May 19, 2018 – Week 2, 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

Axle Clean and Jerks
45x7 (one clean)
75x1
95x1
115x1
135x1
155x1
175x1
195x1
215x1
235x1
255x0,1
275x1
295x1

18” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk (with drops)
117x100’ (drop at 50’) in 13.93 seconds
201x50’ (drop at 25’) in 10.68 seconds
267x50’ (drop at 25’) in 12.78 seconds
327x100’ (drop at 50’) in 29.19 seconds

Prowler 2 Pushes (turf)
170x93’
180x93’
190x93’
200x93’
210x93’

Stretching

Comments: Raining. Woke up and my right side of my upper back and shoulders were really tight and painful. Not sure why it was feeling like that now. Maybe taking Aleve and Motrin the previous day (for the lower back) had masked it. I may need to get an adjustment done. It’s been so long since this has been an issue but it seems to happen with heavy circus dumbbell. Used the car buffer to see if that helped at all. I hadn’t gone for a walk the day before as I was trying to get to sleep at reasonable hour as this day was going to be busy with training and social activities later. Caught the second half of the Arnold Africa before I finally went to go train. So already running a bit behind my planned schedule. Dropped off the Power Keg at the gym as well. Left hamstring got tight setting it down. I might be falling apart haha. Got out a foam roller to use on my upper back and hamstrings before I did anything. Used the uncomfortable exercise bike to warm-up and get ready to train. Calf stuff was good and easy. They were somewhat tight but felt springy. Box squats and the RDLs felt nice and easy. No joint aches here. Band rows, pushup and plank hold all felt good too. Biceps stretch I had a little issue figuring out which option was the best to use. Some stuff had been moved around since last time so there was a spot to do the hip swings. Getting better at them. Then it was to the weights. First thing for today was axle. Work up to a top single after warming up, doing 20lbs jumps. No restriction on top weight like last time but again, that was essentially my limit that day haha. My original plan was to try for 300lbs and hopefully go for 320lbs after that. But I made changes with what I had to work with. The axles at the gym are hollow and painted. There is another one with knurling and the other is 250lbs empty with fixed wheels on it. Hollow axles seem to throw me off on the clean sometimes as the weight goes up and I’ve never used one that is “painted”. So started really light and after that first set I went to what I started with last time I did axle at the Y with my solid axle. I was moving pretty quick and I startled a dog (the gym is very open about dogs) with how fast I moved. I took it as a good sign for the day. I felt like maybe I needed to put chalk on my hands after 235lbs. I learned that was a mistake. Apparently chalk on shirt is fine but chalk on hands is a no-no with the painted axle. I went for the clean and my hand on the under hand side missed the recatch with I flip my grip on the first part of my continental. I kind of looked at the weight dumbfounded. No way was I stopping at 235lbs. Took a few moments to collect myself and went for it again. Made sure I had it on my stomach and then popped it up to the shoulders and then jerked it. So I wasn’t feeling so hot after that little misstep. I wasn’t so sure that the axle was going to be great with the clean issue. But I figured I’d keep going and just track things in my logs about it. I had been trying different logs for log press so why not axles? 275lbs the clean was better but my body didn’t want to cooperate and my legs were stubborn. I didn’t want to have an out front push press like last week. Not much enthusiasm going for 295lbs. Contest weight again. Trying to keep everything crisp. Slow break off the ground with secure grip and accelerating into the second pull to the stomach with the hand flip and bumping it to the shoulders in one movement. The clean was way better than 295lbs last time. I really wanted to get a “split” jerk this time but with how I do it, it’s more of a kickstand/side jerk. Lockout was a bit tougher than I would’ve liked but way easier than last time. I watched the video and the clean was easy but I figured it wasn’t worth it to try for 315lbs with how the lockout felt. Don’t want and misses. Had to wait a little bit for a lane to clear up for the next thing. Farmer’s walk. The lanes got painted since I was last there with 5’ markers. Farmer’s today was no joke as far as what the end goal was. Essentially three work up sets and then do competition event. Two sets of I-beam farmer’s handles. The pair from the old gym was behind other stuff so I used this other pair. They looked bigger but I weighed one on a scale and it appears to be about 5lbs less than the other pair despite being 2” higher pick height. So I have another implement to track haha. Since I’m essentially doing deadlifts from the floor most weeks this training, I figured the higher pick height (and is probably the same as the contest) would be fine. The event for the show is 50’ down, drop and turn and taking it back 50’. The contest after this also has something similar to this event so this is going to be something that needs work. My pick up with heavy weights is terrible but I can hold on to things quite well. Empty implements for the first run. I was little concerned with how my hamstrings, hips and back would feel on these. I figured no issues with the actual moving on the back but more so on the pick up. Felt good. The drop and repick will be trouble if I go too fast. The implements will slide on the floor at this gym on these lanes and that will probably be the case at the convention center. The implement on my left hand kept splaying out a little bit and trying to pick and go was tougher on the back. The next set was half the distance with weights added. I used 25lbs plates so that it wasn’t all titled in on the pick up. I kind of gave up trying to get exact weights with these. This set was fast. More weight for another short run. Definitely felt like I had some weight there on the pickups so I knew that the top set was going to be rough. I didn’t have enough control on the drop at the end and the one handle fell over due to being top heavy. I knew I needed to have better control on the next set. I couldn’t have that happen on the first drop or that would kill my time. Tightened my belt for this last run. Just above contest weight. Rather be above than below. Took a bit of mental prep holding the handles before I actually lifted them. I felt slow and I kept seeing the end line and thinking that is just halfway and I got to pick these stupid things up again. Slowed down and followed the handles down. No tipping and no splaying. Everything was set for a good run back. My time from drop to repick was between 2-4 seconds each run so I knew that I needed to go but I always had just one shot to get it. I’m not very good at repeated picks on farmer’s walk. This only the second time I’ve done this style in training and once in a contest (it was low pick frame so not as much worry about control). A little over 4 seconds from drop to initiating repick. I knew I was going to finish after I stood up with that grinder of a pick. I got to the end and even with the collars on it, some weights popped off. Just over 12 seconds the first half and just under 13 seconds that last half. I was cutting things close so I moved on to the next thing, putting away my weights in-between sets. Prowler again. It was supposed to be sled last week but I didn’t read so good. So either sled this week or prowler again. It I did sled, then I would need to reverse it for the next time. It was easier to just do the pushes again as I didn’t want to try and figure out sled stuff especially since the “tunnel” was closed off on one end so if I had the two straps I couldn’t even get the full 93’. Tougher this week. I only bumped up the weight for all sets by 5lbs. Trying to keep fast feet and not reverting to full foot plodding style. Last run was definitely tough. Rushed home to put Icy Hot on my right side of my upper back before stretching and cleaning up for the rest of the day. Ended up having 3 minutes to spare in all haha.