June 18, 2022 – Week 2, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (5 second eccentrics, 9”)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Side Planks with Banded Clamshell (Dynamic, 3 second holds) 
mbx10/10
mbx10/10

Front Squats (5-1-0-0 tempo)
45x5
95x4
145x3
195x2
245x4
245x4
245x4
245x4

Paused Deadlifts (beltless, 3 second midshin, 2 second lockout, straps)
165x3
231.5x3
275x3
319.5x3
319.5x3
319.5x3
319.5x3
319.5x3

Keg Carries (turns at 50’, low carry staggered grip)
250x100’
250x100’
250x100’
250x100’

Paused Snatch Grip GHD Back Extensions (2 seconds, straps)
55x5
85x12
85x12

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx30/30 seconds
bwx30/30 seconds
bwx30/30 seconds

Banded Hanging Knee Raise Holds
lbx30 seconds
lbx30 seconds

Pinch Block Holds (2”)
43 for 15 seconds
43 for 15 seconds
43 for 30 seconds
43 for 30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Starting to get Facebook “friends” to invite me to shows for next year. Hard pass. With how things are as far as competitions and qualifications, no sense going to any shows that aren’t offering more than just top place gets Nats invite. USS Nats are in Texas and the events aren’t great (front hold at a nationals? Come on!) so no reason to try anything in that federation besides pro-qualifiers and only if local in the event get screwed over with not enough entrants. Very few of those this side of the Mississippi though. As for SC, I am able to go directly to a regional show for next year so I’d rather keep things open to do that (top 5 nationals and winner Arnold) or a pro/am (pro card and ASM invite). Hopefully they have a pro/am on the east coast next year. No point going to lower-level qualification shows that have events within 10lbs of National level show. And shows with less than 5 events can take a hike. But enough of that griping. On to current gripes. Incredibly stressful week at work and I knew that I needed to slowdown as I was definitely burnt out from it. Moving slower, constant headaches and just having a hard time falling asleep at a reasonable hour. I woke up for training at my usual time but I knew it wasn’t wise to go about it with less than ideal sleep the past week accumulating. I’d crash hard if I didn’t slow down. So I even though I felt only slightly tired, I went back to bed and that ended up being 3.5hrs later. And I woke up feeling terrible. When you stop putting up a front and all the stuff you were suppressing just hits you at once. When the stress hormones go away and the really beat up you is there. I knew there was a chance this would happen but this was necessary. So I felt super crappy. Allergies were the worst they had been in a long time. Not a ton of things requiring me to really gird down for training but I knew it could be a sucky day. But a lot of it was putting in work. Drive out wasn’t bad. Most of the people left by the time I got there. It was going to be a late one. Start of the workout was about the same as last week. Right knee was achy compared to last week. I feel that had to do with block press work with using leg drive and that deep squat position for the lap and clean as well as having actual weight being moved on the lower body day compared to the previous week post contest. I felt that with the stepdowns that the top height I got to last week was perfect so I planned to just go right into at that height. Some hesitation and aches at the start but not as bad as they have been in the past when doing things like this. Left leg felt a lot better compared to the right leg with the knee but tolerable. I think I’m getting better control/hang of it with the side planks with the band clamshell. From there it was on to front squats. Similar to last week but different. I’m assuming this was based off last week with it being 4x4 with 5lbs more than top set. Adjustment to the tempo with there being a 1 second pause in the hole rather than just a brief one. Other note made was to try and have the knees track forward more. With the added pause, I figured that the best way to warm-up would be doing ladder as opposed to just straight sets of reps. Get more reps in lower weight and really feel the position and get things warmed up. I had already decided to do 50lbs jumps here. I figured that I’d feel more comfortable with the weight resting on the clavicles compared to last week. Not feel so heavy. I was right. I felt a lot stronger and more confident with these. 10lbs more than the weight last week (easier plate math) and it felt easier. I was a bit concerned that these would really suck with how my allergies and my body was feeling. Next was deadlifting. Beltless paused pulls like last week but not quite. The notes indicated that there is an intent here and I was perhaps focusing on the wrong aspect last week. While speed is good, that wasn’t the idea here. I should know that I’m more of a steady puller and that this was to work on bracing and positioning. So the there was a change besides weight (53-55%). Same sets of 5x3 but midshin pause was now up to 3ct and I was to add a 2ct pause/flex at lockout. Squeeze the glutes and quads. That was new. I’ve held lockouts before for pulls (usually for long down calls or to rebrace and get ready for a slow eccentric) but never had them be actively worked exercise. Lockout on deadlifts have always felt like rest. So this was different. I will say that these took a bit longer to get things feeling good warming up for the lower back. But once they did, I was good to go and they felt comfortable. I did have to take a moment to check if I did my 5x3. I didn’t want to do just 4x3 but I also didn’t want to do 6x3. Checked video and confirmed I was one short and got that last set done. Then some event work (not that deadlifts aren’t event work for most shows ugh). Keg carries. Plan here was just to get volume in. I can embrace the suck for this kind of event. There isn’t much skill involved here, just grunt and go. 4x100’. Not specified for turns but contest does so I did them at 50’ as the turns are going to be the thing that makes this terrible. Or more so I say. I was advised to use 225-250lbs for the keg here and select style I’ll probably use. I’ve got a good bit of time for this kind of event and I have a feeling that I won’t need that far to win the event but I have to prepare for really far since I’m certain I’ll be going first for the whole show with how the promoter usually runs things. So no holding back. I went with 250lbs right off the bat. I had determined that I’d be doing not the most efficient carry for this. It is a carry style you do just to get on the board as you can’t go fast but you will be able to move with the keg. Staggered grip and low carry. I wanted to embrace the suck on this with it being a slow walk and taxing the grip and posterior chain, the things that will go first. I will most likely be carrying the keg high but I wanted to get used to this in the event that I’m in this do or die scenario. I’ve done this weight in the more speed friendly way one way for over 300’ and this style with it not so low for just over 370’ in the past. I’ve not tried to push things to that extreme for many years and never tried that with more  than 280lbs so it will be interesting to see how going up 50lbs for contest weight will be. In either case, these were miserable with how slow I was going. I alternated sides for the stagger each set and took only a minute rest between sets. I was feeling pretty toasty by the end of the last set. Next was more lower back related stuff. The back extensions I did last week were supposed to be on the GHD so my bad. So plan here was to figure out what I could do for 2x12-15 at RPE 7-8 with the snatch grip and holds. I did a warm-up set and then did the weight I was supposed to use last week. These are ton tougher. I had to aim for 12 reps here. Last set I had to rest pause the reps a bit to finish. Ugh. These a tough in a good way. Single leg wall sits next. I figured I’d give 30 seconds a shot here. Managed to get that for all sets but it was tough. I am now allowed to go back down in time and add weight. That will be interesting. I do like how these are feeling. Hanging ab work after that. Same as last time with me using the hanging arm rests. I felt that even if lower ab feels twingey at the start, that I should be fine seeing as how my abs survived those dragonflies and they put a lot of stress everywhere. I felt that even with it being 30 seconds holds this time (with one less set) that I could do more than I did last time as far as tension. But I felt that perhaps fumbling with multiple bands to get around my feet at the bottom would be hit or miss I went with a light band. That worked great and made these quite tough. But I got them done. Last thing was grip work. Listed as doing plate pinch holds. Work up to 2x15-30 seconds. I was also allowed to do walks if I wanted to to stave off boredom and get some more core work. Options if doing plate pinch wasn’t great. The gym has a lot of 25’s and 45’s that can be one hand pinched but now 35’s really. I’ve done a pair of 45’s for a pick a long time ago with both hands but that would probably not happen right now and definitely not something I could hold for even 15 seconds. I felt that 25’s would be too easy. So I deviated from the plan. I knew that a grip guy had pinch blocks here and I just had to find them. 2” blocks that could be attached to loading pins. I figured these would work and the added bonus if these are reoccurring was that I could add weights in small progressive overload manner. But first I needed to be humbled. I had assumed since it was a thinner block and that I could pick up something decent. Nope. 100lbs added was glued to the ground. Went to 50lbs added and about the same. I realized that these were so tough because I wasn’t palming the implement like I can with say a plate pinch. This was purely just pinching strength. 25lbs added was easy enough so I added 10lbs to that for the working sets. I was planning on 30 seconds but found this was too difficult and stopped at 15 seconds so that I could recover for another set. I had done this set without chalk and put on liquid chalk for the next set. It felt about the same difficulty wise. I kind of didn’t want to leave it at just 2 sets at such a low time so I was going to do another set with 15 seconds but add regular chalk and leave timer open for 30 seconds (I was going for max time assuming I’d get like 20) and it was comfortable. So I then decided to treat those first two “working sets” as my last warm-ups and did another hold at 30 seconds. So this liquid chalk I have is no better than my hands as is but real chalk is great. I think that this liquid chalk will only be used to make my hands or surfaces dry to apply regular chalk or tape if super sweaty for atlas stones or something. Put stuff away and stretched before heading home.