July 24, 2018 – Week 1, Day 1

5 Minutes Expresso Interactive Upright Exercise 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

12” Log Clean and Strict Presses (one clean)
95x3
125x3
155x3
185x3
215x3
245x3

12” Log Standing Lockouts
90x1
110x1
130x1
150x1
170x1
190x1
210x1
230x1
250x1
270x1
290x1
310x1

12” Log Overhead Supports
90x1
110x1
140x1
160x1
190x1
210x1
240x1
260x1
290x1
310x1
340x1
360x1
390x1
410x1 with 17.58 seconds hold

Pulldowns
80x15
110x15
140x15
170x15
200x15

Incline Bench Presses
45x10
112x3
160x3
208x3
256x6
1 Second Pauses
225x6

Wide Grip Axle Hang
bwx17.72 seconds
bwx12.55 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Back to the grind. Things went well for the contest so working on that momentum hopefully to keep improving. This training cycle for America’s Strongest Viking is going to be my shortest one so far but not relaxing any. Trying out some new things to help with recovery. Adding some vitamin D (I rarely get outside lately) and reintroducing HMB. After this contest, I think I’ll be shying away from SC shows. I have my reasons. I was still feeling beat up from the competition and was hoping that my shoulder and knee would be all good by now. No rest for the wicked. Gym was packed. The heartrate monitor wasn’t working on the bike and I had a little technical issue so not my best run of the course. Easy calf work after that. I was expecting some tightness but felt pretty good. Knees weren’t really bothering me on the goblet box squats too bad. No benches available so I just used a chair. Knees were stiff on the RDLs but not as bad as they were the last few weeks of last training cycle. So that is something. Rows with the band were ok. Still keeping an eye on the biceps. Always on guard it seems. Left shoulder is still tight. I was expecting some shoulder tightness on the push-ups and there was. Achy left shoulder. Plank was easy. No shoulder ache so progress I think. Then the biceps stretches. Needed these. Into the hallway for the hip swings. Really needed these. I was actually looking forward to these to see if they helped loosen up my hips and lower back tightness. They did haha. Then it was time to lift. Log has been officially been put on notice now. Just looking at this workout on paper I knew this was going to be long one. First up was log clean and strict presses. One clean with three presses. Plan was 5lbs over my best since after back injury. I figured 30lbs jumps would be good here as long as my biceps felt good. It had felt iffy deload week but no issues at the show and none here as well. Trying to anchor myself to have a firm base to press off of. With how 215lbs felt, only if I messed up my form would 245lbs not go. First rep was perfect, got off balance on the second and had to readjust for the third so that was a lot harder to lockout. But got the triple so good start to the cycle. Next was in the rack. I had tested out some things to make sure the plan would work here. Highest setting had the log at forehead height. Pretty much the point where it switches from shoulders to triceps. Singles starting with the empty log and taking 20lbs jumps. I was hoping at least 270lbs so I knew this was going to take while to get to that point. Just kept adding 10’s until I got to 290lbs. Pretty much because there weren’t really anymore 10’s left so I stripped it all down and put 25’s on for the last single with 310lbs. This was bit more effort and I didn’t think 330lbs would happen so stopped here. Stripped the log down again for the next one; overhead support. Quarter overhead squat it for singles taking 20-30lbs jumps. Starting at 90lbs, this was also going to take a while. I’ve done these in the past but not with any real regularity. Three times total before this I think. Knees were a little achy on the first two singles but got better as I went. I thought I’d peter out around my max log press due to being out of practice but 390lbs felt easier than 360lbs. Starting to worry I’d max out my log with the 25’s haha. 410lbs was a bit more challenging to even get off the pins so I knew this was the one to stop at today. Now the idea was to hold this one for my time until I felt unstable and then lower it under control. I think the last time I tried to hold this kind of weight with a barbell it dropped after like 5 seconds so to get more than 3 times that with control is good I guess. I still had three more exercises to go at this point but thankfully not as many sets were going to be needed. Pulldowns after that. Advised to do 30lbs jumps for five sets with 12-15 reps. I went with 15 and aimed for that on all sets. Get blood flowing in the back. I’m glad this popped up as I was hoping to get some “hypertrophy” stuff in for reps with how much heavy stuff has been going on with three back to back plat plus shows. Definitely was feeling the fatigue each set. 200lbs was a struggle to get 10, let alone 15 but I wanted those reps. I had to be careful I wasn’t overdoing it on the right biceps as it can feel crampy if I put too much strain on in it. After that was incline bench. I was dragging by this point. Wrists and elbows felt like I had weight on them and lats made it feel like my shoulders were fighting against themselves to move the weight. I had no expectations of hitting any PRs on the rep set. Six reps might have been pushing it really. I was more conscious of this on the pause rep set and stopped myself from going for a seventh rep. Last thing was bar hangs. Twist being two sets and now with the axle. These were just cruel. Felt the strain in my shoulders trying to keep my grip. Less than 30 seconds total between the two sets. Really, really hard. Goal is a minute but 30 seconds would be incredible I think. Took about 3hrs to finish this workout and head home to stretch, recover and eat.