June 17, 2023 – Week 14, Day 4

Sandbag Tosses (10’ away)
30x1
30x1
35x1
40x1
30x1/35x1/40x1
30x1/35x1/40x1

Banded GHD Back Extensions (around neck, doubled)
abx5
abx5
abx5

One Legged Kettlebell Romanian Deadlifts (opposite side)
44x5/5
70.5x12/12
70.5x12/12

Banded Step Ups with TKEs (12” box)
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Hip Harness Backwards Tire Drags
148x125’ (60 seconds)

Stretching
 
Comments: So a positive at this time I think is that I’m handling my rage quit day much better I think than when it happened leading up to Nationals. Granted that was little further out but I skipped a workout entirely which I’ve only done once because I fractured my elbow in 2021 and didn’t have an alternative program setup on such short notice. But I was feeling better stress wise but even when you admit it out loud, there is still recoil. Like a slight eye twitch and having a lot of tension/pressure in the upper back and neck. You also tend to notice all the little things going on with your body from pretty much pushing things for 6 months straight. I worked through lunch at work to kind of get things on track and keep a good pace going as it was going to be a three-day weekend and I’d only be working 3 days next week (still going to be stressful). Trying to keep a balance by just shutting things down when my time ends and starts with work. Maintenance needed for the upkeep. Had a nice walk after work with it raining just a little. Made sure I got a decent amount of soft tissue work done and had a large and tasty Mississippi roast for dinner. Weather was to be good the next day so I was fine with sleeping in for this short training session planned. I didn’t really want to drive out but I had reason to related to sandbag. Any plans I had of sleeping in past my work time were disrupted by my neighbor’s deciding that 8AM on a Saturday was the perfect time to have their crappy fence replaced. Drive out wasn’t to be that bad as no construction but there was still that congestion around the usual area. Even though I got up earlier, I kind of took my time getting ready to get thoughts on paper and get affairs in order and plans as far as what I still needed to do for this week. I ended up being there on the tail end for most of the people leaving. I did get to see some friendly dogs so that was a plus. No split squats to warm up. Right into bag toss. I did do some warming up beyond what I’ve been doing with the kettlebell weights on the knees and modified Cossack squat stretch. Some hand assisted split squats and stretch. I’ve kind of been against static stretching at the start of training because it can dampen contractile force but there is a trade off in that it can allow for better positioning and movement. Got bag toss setup. I had driven out because two reasons; one to return the 30lbs toss bag so that people training for upcoming shows with that can use it to warm up and the other being that if I felt good with bag toss that I could go heavier and test things out. Bag toss options were to either do 6x1 EMOM or to do 2x3 with 80-100% of the first three bags in the medley at the show. See how I felt but if I did do 2x3, it would be the lower end as I didn’t want to go over 40lbs here. Either was fine. I wanted to do it on this setup as well since the video for the demonstration showed that the bags would be going left to right as opposed to right to left like how I’ve usually trained things. Not a big difference but that way was not an automatic action for me comparatively. Especially since during one of the early weeks when I was testing all the different positions, running from the left side out was the worst variation for me. Either option would get some practice in (could get more run ups with the singles but wouldn’t get any transition practice done). So I did the run outs for all tosses beyond the warming up stuff I did. That first toss I felt off and was thinking that maybe I just do 30lbs all day. I was slow on the hop back and my lower body felt stiff. I rested a bit and went at it again and this time it was on point so I moved on from there. Did singles for the other two bags in the planned series and set things up. I was tempted to bug someone for assistance but decided it wasn’t worth it. First run I hit the support leg on the left side with the first bag on the hop back and swing with the sand bag. No issues the other bags. Second set I did some little things to make it feel like competition. Went to each sandbag and made sure the sand was at the bottom and even and the handles were facing me. Then did a little acknowledgement of the imaginary crowd and officials (while having the audio play in my head of the call out and commands). I hesitated a little with the first bag that time and that slowed me down slightly but I made up for it with the other two bags. So that was finished and went well. Rest of the workout was more in line with the workout from Thursday as far as being light and low volume and movement focused. The next exercise was to be something that was working hip hinge. This had been the zercher band goodmorning stuff with the swiss ball. Thinking was that was too intense and would stress the upper back and traps that we want to heal up and be fresh for competition. GMs with bar on back also option but might be too much lower back stress considering how pulls went on Wednesday so the ideal exercise was back extensions with band tension for explosive reps. Either holding the band or around the neck. I figured I’d do the neck variation so as not using the arms and keep the pivot point the same. This was a lot of band tension but I could move it fast to the point of completion fast so it worked out. Wasn’t too stressful. Next thing was one leg Romanian deadlfits. Opposite loading. It has been a bit since done these. And been longer since unilateral hip hinge exercise. Especially without some way to be bracing the non-working leg. Most unilateral stuff has had less balance component lately. There was someone in the dumbbell area and I didn’t want to be around people I didn’t know so I did these with a kettlebell that was probably a better option anyways. The weight was fine (kind of surprised it was moving this easy) but balance was definitely an issue. Balance stabilizing requirement and the offloading were definitely going to recruit/wake up some stuff that had been dormant and quiet until now. Of the things I did this day, probably the most winding. Then it was more unilateral stuff but with knee extension. Step ups with TKE. I’ve usually done these lower heights but decided to do 12” box. I was allowed to do anything that emphasized gait and/or unilateral that felt good on the knees. I wanted to see how these felt on the knees. These and the rdls I did without knee sleeves. And felt fine enough without so that was good (only really wanted to wear them from the bag toss since I’ll be wearing them at contest). I think that removing one of the more intensive knee/quad stretches from the post workout routine is helping with the knee joint recovering better between sessions. Last thing was conditioning exercise of choice. Drew feels that this show doesn’t really require much in the way of sustained effort beyond the stone to shoulder and that is only a minute and I’ve already done two sessions of working the full minute and then some for both the stone and viking press. So the suggested option was just to do a minute of backwards sled dragging but could do longer time or do backwards treadmill pushes for like 2 sets of 5 minutes if I felt that would feel good on my knees. Seeing as how my knees were feeling good with the previous exercise, I went with the sled drag option. But using the tire sled so the friction made it hard to go fast. Hope being that I wouldn’t run out of space to get 60 seconds of work done. Managed to get that done and I felt fine after the 60 seconds. I’ve done a good bit of these and my tolerance has improved a good bit. Almost relaxing at this point. Tire ended up weighing a good bit more than I thought it did. I ended up talking the ear off Andrew before I started stretching and then did the same to George when he showed up after I finished up stretching. Got home and my new credit card had arrived so I spent like an hour getting stuff setup and stuff switched over before spending an even with my family. Iced knees before bed.