Comments: Day off the usual schedule. Mostly due to
social obligations but I needed to get at least a day break between training
days. Saturday was exhausting but fun. I knew that I was going to be solo so I
took things slow getting out to train. Rain was constant so that would alter
some things. It was lovely the day before but oh well. Still dealing with
symptoms but it is tolerable. Dreary and gray outside. As has become a common
thing for me now, foam rolling when I got there before starting things off. Tight
IT bands and pecs. Hips flexors, inner thighs and knees were tight and sore
from the leg presses and hanging knee raises. I had gotten some manipulations
done but I’m still any achy mess it seems. Warm-ups felt good though. Yoke
again. This time, all for 50’ so I could do these all inside and not have to
bother with the tiny light yoke. Plan here was to do 50lbs jumps up to 500lbs.
Same slow, casual pace. No noticeable change in symptoms between 200lbs and
500lbs. I wasn’t taking very long rests on these. No support gear. I wanted to
feel things and see what I need to correct. Definitely tougher on the core as
the weight climbed. I want to go fast but that isn’t wise right now. That will
come. You’d think it would be easier to brace on the pick up but it’s not. I
guess my style of rocking into it isn’t the best without a belt so I had to
rethink that a tad. I got to evolve to stay relevant. To not get injured and
fall off. Next up was rows. This time switching out for a sandbag. Wasn’t keen
on these with the right pec feeling tight. Felt light. Grabbing these so the
bag is short was for grip. Trying to get better at this style as this can be a
quicker pick if I can get it. Plan here being two work up sets and then max
reps on the last set. Keeping a grip on the bag when it is not full lead to
some issues. My pressure from my hands had the sand move into the top and
bottom and the middle kind of squished so it was like I was gripping it with my
fingers rather than my hand. I dropped the bag eventually so that I could get
my wrists on it instead to keep it more solid and less like I was just doing a
finger grip row. I was going at a pretty good clip and then just hit a wall
after getting two dozen reps. Readjusted for another at the end and it was all
she wrote. I thought I gassed out on it too quick but it was close to a minute
straight of rowing so maybe not. Last thing was prowler. The original plan was
to do the same thing as last week with five sets of 100’, increasing weight
each set with a minute rest but do the drags instead of pushes. But rain made
that not possible. So the options had been to use turf and do a little less or
concrete and half the distance. Concrete for 50’ it was. But I felt like that
wasn’t going to be enough. Drags feel tortuous and doing only 50’ wouldn’t be
the same. So I supersetted with doing pushes with my legs on the treadmill
while it was off. Same casual pace. I did 20 second count in my head but that
ended up being a little over. So rest was time it took to get to one spot to
the other. Little more rest for the drag as I had to add weights each run. I
was able to keep a good pace for each. Nowhere near the leg torture I wanted
but it was good work to get the blood pumping. I did some more reverse hyper
stuff (no weight for 50 some reps, added 50lbs for like 20 reps maybe) to see
if that would help traction the back a little. Bar hangs and some belt squat
marches (not really getting those for the back but would seem to be a good one
for yoke in the future). Home to stretch and recover as I didn’t want to drive
home in the dark and rain.
Comments: This week has been odd. Holidays in the middle
of the week make things interesting. Going to be the same thing next week. Symptoms
keep moving but seem to still be in the L5-S1 category of dermatomes. Very annoying.
But I want to still do things. Christmas Eve I went to bed early so that I
could get up really early to volunteer Christmas Day. This ended up taking a
bit out of me with all the driving and early morning that I pretty much slept
from 3:30PM to 7:10AM. Ended taking ibuprofen and muscle relaxers both days to
try and help me sleep for a solid chunk of time. For the day before so that I
was rested for a 4:50AM start and the next day since I woke up at 9:30PM and
needed to get back on a normal schedule. No walking this week because of
schedule and other things so it was an odd week for me. Anyways, behind on
workouts and write-ups. Fluctuating between pain and numbness. Neither is good
though. I was able to get some manipulation on my lower back that got it to
calm down Thursday evening. I was still leery going to train. I’ve got things
planned for deep tissue massage in two weeks time and I’d hope that I don’t
need to go with chiro stuff. Really hoping that traction based things will get
things back on track, and be smart with the recovery stuff. Definitely need to
wait until after the holidays to even consider ortho or chiro at this point. My
body just seems so stiff and achy. Muscles and joints. Foam rolling becoming a
thing I do now. I felt somewhat loose at the start but got stiff again by the
end of my warm-ups. Deadlifts again. This time, going up until I hit a certain
weight. So not stuck with doing something light with a set weight. Suggested
jumps being quarter-plate-quarter. First set with the bar, I started from the
top of the rack like before. Rather than start at the bottom and be in an odd
position. Deadlift form is different in that I’m not trying to arch my back.
Load the hamstrings and brace and push. Seems to keep things secure. I was
feeling pretty good. Besides my back being tight that is. I was thinking I’d be
doing 495lbs for my top set. The plan was warm up in triples and then do a set
of five with a rep or two in the tank. Whatever I felt comfortable with. These
I was doing the slow eccentrics and a breath/hold at the top. I’m in that
rebuilding phase. This seems to be the way to go. All double overhand with no
chalk. Grip was giving on me with 365lbs. I thought I still had 455lbs or
495lbs there for the top set as I had not yet put on a belt or straps. Boy was
I wrong. 405lbs felt like a ton of weight. Felt slow and heavy. I knew this was
my limit today. I was almost worried I’d not get five with how this felt. Woof.
Video says these were much faster and smoother than they looked. I’m a ways off
it seems from where I want to be. Single leg presses after that. This time,
work up in fives to 20lbs more than last time and rep out there. A bit achy in
the knees. No clue how these would feel. That concern of it being too much for
the back and what not. But these have been pretty good for me, even when my
back is fubar. That top set felt so darn heavy. But I know that it will move
for reps once I get a rhythm going. Left side is the injured side and it is
quite apparent with that side lagging on these. 21 reps was my limit for that
side. Almost had to have the other leg step in to finish that last reps safely.
Right side was able to bang them out in about 10 seconds quicker and not be
nearly as destroyed feeling. Been a while since I did these and felt like I was
walking like I had a peg leg or something. Last item of the day was the hanging
knee raises. I was looking forward to these as I hoped they would get my back
feeling good with some traction. Might have just been too tight today after
deadlifts. What I was supposed to do was do 1-2 more reps per set from last
time. What I thought it said was do a few more reps more so I set my sights on
doing 40/38/36. Chalked my hands up for these so that I could get the reps in I
wanted. First set, my right pec cramped just getting my arms up to hang. Not a
good start here. That’ll learn me for skipping soft tissue work two days in a
row. Not too bad at the start as far as the actual exercise but last set was a
tough one to do. My forearms were pumped and sore by the end. Good grip workout
for sure haha. Well hopefully after the burritos and stretching, I’ll get some
heat and ice and soft tissue work. Walking a fine line here.
Comments: Holidays are here. Things are going to be
wonky. Left side is feeling off. Not a much numbness sensation as it was on
Thursday night but still not great. Lower back was tense and I was wondering if
I needed to not do this week. Early out of work so I could go to the gym at
noon. Needed to go then as the gym would close at 4:00PM. Gym was packed with
people. Not quite the level of suffocating but a lot of them. Upstairs was a
little better to do my warm-ups. Trying to traction my lower back and hips a
little adding back in swings. Not really doing it today. Workout very similar to
last week. Log instead of axle but the idea being warm-ups with strict and push
presses and then do a top rep set with the push press. Warmed up with dumbbells as I had to wait for
some oblivious people that were doing rows in the tiered squat rack that I had
moved my log to. Until I get to doing cleans before the presses, this will be a
thing that happens. Again, lower back was feeling quite stiff. Even rolling out
on the foam roller and hanging from a bar did little. Log is definitely less
forgiving on the lower back when it comes to strict pressing compared to the
axle. I can keep that right close. Not so much with log. My push pressing was a
little off but that improved as I went. Honestly, I’ve never done more than I
think 10 reps on log press before. Took the 5 minute rest and got ready. I was
a bit better with breathing this time. I felt like I was going to fatigue
before I got to 12 reps but I kept going and managed 1 more rep over last week’s
20 with the axle so that was good. Had to wait a bit for the next machine to be
available. Pulldowns with the neutral grip. Same as regular pulldowns last week
as in the same reps and weights with the plan being 220lbs for the max rep set.
I’ve never really done these for a max rep set like I’ve done for regular style
and wide grip style. Neutral grip is very hard for me. Not a bad feeling but
never as comfortable as those. I was struggling to get double digits on this.
Kind of hoped this would traction my back more but oh well. Push-ups after
that. Was pretty easy for the work up sets. Considering how much of a drop off
I had on the sets last time with just bodyweight. Was trying to figure out what
I had to compare with from before with the paused style push-ups. About the
same here really. Triceps burnt. Last thing was rows. Very careful to brace and
not bend. Was feeling pretty easy at the start when working up but man did I
hit a roadblock about 12 reps in but I wanted more. I felt that I was back to
my normal repping abilities after a month of workouts. This tends to come back
fast. Home to stretch, clean up and eat. Holidays really going to throw things
out of whack.
Comments: Woof, did I feel beat going into this workout.
I had felt good immediately after the last workout session but I may have spoken
too soon on that. Could be from some other activities but my lower back was
stiff and I was feeling a bit of numbness on the left side of my left leg. Not
pain but again, not good. Resting and massage and heat seems to have helped. I
had no idea how tight and sore my hamstrings were until I touched them with the
car buffer the next day. It might just be them being super tight (especially my
left one) that is pulling on things and putting pressure on the nerves and
disc. I think that is the case as it’s getting better pretty quick and the
sensation is changing. So I had training to do. If things were still numb, I’d
have not gone and probably gone to the ortho. Which I’d hate to do but if
necessary, I must. I was worn from the past two days so I slept in about 2hrs
from when I’d normally try to get up for an early weekend training session.
Despite those sensations, things are going great and I feel happy for the
direction I’m going in general. Ended up using the heating pack on my
hamstrings before leaving the house. Cold out today. Ended up doing some foam
rolling and bar hangs to loosen things up. First exercise was farmer’s walk. Like
last time, 100’ course and going at a casual pace. Still doing the
quarter-plate-quarter jumps but this time up to two plates a side so an extra
set. Was debating on whether to belt up for this or not and figured I’d play it
by ear. This is easier on the back with it being to the side and I’d like to
keep working the bracing at different times to cover my bases. I was a tad
concerned with how tight my hamstrings were but this didn’t seem to faze me in
the slightest. Slow pace not much in the way of hamstrings. Grip was getting
worked. My upper back was just beat to hell from the breathing rep set of rdls.
That was like 2 minutes of time under tension. And these slow going farmer’s
weren’t helping haha. I had hoped to do these with nothing but I knew that if I
wanted to keep the meandering for the last set, it would be wise to add some
chalk for that. Cold weather, cold metal, makes grip tough. Things held up
fine. Another week of the stone of steel rows. Still stupid light with these so
high reps continue. It does appear that next week with sub in something else.
High reps are good as it will get a good training for the tendons and muscles. This
time was different in that I was going to do just a set of 10 for the empty
implement and then add weight and do a max rep set. Goal was to add 30lbs but
it isn’t always that clean do to taking out spacers to put in weight. So that I
didn’t end up going less than 30lbs, I added a 35lbs plate instead. About
3.5lbs over the planned weight but that’s fine. Adding weight definitely changes
the dynamic a little. I guess that is true with any implement. Added difficulty
of listening to filthy things while doing both sets from people in the gym
nearby haha. Last thing was sled work. Outside for the 100’ runs. Change up
here. This time, just pushes of the prowler for 5 sets and taking a minute
rest. Another difference was increasing weight each set. That made things a
little tricky. Still to keep the casual pace. I had no idea if the one way was
the same difficulty or not since the times I’ve done this have been pushing one
way and dragging the other and dragging is always harder for me. I was going to
do 20lbs jumps a set but I could only find 3 pairs of 10’s nearby so I just
figured I’d do 20-30lbs jumps so that I’d go up 100lbs by the end. The other
thing was the minute rest. This meant I’d need to setup the weights at each end
and have to turn the sled around in that rest time. The amount of time I was
working versus rest period would be easier compared to the double distance
stuff. But I also needed to get my rests closer to a minute. I count too slow,
especially as I get tired. So I counted to 50 instead of 60. This got me closer
but still about 6-8 seconds too long. I’ll need to lower it by another 5-10
count next time. Stuff was pretty even until the last set. That was a lot
longer of a set to finish. Legs felt good at the end. Took my time putting
stuff away. Did empty reverse hyper for 50 reps again and then 25 5 count holds
of 90/90 diaphragm breathing before doing some hangs and then stretched. Just
got to keep an eye on my injured side and try and be more reserved.
Comments: Body still holding up to the training.
Hopefully it stays that way. But I get encouraged and I try things that I’d
normally do that aren’t normal things and that can lead to problems. Got really
cold and I was hoping it would be a quicker workout. Wore the kind of spandex
shorts for training with my compression socks since plan was heavier squats and
deadlifts. Warm ups felt fine and so did the movement stuff. Shoulders felt
stiff but they weren’t really going to be involved this sessions. Felt fine. Movement
stuff was also fine. First exercise was hatfield squats. Just like two weeks
ago. Same idea of slow lowering and only lightly touching the box and squatting
up quick. Keeping that brace. That is getting to be second nature to me. Needs
to be first nature. Plan was set weights up to 20lbs more than last time for a
triple. Should definitely be doable as I wasn’t to go for a max last time
anyways and that was more reps and smaller jumps. This time, plate jumps and
then quarter-plate-quarter. Back wasn’t feeling that pressured way like last
time but the weight wasn’t feeling that easy on the upper back and midsection.
No problem for my legs. Getting in some work with the belts this time to make
it a gradual jump up. It felt like my left side was touching the box first but
that just could be in my head. Feeling heavy but I think with more practice, it
won’t be so bad. This is like 100lbs under my best triple on this kind of
squat. Granted it was full squats and regular tempo. Next was Romanian
deadlifts. These again, I reiterate, may be that thing I need to fix my
deadlift woes (along with leg pressing). These felt good last time. I was bit
surprised by the plan this week. Since last time was sets of 10 up to 185lbs if
that felt good. Guess these looked real good to be allowed a 90lbs jump. A bit
different from last time in that less reps for sets and the top set was an
AMRAP. The work up sets, I did with no real assistance and double overhand
grip. Heavier but less weight. The top set was where I’d add the belt and
straps. This would be a true test. See how things hold under an extended set. I
feel that if I hadn’t prepped with high rep squats that I’d have done a lot
less here. I really had no idea what I would hit. I was feeling fatigue doing
like five but somehow I kept going. I was tired but I was staying solid and my
hamstrings felt fine. Was definitely getting a little bar burn. Stopped at 21
reps as I felt I’d need to take more rest for another and my body was feeling
toasty. I knew that my hamstrings would be tight as hell for a while after all
that. I know this isn’t that much weight right now but this was good as I hope
this is like 50% of my current max. Still a long way to go but doesn’t seem
like I’m that far off now. Last item for the day was pulldown abs. Higher reps
but lighter weight. This was easy stuff after the squats and rdls. Literally
did the first two light sets with no rest between them. My grip was slipping so
I took a rest so that I didn’t have that problem on the last set. I know my
legs and glutes will be sore, tight and overworked but hopefully I can keep
things in check with recovery stuff.
Comments: I got to say that this getting pitch black dark
before 5:00PM is a drag. Seems to really sap motivation. Maybe I’m just tired
all the time and it makes me feel like going to sleep. Wish I didn’t feel like
there was another layer to that feeling of holding or being held back. Once I
get inside and I’m under that artificial light, all is good. Body is not 100%
but it is very tolerable. Warm-ups were good. Definitely tight is some areas.
Legs are legs, they’ll be fine. Biceps and stuff take a beating on those rows
so not having a day extra rest is noticed. On to the workout. Added some extras
to the workout. I mean, a lot is the same but different. Not yet at the point
to add in supra max stuff as need to build up and see what is what. Last time
with the axle, it was all strict pressing for sets of 10. This time, it was
complex clusters of strict and push press. I was advised to start light and work up to a
set weight with 20lbs jumps. I felt this was important as the push press
movement would require stability and movement rather than just being a solid
rod. Now my axle is 72lbs empty but I got other ways. So I draped chains around
the PVC pipe that is about as thick as an axle for the first set. Had to be
controlled as too much movement that was unnecessary would cause things to get catawampus
quick and have the chains fall off. Which they did when I finished the set.
Then I swapped in the hollow thick bar I was using for the deadlift in prep for
USS Nats this year. Then finally on to the real axle. I had all my gear here in
case but I didn’t feel like I needed it. Strict press was feeling like a decent
weight but the push press was just flying up. I put on the rehband belt for the
last set as it was getting a little heavier for the strict stuff. Bracing has
been great. Feels like it is clicking for me. But again, this is light stuff.
So after that last complex, I was to rest a bit and then do a max rep set with
that weight on the push presses with plenty in the tank. I was hoping for at
least 20 reps if things were feeling good. Get my timing down. Work on that
bracing and breathing. I need practice as I was more tired than anything after
that. Some reps I was off and it felt like I didn’t get that great of leg
drive. I definitely had more there but I figured that 20 was a good stopping
place. The rest of the workout. Pretty much taking those top sets from last
week and now doing max reps. Without the added baggage of fatigue of reps on
reps on reps. So pulldowns first. The middle child of concern for me. I
apparently adapt back to this kind of training quick. I felt like I was out of
synch on the first set but didn’t really matter as it was stupid light. Back on
track the rest of the way. I knew I wasn’t at my best yet but I was a lot more
confident in pushing things this week compared to last. Top set, I chalked up
my hands as this was go time. I definitely got tired faster as I usually can
tell on these max rep sets on pulldowns how many I can get by how the first ten
reps feel. Then next eight were a struggle. I got a heave going to continue the
set and I felt secure in keeping myself braced. I missed the exhaustion I feel
after doing these +20 rep pulldowns. Next was flyes. Chest was sore from the
stone rows (got to crush to row) and with how hard these felt last week, I
figured I was not going to be on par with where I usually am yet. My best with
this weight is 30 reps and I was so close to that. Just got stopped on the 28th
rep there. Ended up having to take a break waiting for the row machine to be
open. That’s fine. Arms and back were tired and I really didn’t want to do
these with how they made my hip and lower back feel from the motion. But I was
better at bracing this week and it was nothing as long as prepared for it. Felt
heavy that first set but felt better as I went. Again, chalking up for the last
set. Another exhausting set. Good to be hitting 20 or more reps on these right
now. Just about feels like a real normal workout. Keep this momentum going.
Comments: Things feeling better compared to last week at
this time. Saturday I didn’t do much. I did have to be up to go and apply for a
passport but that didn’t take long. Most of the workout involved longer
distance stuff like last week and it was cold and rainy all day. Weather
forecast had it being dry and somewhat sunny tomorrow so I figured it made a
lot more sense to rest, take care of things at home that I’d been putting off
and get a good night’s sleep and be raring to go the next day. I honestly didn’t
expect there to be anyone there this morning considering the night before was
the gym Christmas party. Plenty of evidence of that when I got there haha. Did
foam rolling before my warm ups as that seems to help with things after
driving. As I said, I may need to invest in one for traveling as this may be a
new thing I’ll need to do if I’m stuck sitting still for a long time. Warm ups
felt good. Didn’t bother doing hip swings that I added as things felt good. I
will say my quads had a deep soreness that was present during some of this. So
as is usually the case, this week is yoke. They pair nicely with farmer’s walk.
Same thing, casual pace, 100’. Now as the inside isn’t conducive to 100’ runs
right now, this would be outside. And can’t open the large doors so walking
around with the Rogue yokes to do this wasn’t smart or worthwhile. So used the
really light yoke I brought in last week as that sucker is 90lbs so hardly
anything to move around and I can fit it through the people sized doors. I also
left it at the low pick height (for me) as it would be easier to move around to
get outside and back inside. Weight was going to be super light anyways and I
could work on the pick and bracing similar to farmer’s again. Only going to use
this yoke this way for just this week anyways. First run was a mess. The wind
blew the cone at the finish away as I was going and a car came up on the path.
I had no idea what was going on and I wasn’t really going to move any faster. I
then got close enough to realize it was one of the owners of the gym as they
needed to load stuff from the party into the truck. Felt stupid after that
haha. Used a heavier cone for the other sets. Didn’t get the same lower back
pump I had last week after doing the runs like I was getting with the farmer’s
walk. Feels odd moving slowly on these but it’s important right now. I’ve done
this with heavy weights too. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Left hip was a
little stiff but no worse for wear. Again, had the choice to skip the stone of
steel rows and do the prowler stuff but they didn’t bother me last week so here
were are again. I also didn’t want to do the prowler stuff again. This time, it
was two sets, trying to beat last time’s reps each set by a few reps. Stone of
steel rows felt way easier this time. Bracing didn’t seem to be something I had
to consciously do this time. Not as much build up. Automatic and able to hold
the brace for several reps in a row. Crushed
it that first set and was almost lost count on the second set. These are
getting interesting. Again, going to need to do soft tissue work on the arms
since I got one less day of rest this coming week. My lower back and hamstrings
were pumped from this from holding the position for so long. Last thing was
working the prowler. Sets of 100’ for push and drag again. I was advised I
could do the same weight again but I’m stupid and did more. I had all these 25’s
that I was using on yoke so I figured I’d just do those. I had thought it was
10lbs more but it was actually 20lbs. The push isn’t bad, it’s that darn drag.
Casual pace again for five sets. My rests were around 70 seconds besides the
first one, which ended up being 90 seconds or so because I started a
conversation with the gym owners and lost count of where I was in my rest. Legs
felt heavy and it was definitely taking me longer to do these this week. I know
I can move faster on the push part but the drag portion my legs feel so damn
heavy that I wonder if I could move faster without falling over. I feel like an
inebriated ostrich. I ended up going too slow on the 4th and 5th
set as the friction caught up with me and stopped me in my tracks on the drag
portion. I took enough of a break to hopefully ensure that I finished the rest
of the course with no further stops. I knew I could do that for the 4th
set. Wasn’t so sure on the 5th set. Maybe knowing it was over on
that one helped. Stupid legs after all that so it was nice to take my time
putting things away until my breathing was back to normalish and my legs weren’t
acting like they were disconnected and filled with jellyfish. Did some rehab
stuff in the form of bodyweight revere hypers for a set of 50 reps and 20 diaphragm
breathes in the 90/90 position with holds. Going home to relax and get to bed
at a reasonable hour. I’m happy things are holding up. This is a positive
direction. Overall, I’m sure I’ll be back at 100% or beyond by June.
Comments: So I think things are on the mend from the
spasm I had Monday evening. Talking with Mr. Westerling, it could be I’m doing
too much rehab stuff. The TENS unit is essentially giving those areas jolts to
contract like a thousand times. Stuck on that more is more stuff. Drop the
rehab stuff for the rest of the week and see how things are. No TENS unit and
just rely on heat, decompression and soft tissue work. Starting to get that
confidence back that my body won’t collapse on me. But still got to be cautious
as it seems like there is a two day delay on stuff for my body registering it
haha. This was going to be an interesting one. Things still tensing a bit.
Warmed up and that felt ok. Lower back was a bit tense from some things but ok.
I felt mostly comfortable with the first exercise. This was deadlifts. Starting
from the rack like the rdls last week. Easier to brace starting from the top. I
figured the weight wouldn’t be a problem since I did 185lbs for 10 on the rdls
and this was for lower reps, just a greater ROM. Not the best knurling on this
bar but that is fine at this weight. My right biceps felt tight but kind of
expected with the upper body session earlier this week and the reps as well as
the rows I did on Saturday with the stone of steel. Nicked my shins a little
but still good I think. No support gear on these. Need to work that brace. Get
comfortable with that, then worry about the other things. So I didn’t have my
spine explode and I wasn’t on the ground in pain so on to the next exercise. I
was leery about this one. Single leg presses. I got good at these prepping for
USS Nats this year after the previous back injury relapse but it was
exhausting. 30-40 rep range. I wasn’t sure how these would go and if these
would just wreck me. I felt good with the deadlifts. Low 400lbs was where I
stopped on these in the 30 rep range so since this was another moderate weight
set, I figured I should be safe doing that and maybe a bit more to be in
compliance with parameters. I decided on plate jumps and starting with the
empty sled. If the empty sled was fine, then I’d do my plate jump plan. I was
very slow on that first set with the injured side. Much smoother on the other
side. I’m just glad that I was able to do these and not be in pain. Bracing big
time on these. I probably should’ve stopped at 406lbs as that felt heavy. These
are weird in that it feels heavy but I can do a lot of reps when conditioned.
496lbs was quite a bit more challenging. I got the reps but certainly not a
super easy set. This required effort. And technically the most I’ve done on
this exercise. The future will tell I guess as I feel ok right now. Just like
that I can still move a decent weight with my legs even though they are
deconditioned. Last thing was abdominals. I was initially going to do these
with my elbows braced to keep from bothering my shoulders and keep from
swaying. However, this would cut down on the decompression and spine traction
that I probably need. Then I realized that these were the knee raises, not the
leg raises. That arc of motion is much easier to control and doesn’t cause any
rotation stress on my shoulders. Idea here was three sets and not going to max
effort. So I figured the best thing was to do the first set until I felt my
grip was going to go and then try to match it the remaining sets. I might have
been missing out on these. Felt like this was a good session. Beginning to feel
optimistic I can compete this year at a decent level.
Comments: Ups and downs last week. Getting rest Sunday
and Monday seemed to be what I needed and I was feeling really great by the end
of the day on Monday. But then after I finished up all the recovery and rehab
stuff, my lower back just seized up on me. No clue what happened. Sleep is
important so since it didn’t really calm down after a hot shower, I took
ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer. It was better this morning but still not
pleasant. Hard to tell if this is one of those “it feels worse but is getting
better” scenarios. It seems muscular in nature so that’s better than nerves and
this would hopefully be considered centralizing of the pain/symptoms.
Regardless of how I shake this snow globe for a yes answer, it still sucks for
now. This delayed stuff is making it very difficult to assess things and make
timely decisions. I really didn’t know
if I was going to really train today. My plan was to get to the gym and do some
foam rolling and decompression and see if that helped anything. That seemed to
do something and since this was upper body stuff with no leg drive or bending
over involved, I figured I could still do this. Trying to get things loose with
the warm-ups. So first up was log strict presses. A bit different from axle
last week in that I had set weights for this. I could warm-up with dumbbells
however I wanted and then it would be empty log and then plus 20lbs for 10’s. I
did equivalent jumps with the dumbbells for sets of 10. Felt it made more sense
to do log from the closer rack rather than risk something trying to maneuver it
around. Being lazy with the rack arms had this a little too high for reps and I
had to walk it back after banging a few. Log feels heavy to me since I’ve not
done it in a while. Different feel from the axle. Easy enough but not as easy
as I would’ve liked. The next exercise was the same scheme as last week.
Neutral grip pulldowns, with the plan being 5-7 sets of 10 reps. Same thing,
with expectation to only get five sets from my hopeful seven. I lowered my
weight by 10lbs from what I was going to use with how regular felt last week.
This wasn’t a pulldown exercise I did for higher reps so this one isn’t as
comfortable to get back to. So about 20lbs difference from the other style of
pulldown I like. Next was a change. Just push-ups. Three sets of bodyweight for
max reps. My plan here was do 5 minutes rest or so. No clue what to expect.
Back was a little stiff so I’d self-adjust after some sets of exercises. Considering
all the press-ups I’ve been doing for my back, I thought I’d get more here on
the first set. Like 50 or so. I could’ve done more but it would’ve been ugly
reps and I need to work this bracing. I know I drop off quick on push-ups so I
was surprised to get 30 reps that second set. Third set was about what I was
expecting to get on the second set and stay around there. No ego, allowing easy
things to be hard for now. Last thing was chest supported rows. With how the
previous week’s rowing had my SI joint ache from moving (hard to brace
sometimes), I was a tad concerned this would be more of the same. Going to
vigorously on this in the past had reinjured me trying to rehab back in 2016.
Mr. Westerling had indicated I needed to brace like I would an atlas stone load.
This got me thinking and I couldn’t think of when I was bracing on atlas stones
other than the pick. Maybe that is where I’m going wrong with my extensions,
not bracing correctly. I will say that bracing on chest supported rows is
different. Almost lightheaded that first rep. These started out sucky but I got
my groove as I did them. I meant for there to be another jump but I messed up
my math so did a bit heavier than expected. Back was stiff as hell though.
Stretching, heat and TENS unit and recovery burritos. I don’t feel like
training made it worse. Will have to see how sleeping does the trick.
Comments: I was really hoping that I’d be feeling a bit
better before going to train this day. I was excited to train but some niggles
made this seem like a maybe. This would require a drive out to Lancaster to do
so it required a commitment as that would be 45 minutes in the car each way. I
had perhaps got too much that I had planned to do. I couldn’t sleep in forever
as I needed to get passport photos (only open 3hrs on Saturday). Getting a
passport since my state is stubborn with real ID laws so I may need it for
flying to USS Nats in Minnesota and if say I end up with an invite for international
competition, I’d need one then. Been putting it off due to injuries as I meant
to get one prior to USS Nats this year. I also kind of promised to bring in
some gym equipment for the gym since they lacked lighter weight stuff for yoke.
I got a 90lbs empty yoke just collecting dust and spiders and I’d rather have
the women and novice have a chance to try yoke press then get something substituted
at the upcoming gym contest in February. That was more of a pain in the ass
than I had planned on it being getting that into my tiny car. I knew it fit as
I got it years ago and it fit in the car. So I was going to be up and about. If
things bothered me, I’d just change it into a rehab and socializing session and
have to go back to square zero (I feel like I’m on square one as it is). Took a
bit of time to get things moved at the gym. The large doors were not really
opening due to added insulation so I had to move things piecemeal through the
regular door. This also meant moving things outside for stuff wouldn’t be so
easy. But that was okay for now as it was all light stuff. Caught up with some
friends and got a little distracted by the large great dane puppy. Ended up
doing some foam rolling before training and warming up as I didn’t go for a
walk the night before. Trying to keep from getting a cold from not getting
enough rest. This could also be from me loading creatine. Never did it before
but I’ve never been off it since I started using it when I came back from
injury the first time. But that stops tomorrow and then it’s just regular
stuff. Also ended up doing some hangs to decompress things a little. Warm-ups
felt ok. I may need to invest in a foam roller as my IT bands are tight. Didn’t
realize how tight my quads are. Added some hip swings to loosen things up too
with my regular warm-ups. First exercise was farmer’s walk. Plan here was super
light and go at a slow pace. Like I was walking. Not going as hard and fast as
I can. I brought my Rogue Fitness handles to use as they were the lightest I
have and would be easier to move around. Outside was cold but it was really the
only place to get 100’ run with somewhat even ground anda straight shot. I had to do things a little
to the side as a HVAC van was parked in the middle. I did these a bit different
than usual. No belt as honestly, light weights were going to be used and I
wanted to practice my bracing with nothing some more, especially since this was
kind of the first time bracing from the bottom at a dead start. I gripped the
handles dead center rather than towards the back. Again, light weight, not
going for speed and this also was better to balance the handles and not worry
about the weights sliding off. Very slow moving. I think my fastest was 30
seconds or so so quite a bit of time under tension. Felt a little bit of
tension in my right obliques on the penultimate set. No issues while doing
these but I’d feel a little bit of a lower back pump a few moments later once I
was done that seemed to subside in short order. Can’t tell if more weight or
just the fact I was moving slower or more gingerly with the heavier stuff (IE
more time under tension) that had it last a little longer. This weight has
never felt so challenging haha. Maybe because I got to go slow and maybe because
I had to evade a elderly woman being pushed in a wheelchair while avoiding cracks
in the concrete. So this was done and I had two choices really. Skip the next
exercise and go into the prowler work or try the next exercise and then do the
prowler stuff. I kind of subconsciously decided on the 2nd option as
I had been putting away all the weights after the farmer’s walk stuff and I was
going to have to bring it back out for the prowler stuff. But I didn’t feel
comfortable leaving stuff outside unattended. I was pretty much the only person
left by this point. This next one was something I’ve only done once before;
rows with the stone of steel. I don’t think anybody really uses now since it
has the dent in it so it only seals at one spot. Goal here was do as many as I
could as long as I felt I could safely brace. I figured the best way to do that
was to reset my brace every rep and really focus on that one effort. This was
challenging at the start. The most I’ve done with this thing empty was 5 for a
warm-up one time. That felt like I’d barely get over that as my arms were
slipping. I remedied things by getting a bit deeper on the stone. I lost count
and I just kept going until I got tired and couldn’t keep my arms secured as
well as I wanted to. Turns out I got just one shy of two dozen. This felt good.
Going to need to use the car buffer on my biceps later haha. Last thing was
working the prowler. Sets of 100’ for push and drag. Not enough space to safely
do it on the same area as the farmer’s walk due to the van and not enough room
inside so I journeyed down to the parking lot. No idea what this terrain would
be like. I was also not to “sprint” so this was at the same casual pace as the
farmer’s walk. Going fast would probably be easier as the momentum would be
built and the friction not so much. No ramps or anything so a bit of a pain to
get everything set up. Plan was 5 sets with 1 minute rest. I don’t have a watch
anymore so I counted in my head. Going slow is tough, especially the drag. I
didn’t think I’d finish this after the first two sets. Total time was between
70 and 90 seconds to complete and that was about what my rest periods were as
well it seems. Legs were quivering by the end. Did some decompression stuff
before stretching things out. Used the TENS unit on the ride home to help with
things. So a week down and hopefully I don’t end up sidelined again here. I
hope but I also know that hope is not a plan. Got to be active about it. See
how two days of rest go.
Comments: I thought things would be good with how I felt
after training last session. Only slight aches from rows. Almost feeling
myself. But feeling like I might be getting a cold and my SI joint was aching a
lot come Thursday. Maybe just getting to me now. Maybe extracurriculars had
something to do with it. Maybe being lax in rehab and recovery stuff the past
few days didn’t help. But I wasn’t happy with how it felt Thursday. I want to
be better. I want to be training. Trying to not get to rely on ibuprofen and
using natural stuff. Haven’t used any since finished with the Prednisone. See
how things go and if necessary, shut them down. Warming up as per usual but not
worrying about the heartrate stuff. Just do my five minutes and then move on. Felt
fine. Movement stuff was also fine. First exercise was hatfield squats. A way
to still squat heavy while dealing with this crap. Plan here was warm-up and
then do sets of five taking 30lbs jumps up to a moderate top set. Not quite box
squats. Motion was to brace, slow eccentric and lightly touch the box and then
squat up with authority. It wasn’t so long since I did a set so I had
expectations of what to hit. Really hitting the legs and I’m able to stay
upright with neutral spine. Definitely some pressure on the left side. Smallish
jumps and slow eccentrics made fatigue go up quick on these. Glutes (especially
the left side) were cramping by the time I got over 300lbs. I knew these were
going to make me sore in the legs. Adding layers for the midsection as I went.
I want to work on bracing better but also with belted work. I wanted to keep
going after the last set but I figured this was the first workout and I had
already not been feeling great to begin with and the idea was a moderate set.
Treat things like the previous session and stop here. Posterior chain was
quivering by the end from these. Next was Romanian deadlifts. I feel that these
might be a missing piece to my deadlift woes as I had been doing variations of
these a lot in the past when my deadlift was 645lbs without a suit. But this
was to test things. Starting from the top of the rack with the bar and doing
sets of 10 reps. Working that time under tension by taking a breath at the top
and bracing and doing a slow eccentric. Easier to work the bracing from the
top. Sets taking like a minute so a lot of work for the hamstrings, glutes and
grip (doing these double overhand). I elected no belt considering how light
these were so that I could practice bracing without a tactile guide. I miscounted
on the second set. Oh well. Still feeling about the same so on to 135lbs. Still
good. 50lbs more for a final set. That jump was noticeably tougher than the
previous sets. Even though my grip was feeling it by the end, I didn’t rush
things. Last item for the day was pulldown abs. Plan being 3 sets of 10. I
elected to use the pulldown station tower weight stack instead of the cable
tower as the weight “feels” heavier. For comparison, I did 200lbs for like 35
reps or so on the cable tower setup. I also can’t stand up fully with it and
have to use a towel to keep from having things be painful on my rear. Idea here
is to get abs working like in squat and deadlift, more bracing and some
traction from the weight pulling up on the spine. Ended up using less than I
expected here. It was more the grip on the rope attachment than anything as far
as the abdominals. Figuring that it was again to be “moderate” that I not push
that. I’ve done these with slight breaks due to grip on the slick handles
(chalk doesn’t really help) but I felt that would be against the spirit of the
session and weight guidelines. Home to stretch and eat. And try to get some
sleep to help with recovery. Definitely going to get in recovery and rehab
stuff tomorrow. Going to need a relaxing weekend to recover I think. I really
hope I don’t lose ground here on this setback.
Comments: Hoping that this time around doesn’t end
abruptly. Trying to be smart. Well smartish. Warming up as per usual but not
worrying about the heartrate stuff. Just do my five minutes and then move on. I
knew it wasn’t going to be super easy with only doing walks most days. Movement
prep stuff was adjusted. Stuff dropped, stuff added and stuff from before
reduced. No static stretching. Felt good. Like a good warm-up. I had thought I’d
need other stuff but this was good. So first up was axle strict presses. Idea
was sets of 10, up to a set I could probably do for 20 but stop at 10. That was
pretty much the theme for the entire day. I was going to start with my thicker
than normal hollow bar but I felt pretty good in the shoulders and I just went
with the solid axle. I had to use the tiered squat rack as someone was using
the power rack to get there Instagram booty stuff done. 20lbs jumps, feeling
easy. I didn’t want to take much rest but I knew I’d fatigue faster if I didn’t
take some kind of rest. I figured that I’d do the first few sets and then space
things out. Heaviest I was planning was 152lbs but I felt at 112lbs that the
next jump should be the last one. Working on breathing, bracing. No ugly reps.
The rest of the workout, the plan was 5-7 sets of 10 reps. I had looked at weights
at my best I had hit around 20 reps and used that as my top weight if I felt
good for the 7th set. Pulldowns I wasn’t sure how those would feel.
Trying to get some traction exercises in play to help recovery. Felt good, felt
like I was going to be doing my goal no problem. Then the fatigue. I guess I’m
used to the bigger jumps and lower reps to work up to the high rep set. About
40lbs shy of those weights. Not a problem. I knew I’d be rusty and this isn’t
discouraging. I’m feeling good being in the gym with purpose. Pec flyes after
that. I thought for sure I’d get to the bottom of the stack. Nope. Fatigue
built up quick. Probably should’ve called it at 185lbs haha. I thought this
wouldn’t be that bad considering all the press-ups I’ve been doing for my back.
Must be more triceps and shoulder than I thought. Last thing was machine rows.
This was the one I had to actually lower my expectations on as this felt really
difficult and I dropped things down 20lbs to make sure I got five sets. This
was causing a bit of hip ache but manageable. Have to see how it is later in
the week as thing accumulate. Home to stretch and use heating pad. Feels like
muscle aches mostly so that is hopefully a good sign. Fingers crossed. I really
want to get back to competing.
So quite obvious that things didn't pan out with my little experiment. Not a failure in that I did learn things but not a success. I thought it was a minor thing and I'd be back to form with rest but that didn't happen. I had seen how quick I improved when the back issue happened in December last year leading up to the Arnold. Same issue but just different exercise. I've had disc issues in the past doing beltless block pulls. The time that I was out for 7 months it had been doing stone of steel and it was going for the extension that it went. In December, it was a sandbag load and this last time, getting under a rep on viking press with too much extension. I'm not sure what I need to correct to keep this from happening. Chiro had told me back in December that I have narrow openings for the nerves in my spine so something that someone else might not notice would be noticed with me.
I tried doing things on my own with programming, looking back at what I did in training. While I've hit my best overhead on log in contest to date at NY Record Breakers and pressing was seeming to be on the upswing, I had wondered if perhaps when I was doing two pressing days a week with higher volume had been a better approach. I remember at the end of my one peak, I was hitting 300lbs or more each session in the last month and hit 300lbs for a double (2015) and a 200lbs dumbbell for a near triple. My form was crap but I was strong. So I took ideas from then and ideas from more recent training to try and piece something together for NY Strongest. I think my plan could work but it was too much too soon. I think what did me in honestly was the stone loads getting that full extension. Set me back so I ended up withdrawing from that show as well. Kept myself busy.
I then had another thought that back then, my overhead was really strong but I was slow on most things and my deadlift generally was beating me up in training but I managed to pull well at contest (made things harder in training). However, my deadlift had been it's strongest in 2011 when I was doing conjugate. Heavy pulls two weeks, box squat one week, always speed box squats. This wasn't always successful and I think that it stopped working when I got away from doing RDLs (sumo, regular and wide grip) after my main sets and doing GMs or front squats or snatch grip deads. My form was bad but I had good power off the floor. I was also doing heavy leg press on the speed day after squats.
But even with that plan being worked on, I think that it may be too much. Difficult to plan in events, especially coming back from injury again and fighting that temptation to just go all out. So my start to return kept getting delayed. I had hoped to be beginning of this month but pushed to the beginning of next month. Hard to keep motivated when progress with the back isn't going so fast. Insurance was fighting with chiro over coverage and this time, I wasn't feeling the relief I was getting like last time. Too pricey to be doing $65 a visit twice a week. I got some relief to the symptoms from the Nutra-Disc. Stocked up on those. Eventually I went to the ortho primarily to get prescribed prednisone and muscle relaxers to get my back to stop spasming as massage therapy wasn't cutting it. Monday was the last day of that.
I had been walking just about every day once things calmed down enough and for the past week, I've been doing rehab stuff on top of that. This is what I've been doing.
20 minutes TENS Unit Massage Setting 20 minutes TENS Unit Dry Needling Setting 15 minutes heating pack 5 minutes in the prone position 30 repetitions of a Mackenzie back exercise 20 reps nerve glides 5 minutes for diaphragm breathing 20 holds of the abs for 5 seconds 30 reps of theraband pullovers 20 reps each side of leg fall-outs. 20 lying clams 20 reps of glute bridges 20 table taps alternating leg lifts was done for 15 each leg. modified bird dog exercise for 20 reps each side. 30 repetitions of a Mackenzie back exercise with towel pressure isometric crushing of couch cushions against the wall (10 sets of 10 sec each side). 30 hip hinges 30 hip hinges (wide) 2 sets of about 30 seconds for regular style planks 2 sets of 30 seconds for side hold planks
I'll admit that I haven't stuck it to well this week with holidays and other life things. I've also been doing nerve glides and back exercise throughout the day and I've just started doing hangs of my lower body off my bed for some light traction. Withdraw from Prednisone is something I haven't had before but I did this time. Got cramps and aches. I didn't realize that it weakened the immune system and suppressed cortisol in the body. Now I know.
Last Sunday I went to the gym to test out some of my ideas for returning to training. Some seemed good in theory but sucked in practice while others seemed to be knock outs. I was doing weighted dips with the slingshot and the traction from that made something shift and I felt instant relief. Still tender but it was great to feel that. Didn't feel like my spine was stuck in my left back pocket like it has for the past two almost three months.
I want to get back to training again. At this point, I've qualified for USS Nats as 308lbs class since I went for the heavier class at NY Record Breakers so I could do more weight on the farmer's hold.
USS Nationals – 6/27/20 – Minneapolis, MN (USS) 30 weeks out Press Medley (log/axle) – 280lbs/300lbs, back and forth, start on either Deadlift for Reps – 685lbs, no suits, touch and go allowed Farmer’s Walk – 305lbs, 100’ course, turn at 50’ Husafell & Sandbag Carry – 350lbs/300lbs, 50’ each, run back for 2nd implement Stone Carry and Load – 320lbs/340lbs/360lbs, 56” bar, staggered distances (15’/10’/5’)
Ideally, I would get my deadlift up to near the contest weight (685lbs). The other events, even injured, I feel I could do and not bomb right now but I can't guarantee I can do them and not get hurt or be out of commission for a few weeks. I don't want this to be another year where I've qualified and plan on competing but don't. There are other contests coming up but I need to be healthy first. It would probably be better if I qualified for under 275lbs (I'm down a bit from not eating as much) as that would be less weight I'd have to be prepared to move. But another part of me thinks just be HW, pro level doesn't have divisions in HW.
Looking at the year and timeline, everything is set to give USS Nats my best shot. 30 weeks is hopefully enough time to slowly build back. The smart thing (if anything I do strongman related is smart) is nothing besides this. I feel I need to be more selective of what shows I do as much as I hate to admit it, there may only be a finite amount I got. Costs for USS Nats aren't bad with everything (flights, hotel, entry, food) under $1,000 total. SC Nats hotel stay alone is in excess of $820 so not even going to bother with it this year (and to be honest, I'm sick of the "event issues" each year).
So back to light training this coming week, working with Mike Westerling again. Life is going, just doing my best to stay positive about things. Strongman has lead me to so many good things in my life. Be a shame to stop when it's not my decision to stop.
These workouts are more frequent and take longer. So it might make more sense to post up a week at a time as I have time to put up videos and write-ups.
October 22, 2019 – Week 1, Day 1
5 Minutes Precor AMT
Mobility Prep
Axle Push Presses
75x1
105x1
135x1
165x1
195x1
225x1
255x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses
Plate Loaded Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme
70x1/1
90x1/1
110x1/1
Circus Dumbbell
130x1/1
147x1/1
162x1 R
162x1 L
162x1 R
162x1 L
162x1 R
162x1 L
Seated Smith Machine Overhead Presses
70x3
110x3
150x8
150x10
Band Pull Aparts
mmbx12
mmbx12
mmbx12
mmbx12
Standing Tate Presses
40’sx12
40’sx12
40’sx21
Band Scapular Retraction Face Pulls
mmbx12
mmbx12
mmbx12
Stretching
Comments: I’m not sure if I’m doing a smart thing. It
probably isn’t but I’ve made my decision. I have to try. So first training of
my own training. I wasn’t feeling great as I got to the gym. Not like back pain
stuff, just felt lightheaded a dizzy. I wasn’t thinking it was withdraw
symptoms from my meds as usually they are much, much worse so I thought maybe
elevated blood pressure from stress and flu shot. I’m stubborn so I wasn’t
going to let things stop me. Usual warm-up. Since I’m writing this up almost a week
later, I don’t remember the bmp on the cardio stuff so I won’t bother with it
going forward as it seems like these are going to be much longer workouts.
Mobility stuff I added some things to see if they improved or helped. So first
up was axle push presses. Goal was to work up to a triple that wasn’t a max and
then do several speed triples after that. Now, I had actually meant to do jerks
but my legs didn’t want to cooperate as I went up in weight. May have to do
with whatever I was feeling (turns out I had missed my meds in the morning). I
did a good bit of warm-ups with PVC pipe and then did singles up to the weight.
I didn’t want to annihilate myself seeing as I had a lot of weeks to go and
wasn’t going to be rotating things. Not as easy as I would’ve liked. Then
triples with 225lbs with minute rest. Not exact but close. These felt better
than the single I did before the top triple. I was definitely feeling fatigue
on these. But it felt like work. Plan is 10lbs more on the top triple and another
set on the speed triples. Next thing was my choice over “overhead event”. Really not much to choose from. I want to
limit cleans until I get adjusted to things (got stones and sandbags later this
week). I had contemplated log stuff since press medley is axle and log but my
shoulders and upper back were really wrecked from the triples out of the rack
so I figured log can wait until volume is lower. So since Delaware’s Strongest
will have a max circus dumbbell, best see how that is right now. I had forgot
this was an option and didn’t wear a good shirt for this. I also forgot I don’t
have to pause these. I actually worked up heavier than I thought I’d feel good
at. I also had meant to take longer rests but ended up doing short rests
between the singles. No reps, can’t risk sloppiness with the biceps, shoulders
and back. The cleaning was the part that was fatiguing, the pressing wasn’t
terrible. After that was another overhead exercise. Originally was going to be
dips but those seem to be hazardous to my shoulders. And I realized that it may
not be what I wanted. Yes it works chest and triceps but is that where I miss?
Lockout is better trained with lockouts that I’ll be bringing in next block.
The smith machine press seemed to be good idea. Get a bit of chest involved,
shoulders and triceps. Almost the same spot that if I get out of a groove, I’ll
miss the press. If they work for Savickas, then let’s try it out. My injured
shoulder isn’t digging this afterwards but my shoulders, chest and triceps feel
this a lot. My side delts were popping out from these haha. First set was set
reps and second set was go for max. I imaging this will improve. Last three
exercises were lighter after all that stuff. Band pull aparts were a staple for
me many years ago. I think the upper back stuff like this is important. I’ll
save the rows, pulldowns for off season stuff that isn’t getting hit from heavy
event work. These felt good. Standing tate presses after that. Really light
stuff. Could feel the triceps on the right side cramping getting the last reps
on the max rep set. Another band exercise to finish up things. Retraction
follow by external rotation. Trying to keep the shoulders healthy and the back
posture strong. One workout down. I know I’ll be sore tomorrow, despite the
recovery stuff.
October 23, 2019 – Week 1, Day 2
5 Minutes Precor AMT
Mobility Prep
High Pulls
80x1
130x1
170x3
170x3
170x3
Hatfield 18” Box Squats
80x10
170x5
260x3
350x2
400x1
440x10
440x5
Nordic Leg Curl Negatives (3 seconds)
bwx3
bwx3
bwx3
Sandbag Carries (turns at 50’)
210x258’9”
210x262’9”
210x271’0”
Sled Drags
500x121’0” (75 seconds time limit, uphill)
500x119’7” (75 seconds time limit, uphill)
500x240’7” (downhill)
Stretching
Comments: So didn’t die. Just really sore in the
shoulders and arms. This workout was going to be something. This was one I didn’t
really know what I was going to do with like half of the things. Just that half
of the workout was going to be back home. I was tired in the morning and forgot
my gym bag so that meant I had to drive home after work for it. Not a great
start. Warm-ups as per usual. May drop an addition to the movement prep stuff
that is more effort than needed. So first thing a bit different with high
pulls. Lower body days seem to be setup for having a “speed component” to them.
Like say I have a keg toss or something, I do that. But I don’t so high pulls
it is. Figured less shoulder issues then trying to clean or doe snatch grip
stuff. Now I did these like singles rather than reps. When I was younger, I
strained forearm muscles trying these and holding onto the bar the entire time.
Not risking that. Just going to do short rest singles. Not issues with back but
this is light weight. Ended up using about 30lbs less than I had originally
thought but that’s fine. These need work. This then led to box squats, hatfield
style. These used to be big staple. This took a little trouble shooting as the
rack I used to use is long gone. Holding the rack allows me to really load the
legs and keep a neutral spine. There was such relief when I realized I could do
heavy legs. Leg press would be too much compression and a possibility of to
much ROM in the lower back. I can use the box to adjust heights. This seems
like a good one. I was tad nervous but my legs have been doing well. Didn’t
even need the knee sleeves. First set for ten and then a second set for five.
My hamstrings need work. Big time when it comes to deadlift. No access to glute
ham at the Y and leg curls just aren’t what I need. Trying out Nordic leg curl
negatives to build up strength. Not too bad. Trying to get through them quick
so I can get home to do events. Man it got dark fast. I really didn’t want to
go in the street for the sandbag carries so I figured I’d torture myself using
my driveway. Driveway is steep for about 2/3rds of it into the garage. Decked
out in reflective stuff and wearing a hat with lights in it. I really wasn’t
sure what to do. Contest is max distance in 60 seconds. I think I wanted to see
if I could hold the sandbag while moving for that long. This is a lighter bag
but it is so loose that I really got to crush it. This was difficult and every
time I made the turn to come back up the driveway, my hamstrings wanted to die.
The funny thing is that while I got further each time, I held it slightly less
time. Still over a minute on each run. But I wasn’t done. I still had sled
work. Build up that work capacity so rather than distance, just doing time
limit. It was super dark. I had a lantern on top of the sled to see. Uphill
much harder than downhill and it was so darn late that I did two sets uphill
and then to finish up, I just dragging it back home the whole way for the last
set and that was about 2 minutes to finish. I’d say work capacity isn’t an
issue. I need to organize this day a little better I think.
October 25, 2019 – Week 1, Day 3
5 Minutes Precor AMT
Mobility Prep
Seated Dumbbell Presses
5’sx15
20’sx10
30’sx5
40’sx3
50’sx3
60’sx3
70’sx8
80’sx8
90’sx8
Close Grip Bench Presses
45x10
95x5
145x3
195x2
245x1
295x1
295x5
295x7
12” Log Paused Incline Bench Presses
90x3
140x3
190x3
220x3
250x1
230x3
Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns
50x12
50x12
50x12
Stretching
Comments: Definitely feeling the fatigue but this is
hopefully not that bad a workout. Probably the easiest in terms of load really.
This workout will get more event specific and lighter on some stuff as I
progress this cycle. Not many people there which can be both a good and bad
thing. Warming up felt ok. I dropped one of the exercises I had added to the
movement prep stuff. It was too much stress. Didn’t think it would be but it is
and I need to keep this as something that warm-ups, not exhausts. So first
thing was dumbbell presses. Granted I did smith machine presses earlier this
week, this was a little bit different so should be okay. Goal was to do up to
8rm but do three sets of eight to get there. Left shoulder was feeling crappy.
It usually does these days from the sandbag drop. Usually it feels fine after I
get warmed up and I tried that with the dumbbells. Still seemed to not be enough.
I felt things would be good even so. Just need to keep an eye on things if this
becomes too much. I’d done this same workout years ago with a goal of getting
90’sx8 for the top set after 10lbs jumps. I had not been successful and had
only gotten it for six. I felt that even with how things were, I had that. 70’s
felt like not much of anything, 80’s felt like there was some fatigue and 90’s
were definitely something. I could feel my right triceps feeling fatigued still
from the standing tate presses. I got the eight convincingly though. Next was
close grip bench. The only bench that I fit on downstairs was in use so I went
upstairs for my benching. I had put down my goal weight of 275lbs for my
working sets. But I thought screw it, I’ll just do quarter jumps so that I end
up with 295lbs. This had been I think before I realized that my sets were to be
1,5,max as opposed to 1,3,max. Shoulders were tender and I had to do my best to
get things tracking right. Weight was going up much faster than it felt on
video. I had to wait a bit to find someone that I could trust to spot me for
the max rep set. Felt good for the first six reps. Seventh my butt came off the
pad. Got a little too carried away. But no damage so I guess I dodged that.
Next was something I came up with as an idea. The original thought was to do
paused incline bench with a close grip just hovering above the chest (spoto
presses) but then I figured if I wasn’t going to do log on the first day yet, I
could do incline with the log and do pauses since it would be above the chest
too. Work up to a 3rm for this. My shoulders were wrecked by this point in the
week. I had expected to do more. I thought 250lbs was going to be no problem.
But it was and I had to bail after one rep. Thankfully, log is like the least
painful to bail on besides dumbbells. So that wasn’t fun. Saved some face doing
230lbs. I’m so very weak at incline log press. Last thing was for the back. Straight
arm lat pulldowns. I had tried other things but settled on these. I had tried
pull-ups but I haven’t done them in years and apparently the pull/tear in the
right biceps doesn’t like them. I tend to initiate them with my arms instead of
my back like I do on rows or pull downs. However, it the biceps stress increase
from doing stones and sandbag stuff, it would make more sense to save those for
off season stuff and do something that would not stress the biceps as much.
Humbling to do this with this much weight but it is needed. I got weakness that
need to be worked. Really feel them in the lats and have to work to keep the
spinae muscles in the thoracic taut. In the past, I did these with a lot of
momentum. That can be fine with some back exercises for strongman but not this
one. Could feel my lats popping out. There was a warmness there after I
finished these. Despite being a quicker workout, this still ended up being a
late night for me. Recovery is going to be tricky.
October 26, 2019 – Week 1, Day 4
5 Minutes NordicTrack
Mobility Prep
Front Squats
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (13”, straps)
135x1
245x1
355x1
465x1
465x1
465x1
465x1
465x1
465x1
Frame Carries
16” Pick (Titan Fitness)
115x110’
205x50’ in 6.61 seconds
295x50’ in 7.40 seconds
385x50’ in 7.42 seconds
475x50’ in 9.11 seconds
20” Pick (Bigg Dogg Strongg)
570x100’ in 15.69 seconds
570x100’ in 17.38 seconds
Wide Grip Deadlifts w/ MMB’s (+80lbs, straps)
155x2
205x2
245x2
245x2
245x2
245x2
245x2
Atlas Stone Loads (59”)
230x1
230x1
230x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
290x1
Inverse Leg Curls/Ab Wheel
+225 assistancex5/bwx6
+225 assistancex5/bwx6
+225 assistancex6/bwx6
Stretching
Comments: So I had made it through three workouts with no
major issues. This was the real test. Deadlifts, frame carries and stones. All
possible problems. I had a chiro session in the morning before as I had a deep
tissue massage for Monday so it would be tough to get in two sessions at chiro
next week. Constant treatment seems to help. Really anxious and wasn’t sure
that I was ready. That I was just driving out to feel like crap and then drive
back home another 40 minutes. Lot of people there today. Which was fine. Warmed
up and still just wasn’t sure. Just would be a matter of seeing how things
went. First up was front squats. It has been years that I’ve not done a free
squat to full range. It has been just box squats due to the back injury. So
this had me leery. But I felt like doing front squats to warm up deadlifts was
a good idea. I thankfully didn’t forget how to squat in all this time. I low
balled things as I’m very out of practice. Short rests here for six quick
singles. Like 30 seconds rest. Felt good. So far, so good. Next was deadlifts
with the wagon wheels. Idea being that I’m tall and that this is about the same
as what I pull from the floor and this could lessen the flexion. Straps from
the start, didn’t want to deal with any issues. I took 50kgs jumps as I
expected to be using 525lbs based off how the last time I did pulls felt. But
my first rep with 465lbs felt way too heavy. Like damn. I realized that I was
way further from my goals on deadlift than I had thought. I had been basing
things as if I could pull 600lbs now. I obviously cannot with a regular bar. SHW
really doesn’t seem like an option to get a rep at USS Nats, let alone NY
strongest unless this program works as well as I hope it does. So I accepted
that I’d need to adjust the deadlift numbers going forward and accept my
working weight as 60lbs under planned. No pain, no death. Definitely not as
easy as the front squats but solid pulls here. Rest was a bit more than 30
seconds but still quicker than say an EMOM. So adjusting deadlifts as if they
were 90% of the previous numbers. Then a break in the deadlifting action for
frame carries. Probably could’ve done these at home on Day 2 as an option but
this seemed to make more sense as the pick for the big frame is high so not as
much back stress. Just have to assume that the deadlifting will build things up
for a lower pick and train in excess of contest weight of 700lbs. But that darn
frame is 568lbs empty (I add weight to get it even) and since foot speed is a
must, I need to do some lighter runs. In the past, I might have done some picks
of the frame after deadlift and then go but I realize that it may work at
contest to be prepped but in training, it’s not enough to build and work that
foot speed enough. Luckily, the gym has a really light, rickety frame. Lower
pick but I only needed to work up to about 100lbs under the big frame to be adequately
warmed up. Had to carry it outside so that was decent enough to get warmed for
runs. Plan was big frame for 3 runs of 100’. I realized that was stupid as an odd
number of runs would mean that the frame was further away from the gym. This
thing isn’t exactly light and won’t fit on the hand truck. So I went for 2 runs
so that I could “return it” at the end. The light frame was its own challenge.
I usually grip the back of the handles but doing this had the back clip my
hamstrings a little so I corrected that for my next run. Just doing 90lbs jumps
seemed to work out fine. 475lbs felt like something picking it up. I only did
half runs so that I didn’t get too fatigued and that I still worked on the foot
speed. Getting the big frame out was an effort. Enough so that I thought I was
making a mistake. This is going to be the lightest week besides deloads. But I
got ready for the 100’ run and it felt like nothing in my hands after picking
it up. I was booking pretty good, despite the concrete and weeds. I was really
pleased with that. Second run was not as good. A good bit slower and it felt
heavy picking it up. Maybe because I was overconfident and had been taunting
the weight as I did the first run. Still, grip was strong and I ran past the
marker and put it back in the corner for bit more grip work haha. Then it was
back to deadlifting. I figured it made more sense to do the frame before I went
back to more lower back and hamstring fatiguing with lighter weight. Plan was
to do wide grip deadlifts against bands with a wide stance. Also have them be
no deload doubles and 3 seconds eccentric. These seemed to work well when I was
prepping for Beast of the Blue Grass for my raw deadlift. This would allow me
to work my hamstrings and hips, statically train the core and be able to get
used to regular deadlift height. About a minute rest. Well, besides the
distractions that is haha. I lowered this by 30lbs from my planned weight based
off the new numbers. Good idea I think. 275lbs would’ve been too much today
with everything. After this it was stones. I was going crazy trying to think up
the best approach to these. I generally don’t need to do much on stones to be
good. I eventually settle on doing ten singles kind of EMOM style. Not quite as
I didn’t use a timer (tacky not good idea). I did three singles with 230lbs and
decided to stick light with 290lbs stone. I wanted to keep the working sets to
20” diameter stones since that is going to be the usual size besides the 22”
stones. Singles would let me focus on perfect form and not have to worry about
my back fatiguing during a set. Granted that might not prevent things. Not
rushing either. Extension felt a bit tight at the start. I also wanted to get
used to limited tacky as tacky will get used up on a stone series or stone for
reps. Reapplying can be costly if it’s a short time limit and the stone is
light. So I did these without reapplying any tacky after the first lift. Worked
as planned. I had thought of using this stone for 5x2 next week and then 2x5
after that but this one is really grimy so I’d rather just go up 20lbs to see
how that stone feels and do 10x1. Have to see I guess. I have a better idea of
what to do the peaking time. Then cleaning up the stone stuff. Ugh, I really
hate this part and I still had stuff left to do. I wanted to do some more hamstring
and abdominal work. The gym has an inverse leg curl and I’ve been wanting to
use it for a while now. I know my hamstrings are not up to par and this could
be the answer. Add weight to assist up to an unassisted one. So I put 225lbs on
it to see if that felt like a joke as it would be like 40lbs of my bodyweight
maybe. It was not a joke. What I thought was going to be a deload weight at
most was crazy difficult. The original plan was 3x10. It was the lower half
that was tough, the top part was easy and I had to actively push the weight
down. I ended up supersetting with the ab wheel. Another glaring weakness as
this was wrecking my midsection doing just six reps. I think as long as this
doesn’t make me hurt too much, I can manage. The Nordic negatives and the
inverse leg curl complement each other. Need to really recover after this.
Again, no idea if this is sustainable.
I’m a little taller than 6′6″ and I really like to lift weights. I’m a competitor in amateur strongman contests. My hope is to become a competitive professional strongman. Currently I'm training for Northeast Regionals in Monaca, PA on 6/1/2024. I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
