June 16, 2018 – Week 6, Day 3

5 Minutes Misc Stationary Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

16” Goblet Box Squats
20x25

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

Yoke (with drops)
300x100’ (drop at 50’) in 14.21 seconds
400x50’ (drop at 25’) in 8.97 seconds
500x50’ (drop at 25’) in 9.42 seconds
600x50’ (drop at 25’) in 11.49 seconds
700x50’ in 9.42 seconds
800x100’ (drop at 50’) in 42.36 seconds

Keg Load Over Bar
154x1 to 68”
203x1 to 68”
252x1 to 68”
276x1 to 68”
300x1 to 68”
327x1 to 68”
351.5x0 to 68”
351.5x0 to 66”
351.5x0 to 66”

Stretching

Comments: I didn’t want to do this workout. Well it was more I didn’t want to do this workout and not be able to do it. Right knee is not feeling it right now. Icing my knees and taking whatever anti-inflammatories I have. I can deal with it just existing but it’s hindering me doing what I want/need to do. No walking yesterday to see if that helped at all. It was quite warm out today. Wore copper sleeves on both knees driving out to the gym and kept them on all day. I figured walking wouldn’t be too good on turf since my knees seem to be more achy and not as warm doing that. So I got on the bike for this one. Calf raise stuff was easy. Nice and springy so good sign. Goblet box squats after that. Knees ached but not as much as I was expecting or could be with my knees. Really thinking about sitting back on these first to get the hip hinge. Knees were a little achy on the RDLs too. Band rows were great as were push-ups. Easy plank hold followed by the biceps stretches. Hip swings weren’t bad either but I noticed that my right knee was a little off when that was my swinging leg. Now for weights. First up for the day was yoke. 50’ down, drop and turn and 50’ back with contest weight of 800lbs as the goal. Starting at 300lbs and taking 100lbs jumps. Similar plan to the farmer’s walks but more sets. I had cooled off a little waiting for a lane to open up so I did some “yoke walking” with nothing on my back to see how it felt on my knees. It would really suck to have driven about an hour to drive home. Then I did some picks with the empty yoke and some walking. I was going to need more than the copper sleeve to do this safely today. I had brought the knee brace I had used for keg press last week and put that over the sleeve. Could still move but felt I had enough support. Had a small child in the lane on both ways with 300lbs. I couldn’t seem to move into another gear. I figured that maybe it was due to the first set or that I didn’t want to hit the kid. But it seemed to be the case for all the sets. The next three sets were half the distance with the pick and turn. Knee didn’t seem to be getting worse. Right side of my lower back was stuff and sore. It was chore bending over to pick up stuff or put weight on the yoke. 600lbs felt like a house. I felt like I was slowing down on the second half of that run. I felt my transitions were slower too. With how 600lbs felt, I figured I wasn’t going to be able to fast pick and go with the next weight. This was just a straight run of 50’. Slow on the pick but I seemed to be doing well and pick up speed. But like 15’ out my left hip and leg just stiffened up and messed up my rhythm. Almost dropped it with how abrupt it came on. This seems to be the case more with heavier runs. I was not happy with this but it was at least under 10 seconds. Realization was setting in that the last run may not happen. Before signing up for this contest, I had figured that the farmer’s walk and yoke wouldn’t be so taxing to train for since I had been hitting these weights consistently since October. Literally no stop in contest prep since a year ago. But yeah, at my level, this is still tough. Be humble. I took my time before doing this last run. Switched out the 25lbs bumper plates for 100lbs plates. I was feeling sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to do this. I was worried I was going to just drop it 10’ in and be done. Had to talk myself into it. I was not going fast. I wanted to finish. Going fast might have what happened near the end of the last run. It didn’t feel so bad going down. About the same point my left side did that thing it does. This second half was going to suck. I took a bit more time to repick the yoke as I knew I was going to hobbling this thing back now. Really going slow now. About half way down this length and I’m slowing down even more. tarps are feeling raw from the yoke. Slow when tired, let it settle. I almost came to a dead stop but I was so close and once I got my hips under me again, I started moving and finished. Took me over 42 seconds. I feel like this needs to be at least 15 seconds faster. But it was done. Took my time putting stuff away to get ready for the keg lifting. Plan today for keg was singles over bar at 68”, starting light and lowering the height when I feel like I might miss and so on. I was not sure how this was going to go with my back and knee. Starting this light would give me a chance to work on technique that I can’t really do with the contest weight of 350lbs. I was literally throwing the power keg over the bar up until 300lbs. I was still able to launch it but it was much less ridiculous looking. Had a crash mat and three tires and that really didn’t stop the keg much, it came down to the exercise machines stopping it. I really need to get another arm sleeve as the power keg really is biting into my biceps on the right arm, especially on the load portion when I release the keg. I ended up wrapping my left thumb in tape to make that more secure and to keep it from bleeding. Pressing the thumb into the lip of the keg seems to be the most secure and stable way to match the other hand grip on the handles. Despite feeling like crap, I was feeling like I could get +350lbs over this height today. 327lbs went over this height and I was still able to get a bit over upper body shove into it. But I came up short at this height with the next jump. Looking at the video, it appears to be about the same height as I got around this weight to last time when I missed. Maybe slightly lower. I was feeling lightheaded with having it on my chest and exerting for so long. So I lowered it 2” to 66” for what I figured was a sure thing. It was not a sure thing. I was so close but it just got stuck and came back down. I figured I’d give it another shot. Same result. It was so close. I had nothing left. I didn’t want to lift it again. I figured it was close enough. Someone else training today tried it for fun and got it over easy with the same weight and height. I felt like crap. I just wanted to go home. The ice packs for me knees didn’t stay cold in the cooler I brought so that didn’t work out. So tired and beat up. I had to convince myself to stretch when I got home. Need to recover and refocus. Get over my bimonthly “I’m going to retire” funk and keep moving forward. Two more hard weeks in the cycle left.