Lateral Stepdowns
bwx3/3 20”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx3/3 20”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
bwx8/8 32”
Safety Squat Bar Squats to 20” Box (5 second eccentrics)
65x3
115x3
165x3
215x3
265x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
65x3
115x3
165x3
215x3
265x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
Stiff-legged Deadlifts (straps)
160x3
204x3
270x3
314x3
380x8
380x8
380x8
160x3
204x3
270x3
314x3
380x8
380x8
380x8
Sandbag Over Bar (56”)
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x6 in 40.22 seconds
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x6 in 40.22 seconds
Bearhug Step Ups (12”)
100x15/15
100x15/15
100x15/15
100x15/15
100x15/15
100x15/15
Glute Ham Raise Negatives (8 seconds)
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
bwx8
Makeshift Go-Really-Grip Machine (1 second holds)
214x10
214x10
214x10 (15 seconds hold last rep)
214x10
214x10
214x10 (15 seconds hold last rep)
Stretching
Comments: So this week didn’t end well for me. Not in a training sense, that was fine. Work related crap. Thursday had a pointless (I felt) mandatory training that was scheduled for 2hrs and went over that 25 minutes and then immediately after that I had to speak with my supervisor briefly about apparently logging in to my shift 63 seconds late the week before. That continued into something the following morning. Never been tardy in the almost two years of teleworking. I’ve only ever been late to work to a single job once before and never again (besides the time I was stuck while a train switched tracks or an accident closed the highway). Anyways, the results of this appear to be that because of this, I will not be eligible to continue the teleworking most likely when up for re-evaluation middle of August as I will have a “corrective action conference” on my file within the last 12 months. Never ever had one. Never had any disciplinary stuff at any other job. I’ve been working at this job since 2012. I have no real options of recourse. So after that call in the morning, I stewed for about 30 minutes (and vented to my co-worker and friend) and decided I just wasn’t going to be productive or in the mindset and took a mental health day. Hopefully taking a day will have me cooled down enough to work on Monday but no promises. I know that this bullshit is because they want to have everyone back in the office and try to get the older employees to quit so they can hire new people that will lack seniority for perks and not have the higher pay scale. They lost productivity of over 26,100 seconds and counting for 63 seconds. Enough venting about that for now. So training for today. Still feeling the gut punch from the day before and I didn’t want to go train. I slept in for about an hour contemplating getting out of bed. Piling on worries. But I did get myself to leave the bedsheet cocoon. Driving and out to train and kind of surprised there was a sizeable crowd of people there. Mostly newer people. Like training in a group setting. I had been thinking about how something felt different with this training cycle vs last training cycle. I think what the difference is that no one else at the gym is training for the same show as me. Past three had people (though the second one had all those people drop out) so there was some competition and companionship. Not much of anything is being posted by people competing in this show besides axle. But sometimes I’ll be alone. Getting a bit too reflective. So starting things off was lateral stepdowns for 3x8 at RPE 7. Did some of the same things as last week to prep as that went well. These are getting easier and the rest between the sides less and less. Best these have felt so far this cycle and I know I said that last week. Squats with the ssb were next but different from what has been done. Box squats but not quite. I wasn’t to fully sit back and relax or to simply do touch and go to a box. Using the higher box height from past box squatting cycles. Goal here was 5x3 with 3-5ct eccentrics with something RPE 6-7 with 90 seconds rest. The suggested was 315lbs so I did that with 50lbs jumps and did 5 second eccentrics with it. Idea was to work more posterior chain dominant style as my coach felt these were a good result last cycle. It took a bit to figure out the depth and pacing as the ROM is a lot shorter compared to a full squat. There was a lot of tension being produced with these so these felt tough but they moved fast when I released the trigger. I was able to keep the timed rests and recover easily enough from these so I think this was done right. Deadlift accessory work was next. At the point in the cycle where making the switch from frame on this day to it being during the week at home since I have the same frame there as here. That will get heavier as opposed to the speed work that has been the case the past three weeks. So deadlift variations will be moved to this day instead. I guess. Not sure what variations it will be per se. For this week, it appears this was an introductory week for stiff-legged deadlfits. Last time I did these was 9 months ago as part of prep for PA’s strongest. Only did them three times that cycle. So I did have some idea what to expect here. Plan was 3x8 with it being RPE 6-7, 5RIR. Now my original plan had been to do triples with 40-50lbs jumps with 365lbs being the goal (40lbs under my 8RM with like 2-3RIR). However, I felt a certain way. I wanted chaos. No powerlifters in the area today. So I started with picking a 50lbs bar instead of 45lbs bar. Then rather than use bumper plates, I decided I’m using the kilo plates. And mismatched collars. Using a stiff, off weight bar with calibrated plates and mismatched collars for an accessory exercise. I think I went with this to make the weight as inert as possible without using a solid axle. The idea was to do these touch and go with the whisper touch to keep constant tension. So with the change in bar and kilo plates, I ended up 15lbs heavier than I had originally planned and also less sets to get to that weight. First set definitely was 5RIR or more and fatigue built over the sets where maybe I wasn’t quite there for the last set. I wasn’t feeling like it was the hamstrings that were fatiguing. They have had worse. It was more the bracing of the core, lower back and glutes. Another factor being that difficulty of the movement can be altered by whether I just let the bar stay in contact with my body or if I actively force it out in front (I did that for a few reps on the last set just to see). Sandbag after that. I was not looking forward to this. I saw I was lacking last time and biceps had been decently sore afterwards from rushing some lifts. This was going to be worse. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. So last time had been 8x2 EMOM with the 225lbs sandbag. Same weight but now it was 4x3. But that wasn’t all of it. There was a fifth set that was also following the EMOM protocol and that was do a set of 6 reps and time how long that took. The exhaustion factor is probably exponential with going from singles to doubles to triples with EMOMs, especially with a more complex movement with a long range of motion. So I was going to have to do a timed set after being more fatigued then last time. This was going to suck. Anxiety was high as I knew that one messed up rep leading up to it would be a domino for the others and I’d not recover. I was going pretty well. Last of the 4 sets I had a bobble with the first rep so that definitely sapped me a little and had me breathing really hard going into the timed set. I feel like I’m some sort of predatory dinosaur hunched over like I am before each set. Trying to be close but also not fatigue my back. Only had to side load one rep in that (fourth rep) and that did take a bit out of me and I felt a little slow down after that point. I managed to get that set done in 40.22 seconds, so a little under 7 seconds a load. Would be close for 9 at that pace but 8 would be safe. Good considering the fatigue from pre-exhaustion. I was tasting metal in my mouth after that and needed a good bit to get breathing back under control. As far as the numbers, I was averaging before that set under 6 seconds a load average so better compared to last time which was just over 6 seconds. After this was step ups with the sandbag again. I took my time after the onslaught of the sandbag loads as I was remembering how much these sucked last time. But as with most things that suck, I seem to embrace them. Goal was same as last time with a bit more difficulty. I stuck to the same weight as last time and same box height and was hoping that these would be better. Knees were a good bit achy but these were easier this time. Had less issues being aware of where I was each step. Only by the last set did I feel like I was having issues holding the sandbag due to sweaty forearms. Not sure (if these remain) what best option of progression is here. Increase the box height or increase the weight? So usually, the last thing for the session has been glute ham raises negatives so far. But apparently this is going to be the last week of them. I guess I’ll miss them? 3x8 with bodyweight for 5-8ct but you know me. I do the longer time. So the true last item of the session was grip work of my choice. Advised to do 3 sets of it. I was told to not do stuff I’m good at if I could. I’m really good at static holds (have a hard time letting go of things figurately and literally haha) and most of strongman specific stuff is having grip endurance or grip strength with it being usually a hold aspect. I didn’t want to do grip gimmick stuff, I wanted to do stuff with application. Intent. I indicated that as far as grip, I guess my weakness would be wrists (extension mostly) and crushing (I suck at grippers). I can be quite relaxed when I hold things. Same tension holding a 630lbs frame and carrying bags of groceries. Which might be why I don’t fatigue like others. So I figured I’d work the crushing grip. There wasn’t really stuff to do that here but I recalled a machine that IronMind makes that was for this. I figured I could makeshift that and that is what I did. Using a smith machine and a power pin that we have for power stairs and duck walk, I did a free weight version. Worked great. Did 3x10 with 1 second “crushes” and then for funsies did a 15 seconds hold on the last rep. I did also do some light sandbag carries (125-150lbs for 30’) for a few sets to help Jodi reset her course for conditioning work (pairing sandbag carry and loads with aerodyne bike sprints) and that was easy enough to do relaxed. Apparently her contract as a travel nurse in the area ended and she will be leaving so that is a bit of a bummer as I liked having her at the gym as a serious competitor. Stretched out before driving home. The knee issues and adjusting things (stretching, wearing the copper sleeves driving and altering position every so often) seem to be making the drives home more tolerable.
Comments: So this week didn’t end well for me. Not in a training sense, that was fine. Work related crap. Thursday had a pointless (I felt) mandatory training that was scheduled for 2hrs and went over that 25 minutes and then immediately after that I had to speak with my supervisor briefly about apparently logging in to my shift 63 seconds late the week before. That continued into something the following morning. Never been tardy in the almost two years of teleworking. I’ve only ever been late to work to a single job once before and never again (besides the time I was stuck while a train switched tracks or an accident closed the highway). Anyways, the results of this appear to be that because of this, I will not be eligible to continue the teleworking most likely when up for re-evaluation middle of August as I will have a “corrective action conference” on my file within the last 12 months. Never ever had one. Never had any disciplinary stuff at any other job. I’ve been working at this job since 2012. I have no real options of recourse. So after that call in the morning, I stewed for about 30 minutes (and vented to my co-worker and friend) and decided I just wasn’t going to be productive or in the mindset and took a mental health day. Hopefully taking a day will have me cooled down enough to work on Monday but no promises. I know that this bullshit is because they want to have everyone back in the office and try to get the older employees to quit so they can hire new people that will lack seniority for perks and not have the higher pay scale. They lost productivity of over 26,100 seconds and counting for 63 seconds. Enough venting about that for now. So training for today. Still feeling the gut punch from the day before and I didn’t want to go train. I slept in for about an hour contemplating getting out of bed. Piling on worries. But I did get myself to leave the bedsheet cocoon. Driving and out to train and kind of surprised there was a sizeable crowd of people there. Mostly newer people. Like training in a group setting. I had been thinking about how something felt different with this training cycle vs last training cycle. I think what the difference is that no one else at the gym is training for the same show as me. Past three had people (though the second one had all those people drop out) so there was some competition and companionship. Not much of anything is being posted by people competing in this show besides axle. But sometimes I’ll be alone. Getting a bit too reflective. So starting things off was lateral stepdowns for 3x8 at RPE 7. Did some of the same things as last week to prep as that went well. These are getting easier and the rest between the sides less and less. Best these have felt so far this cycle and I know I said that last week. Squats with the ssb were next but different from what has been done. Box squats but not quite. I wasn’t to fully sit back and relax or to simply do touch and go to a box. Using the higher box height from past box squatting cycles. Goal here was 5x3 with 3-5ct eccentrics with something RPE 6-7 with 90 seconds rest. The suggested was 315lbs so I did that with 50lbs jumps and did 5 second eccentrics with it. Idea was to work more posterior chain dominant style as my coach felt these were a good result last cycle. It took a bit to figure out the depth and pacing as the ROM is a lot shorter compared to a full squat. There was a lot of tension being produced with these so these felt tough but they moved fast when I released the trigger. I was able to keep the timed rests and recover easily enough from these so I think this was done right. Deadlift accessory work was next. At the point in the cycle where making the switch from frame on this day to it being during the week at home since I have the same frame there as here. That will get heavier as opposed to the speed work that has been the case the past three weeks. So deadlift variations will be moved to this day instead. I guess. Not sure what variations it will be per se. For this week, it appears this was an introductory week for stiff-legged deadlfits. Last time I did these was 9 months ago as part of prep for PA’s strongest. Only did them three times that cycle. So I did have some idea what to expect here. Plan was 3x8 with it being RPE 6-7, 5RIR. Now my original plan had been to do triples with 40-50lbs jumps with 365lbs being the goal (40lbs under my 8RM with like 2-3RIR). However, I felt a certain way. I wanted chaos. No powerlifters in the area today. So I started with picking a 50lbs bar instead of 45lbs bar. Then rather than use bumper plates, I decided I’m using the kilo plates. And mismatched collars. Using a stiff, off weight bar with calibrated plates and mismatched collars for an accessory exercise. I think I went with this to make the weight as inert as possible without using a solid axle. The idea was to do these touch and go with the whisper touch to keep constant tension. So with the change in bar and kilo plates, I ended up 15lbs heavier than I had originally planned and also less sets to get to that weight. First set definitely was 5RIR or more and fatigue built over the sets where maybe I wasn’t quite there for the last set. I wasn’t feeling like it was the hamstrings that were fatiguing. They have had worse. It was more the bracing of the core, lower back and glutes. Another factor being that difficulty of the movement can be altered by whether I just let the bar stay in contact with my body or if I actively force it out in front (I did that for a few reps on the last set just to see). Sandbag after that. I was not looking forward to this. I saw I was lacking last time and biceps had been decently sore afterwards from rushing some lifts. This was going to be worse. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. So last time had been 8x2 EMOM with the 225lbs sandbag. Same weight but now it was 4x3. But that wasn’t all of it. There was a fifth set that was also following the EMOM protocol and that was do a set of 6 reps and time how long that took. The exhaustion factor is probably exponential with going from singles to doubles to triples with EMOMs, especially with a more complex movement with a long range of motion. So I was going to have to do a timed set after being more fatigued then last time. This was going to suck. Anxiety was high as I knew that one messed up rep leading up to it would be a domino for the others and I’d not recover. I was going pretty well. Last of the 4 sets I had a bobble with the first rep so that definitely sapped me a little and had me breathing really hard going into the timed set. I feel like I’m some sort of predatory dinosaur hunched over like I am before each set. Trying to be close but also not fatigue my back. Only had to side load one rep in that (fourth rep) and that did take a bit out of me and I felt a little slow down after that point. I managed to get that set done in 40.22 seconds, so a little under 7 seconds a load. Would be close for 9 at that pace but 8 would be safe. Good considering the fatigue from pre-exhaustion. I was tasting metal in my mouth after that and needed a good bit to get breathing back under control. As far as the numbers, I was averaging before that set under 6 seconds a load average so better compared to last time which was just over 6 seconds. After this was step ups with the sandbag again. I took my time after the onslaught of the sandbag loads as I was remembering how much these sucked last time. But as with most things that suck, I seem to embrace them. Goal was same as last time with a bit more difficulty. I stuck to the same weight as last time and same box height and was hoping that these would be better. Knees were a good bit achy but these were easier this time. Had less issues being aware of where I was each step. Only by the last set did I feel like I was having issues holding the sandbag due to sweaty forearms. Not sure (if these remain) what best option of progression is here. Increase the box height or increase the weight? So usually, the last thing for the session has been glute ham raises negatives so far. But apparently this is going to be the last week of them. I guess I’ll miss them? 3x8 with bodyweight for 5-8ct but you know me. I do the longer time. So the true last item of the session was grip work of my choice. Advised to do 3 sets of it. I was told to not do stuff I’m good at if I could. I’m really good at static holds (have a hard time letting go of things figurately and literally haha) and most of strongman specific stuff is having grip endurance or grip strength with it being usually a hold aspect. I didn’t want to do grip gimmick stuff, I wanted to do stuff with application. Intent. I indicated that as far as grip, I guess my weakness would be wrists (extension mostly) and crushing (I suck at grippers). I can be quite relaxed when I hold things. Same tension holding a 630lbs frame and carrying bags of groceries. Which might be why I don’t fatigue like others. So I figured I’d work the crushing grip. There wasn’t really stuff to do that here but I recalled a machine that IronMind makes that was for this. I figured I could makeshift that and that is what I did. Using a smith machine and a power pin that we have for power stairs and duck walk, I did a free weight version. Worked great. Did 3x10 with 1 second “crushes” and then for funsies did a 15 seconds hold on the last rep. I did also do some light sandbag carries (125-150lbs for 30’) for a few sets to help Jodi reset her course for conditioning work (pairing sandbag carry and loads with aerodyne bike sprints) and that was easy enough to do relaxed. Apparently her contract as a travel nurse in the area ended and she will be leaving so that is a bit of a bummer as I liked having her at the gym as a serious competitor. Stretched out before driving home. The knee issues and adjusting things (stretching, wearing the copper sleeves driving and altering position every so often) seem to be making the drives home more tolerable.
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