December 30, 2021 – Week 12, Day 3

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds)/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns
45x10/sbx15/15
45x10/sbx15/15

12” Log Push Presses (beltless)
97x3
122x3
174x3
201x3
201x3
201x3
201x3
201x3

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
95x5
125x4
155x3
185x2
215x1
245x11
225x11
225x11

Chest Supported Barbell Rows (straps)
135x5
185x5
225x5
265x10
265x10
265x10

Dumbbell Z Presses/Band Face Pulls
40’sx5/lbx10
70’sx12/abx20
70’sx12/abx20
70’sx12/abx20

Stretching
 
Comments Trying to get my knee feeling good again. Didn’t get to do icing yesterday but I did do a lot of soft tissue work and applied topical stuff before bed. Wore a knee sleeve for about half the day the day before. Also using new protein/weight gainer right now as the brand that I’ve used since 2009 has been out of stock everywhere going on a month very soon and I’ve exhausted my stockpile essentially. Didn’t get to sleep until late which wasn’t ideal. Another half day of work which is nice but also super stressful. Really cut it close with things this time. I was undecided about training early or at the normal time. Did I want to spend time working my knee and foam rolling the lower legs or just give it a shot and get things over with? I still had to put stuff away from Tuesday’s session. Stuff in the garage was easy enough. Stuff in the patio was from Monday but not really out. Just not set how I usually do as I was trying to get things that were wet to dry out. Some things did and some things didn’t. Just been too humid the past few days. It was light out but really cloudy and looking like it would get darker and maybe rain. BTN presses with pauses into one arm band lat pulls again. This is pretty easy stuff and is really just a warm-up. Kind of a barometer for the session. Log out of the rack again and for triples. Warm up however and do 65%x5x3 with same rests as the past two weeks. No pauses this week. I could wear whatever on these. Advised to not do rebound reps. I was slightly worried about how these would go. Not for the actual pressing, just how my knee would handle these as last time my knee was acting like this, I couldn’t finish the workout and went to urgent care the next day (and spent hours there to be told tendonitis). So I figure I know what is up and it wasn’t feeling anywhere as bad as it did that day but I’m cautious with this stuff. With the weight so far forward with log compared to axle, the knees tend to ache more at the start so I think that was where my caution was. As far as working up on these, I didn’t do my usual 30lbs jumps. I also didn’t wear any support gear. I feel weight is light enough I don’t and this was a change up in the technique with it not being pauses so wanted to feel how my body moved unencumbered. The 30lbs jumps didn’t make sense with the weight ending up being 201lbs so I figured I’d use my off weight 25’s as that would get me to where I wanted with somewhat even jumps. I think that if these were paused reps, that my knees would’ve been more complainy as I think I go a little deeper in the dip on those maybe. Also more time in the stress position. But these felt quite good and easy. Not I have 100lbs more no problem easy at this point but I’m only halfway into this contest prep at this point. I got time to acclimate. Log incline was next. I guess I was assigned this to put up or shut up about saying the weight last week was too easy with it being 10RIR haha. Max reps with 245lbs with 2RIR and then match those reps with 20lbs less for two sets. Did similar warm-up to last week as far as getting ready as that seemed to be fine enough. Got set and gave it a shot. It wasn’t feeling easy today but I got a good bit of reps. However it did end up not being 2RIR. Closer to 1RIR. It was one of those times where still had power but triceps fatiguing as I felt the tenth rep felt too easy to stop on for 2RIR. Would’ve sucked big time if I missed that rep. This is good as this has me matching the higher rep stuff I was doing for these back when I was doing just one pressing session a week. Safe to say I’ve gotten used to it for the better. I only realized after I did the set I forgot to put on my compression cuffs for my elbows. Might have made that last rep go up a little easier or not. Less discomfort might have made things feel easier. But hard to say. I just like that I seem to need them less and less as things in the elbows seem to be getting better or more manageable. But man I did not want to do those down sets as they were a lot of reps and I knew that since I had gotten a little too close to sun with my wax wings that these were going to be tough. At least I seem to be applying lessons learned from hard reps (cgbp) and applying them elsewhere to get the work done. Chest supported barbell rows up next. Still really damp outside so I put down a towel for my feet to keep them from slipping on the slick metal of the bench. Plan for today was 3x10 with 10lbs less than what my top set was last week. These are getting hard to gauge. I felt that I could start off with 135lbs to start compared to the paused variation as it was ridiculously easy with 95lbs last week. Seemed to feel about the same on these. But once I get to more than 235lbs these get tough fast. It could also be that I’m able to put a good power output for those first five reps and then suffer after that. So these were decently tough but not terrible. Harder than I was expecting with how warming up felt but still fine. Had to adjust my hand position a little for comfort reasons. Took a bit of time to put stuff away and setup for the last act of the workout. Z presses with band face pulls. Plan being 3x12 for the Z presses and 3x15-20 on the band face pulls. For the face pulls, I was planning on going back down to the average band and aim for the higher reps as that seems to feel better as far as getting that external rotation going. The Z presses I was advised that I could change things up as want to be able to progress on these and if the cleaning the dumbbells to the shoulder is an issue (it is with long arms and shortish torso) that I can do something else. However, my thinking on sticking with the dumbbells at least this week again was that I felt that doing these with a barbell or axle was going to be too similar to other pressing that I did this week and will do next week. I also generally don’t loose too much on these due to balance since I got long ass legs to counterbalance as well as mobile shoulders. So this is more or less just a seated press without back support. I’m also still at that limit for my pressing with the high reps that I don’t feel I’d get the reps going heavier. My hope was that a rackable trap bar that I had ordered would arrive to use instead (never done them, would be new) but won’t probably arrive until next week so maybe then. Now I try to keep these superset exercises all in a circuit if I can but some are just too taxing to do that. This is one of them. I can do no rest between the exercises but not between the sets. So that was the case with these. Trying to be more efficient with getting the dumbbells to the shoulder. Band face pulls get exhausting with those extra reps. Again, hardest part of the workout was this last pairing. Drank some protein shakes (I’m combining two to essentially match my preferred brand) and put stuff away. Had time to kill before making dinner so stretched and iced my right knee. Plan to ice it again before bed.

December 28, 2021 – Week 12, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Paused Deadlifts (3 second mid-shins)
135x2
185x2
225x2
275x2
315x2
357x2
357x2
357x2
357x2

15” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
300x3
350x3
400x3
450x3
500x3
550x3
600x3
525x3
525x3
525x3

Paused Front Foot Elevated Split Squats (4”, floating heel, 3 seconds)
bwx1/1
bwx3/3
65x12/12
65x12/12
65x12/12

Paused Cossack Squats (1 second)
bwx3/3
bw+30x6/6
bw+30x6/6
bw+30x6/6

Paused Ab Wheel (5 seconds)/Single Leg Safety Squat Bar Seated Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
bwx14/110x15/15
bwx11/110x15/15
bwx5/110x15/15

Stretching
  
Comments: Some good news is that I did end up getting an 8-month extension on my telework. Up until now, it had not been a potential permanent position but now it is. But it is based on “operational need” as well as performance and seniority. So it will have to be reviewed August 2022. I’m realizing how having this continue means few interruptions to training plans. It would be a lot tougher to keep up the training pace if I had to commute and then come home to setup. A bit later start to training then I would’ve liked today. Right knee has calmed down a good bit with recovery stuff on my off days. Trying to do more to get things back to where they were. Just kind of came out of nowhere. Though with all the effort and work being put in, not I guess terribly surprising that stuff is achy or hurts. So watching the right knee and right biceps. Mobility stuff same as it was last time. Seemed fine. Tweaked band tension a little. Warm-ups off after that. Everything in the garage so things would be pretty warm once I was warm. Paused pulls again with 2-3ct hold at the shins. Drop a set (4x2) and increase another 3% (61%). Do doubles warming up this time and apply support gear. I still feel that this weight is light enough to not need to worry about straps yet. Bar was quite cold starting things off haha. Knees were slightly achy on these today. Pauses seemed good. I did notice some shaking going on in the left leg on the concentric portion of the lift during and after the pauses on some reps. Not a cause for concern. I think I read somewhere that it can be fatigue related in the eccentric loading phase. I’ve never really had violent leg shakes I’ve seen in some people with max lifts. This was fine enough. No hard belt on these. Save that for when I’m closer to 400lbs (if we go up that high on this variation). Axle pulls from 15” after that. This week the plan was work up in triples to a top triple (1RIR) and then drop down some for 3x3. Not sure how these would go. I was really hoping that I could do 600lbs for the top triple and work up in 50lbs jumps to that. Starting at 300lbs now that I’ve gotten used to things with the axle (and doing enough weight with the previous variations it would seem). Right arm and pec were feeling a little tight on these so trying to get them to relax. Trying to do work but not take too much out of me to affect the top sets. Last time for the top set it was with 1-2RIR for the set of 5 reps. So aim for it to be closer to peak this time. Would have to make 550lbs feel comfortable without going all in. I was able to but I didn’t feel like I’d make 600lbs feel easy. Like it would be a rough 3 reps to achieve and have no reps in the tank. I was feeling a little blah. Like I couldn’t hit peak arousal. I had felt that a little yesterday evening too when going for the strict press singles. One of the reasons I backed off going for 275lbs that night. I guess I overcompensated tonight as I made 600lbs look like a joke. Came up easier than 550lbs did. Like no effort to move that weight that first rep. Talking smack while lifting it and swearing after three reps because it felt too damn easy. Like in the moment, I feel 3RIR isn’t out of the question. The hell did this come from? Took a bit to come back down to earth and have to do the down sets. Had to keep double checking my plate weight math to make sure I had the right weight on there for the down sets and to make sure I had actually just done 600lbs. Those down sets felt pretty darn tough on my body after that. More how this kind of weight normally feels haha. So next up was the FFE split squats with a twist. I was advised to do 3x12 with 3ct pauses with “floating heel”. Essentially having just half my foot on the elevation and leaving the back half hanging off the edge. This would require more ankle stability. I felt that with this change, that this would be a lot more challenging than what I was doing. I was also leery about the knees (more so the right one right now) with how they were feeling. I figured that even if I was feeling like I could use weight for these, it would be less than my ssb weighs (65lbs). I did some bodyweight reps and I felt that these were harder but with reduced pause time compared to last two weeks, even with weight and extra reps I should be able to do it. Balance was certainly tougher. Right knee was feeling some discomfort but not enough that I felt I had to stop. Definitely can see how these can work the mobility of the ankles harder compared to the other style. The one harder aspect was for my calves. I didn’t give adequate rest between the sides that first set and my right calf just kind of locked up on me and I couldn’t get my leg to stay up to do the final rep on that side. Finally got that to work and finished with the rep. I rested about 10-15 seconds longer between sides after that and I didn’t have a repeat of the issue. But I did have a feeling that calf work later in the session would be tough. Cossack squats were next. Leery about these with the knees too. Advised to warm-up with triples how I felt and do top weight last week with 1 second pauses for 3x6. Doing similar to what I’ve been doing with the FFE split squats with stretching in the position to open up the hips and get the knees and hamstrings comfortable with what I’m asking of them. Trying to not use knee sleeves for exercises I didn’t previously use them on. But I may have to keep on training at this level. They seem to only want to tolerate so much. So slight discomfort on these in the knees. The usual issue with the left side and the discomfort in the right knee. Reoccurring one around the MCL (issue at end of last year/beginning this year and again middle of September. Tendonitis related. Last thing was abs and calves. Back to having seated calf raises with the ab wheel. Same parameters with 5ct for ab wheel and aim for 30 reps total and 3x15 for the inverted tempo ssb seated calf raises with 110lbs. I’m aware that sometimes the repeating of weights/workouts is not because I can’t do more or progress. But to repeat it so that I can do better, have it take less effort. And other times it is because the new added workload from the previous exercises may cause this to be tougher than it was. It was the later this session. For the seated calf work that is. The ab wheel stuff was harder than last week (expected) but easier than two weeks ago. I was a little surprised that these were tougher than last week but I have to realize that the pause pulls take a good bit out of my bracing and then coupled with this being the heavier axle block pull week. Finished things up and ate pot roast before stretching and icing my knees. Left stuff out because it was a lot later than I had planned and I have less work days this week and I can get it taken care of later.

December 27, 2021 – Week 12, Day 1

Band Face Pulls
abx12
abx12
abx12

Barbell Strict Presses
45x3
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
185x1
205x1
225x1
245x1
265x1
212x5
212x5

Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings)
bwx5
bw+35x3
bw+70x8
bw+70x8
bw+70x8
bw+70x8

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
265x3
305x6
305x6
305x6

Chaos Band Push-ups (feet elevated 9”)
bw+20x10
bw+35x10
bw+50x10

Dumbbell Y Raises (high incline)
10’sx10
21’sx15
21’sx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Extensions
lbx20/20
lbx20/20

Stretching
  
Comments: Well Christmas deluge of celebrating has ended. Not bad or good that it ends. Just a return to normal stuff. Not as much people-to-people interaction and back to more scheduled eating and foods. I accommodate to celebrate but my stomach and digestion aren’t happy with the abruptness or the start and end of the festivities. Right knee seems to be calming down a bit from whatever with soft tissue work, ice and rest. Right biceps thing is just annoying but keeping an eye on that as well. Snowed during the morning and with it stopping and then getting warm, I had to take precautions to keep my workout space safe. Shoveled and got as much stuff off as I could and put down the anti-ice mix down. Issue would be if it refroze. Starting things off with band face pulls. 3x12 this week. Kept band tenson the same though I think I stepped back further to make things a little tougher considering the lowered reps. Still working this day with very strict form and working on getting things moving right. Today for strict press, it was go for a heavy single and then drop to 80% of that for 2x5.  Work up in triples to about 60-70% and then do singles. So I did 30lbs jumps to that point and then 20lbs jumps. I figured that 265lbs was minimum here. I was hoping for more than that but goal was to hit a solid single with no misses. My strict pressing with the barbell hasn’t been as solid as I’d like at times. I did like the switch back to working up in singles as that seems to help me with getting the groove right. Not trying to rush things. Things playing against me was my best lifts and where I’m at. Thing is that I keep thinking I’ve done more. I keep thinking I did 255x3 two weeks ago when it was really 250lbs. I did look up my all-time bests with it listed as 255x5, 260x4 and 270x3 with reps. I also had 275x2 but that not a good set as I literally took a minute between the reps after I missed the first time. Best single being 290lbs. Though the amount of lower body drive it is hard to say how strict some of these were really. These were before the back injury in 2016. I kind of wanted to hit 275lbs today. 265lbs didn’t come off the shoulders right (went out in front) but I corrected and my lockout was feeling strong so once I got it past eye level it went up no problem. I did load the bar to 275lbs but I stopped myself. I couldn’t guarantee I’d not miss the lift and if it went like 265lbs did at the start it wouldn’t go up without me doing a cheaty push press. And that wasn’t the goal here. Have to remember that outside of log clean and strict press with 267lbs, this is the most weight I’ve strict pressed since the 2016 reboot. Down sets were pretty easy. Still required focus but there were plenty of reps there. Feet elevated pull-ups on the rings after that. Same weight as last time but extra set so 4x8. Felt slightly tougher than last week but still about the same. My recovery between sets seems good on these. Did have a jolt that first set getting set as the back pack did a nut tap at the start. Wasn’t thinking about my right biceps that set haha. Close grip bench was up next. 10lbs less than top set last week for 3x6. I did this weight two weeks prior for 2x6 so this was just a bit more. Granted that week this weight felt crushing from the first rep. But seems to be feeling better each week as far as that crushing sensation at these weights. Lot of workouts with +300lbs. Some day I want what I’m doing on these to be my overhead press sessions. So these are still tough but I felt like they weren’t the disgustingly crushing sensation I’ve had in my wrists and forearms as of late. Honestly, they felt light the first three reps. But boy do they get tough those last two reps. To my surprise, the last set actually felt the best here. Change in the push-ups. Chaos bands are back. 3x10 listed with RPE 6-7. No set tempo, just indicated control. I knew that doing these on the ground without tempo would be way too easy. I have good control with these instability exercises for upper body. So my plan here was to do these with my feet elevated with bumper plates and wear 20lbs in the back pack. That was all I was thinking and thinking that would be enough to push them into the difficulty level I needed. Especially since it had started to rain. The most balance dependent exercise of the night and it starts raining. Well that first set was way too easy. So I was going to just add 10lbs more but I thought go with 15lbs (the 15lbs kettlebells are bigger and softer, more surface area). That was a good addition to things and it made it tougher but not tougher enough to really be in the 7 RPE range. I could do more. Figured do another 15lbs and even things out so like average as that first set was way too easy. This made things a good bit tougher, especially since the added weight was enough that it made the bands dip down more and be more unstable. That last set was definitely in the high end of RPE 7. High incline dumbbell Y raises again. 2x15 this week. I figured I could go up a bit from last time. However, I felt that it would be in my best interest to do a lighter set since these can stress the joints a good bit (elbows, wrists) with how long my levers are. It is a good thing I did as that lower weight set just felt all these aches and made adjustments to my form as I went. Got all the kinks out for the working sets which were good. Felt the effort with the weight now being over 20lbs on these. Last thing was band triceps. 2x20 this week. So kept it as the light band to try and do that weight. Seemed to work out here. I was able to do these inside standing. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Iced my elbows and right knee before bed.

December 25, 2021 – Week 11, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Single Leg Squats to Box
bwx5/5 to 20”
bwx8/8 to 16”
bwx8/8 to 16”
bwx8/8 to 16”

Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box) w/ bands (+60lbs bottom/+86lbs top)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
375x3
375x3
375x3
375x3
375x3

Frame Carries
Titan Fitness (16”)
Casual Pace 
115x50’
115x50’
Makeshift (18”)
Normal
276x50’
276x50’
376x50’
476x50’
BiggDogg Strongg (20”, 1.5” handles)
580x50’ in 8.67 seconds
Added Straps
660x50’ in 9.12 seconds
660x50’ in 9.34 seconds
660x50’ in 9.34 seconds

Sandbag Shoulderings
205x1 L
205x1 R
205x1 L
205x1 R
205x1 L
205x1 R
205x1 R
205x1 L
205x1 L
205x1 R

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
70x6(3/3)
95x6(3/3)
115x12(6/6)
115x12(6/6)
115x12(6/6)

Backwards “Sled” Drags (Exer-Genie)
12x60’
12x60’

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: Couple of things going on that I haven’t really been stressing about consciously outside of amateur strongman (which seems to be a tire fire for SC and just so-so with USS). I guess the main one is that a decision from above at work needs to be made by end of next week whether telework continues or not for the next 8-month cycle. Per the union contract, I’m to be given 2 weeks’ notice of this change so not being notified at the beginning of last week is a problem. But the union steward is worthless so… I should still be ok since I’m a good worker and I have seniority. It would just really suck to have to go back to commuting and wearing uncomfortable clothes again for a job that can be done from home easier than in person. The other concern would be if they change my job due to continued teleworking since right now there is a component that requires f2f intake appointments but that has been waived for obvious reasons. So question comes down to whether I keep what I do when that is lifted. But I’m oddly not stressing about that. Too occupied with the present or maybe I know it’s just not worth the hassle to be stressing about future things. Family visiting for the holidays which then requires disruption to my normal schedule. I get enough notice, I can comfortably adapt but a change is a change despite what I tell myself. My right knee was feeling sore from chasing my nephews around the house as a dinosaur. I take my duties seriously and walking like a therapod is a stress position apparently as also tight for lower back and hamstrings. I think the knee thing was from trying to make stuff shake as I walked like in Jurassic Park. So I iced my knees and elbow before bed as well as did soft tissue work. Hoping that not a problem for training tomorrow. Had to get up early for Christmas to see family open the gifts. Thankful the gym was open today as I’d hate to have to do stuff at home and substitute things. Especially since it was raining off and on. Not many people on the road. Which worked for me. Made excellent time out to the gym. No one was there when I got there other than someone that followed in right behind me. More people arrived as I was training. Mobility stuff was good. Seems to be alternating between one week and the other as far as the different things to do. Starting things off with single leg squats to box. Same as it has been as far as doing 3x8. I was advised that I didn’t need to keep pushing the height to being lower at this point based off of my height and limb length with what I was reporting. I was also told that I could do a set of band TKEs to get knees warmed up more before doing this considering how they felt last week. I was hoping they’d feel better with the icing the soft tissue work the night before. Did a set of 25 reps each leg with the strong band and then did alternating reps each side to a 20” box until I felt like I could handle going lower. Figure I’d do 16” box for all three working sets since I worked down to it last week. These are challenging at the start as far as feeling comfortable in myself and the knees getting down this low and with balance. The reps feel easier and smoother to do as I do sets but I get more fatigued from doing them. So there was still discomfort in the knees but it was a lot less than last week so that is a good thing. SSB box squats with bands to high box again. Last time it was up to a top set. This time, it was work up to 375lbs for 5x3 with 90-120 seconds rest. So essentially a repeat from last training cycle of the first workout with the bands. I did things a little differently with warming up. Seeing as how the bands add a good bit, I kind of figured I’d just not do the empty bar without bands since the jump was kind of big and the bar path would be unaffected. Thinking of these more like how I do deadlifts with 135lbs to start. Get used to that grounding sensation right off the bat. Knees ached off and on with these. But as is usually the case, none really when it comes to the serious top set work. I seemed to move better with the weight as I did more sets. Only time I got out of my groove was on a rep with the fourth set I think and even then it didn’t really look like I slowed down much on video. These generally feel slow but look decent on video. Frame carry was up next. Confusing feelings with this. I look forward to it but I also have worries. I look forward to it showing up in my training session but I know how rough it is on my body and each week is going to be more and more. So the good news was that because other people at the gym are training for the same show as me, the frame is now in the lanes. The bad news is that the thing is so massive that it takes up space and it makes it very hard to get my times off the camera going both ways (can only get it one way) when doing the full 50’. I wanted to do good. Lower back and hamstrings feeling stiff and sore from training this week and pretending to be an Iguanodon for two evenings. I did learn some things from last session with warming up. With using the makeshift frame, I should have it evenly balanced for those runs. So 100lbs jumps after swapping from the lightest frame to the makeshift frame. I was keeping an eye on the right arm as I’m not sure if it is biceps, forearm or brachialis that is irritated. Then on to the big frame. So for the working stuff, I was to do one run without the straps and then three runs with straps. With how stuff felt last week, I wasn’t expecting things to escalate this much. I was thinking 20lbs, not 40lbs. I brought out the .5kgs plates to make the frame be 570lbs without other stuff on it. Getting set for the no strap run with 580lbs, I was just a little nervous about things. This stuff felt heavy last time. But that was last time and this felt like it should this week. Ended up being faster than I was with less weight that first week. Now was going to be the big ask. 660lbs for the strapped sets. Jodi was there training for Clash on the Coast in April and I asked her to help me with start commands and time keeping due to the aforementioned issues. These didn’t feel bad. I mean, the pick still the point where I’ll make or break on these. My first run was faster than my fastest run last week with the straps and 618lbs and my other two runs (same time) where still faster than my slowest run from that week. That last run tied my second run even though I screwed up on the pick. This is a good sign with these as I’m only 90lbs off contest weight here and I can see myself doing sets with 700lbs very soon. I also need to remember to not rush the pick as even when I grip this, I tend to lean forward. I can get away with that with how tall I am. Need to stand up and then go as I can pick up my pace as I move. Single leg work that has been stretching my hips has been helping with that. Next was sandbag shouldering. Listed plan was to do 200lbs for 10 lifts alternating sides and to do so with 45-60 seconds rest. Same as last time was what was indicating and that was the idea. To keep this workout in as form work and have it feel easier each time. This was the one I was a little concerned about with the right arm. The other wrinkle was that the 200lbs was gone. It appears that it burst more and was replaced with a new sandbag. Different brand and it is packed a little better and 5lbs heavier. Works for me. I decided that I’d go right into it as this is light weight and I’m not really seeing any benefit to doing the lighter, floppy bags to prep here. These felt decent enough but the weight is really light that I can manhandle it even if it goes awry. I did get distracted and at some point did the same side twice as opposed to alternating. So I did two for the one side to hopefully get back on track (I had no idea if I had done this more than once lol). Thankfully this did correct things. After the event specific stuff was done, it was on to the finishing up stuff. 2 up and 1 down leg curls after that. Same long negatives on these as has been the case. Same weight as two weeks ago. As to be expected since I got minimal reps that time. I figured that for this week, I’d start with my right leg as opposed to the left leg. Even though the left leg is the one with discomfort in the one spot in the back of the calf right below the knee, that discomfort doesn’t keep me from getting reps. My right leg is the one that fatigues first so always playing catchup to the left side on these. I did less sets and same reps to get ready. My aim was to get 3x6 for these and that worked out for me. It was tough but I got it done. Hardly felt like I had any reps where my leg just couldn’t hold up the weigh for the negatives. Backwards “sled” drags with the exer-genie after that. Two sets as opposed to three sets this week. I was told I could swap these out for backwards treadmill walks. But I like these better as far as specificity to events I struggle with. These were a bit more consistent this week compared to last time. I didn’t have any super easy sets like the second set last time but they weren’t ridiculously tough like the first and third were. Last thing was the usual quad fallbacks. Jodi’s dog, Tegan was at the gym and she was nearby when I did these. I was able to coax her to come over for pets on the second set. The joy of her coming over was soon replaced by the disappoint of her leaving mid-set haha. I drank weight gain shake and hit the road so that I could get home to stretch and clean up and be available for more Christmas activities. Going to make sure I ice the knees twice before bed.

December 23, 2021 – Week 11, Day 3

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds)/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns

45x10/sbx15/15

45x10/sbx15/15

Paused 12” Log Push Presses (2 seconds, beltless)

95x3

125x3

155x3

185x3

185x3

185x3

185x3

185x3

185x3

12” Log Incline Bench Presses

90x5

120x4

150x3

180x2

200x1

220x5

220x5

220x5

220x5

Chest Supported Barbell Rows (straps)

95x5

145x5

185x5

235x5

275x12 PR+4 reps

248x12

248x12

Dumbbell Z Presses/Band Face Pulls

10’sx5/lbx5

40’sx3/abx3

70’sx12/sbx15

70’sx12/sbx15

70’sx12/sbx15

Stretching

 

Comments Feel like I’ve beat whatever it was that was making me feel not that great. Again, it was easier really weak cold or terrible allergies. Gone in some of the soft tissue work I wanted to do. Calves super tight from Tuesday haha. Half day of work which is nice but also super stressful as have to get stuff done in half the time or it will be 5 days overdue by the time I get back to it. Literally to the wire getting everything I needed to do done. I had considered just waiting to train at my normal time but I figured I’d probably prefer training with sunlight for a change. And also it looked like it would be below freezing if I waited until then to start. BTN presses with pauses into one arm band lat pulls again. This is pretty easy stuff. On to log work after that. It was really cold so I kept my warm-ups on. I’d have ditched them if it was a clean and press session. Same as last week as far as doing them with paused triples. Same weight and one more set. I stuck with being beltless again since it was still only 60% and it felt decent enough last week without support gear of any kind. Knees ache a lot on these at the start but once I’m good and warmed, it is fine and these feel pretty crisp. Log incline was next. No bands this week. My choice as far as warming up to 220lbs for 4x5. I was to report back RIR on that last set. I guess this was a deload of sorts for this exercise. I decided to pyramid the weight up for these and do a single with 20lbs under for a controlled lift before going at things. Shoulders a little achy at times but these were pretty easy to do. I could’ve done 6 more sets of these I think before I would start to fatigue hard. I’m not entirely sure but I feel like I could’ve done 10 more reps that last set. Maybe more. Hard to gauge on this lift as once the triceps go, they go hard. And I tend to be better at repping than singles on this lift. From there it was chest supported barbell rows. No pauses this time. Back to normal rows. I didn’t want to jump into things too quick at the start as I wasn’t sure about the right arm as this exercise (with the pauses) last week seemed to be the thing that started bothering me. Goal here was to warm up in sets of 3-5 reps and do a top set of 10-12 with 1-2RIR. Was feeling pretty strong. But I also need to remember that these without the pauses are quite a bit similar to the log incline in that I can rep out weights. I was feeling pretty darn good here and I was considering maybe 315lbs would be a doable top set depending on how 275lbs felt (I was initially going for just 265lbs as top set). When 275lbs didn’t exactly come off the pins without a hitch, I decided that I’d have this be my top set and aim for it to be 12 reps with 2RIR. Still a good improvement for me. Down sets were 10% off of that for 2x12. Easy enough. First 8 or so reps is easy and then fatigue hits hard for the remaining reps. Like fast stuff and then have to treat it like I do the heavy close grip bench stuff and control the fatigued reps. Second set was definitely tougher than the first one. Finishing off the day was the pairing of dumbbell z presses with band face pulls. Last week I used too light a weight on the presses and punched above my weight on the band face pulls. Reps were reduced on the z presses for this week with higher intensity. I felt that if things aligned, I could do my 70’s for these sets. I also felt it was a good idea to do some warm-up to see how things were feeling and test to see if I could keep better focus and form on the band face pulls to allow me to use the strong band for the workout. With the z presses, getting the dumbbells setup to get to my shoulders is not an easy thing. I did become more efficient with things as I went though. I could tell after that first set that this was doable but it would be really really tough. Band face pulls I feel I had better control here and was doing more external rotation with this tension then I was last week. Wasn’t feeling discomfort in the right arm from these this time. I decided to do the z pressing with dumbbells in the garage so I could have a little breather between the exercises and so I didn’t have to drag dumbbells outside and then have to put them away later. After the second set, I knew I needed a bit more rest if I was going to get all the reps for the last set. That was definitely pushing things for that last set with this weight. This tension is also exhausting. I figured I’d be putting off enough body heat to ditch the long sleeves. Finished putting things away and then had a late lunch before stretching.

December 21, 2021 – Week 11, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Snatch Grip Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x2
365x2
405x2
455x2
515x3 PR+40lbs
438x4
438x4
438x4

15” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
300x1
350x1
400x1
450x1
502x3
502x3
502x3
502x3

Paused Front Foot Elevated Split Squats (4”, 5 seconds)
bwx3/3
65x10/10
65x10/10
65x10/10

Paused Cossack Squats (2 seconds)
bw+15x6/6
bw+25x6/6
bw+30x6/6

Paused Ab Wheel (5 seconds)/Single Leg Calf Raises (5-2-0-0 tempo)
bwx15/bwx13/13
bwx10/bwx13/13
bwx5/bwx13/13

Stretching
  
Comments: This didn’t start out as a good day. Woke up feeling like I had either terrible allergies or a really weak cold. As the day went on, I took more intensive steps. Nasal spray first, then Claritin a few hours later. Another hour and some Dayquil. Finally I went and replaced the air filter in my basement. Whatever it is, it will go away in short order. Just like last time this came up. Trying to not let it ruin my vibe as they would say haha. Mobility stuff was a bit of change up. I was expecting to be really cold with it being a good bit below freezing in the morning but with no wind it wasn’t so bad. But kept warm-ups on for the mobility stuff. Snatch grips to start the heavy part of the session. This week I was to work up to a top triple. Listed as 1RIR or RPE 8.5. RPE I still don’t really get but RIR seems to work for me. Plan here was some decent reps at the lower weights and then switch to doubles all the way up. I was thinking that I would be good for 500lbs for my top set. Would be a first for me getting 500lbs on snatch grip pulls. They’ve been clicking for me lately. I was still keeping an eye on the right arm but didn’t feel the need to wear the elbow copper sleeve like I’ve done in the past few sessions. Took plate jumps first two sets and then went to 40-50lbs jumps after that. I was going to gauge things on how 455lbs felt. Felt like suck then do 495lbs. Felt good, try something big. Felt fine so I went for 60lbs jump which would be a big PR here. Granted, I’ve only done 495lbs for a single but that was with a wide stance so similar but not the same. Most I’ve done has been 475lbs for a triple like 11yrs ago. Since then been no more than 455lbs for reps of some sort and usually much lower than that for form work or speed work. So this was a nice feather for my cap to hit this with a rep (and maybe 2) in the tank. Down sets were 15% off of that. They felt pretty darn tough after that effort but look pretty ok on video. Elevated axle pulls after that. So it would seem that these will alternate perhaps between a lot of sets with short rests and heavy stuff if going off of these three weeks so far. And this week would be the many sets week. Warm-up how I wanted for these. Went with singles and heavier weight to start. Don’t need that much work with the lighter stuff after two weeks back to back. So the thing with these was while the plan was only to be a small increase based off of things, it ended up being a big jump from last time. So last time was 75% of whatever I felt was my 1rm for 5x3. This week it would be 78% for 4x3. Sticking to 90-120 seconds rest. Thing is that my projected max went up a good bit since last time. Estimated last time was 627lbs or so. After doing 560lbs for a set of 5 reps, it is now saying it is 644lbs. So instead of having a 19lbs increase from last time (489lbs), I had a 32lbs increase. Even before getting to these, my hamstrings were feeling pretty tight. So even with the big bump in the weights, I was still able to do things as written with little difficulty. A lot of pulls over 500lbs today. So next up was the FFE split squats. I had been told these would increase in weight if I did them for 3x10 with the empty SSB with 5ct pause each rep. But workout said keep the weight the same and focus on the pauses and dorsiflexion. It is possible that this was artifact data from the previous session two weeks prior but figured I’d do it again and make it better than last time. Now I’m not sure if my knees were feeling better because of doing stuff or if my warming up was smarter or if the anti-inflammatories in the Dayquil were helping. I was able to keep these to a pretty good pace, maybe 30 seconds rest between sides and usual break between the sets. Cossack squats were after that. Babying these too much as I was advised to add pauses, lower reps a little and to add a light weight to them. And to try and stay more upright. RPE 7. Lot of variables. As I’ve mentioned, the left leg/knee has some issues but I’m working on it. I can’t as easily get down like I can with my right knee. I ended up adding weight to these each set and ended up doing 5lbs over my PR without pauses for this exercise and these reps. The abdominals and calf pairing was changed up again. Ab wheel stays the same here. 5 second pauses and doing total of 30 reps over however many sets I needed. Calf stuff no longer seated. Back to one leg standing stuff. These are really tough with tempo added. I was to do 3x12 with whatever weight I needed to get it to be RPE 7. I tried a little weight but it was a no go and I figured that I should stick to bodyweight as these are a challenge for me with one leg. Ab wheel I thought I did 14/11/5 but it turns out I did 15/10/5. Still got my reps. Didn’t feel as fatigued going into these as I did last week. The calf raises were tough but it didn’t help matters that I accidentally did 13 reps somehow instead of 12 reps for my sets. Left continues to be the stronger/more coordinated of the two when it comes to calf stuff. Put things away before eating dinner and stretching. Iced my knees before bed.

December 20, 2021 – Week 11, Day 1

Band Face Pulls
abx15
abx15
abx15

Barbell Strict Presses
45x3
85x3
115x3
145x3
175x3
205x3
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1
235x1

Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings)
bwx5
bw+35x3
bw+70x8
bw+70x8
bw+70x8

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x3
315x5
285x5
285x5
285x5

Banded Push Ups
No Bands
bwx5
Added Bands
lbx5
ab+µbx15
sbx15 PR+3 reps/bwx11

Dumbbell Y Raises (high incline)
18’sx12
18’sx12
18’sx12

Single Arm Band Triceps Extensions
lbx15/15
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Stretching
  
Comments: Getting to be that time of year with the outside training where I’m seeing my breath during the workouts and have to gauge what layers to keep on setting up and between sets. Both biceps a little sore from Saturday but the right more so. I don’t think anything serious but keeping my eye on it. Starting things off with band face pulls. Same as it has been. Working on warming up and getting good external rotation in. No issues with the biceps with this tension. Strict pressing was up next. Same thing of using whatever and warming up in triples. But the working weights were to be an EMOM of 235x10x1. Not sure why I was nervous. I guess my thinking was that it wouldn’t go as smoothly as it could and that I recall doing this exact plan almost 6yrs ago (32 days off) and it had been quite easy. So I guess just comparison to myself before the back injury and hard reset with training. When my strict pressing was at its strongest. But memories aren’t always accurate. Video just shows bar speed. So the thoughts had been that this would be tougher, not as good and that I’d not be better than I was back then if I missed a rep. Irrational thinking. Kept my wrist wraps on the entire time for the EMOM. First three singles didn’t feel like I had the power. I had lost my balance a little on my last warm-up triple so that might have shaken things a little. Fourth single I think was my best of the evening but most of them after that point felt fairly crisp. Not the most powerful feeling but I feel like I could do that particular power output of this weight EMOM all day if necessary. So work compacity is good/great. Feet elevated pull-ups on the rings after that. Add 10lbs to last week and just do 3x8. Report back how I felt and I guess assess from there. This would be the first time that I’d be going over the most I’ve attempted on these (66lbs) when I was just using chain weight. Slightly leery about the right biceps for this. But if it didn’t go off on me with arm-over-arm or shouldering, I should be good here. Only slight hesitation on this really. Only issue I was having was that my warm-up pants are slick material and it was causing my legs to slip on the support bench a little. So I rolled up the pant legs for the last set. Feel like I had a good bit of reps in the tank on these. Close grip bench was up next. Kind of surprised these showed up again with how hard these felt last week. At least as this particular plan. Work up to 10lbs more than last week’s weight for 5, report back RIR and then do 285x3x5. Working up didn’t feel too bad honestly. I wasn’t feeling like things were going to be that crushing on me. 315lbs did feel heavy but not as bad as 305lbs had felt last week. But it was tough, even if it didn’t feel as heavy. Probably 2RIR at most on this. Down sets were decent. No doubt of getting the reps here on any of them. I did kind of get sloppy on the first rep of the second set and realized I needed to keep focused. Just because it is lighter, doesn’t mean it is going to be something I can relax on. Into the garage for push-ups with bands again. Indication was to do a set of 15 reps with 2RIR and then a max rep set to almost failure followed by taking the bands off and doing bodyweight only to failure. I was initially thinking to do the same weight for both sets as average and a micro band but I figured I’d stick to what I did last week and just do that for the 15 rep set and then do strong band for the max rep set. Glad I did. Kind of surprised how well these went. Like, the first set it felt like I went too light. And then to get 15 reps with the strong band. Stripped off the band and the wrist wraps for the bodyweight drop set (10 second I think to get ready) and managed to grind out 11 reps before I stopped. So that was a good one. High incline dumbbell Y raises again. 3x12 this week again. Added 2lbs to last time to the dumbbells. Felt ok and probably could’ve gone heavier here than I did to still meet the parameters. I’ll go up more next time if these show up again. Last thing for the evening was triceps with bands. I was going to do same as last time with an added micro band to it but I figured I’d suck it up and go for the light band. That had been too tough to do for this many reps when I was first given to do this exercise. So to make it look easy that first set was nice. It got quite tough after that though. But like last week, I didn’t have to revert to any rest pausing to get the reps in. Put things away and ate pot roast before stretching out.

December 18, 2021 – Week 10, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Single Leg Squats to Box
bwx1/1 to 20”
bwx1/1 to 20”
bwx3/3 to 20”
bwx8/8 to 18”
bwx8/8 to 17”
bwx8/8 to 16”

Safety Squat Bar Box Squats (20” box) w/ bands (+60lbs bottom/+86lbs top)
No Bands
65x3
Added Bands
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x3
425x5
372x5
372x5

Seated Arm-Over-Arm Exer-genie Pulls (2” rope, tire, prowler attached)
4x60’
8x60’ in 28.30 seconds
10x60’ in 32.14 seconds
12x60’ in 35.10 seconds
8x60’ in 24.24 seconds

Sandbag Shoulderings
175x1/1
225x1/1
225x1/1
225x1/1
225x1/1
225x1/1
225x1/1

Sandbag Roll-ups
275x7
306x8
306x8

Sorensen Holds
bw for 15 seconds
bw for 15 seconds
bw for 15 seconds

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: Got to bed a little later than I had planned on doing. But I also didn’t want to oversleep as I did want to make sure that some people were there when I was training for some things. I was a little leery about my right biceps. I did a good bit of soft tissue work on it the day before. It does seem to be more brachialis as opposed to biceps from how stuff was feeling. And it was mostly me being concerned as good bit of the event training today would involve stress to the biceps. Also the issues with what is going on in amateur strongman is maddening. Now even affecting the US pro scene a bit. If things don’t turn around, this show in March may be my last with SC. Driving out was good. Owners were there. I had brought in a case of water bottles for the gym as a “peace offering” of sorts as I had inadvertently destroyed the winter insulation that was put up last week when I took the frame outside to train. They weren’t mad but I had felt bad about it. But I was also not going to let minor property damage stop me from doing what I feel I need to do to be the best. Since several people at the gym are going to be training for the show, the frame has now been moved into the lanes so that at least makes things easier for me going forward. Mobility stuff felt good. Starting things off with single leg squats to box. 3x8 and same difficulty. Suggested was to “inch” my way down. So add a layer each set. So plan was to do first set with what I did my working weights at last two weeks and go down. That was the plan. But my knees decided that today they sucked. Especially my left knee. Could be on me for not icing my knees after log pressing Thursday as that is definitely harder on them than axle. But I had felt good and just did soft tissue work on Friday evening. But the knee ache was enough that I couldn’t initially get down to a 20” box at first and had to do singles and reps before I felt like I could do lower. My right knee was achy but not nearly as bad. I may need to use the knee sleeves going forward on these. But stuck to what I had told myself to do. These were pretty tough. More the controlling down aspect. The actual concentric isn’t bad at all really. So hard to gauge RPE. Discomfort was at its lowest on the lowest box height for whatever reason. Maybe I was at my most warmed up or just finally got endorphins going. Or even the joint angle. But it was done and with how my knees had been, I kind of had an idea of what I’d need to deal with going forward on the next exercise. SSB box squats with bands. High box (20”) like last training cycle. Using same band tension from that session too. My knees had ached a lot during that session too and what was to be “speed work” didn’t really feel like it. But I had made sure to control the eccentric (no plop down). With how knees were feeling, I figured that doing quarter-plate jumps made the most sense rather than taking bigger jumps like I had done last time these came up. My thoughts were that I should be able to do ssb plus 4 plates a side for the planned top set (5 with 1-2RIR). Work up in triples as has been the case. I felt I had that after my last triple. Also knew that that weight would be a bit much for downsets so didn’t go heavier than that to make sure I stuck to the plan. Got it and definitely felt I had 2RIR there. Which considering the bands is a good sign. I inadvertently took a longer rest than planned after that as I was trying to figure out the plate combo to get it to be 12.5% drop and I didn’t want to go too light or too heavy. That set felt really good though haha. Like 10 reps wasn’t a problem. Bit more regular rest for the second set and that felt a good bit tougher. So next thing was arm-over-arm. One of the exercises today I was a little worried about with my right arm today. But also one that was going to take up a ton of time to setup. I have used a setup previously but it hasn’t been the best. After doing arm-over-arm at home and using a sled with the exer-genie, I figured that trying to setup something like that at the gym was a better way. It just took a bit of engineering and time though. I had plenty of time. Now seeing as how this was a new setup and seeing how much I had to reduce the resistance with the addition of a sled last time, I had to test things out. Did like maybe 20’ and said I’m good (both to see how it felt difficulty wise and to test out my arm). Plan for today was to do based off RPE of 7,8,9,7 with the aim of doing the last set faster than the first set. Brian showed up with his daughter to do some training so I had someone to assist with commands and eating the rope. The first set I did ended up being too easy. I didn’t stop though once I realized it wasn’t hard enough as I did want to get a full course run in to see how things felt the whole way. Decided to jump up a good bit for the working sets then. Apparently the setup I had at home with the slight incline on the street was harder than what I was doing here on turf with flat surface (as far as added drag to the tension). This was a good spot as far as tension as it would allow me to adjust based off 1-2lbs depending on how things felt over the sets. Didn’t realize until I was able to check at home that the grouping on these was pretty close relatively. About 3-4 seconds increase in time with 2lbs of tension adjusted. I was really able to push things with the heaviest set. I wasn’t sure if I had gone faster on that last set compared to first set but over 4 seconds per the video when I could check it. Seeing how fast things were compared to some sets I’ve done, I may not have truly hit RPE 9. However, the next jump up is 4lbs more at that point so that could’ve been a bridge too far considering the last time I did that (without a sled) it took me over 50 seconds. But that will be a goal to hit that. But comparing to what I did today with some of the same tensions vs then (7/31/21) I beat those times by about a second. But I also had sprained my wrist and fracture my elbow before I did them haha. Sandbag shouldering was next. I had been advised that this week would be the “heavier” of the sessions with the other week being form work and light. So for this week it was to be 225lbs for 6 doubles (1 rep each side) and then shortish rest between them. I had kind of been hoping that things would get bumped up to 250lbs or so. But probably for the best that it wasn’t. I have almost 3 months until competition time and this is literally the third time I’ve ever done this movement. I’m sure I got the strength but not always what is needed. I was a little leery on these with the right arm. If I was going to injure it, this was going to be the exercise. I knew these were going to be harder than EMOM singles. Just from how large the ROM is on these and the motions needed that reps would be harder than singles to recover from. My warm-up with the 175lbs bag was garbage but I didn’t want to waste effort on a super floppy bag that feels a ton different from a firmer bag like the 225lbs was. And save energy for it. Luckily no real issues with my right arm other than feeling tenseness on the first set. Things appear to be mostly smooth on video but I felt like these were mostly subpar. This event needs a lot of work to be proficient. I noticed immediately after I was done with these that my hamstrings were on fire. Probably from having to do that explosive motion. Now I had thought I was done with event stuff like an idiot but apparently I still had one more exercise. Sandbag roll-ups. Last time I had these I thought I only had to do 2 sets vs 3 sets (well it was rows into roll-ups). This time it was just 2x8. Advised to use heavier bag than what I did for the shoulderings. I figured 275lbs again would work. I was trying to really control things and I just realized this was ended up too easy. I was trying to hold at extension on my toes and then lower back to lap in control. Got too far forward on the 7th rep and didn’t want to fight gravity and let it go. So I figured I’d treat that as a warm-up and use the 306lbs bag. Part of me just wants to make manhandling that thing something I have to do. First set was rough with that weight. It does really seem to matter how I have it positioned for the pick as the second set was a lot easier. Little bit of walking around trying to keep things under control and not lose it going too far forward or backwards. So after the stuff where I need to bend over was done, I took a protein shake before finishing things up. Next was an innocuous exercise by appearances. Sorensen holds which looks to just be the finished position of a back extension using a ghr bench. Only indicated to do 3 sets of 15 seconds with bodyweight. There was wordage indicating to keep pain to 3/10 so adjust accordingly if it bothered my left leg. Looking at this, I thought it would be a joke of an exercise. But I was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. The good news is that it didn’t bother my leg in the slightest. But it freaking was brutal on my posterior chain. Just felt my hamstrings screaming for mercy. Humbling. Last item for the session being the usual quad fallbacks. 2x12 as has been the case. I figured that with how my knees were aching today that these would require a bit of prep but they didn’t. My legs and knees were tight but I was able to do these with no problem. As always, second set was better. Stretched out before driving home, ordering burritos that would be waiting for me when I got there.

December 16, 2021 – Week 10, Day 3

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds holds)/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns
45x10/sbx15/15
45x10/sbx15/15

Paused 12” Log Push Presses (2 seconds, beltless)
95x3
125x3
155x3
185x3
185x3
185x3
185x3
185x3

12” Log Incline Bench Presses w/ bands
No Bands
90x5
Added Bands (+17lbs bottom/+36lbs top)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x1
210x1
240x1
260x1
208x5
208x10 PR+3lbs

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows (2 seconds, straps)
95x5
135x5
170x5
200x8
200x8
200x8
180x12

Dumbbell Z Presses/Band Face Pulls
40’sx15/sbx15
40’sx15/sbx15
40’sx15/sbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: It has been a busy week and have to hunker down for Friday to get somewhat back on track with holidays coming up next two weeks. Didn’t get in soft tissue work the day before. I wasn’t feeling as beat as I was expecting. I guess I slept well. Nothing woke me up early like usual so it was heavy rest until 3 minutes before the alarm went off. Some changes for today’s training in spots. The start wasn’t changed though. BTN presses with pauses into one arm band lat pulls again. Felt decent enough here. I did double take to make sure it was the same reps and sets as it has been. Overhead work after that. As promised, it was log. I was advised to work up to 60% for 5x3 with 90 seconds rest and use whatever support gear I wanted to use. But if I wore a belt, I was to make sure I was having mobility in t-spine and not just leaning back into my belt. I wasn’t sure how this would go. Not like my log has lagged behind my axle pressing in the past. Just that there is usually some breaking in period with being able to breathe with it on my chest. These were to be paused style as well. I figured I’d do 30lbs jumps like I do with axle. Didn’t feel terrible. For weight, I did end up using my max clean and press with a log of 309lbs. I was debating using less because of how things went when I assumed things with my circus dumbbell. But I have to realize that basing it off of my clean and press rather than my out of rack press is already reducing working max. I didn’t use that as that was at the Y with a rack I could really get good position and stable with minimal walkout whereas I don’t at home and the most I’ve done has been 200lbs. Then thinking about it, it would really be less than 10lbs difference at this light percentage in the long run. So I stuck to using my best 1rm for log clean and press here. I also felt it was best to not use support stuff this session being essentially the first time I’ve done log push press in about a year. I was expecting my knees to ache initially as they did that at home on this setup before I started getting bad tendonitis. I did but it wasn’t much and went away after a few sets. As far as pacing goes, I played DragonForce's Through the Fire and Flames haha. Granted I’m 100lbs away from the contest weight but this was comfortable and a good start considering things. From there it was log incline with the bands next. I felt pretty warmed up and good from log push presses that I didn’t feel like doing warm-ups and just jumping into this. Cooler heads prevailed and I did my usual warming up. Plan for today was a top single (RPE 8.5-9) and then do 80% of that for two sets. Weights were feeling good with 30lbs jumps. Setting things up so that it was even jumps to potentially 270lbs bar weight (log and 2 plates each side). My initial plan had been 20lbs jumps after 180lbs but that felt easy so I did 30lbs onward. 240lbs didn’t feel as easy as I would have liked to make another 30lbs jump be a no brainer I got a rep in the tank attempt so I went with 20lbs added for 260lbs. That went well. I definitely have 270lbs plus bands in me but not with that much left. Another time. Have to remember that the weights I’m repping for a lot on this now used to be tough doubles and triples. So 20% off for the down sets. First set for five and then the second set for AMRAP with 1-2RIR. First set felt a little rough. Probably a combo of coming down from the high/hype of a top single and then doing reps and also having another set after that for even more reps. Second set felt better and I got to beat my match from last time by 3lbs. So far, so good today. Barbell rows with the pauses again. These have been tough the past few sessions. This session was to be 3x8 and then 20lbs off for AMRAP. I had already been moving at a pretty good pace through the workout but I kind of felt this would be where things slowed down a good bit with the sets and recovery. Felt about the same working up but then felt not so bad that first set. Then it felt tough second set. My right biceps was feeling tight on some reps so I was a little cautious about that. Didn’t feel anything on the third set. AMRAP set was to be 2RIR. I was aiming for 12 reps here. Stopped as my right biceps felt tight again on that 12th rep. Not sure what that was about. Will need to watch things. Last bit of the session was another change up. Pairing was dumbbell z presses with band face pulls. 3x15 with 3RIR. I was to report back how the presses compared to raises as far as how they felt with the shoulders. I’ve not done dumbbell z presses before. I’ve done log, axle and barbell but not with dumbbell. I elected to use 40lbs dumbbells as that seemed about right for this many reps and sets with that many RIR. I figured 70lbs was too much (as far as my solid dumbbells) and didn’t really want to dick around with my plateloaded handles for the first time if I didn’t have to. Especially if I overestimated what I could do here. Presses aren’t as hard on the shoulders (as in feel them getting hit hard not in a bad way) and a lot less stress on the elbow compared to the laterals. More triceps fatigue obviously with the presses. With face pulls, I figured that the usual tension that I use for the warming up stuff on my 1st press day of the week wouldn’t be enough to truly be what I was to be doing so I went up to my next highest band tension. That seemed to be about right as far as the difficulty (while the dumbbells only got close to it on the last set barely). The increased tension does make it harder for sure and I did feel some tightness in the right biceps. Nothing serious but I will need to do some soft tissue work tomorrow and hopefully some rest will do it some good. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

December 14, 2021 – Week 10, Day 2

Mobility Prep

Paused Deadlifts (3 second mid-shin, beltless)
135x3
185x3
235x3
285x3
340x2
340x2
340x2
340x2
340x2

15” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
110x3
160x3
200x3
250x3
290x3
340x3
380x3
430x3
470x3
520x3
560x5
504x5
504x5

Paused Front Foot Elevated Split Squats (4”, 5 seconds)
bwx5/5
65x10/10
65x10/10
65x10/10

Cossack Squats
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
bwx8/8

Paused Ab Wheel (5 seconds)/Single Leg Safety Squat Bar Seated Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
bwx12/110x15/15
bwx10/110x15/15
bwx8/110x15/15

Stretching
  
Comments: So my neck was feeling better. Not 100% but improving. Which was good as today was going to involve deadlifts. Right knee was feeling decent. Mobility stuff same as it was last time. I just went with different band tension for the hamstring curls. Warm-ups off after that. Everything in the garage so things would be pretty warm once I was warm. So paused pulls to start off the heavy stuff.  Plan being 5x2 with 3% more than what I did last time. Indication was to do 2-3ct hold at the shins and warm-up in triples. That extra second for each rep was tough. It wasn’t until I got to the top weight that I realized that I was allowed to use support gear for this exercise this week. Oops. Since I had gone this far and I didn’t feel it was a good idea to just toss stuff on without some adjustment I just went with beltless for this session. Still within capabilities that I can do these without straps and support gear without hindering the planned effect I think. Felt like stuff was feeling better as I went (other than grip haha). Axle pulls from 15” after that. Last week had been a breaking in situation. I was up to my own devices for warm-ups. For this session I was to work up in triples to a top set of 5 (RIR1-2) and then take off 10% for 2x5. I figured based off last week that minimum should be 520lbs but my hope was that 560lbs would be the true number I hit for today. Of course that being before my neck went off on me Monday morning. And without a lot of sets beforehand. But I figured that I don’t skip weights for warming up for my squatting that I shouldn’t for deadlifts at the moment. I’ve not done a ton of these as of late and most of my work had been with a suit in the past. Which I think at this point, I can probably match without now seeing how things went. Working on stance, trying to minimize my stroke. I don’t need as much of a stance compared to my pulls from the floor. I’m going against some big pullers at this show from who is signed up. Quarter-plate jumps. I knew at 2 reps that 520lb was too light and would go up. Thing is that it can feel heavy and the axle puts a lot of stress on lower back and posterior chain with it being out in front so much more vs barbell. I got set (after a ton of nervous burping) and pulled the planned weight. I knew I had this minus some disaster. I did feel the straps slipping on me on the last rep. I need to remind myself to really crank down the straps for axle with no knurling and to make sure they are chalked up both sides. Took weight off for the down sets. These were pretty darn tough after all the other reps and sets. No slippage issues here but I was feeling the lower back and everything else feeling tired. I know I’m getting better at bracing as I ended up cracking my back during one of my work up sets. I appear to be better off here then I thought I’d be. So next up was the FFE split squats. Indication was to do 3x10 this week and do 3-5ct holds and if I did all sets with 5ct to increase next time. So I asked if that meant to do the empty ssb for that this week and indication was sure if I felt it would be in parameters. So for my warm-ups, I felt that just one set was sufficient at bodyweight to prep as the weight isn’t a ton and it is more just getting used to the time in the hole on these. I kind of figured that doing more sets or reps would just exhaust me more than what I needed to perform here. And that appears to be correct as adding the weight felt only slightly tougher and I feel that I got more comfortable with things as the sets and reps went on. Knees even felt less complainy compared to last week on these. Cossack squats were next. Same as last week. Keeping these to just bodyweight until advised to otherwise. Keeping these as maintain status. Inner thighs are tight. They do have me slightly leery with the knee issues I’ve had since these were last in vogue in my training. Left knee is the one that gets the worst tendonitis feelings and the right knee that side just seems to not be smooth as there is that sensation of the leg feeling like it wants to give on me. I’m in control but I tend to be slower with that side to. Last thing was abs and calves. The ab wheel portion was the same as last week with it being total reps, increased to 30 reps and 5 seconds hold time per rep with 2RIR each of the “sets”. I already decided to aim for 12/10/8 as far as the reps to make things manageable. For the calf portion, 10lbs added to last week and aim to do 3x15 each side with the inverted tempo. Those abs felt harder this time. Like they were prefatigued. Which is a strong possibility considering the no belt pause pulls and then all the heavy axle stuff. So these became challenging quick. Seated calf work was almost active rest compared to that. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Iced my knees before bed.

December 13, 2021 – Week 10, Day 1

Band Face Pulls
abx15
abx15
abx15

Barbell Strict Presses
45x3
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x3
250x3
220x4
220x4
220x4

Feet Elevated Pull-ups (Rings)
bwx5
bw+30x3
bw+60x12
bw+60x12
bw+60x12

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
265x3
305x6
305x6
275x10

Banded Push Ups
No Bands
bwx5
Added Bands
lbx5
ab+µbx16 PR+1 rep
sbx12 PR+1 rep

Dumbbell Y Raises (high incline)
16’sx12
16’sx12
16’sx12

Single Arm Band Triceps Extensions
mmb+mbx15/15
mmb+mbx15/15
mmb+mbx15/15

Stretching
  
Comments: Weather was decent today but I wasn’t. Must have slept funny as my neck left side was stiff and sore like it was many weeks ago. It might be from flipping my pillow over so the firmer side was up instead of down. Little things seem to effect the body in big ways. Part of getting older. Being able to sleep on a fold out couch with springs no problem when a kid and now if not a perfect bed, I wake up with not 100% working body. Did some soft tissue work during the work day. Seemed to help a little. Able to regain a good bit of ROM without pain. No anti-inflammatories if I could help it. Starting things off with band face pulls. Same as it has been the past three weeks or so. 3x15 and keeping same band tension as this is to be a warming up. I did feel that I was able to warm up better compared to last week where I needed warm-ups on for almost the entire workout. These weren’t painful on my neck and felt pretty good. Strict pressing was next. Anything goes again. Again, not adding elbow sleeves at this point. I feel like they’d change things a bit and I’ve never really built a lifting rapport with them other than the seated axle stuff and that was with purpose (also recovering from the fractured elbow). I guess since this is still not a main lift and kind of treating things differently from using the knee sleeves on about everything squat related. I feel like I’ll start integrating them for log pressing as that gets added into the mix for this training. In either case, the plan for this session was work up in 3’s to top triple (1RIR) and then drop off a little bit for 3x4. Light weights things felt fine. Started to feel off form wise after 135lbs. I was hoping that I’d be able to do 250lbs here. 245lbs would be possible with how that went two weeks ago without a belt. So that should be the case but I should be getting a bit more out of the belt stability. I was kind of hoping that 255lbs would be there and if it had felt like it did two weeks ago for me when I went for 245lbs for 5, I’d have done that. But 225lbs didn’t feel like it did then so I knew it wasn’t wise to really push things and 250lbs was honestly going to be a gamble. I’m overthinking things as far as the start. How I unrack for a strict press. I’m trying to not move as I found that if I walk out the weight, I tend to use the momentum of that to get a little stretch reflex for the press that first rep. Then there is the problem of standing up with the weight and using that drive to piggyback the press off of that. So what I’ve been trying to do is just use the motion of getting under the bar and pressing from there but I found that as the weight increases, I compress a little and I hit the rack on some reps and it throws me off. So I moved from the middle of the rack to the end of the rack. And that’s where I was today and that wasn’t working as I kept pushing the weight out in front that first rep. I’m actually shocked that I got that first rep with 250lbs with how that came up off the shoulders. And then doubly so that I was able to make two more reps after that ugly display. Took 30lbs off for the 3x4. First set I had that same issue with the first rep. I’m just lucky that while my shoulder power felt off, my triceps were like I got you fam. I think that by the second and third set I had calmed down a bit with not being anxious to speed press things and got stuff to feel more comfortable. But man was this hard work today. Feet elevated pull-ups on the rings after that. Same plan as last week with 3x8-12 with 2-3RIR. I was advised that we’d be increasing weight next time if I got 3x12 with this weight so that was the goal in my head. I wasn’t feeling up to that with my warm-ups and how they were feeling. But working sets I felt fine. No issues really at all. Just good work. Close grip bench was up next. Plan here was 5lbs more than last week for 2x6 and then 275lbs for AMRAP (2RIR). Do the same working up sets as last. Done deal. So I thought. That first rep with 305lbs felt so damn heavy. Like felt like 100lbs heavier than it was heavy. I’m not sure how I got another rep after that first one felt like that. I wanted to scream with how heavy these felt. I’m really not sure how I got 6 reps here. Or how I managed to get myself to get back under the bar and do a second set. Video says bar speed was pretty normal for me. I wasn’t expecting this with how my triceps had felt inexhaustible and powerful on the strict pressing earlier. I was not expecting any PRs on the AMRAP. I was purely in survival mode at this point. Got 10 and just shut that shit down. Into the garage for push-ups with bands again. Kind of limped into the garage for these. Shoulders felt toast, triceps felt toast. Neck was stiff too. I did get confirmation that I was doing these right as far as setup and difficulty. I figured that since I got 20 reps with the average bands, I’d increase that tension to get back into the 15-20 reps with 2-3RIR. I wasn’t expecting the micro band added to hit that hard. Wasn’t expecting to even get past 8 reps with the strong band this week with how I was feeling but I did. High incline y raises with the dumbbells after that. At this point, I started eating dinner. It wasn’t getting terribly late but I had not expected to be taking this long for the workout at this point so I started eating my roast between sets. I was also realizing that it was somewhat small roast so I was getting frustrated trying to supplement that with Door Dash (pizza place having errors, another place closed, didn’t want to spend $18 for a single burrito, etc). High incline dumbbell Y raises again. 3x12 this week. Added 3lbs to last time to the dumbbells felt fine enough. It is the slight pause at the completion of the lift that is the hard part with these. So it might be something where more weight might make these extremely difficult for that portion of the lift only. Last thing for the evening was triceps with bands. Advised to lower reps and push the difficulty on these. I guess I wasn’t paying attention as I thought I had hit record but noticed the screen changed like halfway into my sets (one after the other). These were hard. I didn’t end up having to rest pause any sets out of fatigue though. Put stuff away and finished up eating dinner before stretching. Made time to ice my right knee and elbow.

December 11, 2021 – Week 9, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Single Leg Squats to Box (18”)
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
bwx8/8

Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
295x3
335x3
385x6
385x6
385x6

Frame Carries
Titan Fitness (16”)
Casual Pace 
115x50’
115x50’
Makeshift (18”)
Normal
276x50’
366x50’
456x25’
BiggDogg Strongg (20”, 1.5” handles)

568x15’
568x50’ in 8.84 seconds
568x50’ in 8.90 seconds
Added Straps
618x50’ in 9.27 seconds
618x50’ in 9.66 seconds
568x15’

Sandbag Shoulderings
175x1/1
200x1/1
200x1 L
200x1 R
200x1 L
200x1 R
200x1 L
200x1 R
200x1 L
200x1 R
200x1 L
200x1 R

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
25x10(5/5)
50x8(4/4)
75x6(3/3)
95x4(2/2)
115x12(6/6)
115x16(5/5)
115x12(5/5)

Backwards “Sled” Drags (Exer-Genie)
12x60’
12x60’
12x60’

Quad Fallbacks
bwx12
bwx12

Stretching
  
Comments: I was a little anxious for today’s training. Knees have been achy all this week (especially the right one) and I haven’t been great with time management to do icing for my knees after days requiring lower body drive. I was at least making sure I was doing walks and soft tissue work though. Meant to get up at my usual work time to get ready to train but decided to get an extra 45 minutes of sleep. With the weather as it has been, there was heavy fog for a good portion of the drive out to the gym. Sound system input seemed to be working so able to have tunes again haha. Mobility stuff was changed up slightly for today. B-stance rdls coming back again. I felt pretty comfortable with these. Other stuff was good too. As for the actual workout, first thing being single leg squats to box. As has been the case for the past two weeks, plan here 3x8 with bodyweight only. I figured I’d do 18” again. I was advised to stick to something that would be RPE7-7.5. Knees were aching pretty bad but I didn’t want to be using knee sleeves for these considering I didn’t need to the past two weeks. First week was higher box. Second week I did need to do some warming up to feel ready. This week I just went right in, thinking that I’d be plenty warm by the end of it. As it usually the case here, the first set was the toughest one and after that they felt a lot better. I am noticing that with these I think more so than when I was doing the lateral step downs that my entire body braces and becomes rigid as I can feel tension in my upper back on the opposite side. From there, it was SSB squats. This was also an exercise I was nervous about. One being my knees were being fussy and the other being that I felt I underperformed last week. I had told myself that it must be that the bar camber isn’t quite right (or is at least different) compared to the one at the strongman gym as it felt harder. Also just felt like at home that there was more forward push and knee stress with that bar when it came to squats. But I wasn’t sure and 100% convinced on that. Maybe I’m just getting to the point I need to deload on the squats. Other than the knees aching, things seemed to be moving like they should. Plan for the day was to do triples up to 385x3x6. This was of course on the assumption that I was right about the difference in the ssb at home vs the gym, seeing as how 385lbs was a tough set of 6 reps last week. I was to report back RIR after that last set. I got my sets. I might have wanted that first set to feel easier than it did considering things. Still by the end, my knees seemed to have forgiven me and that felt the most comfortable on the knees. Felt like I had 2-3RIR there. I’m thinking that estimates on 1rm for this exercise have to be kind of disregarded I think as while the legs may feel up to it, the weak link is going to be the midsection with the bar position. So with how things felt today and considering how things went last week, my weight of 425lbs would’ve probably been too difficult for the plan at the time. Then on to the event stuff. First up was something I was looking forward to. Kind of. So for the contest, the event is frame carry. 750lbs for 40’ and straps allowed. This is Mike Jenkins old frame. Not one that he just used or trained on at another gym, but one that was custom built for him. Overbuilt is a good word to describe it. 568lbs empty and has 1.5” thick handles that are smooth. The handle thickness was an error as the handles are a lot thicker than they were for Arnold frame it was supposed to mimic. So Jenkins would do runs with and without straps and luckily one of the years was frame with straps. But with that weight and size, this thing isn’t exactly newbie friendly. It takes up a lot of space hardly anyone uses it. Sits in the corner collecting dust. So it would need some working up to. So I used other setups to get ready. Used a titan fitness frame just go get stuff light (4” lower pick height than frame) and then went to a makeshift frame using connectors and I beam farmer’s that were made many years ago (2” lower pick height than frame). I was kind of surprised to see that the one set (the gym has 2, one 16” and the other 18”) had one of the loading pins sheared off. Not sure who or what did that as they’ve been in use since 2016 and have seen hundreds of pounds loaded on them with no issue. So my plan had been to just do 25’ runs after the initial 50’ run with the empty makeshift frame but I forgot and did 50’ run. Probably was a good idea to do that as the uneven loading made the frame quite unsteady. I didn’t want to do too much here as I was going to have to expend effort on the big frame later. As I mentioned, it just sits in the corner. I was going to need to move it outside as no way was this safe on the turf and I was not going to be able to move it into the area with the farmer’s and yoke. Leaving it there would take up space for people using those lanes later. So I’d need to move it a little bit to get it started. Thing feels so damn heavy. 15’ got it in the right spot. Now the actual session for this had been put as 500lbs,560lbs for 50’ with no straps and then 610lbs for 2 sets of 50’ with straps. I had told Drew that with how this frame was that I was going to modify that as if I did way, it’d only be using the actual frame for the last two sets and be training lower pick height and thinner handles with anything under 568lbs. So the change was going to be 568lbs for 2 sets of 50’ without straps and then 618lbs for 2 sets of 50’ with straps. It has been over 2yrs since I last touched this frame and probably also the last time anyone touched it to be honest. It felt heavy but seemed to move well. It makes such a loud sound when it hits the ground. Grip felt fine. I feel that I could probably do contest weight by show time without straps but got to train that. I’ve never done runs with frame with straps before. I’ve done picks and such for prep and contests. I know that sometimes there can be issues with the mind/muscle connection. I think that is more prevalent with figure 8 straps vs normal straps as I felt fine with these. I could feel that my picks were tough on these and were getting more so as I went. Felt harder than it was 2yrs ago. But I have to remember that that wasn’t after a ton of heavy squats. All runs ended up being under 10 seconds. Good bit of effort to put stuff away as I had to carry it back inside. Sandbag shouldering was next. Listed plan was to do 200lbs for 10 lifts alternating sides and to do so with 45-60 seconds rest. I figured that EMOM was going to be the easiest thing here to do and meet that criteria. I had some concerns. The plan here was to do something light for form work so that next time (this appears to be a weekly event from what I’m gathering since I’m new to it) the intensity can be higher. So that means lighter bag. But lighter bag means usually smaller or floppy. I was also worried that this weight sandbag might be one that had been damaged recently and wasn’t replaced or repaired. So in the event of that, I was told to something between 175lbs and 225lbs. So good news was the 200lbs was still there but it did have a leaking hole in the top that wasn’t really covered well with duct tape. I did a single each side with two bags to warm up and it seemed like it would hold up assuming I didn’t just be an ass about controlling it down. It is frustrating to see equipment that I’ve used for years showing damage and wear and tear from what I can only assume are people not treating things with respect or controlling things. Though I’m not blameless in that either as I did end up having the seam on that one 250lbs sandbag burst on me when I tossed it off the water barrel right before my last show. So things happen. But I always repair or replace things like that ASAP. I tried patching things up with more duct tape but it wasn’t working I could tell after 2 lifts and I ditched it. If anything, it was distracting me and causing me to pull too much with the arms. It seemed that as long as I had it standing up, the sandbag was ok and minimal leakage. Other than some hesitancy on the first few, these seemed to go better form wise for me. Less thinking required to do the movement. After the event specific stuff was done, it was on to the finishing up stuff. 2 up and 1 down leg curls after that. Same long negatives on these as has been the case. 10lbs more from last time. The previous week was to be similar but due to the gym being closed, I had to do other stuff at home which wasn’t as effective. So I kind of knew these would suffer a little bit. Left side still has that discomfort but it seems to be more tolerable or less than it has been. Still got a long way to go. However, that doesn’t keep it from being my stronger hamstring apparently. So what seems fine for that side is a struggle for the right leg. I went for just the minimum after seeing how much trouble my right leg was having matching the left. Not to say that the minimum reps wasn’t a good workout. These are never not tough. Backwards “sled” drags with the exer-genie after that. Plan here being 3 sets of 7-8 RPE with somewhat short rests. I figured I could pick up where I left off last time and use the top weight for all three sets. That didn’t work out how I thought it would. Granted, I did get thing setup fairly quickly and not have the lead line catch on anything but that first set was really tough. Took over a minute to finish 60’ but I didn’t stop once, just slow going. I may need to do lighter effort sets in the future to warm up the device. I say this as the second set was how I was expecting things to feel and did that in under 40 seconds. Third set though was back to first set toughness almost. It seems that how I have the lead line coiled also plays a factor. So need to be consistent with lead line placement and maybe warm-up the thing a little. Last item for the session being the usual quad fallbacks. 2x12 as has been the case. Knees were stiff and legs were tight. I felt better on the second set of these. Similar to the one leg squat to boxes, it might benefit me doing a few reps to get ready before doing the actual work sets for things to feel better. But hard to say if worth it if it just ends up being more work and effort expended for the same effect. Took a few moments to collect my thoughts and then stretched out (I was viciously attacked with doggy smooches during this at my most vulnerable) and drove home. I was going to make sure I iced my knees twice before bed so that I wasn’t kept up.

December 9, 2021 – Week 9, Day 3

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds holds)/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns
45x10/sbx15/15
45x10/sbx15/15

Paused Axle Push Presses (beltless, 2 seconds)
42x2
72x2
102x2
132x2
162x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2
192x2

12” Log Incline Bench Presses w/ bands
No Bands
90x5
Added Bands (+17lbs bottom/+36lbs top)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x1
205x1
225x1
245x1
245x1
245x1
245x1
245x1
205x10

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows (2 seconds, straps)
95x5
135x5
175x5
210x10 PR+10lbs
180x10
180x10
180x10

RP Style Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises
26’sx20/26’sx20
21’sx15/21’sx15
21’sx15/21’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: I got lazy with putting the stuff away after the last workout. That spilt over into not doing anything about it Wednesday (ended up barely getting my walk in after work) and then pretty much waiting until after work Thursday to do something about it. Maybe not laziness but more I guess distraction and trying to stay on target with work. I can be distracted easily when I don’t care and then be hyper-fixated on something I do. But that can almost be whimsical at times as there isn’t a rush to figure out which Danish philosopher said what. Maybe trying to distract to keep myself focused on other things but distract from the things I can’t control. Like whatever the hell is going on with Strongman Corporation. With amateur strongman, I’ve come to expect nothing and am still disappointed. For the training, I was tempted to just start where things were and then worry about moving them but I thought better of that with how cold it was. I’d probably cool off a good bit if I did one exercise in the garage and then had to teardown the setup to put it out on the patio. So I set things up outside. Not the coldest it has been for me ever with outside training but certainly the coldest in recent memory. I just never really felt warm even with layers on like I seem to do. Lower back on left side a little stiff and right knee a little stiff too. So starting the workout with the BTN presses with pauses into one arm band lat pulls again. Felt decent enough here. Overhead work after that. Log next week I’m told. I’m in no rush haha. Axle with no support stuff again, 60% for 8x2 with the same rest I’ve been doing. 2 second holds in the dip. 30lbs jumps up to the working weight. Kept warmups on the whole time. Knees were achy and inner thighs were feeling tense and tight. Been a while feeling those sensations. These felt fine enough. Right shoulder seems to feel more fatigue/tighter by the end of things. Not sure if just how my shoulders are now or if from how I crank the wrist wraps on and doing so for so many sets. No set really stood out as worst or best. These were just work. Log incline with the bands after that as has been the case. So this was a bit of a change. Warm-up how I wanted and then do 5lbs more than my top triple from last week for 5x1 EMOM style. Weight was feeling heavy at over 180lbs. Ugh. Looks like the speed is pretty good. Got to tell myself that it just feels slow with the bands and keep pushing. 40lbs off of that then for the AMRAP. Told to leave 2-3RIR. Minimum I was hoping for was 8 and beat that pretty easy. Hopefully this transfers over well to competition lifts. Incline log seemed to help build up a base for pressing the first cycle for that show with viking press. Barbell rows with the pauses using the bench for support were again next. Wasn’t looking forward to these. These had felt really tough last week and this wasn’t going to be much more fun. 5lbs more than last time for AMRAP with 1-2RIR and then take off 30lbs and match those reps for 3 sets. I kept hoping it was just 2 sets as opposed to 3. The holds on these rows (really any rowing motion) really saps me. Even when weight is taken off by a good bit. I think that is because unlike say pressing/squatting you can kind of rest at the bottom (not supposed to) but you don’t really have to actively do anything to stay there as gravity is helping. Rows you got to struggle to hold the position. So with how things had felt last time, I wasn’t expecting much here. Hoping to get 7 reps. Turns out I was only pretending to be sucky at these. But doing more reps meant I had to do a lot of reps with the downsets. 185lbs for 11 reps last week had been tough and now because of my decisions, I had to face the consequences and do 180x3x10. At this point in the workout, I finally started to feel warm haha. Dumbbell super set was next and last thing for the session. I thought things had been bumped up a bit last time and they had been but now they were bumped up again. So the plan as written was to do 25’s for both the laterals and rear delts for max reps (12 – 20 goal, 1-2RIR) and then do 20’s for 2x15 for both. Now I figured since I was in the garage, I could take the top off the warm-ups. I’d be warmer and I wouldn’t have mobility slightly hampered for these motions that have quite an exaggerated movement to them. I had made up my mind to do 1lbs heavier so that I was just putting weights on the 6lbs handles and not worrying about it. I tossed on 10’s but realized that I should adjust that. They’d make the dumbbells really stick out from my body, cutting down the ROM at the bottom. Problem with plateloaded vs solid. So used my 5’s. I expected to get 20 reps on the laterals but iffy on the rear delts. These are one of the exercises I got to wear the cuffs on with how they strain my elbow it appears. Rear delts were harder by the end of the set. Definitely feels like my shoulders act differently between the sides. Put stuff away and made dinner before stretching. It got a bit too late for icing my elbow and knee.