January 29, 2019 – Week 21, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Bird Dogs (1 second holds)

BWx10/10

Superset: Band Rows/ Modified Angle Push-ups
MMBx20/BWx15
MMBx20/BWx15

Biceps Stretches

20 Seconds

20 Seconds

Wide Grip Pulldowns
80x10
110x10
140x10
170x10

200x10

Axle Clean and Jerks
80x1
100x1
120x1
140x1
160x1
180x1
200x1
220x1
240x1

Cybex Eagle NX Rows
100x10
160x10
220x25

Precor Pec Flyes
105x10
145x10

185x30

One Arm Dumbbell Rows (supported)

50x10/10

80x8/8

110x8/8

Push-ups (1 second pauses)

BWx10

BWx26

Planks

BWx30 Seconds

BWx30 Seconds

Side Planks

BWx20/20 Seconds

BWx20/20 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: Still dealing with the cold. Hard to tell what I’m feeling with the Dayquil, Nyquil, Aleve and Flonase being administered. But I feel that if I did something to irritate things, I would’ve noticed. Just no walking right now until I lick this thing. Work was let out early due to weather. They didn’t want another nightmare gridlock like last time it snowed in the late morning. Unexpected so this gave me a chance to get my workout in early and hopefully get everything done at a reasonable hour to sleep and recover. AMT to warm-up. I knew this was going to be up there as breathing isn’t that easy right now. 159bpm highest reading at the very end. My right shoulder has been feeling less funky lately and I’m not sure if it has been the break or if there was another culprit that has yet to be identified from training I was doing. Perhaps it is biceps tendonitis? Calf work was easy and box touches both styles felt alright. I was breathing a little hard still from the short cardio warm-up. Bird dogs were ok. Still a work in progress. Band rows and modified push-ups were supersetted and for two sets. Right pec felt sore. Not sure why but I think it might be bracing while I do the standing arm-over-arm stuff. Biceps stretch felt good. Chest and shoulders needed it after Saturday. Since things are gearing toward contest prep now, workout got changed up a little. First up being pulldowns with a wide grip. 10lbs added to each set again. This stated the same. Short rests with only a longer rest on the last set as I tracked down the add-on weights to the stack. Felt strong despite the fatigue I was feeling in my arms. Next was a bit change; axle clean and jerks. Initially medley press work but since the second implement is 40lbs more than the heaviest weight I’ve clean and jerked in competition, just doing the one I have a chance at hitting, assuming I even make it to Day 3. While I’d like to train the medley and it’s parts, it is beyond my abilities right now and there is more risk for injury if I try a bunch of things. It was going to be a bit more involved but now just singles, taking 20lbs jumps with contest technique. As there is pressing at the end of this week that is to be heavy, limit was set for 240lbs to stop. I had no idea how this would go or feel so that weight was set in case I felt good. 80lbs might have been where I called it if things didn’t feel right. Actually felt pretty good. I made sure to treat each lift the same, rather than just throwing it up like I’ve done in the past on axle as warming up. Getting myself to ingrain the technique for a heavy lift, which the 330lbs axle would be, come show time. At least I know I can deadlift 240lbs now safely. Then it was upstairs for the machines. The machine rows and pec flyes had their order reversed so that was new. I wasn’t expecting much on the rows with the arm-over-arm stuff. 20lbs added for the rep set and I managed to beat last time by 1 one. I guess my back strength is building with my confidence. I felt fatigued on pec flyes but still managed to get 30 reps with 10lbs more. Lots or reps. It was then back downstairs for the last pairing. One arm rows and paused push-ups also had order reversed. I assumed the reps were the same with the one arm rows and did ten by mistake the first set. Definitely felt I had to brace harder on the next two sets. I was also not taking as long of rests as usual on this as it had felt easy last time. Paused push-ups was a little different this time in that one set to warm-up and then rep them out on the second set. I feel like if I had not had to do the warm-up set with how my upper body was feeling, I could’ve done more reps than what I got. I still look like I have more reps on camera by the end by I was at my limit with keeping good form. Planks to end the session. My upper body was having a harder time bracing on the regular style than my abs were from the reps and work today. Side style was harder than the last two sessions but I think that is more to do with the increase in weight on the dumbbell one arm rows. Home to shovel a little snow and then stretch and recover.

January 26, 2019 – Week 20, Day 3

5 Minutes Elliptical

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Bird Dogs (1 second holds)

BWx10/10

Superset: Band Rows/ Modified Angle Push-ups
MMBx20/BWx15
MMBx20/BWx15

Biceps Stretches

20 Seconds

20 Seconds

Log Strict Presses
(Miscellaneous Log 8”)

55x8

(Miscellaneous Log 12”)

100x2
125x2
150x2
(Beast Metals Log 13”)

176.5x2
201.5x2
226.5x2
251.5x2
201.5x8

28” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk w/ Sled (on turf)

122.5+35x60’ in 8.22 seconds

172.5+60x60’ in 9.08 seconds

212.5+80x60’ in 10.25 seconds

262.5+100x60’ in 12.09 seconds

302.5+100x60’ in 12.64 seconds

Standing Arm-Over-Arm Pulls (on turf)

75x60’ in 13.61 seconds

125x60’ in 16.25 seconds

175x60’ in 19.66 seconds

225x60’ in 22.58 seconds

275x60’ in 26.13 seconds

Prowler Pushes (high/low on turf)
125x50’/50’

125x50’/50’

125x50’/50’

125x50’/50’

125x50’/50’

Planks

BWx30 Seconds

BWx30 Seconds

Side Planks

BWx20/20 Seconds

BWx20/20 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: Another day of event training out in Lancaster. I have a cold and I knew I was getting one Thursday and it happened Friday so I didn’t go for a walk as I figured that it made more sense to try and get rest. I got up early (sort of) as I scheduled another chiro session in the morning. I had thought about cancelling it with being sick but I really wanted to get in as many sessions as I could this month so that I could make it so that I’d have an evaluation of care review be done at the end of the month. I had got my copy of my old MRI from 2016 finally and learned some new things about my spine. Not sure if it will require changes going forward with strongman at this time but it was good to know. Essentially approved to try for 50% contest weights as symptoms have improved in my leg enough. So as long as I don’t have serious flare up next week while training this stuff, I’m competing. I was a bit slow going with the cold in the morning. I has been awhile since I’ve been sick. Lot of people there again which is good and bad. Good in that it means the gym is growing and more people are doing the sport. Bad in that it can mean equipment is being used and I may be asked to help. But it’s a fair trade in that I ask people to help me with filming some events and I needed help last week setting things up. My back was feeling a lot better so I was able to move things by myself mostly. Gym had stuff moved around again. Apparently the landlord wants to keep some space for other purposes so stuff had to be moved to allow for a large walk way between properties. I used the old elliptical trainer to warm-up. Continuing to abstain from seated cardio warm-ups for now. I spend a lot my day sitting at work and at home anyways. I alternated directions every 30 seconds. I will stick to this only on this day as too much elliptical work (every session or longer sessions) has given me knee issues. But I feel fine with what I’m doing now. Calf work was easy. Box touches both styles felt great. Birddogs were pretty good too. I guess one of the benefits of early training. Band rows and modified push-ups after that. I couldn’t really find a spot for the push-ups now that stuff was moved. I tried a different setup this time but it feels so easy compared to what I do at the Y. But it is just a warm-up anyways. Biceps stretching was good. Not as tight as I thought they would be. Time to lift. Strict presses with the log again, plan being doubles with 25lbs jumps. I had a better idea of how to set up things with the jerk blocks. I put the rubber mats down and then the crash pads so that the log would sink into the pads and not “roll around”. I warmed up with a smaller log and then switched in the regular log. Didn’t really have anyone to help so I ended up cleaning that to my shoulders to put it on the platforms. Cold was definitely throwing my balance off on these but I persisted. Then it was time to switch out to the big red. This was a bear to clean to the shoulders. But I need to get used to it with most contest logs I have in competition planned have as heavy or heavier a log base and it is good to get used to different logs. Balance was even more askew with this log. I decided to measure the diameter to make sure I wasn’t imagining things and it confirmed it was a 13” log. Which is fine, just got to keep that in mind. I will need to get familiar with this log as this tends to be the size of the heavier empty logs. I probably shouldn’t have made another 25lbs jump for my last double. That first rep I pressed it out in front of me and I thought, crap, guess this is just a single. But I got recentered and leaned back and got my hips engaged and put up a second rep crisp, like the reps before should’ve been. Down set for eight, I took 50lbs off. Cutting it close as far as difficulty but I got the reps and my form was better as far as keeping it in a good grove. I left things there as I figured it would take a lot of energy to tear down and it was going to take some effort setting up the other events. Rather save it until the end (no one else was going to need the log and blocks today) when I’m done and don’t have to conserve energy. Next was farmer’s walk. Plan was to do same thing as last time with a little more weight per hand and a little more weight on the sled. My mind wouldn’t let me. I was to try maybe 20lbs more per hand but the plan for me with at least 300lbs. I had this stupid song “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder stuff in my head the past two days. I had a thought that was kind of a “no duh” moment as I had been using mats to elevate the handles when there are blocks set at 12” that are meant to support weight that I could’ve been using the whole time. Plus they were light and had hand holds. So I ended up using those and the slightly lower pick I-Beams (that are slightly heavier) to get the same pick height as last time. First set with the empty handles and sled I felt a little slow. I think this was because I didn’t do any real warm-ups like last time where I did empty sprints (running like I was holding handles), a run with just the sled and then a pick with the handles. But I seemed to do better as I went after that. I made an effort to control the handles down at the end so that I didn’t damage the turf. So a little extra grip and lower body work as I did a hold and then lowered them to the rubber mats at the end. So the plan was quarter, plate, quarter, plate so that the final run would be the handles with 2 plates per peg for 302.5lbs. Also increased the sled weight by 20lbs for the last two runs. Second to last set was almost the same as my top set last time (slightly less in the hands but 20lbs more on the drag sled). I ended up being a just a hair faster. I’m not sure what happened on the final set but with 40lbs more per hand, I managed to get just over half a second slower. Maybe I took that run more seriously. I felt it was important as part of my confidence recovery to do it. My grip felt solid and my body felt good. Contest weight doesn’t seem far away, even with it being regular pick height. More standing arm over arm work after that. I had two choices after the farmer’s walk; one more arm over arm followed by conditioning work and the other being more working the individual parts. Option two was if I wasn’t approved to do the standing arm over arm stuff. I was allowed to do things up to 50% so I decided I’d do it as I feel I need to compress the timeline to get my technique down on this. It is very different from seated style arm-over-arm. Weight for contest is 550lbs for 60’ after the block carry but it’s hard to figure out what that will actually be as it will be on a slick convention floor. For instance, at Beast of the Bluegrass last year, the prowler drag portion of the medley was listed as 300lbs. I trained with the prowler on black top with 300lbs added to the prowler (370lbs). They ended up making it 485lbs or so and it was still way easier than what I was doing in training. The only thing was getting it to start moving as shoes were slick on the floor. As my feet will be on mats at the end, this shouldn’t be a problem and turf is way harder than black top. But I had no idea how it would feel compared to the Exer-Genie stuff from last week. So I started with an empty prowler and added 50lbs each run. I started away from the rope with one of the 12” wood block to simulate the transition I will need to make from the block to the rope (I will be using the block part next week hopefully). I’m noticing that the levers that make me good at the seated variation aren’t helping here on the standing variation. My long arms still help but my height appears to be a hindrance as the closer the implement gets, the angle of the pull changes and less of the rope is on the ground keeping it from swaying. So I need to work on my positioning when it gets to that point. The two options I’m looking at are trying to drop down lower (from the start or at that point) to try and keep the angle more constant or keep the rope on the ground more or trying to match the swaying of the rope with my body (like a boxer weaving) Last set was getting fatiguing and it was 50% of contest weight that I ended on. Not my limit thankfully. I got a little extra work in by stripping the weights down each set and pushing the prowler back to the start with the low handles. I feel I’m improving on this a lot. These kinds of events and the different techniques and training are one of the many things I like about this sport. Finished up with some conditioning work. Maybe not the best thing with a cold haha. With the gym move around, right now it isn’t easy to setup a single straight run of more than 60’ so I figured that I could do 50’/50’ just pushing the prowler down with the high poles and then back with the low handles as that felt okay when I was resetting the arm-over-arm. The other option was to drive home and do them in the street but that just seemed like too much at this point as I had already been there close to 5.5hrs. Felt good, legs started to get fatigued on the last two sets haha. Then planks after that to finish the session. Almost forgot to do them as I was distracted with helping people on stones. Still good, regular style a bit harder than the side style. Home to stretch, recover and finally eat. Cold is wrecking me right now. I need to take some Nyquil, put on a humidifier and get some shut eye.

January 24, 2019 – Week 20, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Bird Dogs (1 second holds)

BWx10/10

18” Box Squats

BWx10

45x10

Precor Leg Extensions (1 Second Holds)
60x10
90x10
120x10
150x10

Precor Seated Leg Curls
115x10
145x10
175x38

Precor Angled Single Leg Presses
156x10/10
206x10/10
256x10/10

306x10/10

Cybex VR2 Glute Machine
62.5x10/10
94x10/10
125x10/10

Precor Inner Thigh Machine
85x10
135x10
185x36

Precor Outer Thigh Machine
95x10
125x10
155x42

Seated Calf Raises
+45x15
+90x10
+115x21/20 partial reps

Hanging Knee Raises
BWx46

BWx31

BWx25

Back Extensions (4-0-2-1 tempo)

BWx10

BW+45x19

Planks

BWx30 Seconds

BWx30 Seconds

Side Planks

BWx20/20 Seconds

BWx20/20 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: Getting terribly close to the deadline to decide if this is happening or not. Pretty have three more sessions to find out with the chiro. He actually took a good bit of time to talk with me as he wasn’t very busy with clients. The decompression seemed to be working this time as symptoms disappeared from my calf (numbness) until the following morning. I think the other people doing it weren’t getting everything right so I’ll make sure I note that for next session. Didn’t end up walking which is the first since I’ve been doing it after getting cleared to do so. Traffic was bad and things were rushed that evening. Feel like I have a cold coming on. “Pain” seems to be centralized which I’m told is good with these kinds of injuries. Despite getting things ready for the next day, I forgot my gym bag at home so that meant a trip after work. Warm-ups on the AMR to start. Highest was 152bpm. Calves and box touches were ok. Calf raises felt especially easy. Bird dogs were ok too. Still feels like a discrepancy between the two sides as far as the lower body. It will hopefully improve. No upper body movement prep this session. Testing out box squats. 2” higher box than training and just bodyweight and then the bar for sets of 10. The rack was open so I took advantage of that brief moment. No issues here. Treated the bodyweight ones like I had a bar on my back.  Leg extensions with pauses/holds at the top were next. No max rep set this time. Pretty set after set and just feeling some fatigue on the last set. First rep of the light weight about kicked the apparatus off how easy it felt. Leg curls after that as has been the case these past few weeks. 10lbs added for the top set for max reps. I didn’t think I’d do so well but I ended up adding 2 reps to the previous session with the added weight. Downstairs for one legged leg presses. 20lbs on the sled to start and 50lbs jumps. Still just sets of 10 reps. Trying to keep the rests as short as it takes to switch out the weight. Not really feeling the hip ache on these now. Maybe I’m bracing better and expecting it with the weight increasing. First set is easy, last set it feels like there is weight there. Glute machine after that. Sets of 10 here too. It was written as 60/90/120 for the sets but the weights don’t match up so I went a little heavier on each. This is pretty easy regular style but I imagine it would be tortuous if done with the holds and negatives like before. Inner/outer thigh work after that. Despite adding another 20lbs to the top sets, still repping out like crazy. The max is 205lbs for both machines so that’s going to be hit very soon and for lots of reps it this keeps up. This is a popular machine for women it seems so it’s like the occasional random dude that has no idea what they are doing, a dozen ladies and then me going HAM with most of the stack haha. People do some “interesting” variations on this machine too.. Seated calf raises downstairs after that. One plate and two plates for the warm-up sets and then tossed a 25lber on top for the working set. Things seemed to click today as I managed to get over 20 reps on this. Another thing was putting down the weight before doing the partials, just to get my feet positioned again (they tend to slide on the foot pad). Allowed me to get 20 reps partial style too. Calves are maybe getting the hang of things now? Hanging knee raises followed that. While tough, I didn’t feel like my hip flexors were filled with liquid fire. Got 46 reps for a big jump on the first set and also got 31 reps the second set. Only 25 reps the final set but the increase on the other two is kind of crazy considering how slow that progress had been the last two times. Back extension after that. No weight just kind of feels like I’m moving in slow motion on purpose, like some kind of weird Tai Chi. I don’t keep count when it comes to the rep set. 45lbs held like I rowed it was hard on the lats. I figured those would give out first really as they never got a rest. So close to 20 reps and I’d probably have tried another if I knew I was that close but my lower back and hamstrings were quaking. Planks of both styles to end the night. The extra ten on regular style feel tougher than adding ten on the side style. So much so that I accidentally held the side style the second go through an extra 4 count by mistake. I didn’t want to worry about cooking so I got recovery burritos and then home to stretch and recover.

January 22, 2019 – Week 20, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Bird Dogs (1 second holds)

BWx10/10

Superset: Band Rows/ Modified Angle Push-ups
MMBx20/BWx15
MMBx20/BWx15

Biceps Stretches

20 Seconds

20 Seconds

Wide Grip Pulldowns
70x10
100x10
130x10
160x10

190x10

Precor Pec Flyes
85x10
115x10
145x10

175x30

Cybex Eagle NX Rows
80x10
120x10
160x10
200x24

Push-ups (1 second pauses)

BWx22

BWx17

BWx14

One Arm Dumbbell Rows (supported)

50x10/10

75x10/10

100x10/10

Planks

BWx30 Seconds

BWx30 Seconds

Side Planks

BWx20/20 Seconds

BWx20/20 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: Perhaps went too hard on Saturday. Flare up in symptoms was present Sunday and Monday. Nowhere near as bad as it has been and not even in the same realm as when I had relapses in pain from two and half years ago. I knew what the chiro was going to say before I even asked about restrictions being lifted. I was advised that I can test things out as I get closer to the point where I need to make a decision as it is my body. I want to be better and I want to compete at this big show. I tried stretching and had a deep tissue massage session booked in advance with the expectation I would be in full competition prep mode. Massage therapist suggested I try sleeping with a pillow to support my hips better. I also went to bed early to be hopefully rested the next day. Also took some Aleve and it did seem to help a little as it seemed to be less than the previous two days. Work wasn’t too bad so that might have helped too. The setback still put a dark cloud over everything. AMT to warm-up. My heart rate was up there as the meter said 117bpm just starting out. 158bpm highest reading. Calf work was easy but they were very tight. Massage had helped but the front of my tibia were pretty tight and fatigued from the standing arm-over-arm stuff. Box touches both styles felt alright. Bird dogs were ok. Left side for my leg was a little off still but not the worst it has been. Still a work in progress. Band rows and modified push-ups were supersetted and for two sets. Feel good pump from these. The pressing part is more fatiguing than the rows. But no pain in the shoulder so that’s what I’m happy about. Biceps stretch felt good. Then gym stuff. Same workout as last week but with more weight. First up being pulldowns with a wide grip. 10lbs added to each set again. I ended up working in with someone so the rests were still short but inconsistent as sometimes I got just one set done and others I got time to do two sets back to back. These felt tougher than last week on the top two sets despite still being comfortable. Probably from all the upper body work from event training. Some aches in the left hip from the weigh pulling me up. Then it was upstairs for the machines. Pec flyes again. Had to wait a bit to use the machine today. Someone asked me how the disc bulge was doing and I told them it still lingers. Dropped a set and added 10lbs to the top weight. I felt tired by rep 12 but still managed 30 before I felt that I couldn’t control the weight. Going to be so good a hugging. On to rows after that. Bigger jumps between sets with 20lbs added to the top set. I had to wait only a little bit to use this machine today. I figured that the numbers would be down here from how fatigued I felt on the pulldowns and with the rowing on Saturday. Still managed a good clip of reps. I was going for a 25^th rep but I felt that I’d have to heave to get it so I stopped there. Paused push-ups followed after that. I’m really pleased that I’m doing push-ups again without pain in the right shoulder. Three sets again with the plan being to do 1-2 reps more per set from last time. I figured that I’d just do 2 reps more on the first set and then try to get 2 more on the following sets. 22 reps was pretty darn easy but getting those extra two reps after that got progressively harder. Set two was tough and set three was really tough. Doesn’t look like it on video but I was near my limit on set three. Triceps getting tired. Dumbbell supported rows were next. I was a little apprehensive about these with it being a similar motion to the rows from Saturday. I’m not sure what caused the flare up but I’m keeping my eye on things. A set was dropped but the weight bumped up a lot. I’m getting better at the bracing aspect of these now that I’ve got the idea down pat. Moved quick the first two sets and then took a bit longer break before doing the set with 100lbs as the handles are slightly thicker and the dumbbell doesn’t roll (rubber hexagonal weights). Still felt easy enough. Planks got a buff in difficulty. 10 seconds added to each hold time so regular style now 30 seconds and each leg of the side style now 20 seconds. Those extra ten on regular style were noticeable haha. Side style actually was better than I expected it was going to be. Home to stretch, recover and eat ten tacos. Hopefully I feel well enough the rest of the week to put in my best effort. It is getting uncomfortably close to decision time.