady, it fell out at the very top of the load. So the next option was to use athletic tape and try and tape it into the lip of the keg. This time it held up but the bag fell out as the keg landed on the other side and the impact ruptured the bag so there was no more 350lbs keg for today. Really the pick up was the tough part. Obviously it will be more challenging once I start aiming for height and extension. It is normally something I don’t have to do in competition so this will be interesting to work on. And maybe having that kind of weight that high up on my chest will help my log and keg press. After that was sled work. I didn’t realize until I had one more set to go that this was to be sled drags and not sled pushes. Plan was fast feet, five sets of 100’. Well I had options as far as possibly using the alley/street leading to the gym for the course to get 100’. It was uphill the one way and it might take longer to reset. The other option was to use the long turf course. It was just shy of 100’ end to end but I figured this would make me work and I’d be using less weight. I was not expecting how much less as that first set I just put a pair of plates on it and it was already pretty darn tough. So very small jumps in weight. Just kept driving with my legs, keeping my drive on the balls of my feet and quick feet. Good first session (other than the cut above the eye, having to clean up the lead shot, doing the wrong exercise, getting bruises all over my arms). Had to do a bit more driving around Lancaster to find a place to get gas before heading home. Should be less of an issue next time now that I know where and what I’m looking for. And hopefully the power keg gets here. Home to stretch and eat. One week down, many more to go.