February 25, 2023 – Week 18, Day 4

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

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Safety Squat Bar Squats w/ bands (+28lbs/+58lbs)
No Bands
65x2
Add Bands
65x2
115x2
155x2
205x2
245x2
295x2

Pin Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+20lbs/+72lbs, 34” height, swiss ball)
65x3
125x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3

Husafell Carries (turns at 50’)
Staggered Grip
150xpick
225xpick
300x255’

Hercules Holds (hook grip)
230x5 seconds
300x72 seconds

Comments: This workout was going to be the last touches for most of the events for the show that were of any appreciably weight. The hip/back thing has obviously not been pleasant and has been a bit confusing trying to figure out what is the issue and what helps and impedes. Hard to really get a feel of what the initial cause was and if it would’ve been better if this showed up at any other point in training if it would’ve been better. Likely not as things will be tapering off a good bit and most things that seem to irritate will hopefully be accessory based stuff and be dropped. Stuff can feel like it’s getting better and then do stuff and it flares up. Trying stuff and hoping to no overdo it. Throwing things at the wall to see what sticks can be inefficient and potentially irritate things more. Out to train the earliest I’ve been in a long while mainly to get the workout done and make sure people were there for the two main events but also to make sure that there was stuff out for my sister to get her potentially first touches on some stuff and last touches in general. It can make things tricky with training. Coaching and training for an athlete in my care as well as my own training. A balancing act. Hip airplanes to start. Just one set this time around. Felt about how they felt last weekend. Fine enough, but not amazing. The new exercise after that was to see if this helped the hips with movement rather than the Cossack squats. This was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of the truck to the back leg. 2 sets of 5-10 reps. I generally need more reps with the split squats to warm up. The was a “burning” sensation in the hip flexors on the left side doing these that I wasn’t sure if that was just initial soreness or what. Split squats at the beginning of a session tend to not feel great the first set. In hindsight, I probably should’ve skipped these with the irritation and make a note that these aren’t the ticket. I got those first two exercises done before it was time to be coach Craig. So for squats, it was me doing a set and then breaks between to get something setup for my sister. Plan with the squats had been to work up to a top set of 2-4 reps with the bands I’ve been using. Work up in doubles and leave like 1-2RIR. That had been the plan. But plans don’t always work out. Notes had to adjust to a different variation of squat if the hip was an issue. It wasn’t really so I went as planned. However, my knees and back weren’t having it today. After the initial weight of say 205lbs, I usually adjust to that on the next set. But that sensation never came. Just felt heavy and my knees and spine just felt like crap. Feeling a lot more in the back (upper and lower) than I should. I had fully expected to be doing 385lbs here so didn’t plan to have the camera out and stopped after 295lbs as that had felt tough. I went to try 335lbs but it felt like 100lbs heavier and I just reracked it almost immediately. I think the heavy suited pulls took a ton out of me. It has been a struggle to work squats and pulls heavy at the same time. This was not ideal but if had to be an exercise, this was the one. It was also not ideal as trying to keep myself from getting loopy with that result but also keep my sister’s training on track as she was dealing with her own frustrations with stuff and having her own concerns of anxiety and confidence. So trying to keep myself on a path and keep her in a good mental state for the upcoming contest and tweaking things as needed. It is one thing to just send workouts and programming, it is another matter with coaching and being present and acting on the fly. She got through four of the five events and I got in an exercise before she did the last one. This was a new one for me with how it was setup and the plan. It was to be banded zercher goodmornings off of pins with the safety squat bar. To mimic the position of atlas stone extensions without going into the deep squat position like with a real stone. Hopefully get some more work in without getting more irritation. I had been thinking on stones as I felt like I’m just not getting the extra inches I seemed to get in my youth as far as rolling stone up my body. I was thinking perhaps that I’m not thinking of my upper body as being dynamic and more static. I got that idea that hand position wasn’t ideal maybe from when I did stone roll-ups with the stone of steel where I had to regrip as I got off balance and it was a bit narrower and it seemed to move a bit better. But not exactly idea to try that out now with no stones this week and probably not a good idea to do any this coming weekend with the hip/back thing going on. I’ve done a 450lbs stone at a show after having to not lift stones for a like a month after fracturing both pinky fingers in 2019 (and I think I did 375lbs as the heaviest successful lift up to that point). So my thinking here was to see if I could work that by not only squeezing the ssb but an exercise ball as well. The ssb at the gym doesn’t have detachable handles so that was the only concern I had. Thankfully my arms are long enough that this worked out. This was not prompted for this exercise, it was my own addition to make it work for me. The other issue was band tension. I had a good setup for squats but the pick height ended up being too low for there to be tension. I was to have about 50lbs at the top. I had to get creative with adding another band peg and cinching the band around that post first and then looping. Got tension at the bottom but increased it a bit at lockout. Whatever. So plan here was to do these for 5x3 for speed work and suggested was 2 plates added. That worked for me. Wore knee sleeves on my arms and no other support stuff to better mimic stones. These felt good as far as the extension. Not ideal to hold the lockout at extension because the bar shifts down after the initial violent shrug. These thankfully did feel good and let me know that it was still able to put in work. Squats just weren’t happening today is all. My sister then did her last event and I had the two contest events left for last touches. First up being husafell carry. Plan was 90-100% contest weight for one max distance run. Warming up was suggested to just be picks and maybe some jogging to minimize hip irritation. I was feeling mostly good here but I made mistakes. I was quite amped for the pick and launched it up. I was expecting it to feel heavier and I overshot were I wanted it to land on my thigh. The implement then slid on the fabric of my shorts and almost came off my thigh and that put some lateral stress on my lower back stopping that from happening. I rushed here and started walking with not a secure grip on the bottom of the implement. I knew I’d not get very far with this so I had a plan to just get 50’ and regrip it rather than just dropping and restarting. Because I won’t be allowed to get another start at the show. I’ve actually not tried regripping an husafell before in the middle of a run but I’ve seen it done and figured I needed to do that. It worked out for me but I knew I wasn’t going to be setting any PR here today. I ended up matching what I did with 330lbs two weeks ago but it was harder to do so this time. I felt I had like 25’ in me last time while this was like 10’. So that sucked but better it happen in training than at the show when it counts. Learn from this that I can regrip if needed and that I need to where different shorts. I had actually worn these as I thought they’d be “grippier” with the thicker layers but I guess not. Might need to chalk up my thighs. Last thing was Hercules holds. Same as last time with doing stretches after husafell to get biceps and shoulders feeling loose and then do 5 second holds to top weight. Suggestion was 300lbs but try and aim for longer hold as most shows tend to be too light on Hercules holds. But I know what the contest weight is. I also don’t think anyone is going to be that close to me (one competitor did like 45 second with contest weight before I went) and I’ve been doing over contest by a good bit for a minute solid. This would be 20lbs over contest and I was trying to get to 75 seconds. This felt heavier in my hands than 20lbs heavier had felt last week. But I toughed it out to 72 seconds before I let go for risk of losing skin or a thumbnail. I didn’t feel so bad in the hip that I felt the need to rush home compared to last week so that seemed like a good sign I guess. I stayed and stretched as well as doing some hip distraction work with bands. Once home, I did some spinal decompression with the dip stand and put on Icy Hot. It doesn’t feel as bad as last week end of event training but I think I’m just less tolerant of things being off and trying stuff to help with feeling better. I didn’t take any ibuprofen at this time. I’m in need of a hard deload going into this contest and likely will need some light work for a week or two before going into the next cycle to make sure the hips and back are good.