June 25, 2022 – Week 3, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (5 second eccentrics, 10.5”)
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
135x3
185x2
225x1
265x3
265x3
265x3
265x3

Paused Deadlifts (beltless, 3 second midshin, 2 second lockout, straps)
165x2
220.5x2
275x2
330.5x2
330.5x2
330.5x2
330.5x2
330.5x2
330.5x2

Farmer’s Walks (16” pick, drops at 50’)
Casual Pace
50x100’
Normal Pace
100x100’
150x50’
200x50’
250x200’
250x200’

Farmer’s Hold (22” pick)
300x49 seconds

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

Single Leg Wall Sits
bw+25x20/20 seconds
bw+25x20/20 seconds
bw+25x20/20 seconds

Banded Hanging Knee Raise Holds
lbx30 seconds
lbx30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Another stressful week. Initially not as stressful as the previous week but I could feel the weight of it on me. Some depression slipping in with realization of very limited options and none ideal and then just turning that frustration onto myself. And then not great stuff happening in the world either when trying to perhaps find some distraction/escapism from letting my own feelings of inadequacy cannibalize my mental wellbeing. Very frustrating. But I persist. I take the feelings vs the alternative of apathy which I know is a lot worse (and I had been feeling that earlier in the week). Sleep was better but there is still not 100% ideal sleep. I have a feeling that I may be stressed in my sleep with how tight some things get in my neck. Jaw on the left side had been stiff for the past few days. Left shoulder and trap was feeling stiff. I ended up sleeping in an extra hour just because. Only one thing for the workout was going to be brutal really and with it to be 90 today, it was going to be tough regardless. This heat was one of the reasons I had hoped to take more an offseason approach just from how difficult things become and these events for this show aren’t really long time in the heat friendly. Do work and sweat would have been a good time for that without event based focus. But this is where I’m at. Drive out wasn’t bad but there was some traffic. People leaving as I got there but there were a decent amount of people there when I arrived or were arriving as I did. But no one that would be actively be in my weight class or for strongman. Either powerlifters, novice or potentially people that have lost the zeal for it due to the years of it beating down. Perhaps I’m being a bit too reflective. But I felt on edge at the start. Anxiety and paranoia aren’t a good mix. But people started talking to me and I realized I was imagining scenarios that weren’t there and I calmed down a good bit. So as has been the case the past three weeks of weekend training, starting things off with stepdowns and clamshells. I was still in agitated mode when I was starting stepdowns so that may explain why I went with even higher platform then I had the week before. This wasn’t terribly pleasant with the increased workload demanded on the knees as competition stuff gets added in and increasing weights. I had even mentioned that the previous height had felt perfect but I guess not. I think maybe I was still annoyed with how axle press felt and that I’m not doing enough or good enough so I need to make my knees and ankles work harder. Which isn’t a smart or healthy mindset in retrospect. I can do this height but I think that I need to work into it rather than right off the bat. It takes time for my body and joints to get ready for these kind of things despite thinking I’m still the same person from 2008 starting out. Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should and I know that. There is specific day when it matters. So as mentioned last week, some aches and pains with these starting out because obvious reasons with pushing these even more than the week before out of some flawed logic. Next time, I will not go right to the max and work up over sets like I did that first week and should be doing anyways. There does seem to be some variance in difficulty with the clamshell plank stuff with band placement but can’t always get it secured in just the right spot. But it is what it is. I was able to do these with not taking a break between sets, just using the time it took to reposition as rest between sets and sides. Posting up on the left arm was having that shoulder feel tight and sore. From there it was on to front squats. Same tempo and number of sets as last time but due to how I had been feeling the weight went up a good bit. It had been 5lbs last week but I did 10lbs due to easier plate math and said things felt easier than it had the week prior. So that of course meant a bigger jump to get back into the right effort range. So 4x3 with 20lbs more. I wasn’t concerned with that. But sometimes lifts can feel off or on for no apparent reason. Ladder to work up seemed to work well last week so did the same here. Left shoulder and trap didn’t seem to care for the last set of working up weights so that had me a little anxious (I hadn’t noticed it on any of the other sets). Thankfully no issues with the working weight sets. Well this definitely felt like more weight than last week so mission accomplished. Even though this is more knee flexion compared to the usual ssb squat variations, I’m feeling like this doesn’t beat up the knees nearly as much. Or perhaps it is a weight issue rather than a movement or position issue. Not sure. But it is a nice change of pace and that could be all there is too it. Next was deadlifting. Same as last week as far as it being pauses at two points and still beltless. Advised this was the last week of this wave (whatever that means). Can here was that it was now doubles instead of triples and with shorter rest (60-75 seconds). These were feeling pretty good warming up. I did end up taking a bit of break from my last set before doing the working weight which did perhaps leave things a little cold (as cold as you can get in 90 degrees) so that very first lift to start things off felt heavier than it should and then every lift after that was fine. I didn’t want to take too long a beak so I inadvertently did EMOM from the looks of things. From there it was on to the thing that was going to suck; farmer’s walk. By that point, the strongman people were gone for the one thing that I could use some moral support on. As far as moving events go, I like farmer’s walk. The pick up sucks but my grip can hold out well so I can make up for it. And I usually can move into top gear with a forward lean unlike say yoke. But this wasn’t going to be enjoyable. This was going to be less a walk and more death march. So the contest event is 300lbs for 100’ with drop and come back at 50’. Fairly standard event in recent years. I’ve done this even before (one start farmer’s and another having a keg load in the middle) and I’ve won both times in the respective sub class. Drew however decided to make this brutal and as a way to work the max distance keg carry at the same time. I was going to do double the distance. So rather than 2 picks and 100’, it would be 4 picks and 200’. And I was going to do it for two sets as opposed to one top set like past trainings have been for this event. The weight was to be 225lbs to 250lbs. I wanted to do 250lbs for this to kind of match the keg from last week. I’ve gone over 200’ with farmer’s walk with 240lbs per hand but that was a straight shot so no repicking. There are several different farmer’s handles at the gym and I selected the ones that I felt resembled the contest equipment the closest. 16” pick and long handles that have feet. I did down and back empty with casual walk style and then added 25lbs bumper plates to get a feeling for how this will be with the forced spacing of plates added. The other sets were just to accumulate weight and get the pick warmed up really. I wasn’t going to go at full speed as I knew I had to pace myself here. This was going to be challenging. Most of my moving event work has been for shorter distance stuff this past year of training so not exactly in condition. Trying out liquid chalk all the way up the forearms and regular chalk to see if that kept the sweat at bay. I knew this was going to be slog from the first pick. But I knew I’d finish. Took a little over a minute to complete. I was definitely feeling tired as I almost stumbled on the last leg coming back. And I had another set of these to do. I was seriously thinking of either lowering the weight by like 50lbs or just not doing this second set. I did neither of those things. Now rest was to be 90-120 seconds. That wasn’t happening. It took me closer to 5 minutes to get my breathing and thoughts back under control and grip those handles to do it again. Got through it by thinking of it being 4 sets of 50’ with short rest. I had to do some pep talks after each one but I got it done. Took about 2 minutes to finish. Woof, I was just done. My hands hurt and forearms felt crampy and I was breathing really hard. And I wasn’t quite done with farmer’s walk unfortunately. I was to do a farmer’s hold. Plan being 60 seconds at RPE 8. I took my time here setting things up as I knew that I’d not be in condition to do a pick from 16” or so and that for grip I’d need to raise it up a good bit as I was toast from that. Before I did this, I had planned on doing 300lbs as the set. I’d hit a comfortable 60 seconds with 630lbs on the crappy frame last cycle without trying so I felt this was manageable. But then I was worried I’d be able to even do 250lbs with how bad this wrecked me but I decided to try 280lbs. I was checking USS Nats as this event was being done there and I had previously held the record in the under 308lbs class and under 275lbs (my 275lbs was beaten this year so it had held up for 3yrs). No one beat that time in the under 275lbs but the under 308lbs was. But I still would’ve placed 2nd and that had been with fractured fingers when I set it so. But of course I occasionally talk myself up into doing things and rather than stick to doing less weight because holy hell was the farmer’s walk stuff brutal, I went back to trying for 300lbs. I actually felt like I had it at the start but then after 30 seconds I knew this wouldn’t be RPE 8 if I got it. Ended up letting go just shy of 50 seconds as I felt like if I held it much longer that the skin in my palms would tear and I’ve only had that once in 2009 with a show using tape on handles (I still finished with torn calluses). This is risk with it getting so hot as well. So not ideal levels of effort here. But not as pissed about not living up to my expectations as I was and still am at the axle pressing. Luckily the rest of the workout wasn’t as intense. GHD back extensions again. Same weight and same reps as I just couldn’t do more haha. These are so very tough and get really difficult as the sets go on. But I know these a keeper as far as training goes and how much they hit the stuff that needs it as far as posterior chain. Just the fact that the change in the position makes these that much tougher is also humbling. My left shoulder and trap were feeling tight again but understandable with all the other stuff beforehand. Single leg wall sits next. I had done 10lbs earlier this week with the weight on my thighs. I was advised to do 25lbs today and hold it up in the rack position or at chest. Right knee was feeling a bit more achy than usual on these and I think that had to do with just all the farmer’s walks on top of the usual things and added weight on these. Wasn’t too bad other than that. Hanging ab work after that to finish up. Same setup as last time since that worked well. Still good. I was pretty much alone by this point and ended up staying to stretch and put stuff away. I had my shirt outside to dry out in the sun so I wasn’t wearing a soaking sweaty wet shirt home.