May 6, 2023 – Week 8, Day 4

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

Sandbag Tosses (10’ away)
30x1
35x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
55x1 (didn’t clear marker)
35x1/40x1/45x1
35x1/40x1/45x1
35x1/40x1/45x1
40x1/45x1/50x1 (didn’t clear marker)

Hatfield Split Squats
65x5/5
115x5/5
155x3/3
205x3/3
245x3/3
295x3/3
350x10/10
360x10/10

Pin Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+28lbs/+93lbs, 33” height, swiss ball)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3

GHD Back Extensions (bearhug)
bwx5
25x5
55x5
100x15

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

Axle Wrist Curls
88x10
138x20
138x20
138x20

Stretching
 
Comments: Not really in a rush for this session. Not because anything difficult or worries. More that nothing I was doing really required anyone to assist and I had some things I needed to do that I had put off. The weather was to be perfect all day so no rush on that front (only thing outside was bag toss). I wanted to get sleep to get the stress out of me a little with the week and I also needed to get stuff in order for the session since I didn’t do that the night before. Also needed to get gas as well. Drive out was fine. A fair number of people training today. Someone else had music on but it was really quiet. I got the toss tower setup before I started things. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. Single set. I had thought that doing a set of bodyweight to get used to things (as well as the mobility stuff) would make that set felt as comfortable as it did the second set last week. It did not. So not sure what much else to do to have these feel nice to start off the session oh well. Not terribly important. I might just go back to bodyweight for these. Any ways, on to the fun stuff. Sandbag tossing. The heavier week. What was indicated was to do 3 sets of 3 series to get used to transitions and multiple implements being tossed. Goal was to do them in a way that was challenging but not missing. It can be hard to gauge if missing or not on this setup as I’d either need someone standing on the nearby dumpster to confirm or stop the camera after every set and check. Can’t expect someone to be taking time out of their day to stand on sticking trash and it would exponentially increase how long stuff took as the camera is on top of the dumpster in lieu of a person so I can check later. All I can tell is a miss if I hit the band as that would be under 14’. So far haven’t on this setup and most are good upon review after the session. I tend to not deviate from the program on everything. If I do, it isn’t intentional. But bag toss has me feeling a certain way. I think what I was thinking here was that I do warming up singles that go above the weight for the tosses so one I’d get used to the heavier bag and then the work weights would feel light. Done for other stuff and bag toss doesn’t take a lot out of you. This did help me with getting comfortable with sandbag to shoulder during prep for PA Dutch 2022. Did the hop back tosses up to 45lbs. I knew 45lbs was the limit (iffy it would go over 15’) and did the walk back style after that. 50lbs felt heavy (it would’ve cleared 14’6”) but figured I wanted to see what 55lbs felt like as I’ve not touched that kind of weight since 2021 PA’s Strongest. That went right into the band so not clearing crap today. I wasn’t planning any heavier than that anyways. Not discouraged, just want to know since I’m launching lighter bags potentially higher than that 2021 prep. Enough breaking from the plan (kind of). So for the series of three, I was to do ascending weight (or same weight) and my options were to do first toss as the hop back and then the other two as walk back and toss or all of them walk back and toss. My plan was do the first option. My reptile brain forgot that as the first one felt so easy that I automatically went to hop back the second one and realized I wasn’t to do that and got off balance and just settled for the toss over when I was stable. Reviewing back the video, the first two were good, the last bag would’ve been close but no. Second set I decided to just do what my body wanted to do and that ended up being hop back the first two bags and then get stable for the last bag. That ended up being successful (besides my glasses falling off). Last set ended up being the best. Each set I was improving the time by about 3 seconds. I do need to figure out what I’m doing with my headgear on this as the do-rag does not want to stay on and my glasses don’t either. They actually fell off again and the left lens popped out. I was worried I’d need to stop for the day but I was able to get the lens back in. I may need to consider wearing the soft contact lenses for this. With how these went and I was feeling like I was getting better as I went, I figured I’d just see if I could do it with the weights bumped up a notch. I wanted to actually do one hop back and two walk back in a set without it being an oops. First two went over fine. 50lbs went into the band. Oh well. But this is good to know. I need to work some things out as well. I was inconsistent back in 2019 with clearing two bags (30lbs and 40lbs) over 15’ and I had no issues with that (even adding a third bag) so I’m definitely better. I think that this setup also is less stressful in that much more forgiving. If you missed on the old setup (wood board), it let you know violently and it would give the bag back which lead to me instinctively reaching for it and injuring my right shoulder for a time. 50lbs appears to be my limit. 60 seconds is a lot of time so I shouldn’t feel rushed on this besides points and split times. Need to think on what is the least costly energy wise getting the heavier bags into position to toss. Fun stuff for me with puzzle solving. That was it for the sandbag (or so I thought) and then it was inside for the rest of the session. Just because it isn’t blazing hot, sometimes the people in the gym don’t let the fans run and it can get so humid. Some people like it to “lose weight”. No thanks. Hatfield split squats again. Same as last time with the plan here work up in sets of 3-5 reps and do 2x10 at RPE 8. Plan was to do 40-50lbs jumps so that I was doing 335lbs. Or at least have the option to do that and potentially jump up from there if necessary. I say that as these have been improving a good bit each time. Only real concerns being that joints and such feel fine. Last working up set I felt strong and thought screw it, do 350lbs for the working sets. This did feel heavy on the unrack and it took a bit to commit but it went fine. The initiating of putting the leg back has me thinking about power stairs with descending the steps backward as an efficient way to reset myself. These feel about the same each side at this weight now, though slightly easier for the right side. 350lbs was decently challenging but I figured I did 10lbs more on the second set last time and that went well so maybe I could do it here. It would also be half the weight of contest on the frame, the one moving event. This felt about the same as the set with 350lbs. Again, quite pleased with how these are progressing. Next up was the banded zercher goodmornings off of pins with the safety squat bar. Well not quite right away. See in my planning for the session, I didn’t bring my elbow sleeves for my arm protection on these and I found a pair of knee sleeves what would work. This guy there at the gym training powerlifting noticed the brand on the knee sleeves I was borrowing and struck up a conversation with me. You ever get stuck in a conversation you can’t leave? Now imagine it is with someone that doesn’t remember they’ve had a similar conversation with you almost a year prior. I had told him this stuff then but this ended up being a much more in depth conversation. The only thing I didn’t recall was his name which I don’t think he told me last time. I didn’t want to let him know we had spoken before as he clearly didn’t remember talking to me. Almost let it slip when he said his name and expected me to say my name and I had to be like “right… he doesn’t remember…”. I had time to kill today and it allowed for some of the humidity in the gym to clear up. So back to the training. Indication was to drop back down to 245lbs for 5x3 and increase the band tension. Like 5-10% more I guess (20-30lbs). That was going to be tricky because I was using micro bands and those are my lightest bands. So adding another pair would be a bit much. I also didn’t want to get fancy with the anchoring for the bands as this is likely an exercise that will be in training off and on and there are sessions after Regionals leading into Nationals that will need to be done at my house. So I wanted something I could do at home if needed. So that was mini bands. Ended up being a lot less at the start than I was expecting but a lot of kick at lockout. The other thing was I believe that the swiss ball I was hugging was slightly larger diameter than what I had been using. But I couldn’t locate the smaller one. So that added to the difficulty. And probably for the best. These felt like work but good work. Enough of the complicated stuff. Back extensions but change up in how these were done. Not doing the barbell style with the short ROM. Bear hug weight and do them full ROM and continuously. So I wasn’t sure what to expect considering the weights I was using on the barbell stuff. But I recalled being able to do a decent amount on these in the past for reps. Plan was a set of 12-15 reps at RPE 7 sand work up with sets of 3-5 reps. Started with bodyweight and that was really easy. 25lbs added just to see if the load would change things. Not really. Ok, I guess I can go heavier. 55lbs throw bag and expecting that to be the working weight and nope. So I rolled out the 100lbs sandbag (I was trying to see if there was like a 70lbs slam ball or something). Aim was just 12 and thinking it would be hard. Nope, 15 reps and feeling fine (other than the stress in the ankles from the pads). Abs up next and again, not the finisher for this workout. Standing with bands two sets at RPE 7-8 with it being 20-25 reps. Notes was same as last week. Well I felt I could still progress from there so I added some mini bands to the setup and it did make it harder but still doable. Feel like I needed to do these to build up for all the extending with weight I be doing. So last thing was grip work. This wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting Hercules hold to show up but it didn’t and that is ok. This was another grip exercise of choice but strongly suggested for one out of the options. My grip is strong and that plan was wrist flexion since there can be that with the Hercules hold handles. For myself, I tend to keep everything relaxed in the hands and arms. I think I was also not feeling doing axle curls as they seem to feel terrible on my wrists. I also felt like things like wrist roller weren’t quite want I wanted to do. But I did research some things for axle and wrist curls from other sports like arm wrestling, grip and rock climbing. And I found a way that intrigued me and seemed like it would work. Essentially not having the wrists bend back and just focusing on the flexion. Lifting the axle out of the rack and propping on my thighs. I ended up using Jenkins’ solid axle and that empty at 40kgs was feeling too easy. So I added 50lbs and that felt like not a good time on my wrist joints initially. Then I got into the right position and felt fine. Felt my forearms working and it felt better each set. I had not planned to do 20 reps sets really but here we are. I think that next time I will just need to warm up a bit smarter. Put stuff away and took my time getting data for loading of the wheelbarrow for Nationals planning purposes. I think it would be beneficial to get some sessions on it but it would be a pain to load up with enough weight to actually be something representative. Stretched before driving home. Iced knees when I got home and had burritos for dinner.