Comments: Antsy to focus on something concrete and only 2 weeks after Nationals. So good in that the fire still burns. Or that I long for a distraction. Shorter workouts and less of them leads to some additional free/dead time that can’t be filled with eating or television. Ended up reading 4.5 books over this period. I know this recovery period is needed for mental, physical and emotional health. Other good thing was that left elbow didn’t swell up on me after training second session of this week. That had been a worry after it appeared to have happened after that first workout session. So hopefully this continues to be the case. Appears plan is to do three days a week at least another week with similar stuff as this week and then either stay at this or add a fourth day with stuff gradually. Will need to be reassessed after this coming week. So on to training. Starting things off with a non-tempo exercise. Chaos band push ups. Plan was 3x10-15 with plenty of RIR and lowish RPE. I had initially planned on doing them as I have been with feet elevated but realized that that wasn’t specified on here for training and that probably just doing them on the floor was suggested since this was a "prehab” phase. As being on the floor, less of my bodyweight would be put on these bands so I could use less bands to support myself which would make the stability harder. And that’s the thing I want with these as far as making the supporting structures irradiate. Left elbow/forearm tendon still has tension (golfer’s elbow) but that has been fairly consistent off and on since after March of this year. A little distracting but not anything that keeps me from doing what I need to. These felt good. I could tell that my right triceps was fatiguing faster than left. Similar to Monday session in noticing that. From there on to another exercise that wasn’t full on tempo (that was coming up). Birddog dumbbell rows were coming back. Balance being the main factor on these as well as fatigue in those structures made to hold the position beyond just the rowing aspect. I had initially felt like I could just jump into doing my planned weight but felt that it has been a while and that there could be a learning curve with the balance aspect from what I recall last time I did these for the first time. I hadn’t been required to do long holds either. For convenience sake, I just went with the 40lbs dumbbells as I felt those would be close to RPE 7 and 3RIR with 3 second holds each rep. Close but I probably could’ve gone heavier. One of those few times this training cycle so far where I maybe undersold vs oversold (tempo work just kicks my rear). Oddly enough, I felt like fatigue factor had been less as I went. I seemed to move better as I went. Perhaps I felt more comfortable with my balance and was able to not be so cautious with the concentric and eccentrics. Then it was time for tempo work. I’ve done b-stance rdls before and different variations of it with dumbbells but always it seemed as a warm up. So never really pushing it. I figured the weights I had done for warm up would be appropriate then for doing high rep tempo work. Certainly added a challenge here. It is really hard to know truly how many RIR I got on these tempo reps with how fatiguing each are with time under tension. I feel that I did a weight that I knew would be within the RIR or RPE, I’d probably need to use almost no weight at all or take much longer rests. Or use less weight each set as first set can be in the appropriate range but then end up outside of it by the end. I will say that of the exercises that had the 3-1-3-0 tempo that this was the one that stayed closest to those parameters (not counting the FFE split squats since that was my choice kind of and no weight was used and no pauses). Body awareness was certainly something I noticed on these with the reaching across body as far as feeling the outer edges of my feet grounding. Getting my feet/ankles more active is something being passively applied for health to keep competing. Next thing was an exercise I don’t particular care for. Mainly I think because I don’t like how it make me feel. Goblet squats. I think this is more to do with that my upper body holding the weight up fatigues more than lower body does so it feels like it isn’t really doing much to what I feel the intent should be. Also seems to make me winded more because of that. But I do a lot of exercises that may not be my favorites. There was an option on these to use either a dumbbell or sandbag. Boo dumbbell. Maybe I’d like sandbag? Sandbag was kind of strongman related. Plan was 2x15-20 with plenty of RIRs. Decent depth, no tempo and not really locking out fully so as to keep constant tension. Lightest sandbag I got is 112lbs. Not exactly bearhug style as I held it a little bit lower. Holding the bag was harder than the actual squatting but it was at least something different and potentially event specific. I went with lower end of the reps as crushing the sandbag against myself and breathing was harder and really fatiguing me. I felt better that second set but kept it at 15 reps so that I could progress next time assuming do them again. Also fun to just drop it at end of set and not have to worry about cracking floor like with a dumbbell. So that was it for the garage work and then into the street for the last of the workout, as has appeared to be the case for stuff so far. It wasn’t timed sets for a long bit or just going for a decent walk. Plan was 4x50-100’ of sled work at casual pace. Alternating between a push and then a backwards drag. Idea was to just work on knees and ankles. I decided to do 100’ as 50’ would be too short and if I was going to spend all the time setting things up, I’d prefer doing something worth it. Especially since it gets dark really early so I have to setup safety cones and get all lights and such to stand out. This was still to be a lower effort thing but I feel that my weight selection here was too light. This was really easy. I did get to focus on how and where my foot moved on the push and knee work on the drags but I needed I think at least 50lbs more here, maybe even 90lbs more. But it was kind of too late to really stop once I started as again, really getting dark. I’ll know better for next time. Put stuff away before eating dinner and then stretching. Didn’t feel the need to ice joints after this.
Comments: So I had a little scare the day before in that it looked like my left elbow was swelling up again. The injury clinic had told me that I might have to have it drained once a month or so as a thing I’ll have to do from now on but if it swelled up back to what it was in less time (like a week) then I’d need surgery to remove the bursa in the elbow and that would take a lot longer to recover from since it would require cutting me open. Last resort for me. I hadn’t felt I did that much of anything on Monday workout and it hadn’t felt like it was swelling after that but the day after. It seemed to be down when I woke up the next day (I had iced it and ACE bandage that evening as I was kind of paranoid) so hopefully this stays at this level as this is manageable. There isn’t pain. As far as things from last workout that I noticed beyond that was that my glutes were feeling DOMS from the training. And likely not getting any respite for this session or next with how things are setup. So like Day 1, starting off with tempo work. But not upper body exactly. RDLs with snatch grip. Been a while. I used the sawhorses for these today. I had been planning to go heavier but it was mentioned to do same tempo as the one arm presses for 3x10 and leave 4-5RIR. Felt fine with 45lbs (needed a bit more warming/working up) but adding 50lbs was noticed immediately and had me thinking I will need to use less weight then planned (I had put down 225lbs thinking I was doing tempo work before with like 335lbs but that wasn’t with concentric tempo). 135lbs felt better but figured I’d probably be doing 185lbs for the working sets. I was right and honestly I probably could’ve stuck with 135lbs with how these felt. The upper body part was what was taxing here. Keeping the upper back tight as well as my hands and forearms fatiguing (even with straps). Those factors were making it challenging but lower body and such seemed ok. Definitely not RPE 6 and maybe RPE 7 but feeling like RPE 8 by that last set. This was probably going to be the toughest thing of the session. Similar to the overhead tempo work, I felt like I had gotten in a good amount of quality work and effort in just three working sets. That is what this will do moving with control. Weighted Tai Chi. Next up was inverted ring rows. Just bodyweight for three sets of 10-15 (3-5RIR). No pauses or nothing to make them tougher. Just moving. Left forearm has sensation of golfer’s elbow but been managing as not even rest seems to help that really. Just another ache to monitor and tolerate. It’s one of those things that seems to be less noticeable when I’m working hard and warmed up. So plan was to just move through these fast and get things feeling good. Ended up doing 3x12 on these. From there it was more tempo work in the form of windmills. Same tempo as the rdls. I wasn’t too sure what to expect here. Not done these really with much weight and I kind of moved slow with purpose because of the balancing and mobility aspect. But also mindful that tempo work I got to drop weight drastically to keep from gassing out. Option was dumbbell or kettlebell. Kettlebell feels more comfortable (and less likely to hit ceiling) so I went with 10lbs expecting that to be challenging for all sets. Nope. After that first set, I felt that maybe I could go up in weight but I have only 2 sets of kettlebells so options limited for now. But my 10lbs set is smaller and thinner handles so I figured I could go up 5lbs each set and just hold both to do 20lbs set. My left shoulder was tight that first set but felt better as I went up in weight. These weren’t too bad so I probably will need more weight so investing in a handle to add weight beyond my light kettlebells. This movement was almost peaceful to do. I will probably need to do these if circus dumbbell comes up as an event to get me back into that mobility range. Not quite done yet. Next was the last thing with weights for the evening and it was dumbbell lateral lunges with pauses. I’ve done these before and they felt awkward and caused knee stress but I felt they were necessary in the Battle at the Bridge prep for me getting that lateral movement and not fatigue when shuffling around the yoke to load the sandbags (and also preparing in case I had to go to nondominant side for some reason at show). I made the effort to review video on this as notes indicated not to do them just to one side and then the other like I did last time; this was alternating sides each rep during the set. 3x8 with good bit of reps left over with 3 second pauses. I wore knee sleeves just to be careful. Been trying to go with no support gear but I know the knees need that extra support to keep me going and being lax on that just because they feel decentish at the moment is a false sense of security for when things get rougher. So trying to focus on sitting back while doing these and not just quads. Purposeful and being aware of what everything was doing and why in the moment and movement. Knees didn’t feel too bad here. Put stuff away and got the reflective stuff on for the last bit which was just walking. Indication was 15-25 minutes depending on time. I do over 30 minutes on my days off but figured with how dark it was getting that I’d just see how much time went doing a big loop that I was hoping was close to a mile. About halfway or so in my shins felt like shin splints. Odd since didn’t have that at all while walking the day before. Just means I’ll need to ice my knees. The lap was about a mile and 15 minutes so good enough. Got dinner ready and stretched after eating. Iced knees before bed.
Comments: Well good I guess is anxious to get back to training. I had to keep myself from wanting to do this workout on Saturday as opposed to Monday. Some of that enthusiasm had gone away as my neck on the left side started to feel off Saturday evening and then bottom of my right foot Sunday evening. Hell, all I’ve been doing is resting, walking and reading. But seemed to have subsided and I was waiting for work to finish up so I could train. Even though not training for anything specific yet and this wasn’t going to be the fun kind of training. This was going to be the necessary training to feel good to then do the fun stuff again. So starting things off with pressing. Single arm strict presses while in the half kneel stance. Been here before but not with tempo. Tempo really puts a halt in things as far as what I know I can do. I know I can do 80lbs for good amount of reps without tempo. But with tempo, need to reassess. Plan was 3x8-10 with 4-5RIR. So fostering really light weight here. I did 10lbs to warm up and it felt like nothing for my left side but it felt like something for the right (I had tested left first even though stronger side because of the bursitis issue). With that, I felt that 40lbs would be tough to get under the radar of being in the right range so going for just 3x8. Tough but needed. Resting between each side and set. Got through these but could feel the work being done and fatigue. Next was more upper body stuff; lat pulls. One arm with bands and my choice of half kneeling or seated. Went with half kneeling as that seemed to be more what I’ve done. More time in that stance and would help me keep track of having done one side and the other better rather than just seated. Body awareness and positioning changes to note the passage of time and sets. For these, I was to pull towards my hip and do them for time rather than reps. 30 second sets. I timed and kept track of reps. I was slower and more cautious at the start and then faster as I went. Made sure I evened things out after being off pace on the one side at the start. From there it was on to lower body focused stuff. Unilateral leg exercise of choice but suggestion was to be quad dominant. As well as other hints to aim towards a particular type of exercise. Namely a front foot elevated one with tempo. Kind of like those stores of parents having children go out and find a branch for whipping them. Plan was 3x10-15 with 4-5RIR. I went with the split squat with similar tempo to the strict pressing. Figured that would have me probably using bodyweight and would allow me to not immediately overload my knees as well as focus on getting that knee over toe point worked. Right knee is perpetually achy but stronger. Why 13 reps? Well 10 was too easy and 12 was feeling like I was leaving too much in the tank that first set but felt that I was pushing it trying to do more so here we are. With those out of the way, I had to move outside to finish up. Needed to kind of be efficient here as daylight fading. First moving exercise was suitcase carries. 2x100’ and resting between sides and sets. With how my street is, I didn’t want to be doing 100’ straight shots with me doing uphill one side and downhill the other so I did a turn at 50’ so I got uphill and downhill each side. I was surprised how easy the left side felt and then a little shocked that the right side felt tougher. Figuring that it was just fatigue but even for the second set it felt like that. Last thing was more sled dragging for a long time. Two sets of if going forwards for 5 minutes. Plan I guess was to kind of treat it like a single leg reverse hyperextension with no eccentric as I was to be trying to keep my legs straight and drive with the heel. Got all the bright and flashy things on for this. Go out however far I needed for the first set and I guess come back the second set after 2 minutes rest. My tibialis anterior started to cramp up like shin splints near the end of the first set from me really trying to emphasize the heel drive. Was walking a little funny putting stuff away. Ate dinner and stretched out before icing my knees and elbow before bed.
Took a week off from training. It was needed after this competition season. I had meant to take more rest but things didn’t quite work out that way and I still had goals to meet. Not necessarily completely. I did 2 miles walks every day (which is what I try to do on my off days unless weather is bad or I need to mow my lawn) and some light band stuff for upper body and bodyweight stuff for lower body and core. But the most I’ve taken off completely from immediately after a contest since 2017 Nationals which ended up being two weeks because reasons (sprained wrist and flu). Funny enough some similarities here to that post contest as well as some very different feelings. The big difference being that I after this Nationals, I felt a great relief. Like a weight that had been on me was lifted off my shoulders and chest. Stress weighs you down. However, there was a similarity in that I had to go to urgent care when I got back and get x-rays. In 2017, it was to make sure I didn’t do more than sprain my wrist whereas this time it was because I woke up a few days later to a severely swollen left elbow that apparently was bursitis and had to be drained of fluid and get a cortisol injection. Knock on wood so far. Training light for 3 times a week and then move up back to 4 times a week. Figure things out for 2023 as more things get solidified and revealed.
For the 2023 season, plan I guess is do higher level shows for SC, aim being qualify for SC Nats 2023 (even if not going) and Regionals 2024 (I’m already qualified for Regionals 2023). No sense doing any SC shows prior to May 2023 unless I feel I can get SC qualification directly as these won’t qualify for Regionals in 2024 until after April. No interest in USS Nationals 2023 (numerous reasons). Pro show stuff with USS is hit or miss and none this side of the Mississippi River so probably a no go. I got some clarification on the Pro Class stuff about what it means. So if I qualify for the Pro International show and accept invite and show up that year, I get automatic invite each year. I don’t have to requalify again. Which would be nice but again, no Pro Class shows showing up nearby and not worth risk to go really far if can be downgraded due to lack of sign ups. Hate to fly out to Kanas and find out only 5 people showed up. Will depend on events and location of USS Nationals 2024 if I decide to pursue that but leery about going to a show with over 400 people competing in one day. I continue to have no interest in OSG. Focus will be Pro/Ams (assuming they are worth it this year) and Regionals I guess. Aim is still pro card. I’d like to qualify for Arnold Amateur but I may not pursue it just because it is less likely to lead to pro card situation. There is only one card vs three at Nats. So incentive to win Regional shows isn’t quite there but placing well is to get better comparison of Nats level competitors and likelihood of qualification for Nats.
The 2022 season was good to me despite the stresses I had after the highs of March. Best showing at Nationals in the decade I’ve competed. Of course, there are those lingering doubts of that this was a more “CrossFit” style show as some HWs have indicated. The events of the past two Nationals I’d probably place a lot lower (though I knew in 2021 I wasn’t ready for this level of show yet).
Arnold Qualifying (Average) Top 11 Axle – 365 Farmer’s – 40.37 (2 didn’t finish and used 60 seconds) Medley – 38.04 Deadlift – 8 Sandbags – 3.63/5 Arm-Over-Arm – 39.36
Not much learned that I don’t already know that I need to get stronger on overhead and pulls and move faster. 1 more rep or one more jump and I’m there. But I guess learning still and adjusting and knowing that my good events I hang and can be best in the Nation at it.
Nationals went fairly well but not enough to solidify an Arnold invite. However, I’m certainly within the range for a call up if enough people withdraw or are unable to attend. I feel that in order to insure I can safely train for this that I’d need to know before Christmas this year to accept a back up invite.
Arnold Events
Day 1 Viking Press Power Stairs
Day 2 Fatback Farmer's Odd Object Carry and Load
Day 3 (Top 10 Only)
Mystery Event
Mystery Event
These are really good events for me compared to the Arnold I did in 2019. I feel 10 weeks would work really but the Fat Back Farmer’s would require more time to get that being a safe event with all those picks at most likely 320lbs or more.
Odds are that there won’t be any local shows until after Spring and might just make more sense to aim for 1-3 Regional shows. Maybe in close succession and treat it as long off season with a short contest season then another short off season with Nationals hopefully. Similar to how in 2018 when I did 3 Plat Plus shows that were like 2 months apart each with focus being the Arnold. Allegedly the Pro/Ams may not be like last year giving top 3 pro cards, or any pro cards so might just avoid those. Nothing confirmed for the Regionals or Pro/Ams yet but sounds like 5 Regionals with one in California and hopefully one in PA again and another in KY. I’m antsy to get back to training for hard stuff but at this time, there is no contest to train for. Which hasn’t been the case since for some time now.
This isn’t my first Nationals. This is my fourth time going in a decade. My first being 2012, held in the parking lot of the now closed Hurrah Casino in Tunica, MS. I think 2014 was the last time they had Strongman Corporation Nationals outside. Getting spoiled with nearby facilities for restrooms, concessions, and A/C. I’ve been competing in this sport since 2008 so just over 14yrs at this point. Most people will have given up on this well before this point if they haven’t gotten to the pro level and even then, some will have reached the pinnacle of the mountain top and find themselves wanting. I keep pushing despite the Sisyphean role I seem to have of being at the foothills of the mountain and potentially being just a source of stories and tips for those more likely to have more than just the desire to ascend the peak.
My plan for this year had been Nationals after how 2021 had went. I had come back from a low point to feeling myself again but didn’t feel that I was prepared for Nationals that year. I had done that when I came back from my back injury in 2016 to qualify in my first show back and then going right into prep for that in 2017, the last Nationals I was at. I did well at two events, bombed two and just passable on another. And ended up injuring my wrist and getting the flu for the first time in my life so not terribly pleasant. And first time being on a plane in like a decade (I don’t fit most places). My hope had been to qualify early and then do off season prep to stay fresh (as that seems to work best for me longevity wise if goal is big show) but that didn’t end up happening. 2022 saw the consolidation of my weight class (under 300lbs) to being just open HW with there being an under 265lbs class solidified as its own division. So this made qualifying harder. My two planned shows of the year I was just out of a spot for Nationals both times. But when Nationals was announced as being in PA and having some of the most favorable events possible for me, I decided to give it another shot, foolishly, and do another show in the midst of Summer. This whole year was nothing but peaking for shows and it was taking a toll on me. Stress from work and stress in training had an impact. I’m very hard on myself when it comes to training and most of the time my contentment is only with what I feel is the bare minimum of what I should be doing. I’d probably be unable to proceed forward and not even do this if I measured myself against the metric of what I should be doing to be elite. My work shouldn’t be as stressful as it is with being able to telework since early 2020 and being with fairly strong government union (no overtime, no weekends) but it has managed to be so. And it isn’t just me. My supervisor for like the past 7yrs retired early because of the added stress and by the end of it was having to take anxiety meds that they’ve since stopped since retiring. High turnover (about every 6 weeks I “lose” a co-worker) leads to very sudden changes in workload. Knowing how I had been with 2017 Nationals as far as illness, I took precautions to try and mitigate stress and boost my immune system as best I could in the 2-3 weeks leading up.
Despite my best efforts, I was feeling like crap and was teetering on that line. Many chicken sandwiches the night before I headed out to the venue with my father wasn’t the best thing for my digestion but it required no thinking and let me just focus on getting things ready. Heading out to the western side of the state has been a frequent enough thing since 2015 that it is fairly routine. Drive on the turnpike until near outskirts of Pittsburgh and then depending on where to from there, take the next route. That point of the junction is often where we stop if traveling further west for food or a place to sleep or both. This was just for food before abruptly heading north. My dad wanted to try a place called Burgatory which makes crazy burgers and milkshakes. I generally keep my midday meals smaller and save the larger meal for the evening so I don’t feel logy. I got an elk burger to see what the memes about Joe Rogan were talking about. Not bad. Pretty uneventful drive the rest of the way up to Erie, PA for the contest venue. Windy as a bastard but very scenic looking. If I was more inclined to sight see, I’m sure there would be things I’d enjoy. We checked into the hotel and I went down to check in. Didn’t have to weigh in as open class heavy weight. Took a look around at the setup. Noticed the convention floor was quite slick in some areas. Went to an upscale place for dinner to get in some really good food. Swordfish and ribeye steak good. I’m not sure if I would be a “foodie” as I eat because I am hungry but I like tasty food in large quantities. Got cleaned up and did my best to try and sleep comfortably (I took Dayquil the morning and Nyquil before bed).
It was now time to get it done. I got to sleep in a little because of the schedule. There was an AM and PM session. Women for the AM and men for the PM. New thing but not really. I say new in that this appears to have been in place since 2020 Nationals to one accommodate crowding restrictions and move things along because of the Rona. There had been an AM/PM session back in 2012 but it was split into 105kgs as the AM and everyone else as the PM to best of my recollection. The split I think is a good thing (now how it gets split I’m not too sure) as it allows for one set of athletes to be the focus and not have the people going later if all at once be sitting for hours and get cold. Also if someone is competing with someone else in a different class, they can watch them and not worry about having to get ready. But this can lead to some issues as I heard a few women competitor’s complaining about being the “rough draft” or the “test subjects” for the setups of events and such. I get it. But this is also something I’ve come to expect from competing in strongman for so long. Progress is slow and organization is a best cat herding. I got setup and chatted with people I knew from competing in the past or this year as well as some people that I’ve not met IRL from social media. 43 big boys here for the big dance and I’m not much of a dancer.
The first event of the day was axle clean and press. Rising bar for max. No limit on attempts and could skip attempts. But you missed and you were done. 30 seconds to lift, fight, kick, scream to get it done. Setup being on those big 70lbs rubberish wheels the Rogue Fitness makes. Handy but don’t scream strongman to me. Sterile compared to that grittiness of wagon wheels or the eccentricity of something like viking shields or cheese wheels. But that’s besides the point. This was the event I was stressing out the most. I actually almost didn’t compete because of how poorly things were going in training for this event this year. The opening weight was 285lbs. In my strongman career, I’ve never missed that weight when I’ve attempted it. I’ve hit 320lbs as my best in 2016 with a close miss at 340lbs. This was shortly before my back injury. But even then with coming back, I never felt like I was that far off coming back to that with just a little more focus in training. The event had kind of gone away a bit and then came back. I was feeling good with my progress leading up the Regionals but then when the clean ended up being involved, I had all kinds of issues. Issues I never had before. And it felt like I was falling down further and further as the year went on. So now something that would be no problem and would be hopefully pushing for 150kgs (a number that still eludes me), was going to be hit or miss. And more likely miss as in the last month of training, I missed 276lbs twice. When I feel things, I feel them hard and I got depressed. Frustrated, confused, thinking my peak was all those years ago and chasing vapors on my dreams that have evaporated. I knew where I stood with all the other events but I was putting so much weight on this one. Warming up I felt I had too much time. They had wanted athletes here and had indicated a schedule. Last Nationals, I had gotten barely any to little warming up (same with the Arnold) but with how things were going, it ended up being about 3hrs from when I arrived to actually start lifting. So that was quite of bit of staying on edge with trying to keep from being spent and not cooling off. And it is a very fine line as I could feel that I was getting less sharp on my sets on the top end. Heaviest I worked up to was 255lbs for singles and tried to keep warm by doing bounds and mobility stuff. Finally time to go. I had hoped if I was feeling good that I’d do the opener and maybe give the second jump a shot (became less likely when jumps were adjusted to 10kgs vs 20lbs) but with how I was feeling after the wait, just get this done and move on with the contest. The pull to my belt was fine. That has been on point which is at least something. Then I went for the dip to pop it up to the rack. Not quite. I had made a switch to thumbs around the axle to assist as I seem to be sucking when it comes to thumbless like I had in the past. If I had been thumbless, I fear that I may have dropped this back to the floor and my chances would be sunk. I was able to keep it close and land back on the belt, which wasn’t terribly a comfortable sensation. Got focused and launched it up to the shoulders. Felt heavy, was feeling a little lightheaded and just let it settle and wait until my vision cleared. Went for the press and just wasn’t quite there. I was reverting to more of a lean back style. I knew my triceps were there if I hit it right. Time was ticking down. I went for it again and got my body under it more and got it up but I was teetering forward and kept walking with it until finally it came to a stop and I got the down call. By the skin of my teeth, I was on the board. I came back out for the next attempt just to show I was waiving the attempt. Not last here, tied for 38th place.
Up next was a farmer’s walk. The farmer’s walk. It was something I knew I’d be good at but lord was it going to suck. I tend to be good at the event with a suck factor to them. This was farmer’s walk with two different implements, each for 80’ with a drop and turn at 40’. 60 seconds time frame. Unlimited drops and such. I had seen this even debuted at one of the Regionals this year and no one finished it there. First set of handles were 290lbs and the second set was 330lbs. I have experience and I know what I’m about most of the time. Training for this had been mostly ok. Worked all the different parts with focus on working on my weaker points but relying on my strength to pull it together. I’m slow on the pick up and generally slow. But I got a good support grip. I can hold on to things real good. Farmer’s walk, Hercules hold, grudges, you name it. I have large hands but not comically so. I harp on this a good bit that grip is many aspects. I’m very good at being able to hold without overexerting things to keep a hold. Like the difference between holding a ball vs squeezing a ball. And that is the approach I take. So training here had been building up endurance in the legs and for being able to make picking up the handles a repeatable action under fatigue. I’ve done down and back farmer’s before but it has been just one set. I may not be terribly quick but due to my surety in my grip, I can often make a quick turn around and make up the time there. So initially testing things out with lighter weight and longer distance as well as working shorter distance and timed rests and then working picks a good bit as well. Building fatigue and then attacking the holding while under that fatigue so maybe my grip feels taxed. Also working to find ways to keep knee discomfort down with not doing a ton of running. I’ve put a good bit of wear and tear on these joints and family history doesn’t seem to be a good indicator I’ll be finishing this lifetime out with my original parts. So good bit of prehab stuff as well. As I got closer, my only concern was making sure I didn’t time out before I finished. Due to my depressive episodes near the end of the prep, I didn’t end up doing the last session for this at contest weight and conditions. I felt I was as ready as I was going to be and needed the extra rest. One of the variables I couldn’t really calculate for here was the handles themselves. These were not handles that I think were for sale and only a few perhaps in the southeast had used them so I wouldn’t know how they felt until I got there. I had tried rotating handles (I have access to several) to not adapt specifically to one style. They felt good empty as far as grip. Not knurled but not exactly smooth. Good hunk of rubber on them to prevent sliding and floor damage. Foot clearance and a wide base so would be difficult to have them tip over (though some people managed to do that). But when weight was added, I encountered and issue. Picking from the back of the handles and using my usually stride would result in me hitting the weights with my feet. So this required a bit of testing to see what made the most sense. Gripping further up made the pick a ton harder but I could keep my stride length (albeit a little shorter due to the slippery convention floor). But gripping like I usually do at the back and taking an even shorter stride would allow me to have the easier pick. I decided to go with that and hopefully see if tacky towel on my shoes would help any with the flooring. This had been a lesson learned at the Arnold when I found I wasn’t able to put as much forward lean and pressure on the front of my feet from training on turf. I was going to be in one of the earlier heats because of axle but would probably place well overall if things went how I expected them. Local news team was there apparently filming while I was going. I just can’t leave my house without becoming b-roll footage. Whistle went and I was off. I was the slowest off the gate. Weight was feeling fine. I felt I would be quickest here on the first set as far as my own pace and then slow things down on the second set as I knew my matchbook stick of a back only had a so many lights left. The 330lbs set felt damn heavy. My hands were hurting and everyone else was ahead of me. Just keep going. I finish the first leg and prepare myself for the last hurrah. Lane 4 had finished and Lane 3 could go no further. I get going and time is running short. Fight the temptation to speed up and jostle the handles out of my mitts. Lane 2 goes down and is done. I cross the line with moments to spare. 56.47 seconds here for 18th place. So better than half.
Final event for the first day was a medley. Sandbag carries loaded onto a sled and then dragging the sled back. Each for 40’. Sandbags of 309lbs and 331lbs and sled of unknown weight (well more than 640lbs). Really didn’t matter the weight of the sled as it was going to be a crapshoot anyways. It comes down to friction on the competition surface and the implement. Backwards drags at Nationals have been notoriously tough. The one I did in 2012 I didn’t end up finishing. I’ve gotten better since then. Training for this had been in parts. Working on building up endurance on the sandbag carries (breaking it up with either drops every 50’ and repicks or doing several sets of 100’ with turns) and then getting more specific as things got closer. Like the farmer’s, there had been a plan to put everything together for close to contest run but that ended up not happening because of the depressive episode. I had worked up to the first bag for double the distance and then double the distance for the sled drag. I felt I was ready enough here with other training. Again, like farmer’s, I’d probably be slower on the actual moving. But I feel I’d probably be quicker on transitions because of thinking about spatial awareness. So many people seem to think that there is a front and back to an implement like a sandbag or keg and rush to get behind it when they can just get it from the side and pivot and go. If my gangly and uncoordinated body can manage it without tearing something, it can save time. The sandbags here should be fine, the sled was another matter. Traction for the implement also means traction for the competitor. This floor was slick and going too fast with shoes was not working. I tried everything I could before resorting to the inevitable; going barefoot. Most ended up going through this process of realization. It was a regular science fair back in the warm up area with athletes testing out things. I’m not sure how well the livestreams were here so hopefully no athletes lost any income from having to inadvertently provide free feet pics. I don’t care, some of my training/contest videos have made it to some of those kinds of webpages (funny the things you can track with analytics when people hotlink your stuff). Of concern to me was if I was going to let my worry of a staph infection or other communicable disease have me stay prideful in wearing my shoes? I figured no, I wouldn’t. But I had to test it out first. I don’t like doing things on the spot if I haven’t gone over it in my head at least once or tried it out. Make sure I moved ok, no issues. Was I tolerating things. Foot movement is a bit different barefoot vs equipped. More pressure being felt on the feet vs in a shoe. Certainly a greater “tactile” sensation and grounding. I just needed to know if it worked and if I’d suffer an injury not trying this out. Unladen is one thing, but moving with the heaviest sandbag you’ve ever attempted to carry before is another. I was about half way in for this one after the farmer’s placing. Saw range of performances from blitzing it to barely getting the first bag off the starting line. Told myself I had to finish to have shot. Tacky towel on my bare feet. Positioned the sandbags how I wanted them and got ready. And we were off. Faster on the picks I feel but slow on the moving with the sandbag. Knee tight and feeling like more upright posture. Not really in the fastest gear with lean back I felt caution was warranted with the slick floor. Placement on the sled also was important. Some guys were just chucking it on there and inadvertently knocking the sled back a couple feet. I didn’t want any extra distance. Second sandbag felt much the same. Almost no difference really with how I moved with that heavier bag. I didn’t feel like I’d drop them. I was a little slower than I’d have liked with the start of the drag. I think partly hesitant with making sure I had enough tension there and just being unfamiliar with barefoot (though I imagine this was the same for many there) but I got going finally. I tried to catch up but couldn’t quite do so and ended up finishing but being the slowest of that heat. Still, in a time of 45.57, I got 19th place. So again, better than half.
After the first day, I was in 29th place overall. For most, not great, but for me, fine. 29th is the best I’ve placed overall at Nats so maintaining would be ok but there was the possibility for improvement my best event was on that day and I wouldn’t get last on the other two events. During the day, I had several people talk with me. Both competitors from past competitions as well as people I’ve not met IRL. A candidate for governor was also having a function in the same center later in the day and it was for “Restoring Freedom” which I found ironic since it was a private event with curtains and police officers and they put in portable metal detectors at the building entrance (and they weren’t there in the morning or the next day). Bobby Thompson and Anthony Fuhrman were there (there were other pros from woman and men’s division with athletes or helping out) and talked to me for a good bit. I haven’t seen Bobby since 2019 Arnold because of Rona and just my own cloistered living situation. It was an interesting talk about future in the sport that I may need to reflect on. But for now, I want to keep on focusing on this being a competitor as my full-time passion project. Things had gone way later than planned. Like it was to be done at 5:30PM and it was about 8PM. I hadn’t eaten since like 10:30AM because I had assumed a different schedule and it was too late by then to get food in (as I have a terrible time keeping anything down besides water when competing). With how late things had gone, couldn’t get to the one restaurant (they stopped answering after we had to reschedule it twice as things kept going later lol) so options were the one in the hotel or find out where everyone was getting these subs (local gas station). Ended up with the hotel restaurant. Passable. Not the best food for my stomach and in my rush to eat I burnt my tongue and roof of my mouth. I knew getting to sleep was going to be a challenge as usually after event sessions, I take a while to fall asleep. Iced my knees and took ibuprofen and some Nyquil.
I awoke the next morning unfortunately. Congested and riddle with soreness. Technically I woke up but really it felt like I was just lying-in bed for 8hrs with my eyes closed and was awake the entire time. So not the best sleep. I’ve had worse, like lying on the cool bathroom tiles with food poisoning while only one line of Billy Joel’s “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” plays over and over in your feverish brain. I knew this was going to be rough having not done a two-show in over 3yrs. It’s one thing to go all out for a day, another to repeat the effort. The soreness can be almost exquisite in its completeness. Stuff you didn’t think could even be sore ends up being sore. The usual suspects were sore such as back, hands and legs but even things like the spaces between fingers, bottoms of my feet and base of the skull were feeling it. Lower legs were the most sore and constant. And mostly my own doing. I’ve gained a rather bad habit to deal with my nervous energy and that is pacing. Having a hands-free headset lets me talk and pace while working. At a competition, I tend to be on alert and relaxing is hard to do when warming up isn’t guaranteed and a lot is going on. So I pace like a caged animal and probably get in a several miles of walking judging by how sore I am (since I walk 2 miles on my off days no problem). Thankfully, this day didn’t require a ton of moving. That had been consolidated for that first day. So the soreness was one thing I can handle that. The other was getting myself to feel like I wasn’t congested. Cocktail of Claritin, Dayquil and Nasacort where needed but it still took several hours to not feel like crap. And I needed to be on as this day was starting earlier and it seemed the lax pace of the day before was an error and things would be moving today.
First event of the day was deadlift medley. Two farmer’s implements for a single rep and then axle on the big wheels for reps. 60 seconds to complete, no split times so just number of total reps. Same farmer’s as Day 1 but a magnitude heavier at 330lbs for the first pair and then 380lbs for the second pair. The axle was 13” and was 705lbs for reps. Straps allowed as well as briefs. The briefs was new. I hadn’t planned on these but I was noticing wear and tear and that anything that could help me a little and perhaps alleviate some taxing on hips was worth a shot. My must do goal was the first two implements. The axle deadlift would be a huge PR if I got it. Training for this had gone relatively well. Farmer’s got most of training from the farmer’s walk with extra picks added. Axle deadlift had been the main deadlift focus really. Bar in front deadlifts are more often contested and only doing side handle doesn’t bode well for me with maintaining and improving. Deadlift has been mostly good this year of training. Only time really that it felt like I wasn’t having all the pieces there was the last prep when front squat was used instead of ssb back squat. Something just seemed off. Deadlift like overhead is something that needs constant work and unfortunately continues to have a huge focus in strongman. But I continue to push and adapt and an athlete. In training, I worked up to a big PR of 650lbs for a double on the axle and had done 330lbs for 3 on the farmer’s. Considering the short prep relatively (10 weeks), this was kind of the best I could hope for. Warming up for today was going to be a bit less technical. Overhead is always so much involved. Most other things I do a few things and I’m good. My first round of warming up I did just under 500lbs (allegedly as it felt really good) on the axle and just under 290lbs on the farmer’s. Then another round just over 500lbs (felt tough hence questioning that first lift) and just under 340lbs on the farmer’s. I had felt good and was thinking initially best shot at the 705lbs pull but then after confirming the numbers that I needed to make sure I got the first two implements and then give 705lbs a shot just because. Somewhat near the middle when it was time to go. I was in no rush. As I said, no split times so there wasn’t a sense of urgency here. I just needed to secure things and get solid lifts. Even though I could probably do these farmer’s without straps, it wasn’t worth the risk or fatigue as there were other events that needed the hands later. 380lbs was tough but not my absolute max. I took my time and tried to get myself as amped as possible and waited until 10 seconds left to give it my best shot at that axle. It moved but didn’t come off the ground. Which is something. The fatigue of the first day definitely didn’t favor me here. I’d told myself at the 2019 Arnold that the next time 715lbs is on the bar, I was pulling it. This wasn’t that weight so technically still have that promise to keep. Tied for 27th place here with several people.
Moving on to the next event, sandbags again. Kind of a newer one here with the sandbag over shoulder. No waiting for down calls, fairly easy to judge (like only one instance where I noticed a dispute between athlete and judge). This was fairly innovative as far as an event. We had 60 seconds to suplex five sandbags (265lbs, 287lbs, 309lbs, 331lbs, 353lbs). This was the only event of the day that had split times so timing was a factor. My goal was the first three bags with hopefully a shot at the fourth. I had done a similar to shoulder series in quick time in March. Training this was kind of fun. Mostly singles and series here. Practicing them spaced out with run ups. Did notice that the one side would get a bit more banged up when training these. Potentially more than just shoulder them as there has to be more control. I was feeling pretty good about this event. But expectations make for a poor support column. Lower back fatigue was still very present. I was feeling decent enough warming up. I did attempt to budge the 350lbs bag to see if the vertical style would work (my bags are too short to make this work) and see if I’d even be able to pick it my usual way with fatigue. Vertical maybe, horizontal no. Information for making a better prep for next time. I was not a fan of the setup we had as they were all placed on the mats we had for axle and deadlifts. It seemed like a hazard having them all clustered together like that. Perhaps there were concerns on the floor traction but if so, then why the farmer’s and the medley being ok? Then there was the bags themselves. Now they had indicated that these would be this particular brand and that they’d make up the weights with material as needed. Silly me was thinking more compact with sand and lead shot, not taking into consideration the national shortage on that (it was pain getting some for my own sandbag) and that they would be using bigger bags and filling them with crumb rubber. This resulted in large, loose bags. Most people are going to be having compact and tight bags as sand is cheaper. Also some were wet either from water or sweat. Can’t really stop people from sweating on them though. I saw people struggling on these bags and that was people that had done better than me at them at shows we had both competed at this year. So I knew that I’d have to be efficient and also pace myself. Coughed a bit before we were to start to get my heart rate up (tip to help me from blacking out going cold into these kind of events) and got set. Time started and I went to pick that first bag. It was wet on the bottom and it didn’t move like my sandbags I train with do. It was loose so I eventually shuffled it onto my hands and got it up and over. Shook my head a little to clear it as I needed to be efficient and secure my grip. Also keep track of where everything was so I didn’t trip and fall. Second bag was even bigger and tougher to flop down. Got it up and over and again shook my head and refocused. The third bag was off to the side. I didn’t want to switch up the side I was favoring and went where it stood (like golf). This was also a floppy boy. I got it up but not high enough. Didn’t panic as it was folding me in half but attempting to bump it up was getting me off balance. I couldn’t determine where the other bags were as vision was obscured and after another stumble I bailed. Not good. I had 20 seconds. Going again is such a drain but I felt that this was a necessary lift to bump up my placings. Just sapped at this point and couldn’t pop it up to the left side and tried to just go straight up but it wasn’t budging. I heard 10 seconds and dropped it. Not happening today. Only event I felt I left something there I should’ve had. I don’t think I’m alone on that with underperforming here based off training (I saw someone that had been crushing this in under 30 seconds only get 3 bags). Still, 24th place here.
The final event was my best event; arm-over-arm pull. This was TBD up until we went. All that we knew was that it was to be 80’ with a normal rope with a run up to it. Because reasons. There are few events that I feel confident in but the ones I do, I feel I am world class. And those are holding stuff for time, atlas stones and arm-over-arm. I’ve only had arm-over-arm contested twice before this year; once at my very first show where I took second to an eventual 105kgs pro (back when I was 227lbs) and in 2013 and I had started that day off aggravating my back on the first event and won it over a guy who would turn pro two years later as a HW. March this year was my third time and I put on a clinic there, blistering the course even after failing out of the tire at the end and having to get back up to finish. I feel my training for this is probably a bit different from most. I don’t worry about weights so much, just what I feel is effort. Never going to really get a feel for each setup and the different friction of surfaces. Use really thick rope to start out and then gauge down rope diameter if I know show is using a thinner rope. This event is a pain to setup and tear down. I had mentioned I was feeling down at the beginning of 2021 and had done this event for kind of fun in my street and someone commented that it took dedication to setup that event so I figured I probably still had the fire in me (and turns out I competed against that individual this weekend). Direct training for this was minimal. My coach knew I was good at this and just would need some technique training on it and just work on building the foundations in training and keep focus on other events. I ended up only doing two sessions total of it during this prep. One was with the thick rope up hill and on turf (worked up to 445lbs and it was a gasser) and then another session the week before doing with normal rope in my street uphill with 285lbs for really quick hands sets. Training for all situations. I had a feeling that based off the weights available and the convention floor, the best strategy was going to be a big initial start and then short fast strokes to keep it sliding and then as I fatigue switch back to the long strokes. Everyone was saying just do long pulls. My reasoning was from seeing videos from the 2018 and 2019 Arnold’s in Africa and Europe with a similar situation. I’m very much a student of the sport. Waiting to go, I heard some competitors mention that there was probably going to be someone that has no business being good at this just crush everyone. That was going to be me. If I didn’t get top 10 here, I was going to be severely disappointed. I was sore, tired, I wanted to be done to just go home and sleep in my own bed. Weight announced as 1000lbs. They had probably put too much weight on for the women as that seemed tortuous to watch which had me thinking this might be a war of attrition situation at first. I was fully prepared to alter plans as needed. My line judge (MW women’s pro) told me she wanted me using my length and going head to the floor. I said I would (but only if I needed to). Time start and I was off. The floor was slick right at the foot board and I almost lost my balance on my left foot so that had me slow down a fraction of second before I grabbed the rope and fell back with it. I knew what to expect with a thinner rope made from jute as opposed to manilla. It would feel like it is stretching. I pulled it and it felt easy. Going forward with my plan. This was despite my line judge shouting in my left ear to go all the way back. Despite seeing the person the lane to my right have a better initial pull. Initially it seemed as if I was being stupid but I started getting faster and my sled didn’t stop while everyone else’s did. Once it got closer, I went back to the long pulls and calculated what I needed. I found the weight was still moving even as I finished a pull and I let go of the rope to keep fatigue down and reach again. Judged it just right and it sailed across the line. I looked around and saw everyone else was still a ways behind me. I stood up and hopped up on to the footboard and gave a “woooo!” to however was listening. I felt fine. I was ready to do it again if need. Maybe even another time. I knew my time was around 30 seconds. Competitors were asking me why I did such and such and others asked what my strategy was. My responses left some scratching their heads. I baffled one guy who got 3rd overall when I told him my training for this event and that my best deadlift was only 675lbs with a suit. Time of 31.09 seconds for an event win at Nationals.
I’m not an after-party kind of guy. Even though this was the probably going to be the best showing I had and possibly Arnold invite, I wasn’t sticking around for the banquet. The high of competing was wearing off (and so were the meds) and I really just wanted to sleep in my own bed this night. It does wonders for me after traveling and being away. I had checked with Dionne about me paying for shipping if I ended up winning any hardware as I was booking it after the competition was done. I got to be rested for work Monday after having to move a bunch a things to this week rather than have an unprepared back-up do stuff while I was out (I never take leave despite having a lot). Found out on the drive home that I had placed 22nd out of 43. Top 11 got invite to Arnold. So likely out of contention as a back up invite if people decline. But it is my best placing at Nationals in my four attempts at it. Still learning, still got things to improve and work on. It was great getting hang with guys I competed against earlier this year as well as seeing new people or people only had online contact with them. As far as how things went and ran, despite my mutters and complaints, this was the best run it has been. My father felt it was the best as far as spectator experience as well. For now, I’m taking the much needed break from training this coming week and then start back with light stuff and off season. Plan is to compete again hopefully by middle of March but if not, then I guess wherever and whenever Regionals are in the 2023 season.
Behind The Neck Strict Presses/Band Pull-Aparts 45x10/mbx10 45x10/mbx10 45x10/mbx10
Paused Deadbugs (3 seconds) bwx5/5 bwx5/5 bwx5/5
Reflection/Meditative Walking 10 Minutes
Stretching
Comments: Trying to have a low-key day. But work has other plans. It’s like they wait until I take time off or plan to and then I end up not taking it because I get too stressed out and sick. Making me think that starting the immune boost prep a week early was a wise decision. The plan had been start a week before and then increase 2 days before show and decrease after show and stop when out of 30 doses of the Airborne. Trying to calm down and I thought I was doing a good job of that. But come back to stupid crap at work. But tolerable stupid crap. Until I went to lunch. I was initially thinking of doing this workout during my lunch break as it was going to be the shortest workout ever. But I thought better of it and figured I’d save it until the end of the day after work when I could relax and I could work through lunch (still eat but get stuff done). Not even 2 minutes after I took lunch I get a 4 way call unprompted meeting being advised that there was so much work that are our unit was going to have to do work we don’t normally do. So my workload doubled and had less than half a day to do it being assigned now. I was very close to taking a sick day for the rest of the day and tomorrow as I don’t time for this kind of crap and this is the most important competition of the year for me. It affects plans for next year. I’ve fought really hard to get here again. I don’t want another beach vacation situation where I stressed myself out to get everything done and got myself sick and had to cancel. I did it but I wasn’t happy and I essentially got none of my previously assigned work done for having just one day more to work this week. So with this workout being really short and having a pot roast, it didn’t hurt for me to just kind of decompress a little after work before getting to training. Light stuff. Didn’t require me to move the car to get weights or stuff to anchor anything. First thing was a superset of btn presses with band pull-aparts. I had done some foam rolling for my thoracic spine the day before to see if that helped with stiffness and getting things feeling good. There were some aches in the shoulder joints here on the btn. I’ve not really done these in quite some time. Things did move faster each set though. Just wish things didn’t feel so achy in the shoulders. Pull aparts were fine. Put things away and went inside to do the next exercise; deadbugs. Another one that I’ve not done in some time. Feeling stretch in the hamstrings and inner abdominals working. Not too bad. I took rests between sets on these. So done there and only thing left was going for a brief walk. I was not really able to concentrate on anything particular as due to my increased agitation, sounds were louder feeling to me. Two sounds (car alarms and dog barks) were really piercing through it all and I just gave up on trying to mentally picture the events (I maybe got through axle and gripping farmer’s walks) before trying to just focus on the fact I was in an agitated state and just focus on relaxing breath. Got home and stretched out before eating dinner. Am I ready? Probably not. I always feel I need more time. But time is up. Just see it through and see if I'm still in one piece.
Comments: The home stretch. Two workouts for this week and since show is earlier than most during the week (being a two day show on Friday) and having to travel to be there the day before for check-in, means that need to smoosh some things to get these last few tune ups in without completely doing nothing. Keep sharp but not be unable to relax from nervous energy. So this was a bit of change. I usually don’t do a walk and relax day on Saturday’s and usually I wait until later in the day to do so because I usually have nothing going on. But visiting family for holiday weekend so there was some timeliness on my part. I think odd seeing some things I normally don’t (like one person walking their dogs when usually I just seem them in their yard with them). I should also add that I was trying out a new pillow to see if that was better than what I had. Figured since three-day weekend that I’d have enough sleep to really assess things. Two nights was enough for me to say it wasn’t for me. Sunday training I wanted to get it done but not too early that upset stomach from breakfast but not so late that I’d get issues with being present for more family visiting. Last workout had been a combination of upper and lower body stuff with event specific stuff. This was purely lower body stuff. Starting things off with doing stuff I normally was doing for my warming up as exercises that were counted in the log. TKEs to get things feeling fine in the knees. Really just fine I guess for the left side, right side is the one that feels like there is mechanical issues at the start but feels better with more and more. No real rest between sides and sets here. I find that the best way to make the lower reps feel like enough to do something as far as warming things up. Next was lying clamshells with bands. Not specifying being in side plank position. Inside on the carpet rather than in the garage. Same thing with no real rest between adjusting to one side vs the other like TKEs. Left side felt fine, right side the right hip felt a little more tension and kind of mechanical issue again. Not concerned, just noticing things. Next up was ssb squats with slight pauses. Plan was 30-40% for either 5x3 or 3x5, whatever felt best. Also indicated a plate or so a side would work. But weight listed as 135lbs which wouldn’t be a plate a side for this bar (65lbs). I got the idea though. Light weight. I wore knee sleeves only, no belts of any kind. It was been a bit since I’ve done squats at home in the garage. Did higher reps to warm up since lighter weight. I went with 5x3 rather than 3x5 mostly because 5x3 was already filled in and I can’t removed preprogrammed sets but I can add. So I didn’t want to put in 0’s there. That was the main reason but sometimes more sets feel better with less reps. More neurological and less fatigue. Especially since there were other exercises that could meet that criteria for me in this workout. 40-50lbs jumps worked here. I made a note previously that this version of the ssb compared to the one at the strongman gym is tougher by about 10%. So weight I ended up using of about 31% my projected max single fit in both causes essentially. First set and the last set, the weight felt the lightest on my back on the unrack. Weight felt about the same doing the actual movement on all sets with it feeling the best on the last set. Having it feel “heavier” on that second set did surprise me for a moment there. From there, moved on to the next exercise. What was listed was ssb gms. Now I was advised I didn’t have to do these. As long as I did something that was working the hip hinge, I could do band gms or just empty barbell rdls. Again, since ssb gms were what was put in, I felt it best to not mess with that. I’ve not done them in a while and I felt of the two alternatives, that this would probably be the best. Band gms are a pain in the butt to get setup into position and just the bar for rdls feels like nothing. I felt these would be the best to get a stretch in the glutes and hamstrings and those needed to loosen up a bit. Weight was to be empty bar or 50lbs added as the range. 95lbs listed assuming 45lbs bar again. I went with just 20lbs added to be a bit better. I feel like if I did just the empty ssb, I’d not treat it as seriously or with as much focus as I did. So that was it for the garage stuff. Now to do some more sled work. You’d think after doing a good bit of this on Friday this wouldn’t show up again but you’d be wrong. This was a lot less of that though. Plan here was to a set of forward drags for 100’ and then backward drags for 100’ at RPE 6. My street is uphill/downhill so even though I can do more weight forward normally, I use less weight and it feels about right for the backward style downhill. Usually. Now these weren’t go as you please though. Specific instructions. For the forward style, it indicated to stand tall and lead with hips and hamstrings. I was thinking of doing these with 235lbs for both but just testing that, I realized it wouldn’t be RPE 6 to use that kind of weight for the forward drag. So lowered it. In hindsight, I probably could’ve gone heavier here with this deliberate style but still not the 235lbs planned. But close enough. Don’t need to be exact right now. For the backward style, I was to be getting TKE on these reps. That was a little challenging to coordinate so I was slowing down to make sure I was doing that. Right leg was having some mechanical issues if I didn’t fully concentrate on that. So this was bit slower than it could’ve been. Put the weights away and needed to finish up with more focused walking to decompress. This was a bit harder to do compared to Wednesday session. That was later in the evening. It was still very bright out and there were several people and things going on so there were things I had to be cognizant of and keep from “bumping into” or distracting me from my focus. Despite that, I managed to do a rundown of my strategies for each event by the time I finished the walk. Stretched and had a shake. Power went out just as I was finishing up stretching but that was fine as I was going to be visiting family shortly and it was restored within the hour. One more to go.
Comments: I seem to be less stressed now as I get closer to competing. I’m keeping busy with work but just letting stuff slide off me like water off a duck’s back. Reassessing expectations and plans. If I don’t compete, I get rid of potential outcomes that I’d like if they happen. I’d leave a potential next step (Arnold invite) out of the question for next year outright. Potential alternatives aren’t there so in either case, I’d be waiting until March 2023 at the earliest to compete again in anything. I think best thing would be to do kind of a soft reset for two weeks to get feeling fresh and restless and then do off season prep (4-10 weeks). I probably need to take a little time to consolidate what exactly is the plan and outcomes I want in the more likely outcomes. Not immediately pressing but would be another good distraction from thinking about the upcoming competition as that will do nothing but stress me further than needed when right now the main thing is working towards recovery. Can’t get stronger in the last week (outside of fatigue masking performance lifting) but can shortchange things. Surprisingly, this planned workout didn’t change from what was sent after my rage quit workout. Some suggestions were given as far as adjustments potentially the night before. I say surprisingly because with how I was feeling at the beginning of the week, I had mentioned that if I had to press axle again, I’d be very likely to chuck the thing into my neighbor’s yard. But rest and things I enjoy seem to get me levelheaded, even with stupid work stuff and my own hang-ups with myself and how I feel I should be doing performance wise. But I was a little slow moving with getting to start this workout because I was bit worn from the work week and still a bit hesitant with the experiences with how axle had felt the past two weeks. Weather wasn’t looking nice and it has been getting darker out quicker these past two weeks. However, I couldn’t start the workout right away. Apparently, some creature got sick on my patio and right where I’d be standing for overhead stuff. Judging by the vomit, it was probably a large cat or something similar. Something that eats a variety of things. Like some grass and mostly what looked like dry/wet food and hair. But I’ve cleaned up cat puke before and this was not that. So I’m thinking something that takes advantage of food left out for dogs/cats. An opportunist. I tried a shovel at first and that barely did anything so I had to get the hose to blast it off. And then dry it down so I didn’t eat it slipping on water and vomit residue. Then it was time to train. So first thing was unfortunately axle. The first half of this workout was axle so there was that. First part of it was push pressing. Singles with somewhat normal rest. Initially posted as 65-70% for 6-8 singles based off bar speed. So kind of like the deadlifts from Wednesday as far as judging volume. The suggestion if not up for it was to reduce the weight 10% and maybe do 10 singles. So option 1 being 201-217lbs for 6-8 and option 2 being 170-186lbs for 10 singles. With maybe bad weather, I didn’t want to deal with odd starting weights or jumps so I just started with empty bar and did 30lbs jumps with the plan being option 1. Because that was the first plan and my thinking is that obviously that is the best option. It can be a little tricky when knowing this is prep but also deload. I didn’t want to use a lot of support gear here, especially if it felt tougher than I would’ve liked with that stuff on and made me angry. Need to keep mine like a monkey inside a piñata, hiding amongst the candy hoping the kids don't break through with the stick. I did however wear knee sleeves, elbow compression cuffs and wrist wraps. The sleeves and cuffs more to mitigate joint discomfort so hopefully doesn’t cut into the recovery they need from a tough competitive season of training and the wrist wraps because that has been suggested for me to use even when not going for max or with deload for overhead stuff. Also the knee sleeves because of other things for the evening. Working up was feeling mostly fine. Last weight before the working sets did feel heavy in my hands so not too thrilled with that. I was also making sure I was walking out the weights rather than just standing up and pushing them. I feel that I rush things doing that and I want this to feel like I’m getting the movement feel fluid and normal. The positives here is that weight felt better after a few unracks as far as how it felt on my body. There were times in the past two weeks where it didn’t feel any easier which tells me recovery isn’t there. Still seemed to be some balancing issues with getting stable to initiate leg drive and weight seeming to feel tougher for that. But this is more than 100lbs less than my max at my best so these would go up without much trouble regardless. Compared to the past two times, the form felt more natural and fluid to me. Like it should. Not feeling stuck out in front. I had an idea while I was doing these. The first four singles I did these how I’ve been doing them forever, thumbless/false grip. Then for the next 2-4 (depending on how I feel), I’d try with thumbs wrapped around. The reason being that I’m going to see if thumbs around the axle improves my racking ability with the axle from the belt to shoulders portion. So I needed to see how things felt to press. There was a little bit of hesitancy to attempt the unrack honestly but not so much with pressing. I did feel the bar speed felt a little slower on the second set like this but it was more a hesitancy issue so I decided to do more for familiarization and the next single was back how it should. Then for the last one, I decided to see how it felt to unrack with thumbs wrapped around and then switch to thumbless. Needed to see how difficult that was to do. It wasn’t so I have options. Stripped weights back down to the bar to work back up with strict pressing with the axle. Strict pressing just feels way better with thumbless grip so did that. No belt on these either. Plan was 1-2 sets of 5-10 reps with 5-6 RPE. Suggested was 55% but if I felt off I could go with 40%. I definitely missed the RPE notation but I knew this was to be for blood flow stuff. I think if I had saw the RPE stuff, I’d probably have done lighter weight here just based on feel. I still feel that I stuck to that, just more at the higher end of that (especially the second set). I’m definitely out of strict press practice. Form felt different. Not sure if good or bad. I think part of it is most of strict pressing when it was done these past few cycles have been with bands. Bands can ground you. So this felt less like I was pressing in a more natural groove and more like a fixed plane. Like I was doing this on a smith machine. Certainly a lot of anterior deltoid focus but not really getting my head through. So I wonder if this is laxness in my mobility or just that with bands, this has been the groove that was dug and what felt the strongest right now. Questions for later and during the down time after competition. So after the pressing, it was time to do some other stuff. Plan was arm-over-arm form work. Since setting that up takes time and with weather not looking great, I felt it was best to put everything away from pressing first so that if it did start raining, I wouldn’t have a bunch of stuff to dry off. Plus the weights I use to anchor my rack are the best ones to use for loading and unloading stuff that needs to be reset. Goal for the day was to work on getting fast motions down on the arm-over-arm. As I mentioned at the last session with these on turf, couldn’t really do that. But I know I can do that when it is on street, even uphill. So written as light weight for 3 sets of 80’. I can use a lot more weight compared to turf setup, especially with thinner rope (this rope width will be contest thickness). So number listed was for the lightest weight I did last session. Timing was to do 20-30 seconds on these. So set things up but found I only had enough rope for 68’, so I decided I’d do 4x68’ instead so that I was getting closer to the volume distance wise. I had my father come over to eat the rope for me and assist with resetting the course. It took about 3 minutes to fully reset the course each time. Over the sets, my time improved by about 3 seconds from the first set to the last set. Short, quick strokes here and getting the legs involved. Blacktop is not kind on the posterior. I was kind of surprised I didn’t have blisters on my rear after these. It was really quite dark out after this and I had one more thing to do; sled work. Plan was 3 sets of 2 minutes of work, alternating between forwards and backwards dragging. I was to take 2 minutes rests between sets. So I had to deck myself and the sled out in lights and reflective stuff. This was fine enough, though I feel I could’ve done this all as one big 6 minute set with how used to this stuff I am at this point. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out. Two more sessions to go.
Paused Bent Over Straight Arm Band Lat Pulls (2 seconds) µb’sx10 µb’sx10
Romanian Deadlifts w/ Band Around Hips (ab) 45x10
14” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/bands (straps, briefs) No Bands 110x3 Added Bands (+45lbs bottom/+92lbs top) 110x1 200x1 270x1 340x1 340x1 340x1 340x1 340x1 340x1 340x1 340x1
Sandbag Lap and High Pulls 175x1 175x1 Slight Run Up 225x1 225x1 225x1 225x1 225x1 225x3
Single Leg Trap Bar Romanian Deadlifts 55x15/15 55x15/15
Reflection/Meditative Walking 10 Minutes
Stretching
Comments: Starting to feel a little better mentally I think with less stress of workload for training and work. Hard to say with work as I’ve kind of been working through breaks to not be swamped with stuff next week and after since I’ll be only working 2 days next week. Still some joint and muscle aches. But not freaking out at the moment. Just go and compete. This workout was going to be a good bit tougher compared to the Monday session. That was more of a yawn vs what this was. Weather still hasn’t decided what it is going to be but it has been cold and rainy most of this week. But seems to have stopped for the moment. Warming up was same as it has been with the side plank lying clamshells and split TKEs. One set each and just some pausing. As with last week, no bounds or cleans to start things off. Right into those deadlift stance lat pulls. This was the best these have felt this training cycle. I say this training cycle as it took a bit to get lat control back after that initial rib injury at the very beginning of this that hampered things. Might be the best they’ve been though as well. Then it was time for pulls. Kind of. Next thing was just a set with the bar doing control eccentrics with a band around the hips. I had initially thought it was like a hip circle band but video showed it was one where pushing hips forward due to the band pulling back. Didn’t feel very taxing and I feel that I had to lean forward a lot due to the band and the low amount of weight. Oh well, it was just a warm up. Axle band pulls again. Indication was to do 6-8 singles with 50% (10-15% band tension added) with the setup I’ve been doing. And wear all the contest equipment to get used to it. It did indicate 70lbs bands but I think that was more to say that 10% of 705lbs and my setup was already going to be 92lbs which was 13%. I didn’t feel like messing around with finding out another band setup for this for a deload workout with how much a pain it is to setup the anchors. So briefs, belt, straps and knee sleeves. Knee sleeves were new. I don’t wear them for pulls that aren’t side handle because worry of the bar getting caught on them (especially with deadlift bar knurling) but I will be wearing them for the farmer’s part of the medley (I’m going to need all the support I can get with it being on the second day after a very knee intensive first day) so need to make sure it works here. If it didn’t I’d need to practice with getting them down in the time limit to attempt a pull. No real set time for rests on these but indication that if I felt these slow down to stop. Wearing the briefs kind of made me go faster as far as rest. Just uncomfortable walking around in them to pace like I usually do so I didn’t walk very far or fast so it ended up being like EMOM essentially. Which was fine. Rather than move on to tearing down stuff to pace things, I went into the next exercise. Sandbag work. Drew felt that doing it on Friday or Saturday wouldn’t really give enough rest and not doing it at all wouldn’t be optimal. Change was not doing over shoulders. I had mentioned that I seem to have a stiff shoulder on the left side after doing over shoulder and to shoulder that could hamper recovery for overhead pressing. So just working on the power off the hips. Did these once before but essentially lapping and doing a high pull. I’ve done these up to 250lbs but only going to use 225lbs. I didn’t trust that I’d not hit the very low ceiling in my garage so I went outside on the slanted driveway. I did two singles with the 175lbs bag. One didn’t feel like enough and it felt not great to start with. Plan here was 6 singles EMOM style though I think it was saying 6-8 previously (with a triple on the last set). I decided to play it by ear and see how I felt by the end. I reset the bag each time so that it was standing upright and that I had to run up to it like 3’ or so. My sandbags at home aren’t quite as user friendly as the ones at the gym. Which is fine. Last one I stood at the bottom of the driveway for a longer run up and then did a triple. I did put the sandbags away before doing the next thing, which was one legged rdls. Hopefully I read this right and the total weight was to be 50-60lbs. So anyways, I think I did these right. 2x10-15 with 3-5RIR with my big trap bar. It doesn’t get much use but I’ll use it when the opportunity presents itself. This was quite light so I didn’t take rests between sides but I did make sure I did for between sets. Forearms got a little workout here too. Moved better the second set. Last thing was marked as cardio. What it had was me going for a 10 minute walk and focus with intent/meditate on things. Specifically that I’m an anomaly. Thinking about how many people at nationals will quit by next year. People that can’t hack it, aren’t smart. Blasting too many drugs and training dumb while I’m coming up on 15yrs of competing and more than that training. There is only one other person competing there this year that was at 2015 SC Nats (he was also there for 2017). No one from 2012 is still doing this that hasn’t become pro or is competing masters only. And even if this ends up not the best year, I got more to go. I can keep this up. Got finished with all this right as the roast was done cooking. Put stuff away and ate before stretching.
Paused Band Y Raises (2 seconds) µb’sx15 µb’sx15
Band Triceps Extensions abx25 abx25
Patrick Stepdowns bwx25/25 at 6” bwx25/25 at 6”
Stretching
Comments: Well just going to sum up what I posted last time. Friday was bad, slept in until 2PM Saturday and getting back to some kind of normalcy Sunday. Still not 100% sure about things. Not fun having two existential quandaries in less than a fortnight of each other. But some of that anxiety and hesitation is lessening as I was able to leave my house Sunday. I refuse to let it affect the work I have to do. But I was understandably struggling a little with keeping track of stuff from last week into this week. Neck and shoulders were really tense Sunday as I started to relax and realize how much tension I was holding and still holding. This week’s workouts were altered further from what had originally been posted after I crashed a bit harder with things. Only three workouts for this week and none of them to be taxing. Then two next week. Going to be a quick workout, which was good as it meant I could do this, clean up, and have dinner with family for a change of pace. Warm up was just a set of the supinated wall slides with band and pauses. Then to training. 2-board pressing to start. No bands, no specification of pauses or close grip. Light for 3x8 with 5+RIR. Suggestion was just a plate on each side here and I stuck with that. Sometimes when I go really light on things, I feel much more aches than if I go heavier. Probably because I don’t need to treat these seriously and I use less support gear or just that I’ve been myself up so much already that by this point coasting still lets me feel things. So just did higher reps and bigger jumps to kind of move things along. Shoulders, neck, wrists and elbows were a tad achy. I still use a fairly narrow grip compared to what most probably do for my more regular style grip. It appears I was to take longer rests here but I thought this was moving things along and did like half the “3 minutes” rest here. Then it was time for bands. Plan was two sets of the y-raises with it being 10-15 reps (5RIR) with 1-2ct holds. Used the micro bands as I have been doing here. These usually feel quite good and they did today. Not too much difference between the first and second set. Band stuff continued with triceps. I believe this was originally the 1 arm versions I was doing but was changed to the style I’ve not done since Battle at the Bridge prep with it being from top of the rack rather anchored low. Plan was 2x15-25. I’ve done strong band for those reps but felt that since haven’t pushed things here and bracing can be a bit weird (as well as fatigue) I went with average band. Some aches in the shoulders with how the inner rotation works in this position. As far as triceps, it felt too easy that first set but got into the right fatigue range on the second set. Last thing was for the knees. Suggested was the Patrick stepdowns or TKEs of some sort. Stepdowns are easy. Nothing was listed specifically for these other than RPE 6. So I did the 6” hard foam and was going to do 25 reps each leg. I took a slight break between sides. But then I remember this was for 2 sets instead of 1 so I had to do another round haha. Which was fine. Still easy. Put stuff away and had dinner with my local family and watched a bad movie before coming home to stretch out.
Comments: This was not a good workout. Another “I give up, this is dumb, I’m quitting” kind of workout. Not good to have more than one in month, let alone in a year. Same feelings from about 2 weeks ago. Didn’t want to eat, didn’t see point of training, didn’t feel like going to Nationals anymore and just giving up. After this workout, I went to bed and stayed there for 14hrs. Not really restful. Did nothing back eat and some basic chores. Skipped the last heavy workout for this cycle. Really depressed. Shed tears more than once from overwhelming emotions that needed release. I’m not 100% if I’m doing this still but it’s better than what I was at the day before. Like 75% sure. Back on a more normal sleeping and made myself go for a walk and leave my house for a little bit. Sadly that is progress. So on to this workout that I kind of didn’t want to post up but this log is more for myself then anything to keep track and why remove days? So on with it. Axle and I really seem to be oil and water right now. Seemed to be some progress and was hoping to have things go well this last heavy touch with it. I also had thought that I had the clean issue fixed with reverting to not right off the belt. Plan was to work up to 2nd attempt for axle. Something that I felt I had 5-10lbs left in the tank. Understanding fatigue from axle deadlift and such. Work up in singles. Listed said 20lbs jumps at a certain point. Suggested was 5lbs more than the botched double but see how things feel and try to not worry about weight on the bar. Warming up felt decent. Always seems to and then I get to a certain weight and then it sucks. 226lbs had felt fine and solid enough. Trying to not just bounce right off the belt. My confidence in the pick up of the axle to the belt has improved a lot. First go at 256lbs and I missed the clean. Came back and got it with a struggle. Press was harder than I would’ve liked. I was a bit flummoxed that I missed that weight on the axle. I thought getting It up higher was the solution. With how things felt, that was probably the stopping point. And for me, that was unacceptable. I’ve strict pressed this weight. Gave 276lbs and while I didn’t miss the clean completely, it had to take me two tries to get it up there. Press went up higher than when I missed it two weeks ago but it went way up and out in front. This was not the confidence booster of workout as it was planned to be. Decided to keep going as I knew if I stopped, I’d just become depressed. The next thing was just clean. Options had been if my clean was feeling good and press wasn’t there to do 5% heavier for a single and hold it for 10 seconds. That didn’t seem wise and the other option was suggested more to me with trying to get 1 or 2 singles at 10% less than the press for under fatigue singles. Honestly, at this point, everything I do is under fatigue it seems. So dropped it down to 226lbs for these which is more than 10% less. And I had the same damn issue I did with 276lbs with that first single with 226lbs. I had to double take it. I cursed loudly while I had it on my sternum after it failed to catch the first attempt. Second one was only a little better in that I didn’t have to double take but I was mad and threw it down and kicked the axle. Lot of rage and anger but not being able to put it where it would be helpful in lifting this axle. Next was strict presses with the axle against bands. Plan was to use 5% more from last week and do 4x2. I wasn’t looking at these positively. Probably didn’t help that after I tossed all the weights off the axle from the cleans that I chucked it at my power rack with full force. I knew it was futile, but I guess I just wanted to have some outer expression of my anger and have it be directed to something other than my person. And the axle worked fine for that. I worked up in doubles in 30lbs jumps. Trying to get through this workout. That first set didn’t move fast enough for my liking and I groaned/growled afterwards. Second one was worse and I shook the weights a bit afterwards. Third set finally felt right. Fourth set had a little slow down on the first rep and I got frustrated and just banged the setup off the rack until if fell off. Anger got the best of me and I rage quit the workout. Had my father stop by to talk with me to keep me calm and not immediately go into social scorched earth policy. I don’t understand it and it frustrates me that I can’t seem to find a solution to this and time is running out. I don’t want to get a zero on axle or any overhead press on the National level again. I’ve been there and done that. I don’t want to just be a placeholder number to fill out the line-up. I get so angry and frustrated when I feel like I’m being successful with weights that are 44lbs lower than what I was doing in May and I don’t feel like I’ve changed. The methods that worked in 2016 to 2020 don’t seem to be working and I’m kind of lost. Most of this time left between now and Nationals is trying to convince myself I can hit that opener. And if I can’t, then I may need to just stop this all for a good bit.
I’m a little taller than 6′6″ and I really like to lift weights. I’m a competitor in amateur strongman contests. My hope is to become a competitive professional strongman. Currently I'm training for Northeast Regionals in Monaca, PA on 6/1/2024. I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
