Mobility Prep
Sandbag Tosses (15’)
30x1
35x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1
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
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
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
230x1
285x1
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x2
310x8
Glute Ham Raise Negatives (5 seconds)
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
Backward Sled Drags (turf, uphill)
320x100’ in 46.30 seconds
320x100’ in 44.86 seconds
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.
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.
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