Sunday, January 24, 2021

January 23, 2021 – Week 23, Day 3

2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
 
Mobility Prep
 
NY Barbell Yoke
270xpick
270x50’ in 6.12 seconds
350x50’ in 6.24 seconds
400x25’ in 4.18 seconds
450x25’ in 4.14 seconds
500x50’ in 6.97 seconds
500x50’ in 7.37 seconds
500x50’ in 6.72 seconds
 
Stone of Steel Loads (62”, tacky towel)
140x1
196x1
250x1
302x1
302x1
302x1
302x1
302x1

Power Keg Carries
284x100’ in 17.29 seconds
284x100’ in 17.82 seconds
 
Stretching
 
Comments: This was to be a coming back kind of workout. Reason being that I’ve not done yoke or stone of steel for 6 weeks now due to various reasons. I should’ve adjusted my expectations accordingly especially when I didn’t feel good at all the day before. I mean, working hard in training the joint aches are to be expected but I felt like I had a cold Friday and ended up taking nasal spray and Dayquil and then Nyquil so that I slept soundly. I did make sure to do soft tissue work and ice my knees. I had debated walking or not but I figured I should do some walking to help with getting lower back not be stiff. I had a good night sleep and big meal for dinner and I felt like I wasn’t ever feeling under the weather the previous day. Since this whole work from home thing started, usually just getting a good night’s sleep and some allergy medications seems to take care of it by the following day. And I honestly can’t tell if I have terrible allergies or if I get really weak colds. I got a little bit of a late start as I was trying to watch the livestream for the Pro/Am in Kentucky. After watching the record breakers portion (my block press record was broken  haha) I gave up trying to follow the action with 3 contests going on at the same time. Not a good day for outdoor training. A few degrees below zero and the wind was howling at the start. I wore my warm-ups to get warm before I started training. This was also because I needed to unpack my new Power Keg that arrived this week. Testing out how it feels, and what it weighs. Also making sure that weights fit (none of them get stuck like some implements so good). I can also add chains to it with the weights I have to get it to 450lbs if necessary. It came on a very small but sturdy pallet that is just the perfect height for the one knee drill I’ve been doing so now I’ll be using that going forward. Warm-ups felt pretty good. I was not feeling like I could take on Clubber Lang this time in warm-ups but to be expected with a week of heavy training wearing me down. Yoke up first. So with the hiatus from yoke, weight and plan modified. Also because of the back issue that happened two weeks ago. So plan here was going back to the 3 runs of 50’ with the same weight after warming up. Empty runs to start things off. I didn’t feel any hamstring or calf pain like sometimes after heavy pulls and then doing yoke. So that is good to notice right off the bat. I didn’t want to worry about another run with the weight so I started with 270lbs. I did a pick first. It was really cold outside so I kept my warm-ups and gloves on until I was ready to go for my set. A few times the wind either knocked my camera off the stand or moved the stand to face away from me. But I got all the runs recorded. I could tell I was slower than what I was doing at my best. Not so much with moving the weight but more in my start. Knees aching a bit here on the pick up so I was slower but I was hoping that I’d make up for it in gaining speed and maintaining. After the first two runs, I switched to half course runs to get used to the weight and work the start. I started to get a little better by getting things moving right for 450lbs. Granted, these were all slower than my best times. But not so much that there be a major cause for concern as all under a second difference. Then on to the working weight. I thought I had a chance at beating my PR time for this weight with this yoke with how the pick felt on that first set. Second set felt heavier to me. Third set I knew was fastest of the three. But not fast enough to beat my PR. From there, I did the biceps and back drills before moving all the weights and stuff into the garage. I closed up the garage so that I could keep things a little warmer and to stop the wind from blowing more leaves inside. Stone of steel was on deck. So the plan here was to do 80% of what I felt my 1rm was for the day and do EMOM for 5 singles. Now I usually interpret this as doing what my 1rm was or is during training. So I felt with how the last session where I did these went, that I could expect 366-370lbs as a single to this height as the pick hasn’t been bad. So that would put what I needed to aim for as 293-296lbs. I tried looking back through trainings to get an idea of what plate-math I needed to get that and what jumps made sense. I elected to do “55lbs” jumps as that seemed to be what I’d need to get where I wanted to. These were not feeling great. I felt rusty. Part of it was that my tacky towel was not feeling very sticky. The other part of it I think was that I was leery going into full extension with my lower back. I could feel the stone of steel slipping on me on the second lift. I had kind of hoped to not need a “fresher” tacky towel for this session but I guess I did. When it was time for the working weight, I did. That one will now be my warm-up one and I’ll use a new one next time for my working set towel. The weight ended up being heavier than I wanted it to be by 6lbs. It was getting colder and darker outside and this wasn’t the last thing of the day so screw it. The first two lifts on the EMOM, I was not going full extension I think out of concern of my lower back. I think I realized that I was doing that subconsciously after the second lift. I hadn’t been doing full extension on loads with the sandbag last week as I was able to get enough power from the hips (they were pretty fresh, same as lower back) that I was able to just launch it over. Can’t really do that on the stones when lower back is fatigued and I have to get it higher to load. After that realization, I got my body to accept doing full extension and the lifts were cleaner. So normally this is the end of the session but with USS Nats prep stuff being added, I still had exercise left. This is where the Power Keg comes into the picture. I got an adjustable keg for home gym use as it is a pain in the ass getting kegs in a dry town in a state with a state run liquor control board. Pay the weight in shipping. So plan was 2 sets of 100’, just like the sandbag carries last week. I was initially going to be stupid. I was planning on doing 340lbs for this so that it would be the same percentage over the contest weight of 325lbs as my 313lbs sandbag is to the contest weight of 300lbs. Mr. Westerling politely told me to not do that and work at most 300lbs. Reasons being that I don’t need to be killing myself now. I haven’t done a keg carry since April, I just go over a lower back strain and going for just 10lbs under my lifetime best keg carry (that I couldn’t carry up high) is all kinds of stupid. Especially when it has become dark, is below freezing and you need to wear reflective gear. I did my best to kind of clean up the tacky towel. I took out weight and it came out to be 284lbs so within parameters. I tend to forget the pain factor with keg carries. That initial shock of the hard object hitting the arms on the pick to the chest and then the unyielding nature of it causing pressure on the midsection and hips. The sandbag squishes, the keg does not. This was definitely a wise decision to go with this weight. I alternated sides when it came to the tilt and pick up on the keg between the sets. Every since that biceps pull end of 2017, it is important to work both sides in case something like that happens. I was done when I finished this workout. I think I just sat for about an hour before I felt like stretching or eating haha. Hopefully I can stay healthy and keep putting in the work.


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