September 15, 2018 – Week 1, 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

Stone of Steel Over Bar (60”)
138x1
163x1
182x1
206x1
225x1
248x1
275.5x1
EMOM
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1
248x1

Wide Grip Axle Hang

bwx18.90 seconds PR+1.18 seconds

Prowler 2 Drags/Pushes (turf)
75x93’/93’
100x93’/93’
125x93’/93’
150x93’/93’
175x93’/93’

Stretching

Comments: Work has been stressful this week. Never seems to stop or feel like I’m caught up. At least training has been feeling nice. I had a plan for today but I didn’t stick to it. I had wanted to get up early like when I go to work so that I had a lot of time to plan for the evening. But I got distracted and stayed up to midnight the night before. I woke up when the alarm went off, but I hit snooze until another 90 minutes went by. Even then, it was a little slow going getting out to train in Lancaster. Quite a few people there today. I don’t know if qualifying for the amateur Arnold as truly sunk in yet. Warmed up on the ole’ reliable exercise bike. Feels a lot better now that I got to feel comfortable. Calves felt good today. No real muscle soreness around the knees on the goblet squats today. I felt I was moving a little slow on the RDLs but got better as they went. Band rows were super easy. Push-ups felt ok. I’m thinking I need to adjust my initial hand position some as I tend to adjust after the first rep (at least this and last session) so that it feels better on the shoulder with less aches. Plank is nothing really at this point. Biceps stretches felt good. Needed the hip swings. Front to back I feel more in the hamstrings and the side to side in my hips and back. I can feel things “adjusting” on the side to side ones. Then to work. First up was stone of steel. Workout said stones with no grip aids. I figured I’d go with stone of steel as I had more concrete numbers (get it) on this. Able to adjust the load and keep the stone the same. Less mess, and honestly, more likely this will be used than real stones with tacky at the Arnold. I think the stone of steel is less forgiving when it comes to no grip aids so it will make me work harder on my weakness of crush strength in the upper body. I was actually a bit apprehensive about doing this since last time I touched this I pulled my biceps and that still lingers on some days. I also had someone working in with me, pro strongwoman Sarah Cogswell. I’d seen her videos from training in Vienna, VA at Barry’s place and I noticed she had been up here (maybe moved here) a few months. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not as up to snuff on the pro woman’s circuit as I am with the pro man’s. More because I look to that as where I want to be some day and know your competitor and the standards. The goal for me was 60% for EMOM and she indicated trying 275lbs for single. I changed up my style. Normally, I dive bomb it. No thinking, just go. That works if everything is secure. But if something slips, that gap of looseness leads to sudden shifts and possible biceps injury. I don’t have this issue with good stones with tacky. I need to engage my chest to crush it off the floor more. So I started down on the stone of steel and just had to work the mind-muscle connection. That took a little bit to get things to click. Bar height was 60”. I had been doing the keg higher and with all the extension work, my baseline for extensions improved by proxy. So it didn’t make sense to keep it at 57” so 60” it is. Sarah just did them to extension since the bar was way too high for heavy stone of steel (for America’s Strongest Woman). I was to do 240ish and going 25-45-25 jumps so that we could get to 275ish. I told myself if I felt good and it felt easy, I’d do 275ish as my top single before doing the planned EMOM. It actually went up pretty easy. Kept the sweat towel on the yoke for the EMOM set. I was definitely feeling the fatigue by the end as the stone was slipping slightly on the picks. Can’t tell if it was the muscles in my chest getting tired or the mixture of sweat and the stone scraping up my forearm skin. But finished with no incidents and no worse for wear. Sarah then went for the 275ish SOS to 48” for a PR. That was cool to watch. I feel like I talk too much about strongman training and tips with people (and it some cases my betters) that it may be seen as unsolicited advice. After the stone fun, it was time for grip. Axle bar hangs are back. Mercifully only one set this time. I found a setup that allowed me to not have to tuck my legs. Stood on boxes to get my grip set and then went for it. Just adding fractions of a second to this is difficult. Just felt my grip going three seconds in. I was worried my thumbs would be sore from circus dumbbell still. But I managed to improve my time but just over a second. Still shy of 20 seconds but it’s an improvement. Last thing for the session was prowler work. Drag into push. Turfed section about one me shy of 100’ so it will have to do. Turf with the prowler is so much harder as I can’t build any momentum. Literally reach top speed and it doesn’t get any easier. I started with it empty as I couldn’t remember how tough it had been weight since I’ve only done the drag on the turf once before. Just went up 25lbs a set to be safe. Ended up talking shop with Brian a lot so I had staggered rest breaks haha. Stretched and then on the road home. Good first week in the books.