April 27, 2019 – Week 7, Day 3

5 Minutes Misc Stationary Bike

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

Sandbag Tosses (attempting over 15’) (20’ away)

50x1 (hit)

50x1 (bad)

50x1 (miss)

50x1 (miss)

50x1 (miss)

50x1 (hit)

50x1 (hit)

50x1 (hit)

50x1 (bad)

50x1 (miss)

50x1 (bad)

50x1 (hit)

50x1 (hit)

Log Clean and Push Presses (2 stage 2 second pauses)
(Miscellaneous Log 12”)

90x5
120x3
150x2
(Beast Metals Log 13”)

181.5x2
211.5x1
241.5x1
256.5x1 (misgrooved)
256.5x2
256.5x2
256.5x2
256.5x2
256.5x2

Log Chest Supports (2 stage 2 second holds)

176.5xpick

226.5xpick

276.5x1

296.5x1

316.5x1

336.5x1

356.5x1

376.5x1 (10 seconds dip, 18.54 seconds hold)

Sandbag Rows

150x10

Sandbag Carry/Sled Drag Medleys (turf)

200x100’/215x100’ in 45.84 Seconds

250x100’/315x100’ in 51.78 Seconds

306x100’/415x100’ in 72.55 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: I wanted to sleep but I also wanted to train. I didn’t walk Friday evening as it was raining off and on throughout the day and I really needed to take a second to take care of things I had let pile up at home. Injury site flair up still going on and I’m trying my best to manage that. Since it seems that existing and training feel the same, might as well do something productive as long as it isn’t making things feel worse. I was hoping this workout wouldn’t be that bad as far as time but I was wrong. There was traffic at the beginning of my journey out to Lancaster so my drive ended up being 20-30 minutes longer than usual. Not a good start. Really windy today. Arrive at the gym and see that the toss tower has been blown over the uprights had snapped from the fall. Tried to see if it was salvageable but it was not. A shame since the owners had added a new plank to the top to get it for 15’ for the three of us at the gym doing USS Nats. A lot of people there as is usually the case on Saturdays. Sometimes I like it and other times I don’t. I guess depends on my mood and maybe what I need to accomplish that day. I wore my compression socks for today to see how they feel on a long day and make sure they protected my shins against the log. Anyways, bike felt good. Calf work was super easy. Nice and springy. Box touches felt good. Bird dogs felt really good, especially considering how my back was feeling. Band rows and modified push-ups were supersetted as per usual. Had to move my setup as people were actually using the belt squat today. The nerve of them haha. Biceps stretch felt good. Sandbag toss again. Plan was ten good tosses with the 50lbs bag taking 2 minute rests. I was fully prepared for trying to do this over the 14’ toss tower. But that was dead and not coming back (as when it is fixed, it will be 15’) so I had two options; 1 just do throws as high as I can over an imaginary tower or 2 build that imaginary tower. I spent a lot time looking at everything in the gym and decided on option 2 as the technique is at a premium here and I noticed how much different it was doing the toss over nothing versus something during Week 1 and Week 2 of this training cycle. It took over an hour to get the setup right, using pipe, pvc, a yoke, weights, blocks, a jump stretch band and a ladder. But I got a setup made for a 15’ toss. Just looks so high up there. Warm ups were mostly working on my foot work and some swings and minimal power tosses with the lighter bags. This was going to be a lot of tosses with a heavy bag. I had been smart (well not smart enough not make this thing or do this sport) by setting things up on the other side of the gym building so that the building was blocking a lot of the wind. Long story short but I didn’t get that bag over 15’. It was just not happening today. So I kept track of different tosses so that I didn’t just stop when I did ten as I wanted ten “good” ones. Hits for when I hit the band crossbar. That meant at least some part of the bag got to 15’ so definitely clearing 14’. I think I had two or three where it came down onto the band (not enough to clear it though). The other category was misses where the form was good but not enough height to hit the band. Not ideal but something and I’m sure most would clear 14’. The last was bad tosses which might have had good height but my trajectory was off and wouldn’t have cleared it. The biggest thing I realized is that I need to get even closer to the uprights to have a chance at clearing this height with the weight. I feel where I go for the other bags is still fine. Next week when the old setup is fixed, I’ll probably be at this again and that setup is less “forgiving” in that it will spit the bag back at me like that clown mini golf thing in Happy Gilmore. Log after that. Pauses and holds for everything again. Same warm-ups up until the first set with the big red. Reps felt better on that first set with the pretty much empty log. Pick-up was feeling a little off this week but not sure what it was. Right hamstring was feeling tight. I’m thinking the past two weeks of thick bar pulls for reps. Plan was to work up to 15lbs more than last week and do 5x2 with slightly longer rests. These pauses are killer and mess up and you might as well be dead. Breathing is easier on the circus dumbbell. Almost had an accident on my first attempt. First rep felt ok but it was tough. I guess I messed up my breathing as that second rep misgrooved bad and I had to bail as I was seeing darkness coming. Not a good start to the log sets, especially when I needed to do this and other stuff. I’ve been here before, it was not strength but technique issue and I can fix that. Besides one rep where it went out in front of me and I had to take it for a stroll, the rest was uneventful. Definitely feeling these in the upper body, especially the triceps. Next was a change. Taking the place of yoke with week was log chest supports. But not my usual kind. In the past, it was do some singles or triples up to the work set and then hold for time. And generally with big jumps. This time though it was smaller jumps and holds at two spots each set. Pick it up and then go to the bottom of my leg drive dip and hold for 2 seconds and then stand up and hold it for another two seconds. Start at 20lbs more than where I stopped on log. Easy enough right? Wrong. The rack setup was different here than at the Y and it really was throwing me off. Set it too high and I can’t do the dip. Too low and I got to quarter front squat it up. I went with the lower option. I did singles with the empty log first as this was killing my knees and it felt so damn awkward. I think I’m just used to the stand up kind where I don’t have to worry about the dip. Something special was planned for the top set and I was feeling like just the warm-ups would be my top set. I realized a few sets in that I didn’t really have a way to have the log stop if it rolled. The beastmetals log is not balanced and I could feel my vision vibrating after sets with how it sat on my chest. I need to get used to it if I’m going to press big weights. I eventually figured out the best way to lift the log up and embraced the suck as it were. For my top set (I wanted to get 200lbs on the log) I was to hold the dip for 10 seconds and then stand up and hold it for time after that. It is really hard to gauge how difficult that is going to be from the previous sets but it seemed to work out as I got it for  the 10 and didn’t pass out and then got close to 20 seconds before my upper back gave out and I set it down. Hopefully this won’t be so tricky next time and I’ve have things figured out better. Last item was medley work as has been the case. Last week this was terrible. I think this week I just kind of accepted that it was going to be terrible. Warmed up with sandbag rows. Going with bearhug style. These felt this week compared to last. Maybe it won’t be as much of me moving like a sloth on Ambien. Medley for three runs with the 200lbs, 250lbs and 306lbs sandbags. I apparently had a death wish and added 15lbs to each run of the sled. I had seriously debated just keeping the weights the same from last week and assume that the top weight I did was going to be the heaviest that the drag portion is going to feel (assuming 400lbs on turf is as hard or harder than 685lbs on slick convention floor). I but I figured I should keep pushing it as I could be mistaken and things happen in strongman. Hell, I’m weighing about 275lbs most days in the morning so I could be having to do 720lbs instead. I’ll be prepared in either case I guess. I ultimately went with the more weight option as it meant I could just use plates and hundos on the sled and not worry about chump change. Baby carry for the 200lbs and I knew I was moving faster today. May have to see if the yoke stuff next week hampers things but I was faster on this with the increased weight on the sled compared to last week. Next set with the 250lbs I had a bad pick with the 250lbs bag. So I dropped it and reset. This appears to be one downside to this technique as getting it centered can be tricky. I may need to test both options a bit as far as the pick up. Maybe as a “warm-up”. Somewhat better pick the second go and moving pretty good. Again, faster than last week by a few seconds. Then it was time for that dense bag. I gave this stupid thing three or four false starts. This thing just feels terrible on the pick and it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s going to be awkward. I realized I had to go and just do the best I can. I think I may need to see about the load style pick for this bag next time. Gets down on my legs and impedes my stride. Drag was slow but I was moving better than I did last week for sure. Also rushing the pick last week did me no favors. But getting 15 seconds better time with 15lbs more weight is good thing. This was a long day as it took a while to put stuff away and then stretch. I stuff around a little bit longer too watch a novice guy log press and offer pointers. I left home around 10:00AM and got back just before 7:00PM. TENS unit on the drive home. Forgot to ice my knee packs. I wanted to eat twice before bed so this ended up being a late night for me. Got two rest days now that I’m back on my regular schedule at least. Hopefully this current flair up passes soon.