Still mentally unpacking some things. Thursday during work, got on a train of thought that lead me to think of a sad song which led to another sad song. And for a moment, I thought about taking the rest of the day off from work and not training or eating really. But I got over it. Rationalized other priorities that needed to be done so as not to inconvenience others. If not for myself, for others I guess. I feel tired and feel like it takes longer to be ready for bed. Putting responsibility back onto myself for my strongman training is an added stress but it is what I need right now. Hopefully I won’t need a forward at the beginning of every session but there is things that I feel need mentioned with state of my head. I had forgotten how frustrated and angry I was that day. Tossed my phone against the wall and broke the little kickstand thing it has propping it up to film stuff and ripped the first I was wearing right off like Hulk Hogan. I’ve never done that. I also didn’t think I was strong enough to rip my shirt. I liked that shirt too. So a mixed bag there. Stronger than I think. I ended up buying a tripod for my phone to film and that is also a lot better. Though I may feel alone, I know I’m not and I have support and I need to remember that.
2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
Mobility Prep
Sandbag Rows/Sprints
175x1/25’/175x1/25’/25’
175x1/25’/225x1/25’/25’
2 Minute Treadmill Backwards Pushes
Mobility Prep
Sandbag Rows/Sprints
175x1/25’/175x1/25’/25’
175x1/25’/225x1/25’/25’
Sandbag Carries/Sprints
175x25’ (no sprint)
225x25’ (no sprint)
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 15.97 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 15.34 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 16.78 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 14.92 seconds
175x25’ (no sprint)
225x25’ (no sprint)
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 15.97 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 15.34 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 16.78 seconds
175x25’/25’/225x25’/25’ in 14.92 seconds
Standing Arm-Over-Arm Pulls
235x25’ in 6.48 seconds
335x25’ in 8.19 seconds
415x25’ in 9.07 seconds
235x25’ in 6.48 seconds
335x25’ in 8.19 seconds
415x25’ in 9.07 seconds
Seated Arm-Over-Arm Pulls
415x25’ in 9.23 seconds
595x25’ in 9.99 seconds
775x25’ in 11.71 seconds
415x25’ in 9.23 seconds
595x25’ in 9.99 seconds
775x25’ in 11.71 seconds
Stretching
Comments: I wasn’t feeling too bad but I was also nervous about training. Partly because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do today, partly because I wasn’t sure what I could do today. Putting stuff on paper is one thing, implementing it is another. So as mentioned, tentatively planning training around a competition but if things don’t pan out, have stuff be a bit of general work. Ideally, I’d like to keep in yoke work because of how heavy that event has gotten and for the speed needed at that weight. Not enough to be able to move it, have to move it fast. However, I’ve become angry with how yoke has felt and it was literally the thing that I just gave up on before I went into an emotional hiatus. The pick bothers my knee and staying upright and moving seems to put more stress there as well. And when deadlift is bad, this is bad, usually. Worry about one time vampire at a time. It’s not an event for the hypothetical contest so no sense in pushing it for right now. So the plan was essentially do sandbag work, sprints and arm-over-arm in some fashion. Contest has a medley of short distances with two sandbags loaded onto a sled and then either standing or seated arm-over-arm (competitor choice). With the heavy nature of the front squats and rack pulls, I wanted this to be a lighter based session. But I didn’t want it too light. That’s a problem, I have. I want to do it all. Work all the things. Little bit of paralysis by analysis. I also had to spend a bit of time figuring out how and if I could setup stuff. I couldn’t stay warm despite my best efforts so I wore my warm-ups and gloves. Warming up felt fine and normal until it wasn’t. The last bit of my warm-ups is for my hips and lower back to loosen up and get my glutes to fire correctly. The first two parts were easy and fine, as always. The last bit is a squat with forward lean. That was not fine. Lower back lit up like hot water. I switched to doing a more box squat style and then lay on the floor. Crap. Actually shit. Was this experiment already done? Was I this much of an idiot and inept at doing anything I wanted? Lower back had felt fine the past few days but I guess this was major stress from the rack pulls. Calmed down a little bit and I did some slingshot dips to get traction. So, loading my sandbag was not happening. Lower back was quite stiff. So I think that I initially had this plan of doing sandbag loads and then doing the medley as one go. I realize that I need to see how this would even work. It was cold and windy so I had to keep putting my gloves on after doing stuff. I realized I needed to do the parts as separate drills after figuring out that the best setup for arm-over-arm was going to involve weights, and sandbags to anchor as well as my squat rack so timing isn’t great for getting setup and transitioning between them. So starting with the moving part. I wasn’t too sure what I thought would be the best thing here. Initially, I was thinking of doing EMOM runs with the sandbags with a sprint. But the more a thought of it, it didn’t make much sense. No reason for short rests for sprints. I’m not worrying about fatigue during such a short distance, more moving fast. I recall the amateur Arnold where I was training for 60’ runs for the one carry and arm-over-arm event and then it was cut to 30’ and I wasn’t as ready for the things that were more efficient for the shorter distances. Also realized for this particular event, it isn’t done when I put the 2nd sandbag in the sled, I have to run back to the start and then do the arm-over-arm. So that meant 100’ run with 3 changes in direction with 25’. That needs work. So I figured that I needed to check and see if I could even move fast without weight with the knee issue. Knee brace on. I did a little jog of the whole course and seemed ok. So for the first part, I wanted to work unladen sprints but have the sandbag pick involved. Also working another thing with this. I prefer having my grip set when it comes to lifting sandbags. But I don’t always have the luxury when it comes to contests as sometimes you have to start away or with hands off. I could feel myself being self-conscious of this being away from the sandbag as I would psyche myself out by not picking it up right away. 175lbs bag was light. The 225lbs didn’t feel terribly light today. Then did short runs with each sandbag. Still ok. So now on to the working sets. I kind of resigned myself to sticking to my two lightest sandbags for this session. Definitely wanted to go heavier but I need to chillax and do what I can. I was initially planning only 3 runs of this but my last run I lost my balance and stutter stepped trying to get back after the first sandbag. I didn’t want to end thing so on a sour note. Last run ended up being my fastest. I didn’t bother timing the warm-ups. I may need to do that or not take the warm-ups as seriously at the start so I don’t get burnt. So then the next part of the workout was the arm-over-arm pulls. Pretty much my plan here was to do 3 sets standing (light/medium/heavy) and then do 3 sets seated (light/medium/heavy) using the weight I stopped at the standing for my starting weight for seated. Now this is hard to gauge really because of weight, grade of incline, friction. Sometimes even getting too into it calculation wise and considering the weight of the rope and how it lessens over the course. Honestly, that has more to do with the standing version for me. I needed to figure out some kind of metric baseline for things here. I haven’t done this event at home. I’ve done them at the strongman gym and other strongman gym places with vehicles and with sleds. On blacktop, on rubber and on turf. The contest weight would be 750lbs and I have no idea if it will be on blacktop or on turf. I think unlike rubber based off of stuff I’ve seen of the venue. Pulling up the street is a slight uphill. So it seems like a good idea to train both styles in the event that the setup works better with one versus the other come contest day. Standing arm-over-arm felt pretty good. Definitely have remembered lessons from before with this. I wasn’t sure how seated would go. I lower back stiffness could be a problem. I was actually a little surprised that I was slower with the same weight doing it seated vs standing. Something to keep in mind. I could only do a few runs each because it took a bit to reset each time. Only doing the 25’ runs because it is the contest setup and also because the rope bunches up since I don’t have anyone to take the slack. 180lbs jump was nothing on this. I didn’t really think of going heavier than contest weight but it kind of ended up that way. And even that wasn’t too bad. It’s a good event for me. I was briefly tempted to do some stuff for my legs to condition but I thought better of it with how much stuff I needed to cart back into the garage. That was going to be enough. Only after I was done did I notice how sore my fingers felt and the scrapes on my knuckles from the sandbag stuff. Took a bit to deload after the training before I started dinner and then stretched. Iced knees before bed as well as put anti-inflammatories cream on lower back. Hopefully I can keep going. I’ve enjoyed the training this week.
Comments: I wasn’t feeling too bad but I was also nervous about training. Partly because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do today, partly because I wasn’t sure what I could do today. Putting stuff on paper is one thing, implementing it is another. So as mentioned, tentatively planning training around a competition but if things don’t pan out, have stuff be a bit of general work. Ideally, I’d like to keep in yoke work because of how heavy that event has gotten and for the speed needed at that weight. Not enough to be able to move it, have to move it fast. However, I’ve become angry with how yoke has felt and it was literally the thing that I just gave up on before I went into an emotional hiatus. The pick bothers my knee and staying upright and moving seems to put more stress there as well. And when deadlift is bad, this is bad, usually. Worry about one time vampire at a time. It’s not an event for the hypothetical contest so no sense in pushing it for right now. So the plan was essentially do sandbag work, sprints and arm-over-arm in some fashion. Contest has a medley of short distances with two sandbags loaded onto a sled and then either standing or seated arm-over-arm (competitor choice). With the heavy nature of the front squats and rack pulls, I wanted this to be a lighter based session. But I didn’t want it too light. That’s a problem, I have. I want to do it all. Work all the things. Little bit of paralysis by analysis. I also had to spend a bit of time figuring out how and if I could setup stuff. I couldn’t stay warm despite my best efforts so I wore my warm-ups and gloves. Warming up felt fine and normal until it wasn’t. The last bit of my warm-ups is for my hips and lower back to loosen up and get my glutes to fire correctly. The first two parts were easy and fine, as always. The last bit is a squat with forward lean. That was not fine. Lower back lit up like hot water. I switched to doing a more box squat style and then lay on the floor. Crap. Actually shit. Was this experiment already done? Was I this much of an idiot and inept at doing anything I wanted? Lower back had felt fine the past few days but I guess this was major stress from the rack pulls. Calmed down a little bit and I did some slingshot dips to get traction. So, loading my sandbag was not happening. Lower back was quite stiff. So I think that I initially had this plan of doing sandbag loads and then doing the medley as one go. I realize that I need to see how this would even work. It was cold and windy so I had to keep putting my gloves on after doing stuff. I realized I needed to do the parts as separate drills after figuring out that the best setup for arm-over-arm was going to involve weights, and sandbags to anchor as well as my squat rack so timing isn’t great for getting setup and transitioning between them. So starting with the moving part. I wasn’t too sure what I thought would be the best thing here. Initially, I was thinking of doing EMOM runs with the sandbags with a sprint. But the more a thought of it, it didn’t make much sense. No reason for short rests for sprints. I’m not worrying about fatigue during such a short distance, more moving fast. I recall the amateur Arnold where I was training for 60’ runs for the one carry and arm-over-arm event and then it was cut to 30’ and I wasn’t as ready for the things that were more efficient for the shorter distances. Also realized for this particular event, it isn’t done when I put the 2nd sandbag in the sled, I have to run back to the start and then do the arm-over-arm. So that meant 100’ run with 3 changes in direction with 25’. That needs work. So I figured that I needed to check and see if I could even move fast without weight with the knee issue. Knee brace on. I did a little jog of the whole course and seemed ok. So for the first part, I wanted to work unladen sprints but have the sandbag pick involved. Also working another thing with this. I prefer having my grip set when it comes to lifting sandbags. But I don’t always have the luxury when it comes to contests as sometimes you have to start away or with hands off. I could feel myself being self-conscious of this being away from the sandbag as I would psyche myself out by not picking it up right away. 175lbs bag was light. The 225lbs didn’t feel terribly light today. Then did short runs with each sandbag. Still ok. So now on to the working sets. I kind of resigned myself to sticking to my two lightest sandbags for this session. Definitely wanted to go heavier but I need to chillax and do what I can. I was initially planning only 3 runs of this but my last run I lost my balance and stutter stepped trying to get back after the first sandbag. I didn’t want to end thing so on a sour note. Last run ended up being my fastest. I didn’t bother timing the warm-ups. I may need to do that or not take the warm-ups as seriously at the start so I don’t get burnt. So then the next part of the workout was the arm-over-arm pulls. Pretty much my plan here was to do 3 sets standing (light/medium/heavy) and then do 3 sets seated (light/medium/heavy) using the weight I stopped at the standing for my starting weight for seated. Now this is hard to gauge really because of weight, grade of incline, friction. Sometimes even getting too into it calculation wise and considering the weight of the rope and how it lessens over the course. Honestly, that has more to do with the standing version for me. I needed to figure out some kind of metric baseline for things here. I haven’t done this event at home. I’ve done them at the strongman gym and other strongman gym places with vehicles and with sleds. On blacktop, on rubber and on turf. The contest weight would be 750lbs and I have no idea if it will be on blacktop or on turf. I think unlike rubber based off of stuff I’ve seen of the venue. Pulling up the street is a slight uphill. So it seems like a good idea to train both styles in the event that the setup works better with one versus the other come contest day. Standing arm-over-arm felt pretty good. Definitely have remembered lessons from before with this. I wasn’t sure how seated would go. I lower back stiffness could be a problem. I was actually a little surprised that I was slower with the same weight doing it seated vs standing. Something to keep in mind. I could only do a few runs each because it took a bit to reset each time. Only doing the 25’ runs because it is the contest setup and also because the rope bunches up since I don’t have anyone to take the slack. 180lbs jump was nothing on this. I didn’t really think of going heavier than contest weight but it kind of ended up that way. And even that wasn’t too bad. It’s a good event for me. I was briefly tempted to do some stuff for my legs to condition but I thought better of it with how much stuff I needed to cart back into the garage. That was going to be enough. Only after I was done did I notice how sore my fingers felt and the scrapes on my knuckles from the sandbag stuff. Took a bit to deload after the training before I started dinner and then stretched. Iced knees before bed as well as put anti-inflammatories cream on lower back. Hopefully I can keep going. I’ve enjoyed the training this week.
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