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.