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.