April 29, 2021 – Week 7, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
210x3
240x8
216x8

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
192x8
192x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+10x12
bw+10x12
bw+10x12
bw+10x17

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 seconds negatives)
40’sx12
40’sx12
40’sx12
40’sx12

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
21’sx15/abx15/15
21’sx15/abx15/15
21’sx15/abx15/15

Stretching
 
Comments:  Another session where I just feel all the aches and pains of the past three sessions haha. Raining during the day a bit and forecast said it would start raining about an hour after my shift ended so I figured I’d rather not get rained on while doing exercises that have me on my back so I moved the rack into the garage during lunch so that it would have a chance to dry out and then lift in the garage. But it looks like it never really started raining again. So just lifting in a humid garage for no real reason haha. But at least I didn’t have to worry about slick patio covered with debris from the wind and rain. Just had to start using AC in the house Wednesday night as house was staring to get muggy and the floor fan wasn’t enough. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. Continuing the theme of not feeling too bad on the shoulders but other stuff was feeling off. Nothing that was going to really be needed for anything I was doing today though. I was a little anxious about the log pressing with my right pectoral feeling achy near the sternum. Plan for today was like earlier in the month with working up to a top smooth weight and then base the rest of the stuff off of that. Last time was 10 and for that day, I had went for the weight I got for 8 on the very first week of this training cycle. Log incline numbers have been down from what I was doing (although to be fair, I’ve been better for reps at lighter weight and then crap the bed on heavier weight). So originally, I was thinking to be on the safe side, go for 230lbs for a 10lbs increase. But thinking of the math involved for the sets afterwards, I realized that unless I did 240lbs, I’d be using less weight for those sets then last week and that didn’t sit right with me considering things. Today, I felt like I had to try heavier. Haven’t been able to hit the desired reps on anything over 225lbs with this on the secondary day. I was feeling pretty good working up until the set right before as it felt like my triceps on the right side was super weak when I was trying to get the log into place in the rack catches. But it felt fine with pressing. First rep would tell me if I had this or not with the 240lbs. Got set for things and had a go. I knew it was going to be close as I got near the end of the set. Had to take a little break after that to use the car buffer on my inner thighs. I think that this was more from Tuesday’s training since I added weight to the Cossack squats so loading those patterns with more weight than ever before since I’ve never done those with weights and I was about 60lbs lighter when I did them for funsies. No issues with the 10% drop off set. Paused sets after that, 2x8 like last week. With the 10% drop, just 2lbs more than last week. So this was no problem either. These tend to be comfortable, especially after the other stuff. I get to work the hard weights with all the tricks and then the lighter stuff with the control so I get the best of both. Ring rows followed that as per usual. Advised to do 3x12 with same weight as last time and then max rep set leaving 1-2 in the tank. These felt stupid easy today. I thought maybe I had the rings too high making these easier on the first set but even after lowering them a few inches, still easy. I didn’t expect these after the past two sessions this week and with how tight my biceps had felt just the day before. I didn’t think I was getting full ROM near the end of the max rep set so I stopped but looks like it was just fine on video. Triceps stuff next. I think here I got a little too overconfident. So the plan here was 4x12 with the 3 second negatives still and trying to keep it RPE 7. I decided that with the decrease in reps, I should be able to do my 40’s now for this exercise. Not really though since I should remind myself that this was a 9lbs per hand increase on these, which is more than the past 3 sessions increase in total by almost double. I will say I controlled the negatives but there were reps near the end of each set that didn’t stay as controlled as the past few sessions. I feel like I’ll need to stick here for a while or lower the weight depending on what makes more sense here. But even so, my triceps work is night and day difference from the first two weeks of training.  Final item for the day was the pairing of lateral raises and single arm band rows. I was advised to try and get the laterals up to at least 15lbs and adjust the band tension. I figured I was feeling bold so go for 21lbs on the laterals. I was thinking initially just doing a light band and adding a monster mini to the band rows but I thought I should just go for the average band here. So these were fairly big jumps in weight/tension for these particular exercises and I apparently have been slacking as these both felt like I had more there to still be within the difficult and effort parameters. Band rows surprised me the most though. Only hiccup was on the third set when the one dumbbell started to come apart on me so I had to stop the set early to fix it and then do the remaining four reps to finish the set. Cooked up big meal for dinner, putting stuff away while cooking.

April 27, 2021 – Week 7, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Deadlifts
135x2
185x2
225x2
275x2
315x2
365x2
Added Straps
410x3
410x3
410x3

14” Jack Stand Pulls
315x1
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
445x1
486x3
486x3
486x12

Lateral Step Downs 
bwx3x10/10 (18”)
bwx3x10/10 (19”)
bwx3x10/10 (20”)

Cossack Squats
bwx1/1
bw+15x5/5
bw+15x5/5
bw+15x5/5
bw+15x5/5

Seated Band Single Leg Hamstring Curls/Single Leg Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
(2)mb’sX25/25—bwx12/12
(2)mb’sX25/25—bwx12/12
(2)mb’sX25/25

Stretching
 
Comments: Still keeping an eye on the right knee. Nothing I’m doing seems to increase discomfort. Left biceps feels a little tight. Weather starting to become quite warm. Trying to go for comfort since I wasn’t going to be doing anything that would require me holding something to my body and not need slippage. So started things off doing same drill I did last week that seemed to help with my knees getting ready for the session. I did a rotation of band TKEs with the stretching. The bruising on my legs made the sensation of having bands on not a fantastic one.  But I do seem to be doing better with the unilateral stuff balancing on the split stance squats with the knees over toe. Still watching the slight discomfort in the left inner thigh/groin area. So the plan for today was deadlift without a suit. Do the controlled eccentrics, work up in doubles to 70%x3x3. I took the usual jumps that I would without a suit as I needed to warm-up and get the volume in. I’m not fighting to get to the bar raw haha so not a full body contraction each time. My outer portion of my knees ached big time when I first stepped up to the bar to lift bent over. I see something is feeling those duck walks still. I probably don’t need straps if I chalked up my hands but I want to not have to worry about that part of it when doing these. Weight did feel a bit heavy to me. I tried to start with my hips a little higher but once I got to the working weight, it felt off to me. Perhaps too much. Honestly, I need work on the deadlift all the time but the start is the point of contention right now. I feel suit work needs it too but just started that and honestly, I need a break and can’t do it week in and week out as it is exhausting. I can tell that doing these controlled reps on the eccentric are tough. And the start is no way like the repping when I use a suit vs the same style no suit. Those second and third reps each set feel tough. I do feel like the first rep of each set did improve as I went. So from there, on to block/rack pulls with the jack stands. Going up a little bit. Plan for today was 2x3 followed by repping out the weight on the third set. These seem to be clicking with me. Maybe just a better position for me with my levers to pull. I can get a feeling of feeling sturdy and tight. Tension. I have a hard time doing that with pulls from the floor. Not sure why but when I do these pulls, I get a visual of JF Caron getting set to pull on the hummer tire deadlift from last year. Just seems to be the mental picture and then it goes up for me. Simplifies for me the cues of back and break then accelerate. Warming up single felt ok. First work set, the weight felt heavy. Not happy with that as I wanted to put in a good effort on the max rep set. Next set it felt light again so I was happy. I got set and put on a good song to rep to. I had the number 12 in my head. Goal here was to leave 1-2 reps in the tank. Last time I did these for reps, I may have cut it a little early but I was still new to this training and getting a sense of what I’m about with this lift. So this time, I felt that I had a more accurate gauge and could get closer to that point. Definitely had at least another rep there. Probably one more. Pacing seemed good. Got a little winded from that effort but that was fine by me as I was done with pulls and on to the lighter fare. So for the lateral step downs, I was advised to do same as before but it sounded like I could push the height to increase difficulty. I had a bit of break here as initially I was setting this up inside as I figured that I could go up but reconsidered when I saw that I maybe only had an inch of clearance so setup outside. I figured that as long as my knees tolerated things, I’d go up 1” per set. First set, first rep always seems to be the one that I have to get over before the rest of them are easier. Also had to see if the setup for adding more height rather than being the big board or another crash pad (too much of a jump for right now) would work. Camera didn’t record the second set. Height made it slightly tougher balance wise but still good. I may keep 18” as my first set to warm-up going forward if I’m increasing for more aggressive height increases. Then Cossack squats. Same as last week with 4x5/5. I was told that if I felt good, I could add a little weight. I tested to make sure my knees were ok with just bodyweight before using the 15lbs kettlebell for the sets. I’m still cautious with my knees but I’m feeling like these more mobile exercises are bringing back some of the movements I had when I was younger and less achy. So that is a positive haha. Assuming I’m not achy the next day haha. Last item of the night was the hamstring and calves superset sandwich. Reps for each increased. Kept same band tension for the hamstrings. As was the case last week, the left was lagging behind the right. Again, not certain what changed that. Left is stronger on the calves. Right side was struggling with the 10 reps, now more so with 12 reps. Hell, even my left was finding it tough by the end. But these are good for my leg tendons, muscles and joints. Ate a roast for dinner and then stretched, following up with ice for my knees.

April 26, 2021 – Week 7, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
55x2
85x2
115x2
145x2
175x2
No Pauses
205x2
235x2
265x3
265x3
265x3
265x3
265x3

Axle Push Presses (beltless 5 seconds negatives)
215x4
215x4

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
155x5
Added Straps
205x3
255x8
255x8
255x8
235x20

Chaos Band Push-ups (4 seconds negatives, feet elevated 8”)
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
6’sx12/mmbx25
6’sx12/mmbx25
6’sx12/mmbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Survived another week. Not sure why I keep thinking that? Maybe I’ve just been used to feeling beat down and not really feeling like progressing and then getting injuries for so long that I’m concerned my body will just fall apart on me. My joints feel old most days. Last week was first week of contest specific prep so interested to see what this second week would bring. I kind of indulged myself Saturday and Sunday with food I normally don’t eat as I finally got DoorDash to work again and I didn’t feel like cooking during the weekend. Need to take it easy with that haha so back to regularly scheduled meals for a bit. As far as things feeling different from the newer stuff done, outer tights and hips feeling stiff from duck walk and hamstrings feeling tight from the stones and glute ham negatives. Also bruising from where the duck walk hit my legs (ordered something to hopefully prevent that). I was a little concerned about the right knee with how it was feeling at the end of training on Saturday with that misstep I seemed to have on the start of the second set of sled work. Not sure if I did something or not with the swelling from the duck walk stuff so have to see how things go. I have full ROM and don’t appear to feel any weakness or structural issues. I had to alter training for today a little bit as I had a dentist appointment that was scheduled so I had to take off work early for that. I didn’t want to start training after that and be doing stuff like an hour or so later in the evening. I setup stuff during my lunch break. Foam rolling was definitely needed, same with hip flexor stretches. Parts of the movement prep felt off, namely the split squats and the dead bugs. The left side inner thigh/groin has just felt tense the past two weeks. Knees didn’t feel as crap as they did last week at least. Then on to the lifty part of the day. Axle push pressing with no belt again. Knees were thankfully not feeling like crap here. Plan for today was to do 82.5% for 5x3. So continuing to build volume as two weeks ago it was 4x3. A part of my camera tripod broke on Saturday so it was a little tricky to get the camera to stay put today (I ordered a replacement). Felt consistent today. Only one rep (last of the fourth) I felt like I got off balance to lockout the weight. Some reps the lockout was a bit tougher and on one rep, I almost lost my balance with how violently it went up and back. This was then followed by the eccentric pressing. More weight but thankfully volume dropped a good bit. Just 2x4 on these today. These are still exhausting. I tried to hold at the top for a count to catch my breath and to work on overhead balance as I feel that I get really fatigued on these and the wobbling starts on some reps. I felt like I had a very good control on the negatives for each rep. I had been moving at a slightly quicker pace to make sure I got through all the push pressing before the dentist appointment. It seemed that I had enough time to do the next exercise before I had to go. So bench rows next. This time 3x8 with 10lbs more than last week and then a max rep set with 20lbs taken off. I did a few extra reps on the warm-up. Again, trying to get a stretch at the bottom. I felt like it only took one set to get my lats to cooperate with me as opposed to last time when it was until the last set that that happened. As has been the case, feels like the sets get easier as I go. I was hoping to match or beat my reps with 225lbs for that last set but I wasn’t expecting to so that was nice. So then I had to take an hour break for a dentist appointment. I was that confident that that would go smoothly. It worked out as the next exercise was one that would get me plenty warm while doing them. Chaos bands with the goal being 3x15 with bodyweight while still leaving 3RIR. Same as last week as far as eccentrics and elevation. I did add an additional band to the setup so that possibly made things a little easier. I had not considered that the elevation last time would increase percentage of my bodyweight on the bands that made them dip a lot lower (hitting the ground sometimes). I took longer rests here compared to the other exercises as I didn’t have to rush and I wanted to make sure I was not needing to stop to take a breather and not miss reps. I got through these successfully. Last item of the session was the superset again. But made tougher by adding reps to each. Ugh, that was not fun. But I know these are good for me. Finished up the session and ate a bit dinner and then iced my knees before bed.

April 24, 2021 – Week 6, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Sandbag Tosses (15’)
30x1
35x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1

Safety Squat Bar Dead Squats (2” above parallel)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x5
350x5
350x5

Duck Walks
214xpick
214x25’
214x25’
314x25’
364xpick
364x50’ in 15.29 seconds
364x50’ in 12.39 seconds
364x50’ in 12.91 seconds
364x50’ in 12.19 seconds

Atlas Stone Over Bar (54”, tacky)
230x1
285x1
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x8

Glute Ham Raise Negatives (5 seconds)
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Backward Sled Drags (turf, uphill)
320x100’ in 46.30 seconds
320x100’ in 44.86 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Even though this is just another training session, this will probably be a lot of words. Always been of the mind that numbers aren’t the full story. An odd end to the week. Due to circumstances, I’m going to not be competing in USS shows going forward. That could change but not for the 2021-2022 season. So that does narrow things down and can focus on just one rabbit at a time. Anyways, I was anxious about training at the strongman gym. I haven’t been out that way in over 13 months. I haven’t been in a gym since March 2020. No clue about traffic patterns since then as haven’t really gone anywhere further than needed for anything. I think just over 100 miles total I’ve driven in the past year. So I needed to plan for a long day and for possible issues. I couldn’t sleep in on Saturday like I have been as I’d need to drive out to train and considering that I may need to spend a bit of time in traffic, setting up stuff and possibly paperwork, I packed up a gym bag with stuff so that I could hopefully wake up, eat breakfast and then leave. Of course that didn’t really pan out that way and I ended up leaving later than planned. I had stayed up a little later than I had planned (I still got up when my alarm went off) researching the potential equipment to be used for the competition so that I could plan accordingly for some of the events I was to train. I think part of my delay was me stalling going out to train due to anxiety. I hadn’t done any soft tissue work the night before and my shoulders felt like crap. I decided last minute that I needed to make my throw bag I had at home 35lbs in case I needed it for today. I wasn’t sure if my lower back would tolerate be being in a car for that long. I entertained those thoughts for too long and eventually got myself to drive out. Not a bad drive. Construction finally finished so I didn’t have to go a reduced speed most of the way. Part way done. Good deal of people there but most were finishing up. I saw the one owner riding a bike out as I arrived. The other was training. My anxiety was on high alert. I stood off to the side not to bother anyone and I just felt like I wasn’t welcome. But that appears to be just my mental health issues. My friend Brian wasn’t here yet and didn’t really know what I was to do. I was probably 5 minutes away from just going back in the car and driving home to try and train there. The other owner came back and I got the courage up to approach and ask about training. And as most things go, my own anxiety stuff is overblown and I was able to start training. I didn’t do my mobility prep stuff just yet because I needed to get things setup for the first exercise as that was going to be time consuming and I’d rather not be cooled down. All told, took probably an hour and 15 minutes to get the ok to start training and then set up a bag toss setup since the one that had been for last year (when people were training for SC Nationals) wasn’t in use. Mobility prep stuff was mostly fine. The change up for this session had been to have Cossack squats to help get ready for duck walk. My left knee and ankle didn’t care for these the first round. Not sure where that came from. A bit better the second time. Then it was finally time for lifting. Has been a bit since I did any toss events. I have a setup at home but when stuff fell through and then aggravating injuries and just the general shittiness of last year, hasn’t been a thing of focus. I’ve been trying to review tips on improving this since I seem to struggle above 40lbs. So the plan here was 10 singles with about the same rest as when I did keg loads two weeks ago. I needed to figure out where I was. Setup for this by myself is a fucking pain in the ass. But I do it because I want to be leaving nothing to chance. Involved a yoke, bo staffs, jump stretch band, some wood blocks and ladder to set this monstrosity up. So I tried a few things to warm-up. My plan here was to do RPE 7 which I’m not sure how to figure out when it comes to something like a toss as I’m kind of either on or off as far as output. I knew right out that 50lbs wasn’t happening and even if it had felt good, it was not RPE 7. I did a swing and toss with each sandbag to get a feel. People are right about how the Rogue and Cerberus bags feel different so may need to track those separately (3 fixed weight Rogue bags, 1 not fixed weight Cerberus and contest probably going to be Rogue). So after those, I wanted to see how I did with the target. 5’ away and toss. 30lbs and 35lbs seemed to go over easy enough so I figured why not try the 40lbs for the work weight. Now ideally, I’d have liked to shoot this from the side so I can get a better picture of what I’m doing but the parking lot to the left was currently occupied by a biker gang (there is a biker bar) so that didn’t seem like a good idea. Trying to take a focused single toss approach with no rush since the event is to be max weight (up to 60lbs) over 15’. This still needs work but I’m happy these seemed to be so easy feeling as back when I was doing these a lot for prepping for shows, this was a hit or miss at this height. So after this was done, I tore down setup (so much easier than setup haha) and got ready for the next thing. So up next was ssb squats off pins set just above parallel. I wasn’t sure how these would go. Started with the empty bar and did quarter-plate jumps doing triples. Plan here was to do a top set of 5 with 2 reps in the tank and then take 10% and do 2 more sets of 5. I think I underestimated myself here as I think 15lbs more would’ve still been with reps left. I think part of it is that I haven’t really done any squatting in a long time. The rack work is very jarring when it hits the pins haha. I had been expecting this to aggravate my lower back and thankfully that was not the case. On to the next thing. Anxiety pretty much gone at this point since I knew people there now and Brian was there. So next thing was duck walk. Not a fan of this one and not because it looks silly. More that it is very hard for me to go fast. This is on the menu because one of the events has this as part of a medley. I was told to warm-up as needed (do stretches, picks, short runs) and then do 4 sets of 50’ with RPE 7. It has been maybe 5 years since I’ve done this exercise? So odds are that this contest will use full sized plates on a power pin. I ran into a snag as it appears that all the locking pins for the power pins at the gym they use for power stairs and duck walk were missing. I really didn’t want to use the other setup since that was a very thick handle that wobbled independent of the other part. I eventually found something that I could jam into it and then used a ton of athletic tape to secure it. I forget how much this exercise hurts with the large plates as those kept banging into my legs. I tried my best to minimize that pain by putting on my arm sleeves and knee sleeves but not enough. I can deal with that pain and discomfort when I know to expect it. But I need to figure out something for the future as my legs are bruised to hell right below my knees and above my calves. First run was slowest of working sets. The other runs I seemed to figure out my pacing a bit better and got those to be under 13 seconds each. I figure this is probably around the weight that will be used considering it will be loaded into a sled that will need to be dragged and it isn’t the only implement that needs to be loaded. So glad that was done but no so glad to do the next thing. Atlas stones. Feeling pressure. I haven’t done real stones since I want to say November 2019. I’m good at this event but I haven’t really been able to push things at home using the stone of steel and tacky towel with high loads. Dust on my stone gear haha. The good luck shorts and shoes. Plan for today was 5x2 EMOM and then an AMRAP with 60 seconds after resting fully. Advised to use between 300lbs – 325lbs stone. Thankful people/friends were there as this would’ve been a difficult thing to do and video solo. My hands were getting tired working the tacky to get it prepped for lifting. I did just two warm-up singles and tossed those with contempt. Since the load height was only 54” I tried to do these a quick lifts like I was doing with the keg loads in that I wasn’t fully lapping it and sitting deep and was trying to pop right off the lap without bringing the stance in. I know I will need to as I get fatigued during a load over bar event. I’m not a fan of one motions since that is a lot more back and biceps. I know it can be useful but my way allows me to hang with a lot lower static lifts. Not that I’m against learning it, I just feel I need to have a stronger deadlift and healthier back to risk it. Retacked after every set. Probably didn’t need to but I wanted to treat each double the same. I know there is a time when doing no retack benefits things but I had an AMRAP later that would allow me to do just that. I also hadn’t put tacky on my chest or stomach. Not needed for this kind of work. So that was feeling pretty good by the end. About 7 minutes of rest before I was feeling ready to rep out. Plan was conservative. With how my conditioning was, I was thinking 6 reps. Given commands and advised Sam (timing) to give me 30 seconds, 15 seconds and then 5 seconds. I know I’m not at the point where I can pace a minute efficiently but I will and this setup seems to be the best as it tells me how many I can get in the first half and then breaks it down to half that time and then the last five is when I probably have time to attempt one more rep. So I was a bit surprised when I got 5 in under 30 seconds. I figured at that point, I could slow it down some, especially since I could feel that I was fatiguing. Ended up getting 3 in the second half. So 8 reps is better than I was expecting and gives me hopes of doing some damage on this event. I don’t miss tacky clean up haha. Especially since I still had some more stuff to do. So next was glute ham raise negatives. I wasn’t even sure that I could even do the negatives controlled with how my hamstrings have been. Especially after stones haha. But these felt surprisingly good. No way do I have the strength to do a good rep back up without flexion in my lower back though. These felt nice actually. Kind of felt like a warm-up for my knees for the last item. More sled drag. 100’ for two sets with 3 minutes rest. At the gym, that amount of space requires using either the parking lot (super duper pain in the ass, especially alone) or turf and rubber and uphill for part of it. I went with the turf method and rather than going uphill one way and downhill the other (the doors were closed so that wouldn’t have worked for the full 100’) I just loaded up two sleds with the same weight. I used about 200lbs less weight than what I did at my house and this was about as tough. I might have rested a little longer than 3 minutes (like closer to 4 maybe?). Second set was weird as it felt like I had a balance issue or that my right knee went on me a little at that start. Not sure what that was. I still managed to go a little bit faster that set. So after that was done, I drank a weight gain shake and decided after putting stuff away to do my stretching here before squishing myself into my car for somewhat long drive home. Home to clean up and try and figure out DoorDash again and then iced my knees. I did take ibuprofen to help with the swelling and bruising on my legs as that was definitely going to keep awake if I didn’t.

April 22, 2021 – Week 6, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x5
130x3
160x3
190x3
220x8
220x8

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
190x8
190x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+10x12
bw+10x12
bw+10x12
bw+10x12

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 seconds negatives)
31’sx16 (miscounted)
31’sx15
31’sx15
31’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
13’sx15/lbx15/15
13’sx15/lbx15/15
13’sx15/lbx15/15

Stretching
 
Comments:  Have to say my body is feeling wrecked from the suit work. I was getting random abdominal and upper back cramps throughout the day yesterday and today. Even one random hamstring cramp. It is going to take a little bit to get used to the suit work again. Got bruises and scrapes on my body from it. Coming into today’s session, I was slightly concerned. I had done some foam rolling near the end of my work day to see if that got the upper back to calm down. I think the lower back stuff is easing up a little and might have been hip related since seemed to calm down after training the previous time and that last bit of the session was all unilateral work. But I also wasn’t feeling any DOMS from the pressing session yet. That was a lot of accentuated negatives and my triceps were failing on some of those reps. So no clue what awaited me. Not terribly cold outside but wind gusts off and on up to 22mph it seemed wiser to move inside. I could be warmer and have less chance of being hit by debris. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. Continuing the theme of not feeling too bad on the shoulders. Then the lifty stuff. Log incline again. So this time, doing the top weight from last week for 2x8. I did a few extra reps with the essentially empty log. I was actually moving pretty good through these warm-ups so I figured I’d keep that going and then rest changing the weights to the bumpers for the working sets. Got ready for that first set and it felt tough. Did not feel balanced where I had my grip on the handles. So that didn’t bode well for the rest of this I guess. Maybe something that I don’t normally have fatigued was fatigued from the suit fighting? So I felt I had to be ready to go the next set. No balance issue that time around and felt better than the first set. Huh? Alright, so I guess I should be good. Paused sets after that, 2x8 as well, just 10lbs more than the weight I did last week for 10’s. Didn’t really doubt these would be alright but hard to say without doing it first. Control seems to be good here. Had the grip issues on the second set at the start but it seemed to get corrected and be fine. Ring rows followed that as per usual. Advised to do 4x12 with 2-3 RIR all the way through with weight added. I figured that since bw+20x12 was fairly close to the limit that adding 10lbs would be about right. Certainly felt like it at the start. I messed up having the rings too low that first and corrected if for the other sets. Right biceps was feeling a little crampy today. Honestly, I felt stronger on these as I went. Wasn’t expecting that. Otherwise I’d have done more weight. Triceps stuff next. No clue how these would go as I figured I’d be having toasty triceps considering the ringer I put them through on Monday. So same as last week with 3 seconds eccentrics for 4x15. I figured that I would be ok doing small increases here. So 1lbs added haha. Really just meant I used 10’s and 2.5’s as the handles are 6lbs. I get paranoid with these since it is a lot of reps and the tempo that I have to check how many I did as I sometimes miscount. Like that first rep. Ok with going over but have to do extra if I do too few. Surprisingly staying strong through these (though last few reps of last set were tough). Maybe my triceps are adapting to this punishment haha.  Last bit of the session the same as last week with lateral raises and band rows. I had misunderstood the band rows as I thought I was to be rotating my torso. What I was supposed to be doing was bracing and letting my upper back rotate. I felt like I’ve finally gotten used to doing the circuits non-stop with the laterals enough that I went up a tiny bit in weight. Swapped out the loadable handles. I had not thought I’d need this much band tension for the rows but I did and in hindsight, might have still been too light for these. It was a nice pump for the shoulders and upper back. Finished cleaning up the stuff and then had a pot roast (two in one week) before stretching out.

April 20, 2021 – Week 6, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Suited Deadlifts (straps)
135x2
225x2
315x2
405x2
475x2
520x3
468x3
468x3

14” Jack Stand Pulls
320x1
370x1
420x1
Added Straps
470x4
470x4
470x4

Lateral Step Downs (18”)
bwx3x10/10
bwx3x10/10
bwx3x10/10

Cossack Squats
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Seated Band Single Leg Hamstring Curls/Single Leg Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10
(2)mb’sX20/20

Stretching
 
Comments: Still have some niggles in the left side lower back that I’m watching. Also keeping an eye on the lower abdominals and inner thighs as feeling some tenderness since Saturday training. One thing I’ve noticed has been that I haven’t had a feeling of shin splints in as many weeks when I’ve been doing my walks on my days off. I think it has happened only once in the past six weeks. So that is something. Hoping I didn’t do too much yesterday that will affect training going forward (push press misses and the push-ups). Busy with work so I didn’t have the opportunity to setup for training like some days. But this workout was changed up a bit I’m sure so didn’t really matter too much other than a later start to things. So last time, doing some things to warm-up seemed to help with the movement prep stuff. So rather than using the treadmill, I did a rotation of band TKEs with the stretching. Still not the best but seemed to get some things to be better. Right side has issues with the ATG split squats with balance. Probably related to that calf being tighter and weaker. Feel better after going through them again, as usually the case. Then the lifting. So yesterday I don’t feel really had much change from what was probably planned before I decided to sign up for a contest. I know this date was modified for that. So rather than start off with the usual block pulls, this was getting an idea of where I stand as far as suited pulls. So I got the suit out that I haven’t used since September 2019. Questions would be, would it still fit haha. I know I’ve had some body composition changes since then. More leg work and back work for example. I can get it on by myself no problem so that was good. But it is work. I think people assume that you can just put on the suit and get 80lbs out of it right away. No, it is work. Work to get into it and work to fight the suit. And I’m not in fighting shape. I forgot how much pressure and pain this thing puts me in. It is going to take a few sessions. So the plan here was to work up to an easy triple doing doubles and then take 10% off that triple and do two more. RPE is hard to gauge on this as I’m having to actively fight to get into position and the lifting isn’t usually that bad considering. Thinking on it, it is like I’m doing a body isometric to keep it together. So I can look like I can pull the weight for like 10 reps but it feels like my skin wants to burst. So I was advised here to control the negatives to keep it in the groove. This is what I’ve usually done with my suit work in the past when doing low reps or breaking it in. I had thought about doing quarter-plate jumps but after that first rep, I knew I wouldn’t have the endurance to fight the suit through that many sets so I went with plate jumps up to 405lbs, when I added my hard belt and it gets the tightest. I sometimes have issues with getting my hard belt to latch with the pressure but it seemed to work ok this time. It was a real effort getting to the bar and then getting into position. I’ve been doing figure 8 straps in the past but since I’ve been doing them figure 6 on the other stuff, figured I’d do that here to see how it felt and try to keep the theme going. Deep sea diving pressure from the suit. Crushing. The fight I the suit with 405lbs was about the same as 520lbs so on that alone, it was like RPE9 to fight the suit but the lifting was quite easy. I didn’t think it was wise to go for 545lbs as I got to 405lbs to keep it “easy” so I went with 520lbs as that would be technically a 1lbs PR for most I’ve done in a suit from the floor for a triple (never pushed it, same with doubles). I knew I was going to be paying for this later. So dropped off 10% of that for two sets. First set wasn’t too bad. Second set I could tell I was reaching my limits in the suit for the day as my left side’s grip and strap were lacking. I felt whooped. But I was just starting. Block pulls again. Advised to take off the suit (thank you, though it isn’t as bad elevated pulls). I was really not sure how these would go after the effort spent on the suited stuff. Hell, I was having my one calf muscle twitching from having to fight getting into position so hard on the deadlifts. Turns out, I felt great on these. Just 15lbs more than last time for 3x4. And it was easy. So happy with that. After the pulls, I was finally able to get some liquid in me and not worry about risking spewage.  The rest of the workout was lighter stuff as has been the case but some changes. Lateral step downs again. If I want to go any higher than an inch more, I’ll have to move to doing these outside. Still a little rough getting depth figured out on the first rep of the first set but not nearly as tough as it was last week. Could definitely go about these at a quicker pace between sides but took time. Then Cossack squats. An extra set and advised to try and sit back in to it and not lose tightness. Also, stick to one side first, then the other side. Probably for the best. I didn’t feel like my knees were in danger or anything. I had already started cooking dinner by this point in the workout as it was going to be a late session. Last thing was the pairing of leg curls and tempo calves. Same as last time with 3 sets of hammies and 2 sets of gammies. Calves were feeling some fatigue from the suited pulls. My right hamstring usually seems to lag behind on this but that has been after many sets of other stuff but this time seemed to be the stronger leg. Finished up the session and ate a big dinner. I could just feel the different twitches and cramps there were there from this workout. Stretched and iced my knees before bed.

April 19, 2021 – Week 6, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
32x2
62x2
92x2
122x2
152x2
182x2
No Pauses
212x2
242x2
272x2
272x2
272x2
272x3

Axle Push Presses (beltless 5 seconds negatives)
208x5
208x5
208x5 (had to reattempt 5th rep as missed first try, only managed 4 seconds on last rep)

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
155x3
Added Straps
200x3
245x10
245x10
245x10
245x10

Chaos Band Push-ups (4 seconds negatives, feet elevated 8”)
bwx15
bwx15 (breather at 14)
bwx14 (breather at 12)

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
6’sx10/mmbx20
6’sx10/mmbx20
6’sx10/mmbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: So this past week was pretty darn tough, especially the last session. Lower back feeling some pressure from disc symptoms. Nothing like I’ve had before but I did do some decompression for my lower back to be on the safe side. Forecast said no rain all day but the sky was looking angry midday so I didn’t really set things up as I didn’t want my stuff getting drenched. No rain the whole day so I guess I could’ve got ready. Foam rolling was definitely needed, same with hip flexor stretches. Parts of the movement prep felt off, namely the split squats. Maybe still feeling them from the weekend. Some aches and such. Hopefully nothing but keeping an eye on things as I do. Again, axle push press. The plan being as has been the case. Beltless and working up in the pause and non-pause doubles, taking 30lbs jumps. I was a little nervous with how I was feeling and this would be the same weight I did three weeks ago with a belt. I had only been able to do 3x2 rather than doing 2x2 and then a max rep set. Nervous as I want to be better here. Work up sets felt about right. First set not the fastest. Second set better, like I’m getting more into it and using the body. I was just thinking how I hadn’t had to struggle for lockout on any reps and then I did on the next set. Just the first rep and I think that was more to banging the rack arms walking it out as I blasted up the second rep. Now, moment of truth. Got set and went. Feeling solid and the first rep goes up. Second as well. Third I felt like I was still strong and had another rep to still have 2 left. I was wrong. Attempt at 4th rep the bugger went out in front of me and I couldn’t fight it through. Set it down as going for it again would defeat the purpose of leaving reps in the tank. I did at least get more volume with this weight than last time without a belt. But I’m still pissed that missed a rep. Got to keep going forward. So next more pressing. Those darn eccentric emphasis ones again. Apparently, I made them look too easy last week so more volume. Same weight just more reps. Unrack for that first set was terrible. Not sure where that came from. I’m noticing the shoulders clock out quick and leave the effort to my triceps on the eccentrics. Fatigues everything. Like 2 reps in and the top gets all weeble-wobble on me. Second set was a bit better start but my right side decided to just give up on me on the last rep. Hard to lockout and then shoulder tucked in on the eccentric but still got the set. Last one. Really feeling it now. Started out well enough but I could feel it by the 4th rep. Missed the first attempt at a fifth rep. Oof. Regrouped and got it up there. However, I could only control it for 3 seconds instead of the five seconds before my right arm just tucked in on me. It was done. Today is just kicking my ass. Maybe the next thing will be easier? Not really. Bench rows next. So plan here being 4x10 with 20lbs more than last time. Advised to go for a full stretch at the bottom of each rep. I decided to wear straps after the first set to warm-up as the first work set felt a little jarring. Still feel tough. Definitely felt smoother the next few sets. Could feel my lat inserts under the arms getting twitchy after the last set. Last set my lats finally loosened up some and I was getting a deeper stretch and actually having the plates just kissing the ground on that set. This was probably the only real reprieve for the night as the next thing was push-ups. Chaos bands again but I was to make them tougher than last time. I had made it again, look too easy. So I was advised to raise my feet up 6-12” and/or added 3-5 ct negatives. So being the masochistic idiot I apparently am, I split the difference and decided to do 8” platform for the feet and 4 seconds negatives. Goals was to still leave 3RIR. Again, hard to tell with something so stability based. But damn I could tell these were going to loads harder than what I did last week. Got through that first set and I’m just thinking, how the hell am I getting through the next two? I was about to lose my balance on the last set after the 14th rep so I caught myself and took a very short breather. That made all the difference and that last rep was super duper easy compared to the others. Not looking forward to the last set. Started off easy enough but then got difficult half way through it. Stopped at 12 to try and get those last three reps. No dice. One shy. Today is just wrecking me in the pressing department. Finishing up the evening was the same thing as last week. Still tough by the end but maybe a little easier. Didn’t get the best angle as camera cut off what I was doing with my arms on the triceps stuff. This ended up being a long and late night. Pot roast for dinner and stretched before icing my knees and then a little bit for my shoulders too.

April 17, 2021 – Week 5, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Safety Squat Bar Bulgarian Split Squats
bwx10/10
65x5/5
115x10/10
115x10/10
115x10/10
115x10/10

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings (3-0-3-0 tempo)
175x3
225x3
275x8
247x10
247x10
247x10

Paused Sandbag Rows (short ways, 1 second holds)
175x3
225x3
275x6
275x6
275x11

Behind The Back Barbell Holds
155x5 seconds
245x5 seconds
335x5 seconds
405x5 seconds
475x9.33 seconds
380x33.81 seconds

Single Arm Dumbbell Shrugs (w/ Fat Gripz Extreme)
40x20/20
40x20/20

Backward Sled Drags
525x100’ in 43.34 seconds
525x100’ in 37.43 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: So rest of the week was strange. Had an immune system response to the second shot that about knocked me out for a day. Thankfully a good night’s sleep got that through my system. Well good to know my body works on that end haha. Still made for an odd feeling Friday. But I did finally come to some decisions on thing. I’m going to try and compete this year. Plan is local show mid-July and aim to compete and win it so I can go to SC Nats in October. If that doesn’t work out, then do an USS show to at least try and get 2022 USS Nats on my schedule. This show should allow me to work on my bigger holes in my game as well as play to my strong suits. Took a bit of time to just get stuff setup so that there is minimal delay between the first several exercises. So on to training for today. Movement prep to start off the day. Didn’t feel like I needed to do extra stuff to get my knees ready this time around. Stepdowns not great but felt better compared to last week. I think. I’m just kind of accepting that there is going to be discomfort for this particular movement. No issues with anything else in the warm-up. So today was a change-up. Split squats still but no more raising the heel up or doing them tempo. Regular speed. But advised to not go crazy, keep them controlled and smooth. Plan being 4x10. So that was going to take a little bit to figure out where I was vs the tempo style. Aim being RPE 7 vs RPE 8 from the past few sessions. Granted, it was RPE impossible the very first week haha. I knew I could do the top weight from last time for sure. Testing things out with just bodyweight for a set of 10. Knees a little achy here. Then put the bar (no sense in doing the kettlebells). A bit better. The leg stand did shift on me on the last rep of the set on the one leg. Had to tighten that sucker up. So I went bold and decided to do 115lbs for my sets. Definitely felt like a gamble at first. Knees ache like crazy on the first rep of each set of the working leg but no really problem after that. I did lose my balance a little on the first set with the left leg but corrected. Just different balance from before and more weight moving on me. Second set felt better than the first. Fatigue building up by the end, but I think I kept things in the right effort range. Zercher gms were next. This was going to be difficult. Plan here was a hard set of 8 reps and then drop 10% off that for 3x10. These were quite difficult last time, with upper body fatiguing holding the ssb in place with that time under tension on these. Not so much getting the top set right, but making sure that I’d be able to actually complete the other sets. My indecision perhaps made the warming up part of this not ideal. The top weight was definitely at the edge of my limits for my upper body to keep secure. It loosened up a bit on the last rep and I could feel my right biceps take a little more of the brunt of it. I can tolerate pauses and accentuated eccentrics but man do the accentuated concentrics just fry me when it comes to this. I took lengthy rests here. I needed to make sure I didn’t drop the weight on the floor. And my lower back was feeling toast. I was having some sciatica issues. So there was discomfort. I will just have to keep an eye on it and see how it is. I didn’t think it would stop me from training for the day. I mean, I’ve had a disc bulge more than once during training and still finishing up the session. So next thing was sandbag rows. 2x6 after working up and then max reps on a last set. Lower back and left side were definitely feeling the effects of the stuff beforehand. It took a bit to get comfortable. These felt a lot tougher than I remembered them. I’m actually surprised with how I was feeling strength wise that I got that many over the work sets. I feel that at my best, I could do a lot more. But hard to say with rows going up in weight. Then some grip training with behind the back holds. Plan was work up to 10-15 seconds then drop off 20% and hold for max time (aim for more than 30 seconds). Still figuring this variation of grip out. I do know that I don’t seem to have a risk of tearing calluses with this one as once the main part goes, it is pretty much over. Still doing 5 seconds or so holds to warm-up. I figured that was probably best as odds were high I’d end up at the lower end of the spectrum with the hold time. I went up 10lbs from last time. I didn’t think things would drop off so much but it did. I had counted 11 seconds before I dropped in my head but turns out just under 9.5 seconds. I was at least able to get over 30 seconds on the longer hold. New exercise added for some oblique and trap work. And more grip. Single arm dumbbell shrugs with fat gripz extremes. It did indicate I could use fat gripz but I got the thicker pair only at home as mimics circus dumbbell handle. Narrow stance and allowing some arm bend to get maximum contraction and full stretch. In hindsight, I maybe should’ve rested a little more before going as my grip on the first set with my right hand was feeling toasted. I lifted the dumbbell off my one sandbag so I didn’t have to keep bending over to get it. So last item of the day was backwards sled drags. No set RPE, just indicated 2x100’. I figured based off last time, that I should be ok with 20lbs more than before and keep it reasonable. There was some down time here, which was ok. The main reason being the one neighbor was parting their car in the street so I couldn’t got 100’ for my normal marked off course. So I had to re-measure and clean new parts of the street (they weren’t there when I started training). I also figured keeping the same weight was going to be easier and not have the time between the two sets take forever. So I had an idea for warm-up that might help with that first set as that felt terrible last time. I decided to do a short period of backwards treadmill (45 seconds) and then take about 2 minutes to rest before going. A good song to get hyped to was on and I decided that I’d just put it on repeat for this set and the next. I had a little issue with the initial start on the drag but my legs took things better. Still a lot slower than it should be but it was faster than last time with more weight. Reset the course and went for round two. Felt a lot better and it showed in the time difference. Also faster than last time. Put things away and had a roast for dinner. Stretched and iced my knees. Hopefully I feel good and rested tomorrow.

April 15, 2021 – Week 5, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
130x3
160x3
190x3
220x10
200x10

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
180x10
180x10

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx12
bwx12 
bwx12 
bwx19

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 seconds negatives)
30’sx15
30’sx15
30’sx15
30’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
10’sx15/mmbx15/15
10’sx15/mmbx15/15
10’sx15/mmbx15/15

Stretching
 
Comments: Was feeling a little down mentally the day before. I mean, life is good. I think it was kind of realizing that this may be another year of no competing potentially. My actions from earlier in the year mean the shows I had signed up for are no longer an option since I had asked to be removed from the rosters. Checked to see if I could get back on the one later in the year and technically I can but it would be a waitlist. At this time, I don’t want the added stress of uncertainty of whether I’ll be allowed to compete or not so just removing that option from my mind. So on the plus side, I’m at least feeling confident enough that with good 12 weeks or more prep, I can be competition ready. But it doesn’t look like things will work out. Less people can qualify for SC nats so pretty much I have to outright win to go. Still weighing out my options. I don’t want to shoot down the progress I’ve made at this point on certain things. Got second shot so I was expecting that this might end up being a rough workout the following day. Seemed ok other than sore shoulder. Then the upper body aches came. Actually, felt like I was having a phantom pain just ricocheting through my body like a pin ball. This was probably the best workout session to really have this going on with the exercises planned. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. Surprisingly, these didn’t make my already achy shoulders achy. Then it was time to lift the weights. Log incline again. It was a bit windy and chill outside. So plan for the session was to work up to a good set of 10 reps and then go from there. For easy math sake and my own mental wellbeing, I aimed for 220lbs. This was what I had done for 8 reps the first week of training. As previously mentioned, this has been a weird exercise for me. Been doing the same warm-ups to get ready. Thankfully, no issues with getting 10 reps this time. So dropped 20lbs to do another set of 10 reps. Again, not much of a problem here other than achy shoulders. But that wasn’t really related to the movement any more than usual with how the shoulders and upper back/neck were feeling today. Another 20lbs off for the last bit of the pressing. Just indicated to do 2x10 with a brief pause. I tried to keep it close to 1 second. For some reason, the paused reps feel better to me compared to the other reps. Oh well. So that was done and on to the next part of the workout, ring rows. Bodyweight only for 4x12. Well, not exactly. I was advised to go for max reps with 1-2 in the tank on the last set. Feeling shoulders and lats and upper back. I didn’t feel like I’d get many above the reps by the last set. I guess I was wrong. Like the rows on Monday, just shy of 20 reps here. Triceps stuff next. So a bit altered from last week. No tempo on the concentric but more so on the eccentric. I figured that I could do more than 26’s this week after the last session, especially if just the eccentric emphasis. But the extra set of it was going to be interesting. Trying to be slow and controlled with these. I was definitely feeling the fatigue by the end of each set, especially the last two sets. Last bit of the session also had a changeup. Still doing the lateral raises but the pairing now with a band row. Indication was to keep this at a lighter RPE than the other stuff. Kneeling with trunk rotation. So I went with a lighter band tension than I might usually do here just to get the motion down and insure I wasn’t overdoing it. The rowing isn’t as fatiguing to the shoulders as the triceps and face pulls had been considering all things. Big dinner and then stretching. Hopefully the achiness in my body passes soon.

April 13, 2021 – Week 5, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
14” Jack Stand Pulls
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
455x5
455x5
455x5

Wide Grip Romanian Deadlifts (5 seconds negative, straps, beltless)
45x3
95x3
135x3
185x3
225x8
250x8
275x8

Lateral Step Downs (18”)
bwx3x10/10
bwx3x10/10
bwx3x10/10

Cossack Squats
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Seated Band Single Leg Hamstring Curls/Single Leg Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10
(2)mb’sX20/20

Stretching
 
Comments: Some aches and what not from previous session. But not like as a negative. More just different stuff from new exercises and modalities. Been feeling like I’ve had restful sleep the past few days. Shins finally all good with no more scabbing from the weeks prior. So tried a little different for the warming up. What I’ve been trying to do is car buffering and stretching for the knees to feel ready for training on lower body days. This time, do short time of backwards treadmill stuff and stretching. That actually seemed to work better. Still got creakiness in the knees on the outstretched leg doing the split squats but not as bad as it has been. Kind of funny reading back to the first week doing these. Still some balance issues but not having as many issues with strength and flexibility. No butt cramping either haha. So after that, on to lifting things. Back to the block pulls after the break last week. Today was the inverse of the first week. I had done 75% for 5x3. This time, it was to be 3x5. Left side was feeling a little tight and stiff today. Feeling a little rough. So I guess a repeat of how I felt that first week then? At least this time, I know what I’m about and that I can get double digits with 50lbs weight. Reps felt solid that first working set but didn’t feel powerful. I mean, still plenty reps in the tank. Second set seemed to be a bit better as far as feeling strong and maybe more so the last set. I had kind of seen getting those reps and sets no problem as a forgone conclusion. So next up was RDLS again but different. Difference being that I was to take a wider grip and no pauses but slow the eccentric down to a 5ct. Still straps and beltless. And no more stop pads. I really wasn’t sure what I’d be able to do here. The plan was 3x8 at RPE 7. My only experience with 5ct negatives for deadlifts was what I did last week and those were quite exhausting with 295lbs. The lifting part was easy, the lowering was suffering. So I figured lighter was probably the way to go. I also didn’t really have a frame of reference for how slow it would be for essentially half the ROM of a regular deadlift so I did these with just the bar and took quarter-plate jumps. I thought these would be harder once I got up to 225lbs but I realized this was too light when I wasn’t certain if I did 8 reps or not. So I went up 25lbs for the next set with the hope that I’d do 275lbs for the last set. These didn’t feel as tough as the pause variations I was doing before I think but hard to say. In hindsight, I probably could’ve done 275lbs for all three sets. But this was a new one for me. The rest of the workout was lighter stuff as has been the case but some changes. Usually, the next thing was lateral step downs and those planks supersetted. Not this time. The lateral step downs were by themselves. Same rep scheme. I figured since this was solo, I’d up the platform so that I was just using 3 crash pads (18”). I don’t plan on going any higher with these. Balance was a bit tougher. The first set was a bit rough, especially the first rep of each set as trying to feel for depth. After that, it was much better and got easier as I went as per usual. Next was a new exercise but not really. I say that as while I haven’t done it as an “exercise” I’ve done this movement for fun when I was younger just because. Cossack squats. Just body weight and for low reps. When I’d do these, I’d just sit in the bottom position, not really doing squats per se. I was happy these weren’t that difficult for me since I’ve gained like 60lbs since I was last doing these haha. Thankfully not really bugging my right knee. But still got to be cautious with things and not get all loose. Focus. Last thing was the pairing of leg curls and tempo calves. Only change to this was doing an extra set of hamstring curls after the last set of calf raises. I had initially thought that the knee sleeve wasn’t doing much on the back of my leg with the band but I was shown how wrong that assertion was on the first set. Hamstring curls feeling about the same throughout the sets. Calf stuff still much harder on the right side. Put everything away and ate meatloaf and then stretched. Iced the knees before bed. Rest will be good.

April 12, 2021 – Week 5, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
55x2
85x2
115x2
145x2
175x2
No Pauses
205x2
235x2
265x3
265x3
265x3
265x3

Axle Push Presses (beltless 5 seconds negatives)
208x4 (miscounted)
208x3
208x3

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
135x3
185x3
Added Straps
225x10
225x10
225x10
225x19

Chaos Band Push-ups (feet on ground)
bwx18
bwx16
bwx14

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
6’sx10/mmbx20
6’sx10/mmbx20
6’sx10/mmbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: A month of training down with no hiccups other than minor things (and overestimating myself on log incline presses). Aches and pains seem to fluctuate and go. Still some residual stuff from the trap/lat area on the right side from last week but it has been manageable for days now. Might have spoken too soon about no bruising in the arms from keg. Got some love taps showing up now but way less than what it was the first time. Will need to consider more support on the inner side of arms for next time (assuming it pops up again). Foam rolling was definitely needed, same with hip flexor stretches. Some changes to the mobility prep. The split stance BTN stuff was replaced with lat band stretch. Stuff was feeling easy but knees a bit achier than I’d have liked but movements were easy. So as per usual, axle push pressing. I was advised no belt again and to wear my wrist wraps. I had planned on doing so since it was going to be 80% or more. I’m not sure how beltless will apply over to my belted stuff on these but the plan for the day was more sets then what I did with a belt on week 2 with the same weight. As has been the case, warming up with doubles, pausing first rep up to around 50-60% and then just doubles. I will say that I have less risk of being “burpy” keeping me from lifting without the belt on. Unracking the weight now finally starting to feel like it should. Weight not feeling crushing heavy and everything feeling solid. I wonder if the lat stretch helped here. Also less shoulder discomfort at lockout. Got a little off balanced on the second rep of the first set and the third rep of the second set. Didn’t feel like I had balance issues on the other sets for any reps, just shoulders and triceps getting fatigued. So the next thing was kind of new. It was written as a strict press but it was really a push press. The focus was to do 3-5 second negatives (I always aim for the slower burn haha) with 80% of strict press but to push press the weight up each rep for 3x3. This would be 65% of my push pressing so it was easier to just put it as push pressing. No belt on these either. That first set threw me off a little with the long eccentric portion, just like with deadlifts last week. Which meant I did an extra rep on that first set. It’s good for me. Managed to keep track of the reps after that. Definitely felt this slow down fatiguing my shoulders and triceps, especially in the joint inserts. I don’t know if I could press this weight strict after doing these reps with how difficult this felt. Bench rows next. No pauses/holds this time as well. Told to do 225x3x10 again and then on the last set, do as many as I could leaving 2 reps in the tank. It started to rain a little bit so that was annoying. Not enough to make me stop or move things inside (which is a pain in the ass mid-session). No straps on the warm-ups, which might have thrown me off a little as the first set felt tougher than I would’ve liked. Felt easy the rest of the time. It is a strange exercise in that I feel very explosive but as I fatigue, I have to slow the reps down to keep getting them. So close to 20 but called it when I felt that I’d need to do too much to keep the set going. Of course the rain stopped when I finished this stuff. Next was a new push-up variation. Referred to as chaos band style. So pretty much like I’m doing push-ups with my hands on a rubber band tightrope. Idea being required to stay stable and makes the shoulders and rotary cuff work. So this should make the shoulders feel good and be really difficult. No set tempo, but advised to control eccentric and keep from having it sway. This wasn’t too bad. I was told to leave 3-4 RIR so that was a little tough to gauge as a new exercise for me and no clue what would be the thing that stopped me first. Definitely feel these being fatigue over several sets though. So last item was same but new. Y raises for the tiny upper back and shoulders and band extensions for triceps. Y raises with pauses and dumbbells was going to be difficult. Lightest dumbbells I have were the 6lbs handles. This was brutal by the end of this (nonstop). Triceps were different but felt good. At pot roast and stretched before icing knees.

April 10, 2021 – Week 4, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Bulgarian Split Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
bwx3/3
15’sx3/3 (kettlebells)
65x3/3
85x8/8
86x8/8
87x8/8
88x8/9 (not sure how I miscounted but I did)

Power Keg Loads Over Bar (62”)
144x2
193.5x2
252x2
252x2
252x2
252x2
252x2
252x2

Titan Fitness Farmer’s  Holds (20” pick)
135x5 seconds
185x5 seconds
225x5 seconds
275x5 seconds
315x5 seconds
345x21.75 seconds
325x22.27 seconds
325x48.58 seconds

Sandbag Bearhug Carries (turns at 50’)
313x100’ in 26.69 seconds
313x100’ in 24.42 seconds

Treadmill Backwards Pushes
5 minutes
5 minutes

Stretching
 
Comments: As has been the case these past few weeks, I at least seem to sleep well Friday into Saturday. So some new, some old with training. I got a bit later start to the session (I’ll go into that later). Tried the car buffer on the knees to see if that helped as much as it did last time for the warm-ups. It did not. Stepdowns didn’t like my knees today, mostly the right one. Perhaps the non-issues earlier in the week had been from taking ibuprofen trying to help the upper back/lat issue. I had also not iced my knees after Wednesday. Trying to not take that stuff so much. I had lowered the weight on the b-stance rdls back to what I was doing the first two weeks. Definitely feeling a lower back pump on these warm-ups. So on to the meat of the workout. So to start things off, the tempo split squats again. Plan being 4x8 again and aim for same level of intensity. I was advised that this was likely the last week of this particular variation. Joy and sadness. Happy for a change but I’ve kind of grown fond of this exercise. So my plan here was to try and do at minimum 85lbs for all the sets. Depending on how I felt, I may go up in weight a little or a lot. It was really muggy and humid and that seemed to really make it hard to breathe doing these. I kind of wanted to go a little heavier so I went up 1lbs a set. This would go up to 88lbs (40kgs) which seemed to be a number I wanted. Fully resting for these was tough for the aforementioned mugginess. Staying outside wasn’t helping so I moved around inside a put on a floor fan on low. I’m great with cold, terrible with warm. April has been finicky and I will need to get used to the heat training outside again. I wanted to drink stuff but I felt like I’d toss it back up while doing these so I waited until I was done these sets. On the last set, the last rep was really tough for the right side. Reviewing the video, somehow I did an extra rep on that set, which makes no sense to me. Tempo work seems to be a problem for me keeping track of my reps. Too many sequences of numbers to focus on I guess. So next thing was keg loads. Order switched up from last time (farmer’s holds had been first) with the hope that these would be faster. Plan here was to do 6x2 with 60-75 seconds rest between sets with 250lbs. Body is still recovering from last time but that is more on me as I didn’t prepare myself right. I had severe bruising on my biceps, a nasty bruise on my right thigh (from that one rep) and scabs on both shins. The bruises in my arms are gone at least. So to combat this, wore the copper sleeves a little lower on the arms and put athletic tape on my shins. Taped the thumbs up too. So I figured to warm-up, it was best to do singles rather than singles like last time. I think I realized after the first rep with the empty power keg that I didn’t need to sit into a full squat to lap this thing. So I just rowed it up into my lap and loaded it the second time. Quite a bit easier and faster haha. The sun was coming up and good bit of the mugginess left and my indigestion was also clearing up. I ended up going slightly heavier here because I didn’t want the weights shaking around so I used my fractional plates. I set my timer for 90 seconds intervals so that I’d have the right rest amount. This was super easy. Only hiccup was that the keg likes to bounce and kept going to the right. I may need to figure out a better setup to prevent that next time (I got ideas). The darn thing escaped the setup on the fifth set and I had to drag it back around to the front and go. Still keeping with the timed rest periods even with that haha. No new marks on the shins and very minimal stuff on the arms. Success. Next up was farmer’s holds. A little different from last time. Plan same as far as warm-ups but less weight for the top set. Plan being top set 20 seconds, drop weight 20 seconds and then max hold with that weight. I was a little uncertain how things would go. Would the keg stuff effect my grip? Was my body going to be recovered enough for some more heavy pulls? Granted this was 20lbs less per hand than last time, but last time was damn near max effort to stand up with. I did figure out a tweak to the setup to keep the boards from possibly sliding on me. Picks were feeling though but my grip felt good. Got the first part done. Drop 20lbs and go again. Pick a little harder than I would’ve liked but still good. Now the last set for max time. Well as long I could without tearing calluses. Normally not an issue for me but these handles have knurling and with the humidity never know. I was feeling like I needed to prove something on this set. Twice last week seeing people posting about training to beat the current USS record in the farmer’s hold that is currently held by me. I don’t feel like what I set is something special and it is at best a soft record since I set it with fractures in fingers. I think that it’s being “covered” by up and coming strongman social media people is what annoys me the most. So maybe I am more competitive than I think I am. Any ways, put on DMX (R.I.P.) and got to work. Did better than I expected and got very close to my time with 15lbs more per hand. Maybe had more, but didn’t want to risk tearing my hands here. Still got it. Almost done. So this was where time was eaten up. So the plan here had been to do 2x100’ with turn at 50’ with my husafel stone like I did with sandbag last time. I had thought that when I took my equipment out of the gym over a year ago that I had grabbed the right allen wrench from the set that opens up the bottom. But I grabbed the one that was a size too big. I searched my house trying to find something to no avail. So my options were to do runs with 239lbs. I messaged Drew about this and asked if I should just do empty husafel or do my sandbag again but bearhug it as the idea here was to work on moving with a front carry but a different object. He said whichever was easier to setup. I mean, bot about the same but I’d need a crash pad to make sure the husafel didn’t damage the street. And I kind of wanted to keep this around 300lbs for reasons. Probably ego reasons. So sandbag again. I felt like picks would take time if I used lighter sandbags and picks on this one would be draining to do right before going. Good lord did that first run feel sucky and slow. I wanted to drop it 10’ into the run haha. I could only improve from that. I did on the second set and moved a bit faster. Still slow. But not so far off my best times from late 2018. One last thing for the session. I put everything away from training before I started this as I figured after this last thing, I wouldn’t want to do much else but sit in cool air. So last time, I subbed out backwards sled drag for backwards treadmill pushes. I can handle the long setup for things with set distances and weights. So that had been 3 minutes on, 3 minutes rest and then 3 minutes on again. I had commented that the rest felt like an eternity. Why did I say something like that? So this time was 5 minutes on, 2 minutes rest and then 5 minutes on again. This was tough. I put on a hype song on loop so that I’d stay sane. No one will out work my ability to deal with suck. So damn sweaty by the end. I needed food and drink now so I made a big meal rather than do a roast in the oven. Stretched out and iced my knees.

April 8, 2021 – Week 4, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
130x3
160x3
190x10
190x10
190x10
190x10

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx12
bwx12 
bwx12 
bwx12

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (2-0-2-0 tempo)
26’sx14
26’sx16
26’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
10’sx20/lbx20
10’sx20/lbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: So I thought I’d be feeling better good after yesterday getting a walk in and soft tissue stuff on my sore back area that I can’t reach with an icy hot roller but I guess my body decided everything was going to be achy today. Knees, shoulders, neck and lower back. Maybe finally feeling the deadlift negatives. But not happy with knees aching again as they had been so good the last three days. This workout wasn’t going to be a long one hopefully. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. Surprisingly, my shoulders weren’t nearly as achy as they have been doing this routine the past two weeks. Again, log incline. Plan for today was 4x10. I was advised that this was to be light and fairly easy. That each set should feel like I had 3 reps in the tank and if not, I should be lowering the weight. So I really didn’t want to be lowering the weight. No wrist wraps. Maybe those were throwing me off? Or maybe I just didn’t want to bother with them today. Trying my best to keep the groove right on these and not lose the log out in front of me. Feeling much the same as last week working up in weight. I did smack myself in the chin. Some shoulder aches on these but no issues. No missed reps. I did feel fatigue building each set but never felt I was close to being out of reps but it was getting closer to that feeling by the end of it. So that was good. So after that was ring rows. Bodyweight only for 4x12. No indication of slightly pausing the reps at contraction. So I figured this would be easy. Wasn’t that easy. I’m not sure if my back is just feeling the heavier than normal rows or if just the fact I didn’t need to be doing these slower made me fatigue faster. I guess that maybe how I’ve been doing them with the pauses has the opposite effect compared to when I row weight vs myself. As I feel that I can do more reps if I go slow but maybe I was just expecting these to be a lot easier after how the other weeks felt and how paused vs non-paused on other rowing has been. So last bit of workout was altered a little. Normally it has been a triset. Now the triceps part was made separate from the shoulder exercises. I was advised that the tempo was too fast on the triceps and to slow it down. I figured that 2 seconds concentric and eccentric would do the trick. I also was fully expecting immediate soreness like I got with the split squats at the start of this training cycle. I ended up miscounting by 1 rep that first set (plan had been 3x15) so I did an extra rep on the next set to make up for it to even things out. There was definitely a temptation by the end of those 2nd and 3rd sets to speed things up as the triceps started to fatigue and burn. So the real last bit of the session was the lateral raises and face pulls. Less sets but more reps. I figured that they’d probably feel about the same really. First go through was a breeze but second set I could feel the fatigue. Felt equivalent to three rounds with the triceps break there. Big dinner and then stretching.

April 6, 2021 – Week 4, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Deadlifts (5 seconds negatives)
1st rep negatives only
135x5
185x3
235x2
Added Straps/Negatives each rep
295x4 (miscounted)
295x3
295x3
295x3

Romanian Deadlifts (beltless, straps)
275x10
275x10
275x25

Lateral Step Downs (15.5”)/ Copenhagen Planks (ver 1)
bwx3x10/10—bwx20/20 seconds
bwx3x10/10—bwx20/20 seconds
bwx3x10/10—bwx20/20 seconds

Seated Band Single Leg Hamstring Curls/Single Leg Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10
(2)mb’sX20/20—bwx10/10

Stretching
 
Comments: Well, sleep and OTC stuff didn’t quite do the trick for the lat/trap stuff from yesterday. Just going to have to work its way through. Pain is more a distraction then feeling like something is going to tear or break so I did take some more ibuprofen during the day. Also did some soft tissue work and foam rolling. Noticing knee pain hasn’t been as present these past few days so happy with that. Seems to come and go. No real rhyme or reason. It is getting warmer out so may need to start using my fans in the garage soon. So I tried something a little different for the start of the workout. Did some stretches and used the car buffer on my knees for a minute each. This was more to try and get my knees feeling ok for the first part of the movement prep. It’s always the stretched out back leg that aches on these. I’ll admit I was also a little wobbly on these too.  Legs were feeling some fatigue on the belt marches but no knee pain. Core stuff was feeling the lat/trap thing. Then into the garage to lift some weights. So a bit of a change. No block pulls. The deload for this session was to make it be light deadlifts from the floor. However, the plan here was to have 5 seconds negatives. I had to think a little bit on best way to warm-up considering the ROM and time under tension. Didn’t want to prefatigue before I did it. I’ve never done this long of a negative on deadlifts before. Always was just a controlled one when done. I figured the best way to get used to it was to do for warm-ups just the first rep like this and then do the following regular so that I got used to both styles (I didn’t think doing singles would work here). Probably didn’t need straps considering the weight but with the time under tension aspect, I thought it better to not fatigue the grip so I could really focus on bracing and control. Plus, doing heavy grip work later in the week. Pulls did feel a little alien to me at first. Those negatives are no joke. Lot of pressure. Took a deep breath at the top of each rep to rebrace and go again. Because the concentric was so easy, I lost track of where I was in the set on the first working set (50%) that I did an extra rep. The plan had been to do 4x3.  Had to kind of stop myself from going too quickly after each set. The negatives were the really draining part. Starting to get used to the regular style straps again. Can feel that I’m getting more lat control and less “side to side wobble” that can happen with the figure 8’s if grip fatigues. So after that, it was rdls. No pauses this week but still doing them beltless. The plan for today was 2x10 with 275lbs and then do a max rep set. I figured that I was already doing full ROM and having to really control the weights that I’d be plenty warmed up for these without needing to do any work up sets. I was right. Second set felt easier than the first set. Now the max rep set said max reps but not really. Idea was leaving 3-5 reps in the tank but more basing stopping things on when I felt the bar speed slowing down considerably. Thunderstruck by AC/DC came on so I don’t know if I got an accurate gauge as the weight felt like nothing. I stopped at 25 reps as I felt like I was slowing down but I probably could’ve done 40 reps with this with how it was feeling. I was also trying to not overextend my lower back on these. Getting a bit sweaty by this point and using the sweat towel. Then on to the other stuff. As with last time, pairing of single legs and the weird planks. No changes to what I did last week here. I think part of that had me a little cocky as I definitely had some balance issues but just barreled through and I definitely tested if I could hold the plank with less assistance from the lower leg. I did have to alter the layout of the setup as I couldn’t have the platform where I usually do with the garage door up since I was hitting the top now. Last bit of the session was hamstrings and calves again. Well not exactly again. Calf raises stayed the same but the hamstring curls were different. Now a single leg style. Keeping the band tension the same (2 bands a leg) and still getting the same reps. The switching over to the next thing took a bit more time so I used that. I wore the knee sleeve on my ankle (the thickest one) and wore it on the leg that was doing the work and then took it off to switch for the other side and then took it off when doing the calf raises. I already know I can get the reps on the calf raises now so the aim is to do so every time. Left hamstring (like left calf) seems to be stronger than the right. However my hamstrings seem to have about the same fatigue whereas my calves differ there too. So a lot of sweat from those last two circuits. Had a pot roast for dinner and then stretched before icing my knees.

April 5, 2021 – Week 4, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
30x2
60x2
90x2
120x2
150x2
180x2
No Pauses
210x2
240x3
240x3
240x3
240x3
240x3

Axle Strict Presses (beltless)
30x10
80x5
120x3
160x1
195x5
195x5
195x5

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
135x3
Added Straps
185x4
225x10
225x10
225x10
225x10

Ring Push-ups (3 seconds negatives, feet on ground)
bwx18
bwx14
bwx12

Y Raises/ Band Triceps Pressdowns
µbx10/lbx25
µbx10/lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: So three weeks down of training so far. Advised that some of this week partial deload on certain things. Not necessarily meaning easier. Trying to keep from focusing on negatives. It happens but I know that it isn’t a good thing as stress affects how I feel and how I perceive. I know from experience that stress affects how my by lower back feels at times. So trying to get in good frame of mind when it comes to training. Noticing that musculature is looking fuller in legs, upper back, chest and shoulders. Foam rolling was definitely needed, same with hip flexor stretches. Mobility prep was mostly good. Happy to see that my knees weren’t complaining nearly as much.  The fact that the split squats are so easy now makes me happy. So on to lifting. Axle push presses again. The planned deload here was in that doing proposed 75% for 5x3. Not so easy though as these were to be beltless. On the one hand, it’s one less thing to worry about (I have to alter breathing and bracing and watch when I drink/eat stuff) but it does mean things are harder. As with last session, warming up with doubles but pausing the first rep. Did that up to same weight I stopped at last time before doing just a regular double. Wanted to do this workout without wrist wraps on. Push pressing felt heavy in the hands but got better as I went. On the fourth set, I forgot to do the reps without rebounding and caught myself and held the rep in the dip for a moment on the second rep before going and then did a regular rep after that. I guess these were better. Left shoulder is not a fan of locking out weights at the moment. I’m not sure what initially caused this shoulder ache but it has been ongoing for months at this point. So after that was strict pressing. Plan here being 75% for 3x5. I figured I needed to do some sets to get used to it rather than going right after the push pressing. After doing these, I feel I went to high a weight to base things off of. I used an average of my lifts to projected max and got 197lbs for the weight. But I could tell that this was feeling heavier than I wanted and dropped of 2lbs to make it easier. Earlier this year I had done 190x12 but two weeks later 200x7. These were tough. They don’t look as bad as they felt on video. Lockout on some reps was really tough. I guess I rely on my belt and wraps a lot when it comes to strict pressing. My right biceps started to tense up right before the last set. Lower lat/lower trap also cramped up right after I finished the last set. Not injured but really tense and tight. Well, I finished with no missed reps. Depending on how it feels, I may need to alter the plan for the rest of the workout but I’d hate to do that. So the next thing for the workout was the bench rows. No pauses/holds this time. That restriction makes this movement so much harder. Plan here was 4x10 for RPE 7. 135lbs was so light I didn’t bother putting on straps. I forgot I was only doing a triple when it came to 185lbs. I didn’t think 225lbs would be that easy but it was. I stuck with that weight just in case I got any fatigue that slowed me down over the sets (and also didn’t want to push my luck with my upper back today). Only time it really felt like I slowed down on the reps was the last set. Moving on. Ring push-ups next. Same as last time. Advised this was probably the last week of these. Trying to push these closer to the 1-2 reps left range. I lost count on the first set and needed to review the video back to check. No issues from the back (I think) on these though maybe my right shoulder was a little achy from the tightness. So extra 3 reps on the first set and 2 on the second. Last set I was really feeling the fatigue of the reps of the previous sets and just got a dozen to finish them off. At this point, I took the meatloaf out of the oven. Time was going by fast. Last item of the evening (and it was getting darker as the spotlight came on and mosquitos buzzing) was bands. Just the y raises and pressdowns supersetted this time. Y raises were a bit tougher because of the upper back stuff but also trying to control the movement better. Triceps also felt tougher. Perhaps they worked harder with the added reps or the strict presses. As has been the case, the right arm feels like it fatigues faster on triceps stuff. Finished up and had meatloaf for dinner. Iced knees and took ibuprofen and muscle relaxer to help with the current spasm (in a spot I can’t reach with the icy hot roller). Hopefully sleeping well with resolve things.

April 3, 2021 – Week 3, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Bulgarian Split Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
bwx3/3
15’sx3/3 (kettlebells)
65x8/8
72x8/8
79x8/8
85x8/8

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings (3-0-3-0 tempo)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x8
215x8
225x8
235x8

Paused Sandbag Rows (short ways, 1 second holds)
175x3
225x3
275x5
275x5
275x5
275x5

Behind The Back Barbell Holds
145x5 seconds
235x5 seconds
325x5 seconds
395x5 seconds
465x12.94 seconds
375x31.00 seconds
375x31.46 seconds

Backward Sled Drags
505x100’ in 45.47 seconds
505x100’ in 39.97 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: The long session of the week. Which is ok as I got nothing really going on on the weekends. I get to sleep in (finally) and recoup from the week. I wasn’t sure what this workout would bring after the second week. But it appears to be about the same as the first week so going through that again. Knees (mainly the right one) and left shoulder have been achy. Shoulder since Wednesday and the knees all week. Maybe the weather getting drastically cooler this week compared to last week? I had taken ibuprofen before bed. So starting off with movement prep stuff. Legs and core. With how my knees tolerated stepdowns last time and with how my knees were this week, I elected to do some soft tissue work on my knees for a warm-up. Took out the car buffer and used that one each knee for a minute before proceeding. Stepdowns not great but felt better compared to last week. They were certainly easier the second go through. I went up from 15lbs to 30lbs on the b-stance rdls. Didn’t notice much change on the first go but on the second my lower back just blew up. So might need to just stick to 15lbs on these. So as has been the case, tempo split squats to start off the day. I’m definitely getting used to them. No lingering soreness really last week. Plan being 4x8 again. I had a goal in mind to get up to using the ssb plus my 10lbs bumper plates for the last set. The sides definitely feel like they are evening out. First set I had the leg rest too close and adjusted for the following sets. Didn’t feel noticeable until I got ready for work sets. I took a brief break here before starting the next exercise. My grandmother was allowed to leave the home to visit and it has been since February 2020 that I was able to see her and not be made to sit across a table from her. Went back over to train as I’d be back after I was done. Zercher gms were next. Same as last time with 4x8 but doing them tempo style like the split squats. Last time it was just negatives being extended. Idea here was to keep me from overextending my lumbars at lockout. I feel I did that last time because my glutes and quads were so sore and pumped that I couldn’t stand up straight with weights. Good bit tougher but was close to using the same weights as last time. Time under tension essentially doubled. It was more the upper body holding that was getting more fatigued with the slower pace. I realized on the last set I was supposed to be trying to sit back more. So after that was done, I tore down the squat rack and put it back outside on the patio. I was trying to give my lower back a chance to recover as the next thing was sandbag rows. Same as last time, just an extra set added. I was going to stick with the way I did them last time because 1) gave my lower back a bit of break 2) wouldn’t risk tearing the scabs off my shins and 3) odds are I’ll be doing some kind of exercise next week that will be like a longways lift. I did less reps to warm-up considering I had more sets to do. I was a slightly tempted to try heavier bag but reconsidered when it felt like I was using more biceps then I’d like that first set. So next was behind the back holds. Plan was 15 seconds with 2-3 seconds in the tank followed by 2 sets of 30 seconds with 3-5 seconds in the tank. Plan was 10lbs more than last time. When it comes to this particular grip exercise, I’m not very good at gauging when my time has come with the grip. Warming up was feeling good. Last work up set felt better than it had the first time I did these so I thought for sure I’d have no problem with holding for 15 seconds on the top set. Wrong. It just seems that at a certain point, part of the grip fatigues and it rolls in the hands and then it’s almost over. I got over 30 seconds on the lighter sets but I didn’t leave any seconds in the tank when it came to the heaviest set and the last set with 375lbs. So last item of the day was backwards sled drags. This time, 2 sets of 100’ with the same weight. I figured based off last time, 505lbs was a safe bet to be within the 7-8 RPE range. There was a bit of down time as I needed to setup the course and get the sled and weights and also sweep up the debris in the street. No warm-up or work up sets. In hindsight, I probably need to do something as my knees were super achy and I always seem to be a lot slower on that first set that it isn’t a good gauge of how I can do. However, it might be too much of a pain to do a non-working set with how long it takes to reset the course so maybe backwards treadmill pushing to warm-up in the future might be an option. In either case, that first set felt rough on the knees and the pace was slow but it wasn’t that difficult. Reset the course and did it again and managed to be over 5 seconds faster. Still felt slow but that’s ok. Stretched and cleaned up before heading over to spend time with family.