Mobility Prep
Sandbag Tosses (15’)
30x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
50x1
45x2
40x2
40x2
Sandbag Tosses (15’)
30x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
50x1
45x2
40x2
40x2
Safety Squat Bar Dead Squats (2” above parallel)
65x10
155x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x2
405x2
405x2
360x12
65x10
155x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x2
405x2
405x2
360x12
Wide Grip Pendlay Rows
75x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
185x3
235x3
265x6
275x6
285x6
75x3
95x3
115x3
135x3
185x3
235x3
265x6
275x6
285x6
Keg Carries
175x25’
175x25’
200x25’
200x25’
225x5’
225x5’
250x50’ in 8.09 seconds
250x50’ in 8.33 seconds
250x50’ in 8.16 seconds
250x100’ in 16.01 seconds (turn at 50’)
175x25’
175x25’
200x25’
200x25’
225x5’
225x5’
250x50’ in 8.09 seconds
250x50’ in 8.33 seconds
250x50’ in 8.16 seconds
250x100’ in 16.01 seconds (turn at 50’)
Glute Ham Raises
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6
Yoke Pushes (turf)
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
250x50’
Stretching
Comments: Things weren’t feeling great Friday. The joints that achy were achy and my shoulders, traps and neck were unreasonably stiff and sore. Soft tissue work helped some but it wasn’t enough to put me at ease so I did take some anti-inflammatories (like half of what I normally would use) and a muscle relaxer to make sure I slept within waking up from tossing and turning in my sleep like I do. And hopefully let rest help with it and give it a chance to settle down. Seemed to be mostly good. Made good time out to train. Sun was oppressive today but thankfully what I needed to do outside was limited to just sandbag toss and it was lower volume stuff. I setup the sandbag toss setup first before I started doing my warm-ups. Made this a lot easier figuring out how to make the band taut without needing to use a ladder. Movement prep remains about the same. Discomfort on the right knee for the stepdowns, discomfort on the left knee for the Cossack squats and lower back pump from the other two haha. The discomfort part does seem to lessen the second go through but the back pump remains. So on to the weekly sandbag toss it would seem. Did half tosses (essentially using only like 50% to get a feel for how it handles and moves and work some dynamic movement) with the 30lbs, 40lbs and 50lbs and then like 2-3 reps of kettlebell swings with the 32kgs. Trying to get my warm-ups down to the most efficient. Always thinking about both for the session at hand and what might end up being the case at a competition. I was feeling anxious here because the goal was 50lbs over 15’ and then do doubles with other bags to that height. Both of those had me nervous. I wanted to be confident that it would happen. 30lbs went over like nothing (though it didn’t feel like it with the sun in my eyes tracking it) and 40lbs and 45lbs went over as well but not with so much clearance that I thought I had a real shot at 50lbs. I got set and gave it my best. And it went over. Didn’t even graze the band. I was thrilled with that. Second toss with it didn’t go as great. Smacked right into the band and I initially thought it went under so I gave another attempt but it was halfhearted and barely went up. However, looking at the video, the sandbag did smack into the band but it kept going up and went over. Not pretty but it would’ve counted in a competition. I know I won’t be that lucky with the setup I believe will be used at the competition as I think that is thick PVC pipe. Then the next thing was doubles. I was nervous about these too but different reason. Not that I wouldn’t get the first toss but that I wouldn’t get the second toss. I seem to be good with singles but my experience with training for USS Nats 2019 was that I didn’t do so hot doing several in a row. At least not at these weights as I seemed ok with launching light kegs in competition despite only having one to train on. The intent here was to train for having another shot if I miss a throw due to trajectory. So with that in mind, my guidelines were to do two tosses within the attempt time limit (30 seconds) and that I’d bring the sandbag back to the front rather than toss from the other side. No rush and plenty of time. No issues here. If anything, these felt better than some of the tosses I had working up to the 50lbs. So this was a great start to the day. Tore down the stuff to get on with the workout. SSB rack squats yet again. Uncertain if this will be the trend but this appeared to mirror two weeks prior. First week was work up to 5rm and then do some down sets, second week was do several work sets and then do an AMRAP with a decent weight taken off. Last week had been 4rm and down sets and now this week was again several work sets with an AMRAP. For whatever reason, this session feels tougher than the previous. Like, the top set of the previous week feels like maybe I went too light whereas this week, it all feels insanely heavy, until the AMRAP. Probably didn’t help that my knees were just not happy with doing these today. Felt damn heavy despite some reps looking fast per the camera. But even the camera was saying some of those reps were slow going. With how I was feeling, wasn’t expecting much for the AMRAP. 10lbs more than last time. But it felt light. I probably should’ve stopped at 11 reps but I wanted to match last time. Form broke down a little there but I got. Still probably had 2 reps there but they wouldn’t have been pretty ones as my lower back was cooked. This time, I didn’t screw up the exercise order and did rows. The exercise for today was wide grip pendlay rows. Advised no hard belt and my choice if I wanted to use straps or not. I elected no straps for the added grip work since not putting as much stress on that now that not doing off season training rotation. So I haven’t done rows without something supporting my back with both arms other than rows with sandbags or stone of steel. So I had no real idea what I’d be working with today. I mean, the parts have gotten stronger since I’ve done these (rarely did them with a wide grip though) but the parts don’t always make a whole if one of the links is still not up to standard. My lower back was tight after the squat AMRAP so I started super-duper light, using bumper plates. Plan was to do 3x6 with something that was RPE 7-8 and work up in triples. I started with just 75lbs and did 20lbs jumps up until 135lbs. By that point, my lower back was recovered enough and I felt like I was getting the form down to go with bigger jumps. Made 50lbs jumps after that and decided to go with 265lbs for my first set and see how it went. These actually felt pretty good and just added 10lbs each set. So next up was keg carries. Two weeks ago I spent a lot of time figuring out how to replicate a fire hydrant carry. Now that it has been “revealed” that it will be either 150lbs or 180lbs, specificity isn’t really that important right now. So for today, the plan was runs with 250lbs keg. Three sets of 50’ and one set of 100’ with a turn and come back at 50’. I was advised to carry in a way that could simulate how I’d carry a fire hydrant but also be safest for biceps. With the diameter of the keg being much larger than the theoretical fire hydrant, carrying it like I did my makeshift fire hydrant wouldn’t be a great option. My thinking is if more specificity, I will use a block with light weight as that might be closer to grip wise. My contest 6 weeks after this one has a keg carry medley (literally the same thing as medley for this show with fire hydrant swapped out) so I went with my go to style of carrying a keg when I got to go fast. I did a little bit of a different warm-up than I’ve done in the past for front carries. Honestly, it has been very minimal in the past as I feel like I’d get burned out from numerous picks and sprints. And to save time. However, I noticed this past ways of doing things may not have been the smartest or best. It could be why my right knee gave me fits many months ago that made me take a break. Going from nothing to everything with (in the words of Derek Poundstone) “I’ll be plenty warm a few steps in” is for only unique circumstances. And with how slow I felt I was during the month or so of off season training when doing a front carry, I figured I needed time to get back into it. However, the previous session with short distance front carries had me thinking maybe I just need to move a bit more. So taking part of that from that session and past few duck walk sessions, I did a combo of short half course runs and even shorter essentially pick and go. This was definitely needed. Like the very first set with the 175lbs keg felt terrible but as I got going, my legs and knees felt better and I was able to move more efficiently. Now I don’t really have a frame of reference when it comes to 50’ runs with a keg for time as most of what I’ve done that has been timed is either parts of medleys or longer distance. So not sure if these are slow or personal bests or in-between. But averaging just over 8 seconds. I felt slow on the longer set but it actually was quite good considering. I do have a log from when I last did this weight for distance like this and I was over a second slower then at the first week of trying so that should mean good things here. Then glute ham raises. These are super difficult but I know that they will help me get my hamstrings up and back to the levels when I was setting deadlift PRs and lifting stones like nothing (more so than I currently do). I’ve been liking the negatives to awaken things but the actual movement was going to be tough. The plan was to do 3 sets of as many as I could with 2RIR each set. I asked what the minimum was as I had my doubts I could even do one rep. I was advised that at least 6 and if not, either add some kind of band to assist or use the assisted manual leg curl machine. Well I didn’t want to use that machine haha. So my goal was to do 3x6 and survive. I at least made the negatives look good. I had maybe two reps that were ideal, others I was having hip hinging. I just don’t have that strength yet and it will need work and I’m willing to do it. I was advised I could do slow negatives after getting six reps but I decided not to as I wanted to make sure I could actually do 6 reps on each set first. So then on to the final thing of the day was the sled/yoke push again. Same weight but this time for 7 sets. So I was ready for this. I guess too ready as I made this look way too easy. Literally every set but one was under 15 seconds to complete. Hell, the last set I guess I got super motivated and made it my fastest one yet. So that is good that my conditioning is improving but I guess the difficult will need to be adjusted too haha. Ended up stretching before driving home to relax before eating pot roast for dinner. Workout seemed to get finished an hour earlier than previously. Ended up icing my knees twice before bed. Nine weeks out now.
Comments: Things weren’t feeling great Friday. The joints that achy were achy and my shoulders, traps and neck were unreasonably stiff and sore. Soft tissue work helped some but it wasn’t enough to put me at ease so I did take some anti-inflammatories (like half of what I normally would use) and a muscle relaxer to make sure I slept within waking up from tossing and turning in my sleep like I do. And hopefully let rest help with it and give it a chance to settle down. Seemed to be mostly good. Made good time out to train. Sun was oppressive today but thankfully what I needed to do outside was limited to just sandbag toss and it was lower volume stuff. I setup the sandbag toss setup first before I started doing my warm-ups. Made this a lot easier figuring out how to make the band taut without needing to use a ladder. Movement prep remains about the same. Discomfort on the right knee for the stepdowns, discomfort on the left knee for the Cossack squats and lower back pump from the other two haha. The discomfort part does seem to lessen the second go through but the back pump remains. So on to the weekly sandbag toss it would seem. Did half tosses (essentially using only like 50% to get a feel for how it handles and moves and work some dynamic movement) with the 30lbs, 40lbs and 50lbs and then like 2-3 reps of kettlebell swings with the 32kgs. Trying to get my warm-ups down to the most efficient. Always thinking about both for the session at hand and what might end up being the case at a competition. I was feeling anxious here because the goal was 50lbs over 15’ and then do doubles with other bags to that height. Both of those had me nervous. I wanted to be confident that it would happen. 30lbs went over like nothing (though it didn’t feel like it with the sun in my eyes tracking it) and 40lbs and 45lbs went over as well but not with so much clearance that I thought I had a real shot at 50lbs. I got set and gave it my best. And it went over. Didn’t even graze the band. I was thrilled with that. Second toss with it didn’t go as great. Smacked right into the band and I initially thought it went under so I gave another attempt but it was halfhearted and barely went up. However, looking at the video, the sandbag did smack into the band but it kept going up and went over. Not pretty but it would’ve counted in a competition. I know I won’t be that lucky with the setup I believe will be used at the competition as I think that is thick PVC pipe. Then the next thing was doubles. I was nervous about these too but different reason. Not that I wouldn’t get the first toss but that I wouldn’t get the second toss. I seem to be good with singles but my experience with training for USS Nats 2019 was that I didn’t do so hot doing several in a row. At least not at these weights as I seemed ok with launching light kegs in competition despite only having one to train on. The intent here was to train for having another shot if I miss a throw due to trajectory. So with that in mind, my guidelines were to do two tosses within the attempt time limit (30 seconds) and that I’d bring the sandbag back to the front rather than toss from the other side. No rush and plenty of time. No issues here. If anything, these felt better than some of the tosses I had working up to the 50lbs. So this was a great start to the day. Tore down the stuff to get on with the workout. SSB rack squats yet again. Uncertain if this will be the trend but this appeared to mirror two weeks prior. First week was work up to 5rm and then do some down sets, second week was do several work sets and then do an AMRAP with a decent weight taken off. Last week had been 4rm and down sets and now this week was again several work sets with an AMRAP. For whatever reason, this session feels tougher than the previous. Like, the top set of the previous week feels like maybe I went too light whereas this week, it all feels insanely heavy, until the AMRAP. Probably didn’t help that my knees were just not happy with doing these today. Felt damn heavy despite some reps looking fast per the camera. But even the camera was saying some of those reps were slow going. With how I was feeling, wasn’t expecting much for the AMRAP. 10lbs more than last time. But it felt light. I probably should’ve stopped at 11 reps but I wanted to match last time. Form broke down a little there but I got. Still probably had 2 reps there but they wouldn’t have been pretty ones as my lower back was cooked. This time, I didn’t screw up the exercise order and did rows. The exercise for today was wide grip pendlay rows. Advised no hard belt and my choice if I wanted to use straps or not. I elected no straps for the added grip work since not putting as much stress on that now that not doing off season training rotation. So I haven’t done rows without something supporting my back with both arms other than rows with sandbags or stone of steel. So I had no real idea what I’d be working with today. I mean, the parts have gotten stronger since I’ve done these (rarely did them with a wide grip though) but the parts don’t always make a whole if one of the links is still not up to standard. My lower back was tight after the squat AMRAP so I started super-duper light, using bumper plates. Plan was to do 3x6 with something that was RPE 7-8 and work up in triples. I started with just 75lbs and did 20lbs jumps up until 135lbs. By that point, my lower back was recovered enough and I felt like I was getting the form down to go with bigger jumps. Made 50lbs jumps after that and decided to go with 265lbs for my first set and see how it went. These actually felt pretty good and just added 10lbs each set. So next up was keg carries. Two weeks ago I spent a lot of time figuring out how to replicate a fire hydrant carry. Now that it has been “revealed” that it will be either 150lbs or 180lbs, specificity isn’t really that important right now. So for today, the plan was runs with 250lbs keg. Three sets of 50’ and one set of 100’ with a turn and come back at 50’. I was advised to carry in a way that could simulate how I’d carry a fire hydrant but also be safest for biceps. With the diameter of the keg being much larger than the theoretical fire hydrant, carrying it like I did my makeshift fire hydrant wouldn’t be a great option. My thinking is if more specificity, I will use a block with light weight as that might be closer to grip wise. My contest 6 weeks after this one has a keg carry medley (literally the same thing as medley for this show with fire hydrant swapped out) so I went with my go to style of carrying a keg when I got to go fast. I did a little bit of a different warm-up than I’ve done in the past for front carries. Honestly, it has been very minimal in the past as I feel like I’d get burned out from numerous picks and sprints. And to save time. However, I noticed this past ways of doing things may not have been the smartest or best. It could be why my right knee gave me fits many months ago that made me take a break. Going from nothing to everything with (in the words of Derek Poundstone) “I’ll be plenty warm a few steps in” is for only unique circumstances. And with how slow I felt I was during the month or so of off season training when doing a front carry, I figured I needed time to get back into it. However, the previous session with short distance front carries had me thinking maybe I just need to move a bit more. So taking part of that from that session and past few duck walk sessions, I did a combo of short half course runs and even shorter essentially pick and go. This was definitely needed. Like the very first set with the 175lbs keg felt terrible but as I got going, my legs and knees felt better and I was able to move more efficiently. Now I don’t really have a frame of reference when it comes to 50’ runs with a keg for time as most of what I’ve done that has been timed is either parts of medleys or longer distance. So not sure if these are slow or personal bests or in-between. But averaging just over 8 seconds. I felt slow on the longer set but it actually was quite good considering. I do have a log from when I last did this weight for distance like this and I was over a second slower then at the first week of trying so that should mean good things here. Then glute ham raises. These are super difficult but I know that they will help me get my hamstrings up and back to the levels when I was setting deadlift PRs and lifting stones like nothing (more so than I currently do). I’ve been liking the negatives to awaken things but the actual movement was going to be tough. The plan was to do 3 sets of as many as I could with 2RIR each set. I asked what the minimum was as I had my doubts I could even do one rep. I was advised that at least 6 and if not, either add some kind of band to assist or use the assisted manual leg curl machine. Well I didn’t want to use that machine haha. So my goal was to do 3x6 and survive. I at least made the negatives look good. I had maybe two reps that were ideal, others I was having hip hinging. I just don’t have that strength yet and it will need work and I’m willing to do it. I was advised I could do slow negatives after getting six reps but I decided not to as I wanted to make sure I could actually do 6 reps on each set first. So then on to the final thing of the day was the sled/yoke push again. Same weight but this time for 7 sets. So I was ready for this. I guess too ready as I made this look way too easy. Literally every set but one was under 15 seconds to complete. Hell, the last set I guess I got super motivated and made it my fastest one yet. So that is good that my conditioning is improving but I guess the difficult will need to be adjusted too haha. Ended up stretching before driving home to relax before eating pot roast for dinner. Workout seemed to get finished an hour earlier than previously. Ended up icing my knees twice before bed. Nine weeks out now.
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