November 28, 2020 – Week 15, Day 3

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
NY Barbell Yoke
300xpick
300x50’ in 6.11 seconds
400x50’ in 6.19 seconds
500x50’ in 7.25 seconds
600x50’ in 8.08 seconds
640x50’ in 8.56 seconds
 
Sandbag Rows
175x10
 
Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
171x1
214x1
259x1
303.5x1
348.5x1
348.5x1
348.5x0,1
348.5x1
348.5x1
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Maybe I’m just getting well rested for a few days or food outside of what I’m used to eating is the culprit but haven’t really been sleeping in as much as I was expecting I would yesterday or today. Maybe I’m not feeling like I have to sleep the holiday away like I usually do. Even though today is the actual anniversary of Jenkins death, I just treat the four day holiday as it. I dreamt it was raining and that made me wake up but I could see light through the window and tried to go back to sleep and get comfortable. And sometimes just living can make things tougher than necessary. Like say impromptu carrying a small child up a flight of stairs in your arms while they are wrapped up like a burrito. For fun. And because they asked you to. I am that uncle. My older nephew saw my deadlift from Thursday’s session and wanted me to lift things Friday. I lifted I think 25kgs wearing an oven mitt with one hand. My right biceps was still sore from the muscling up of that one axle clean to my shoulders. And I don’t think my knees like me walking up steps with an anterior load. They didn’t like getting into my car to move it out of the garage. I woke up and figured that I’d start lifting around noon. I’m getting used to the new stuff in the warm-ups. I have been thinking about how the warm-up would be for competition purposes. Obviously not a concern at least until June 2021. But I did notice from just seeing what I’m doing and that some of the things have applications to events/exercises outside of just the knee and ankle health. So time to actually lift. Yoke again. Same as last time in that working to a top set and all runs for 50’. Both hamstrings tight from deadlifting. Left hamstring still perpetually tight and sore. More so than the right. Both have tightness in the knee insert and I imagine it is from the newer mobility stuff and reintroducing old exercises.  So for yoke today, 100lbs jumps starting at 300lbs to 600lbs. Then just 40lbs more so it was 20lbs over last time. I tried something a little different from last time to warm-up. I did the empty walks with the yoke. Casual and slow pace and not really sprinting off the block. Building speed over the set rather than trying to go 0-60 in an instant. I then did a pick with my start weight to just get a feel for things before going. I think this helped a little. I was very concerned that I was moving slower last session. I seemed to be somewhat close to normal this time around. Family stopped by after 400lbs. My nephews wanted to see me workout before they left. I was apparently moving too slowly for my older nephew. I told him I will go when I go haha. Not rushing 500lbs just because you say so. I was a little leery as my right knee was aching a little after that run. But it wasn’t present the rest of the workout. I got a little off balance with 600lbs. Very close to my best time with this weight. My middle to lower back were feel quite sore (good sore) so I was hoping that 640lbs wouldn’t be too slow. I felt pretty sold with this. Slower than I would’ve liked but good considering. It actually looks pretty good on film. It just felt slower to me than it actually was. A little break in the action, with band rows followed by some stretching and then just a set of my light sandbag for rows. Felt ok and good. This is going to be easy stuff. It didn’t feel like it was tough to pick up like sandbag stuff was last week so that was something. Left knee gets tight sometimes at the start to get sandbag started. Stone of steel after that. Plan here was about 10lbs more than last time. It is written as 5-10lbs but things have been feeling good so keep on keeping on. I mean last time these were pretty good and felt better than the session before that (where I felt crushed and needed a deload the following week). However, some wind out of the sails with how heavy sandbag felt last week. Picks were feeling pretty easy. I was keeping an eye on the right biceps. Second lift I kind of held on my chest a bit too long and I was getting light headed. I think part of it was seeing how holding it high like that would feel for a carry and the other was that it felt like my ankles weren’t cooperating in triple extension like usual. I’m wondering if it is a tradeoff with getting more extension in my thoracic spine by not going on my toes to keep my center of gravity stable. I’m not sure how adding 10lbs made it 10.5lbs heavier than last session. I wasn’t expecting it to be this heavy but still works. I was feeling good for the 5 singles EMOM style. However, I kept rushing the load. Not getting full extension and mistiming and misgauging. Resulting in me grabbing the bar on just about every lift and missing the first attempt of a 3rd single. I was breathing quite heavy after that mess up as I had much less recovery sticking to the EMOM timing. I cut it short on the fourth one as I felt like I was going to have a twinge in my oblique (sometimes happens on log press). I also had apparently reached the end of my music library so I just had silence and my own heavy breathing to soothe me. I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess up the last lift and got it without grabbing a hold of the crossbar. I noticed afterwards that my right middle finger was bruising at the nail as I think I smashed it during the EMOM. I took Tylenol and a weight gain shake before I put everything away and stretched.

November 26, 2020 – Week 15, Day 2

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
bwx25
40x20
 
Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
455x1
495x1
545x1
 
Deadlifts off Crash Mats (touch n go, straps)
425x5

Paused Ab Wheel
bwx12

Paused Side Plank Raises
bwx12/12

Stretching
 
Comments: I was actually pleasantly surprised with how easy going this week ended up being when it came to work. I think this is the first Thanksgiving where I’ve been able to train the same day since lifting at home and the home gym doesn’t close. I made it a point to ice the knees before (I always try to do so after training, it is the off days I am lax) to see if that can help things. It took a bit to fall asleep last night and I kind of didn’t want to get out of bed to do anything but I had to. Pretty much meant a late breakfast and then an early dinner so had a plan for starting training at 3:00PM. I didn’t get in my usual soft tissue work this week on my lower back (I have a foam roller and car buffer for soft tissue but my parents have percussive massager that seems to help more for the back). Lats were feeling Tuesday’s training. So for the workout, it wasn’t terribly involved one so it was ok giving myself 2.5hrs to finish and clean up. My left knee felt fine but my right knee was acting up on some things. My lower back and hamstrings didn’t feel as touchy and stiff as they did on Tuesday. High rep and light weight goblet squats to start things off. Knees a tiny bit achy but my muscles felt good. Almost rhythmic. Used to kind of loath the higher rep, light weight squat stuff as just exhausting for the sake of exhausting but they feel nice with low volume and alternating between squat to box and box squat. I don’t feel like they fatigue nearly as much or even at all at this point. However, I think that will come back the moment I stop them for like a week or two haha. So then on to the deadlift. I was going to put the main event or the most important but that is kind of biased as everything is important with the training to come together. I should rephrase to say that it was the thing I’d been thinking about since the last time I did these. Weighted in my mind as high priority. I impulse bought a deadlift jack (which I somehow didn’t put together exactly right, oh well) to help with loading the plates on so my lower back doesn’t get all pumped from bending over so much. Goal for today was to work up to 90% for a single based off how I felt. I felt I had a little more leeway this time with having 90% as opposed to 85% as I know I tend to push things and I don’t want to suffer burning out too soon on deadlifts. 1 because I hate it (it took months to get it back on track last two times) and 2 because I will be disappointed that that was all I could muster(sub 600lbs Craig? Come on now). So initially my conservative plan was to do 525lbs this time and then do 555lbs next time. I had told Mr. Westerling last time that despite wanting to be as strong as projected (545/585/615) that I was probably closer to 585lbs then I was 600lbs. He did suggest that if I felt good to try a more aggressive jump (535/575). I kind of told myself to see how things went do 40-50lbs more than last time. I was really trying to work on bracing off the floor today. Feeling tight. I was focused on a single pull for 225lbs and forgot it was for a double. Those first few sets the weights feel heavy to me. Like 135lbs feels heavier than 275lbs does by the time I get to it. Maybe because I know I’m just doing a single? Might be in my head but I felt like 405lbs didn’t move as fast as it should. I was at least not feeling like this was more lower back then usual to break the weight off the floor. As I got up in weight, it felt slower than I would’ve liked. I think with 405lbs not being something that would be super easy I can do 20 reps no problem feeling, I rocked with 455lbs too much. That bad habit of trying to get more leg drive that actually knocks the bar off my shins and makes the start out of position. I do wonder if straps make this more likely to happen or if I just wear straps when it gets to the point that I don’t trust my positioning and try to do this. In either case, I made it a conscious effort to not do that with 495lbs. It felt slow, not fast enough for my taste to say that I was confident that 50lbs more wouldn’t be a stilted herky jerky grinder of a lift. I wanted to think that it would be a smooth pull. After the fact I found it was just a tiny bit faster than my 495lbs pull from last time. I took a gamble and went for 545lbs. It would be 20lbs over the most bar weight for a pull from the floor I’ve done in over a year. 20lbs more than what I pulled first deadlift session at home when this whole COVID-19 restrictions started. I was nervous. What if I was wrong and this just stalled right off the floor and I mess up all these months of training clawing back to this? I don’t like to think about but I’m sure that if I missed this pull, I would’ve felt destroyed. I know that isn’t healthy. Small steps at a time. I was really focusing on this and getting everything tight. I ended up getting a cramp in my right upper abdominals before I went for the pull. I wasn’t going to let that distract me. I ended up being successful with this pull. Definitely more than 90% pull but not 95%. Probably somewhere between. I felt I had a double for sure, maybe an ugly as triple. I compared it to my 525lbs pull from March and it was about 1.5 seconds faster from start to lockout. I feel like I have 575-585lbs there for a max. But now I got to figure out what to be doing next time so as not to overdo it. That is my fear and paranoia with deadlift stuff right now. Moving on to the next thing. Crash mat deadlifts. Didn’t take nearly as long after my top pull to get ready for these haha. The plan was just 425lbs for 5. Much like last time, it felt heavy but moved well. I feel I adapted to these a bit as I was moving at a much quicker clip this time around. And the first rep didn’t feel like garbage. But that could be from not cooling off. Abdominal stuff after that. Same as last time with the holds and pauses but two extra reps for each set. Even with the slight abdominal cramp, these were pretty comfy. I figured it made more sense to cool down and then clean up and eat a big, big dinner and then finish up the stretching and recovery stuff.

November 24, 2020 – Week 15, Day 1

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
Axle Clean and Push Presses
33x1
53x1
78x1
103x1
123x1
123x1 (oops)
143x1
163x1
183x1
203x1
223x1
243x1
263x1
 
Axle Push Presses
208x2
208x2
208x2
208x2
208x2
 
Rack Chins (yoke, straps)
bwx5
bwx17
bwx16
bwx16
 
Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx15
40’sx10
70’sx20
70’sx20
70’sx20
 
Paused Floor Band Trap 3 Raises/Paused Band External Rotations (right/left)
µbx15/µbx15/15
µbx15/µbx15/15
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Lower back was beat up from last week and I’m not sure why. Perhaps doing real squats had something to do with it. My understanding is that turns with farmer’s also unevenly loads the spine. Like I said, I felt weaker picking up sandbags then I had felt the past few times. Usually best thing is hope, rest and move around (go for walks). My knees were feeling better and I had thought perhaps the new stuff was enough on its own but doing warm-up stuff and working out this session, it became apparent that I need to keep up with icing. I don’t like that it seems to be a daily thing now to keep stuff feeling good and happy. Upper back got crampy doing the last bit of the warm-up exercises. Got a new light installed for the porch that is motion sensor when it gets dark. Works perfectly. I still have the flood light just in case since that thing can get very warm and I might need it if conditions get frigid haha. Axle for today. I was a little concerned as my lower back had been stiff during warm-ups and I was going up in weight. Also thinking about a few things that might distract me (competitions moving/cancelling in 2021, Thanksgiving, etc). After talking with Mr. Westerling after last session, he convinced me to return to my usual style of axle clean where I don’t pull from hang. What a difference. So fast. I made some mistakes with plate math. I was to start out 10lbs heavier for the 20lbs jumps to match up and make sense. Resulted in me doing some 25lbs jumps and then accidentally doing a weight twice because I forgot when I changed the small plates to one big plate. I was feeling good on these today. No chalk needed with how cool it was outside. I was a little concerned that I felt like the press was feeling a little harder than it should (I mean still easy but not super duper easy like 100lbs more there no problem). 243lbs was when I added wrist wraps. For whatever reason, I fiddled with them to get the loops off my thumbs and not have them tight as I would for a max lift. I think my thinking was that this was why my grip flip missed with 248lbs last time with the clean attempt from hang. It was not but it lead to another kind of suck. I caught it too low for a good pop roll but too high to really adjust it and I ended up having to almost reverse curl it with my right arm to get it racked. Christ that sucked. I corrected it for 263lbs for my planned top single. Press went up fast but I got a bit too far forward and had to chase my center of gravity down. I was stable for a moment and then brought it back to the pads to drop it. Wasn’t going to fight it and possibly injury my shoulders at this point. So comparing the hang clean to my usual style, I’ve noticed that the pop to the stomach is much harder with the hang but the forced slow down makes the transition from the stomach to the shoulders a bit more consistent. Again, I’ve only done up to 248lbs with that style. I think that it would be a helpful off season training, similar to the paused push press circus dumbbell work although it couldn’t be something where I switch to my usual style after working up to a top weight with the harder variation as the clean needs to have the groove greased. In the dumbbell, the clean is the same for both so not an issue. I got the weights for the push press but a little annoyed that I still fumbled the weights. I still got 60lbs more to go on this for contest weight. After that was push press from the rack. Same rep and set scheme but lowered percentages. So kind of getting near the weights I was doing earlier but not quite. Knees didn’t care for these today. It is really strange to me that my knees aren’t nearly as vocal when I’m clean and pressing. I could feel that I was maybe pressing the weight a little forward and not back. Perhaps the knees making me not want to rely on that. I think I noticed it a bit today because I had to do a little dancing around with my top weight overhead and that I really stressed things with that muscling up of the weight the set before. This is easy stuff though. Not going to be a problem. Looks nice on camera but unracking weights just doesn’t feel like it did when I was training at the Y. Into the garage for accessory work as has been the case. Rack chins again as my standby for reps. I didn’t feel so hot after the axle work and thought that the five reps I do for warm-up were a precursor to how much the rest of this was going to suck. Good thing I was wrong. First set felt really good and easy. My back and arms were feeling pumped. Sticking with the plan of going up just a rep across the three sets, hopefully getting to 3x20 eventually. I was a little surprised these felt as good as they did considering the stress I put my right biceps through on the botched axle clean. I did hang a little bit before each set to deload my shoulders and spine a little too. After that, incline bench press with my dumbbells. I was not sure how these would go. Plan was 3x20. Last session it was a struggle to get 15 on the last set after two sets of 20. I wasn’t feeling confident as my right forearm was feeling sore just holding the 40lbs dumbbells on my lap at the start. Pec and shoulder on the right side were also tight from that axle clean issue. I did rest a little bit more this time but these went much better than I was expecting. It was tough on the last set but nowhere near as tough as it felt last time. Well, goal achieved with getting 3x20. Now to figure out the next thing. Kind of dreading the rotary band stuff at the end. I like the trap 3 raises but I loathe the external rotations. Specifically for my left shoulder. The pauses are what kill me. It’s a deep burn. A lesser extent for the right shoulder. Doing my best to not give in and stop to let the soreness subside. I ate dinner after training and then did my stretching followed by icing my knees and shoulders before bed.

November 21, 2020 – Week 14, Day 3

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walk
Turns at 50’
110x100’ in 13.79 seconds (right)
110x100’ in 13.57 seconds (left)
No Turns
160x50’ in 6.22 seconds
200x50’ in 7.19 seconds
250x50’ in 7.84 seconds

Sandbag Rows (long ways)
175x5
225x5
275x3

Sandbag Loads (62”)
225x1
275x1
313x1
313x1
313x1
313x1
313x1

Stretching
 
Comments: Last part of the week with work kicked my ass. My “rest days” of Wednesday and Friday I ended up having to do my walks after work as I didn’t give myself enough of a buffer working through lunch to be able to do my walks before I had to clock back in. I have a feeling next week is going to be similar before Thanksgiving. I’m actually not sure how that is going to go either. I always feel down this time of year with it being the time Mike died and I feel guilty about it as this was my late grandfather’s favorite holiday. Last year had been the first time since Jenkins had died that I didn’t feel that way. Perhaps it was because I was with somebody. I don’t have that this year and I already feel it creeping up on me. Didn’t really get a chance to do soft tissue work or icing last night. I also wore the wrong shoes to go walking in my distraction. Thankfully, this didn’t give me shin splints. I ended up sleeping quite a bit. Weather is back to being warmer. Needs to pick lane. Warming up felt pretty good. A little ache in the knees at the start but it went well. Had to do some sweeping up in the street before training. Training a bit different for this day. Contest has farmer’s walk with turns so I need to start implementing that. I modified the warm-up a little as usually I would just do 50’ lengths and gradually increase the speed with the empty handles to get my knees and hamstrings ready. Since I was doing the start with turns and then passing off to 50’ straight shots, I figured that I should do my warm-ups with the turns. Go down slow and then speed up on the return trip. My thoughts with Mr. Westerling was to start the first half downhill so as to work on accerlating into the turn and then have to work uphill to come back. Make the hard parts harder so that it will be easier at competition. I felt like these sets with the light weight to start went pretty well for not doing this in over a year with any kind of weight. Turn is going to need work (kind of over corrected on the second set). Regular runs after that. I felt like I was going at a decent speed on these today but it appears that like yoke, slower than usual. I’m trying to figure out why after a week of deload. Perhaps the knee health stuff is causing some fatigue? I did try and bring my stance in for the pick as I feel like I can actually get some tension in my hamstrings that way. I might need to play around this that some as I’m not sure if the tradeoff of a faster pick and a slower start helps versus a slower pick and faster start off the block. I could also be overthinking it as the decreases are with acceptable parameters to not be concerned and I’m doing a lot of new movements that I haven’t done in a while. Into the garage after cleaning up the farmer’s walks for sandbags. Reading how I felt doing these a month ago showed a contrast I wasn’t expecting. Reps had been reduced from two sessions prior but I wrote about how good and easy everything felt. That was not the case today. I felt like my rowing and picking up the sandbag was off. Not like I was in pain or had anything limiting me. Just felt heavy. I felt like I was using more biceps then I should on the first set. I then forgot mid set with 225lbs how many reps I was to do. I had done a very easy set of 5 last time I touched the 275lbs bag. This time, it was a harder than I would’ve liked triple. The last rep reminded me of the one tough rep I had with lapping the 313lbs sandbag the last time. Not a good sign if I had that happen on 275lbs. I knew that I’d have to be on guard for the sandbag loading since last time was essentially the easiest this was going to be for some time. The warm up singles didn’t feel too bad but they weren’t as super easy as they should’ve been. The plan today was the 313lbs for 5 singles EMOM style. Last time had been EOMOM and that had been good mostly. I had trouble with lapping the third lift and then with loading the final lift. I felt like this time, I needed to be sure I had a good grip on it in my lap before loading it as I had less time to recover between attempts and missed lifts were going to suck big time. Extension felt good. Second lift I was bit too far away but still got it over. Made sure I was closer for the next two reps. Last lift was a struggle. I think with how wide this bag is that it gets caught on my thin knee sleeves. It was like I hit a sticking point on the lift coming off the floor but I regrouped and pulled through. That took a bit out of me and I couldn’t seem to keep the bag as tight to me as the other reps. Same issue as last time on the last rep. This time however, I didn’t need to do a re-extension to get it high enough to shove over. Would rather I didn’t need to shove it over at all. Stretched and got dinner ready and then iced my knees. I needed to stay up a bit since I slept in to about 1PM so that I could go to sleep. Hopefully I can recover the next two days to put in the work next week.

November 19, 2020 – Week 14, Day 2

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
17” Box Squats
bwx25

17” Safety Squat Bar Box Squats w/ bands
65x10
Added Bands (+3lbs bottom/+47lbs top)
65x5
95x2
125x2
155x2
185x2
215x2
 
Wide Grip Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x1
315x1
315x1
315x1

Planks
bw+45x60 Seconds

Side Planks
bw+15x60/60 Seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: This workout took a bit. More setup time than when I had been doing the band deadlift cycle. And it kind of dawned on me the day of so I took time during my breaks to set things up as it was going to require some new things that I haven’t been doing in a while or at the garage gym. My joints were a bit achy. Not sure if just because the weather has abruptly gotten quite frigid this week coupled with the lifting earlier in the week. Really it seems that the middle of the week workout is my achiest. Setup required moving weights, bars, mats and bands outside as well as checking to see how things would work and test integrity of the rack for something besides overhead and get band tensions. Warm-ups as normal. Right lower leg is tighter than the left. I’ve known this for years. Been a thing since the nerve issues from the disc bulge caused my left calf to atrophy. Today was box squats. Like bar on back and sit back style rather than the touch for depth style I’ve been doing. Since the back issue relapse last year around this time, most of the squatting has been the rack assisted hatfield kind. This would be real squatting again. Plan was using the ssb and a little band tension and work up to doubles with 30lbs jumps up to 40-50% of what I feel 1rm would be. Listed numbers would be 215lbs (was 210lbs but my bar is 63lbs and I added 2lbs to it). But first I had to warm-up. Body weight for high rep set. Box using my mats so about 17” and then compresses as I sit on it a little. Felt good. Loosen up the hips and hamstrings. Not as tiring as I thought it might be. Then adding the bar. Inner thighs and hips felt tight with the added weight. Unracking the weight wasn’t as comfortable as I would like. My head hits the top of my rack crossbar if I stand up straight under it so kind of have to slouch under it from away. What I have now will make due but may need to consider a better setup if I’m truly committing to the home gym. Advised here to stay light, maybe not as dynamically explosive at the start and obviously not push it if this bothered the knees. Feeling pretty easy. The jump from 155lbs to 185lbs felt like a lot for some reason. I kept to not wearing any support stuff like with viper pressing to keep myself from pushing too much and staying in my lane for right now. It’s been over a year since I did a back squat. I felt I was staying rigid but I can’t tell for certain as it looks like my lower back was rounding slightly on these and I can’t tell if that is just from the shirt moving or if that is actually what is happening. Much like with the deadlifting, this got my lower back pumped. I think that is just something I need to get used to after the back injuries on certain exercises and I just need to continue to be watchful and keep up with spinal health stuff. I think I would’ve liked if the last weight moved faster but I’m out of box squat practice. It will come back. After that I moved to the garage for pulls. Wide grip deadlifts have made a return to the training rotation. Really light to start but the jumps look hefty for the next few sessions. Just plate-quarter-plate jumps up to 315lbs for three singles. The movement felt off and awkward the first two sets and then it seemed to finally click with 225lbs. Made sure I rested a little bit and didn’t just pull the working weight one right after the other. I feel like the first set I was a little hesitant and then the other two I was pulling them like nothing. The rest of the workout was dedicated to planks. This lull I felt was the best time to get liquids in me before I had to flex my core for a while and put away all the damn weights before it got even colder and I had sore abdominals to also contend with. I wasn’t too sure how these would go really as mostly been doing abdominal work requiring movement as of late. I was able to hold up fine with minimal discomfort that comes from the cramping and fatigue. I did think maybe the rotary cuff work was fatiguing my shoulders from supporting my bodyweight but I reminded myself that it has always been like this. Stretched and ate pot roast, followed by icing my knees.

November 17, 2020 – Week 14, Day 1

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Viper Presses
Kettlebells
15’sx5
Log
87x1
107x1
127x1
147x1
167x1
187x1
207x1
217x1
 
12” Log Strict Presses
157x2
157x2
157x2
157x2
157x2

 
Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
15’sx15
40’sx10
70’sx20
70’sx20
70’sx15
 
Slingshot Dips
bwx10
bw+25x8
bw+50x5
bw+75x5
bw+100x8
 
Paused Floor Band Trap 3 Raises/Paused Band External Rotations (left/right)
µbx15/µbx15/15
µbx15/µbx15/15
 
Stretching
 
Comments: What an odd day. November finally decided it was time to be cold out. Had numerous hail storms throughout the day. I was wondering what that sound was since I could still see light through the blinds. Thankfully, that nonsense stopped before it was time for me to train and all the hail evaporated. Wasn’t able to get my outdoor lights installed last weekend due to weather and scheduling issues. Going to have to wait until this weekend. I had knots in my midback that just wouldn’t go away the day before. Despite how cold it was (42 I think), I stayed warm and got warmed up pretty quick with my routine. The distraction I had used last time for the treadmill stuff (singing) didn’t work as well this time and I got quite tired haha. Positioning for the lower leg exercises seems to effect the difficulty quite a bit if I have my hands and shoulders at different spots. I need to try and stay one way so I can track progress. I can already see progress in some of the knee and shin pain. Everything else was good. Today’s training log. With opposite weeks being axle with leg drive, these sessions have been modified. Not quite leg drive but not quite strict. Plan going forward for the next few sessions is viper pressing. I checked and the last time I did these was April 2018. Flood light out back after the easy reps with the kettlebells. Actually felt smooth and easy. Maybe these will be good today haha. Like pressing has been, set a goal weight and do 20lbs jumps in singles up to it. So like axle with 80%, this time also 80%. But I haven’t done these in 31 months at this point so no clue how these will go. I decided to base off my best in training from back then, roughly what I feel my strict press might be now (yes, my strict press best on log is higher than my viper press best on log). That would be 205lbs. A nice number normally but not when it would require micro weights and 20lbs to get a starting weight and do dumbbells for a warm-up. So I said screw it and went 2lbs heavier. Empty log felt like crap and I was reminder how these aren’t so fun sometimes. I was kind of worried I’d just snap all my shit up in my arms, shoulders and back haha. But I didn’t. Adding some weight to the log and it start to actually feel good. I then figured I’d just do this with no support equipment of any kind to keep myself from going too hard so soon. Lapping 207lbs was a little awkward feeling but then it went up so easy that I felt I had to do more. But I wasn’t feeling like another 20lbs would be 80% so I went 10lbs. The lap was better and felt easier. This was honestly one of my better viper press sessions for log. I’ll have to adjust my planned weights accordingly for the next few sessions. Strict pressing out of the rack, much lower percentages. Told to be working explosively. Again, 2lbs extra just to avoid having to adjust a lot of stuff. Perhaps too much power on that first set as I got off balance haha. Really not much to say here as these were quiet easy and consistent. There is still aches in my knees when I try to get under the log like for a push press but pressing was fine. Granted I’ve only been doing these new knee health things for a week now and I’ve noticed changes in that time. Into the garage for more. Rows on the bench. Trying to get adequate rest. Not too much but not too little. Delicate balance with active rest and moving equipment around. These rows are considerably easier compared to the incline dumbbell benching with the same weight. On to sling shot dips after that. Shoulders and elbows felt a little stiff at the start but warmed up. Traction from adding the 25lbs plate felt really good as it got stuff to adjust. Taking slow with these and going up just a tad. It was deloaded last time to just doing 5 reps so now going up to 6-8 on the set with 100lbs. These were all easy. Outside for the rotator cuff stuff. Remembered to only use the micro bands. My left side on the external rotations is so much weaker than my right side. No discrepancy when I do the trap 3 raises. I did get through both sets without stopping to get the burn/fatigue to go away. Stretched and ate a big roast for dinner.

November 14, 2020 – Week 13, Day 3

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
NY Barbell Yoke
270x50’ in 6.15 seconds (misload)
420x50’ in 6.76 seconds
520x50’ in 8.25 seconds
570x50’ in 8.46 seconds
620x50’ in 9.01 seconds
 
Sandbag Rows
175x10
 
Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
160x1
203.5x1
248.5x1
292.5x1
338x1
338x1
338x1
338x1
338x1
 
Stretching
 
Comments: I was a bit curious with how today would go. I was mixture of anxious and annoyed. Not with training that is. I did let people that I interacted with today know that I was not in a good mood and trying to not take out on the nearest person. And I know I was annoyed for stupid reasons too. The anxious part was to do with WSM happening right now and reading that quite a few of the athletes got injured. I just can’t take that contest seriously with how they run things. I remember last year I was thinking the same thing with all the foot/ankle related injuries while doing events. This year appeared to be biceps. My annoyance had to do with having to be ready for stuff at a certain time and while I was ready on time, others were not. And I kind of wanted to stew about it. I did my best to distract myself warming up and was perhaps too good with that. It all felt very easy. Hardly any knee issues. But that meant I forgot to film stuff to keep track and make sure I’m doing this knee stuff right. Yoke was a bit different in that I was to do certain weights working up rather than leaving myself to my own devices to warm-up to the top weight. Going with one set at the top weight too. I had been feeling beat the last workout. And honestly, not certain everything is recovered. Plan here was to start at 320lbs and do 100lbs jumps to 520lbs and then 50lbs jump to 620lbs. All for 50’ runs. Ton of leaves so I had to kind of create a barrier of leaves around the course I had. I will say I didn’t have any hamstring twinges in the right side that had worried me last time I did these. Left hamstring still perpetually tight and sore. But forgot to add 50lbs to my first set and I didn’t realize until I was done the run. I was already feeling miffed that it felt slow and heavy and then find out it was 50lbs too light. I debated doing the correct weight but figured what was done was done and take the L and move on to the next weight. Also slow. Same with the next set. I realized after 520lbs I had not been using the arm sleeves to keep my biceps warm. Seem to help me feel better about pulling in the side bars. My chest was sore still from the incline pressing. But thankfully the shoulders were so tight as I’d expect them. Same with the upper back and traps. I felt like I was moving faster for the last two sets (more so the downhill set but got amped for the last set). Not too sure why I was slow. I was trying to increase turnover of my feet but I feel like I was stomping rather than moving forward with the shorter walk cycle. Some of these runs were almost 2 seconds slower than my best with these weights. Top weight run was over a second slower than my best run with 20lbs less. Also slower than my best with 30lbs more. Well, yoke isn’t in the competition but I don’t like the back tracking on progress here. I know this is more to overload my lower body for the farmer’s walk and give things a break that are taxed on that and vice versa. The next part of the workout was adjusted. Less of a separate exercise and more of a warm-up for the stone stuff. Band rows followed by some stretching and then just a set of my light sandbag for rows. Felt ok and good. So stone of steel after that. Plan here was about 10lbs more than last time. I felt this might be a big ask with how tough things felt last time but my hope was that a fresh tacky towel on the heavy stuff and a deload week would do me some good. As I have been doing, older tacky towel on the work up sets and then fresher one for the EMOM. I could definitely feel my hamstrings on some of these. Not like in a painful, sore or bad way. Just that they were working. I forgot to triple extend with my ankles on one of the work up sets. Last work up single felt a little harder than I would’ve liked and when my top weight came out heavier than planned, I was also a tad nervous. It did not help matters when I gripped it off center on the first lift of the EMOM and had to adjust to that haha. Other than that, the lifting felt good and better than last sessions stone lifting. I think I’ll be doing +360lbs before the end of the year for the workout. Took a good bit for me to figure out what to do next before I decided to clean up first and then stretch before eating dinner and then icing my knees.

November 12, 2020 – Week 13, Day 2

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
bwx25
40x20
 
Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
455x1
495x1
 
Deadlifts off Crash Mats (touch n go, straps)
405x5

Paused Ab Wheel
bwx10

Paused Side Plank Raises
bwx10/10

Stretching
 
Comments: I slept like the dead after the previous workout this week. Maybe because I knew I had off on Wednesday for holiday that I knew I could just sleep. I was asleep for a while and I felt like it was restful sleep. It was rainy all day Wednesday and eventually I went for a walk with an umbrella when it stopped raining sideways. It was dark so had my reflective stuff and flashing lights. I don’t like carrying the umbrella as for whatever reason, I tend to trap heat under it from me just living. Knees were a bit achy today. I had not gotten the chance to ice them the day before. I had hoped doing some soft tissue work would’ve been enough. My iPod speaker setup died at the end of the last workout and then I tried them this time and they broke. I was finally able to figure out the other sound system because I had no other options and that seems to be working better. Some of this new stuff is a work in progress. The older stuff seems to be going well. Today’s workout doesn’t look like much on paper. Start things off with goblet squats. Nothing new there. Rather than the usual two sets, this time going back to something similar to when the COVID stuff started in that warming up with bodyweight squats and then do reps with weight. I was thinking that it would be a bit exhausting but my conditioning appears to be improving from the warm-ups. Trying to make sure that I don’t half ass the reps on these with how many there are and how light it is. The set with weight actually felt pretty good. Felt like a fine tuned machine. Then it was deadlifts. No more bands and platforms for now. Plan now is deadlift rotation. Goal for today was to work up to 85-90% for a single based off how I felt. With how the last week of the band deadlifts had gone, I honestly wasn’t sure where I was as far as pulls. And didn’t want to overdo it as I tend to do that chasing numbers because deadlift is so fucking frustrating. I know it will take a bit to get used to no bands but that is ok. 135lbs felt heavy to start. That was not ok. Deadlifting from the floor with these plates and this bar at my house feels heavier that at a gym. I know that this is tougher than pulling on a deadlift bar. Trying to work on getting that tight feeling in my core and lower body. I guess I’m used to the platform pulls as I felt like I could get tighter doing those and that may be because I had to compress myself to get to the bar so already building tension. The entire time, I felt like breaking the weight off the floor involved more lower back than it should. My lockout feels strong at least. I don’t feel like I needed straps for 455lbs but I wanted it to feel easy to gauge how to continue. Sometimes jumping to straps right away after the tougher pull feels off. 455lbs actually felt pretty good. I felt like I could build some tightness in not just my core. I’m not sure how I feel about 495lbs. It felt hard (not as tough as the previous two band pull workouts minus the deload session) but seemed to move fast. I messaged Mr. Westerling to see if I should stop here or try more. Get a second opinion. The proposed plan had me going for 545lbs and my worry was that that would be too much today. Not that I couldn’t do it but it would be more than 90%. It was definitely not going to be 85% no matter how much I would want it to be. It is my fault for not sending a heads up on the workout for possible advice. I had also forgotten I was to do something after deadlifts besides abdominal work and rather than cool off too much, I decided to call the deadlift at 495lbs and finish up the last bit of deadlift related shenanigans. So the next exercise was kind of new, kind of old. Deadlifting off my crash mats. They are about 6” in height but since high density foam, they sink with the weight added. This could be a way to train a deadlift event that has a deadlift bar without a deadlift bar as the cushioning effect feels a bit like the weight gradually coming off the floor. The plan was just 405lbs for 5, doing the first rep regular and then doing touch n go for the rest of the reps so that they were from the mat height. So like a deadlift followed by rdls. This actual felt heavy in on my body but it was moving easy. The bar feels a bit more stiff compared to the hollow axle when I was doing rdls previously. Despite that, I feel I could’ve done 10 more reps or so so it seems more I just need to get used to this kind of stuff again. Abdominal stuff to end the night. A little different in that the same(ish) exercises but reduced reps. Ab wheel instructions stated slow reps. I took that as pausing for a second at max extension and controlled movement. Same with the side plank raises. Though there, doing fast concentric and slower eccentric. Stretched and ate pot roast, followed by icing my knees.

November 10, 2020 – Week 13, Day 1

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep

 
Axle Clean and Push Presses
28x1
48x1
68x1
88x1
108x1
128x1
148x1
168x1
188x1
208x1
228x1
248x1
 
Axle Push Presses
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
 
Rack Chins (yoke, straps)
bwx5
bwx16
bwx16
bwx16
 
Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx15
40’sx10
70’sx20
70’sx20
70’sx15
 
Paused Floor Band Trap 3 Raises/Paused Band External Rotations (right/left)
µbx15/mbx15/15
µbx15/µbx15/15
 
Stretching
 
Comments: Well here is hoping that it was allergies the past few days. I certainly feel better without taking stuff so good sign I think. I had low motivation to do anything at work today. Mostly because I had the next day off and I was thinking about WSM (really has become a love/hate situation haha) and my own training. My training was going to be a bit of a change up. Trying to work the soft tissue stuff in for the hamstrings with either foam rolling or the car buffer and icing knees once a day if I can manage without cutting into my sleep. Warming up has been adjusted quite a bit now. A majority of it is working towards knee health. Backwards treadmill stuff feels good for the knees and is not subject to issues with weather haha. This was followed by a lot of lower leg drills. Obvious weakness in the Anterior Tibialis. Also advised that the platform stuff I’m at the highest planned adjustment so success there. These days have also had things adjusted to reflect the day. So this warm-up had upper body emphasis. The shoulder drill with the dumbbells with no holds feels so much more natural and less jarring. Axle for today. So the previous plan had been push press for 2 and then strict press for 2. This appears to be too much for the knees right now so axle is going to be push press and the other week will be log kind of strict style. I also added tape markings on my axle so that I could keep an even grip with it getting so dark out right now. Getting new lights installed for out back so in the meantime, using a flood light to provide some illumination. It is crazy that not even 6:00PM and it is pitch black outside. It felt warm outside. With doing push press on the axle every other week, weight is going to be picking up quickly. Today the plan was 80% of my PR in training for the top single on weight. Pressing felt nice. I didn’t feel like I had any reps like last time where lockout was hard or I felt off. Consistency with the clean is where I’m running into issues. I’ve learned in the past to commit to a particular style from warm-up to finish (ie, don’t do DOH power cleans if you are going to need to do a continental for your top weight). I’m doing cleans from hang for the continental. At the start, I can get light enough weight up to the flip point with no effort but then I hit a point where I can’t and I have to do a two bump. It’s hard to make myself do a two bump when the weight is light as I’m trying to make the 2nd pull explosive to get on to my stomach and minimize the time that the under hand arm is in danger. The new belt I’ve noticed has as downside in being thicker and wider than my older belt. It provides fantastic support but it can be trickier to clear for axle and trying to put down a log under control. I had no issues with the belt on at 228lbs. Didn’t need it there but need to get used to it and the breathing changes. For the top weight, I added on my wrist wraps (not super tight) to get used to that feeling again. I haven’t worn them in over 3 months. I ended up missing getting above my belt with 248lbs and ended up having to pull DOH to get it after the miss. Once I got it to my stomach, it was pretty easy and I felt strong. After that was push press from the rack. Same rep and set scheme but lowered percentages. I think this is because of the changes in the pressing and because the increase per month for the top set is more aggressive going forward. I took off a good bit of the support stuff for these. Usually the first set feels rough but didn’t this time. Perhaps dropping the weight from the top set helped. Usually I feel like I get better each set on these. I can’t say that was the case this time. First set felt like my best set. Not to say the other sets were lacking or anything but I didn’t feel like they started out ok or poor and got crisper. Last set I got a little off balance and had to pause a moment before racking it. I might have had shorter rests than usual as I was trying to put stuff away between sets. Into the garage for accessory work. Rack chins again. My right biceps was feeling a bit stressed from the axle stuff. Also could be from the aggressive soft tissue work the night before. Plan was to do 3x16. I think I had my setup on an uneven patch in the garage as the yoke kept on shifting. I didn’t feel like this was stressing the tendons like last time. I could feel a good stretch in my biceps though. Usually the first set doesn’t feel the best. It did this time and I got fatigued as I went. Last set was a tough one to get the reps haha. After that, incline bench press with my dumbbells. Easy warm-ups. Plan for this time around being first two sets for 20 and then 15 for the last set. I kept rests a little shorter than normal. Mostly because I didn’t have as much stuff to put away like I usually do and I had to leave some stuff outside for the end of the workout. First set felt great and was super easy. Felt like a piston. Second set there was obvious fatigue and last set holy crap was that a tough one. My chest felt that stuff. Same with the shoulders and triceps haha. It took a little bit to calm down before I could have enough ROM in my shoulders and arms to get the last item for the session done. Last item was a triset using bands for the external rotators. Had to do these outside as the one required rigging something overhead. First part was doing trap 3 raises while lying on my back. So pulling the bands downward and holding for a second. I tried this with mini bands first but could tell immediately that I wasn’t going to survive a round, let alone two. So went with the micro bands. That was good and challenging. I didn’t realize until I was done that I had scraped my knuckles and had some blood welling up. Now the other part was the external rotations and I was to do the weak side first followed by the strong side. Oops. I guess I had those mixed up or I thought they were. Now I thought I could do the mini bands on these. I was wrong. That first set was way tougher than I thought. I did make sure I got 15 reps but they weren’t great and I had to pause a few times. I realized that I need to do micros for both exercises and switched that out for the second set. The stress of the minis really ate into the recovery on the second set. I’m hoping it is better next time with appropriate band tension. My shoulders felt so tight and stiff after all this. Ate dinner and then stretched, followed by icing my knees, shoulders and elbows.

November 7, 2020 – Week 12, Day 3

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes

 
Mobility Prep
 
Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walk
100x50’ in 5.74 seconds
150x50’ in 6.29 seconds
200x50’ in 7.45 seconds
200x50’ in 6.88 seconds

Sandbag Rows (long ways)
175x8
225x5

Sandbag Loads (62”)
225x1
225x1
225x1
225x1
225x1

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes

Stretching
 
Comments: At this point I’m not sure if it is bad allergies or a minor cold. Really hard to tell at this point. It took me a few hours to get feeling like I could train after being awake. I told myself that even if it was a cold, it made more sense to train today then wait until tomorrow as this was a deloaded session and I’d be able to get 2 days off and with a day off work for Veteran’s Day, I could get in an extra day of sleep and relaxation. It has been hard to tell if I’m feeling better in my joints and muscles since Dayquil has been the only thing that says to be making the symptoms of whatever go away. Left hamstring is still tight.  The 2 minutes of treadmill stuff does feel like a long time but I think it is helping with the knee issues. Again, hard to say since taking Dayquil the past 3 days haha. Rest of the warm-up stuff pretty standard. That will be changing though with the next block of training. Knee health stuff seemed to be pretty good today. Maybe adjust the height in 2 weeks if stuff continues to feel good. Needed to do a little sweeping before doing farmer’s walks today. Not a lot of leaves so able to keep the same 50’ course that I usually do. The reduced training for this week being work up to 200lbs for 2 sets of 50’. So that would be pretty easy with 50lbs jumps. I did a few empty runs to make sure my knees felt fine and to make sure I didn’t feel any hammie issues on the right side like I did with yoke warming up. Seemed to feel good. I felt like I was moving well on these. I noticed I didn’t feel any back aches or pains initially so that was good. I felt like I was getting better at feeling like I had tension before picking things up. So maybe the lower body is recovering somewhat. Despite feeling good, I was apparently moving slower than usual. Weight didn’t feel heavy. Second run was a good bit faster with 200lbs but not a PR for speed. Only consolation from that is that it was faster than my fastest set with this weight back in August but that isn’t saying much. I needed this week to be easy after last week feeling wrecked. Still feeling wrecked in some areas, such as my inner thighs and hips. I got a little bit of relief reading that the handles for USS Nats are going to be 17” pick instead of the proposed 12” pick height so that is a load off. Not that it wouldn’t be too much trouble this far out but I can put all focus on the deadlift and not worry about being too sapped from that to pick up the low handles. On to the sandbag stuff to finish out the day. Sandbag rows to prep for sandbag loads. All reduced weight and volume. 175lbs sandbag was really floppy feeling today but still seemed good. Had some balance issues with the 225lbs bag today on the rows. I forgot I had a fresh nick on my right shin from deadlifts and that started bleeding so I had to tape up my shin before I did the sandbag loads. The loads were going to be easy compared to last time since almost 90lbs lighter. Not exactly getting into the deep lap on these like I would with say 313lbs. My right biceps didn’t really like these today at the start. Literally just throwing the sandbag over. Put everything away and finished up with 2 more minutes of treadmill stuff. Felt better than it did after the previous workout. With the new stuff to be added starting next block, there won’t be a need to do post workout stuff like this. Finished up with a big dinner and stretching and icing. Hopefully I start feeling 100% by Tuesday to start this next training block.

November 5, 2020 – Week 12, Day 2

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes

 
Mobility Prep
 
Goblet Squats to Box (15”)
40x15
40x15
 
Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
185x1
225x1
275x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
 
Ab Wheel/ Paused Side Plank Raises
bwx10/10/10
bwx10/10/10

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes 
Stretching
 
Comments: Well some things are better and other things are still how they were before. Hard to gauge as my allergies are acting up again and the only thing that seems to be enough to alleviate the issues is Dayquil.  So a little hard to gauge aches and pains with that haha. I know some things are better as far as mood and dealing with emotional baggage. I forced myself to do some intake and housekeeping (literal and figurative). It didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as I thought it would and I’m still standing and not an emotional wreck. But still got things to work on and resolve but I’m working on it and that is ok. This week is last week of the current plan and next several weeks will be different. Sled drag dropped in favor of reverse treadmill pushes. Just using the resistance of the tread and working for 2 minutes. This did ache for my knees at first but felt better as I went. This was tiring to do the whole time haha. I know this is needed as I could feel my tendons behind my knees feeling worked after doing just the sled drag last time. I think that doing the soft tissue work and icing them the day before helped too. The knees felt better doing the other warm-ups too. Goblet squats after that. I don’t really have much to setup since this was going to be a deloaded workout and no bands so I tried to make myself rest a little between sets. I could feel aches in my joints but the movement felt natural. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Didn’t get a lower back pump either so also good. Deadlifting today was going to be easy and simple. Only working up to 315lbs for the 5 singles. Originally this was going to be 515lbs for 3 singles as a possible continuation of the band and platform deadlift program. I was still feeling like that hamstring tightness wasn’t quite there so not sure if they are fully recovered. Maybe not having a hard belt to brace against also made it difficult to really get the abdominal brace to feel right. I also have to remember that usually I don’t feel so awesome when I do a deload workout or need to do a deload workout. I didn’t feel like I needed to take 3 minutes rest but I made myself stick to as close to that as I could. I rushed things a little on one of the pulls and nicked my shin. I kind want 405lbs to feel this easy and move this well. Then I’d know that I was over a 600lbs raw pull again. Last bit for the evening was abdominal work. This was adjusted a bit from before. Previously, it was one and then the other for higher reps. This time, like half the reps and doing them circuit style, running through it twice. On the ab wheel, my lower abdominals felt tight. They have been feeling like that since last week’s heavy deadlift training. I wasn’t sure if it was from the heavy deadlift training or if the elevated platform height for the knee exercises was putting more stress on the hips. Not sure as it can be hard to tell if a change is doing something until several weeks in in my experience. Like when the new shoes were killing my knees and it took several weeks before it popped up to be an issue. But that went away shortly after fixing the issue. Side plank stuff felt about the same. I was a little slower on the second go through but I didn’t feel like my lower abdominals were nearly as tight. Now the training wasn’t exactly over as I had to also finish up with 2 more minute of treadmill stuff. Knees were a tad achier this go around. But it didn’t feel like it was a tough or long. Ate pot roast and stretched before getting ice on the knees and getting to bed somewhat earlier than usual.

November 3, 2020 – Week 12, Day 1

2 Minute Backwards Sled Drag (55lbs)
 
Mobility Prep
 
Lock Big 3
10’sx10/10’sx10/10’sx10
 
12” Log Clean & Push Presses
Kettlebells
15’sx5
Log
92x1
112x1
132x1
152x1
172x1
192x1
212x1
232x1
 
12” Log Push Presses
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
185x2
 
Bench Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
15’sx15
40’sx10
70’sx20
70’sx15
70’sx15
 
Slingshot Dips
bwx10
bw+25x8
bw+50x5
bw+75x5
bw+100x5
 
Band External Rotations
µbx25/25
 
Stretching
 
Comments: All my joints from the waist down hate me. I was experimenting a little to see how inflammation was with the knee joints and recovery. Trying to see if cutting down on icing would be tolerable. Hard to determine what to listen to as some will say doing too much to reduce inflammation for training will result in decline in hypertrophy and building stronger/tougher joints. Sometimes not icing has seemed to be ok for the knees. Not this time. Probably didn’t help that my hamstrings were so tight and my knees stiff and I had to be chased by my 19mo old nephew (alternating between me chasing him and then him chasing me) while I was visiting my parents. Christ I feel old. Trying to not let this week make me anxious with everything going on in the country. With how beat last week had me, I got a deload week of sorts. Not everything has been reduced but most stuff has. With how my body feels, I’m not complaining as I know I need it. Just wished I didn’t haha. So warm-up adjustment made after so many months (years) in that trying something new. Instead of cardio of 5 minutes, (which has been walking for me since COVID-19 started) plan was 2 minutes of backwards sled drag. I was a little concerned about this. Not because it would be challenging or anything. But more so with where to do it. It is getting dark really soon now with this daylights savings crap. I had practiced and timed just going around my house and that seemed too risky with the uneven ground. I also didn’t want to resort to using the treadmill as it is in one of the unused rooms that I’ve kept closed since July for reasons that I’m not going to air here (if you know, you know). Luckily, it was light enough outside after work and none of my neighbors were parked in the street so I was able to do that with little issue. My knees were hating me on the knee health stuff. They had been so good that last two sessions. I guess I’m going to need to ice them daily if I’m doing this kind of stuff to keep them from complaining. Shoulder drill with the dumbbells seemed to be ok. Best it has felt in a while. It was already really dark by the time I got out to do log pressing. I had to bring out another light source so that I could show up on camera. I made an error in assuming that since it was cooler outside, that I didn’t need to chalk my shirt for clean and press with the grip shirt underneath. Wrong. I guess the shirt I was wearing was too slick. I could feel my right arm having to work to clean the log. My knees were achy and it was throwing me off. Having my right arm (biceps and forearm) feel like they were doing more work than the left side also was not helping. This part of the workout hadn’t been changed. It was still plan to work up to 232lbs with 20lbs jumps. Put on my hard belt (the new one) for the last set. Seems to be ok for cleaning the log. The feeling of the weight shifting on the clean was jarring and I got forward a bit and lost my balance. This belt sticks out a bit more than the other one so I caught the log on my belt trying to follow it down and walk it back to the crash pads. I wasn’t happy about how that went as this should’ve been a smooth lift. On to the rack for the rest of pressing. My right knee was not happy with these today. Weight was reduced from the planned 232lbs for the 5x2 to 185lbs. I seemed to be moving better with the log this time. I messed up on one set by trying to not walk it out like I do with strict pressing but I banged the pins and I had to step forward to catch my balance. Breathing at least seemed better than usual on log from the rack but that could be because I dropped the weight from what I usually do from going from the clean and press to rack work. I wasn’t too happy with how pressing felt. I feel way off the mark of where I was months ago and where I want and need to be. Into the garage where I could actually see stuff haha. Dumbbell rows  on the bench. Easy stuff. Plan of progression this time being 20-15-15. This was another part of the training that wasn’t altered for the deload. No issues with the right biceps. It crossed my mind with how the log clean stuff had gone (it hadn’t been pain but it just felt like work). On to sling shot dips after that. Trying my best to make these feel nice and smooth. This was altered to be working up to 100lbs for just 5 reps. Got a little decompression from the first two sets. It seems just that much is all that is needed at this point. Good to know in case this exercise gets swapped out. I moved through these pretty quick as most of the time spent was getting the weights on the belt and taking them off since this wasn’t the grip hold 45’s that I had. Finished up with the band external rotations. I switched the side I started with to see if that did anything. Hard to say. As I mentioned last time, these are easier when I don’t have incline press right beforehand. Plan was to eat a big dinner and relax as much as I could.

October 31, 2020 – Week 11, Day 3

5 Minute Walk (.25 miles)
 
Mobility Prep
 
NY Barbell Yoke
180x50’ in 5.54 seconds
270x50’ in 5.54 seconds
360x50’ in 6.27 seconds
450x50’ in 6.19 seconds
540x50’ in 7.81 seconds
600x50’ in 8.00 seconds
600x50’ in 8.39 seconds
 
Sandbag Rows
175x8
225x8
 
Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
149x1
194x1
238x1
284x1
326.5x1
326.5x1
326.5x1
326.5x1
326.5x1
 
Stretching
 
Comments: I needed to be doing this training a few hours earlier than I was probably going to do as I had guests arriving and also there was the possibility of me training while people were trick or treating so didn’t want to have kind of foot traffic. Besides, all I really had for “treats” was going to be hand sanitizer and au jus/ranch dry packets. And maybe a few frozen chicken breasts. Lower back and hips were wrecked from the deadlifts. I had made sure I did a lot of soft tissue work the night before. Mr. Westerling sent me a modification for the following week to semi-deload due to how last session went. Can’t say I’m not disappointed that my body couldn’t keep going another week before doing that. But I need to make changes to keep progressing and avoid overtraining and injury. It has gotten cold out but with how much body heat I give off when I’m training, I was pretty warm after just the warm-ups. They felt pretty good today. Kind of surprised how the knee stuff was considering how rough it had been when I started doing them. I had been a little worried it was going to be slick outside since it has been rainy the past few days but it was dry enough that it wasn’t. My garage lights turned on with one flick this time so hurray. Yoke didn’t start out well. I will say that at least my traps and shoulders weren’t as super tight as last time I did these. My hamstrings didn’t want to train today. Doing an empty implement “run” (I say that since I wasn’t even up to half speed) I felt something “shift” in the upper part of my right hamstring. If I had been expecting a hammie to act up, it was the left one since that is the one I tore years ago and it is always tighter. I walked it off but I was concerned that I had messed up. The area was tense but not in pain. I think I tried to compensate the rest of the workout by taking shorter strides but trying to improve the rate of turnover. I was having that issue of having my lower body feeling tight at the beginning with the lighter weights for the pick. I actually restarted on the very first run because I was just not feeling the tension was there. I am noticing that it seems easier to do this when there is more weight resisting me lifting it with just me straining into it. It probably wouldn’t be such an issue if I wasn’t trying to keep track of times for these runs on each set. Stopped worrying about the hamstring after a few sets as the rest of my body was feeling beat up too. My hip flexors were sore and I was thinking about those as I went up in weight. I had thought of doing 25’ runs with 50lbs jumps after my run with 450lbs (which ended up being big improvement in speed) but I figured that to keep things moving and have to deal with less picks that doing another 90lbs jump for 50’ was the best option and then move on to 600lbs for the top two sets. I knew that run was slow compared to what I had done but it wasn’t in the realm of when my knees were killing me and I ended up having to stop months ago. My runs with 600lbs were both slower than I would’ve wanted but faster than what could’ve been with how beat up my lower body was feeling. I did still manage to improve my best time with this weight on this yoke (if by only .05 seconds). I took my time with the clean up so that I could get rehydrated (I had been moving things along and didn’t get any drinks once I started). Sandbag rows stayed the same today. My left knee was really feeling tight getting into position. Definitively didn’t feel as easy as the rows have felt the past two weeks. Heavy deadlifting and heavy yokes will do that I guess. I’m just glad I wasn’t feeling any issues in my lower back and my hamstrings. Especially after the scare at the beginning of the workout. Stone of steel to end the session. I knew this wasn’t going to be a smooth sailing day, regardless of what weight I put in it today. I knew that with my hip flexors being sore, how slow and difficult deadlifts had been earlier in the week and with the hammies acting up that this was going to be a struggle bus. Same as previous sessions, work up to 5-10lbs for 5 singles EMOM style. I went with 10lbs because I knew it would end up less than that with the spacers and adjustments. Going with just a 5lbs would end up less than that anyways. Besides, I kind of wanted to work up to at least 325lbs so that I was doing the lightest of the stones in the stone carry and load series for USS Nats. I could tell that I needed to get a new “old” tacky towel as I could feel it not gripping so good. Maybe it was because it was cooler but that shouldn’t matter too much. Even my newer one wasn’t sticking as well on the picks as I had a little issue with picking up the first lift of the EMOM. Everything was slower compared to last time. I did seem to improve my speed as I went though I was a little short on the load with the fourth lift and had to grab the yoke for it to go over. That made me slow it down on the extension on the last one to ensure I got full extension before loading it. I had decided that if I made it through this workout I was going to soak in a Epsom salt bath to try and get things to calm down and relax.