January 21, 2023 – Week 13, Day 4

Hip Airplanes (0-10-0-10 tempo)
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Paused Cossack Squats (5 seconds)
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats w/ bands (2 seconds, +28lbs/+58lbs)
65x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3

Paused Sandbag Rows (3 seconds, short ways)
175x2
175x2
175x2
250x4
260x4
275x4

Atlas Stone Loads (51”, tacky)
290x1
335x1
375x1 (egg)
425x1 (21”)
375x3 (egg)
375x3 (egg)

Atlas Stone Roll Ups into Loads (55”, tacky)
350x3 (21”)
350x3 (21”)

Backward Sled Drags (concrete, 60 seconds rests)
405x100’
405x100’

Sandbag Bearhug Holds (off 20” box)
275x60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: I was a little anxious for this workout for stupid reasons. Partly because of knees being achy this week and then just logistics. I had iced my knees after Thursday’s workout and managed to get in soft tissue work Friday evening. I got up at somewhat reasonable hour to train but did end up hitting snooze a few times. I had wanted to start day earlier but there wasn’t a sense of urgency like last week with wanting to get out there to train to work with my sister’s schedule and get like half my training done before hand and makes sure there were people there to assist on things. Drive wasn’t as smooth due to construction on one of the exits before I could get to the main part of the drive. Very rarely is there an issue once I get through Harrisburg. That added about 20 minutes to the drive so it was about an hour to get out there. I was sitting for a bit too long as my left foot was somewhat asleep on me but not an issue once I was there and moving about. Starting things out was the usual mobility stuff of hip airplanes and Cossack squats. Both being 2x5 with bodyweight. I feel I’m getting better with these as far as recovering between sides and sets as in the past (at least with the hip airplanes) I was taking a longer break. I will say that my lower legs were feeling a bit tense and likely from the KOT stuff from Thursday. But I think that was good as far as getting things awake and primed. I took literally no rest between sets and sides on the hip airplanes. I did the same with the Cossack squats. Just rest being putting on knee sleeves and adjusting the camera. This was probably the best these have felt for me since implementing them into the training again. Left knee still feels off but not as dramatically so. Maybe the stuff Thursday helped here too. Doing these all with short succession and rests got a good sweat going. Squats with ssb up next. As mentioned last week, this was to be the lighter week for speed. To prime for stones. Plan was work up to 45-50%x5x3 with 10-15% added in band tension and 2ct pauses. I had come to the conclusion that this bar is different one than what I was using in the past and needed to adjust the numbers to reflect things being that case and use numbers more in line with what I’ve done at home on my own ssb. And perhaps considering that maybe it’s not the lower body but the midsection that is the part the lags and that I can’t brace things well enough with the ssb to truly hit a max based off of my reps with lower weight. I also need to keep in mind perhaps that my working max may need to change depending on where I’m at in training and my training age. So if using older maxes, use the lower percents. The estimates I used was 425x3 is what I’ve done with my bar at home so 450lbs max (have been using 490lbs max). 225lbs would meet 50% of new working max and be slightly above 45% of old working max. The band choice also would work out for either case. I need to not be so rigid sometimes. This band setup ended up having more percentage of weight at bottom compared to last time I did these with pauses. Smaller jumps since not doing something that was smoothly fitting a 40-50lbs jump. I was keeping an eye on the right knee as that is the one that has felt achy all week. I ended up taking a little bit shorter rests here compared to what was suggested (90-120 seconds). Another thing to prime for stones was sandbag rows. Plan was 3x4 ranging from RPE 6.5-7.5 with 3 second holds. I had a better idea what to expect. I also realized that I should be going a bit heavier here after last time as the more compact bag felt better. I’ve done these before but I think only after the last session did I truly understand an aspect of them. They can be a warm up for stones but they also allow for a greater ROM compared to stones for the pick and pull in. So that understanding has made me treat them a little differently as far as intent. Not just extra fluff work. So I decided to do the top weight from last time as the first work set. All the bags up to that were floppy so I just did several sets with the largest not floppy bag to prep. Only issue with that was balance not quite right the first two reps going up 75lbs. I had balance figured out for the next set with weight added. Last set I swapped in the chubby and compact 275lbs vs the longer one. My thoughts were this was more like a stone anyways and the stones I was going to be working with were a tad wider than the sandbags. Again, this last set felt like the easier of the sets. Then it was stones. I was nervous. A different kind of nervous from last time. Last time was jitters touching stones again after a long layoff. This was more a concern of how to improve on last time. Stones have come easy to me since I can remember with strongman. I’d place well without having access to them beyond a pipe with a flange loaded up with weights. Harder to get to stones when starting out and often I did them low volume and mostly singles. There hasn’t been an urgency to lift super heavy since 2011 as most shows outside of Giants Live and WSM don’t really do atlas stones and even then it is a series. Most shows are local and it is for reps. Maxes do show up but not very often and it can be tough to train without a wide selection. I recall as show that was within the last few months that had a “max stone” but only had it up to 375lbs and everyone ended up lifting it so they did it by fastest time. Last time I’ve had to “push” had been when 2017 Nationals had a stone of steel for reps with 360lbs when I was starting that year out doing 140lbs from coming back from the 7 month injury layoff. And even that was very basic every other week progression. You can progressively load a stone of steel but no the case with atlas stones. The plan for the session was similar to last time in that work up to a top single then triples after that with a certain percentage drop. That 50lbs jump from the 375lbs and 425lbs was what was causing me issues. I had no doubts I could do it even after just one session on stones (I don’t really count last week’s as a true stone session) but I didn’t feel I could make it the RPE 7-7.5. So the potential plan was to do the 375lbs again and try to make it easier and maybe do like 1x3, 1x2 or 2-3x1 with it. But I think around Friday I decided that I’ll just have to see. Another thing was I was going to try out a new brand of tacky. I’ve been using Spider Tack for a long time but I do tend to need a lot of it for a session with these dirty stones and it seemed to not really be in stock in a size that was what I wanted (they had super tiny size and gigantic and odds are this will be only contest with stones this year and who knows when I’ll do them again as it has been like more than a year between shows with them). S.T.A.B. Tack was something suggested to me by Jodi as she had indicated she hadn’t needed to retack very much doing stones (and it was one that she stuck to so well it ripped her shirt trying to unstick from it). That was like 6-7 months ago but now I have a show with stones so here we are. Opening it was a chore as some of it go into the lip of the cap and I needed to use a tacky towel to open the container at home. Suffice it to say, this stuff does stick good and I needed less reapplications and less of it. So since I had warmed up to 275lbs with the sandbag, I decided I’d take bigger jumps to facilitate going for 425lbs. I was also lowering the load height to contest (I was going 4” higher last time). So did 290lbs, 335lbs and then 375lbs. I was a little hesitant with 375lbs as 335lbs had stuck a little to the floor and felt a tad harder than I would’ve liked for what was planned. Well, I guess it was time to try 425lbs. If this ended up being harder than what was planned, I was doing to lower the weight a good bit on the rep sets afterwards. Bunch of nervous sweats pooling down my arms. I finally went for it and it came up quite easy. I was actually having more trouble with getting my arms into a better position in the lap as the tacky was sticking hard to the dusty part of the stone. I made sure I went up high enough on the load so as not to just be on the lip. To insure I was in control. So that went well. The tacky was so strong that it ripped off a 5” section of tape on my forearm. I’ve had like a single strand tear or tape slide down but I don’t recall an entire patch. I may need to double wrap the arms with this tacky. I had plenty of tape so I had that arm rewrapped which meant I needed to add more tacky. So the next part was 2x3 with 10-12.5% less weight. Which meant the 375lbs was now the repping weight. I was quite pleased with how that first set of three went. Casual pace and no retack. I didn’t feel as drained compared to last time with 40lbs less. Granted lower load height but everything felt better as I was able to do these that first set without having to readjust in the lap. The style I like if I can own the weight and move quick. I didn’t retack for the second set. First rep I got like the others but I was bit out of position so I slowed things down a bit and did the last two reps with adjusting in the lap style. I added some tack for the last thing. This was to either use the same weight or reduce by 5-7.5% as the goal was to do two roll ups and then an extension to a load. Now I went with a decrease as I wanted to make sure I wasn’t skimping on the load portion (I don’t really have to fully extend for contest height and this is what will need work). I also misread and thought it was two sets of this. I moved over to the 55” load for these. First set went well. Second set not so much. I went to try and extend even more that first rep and it got myself off balance as I wasn’t going for a load and it came forward and grazed knuckles on the platform. But I didn’t drop the stone and recovered and finished up the set. I felt proud of this stone session. I don’t recall doing this much work on stones before and having all the reps be well within my abilities. I felt like this is a session a pro strongman would do. Not so say I haven’t done some crazy workouts with stones with heavier weights. Clean up after that to get ready for the last bit of the workout. Thankfully not as much tacky on me or as painful a clean up with the raw skin. So last thing was interesting. Last time this was sled drags with 60 seconds rest between them to build up the legs for husafell carry. And with how last week went with testing 90% contest, it went quite well. Especially with how jelly leg I felt doing sandbag carries at home on the up and down street. What had been the thing to give first had been my upper body with squeezing the implement to my body with my over arm. So I had mentioned that the tactics might be to either work on moving quicker with fatigue (like sets of 100’ with short rests) or maybe holds on belt squat or something. So what came from that was to do the sled drags and then afterwards do a sandbag bearhug for 45-60 seconds and see how that went. Since I know that sandbag puts it out further from body then husafell this would be more taxing. So starting things off with 405lbs for 2 runs of 100’ on the backwards sled drag. Even with my counting slow, I cut my rests short by 10 seconds it would seem. First set was easy until near the end. I was hoping it was just the friction changing but it felt tough the entire time on the second set, even though time was similar. Aim was a minute with the bag. I picked 275lbs since that is about the same weight as what I did with the husafell. Good lord this was evil after all that. It immediately felt like how my lower body feels when I’ve reached near the end of what I can do. And I was in that stress position for a minute. Thing is, I could’ve kept holding it but my posterior chain was calling it quits and I would’ve been crumpled over. Definitely a keeper, especially for those with bad knees that have a max distance carry. Put stuff away and drank a protein shake while stretching out. As I was leaving, someone in the parking lot started talking to me as if they knew me. Asking if I had a good workout, commenting I was huge and then asking what was up with my elbow. Lol. No knee issues driving home. New deadlift band platform was in my driveway so had to move that and assemble before bringing car into the garage. Ate burritos as a treat for the stone workout.