September 30, 2018 – Week 3, 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

18” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk
117x50’ in 5.83 seconds
117x50’ in 5.52 seconds
207x50’ in 7.04 seconds
257x50’ in 7.41 seconds
257x50’ in 7.48 seconds

BiggDoggStrongg Frame Hold
570xpick

670x44.64 seconds
570xpick

Keg Over Bar (60”)
150xpick
200xpick
250x10

Sandbag Carry (turns at 50’)

250x100’ in 15.71 seconds

250x100’ in 14.87 seconds (bearhug)

Stretching

Comments: I needed rest. Slept for 9hrs and then woke to use the restroom and fell back asleep for another 4hrs. Day was practically gone by that point on Saturday. Had to force myself to go to bed at a somewhat reasonable time so I could wake up early to get training done. I was a little nervous about my lats/upper back. They were feeling sore and tight from Friday’s training. Had been buffing those the best I could the past two days. Apparently there was some kind of get-together going on with food at the gym. Warmed up on the ole’ reliable exercise bike. Nice and easy today. Calves felt ok. Goblet squats were also ok. Felt like they were achy in the knees but no pain. Just not as good as last week. Joints were stiff on the RDLs but seemed to warm-up about halfway through them. Band rows were super easy. Push-ups felt ok. About as good as they were last week. Plank is nothing really at this point. Got to keep everything flexed. Biceps stretches felt good, needed these today for sure. Hip swings felt pretty good. No real adjustments on the side to side today. Then the event work. Farmer’s walk to start off the day. No set jumps like the yoke from last week but foot speed was the name of the game. Didn’t have anyone to film so I had to do my best to get times off the camera. Also meant I had to reset the handles each run to get the same spot each time. I figured big jumps would be ok after some warm-up. I wanted to make sure my knee was good to go and to get moving. I felt fast so that’s something. Plan for the day was to do 60% for two runs of 50’. I felt good on this today. Kept my belt one notch looser than a heavy run since it wasn’t needed today. I really notice my stride improving on these. Like I get faster as I go. Top two sets were within hundredths of a second of each other. Then grip stuff. I could’ve done holds with the handles but that was more of a pain to setup and the thin handles really cut into the hands. I figured I’d just do the frame. Smooth handles and slightly thicker than normal. Harder on the grip, easier on the hands. It’s so heavy empty it just sits in the corner most of the time. Some of the cookout stuff was blocking it in. It had rusted to the floor mat haha. Been in disuse for only like three months. So had help getting it out a little and moving the cooler out of the way. Did one pick with it empty and the put on 100lbs. Goal was 30-60 seconds and I figured I could get in the middle of that time with this weight. I was surprised how easy it came up off the floor. Holding was not fun. Just trying to crush it. Feeling the lat inserts in the upper arms. Little nervous about that. Started to feel the nerves in the left arm. And down. Just shy of 45 seconds. Good for now. I had to put it back by myself at the end. The next two exercises were the reverse of last week. It had been sandbag load and keg carry. Now it was keg load and sandbag carry. Did some picks with the lighter kegs before I started. I got out the sandbag as a barrier to keep it from rolling away. It was too effective. Keg was easy to load but the darn sandbag was deflecting the keg back at me with a lot of force on the drop and kept hitting me in the shins and rolling over my feet. I was bit off balance on the lap for the fifth rep of this set of ten. Shins were getting rubbed raw, not fun with the scabs from the deadlifting. Took a moment to collect my thoughts before doing the last rep. I was glad to be done that. Had to take a little sit after that to catch my breath. Last thing for the day was sandbag carries. 100’ runs with turns at 50’. Again, working on that foot speed. First set I was to carry it like I was about to load it and the second set bear hug style. Chalked up my whole upper body and got set. I’m really deliberate on the sandbags when it comes to lifting them. No loose space, don’t want any biceps issues. This felt more comfortable than the keg did. Maybe because I can “squish” the sandbag to get it closer unlike the keg. That first set ended up being a little over 1.5 seconds faster than my best run with the keg last week. Next set would be the interesting one. I’ve felt I move slow with the sandbags. Especially bear hug style. My previous best was just under 23 seconds with a slightly heavier bag. Got set and I went. It felt easy. Sub 15 seconds. Maybe I am improving haha. Question will be if I can keep that up with bodyweight and above objects. Stayed a bit to help training partner David get his last video submission done for the online qualifiers and then headed home to stretch and recover.

September 28, 2018 – Week 3, Day 2

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

16” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
50x10
100x3
150x3
200x3
250x3
300x3
300x3
300x3

Wide Grip Deadlifts
135x1
225x1
EMOM (Added Straps)
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1
303x1

Pulldown Abs
150x25
170x25

Stretching

Comments: Oof. That’s been this week. Work has been super stressful this week. Was holding off on walking as my right knee has been acting up and the weather wasn’t helping matters on my days off from the gym. Was feeling tired and was becoming forgetful by Wednesday evening. Crashed hard coming home from work Thursday night and just decided to eat dinner and go to bed. Going to the gym was only going to make it worse. Only works now that I can go anytime to the Lancaster gym on the weekends. Even getting to bed 2hrs earlier than usual and getting to work early didn’t help as that was just as stressful a day. Drove to the gym, realized that I forgot to pack a pair of gym shorts (I had put 3 shirts in my bag), had to drive back home, get a pair of shorts, yell into the void for a moment and then drive back to the gym to lift. I had already decided I was having burritos for dinner at this point. Bike to start things off. 147bpm highest reading this session. One of my better distances in the time limit. Calves felt ok. Pretty good as far as how they felt and difficulty. I was expecting my knees to ache on the goblet squats but they didn’t really. My quads were sore and a lot of that is more from not doing my recovery walks. Joints felt stiff on RDLs but not really achy. Just felt slow. I felt like my arms were getting in the way of my knees. Band rows were good on the back. Push-ups were ok. I felt more tired than anything on them. Plank was still easy but seemed a little tougher today. Then the biceps stretches. Not too sore or stiff today but stretch felt good. Hip swings after that. No feeling of things adjusting so that’s maybe good or maybe bad haha. Weights and stuff after that. Third week of cambered squat bar box squats with my funky bar. Feeling pretty comfortable by this point. Still rocks around like crazy. I was worried my knee would hate me today but no issues on squat at any point. 50lbs jumps again since the top weight was going to be 300lbs. I like doing the triples to warm-up on these for some reason. I think because I’m doing the slow negatives. Last set before the working weight sets was the working weight three weeks ago. Feels easier now. Put on the rehband belt for the working sets. 300lbs felt easier to unrack than 275lbs did last week. Definitely feels like I have weight when I squat because of the shaking and the higher bar placement. Doesn’t feel like anything standing there though. Little bit of a lower back pump at the end of this. Wide grip deadlifts followed that. As with the past weeks, warm-up on the deadlift variation and then EMOM with singles. I’m adjusting things by feel. 585lbs is definitely where I’m at as far as deadlifts but jack stand and wide grip not so certain. Going to use projected maxes for those two as the weight felt like nothing really on the jackstands. I wanted to see how the wide grip pulls went today before I decided if they needed to be adjusted too. Plan was using 495lbs but if I felt good, use 505lbs. Would be a 6lbs difference in working weight. I’m starting to like these better than regular deadlifts. Less strain on my lower back and seem to be more consistent. But I need to get comfortable with raw deadlifts again. First two singles felt good so I decided to go with the heavier option. Of course that first pull got a little too close to my shins and opened up cuts. Since this was an EMOM, I had to race against time to apply sufficient tape to my shins to keep from having a bloody mess. Didn’t give me time to really sit and think haha. Managed to get things sorted out. All in all, I’d say that I need another 10lbs on the projected max to have things just right. Last time of the day was abs. Pulldown abs. Been a while. I say that as the last time I did them, the gym had the old cable towers. So no clue what I could do on these today. Also wasn’t sure which station to use. The pulldown station just wasn’t setup right so I used the adjustable one where I’ve been doing triceps stuff on. I put 150lbs to see how that felt. I realized immediately that this was not comfortable. The old station had a pad to brace your back on. It had padding. Trying to stand away from the stack cut down the weight substantially. The tower adjustment pole was right against my butt and very unforgiving. The weight was light so I added 20lbs and wrapped a towel to give me some padding. That worked just perfect. Home to stretch, eat burritos and run the car buffer everywhere I hurt.

September 25, 2018 – Week 3, 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 Push Presses (one clean)
90x1
105x1
125x1
145x1
165x1
185x1
205x1
225x5

Neutral Grip Pulldowns
75x10
135x10
155x10
175x10
195x10

Barbell Bench Presses
45x10
95x5
145x3
195x2
245x1
295x5
295x5
1 Second Pauses
265x5

Stretching

Comments: More light stuff. Probably good as I feel like my joints still haven’t forgiven me for the year I’ve put them through so far. Might have overdone it on the weekend with the amount of time I was on my feet. Forgot what that was like being on my feet for hours on end. Needed the rest Sunday. Didn’t walk Monday due finicky weather and resting my knee a bit. Warmed up on the exercise bike as per usual. 154bpm highest reading. I believe this might have been my best distance in five minutes on this thing. Calves felt good. No issues with them. Goblet squats were ok. Felt like my knees would ache but again they didn’t really Oh boy did the knees ache on the RDLs. Lower back still a little tight. Band rows and push-ups felt good. Plank was a plank. Straining for a moment and then done. Then the biceps stretches. Felt good today. I was looking forward to hip swings to loosen up my back and hips. Was expecting more tension to be released. On to the weights. Log this time in place of axle. Same thing, doing 20lbs jumps as singles to my top set. Log sticking with push press for now. Weight was going to be the same as axle as I haven’t really pushed axle like log. Empty log for a stiff single and then got to the regular weight jumps. The cutouts on the log were really digging into my right forearm today. 125lbs a darn near took my head off on the clean with how violently it came up and hit me in the chin. Some discomfort in the abs with it rolling up the body but it went away as I went on. Press wasn’t feeling as powerful as I would’ve liked. Could just be my imagination. Was struck by the notion of how different the cleaning of a log with my new style was compared to the axle from the week before. Felt it was best to just do the set of five at the top weight than do a single and then the set. 225lbs felt comfortable but maybe I was bending my knees too much for the lower body drive. No support gear for now. Next was pulldowns with a neutral grip. The usual higher reps but not quite max as has been the case the last two weeks. Have not done a lot of sets with the neutral grip attachment in recent memory. Most weight post injury was 200lbs for a set of eight. So I erred on the lighter side with the planned top set of 195lbs. Felt different in the pull. More mid back work to keep things tight. Handle hangs lower so I hit the bottom of the stack at the start of each rep. Hit the goal comfortably enough and on to the last exercise; bench. No dumbbells today. Regular bench warm-up and do two sets of five with a weight I should be able to do one set of ten with. I was debating between 285lbs and 295lbs. I figured I’d warm-up by 25’s a side and see how the last single felt. I went with 295lbs then. That first set, I felt maybe it was a mistake as it felt heavy in my joints. It moved well enough but not with the confidence of this is going up for ten. I figured I didn’t need wraps for this. Right pec felt tight on the second set but it went much smoother. Look almost identical on camera to me but I felt I had ten if I went all out that last set so that’s good. Then took a bit off for a down set with pauses. That felt ok too. Just gets tiring fast. Got out of there to get home for food, icing my knees and massage.

September 22, 2018 – Week 2, 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
210xpick
210x50’ in 5.64 seconds
300x50’ in 5.80 seconds
390x50’ in 6.02 seconds
480x50’ in 7.07 seconds
570x50’ in 7.87 seconds

Sandbag Over Bar (60”)
200xpick
200x10

Keg Carry (turns at 50’)

150x2 (pick)

250x100’ in 18.57 seconds

250x100’ in 17.22 seconds

Plate Pinch Hold
90x84.14 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Managed to stick to the plan this time. Sleep wasn’t great this week so I didn’t walk Friday night to ensure I got to bed at a reasonable hour so that I could get up early and get things down so that I could be available for the rest of the day. Granted I went to bed 2hrs later than I should’ve, I still got enough sleep. Still cut things close though haha. May need to focus on earlier start as traffic seems better getting out to Lancaster to train. Right side of my lower back felt a little tender and my glute on that side kept on spasming. Not painful, just kept flexing. Warmed up on the ole’ reliable exercise bike. Nice and easy today. Calves felt good today. Not quite as springy as they feel some days but no issues. Goblet squats felt really good today. No joint issues, just feeling it in the muscles. Lower back was stiff though on RDLs. Felt that little spot where it felt tender on that first rep as I lost tightness trying to get full ROM. Fixed it up for the rest of the reps. Band rows were super easy and felt really good on the back muscles today. Push-ups felt ok. Maybe the second best they’ve felt this cycle. Plank is nothing really at this point. Got to keep everything flexed. Biceps stretches felt good, needed these today. Needed the hip swings today as well. First up was yoke. Knees felt a little achy and it had been over 2 months since I last did yoke. I didn’t want to just rush right into it, even though this was going to be light today. Even if it is light, it still is “weight”. Still in excess of my best squat so it’s going to be stressful. Just did a pick to make sure my knees were feeling good and I could go all out at the start. Yoke slides a lot on this floor but it will be the closest I can get to a convention center floor. Plan today was 60% of my best 50’ run with no drops, taking 100-50lbs jumps as needed. I figured that I could just do 90lbs jumps as that would get me to 570lbs which was a little over 6lbs above weight. Times looked good and I felt good on the yoke. I was a little slower on the pick-up perhaps but I felt I made up for it by picking up speed. Slightly faster on my under 400lbs runs from what I got on file. I put on my hard belt after that and I’m not sure if that threw me off or if that was just the weight threshold for the day but my times were about .5 seconds slower than my best. Fractions of a second and it may just be that the last cycle with yoke I was trying to control it more due to the floor and having to come back with it. I’m at a good place still. Next was sandbag. Not really been in the training since early part of this year. Really light for today. But I was cautious with things due to how sore my biceps had been from stone of steel and how long it felt it took to recover from that. Loads have been moved up to 60” because I’m better at extension now. 200lbs for a set of ten. I did a pick first to make sure everything was cool and then bathed in chalk before going. This was easy and yet difficult. The weight was nothing but it is a lot looser than the heavier bags so it feels soft and moves around on the extension part of it. I noticed this on my pick and the first rep and knew I needed to really shove it up and over violently to not have it plop on the bar. Leave no doubt. Just having it get to bar and back down isn’t going to cut it. Of course loading it over the bar made it so I had to walk to the other side of the yoke for the next rep. Not going to try and pull it back to my side with sore arms and back. Just take my time and make sure I was getting the load over the bar. Breathing was a little labored after that. Just under 2 minutes. Sometimes these longer sets help improve the timed sets conditioning wise. Then keg carries. Plan being two sets of 100’ with a turn at 50’. I’m good at distance, not so much speed. Another thing to time haha. I did a pick with 100lbs under just to make sure the arms felt good and that no issues with either side. Initially it was going to be staggered one way versus the other but I’ve found that to be inefficient when the object it speed and loading so I pop it up higher and do a parallel grip. So to work it both ways I adjusted with side I tilted the keg to pick it up. I started with the side I’ve been using since the biceps pull in January. It felt hard to breath with this thing. On the way back from the turn, I felt my stride lengthen and my speed improved. Good to see that that is also carrying over to these kinds of events. Little bobble at the end as I didn’t get it to stay on the mat. That would cost me at the show, which is why I’m practicing standing the keg up on a small mat. Right thumb got a little pinched on that set. Reversed sides for the second set. I thought this side wouldn’t be so good but I guess that wasn’t the case. Definitely my strong side it seems haha. Managed to beat the first set by over a second and have no bobble. Stride felt good. Still felt like it was hard to breath. The tight abdominal/hip flexor thing on the right side was present. It was after this that I noticed my stride has improved on farmer’s walk and front carries but I’m not seeing it as much on yoke. I’m not sure it is because I use heavier weights or if having something on my back alters the mechanics. Just something I noticed, maybe not a good or bad thing. Last thing for the session was grip work. Specifically pinch grip. Two 45lbs plates smooth side out and using both hands, hold for time. Never really done timed holds for this. Usually just messing around and doing one hand pinches. I think I’ve maybe done a two hand pinch with three 25lbs plates. My best one hand has been a pair of 45’s from a few years back but haven’t been able to replicate it. But I haven’t been serious about it like I was then. Goal was a minute and then be able to up the weight. I expected I would get a minute my first try but hard to say. I tried my best to not have my thumbs or the weight rest on my thighs to make it easier so slightly bent forward. Very close to a 90 seconds. Hopefully build up that thumb strength. Stretched before beating it home to do recovery stuff and clean up before heading out again.

September 20, 2018 – Week 2, Day 2

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

16” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
45x9
95x3
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x3
275x3
275x3

Deadlifts
135x1
225x1
295x1
EMOM (Added Straps)
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1
351x1

Decline Situps
BWx15
BWx15

Stretching

Comments: Sleep last week wasn’t optimal. This definitely hasn’t. Biceps seem less sore now but still massaging them nightly. Pretty much all my joints from my knees up to my L5 are stiff and achy. Abdominal thing is still there but seems to be less and less as time goes by. Again, can’t tell if it is truly getting better or I’m getting used to. Hard to tell when it seems so gradual. Tried to do an errand before the gym and that didn’t work out so I ended up getting there about an hour later than usual for training. Bike to start things off. 146bpm highest reading this session. One of my better distances in the time limit. Calves felt ok. A little tougher but still easy. Knees ached on the goblet squats. Wouldn’t have thought my joints would be aching at this point in the cycle. Also on RDLs. Trying to get a good stretch and not round my lower back. Band rows were good on the back. Push-ups went better this time as well. Best this cycle so far. Plank was easy. Then the biceps stretches. Not as sore in the upper body as I was thinking I would be. Hip swings were needed. Not having issues with the front to back style like I’ve had with the left shoulder and the right abdominal. Side to side helped the right hip and get tightness out of my lower back on the left side. Now the weights. Cambered squat bar box squats again. Same idea as last week, just more weight for the working triples. I put enough weight on the bar to make it quarter, plate, quarter jumps to the top weight. I think I’m better at the setup on this compared to last week. 275lbs felt really heavy unracking that first set. It is really odd feeling with the bar rocking on the concentric portion of the lifts. Last week felt like more of shock to the system. Will have to see how the next week goes as far as bar speed. Deadlifts after that. Not really looking forward to deadlifts. Using the same weight as I did for jack stand pulls since both lifts are at 585lbs (haven’t gone heavier raw on rack pull and max single at ASV). Deadlift can be just as temperamental as log press some days if my lower body is fatigued. I was not expecting the ease that was the jack pulls this time. Same plan of 10 singles EMOM. Hard to tell how it will go until I add some weight to the bar. Most reps were moving well but no near as easy as the jack pulls last week. Shins were bloody by the end. They felt slow but that could just be because I’m a little slower breaking off the floor trying to get that hip/leg drive, rather than high hip stiff legging it. I feel like the fifth one was my best feeling and looking. Sixth was a little off the mark from that one. The rest kind of so so as far as feel. My shins were glad when I was done. Then abdominal work. Situps of my choice. Decided on decline at the highest angle. Been a few training cycles with no dynamic abdominal work. It’s been holds for a while. It showed. Movement was a little slow and I was “feeling the burn” even with these reps. No weight at this time, just moving the body. Feeling it in the abs and hip flexors. It wasn’t terribly late but I wanted to have minimal work to do when I got home so burritos it was. Home to recover and rest.