August 29, 2020 – Week 2, Day 3

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

 
Mobility Prep
 
Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walk
100x50’ in 5.59 seconds
150x50’ in 6.05 seconds
200x50’ in 7.00 seconds
200x50’ in 7.01 seconds
200x50’ in 7.02 seconds
 
Sandbag Rows (long ways)
175x5
225x5
 
Sandbag Loads (62”)
175x1
225x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Body aches but I feel that I’m mentally, emotionally and physically in a better state than I was two weeks prior. Even a week prior. I forgot to mention that earlier in the week I had gone with my father to get stuff out of the Y for the garage gym. Only took the expensive stuff out of there. I felt bad about taking stuff as I know at least one other person uses the stuff. Took about $1,500 work of equipment home while still leaving about $1,000 there. I left the stuff that I know a lot of people use as I don’t need that stuff and I can easily replace it if necessary. The other stuff too costly honestly. It gave me a chance to actually weigh stuff I’ve never weighed like my log and the jack stands. Turns out my log was about 3.5lbs lighter than I thought and the jack stands were 4lbs lighter each than I thought. Good to know going forward. Today was another day in 2020. I felt rested at least. I got more sand so I can finish up the sandbags (fill up the 180kgs one and top off the 160kgs one). Walking felt good despite my knees feeling achy. My right side lower back was stiff during my warm-ups. I think from the banded deadlifts. I had that odd 4^th pull. So today was farmer’s walk. Alternating with yoke. I had purchased new farmer’s walks. Main reason being convenience of having upright handles. The style I have work well but it is a pain to load them up and I have to secure them with collars and wrenches to keep the weights on. I have to re-secure them every set too. Since they are the same height empty, I can do some additional warming up. I needed that today as my calves and hamstrings were sore. I was a bit hesitant with things as I’ve only really used this brand of handles for “casual walks” when I was recovering from the latest injury relapse many months ago. The grip doesn’t feel right to me. The handle part is secured by a pin and not part of the implement as the intention is to be able to lower it standard barbell height and connect into a frame. Also knurling on the handles. I hate that for farmer’s walk as can tear calluses and taping around them makes that even worse. Thankfully, not knurled the entire length. I was not sure what today would bring. I was hopeful I could get the farmer’s walk done before it rained and that it wouldn’t feel so damn heavy like last time. It was starting to drizzle before I got ready so I had wash clothes ready to cover the handles in case. But the rain went away pretty quickly. Just beastly hot and humid for a good portion of the session. I felt like I was moving pretty well. Some trial and error. Had the handles too close together on the second set when I switched to 45lbs plates. I need to get used to that as that will be what dictates the space I have for my stance and will be the width when it comes to turns at Nats. I kind of found a way to lessen the alienness of the handles moving by locking my wrists against the back of them so that most of my hand is off the knurling too. I was sweating like crazy with the humidity and heat so even though light weights, I chalked up my hands good for the working weight sets. I stumbled a bit at the start getting off balance on my first run with the working weight. These weights thankfully didn’t feel like 90% today. I learned I needed to control the drop as I shattered one of my 2.5lbs plates on that first set. I fixed it with duct tape. I felt like my first run was my slowest and my second run was my fastest. Turns out I was wrong as each run was essentially the same time. Literally .001 seconds difference with my first run being my fastest. Cleaned up the stuff and moved into the garage to finish out the session with sandbag work. Like last week, plan being sandbag rows into loading. The loading this time being sandbags. I load sandbags differently than stones so I figured that the style of row should mimic that rather than how I’ve been doing it for stones. I had told myself I was going to treat these seriously after last week’s being sloppy. It has been a long time since I’ve done this style of sandbag row and I didn’t think it would feel so different. I was wrong. This felt more biceps and lower back with it being out in front of me. I wasn’t prepared for that. So I treated it with disdain. Last rep of the 225lbs was garbage. I will do better next time. I have to. So next was loads. Plan being EMOM with the 275lbs bag. I wanted to do some warm-ups to get the extension feeling ok. I don’t feel I have the same issue as I do with the stone with breathing because the bag can squish but the extension might feel off with the heavy band deadlifts and having to grip differently. The floppy bag was the worst as I really had to squeeze that one and I could feel my right biceps not liking that one bit. Thankfully the 225lbs was firmer and felt fine with that. 5 singles was pretty chill and I felt okay after the initial pick and lapping of the bag. It has been a while since I’ve done sandbag loads and picks like this. Probably good to be training both styles for options and training effect. I was getting some reps to clear the bar without touching so that is good. Finished up everything just before it started a torrential downpour. Stretched out and had a relaxing evening.

August 27, 2020 – Week 2, Day 2

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)
 
Mobility Prep
 
Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
40x11
40x11
 
2” Platform Deadlifts w/ bands
No Bands
45x10
135x5
Added Bands (+21lbs bottom/+114lbs top)
135x1
185x1
225x1
275x1
315x1
365x1
Added Straps
405x1
445x1
445x1
445x1
445x1
445x1
 
Ab Wheel
bwx11
 
Side Plank Raises
bwx12/12
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Wandering aches and pains. Trying to do what I can to keep recovery good. This session was going to be a bit more challenging comparatively to last week’s workout. Storms in the gulf bringing up lot of wind. So over 90 degrees and windy enough to knock branches down. Very odd. So I setup the deadlift band platform stuff during my lunch break. Walking felt ok for warm-up. No real issues with anything. I put on my converses for the goblet squats so I had less things to worry about for the deadlifting. These felt great today. So nice and smooth. I was feeling no hesitancy where I had to pause at the top or bottom of the lift. So easy and smooth that I lost track of the reps and did 11 the first set. So easy I just did 11 on the second set too. Now for the deadlift stuff again. The harder stuff. I saw this as just about everything else I’m doing is around 60%. The lightest the deadlift is over these four weeks was that first week where I was trying to get a little over 70% total weight by feel. Not actual percentages. This week and next have the difficult factor up. Band tension lowered and platform decreased by 1”. It was trial and error to find the right band tension. Trying to get around 2/3rds of last time. Started out ok. I was thinking that 405lbs would be my goal here as the plan was working weight being something I could do 5-6 reps. Despite how slow and awful 455lbs left two weeks ago, I got that for five so I tried to gauge that feeling. Worked up to 365lbs without the straps. Had to set it down right away as my grip was slipping. Pulling against bands is much harder on the grip than straight weight at the top. Also not bothering with chalk as I was going to strap up anyways. I was all set for 405lbs to be my working weight but it went up easier than I expected. I was able to talk myself down from going 455lbs as I knew that adding real weight to the bar is much harder than what the bands are like. I compromised for 445lbs. This was tough. Maybe I should’ve went with 425lbs. Don’t look as slow or rough as they felt on camera. First set I felt like upper end of the weight limit for how something I could do for 5 would feel. Despite the longer rests for this protocol, this weight was feeling heavy. 4^th set was the worst. I think part of that was I was down too long as a mosquito was landing on my leg and I was trying to blow it off. Never had a problem with them before in my area but they’ve been real bad this summer. Felt uneven and shifting on that lift. I feel like my best looking were my third and fifth set. Hopefully this does the trick for my deadlift and I’m not messing things up going to heavy too soon. Last bit was abdominal stuff. Same as last week. Light stuff and working up to more volume slowly. Very slowly, as in do one more rep than last time. So set of 11 for the ab wheel. Starting to feel more proficient on these. Side plank raises seemed ok to me. Finished up with stretching, eating and icing my knees.

August 25, 2020 – Week 2, Day 1

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Clean & Push Presses
Kettlebells
15’sx5
Dumbbells
40’sx3
Log
125x1
145x1
165x1
185x1
 
12” Log Push Presses
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
 
Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
15’sx10
40’sx10
70’sx12
70’sx12
 
Slingshot Dips
bw+10x10
bw+55x10
bw+100x10
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Made it through a week. Days seem to not matter at this point. I lose track of time. Wish this year would be done with. Just more bad stuff seems to happen each day. Allergies have been terrible the past two days. My joints and muscles ache. I did finally get some soft tissue work done on my back. Weirdest thing has been the right calf at the ankle insertion feeling sore. But it doesn’t stay put. I did a lot of soft tissue and stretching for that area. Now I wonder if I just have wandering pains and aches. I felt less beat up 3 weeks ago so not sure why. Guess my body saying you shouldn’t have done that 3 weeks ago. Now you pay for it. Both elbows are achy, both shoulders are achy and both knees are achy. Right forearm still sore from 2 weeks prior. Right foot feels like plantar fascia stuff a little too. Feel like body is just held together with masking tape at this point. Don’t like it, especially when I’m using such light weights right now. So the alternating weeks for the upper body day have this be log. Same as axle but since my log is a lot heavier empty, I can’t do as many work up sets. My log and axle max are darn close so I’m just using the same weights for both. Wind picked up and my allergies went nuts but I was able to keep training. Log felt like ass. First set with the log felt heavy and my clean was not crisp and the log felt like it sat on my shoulders rather than I had rolled it onto them. Leg drive felt poor. The clean did get better as I went and I think the rest of it too but I still felt like my knees were achy and leg drive was minimal. Then it was time to move it into the rack. I haven’t tried log out of the rack on this setup. I was hoping that doing axle out of the rack would make this not feel terrible. That didn’t help. It has been over 5 months since I’ve done log out of the rack and it showed. Just felt heavy and awkward. My lifting felt disjointed. It didn’t feel like I had the log over my center of gravity at all and when I went for leg drive, my knees were aching and it felt like they weren’t bending right. I got a little better as I went but it still felt sucky for my leg drive. How far have I fallen on this? Well the pressing was done and inside the garage for the rest of it. Dumbbell rows with the bench. It appears this is the inverse of the incline dumbbell from last week. Work up to 2 sets of 10-12 with the 70lbs dumbbells. This was easy stuff thankfully. My upper back rarely has issues like I’ve been having with the pressing and leg drive stuff. Usually just my endurance drops off. So this was nice to not have achy stuff. I did feel the right biceps a little on the last rep of the first set and corrected for the second set. Last thing for the evening was slingshot dips. Sets of 10 taking plate jumps. Got some good back traction on the first two sets. My shoulders did ache and it was noticeable on the right side. So I was not thrilled with that as these are tough weights even with the assistance to support. Last set was bit smoother at least form wise I think on the shoulders. Finished up with stretching and a big meal and then icing my knees and elbows. I hopefully have time.

August 22, 2020 – Week 1, Day 3

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)
 
Mobility Prep
 
NY Barbell Yoke
180x50’ in 5.38 seconds
270x50’ in 5.48 seconds
350x50’ in 6.16 seconds
400x25’ in 3.56 seconds
450x25’ in 3.86 seconds
500x50’ in 7.10 seconds
500x50’ in 6.44 seconds
500x50’ in 6.80 seconds
 
Sandbag Rows
175x5
225x5
 
Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
138x1
182x1
225.5x1
257x1
257x1
257x1
257x1
257x1
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Still got baggage apparently. It hurts to realize the measures I took over a month ago and relented on out of pressure and reconciliation appear to have been the right decision from the get go. I wonder if this is my life now. I don’t like that I’m anxious a lot more than I ever was. I don’t like that it has power over me right now. I have to get over this. An incident resulted in delaying my plans for the day by several hours. I ended up training a bit emotional because of it. Like, anger and sadness type emotional. Worried that I’d get caught in a thunderstorm due to being paralyzed by my thoughts. Walking and warm-ups felt good. My lower back was stiff and knees ached. Elbows and shoulders ached too. I know that bands on deadlifting may not feel bad in the moment but they are hard on the body. And it has been so very long since I’ve done band work. I wore my knee sleeves for today as it was going to be an effort on both. My new ones on my knees, the old ones on my biceps. Today was low intensity like the other days and the rest of these next 3 weeks of training but that doesn’t mean it won’t be tough. Yoke up first. Plan for today was warm-up to 500lbs for 3 runs at 50’. I knew that with the thunderstorm on the outskirts of the area, that I didn’t have the luxury of resetting the yoke to be uphill the entire time. That eats up time and my hand truck has a flat tire so makes it more trouble than it is worth. I was initially going to do plate jumps to 450lbs and do 450lbs for just 25’ run. But I reconsidered that. I didn’t have to do 50’ runs for all the work up sets. If I did just one 25’ run, it would mean I’d have to move the yoke 25’ to get ready for the 50’ runs. So I did plate jumps at the start and then did an 80lbs jump for the last 50’ run. So that way I could do 50lbs jumps for the 25’ runs. This seemed to be ok. Got used to the pick and work on a quick start. I felt slow that first run. I can usually tell when I’m faster but I’m terrible at guess baseline. I knew the numbers would be a little skewed today as I was alternating uphill and downhill. I just knew that my second run was a lot smoother and faster than my first run. Started to get sprinkles of rain right before the last set. I knew it was slower than my second set but it felt ok. After the workout I was able to check times and my “slow” run was almost matching my best run with this yoke with this weight. My second run crushed it. In fact, it is the fastest I have recorded on any yoke since 2016 with 500lbs. This is good. I felt like other than that 2^nd run they were slow. My hope is that with a few sessions on a good yoke, that I can move with this kind of speed and purpose with 100lbs more. I say this as I’ve done 900lbs for a pick on this yoke many years ago and it felt harder than 1000lbs I’ve done on other yokes. It only sprinkled rain a little bit so not much got on the plates as I moved them back into the garage. The cold front did make the temperature go down like 7 degrees so can’t complain about that. But my shirt was soaked so I got a new one. Not that I needed a dry shirt for the next exercise but I didn’t want to dilly dally and take another break. So sandbag rows. Got to try out my new bags. They look slick but they grip good. I unfortunately didn’t give these much respect today. Unexpected mood swing. I just had distain for the sandbags. 175lbs is a floppy mess but I can’t really make it any firmer because I’m essentially ½ filling a 300lbs bag for it, even with the tightening method. So it became like fingertip grip after the first two reps. Just kind of throwing it down each rep really. I didn’t really rest before moving on to the 225lbs bag. I just kind of didn’t care. Much more firm to grip. But I couldn’t really get the balance right so two of the five reps were really sloppy. I was treating this more of an afterthought. A warm-up for the last exercise. But also just dealing with angry and frustration. So last item was SOS work. 5 singles EMOM style. Now it was written to do 250lbs or so and not really indicating warm-up, assuming that the sandbag stuff was warm-up enough. I know that the extension part can be not fun if not warmed up and I can feel like I’m going to pass out sometimes so I did work up singles to make sure I was feeling good before going for it. These felt easy. I think some hesitancy with the pick as I’m concerned about sweating and slippage. Grip feels pretty good. Trying to get this to feel automatic again. Weighed out a little heavier than planned but that’s ok. Had to clean up first before stretching. Decided I’d eat before stretching too rather than waiting until late to do so. One week down, 41 more to go.

August 20, 2020 – Week 1, Day 2

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
40x10
40x10

3” Platform Deadlifts w/ bands
No Bands
45x10
135x5
225x1
Added Bands (+32lbs bottom/+162lbs top)
135x1
185x1
225x1
275x1
Added Straps
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1

Ab Wheel
bwx10
 
Side Plank Raises
bwx10/10

Stretching

Comments: Not sure what I was expecting for today. It was very different from what I’ve done with training. I mean the bread (start and end) were familiar but the meat of it wasn’t. I felt like garbage the day before. Had to take allergy medication. Body was achy and stuff. Warming up felt ok. My knees didn’t bother me like I was expecting. I still went with wearing the copper knee sleeves just because I knew how much they’ve ached after I’ve done deadlift from the floor the past two weeks. Even for the squats. Goblet squats no warm-ups really needed here as less sets and reps than what I was doing. I have been lax on these since like the beginning. Doing bottom half reps really. I made a point of it this time to hesitate at the bottom for a moment and fully lockout the squat and hesitate there for a moment too. Treat the exercise with respect. Now for the deadlift stuff. I should mention that it took a long time to setup the deadlift stuff. The plan is multi week with changing band tension, intensity and platform height. I spent my time from after I did the walking and mobility stuff to set up the deadlift band setup. I had thought I’d have an easy time of anchoring but turns out that my power rack really sucks as the band pegs that came with it don’t fit. Sure they fit in the rack arms which can’t hold up anything safely above 400lbs but not the floor ones. So had to figure out something else. This something else (as well as figuring out band tension) took about 40-45 minutes. Not only did it have to be heavy, it had to be not able to move. So needed all my dumbbells, throw bags and kettlebells. So back to the deadlifting. So plan is high band tension and 3” platform this week. Over the next few weeks, lower band tension and increase the straight weight and lower the platform. Then go back up again and start over. I was really not sure how this would go. I haven’t done any platform deadlifts in like 5 years. Idea here was work up to a weight that I felt I could do for a set of 10 against the band tension and do 5 singles. The 5 singles is the plan for the rest of this it seems. Bit higher intensity is planned with the following weeks. It took a bit to figure out a safe band setup (one that didn’t require me using frayed bands) and that was around the band tension I wanted. I wanted something that was decent and I could do about thirds of it with the bands I had for the decreases over the next few weeks. I ended up with more tension than planned. Form felt off at the start but seemed ok when I got to the bands. I was initially thinking just 275lbs for the top weight but my first pull with it felt so darn easy that I figured I could try 315lbs. This was not nearly as easy. I just had to tell myself that my pulling has been slow as of late. I still think I could get 10 but it would be a rough do or die sets of 10 reps I think. 2^nd rep felt much the same. I’m not sure what clicked for me but the 3^rd rep went up smooth and easy. I thought maybe it was because I had brought my arms in a little. Not quite, 4^th didn’t feel as good a 3^rd but felt better than the first two. Last single I brought my stance in a little and that one rocketed up. My best of the day. Need to get my leg drive back. I think I’ve been using wider stance because of the RDLs for the hips but neglecting the leg drive being better with slightly narrower stance. I’ll have to keep playing around with things. It is an encouraging sign. Last bit was abdominal stuff. Heavily reduced volume on these. Easy stuff, like an afterthought but I made sure I did solid reps on these. Felt good to stretch and ice. I actually felt better than I had felt before the workout.

August 18, 2020 – Week 1, Day 1

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)
 
Mobility Prep
 
Axle Clean and Push Presses
45x1
65x1
85x1
105x1
125x1
145x1
165x1
185x1
 
Axle Push Presses
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
 
Seated Pulldowns
45x10
90x10
90x10
90x10
 
Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx10
40’sx10
70’sx12
70’sx12
 
Stretching
 
Comments: I wasn’t liking who I was the past few weeks. Still not a fan but I at least made myself try to do stuff. Trying to get back on track. Still got issues. Made myself shave as it was getting ridiculous. So new plan of approach. Focusing on just USS Nats 2021. I got time. So light stuff and low volume to get back to what I need to be doing. Probably a month of this is going to be needed. Knees ached, body feeling sore and stiff. Warming up with the usual walk and mobility stuff felt good. So since log has been what I’ve been doing for weeks now, changing up with axle. First part of workout was singles with clean and press. 20lbs jumps. Work up to 60%. I figured since I was starting so light, I could work on technique. I wore the grip shirt as I was hoping that it then wouldn’t matter what kind of shirt I wore over it. Trying out doing the axle clean from the hang. I’ve pretty much done a slow down with the log where I stand up fully and then lap it. Same principle. Not sure how this will work at heavier stuff but seems ok. With this, hopefully less stress to the biceps and the starting height won’t matter so much with drive for the clean. Felt good until 185lbs when the axle was sliding down my shirt. I guess my choice of shirt will still matter with cleans and having chalk won’t hurt. This resulted in having to fidget a bit more. Right shoulder and biceps is tight. I really noticed that on the next exercise. Put the axle in the rack and then do 5 doubles with the weight I just finished at. Easy enough. This is stupid light. But it didn’t feel stupid light. Felt like 100lbs heavier that first set. Video says I was moving fast but I felt like I was struggling. I really hate how quick not doing stuff from the rack makes that feeling of heaviness come back when it has been only a month away from it. I know it will feel better next time. Knees were sore and achy. Felt like I was doing more hip then legs. Not that that is a problem. Just need to get things working together. Right arm and shoulder are definitely tighter. I guess I should’ve noticed with how my arms rack a log differently. I just had assumed it was due to the torn biceps muscle stuff. But even before then, that side has been tighter since like 2015 and I constantly have to “pop” shoulder and elbow due to tension. New exercise after the axle stuff. Trying out pulldowns with what I have. I’m too damn tall and the rack is short. Even when I’m sitting on the floor, still too tall for a proper pulldown. Idea for the day was to do 3 sets of 10 with a light weight. Not going to be a problem. So with how things were setup, I had to lean forward to try and have it pull like a pulldown to hit the lats that way as opposed to a row. Seemed to work as it was light, I could control it and I could feel the lat inserts under the arm pits. I think that I may just have to do stuff to control tempo and use lighter weights for the back stuff and do event stuff for the heavier things. Last item of the day was dumbbell incline bench. Been a few months. I didn’t think the plan of my heaviest pair of dumbbells for reps was going too bad considering the reppage I’ve been getting in with the 40lbs on triceps stuff. I forgot until I was to the heavier set that I used crash pads for these haha. Shoulders were tight. Pecs were tight. Felt better as I did them. Easy stuff other than the axle at 185lbs feeling ridiculously heavy. Stretched and iced my knees and arms while eating a hearty dinner.

August 15, 2020 – Week 2, Day 3

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

Rogue Farmer’s Walk (16” pick)
115x50’ in 6.21 seconds
165x50’ in 6.54 seconds
205x25’ in 4.83 seconds
225x50’ in 8.10 seconds

Comments: Well this didn’t go as planned at all. The idea for this day was to do light farmer’s walk, sandbag rows and then max distance keg carries. Speed event work to not stress things too much from the intensive log and deadlift stuff and then work on weak points on my front carries. My knees were very sore from the deadlift day. I didn’t really notice until I stopped that I was getting bruises on them again. My warm-ups felt good. But farmer’s did not. Time felt like it was dragging on. Taking forever to setup stuff. Everything felt heavy. Like 50lbs more per hand heavy. Goal was 70% (low balling as I know I can do more than 323lbs per hand for 50’) for 3x50’. I figured to start lighter and work up and then do a in between for half distance (wanted to test this to see how it would feel compared to a pick and try it with yoke next time). But like I said, everything felt slow and heavy. Granted it has been 6 weeks or so since I’ve done farmer’s walk because of everything going on. But this weight shouldn’t feel this way. My right forearm and elbow felt stiff. Not had that happen. I felt heavy. I was bent over the weight for my first “working set” and my mind was shouting at me to quit. That I was going to fail. That I was tired. I worked through that but I felt beat after that run. This felt like 90%, not 70%. I just stood there for a few minutes before I decided that I needed to stop. I had pushed too much. I wasn’t injured and my body is holding up but this kind of weight shouldn’t be feeling like this. Imagine my surprise to find out at besides the very first run, these were speed PRs for the weights on these handles. Not that it is a good thing overall as I’ve done about 50lbs more per hand from the I-beam handles (faster with 18” pick). So I was moving better but I felt heavy on everything. My hands said it was heavy, my arms and back said it was heavy. The pick and my movements felt slow and heavy but they weren’t. Kind of like how deadlift felt slow and heavy. I don’t know what I’m doing. I need to stop and take a step back and learn from this.

August 13, 2020 – Week 2, Day 2

Super unmotivated. I still want to train and eat and do things I enjoy but outside of that, no thank you. I just feel frustrated with myself, my feelings and just seeing the world and country continue to go to shit. I feel numb to it all. Tired of it and when I feel something, usually it is anger. I got to focus on the good. I’m still not through this and it may take months for me to feel better.
5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
40x12
40x12
40x12

Deadlifts
135x5
225x3
315x1
385x1
Added Straps
455x5
400x5
400x5

14” Rack Pulls
135x1
225x1
315x1
405x1
Added Straps
467x4
467x4
467x4

Ab Wheel
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8

Kneeling Pulldown Abs
75x30

Side Plank Raises
bw+10x15/15

Stretching

Comments: Return of this workout. Dreading it a little. It wasn’t easy last time and this time was more weight. My hope was that I’d adapt to it and this would feel better. Hope is not a strategy, it’s an opiate. I felt pretty good start of warm-ups but then knees started aching like I expected them to but then that went away. The light goblet squats are like an afterthought. I think the moved even easier this time. Made myself take some rest between the sets but not much. The main thing was the deadlifting. The nemesis. Like more so than log press, this is an exercise I’ve grown to loathe. Everything else has seemed to improve. Even if it took like 2yrs to add 9lbs to my log press. Deadlift seems to only go up now if I have a suit on and those aren’t really allowed in what I can compete in to get to other stuff. Damn deadlift. I hate it now. Been almost a decade since I hit a raw single PR. Every time I feel like I’m kidding myself and I’m worthless. I especially hate doing them at my house on this bar and with these plates. Just feels so heavy and dead and the weights move so slow. So the plan here for today was work up to set weight for a set of 5 and then drop 10% off and do two more sets of 5 reps. I wore a calf sleeve on my right leg for extra protection as that tends to be the side I nick when deadlifting. Seemed to feel somewhat ok with how things were going and maybe it won’t feel so damn hard. I decided to do my last warm-up with 385lbs instead of 405lbs. 385lbs felt slow and heavy. Not happy about that. Now not supposed to be getting agitated for these workouts. Supposed to save it for next week. I got set for 455lbs. It felt damn heavy. Like, max effort on that first rep heavy. I wanted to cry. I wanted to just stop the workout but I kept going and got the reps. I was in shock I got anything over 1 rep with how hard and heavy it felt. Video says it was only a little slow. I felt so darn slow and my hamstrings were sore. I was really thinking of just shutting things down, taking a week off and then trying to figure out my life. Quit this sport I do because it doesn’t matter and I hate deadlifts. I was doing 60lbs more on this before quarantine! I told myself the other sets were lighter and kept going. Those sets at least felt not like death. Like I could do ten reps with them. Maybe I’m just blind to how bad my deadlift has gotten and need to treat the lifts at home separate from the gym. But I feel like that is just making excuses and moving the goal posts closer to say I’ve accomplished something. Rack pulls after that. 3x4 this time with a bit more weight. I figured that unless my lower back was too fatigued, these wouldn’t be terrible. They weren’t terrible last week. My top range doesn’t seem to be the issue on pulls right now, it’s that very bottom of the lift and then below the knee. So sticking point of the floor is the worst. But I got like a half dozen different ones from floor to knee. I’m desperate for the deadlift stuff to work. So the rest of the workout was abdominal stuff. I had bought some new things for the home gym setup. I was going to do just ab wheel (got a handle instead of using the unwieldy barbell) and then side plank raises. But I wanted to test out the pulley system I bought too. Ab wheel was rough that first set. My lower abs had been hurting after that last time I did these. So the first set felt terrible. The following sets felt a lot easier. Second being the easiest. Rather than just do a set of the side planks, I tried to do pulldown abs with the pulley. Realized I had to weigh down the rack setup too. I’m way too tall to do standing abs unfortunately so I had to do the set kneeling. Still good. Some traction to the back pulling up. Added light dumbbell to the side plank raises because it was easy movement. I may just stick to this stuff for next time. Alternate between what I do each workout for the abdominal stuff. Had to cool off and then had tacos for dinner and stretched and iced my knees. I just hope that I can keep it together. I’m desperate.

August 11, 2020 – Week 2, Day 1

Some good, some bad. No terrible really. Trying to relax. Or tune out. Not sure which. Watching stupid crap online tv stuff most of the time. But been making myself read for pleasure past few days to relax. Trying to stay healthy and eat and do what I’m supposed to. But I get these doubts. Worries that I’ve royally screwed up everything. Sometimes I’ll just freeze and go numb thinking about things. But I feel like things are under control. That I can start to find the supports I have and build from there.

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

12” Log Cleans & Push Presses (1 clean)
Kettlebells
15’sx10
Dumbbells
40’sx5
Log
110x3
140x1
170x1
200x1
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x5

12” Log Cleans (10 seconds hold)
265x1
305x1
345x1

Slingshot Dips
bw+10x5
bw+55x3
bw+100x1
bw+145x8
bw+145x14

Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
70’sx11
70’sx11
70’sx11
70’sx11
70’sx11

12” Log Seated Overhead Lockouts
200x1
240x1
275x4
275x4
275x13

Band Pull A-parts/Band Triceps Pressdowns/Trap 3 Raises
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12

Stretching

Comments: Hot and muggy. I had already been sweating just being inside in the AC before even going outside. Things would hopefully move faster since I knew a bit better what to do and how to setup. No issues with warm-ups. Lower back wasn’t bothering me like I was kind of expecting. My hamstrings were all twitchy though. So log yet again. The plan is 3 weeks of this 5x5 with a single clean. Adjust weight jumps accordingly. Not trying to make these super easy or very difficult. Originally was only going to do 10lbs more than last week. But I thought what was 5lbs more going to hurt really. Same warm-ups. I was feeling very hot wearing all the sleeves and the grip shirt under my shirt. My hair was just soaked with sweat. Plan for these weeks is to do no wrist wraps. Chalk needed here. I felt off balance on the first set with the log. Knees ached and I feel like they ache more doing log stuff then the lower body stuff. Like, it makes sense with the log volume that I do light squats right now. No issues on log. Had some balance issues on some reps but this was more having it settle on my chest and not feeling like I was “loose” in my midsection or burning out. I think 3rd set was my best I felt. Still had power. I was getting into a groove with catch log and using that for the drive in the lower body. I did feel like the log was a little out in front of me some times but I can’t tell if that is just from doing log again or if the weight is light enough that it doesn’t matter. After that, it was cleans again. 3 singles doing 40lbs jumps. So 15lbs more than last time for each set. Now I’m treating this just as weight on the log but really, anything 300lbs or more is 4lbs heavier. So while the top set was matching my best log clean, it was really 4lbs over. That was a tough one. It was not a smooth clean to the shoulders. Had to muscle that up. I can’t be pressing stuff if the clean is taking that much out of me. This is still within the framework of being enough above my planned max to be doable as not being too much. This will need to get better. I know that my clean isn’t efficient for speed or a lot of reps but I work with what I can right now. Weights for big shows aren’t things I can do a lot of reps (or any reps) at this time. I’ll be doing a different overload exercise next week so a break for two weeks on the log cleans (assuming no issues). Slingshot dips followed. I was sweating so much by this point. Moved on to a second towel. The 5lbs weight wouldn’t fit on the chains how I wanted it to so I just went with a 10lbs increase over last time. Plate jumps and I did a lot fewer reps as my shoulders and triceps were feeling the log and I didn’t need to overdo these. It’s a lot of combined weight as I’ve finally weighed over 290lbs twice in the past month which would be my heaviest ever. Getting close to 200kgs total weight on my arms and shoulders with this exercise. I got the reps right the first set this time. Second set the reps felt good for the first 10. I thought I was in a good spot to rest pause to match or beat last time. I got 3 more reps and then I struggling with a single. I could feel my shoulders say mercy trying to get a 15th rep and I cut it short by having my feet help. I know this exercise ebbs and flows and the other stuff it the important stuff so not worried if the rep total goes down. Break from the pressing and log with the dumbbell rows. So my choice on this was forced as the pulldown attachment that I had ordered for the home gym has not arrived yet so I figured that for the training protocol, I’ll just add reps. So last week was 5x10, this week 5x11. Plan would be 5x12 for next week. Then see about a changeup. I was worried if these would be ok. Last time I was fresh. This time, I’ve done stone of steel so not as biceps happy fresh. These seemed ok. I didn’t feel like I fatigued as much. Back with rowing an pulldowns seems to take a week or two to get used to the demands. Last heavy thing being the lockouts with the log. So I hit a 6rm so the plan was reps today with that. However, I felt that the 6rm I hit was a soft one so I added 5lbs to it. I was going to do 4,4 and then max. I started to regret that decision when a single with 200lbs felt really damn heavy. But then 240lbs felt light so I wasn’t sure what to do. I could tell I was going to get a lot more reps then planned with how the first set with the weight felt. Also forgot to weigh down the rack that set. Oops. For the top set, I got a baker’s dozen of reps. I’m going to have to go up in weight a bit for next week I think. Last item for the evening was the triset of bands and light dumbbells. The bands felt easier this time. The dumbbell stuff didn’t haha. I felt like maybe I should cut some reps. But this is the little stuff that I need to be doing to build up the body for pressing stuff. I do one day of this stuff. The other heavy stuff gets two days split up. So after soaking through many clothes and towels, I had to get presentable before I could even start stretching in my house. Big dinner and iced my knees.

August 8, 2020 – Week 1, Day 3

I’m trying to get my life back in order. This last month has been literal hell. Just been unending. Last week was another tipping point. Haven’t shaved in over a week. Why bother. I feel like I have to be happy with myself again before I clean up my face. Or not. My hope is that the actions I’ve taken the past two days will alleviate some of this stress and anxiety and self-loathing. It is hard to feel like you don’t know if you made the worst decision of your life or dodged a bullet. Perhaps I should be happy I made it a week of consistent training. Stuff came up the night before and I just shut down and went to bed early. I stayed in bed for over 13hrs. It wasn’t that I was that tired, I just didn’t want to see what the day had in store for me. I did eventually make myself get out of bed. It ended up being a terrible day but I didn’t shutdown this time. I did what I wanted to do for the day and like I said, hopefully I can move forward without the anxiety, stress, fear and loathing and hatred.

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

NY Barbell Yoke
190x50’ in 5.55 seconds
280x50’ in 5.87 seconds
370x50’ in 6.23 seconds
460x50’ (camera fell over, no time)
550x50’ in 7.86 seconds
550x50’ in 7.38 seconds
550x50’ in 7.83 seconds

Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
138x3
182x3
225.5x10

Prowler Drags
555x137’2” in 75.00 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Despite my lower back being stiff, warming up and walking felt ok. I was expecting my knees to be terribly sore and achy from how things felt the previous workout warming up. Of the training plans I had, this was the day with the most up in the air. All I knew was that it was going to be a low volume approach. The basics I had was yoke, sandbag, sled. That was it. I looked through past trainings to figure out what I felt I should do to work on things that needed work while not taking away from the log and deadlift work. Events are stressful as it is. Even light. I had this plan setup as prepping for the December Plat Plus but after the realizations of things as I previously posted, that wasn’t really a viable option so that meant I had to figure out long term stuff. So moving events are going to remain between 60-80% for majority of things. I’ve skipped farmer’s a few times already but I figured that yoke was where to start as the plan will be to do farmer’s twice in a month (trained differently). Yoke for short distances and since I can load the hips more here this is the overload for the moving. I didn’t want to repeat the last session of yoke as that would be the plan really as going up 5% each time for the next hopefully 12 weeks. Plan put out as 65% for 3x50’. I was debating if I wanted to just be doing 30lbs jumps rather than the 40lbs jumps I had based off the percentages. I decided to stick with what I had for right now. Resetting the yoke is time consuming. Taking 90lbs jumps in weight. Last warm-up my phone got a message and the vibrating knocked it off the stand so I couldn’t get my time. After that, I set my phone to silence so that it wouldn’t happen again. Probably should’ve done that a while ago as the sound of my phone vibrating has caused me severe anxiety with everything going on. As I said, very time consuming to reset with my slanted street. I think it was about an hour from when I started with the walk to when I was setting up my first working set run that it had been an hour already. It’s hot and it takes a lot of work moving stuff around so I never feel like I cooldown. The first set I felt slow but it actually wasn’t too bad. I just know I have the yoke working against me when I hear it creaking. Second set was faster. Not quite the fastest time I’ve had with this weight (less than .10 seconds slower) but it was good. Third set was slower but just under the first sets time. Really trying to get fast turnover with my strides. I left a lot of the weights outside for later. So instead of sandbag stuff this time, I was going to do stone of steel. I’ve skipped this workout twice already. For right now, I’m sticking to lighter with higher reps. And tacky towel. I have no intention of getting my real stones or stone stuff back from being left at the strongman gym. Part of what I’m dealing with. I’ve done the weights with a stone of steel and tacky towel for the planned concrete stuff at USS Nats so if I can work up to those weights for many reps I’ll have no problem with real tacky. The issues I have is with my abdominals not being ready for the heavier weights I can hold with tacky on concrete stones if I go with no tacky towel. No tacky towel is too stressful on the biceps. Aggravates the tendonitis. And with how damn hot it is, I’m sweating and being slippery and slippage is where the injuries happen. I’ll save the no tacky stuff for sandbags and kegs. Speaking of slippery, I had to change shirts as I had soaked the one I was using for yoke. Now the plan here before I just went AWOL was 70% for a crisp set of 10 reps. I was going to base that off my best without gloves tacky towel stone but that had been to a much lower bar height. And seeing as how I’ve skipped several weeks of this and reps over 5 on loading was just gassing me, I lowered that to being where I’d just be doing 2 plates in my stone of steel for my top set. Reps felt good today warming up. I had felt like only the first rep went up well the last time I did these. Only had to retack between sets, not during the top set. Reps is exhausting. The last time of the day was prowler drags. As I wasn’t going to be doing a short drag anymore, I figured I’d do a timed set. These are tough and it is just one set. 75 seconds instead of 60 seconds because I like the challenge. Now due to personal matters, I had about an hour of cooldown from the loading to this drag. I will not say anything else about it other than I hope this is the last of it. I was worked up and I think that helped in that I didn’t cooldown my body or muscles that much. Also helped that it was warm outside. This took a bit to setup as well because my one neighbor has started parking a car near my side of the property so I had to go down two houses to insure that I had enough of a course to keep pulling the entire time. It was slow going but that was fine and the idea. With all the thunderstorms, there were a lot of little twigs and stuff in the street that I’d get caught on. I got further than I expected I would but I guess the work has been put in since I last tested this. This was like 30lbs more and 15’ further than my best. I was worked up and it took a bit to calm down and put stuff away. Cleaned up before I started making dinner and stretched. I can only hope that the light I see at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train coming my way.

August 6, 2020 – Week 1, Day 2

 I’ve decided that trying to compete this year is not a good idea. My plan had been to do plat plus in December to hopefully qualify for the Arnold. I looked at it realistically and it wasn’t going to work. Granted I have enough time I feel to prep for the show, it is the afterwards. If I won and an Arnold invite was offered, I’d have 13 weeks to prep. Week off to recover, week before for deloading and week of off so 10 weeks for the biggest show. Considering my last go around I had 26 weeks and I still bombed two events doesn’t give me much confidence. And then say I do that Arnold, it would be another 13 weeks from USS Nats. So same boat and less training for that. There is some event overlap with the December contest and USS Nats. But my deadlift is still shit and I can make up for it with a suit to some extent but Arnold no suits so carry over from my training for suited to raw isn’t a good plan. And USS Nats is no suit for deadlift either. And that is 700lbs. Do I wish I had the optimism and belief in myself that I could do the plan? Yes, of course. I’ve been doing this sport for going on 12yrs at this point. But I’ve been doing this so long that I have limitations and have so much disappointment in falling well short of what I want. Do I feel that adding 1lbs to my log press is doable in 17 weeks? Yes to that as well but I’ve seen where I thought I could overcome just being off 10lbs and get it smacked down. I have a lot of anger and frustration that I’m trying to channel and resolve. I’m also no longer interested in dealing with SC at this point. Just seeing how the other federation has handled COVID-19 stuff and reaching out to the community for feedback kind of cinched it for me. I’m just plain tired of it all really. I just want to be strong and lift. I want to be at my best and beat others at their very best.

5 Minute Walk (.30 miles)

Mobility Prep

Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
40x12
40x12
40x12

Deadlifts
135x5
225x3
315x1
Added Straps
385x5
412x5
440x5

14” Rack Pulls
135x1
225x1
315x1
405x1
Added Straps
455x5
455x5
455x5

Crunches
bwx42

Lying Leg Raises
bwx42

Planks
bw+45x60 seconds

Side Planks
bw+15x60/60 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Still not sure on my direction. Trying to narrow and consolidate. Still not sure on the training or workout stuff. Taco truck was back so I had to take an alternate route for my warm-up walk. I wore my compression socks for the first time in many weeks. Maybe months? I’ve felt like they make me feel like I get shin splints if I go walking in them. My knees were damn creaky today despite icing them a few times as part of my recovery stuff. My whole body felt sore. Especially back. This workout was going to be a bit shorter hopefully than the day before. The meat of it was deadlift stuff with light accessory stuff before and after. I’ve liked the light goblet squats to box for leg work. Not terribly taxing and get a good warm-up for the leg. I feel these less in the lower back compared to the front squat variation. This will most likely be my only squatting I do. All effort is on the deadlift. I only did the 40lbs dumbbell. No real warm-up sets like before. My thoughts were that it was extraneous since I do squats to a box as part of my mobility prep stuff with my bodyweight for a set of 20 so why do more work when the weight is already light enough (lighter than a barbell) to begin with? So that moved quickly and then it was deadlifting. I was not sure what to expect here. The workout plan I’m using is from MW/HW pro Andrew Clayton that he put up on his Instagram page that is a 12 week program. Very basic and based off percentages and using block pulls. I’m basing my numbers off a 550lbs pull because that is generous for what I feel I can do right now. I know I did 570lbs for five on the rdls but that is that and my deadlift is just crap. Most I’ve pulled since COVID-19 stuff is 525lbs. So plan here was 3x5 doing 5% jumps. Deadlifts felt like raw sewage shit. I’m not sure what it is about having metal plates on this barbell on a hard concrete floor but it just makes it feel so damn heavy and slow. I nicked my right shin on the first warm-up set. I could feel the fatigue in my lower back from the log stuff. Didn’t notice it until I started bending over to get plates on. I took plate jumps and minimal reps as I felt like I didn’t have a lot of them in me today. First set felt heavy. Damn, this is the lightest set of the day. Maybe I should’ve lowered the weight I was working off of by 25-50lbs. My form didn’t break on any of the lifts but I hated every moment of it. The idea here was to pull with low arousal. So no hyperventilating, no pacing, no songs that made me feel a certain way. It really set in the notion that I was far from being ready to compete in any deadlift event raw. This was pitiful to me. And yet somehow, I was to do more weight on rack pulls. For whatever reason, these felt better for me. Maybe I’m not worried about the floor and I can move without hesitation better on the subsequent reps. These felt better than the lightest deadlift set. I didn’t have any doubts I’d get the reps after the first set. I wasn’t expecting to be missing anything after I worked up in singles either but never know. I also didn’t expect to be where I am and how I’m feeling about life today but here I am. So the last part of the workout I just figured would be light stuff. I just put down abdominal work as I wasn’t sure. I had ordered some stuff (actual ab wheel, pulley system) so that I had stuff I could do besides the makeshift stuff that took up time and space. But not all of that had arrived and my lower abs had not forgiven me yet for the ab roll stuff last week so I did the usual reps and planks. Now my intention was to just do 35 reps but then before things went sideways, the next time I did these I was to do 40 reps. So like mid set I decided to do that. But then I lost count. So I did two more. More because I didn’t want to do 41 reps. 42 is funnier because of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference. The lying leg raises are much harder but I figured I had to match those reps. I could tell my lower back was sore and stiff as there was some discomfort near the end of these. That happens when I’ve worked my lower back hard. Front and side planks for a minute each with a minute rest between them was to finish out the evening. I’m hoping I’ve made the right decision. I second guess everything I do and have such doubts.

August 4, 2020 – Week 1, Day 1

I’m not sure what I am doing. Depressed and dealing with existential stuff in the current climate. Why am I doing this? Bailed on training the last day last week. I spent most of Saturday just writing my thoughts out for hours. Sunday I spent hours in the garage filling sandbags in the heat. Just sweating without the fans on. To feel like I was doing something or to punish myself someway. Skin peeling off my hands and forearms cramping. Ended up breaking my scale from repeated sandbag drops. My heart and head just aren’t in this right now. No sense in having a strength coach if I can’t guarantee I’m not going to just sleep the whole day away and not do the workouts. Trying to keep myself occupied and get some focus on the locus. Isolation (self and forced) and stuff being cancelled or unsafe. Why train for something that will be cancelled, especially when it is a lot. I don’t feel like working for stuff that aren’t immediate gratification at this point. As far as strongman stuff, my hope is that USS Nats is far enough out that things will be better and it can happen. But it might not. I see large groups and events not really happening. Maybe smaller venue. Do I want to try for something that could get cancelled or not be offering what was initially offered? Is it worth renewing SC membership for another year of not competing (last year being injury)? I’m not sure. Only things I want at this point are to have a better log and deadlift and not be how I am and have been the past month.

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)

Mobility Prep

12” Log Cleans & Push Presses (1 clean)
Kettlebells
15’sx10
Dumbbells
40’sx5
Log
110x3
140x1
170x1
190x1
210x5
210x5
210x5
210x5
210x5

12” Log Cleans (10 seconds hold)
250x1
290x1
330x1

Slingshot Dips
bwx10
bw+45x5
bw+90x3
bw+135x9
bw+135x17

Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
70’sx10
70’sx10
70’sx10
70’sx10
70’sx10

12” Log Seated Overhead Lockouts
110x1
160x1
200x1
250x6
270x6
290x4

Band Pull A-parts/Band Triceps Pressdowns/Trap 3 Raises
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12
MMB+MBx12/LBx25/10’sx12

Stretching

Comments: I was not sure if this day was even going to happen. Motivation was not really there and flash flooding warnings. But the sun came out and it dried out so I had not weather excuses. I had a workout plan but I felt myself changing things as I went. Walking a mobility prep was good. I dropped the dumbbell warm-up for the shoulders as I felt it was a bit much to start with and I’d be doing stuff later in the workout. Plan here was log for 5x5 with a lighter weight. 100lbs under the goal weight for a contest maybe. Single cleans. I knew I was out of practice from the log work last week with how I was wobbly. I knew from the week before that that I wasn’t really being efficient with reps over 2 at this point. I got new compression thin sleeves for the knees. This meant I could put my old and worn ones on my biceps. First set felt like crap. My forearms were sore. I didn’t want to use wrist wraps for this light of weight. Get used to reps and breathing. I got a bit better with things as I went. I had figured that first set was going to be the roughest of them. The planned thing after this was overload work. I’m not sure how I’m going to be doing it all the time but I wanted to work my clean today. Singles with holds at the top. I had something like work up over 5 singles but I did 40lbs jumps to get to the planned 330lbs and that felt ok. 330lbs felt darn heavy. Not ideal if the plan was to press this obviously. I’m being very deliberate with the cleans to not pull my biceps and to minimize energy loss. This felt good but I’ll have to figure out if I want to do this more frequently than once a month like I was thinking. Slingshot dips after that. I’m not sure how I feel about these. They are very taxing exercise with how much pressure they put on the body but I like how they traction my lower back in a way that alleviates my disc bulge issues. Borrowing from stuff, I worked up to 135lbs (well below what I can do) to do a set of 8 and then a max rep set. I miscounted and did 9 by mistake. As has been the case, I ended up getting 10 reps in a row and then rest-paused the remaining reps. After that, it was chest supported dumbbell rows. I didn’t like the barbell ones. These were easy. Not planning on pushing things hard with these. More to get some back work in and to rest before doing more heavy triceps. Not sure what my plan is here. If I’m going to keep them like this and not change them up like I do with the light squats I’ve been doing or add reps to the sets or change up the back exercise. The next thing was something I wanted to do to bring back something I felt was missing. Just powerful lockout. The plan here was to do a 6rm on this and have it be from the sticking point. However, I ran into some issues. The rack continues to be shoddy in that it tilts down due to the weight on the rack arms. So it ends up lower at the front and higher at the back. I’m trying to use the back as that at least seems safer as my log appears to just be long enough to fit. 250lbs was ok but I got stuck on the 6^th rep for some reason. I was surprised that the other reps felt so easy so I had to do more weight to get an accurate set weight. 270lbs again good with a slow down on the last rep. 290lbs proved too much as I got 4 and got stuck on a 5^th. The plan for next time is sets with 270lbs. Like when I did the yoke seated lockouts. I’m hoping things are good for next time. The last thing then was a triset. Bands and light dumbbells. Shoulders and upper back and triceps. Get the little muscles and the stuff that needs higher rep tendon work. Upper back and shoulders with the band pull aparts and t3 raises and then band triceps after all the triceps smashing to get some blood flow in there after the heavy compound stuff. Felt good. Unintended effect of having the triceps also be a part of the pull aparts. I had planned to do 30 reps for the triceps but dropped it to 25 reps. This was a lot of work. I don’t plan the other workouts in the week to be as involved. I’m treating them as 1^st and 2^nd halves of one workout for the lower body stuff really. Stretching and eating to finish off the evening. Will need to resume the recovery work stuff again.