July 31, 2018 – Week 2, 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 Push Presses
95x1
125x1
150x1
175x1
200x1
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3

Chest Supported Rows
200x15
230x15
260x15
290x15
320x15

Barbell Bench Presses
45x10
136x3
195x3
252x3
310x6
1 Second Pauses
271x8

V-Bar Triceps Pushdowns
130x20
130x20

Wide Grip Bar Hang
Regular Grip
bw+11x55.49 seconds
Hook Grip
bwx66.16 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Last week was good. Hopefully this will continue onward. Events for Official Strongman Games online qualifier were posted today so some modifications added to the training cycle to try my hand at that. The high from Saturday has already worn off and I need to keep improving. Rain has returned so no walking yesterday. On the fancy bikes again. I was about 10 second slower finishing the course from last week but this is still good in that it wasn’t until recently I was even finishing it in under 5 minutes. Highest my heartrate hit was 145bpm. On to the warm-ups. Calf raises felt good. Tight but springy. Knees were not nearly as bad as I was expecting on the goblet squats. Again, really focusing on the breaking at the hips first and then bending knees. Kind of surprised they weren’t aching that much. All the barbells upstairs were in use so downstairs to do RDLs. Really no knee aches and feeling how tight my hamstrings are. Band rows were easy. Some aches in the shoulder on the push-ups. Plank was easy. Biceps stretches felt good. Shoulders were really tight. No issues on the hip swings. On to the workout. Log again. It will always be log. I close my eyes and it is log. This workout wasn’t going to have as much log as last week though. Warm up and do triples with 70% of my 1rm out of the rack. The platform was in use so I went with the older tiered rack. I actually like this one more for rack work in that I don’t have to walk back the weight to be able to dip and drive. Probably could’ve done more reps to warm-up but singles seemed fine. Just rehband belt for these. I’m pretty terrible when it comes to press away on log with positioning and breathing. I tried to put in what I’ve learned. Keep the log high. I made an effort to control the log back down to my shoulders and try to have it get back in the same spot each time for the press. Felt slow but the reps felt good. Definitely feeling fatigue by the end. I just set my own pace with rest and it was probably about 90 seconds or so. Shoulders tight, neck tight, elbow and triceps sore. Chest supported rows were next. Knees ached sitting down after log haha. Same as pulldowns last week. 12-15 reps, 30lbs jumps and five sets. I compared what I did with pulldowns to what the same numbers should be with the rows to get my goal of 320lbs for the top set. Didn’t feel like doing any warm-ups with the high reps and starting at 200lbs. I was worried I was missing a rep on some of these sets. 320lbs was a struggle but I got the reps. Benching again. I think I was a bit more prepared for the fatigue this time compared to incline last week. Just did the bar to warm-up and then into the sets. Made sure I had a spot on the heaviest set, even though I was to hold back a rep or two. Left shoulder had been a little achy and I was lowering right after unracking it so wasn’t sure how this would go. Wouldn’t have been surprised to struggle to get three. But I got twice that with some left. Paused rep set again. Was not expecting this to feel so easy after that set. Reps in the tank on this. I remembered I had triceps pushdowns this time. V-bar attachment. Set it at 120lbs but it felt way too easy just doing a single rep so I went up to 130lbs. Didn’t want to overdo it as this was to just get a pump going. Easy stuff, good for more here before it would get sloppy. Grip hang to end the day. Welcome change from that brutal axle from last week. I was shy of a minute with the chains again, about 2 seconds less than last time. But I had taken a break and been working grip hard. Chain off for a second set with hook grip. I’ve never really tried to do this. I can see why it is effective but man that hurt my thumbs. I could’ve held longer, it was more my abs and hip flexors got fatigued trying to keep my feet off the ground. Home to eat and recover.