May 20, 2023 – Week 10, Day 4

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
bwx5/5
17.5’sx10/10

Sandbag Tosses (10’ away)
30x1
30x1
30x1
35x1
35x1
40x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
50x1
50x1
50x1
30x1/35x1/40x1/45x1/50x1 (didn’t clear marker)

Hatfield Split Squats
65x5/5
131x5/5
197x5/5
263.5x3/3
307.5x3/3
351.5x12/12

Pin Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+28lbs/+93lbs, 33” height, swiss ball)
80x3
130x3
170x3
220x3
260x3
260x3
260x3
260x3
260x3

GHD Back Extensions (bearhug)
25x5
60x4
100x3
150x12

Standing Band GHD Abs
(2)ab+(2)lb+(2)mbx25
(2)ab+(2)lb+(2)mbx25

Axle Wrist Curls
135x10
201x20
201x20
201x20

Stretching
 
Comments: Friday was ok and kind of needed to take that day a bit easier to recover from being stressed and out with a lot of people. I slept good. Another not really in a rush session. There was the possibility of being invited somewhere but leaving things open to allow in case. I woke up for my work time but decided nope and went back to sleep for another hour before getting up and getting things sorted. Like cleaning up the kitchen and getting stuff ready for training. Make sure I didn’t forget anything like last time this session came up. Weather looked nice but it seemed to not look so good as I was driving out. I do know though that usually the weather moves west to east so likely it would be nice by the time I actually got started with my day. Some people there doing strongman and I’d say just one person actually training for something. So it was kind of like everyone else was just doing a lighter version of what that person was doing and assisting with setup and tear down. However I feel like they were putting in more intensity to training arms afterwards than the strongman stuff. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. Single set. I’ve been doing kettlebell weighed stuff for knees over toes and those have seemed to help have things feel better when it comes time to actually do stuff like squats and split squats. So not great but not terrible on these today. Most of this workout was just assistance type stuff with only sandbag toss being an actual event (not that the other stuff wasn’t important). Sandbag work the plan was to work up in five singles and do a run of the 5 bag series at the show with 85-90% of contest weight. I wasn’t entirely sure on what the working up part was to be as far as the intensity of the singles. I do singles working up any ways so the specification had me wondering on if this was to be heavy or just what I’ve been doing. I erred on the heavy side since this is the heavy week. And probably was the wrong choice. I was trying to work out hop back and walk back as well as trying to be efficient and be mindful of time. I did at least two tosses at each weight going up 5lbs to test things out to 40lbs. 45lbs was when I went to just the walk back style as I had kind of proven I couldn’t hit contest height with it doing a hop back at this point with my current abilities and form. I think part of me wanted to do the overload again with trying for 55lbs or 60lbs to then come back down for the series. Make it not feel so heavy. I ended up sticking with 50lbs as that was barely clearing the band (which had been retied the day before). First toss I was a bit too far away and got closer but too close that I hit the back of the support on the back swing. Third toss was the best one height wise and would’ve gone over 50’ but it didn’t arc back like at all. Last toss I did better than the first two but not the same height as the third. I rested fully before setting things up for the run. I knew this wasn’t happening if I wasn’t getting 50lbs on its own today. Just get it done and move on. No problems with the hop back tosses for the first three bags. Walk back for the 45lbs bag. That one only got over the band. Took my time with the 50lbs. Didn’t even touch the band. So yeah, not thrilled with that. Feeling like this event I’m the most off the mark. Need to get this sorted fast. Note to watch videos later when not so annoyed. Put all the stuff away outside and into the gym for the rest of training. Hatfield split squats again. I think this is the last week of them. This was one of the 12ish exercises that were mentioned and this was to be like 1-2RIR. The rack I wanted to use was in use by someone doing shoulder pressing so I had to make due with a different one. I decided to use kilo plates to kind of mess with things as I was annoyed with myself on sandbag. If I wanted to be uncertain of the weight at times, I was successful with that. Two guys showed up and asked about how to pay via Venmo for the day pass so that was a little distracting and when I came back I wasn’t sure if I had done the weight loaded or just had it ready to lift. I was taking 30kgs jumps until switching to 20kgs. My knees were uncharacteristically bothering me on these. Maybe taking Dayquil to help sleep had masked things and that being in different shoes on my feet for a few hours coupled with not icing my knees could also be part of it. Being uncertain of the jumps also had me not applying support gear in the fashion I would normally do so. So top weight ended up a little heavy than I had planned and I was a bit nervous my knees would be like nope. But I guess having my hard belt on made me not have sore knees. These were tough but it was more just the back foot slid on the second to last rep on the one side and then at the first few reps on the other. I was kind of surprised how well these had gone considering the working up and just my mindset after sandbag disappointment (which again, I’ve never attempted more than three sandbags and never been successful with more than 2 previously). Next up was the banded zercher goodmornings off of pins with the safety squat bar. No distractions this time around. Plan was the same band tension as last time and increase the weight by 10-15lbs for the 5x3. I had remembered my elbow sleeves this time around. Almost had an issue when I forgot to take off 25lbs from one side warming up. That initial breaking off the pins for the first rep does get tougher but I seem to still be able to get good power and attempt to get ankle extension (which is something I know I need work on). Back extensions after that. Again, just one top set bear hug style. I felt like I could do a good bit wanted to be smart about it. It can be a bit of strain on the things anchored into the machine rather than what is being lifted. Did a 25lbs plate to start and then swapped in the 60lbs slam ball. 100lbs sandbag was next up. I had done that last time for a comfortable 15 reps so doing a few reps wasn’t going to hurt anything. Plan was again “12ish” and while it would seem that 125lbs would make sense considering last time, I decided to be bold and go for 150lbs. Honestly, it was tougher to get a grip on it initially to secure for the movement than the eventual set. It really does seem like the deadlift grip stuff with short ROM are a lot harder for me. Standing band abs again. Same as it was two weeks ago. Didn’t feel the need to change that up. Initially felt tough the first set and few reps (probably because I did these on Wednesday for 2x50) but then it felt comfortable after that and easier the second set. So last thing was grip work. I was again surprised no Hercules hold. Same as two weeks ago with flexion based grip work and the suggested axle wrist curls. I decided to do those again to continue working on my wrist strength building and the unique way these seem to hit the forearms. While I liked using the Jenkins axle, it doesn’t exactly fit in the power racks and not all plates fit it. So I used the 25lbs hollow axle. But I used the calibrated plates to fancy it up. Smoke’em if you got’em. I was rushing a little and this exercise can be weird in that it feels hard on the wrists initially but then feels better as you do more reps and sets. I also wasn’t expecting to be able to do such a big jump in weight and maintain the same reps I did. Put stuff away and got home to stretch.