July 2, 2022 – Week 4, Day 4

Patrick Stepdowns (5 second eccentrics)
bwx10/10 at 9”
bwx10/10 at 10.5”

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

Paused Front Squats (5 seconds)
45x3
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x3
255x3
285x3
255x3
255x3

Deadlifts w/ bands (+40lbs bottom/+142lbs top, straps)
95x3
155x3
205x3
255x3
298x3
298x3
298x3
298x3
298x3

Keg Carries (turns at 50’)
High Carry
275x100’
275x100’
Low Carry
275x205’6”

Paused Snatch Grip GHD Back Extensions (1 second, straps)
55x5
95x10
95x10

Single Leg Wall Sits
bw+25x30/30 seconds
bw+25x30/30 seconds

Banded Hanging Knee Raise Holds
lbx30 seconds
lbx30 seconds

Behind The Back Axle Holds
88x5 seconds
138x5 seconds
188x5 seconds
238x5 seconds
288x20 seconds
248x30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: So AC people came out in the morning the day before and got it fixed for good this time. However, it is an old system and plan is to have them come out at the end of the month to do an estimate for a new system. I had put off some house upkeep stuff this week with the AC not working to keep from making the house hotter or taxing things more than they needed to while it was struggling to get the house back to tolerable (for me) temperatures. So I knew I’d have to do that stuff in the morning before going out to train. I slept in a little bit to make sure I was rested. I think also because my left side shoulder and neck were feeling achy and tight and I didn’t want to quite deal with that just yet. With training planned, I knew I needed to bring some additional things with me just because. Like extra shirts and bands. Traffic wasn’t that bad. Actually quite good considering a holiday weekend. Good bit of people at the gym when I got there surprisingly but most left before I got too serious into the training. I saw that someone else had put on the board they were doing PA’s Strongest and it got me a little excited/anxious as they would be in my weight division and be tough competition. But after talking with them, they apparently had decided not to since they were moving to Texas the week after and felt it would be too much of a distraction when they’re main focus would be for OSG rather than SC. So no change. Starting things off with how they have been on this day with the Patrick stepdowns. Only 2 sets this time and I was going to do increasing height. I had iced my sore knees twice after work the day before. It was a different kind of knee stress/pain that was more patella then the usual culprit for me. If anything, it felt similar to when I had bursitis from wrestling in middle school/high school. My knees didn’t feel that bad so that seemed a good sign here. Band clamshells after that. Got ribbed a bit doing them (you doing OnlyFans Craig?). Whatever keeps me healthy and competing into my 2nd decade of this. The sweat factor today was really bad as I was having issues with the band sliding off on me.  From there it was on to front squats. I initially had been happy to see that I was not doing a set weight on these and that it was for a top triple. But then I realized it wasn’t tempo and it was a 5 second pause and my happiness went to a frown. So these probably wouldn’t be too fun. So plan here was work up in triples to a top set (1-2RIR) and then drop off some to do 2x3. I’ve done pauses on front squats before but really only for like 1ct and that was more of the resting on my laurels kind. And haven’t done them since 2016 besides one week on my own in 2021 for longer pauses. And I only got up to 200lbs on that. So struggling with longer holds. My thinking with that in mind was that I’d probably top out at 225lbs and I figured that doing 30lbs jumps to get to that would give me enough time to actually get used to it and get my knees ready. I was also a little cautious that that one feeling with the left shoulder last week on that one rep would pop up. It did not. Well 225lbs came and went so I figured ok, 255lbs it is. That also was too easy. I was debating between 20lbs or 30lbs. Then I got sent the weights for Nats and went with the 30lbs. That was the right call. Took 30lbs off that for the down sets. Nationals weights are tough but doable. As always, I wish I had more time. I have to try and keep focus on the current task as I haven’t even qualified for it yet. Next was deadlifting. This was a bit of a pain. See, the plan here was to do banded pulls with at least 20% of my 1rm added to 50-55% for 5x3. The gym has racks that can setup bands but I didn’t want to use that. Reason being that there is going to be a week coming up where I won’t be able to train at the gym so using a setup I can’t replicate at home in some fashion wouldn’t be conducive I feel. That meant setting things up like at home with anchoring bands with heavy dumbbells. Most of the platforms are really big so I used the one in the way back that was smaller. It was still 12” longer than the setup I use at home (5’ vs 6’) when I setup things for bands but it would have to do (and I’ll do my best at home I guess). So a lot of effort lugging around heavy dumbbells to make sure the bands didn’t lift stuff up. With the band stretched out more, they added a lot more band tension. The plan had been about 120lbs (117lbs would be 20%) but it came out to 142lbs (24%). Since it came out that way and it was close enough, I tried to get things weight wise to error on the lower end for now. I ended up using a regular bar as opposed to the squat bar. Still kilo plates. I swapped in my other straps. Belts allowed for this. I was to do 90 seconds rest but it looks like I took 75 seconds. I haven’t been using the regular straps for most stuff as of late so I wasn’t too keen on timing so went sooner rather than later. But this was good. Keg carries next. This was the main reason I had brought the change of clothes as I had seen how much I was sweating through the past two weeks of workouts. Options for today on this was either same weight as last week or go up 25lbs and do 2x100’ and then a max distance set (aim for 200’-300’). I had done all the sets last time low position and staggered. That is the way to go to get any distance and have the most secure grip. But it is the style that makes you suffer. With Nats an option coming up, I felt it was best to do a parallel grip and aim for a higher carry position to get ready to move with sandbags but also have it be a faster movement. I really hope that 200’ at this show or less will win it because man. I did some warming up and brought stuff with me to give extra padding to my elbows and lower biceps area as I tend to bruise there when picking up kegs for a higher carry. Chalk and liquid chalk a must today with how much I sweat.  I felt slow but in control with the carries. I wasn’t trying to go 100% here as I had the max distance set. I didn’t feel confident that I could hold the keg this style for 200’ so I reverted to the low carry for that. I felt my grip was secure but man did it slow me down at 100’. Even though I slowed down, I knew that I could gut out more distance even when 150’ was looking like a struggle. My grip was secure and even though getting bruising on my left hip (and occasionally grazing the boys) I knew I could do 200’. I made sure to do a turn around and walk a few more feet just to get that extra practice in. I definitely could’ve gotten closer to 250’ but at what cost? It would be a war of attrition and cut into recovery since this wasn’t a smooth run. This needs to get better with me doing the bare minimum I was willing to accept on this. But it does appear I do better on front carries with other objects vs a keg it seems as of late (post 2016). Realizing that most of my competitions since 2017 haven’t had me doing much in the way of long distance carries requiring a high carry position. From there I could move onto the things that were less effort and not as soul sapping in this heat. But by no means easy. Back extensions with the pauses on the GHD. Given a slight mercy with only a 1ct hold but increased weight pretty much evaporated that. The position just really seems to be a head rush when I get out of it. But I know these are helping me with stuff. Just not entirely sure what yet haha. Single leg wall sits next. Plan here being 25lbs and two sets of 30 seconds. So a good bit tougher than what I did last week and earlier this week. I was kind of expecting the right knee to act up like it did two weeks ago on these after the keg carries. My knees were screaming at me getting into position. For the life of me, I couldn’t get on one leg and not have the discomfort be so much that I had to stop. I tried I think three times to get it to work before I resorted to wearing my knee sleeves. I’ve been doing these without anything besides the copper sleeves. This seemed to resolve the issue of pain. This was very strange as I haven’t felt that before here. I think that I did push things too much on those goblet split squats. May need to wear sleeves for those going forward too. With the pain issue gone, that didn’t make these any easier. The longer hold was noticed. Hanging ab work after that. The little hanging baskets that are for the arms were missing. Not sure if they were taken, broken or put away somewhere but I couldn’t locate them. This was to be the last week of them. I was kind of not wanting to do these as inadvertent grip work considering this was a week where a miscellaneous grip exercise was added at the end of the workout. But I needed to keep moving. So I did these like bar hanging style. I was tempted to try hook grip but the setup bar was actually too thick to do that and have it be beneficial. This felt good on the shoulders, chest and back for stretching out. I guess I should’ve been doing them this way the whole time. Last thing was for the grip. Axle hold but behind the back. Takes the ability to rest on the thighs. Done these with barbell before but never axle. I wasn’t too sure what I could do here so I went with the empty Jenkins axle (88lbs) and went up 50lbs with 5 second holds. The plan here was to do 2 sets of 20-30 seconds. I kind of wanted to get to 288lbs since that would be just about the opener for axle for Nats and work on that gripping. I barely got 20 seconds on this for that weight but I did it. But I also knew from past experience with axle hold stuff that I have a very hard time with diminishing results after a good first set (or good first week) and I knew that I needed longer hold work still for the Hercules hold so I dropped off 40lbs to make sure I got a decent set of 30 seconds. I put stuff away and changed into my third shirt before driving home to stretch there and get things ready for dinner.