October 30, 2021 – Week 3, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Seated Leg Curls
20x10
40x10
60x10
100x5
140x15
150x15
160x15

Paused Band TKEs (1 second)
sbx15/15
sbx15/15

Lateral Step Downs 
bwx5/5 (12”)
bwx5/5 (16”)
bwx5/5(20”)
bwx10/10(24”)
bwx10/10 (24”)

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
275x5
275x5
275x5
275x5

Reverse Band Hack Squats (LB’s)
emptyx5
+50x5
+90x5
+140x5
+180x5
+230x5
+270x5
+320x12
+270x12
+270x12

Sandbag Roll-ups
150x3
170x3
200x3
225x3
250x3
275x8
275x8
275x8

Backwards Hip Belt Sled Drags
335x100’
435x100’
535x100’

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: Stress at work and just general bs in the amateur side of the sport made for an interesting week. Just a lot of uncertainty. Work stuff not nearly as bad as last week. The extra wrinkle of frustration was that my video editing stuff is giving me a ton of problems as of late and after trying for almost three days to get Thursday’s session processed, I just gave up on it. Computer is on its last legs as it had been lucky this one even worked after my other one (equally as old) had up and died. So hopefully the new computer arrives soon and I can get back to normally schedule programming. I’ll go back and try and upload for the sessions that end up getting missed. Still going to try to edit stuff in the meantime. I didn’t sleep in nearly as late today. I wanted to give the video editing thing another shot before I went. No go. I hadn’t done anything the day before as it was raining off and on pretty hard so no walking and I didn’t really have focus to do soft tissue work. So showing up at the gym at a somewhat reasonable hour meant I got to see a lot of my friends that train there. Balance still needs work. Workout altered a bit to try and let the leg thing heal. So rather than inverse curls, it was seated curls. Plan being to do 3x15 with increasing weight. Trying to be controlled so as not to aggravate things. Been a while since I’ve done seated leg curls (years) and I’ve never used the one at the gym before so I had to do a bit of testing. Which meant low weight and high reps to see how the movement felt. I started too light with the high reps I feel and was making small jumps at the start with it. I didn’t want to do a million reps to get ready so I took a bigger jump to see what I thought I’d be good with. I thought at first that I had picked too heavy a starting weight but by the end of it, I felt I was too light but that is ok with the irritation and being a new exercise. What I found that seemed to feel better with these (speed of movement didn’t seem to change how things felt, more weight related) was leaning forward on the contraction and back on the eccentric. Made it rhythmic for me. Next was TKE’s. Since not the step up version, I could do these with the strong band. 2x15 each side and I figured I’d do them back to back. Hold time not specified so I just did 1 second (I’ve done 3 seconds in the past) as it said to focus on a hard contraction. One of the things I had thought about with that regard was lifting my toes up so that my heel is the point of contact to increase the contraction. That seemed to do well. Though it wasn’t without issues haha. There were two little girls playing nearby in the crash pads and had made a bit tower out of them. One them then said “help me, I’m trapped” or something and I looked over out of concern and almost lost balance. Kids and their games. Easy fix is just do these at another spot with turf so that I have better traction (this was the rubber matting). Next was the return of a unilateral exercise from PA’s Strongest prep; lateral stepdowns. Only guidelines for this was to make them challenging enough that I felt my hips and ankles working to stabilize. 2x10 with bodyweight. I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did on these. Maybe the knee sleeves help get that feeling of the knees being crap or giving leave my head. I started low height and did more reps than I usually would to warm-up. Knees were creaky on the lower heights at first. I figured 20” was going to be my limits really after not doing them for a while and with how the knees have been temperamental since last cycle but I felt a good rhythm. Usually I’d do a single for the working height as that seemed to get the jitters out but I felt like it would be wasted energy and I was ready so I went for it with my PR height and did it quite easily. Then it was ssb squats. I had been advised here that plan is trying to alternate which of the two squats (ssb and hack) are to be pushed each week right now and hacks were the ones to be pushed this time. Not to say not making ssb stuff challenging. No tempo but still pauses. 2-3 for 4x5. I went with 3 seconds. Not sure if the addition of the stepdowns made a difference but I felt like my hips made deeper squats more comfortable. I had noticed that depth on pauses last week seemed to be higher than I thought they were. I have the mobility but my worry is that I’ll go down too far where I’m not keeping tension and relaxing on my calves. But squats are a training exercise for strongman in most cases and I’m getting all the points covered in one way or the other. Obviously if an event requires a squat, that will be to perfection. Next up was hack squats. This week same setup and work up in 5’s to a top set of 10-12 with the even tempo I’ve been doing. Then drop the weight down 15-20% for 2 sets, matching the reps of the top set. I took quarter-plate jumps as my plan was to do 320lbs added to the machine and this would hopefully give me an idea of how things were going. I feel that I probably had more in me for today. Probably not another 40lbs jump to stick to the parameters (maybe the lower rep end but cutting it close). It is good to see this progressing. Down sets were pretty easy, mostly just waiting until I had my lungs back. I’ll admit that some rest breaks went quite a bit longer than others today as I’d end up chatting with friends about stuff (strongman drama and technique help). I’ve apparently been good as I got to do some event specificity after that. Roll-ups for 3x8 with warming up how I felt I needed in triples. It said sandbag but indicated I could use a keg as well. With my planned contest being sandbag to shoulder medley, I elected to do the sandbag. Also less likely to get bruising on my arms compared to picking and lapping a keg. I wasn’t too sure how these would go. Left leg gets tight and picking up a sandbag is a lot of hamstring. I also wasn’t too sure how things would feel with the extensions. I was to control them back to the lap and explode up, leaving 3RIR. The picks being the tough part. Balance is a little tricky to keep this as a constant movement. But the rolling up was pretty easy. I had thought 250lbs would be where I was but it was way too light once I did my first extension with it (it’s a nice grippy and packed bag) so I went up to the tougher 275lbs bag. I was tempted to go up to the 306lbs bag (imagine the confidence of doing multiple sets with the heaviest bag in the series) but thought better of it as I needed to leave reps in the tank, this was the first time doing this exercise, and I know both the 275lbs and 306lbs bag are deceptively tough. I feel like the first and last set were the best of the sets. Maybe the last set getting the edge. Second set not as good. Up next was sled work. Departure from the 5 minutes stuff and back to heavy for a short distance. 3x100’ with increasing weight each set. Outside to get enough distance (plus the slight uphill/downhill on turf would make things tough). This was also not the competition style with hold it in the hands. Advised to make this lower body and use a belt squat belt harness. The patch of concrete is uneven so it is tricky to gauge stuff but I figured I could get it to work. So started with what I figured would be nice weight. Unlike when I have my hands, the start isn’t as smooth as far as using a chain through the body to break the inertia. I think I forget that sometimes as the weight isn’t that heavy to be able to do it for 5 minute straight like I’ve been doing. So I initially thought I overestimated what I could do but once I figured out it wasn’t a fast start, it felt like I went too light. So I went up 100lbs for the next set. Felt decent, some spots where I slowed down with the uneven pavement. I felt I could do it with another 100lbs. No more room for plates so I put a 100lbs keg on top of the sled. Fit right in the rim of the 100lbs plate at the top so it was secure. This was tougher than I expected. Just hitting those rough patches would bring me to a halt but not like enough of one that I had restart or stop from exhaustion. Just made it a tough set. But I got it done. Last item for the workout was the quad fallbacks. 2 sets of 6-12 leaving reps in the tank. Now that I’ve got these figured out finally, I felt that the top range wasn’t a problem. The left leg doesn’t care to be in the position to start initially so I did a practice rep (partial) before I really committed to it. Stretch felt good. No knee pain on these. Second set Teegan the dog came up beside me so I of course I gave her pets while I was doing the set. I can multitask. After putting everything away, I decided I should drive home and stretch there so that I could be home and not have to worry about traffic delaying me. Stretched out and cleaned up before having dinner with my parents. Got soft tissue work done and iced my knees before bed.

October 28, 2021 – Week 3, Day 3

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds eccentrics)
87x10
97x9
107x8
117x7
127x6
137x5
147x4
157x3
180x8
180x8
160x8 
160x12

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
10’x5
40’x5
60’sx5
75’sx5
90’sx5
110’sx8
95’sx8
95’sx8

Bench Dips (Feet Elevated)
bwx10
bwx10
bw+35x12
bw+35x12
bw+35x18

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Paused Band Face Pulls (1 second)
25x15/15 – abx15
25x15/15 – abx15
25x15/15 – abx15

Close Grip Push-ups (3 second negatives)
bw+26x15
bwx17

Stretching
 
Comments: Trying to keep allergies in check. Same with work stress. I think I’m managing. Starting point of the session was bands superset. Pec flyes with pull-aparts. First set isn’t bad but the second set of these gets tough. Hard to tell if my fatigue between sets was greater than last week. Still better than the first week. So on to log incline bench presses. Continuing with the 3 second eccentrics. Plan this week was work up to 180x2x8, take off 20lbs for another set of 8 and then go for max reps (1-2RIR). I decided to do the same reps and sets for the pyramid as last week. I feel like my right shoulder fatigue was greater compared to last week but not near what it was the first week. This week, it wasn’t specified for the 2 minute rests between sets but I decided to do that for the work sets. I was expecting to get 12-13 within parameters. Called it early so I didn’t have any possible missed rep situations or needing to rest pause or have nothing left in the tank like last week. It is really getting dark (I know the DLS is ending soon) but at least it seems cold enough to limit mosquitos. From there it was on to dumbbell rows again. Control being the name of the game. So for this session, I was to work up on 5’s to a top set of 8-12 with 1-2RIR with the holds. Using the bigger plates. Thankfully they don’t really seem to effect the ROM that much. I had thought that 90’s would be a good working weight but that set of 5 felt way too easy. I went up 20lbs from that which I think was too big a jump for what I wanted as I was aiming for the higher end of the rep range still. Just got in with the 8 reps on this. These can be quite exhausting and as the down sets with it dropped 15% were still quite tough. On the last set, I was of enough presence of mind to manipulate the dumbbells in a way the allowed for fuller ROM, keeping the plates from hitting the bench chest support early. Bench dips were after that. Same warming up as last time. That first set just feels so much tougher than the second. Like, maybe I’m not going to get through these. And then I’m all good on the second warm-up set. With how the backpack worked out for the feet-elevated pull-ups, I figured it would be a rousing success here as well for loading weight as opposed to laying on the lap directly. It was. Keeping control on these too. Keeping reps in reserve for the last set which was for max reps this time. The lockouts get tough on these. Back outside for the shoulder supersets. Leaning side laterals with band face pulls. I figured I’d go up just a little bit on the side laterals. The suggestion with the face pulls was to work on increasing the hold times for the reps up to 3ct before increasing the band tension. I had done just a brief pause last week and the plan this week was to aim for 1 second holds. Definitely gets tough. I can go heavier on the laterals I think but I need to progress with small amounts to be smart about it as the band face pulls get a ton harder with holds, especially longer holds. Last item for the session was back in the garage. The close grip push-ups with the accentuated eccentrics. Elected to use the backpack here rather than the chain vest method. It works a lot better. So goal was max reps with reps left in the tank (1-2RIR) with weight that first set and then no weight the second. I managed to match what I did on the first set with 4lbs more this week. Second set without weight I got more reps total but I was kind of surprised that I only got 17 reps. I guess it just how it is when I’m doing these close grip and adding the negatives like this. I was able to do near 40 reps without slowing things down. Put stuff away before eating dinner and then stretching.

October 26, 2021 – Week 3, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Seated Band Hamstring Curls (3-3-0-0 tempo)
ab’sx20
ab’sx20
ab’sx20

Wide Grip Romanian Deadlifts (5 seconds negative, straps, no hard belt)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
265x3
305x8
305x8
305x8
245x17

Walking Lunges
bwx12/12
bwx12/12
bwx12/12

Paused Copenhagen Plank Lifts (2 seconds)
bwx10/10 (7 seconds hold last rep)
bwx10/10 (9 seconds hold last rep)
bwx10/10 (3 seconds hold each rep)

Nordic Curls (self-assist on concentrics)
bwx0 (attempted but too much pain)

Paused Standing Band Hip Adductions (1 second)/Hanging L-Sits
mbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
mmb+µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds

Stretching
  
Comments: Things have been a lot less stressful so far this week. Maybe because there aren’t as many fires to put out or maybe me realizing that I was stressing myself into illness is letting me watch and catch the signs and course correct. Raining last night so allergies were acting up but took appropriate meds for that so I was good. Getting cold and windy now. As for my body, left leg thingy still happening but seems to not be as present. Tried to get working out as soon as I finished work as I knew this could a be longer session. Mobility stuff was good. Feeling some DOMS in the quads still from Saturday. Left knee was feeling achy which was a little odd. Not pain or anything, just an ache. After that it was on banded leg curls with tempo applied to the contraction and eccentric. Same as last week with the tempo and aiming for 3x15-20. But I was told to push it more on these compared to last week. So I upped the band tension considerably. I wasn’t sure how the left leg would like these as hamstring stuff involving knee flexion seemed to irritate things on Saturday. It did on these but not as much as other things have and I seemed to get used to it as I did them. Discomfort was minimal and hard to say if that if from getting used to it or endorphins from training or just other factors. But they felt good and I was surprised that I was able to do this increased band tension and match reps from last week and still be within the parameters of difficulty set. Wide grip rdls up next. Same 5 second eccentrics and brief pauses. Plan was to warm-up and then do 3x8 followed by a max rep set. Left leg tight but no pain or discomfort from doing these. The added weight was noticed. Actual lifting of the weight was pretty easy, just that control for these reps. Down set I knew was going to suck. It was going to be a lot of time under tension and odds were that it would be the upper body that would go before the lower body did with the amount of time. Even with straps, the forearms and grip get fatigued. Upper back also gets fatigued and when it goes, gripping stuff becomes a lot harder too. I know that is something that I’ll need to consider and put some attention to get my numbers higher on a grip hold event for time (I’m good but I could be better). But I hit the goal I was expecting to hit based off my own little guessing game. Into the streets for lunges. All the lights and caution stuff. This time, I did some mobility things before doing the exercise. Sat in a full squat for a little and did some knees over toes getting the ankles good and ready as well as making sure the leg discomfort wasn’t going to be a problem. Advice for this week was to stick to bodyweight and to slow down the movement if I could to increase difficult and to troubleshoot sore spots in the ROM. So I slowed things down and tried to get a smooth motion and work on getting the stride longer. These felt good on all sets. Only had a slight stumble in my tempo near the end of the last set when a strong gust of wind caught me off guard. Into the garage for the copenhagen stuff. Advised to adjust hold times to make harder if needed. So for the first two sets, I did 2 seconds like last week and then a longer hold on the last set. I think I did shorter hold the first set as after looking at the video, I lost count and I think I did like 13 reps instead of 10 that first set. Second set felt easier so rather than stick to the same for the last set, I did 3 second holds per rep. I knew that 5 second holds with this setup would be too much. Nordic curls were next. At least that was the plan. I wasn’t sure how these would go after last week. Plan was again 3x6 with bodyweight. There was discomfort but I was able to do everything last week after it. Went for that first one and just sharp pain in the left leg and couldn’t initiate the concentric. Took a few minutes to assess things and make sure I was ok. Called it there on that. Having pain isn’t lucky but this is lucky in that I didn’t make things worse or hurt myself to the point of needing to go to urgent care. I’m not entirely sure what is up. I felt it was best to just move on to the last thing for the evening rather than try to do a substitute exercise with my left leg irritated from that. So last thing was the superset of standing band hip adductions and hanging l-sits again. Advised this time to add a slight pause on the hip adductions and try to not rotate torso. It was raining slightly so I stuck to the garage for the bands. I also didn’t want to not use the Nordic curl setup since it uses a ton of weights. I have an ideal anchor for these. So I figured the best way to do these was to have something to brace my upper body with so that all the focus would be on the leg motion. That upside of that was by eliminating the balancing aspect, I could increase the band tension substantially from what I had last week. I also went with 1 second pauses as well and increased the band tension each set. Wiped down the squat rack each time for the hanging abs. Right shoulder seemed to be less irritated by these this week. I think the shoulder is finally getting better and recovering from whatever from the last contest. A bit annoyed I had to stop on the Nordic curls. I think they are just too much without assistance right now with the other things I do for hamstrings. Maybe in the future but not right now with what is going on. Ate dinner after putting all the weights away. Iced knees and left leg before bed. Took a few anti-inflammatories to see if that calmed things down in the leg after irritating it.

October 25, 2021 – Week 3, Day 1

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
26’sx20/10’sx20
26’sx20/10’sx20

Barbell Strict Presses (beltless)
45x5
95x5
135x3
170x3
202x3
202x3
202x3

Barbell Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (2 seconds, beltless)
160x5
160x5
160x5

Paused Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings, 1 second)
bwx5
bw+20x3
bw+35x10
bw+35x10
bw+35x10

Feet Up Close Grip Bench Presses
45x10
85x9
115x8
145x7
175x6
200x5
225x8
225x8
205x17

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Lat Pulldowns (2 seconds)
abx10/10
sbx5/5
sb+abx15/15
sb+abx15/15

Paused Push Ups on Kettlebells (2 seconds)
bwx23 PR+4 reps
bwx19

Band Triceps Pressdowns/Band Biceps Curls
sbx30/mmb’sx30
sbx30/mmb’sx30

Stretching
  
Comments: Needed the weekend to recover from the stressful work week. Going to keep an eye on that stuff and act accordingly going forward. Not let it get to me if I can help it. Disassociate if needed. It is just a job and even me working at 1% is better than just about everyone else’s 100%. In things that matter, the left leg thing still present. Again, not entirely sure what it is but I think it is strained tendons/ligaments or something from the Nordic curls. Some stuff is still tender. I should be grateful that it doesn’t affect me doing day to day stuff. Hard to say if it is getting better or not as I’m not frequently in the ranges that seem to get irritated until I do training stuff. Just have to treat it like the other overuse things as best I can. Starting things off with the dumbbell raises for shoulders. Not getting any easier. Last time was probably a bit fresher seeing as only had one mostly normal intensity upper body workout whereas this one now has a full week of it down. These are tough. I at least feel like I paced myself better on the second set as I didn’t have to take a breather during the set to let the fatigue leave my shoulders. No plans to go up in weight on these at this rep range. Weights are still challenging. From there on to standing pressing outside in the rack. Same as last week but some changes. No belt still and same kind of warming up. Three working sets and to notate how the RIR feels at the end. But this time 3x3 and using 80% of 1rm. Shoulders didn’t feel as fatigued this time but stuff did feel heavy on the shoulders. First work set felt decently tough and second set got a little off balance on the last rep. Last set felt great, felt the best of them. Maybe I need to do more warm-ups on these? I think my worry is that I will fatigue the shoulders prematurely on top of the fatigue already from the shoulders. I also think that my strict pressing has generally been low volume with my leg drive pressing having more. But assuming minimal to none for right now with offseason to let knees recover better. The pause presses after that. Really didn’t want a repeat of last time. Weight was lowered 11lbs but an extra set was added. This definitely went better. I forgot my wrist wraps the first set and then didn’t wear them on the second. Put them on for the third as I was feeling fatigue. Unlike the regular strict pressing, the fatigue is very pronounced on these with the 2 minutes or so rest. No weird oblique stuff and no missed reps. From there on to feet elevate pull-ups. This time to do working sets with 35lbs added with holds and leaving 2RIR on them. Paying attention I focused on the holds this time for all sets. I decided to forgo the draping around the neck thing on these and put weights in backpack like I was thinking near the end of last week. Worked like a charm. I of course forgot to film that first set. Holds are tough on these as per usual. Close grip with feet up next. Same plan with the warm-ups (bigger jumps this time) and then to do 225lbs for 2x8 and then a rep set with 205lbs. I was having some balance issues but that was more just getting things aligned. Felt pretty good. No clue where all those reps came from on that rep set. I feel I had 20 reps if needed. So that is neat. Single arm lat pulldowns again. I decided this time to go for even more band tension but thought it was best to do some warm-ups before jumping right to that. Hard to gauge sometimes with band stuff and holds what is enough or too much to get ready. Working sets were very hard but within the parameters. I don’ t think it is wise to go with more tension at this point. Left side still seems a bit stronger but fatigue seems about the same. It started to rain during that last set so into the garage for push-ups with pauses. I didn’t expect to increase the reps so much this time. These generally feel good. Still raining outside but not a ton. So the last thing for the evening was bands in the rain. 2x30 for both triceps and biceps. Same as last week. Kept band tensions the same. Got it done in and out so I could put stuff away and then eat dinner. Stretched and then iced my left leg and right elbow.

October 23, 2021 – Week 2, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+225(ast)x10
+225(ast)x10
+180(ast)x5
+180(ast)x5
+135(ast)x10
+110(ast)x10
+85(ast)x10

Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (9”, lb)
bwx15/15
bwx15/15

Paused Leg Extensions (2 seconds)
45x8
90x8
135x8
180x15
180x15
180x15

Safety Squat Bar Squats (5-2-0-0 tempo)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
275x3
315x7
275x7
275x7

Reverse Band Hack Squats (LB’s)
emptyx5
+70x5
+140x5
+190x5
+240x5
+290x10
+290x10
+290x10

Lying Leg Curls
45x8
90x6
135x8
180x12
180x12
150x18

Quad Fallbacks
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Sled Drag Work (turf)
235x5 minutes

Stretching
  
Comments: Stress at work was getting to me this week and got a reminder of that with my body deciding to rebel on me. The rumblings had started Thursday morning and thankfully didn’t really start until after training Thursday. Friday was a sucky day with my digestive tract being out of whack. No appetite and pretty much passing magma all day. Got about half of my usual meals down. On top of that, allergies hit me super hard in the late evening after work and I thought it was something more serious that would require a doctor visit to get meds but turned out to be just allergies and took a Claritin and started to clear up almost immediately. When I’m feeling like this, I do think I need to take the “mental health days” I threaten to take. Took some Nyquil to help things along and insure I got a solid sleep. I knew it was going to be a late start to the day for training. I needed to take care of some things before I went out to train anyways so it was early afternoon by the time I arrived at the gym to train. Again, no rush really as the session wasn’t really event work. Traffic was fine so that worked in my favor. No one really there today which was fine. They were people I knew at least so I could talk with them a bit to vent some haha (work and strongman shit). Mobility stuff was needed. Pairing of one legged rdls and deadbugs. Balance between sides needs that work. The pain thing I was concerned about was the left leg calf/hamstring insert or whatever it is that I made angry on Tuesday with the Nordic curl attempts. Was it going to keep me from doing what I wanted to do? Was my mobility going to be hindered, my strength down? Questions that would be answered. Starting things off with inverse curls, same thing as last time. Taking into consideration that last time was essentially me “fresh” as no real secondary workout of high intensity that week and post-contest deload and with my irritated whatever in the left leg, my plans were to try to do 5lbs less assistance on the last set. I did an extra set from last time to get more blood flow in the legs and tendons for the working sets. There was discomfort but I had full ROM and didn’t feel like my strength was hampered. Just may be irritated tendons/ligaments or something. These sets felt easier than I had expected them to be. I may need to adjust what I end up doing for the working sets, like take smaller jumps and start with less assistance. Maybe make +135lbs a warm-up set or something. After this was on to some step-ups with bands as TKEs. Idea was to warm-up the knees and see if this made them less grouchy on the leg extensions. So I thought these would be easy to setup here with all this stuff compared to at home (which is super easy) but I was wrong. First issue was finding something stable to step on to. Not trying to get anymore life alert preventative injuries here. Once I got that figured out, band tension I tried using was too much so had to swap out for a different one (I think it works better at home since I can weigh myself down with weights and this seemed to not indicate any weights to be added). Then had to move out a good bit to get enough tension on it. Once that was resolved, this was fine and easy. Indication was that if leg extensions still not feeling perfect that I’d be doing these instead. Next was leg extensions. I knew what to expect this time. Plan was to do 2x15 with 3RIR and same 2 seconds stuff. I read that and apparently ignored it and did 3x15 like last week. Oops. The only knee that doesn’t care for this is my right one and it is only on the eccentric and feels like it is the patella tendon. The thing is that these feel better as I do them and with more weight for some reason. Leg extensions are also a weird one for me in that it is a very unique sensation when they get fatigued and full of blood. The lactic acid fatigue feels way different. Whereas others it just feels like a burn, this is like a bubbling sensation of small things in my leg with mild venom stinging me. The bees as I dub it haha. But I know even at that point, I’m not close to finished and can keep on going through and eventually go above it. But these sets weren’t high enough for that to be a problem for me to have to push out another 15 reps on each set. It would be shame to ditch these but I will do what is best for me to be the best. Then it was ssb squats. The plan this time was to do max rep set with 10lbs more than what I did for working sets last time and then take off 40lbs and match those reps for two more sets. Would be easy enough if I stuck to 3 seconds on the eccentric like last time but as I mentioned, I hadn’t realized it was written as 3-5. And been doing the rdls with 5 so I figured I’d suck it up and do them for 5’s, knowing it was going to make this harder than it needed to be. But I think this is important to do as I’m seeing my ability to hold a brace tends to go as the sets go on and these altered tempos put what is only a moment in the movement into and effort. So goal was to do max set with 1-2RIR left. Definitely ended up on the closer to 1RIR as I felt my brace going on that last rep. Down sets weren’t much easier. Just that amount of time under the weight in those compromised positions. Not so much the muscles recovering between sets in the legs but more getting breathing back and having core recovered to go again. Next up was hack squats. Now most of my concerns about my left leg tendon thingy whatever were gone considering I was able to do the squats without issue but who knows how these would go. I’m just glad that I have a way to do these again. So for this week, 10lbs less than my top set last time for 3x10. I took smaller jumps warming up this time so I got in more sets to make sure knees were good and deal with anything that felt off and adjust accordingly before going up in weight. These feel odd in that the first rep is always the toughest feeling. Trying to gauge depth and how the knees are doing. After that first rep, no doubts of getting the rest of them. Last set, I was feeling my right side obliques wanting to cramp up on me near the end. Could just be from how hard I was working the bracing on stuff today. So after that was lying leg curls. This time 2x12 with 2-3RIR and then drop off 10-15% for max rep set (aiming for 15-20) with 1RIR. Like the inverse curls, the left leg was irritated by these but still able to do them. I did fewer sets with bigger jumps this time but kept the reps to the 8’s as I wanted to try 180lbs again. That first set I was definitely in the the desired difficulty and then the second set that was closer to possibly being outside of it. So took that into consideration for the down set and dropped off 30lbs. I was hoping to get 18 reps to kind of hit a rep PR (135lbs is my current I guess). Just got that. Winding down the workout here. The quad fallbacks again. Didn’t start off well like last time. I thought I had it figured out last time but nope. There was initially discomfort in the left leg area at the start but that went away. I kept falling backwards onto the bench. My center of gravity with this just wasn’t working. I had to think on what to do and think back on the changes I’ve made with this exercise. I had been doing these from the floor but that ended up being too harsh on my ankles. Then I went to using a 6” cushion to prevent that but it appears that doing this has changed the center of gravity and I don’t have enough weight on my knees to keep from falling over. So I went back to the floor but put cushioning under the ankles and it was like duh. Why didn’t I do this sooner? No discomfort, almost relaxing and I can almost touch the back of my head to the floor without any support. Last thing for the day was 5 minutes of sled drag on the turf. Alternate back and forth. I stuck to the same weight as last week after that felt way harder than I was expecting. My hope this time was to have it feel easier and move faster (ie get further). I succeed with that. I know I got further as last time I finished out on doing a forward drag and finished this time on a backward drag. I put stuff away and decided since it was late to save the stretching for when I got home (sooner to possibly get allergy meds and determine if I did have dinner defrosted or not). Stretched out and had dinner before icing my knees.

October 21, 2021 – Week 2, Day 3

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds eccentrics)
87x10
97x9
107x8
117x7
127x6
137x5
147x4
157x3
190x10
170x10
170x10 (8+2)
170x10 (7+2+1)

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
10’x5
26’x5
46’sx5
66’sx5
76’x10
76’x10
76’x10

Bench Dips (Feet Elevated)
bwx10
bwx10
bw+26x15
bw+26x15
bw+26x15

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls (slight pauses)
24x15/15 – abx15
24x15/15 – abx15
24x15/15 – abx15

Close Grip Push-ups (3 second negatives)
bw+22x15
bw+22x12

Stretching
 
Comments: Super stressful work day but maybe things will calm down for Friday. Keeping an eye on my legs (left leg calf/hamstring insert tendon is super sore from Tuesday, right knee off and on complaining). Needed an outlet. So training with the second go at this particular day. See what feels like what after a week of stuff beforehand and knowing what is going to be this time around. I had thought about bringing the rack back inside for this workout but thought better of it since I’m doing standing overhead stuff again so leave it on the patio as long as the weather is good. Starting point of the session was bands superset. Pec flyes with pull-aparts. Knew what to expect this time as far as the suck and fatigue factor. I feel like this took less out of me this time but it was still tough. Not as much burning in the anterior delts. So on to log incline bench presses. Advised to pyramid up to warm up and keep to the 3 second eccentrics. Top weight to be 190lbs for a max rep set (1-2RIR) and then take off 20lbs and do 3 matching sets with 2 minutes rest. For the warm-ups this time, I figured I’d do more sets, similar to what I did for the close grip benching. Get that volume and warming up in. Top set I figured I had 8 reps. Number 8 felt too easy and I figured I had at least 2 more so I went for it. I was wrong. Should’ve stopped at 8 or 9 as 10 was no reps in reserve. Just the fatigue caught up to me really quick in those last two reps. I didn’t fail a rep so that was good. But this meant my following sets were going to be really tough. Not so much the reps but just not recovering enough between the sets. First set no problem. Second set I stopped at 8 to rerack it and took like 10 seconds to collect myself and get those last two reps. Final set was rough. Got 7 before I knew to rerack the weight. Couldn’t get the third and it came back down on me. I put the log in my lap to breath a bit. I hadn’t expected this or I would’ve used bumper plates so I could put it down. But I guess if I did that, I’d have stopped and not gotten the rep as I took a moment and then cleaned it to my shoulders, paused a brief moment and pressed it up. So I technically did my 3x10. I do not recover quickly from tempo stuff lol. I will say the one good thing was that my shoulders didn’t feel like one was fatiguing or more sore than the other during this this time. From there it was on to rows. Dumbbell rows using the bench to support my chest. Control the movement and hold in contraction for 3 seconds. No arching the back. Same as last week with it being work up in 5’s and do 3x10. I decided with how things had felt last week to do more work up sets so that I could see if that helped with the scap stuff and get things under control. I think it did help. I thought I had more small change plates but I guess not so 76lbs appears to be the most I can do with them plateloaded dumbbells without going for my 25’s (26lbs) plates that would possible shorten the ROM on these. This increase actually seemed to be just right as far as the difficulty. Though I may be able to do more if I used chalk or something. Bench dips were next. Advised to do them controlled and for 3x12-15 with the working weight after doing 2x5-10 with bodyweight. I felt that the working weight was going to be pretty easy to do at even the higher reps and with doing them like a slow piston so I did 2x10 for the warm-ups. I think this was a good choice as I felt better on the second set. I think it was because I wasn’t ready that first set as last time I did them with feet on the floor to start to get warmed up and then did some reps with feet up. Shoulder seemed less cranky this week as well. May be difficult to load this exercise with weight on the lap to setup above 45lbs or so with balance. Back to supersets. Leaning side laterals with band face pulls. With how they felt last time, I felt I could increase a little bit on the laterals and just need to start with the other side first to gauge things a little better. As for the face pulls, the next band tension up is quite a monstrous jump for this so I figured I’d stick with the same but just add in some slight pauses to increase the difficult with this particular band as this is the most band tension I’ve ever used for face pulls. This seemed to go well. Last item was close grip push-ups. I was advised to add 3 second eccentrics and add weight to keep the reps between 15-20 reps with 2RIR. I figured that two sets of chains would do it. I was wrong. That was too much together I guess. Barely got 15 reps that first set within parameters and with fatigue (even taking a longer rest) I wasn’t able to get close that second set. I was initially frustrated that I couldn’t setup the chains tight to my body so that they didn’t deload a little on these. I did figure out a setup the minimized this but not satisfied. Only afterwards did I figure that I could maybe use a backpack to add the weights next time and possibly use that for bench dips (backpack on chest) to load as well as on the lap. Ate dinner (ordered too much, so leftovers) and then stretched before icing my legs and right elbow before bed.

October 19, 2021 – Week 2, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Seated Band Hamstring Curls (3-3-0-0 tempo)
lb’sx20
lb’sx20
lb’sx20

Wide Grip Romanian Deadlifts (5 seconds negative, straps, no hard belt)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x10 (miscounted; did 9 then 1)
245x11 (miscounted)
260x10
280x10

Walking Lunges
bwx12/12
bwx12/12
bwx12/12

Paused Copenhagen Plank Lifts (2 seconds)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Nordic Curls (self-assist on concentrics)
bwx5 (miscounted)
bwx6
bwx6

Standing Band Hip Adductions/Hanging L-Sits
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds

Stretching
  
Comments: Stupid stuff at work continues but I seemed to be in more control of things and getting stuff sorted. But odds are it will be another cluster that despite my advanced warnings, it will become an emergency and my problem. Not sure if just stressed or from the single lat pulldowns but left side lower back was a bit stiff. It was feeling that way after the workout yesterday too. Other than that, didn’t feel like I really trained the previous day if going off of soreness (other than the tendonitis in the right elbow). Took a little bit to get things sorted and figured out for the session today as bringing back some older things and adding in new stuff as well as variations to things I had been doing. Mobility stuff was decent, I was hoping it would loosen up the lower back more than it did but should be thankful it did anything really for that. So after that, it was what I’d consider the prefatgiue part of the workout. Banded leg curls with tempo applied to the contraction and eccentric. Plan here was to do 3x15-20 with several reps in the tank each set to pump up the hamstrings. I figured light bands would be safe to try. The first ten reps these felt like nothing. Then they kicked in and my hamstrings were warming up and getting sore. The holds are hard but the controlled eccentrics were vicious. Especially so against bands since they are trying to accelerate. These were pretty long sets to do as well. Could say this was enough for a hamstring workout but it wasn’t unfortunately. This was the appetizers. So next up was one from the earlier training cycle (though I think I only ended up doing it once); wide grip rdls with 5 second negatives. Advised to warm up in 5’s and pause briefly before going back up. Advised to wear straps and I could wear my rehband belt if I wanted to but no hard support belts for now. I figured I’d wear it with the lower back feeling tight. Didn’t take me much time to get the hang of these again. Plan for the day was 4x10 and increase the weight each set. As is usually the case with higher reps and tempo stuff, I lost count of reps the first two sets. First set I did one under and came back and did the extra rep after reviewing the video. Second set I did an extra. It felt tougher than I would’ve like it to be so went up only 15lbs (I was planning 20lbs all the way) and that felt really easy so I went back to 20lbs for the last set and that felt decently tough. Not sure if it counts as PR on these with it being more volume and more reps with more weight compared to last time as the last time I had no support gear of any kind. I will say that I did feel like on these I was a too far forward but that could just be from not doing rdls for months now and just overthinking my anterior tib tightness and dorsiflexion. I did find myself flexing my lats on these hard to keep the bar stable. Initially out of necessity and then trying to consciously. After that, it was lighter fare. Walking lunges for decent reps. Dark outside and the street was really the only place with enough room for me to do these without having to turn around a bunch of times. So had to get on all the safety stuff and lights. I also wasn’t sure how these would feel on the knees. Wore the knee sleeves for these. That first set, my knees weren’t a fan. Second set it felt great and no issues. Comfortable. Third set it was in-between and I’m not entirely sure why. I do wonder if these may need some kind of warming up to feel good, similar to the leg extensions and such on the weekend workout. Maybe some light TKEs or something. I know that these are a good exercise and the fact I’ve only been able to do them just a few times stinks because stuff gets in the way. I credit the brief cycle I did with these in 2018  (with light weight overhead) with improving my stride quality to win that last event at the Plat Plus show to book my Arnold ticket. After that it was back into the garage for more shenanigans. Copenhagen stuff is back again. Lowered hold times made these a good bit more bearable to do. But no less exhausting. After that was a tough one; Nordic curls. Plan here was 3x6 and attempt to do them without assistance. Big ask. Setup was a bit different since no bands this time so I had to anchor more weight to insure stability of base. I’ve made big improvements on hamstrings but it just not there yet. I had mostly good negatives haha. Still need a good bit of help from the hands to get back up. Hard enough that I thought I did 6 that first set but only did 5. I got them the other two sets. Second set felt the best to me as there were 2 reps where I only had to push off with my fingertips. This exercise without assistance if damn brutal. Tendons and muscles were sore. My left leg more so than my right. Everything from the back of the knee to below the knee on both sides were sore. Last item of the day was a superset. Not one I’ve done before. Standing band hip adductions combined with hanging l-sits. Sets of 15 reps for the bands and then 30 seconds holds for the hanging abs. I was advised for the l-sit I could just tuck my knees or add weight to adjust the difficulty. Legs out with nothing added was fine and my limit for my abdominals and hips by the end of it. I did have chalk in case I needed as I had worked up a good sweat beforehand. But my grip felt solid. Left shoulder didn’t care for the flexed hang but it is what it is at this point. Just got to keep working at it. I may have gone too light with the band stuff. The example video was using a theraband so I used micro bands as I wasn’t too sure what the fatigue would be over the sets. The other issue was standing away to get enough tension and not really being able to brace on anything so it also became a balance exercise. Which might be a good thing for me. Felt much tougher to balance standing on my left foot vs my right foot. Not sure if that is from an imbalance or if not having the patio sunroom door/windows to stare at effects things. Otherwise, it feels about the same. I wanted to be lazy when I was done and just leave weights out to go eat but I made myself put everything away before eating and stretching. Iced knees before bed.

October 18, 2021 – Week 2, Day 1

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
26’sx20/10’sx20
26’sx20/10’sx20

Barbell Strict Presses (beltless)
45x5
75x5
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x5
195x5
195x5

Barbell Strict Presses w/ Pause at Forehead (2 seconds, beltless)
171x5
171x5

Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings)
bwx5
bw+22x5
bw+44x5
Added Holds (1ct)
bw+66x8
bwx8
bwx8

Feet Up Close Grip Bench Presses
45x10
65x9
85x8
105x7
125x6
145x5
170x10
190x10
210x10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Lat Pulldowns (2 seconds)
sb+lbx15/15
sb+lbx15/15

Paused Push Ups on Kettlebells (2 seconds)
bwx19
bwx15

Band Triceps Pressdowns/Band Biceps Curls
sbx30/mmb’sx30
sbx30/mmb’sx30

Stretching
  
Comments: Stress with work and other things that went on today had me running like 30 minutes behind at the end of the day. Getting to be a start of a full week of actual training again. I’m starting to notice that there appears to be a prefatigue element to these workouts this training cycle with exercises for the parts before the whole. In the case of the two upper body days so far, they are quite intense by the second go through haha. So this time the prefatigue work was dumbbell laterals and bent over rear delts. Advised to not just move the weight, try to move them in an arc, feel the muscles. I think I’ve gotten better at that with the shoulder stuff as of late. I’m not sure why I went as heavy as I did for side laterals as this became quite tough that second set, needing to take a breather. Bent over ones felt good. I wasn’t sure how they would go with how tough rear delt stuff normally is for me. From there on to standing pressing outside in the rack. So strict pressing without a belt for 3x5 with 2 minutes rest. Like other exercises with this kind of rest, I was to note the RIR. Percentage listed was 77.5% of 1rm. Estimating that at like 253lbs or so at the moment since I’ve been doing nothing but log and axle besides viking pressing earlier this year. Only stuff with the normal barbell for pressing stuff has been the btn stuff that is light and that one workout with floor pressing. As mentioned, start light and work up over time. My balance was a little wonky I’ll admit but power seemed good. But no rep really looks the same when I’m doing these. Warming up that empty bar felt like a ton as my shoulders were fried from the dumbbells. But that thankfully went away as I got more weight on the bar. Right wrist wrap came off on the first work set. Fatigue felt about the same across all the sets so that was good. Then came the killer. Strict pressing with pauses at forehead. I assumed I had done these more than once. These were to be done at 68%. I didn’t think much of it but these were super tough. 2 minutes rest wasn’t enough as I failed on the fifth rep twice before I got it. I initially couldn’t get it high enough for the pause and then I was and couldn’t lockout. So had to set it down and take a breather and try it again. Ugh, that was a grind. Talk about demoralizing. I have to remember that memory is a liar sometimes as this is only the second time I’ve done this exercise drill and while I did 11lbs more last time, that was with a belt and I didn’t have set rests. Right shoulder fatigues faster but that has been known (thought it was more my triceps on that side). Just seemed more pronounced this time and last session but I’m also prefatiguing them as well. From there on to feet elevate pull-ups. Instructions were to warm-up in sets of 3-5 reps to a top set of 8-12 reps with 1-2RIR. I was feeling good and did 22lbs jumps, which was getting heavy with the chains draping. Then I realized after I did it with 44lbs added that I was supposed to be doing these with 1ct holds. Oops. So that made that top set really tough and darn near impossible to have good holds on it. Barely got 8 reps eeked out. Now for the rest of it, I was advised to drop 20-30% off total weight (including my bodyweight) for the downsets to match reps. 20% off total weight was 5lbs less than I weighed so I guess just doing bodyweight for these today. Next was a new one for me. Close grip with feet up. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a bench press with my feet up. Probably because it looked dumb and maybe because I don’t really fit on most benches long ways. I’ve also not tried any benching beyond floor pressing since COVID-19 stuff. So advised to do warm-ups pyramid style and then do 3x10 with 3RIR. Advised to go slow at this and stay light. I didn’t know what I would be doing really. I did a lot of reps with 20lbs jumps to get ready. That felt good. However, I think my first working set was too light. Second was better and probably where I should’ve started. Third set was tougher but still within parameters I think, just not sure if it would’ve been if I did that weight for all three sets. I think at this point I started with cooking dinner as it was getting later (not too late). Single arm lat pulldowns popped up again. Holds again but only for 2 seconds. Beefed up the tension a good bit and still pulling strong. Left side is definitely stronger on these. Noticeably so. Went into the garage for the next bit. Block pushup with holds but I elected to stick with the kettlebells since they felt better on my wrists and I can go deeper than I can make any push-up block setup that is stable and doesn’t get my chest stuck between it.  Holds are tough with forcing that stretch for the pecs. I miscounted that first set and thought I did only 17 reps. I figured something was off when I got with two reps on the second set. That second set my chest was asking me to stop the madness at about 10 reps. Last thing for the evening was bands. 2x30 for both triceps and biceps. Pump is what it said. Triceps I’m happy that I’m using my highest single band tension for these kind of reps when I was using a light band at the start of this year. Triceps are more used to this stuff then my biceps. Biceps with the bands just feels weird. Still did them. Finished up putting stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

October 16, 2021 – Week 1, Day 3

Hopefully last entry for a while where I got a big word vomit beforehand haha. Another year has passed of me qualifying for Nats (SC) and not competing. I’ve competed three times total despite qualifying most years. Didn’t qualify first two years of competing (only did one show in 2008) back when I was under 231lbs class. 2011 I tore my hamstring and only did one show that year. 2012 I qualified and went and didn’t care for it so the next two years I tried to do just the plat plus shows to try and win at those and did poorly at them. 2015 got back on track and I competed and enjoyed it that year. Seemed loads better run compared to 2012. I didn’t in 2016 as I got the back injury that put me out for 7 months (and I was still trying to do that show but things didn’t go well in rehab or life). 2017 gave it shot after coming back and I didn’t care for it, on top of getting sick with the flu. So after that I tried to do the plat plus route again to just get to the Arnold instead and I did so skipped it that year to focus on that. Plan after that was to get back there for 2020. Injury relapse end of that year knocked me out of several competitions and then the world went to shit. Didn’t bother with 2020 as that year really sucked all around. 2021 I qualified but decided I wasn’t ready, especially with the event setup. USS Nats I’ve qualified every year since 2018 but due to injury or just bad luck haven’t. 2021 USS Nats I kind of just brushed off with the events and some other things but seeing as how some events have changed and with my next show being decided having some of the more unconventional stuff that is at 2021 USS nats as events, it isn’t so far out of training for and still working on what needs work. But ultimately, it will come down to how well things go as far as prep for this upcoming show and what the results of that are to decide. I guess I bring up both nationals because of things happening recently. USS because of the event change and realization I’d be doing similar things in prep and SC because it just happened and there appear to be changes coming. Thing is, if I want to do a USS show this year, I’d have to wait until after 5/28/21 for it to be for 2022 USS Nats. Unlikely the pro class situation with them is going to improve as so far only 1 of the three shows so far have met all the criteria to extend that invite. Only 2 of the 6 on the calendar have a chance of meeting the criteria potentially. The past four years of SC Nats I’d have been crushed. Not my strong suits most events that are contested these days. Averaging the numbers on the max events from this year and last, the average deadlift is 750lbs and the log press is 325lbs. I’ve known these are the numbers that are minimum for being a mediocre pro. Lowest for an Arnold qualifier from Nats was 650lbs deadlift and 295lbs log press. I can hit that deadlift with a suit but not without. As mentioned in the last session foreword, I need to get things feeling good and get a higher baseline for those lifts. But changes may make things harder and more confusing. It sounds like they will do away with my subclass (under 300lbs) and the subclass under that (under 265lbs) gets no incentives and will be its own class. No pro card, no Arnold invites from how I’m seeing it unofficially. So no sense in dropping 15lbs or so for that. I always want the heavier stuff. This last show was the first time where I went with the lighter option and I hated doing that and admitting that. I guess I’m growing. On top of that, the Plat Plus shows seem to be going away and being replaced by Regionals that you have to qualify for from local comps. Regionals aren’t required to get to Nationals thankfully. The Regionals appear to be for qualifying for the Arnold and Nationals. Just making this shit more confusing and tougher by the year.

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+225(ast)x10
+180(ast)x5
+180(ast)x5
+135(ast)x10
+112.5(ast)x10
+90(ast)x10

Paused Leg Extensions (2 seconds)
45x7
90x6
135x6
155x15
155x15
155x16 (miscounted)

Safety Squat Bar Squats (3-2-0-0 tempo)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
275x3
305x6
305x6
305x6

Reverse Band Hack Squats (LB’s)
emptyx5
+90x5
+180x5
+230x12
+270x12
+300x12

Lying Leg Curls
45x8
70x7
90x6
115x5
135x12
135x12
135x12
135x12

Quad Fallbacks (17” target, elevated 6”)
bwx2
bwx2
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Sled Drag Work (turf)
235x5 minutes

Stretching
  
Comments: Got a bit of a late start to the day. I woke up after only sleeping through my alarm like maybe three times. No rush really as the session wasn’t really event work. More just machines that I only have access to at the strongman gym. This is the off season. I’ve been advised this session is going to be less event work and more quad focused training for now. With some rows add maybe. As a treat. The morning delay was trying to get my iPod to link with the “new” computer. I’ve just been charging it in outlets as I was worried it would erase everything since not the same one I was using and I know how Apple products be. Didn’t finish all of it but I figured out what was needed and how to do it. For another time. Turns out that a small section of the interstate was closed for repairs which meant I either had to take the turnpike and pay a toll to go train or I’d have to take a longer detour. So it took just over an hour to get out to train today. No one really there today which was fine. Mobility stuff was good. One leg rdls with light weight. Balance work seemed to be good for the lower legs and my knees. Starting things off with inverse curls but the intensity was being pushed a bit. Warm up and do 3x10 but increasing difficulty to try and have the last set be 1-2RIR. I wore light knee sleeves with padding on the front as the right knee seems to be tender when pressure is applied in front so maybe some bursitis with the tendonitis. Helps a little with the pain management. Happy to get down to just 2 plates of assistance added. My first set is where I was back in late 2019 first time trying. Hamstrings feeling good. Next was leg extensions. Not sure how these are going to go. Each machine on these is different and there are some that feel great and others that just feel like a knife in the knee. Never used the one they have at the gym but if it is like the lying leg curl, it should be good right? Right knee is the fussy one. Idea for these was to do higher reps with holds and controlled negatives. I decided to wear the same knee sleeves for these to keep the knee happy. The ROM isn’t very big on these where the tension from the machine stops on the lowering portion. The extension part is fine, just no real stretch. Leg extensions can be weird for me. I’ve done tempo before on them and I’ve done sets of 100 reps nonstop in the past. So once I was warmed up, these weren’t much of anything and it was easy to control. I did different counting methods for each set which didn’t work out on the last one as I accidentally did an extra. Then it was ssb squats. Tempo but thankfully not controlled concentrics. Those are the worst. Work up in triples to 3x6 with 2RIR on those. Lowering to 3 seconds and hold at bottom for 2 seconds. I guess it was to be 3-5ct (I do seconds so ends up being slower) so I probably would’ve tried to do 5 seconds if I had remembered that part. This was the first session of using my new knee sleeves that I got for squatting and such for actually squatting. Other times I’ve used them have just been for yoke at the show and for the sandbag runs and such. So curious to see how they’d do and if it would let me train unimpeded again. Left knee does still have that little shifty thing that happened but that is manageable and seems to stop after I get things warmed up enough. Ankles and calves have been tight since competition. Knees don’t hurt doing the squats and it isn’t like my knees going forward causes pain so I’d say this is a success for now. Then again, I only went up to 305lbs with is just over 60% of estimated 1rm on regular squat with ssb. I was initially tempted to go heavier but I thought better of it as I wasn’t to be taking super long rests at this point and tempo really makes even an extra rep that much harder. At most I was thinking 30lbs more here. Next up was hack squats. I had been worried these would show up again and I wouldn’t get through the session without something happening. I’m not 100% certain they are the culprit but it feels like they are for the neck issues and pinched nerves. Which is a shame as these seem like a great exercise to build up my lower body and get my knees back in the game. My solution was to add towels to the pads to see if that helped but Drew suggested I use a foam roller to move the location of the pressure from the traps to midback. So that added with towels for the handles sticking out would be the new setup. These were done with the reverse bands again to adjust the strength curve and be gentler on the knees. The foam roller setup worked perfectly. I mean my neck and shoulders still have aches and what not (seem to be getting better slowly) but it wasn’t made worse from this. First session I had just a terrible ache and holding ssb on my back just felt off and the second session I just got a searing headache and cramp on the left side of my neck. No issues at all. Other than it being a tough exercise haha. These are definitely rougher on the knees compared to regular squatting but the knee sleeves are definitely helping with that. So after that was lying leg curls. These haven’t felt the strongest the past few sessions. Hamstrings feeling tight and sore. Warm up and do 4x12. Hamstrings felt like they wanted to cramp up doing the first weight so I decided to do small jumps and more reps and give 135lbs a shot as that had been the weight I had intended to use before. It felt like it should which is honestly too light I think for what was prescribed for today’s session. I stuck to the same weight though in the even that fatigue would make it a lot harder possibly. But it didn’t. Which is ok. Next exercise was bringing back a knee and quad mobility exercise that had gone away after my right knee got angry at me. The quad fallbacks. Plan was to just do the movement and get the stretch and use assistance to get back up if needed. My upper quads and ankles weren’t really awake and mobile enough at the start. Took about four reps that first set to actually get to depth. I decided since only two reps actually got down far enough to tough the bench (5” higher than my best) that it didn’t count as a working set. But I kept falling back off the pad on the second set trying to do more than 2 reps with my flat shoes on. I swapped those shoes out to something that I could get some traction in to keep from falling over and that worked up well enough I think. These got tough in absence. Last thing for the session was sled drag. Backwards and forwards for 5 minutes. I went up in weight which might not have been a wise idea considering things. The patch I used for my last session I think is flatter compared to the tunnel as I know that has an uphill/downhill component. These were not fast feet steps haha but the turn arounds were better I think in that minimal time was lost where there wasn’t some drag. Weather seemed crap out and I had no clue what kind of traffic going home would be so I stuck around to stretch out before heading home. 

October 14, 2021 – Week 1, Day 2

 Even though more than half of my life so far has involved weight training of some kind, I still have to remember and relearn lessons. But also need to keep things in focus with strongman competitions. I’ve not competed frequently since 2018 (more than 2 shows, don’t really count 2019 since two of the shows that year were just against myself for maxes so like testing sessions). So I tend to forget that can need a bit of time to get up to par with competition season like I did when I started or prior to COVID-19. And even if some cycles for shows were shorter, the plan had been for those shows as far back as 9 months prior and slow integration of them over other training cycles and having similar events from one to the other helped with that competitive season. I think the biggest stress I get with pushing for the higher level stuff is with my not as good events when it’s for reps and the weight is above my all-time best max single in that lift. I’m hopeful for improvements but they are slow and usually when crunch time comes, I tend to not go at my own pace and try to just get there now. Rush and get stressed out that I’m not there and I’m going to fail it. Most events don’t award zero points for potential equivalent effort. And these events tend to be the qualifier events for online things for the bigger shows as well. As of kind of mentioned in passing, I need to think where I am as far as using training maxes for exercises/events going forward. Sure I have PRs since 2016 injury that I’ve been tracking but some things haven’t been done in a long time or at the level where a PR was set and that matters. Circus dumbbell was way too optimistic and arrogant on my part trying to put 38lbs on that lift in 12 weeks. Best was 187lbs since the back injury with my best being 202lbs from over half a decade ago. So still 23lbs life time PR. Even the open was a big jump from where I was with 18lbs. 10% increase. On my best since 2017. And I wasn’t at that point after the elbow and wrist injury. 177lbs was probably my best on a perfect day after that stuff. So these are the kinds of things I need to be mindful of. So doing a show with a max seems ok as I can aim for a PR but it doesn’t mean I get nothing if I don’t succeed and I can go at my pace and adjust if necessary. Like with the deadlift. Yes, 700lbs was the goal for the show but life happens and did a hard fought 650lbs (which is the lowest max I’ve done for a suited pull in contest) to tie for the New Jersey state record in the under 140kgs weight class. I need to take some things into consideration with events is all. Nothing set in stone time percentages or such but like within 5% of my current maxes if doing a less than 12 week prep and no other supplemental work that has been built upon. Some things need to get back up to a better baseline (log and axle full movements) as well as some of the heavier emphasis moving events (yoke and farmers). Depends on weights too. Stones I was able to stay 83-92% with just one session at 100% of contest. I know I can work lighter percentages and do well (hell great) on that event. Data from this past show as far as yoke shows me that I can work lower percentages with higher percentage holds and do ok. Not the most ideal obviously to do that but it was needed with the knee issues and the time given. Heaviest moving was 83% of contest and heaviest hold was 94% of contest. A break from the heavy and events isn’t a stop from doing tough stuff obviously. But I feel that base lines will need to be assessed on more standard things that haven’t been as emphasized with the past two contests under Andrew to see what I’m working with to kind of plan things further out than this next contest. Assuming that I recover well from the ouchies and aches.

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds eccentrics)
87x10
107x8
127x6
152x3
177x10 (miscounted)
177x8
177x8
177x8

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
10’x5
40’sx5
70’x10
70’x10
70’x10

Bench Dips
Feet On Ground
bwx4
Feet Elevated
bwx2
bwx6
bw+20x13 (miscounted)
bw+32x12
bw+45x12

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
22x15/15 – abx15
22x15/15 – abx15
22x15/15 – abx15

Close Grip Push-ups
bwx37
bwx26

Stretching
 
Comments: Well the good news is that allergy/cold stuff is getting a lot better. Only had to use nasal spray as opposed to using Claritin and Dayquil. One super easy day and then back into it. And I think honestly that was enough time to feel like training with some intensity again. A little bit later start than planned but that was ok (other things going on) as needed to let my pot roast cook longer. So this would be the true start to the workout cycle. Offseason deemed as “pump/hypertrophy” phase. Start slow and build up from there. Feel the muscles working, don’t just move the weight. Still keeping an eye on the shoulders at this point. Starting point of the session was bands superset. Pec flyes with pull-aparts. Noting to try and feel the chest stretch on the later. Like those old timey chest expanders I guess. I wasn’t sure if I’d need more tension on these based off of how these had felt before. I decided that I’d aim lighter than if I was to be pushing things as this was higher reps than before, shoulders could be upset with me on them and I haven’t tried that long of holds for that many reps on pull-aparts. This was the right call. The pec flyes were perfect, though the tendonitis was acting up a bit (tolerable). The pull-aparts were torturous. Burning in the anterior deltoids from fatigue and lactic acid. Even using a micro band, these were a struggle by the last set. Shoulders and chest were already pretty toasted just one exercise pairing in and I had a good bit more to do. Just getting started. So first exercise with weights was log incline bench presses. Kind of expected since log is the press event for the next contest and from how training went in the first cycle with these (after I got used to them), these seem like a good secondary day exercise to work on getting shoulders, triceps and chest strong. So the plan for these was to pyramid up in and then do 4x8 with a weight I felt I could do with 3-5RIR on that first set. The catch was that these were to be done with 3 seconds negatives and brief pause at the chest and aim for 2 minutes rest. With how things felt after the bands, this could be a struggle haha. I decided that I’d do 20lbs-ish jumps in weight and then a bigger jump near the end before the working sets. Get used to the movement and feel how my shoulders were handling things. I also decided to not use any fractional plates and worry about that nonsense. I figured based off past numbers and then taking the goals of the session that log plus my red bumper plates would fit the bill. These felt fine enough. Took until the second set where it felt a good bit easier than the first that I realized I did 10 reps instead of 8 that first set. Right shoulder with how it has been feeling was definitely feeling more fatigued compared to the left one by the end. Understandable really. From there it was on to rows. Dumbbell rows using the bench to support my chest. Control the movement and hold in contraction for 3 seconds. No arching the back. Suggested was to put weights on a bench or box to make easier to get to. But I got long ass arms and picking them off the ground works best for me and they won’t touch the ground when set my position. I figured that I should stick lighter with the holds here as I’ve noticed that those really sap my strength (and I really seem to cheat rows in general) and don’t need to mess with plateloaded dumbbells just yet. Right side my scapula wasn’t tracking right. Or something wasn’t. Just felt like shoulder blade wasn’t moving right way and tendons and such were just off. I’m not sure exactly what it is or if I’m describing it right. But I’ve had it happen before and just need to get stuff moving again and it will feel fine. Part of the shoulder issue and I know that doing these kinds of exercises will get the shoulder stable and feeling good again eventually. Thing is that the week of the contest, the left side was the one that didn’t feel like it was tracking. Half way through the second working set, it felt normal with it feeling perfectly fine on that last set. With both shoulder blades feeling set, I was able to feel my midback contract better. I think that was when lightbulb clicked that this was going to help with log cleans with hitting these muscles. Next was an exercise I’ve maybe done before but never really did much in the past. Bench dips. I think just testing out exercises to see how they feel and if they are good ones to try with all the different things going on with the shoulders and knees. Plan being 3x12. See how they felt and adjust from there. I may have read things wrong and I might have been only to do 3x12 with bodyweight with my feet on the ground (essentially the easiest variation) with indication to put my feet on a bench and add weight for progression. I took that as if initial was too easy to do that to stick with a 3RIR difficulty. Did a few reps testing things out and shoulders seemed ok. This is definitely an exercise where my shoulders need to be warmed up and loose to do I think. If any shoulder was going to give me issues, it was going to be the right one. Yet another use for the single leg support bench thingy for this exercise. A bit tricky adding weight to my lap so perhaps may need to adjust by doing tempo or more reps possibly as these did seem like a good one for the triceps. Back to supersets. Leaning side laterals with band face pulls. I figured I could do a decent bit on the leaning laterals as most of what I’ve done has been with holds and pauses in the past. Same with the face pulls as of late. Only thing I made perhaps a misjudgment on was which side to start. I assumed my right would be the lagging side with how it has felt a little wonky and fatigued and that arms tendonitis is worse. It seemed to be ok. The left side was tougher. I did end up putting on the compression cuff for that side on the following sets and it felt a ton better. Have to remember that. Face pulls were quite easy compared. Shorter movement and less time really. Last item was close grip push-ups. Assuming these were to be bodyweight only. I made sure to keep the rest between to the 2 minutes or so to minimize how much I recovered. But I also tend to do a lot that first set and fatigue sets in quick and I struggle to hit higher reps. So I may have stopped prematurely on that first set as goal was to do 2RIR on these and probably closer to 3-4RIR. Hard to say when the fatigue hits on these. Wrists and shoulders ached initially on like the first two reps and then felt nice and smooth. Just haven’t been doing push-ups without ring or grip for like ever haha. Finished up this workout fairly quickly so I had time to put everything away and stretch before eating pot roast.

October 12, 2021 – Week 1, Day 1

Took a bit longer than I was expecting to “recover” from the show so to speak. Sleep cycle was off and appetite was all over the place. Only thing that feels off is my right shoulder from the fingal fingers I think. Keeping an eye on that obviously. Forcing myself to do an off-season. I need it. It could be boring and tedious but it is needed right now. Not sure if this will be 4 weeks or longer (like 8 max) but have to play it by ear. Focusing on too many things. One at a time. This next show and do well enough to qualify for SC Nats. That is the goal right now. Trying to keep myself from drifting off from that, like thinking about doing a show that has some of the events I didn’t do as well as I liked at this last show to “redeem” myself or get “revenge”. Which is stupid. Let it go. One week at a time.

Band Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)/Inverted Ring Rows
bwx5/bwx5
bwx5/bwx5
mbx15/bw+20x15
mbx15/bw+20x12
mbx12/bw+20x10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Heel Elevated Spanish Squats (strong band)
ab’sx25/bwx15
ab’sx25/bwx15
ab’sx20/bwx15

Planks
bwx30 seconds

Sled Drag Work
165x5 minutes
165x5 minutes

Stretching
 
Comments: As with last post contest week, this first session back was a pump session for both upper and lower body. It did take longer to get things sorted out beforehand so I do wonder if that made this workout a day later or if the plan had been take off Monday from the start. As with most of last cycle, it does appear that the upper body focus days don’t have prescribed prep work before the main lifting portion. At this point, still got tendonitis and dealing with the neck/shoulder issues (seem to be getting better on the left side, actively trying to not sleep on that side). I wasn’t sure how the right shoulder would react with things so kind of played by ear here. First up was a pairing of push-ups with bands and inverted rows with weights added. Leaving reps in reserve. I did two warm-up sets with just bodyweight for both to make sure stuff was feeling good in the shoulders and to get ready. I used a lighter band tension just to be on the safe side with things as I wasn’t sure how the shoulders would like this or how they would react. Both felt good (push-ups and rows). Rows fatigued much faster than push-ups. Next was another superset. I figured I could do the strong band for the pulldowns with the holds no problem and I was right. Again, working the muscles and seeing how the shoulders felt on these. Lateral raises I lowered the planned weight to make sure these stayed in the right range and this turned out to be perfect. I do need to keep track of what seems to need the compression cuff to help minimize the discomfort and which I can/should take it off so as not to limit things. That was it for upper body essentially and it was time for lower body stuff. Hamstring curls paired with Spanish squats. I was already a little annoyed that the main garage lights weren’t working as it got too damp the past few days. Setup and switching between these two exercises was a little tricky. Leg curls are easy and fine. The Spanish squats aren’t. I have trouble getting depth on these as I feel like I’m leaning too far forward and having the knees go forward when they’re not supposed to. These were slow and quite challenging and I feel like these were fine on my quads and knees but the quality of the movement isn’t up to snuff for me. After this was a set of planks. Just bodyweight for 30 seconds. Easy, just a rest break I guess. Last item for the night was sled drag work. Two sets of 5 minutes. Really light weight as I was to do all kinds of things. Forwards, backwards, sideways and rows. The right leg is still a little tender when it comes to pushing off when doing the sideways walks using that leg to lead. I took maybe a minute break but I count slow so maybe closer to 90 seconds between the sets. These were easy, it was just dark outside and lots of leaves in piles in the street. Left the stuff out in the garage for the next day so that I could get down to eating dinner and stretching.

October 9, 2021 – Clash of the Tridents

 As with most of my contest write-ups (write-ups in general) I put a lot of words on the page. This one I feel needs the backstory of things going on to get the mindset of things for this show. Maybe I write these to get the thoughts out of my head so I can move on to the next thing. Try to see the thoughts physically manifest and try and figure out what can be learned from it. Perhaps this is just an elaborate and several year case study that someone can use for an abnormal psyche thesis paper. Not done yet, keep it together. That has been the feeling since the start of this prep after the last competition. End of last competition, I felt beat but good. Like I could do it all. I took a vacation for like the first time in nearly a decade and swam in the ocean to just relax. I had two contest close together planned to get to 40 total competitions in my career. But plans rarely go as planned in my opinion. Two weeks into the new training cycle, I had an accident. Box jumps claim another. Took a tumble and landed hard. I knew I had sprained my left wrist and continued the rest of the workout. It was only later when I realized I couldn’t fully bend or extend my elbow that there was a bigger problem. I had fractured my elbow and I had to wear a sling and wrist brace for a week at all times and then I could take it out after that with a follow up 4 weeks later. Which would be the day before the planned August show. I ended up withdrawing from that competition which I hated doing. I did find out at my follow up that the fracture was an “avulsion” fracture which is what I had done to my pinkie fingers in 2019 and that that restriction I had been feeling was scar tissue. Honestly, if I had known that was the case, I probably would’ve still attempted that August show with that knowledge. Strongman, not smartman. Attempting to work around things also added stress and pressure. Compensate. More lower body work and focusing on what I could focus lead to some overuse injuries for my tendons in my elbows and knees. Also did something to my left side of my neck and I’m not sure if that was fall related or if it was from doing other stuff to work around the injury that caused that as well. Tendon pain that made me think it was something worse. Knowing what the issue is and giving it a name can help but hard to take “you’re doing too much” as treatment when you feel like you are doing the bare minimum in the first place to do the thing that you love (and will probably kill you). Spoilers, I survived.

For this particular show, it was announced almost a year in advance. I tend to not sign up for those kinds of shows as that is a long way away and life happens more often than not. And things can get really fucky with COVID-19 stuff. But I signed up for it as I loved the events. Late October 2020 I was on the rebound from a past few shitty months. Then I had problems with things near the end of that year and beginning of 2021 that I requested to withdraw from the competition as I was feeling like crap and worried I had a severe knee injury and that perhaps I was just done with all this nonsense. I’ve detailed that a good bit in my training logs and touched on that briefly in the previous contest write-up in July to give some depth to that competition’s meaning and prep. Entries had fluctuated as initially only 50 and then it went up to 100 and then topped out at 130 or so. Then USS added a pro class division and that enticed be back to doing the show as I had a bit of a pep in my step and felt I could get on that level. I had tried to get back in earlier than that but there was a waitlist and I didn’t like to have that uncertainty of if I was or wasn’t so I had not gotten back in at that time. I’m thankful the promoter was so understanding with my in and out status with the competition. So I was initially going at this for the pro level but I realized that it wasn’t going to happen. Recovering from broken bones and injuries and then asking that much on my body. Essentially WSM level weights on some of the events. It hurt to admit to myself that I wasn’t there yet, even after all this time and effort. Trying to not think that dropping back down to open class from the pro class was cowardice. I know it isn’t but hard to not focus on that. I tend to think I’ve done very little in the sport and I again, hear what people say but I still got that voice that says that. The thing the both drives me forward and drives me insane.

It wasn’t all bad. This was going to be a trip when it came to a show. This contest required travel and it would the first one since March 2019 that required an overnight stay. My father would be able to go this time which hadn’t been the case at the last show. I slept well enough and took the day off from work so I could get sleep and be rested for driving out and kind of get used to the area. Good thing having my dad is that I can sleep if I need to pre and post contest. I don’t have many people to talk to when it comes to my stresses and thoughts with strongman and competing so it is nice to deload with my dad on this stuff. Drive was fairly uneventful and I ended up taking like a 10 minutes nap just as we got there. Atlantic City, New Jersey on the boardwalk. It has been to my knowledge, the first time in a decade that they’ve had a contest here. I think that last one had been on the beach. The one before that had been in a hotel in 2009 and I was a lightweight (middleweight now, but then there wasn’t anything other than over and under 105kgs). That show had been challenging but I didn’t perform well (and it was my last under 231lbs show I did). Hotel owner was furious seeing what strongman actually was and seeing logs dropped from overhead and completely missing the tires didn’t help haha. So this show is to return next year but I do wonder if it will now that they’ve seen what it is we do. It was kind of strange being there. To be fair, I’ve not really been a social person and have a ton of anxiety but it seemed like there wasn’t many people there when it came down to it. A lot of things seemed to be closed and there weren’t really any signs indicating such. This was to be the Mr. America Sports Expo and I don’t know how they got any money to cover this. Weighed in at 278.2lbs without my shoes on and there were going to be six in my group (five as the one person never showed up) and just kind of had the rest of the evening to do whatever. Got lost in the hotel by accidentally getting into the in-between level that was where the hotel maintenance staff was and that seemed like an abandoned high school. Lot of the amenities weren’t available (like the pool) so after eating an expensive dinner, ended up just trying to relax in the hotel room. I know this seems to be like Poochie keeping Itchy and Scratchy from getting to the fireworks factory but I promise you Milhouse, we will get there.

Woke up at 7AM to get ready for the day. I wasn’t feeling it. I swept well and ate well and did what I could to get shoulder and neck to behave but I wasn’t feeling like I was here to lift heavy things. I had been feeling a little under the weather the day before and just can’t tell if it is bad allergies or just a the weakest cold I’ve ever had. Got down to the competition area to get set for the day. Saw security escorting a woman with a bruised face. No clue what that was about. My friend, Brian, was here to judge one of the events so that was nice to catch up with him. I had no idea what to expect of the day as it could be super long or short. I could tell some people were already pissed off with the event orders. Due to the number of people allegedly signed up (I think eventually was 79 people) it was going to be five groups going at the same time on different implements. Being the SHW/Pro group, got to go in the order of events as listed on the entry, which was going to be the probably the best setup to insure best effort in each event. I did go to the different areas to see how things felt as this was inside a hotel with carpet. Started warming up for the day when they announced they would be starting 30 minutes later than expected. So I figured I’d use that time to try and get my neck and shoulder to be ok for at least a little bit. One of the sponsors for the show was a massage/physical therapist and I had really hoped he would show up timely. He wasn’t there Friday and didn’t show up until later on Saturday during the competition. Brian told me that there was a two guys as part of the expo that were doing services (but not for tips) so I went over there to see if I could get my neck and shoulder sorted out. The one guy had a livestream going so I guess I ended up on that. I immediately got big “vaccines cause 5g” energy from him. He did cupping, scraping and percussive stuff. Talked a lot of broscience, gave me a caffeine infused alkaline water and told me not to sleep on my left side for the next six weeks. I’ll try but I’m apparently like a rotisserie chicken in my sleep. Had to rush outside after that to get there for the rules meeting on the boardwalk. Had group of tourist take pictures next to me (thinking I didn’t notice) to show how tall I was to their friends or something. I am the attraction.

The first event was circus dumbbell clean and press for reps. Heavy weight of 205lbs for reps. This was nationals weight less than 6 years ago. Now when this show was announced, I was thinking this was going to be tough but doable. My best ever in training had been 202lbs and done 200lbs for three reps (two were counted) at Nationals in 2015. But that was then. Since the 2016 injury, my best I’ve managed has been 187lbs with a close miss at 197lbs. But I was doing 180lbs for reps decent enough. That was 2017 and haven’t really gone above 180lbs since 2018 really. But I was feeling good off of last training cycle and my coach, Andrew Clayton, is one of the best in the world at this event. I thought I was off to a good start with the training as first week with it I was doing 10 singles EMOM with 160lbs no problem. Then I was stupid and fractured my elbow and sprained my wrist. So now my good arm was fucked and I couldn’t do stuff with it outside of 10lbs and a mini band for almost 6 weeks. I couldn’t really use that arm to help with the clean for the other side either so training was really modified to put in effort and try and keep from losing anything on the left side. I do feel I maintained with my efforts but didn’t improve and coming back to it I was good bit behind and it took me like a month to get back to close to where I had started things before the break. I should be ecstatic that I could even get back to that after what I did to my arm and the issues going on but I’m not. I’m frustrated and this event was probably the one that stressed me out the most. Best I got in training was a smooth 170lbs but that is 35lbs off the pace. So chances were super slim this would happen. I did my best as far as warm-ups. Circus dumbbell tends to be one of those where warm-ups are usually shit with how technique dependent it can be and it isn’t as easy to change weights like a log or axle. Compared to what I had at home, the handle was a lot thinner but it was slicker material. I did bands using my fat gripz extreme before doing some singles with the different class dumbbells. I had to jump from 85lbs to 130lbs. I did a rep with and without my elbow sleeve on to see how things felt. Sleeve for sure. It was at this point I went to get my neck and shoulder worked on and then rules. Came back and the dumbbell was loaded to 180lbs so I did two cleans with it as I wasn’t going to go for 50lbs increase cold. By virtue of signing up earliest, I went last. Tim, got two reps and no one else was close. He was who I saw was going to be the guy to beat today. If I didn’t get a rep, it would be 5pt hole I’d be in. I chalked up the dumbbell as they were setting it up but had to back off before I could wipe it down a bit. That was fine, I was only going to try for one rep and give it at most two shots so 60 seconds was plenty. Got set and got the dumbbell to the shoulders. It was heavy. I braced and went for it and it got maybe 2” off my shoulders. I took my time and asked for time at 15 seconds left to give it another shot. Couldn’t get it up high enough for a good shouldering of the dumbbell and I knew that it wasn’t going to happen so bailed on it. So zero on this event. Not what I wanted but expected based off of everything.

The next event for the day was deadlift. Max lift with three attempts. Suits and straps allowed and using a deadlift bar. 50lbs jumps unless going for state record. Different deadlift bar from last show and I knew that they’d be using 100lbs plates instead of 45’s like last show. Compared to last show, with who was competing, I felt it was possible to win or at least not lose too many points. Two people would be aiming for like 600lbs and myself and two other for 700lbs. Training for this had not been the best. Again, not being allowed to use my one arm meant modifications that lead to more squat frequency and using machines and other exercises. I also ended up getting a deadlift strap harness that worked well enough. But it does seem that getting all the muscles stronger for deadlift just doesn’t seem to be enough for me to actually improve the deadlift. I hit some big numbers for myself on high box squats and really added reps and decreased assistance with tough hamstring exercises. In late 2019, I struggled to do an inverse leg curl with 225lbs of assistance for a set of 6 reps. I’m doing 115lbs of assistance for sets of 12 reps. But my deadlift hasn’t improved by 110lbs and it isn’t always a 1:1 situation. Missing 6 weeks of deadlift specific work isn’t great and then dealing with the knee issues from tendonitis and possibly stuff leftover from earlier injuries (yoke from beginning of the year and the box jump issue). The seemed to be a change with deadlift work being more suit work rather than every other week with the previous cycle. I had attempted 650lbs in training and missed it, which is my first miss I’ve had with a suited pull from the ground. I’ve never missed a lift in training before or in contest. So that had been eating at me but I knew I’d had it in me to pull this weight and more at the show. Well I didn’t feel so great at the show. I figured this would be a harder pull than it had been at my last show from the bar (it seemed to be not rolling well) and how the plates would be. I thought pacing here would be a little different as I had taken the time to get my first protein shake down and now I was going to have to get into my suit. Ugh. I did get to do the warm-ups I wanted to get a feel for how I was doing today. The answer wasn’t great. I decided that I’d do 600lbs as my opener and only do a second attempt to save my energy and hopefully match points with people and see if they missed heavier attempts. A gamble for sure. 600lbs I had my straps at training tightness. Christ did that pull suck. So I knew 700lbs wasn’t in me today and 650lbs could be in question. I had my straps put at maximum tightness for the 650lbs attempt. With how the bar was and mats, it wasn’t really rolling so I had to keep creeping closer and closer to the bar rather than great a big breath and pull it into me. This felt heavy and slow and I had a little bit of hitching to lock it out. Done. Other guys still in this for our class went for 700lbs and 705lbs and both missed these super close lifts. With that result, I ended up in three way tie for first. So tied for 2nd at this point and still 5pts out from first.

Up next was fingal fingers. Listed as 350lbs. I’d like to think I’d be good at this event. Unlike most of the competitors, I have access to and implement. But due to issues (elbow, wrist, knees), I didn’t get to really do any direct training at all with it. With my luck, it wasn’t worth the risk for this contest. Only direct work I did was some clean and presses with the 400lbs one at the gym in June to just test things out. And that was just to do some practice without stressing the knees so much with the recent knee scare I had back then. I’ve only touched it twice before that in 2019. Did an EMOM where I fractured my pinkie fingers and hit an irony PR and then one set two weeks before a contest that year where I had a disc bulge and had to withdraw the day before as I was in so much pain just standing. I had hit 7 reps in a minute with that in those conditions. So I figured I could still do ok even with all this. This had been the decision. But it is hard to figure out listed weights being certain things. This implement was loaded with custom metal discs and I’m not sure if this was weight in hand or something else. So what we started warming up with was 300lbs, which was what the HWM were using. That had 6 discs in it. 3 more discs were added to get ours to 350lbs. That 300lbs felt like the 400lbs at the gym and I didn’t think the extra discs would effect things that much. Warmed up with bands and did some rows with the finger and did two clean and presses with it at the 300lbs weight. We were rushed over and then had a very long down time as we needed the crash pads from the dumbbell area as the weight of the finger was too much for the tires when they came down that they were hitting the floor. Got to get that deposit back haha. I was slightly worried about my left shoulder not holding up to this but that had been when I thought it was more a shoulder rotary issue and not a pinched nerve in neck issue. This was back to the order of entry for this event. Watched as the first two guys struggled. The leader overall went next and he got a tough two reps 30 seconds in before the discs just shot out of the thing like a cannon as the finger fell. Luckily no one was in the path of that improvised claymore. This had happened to the first guy that went too but with 10 seconds left and he couldn’t get it back up to the shoulders again. It was also only 1 disc that came out whereas all of them this time. So it was at least 5, maybe 10 minutes before things were ready to go again. Now I’m not sure what the right call was for this but what was decided by the judge was that he’d continue with 30 seconds left. Other options for this I think. From how he was fatiguing, I’m not certain he’d have gotten four total reps in 60 seconds and three could’ve been close. So four was the number to beat. I went for my usual clean style but it just felt so damn heavy and I had to just kind of continental it up to the chest to press. Walking the finger was easy. Just the way the weight was distributed made it really damn heavy in hand. More so than what I had to train on. I may need to practice on the 500lbs finger in the future. I was a little slower walking the finger down the second rep as I felt my right shoulder shift on me but kept going. Went for a fourth rep but I couldn’t get it high enough. My grippy gloves worked against me as I couldn’t get my fingers from my left hand under the finger to press it and had them put the tires and mats back so I could set it down. Not enough time and settled for three fingers and second place. Annoyed with this one. Have to be stronger. In second outright at this point but now 6pts off the mark.

The fourth event was a medley. Sandbag carry into yoke. But you load the sandbags onto the yoke as the weight for the yoke. Little baskets on the side of the yoke. Sandbags not difficult weights but the yoke was going to be. 25’ for the sandbags and then 50’ for the yoke. Not sure how this would go. Back and hips were tight as hell at this point. I had been training the sandbags heavier than contest mainly because they were so light and I only had access to one 200lbs sandbag and had two 250lbs sandbags. Yoke was 850lbs. Heavy but not ridiculously so. It wouldn’t have been if I was on form for it. 2018 I’d say my yoke was at its best I was regularly doing contests with above 800lbs so it was a frequent training weight. But after that not so much and I was regressing on it as I was focusing so much on my speed of movement and it got in my head. Lower weights and getting knee pain. Getting in my head about it and the fact my knees were killing me and I had to psyche up to move 500lbs just really messed with things earlier this year. So I was kind of starting from about 50% of my best coming back to yoke training. So with that in mind, the yoke training was some of the best I’ve done and with more time, I know that this would’ve been a good one. I feel like I hit the bare minimum to make this work honestly. Not through any fault of anyone other than time. The most weight I did on yoke was a pick and hold with 800lbs for like 15 seconds and did three runs of 50’ with 700lbs. A good bit of the training before that had been belt squat marches. So for this event, the order went by yoke height, shortest to tallest. This worked to my advantage for a few reasons. One was that I could see what I needed to do and the second was I could get in a warm-up that others may not have been able to do. As I mentioned, the implement was loaded with the sandbags for weight. So yoke was 400lbs empty and loading the sandbags and taking them out was a team effort so only warm-ups were with the empty yoke and other mobility stuff that I did to loosen up my back and hips and get my core firing. So my plan was that after the last person went, I’d do a pick with the loaded yoke so that I’d get an idea of what to expect and hopefully take that initial shock of holy shit this is crushing me over with as it was going to take several minutes to reset the course. I’m so glad I did as this thing felt insanely heavy. We were allowed to set our sandbags how we like before going and set grip. This is where I can excel. My goal here was to be as fast as possible on the sandbags so I had as much time left as possible to attempt moving the yoke. Picks would take a lot out of me so I was hoping to keep it to three at most depending on time. It didn’t feel bad now that I had felt it and I moved gingerly. Trying to not have any drops. My error for me was the shirt I wore. I had assumed the grip shirt would stick and it did but more to yoke than me. I should’ve remembered this from when I did yoke in 2018 where I had this same issue. So I was dealing with the yoke sliding down my back as well. Got a good bit of the way still and then had a set down at 20 seconds left. Unlikely I’d finish but I needed more distance to know I didn’t drop points here since no one else had finished so far. Got a bit further but didn’t waste effort going for a third pick with 5 seconds left. I had done enough with get 39’3” with the yoke, just under 5’ ahead of second. Knees were going to hate me after this. I was annoyed despite getting first as I feel even in my condition that I could’ve finished this with being smarter on the shirt situation.

The final event was the long awaited boat and truck pull. Not a truck or boat but both. Truck with a boat attached to it. As listed, it was to be a harnessed pull for 60’ with a 2” diameter rope with a 90 seconds time limit. So as with most pulls, it could be literally anything between a sprint and an unmovable object. Something I should add here is that we were told at the start of the yoke that there was a boardwalk curfew for 2PM or something and that we had to rush outside to do the truck pull right after the yoke. Seeing as how it was 1:50PM by this point, not sure how that would work. So I’m moving as fast as I can with being out of breath from being crushed by a yoke and wearing thick knee sleeves. Come to find out that the boardwalk patrol didn’t care a lick and there was no rush. So just trying to get things settled and ready. I had heard earlier that this was super light and that it was the same setup and weight for all the weight classes. Escalade with a small boat attached. It would at least look cool. It was on the boardwalk with the hotels, casinos and beach in the background. It at least had the spectacle aspect. Slowest time for the day was 26.75 seconds and the fastest time ended up being 13.5 seconds. Not sure if 50 or 60’ to be honest. Rope wasn’t 2” thick but that hardly mattered. Training had been mostly working the different approaches here with sled work and exer-genie. I felt ready but I’m not really built for drag races. Whatever, time to go. This again was based off entry form so I again went last. Not really much to observe here other than it was light and seemed to be listing to the left side from how people started. Light that people would be abandoning the rope. I took off my shirt as screw it, I’m at the shore and I might as well get some sun. Finally having some fun since the nightmare was going to be over shortly. I got set so that I’d have a good start to break the inertia and just kept going. Head down and working fast on the hands. Eventually I was moving too fast to keep my hands up with rope to have tension with like five seconds. I probably could’ve had time taken off if I had my hands outstretched as that was how they were calling time rather than it being from where the truck was. Ended up in first with 16.2 seconds but literally less than a second separated 1st through 4th here. Additionally as I mentioned, this was the same weight for all the classes so this time wouldn’t have one in other groups.

So there was a good bit of downtime waiting for the other groups to finish up even though I knew I had gotten second and was out first by three points. I think for me it was just relief I made it through the contest without needing to go to the ER or something. Body was aching and the stress and aches for this cycle didn’t make this a fun one. It felt like an obligation to compete and not pull out of the competition because I don’t like to quit. I like to go all in. If I was a normal person, I’d probably have taken a break after the break so to speak and not try and rush through things as if my best years are going to be gone by the stroke of midnight. I have to learn to adapt with what I got. I’m getting older, not recovering from things as fast as I used to and I have to adapt the athlete to what I can do. People were complimenting me all day and I’m not sure why but I guess people like me and what they see. Anytime someone asked me how I felt about an event or how I was feeling I told them I feel like crap. That’s not to say the venue or the event or anything was not ok. Though the fingal fingers thing coming apart and the clamps situation on that and dumbbells weren’t great. I still enjoyed things but I was down on myself for not being at 110%. I know that isn’t realistic. In either case, it is just good to be home and work on the next thing. At this point, next competition isn’t until March 2022 and it is local. Need to see what the damage is from this show and assess things but I’m thinking that an off season of 4-8 weeks may be needed.