June 9, 2018 – Week 5, Day 3

5 Minutes 35lbs Sled Walk (on turf)

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

Keg Clean and Push Presses
27x5 Left Side
27x5 Right Side
80x1 Left Side
80x1 Right Side
100x1 Left Side
100x1 Right Side
125x1 Left Side
125x1 Right Side
Power Keg
144x1 Left Side
144x1 Right Side
163x1 Left Side
163x1 Right Side
182.5x1 Left Side
182.5x1 Right Side
208x1 Right Side
208x1 Right Side
208x1 Right Side
208x1 Left Side
208x1 Left Side
208x1 Left Side

18” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk (with drops)
127x100’ (drop at 50’) in 13.43 seconds
227x50’ (drop at 25’) in 10.75 seconds
277x50’ in 8.38 seconds
327x100’ (drop at 50’) in 27.12 seconds PR+2.05 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I had fully planned on getting up at a reasonable hour. My knees were a little achy Friday and I felt it was best to rest (no walk) eat a big meal and get sleep. Work had been stressful this week. Left shoulder is still being a bastard. If it is still like this Monday, I’ll probably see if I can get an adjustment done that day after work. I got up when my alarm went off by my body refused to move. I apparently needed another 90 minutes or so before I could peel myself away from bed. It was ok since today was relatively low volume and just two exercises. Also with Evan at Giants Live there were going to be less people training today anyways. Latest I’ve gone out to train in a long time on Saturday. I believe after noon was when I arrived. Tried to foam roll my shoulder a bit before starting. I was able to do laps around the gym with the sled so some of it was on turf and other spots on rubber floor. Both equally tough. I did get a little cranky when people leaving the gym would slowly lumber into my path. Calf stuff was good and easy. They were somewhat tight but felt springy. I was really trying to get a good stretch and decent ROM on these today. Goblet box squats were ok. Some knee aches but not as bad as it was last week. RDLs weren’t as easy as last time but I think that had more to do with not having the awesome music playing haha. Band rows, pushup and plank hold all felt good too. Left shoulder was a little achy on pushups but not as bad as it has been some days. I had been a little worried the band rows would bother my biceps but no issues. Plank was easy compared to the weighted one I did earlier this week. Biceps stretch I used a different setup as the benches were in use but it was just as good if not better. May try to use it next time too. No issues with hip swings. Plenty of space to do them inside today. Some pressure on the one side for supporting myself with the shoulder. Keg press was back again. Plan was just to work up to 80% for five singles with whatever rest I needed. Now hard to say was 80% is as most I’ve done is 243lbs this cycle but that is definitely not my max. 269lbs was too far at of reach when I tried it and it was an unexpected attempt for that day. I settled on 260lbs to base my numbers off of for these next few weeks. I ended up making some changes to the plan. I had only attempted to do ejector seat style to my left side with the assumption that was my better side. But I haven’t tried it to the right. I didn’t want to assume I was better on one versus the other and miss the opportunity to find one that was more efficient and miss working on balancing things out. While I’m training specifically for this upcoming contest, it’s good to be prepping for future contests and performances. Big picture stuff. I also brought in an adjustable knee brace as well. The Power Keg’s lip digs into the top of my knee and makes it bruise up. I can deal with the pain but bruising cuts into recovery and makes walking a little difficult for a few days due to swelling. Take it off and switch sides easily. Straps mean I can make it loose or super tight if needed. Just needing the padding for now. I can say that I didn’t feel like I was on point at the start today with the keg. Alternating sides makes it a little tricky to remember which way I got to tilt my head. I remembered to late on my first set with the Power Keg and grazed my ear on my right side haha. Plan was to drop the “weaker” side as it got hard and do the “strong” side for the work singles. Problem was that they felt about the same. Clean was stronger to the left side but my stability was better on the right side. Fractions of a second difference really. I figured the best option was to do three singles each side with the working weight. Be able to see if one side is a better option for next time and it was just one single more than planned. Only one where I felt any issues was the first one with the left side as I don’t think I was prepared for how fast it would get up to my shoulder. The pressing was easy so that is good. One of the downsides of coming to this gym late is that the music may stop as people unplug their iPods or phones from the stereo system. So no real sound for the keg pressing once I got to the top weights. Next up was farmer’s. Be the last thing for the day. Not a lot but it was going to be tough. I walked fast down the lane and back to do some movement prep before actually going. Like last time, the plan was to do sets with the last one being contest run. It’s a heavy enough weight to make me anxious. First run was down and back full course length with about 200lbs per hand under contest weight. I tried to utilize what I learned from last time as far as how to control the implements. I thought I was moving slower but apparently this ended up being .5 a second faster with 10lbs more weight so pretty good. Next run was half the distance with a drop and turn. This was about 100lbs under contest weight per hand. At this point, someone people came in to train and put on this horrible, slow tempo music. And each song sounded exactly the same. For this run, I put on 45lbs plates to make the implements stick out more. I figured this was better to mimic contest conditions rather than keep things more streamlined with smaller diameter plates. I felt like my picks were slow but this appears to have also been a good time. 26lbs more per hand than last time and I was less than .10 second slower. A little change from last time I did farmer’s walk was for this penultimate run was just a 50’ run with about 50lbs under contest weight. The terrible music was still playing. Pick felt slow but I feel I was moving fast. I felt my time was maybe a little slow compared to my bests for around this weight but it turns out this may be the fastest I’ve done this kind of weight. So things are looking up haha. Even though I had done the contest run with no issues last time, it was still making me nervous. Can’t always be at my best. And it was tough last time. It was going to be tough this time. The crappy music was still playing. I couldn’t tell if it was the same song or not. I began to wonder if I was in purgatory and if this song would just keep playing until I just went and did this last run and stop being big baby about it and do it. Pick felt heavy and slow. Video says otherwise. I felt like I was moving too slow down the first half of the course. Video says otherwise. I turn to go for the pick and notice that the one 25lbs plate is not where it should be. It had popped off the loading pin on the drop and had landed on the implement. So I had to put it back on and then go for the pick. Pick was harder this time. I was going to finish. Maybe the fight or flight response is compressing time for me on this. I thought I had screwed up but I was just over 2 seconds faster than last time on this. If the weight hadn’t popped off on the one end, I think I have this in under 25 seconds one day. Weights away and home to rest.