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.
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