Mobility Prep
18” Deadlift (straps, deadlift bar, off blocks)
135x5
245x3
Added Suit
335x2
445x1
535x1
645x1
660x1
Tire Sled Drags (1 minute rests)
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
+143x100’
Stretching
Comments: No walking this week. Monday because I wasn’t
feeling well and Wednesday and Friday for social things. Despite all evidence
pointing to sleep being the most important for recovery from day to day stuff,
I still don’t make it happen. There is just so much to do in the day it seems.
I got to sleep a little earlier for getting rested up for Saturday training.
Again, not a long one really as just doing two things again. This honestly
could’ve been a workout I did at home but I had my reasons for traveling to
Lancaster for it. Traffic accident near my house meant that I was stuck for
about 10 minutes in bumper to bumper conditions. GPS told me to take the
Turnpike but I wasn’t going to be spending more money to go train. I knew it
would clear up once I got past the accident. But it is really getting old
having this kind of slowdown almost every weekend this month. There were a
decent number of people at the gym but like only three doing strongman. I didn’t
expect this many since a large number were competing this weekend and the gym
owners were out there too. Warm-ups felt okay. I had the compression socks on
more for possible shin protection as a fair number of contests are specifically
indicating this is required so that there is no “blood on the bar”. Kept the
knee sleeves off at least. Did the switch strides every 75 seconds again. That
seems to be the best thing to both have the knees feel ok and me not getting
super bored walking in place. Not like the AMT at the Y were I can get a quick
HR check every so often or do it without the hand motions. Movement stuff felt
ok. Knees ached a little at the start of some things but that went away fairly
quick. On to the actual workout. Finger issue kind of threw everything into a
lurch so this meant that this was going to be my last deadlift session before
the contest. Plan was to work up to 90%. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about
things and I’d just use my setup at the gym as I tend to pull less with my
setups then when it matters at the show. I think the only time that wasn’t true
was Beast of the Blue Grass last year but that was less me going for my best
and trying to get/not lose points. I can say I had more than the 755lbs I hit
that day, just not 805lbs I had tried. However, with not getting to do my last
attempt at a heavy 18” pull, I figured I needed to see how things felt with as
close to contest conditions as I could make it. That meant having the setup be
on blocks, use a deadlift bar and use 100lbs plates. I had to use straps on
every set so that I didn’t bother my finger any more than I had to. I felt slow
and not like I was getting my hamstrings into it at all like I usually do. This
setup is a lot more of a pain then using a rack or my jackstands. Goal was
trying to keep my shins vertical and not have it be too far in front of me.
Went plate, hundo, plate jumps to 645lbs. This had been the weight I opened at
in March at the last one of these and then proceeded to not get 735lbs off the
blocks. Mike was there (another reason I went to Lancaster) to help me get the
straps tighter. He’s going to be at the same competition so this worked out. I
don’t know, I just felt like it wasn’t feeling as tight or fitting how it
should to get the most out of it. Maybe riding up the legs too much to stretch
the fabric in the hips. I know it’s tight as feel a lot of pressure when I
finish a lift. Probably help more on a floor pull or lower as I can feel it
fighting the hips and I can get a pop. Stuff feels heavy in this thing and
feels slow sometimes too but the video says it is fast. Plan here was 645lbs
and then hopefully go for 685lbs to 725lbs. This being the range of PR (760lbs
for 5lbs contest PR, and 805lbs being a goal I’ve wanted on this). But 645lbs
didn’t feel poppin’ fresh. Some stress on my finger but it seemed to go away
fairly quick. This was not the weight I wanted to be stopped at but I need to
be smart. I sent video to Mr. Westerling (not the best filming with my phone
the viewing screen of my camera but it was important) to see if I should be
calling it there. After some discussion, it was decided I go for 660lbs for the
last single. That was about 90% of what I felt I could hit as an absolute max
today and was also 90% of the heaviest I’ve hit this training cycle. Finally
felt my hamstrings engage. Felt slower but that may have been from the downtime
figuring out the next step. Last item was more conditioning based. The idea
here was sled drags for ten sets of 100’ with a minute rest between sets. The
key thing was having these not use my hands so that required using a belt squat
harness to hook stuff up. I’ll admit, I made things more complicated then they
needed to be. I could’ve just used one of the drag sleds and put weight on it.
But no, I wanted to get all weird and fancy so that I didn’t need to use that
much weight. I was advised that this was not a sprint or walk pace but to be a
power walk pace. I had heard people using a tire for low weight, high drag and
resistance on things and also know that chains can make this resistance tougher
too. So I combined them all into this like 12’ long dragging implement. I
honestly don’t know if I could’ve moved this thing any faster if I wanted to. I
had thoughts about doing a little warm-up on the treadmill with it off but I figured
that I was going to be doing 1,000’ so I was going to get warmed up at some
point during it. This was tough but I knew I could finish this. Most of that
minute was active rest turning it around. So about 20 minutes of sled dragging
as the quickest I finished was 51.68 seconds that first run and 70.40 seconds
on the last run. This was a lot drag for such light weight. The one connecting
chain I used that got the brunt of it was almost worn through. My legs got that
bee sting feeling bending my legs so I avoided that as I put stuff away and
finally stretched out to drive home and ice my knees. Not dead but I’m feeling
the least prepared for a contest in a long time. Missed out a month of stone
and farmer’s stuff and essentially the same for deadlift though more
workarounds. Stones has probably been the worst I’ve ever done. I keep thinking
that these contests that are months out that I’ll be able to be ready and
progress a ton on everything but it doesn’t seem to be. I have to stay
positive. I have to remind myself that I had an injury relapse a little over
eight months ago and the last time I had that same injury, I was out for 7 months
and back in the gym lifting just the bar was difficult.
No comments:
Post a Comment