July 30, 2019 – Week 9, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Narrow Grip Bench Presses w/ Chains (28lbs)

No Chains

45x10

Added Chains

45x5

95x3

135x2

185x1

225x3

225x3

225x3

225x3

225x3

Neutral Grip Precor Chest Supported Rows

105x8

195x8

285x8

375x8

465x8 PR+5lbs

Standing Tate Presses

25’sx3

35’sx3

45’sx3

60’sx10

60’sx10

60’sx10

Stretching

Comments: Hopefully the super stress will end soon with this month coming to a close. Had much needed deep tissue massage after work Monday. Only had an hour and probably needed 90 minutes but she was booked 1hr appointments until 9:30PM I think. Definitely helped with my knee. Left shoulder was wrecked from it but it felt good the following morning. Hamstrings still tight. Also pigged out on three huge burritos afterwards. Another week to rest the knee and then I’ll be back to my regular walking on my off days. This was going to be a shorter workout but I still got everything ready so that I could go to the gym right after work. Warmed up on the AMT. Heart rate peaked at 153bpm. That was in the like the last 15 seconds when it jumped up. Downstairs for the movement prep and stretching as the stuff I usually use upstairs was in use. Sometimes things feel stiff after the massage but I’m usually able to perform well after that. This workout was initially going to be setup as viking press, rows and bench but due to the aforementioned issues, it was changed. Benching with chains now had first priority of the day. Plan was to warm-up and do 225lbs for five triples. I figured that I could do that with no support stuff no problem. Warm-ups felt good. Hitting a new weight with accommodating resistance is always interesting. I say this as the first time I did 185lbs that felt rough and now it feels like nothing. 225lbs felt like I was lifting something. Right pec and anterior deltoid were twitching by the second set. I had determined that depending on how it felt, that I’d figure out my rests. If it was stupid easy, I’d do a really short rest, like walk to the wall and back but if it was feeling a little more challenging, I’d walk to the corridor and back. That first set told me that the longer rests were a better idea. I got all night. After that was the chest supported rows. This made me nervous. The plan was 8rm, working up in sets of eight. This is a rep range that I’ve gone really heavy on previously. But my rows haven’t been above 300lbs in many months. It’s been really high reps. So there was concern that I’d be well under what I’ve done for the heavier stuff and that even trying it would result in injury to my biceps. Not that I’ve injured my biceps on this machine or exercise. I’ve always been careful. And I’ve done these (or similar exercises) when I’ve strained biceps on other things in the past. So I didn’t want to go light but I also didn’t want to “embarrass” myself. I realized that thinking that was stupid and I’d take 90lbs jumps and aim for a 5lbs PR on these and if I didn’t budge it or I fell short, that was ok. It would be the most weight I’ve tried on this exercise and I could just drop the weight down and do another set. I put on a copper knee sleeve just for my own mental security. Upper back was feeling a bit beat from the deep tissue work. 375lbs felt heavy but not like it was impossibly so. The real test would be 465lbs. I told myself I needed to try it. Not be intimidated by weight on any exercise and that if I wanted to be lifting heavy atlas stones this year (this heat hasn’t been helping) I need to work the back muscles hard with weights. The lighter stuff was last week. I was shocked the first rep moved as well as it did. I was fully prepared for it to be not budging and I would just be shrugging it. This was heavy. My lower body was tensing to keep tight. I didn’t die and I got it done. Last thing was triceps exercise for 3x8-10, my choice. I had asked if one I had done a few years ago that seemed to be good for my lockout strength on overheads would be ok. Standing Tate presses. I was given the go ahead and testing things out. Most I’ve used in the past is 55lbs and that was what I figured on using to break these back in (I had done sets of 12-15 with this). However, it appears that one of the 55lbs is missing, same with the 65lbs. I’d have to use a thicker handle dumbbells for 65lbs or 70lbs so I figured that I’d just try 60lbs and go from there. Took a little bit to get used to the form on these but felt good and strong. Definitely going to feel the triceps later this week, especially after all those viking presses Saturday and the chain narrow grip benches. Home to stretch and eat dinner before going to bed.

July 27, 2019 – Week 8, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack Elliptical

Mobility Prep

McMTS Viking Presses

Empty(80)x3

+40(101)x3

+80(121.5)x3

+120(142.5)x3

+160(163)x3

+200(184)x3

+240(205)x3

+280(225.5)x3

+320(246.5)x3

+360(267)x3

+400(288)x1

+260(215)x13

18” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk

Turns at 50’

137x150’ in 21.48 seconds

227x150’ in 30.22 seconds

No Turns

307x100’ in 18.80 seconds

BiggDoggStrongg Frame Hold

590 for 50.68 seconds

Sandbag Over Bar (60”)

175x1

225x1

275x10

Vehicle Push (uphill)

carx143’10”’

Stretching

Comments: Another early Saturday. Trying to do this so that I can try and beat the heat when it is at its worst and so that I can actually do stuff when I get home. Or at least have the time to do that. I really didn’t want to get up early. Even though I went to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour the night before, I didn’t feel rested at all. Even after my morning coffee I still felt tried and I had a full day planned. Brought everything I could need for the day to cover the bases. Drive out was pretty good besides the 6 miles or so where the highway splits into express lane and not express lane. No passing and stuff behind someone going like 10 miles under the normal flow of traffic speed. Fair number of people training. Mostly the people that are newer and train with the one owner that competes. There seem to be short spurts of large groups but they rarely are there very long. I travel a good distance so I have to make sure I get my money’s worth in. Usual routine of warming up in the cardio room in the dark. I reversed stride every 75 seconds as that seems to be better for my knee. Warmed up with the usual movement prep stuff and stretching. I felt good despite the knee. I wasn’t going to let that stop me on anything. Figuring that I could rest tomorrow and have the deep tissue massage for Monday after work that I could push the upper end on things. First thing for the session was viking press. Ideally, this would be done during the week like the other pressing but I don’t have a viking press at the Y and the power rack I had used to do a makeshift one in the past is gone so I can’t reasonably do one there anymore. But the strongman gym has one so rather than substitute it, might as well move things and use it. It might be the one that’s used at the contest in October as well. I wasn’t able to use it right away (it can double as a conan’s wheel so it was being used) so caught up with nonsense with my lifting friends. I did some overhead stuff with dumbbells to see how my knee was dealing and so that the first lift didn’t bother my shoulder. Leading up to this session, I had been testing things out to see how this felt and try and figure out some numbers. I’ve done viking press twice in competition, on different apparatuses each time. Both times I trained for it on a makeshift setup and really had to compare. Most aren’t going to know what the weight in hand is and just make guesses. I did testing on this one and found it was 80lbs empty in hand, variance between at the shoulders and overhead was maybe a kilogram different and whatever was added to it was 52% added to the weight in hands. So I got some data to work with. Not 100% but that doesn’t matter. So the goal for the day here was work up to a top triple and then do a down set with a weight I could hit for 10-15 reps. Initially, I was going to just do 20lbs jumps as this has felt like crap the previous two weeks just moving it around empty and with 50lbs on it. It didn’t feel like that today so I figured hell, just do 40lbs jumps as that is about a 20lbs increase in hand. Advice I had been given was to be like Travis Ortmayer and have my body like a spring. I’m usually pretty good at that on reps if the weight is light. Really trying to do these with no double dip. Usually not a rule for amateur but don’t know. Besides, this style with the push press will build the shoulders better. I realized this might take some time with how the first set felt. I had a few goals that I wanted to try and achieve here. The main thing was that the contest in October has 300lbs for the weight. No clue if that will be what they think in total, the weight added or the weight in hand. So I figured that I’d try and get it for each of those markers. While the movement up and down is fairly smooth, the weight loading section is very unstable so it moves around a lot, making this quite difficult as the weight increases. I managed to get the apparatus with +360lbs on it for a triple. I thought that I could get +400lbs but no, I was just lucky to get a single. 300lbs in hand based off my calculation is definitely there come contest for a single. Did some math to figure out what would be a decent weight for the rep set that I would get at least 10 on but not more than 15. It appears I got it just right. Couldn’t just press and go as I had to let the weight stabilize at the top a few times. This felt like good work. I had been fully prepared to put on knee braces for this but didn’t need it. Farmer’s walk stuff next. Adding 10lbs to everything from last time. Outside again as the one lane is partially blocked by the fingal finger. I was about an hour later than I was expecting to be doing this. Maybe 2hrs as the sun was out in full force. I elected to use mostly bumper plates that when it was time to take them back in, it wouldn’t burn my hands. Also so that even on my light set, the weights would be the same diameter and I couldn’t keep them as close to my body. Draped a towel over the handles too in between sets. Hand truck appears to have been overloaded as the bottom was warped and bent. Made moving the I-beams a little trickier. With how my knee felt and how sore my legs felt, I had to be smart with my warming up. And that went well. The light set with the turns went well. I felt I could control the turns better. The weight wasn’t turning me, I was actively turning it. Also the song “The Distance” by Cake plays in my head literally every time I do these with the multiple turns. This actually ended up to be faster than last time. I had trouble slowing down at the end with how sore my legs still are from the 20 rep box squat and the jack stand pulls. As great as that first set felt, the second set with 90lbs more garbage slow. My grip held up but I was really slow. I could tell it was slow. Ended up being a little over 30 seconds total. Hopefully the 307lbs set doesn’t feel like that. This felt like it was going to pop right out of my hands as soon as I took my first step but I kept going and finished this solid. So after that was the frame hold. 10lbs more than last time so 600lbs. I really took my time putting the farmer’s walk stuff away so that my grip could recover. Nobody really uses the frame so it gets stuff in front of it and in it all the time. Had to move the wheelbarrow and grill out of the way. There were rubber mats sandwiched between it and the wall and apparently this added some “resistance” I had to overcome to stand up with it. Not the best thing when trying to do a grip hold for time. I felt like this felt much better compared to the previous two sessions. But it was not to be. Ended up losing it just after passing 50 seconds. I’ve done a minute with this weight before but I have to take into consideration that the last time, it had been after only a few 50’ runs on farmer’s walks and when it was much cooler. I got to take into consideration the heat making grip a bit tougher and that I’m essentially pre-fatiguing with the longer distance stuff. Just have to keep at this and hope that come competition, it will be super compensated. Next was sandbag loads. No want to do. Never want to do. These are terrible. No real fast way to do them. It’s going to be a slog. Plan was 250lbs – 275lbs for a set of 10 reps. Well, I did 250lbs last time. Have to keep pushing. Copper knee sleeves were on my knees today so I had thought about doing the 3/4^th sleeve shirt again like I had done with the keg carry EMOM. Also help with the sweat.  My right biceps felt tight and I knew I wasn’t going to be rushing these. Just go at my own pace and finish when I finish. I got six reps before I had to start taking a breather that was more than just me walking to the other side of the yoke. I was trying my best to keep a more neutral spine on these. Getting lazy from being tried with the sandbags is probably what contributed to the most recent pain relapse in December. That and overly tight hamstrings which I’ve been working on like crazy. Rep eight it slipped down in my lap before I attempted the load and it resulted in my having to shove it over with my body. I wasn’t going to finish if I did that again. Got the next two over with no problem. Other than being wiped. Last thing for the day was vehicle push. Mike had been kind enough to stick around so I could push his truck again. It has nice handholds and is much heavier than the little car from last time. I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to keep pushing for the full minute with how tired I felt but I did and managed almost 40’ more than last time I did it with his car. Took a bit for me to cool down. Spent some more time talking crap with friends before heading home to stretch.

July 25, 2019 – Week 8, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

18” Box Squats

45x10

95x5

135x5

185x5

225x3

275x3

315x20

13” Jack Stand Pulls (straps)

135x5

225x5

315x5

405x5

Back Extensions

BWx10

BW+50x10

Planks

BWx60 Seconds

BW+50x60 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: Trying to let my knee heal some so haven’t done any 2 mile walks this week and don’t really plan to for the rest of the week. Not that walking in painful, it just is a lot of joint movement that I’d rather save for lifting. Usually near the last third is when it starts to ache from something getting tired. Been icing my knees almost every night this week. So no long distance walking. At least until I have another deep tissue massage on Monday night. AMT felt good. Heart rate was up to 149bpm. Only really jumped up in the last few moments. Most of what I do in the gym doesn’t bother the knee. Compression socks seem to help. I may wear them even on days I don’t need shin protection of some kind. Little cramped quarters downstairs during the movement prep stuff. I had been lazy today and didn’t get things ready for the gym before I left for work, again. So meant I had to come back home and do stuff so I was about 40 minutes behind schedule. So if I had been on time, the squat rack would’ve probably been open. I was just little too late and some people were using it for light weights. Using the walkout tiered rack wasn’t a great option with the knee being buggy so I had to wait. Luckily it wasn’t as long as last time I needed to do the squats. But on the copper knee sleeves and got ready. Another jump on the box squats with the plate-quarter-plate jumps so top set was 315lbs. I’ve never really done high rep squats before this training cycle so it has been a bit of an adjustment the first two times. First time had been getting feet wet, second was adapting and this time would be actually doing and feeling like I knew what I was doing. I was not ready that first time as I was able to do 50lbs more for more reps the next time. I had no illusions that I was beating the previous reps with this weight. Most I’ve done from like 7 years ago was 16 reps with this weight and that was on an axle doing high bar style squats. I wanted at least 15 reps. I got nervous and couldn’t stop burping so that took a bit to settle before I could do this max rep set. Big reason I have to keep from eating for a few hours before I train is that reason. I felt my breathing and pace were good and I figured I could get to 12 before having to take bigger breathes and or multiple breathes. At 15, I knew 20 could happen. 20 was definitely the limit as my form broke on that rep. I had to sit down like immediately after to rest and pop off the belt and lie down for a moment haha. Quite a pump in the legs and lower back from this. I really had no idea how I was going to the deadlift stuff. Originally, the plan had been do triples on the jack stand pulls from 13” up to a set of 8-10 reps, hopefully being like 455lbs. That was changed to just sets of five taking plate jumps to 405lbs. I feel this was good change after how roasted I felt from the 20 reps with 315lbs. As tired as I was, I felt like my setup and form felt pretty good on these. I used straps even though I didn’t need them so that I could just focus on the pulls and save grip for event days that are going to be very grip intense most of the time. My legs and lower back were quivering just setting up on these pulls from the box squats. 405lbs felt like something but even so, I felt I could do double the reps. I think I can do 500lbs for reps without a suit again at this time. But still got a ways to go to be where I want and need the deadlift. 13” pull seems to be good for me with getting the bar set for the pull. Hoping the rotation of lifts will do it’s thing. Then it was the core stuff. Both back extensions and planks were the same weights, reps and sets as last time. Didn’t make them any easier as the stuff before was harder. Definitely needed them though. I got burritos for dinner so I could try and get my evening done earlier than if I cooked dinner. Stretching and recovery stuff and then bed. Eventually.

July 23, 2019 – Week 8, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Axle Strict Presses

82x3

102x3

122x3

142x3

162x3

182x3

202x3

222x6

Close Neutral Grip Seated Cable Rows

70x10

90x10

110x10

130x10

Push-ups (1 second pauses)

BWx10

BW+25x8

BW+50x21 PR+1 rep

Stretching

Comments:  I was tired Monday. I didn’t walk more so to let my knee rest more. And to try and clean up things around the house. I did end up doing that but still stayed up later than I should’ve. This meant I slept in to get some more sleep and left getting ready for the gym until I got home from work. Workout was changed to allow for stuff to hopefully recover better. I’m always mad at myself when the workout it changed from what was written before. Like that was the perfect workout and I can’t do it now because I suck. I know that’s not how that is to be looked at and this is more to keep me healthy, to adapt and continue to improve. Being healthy has been a problem since 2016 but I’ve been managing. These thoughts are also more present when I feel tired and I’m struggling (or so I think) do again, signs that fatigue is there in both mental and physical sense. Home to get stuff ready and then to the gym to train. The guy with the parrot in the RV was back in the parking lot. I thought I had seen the last of him. Kept the copper knee sleeves off at the start. Wearing them too much bothers my calves. AMT to start off the session. 146bpm highest reading. I was expecting this to be higher. No issues with the movement prep and warming up.  Axle as per usual this week. Originally the clean and strict pressing but changed to pressing out of the rack. Wore the knee sleeves because the unracking isn’t the best with the spacing on this rack so some knee bending that could put strain was going to happen. Plan was triples up to a weight I could hit for 6-8 reps. I think I wanted to go heavier because I was dropping the clean. I really wanted to get eight for the top set though. I figured that if 200ish felt heavy, I’d do that for eight, otherwise go up another to try for that rep range. PVC pipe to warm things up. My form was off the first set, I darn near brought it down on my nose finishing the first rep. Oops. It was probably a good idea on the not doing cleans as my biceps were really sore and feeling it on the reracking of weights and adding weight to the bar. Strict press with a barbell/axle has not been a focus. Most I’ve done since I started keeping track again (2016) is 230lbs for a single during Beast of the Bluegrass prep one day when my knees were bothering me. These felt better. I gave 222lbs my best shot and got six. Tried seven but it wasn’t there and it would’ve been a cheaty and sucky grinder. These were supposed to be smooth and perfect. That sixth one was pushing that definition. Looking at my all-time bests, this is 13lbs shy of my best set of six with the axle. Close to 95% there. Nothing more with the axle after that. Changing things up so no push pressing to get more event specific stuff that will get trained later. Another change was no one arm rows. Thank you. These wreck my forearms and biceps with that constant tension. Especially this soon after a stone training session. Cable row with a close grip and neutral hand position. Plan being 4-5 sets of 10 with increasing weight. Trying to feel the upper back working, no yanking with the biceps. Weight not really the goal here. I took short rests here as I knew I’d probably be using lighter weight and it was later in the night from me being lazy to get to the gym after work. Plan being the top set I could do for at least 15 reps with this form if needed. This got exhausting quick. I would’ve like to do 150lbs but I could feel that I couldn’t keep these smooth on the next jump. Keep it back focused, not so much arms. Final item for the session was the paused push-ups. Doing the 50lbs plate for the rep set this time again. Plan being 1-2 more reps than last time. My chest was sore and tight from Sunday still and I was to do a few more reps on the warm-ups. But I felt pretty good on the first 8-10 reps and then they started to get hard. I don’t like it sliding down. I know it is still work but I prefer it being on the upper back. On rep 20, I came up lopsided and the plate fell off. I wasn’t done. Reset and got another rep. Tried for 22 but just couldn’t get my elbows to lockout. Next time I guess. Headed home to stretch , ice my knees and recover while I eat Mississippi roast.

July 21, 2019 – Week 7, Day 3

5 Minutes Elliptical Trainer

Mobility Prep

Yoke

200x50’ in 5.11 seconds

300x50’ in 5.84 seconds

400x50’ in 6.00 seconds

500x50’ in 6.83 seconds

550x50’ in 7.03 seconds

600x50’ in 7.62 seconds

650x50’ in 7.87 seconds

Stone of Steel Over Bar (60”, no support)

138x1

193x1

247.5x1

302x1

337.5x0 no lap

337.5x0

337.5x1

Atlas Stone to Platform (59”, tacky)

330x1

383x0 (22”) no lap

383x0 (22”) no lap

383x0 (22”) no lap

375x1

Prowler 2 Drags (uphill)

455x148’1”

Stretching

Comments: This entire week had been hot with Saturday and Sunday being the hottest so far. Heat advisory from 12-8 both days. Saturday I didn’t leave my house. I woke up at a decent hour to take my medication and Tylenol and then back to bed for like another 4hrs. I think I woke up that time because my mid back was cramping. Knee was still bothering me so I figured it was best to rest and not walk outside and just do what I could to make it feel better by tomorrow. Or at least good enough to do stuff. Plan was to go to bed at a reasonable hour (despite sleeping past 1:30PM) so that I could get up at my usual work time and try and finish the workout in Lancaster before the heat advisory hit. I was anxious for the training session. Stupid reasons (was my knee going to explode, was my biceps going to tear, was I going to bomb stones again) that I know need to be tamped down. I was expecting to be this worn out and fatigued. I knew I was going to need to do some foam rolling for my back and hamstrings when I got there.  It was only 79 when I got there but it was definitely rising fast. Open air even with fans wasn’t helping that much but most of the lights were off so they were trying to keep it cooler.  I did my warm-up on the elliptical with the lights off and a fan going so I didn’t overheat. Knee felt ok on this. Had the copper sleeve on and compression socks. Movement prep stuff was pretty good. Hamstrings were tight, had the one cramp up on me stretching out my quadriceps. Different parts of the gym had different air flows.  First up for today was yoke. Added a run to the last workout so finishing off with 650lbs. Heat got me last time I think coming in when I did. Last time everything but my runs with 200lbs and 400lbs had been slower than the first week. No idea how this was going to go. Lower back felt tight from pulls on Friday and who knows how the knee was going to feel. Empty run stuff felt fine, just right hamstring was really tight. So did some more foam rolling before I got ready. I felt my start was a little off on the first one but I managed to pick up enough speed to do it faster than last time. 300lbs run got slower again but then got 400lbs in exactly 6 seconds. I was feeling like I was moving well.  500lbs was almost half a second faster than last time. Not the fastest ever but good. 550lbs and 600lbs were about 1/3 a second faster than last time. No passy-outty feelings this week. I was a little worried about my inner thigh on the left side as it was feeling tight after either 550lbs or 600lbs but it went away quickly and wasn’t present the rest of the workout. 650lbs was very good. It was faster than 600lbs had been last time. I was feeling pretty good about these, even if the weight is down a bit from what I’ve been doing with yoke. Just over a second difference between 500lbs and 650lbs. It will be interesting to see what I can get 700lbs at in a few weeks. Then it was stones. Plan was stone of steel up to about 10lbs more than last time for a single and then hopefully things would go well this time for atlas stones with tacky. Plan there was a heavy single as well. My stone of steel isn’t busted like I was worried it was. It just has a dent in the lower hemisphere and there is a small margin of error to get the halves to seal. I marked it with a paint marker so that I get them close enough when lining up. In light of that, changed things so that it is over bar so I don’t have a crashmat tower fall on me again. After yoke, I changed shirts due to the sweat. Outside temperature (IE the gym) was 89 by this point and still climbing. I figured I’d take bigger jumps. Despite sweat, I seemed to do okay last time on this. Other than being just wasted. Someone had been using it as it was covered in chalk. Didn’t matter with the sweating and heat but I never use chalk on it. Either bare or tacky towel. I went with 55lbs jumps, not really thinking what that would lead up to. I wasn’t expecting to be over 300lbs by my fourth lift and I didn’t think it would be wise to go for a new max no tacky towel, gloves, grip shirt, belt stone of steel. Lower back was stiff and my hip flexors and abs were tight. Broke one of the 5lbs plates lifting the 302lbs attempt it seems. Smaller jump to get it to 337.5lbs, 14lbs more than last time. Sweat was not my friend. First try, I couldn’t lap it. Didn’t get a good enough grip on it. Second attempt I got it lapped and then I tried to extend with it but it just spun on my soaked shirt and dropped it. I had not thought I was that sweaty. I had only intended to use two shirts today so I brought out the last one I had for the ride home and that time it went up no problem. Stupid sweat. My chest muscles were really tight and sore from that crush effort. Then it was real stones. I had kept my tacky at home at room temperature and then put it in a portable cooler with two ice packs to keep it cold until I needed it. My plan was again to do 330lbs and then 383lbs for singles. With how my lower back and midsection were feeling, I was not going to be able to extend with something like 430lbs or more. Tacky was almost frozen but enough was malleable that I could tear it off like strong taffy. The gym air and my body heat warmed it up quick. 330lbs was something. I got excited when it came off the ground (last time it was slipping) and I foolishly rushed it and this lead to a bad extension and having to fight to get it up on the platform. I was mad at myself for that. Rolled out the 383lbs stone. It wasn’t looking good as each time I touched it, more of the sealant would slough off. Tacky was sticking better but that just meant it was tearing off the sealant layer and the stone stayed put. I was a sweaty mess and even after rotating to a different spot, same thing. I was too tired to be livid but I didn’t want to end this like last time, so I rolled out the 365lbs stone again but then reconsidered as I switched it for the egg shaped 375lbs stone. Rather lift heavier than the same weight again. Tacky was starting to get greasy again by this point. My shoulders were looking lobster red in the video. Almost lost it on the pick from the floor with the tacky but I got it lapped in the deep style and rolled it in. Extension with this was much better than it had been with 330lbs. I was spent. Chest was sore from this as well. Just sore and tired but not done yet. Cleaned up good and setup prowler outside. Closing in on noon and nearing 100 degrees now. Uphill drag for a minute. Kept my shirt off as I only had that one, slightly less sweaty than the other three, left and I was only going to be a minute. 50lbs more than the last time I did this. Actually didn’t feel that bad, just got caught on spots. Was very close to matching my distance. Felt good with that. Took a while to tear things down and put them away. I hope this is more the heat and fatigue from Friday then anything as it is hard seeing stone lifting not clicking like it usually does as it is usually my best event. One of the few things that I’d say has been world class. Had some deserved rest when I got home and stretched.

July 19, 2019 – Week 7, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

18” Jack Stand Pulls

135x5

225x3

315x2

Added Suit

405x1

495x1

Added Straps

585x1

675x1

765x0

735x1

Kettlebell Goblet Squats

53x10

53x10

Hanging Leg Raises

BWx30

BWx30

Stretching

Comments: It has been a stressful week and uncomfortably hot every day essentially. Even with the heat, I went for a walk the day before with how stressed out I was as I needed to do something to clear my head. Like a walking on a treadmill in sauna at this point. Supposed to be even hotter this weekend. Right knee is bothering me from Wednesday. That foot slip lapping 270lbs seems to be an issue. I can’t tell if it is just muscle related or joint related. I’m thinking it is more muscle as depending on my knee tracking, it feels nothing. But hard to say. The walking yesterday wasn’t probably a good idea for the knee but my head needed it. Trying to stay hydrated. Even being in A/C office, I was down about 5lbs from when I got up the morning and when I got home from work. I had left early to catch up on work and that meant coming home to get my workout stuff ready. So I was a little slow going when I got home and ready to train. It wasn’t much this day and with the plan being to do not a damn thing Saturday, I could afford for a later evening. AMT to warm-up. Heart rate was up to 153bpm at the end. Knee didn’t bother me on this. Majority of the warm-ups also didn’t bother my knee. Not as many people today upstairs so I did most of the movement and stretching upstairs, even if it was a little warmer.  18” deadlifts for today again. Plan was a heavy single again but more weight. Suggestion was do same warm-up and then plate jumps to 675lbs and then decide on between 735-765lbs for the top single. Trying to get my legs into these a bit more with my setup. I was not feeling the best leading up to or shortly before this session (heat was having me feel like I had cramps in my calves and abdominals the past two days on occasion) but things seemed good once I started. Last set with no suit felt like it was a decent weight compared from the jumps of empty to one pair of plates. Grip felt good on 495lbs. Maybe 585lbs no straps but figured that that wasn’t wise as I wanted to get used to the straps for the heavier stuff and not waste energy on a potential missed lift like I did the very first time this workout was done this training cycle. 675lbs felt pretty comfortable compared to last time and I figured that I had a shot at 765lbs. Would tie my PR from this height (though anything over 725lbs on the jack stands was a PR). I feel like this setup is harder than the rack pulls I was doing but I can’t really do them anymore so hard to say. I may just be weaker having injured my back 8 months ago and having to start from near zero again. I was really hoping the nervous energy for the log press would do it today but I didn’t even break the weight fully off the ground. Ugh. I really didn’t want to leave on a missed lift, especially when it didn’t break the floor. I knew it was a risk trying again as missing even less weight would make me depressed and there was a chance that I’d spent my energy to try this weight. I dropped the weight down to 735lbs, which had been the minimum for today. This was a grind but I knew I had it after I felt it break the ground. No hitching so still good building. This wouldn’t have been nearly as hard if I had went for it first. Annoying but I got more weight. Plan for next time is no more than 745lbs. That will be the last one before NY Record Breakers. After that was lighter stuff. As last time, the kettlebell squats followed. Same weight and reps. Just something to keep the ROM and flexibility. This seems to be the case for these in this workout. The no pain in the knee on rack pulls didn’t last when I had to do full squats. I knew I couldn’t jump right into this after the last time with how achy my knees felt after the max rack pulls. Box squats with no weight seemed fine but that full ROM was a little much and I ended up putting a copper knee sleeve on my right knee to keep it from being as angry with me. Didn’t take much rest. The weight and reps are easy but my knee didn’t care for this. Final thing was hanging leg raises. Two sets again but goal of 25-30 reps. These get harder each time with the rep range increasing each time. Left shoulder didn’t like these on the first rep of the first set. Once my body position adjusted, it seemed to be better. 30 reps that first set wasn’t too bad, but I knew that matching that for another was a tall order. I tried to take my time putting away the weights from the rack pulls. Really had to fight to get those reps. Lower back was pretty tight from today. Home to stretch, eat and recover. Tylenol, soft tissue and icing to try and combat the knee issue. Got an achy left shoulder and a tender right knee.

July 17, 2019 – Week 7, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

12” Log Clean and Strict Presses (1 clean)

90x1

120x1

150x1

180x1

210x1

240x1

270x1

Pulldowns

70x15

100x10

130x5

160x5

190x5

220x5

250x24 PR+3 reps

Precor Pec Flyes

60x10

100x7

140x7

180x7

220x27

Stretching

Comments: Workout for this week was pushed out a bit to accommodate things I had planned. Those ended up being adjusted as I could’ve done my workout on my usual day but with how my shoulder was feeling and I didn’t have anything prepared it made sense to wait another day. Hot and muggy. Got up to 95 and then it was raining. Not sure how that works haha. I had a certain nervous energy today. Work was very busy and stressful. The nervous energy was something where I felt like there might be a small tremor from an earthquake under the ground. On the drive to the gym, I had put my hazard lights on because I thought a tree had fallen on powerlines causing a delay but that’s just how that tree has always been. I know when I have this kind of nervous energy I will either have a great workout or a terrible one. No in-between. AMT to start off the session. 155bpm highest reading. A bit higher than I would’ve liked. The upstairs is not as well ventilated as the downstairs and it was really muggy there. I went back downstairs to do my movement and stretching regiment, otherwise I was going to be sweating to death for no reason. Log for today was singles on the clean and strict press. No set jumps this time. I had a goal in mind of 270lbs so best option was 30lbs jumps from the empty log. This would set me up to hit an all-time best clean and strict press on log. The two risers I was using were gone so I ended up using the bumper plates. I was feeling good on these. I did a set with 5lbs dumbbells for ten just to get the shoulders used to the movement. Don’t need a lot of weight as seen with using the PVC for the axle. Just need reps in the movement to keep the shoulder happy. 240lbs didn’t feel as powerful as I’d want to insure that 270lbs was going up but I watched the video and it just got out in front a little but was strong. Figured that chalking up my shirt (I’d brought a shirt with a decal to combat the sweat factor). That did the trick. My right knee shifted a little on me lapping the log. I felt some hesitation. Bullet time feel but it went up after a slight pause as my triceps and shoulders took over from my chest and it went up with authority. Definitely more there. Pleased that it is progressing. Need strong shoulder for fighting with the heavies and super heavies. Hopefully this translates over to my log push pressing. Took a bit for my body to calm down from that excitement and it was on to the reps of back and chest. Pulldowns up next. Same weight and sets as last time but aiming for more reps with 250lbs. I was feeling a little fatigued as I was working up. I think I was taking less rest really until I got to the top set. I felt good after 220lbs for a good showing. First rep with 250lbs was really easy but I felt like the seat was too high and I was paranoid and adjusted it one as I thought someone had changed it while I wasn’t looking. Stupid as the setting I had it one was the same for all the sets and the right one. I was just being pulled up by the weight. Even with that mess up, I recovered and got a lot of reps. Pec flyes after that and upstairs. Not as muggy now that a fair number of people had left and temperature outside had dropped by at least 10 degrees. Right biceps was acting up a little so cautious on these today. I figured start lighter and do an extra set to work up to the top weight to make sure. Good thing as the really light set I felt my right biceps having to adjust to it. Once that was done, it was fairly smooth sailing from there. Only 5lbs more on the top set but I still did well on the reps. This was my limit, much like last time. So good workout and got burritos for dinner. Stretched and iced my knees as my right knee was a little stiff from the log.

July 13, 2019 – Week 6, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack Elliptical

Mobility Prep

Sandbag Tosses (over 15’)

30x1

30x1

30x1

30xmiss

30x1

Sandbag Rows

150x10

200x8

250x6

EMOM Medley (20, on turf)

Sandbag Carry – 250x50’

Keg Carry – 250x50’

Prowler 2 Push – 195x50’

Prowler 2 Drag – 195x50’

Sandbag Carry – 250x50’

Keg Carry – 250x50’

Prowler 2 Push – 195x50’

Prowler 2 Drag – 195x50’

Sandbag Carry – 250x50’

Keg Carry – 250x50’

Prowler 2 Push – 195x50’

Prowler 2 Drag – 195x50’

Sandbag Carry – 250x50’

Keg Carry – 250x50’

Prowler 2 Push – 195x50’

Prowler 2 Drag – 195x50’

Sandbag Carry – 250x50’

Keg Carry – 250x50’

Prowler 2 Push – 195x50’

Prowler 2 Drag – 195x50’

Stretching

Comments: Another training session with it get above 90 degrees. I felt like I slept well the night before and woke up before my alarm went off. Didn’t need to use the snooze button either. Guess that’s what happens when you are rested. I was seriously considering staying home and just doing the workout at my house. Reason being that odds were high the gym would be crowded and this workout was probably going to take a long time to setup and have space available than it was to actually do it. I could go for a sled drag around the block to warm-up, do keg toss instead of sandbag toss and go from there. I think the thought hit me when I realized I’d still have to go an fill up my car before driving out to train. I ended up driving though when I realized that I didn’t have a keg close to 250lbs. I had thought my one keg was close but turns out it was like 25lbs lighter than I thought it was and my other keg is 296lbs. So driving it out it was. Then traffic. Apparently a lane was closed and was to be closed until tomorrow evening. My traffic app wasn’t connecting to the service and it kept saying stay on course. I took an exit and planned to go on the freeway again. Then I was thinking, why do I want to pay more money to do a workout that I could do at home? I just said I’d just do the sandbag carry twice instead of keg. Thankfully, the GPS started working and let me know that by taking the exit I would be past the traffic for the construction if I got back on. Smooth sailing from there. It was bright and hot today. Had to drink a fair amount of fluids before I even started warming up. I had worn a ¾ sleeve shirt to see if that kept the sweat off my forearms better. Kept the lights off for the elliptical. Despite my knee being achy, this felt better than it did last week. Movement prep stuff and stretching felt pretty good. Then lifting things. The sandbag tosses I added to this workout again. Advised to do no more than five, including any misses. I wasn’t expecting any with 30lbs. The camera tripod was so broken that the person that owns it took it home so I had Mike film. I wanted to see how my ankles looked and how high it was going. I took shorter rests since it was beastly hot out there and I was having him film it with no break. First toss was the best. I feel like I’m getting my ankles to move but watching the video and hearing from Mike, it’s like an inch at most. Second toss was ok, the third wasn’t great as I held on to the bag too long. Fourth was pure garbage as it got more than enough height but the trajectory was off so it didn’t go over. I rushed the fifth to just get this over with and got that over. Other than that first toss, not pleased with these. Sandbag rows next. Still to be treating these as warm-ups for the majority of the workout (EMOMstrocity).  Not feeling the power on these today. Supposed to do 10, 8, and then 6. Figured I’d just do 50lbs jumps. Maybe the bad sandbag tosses were bugging me. Right biceps didn’t feel great on the 200lbs sandbag so I took a break to make sure that it was nothing. Did some foam rolling on that arm before finishing things up. I was doing these the short way as I’ve been doing the loads the long ways. Change things up and train both. 250lbs felt better on my arm but I was not keen on the rest of the day with the EMOM for 20 minutes again. Plan was to do 50lbs more on the sandbag and keg from last time and more weight on the prowler. I was initially going to add 50lbs to that as well but the weight I used last time as brief warm-up felt tougher than I expected so went with just 30lbs more on that. It was busy so I ended up moving everything into the wind tunnel corridor so everything was on turf this time. I needed a bit more warming up for this besides sandbag rows. Did some jogging and sprints, followed by some foam rolling and doing some short carries with 200lbs on both the sandbag and the keg. I had been lazy this week and hadn’t taken my copper knee sleeves out of the drier this week so I had to hope that the longer sleeves on the shirt I had today would protect my lower biceps from the keg kisses. With how I was feeling, I was kind of dreading this. Worried I’d just bomb it on that first pick of the sandbag. No chalk, I’ve found that only when it is grip related is it good idea with this much heat and sweat. Gets mixed with my sweat and becomes useless. I can just dry my skin with a towel before I go and I’ll be good for that short time. But the EMOM was good. Keg and sandbag felt fine, even with 50lbs more on it and it being over 90 degrees. First run is always slower than the second and third round. Fourth and fifth is where it slows down. Some of that fluctuated as my last run of the drag was actually my fastest. I know the keg was slower on some because I was trying to avoid running over Ellie, the service dog during round three and four haha. I always feel like I did work after these longer EMOM workouts. I just kept sweating for a good bit after that. I stretched before heading home (also helped out with other people training). I know my knees will need the ice packs. Left shoulder was feeling wonky again and I’m not sure why as it wasn’t until I took a moment to relax that it did. Maybe the sandbag toss aggravated it (not doing them anymore this prep as I get more event specific) or it if was trying to find a good setup on the viking press with it empty. I got few days to recover (off Sunday, chiro Monday) before training commences on Wednesday.

July 11, 2019 – Week 6, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

16” Front Box Squats w/ Chains

No Chains

45x10

Added Chains (+50lbs)

45x5

95x3

135x2

185x1

225x3

225x3

225x3

Wide Grip Deadlifts (straps)

135x1

185x1

225x1

275x1

325x1

325x1

325x1

325x1

325x1

Back Raise Bench Sit-ups

BWx15

BWx15

Stretching

Comments: With how I felt after last workout, I knew I needed to make time for sleep and get some things in order. I was feeling like I might get a cold and I was feeling warm and irritated. Got home from work and did my chores and ate a big bowl of mac & cheese and weight gain shake and went to be about 2hrs earlier than I had been. That did the trick and I was feeling less tired and stressed. No DOMS like last time from the exercises I did other than some stiffness in my core and lower back from the circus dumbbell. To be expected going up 20lbs on that per side. Just debating if I wanted to take another day of rest and just move the workouts out a day or stick to the plan for this week. I figured I’d see how I felt as the day went on.  Only my right knee was achy today. AMT to warm-up.  Heart rate only got up to 150bpm so that is good. I did one of the movement prep exercises out of order as I plum forgot until later and now I wonder if I missed it the last workout or not.  I knew from last time that this workout may not look that intense but it could be so no taking it lightly. Front squats with chains to start. Same setup as last time but the working sets with 225lbs. Felt like that was pretty big jump compared to how 185lbs felt last time. I knew I was going to use the belt this time. Didn’t want anything odd going on with my abdominals or obliques like last time. Did similar warm-up as I did with the benching earlier this week. 185lbs felt pretty heavy for a single. Knees weren’t really bothering me on these today so also a plus here. Working sets went better than expected. Still feels heavy and I’m sure I’ll have some bruising and scrapes on my clavicles and upper chest from the bar. I was definitely able to move faster on these with the belt as I wasn’t thinking about my obliques. Last set felt and moved the best. Wide grip deadlifts for singles after this. I brought my socks this time (well didn’t misplace them in my bag this time haha). I had felt a little off last time so rather than take somewhat bigger jumps, I did quarter-plate jumps so that I got a little lighter weight to start and some more singles. I think this helped. Plan here was about 65% but I went a few lbs heavier as it was easier that way. I didn’t bring my collars to make smaller weight jumps and the red ones weren’t easily located and I just wanted to use all the bumper plates anyways. I will say that these socks don’t provide much protection to the shins when it comes to pulling from the floor and with a barbell. But they feel good and keep my from bleeding on the bar and honestly, less goofy looking than the tape route. Still not feeling like 100% on the form and strength on these but getting there I think. These moved and looked comfortable, besides the shin scraping haha. Last thing was the back raise bench abdominal stuff. I had assumed I had did this same amount of reps last time but I had only done two sets of ten. These felt pretty easy. I think it was more that I knew the bench would support me and didn’t have the stitch in my abs like last time. Only really felt like work near the end of the second set. I had taken shorter rests compared to last time too. These actually seem to feel good on my lower back with how I have to move and brace. Home for stretching and tacos to end the night.

July 9, 2019 – Week 6, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses

Plate Loaded Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme

(2 stage 2 second pauses)

20x1/1

50x1/1

70x1/1

90x1/1

110x1/1

Circus Dumbbell

130x1/1

150x1 R

150x1 L

150x1 R

150x1 L

150x1 R

150x1 L

150x1 R

150x1 L

150x1 R

150x1 L

Neutral Grip Precor Chest Supported Rows

100x5

150x5

190x5

240x5

290x23 PR+10lbs & 2 reps

Narrow Grip Bench Presses w/ Chains (28lbs)

45x5

95x3

135x2

175x1

205x3

205x3

205x3

205x3

205x3

Stretching

Comments: Work has been a butt this week. Maybe light at the end of the month but it feels like it is going to be a long month. Been tired and feeling tired. Irritable even but not trying to show it. Related to not so good sleep. I think I’m doing 6hrs or so a night during the work week. Snooze button has been tempting me more so as of late. Figured I’d try to get this week back to the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday split though it looks like I will be changing it up the following week. I have the ability to be flexible this week and next. Workout didn’t start great as I forgot to pack my gym clothes besides a shirt so I had to drive back home to get them. So getting to a late start. Warmed up on the AMT. Heart rate peaked at 153bpm. The machine wasn’t working so well as far as tracking my motion (the sensor, not the actual moving parts). Mobility work went well. I started upstairs but went downstairs when I saw the setup of things being used. On to weights. First thing on the docket being circus dumbbell work. Push press style with holds. Plan was 70-80% for 10 minute EMOM singles, five for each side. I had messed up last time and did double the work. So hopefully have as many reps would go faster. I figured that I could go for the higher end again with being able to do twice the volume last time with that weight. I was also advised that since I was using the same weight per arm, I could alternate the reps to keep from having the one side go cold.  Got some joint and muscle aches so wasn’t sure how my right knee would feel or how my right biceps was going to like it. Left shoulder has been feeling slightly better each week but no idea how this was going to go as it was pretty darn achy last time. While this weight is 80% of my best post injury single, it is like 92% of my best on the push press and pause style. Definitely need to get a bit more oblique and hip flexor into it on the right side versus the left side. Left side it almost feels like it normally does. Right side was getting tired and I had a miss on my first go of the third and I had a little trouble completing the clean on the fourth. Left side seemed to get better as I went. No issues with the left side shoulder. Right side was definitely feeling this today. It is a lot of work repeatedly wrapping and unwrapping wrist wraps. So this was done and it was the easier stuff to setup. Next was chest supported rows. Light sets of five up to a top weight for max reps. 10lbs more than last time. Biceps were a little tight so not sure how this was going to go. I had to wait for this to open up and I could feel myself getting irritated as I was trying to find a place to keep an eye on it when it opened up but the chair in the gym was being used for someone’s workout bag and I kept getting nonverbally shooed from where I was sitting. Ugh this was stupid haha. Finally get to use it and keep things smooth. I hoped this was like with the other back stuff where I improve on reps with more weight after the getting used to it cycle. That worked out. Chain bench was next. Again, someone was on it. I eventually checked upstairs to see if that bench was open and then quickly rushed to take the chains upstairs to set that up so that no one used it. Didn't take nearly as long to figure out the leader chains this time. Didn’t do as many reps but more sets to warm-up. Had to keep moving my camera as people needed to be where I wanted it to do things they didn’t need to do right at that spot.  I could tell this was not an acceptable amount of irritation and I’d need to remedy this tomorrow. Plan here was 20lbs more than last time for five triples. Benching felt good and this felt easier than 185lbs had felt three weeks ago. I was interrupted before just about every set by either someone walking right near or in front of me or outright asking me how much I was lifting as I was about to lift. But I’m always polite. This workout took a lot longer than I wanted or expected it to. It was past 8:00PM when I left. Home to stretch and eat.

July 7, 2019 – Week 5, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack Elliptical

Mobility Prep

18” I-Beam Farmer’s Walk
Turns at 50’

127x150’ in 21.71 seconds
217x150’ in 28.96 seconds
No Turns
297x100’ in 18.53 seconds

BiggDoggStrongg Frame Hold
590 for 55.27 seconds 

Sandbag Over Bar (60”)
200x2

250x10

Vehicle Push (uphill)
carx191’10”’

Stretching

Comments: Saturday was kind of day to sleep and get some thoughts figured out. Of course I was stuck keeping up to date on both the Giants Live Wembley contest and the Arnold Canada show so I was a bit late getting to mowing the lawn. I hadn’t done that Thursday. Turns out a big thunderstorm was coming and I got soaked. Didn’t finish but I got enough of it done to be satisfied. This heat and humidity aren’t really wavering so I planned for things to be bad and packed a hand towel, a body towel and four shirts. I ended up leaving like a half hour later than planned to train as I wanted to add some new music to my iPod. Drive out was pretty good. Like really good. No traffic at all. The gym was dark when I got there except a few lights. I expected this to be a lonely day. Apparently some dude was just lifting in the dark. Ok, hope he enjoys my iPod set to random for music. The NordicTrack can go to the max elevation setting even when it isn’t in workout mode so that is convenient. Kept the lights off to try and keep the heat from doing me in like last week. I reversed stride every 75 seconds this time. Felt it was less harsh on the knees to do it infrequently. Movement prep stuff felt good despite how achy my knees were and how tight my posterior chain felt. Farmer’s walk stuff next. Inside was a bit cramped. Fingal fingers set up was taking up a about 1/3^rd of the one lane and there was a ladder in front of the one fan. Seeing as how the guy with his ear buds in was an unknown and was using the broken tripod for filming, I figured that outside on the concrete was going to be a better choice for me.  Same as last time; two lighter sets with turns and then a heavy set for 100’ straight shot. It was a bit of a pain setting things up to get my times off the camera. Just some dry runs had my hamstring on the right side feel tight and so was my biceps so I did some foam rolling on both. Almost went through all my chalk I had today. Making sure no slipping due to sweat which meant I had to cover my arms up to the forearm in chalk and I had to do that every time. Getting harder and harder to apply it the more I sweated. First set felt ok. Second set didn’t feel like it was pulling my arms out of my sockets like the jump last time did but I felt like my legs were heavy. I made sure to keep the handles covered with a towel so that they didn’t become blazing hot. I felt confident for the heavy set. I felt strong here. More confident than I did last time. Just about everything was exactly 1.5 seconds slower than last time but again, it is more weight on everything. So after that was the frame hold. 20lbs more than last time. I hoped that this time, I would be adjusted to this and ready to put up a good time. That didn’t happen. Again, it felt heavy and my whole body was quivering right from the start. Heavy on the hands not my lower body. My hands were hurting from the farmer’s walks. Usually I feel pressure before it goes down but now I was actually feeling the grip be slipping. Just trying to crush and squeeze but I was shy of a minute. A little miffed that I was under a minute here when I’ve gotten a minute with 10lbs more in the past. Just have to keep at this. Next was sandbag loads. Not looking forward to this. Plan was set of ten doing 225lbs to 250lbs sandbag for the reps. I wanted to do 250lbs. Well, I didn’t want to do any of this with any weight sandbag but I wanted to make up for the lackluster stones and not doing the sled drag last week so do more work. With the 250lbs sandbag, I figured that I’d really take my time and not worry about having a crash mat tower fall on me so I set it up to do it over the yoke. This meant I’ve have to walk around it for the next rep. This was going to be a long haul. Changed shirts at this point. I had intended do a rep with 150lbs but is was buried under heavier sandbags so I just did 200lbs for a double and got ready. I felt at this point, the shirt was going to be dry and I was too sweaty for chalk and hopefully the canvas of the sandbag would be grippy enough. It was. I knew I could do it but it was doing to be exhausting and I felt like I might hurl about half way through whenever I bent over to get the bag setup. Had the copper knee sleeves on my biceps just because it makes me feel more confident. Had to get some big breaths after that was done. Last thing for the day was vehicle push. Two brother’s that I know from training at Iron Mill had arrived and I asked if I could push one of their cars. This actually made me nervous to do this. I don’t know them really well and I didn’t want to really interrupt their workout. This vehicle was a lot lighter than Mike’s, so even with two people onboard it moved really fast at the start. Got up the incline good bit before slowing down as it got really steep with about 15 seconds left. There were some bikers (they had been there since the beginning, coming and going) that were joking about helping me move the car that I politely declined saying I got it. I think they said I was doing CrossFit or something. Oh well. I didn’t expect to get this much distance but it was good conditioning. Stretched and drank a weight gain shake before changing into my third shirt of the day and driving home.

July 5, 2019 – Week 5, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

18” Box Squats

45x10

95x5

135x5

185x5

225x3

275x22 PR+50lbs & 1 rep

Deadlifts

135x5

225x5

315x5

Back Extensions

BWx10

BW+50x10

Planks

BWx60 Seconds

BW+50x60 Seconds

Stretching

Comments: I needed the day off from work for the holiday. Had a deep tissue massage after work on Wednesday and almost fell asleep during that. I ended up sleeping for over 13hrs that night so it was already the afternoon when I woke up. I would’ve probably slept even more if my dad hadn’t come to get the shop vac. I’m at least a light enough sleeper that I can be somewhat awoken by someone entering my house haha. So I was about as rested as I could be I think before going into this particular workout. It was kind of annoying to have to go back into work for a day but whatever, weekend was the next day. It was humid and hot. Like angry hot when I got out of work but it cooled down by the time I finished training. A fair number of people on a Friday. I usually don’t train this night. Perhaps the gym being closed yesterday was the cause of more people tonight. AMT felt good. That massage definitely helped with the stuff that had been tight and stiff. Heart rate was up to 151bpm. Worked up a good sweat on the movement prep and stretching. Near the end of it, I realized I was going to have to wait for the power rack to open up. Had to kill some time and stay warm which wasn’t a problem as luckily it didn’t take very long. This week has been the week with the most changes to the previous three workout week cycle. Last session had push pressing. This time, there was going to be the same other stuff but adding in some deadlift reps. Box squats here again. Last time had been quarter-plate-quarter jumps and that was the same this time just with an extra jump. Max reps with 50lbs more than last time. Last time had been terrible. Really showed I was not in the squatting shape. But usually that comes back pretty quick. My hope here was at the very least that I got 15 reps and had no pain in my hamstrings from them tightening up like last time. But really, I was going to be disappointed if I got less than 20 reps here. I don’t know why but I felt that even though it was a struggle bus to do 21 reps last time with 225lbs, I felt that I was able to match it with 50lbs more. Weights felt pretty good working up. I’m not a fan of this rack for the back squats as this one is a little high for lower bar with heavier weights and the next setting is pretty low. Weight is still fine for the higher setup. Still not feeling like the big ass ratchet belt is necessary here so just the regular hard belt. I was definitely better prepared this time. At 10 reps, I knew I had 20 there. Had to take breaths after the 13 rep. 20 to hit my goal, 21 to match last time and 22 to beat it. I kind of thought about going for 25 but my body was quivering after getting that 22^nd rep and I didn’t want these to become goodmornings so that was enough. Oof that racking of the weight let me know that I was done and then my body just got really tired and my lower back and legs were pumped. If I had thought doing back extensions and planks after this was tough last time, what were some light deadlifts going to feel like haha? Really not a lot but I’ve not really done real deadlifts for a bit. As of late it has been mostly singles and then prepping for USS Nats it was that darn thick bar elevated a few inches and with a suit. Only raw pull recently was those wide grip, wide stance deadlifts with straps for EMOM singles. And those felt a little off to me. So I didn’t know how this was going to feel really. Just chalk and keeping it double overhand. I will say my lockout feels strong and powerful. Plan here was just three sets of five, taking plate jumps. This was supposed to be easy. That first rep of the first set showed how unused to regular deadlifts I was as I thought I was at the floor I put that first rep down but I had another inch or so to go so it kind of was dropped. Oops. I took my time on these as I was still feeling like a drunk cat from box squats. Definitely noticed the weight increase on each set. 315lbs didn’t feel as easy as I wanted it to feel. Looking at my records since the “reboot”, this is actually the most weight I’ve done on standard deadlift for a set of five. Like I said, a lot of focus on singles, doubles and triples. And never after this many squats haha. I’m sure it will improve with time and with the current rotation of exercises. Then it was the core stuff. Back extensions were mercifully one less set today with the top set being just 5lbs more. This was easy, even after the squats and deadlifts so that’s good news. Planks I didn’t realize that there had been a change to this until relooked at my sheet. Last time it had been bodyweight for a minute to practice/warm-up and then a 30 second hold with a plate. I figured I’d just put the dense 50lbs plate on this time. But this time I was to do 30-60 seconds on that set. But really, it wasn’t that bad. Just really sweaty by the end. So home to stretch and eat tacos and then ice my knees before going to bed. Sleeping in Saturday and then another hot event day on Sunday.

July 2, 2019 – Week 5, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Axle Clean and Strict Presses (1 clean)

72x3

92x3

112x3

132x3

152x3

172x3

192x10

Axle Push Presses

72x1

92x1

112x1

132x1

152x1

172x1

192x1

212x1

232x1

252x1

272x1

One Arm Dumbbell Rows (supported, tripod)

50x10/10

75x10/10

100x12/12

Added Straps

125x20/20 PR+3/3 reps

Push-ups (1 second pauses)

BWx10

BW+25x5

BW+50x20 PR+5lbs

Stretching

Comments:  That Saturday session was not ideal. The heat and stress just took it out of me. Stones are my favorite and I hate that it went poorly. It had me feeling down, questioning myself. I don’t like that as it always starts small and just tiny things just latch on. I had gone to bed early that day and first thing I wake up to when I check is a message on my rack pull video telling me that rack pulls are never worth posting. Blocked and deleted but still annoying haha. Then background music in another video from months ago being flagged and having to check that and seeing myself doing 240lbs for 10 on log push presses and the thought of hitting that now made me queasy. Had me wondering if I still had that competitive edge. If I was just not into this as I once was. This will pass. I’m hoping to just treat the rest of this year as off season and fun stuff that isn’t serious and go into 2020 with the peaking and big shows. Off that tangent and on to the workout. This week will be a bit spaced out due the 4^th and having a massage scheduled for tomorrow after work. Probably for the best as this coming Saturday is supposed to be even hotter than the last and the Sunday after is like 10 degrees cooler. So to the gym. AMT to start off the session. 157bpm highest reading. This actually felt pretty good today. Movement prep stuff was good. Still have some joint aches on some exercises but not really new as the more I do stuff and the heavier the workload and frequency gets, it seems to be the case. Talking about the knees mostly and even when it is, the aches are really minor compared to past achiness. On to the lifting of actual weights. First up was axle clean and strict presses. One clean on each set. Plan for this week was 20lbs jumps doing triples up to a weight I could do a solid and smooth 8-10 reps. Always aiming for the more reps weight the weights. Idea was 20lbs more than last time for the top weight as want to keep this to something that doesn’t hurt or bother my shoulder. I didn’t want to mess with tiny plates really at the start so I figured I’d just deal with the empty axle and add 20lbs to that and go from there. I tried to learn from last time with how it felt as that first set made me feel like it was a not going to be a good day with how my shoulder ached so I do a set of 10 with the PVC pipe and that got the ache out of my system. Also needed to make sure my breathing was good so I didn’t pass out on the second or third set haha. Things were feeling pretty good so I felt that 30lbs more wasn’t going to be a problem for that top set. There is definitely work to be done on multiple reps on standing overhead stuff but the power seems to be there. Like last time, at least two more reps there. So pleased this felt strongish today. After that was push presses out of the rack with the axle. Axle has mainly been jerks for a while now but push pressing is probably better for getting back to strength in the overhead movements. Not as technical and this is more a repetition week. Goal for this was something at least 20lbs more than my strict presses for a single. Start with the empty axle and do singles taking 20lbs jumps. I had asked for clarification on if I was to stop at 200ish or if I could go heavier and the answer was yes but only if it felt good and there wasn’t any grinding in the lift. These were to be smooth lifts. My form was definitely off on these haha. Upper body is out of practice on axle and it showed as my shoulders and wrists were achy just supporting the weight after I got above my strict pressing weight. I do feel that the clean first has the stretch reflex that makes it not so heavy feeling on the shoulders initially but it also is where I know I sometimes need to get an adjustment. The leg drive nature of this makes the weight go up faster but I think because the shoulders aren’t the primary mover the whole time, that it was causing my shoulder to ache a little. I may need to do some drills to prep for that next time as I know that initial discomfort was what kept me from putting my head through all the way as I went up in weight. Shorter rests at the start and then longer rests as I added more and more weight. I got it in my head after I got to 232lbs that I wanted to do 272lbs. Axle plus 100lbs. This felt really heavy on my shoulders but it went up smooth. I knew this was where I had to stop as there was no guarantee that 292lbs would go up without a hitch. So better than I was expecting here but still loads away where it will need to be by next year. One arm rows after that. I was a little leery with these with how my lower back and obliques had been feeling and how sore these made my arms and back last time. Just getting used to the training and possibly the crappy tackied atlas stone session probably contributed to my biceps not being so sore this time. Same weights as last time but the last set of no straps was for a dozen reps instead and then for the strapped set it was set rep range. It was max reps last time. This time it was to get 1-3 more reps (18-20 reps). I felt good on these as far as how my body felt and positioning. I did however forget that I should be starting with my right side rather than my left side. Right side is the struggling side with the reps. This meant that I had to match the reps I got on the left so when I got the 20 with some difficulty on the left, I was going all in to get 20 on the right. Going to have to remember that I start with the right side next time because that was tough haha. Final item for the session was the paused push-ups. Doing the 50lbs plate for the rep set this time. Of course aiming for 20 reps here as well to match what I got with the 45lbs plate last time. This was tough. The 50lbs plate is much smaller so it tends to move around on my back a bit more and I can’t really use my shoulder blades to push it back in place. So this resulted in some creative maneuvering and essentially some “breathing” push-ups. No issues with my shoulder on this. I got greedy trying to get 21 reps but that wasn’t happening and I just rolled over at the end. I’d say that was it haha. Home to stretch, eat pot roast and ice my knees. Looking forward to that deep tissue massage as I’m definitely needing it.