So here we are, starting again. Groundhog day, repeating the same mistakes differently each time. So third attempt solo. Getting better at it. It’s a ton of work. No back injuries or flair ups this time around (other than that one day my back seized up). I think I could make it work but the issue I ran into was more just realizing that some things just aren’t there and I’d need more time to get to where they need to be. Not recovering from stuff quick enough. I started tweaking with stuff after my deadlift session that was subpar and more so after I picked myself up to train on Saturday. Realizing that I’d be pushing things to get to the same spot (struggling on press and deadlift, have to hit all-time bests on good events) made the scenario unlikely, especially since something I was doing was irritating my left trap and shoulder. Stuff that was getting taxed on frame carry and arm-over-arm. So kind of came to the conclusion that pursuing a specific event now didn’t make sense when the thing that needs work is my gym strength. And I’m not good at that. I’ve tried to understand it. And my worry with that is spending time away from the event work will leave me even further behind then I feel I already am. I tried figuring this stuff out back in 2016 after I got injured at the time and during those many months of recovery. I needed help. Reaching out was hard. Not because of pride but fear of rejection. Being told I’m a lost cause after doing weight training for about 2 decades at this point. This was my best. I had been looking around and was hoping to hear back from inquiries. I ended up doing only walks every other day and no training, waiting to hear back. I was very stressed out, it was not a good week. It took me literally all of Saturday to build up the courage to ask a fellow strongman competitor for coaching and programming. I try to not impose, take up space. I already feel I do take up too much space as it is. Always worried I will startle someone or be an inconvenience. I need to learn to take up space. So getting back in the saddle again. I don’t know anything else it seems. Just trying to get strong. I honestly have no clue if I will compete this year or not. Depends on how things go.
Mobility Prep
Axle Push Presses
45x5
85x3
135x1
165x1
195x1
225x1
255x3
255x3
255x3
255x7
Mobility Prep
Axle Push Presses
45x5
85x3
135x1
165x1
195x1
225x1
255x3
255x3
255x3
255x7
Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds)
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
Chest Supported Barbell Rows (2 seconds hold)
135x8
145x8
155x8
165x8
135x8
145x8
155x8
165x8
Ring Push-ups (5 seconds negatives)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx6
bwx8
bwx8
bwx6
Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises
mbx10/µbx10
mbx10/µbx10
mbx10/µbx10
mbx10/µbx10
mbx10/µbx10
mbx10/µbx10
Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx25
lbx25
lbx25
lbx25
Stretching
Comments: I honestly had no idea what to expect from myself today. Some familiar, some new and some bizarre haha. Workout stuff sent Sunday for a Monday workout (4 workouts this week) so I needed to take inventory and figure out most efficient way to get stuff setup. Well, that didn’t really happen as work on Monday was a bear and my setup didn’t happen until after work. Had to worst piece of chicken I’ve ever eaten for lunch. I cooked it, so that’s on me. Guess if that is the only real grumble, it has been a pretty good day so far. So warming up was a bit different from what I’ve been doing. Usually 2-5 minutes of moving around followed by general exercises for everything with some changes at the end of it geared toward either upper body or lower body. Warm up plan appears to be different for each day. This one might be the most unique in that warming up involved foam rolling and stretching. Not complaining. Those areas are chronically tight from desk work and left shoulder trap issue had been part of the reason I sidelined myself last week from training besides walking. This felt ok. I think I’ve avoided static stretching before training because of reading people saying not to. But it makes sense if the hip flexors are tight and prevent me from getting power into the overhead stuff. After that was a circuit. Shoulder stuff, legs, shoulder stuff and midsection. First part being scapular stuff. Got easier as I did it. Same with everything actually. Hardest stuff was the split squats. I was worried about the knees but they took it just fine. My balance and coordination just sucked is all. I’ll get better. BTN pressing in split stance was interesting. Seemed to be helping my shoulders track in the right plane. I alternated stance (went through this twice) and man did the other way split feel weird haha. So after all the razzmatazz, on to the weights. Plan here was work up to 80% of axle push press (assuming from the rack) and do triples. I was a bit nervous about this and was debating on whether I should go lower. 320lbs is my best out of the rack with axle within the last year and 310lbs with a clean. However, I haven’t gone over 290lbs on overhead in what feels like a long time. Actually has been like 9 months. I figured I’d see how things were. Left shoulder was feeling a little achy. Christ did that first set with 255lbs feel awful. Made me think I had bit off more than I could chew. I had to remind myself that out of the rack feels like total ass if I haven’t done it recently. It feels heavy on the wrists (hence wrapping them tight) and there isn’t that nice stretch flex from catching the bar on a clean. That first set was slow and tentative. Like 90% weight. Second set was a ton better. Much quicker and smoother. Just got a little off balance on the last rep and step forward. Third set was between the two. Again, a little unsteady on the recovery from the second rep so I ended up being in the dip a little longer. 3 triples done now one more set. This last set was to be for reps. Not a max rep set. A testing to see where I’m at with 80%. Idea here to stop with 1-2 in the tank. This can be a little tricky to gauge for me because when I’m on, these can go up really fast even when I’m near my limit. As I get fatigued, I tend to press out in front more, so my shoulders and triceps need to work even harder. And triceps haven’t really been subject to much volume at this kind of weight for quite some time honestly. It is very hard to control my excitement when it comes to sets like this. So I didn’t fight it. Felt like nothing compared to that first set. Very fast and powerful. I had honestly just a goal of 5 reps here since that would be a 5lbs PR with this particular axle at my garage gym setup. I stopped at 7 reps as I could feel that I was getting fatigued in the rack position and pressing out and away more as my lower back was reminding me. Maybe called it early but I feel this was a safe bet to stop and not have a grinding rep. I was happy with this considering how I’ve been feeling. But not done with push pressing for the session. Next was paused push presses. Drop 10% and do 3x3. So kind of easy math here. Plan being to pause at the bottom of the dip for a 2-3ct. I’ve had good success in the past with this kind of training on circus dumbbell. Not so much with log press. So be interesting to see how it works here. The weight felt so light after the 255lbs. Trying to do knees out and sink into the hips with the dips here on overhead. I always aim for the higher number when it comes to pauses as time seems to be slower when doing it but faster when viewed later haha. I had really tried to do 3 seconds pauses but it was closer to 2 seconds. Got closer to it on the last set. I could really tell that my rack position is garbage with how much I was feeling the weight fatiguing my shoulders holding it there. So after the pressing, a little break from the that with some back work. Chest supported barbell rows with holds (noticing a theme here). I had attempted to do these in my garage previously and I hated them as they irritated my biceps. Most of my supported rowing has been neutral grip or gives the option to rotate my hands as I move through the motion. However, I was reviewing videos to see how to set things up (as I didn’t like how things went last time) and found a setup that made me go “duh”. Don’t have it on the floor, use your squat rack arms stupid. Perfect position and bracing, no getting out of position to start the lift and no scraping the bar on the back of my incline bench. Plan here was 4x8 at RPE 7-7.5. I’ve never been the best at figuring that system out but I’m trying. I started lighter because I wasn’t sure how I’d feel from the holds as those are the most fatiguing part of it. Like for instance, I could do 50 reps with my 70lbs dumbbells with no tempo but under 20 reps with a 2 seconds hold each rep. Well, weight too light to start but I figured with fatigue it would get into that realm so I just added 10lbs a set and that was about right for the last two sets here. Really trying to get the shoulders to pull down and back to support them. So after that was a new one for me. Kind of. Ring push-ups. I’ve attempted these in the past at the Y with using my chains to suspend (I do not recommend, some many arm bruises). So no set reps on this, just really slow negatives and explode up, leaving several reps in the tank. I generally feel that slow tempo on negatives for a set time for many reps doesn’t make much sense but I do see it working with exercises that require an element of stability with it as there is that muscle irradiation going on. I was so focused on the lowering that I lost count of my reps each set and had to check afterwards. I’m not sure but I might have done a tougher variation then what was planned. I did these with my feet up on a bench as I assumed that was the case but I might have been supposed to do these with my feet on the ground. If so, oops. Only felt like I was fatiguing and struggling by the last set. Last bit for the session was bands. Superset of shoulders (front and back). Both new exercises to me so I used the bands shown in the video. I tried doing these all back to back. Fatigue set in on the last set and I had to top briefly to get the lactic acid burn to subside for a few seconds before resuming. Last thing being triceps band pressdowns. I initially thought I picked too light a band tension but the second set told me otherwise that I had chosen right. Oof, those bands were exhausting. In my haste to get ready, I had forgotten to run the dishwasher so I had to figure out substitutes for holding and cooking my dinner haha. Stretched (maybe a bit too much on the one calf) and iced my knees before bed.
Comments: I honestly had no idea what to expect from myself today. Some familiar, some new and some bizarre haha. Workout stuff sent Sunday for a Monday workout (4 workouts this week) so I needed to take inventory and figure out most efficient way to get stuff setup. Well, that didn’t really happen as work on Monday was a bear and my setup didn’t happen until after work. Had to worst piece of chicken I’ve ever eaten for lunch. I cooked it, so that’s on me. Guess if that is the only real grumble, it has been a pretty good day so far. So warming up was a bit different from what I’ve been doing. Usually 2-5 minutes of moving around followed by general exercises for everything with some changes at the end of it geared toward either upper body or lower body. Warm up plan appears to be different for each day. This one might be the most unique in that warming up involved foam rolling and stretching. Not complaining. Those areas are chronically tight from desk work and left shoulder trap issue had been part of the reason I sidelined myself last week from training besides walking. This felt ok. I think I’ve avoided static stretching before training because of reading people saying not to. But it makes sense if the hip flexors are tight and prevent me from getting power into the overhead stuff. After that was a circuit. Shoulder stuff, legs, shoulder stuff and midsection. First part being scapular stuff. Got easier as I did it. Same with everything actually. Hardest stuff was the split squats. I was worried about the knees but they took it just fine. My balance and coordination just sucked is all. I’ll get better. BTN pressing in split stance was interesting. Seemed to be helping my shoulders track in the right plane. I alternated stance (went through this twice) and man did the other way split feel weird haha. So after all the razzmatazz, on to the weights. Plan here was work up to 80% of axle push press (assuming from the rack) and do triples. I was a bit nervous about this and was debating on whether I should go lower. 320lbs is my best out of the rack with axle within the last year and 310lbs with a clean. However, I haven’t gone over 290lbs on overhead in what feels like a long time. Actually has been like 9 months. I figured I’d see how things were. Left shoulder was feeling a little achy. Christ did that first set with 255lbs feel awful. Made me think I had bit off more than I could chew. I had to remind myself that out of the rack feels like total ass if I haven’t done it recently. It feels heavy on the wrists (hence wrapping them tight) and there isn’t that nice stretch flex from catching the bar on a clean. That first set was slow and tentative. Like 90% weight. Second set was a ton better. Much quicker and smoother. Just got a little off balance on the last rep and step forward. Third set was between the two. Again, a little unsteady on the recovery from the second rep so I ended up being in the dip a little longer. 3 triples done now one more set. This last set was to be for reps. Not a max rep set. A testing to see where I’m at with 80%. Idea here to stop with 1-2 in the tank. This can be a little tricky to gauge for me because when I’m on, these can go up really fast even when I’m near my limit. As I get fatigued, I tend to press out in front more, so my shoulders and triceps need to work even harder. And triceps haven’t really been subject to much volume at this kind of weight for quite some time honestly. It is very hard to control my excitement when it comes to sets like this. So I didn’t fight it. Felt like nothing compared to that first set. Very fast and powerful. I had honestly just a goal of 5 reps here since that would be a 5lbs PR with this particular axle at my garage gym setup. I stopped at 7 reps as I could feel that I was getting fatigued in the rack position and pressing out and away more as my lower back was reminding me. Maybe called it early but I feel this was a safe bet to stop and not have a grinding rep. I was happy with this considering how I’ve been feeling. But not done with push pressing for the session. Next was paused push presses. Drop 10% and do 3x3. So kind of easy math here. Plan being to pause at the bottom of the dip for a 2-3ct. I’ve had good success in the past with this kind of training on circus dumbbell. Not so much with log press. So be interesting to see how it works here. The weight felt so light after the 255lbs. Trying to do knees out and sink into the hips with the dips here on overhead. I always aim for the higher number when it comes to pauses as time seems to be slower when doing it but faster when viewed later haha. I had really tried to do 3 seconds pauses but it was closer to 2 seconds. Got closer to it on the last set. I could really tell that my rack position is garbage with how much I was feeling the weight fatiguing my shoulders holding it there. So after the pressing, a little break from the that with some back work. Chest supported barbell rows with holds (noticing a theme here). I had attempted to do these in my garage previously and I hated them as they irritated my biceps. Most of my supported rowing has been neutral grip or gives the option to rotate my hands as I move through the motion. However, I was reviewing videos to see how to set things up (as I didn’t like how things went last time) and found a setup that made me go “duh”. Don’t have it on the floor, use your squat rack arms stupid. Perfect position and bracing, no getting out of position to start the lift and no scraping the bar on the back of my incline bench. Plan here was 4x8 at RPE 7-7.5. I’ve never been the best at figuring that system out but I’m trying. I started lighter because I wasn’t sure how I’d feel from the holds as those are the most fatiguing part of it. Like for instance, I could do 50 reps with my 70lbs dumbbells with no tempo but under 20 reps with a 2 seconds hold each rep. Well, weight too light to start but I figured with fatigue it would get into that realm so I just added 10lbs a set and that was about right for the last two sets here. Really trying to get the shoulders to pull down and back to support them. So after that was a new one for me. Kind of. Ring push-ups. I’ve attempted these in the past at the Y with using my chains to suspend (I do not recommend, some many arm bruises). So no set reps on this, just really slow negatives and explode up, leaving several reps in the tank. I generally feel that slow tempo on negatives for a set time for many reps doesn’t make much sense but I do see it working with exercises that require an element of stability with it as there is that muscle irradiation going on. I was so focused on the lowering that I lost count of my reps each set and had to check afterwards. I’m not sure but I might have done a tougher variation then what was planned. I did these with my feet up on a bench as I assumed that was the case but I might have been supposed to do these with my feet on the ground. If so, oops. Only felt like I was fatiguing and struggling by the last set. Last bit for the session was bands. Superset of shoulders (front and back). Both new exercises to me so I used the bands shown in the video. I tried doing these all back to back. Fatigue set in on the last set and I had to top briefly to get the lactic acid burn to subside for a few seconds before resuming. Last thing being triceps band pressdowns. I initially thought I picked too light a band tension but the second set told me otherwise that I had chosen right. Oof, those bands were exhausting. In my haste to get ready, I had forgotten to run the dishwasher so I had to figure out substitutes for holding and cooking my dinner haha. Stretched (maybe a bit too much on the one calf) and iced my knees before bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment