March 30, 2023 – Week 3, Day 3

Kettlebell Arm Bars (3 second holds)
30x5/5
30x5/5

Close Grip Axle Floor Presses
46x3
76x3
106x3
136x3
166x3
196x3
226x3
256x3
286x6
258x6
258x6

Dumbbell Z Presses (2 second holds)
26’sx5
46’sx3
66’sx11

One Arm Band Rows (30 seconds)
sb+mbx27/30
sb+mmbx32/30

Band Y Raise Holds
mb+µbx30 seconds
mb+µbx30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: So not really getting answers with the medical appointment. I did indicate my displeasure about how I was called almost every day last week about the results of the blood work and not being given anything beyond that “levels” were high and I might have liver damage. Mailed out a diet plan for a “heart healthy” diet which I pretty much already follow. New doctor didn’t seem to recall sending me stuff or that he was aware of the high levels. I also apparently have anxiety with the readings so he did my blood pressure after I had been talking with him for a bit and my numbers were normal compared to when I first sat down and they were elevated. This physical felt like a waste of time since I don’t think my presence was needed if just going off numbers. Doctor not the one to discuss diet with if the suggestion is to “cut it in half”. And it could be genetic for the cholesterol. But as far as the liver, he told me that it is elevated but not one where it would be something like cancer or cirrhosis. My number was just below 100 when people with those conditions have it in the 100’s and 1000’s. So probably stressing about it for no reason. But have to get more blood work in two months and an ultrasound of the liver in two weeks. Oh well. On to training I guess. Well maybe not immediately. I was still not sure how things would go with the left shoulder ache and the left elbow also starting to ache. Those had been present during the day. And I had felt “flat” last week doing this workout so there were feelings of this being that great with past stuff of not being able to progress from week to week for upper body that was discovered last cycle. But putting best foot forward. No changes while coach away haha. Trust what is planned. Starting things off with the kettlebell arm bars. I was hesitant with how the left shoulder had felt on these last time (and I guess also the time before that). For whatever reason, I decided to use both of my 15lbs kettlebells. I’m not sure what compelled me but I did and it felt fine (no real difference) and then went for the initial turn and where I was expecting some discomfort, I felt none. I think I was shocked by that that I just laid there for a few seconds and realized I wasn’t to do that (I think I’ve previously done these as just a stretch/hold for time before) and then figured “screw it” and did 3 second holds in that position for the rest of it. I don’t know. Maybe feeling better or maybe the added weight actually helped. On in compressing downward and then from more muscles needing to work to stabilize. Not entirely sure. I did have some issues with getting my hands switched between sides. But this was a good start to things. Close grip axle floor press. This (besides the achy arm bars) last week had been the thing that was a bit frustrating. Felt like things had gone down from the previous week despite wrist discomfort being less. Could also be just being out of practice from prone pressing in general. Plan was to work up to a top set of 5-6 with 2-3RIR working up in triples. So even though last week’s 10lbs jump was an overshot, if I felt good, I could probably be ok with 10lbs more and drop off 3 reps and be ok for the higher end even if not my best. That was the feeling/mindset. So working up in 30lbs jumps has been ok I guess for pressing. These went better and felt more like they should. As far as down sets, 2 of them this time with matching reps with 10% decrease. I have no idea what was up with the first set. It felt fine and then I immediately misgrooved that first rep. I had a few more too but eventually got it shorted out to finish the set. Ugh, I really didn’t want a repeat of last week where I was struggling on the down sets. Got my mind right and made sure I stayed tight and didn’t misgroove and I knocked the reps out like a fast paced piston. That’s how it should be. From there it was z presses with dumbbells. First week oops and second week was more like it should be. The decrease in the reps here (still one top set) with no needing to do 5’s on every work up set I think had me feeling like I could safely get away with a 10lbs jump rather than a 5lbs jump like I had planned on doing. Oh well. Left side was feeling a little out of synch. I bungled the getting dumbbells into position part. Not with actually initiating the set and to the shoulders but just getting both in my lap and upright. That was a mistake. I thought I had it figured out last week. But I guess better than the first week. A little tougher than I would’ve liked here but I still got the reps in. These get tough so very quickly and fatigue in the neck/traps make it very hard to hold that lockout solid. But this is good for me to be working on it. Rest of workout was bands. One arm band rows again. I stuck with the same increased band tension I did last week. First set I was already getting more reps than the best set last week and then got even more with my other side. And this wasn’t just a matter of the adjusting the tempo where there is like a second left and keeping the sides balanced. It was a 3 rep difference. I wasn’t planning on getting a rep per second really so I increased the bands more for the second set after some hesitation. Nope, I just was getting warmed up and got more reps total with the higher band tension. I guess more band tension or just get used to reps being that rapid and still getting a good ROM. Last thing was the y raise holds. I had not intended to increase the band tension as I know this position is like a stress position really and any change can be dramatic. But I felt like this was one that feels good on the shoulders and just increase it a little bit. That little bit I think is the most I’ll do on this as far as band tension as that sensation was like I had eaten horseradish as far as the contraction needed to initiate and get into position that first set. I was bit more prepared for it the second set. Put stuff away and stretched while I awaited delivery (curry). I had a $10 off from when they were offline Saturday so figured use it while I figure out meals and potential adjustments with things.

March 29, 2023 – Week 3, Day 2

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls w/ bands (straps, +40lbs/+111lbs)
No Bands
110x3
Add Bands
110x3
200x3
290x3
360x3
360x3
360x3
360x3
360x3
360x3

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
107x3/3
159x3/3
209x10/10
220x10/10

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds, 2” above parallel on concentric)
65x5
115x5
155x5
180x5
205x5

Landmine Bar Twists
52x8/8
52x8/8
52x8/8

Stretching
 
Comments: Something unexpected before training. So changes being made to the Regional show I am doing end of June. It is now going to be a two day show with an extra event added (sandbag toss series). Initially a little annoyed about it now being a two day show because that would mean more money to stay out there as well as meal costs but it could be a boon in that it will be more like Nationals in that it is a two day show. And as far as adding an event, I can’t be mad with sandbag toss. Or that it will allow for some rest for grip between the exercises. And I was kind of wanting to do some tossing events again. It could’ve been something like a front hold (that one two day Regional show is doing) and I’d have been pissed and probably dropped out. But these changes are fine as while I’ve already qualified for Nationals, this will be more practice on top of a possible Arnold bid. Also sounds like if I podium I get direct invite to Regionals for 2024 as well. Which could be fruitful for me to picking competitions and training. As I am thinking about next year already as far as what will make sense as far as off season. I guess depends on how this show and Nationals go. Stick with what I’ve been doing (winter and summer off season) or change it up. Anyways, it was time to get to training. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. Same as last week was the plan. Low RPE and 3x5 with 3-5ct eccentrics. Other than miscounting the reps on the last set, these were good last week. Lower back had felt some fatigue after the heavy event work that Saturday. I got to keep watch of the little muscles in the lower legs on these as these can be quite brutal on them. I feel stronger and better control. Almost miscounted the second set. From there it was axle pulls. The more “speed” week so to speak. Indication was to use 50-55% weight and then add 15-20% in bands. Light bands had worked out well enough for trap bar pulls last training cycle and considering this was to be higher band percentage, this should work. Band tension ended up being slightly less at start but about the same at lockout compared to setup with the trap bar. I had to look back on the axle pulls from Nationals and see what I was doing there as far as working up. I guess I was doing pretty big jumps. This was a little different compared to that first easy week where it was no bands and singles. This was a good amount of bands and for triples. I was also to control the eccentrics. It can be challenging to do that with bands as it can feel like it is pretty slow/controlled but it is moving not much different from just lowering it. As I went, I feel that I got better with pulling with authority and lowering with control as well as bracing. At least up to the third or fourth set. Then it was evening out and controlling the eccentric more. I guess good thing was that I didn’t get friction burn on my legs this time around. Those first two exercise take some setup and teardown which I work in as being part of active rest but also allows me to get some fluids in without risk of it coming right back up. So next up was b-stance trap bar pulls. Still two set but the RPE increased and rep range decreased. Still with 3 second eccentrics. I had an idea to try and push these and aim for the lower end of the rep range potentially as these seem to be quite fatiguing. However, it seems that I’m still figuring out what I can actually do on these. Essentially did 50lbs jumps in triples. Next time that may be unnecessary to start with the empty bar. I was expecting that first set to be the top weight but I still felt good for a bit more still. Got to keep thinking on the stretch in the hamstrings, the balance in the hips, bracing for the core and grip for the frame. Next week is supposed to be the last session of these. Next was a squat variation. It had been those tempo goblet squats. I was digging those but I guess a change needed. Safety squat bar is back. This was a little tricky for me as it was to be a variation of pause squats but the RPE was really low (4-5). I know how difficult paused work can be for me and this was going to be a new one for me. Pauses yes but not where I’m doing them on the concentric for squats. I’ve done them on strict presses and for deadlifts and they are just terrible. So my lowball estimate was to do working sets with 205lbs but working up I could see that might be pushing it. Really seems to be hitting my quads in the spot where they are not the strongest. I didn’t feel I worked up to enough weight to warrant using the hard belt (I had planned to if I was using 205lbs for all sets). Got to get consistent with the pause location on these but I feel I’ll adapt as I do these more. Last thing was bar twists. RPE notes indicated to increase a bit. Seeing as how with the 35lbs added that the diameter potentially was an issue with the lower end ROM (unless I placed it in the right spot) I decided rather than going with a 45lbs plate, that I’d just use my “25s” instead. The added weight and position definitely was noticed. Maybe it was fatigue from doing short rest between sides and normal rest between sets but the right side seemed to feel harder than it usually does (seems to be the easier side). I was feeling a little touchy with the right knee pivoting though. Put stuff away and got dinner ready. Stretched after eating and iced knees before bed. Physical tomorrow, maybe I get some answers.

March 27, 2023 – Week 3, Day 1

Bottom Up Kettlebell Presses/Dumbbell Pullovers (3 seconds stretch)/Cobra Stretches (5/15)
15’sx10/10x10/bwx3
15’sx10/10x10/bwx3

Viking Presses (push press, facing away, hands 11” down handles)
Pauses (5 seconds in dip)
empty(26)x3
+45(59)x3
+90(92)x3
+135(125)x3
+180(158)x3
+225(191)x3
+235(198)x3
+245(205.5)x3
No Pauses
+260(216.5)x6

Feet Elevated Pull Ups (swiss bar, 2 second holds)
bwx3
bw+20x8
bw+20x8
bw+20x8

DeFranco Band Pullaparts (30 seconds)
mbx25
mbx28
mbx30

Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises (3 second holds)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
34x10/10 – lbx12/12
34x10/10 – lbx12/12

Stretching
 
Comments: Had done what I could on Sunday to get body feeling good after sleeping in Saturday and then having to get back to somewhat a normal schedule for work. I did soft tissue work and did foam roller too. I wasn’t sure how things would go but I was trying to remain optimistic and just take what I learned from last week and make adjustments. My neck decided to get tense and stiff before I went to bed Sunday so I put Icy Hot on both sides of my neck/base of skull to try and get things to relax. Not keen on taking any ibuprofen until I see the doctor since they are concerned about the enzyme levels for certain liver functions in my blood. Will maybe find out Thursday. It had been really nice outside and I was somewhat tempted to setup for the workout during my lunch break. It is a good thing I didn’t as storm came through and it rained for a few hours. It was still raining just a little by the time I was done with work for the day. Starting things off was a circuit of exercises. Same as last week with it being bottom up kettlebell, dumbbell pull over and cobra pose. Too light on the kettlebell and the other stuff was decently challenging. So went with my 15’s instead of the 10’s. The larger size of them made balance a good bit tougher and I had to actively use my grip to crush and keep braced rather than actively with the smaller pair. With was a good thing. Pull overs I went a bit of a more short stroke style with the returning the weight to the start as opposed to keeping the arms straight. These felt better. I’m ending up touching the floor on some reps. I think I had a better idea about what I was to with the cobra poses. Then it was time to go outside in the wet to do viking press. It appears the plan is going to be alternating between push press and strict press weeks. But that could change. I was a bit surprised the sun came out but I had to get some of the standing water away from the setup. I had not been thrilled with how things went last week with these as far as how things felt. The handles had too much give and the weight in hand wasn’t that much relative to what was loaded. It was also not easy to add and subtract weight with the height. So I had to address those things. Using the many crash pads I had as a set of steps helped with the loading and unloading of weight. As far as the handles, I had thought about moving where I gripped them. The empty weight would be the same, would hopefully cut down on the flex/angle as well as increase the weight in hand percentage. In theory. Moved my hands down 11” and taped those sections off. It pretty much solved the issue here as less flex/wobble and the weight in hand increased from being only 64.5% to 73.3%. So the same weight will actually be heavier than what it was when I did it last time. So now it was time to see what was what. Plan here was to work up to 3x3 with 3-5ct pauses at RPE 6-7. I had thought 225lbs added would be where I was. Empty weight my knees weren’t too thrilled about the pause in the dip but I got comfortable with it as I went. I actually ended up feeling like I could do more weight and instead of doing straight set weight, I added 10lbs each set. Last set I was to do no pauses (I had done 5 seconds because of course) and either keep the weight the same or add up to 10% more for a set of 6-8 reps at RPE 7. I decided to add 15lbs and decided to see what was what. Adding weight is tricky and reps can vary as I go from the movement as the lever isn’t fixed and secure (can move back and forth and side to side). First two reps were really easy and then it started to feel tougher after that. Took my time to get things feeling balanced for the rest of the reps (only did 6). I’m definitely feeling better about these after this session. I don’t really know what to expect as far as actual contest weight or weight in hand but I have a feeling I should be working to get what I’m doing up to at least a single with +315lbs (like 257lbs in hand) added and I guess hope that I’ll adapt to a more stable setup at contest. Get more comfortable and maybe some neutral grip support/lockout stuff. So that was good. No shoulder/serratus/lat issues. At least that was the end of needing to use math to determine what I was actually lifting for the day. Next thing was feel elevated pull ups. Same as last week (swiss bar grip, 2 second holds. 3 sets of 6-8 reps) but slightly higher RPE allowed (6-7 so a range). I had felt good with these last week and was kind of surprised that the holds didn’t seem to fatigue me as hard as they tend to do. I had already planned to just do bodyweight to warm up and then put 20lbs in the backpack on my lap. This felt comfortable and very similar to how last week felt. I was expecting some reps to drop off but nope. I may need to adjust expectations I guess for next time. Even though it wasn’t raining, I went into the garage for the next thing. Didn’t want to be standing on a wet band for the timed band work. DeFranco pullaparts. 3 sets of 30 seconds this week and notes were to use same band as last week. I figured after watching video that it probably was best for what was being worked to just do a single front raise to get into position and just do the pullapart part of the exercise for the reps. Obviously this allowed more focus on the external rotation and more reps being completed. Reps increase every set. Ended up with 83 reps total over the three sets. Last thing was the unlikely superset; tibialis anterior raises and band triceps. Same as last time. I felt that I should probably stick to roughly the same weight for the kettlebell stuff but that I needed to increase the band tension on the triceps. I was already doing 20 reps with a lot of RIR even with the eccentrics. I decided I’d do the light bands and aim for just the 12 reps, even if I felt good for more. Because I know how my triceps/lat inserts get on these when I increase the band tension a lot. I get twitchy arms for a day. The left side decided to be somewhat difficult today. With the leg, that side just seems to fatigue quicker. The right side does fatigue but it seems to not be until near the end of the set. My left elbow has been aching lately. Not with everything. Only seems to be with some movements and not always. But it does feel a lot like when the PA jabbed my elbow to drain. So I’m wondering if this just me not having as much fluid/inflammation there that I’m just feeling stuff now. So some slight discomfort. But adjusting hand position did seem to help and as I did more reps. I think I was distracted that I forgot I had planned to grip the bands differently so as not digging into my palms so much. Oh well. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Iced knees before bed.

March 25, 2023 – Week 2, Day 4

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
bwx10/10

Hatfield Split Squats
65x5/5
115x5/5
155x5/5
205x5/5
250x12/12
250x12/12

Pin Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 33” height, swiss ball)
65x3
125x3
155x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3

Deadlift Grip Barbell Back Extensions (2 second holds, Vera Gripps)
65x3
105x6
105x6
105x6

Standing Band Abs/Single Leg Calf Raises
(2)abx15 – bwx16/16
(2)abx15 – bwx16/16

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess I kind of needed the day to be like this. I had been getting extra stress with the lab results (I got calls every day besides Friday) so those stopping and kind of realizing that most likely this has been an issue that wasn’t caught and just have to see what is up at the appointment. With the gym closed for the weekend essentially (not opening until after 6PM Sunday), I was going to have to do the workout at home. Which thankfully, I was able to do with very minor changes (I bought gym equipment last week that arrived before this workout). I had spent Friday after work finishing putting together the one piece as well as getting in the soft tissue work. Left shoulder/trap/neck is achy. There was no rush to get up and do stuff really so I allowed myself to sleep-in (which I hadn’t been able to do at all last weekend). And I’ve not really felt like I could sleep for a long while lately even when I wanted to as I felt like I needed to get up. Well I needed it as I slept until 1PM (granted I didn’t really get myself to go to bed until 1AM). Rainy off and on but nothing in the workout really required me to be outside. Just some setups might be better with the rack outside vs the one I have in the garage. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. Only 1x10 this time. There is indication to do RPE 5 as warm up and I could add weight but I’m not going to. My bodyweight seems sufficient for these with how rough usually these feel at the start of a workout session. And especially since whatever with the left hip flexor thing. But I guess feeling less like garbage. Still getting twinges in the left leg hip flexor on these but to the best of my knowledge, probably the best it has felt since this became and issue. A twist on something I’ve done was up next here. As I mentioned, it seems like not pushing a heavy squat on a separate day at this point and focus seems to be on stuff that works the legs but doesn’t stress the lower back. I think that the indication that these were to be helping with moving events has me changing up footwear so that I’m wearing what I’d wear for moving events. The exercise was listed as a hatfield reverse lunge. But that was really only for the first rep as I was to just stay in the groove for the reps so it was more a reverse lunge to initiate a set of split squats. I was a tad nervous about these as I was worried the split stance nature would stress the hip flexor. I’ve done lunges and split squats but I don’t think I’ve ever really done reverse lunges with anything besides an empty barbell what feels like a decade ago. I should also mention I was to use some sort of cushion for the back leg knee that was 2-4”. So I used a couch cushion. I felt a flood of relief over my body when I did that first rep and there was no hint of any kind of discomfort in the hip flexor. Plan here was to work up in sets of 3-5 reps and do 2x12 at RPE 6. I ended up doing 40-50lbs jumps and did 5 rep sets to get warm. Before I started, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to do much here but after those first few sets I knew I could probably do at least 245lbs here and be good. It was more of a fatigue factor I think. Which ended up not being that bad. Left side was having a harder time than my right with these. The weight on the upper back and shoulders did tend to make the aches in the shoulder more noticeable. But I’ve had that even when shoulder wasn’t feel temperamental. Second set actually felt better (though there was fatigue with the left leg standing back up). It will be interesting to see how these will progress. I know that the ceiling for these can be quite high as I’ve seen these done by throwing athletes and they’ve worked up to some quite staggering weights. I’m fine if these replace squats so I can work the legs and keep hitting deadlifts. But that isn’t really up to me. It is what is needed to put out the best performance when it counts/matters. Next thing was something I did at the very end of the last training cycle as a way to work stones when the hip was acting up. And that was banded zercher goodmornings off of pins with the safety squat bar. My coach seems to be thinking these are good tool to use as opposed to getting stuff set up for stones every week. I think these are fine rather than doing stones every week as I tend to like not doing stones every week anyways. I had a setup at the gym but obviously can’t do that at home. So I needed to set something up. I wasn’t sure if my racks would be the best option since they aren’t bolted down and the one in the garage tends to “sink” with more weight. But luckily I still had sawhorses and at the max height they were only like 1” lower than what I did at the gym. The other thing was the band setup. No band pegs so needed to use something else. Micro bands doubled worked out here. More tension at the bottom but not as much at the top compared to what I had at the gym. Anyways, the plan here was 5x3 with somewhat short rests and move these explosively. The thing I added to this was the addition of an exercise ball that I hold so it feels more “stone like”. I’ve done more weight on these but I felt the goal was more effort related and being really explosive (enough that I could attempt triple extension with my ankles). So I went with 205lbs here which really is still good as it is close to the weight of the stone I worked up to shouldering with the band tension. These felt nice. I wish I could say that was it for the odd setups for the workout but nope. Next was those back extensions that I’m to be doing. The ones with holds and a short ROM. This was going to be tricky. I didn’t have a back extension/hyper bench/roman chair until a few days ago. And I got one that was like $80 and said not to exceed 300lbs. So kind of close to that. I had to weigh down the back end with 140lbs of dumbbells. Felt wobbly but it held up. So this was to be the heavier week. 3x6 with 2 second holds as opposed to the 1 second holds and higher reps last week. The plus for this setup was that the handles on the side of this bench didn’t stick out so there wasn’t an issue with the bar getting stuck. The negatives being that this wasn’t as high off the ground as the setup at the gym and there was the potential fear of it collapsing at any moment. These are definitely a needed exercise for me I think as these hit the lower back quite good and I’m noticing that unlike some exercise I do for multiple sets where I feel like I’m getting warmed or better as I go, these I’m obviously feeling that there is fatigue and the reps and sets get harder as I go. I have no feeling of “adding weight” each set like sometimes I do.  From there it was time to finish up the session with super set of abdominals and single leg calf work. I had already planned on doing standing calf raises this time around as it was the easiest to setup and I knew the setup at my house is a bit more user friendly for me as I can use my dip stand to assist as needed due to fatigue. The abdominal part was going to be a bit tougher to troubleshoot. I wanted to still have something that I was to have arching over so it took some trial and error to bungee cord my ssb to the rack arms and then setup bands. I probably could’ve done more band tension but I think with the angle of the pull I’d be lifted up rather than pulled back. Calf work was definitely challenging after the other work but it at least felt better then when I attempted to do them last week before going with an easier variation. I’ll need to think on if I want to alternate setups for both the calves and the back extensions. I think it will depend on how the setup of the exercises is one week vs the other with the split as it might make sense to do one week at the gym and one at home. I forgot to move the camera setup after the first set and didn’t get the second set of the abs. Put stuff away and had to kind of figure out the evening. Got a protein shake and then stretched. I had planned to do a DoorDash meal as stuff I had was still thawing and the app was down so I had to venture out and get food at the Chipotle that usually is out of food (one time I went and it had a sign that said “only have chips and salsa”). This time they only didn’t have vegetables but the people only rung me up for chicken burritos when I had gotten two of them steak (I told them and they didn’t care) so I saved a little money haha. Iced knees before bed.

March 23, 2023 – Week 2, Day 3

Kettlebell Arm Bars
15x5/5
15x5/5

Close Grip Axle Floor Presses
36x3
66x3
96x3
126x3
156x3
186x3
216x3
246x3
276x8
248x8

Dumbbell Z Presses (2 second holds)
10’sx5
26’sx5
40’sx5
56’sx13

One Arm Band Rows (30 seconds)
sb+mbx23/23
sb+mbx24/24

Band Y Raise Holds
mbx30 seconds
mbx30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: I think I’m not stressing the medical stuff as much now after coming to the conclusion that the issue has probably been present for decades and just not screened. As nothing I can do about it until I meet with the doctor and see what they think and plan. Been seeing people training heavy stones and circus dumbbell and I feel like I had more to prove on those at the contest but again, it has passed and it is on to the next thing. Need to be ready for what is being contested. I wasn’t expecting much from this session. The good was the upper back stuff seemed to have been mostly resolved. But I knew that there was probably going to be a drop in pressing just from how things have felt when doing consecutive workouts pushing the weight vs waving and just how the fatigue factor had felt with the pulls the day before. Starting things off with the kettlebell arm bars. Same as it was last week. I see no reason to increase the weight on these. Movement was feeling smoother but my left shoulder wasn’t too pleased with the end motion. Could be from contest still with trying to get reps as well as doing stone to shoulder to that side. That does seem to always be a risk with those kinds of events. But it seems more and ache than outright soreness/stiffness. Just have to keep an eye on it. Felt like nothing for the right shoulder. The movement is fine besides the stretch in the shoulder for the left this time around. From there it was on to pressing. Close grip axle floor press. Supposed to stick with this variation a bit. I wasn’t sure how these would go. Maybe they’d be good. Plan was to work up to a top set of 8-10 with 2-3RIR working up in triples. I think my concern was that it seemed that repeating weeks on bigger pressing stuff hasn’t been doing so well for me without alternating and even then, the percentage seems to need to be decreased substantially or the exercise changed up a good bit to keep from having stuff feel like crap. But doing what is written for now. Or at least trying to. So working up in 30lbs jumps and stuff was feeling pretty good. So 10lbs and aim really was to just do 8 reps with it regardless to try and get to a more appropriate RIR situation since I know I went a little heavy last week on this session. And I’d be having to pay for that a little to get so I don’t lose out. Wrist wasn’t bothering me nearly as much as I was working up in weight. Top set and I felt ready. But it just seemed heavy and my left elbow was feeling a little achy. It was supposed to be a “comfortable” rep set and it definitely wasn’t. It was closer to 1-2RIR at best. So with the matching set, I went with the bigger drop in weight and even with the rest, it felt very much the same as that previous set. Last week I had been able to recover pretty good and leave a lot of RIR. Just making notes that may need to alter things like they had been in the later part of the last training cycle that did seem to get the circus dumbbell back on track. The axle floor pressing was really the only thing that I was worried would be like that. Z presses with dumbbells after that. Mistakes were made last time haha. So I planned to get it right. I took too big of jumps and went for a weight I shouldn’t have been considering with the planned effort/rep range. Made myself do several jumps of sets of 5 and make sure that I was shouldering the weight in a more efficient manner. I would’ve liked to get 15 reps here with the planned RIR (2-3) but knew I had to stop short of that. At least this time it was within the right rep range and effort. These get quite exhausting with the held lockouts for the traps. From there it was on to band stuff. Same as last week with both exercises being for 30 second sets. One arm band rows again. I decided to increase the band tension slightly as it was getting too easy and it would be more of me rushing to get more reps rather than it being a good movement quality. Seems adding band tension didn’t really do much as I got more reps this time around haha. Band y raise holds to finish off the night. Increased the band tension to a mini band and that seemed to get things in the right effort range. These do tend to feel good on the shoulders when they feel like they have been. While waiting for my roast to finish, I put away stuff and got some of the new piece of equipment put together before calling it and saving the rest for tomorrow after work. Stretched after dinner. Hopefully the shoulder issue goes away so I can just focus.

March 22, 2023 – Week 2, Day 2

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (5 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx4 (miscounted)

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
130x3
180x3
220x3
270x2
310x2
360x2
400x1
450x1
490x5
490x5
490x5

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x3/3
150x12/12
150x12/12

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
30x12
30x12
30x12

Landmine Bar Twists
35x8/8
35x8/8
35x8/8

Stretching
 
Comments: Little stresses throughout the week so far. Had a trash bag leak requiring cleaning up a good bit of stuff Monday evening. Getting messages and calls from doctor’s office about issues with results of my blood work but not really telling me what is going on. Ants Tuesday evening that I had to take care of (I don’t like killing things but ants kind of have to with how they are, more an army than an animal). The doctor stuff is the more stressful thing. Most stuff is in the normal range. Cholesterol a little high (runs in family or as I told my dad “no one runs in our family”). The concern is stuff that is elevated that would normally be a sign of liver damage. Appointment is in about a week. I’ve not had contact like this from a doctor ever and I don’t think this screening was ever done on me. But I’m getting daily calls about it and not much information and it is stressing me out. My own research suggests that I’ve probably had this going on for a long time and that wasn’t noticed because never screened for it. The anti-depressant I’m on is known for this. Just finding out good news about it all the time. I mean, I had known about the withdraw symptoms from just missing a day in the past. Not like I was going to be making an informed decision back in high school when I started. But won’t know I guess what is going on until I see the doctor. On that note, I’ve been trying to cut back on the allergy medications since those could elevate my blood pressure. Today first day with nothing taken. I got a bit distracted with things as I intended to get things setup for training during my lunch break. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. Same as last week was the plan. Low RPE and 3x5 with 3-5ct eccentrics. I was feeling more comfortable with these this time around. Last time had been right after the competition. I felt like I could push these a bit and did 5 second eccentrics. I miscounted the last set by mistake. From there it was axle pulls. I was somewhat nervous about these. Because of what was still tight and sore. Left side lat/rib cage on top of the shoulder stuff. I’ve never had my lats become an issue with pulls but I guess just concerns. Turns out my right side upper back was feeling more of an issue. Always something. Plan was a heavier session compared to last time. Work up to 75-77.7% for 3x5 and long rests, report back how the last set felt. I figured that big jumps probably wasn’t the best thing. I can get away with it when there are pauses or doing a lot of sets or suit work. So plan was 40-50lbs jumps and dropping reps as I went up. Mostly I think to get used to reps and volume. Working didn’t inspire confidence. These felt “heavier” working up then last week. Granted that was after a few days off a contest and first session vs this time being after a week of training and one of those sessions being decently heavy frame carry. So I kind of knew these would probably feel rough and just have to grit through it and get used to pulling normally rather than side handle. Know that I can get better as I go, as I get used to it. So that first set was pretty rough but I knew what I was about. Need to get better at finding the sweet spot and rhythm. Second set felt better but not quite there. Last two reps I seemed to hesitate a little. Last set I got myself set and that did feel like the best set. I’m in the range I need to be for the working max and potentially to push above that. I did end up getting a bit of friction burn on the left knee from these. The rest of the workout was going to be a repeat of last week with the exercises; just a change in the intensity. So next up was b-stance trap bar pulls. Again, 2x8-12 reps with 3 second eccentrics. I knew I could do more weight compared to what I had done last time, especially if the ceiling for RPE was increased. I think my only concern here was just grip fatigue as while the balance changes between sides, the grip only gets the rest between the sides and sets rather than just the sets. Working grip on other stuff is probably a good idea as this show will have Hercules hold with no hook grip and the frame carry will be really tough as the last event. It also could run very quickly as well. So need to be conditioned for that. These were fine. Besides feeling like I was exhausted after each set. Next was goblet squats. Same as last time but slightly higher RPE. Unlike the previous exercise and the next exercise, this one doesn’t appear to be going forward as an exercise for the next two weeks. Appears it will be replaced with something else next time. Shame, after this session, this might be the best these have felt when I’ve done them as far as fatigue and knee stuff. Stuck to same tempo as last week. Only really noticing the increased weight by the end of the second and third set with fatigue. Keeping an eye on any muscle spasms or twitches as my quads get quite pumped from this. Surprisingly, my fatigue as far as my “air” was substantially less compared to the trap bar stuff. Usually squatting motions take it out of me more. Last thing was bar twists. These were to be at a low RPE and same setup as last time. I felt that I’d be better prepared and use more weight than last time. In the past, I’ve done 45lbs added comfortably. But want to be cautious with adding in new things with twisting and whatnot. Also want to control and last time there were some shoulder tension I was noticing. Didn’t seem to be nearly as present this time around. Put stuff away and got dinner ready. Stretched and iced knees before bed.

March 20, 2023 – Week 2, Day 1

Bottom Up Kettlebell Presses/Dumbbell Pullovers (3 seconds stretch)/Cobra Stretches (5/15)
10’sx10/10x10/bwx3
10’sx10/10x10/bwx3

Viking Presses (strict, facing away)
empty(26)x3
+45(55)x3
+90(84)x3
+135(113)x3
+180(142)x3
+225(171)x3
+255(190.5)x2
+225(171)x8
+202.5(156.5)x8
+202.5(156.5)x8

Feet Elevated Pull Ups (swiss bar, 2 second holds)
bwx3
bwx8
bwx8
bwx9 (miscounted)

DeFranco Band Pullaparts (30 seconds)
mbx11
mbx13

Kettlebell Tibialis Anterior Raises (3 second holds)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
30x10/10 – mmbx20/20
30x10/10 – mmbx20/20

Stretching
 
Comments: Weather has been up and down. Below freezing when I wake up and then normal Spring weather by the end of the day. Still feeling the workout session from Saturday. The interesting sensations are that my forearms where they insert at the elbows on the inner side are sore from the no tacky stone lifting. I know from past experience that sometimes I can get tendonitis from doing too much. But I think the rotation plan here will keep that from being an issue. This was going to be an interesting session. The first part of that being because I had to get up early to do fasted blood work and that had kind of altered my weekend hours to be ready for that. Thankfully it was quick and uneventful (a bit gun shy after the last time a needle was in my arm). The other part of that was testing out a piece of equipment. Starting things off was a circuit of exercises that I feel was geared toward activation/mobility specifically for viking press (which is the main thing and the pressing event for the contest). I had numbers set here but adjusted them after seeing how sore some stuff was from Saturday (namely shoulder on left side, lats and upper back). The circuit was to do bottom up kettlebell presses (with serratus emphasis) into pull overs (hold in stretch and attempting to reach back) and then cobra pose/stretch. The pressing was easy and I probably could’ve gone with my 15’s instead of the 10’s. But I was testing things and trying to have things feel about equal. I only used 10lbs on the pullovers and that seemed sufficiently challenging. I was looking at 40lbs and I’m kind of glad I didn’t. Cobra pose was interesting. I think I did these right. It indicated to do 5ct hip flexor and then 15 seconds flexing glutes into stretch. I’m not sure if I got that first part right but I did the second part. Those two parts of the circuit were a good bit tougher than the pressing. So those will stay and up the press next time I guess so it feels a bit more even. And then it was time to do the thing that needed to be done. Viking press. I’ve done viking press before but the contest is going to be facing away. The setup I have used is good for facing the weight but not for facing away. Not enough clearance. I could do a setup at the strongman gym but that is only on the weekend and that is generally not a pressing session. It was not exactly good finding a handle attachment that was someplace that actually had a storefront (seemed to be private messages situation) so asked my dad if we felt he could make one after seeing one that someone made out of wood and pipes and he said sure and now I have this monstrosity to use. It is like 8’ long in total and uses both my yokes to setup. I had done some testing with it the week of the contest to setup and see if it worked. And get some data. There is flex in the handles. 26lbs empty in hand and roughly 64.5% of whatever weight is added goes to weight in hand. I had some idea of what to expect I guess from doing viking pressing. But that kind of got thrown out the window after the first set with weight added. Plan was strict pressing working up in triples with plan to do a top set of 5-8 reps with 2-3RIR and then take off 10% for 2 sets of similar reps. My left shoulder and pretty much everything from my arm pit to biceps was feeling tense and sore. I was keeping an eye on that situation. I figure this is probably a combination of the stone to shoulder, frame carry, and maybe the deadlift grip hypers (lats tucked). The weight felt a ton heavier than what the formula/math said. I’m thinking that maybe that is because unlike with say a press from the front or on my back that the shoulders have to support it fully. I can get some additional support on the front grip style with leaning into it and getting some weight on my clavicles. I was also testing wearing just regular shoes rather than lifters. My plan had been to use 250-270lbs added for that top set but I felt that was probably too much after doing 225lbs but I pushed forward thinking that adding wrist wraps and elbow sleeves would make the difference. It did not. Wearing the elbow sleeves to get used to it with the feeling of compression and make sure it doesn’t affect the movement. I figured it wouldn’t as it seemed to be fine with log press when training for PA Dutch last year. I stopped at 2 reps as I heard something creak going for the third and I wanted to make sure everything was safe and I also felt that 5 reps would be likely 0-1RIR at best. Checked video and integrity of the setup and seemed fine. Went back down to 225lbs added (which is only 171lbs in hand) and it felt tough but I felt like I kept having reps in me despite if feeling heavy on my shoulders. I was definitely more upright at the start and was playing around with the thoracic mobility and using the hips as far as getting more chest and seeing how that felt. Longer rests were allowed and did matching reps with 10% less. I feel that I was getting better at using the setup as I went. I’m not sure how doing things with a push press motion will feel, guess find that out next week. Besides this feeling a ton tougher than I was expecting it to, getting plates on and off is a bit of a hassle with how tall the setup is and the loading pin (I felt stacking rather on the side was safer). Maybe a step ladder? It was going to take a bit to put that stuff away so I decided to start on the next thing and take it down piece by piece over the course of the workout. Next thing was feel elevated pull ups. Use swiss bar since I got one instead of the gymnastic rings. 2 second holds. 3 sets of 6-8 reps at RPE 6. I wasn’t sure how these would feel with my left side feeling so I elected to do a triple with bodyweight. Holds tend to really sap what I can do on these kinds of exercises so I figured that it was best to play it safe this week and just use bodyweight to insure I was getting the reps and work done. I miscounted on the last set and did an extra rep. Maybe these felt good because there is some knurling on the handles? I was more focused on getting the “look up” aspect and making sure I was stretching out my lats and back on these. Went into the garage for the next thing. Timed band work. Similar to last week’s first upper body session. 2 sets of 30 seconds. Exercise this time was DeFranco pullaparts. I figured with the instructions that I wasn’t to be just going fast as possible but was to do these controlled, especially the pullapart part of it. I think I did these right as I was instructed back when I first did these to do a front raise into the pullapart. Thankfully didn’t bother things too much with the whatever for the left side. As has been the case so far, second set I got more reps in the time. Last thing was an unlikely superset; tibialis anterior raises and band triceps. The tib raises were with kettlebells and like they had been the past few times with 2-3ct holds. I just used 30lbs as it wasn’t to be really pushing the RPE here. I forgot how many reps I was to do the first set with the left side and stopped at 8 and then did 2 more reps. Have to say that left side on these fatigues faster. Right has an easier time with these. Triceps had a bit more leeway with the rep range and effort. 12-20 reps with 3 second eccentrics. Since I had been using monster minis last cycle, I stuck with them again here to see how that felt. I might alter how I grip the bands next time as it does seem to dig into my palm with the thinner bands and more tension but also there seemed to be more comfort or felt better gripping the band directly like when I was doing the extensions facing away from the rack. Put stuff away and ate pot roast before stretching. Hopefully the soreness in the left side calms down before the next lifting session.

March 18, 2023 – Week 1, Day 3

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Power Step Ups
bwx3/3 to 12”
bwx5/5 to 16”
bwx5/5 to 16”
bwx5/5 to 16”

Frame Carries
Titan Fitness (16”)
Casual Pace
115x50’
115x50’
Makeshift (18”)
Normal
276x50’
376x25’
476x25’
BiggDogg Strongg (20”, 1.5” handles)
568x25’
620x50’ in 10.21 seconds
620x50’ in 9.59 seconds
620x50’ in 8.97 seconds
620x50’ in 9.21 seconds
568x25’

Atlas Stone to Shoulders
95x1
95x1
115x1
145x1
165x1
180x1
205x1
235x1
265x1
265x0,1
265x1
205x1
205x1
205x1
205x1
205x1

Deadlift Grip Barbell GHD Back Extensions (1 second holds, Vera Gripps)
65x5
75x12
75x12

Standing Band GHD Abs/Single Leg Seated Calf Raises
(2)abx15 – 15x20/20
(2)abx15 – 15x20/20

Stretching
 
Comments: Already kind of getting back into the swing of things. Granted I do have 14 weeks until the next competition, perhaps I feel it’s not enough time still. Not enough time to recover from this last contest and not enough time to get strong enough for the show. I mean, I’ve already qualified for Nationals in October so I can at least plan that out but odds are July find out information and then it will feel like I have no time to improve the stuff that will probably not be up to par. And probably me thinking that with how I felt I underperformed on dumbbell at the show and how deadlifting had felt. It also feels annoying that I can’t give those things another shot as it has passed and these aren’t the things being contested at this next show. Just my own grumblings and hang ups. As far as training, things seemed to be coming back pretty quick. It doesn’t seem that I was hit with much more than some greater susceptibility to allergies the week after the show. Still some stress tics and stuff needing to recover. But thinking about it, the only things that were really taxing on my body had been the first two events and having to redo the stone lift. So kind of makes sense. I guess I was just thinking about how rough it was for me after Nats last year. Any ways, there wasn’t really a rush for training on the weekend this time but I did make it that way because I needed to have my sleep altered slightly. My physical had to be moved because my PCP since I was like 6 moved practices. So new PCP and rather than at the beginning of the month, now the end of the month. So have to get up really early for fasted blood work on Monday which means I need to eat dinner early on Sunday so need to be up enough to be able to do that and go to bed early. I kind of ran out of time the day before with work stuff and planning that I wasn’t able to get in soft tissue work Friday but I did make sure to get in a walk as I knew my lower back and my quads needed me to do some movement and get blood flow work. I ended up sleeping about an hour from my planned wake up time. Which was fine. I didn’t really need assistance with any exercise like I did for the last training cycle (at least not for anything programmed for the next 3 weeks). I was expecting some delays driving out due to reports of police checks because of the day before being St. Patrick’s. Nothing related to that and surprisingly made it out there in I think ties my fastest commute. I was kind of surprised there were a fair number of people there and it wasn’t like the usual crew. People training for the next strongman show hosted at the gym on 4/22/23. Usually I miss the morning crew being in full force. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. Just 2x10 with bodyweight. Not pushing these as usually the first set feels like garbage when first thing (or early in the workout). Still getting twinges in the left leg hip flexor on these but not so terrible I guess. Next up was something new for me. Looks like adding in bounding type exercises. Notes were to work on producing power through legs unilaterally for moving events. This was deemed a power step up. Foot on a box and drive up. Most demos showed getting some air off the box but notes here said not necessary. My knees can be kind of crap. I wasn’t sure how these would go really. Like most unilateral stuff requiring knee flexion done early in the session, the first set doesn’t feel great but gets better as I go. Left side wasn’t quite as good or smooth as the right side once I got a set down. Hopefully I can get a better feel here and improve on these things as being able to move is important for most events. And life. So this was where there was a bit of departure from status quo. Usually this is where a squat exercise would pop up. Not the case this time around. Or at least for now. I think with the reporting of how I was feeling near the end of training cycle (and having to switch it up to heavy and light) that there is a consolidation of stressors with having squats be moved to same day as deadlift focus to cut down on the stress to hip and knees. But this is just a theory. So no squats and it was time for event work already. First thing was frame carry. Thankfully it was nice enough outside (unlike this time last year when it was still a frigid wasteland) that the insulation was removed from the sliding doors. This was good as I could use the big frame that collects dust when not specifically in use. Last year since it was being used for the competition, it was out in the main area. But it isn’t so it is away in a corner as it is damn heavy and takes up a lot of space. I didn’t have to use it but I felt it made the most sense for the specific contest. The contest event is going to be 720lbs for 100’ with a drop and repick at 50’. The handles are smooth and the implement has a high pick and is very long. The big frame has a high pick, smooth handles (slightly thicker than normal) and also has a similar requirement to balance. So I wanted to use that as I know the other setups would be a lot lower and be better grip wise. My back will already be fatigued from deadlifting (which will likely need the most work to be competitive since no suits). So warming up was the usual thing that worked well for when I was doing this one. Empty Titan Fitness frame for casual walks and then the makeshift wobbly frame with thin handles to get use to weight and picking up speed. Now the plan here was to work up to something that felt RPE 6-7 for 4x50’ with 2 minutes rest. The other qualifier was something that I felt I could do 150’ with. My pick up is the hardest part and I can hold onto things a good while. So original plan was the empty frame for my runs (568lbs) but decided after reconsideration to do 620lbs as I’ve done that for over 150’ in the past. The last warm up with 476lbs didn’t feel great on the pick. With how the frame is, I kind of have to incorporate moving it as part of my working up sets. I got someone to get my times on this. First set is usually the slowest and it was. I know the frame at the show is really long so I can’t really carry it with hands all the way back so if I do grip off center, I had to err on forward. Second set it was a bit too far back but I was able to improve my time. Third set I gripped a little too far back but my speed was better and I got under 9 seconds on that run. Last run fatigue had started to set in for the pick up and while I felt I was moving my best, it wasn’t faster than the previous run. Other than my first run, these times were all under my slowest time with about this weight with straps at the start of the training cycle last time I was prepping this. So that seems like a good sign. Still had to put this thing away when I was done so another “working set”. Then it was on to something that was familiar but new. I’ve been lifting atlas stones for a long time but I’ve never had to shoulder one. I’ve actually pressed an atlas stone well before I ever had to shoulder one. I figured it was probably similar to the one style of keg clean to shoulder and sandbag shoulder stuff but not quite. Contest is not allowing anything beyond chalk. No tacky, tacky towel or grip shirts. It has been a good bit since I’ve done stones with nothing at all. Probably 2018. I also knew that there was a concern of the stone taking a chunk out of my ear. So I had wrestling headgear on. I used to wrestle but that was when I was like 60lbs lighter when I last did that. But I had planned potentially for a competition with this as an event in 2021 and had bought one near the end of 2020. And now I get to see if it works haha. I was initially going to use my stone of steel as it would be the same diameter as the stone (300lbs) but Drew had suggested I use actual concrete stones to train. So I did that. My concern I think here was there was tacky on these stones and the diameters would be smaller. The headgear did make things a bit warmer in the face but protected my ears (there were scrapes on them when I took them off). First rep the stone went right over. A bit embarrassing to miss a 95lbs lift here. But I got it and moved on. Plan here was to treat this as a “play” session and do about 10 reps total at RPE 5-6. Just ok and then 205lbs was the first stone that actually was more a normal sized diameter stone and it felt really good. Truth be told, I hadn’t really planned to go beyond 140lbs if I was using the stone of steel and then adjusted to 200lbs. But seeing as my stone to shoulder sessions will be more my “heavy” sessions with something else as the speed/tech/form work, I decided to try more. 235lbs also wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t going to go above 265lbs but I wanted to try that out. One it was a 20” stone and I wanted to see how that felt and also because it was the stone that holds tacky the worst so this was be an accurate assessment. That first rep went up real easy so I decided I’d do some more. It wasn’t that easy after that first one haha. I got off balance on the second attempt and got it not so great (right knee was feeling sore). I did one more single that wasn’t as easy as the first but was better than the second. I then decided to treat anything under 205lbs as not counting toward my reps and did 5 more singles with short rest with the 205lbs. Event work done and on to the other stuff. Looks like big focus will be on back extensions. These just seem to light up my hamstrings when I do them, especially with holds. Looks like higher reps and lighter weight one week and lower reps with longer holds for a heavy week. Indication was that ROM off the floor (IE the stretch) wasn’t the main thing. More the force to do the lift and the extension/hyperextension to get used to it and build. I had some issues with setup with the handles on the GHD sticking out and sometimes getting the bar caught on them. I definitely didn’t think these would be as tough as they were or I’d have just done this weight without a warm up set as that was pretty challenging by itself. Definitely needed to take a bit of a break after that first set to get over the dizziness from having the blood rush to my head. From there it was time to finish up the session with super set of abdominals and single leg calf work. I think I did these right. The ab work I was to do with resistance and trying to get stretch over GHD. Bands really seemed the only workable option for that as trying to use a pulley system wasn’t going to happen. Getting the bands in place was a hassle but just went with it. Notes were to forcefully exhale. As far as calf work, it was my choice. I was going to just do standard standing stuff but my right side just wasn’t cooperating and doing bodyweight with the setup here just wasn’t happening (at least not for the proposed rep range and RPE). So I decided to do single leg seated stuff. I had to lower the weight a good bit here too for the right leg (left leg was good for more). This was fine, little fatigue between exercises and sets. Right calf was only thing that was really fatiguing here. Perhaps the bounding and heavy frame work had something to do with that. Near the end of my session I heard that the gym was going to be close next weekend for a two day powerlifting meet. Not sure how I missed that one as I try to be aware. I guess the good thing is nothing programmed for next weekend would need to be done at the gym and I can adjust (already in process of securing some new equipment). I got done at a reasonable time but it felt so early I decided to stick around to stretch out and talk with George and help him with setup for someone he was training before I went home. Decided to get burritos for early dinner. Iced knees before bed.

March 16, 2023 – Week 1, Day 2

Kettlebell Arm Bars
15x5/5
15x5/5

Close Grip Axle Floor Presses
26x5
56x5
86x5
116x5
146x3
176x3
206x3
236x3
266x10
246x10

Dumbbell Z Presses (2 second holds)
10’sx5
40’sx5
70’sx10

One Arm Band Rows (30 seconds)
sbx20/20
sbx23/23

Band Y Raise Holds
µbx30 seconds
µbx30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Second workout for the week. I wasn’t too sure how things were going to go as some things were still feeling sore from contest (left shoulder/neck) and other stuff was feeling the session the day before (legs and lower back). On the plus side, I didn’t need to take as much allergy medications to make the day tolerable. Near the end of the last training cycle, this day had been a bit reduced in intensity and it does seem from reviewing things (Drew is competing next week so I got all workouts for this month) this day will still have less but will be a bit more intense with the pressing (rather than a heavy and light). In general, seeing a shift away from squats and pulls having their own days and working on getting used to holding weight overhead for the viking press. As with the last cycle, this day started off with thoracic mobility. It had been those thread the needles last time. This time it was kettlebell arm bars. Same number of sets but not nearly as many reps. The motion requires a bit more effort/energy to do. I’ve done these in the past like 2017-2018 era of training. At the time, it was me using like a 53lbs kettlebell as it was the only one at the gym. So 15lbs didn’t feel like that much really. Honestly, I was hoping this wouldn’t feel too bad and that it wouldn’t aggravate the achy left shoulder. Like the thread the needles, I just did these one side on to the other and no breaks between sets. Turning to the left side does seem to feel easier. From there it was on to pressing. Axle and it was my choice of a close grip variation of either benching or floor press. Since floor press was what was indicated initially, I decided to go with that and just your standard floor press with close grip. I think I also went with the floor press as it would provide more stability for my shoulders and my lower back as well as not putting my hip flexors in a stretch. Floor press was interesting. Plan was to work up in sets of 3-5 reps to a top set of 8-10 with 3RIR. I decided to do 30lbs jumps starting with the empty axle. I was expecting to do 266lbs for my top set. Wrists weren’t bother me too much but the bar path did feel a little weird. I notice that sometimes I have to catch myself on these and reset as I get out of position. Video says these were moving pretty smooth and fast but I felt that I probably would’ve been better to cut it a rep or two earlier than I did to really feel like I had 3RIR. But could just be in my head. The next thing was to drop off a little and do a rep set of matching and then report the RIR. 20lbs off matched the reduction needed and I tried to belt them out in a clip. Got a little fatigued and got the last two reps. I may need to adjust things and go for just a slight increase for next time to not be overdoing it. Especially with how my pressing has felt at times trying to build upon itself (though may be different not doing circus dumbbell). Some more pressing after that. Z presses with dumbbells. Plan here was a top set of 12-15 with 3-4RIR after doing several work up sets of 5 reps. I wasn’t really thinking to go that heavy here. I didn’t realize I had done 70’s for so many reps previously when programmed. I’d not have tried that weight if I didn’t see I’ve done it for 16 reps previously. Granted, these were to be with 1-2ct holds at lockout (again, emphasis for viking press). I did 10’s no problem and then 40’s I was hesitating here and I probably should’ve done this for a set of 15 reps and leaving 4RIR. But I decided to press on with the 70’s. Shouldering them sucked as I tried to curl them like I had done with those floor presses with bands. I guess I can’t do that for this kind of weight next time. So after that strain, I got some reps. My upper quads (especially the right side) were cramping a little from the position of stretch. I tried to go for the bare minimum but I stopped at 10 reps when I knew if I did push it, I’d be doing so with 0RIR with this tempo. Leave reps in the tank. Too heavy, too soon. The axle stuff was a bit more understandable. I think that if I had a variety of the solid dumbbells that I wouldn’t keep going for the bigger jumps since the plateloaded stuff can be a hassle for setup. Oh well. As with the axle, I’ll need to adjust weights for next time (and probably need to use less weight here). From there it was on to band stuff. One arm band rows again. This time instead of set reps and slight pauses, these were to be done for 30 second sets. Same thing as far as moving with the band and getting rotation. Strong band works for these. I tend to get better as far as being efficient and getting more reps on things that involve rowing/lat stuff compared to shoulders/triceps with fatigue. 20 reps the first set and then 23 reps the second set. Could feel the lats after that. Last thing was another timed exercise. But just one long hold instead of reps. Band y raise holds. I know how fatiguing holding that position can be and it indicated to use just one band with lower RPE. So I decided I’d use a micro band this first time and see how that went. It went ok enough. I feel that I can push for a mini band next time assuming things feel good. Put stuff away and since the workout was done fairly quickly, I stretched out before starting dinner. No lower body related things so didn’t ice knees before bed.

March 15, 2023 – Week 1, Day 1

Nordic Curl Eccentrics (3 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Yielding 13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps, 1 second off floor)
110x3
200x2
290x1
EMOM
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1
350x1

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x12/12
125x12/12

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
15x12
15x12
15x12

Landmine Bar Twists
barx4/4
25x8/8
25x8/8
25x8/8

Stretching
 
Comments: Well I survived the most recent competition. Physically. Different things seem to flair up in intervals. The thing most sore from competing had been my left shoulder from circus dumbbell stuff. Calves as per usual were quite sore from me being on my feet for pretty much the entire day. Thankfully my hip/lower back isn’t in as bad a shape as it could’ve been. Knees feeling a bit stiff (especially the right one). I say physically as I’m not sure how the stress toll blowback that seems to happen will be at this point. I’ve had to take more allergy meds than I’d prefer. I’m watching my left elbow to make sure that is ok. Not that anything is off with it (besides not locking out when I needed it to lol) but that there was nothing feeling wrong after Nats and then it swelled up. I also had time to digest things. That satisfaction with things just doesn’t last. The more I chew on it, the less I’m enjoying as I grind out any flavor and enjoyment. I find fault in things. I did what was expected on the two events (three events besides the initial miss). But I lost the show on how things went with the first two events. Despite the work and improvements. And then got back second place with two of my best events and I didn’t really have to push myself there whereas I pushed myself damn hard on the two that I placed near the bottom. And even though I did lift a heavy stone, I had hoped to do better until the hip/lower back issue popped up and I pretty much secured my placing for Nationals with just my opener if I had stopped there (but I couldn’t have known everyone else besides one other person would get stopped at 425lbs but I figured it would pan out that way). I accomplished the main goal but I’m not satisfied with how it turned out. I’m not disappointed in my training here, more that I’m not yet good enough. The positives are that I can still make comebacks, I don’t let bad results defeat me, and I’ve got the first goal out of the way. I can actually plan to relax and take a midseason break in the summer like I had planned to do last year now that I’m qualified. Regionals is now to work on some good events, some bad events and some new events and a chance to compete against some high level competition and a chance at the Arnold invite. I ended up needing to take Dayquil with the allergies acting up. Weather was weird, it was windy and about freezing temperature for most of the day but then the wind stopped and it jumped up like 18 degrees when it was time to train. So this was a bit of a lighter session but there was intent. Starting things off with Nordic curl negatives. Drew has had me do stuff like this in the past at the start of sessions to wake up hamstrings (usually weekend) but sometimes after a bunch of other stuff. These can be quite rough on my lower legs and tendons. Took a bit to get some things setup for this for anchor. It was advised to do 3x5 with 3-5ct eccentrics. As the suggested RPE was low, I went with 3ct to be on the safe side. This seemed to be tolerable. From there it was axle pulls. Set to 13”, as this will be the competition standard for this show. Event is max pull on an axle from this height. Goal here was work up to 50-60% of my 1rm and do 10 singles with short rests (EMOM to 75 seconds). I’ve not exactly maxed here but I’ve done similar heights. Using 635lbs as the max here and went with 55% as that would also be 50% of 700lbs. It was suggested that I do a yielding isometric hold for a brief pause right off the floor so I added that. I was not sure how these would go. I was still a little leery about pulls with how the spinal feeling had been the last two times I pulled heavy with trap bar. But these felt fine. I felt muscles working here. No hard belt. Went EMOM style here and tried to just be loosey goosey with things and dancing to the music between sets. Have fun with it. This went well. Next thing was a combination of a few things. Trap bar pulls but with them as a b stance. Low RPE stuff for 2x8-12 reps with 3 second eccentrics. I wasn’t too sure what weight to use but the empty bar felt way too light. Thinking here was to provide some unilateral focus but more balance. Attempting to work the hips. Thinking being that the past training cycle had been focusing too much on hip external rotation with the combination of events. Which is kind of part of learning I guess and me getting more years on this body. First set felt a little too light still but the next set was definitely closer to what I needed. Definitely hitting the hamstrings in an odd way. It was also kind of fun with how my hair was billowing up and down as I moved haha. Next was goblet squats. Indicated tempo but no set tempo. Just to keep low RPE and move like a piston for 3x10-12. Since the concentric tempo seems to be where I get sapped the most, I went with just 15lbs as that seemed like a good weight in the past when doing tempo. Heels elevated were indicated as an option so I did that. Tried to have my knees be over toes as much as I could while keeping balance. These actually went quite well with a 3 second tempo. I was starting to feel fatigue (but I’d feel this with no weight too) by the end in my right leg (was twitching when I was stretching afterwards). Last thing was bar twists. I’ve done these in the past. Nothing indicating RPE but I aimed low here too. Indication was to be controlled and move from the hips. In the past I’ve alternated sides each rep but I felt like I should do one side and then the other here. Hopefully that was right. Shoulders were actually feeling pretty tight still from the competition. Put stuff away and stretched before eating pot roast. Iced my knees and wrapped the left arm before bed. Some stuff feeling tender but hopefully that passes and I get into a good groove for this competition.

March 11, 2023 - PA Dutch Strong 2023

I’ve usually not done the same show more than two times (besides Nationals) and this will be my third time competing at the Dutch. This will be the twelfth year it was held. It is one of the longest running PA shows (and probably in the country) and there is certainly some nostalgia that comes with that. The turnout seems to ebb and flow really. Some years it is packed to the rafters (like last year) and other times barely any (like 2016). I wasn’t too sure this one was actually happening this year as usually it get announced well in advanced and it wasn’t until about a month or so later than it usually was. I hadn’t really planned to do this one again but the events were too good for me to pass up on and with how tough last year’s path to Nationals was, might as well take advantage of what I can with home gym advantage and three amazing events for myself. With how things are lining up for 2023, I may just end up doing a repeat of last year of the shows as local show and then the same regional show. Nationals in Erie, PA again for this coming year so that is really close and I know what I’m doing then. So no real traveling outside of the state again to do all the things for the year. My younger sister was also doing this show with me so it was going to be a bit more of a family affair compared to last time (to be fair, it was a snow storm that had a 73 car pile up later in the day). Despite the advantages, I had my work cut out for me. I train like everyone is on point and I got to prepare for absolute monsters in everything. I feel I can’t slack off in the slightest or I will be buried.

Despite the extreme stress and pressure I had put on myself going into Nationals last year (which had been stressful to qualify for last year), things had gone pretty well for me. I didn’t get injured, I didn’t get sick and I had my best result at Nationals ever in the 4 times I’ve gone to it. I was kind of hoping that my result there was good enough to get called up as a reserve for the Arnold but set a cap at Christmas day as the last day to be notified and still give it an honest shot. But this time around, it doesn’t look like that they were calling up backups. So it didn’t pan out. Plan was to take an off season break and then start working toward a show in March. That had seemed to work out well for me going from 2021 into 2022 when I did this show last year. However, the best laid plans. I had taken off a week from training from after Nationals and was doing just light band and bodyweight exercises for that first week. Like three days into that my left elbow swelled up like a gremlin had stitched a baseball under the skin while I was sleeping. It was distracting enough that my mother didn’t notice I had shaved when I went over to visit and I was directed to go to urgent care. Elbow bursitis is what I was told and pretty much told nothing I could do for it to stop if from happening and to come back in if it fills up again. Got it drained and a corticosteroid injection. Went back to training but it started to fill up again and after the holidays I finally went back and it was an ordeal that time. Different person and they seemed annoyed to be doing it. They messed it up and I bled a lot. I almost passed out having a panic attack (I’m not good with seeing a lot of my own blood). Said it was too messed up to do corticosteroids and had me take anti-inflammatories for a month. That sucked. But I was able to keep training and eventually get it to be manageable. Training in off season felt different from last time around. It did seem to take a while for my body to not be freaking out and not to feel like my upper body was nuked from the second half of last year. About a month out from the competition I started to have hip flexor issues in the left leg that were new. Maybe I’m just getting old with the mileage I’ve put on myself doing this sport for nearly 15 years now. On top of the training stress, there was work stress as always. I also had the added difficulty of also training/coaching my younger sister for this same show. A credit to anyone that handles athletes, it is a balancing act of emotions for sure.

I was a ball of nerves the week leading up to the show. Well, probably fair to say the last three weeks really. But it was palpable that last week. Made sure to pack everything I was planning on needing Thursday (but had been getting it together since Sunday). Hypochondriac tendencies at every little ache and pain. Trying my best to visualize the day and the events when I was doing relaxing activities like going for walks and nodding off to sleep or taking a long shower to try and get those anxiety feelings under control. As kind of an exposure therapy. Find my heart rate increasing thinking about how things would go. I think I was getting most hung up on failing on things that I know I shouldn’t as well as trying to keep track of things for the first two events as those would require the most strategy. There wasn’t a lot of correspondence from the promoter as far as rules for the disciplines so a lot of it was assumptions really until the day and worries what was sent out to competitors that asked might not be the case showing up. It would suck big time if you found out you’d been training it wrong the whole time. So a good bit of it outside of initial stuff was assumptions from past competitions done by the promoter. Such as number of attempts to reach a weight being tie breaker on max events, no grips shirts and that competitor order was by reverse order of entry and wasn’t adjusted during the competition. My father and younger sister ended up being the first people there at the venue at just before 8AM when it was to start at 10AM. So a bit of dead time. But it let me have time to decompress though I feel the added time might not have been helpful for my sister to get herself to be calm like myself. She was going to have friends coming to watch and I had maybe one. There was going to be more but they accidentally signed up for overtime work Saturday. I weighted in light at 275lbs wearing my shoes. This wasn’t intentional, my weight just seems to fluctuate throughout the year (generally lighter in the winter and spring). Weight class had 6 in it so that meant top 2 would qualify for Nationals. Goofed around a bit to relax and got in the warm ups I needed before the show started.

The first event was circus dumbbell clean and press. Heavy option (180lbs) and light option (140lbs) with 60 second time limit. It isn’t unusual to have multiple options for an implement in an event but this was a bit different in how usually these play out. In most cases, any reps with the heavier weight beats any number on the lighter weight. This was not the case. Heavy option was worth 2 points and light option 1 point so cumulative score here. Could switch back and forth if needed. This isn’t the first time this has been done for this show or a show by this promoter. My own concern I think was that considering a 40lbs difference in an one arm lift that the point differential should be greater (like 3-5 points) but those are the rules set for the game being played. Initially with training, starting from near zero here. In the summer of 2021, I had fractured my left elbow falling from missing a box jump and this was my stronger side for circus dumbbell. And training at the time had been for a show with circus dumbbell coming up in the fall. Training didn’t go well. So goal at the start was to not get a zero here but really I wanted to get back to the level where I was repping 180lbs like I was before that incident (though haven’t done this weight for reps since late 2017). Off season was light and then once confirmed course of action, pushed it. I was doing +150lbs with pauses for comfortable reps once the shackles were taken off. But as I’m getting older, it appears I can’t handle as much work for upper body sessions. I started to backslide after three weeks of training this above 50% every week. Quick change in that (reduced volume of pressing) and I was feeling on form. My last heavy session I had done what I thought was 172lbs for a comfortable 4 reps but turns out was almost 177lbs when I weighed it afterwards to make sure it was actually that weight. Maybe I wasn’t going to feel like my shoulders were nuked like a good amount of 2022 had felt. However, I feel that my focus on the 180lbs did leave a gap in the plan as I wasn’t as conditioned for reps if I had to do the lighter weight dumbbell. I had felt confident I could get reps on the 180lbs and then do lighter dumbbell to make up difference if I felt tired. I got in decent warming up. I had been a little worried as my left side was feeling tight in the neck and shoulder the last week but weights were feeling comfortable in the rack and leg drive was feeling on point. I did only get to do a single with 140lbs with the actual dumbbell but kept a 130lbs dumbbell out of the way to hit singles on about every 10 minutes or so waiting to go. Points to beat was 13 (they did all reps with the 140lbs) and I knew that would be a tall order with second at this time with 9. I had setup things so chalk on both dumbbells and the light one I had setup standing so it didn’t take up as much space on the platform. I made sure to show the judge my arm and lockout so that my bursitis didn’t cause confusion. Time called and I went at the 180lbs dumbbell. It felt good and I went for the press and catch but my triceps just didn’t want to lockout. I didn’t panic just yet and I brought it down to my shoulder again and gave it another attempt and it was closer but still missed. This was not good. So I had to abandon the heavy dumbbell and try to get points on the board with the light dumbbell. I managed to get in five reps and even on this dumbbell my triceps didn’t want to lock out very well. This was a bit baffling. I made two attempts at a sixth rep but just wasn’t happening. I needed those missed reps. If I had gotten that rep with 180lbs or those two reps with the 140lbs, I’d have been in third place and if I’d gotten both situations, then tied for second. As it stood, I ended up fifth here. I was extremely disappointed with how this went for me. It was a do or die situation and I didn’t rise to the occasion at the end there. I felt like a chump. I’ve been here before many times and knew I had to let myself feel it and move on.

The next event for the day was side handle car deadlift. Max reps in 60 seconds with up and down commands. Suits and straps allowed. This was one where stuff wasn’t really known or published leading up to the competition. Now understandably, most promoters don’t actually know how much weight the implement is going to be really and just advise people to “train heavy”. With this car deadlift setup, we do actually have the formula to figure out the weight in hand on this. It wasn’t until 3 weeks out that any indication was made and it was stated it would be the same as it was two years prior (when it was a front bar attachment) and that had been approx. 645lbs weight in hand. However, the added 90lbs to make it so it wasn’t as much of a potential repfest so it was approx. 717lbs weight in hand. I’ve not had the best track record with lever deadlifts. We don’t seem to get along except for like one time but it was where the pivot point was much higher (the handles were welded to the car base). I’d bought a deadlift suit off someone because I had bombed a car deadlift at 2012 Nationals and saw people using them. And then they stopped having this event at Nationals after 2013 and generally don’t allow suits. So this would be a chance to see how that went. As with most the events here, it was kind of piecemeal figuring stuff out. Initially training had been with trap bar and no gear and then adjusting to wearing a single ply suit not cranked to the max and adjusting the height to be 2” lower with support stands I had. If a suit is allowed, I’m going to use it. Increase the odds that I don’t zero the event and tends to save my lower back for the rest of the competition. Despite the effort I put into overhead and deadlift, I am always seeming to be on the lower end. Suit work is tricky as I can get a good bit out of even a single ply suit (I can’t imagine the strain from a multi ply suit after just using briefs) but seeing as it can be like 80lbs more than I could normally do, it is a lot of stress on the ligaments, joints and muscles. As not knowing what to expect, my aim was to at least be getting reps with 650lbs at minimum for what could be the likely scenario. I was training for high reps and for low reps. I ended up getting a more secure setup to do banded pulls. Training was going well. Only time it didn’t feel that way was last heavy session when I worked up to 770lbs for a double. Up until then, I was feeling fine but this session I was just feeling every rep in my spine and bones rather than the muscles. I knew that I had pushed things a good bit too far. I was also feeling a bit dumb about it when I got messaged the weight was going to be the 645lbs figure. Most of the recovery leading up to the show was getting my spine and such to feel ok enough to not be angry at me. As far as warm ups went, they weren’t great. Not in that I didn’t feel good, just that my only warm up was the setup with just the car and no weight for a double with none of my gear on. The handles were really slippery so I made sure to chalk both sides of my straps. So no attempts at anything with the full gear on until it was my time to go. Got a bit of an upper ab cramp putting on the suit straps which had happened last year. Took a bit to get that to calm down. I had hit a huge PR on the deadlift event last year after this happened so I wasn’t too concerned with this development. Despite my poor placing on the first event, the promoter had the same order all day so I was going to be able to see what I needed to beat for the day. I was having doubts about the car deadlift plan of wearing the suit as I saw competitors go. Only one younger guy struggled to get 1 rep. Everyone else got double digits on this, even with the added 90lbs to the initial plan. Hell, leading reps was 20 reps! This had always been the one where I didn’t have any expectation of winning with how had signed up. There did seem to be guys with comparably raw deadlifts to me (maybe 50lbs better) that were doing double digits so I thought maybe a suit was too much. But I knew I could breath with how I had the suit set so didn’t want to mess with that. I was going to need 16 reps to get second here. Moment of truth. I go and holy hell is it heavy. This felt like the 770lbs I did in training. Change of plans. I refocused and got a tough rep and repositioned my feet into a better setup and went for the second rep. The commands were pretty quick here. But I was feeling that weight all down my spine and it was very unpleasant. Got the double and that was really all I needed here to not be in last place as I had tried to see with that second rep if I could get into a comfortable groove to try and do some reps. But that wasn’t happening. I would be putting myself out of the competition and possibly the rest of my career I felt if I tried to do much more as I’d need 10 more reps to get a half point more. I should’ve walked away to be smart here but I felt I had to prove to myself that I wasn’t “giving up”. A baptism by fire to get one more rep as the feeling that if I needed to do something when it mattered on the circus dumbbell had slipped through my fingers, I’d rectify it here. That extra rep was definitely not optimal and was a struggle. I guess my leverages don’t suit me well to this style of pull. I’m not sure if the that last super heavy double in training had wrecked me for this 3 weeks out or if it actually prepared me perfectly for this. Because if I hadn’t felt that awful spine pressure feeling in training, I’d not have gotten this I feel. Another fifth place finish and I was definitely wondering why I was there in the first place. Granted the next three events were my jam, it’s hard to come back from back to back disappointment. But again, I’ve been here before. At this point, I might as well set up a summer home cottage here.

I had built myself quite the foxhole at this point. In fifth place and 6 points behind first and second (they were tied at this point). My best events were up. I sat in the latrine for moment and did the math and it was incredibly unlikely that I’d be able to come back and win this show. Even if I won every event, the guy in first would need to get worse than third place average for the rest of the events and considering two of the events were in his wheelhouse as well, I put the focus on just doing what was needed and secure the second place spot which felt more possible if things went my way here. Up until this point, everything was going with two lanes at a time. The groups were split into one group doing one event and the other a different event since there was only one setup for the one event. So the next event was husafell carry. 300lbs picked from the floor and turns at 50’. No time limit, allowed to stop briefly to readjust grip. This is an event that I’m good at. The two times I’ve done this at Nationals I’ve been in the top 10 and the one time had been with a wrist injury and I had to switch my setup on the fly. Only times I’ve done poorly relatively has been when it was contested for time rather than distance. I had felt that this was too light since most times I’ve done this event, it was been 350lbs or more. I did know that someone else doing this show as good at this event so training had been built around building up for the long haul on this event. But also trying to limit biceps strain. If you’ve ever seen my pick up a husafell, you’ll see quite an interesting technique. I pick, and lap it and shift it to the side and hold it like a very large baby. I don’t move fast but it is a very secure grip with my long arms and good support grip. As far as the training, it was working on getting myself ready to go for over 300’ if necessary. My start I was gassing doing 225lbs sandbag for like 100’ so that was a big concern. But like a lot of the embrace the suck events, it comes back fairly quick for me. Sub maximal distances with short rests was helpful here. Surprisingly, backwards sled dragging for 100-150’ with like 1 minute rests held immensely on building up the leg work capacity while not being hard on the back or knees. Once I was satisfied with the lower body being up to par, had to work on the upper body holding on long enough. This was tackled with adding sandbag bearhugging holds with not leaning back. Those also fried the hamstrings and glutes. I had assumptions about which of the gym’s implements (they have like 3 loadable husafell stones). I was feeling real good with this event until my last training session with it. I got a little too amped up and overshot the lap and it slid on the fabric of my shorts and I panicked to grab it as I was feeling my lower back straining to adjust to the sudden change in the weight and center of gravity. So I was a little paranoid that would happen again. Last week before the contest I would actually hold an “imaginary” husafell stone at points (like when I was coming to a bunch of turns) while on my walks to get this feeling down. I’m sure I got some stares from other neighbors walking or driving by. However, I’m like 6’7” with long hair and a do-rag on, I tend to already get stares. I was quite surprised to see many people struggling with the implement. Half the field got 50’ or less with it. I guess maybe they underestimated the slickness and difficulty because of the weight. I was the only person who looked like a chinchilla with all the chalk I had applied to myself. The guy I knew would do well went off like a bullet but I could tell it was sliding on him and he called it at 200’. I’d done over 250’ with this on a bad day so as long as I didn’t royally mess up the pick here, this was in the bag. I got set and tried to put all those nerves down and got set. Felt a little heavy but I knew I couldn’t be super amped up here or I could have a bad time. I got set and I was off. This was mine. My style of holding it while slow allows me to have better spatial awareness so I can make hairpin turns without going over the line and adding distance that doesn’t get counted. I only had to turn at 200’ to win but I went about 10’ further (my dad was telling me on my way back from the turn at 150’ to not “show off”) and stood there and did a little Jon Paul jig with it before dropping it. I showboat when I can and I think I needed it to get some confidence back to keep the comeback train going. I also like to be entertaining. 212’1” for a comfortable first place.

There was a slight break in the action at this point. Maybe for the help to get some food or something. Maybe to rest as this part of the contest was definitely the most labor intensive of the contest with setup. I took the time to get a second protein shake in me. The fourth event was Hercules hold. 260lbs (was supposed to be 280lbs) and hook grip was allowed. I’ve never placed worst than second place on this event. I’m luck that the gym has this setup available but I find that this is one of those events where I don’t necessarily need to use the implement to maintain. General grip stuff such as rolling bar hangs and some one arm hangs would seem to be enough if I didn’t have access to the equipment. Especially if it isn’t the same setup as the other contests. Train for heavy and short and light and long really. Even with having this setup at the gym, it is by no means easy for use. It takes up a lot of space (it can only be used for one thing) and requires at minimum two other people to work the rig in a safe manner. So even if it was out (and it was since this was for the contest and other people at the gym were training it) it still was a hassle to get people to assist if I showed up too late in the day for training on Saturday. It’s not like spotting for say a squat or deadlift. This requires work and coordination for all involved. I always had a back up plan to do something else in the event I couldn’t wrangle in help on this. My social anxiety with talking to people I don’t know to ask for help made this a bit of struggle if there wasn’t someone else there at the gym that I knew. But I didn’t have to deviate from the plan at all this training cycle though. I was happy with this being somewhat substantial weight for the show. Last time they did this it was only 200lbs per hand. And this setup can be tough. I’d say that whatever weight on here would be 10% more on the setup that is used for Giants Live comparing how performances went with an athlete that had used both and times they achieved. I had no doubts of winning this one. I generally don’t have those feelings about events but there are those where I feel so confident that I can’t fathom someone doing better. When hook grip is involved, it certainly becomes that for me. My coaches only notes for this event for the day (we had talked strategy at length) was “just win it”. In training, I had been doing a minute with 60lbs more than what was used at contest in hand. I got very close to 75 seconds with 300lbs two weeks out. Warming up for this I did some chest door way stretches after the husafell to open up my chest and shoulders and biceps a little. I also did some hangs from rolling handles that were attached to the ceiling at the gym. That was going to be all that I needed. Usually with this event, I will try to get them to read out times. One for the athlete but I think it would also be helpful for the crowd to know the times to cheer on. It can be hard to tell if someone is close to another athletes time when there is like only 3 seconds between them. I notice the weight was 20lbs less than advertised but I was getting some fellow athletes telling me to “shut up”. It does sound like they lowered it after seeing the previous class struggle with it. Oh well. Everyone was performing at about where I expected them to be (which was less than a minute). Except for one guy, the youngster. Collegiate athlete with shot/track and oly lifting background that knew how to hook grip as well. I say youngster because I told him I had done my first show in 2008 (this was his second show) and he said he was 6yrs old at the time. He had to go and put up a time just shy of 85 seconds. I’d not gone that long in training because I didn’t feel I was going to need to and I had not expected the weight to be lowered either. So I was going to have to push things here. I confirmed what the time was and acted a bit braggadocio with saying “just tell me when I reach that” as I didn’t want to be holding this forever not knowing my time. This got a few laughs from the crowd. I usually will cut grooves into my thumbnails or fingernails for Hercules hold but didn’t feel like I needed to for this. I planned to put my boast on the line here. I didn’t feel terribly comfortable but just hunkered down. I think my behavior of calling I was beating the time and asking the time actually got the judges to be indicating 10 second intervals, which I think made things one better for me (as I was counting slower than that in my head) and getting the crowd involved. When there was about 20 seconds left I was getting a lot of yelling about “keep holding” and “push through” and it was distracting me as I was feeling just fine so I said “I’m good, just tell me when it’s time”. Again, some more laughs at my cheekiness. Held for 2 seconds or so longer just to make sure and then let go. Cocky Craig on full display now. Thumbs really sore but I knew they’d be good for stones. By chance, event order of husafell into Hercules hold had been what I was training so I was used to both suck events being back to back. 87 seconds for another (not quite as) comfortable first place.

With how things panned out here, I had managed to get back up to second place. There was a three point gap and seeing as how this next event was the guy in first place’s best event, there was no way I was getting the overall win. I just needed to make sure I didn’t screw up and lose my second place I had just obtained. I felt I had that after leapfrogging the guy that was in second with a 3 point lead. The final event was atlas stone for max. Load height to 51”. I had been working on the assumption this was going to be just three attempts but ended up being changed to unlimited attempts but miss and done. 30 seconds per attempt. These rules did seem to be a bit loose mind you but I think it was because people wanted to see big stones lifted. I’ve not really had the opportunity to train for a max stone. I’ve done shows twice that had it and I had ended up lifting the heaviest stone there both times. And training for both hadn’t exactly been ideal. I think the one I was competing like once or twice a month so there wasn’t really any “training” and the other I had fractured my pinky fingers a month out so I couldn’t touch stones and heaviest I had gotten up to was only 375lbs before that had happened and I still did the 450lbs stone. So I was curious to see what I could do if I was unimpeded and knowing that there was a monster stone at the gym. Stones don’t seem to be in vogue at bigger level shows at the moment as far as the amateur side of the sport. I used to chase big stone lifts because of seeing it at the Arnold years ago. So there has been generally long breaks from when I’ve done stones. There are years where there is no stone work. This time had been 18 months since I last did stones but I know it takes like one or two sessions to get back to high 90% of my ability on them. Two sessions in and I was feeling fantastic. But then switching over to the larger diameter stones seemed to cause and issue for me. Again, maybe I’m putting a lot of wear and tear on my body. I have a good bit of flexibility and balance with stones and get into a really deep squat to lap big and heavy stones. The stance has to be wider for the bigger stones and maybe that was an issue as that seemed to cause an issue for my left hip flexor/groin and perhaps even my sciatica and disc issues. I’m actually still not quite sure what it was/is but it had definitely put a damper on the prep and my training in general. It had actually had me thinking about pulling out of the contest a month out with how much it was bothering me (it had started about 6 weeks out but was manageable). On top of that, I was feeing like something was missing to my stone game. My extension didn’t use to feel so tough on these bigger stones. I’ve not really had to extend with them since like 2013 but I’ve used them in 2018 but I guess I didn’t really think about it at the time. It was likely hand position but I didn’t really figure that out until I was two weeks out and didn’t have a chance to actual test it out. I felt there were some good stone loaders here but it felt more like it was more than a friendly competition between me and the guy in first place. He had actually indicated he had done this show specifically so that he could go head to head with me on max atlas stone as I’ve got a reputation as a really good stone loader and he wanted to see who was better. And he is a good stone lifter. He’s been successful with 465lbs and a whisker away from 520lbs. I wasn’t sure what shape he was coming in at here but if the other events were an indication, it felt like he was probably feeling good. And I wasn’t. But I couldn’t show that. Try to play this game. I had more familiarity with the stones here (hell, I made some of them) and I knew he’d not been training to 51” as his setup was 48”. And I had a feeling his stones he trained on weren’t 22”. The atmosphere really changed with the stones despite spectators leaving. Because everyone just surrounded the stones. It was feeling sweltering despite it being below freezing outside. Had to walk away a few times to cool off and keep my tacky from getting too viscous. I elected to open heavy at 375lbs as I knew that attempt amount would matter for ties. Rushed this a bit for the lap and ended up being more of a lower back load than I had wanted. Only one HW didn’t end up trying/getting the 375lbs stone. This was then the next phase. See, the gym has a gap from 375lbs and then it is 420lbs, 425lbs, 430lbs, 440lbs, 455lbs. And the stones are bigger diameter. So on top of a big jump, it isn’t pleasant. I had hoped the promoter would bring their 407lbs stone but nope. I had been training to go from 375lbs to 440lbs but with how things had felt, I was going to take 425lbs. There was some commotion because me and the other guy that train here on the big stones wanted the 425lbs instead of 420lbs. It was smaller diameter and had a side that actually stuck to tacky. The 420lbs was dusty and really slick. Annoyance that we wanted a 5lbs jump. Look, trying to give everyone the best chance at this next lift. I had to adjust the stone myself to get it in the right place and lost a bit of tacky but went with it. I didn’t plan to deep lap the stone but I did and got it up there. I wasn’t feeling terribly confident for 440lbs. Just me and first place got the 425lbs stone. We both then called 440lbs. I was up first and I went for it. Trying to not think about anything bad happening. It came off the floor easy but as I went to lap and pinch, it slid and I dropped it. I tried two more times and walked away. Then he went and got it lapped and I thought it was over. He went for the extension but couldn’t get it high enough and about blacked out. However, the judges decided to give us 5 minutes to rest and go again. I noticed at this point that my stone shoes had blown out on the right side. I’ve had these things for over a decade. I got set again and went at it and got it lapped. Lots of shouting and noise. I got set and tried the hand placement that I thought might work better and it did. It felt like old times and so easy. I let out a roar to the crowd. Partly because I was happy but also because my hip was flaring up on me at that moment of triumph. If I had gotten this the first try and it actually mattered, I felt good enough to try my 490lbs stone that only myself and Mike Jenkins have ever lifted in any capacity. I passed on further attempt and the guy in first got 440lbs on his second try like me and decided to go for 455lbs for the win. I warned him it was a tough stone (I’m the only person to have lifted it) and he did get it lapped but couldn’t load it. So a draw. Fine with that. Tied for first here.

A typical Craig show in that starting out at a big deficit and then coming back to something respectable by the end of it. It really doesn’t seem to matter how many people end up competing at this show, they are always there to throw down. The friends that had come to see my sister and myself had to leave before the stones had started but they seemed to enjoy what they saw. I think both me and my sister get a little worried when non-strongman friends come as not sure if they will enjoy it or be entertained as it is hours of people lifting weird things with usually not very comfortable seating or any food or facilities. It is nice that I continue to meet new people with the sport that compete. People to keep an eye on. Wonder how long until they start beating me at my good events. I think a thing that I noticed from video is that not very often is there people I’m competing against watching me and how I’m doing whereas I’m literally in everyone else’s videos/pictures standing there with an intense look on my face as I watch. Even if circus dumbbell had gone my way, I’d still have been way too far down to realistically get back to first place with the deadlift how that felt and went. Got to keep working and adjusting the training plans for next time. As always thinking about how I can improve and make adjustments for the next time. I ended up placing second and securing my invite to Strongman Corporation Nationals and that had been the goal for this show really. My sister also got second and PR’d everything besides circus dumbbell (so we twinned today I guess haha). She also gets the nerves but always makes friends at these shows. I’m proud of her also having a zero on the first event (she’s never had this happen) and coming back to be competitive. We were out of there by 4PM and I was just so tired but too sore to be able to go to sleep. Had 2lbs of meat at Mission BBQ for dinner with my parents and younger sister to cap off the day. Need to rest a little. I took off work for Monday as I didn’t want to deal with daylight savings crap after a contest haha. Next thing is Northeast Regionals in June.