Mobility Prep
Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x3
425x3
465x5
407x5
407x5
Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x3
425x3
465x5
407x5
407x5
Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (5 seconds eccentrics)
65x3
115x3
165x10
165x10
165x10
65x3
115x3
165x10
165x10
165x10
Seated Safety Squat Bar Upper Back Goodmornings (3 seconds holds)
155x60 seconds
155x60 seconds
155x60 seconds
155x60 seconds
Belt Squat Marches
270x30
360x30
450x30
500x30
270x30
360x30
450x30
500x30
Belt Squat Romanian Deadlifts
180x3
270x3
360x5
450x20
180x3
270x3
360x5
450x20
Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
75x12(6/6)
75x12(6/6)
75x12(6/6)
45x6(3/3)
75x12(6/6)
75x12(6/6)
75x12(6/6)
Quad Fallbacks (17” target, 3 seconds eccentrics)/Seated Calf Raises (3 seconds holds)/Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises
bwx8/55x10/17’sx15
bwx8/60x10/17’sx15
bwx8/65x10/17’sx15
bwx8/55x10/17’sx15
bwx8/60x10/17’sx15
bwx8/65x10/17’sx15
Stretching
Comments: Kind of chuckling to myself reading how I ended my last weekend session with “I hope this doesn’t effect things too much” when I was thinking I only had a bummed wrist. It has effected things a good bit haha. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve only missed a single workout due to it but training has been altered a good bit. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressing me out. I have to take a moment to kind of figure out priorities and decided where to go from here. Not to stop training or doing strongman, more to figure out competition situation for the rest of this year. Pursue it all, pursue some or pursue none. Go into offseason training early and lick my wounds or stay the course and hope that my drive pushes me to greatness. But that is another day as this was training now. I did try to get out to train a little earlier as I would need some help with training since I had to keep the sling on until Monday morning. I can lift hundreds of pounds but I need help put a bar in the rack essentially. I had intended to get gas in my car Thursday when I had to go into the physical office to take out personal effects but that ended up being too stressful that I just wanted to get back home in the nice A/C to focus on my work and eventual training that evening. So I needed to get gas and that took a bit longer with the limitations I had to work with at this time. Then bad traffic at the spots it was expected to be bad and then construction for a few miles on the part of road that I can go fast on. Resulted in a travel time just over an hour when usually it takes under 45 minutes most days. I was again kind of surprised there was this many people there to train. Helped me for the assistance I needed for sure. I was not expecting this kind of turnout since I believe 3 of the members including the one owner were competing today. Knees were a little achy (I also screwed up the order for the mobility prep exercises) from chasing/being chased by my nephews the day before with toy baby strollers, toy swords, a toy mixer and two plastic lobster grabbers. Felt better the second circuit. Hip airplanes feel less taxing and better each time. Right knee has been a little achy since last event training session and possibly from dismounting funny on the box jumps last week. But no issues with doing stuff. So to start things off, it was safety squat bar box squats. Actually, like half the workout was this bar, again. I was told to love this bar until my deadlift strap harness showed up (thankfully it did so I get a little break maybe). The plan was to work up in triples to a tough set of 5 reps to a slightly above parallel box. Setup for today was not ideal as every squat/power rack was in use (even the one I didn’t like) other than the weird one with no safety catches. So I ended up there. I wasn’t too sure what to expect honestly. Since 2018, I haven’t gone over 365lbs on a real back squat of any kind. I did do some hatfield squats but I don’t really count those. I was also not sure how my upper back would handle all this new stress with the ssb work on Tuesday and then weird upper back stuff Thursday to work around. I was fully prepared for 425lbs to be my top set but I realized it was too light but I didn’t think it was wise to go up another 50lbs on these. I asked for a spot on this set since I knew this was going to be close. I initially regretted not going for 475lbs with how light it felt unracking the weight but it was certainly within the correct parameters for the set today with how challenging the last two reps of the set ended up being with wanting to pitch me forward. Then dropped down by 12.5% for 2x5. I did take a bit too much time from the work set to the down set so it was feeling a little heavy initially. Second set felt better. As stated, ssb stuff was just beginning. So next up was gms with the ssb. And of course not that simple, had to make them difficult with accentuated eccentrics over a set of 10 reps. Idea being to hold arch and load hamstrings. These felt easy enough on the hamstrings but where I was definitely lacking was my ability to hold my arch and lower back fatigue over the set. This is something I’ve been aware of but these really highlighted that fact for me. By the end, the bracing was the hardest part of these sets. I do think I’ve gotten better at it and recognizing it and have at least gotten proficient enough to do singles on lifts well enough with a solid brace. Then the last bit of the session involving the ssb. Upper back gms seated. I’ve seen these before but never did them. Seemed like something that would require a good bit of weight but may cause issues with the lower back with compression getting it heavy enough. I was told to use a light weight and to do them for time as opposed for reps. Made it one less number to keep track of here. Hold each “rep” for 3 seconds. I do like the feeling I was getting in the thoracic spine muscles and such as well as my rib cage. Rested two minutes and then did another set. Finally done with the ssb and now on to the other item in the injured lifter toolbox of belt squats. I am not a fan of belt squats with the traction/shearing forces on the lower back. Controlled traction on a machine or with the lower body free (like a pull-up or dip) seems ok. But I think the belt squat machine and variations have use for unique exercises like what I did today. First up was belt squat marches. I’ve only really done these once before but I had a better understanding of what was going on for this second time. I’ve done these as movement prep/mobility stuff with bands but I treat these differently. Same exercise but different intent. I know these are for yoke without putting a burden on my back. And I’m potentially prepping for a very heavy yoke. So the plan for today was work up to a very hard set of 30 steps. I’d been keeping track of my stride count on my working sets of yoke for 50’ and it has been between 26-31 steps so this is about right. Last time, I started at 200lb and made 50lbs jumps. This time, I started at 270lbs and did 90lbs jumps. Heavy, purposeful steps. Not just doing fast happy feet here. Stomping like the T-rex in Jurassic Park. I really wanted to push these today with what I’m limited to right now and I want to get back to really moving big weights on yoke. And I had thought that 450lbs was the high end of things for me. But I still felt I had something left in the tank. I was only to do 3x30 but I wanted to do more. Make it a nice 500lbs. 450lbs and 500lbs were about the same level of difficulty and that was difficult. I started to get that situation when I do heavy moving events and I’m fatigued where my right leg is slowing down and almost stiff legs. Last time I specifically remember that happening was when I was training for a yoke event of 800lbs for 100’ with drop and turn at 50’. So this was comparable to that which is good for me. Much like the step-ups from earlier in the week, I’m curious to what heights I can push these in pursuit of rebuilt half ton yoke. Next up for the belt squat stuff was a new one. Essentially a Romanian deadlift with the belt squat with no hands. I’ve definitely seen people use this with a handle. So this was more of a hip hinge. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I was told to do a set of 15-20 reps and I’d probably end up using about what I peaked at on the belt squat marches. I wasn’t certain of that so I did work up sets. My first set did show me just how easy it was but I didn’t want to go right to all the weight right away without seeing how adding weight felt. And probably a good thing as when I got to 360lbs, the belt squat belt was pinching a nerve where I had it when doing the motion so I had to move it around. I had a spotter for this work set just in case the nerve in the leg got pinched again. It did not. Glutes and hips were worked hard on this set. I didn’t realize how bad until I finished and realized I was kind of having to catch my breath. I think that if I hadn’t been gun shy about the pinching issue, I’d have done 500lbs no problem as well. This session today definitely showed me that it is possible to hit all the deadlift stuff without deadlift but it takes so many things to mimic it and potentially two sessions to do so haha. Then on to not so heavy weights. Hamstrings got a break this week from dual Nordic leg curls. But didn’t mean they got it easy. So the plan here was a 2-1 style with 5 seconds negatives. 12 total reps per set but lowering for 6 reps each leg. The weight was going to be nothing for the concentric part. Now my plan had been to do a nice 90lbs (two plates) here so that I’d be doing essentially 180lbs for the lowering (over 145lbs which is the most I’ve done on lying leg curls so far). But I realized that this was going to be a bridge too far today as the 45lbs was reasonably difficult to do. I think part of it was that my legs aren’t used to accentuated negatives on leg curls, let alone independently. First set the control was very difficult and then it was a good bit better the second and third set. I think that if I end up doing these again, I can go up a good bit. Last bit was a triset. I was not looking forward to doing the quad fallbacks twice in one week. Yes I’m getting better at them but lord are they difficult that very first set. Like the first set is the worst and I question my life choices and then the next two sets it’s like oh yeah, I can do these no problem. I did move my knee cushion out another inch. I was told to do 3ct eccentrics which with how slow and creaky I am, I didn’t need to worry about counting it out that first set as I think I was slower than that. My normal pace seems about that when I get warmed up but I made sure they were on those other two sets. The other partners in this were seated calf raises and tib raises. Seated calf raises were to be with 3RIR and doing 3 seconds contractions. I wasn’t sure what I could do on these as the machine was different from any I have ever used (rounded section for feet) but it was like ergonomically setup. So it was perfect but very difficult. I ended up adding 5lbs each run through. The tib raises were my choice in that I could do them bodyweight or with weights or bands. I elected to do weights with kettlebells. In hindsight, I may have gone too light on them but I wasn’t sure what fatigue would look like for the them after the other stuff. I used 8kgs kettlebells as the 4kgs were way too light but the 12kgs felt like too much. So somewhere in between for next time. Finished up putting stuff away before stretching. I did take the time to stretch my injured arm as the forearm is the point of concern at the moment as far as me feeling comfortable and getting back to standard. Thankfully the drive home was much smoother. Cleaned up and had dinner with family and then iced knees when I got back before bed.
Comments: Kind of chuckling to myself reading how I ended my last weekend session with “I hope this doesn’t effect things too much” when I was thinking I only had a bummed wrist. It has effected things a good bit haha. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve only missed a single workout due to it but training has been altered a good bit. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressing me out. I have to take a moment to kind of figure out priorities and decided where to go from here. Not to stop training or doing strongman, more to figure out competition situation for the rest of this year. Pursue it all, pursue some or pursue none. Go into offseason training early and lick my wounds or stay the course and hope that my drive pushes me to greatness. But that is another day as this was training now. I did try to get out to train a little earlier as I would need some help with training since I had to keep the sling on until Monday morning. I can lift hundreds of pounds but I need help put a bar in the rack essentially. I had intended to get gas in my car Thursday when I had to go into the physical office to take out personal effects but that ended up being too stressful that I just wanted to get back home in the nice A/C to focus on my work and eventual training that evening. So I needed to get gas and that took a bit longer with the limitations I had to work with at this time. Then bad traffic at the spots it was expected to be bad and then construction for a few miles on the part of road that I can go fast on. Resulted in a travel time just over an hour when usually it takes under 45 minutes most days. I was again kind of surprised there was this many people there to train. Helped me for the assistance I needed for sure. I was not expecting this kind of turnout since I believe 3 of the members including the one owner were competing today. Knees were a little achy (I also screwed up the order for the mobility prep exercises) from chasing/being chased by my nephews the day before with toy baby strollers, toy swords, a toy mixer and two plastic lobster grabbers. Felt better the second circuit. Hip airplanes feel less taxing and better each time. Right knee has been a little achy since last event training session and possibly from dismounting funny on the box jumps last week. But no issues with doing stuff. So to start things off, it was safety squat bar box squats. Actually, like half the workout was this bar, again. I was told to love this bar until my deadlift strap harness showed up (thankfully it did so I get a little break maybe). The plan was to work up in triples to a tough set of 5 reps to a slightly above parallel box. Setup for today was not ideal as every squat/power rack was in use (even the one I didn’t like) other than the weird one with no safety catches. So I ended up there. I wasn’t too sure what to expect honestly. Since 2018, I haven’t gone over 365lbs on a real back squat of any kind. I did do some hatfield squats but I don’t really count those. I was also not sure how my upper back would handle all this new stress with the ssb work on Tuesday and then weird upper back stuff Thursday to work around. I was fully prepared for 425lbs to be my top set but I realized it was too light but I didn’t think it was wise to go up another 50lbs on these. I asked for a spot on this set since I knew this was going to be close. I initially regretted not going for 475lbs with how light it felt unracking the weight but it was certainly within the correct parameters for the set today with how challenging the last two reps of the set ended up being with wanting to pitch me forward. Then dropped down by 12.5% for 2x5. I did take a bit too much time from the work set to the down set so it was feeling a little heavy initially. Second set felt better. As stated, ssb stuff was just beginning. So next up was gms with the ssb. And of course not that simple, had to make them difficult with accentuated eccentrics over a set of 10 reps. Idea being to hold arch and load hamstrings. These felt easy enough on the hamstrings but where I was definitely lacking was my ability to hold my arch and lower back fatigue over the set. This is something I’ve been aware of but these really highlighted that fact for me. By the end, the bracing was the hardest part of these sets. I do think I’ve gotten better at it and recognizing it and have at least gotten proficient enough to do singles on lifts well enough with a solid brace. Then the last bit of the session involving the ssb. Upper back gms seated. I’ve seen these before but never did them. Seemed like something that would require a good bit of weight but may cause issues with the lower back with compression getting it heavy enough. I was told to use a light weight and to do them for time as opposed for reps. Made it one less number to keep track of here. Hold each “rep” for 3 seconds. I do like the feeling I was getting in the thoracic spine muscles and such as well as my rib cage. Rested two minutes and then did another set. Finally done with the ssb and now on to the other item in the injured lifter toolbox of belt squats. I am not a fan of belt squats with the traction/shearing forces on the lower back. Controlled traction on a machine or with the lower body free (like a pull-up or dip) seems ok. But I think the belt squat machine and variations have use for unique exercises like what I did today. First up was belt squat marches. I’ve only really done these once before but I had a better understanding of what was going on for this second time. I’ve done these as movement prep/mobility stuff with bands but I treat these differently. Same exercise but different intent. I know these are for yoke without putting a burden on my back. And I’m potentially prepping for a very heavy yoke. So the plan for today was work up to a very hard set of 30 steps. I’d been keeping track of my stride count on my working sets of yoke for 50’ and it has been between 26-31 steps so this is about right. Last time, I started at 200lb and made 50lbs jumps. This time, I started at 270lbs and did 90lbs jumps. Heavy, purposeful steps. Not just doing fast happy feet here. Stomping like the T-rex in Jurassic Park. I really wanted to push these today with what I’m limited to right now and I want to get back to really moving big weights on yoke. And I had thought that 450lbs was the high end of things for me. But I still felt I had something left in the tank. I was only to do 3x30 but I wanted to do more. Make it a nice 500lbs. 450lbs and 500lbs were about the same level of difficulty and that was difficult. I started to get that situation when I do heavy moving events and I’m fatigued where my right leg is slowing down and almost stiff legs. Last time I specifically remember that happening was when I was training for a yoke event of 800lbs for 100’ with drop and turn at 50’. So this was comparable to that which is good for me. Much like the step-ups from earlier in the week, I’m curious to what heights I can push these in pursuit of rebuilt half ton yoke. Next up for the belt squat stuff was a new one. Essentially a Romanian deadlift with the belt squat with no hands. I’ve definitely seen people use this with a handle. So this was more of a hip hinge. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I was told to do a set of 15-20 reps and I’d probably end up using about what I peaked at on the belt squat marches. I wasn’t certain of that so I did work up sets. My first set did show me just how easy it was but I didn’t want to go right to all the weight right away without seeing how adding weight felt. And probably a good thing as when I got to 360lbs, the belt squat belt was pinching a nerve where I had it when doing the motion so I had to move it around. I had a spotter for this work set just in case the nerve in the leg got pinched again. It did not. Glutes and hips were worked hard on this set. I didn’t realize how bad until I finished and realized I was kind of having to catch my breath. I think that if I hadn’t been gun shy about the pinching issue, I’d have done 500lbs no problem as well. This session today definitely showed me that it is possible to hit all the deadlift stuff without deadlift but it takes so many things to mimic it and potentially two sessions to do so haha. Then on to not so heavy weights. Hamstrings got a break this week from dual Nordic leg curls. But didn’t mean they got it easy. So the plan here was a 2-1 style with 5 seconds negatives. 12 total reps per set but lowering for 6 reps each leg. The weight was going to be nothing for the concentric part. Now my plan had been to do a nice 90lbs (two plates) here so that I’d be doing essentially 180lbs for the lowering (over 145lbs which is the most I’ve done on lying leg curls so far). But I realized that this was going to be a bridge too far today as the 45lbs was reasonably difficult to do. I think part of it was that my legs aren’t used to accentuated negatives on leg curls, let alone independently. First set the control was very difficult and then it was a good bit better the second and third set. I think that if I end up doing these again, I can go up a good bit. Last bit was a triset. I was not looking forward to doing the quad fallbacks twice in one week. Yes I’m getting better at them but lord are they difficult that very first set. Like the first set is the worst and I question my life choices and then the next two sets it’s like oh yeah, I can do these no problem. I did move my knee cushion out another inch. I was told to do 3ct eccentrics which with how slow and creaky I am, I didn’t need to worry about counting it out that first set as I think I was slower than that. My normal pace seems about that when I get warmed up but I made sure they were on those other two sets. The other partners in this were seated calf raises and tib raises. Seated calf raises were to be with 3RIR and doing 3 seconds contractions. I wasn’t sure what I could do on these as the machine was different from any I have ever used (rounded section for feet) but it was like ergonomically setup. So it was perfect but very difficult. I ended up adding 5lbs each run through. The tib raises were my choice in that I could do them bodyweight or with weights or bands. I elected to do weights with kettlebells. In hindsight, I may have gone too light on them but I wasn’t sure what fatigue would look like for the them after the other stuff. I used 8kgs kettlebells as the 4kgs were way too light but the 12kgs felt like too much. So somewhere in between for next time. Finished up putting stuff away before stretching. I did take the time to stretch my injured arm as the forearm is the point of concern at the moment as far as me feeling comfortable and getting back to standard. Thankfully the drive home was much smoother. Cleaned up and had dinner with family and then iced knees when I got back before bed.
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