August 20, 2023 - August 26, 2023 - Week 9

 August 21, 2023 – Week 9, Day 1

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
90x5
110x3
130x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x2

Stretching
 
Comments: So part of the new strategy here was to not do workouts the rest of the week. And try to not think about training during that time. Get sleep and eat good food. Thinking about it would add stress. Granted, I have a hard time not thinking about training. Read books, watch television, something. So did chores on top of that stuff. Watched strongman stuff as well. Also thought about training. But more logistics of setup than actual training. Like what I’d need and time frame. Only hiccup to the week was when I decided to mow my parent’s lawn. I tried to use their electric mower and it was temperamental and I finally ended up finishing with my gas mower but I was outside for so long without shade that I got sun burn on my shoulders and traps. So that’s not fun but I guess I’m not putting anything on my traps and applying lotion to help the skin heal. Trying to come back to this slightly refreshed. And if not refreshed, anxious to get back to it. Part of my thinking was that some of these workouts are going to be quite short and basic that I could probably end up doing them during my lunch break, which would give me more time after work to do things. So I may do that. Will see how things feel and judging by weather. Speaking of weather, again it was looking like a thunder storm for this session if I wanted until after work. So lunch it was. Despite log not going great last week and kind of causing this revamping, log was going to be the first workout back. Just log. And light for doubles. Notes indicated it should feel like I didn’t really do anything. 150lbs for five doubles. Looking ahead, it would seem I’d doing this every Monday with 20lbs increases. Those appear to leave the option to rep out the last set (up to a limit). Not the case for this week. The option to do reps on when I’m feeling good will be helpful to gauge if I’m going to be ready for the bare minimum. I hit the minimum I feel I need on the fourth week (assuming things are going well and on point still by that point) then Nats is 100% on. If not, then reassess. Any ways, on to the training. What little there is for the day. I was advised to do the minimum I feel I need to be ready and raring to go. Honestly, it hasn’t really been much of anything most of the time besides the occasional mobility stuff. Lapped the log and sat with it for a bit to get that sorted. Lower back was feeling a bit stiff. Not sure sense haven’t done anything since Wednesday besides walking and chores. Maybe just letting my guard down is letting me feel how fatigued stuff is/has been. I went with only knee sleeves on. No grip shirt or belts or elbow sleeves. I shouldn’t need them for this. My thinking on the grip shirt was it would be a hassle and I think that with how humid and hot it has been that I’m overheating in the material that it is causing me to sweat a ton. In a temperature controlled place like a convention center it shouldn’t be an issue. But again, this weight should be fine and not be needing to push things at this point. The good thing here was that the pick and cleans with the log today felt easy, as they should. But as soon as I got it racked, I realized there was another reason besides time as to why not usually doing workouts at lunch. No cloud cover and staring right into the sun. So that was uncomfortable and really messed with my balance. Knees were a bit achy, especially the right one. I had not gotten a chance to do soft tissue work as I didn’t want to irritate the sunburn. I’d say the second set was the worst of the bunch as the sun got me good and I got too far forward the first rep and ended up pretty much strict pressing it. Fourth set I got a little lightheaded as I was trying to keep my breath to keep from getting off balance. I guess first and last sets were probably the best. Well last set my body was feeling the best. Speed of the movement looked good though. I had felt like wasn’t powerful and slow but video isn’t lying. Put stuff away. Save the stretching for after work. So I guess off the races with a start here.

August 23, 2023 – Week 9, Day 2

13” Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, briefs)
145x5
235x3
285x3
325x2
375x2
415x1
465x1
510x5

Stretching
 
Comments: Not sure how I feel at this point. While it was nice to get in a workout session that was quick and simple I don’t know how I feel about it. Positives was that it meant I only needed like 40 minutes total to setup, train and tear down and then I’d be having a meal and back to work. Then having a lot more time after work to get other stuff done and have a somewhat more reasonable dinner time. Trying to stay positive. Sleep isn’t quite where I want it. Weight is a bit down still. Hard to tell right now as there was the anxiety with having to come into the office the next day so having to get up an hour earlier and then not having time to do anything when I got home. Stuff is booked for Nationals but I’m not sure on that. Not 100%. I’m mostly for it with the plan in place and feeling like if I hit the numbers I will be ok to go in a month. It is not helping things with me seeing other people that I will be competing against progressing well with training. Doing this just to do it isn’t that enticing to me. I like to have a goal and competition appears to be important to that being entertaining enough. I find myself spinning my wheels if I’m not leading up to something. Feeling like those not set in stone dates and such let me be a coward with moving the goal posts and if I focus on how many goals I’ve not reached, it would be unproductive and devasting. I was eager to do this workout. Like wanting to do it the very next day. But not sure if it was because I wanted to lift or if it was to get it over with and get to a definite conclusion sooner rather than later. Similar to the first workout in that it was just a single exercise. So it would work in being done during my lunch break. This was to be trap bar deadlifts. And unlike the log pressing, this was working up to a top set and that was it. Top set of 5 reps and working up after warming up in sets of 1-3 reps. And by top set, I was to do a weight I felt I could do for 10 reps, so leaving 5RIR. The suggested was just doing plate jumps. I figured that I’d probably need to do more sets to kind of get warmed up here. I have a trap bar at home and it isn’t the same as what will be at Nationals. But honestly, the one at the gym may not be exactly like Nationals either in that it might be more narrow compared to the competition conditions. The one at home has taken a beating and I likely won’t get up to the weights that made dents in it when pulling from higher and with a suit. I had to get out the tape measurer to make sure I had the height correct. Or as close as I could and erroring on lower than higher. This trap bar is as wide or slightly wider than contest. So with how the plan was, I was told to wear what I plan on wearing for competition here. So that meant the multiply gateway briefs and knee sleeves. I don’t know exactly what I expected here. I had run numbers and it seemed that this was to be 75% of my 1rm that I felt I could do at this time. 510lbs would be about 680lbs with would be the 310kgs or so. I really would prefer to get above 700lbs and 330kgs would be 727lbs. But I need to accept where I’m at. So plate quarter jumps. Plate jump at first and then the 40-50lbs jumps after that. I don’t remember the briefs feeling so uncomfortable. Maybe the slightly higher pick position from last year on axle didn’t have the teste crushing sensation. Maybe it did. It has been almost a year since I last used this anyways. I could tell that this wasn’t a day that I’d be crushing things and going above and beyond. I had kind of wanted to work up to 545-555lbs range instead and have it so that I was doing 330kgs 1rm but it is definitely not there right now. This stuff was feeling heavy. The uncomfortable sensation of the briefs was probably not helping. Had to get a bit more hyped up than I was planning for 510lbs. Spine was feeling a bit achy. No touch and go here. I was kind of hoping that the lower would get the legs into it a bit with how it felt when I did the pause pulls vs the higher pick that seemed to stress the lower back a good bit two weeks ago. I do feel that if gun to the head that I’d get 10 reps with this weight. Three more reps would’ve been tough but doable. It can be hard to gauge with deadlifts as sometimes I can feel like absolute crap and the weights feel heavy but I can keep gutting out reps. But it wasn’t a sense of victory with completing the workout. Just felt like I’m feeling my age and this is work. Pulling down that upbeat balloon thinking that I could be repping 600lbs for a set of 10 reps when that is very much not case right now. Put stuff away and again saved the stretching for after work.

August 26, 2023 – Week 9, Day 3

Sandbag Tosses (16’)
EMOM
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
EMOM
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1

Stone Carry and Loads
Stone of Steel
140x10’ to 50”
140x10’ to 50”
140x10’ to 50”
Atlas Stone
235x10’ to 50”
EMOM
265x10’ to 50”
265x10’ to 50”
265x10’ to 50”
265x10’ to 50”
265x10’ to 50”

Stretching
 
Comments: Finding it a little tough to find use for the extra time I have now with not having multi-hour long training sessions. Being able to do them during my lunch break during the week do give me more time after work. But to do what exactly? I’ve already had things cut to the bare minimum I think as far as activities to work around that. I don’t watch a lot of television and it is more when I have the time or need something to provide some white noise. Multitasking I guess with playing something while I’m stretching (that has been after work) or while I’m eating my biggest meal at dinner. I know this is likely to be this way for the four weeks planned. So probably more reading. Find uses for the time. After the last session, can’t say I had any confidence boost. Medial deltoids were sore and I think that had to do with the trap bar I have being wider (confirmed today). I was feeling like I should be training rather than having two days rest. But not sure if it was because I felt I could or if I wanted to just get myself certain on if this is lost cause or not with seeing how I felt. So more walking as 3 vs 4 days. Though I guess not quite with not doing anything Tuesday because of going in to work. I had ordered some plyo boxes (for power stair stuff) that I didn’t realize were coming unassembled and requiring power tools to assemble securely so that took up a good bit of Friday evening. I had already gotten things together for Saturday training Thursday so ahead of schedule. I wasn’t too sure if I was going to be discouraged or motivated with training. A bit more involved compared to the first two workouts this week with it being two events; sandbag toss and stones. But should still be fairly quick compared to past trainings. Got up at work time (ok, I hit snooze once or twice) as I’ve been waking up early anyways as of late. Had to get gas but no issues there and the drive out was pretty smooth. Competition today that a few were expected to be at so I was fully expected a muted training session as far as people being there. Got some measurements for the trap bar to make sure that I was correct and ensure that I have the height right. First thing was bag toss. Ole reliable with the EMOM stuff. Plan was after warming up was to do 5 tosses with 30lbs and then rest as I felt I needed to and then do 35lbs for 5 more tosses. So two 5 minute EMOMs. Even though there is a 35lbs sandbag at the gym, it is a different brand bag and felt it made more sense to use the one I just got and bring that back and forth to the gym and adjust it as needed. But first I needed to setup the toss tower. The setup was too low where the rope/string was and I needed it to be at 16’ for Nationals. This lead to an unfortunate discovery. Every toss that I’ve done this year at the gym has been a foot lower than I thought it was. So the top of this tower is actually 16’ and not 17’. So that is a bit annoying. More trust issues with listening to what people say or what is written on stuff that I’ve not personally weighed, measured or made. But that does seem to explain why I felt I underperformed at Regionals and why that first week back to tosses in my backyard felt so high and me being off target. So I was a bit nervous that I’d biff these with needing to go completely over the setup for 16’. Did some swings (some to stretch the bottom range and to feel at the top) as well as 2-3 high pull tosses. These seemed to go well. Third toss was a little shallow on the arc and grazed the band on the way down. Can’t say I was clearing it by a little bit more each toss here. Took a slight break to setup some things for the next thing and cool down. So about 7 minutes and then it was the second set of tosses. The first toss grazed the band at some point (I think on the way up). I made sure that didn’t happen on the other tosses. I was starting to feel good and excited. So I guess I’m not completely out of it. Then time for stones. This required some trial and error after last time. I was also nervous with how stones would feel. I was feeling agitated the day before by specific sounds and the thought of a stone against my forearm skin was having me feel unnerved. This does seem to be related to stress and sensory stuff with autism. I made sure to mitigate issues from last time I was having. I setup right in front of an industrial fan to keep cool as well as having separate towels for wiping sweat and washing hands. Also wrapped my forearms in athletic tape. These things all seemed to help with combating the sweat issue from last time. The plan was to warm up to 275lbs or so for 5 singles done EMOM style again. Carry 10’ and load it. Contest height is 48” but I got 54”, 50” and 47”. So did to 50”. I also was testing out different sticky stuff. The atlas spray from Cerberus had been hot garbage on my bare skin as I just run to hot and sweat too much. I’ve not done tacky towel on taped forearms so that was also something to test. I also got two new sprays to try out (have one more that I got approval for use this week that should be here for next time). To warm up, I tested each spray application on the empty stone of steel. I did the pick and run and then did another pick after that to see how much stuck around after that first effort. The tape does make the atlas spray work better but it is not as good as the other two sprays which seem about equal to me. Stones for the show could be concrete or something else (maybe rubber) so I needed to see how things went with that as well. 235lbs felt heavier than I was expecting or wanting it to. I was finding that the low carry from last time wasn’t ideal and a bit higher I can just walk it right into the platform with a little belly bump. The sticky spray was pulling a lot of dirt and grime off the atlas stones. I had been playing with the idea of going heavier if things were feeling easy (like trap bar) but it seems that I’m where I’m at and need to accept that. I found I needed to apply tacky towel and that seemed to work. I won’t be able to reapply spray during the run like I can with a tacky towel. The spray is good for one stone and then it is almost gone. I’ll need to incorporate tacky towel a bit more I think but still got one more product to test out next time. These were tougher than I would’ve liked as far as how they felt. Last one I don’t know what happened. The pick felt really easy and I just kept standing up with it. I never one motion stones but just went with it. Cleaned up and stretched out before heading home. This did seem to be enjoyable but I feel way off the mark. Effort required, not super easy, going through the motions stuff. Like stuff that should be easy but is tough as in rehabilitation stuff. I may need to think of things in those terms for right now. One week, see how this next one goes.

August 14, 2023 – Week 8, Day 1 & August 16, 2023 – Week 8, Day 2

 So I was hoping that I wouldn’t be in the situation where I had to stop and take a look at things. But here we are. Again. In short, bad session beginning of the week and got depressed. I generally don’t have bad workouts. At least not ones where I just give up on the workout. Happened last year leading up to Nationals and had one leading up to Regionals. Not enjoying that kind of frequency. Feeling like quitting this if I can’t get myself out of this funk and get the issue I feel I have resolved. I don’t like the feeling of regression. Is this all I got? It’s kind of a culmination of things. Ignoring the discomfort of some things because the overall result is still improvement. I’ve been dealing with knee joint issues for a bit now potentially from overuse and tendonitis things. Could be the same for other joints. The repeating story of putting a ton of effort in things like overhead press and deadlifts and seeing either regression, stagnation or slight changes. Feeling like pushing things too hard up to competitions and not really getting the deload I need. I didn’t use to need to take off season stuff like I’ve been doing. Of two minds that either I need to reduce weights and build mass with volume or go back to much less volume and just the essentials. Trim the fat to the bare minimum things to promote recovery. Stress sneaks up on you and you think you can just handle it and then when you can’t, you see what it was doing. I was dealing with stress from a tax related clerical error this week (which appears to be resolved). My bodyweight is under 260lbs most days now. Only change had been not using Door Dash and cooking my own meals all the time. Going to still give Nationals a shot here but having to make changes. Try to get myself feeling like myself again. I will say that I feel like I rebounded a bit better than most times this stuff happens. Already formulating a plan (even if it wasn’t a good one) and self-care stuff like shaving and putting dishes away. Feeling a bit better but still anxious. My mood is much like a game of keep up with a balloon and impediment will like have me shutdown briefly while I process and rebuild my shield. If I’m not feeling right for Nationals, I do have another competition for December. And If I’m just not feeling it in general, then maybe I just stop. As Drew had mentioned to me; the progress will end at some point with physical training. What will keep you going at that point?

August 14, 2023 – Week 8, Day 1

Sandbag Tosses (15’7”, stay on toes)
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1
33x1

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
87x3
110x3
135x3
160x3
185x3
210x3
235x3
235x3
235x1
235x2

Comments: Felt some anxiety for the log portion of workout. Probably telling. Biceps had been still kind of sore from Saturday with the sweatiness and the slippery stone. I got a little distracted Sunday as far as getting stuff taken care of. I think I was trying to get things to be the best with the new changes. I’ve had the stressful sleep stuff stressing about stuff before. Usually it has been about overhead press when previous sessions weren’t great or deadlift where I don’t feel I can do the progression from the last workout. The overhead stuff has been a somewhat recent thing as in the last 18 months. Last time with deadlift it was 2019 or 2020. Weather was not shaping up to be good after work but it seemed like I’d still be able to get the sandbag and log stuff finished before that happened. These workouts would take too long to try and do stuff during my lunch break. Especially with very little staff available. I did try and get things setup for the rest of the workout for after that and get things figured out. Starting things off was again sandbag toss. Same as last week with it being 10 tosses and trying to stay on the toes. I had gotten a new throw bag for at home for this workout so that I wasn’t taking away bags for the one guy training for Nationals out of the gym in Lancaster. I had fixed the toss tower on Sunday. I was told I could add 2-6lbs to the bag if I got all the tosses last time at 30lbs. I went with 3lbs even though technically I didn’t. I blame that more on being rusty and the rain last week. These went a lot better. No misses. Only had one where the arc was a little too far in front that grazed the upright on the way back down. I was also able to stay on my toes a bit better after the tosses. Some tosses better than others. I can even see myself getting a little air on these too. I’ve been bad with being flatfooted on this event. Then log. This didn’t go very well at all. Plan was to work up to 5x3 with 225-235lbs. Now log hadn’t felt that great last time but I figured that like usually is the case; I feel better the second touch on stuff after I’d been away a bit. That was not the case. This felt tougher than last week, even warming up. I did the sit with the log to get my knees and ankles mobile. I’m not sure if it is because I was overworked or if it was the humidity and temperature or the grip shirt not being a breathable fabric (really probably a combo of it all) but I was sweating I think even worse than when I was on stones Saturday. First set wasn’t that great. Second set the log was flying up but my balance was sucking so I had to catch my balance and resettle each rep. I had been watching video of my pressing the week before to try and get it so that I wasn’t moving out of groove. So much for that. Then it started raining. I didn’t think it would be that bad but it was enough that my grip sucked on the handles and I couldn’t grip it well in the rack after the first press and it went out in front. Yes, I had just missed something less than 80% of my 1rm. I put hand towels on the handles and took a few breathes before going back outside to give it another shot. This time I got two reps and then the third just couldn’t generate enough power to really get to where I could press it. I felt I had no power there. No strength. I briefly thought about dropping the weight down to 225lbs. Then to 210lbs. And then just stopping and moving on to the next thing. Which was to be rack support and holds on the chest. It was raining harder and I had things setup and then I just said screw it and stopped the session. I didn’t see a point in continuing. I’m missing a weight that I consistently hit for reps as under 231lbs athlete. I’ve done this weight for a set of 10 reps in the last 5yrs as part of a workout. The rationale with this being tough was haven’t touched this in about 18mos but my counter was it was 4yrs since I did a block press and I was doing more weight than this on that the first session back. It just was the last piece of confirmation I needed that my overhead pressing was really down at this point. I’d never have thought that 285lbs would be a long shot for me and now it could very well be out of reach for Nationals. No stretching but I did make myself eat a big dinner before bed. Got to make some difficult decisions this week.



August 16, 2023 – Week 8, Day 2

Dynamic Warm ups

18” Front Box Squats (beltless)
45x3
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
165x3
165x3

Band Assisted Nordic Curls
abx10
lbx8
lbx8
lbx8

Power Pin Swings w/ band
120+lbx15
120+lbx15

Banded Lying Knee Tucks (2 second holds)
µb’sx30

Stretching
 
Comments: This wasn’t a planned workout. I was still ambivalent at this point. This was a mixture of doing something out of guilt and testing things to try and keep moving forward. The workout planned was more intense and was similar to what was programmed for last week. Putting a halt to training with Drew because I need a break. I need to try and get back to enjoying things again. And I feel terrible putting an end to that. I shared my heartfelt feelings and thanks for the past 2.5yrs as I had felt at the beginning that I was done with this sport. Even if I don’t get back to feeling the way I was, I at least got to put in good showings and extend my competitive life 3 more years. And spank everyone in the country on an event at Nationals. I was spending time trying to figure out my own thing as well as reaching out to previous mentors about assistance. See if I had any other options besides myself. And to see if I was really in any potential shape to go at Nationals this year. The first thing for this workout was a bit of a departure from what I’ve been doing. The dynamic warm up was a but of different exercises that I used to do before workouts in the past that worked knees, hips, ankles and back. Also a little cardio to get the heartrate up. That actually seemed like a good idea considering I was feeling tired/sluggish. Because when you let the guards down, you just feel all that fatigue and stress you were unintentionally holding. That the stronger version of you was holding no problem. I wanted to try to have things be incorporating stuff from older workouts with newer workout ideas. I think I was also under the delusion that I would be training this weekend like nothing happened too. Plan was no support gear. First thing was front squats. To a box. Work up in 30lbs jumps in triples to 50% of what I feel I could hit at this point. I know my squatting is down in general. Overhead is like 85%. Front squats not quite that far down I think (about 88%). I also wanted to see if my usual moving event shoes would work as I think I was concerned that I’m not really getting anything out of the oly shoes with log pressing as far as getting drive. No knee sleeves and different shoes and stopping on a box did not make the knees happy. I will say that I did feel like I could actually move my foot as needed but it took until the last set where I got everything to kind of feel good and function how I wanted it to. So not exactly thrilled with my knees here. So next thing was Nordic curls with band assistance. Trying to do these with more band assistance so that more RIR situation and I could get better quality of movement. I think I was surprised that the average band assistance didn’t really feel that easy for a warm up. I wanted some warm up as usually the first set is rough on these and I tend to be slow on the descent. Plan was to just do 3x8 with no tempo. These felt ok. Next was something that I was to do in the original workout. I got this power pin for swings, might as well use it. Since I’m pretty much maxing out the weight with smaller diameter plates, this was to be 5x8 with band tension added. I wanted to see how the band tension felt but I wasn’t going to do that many sets. 120lbs and a light band as I figured I’d be good for it. It felt a little awkward at first but then I got it. It felt easy so I went for higher reps. Yep, that was the ticket. The glutes and hips were really feeling that fatigue after double digits. Limited myself to two sets and that was enough honestly. Last thing was those knee tuck things that I figured out last week. I like those and figured I’d do one max rep set but leaving plenty of reps in the tank. The added reps did make things a bit tougher but there is just a threshold I think where it sucks and then it doesn’t get more sucky. A sustained suck. And then you get used to that suck and it isn’t so bad. That’s how these feel. So as far as the workout; the first two things were meh and the last two things were interesting. So maybe there is hope for me. Already been advised to take off the rest of the week and deload. Attack this again in the next week. Stretched after eating dinner.

August 12, 2023 – Week 7, Day 4

Paused 13” Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 2 seconds off the floor)
200x2
250x2
310x2
360x2
420x2
420x2
420x2
420x2
420x2

16” Kabuki Trap Bar Pick and Holds
542x3+30 seconds
542x3+30 seconds

Stone of Steel Roll Ups into Carries
140x2(3+10’)
140x2(3+10’)
140x2(3+10’)
208x1(3+10’)
208x1(3+10’)
255x2(3+10’)
255x2(3+10’)
255x2(3+10’)
255x2(3+10’)

Monster Mondo Leg Presses/Glute Ham Raise Holds
300x5/bwx10 seconds
400x4/bw+9x8 seconds
500x3/bw+17.5x6 seconds
600x9/bw+26.5x30 seconds
600x11/bw+26.5x30 seconds
600x11/bw+26.5x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Just felt like I should get up at my usual work time Saturday and try and get to bed somewhat early Friday. Made sure to get a walk in and soft tissue work. Plans for Sunday to get things organized for the next week. Training didn’t really seem to be that much on paper but I know how deceptive that can be. Not sure who would be there training and how plans would work out. Slight traffic heading out but smooth after that usual spot of congestion. I also had intended to get out there a little earlier because I was also returning the throw bag that I know another person training for Nats will need. I bought one for at home to use going forward. I made it in time so that now interrupting their training program thankfully. Starting things off was trap bar work. A “deload” of sorts this session. No tempo work and no platform (the pulls were actually 10” and not 11” as I had noted previously). Plan was to do contest setup for paused doubles. 2 second pauses right off the floor with 55-60% of my max. which I don’t know. The app had 750lbs from when I input information for my suited pull stuff for PA Dutch and that was to a higher pick too. While my hope is to get to around this (I was repping this weight in suit), I know that is probably not where I’m at at the moment. I also wasn’t going to be wearing briefs for this session. So went with 700lbs. These actually felt really good. How I was expecting them to feel mostly. So seemed like a good sign to me. Second reps each set felt easier for obvious reasons. There was suggestion to potentially add bands and lower the weight but I felt that it would be too much a hassle to setup with this particular trap bar and how the band platform setup has to go at this gym if it’s not rack pulls. So this felt a like a good start to the day. Get those thoughts of not being strong enough to be quiet for a second. The next thing was still with the trap bar but no straps. Change of gear as well with shoes and knee sleeves. Reason being that this was to work the wheelbarrow part of the moving medley at Nationals. Putting most the moving part of that into the yoke basket as far as training as I did a lot of frame carries leading up to the last show and that was heavier weight in hand than this wheelbarrow is going to be. I had suggested this as a way to consolidate things where I could just go right into this rather than have it be separate. Similar to how regular press/squat and then pause variations. The plan was to do something that felt like RPE 7 on hold and raise the trap bar height to 16-20” range. Rolled it up on 4” of mats. Went with the lower side of things to work closer to the actual pick height for the wheelbarrow. Three picks of the weight and then hold for 20-30 seconds. Base it on the hold effort, not the picks. Suggested weight here was to do 80-85%. So since about 638lbs, then this would be 510-542lbs. I went with the 542lbs and I was thinking this would be light. It was not. I was not expecting the weight to have so much weight to it. I put forth the effort I was expecting to be needed and it didn’t budge. I started to freak out a little bit and checked to make sure the weight was accurate. So I was panicking a bit and put near 100% effort into it this time and it still felt heavy but it went. Video says the reps were easy. The hold was fine and comfortable. Second set of this was a little tougher. I was really surprised how tough that pick was. Maybe this was just a spot that wasn’t good for me to get lower body drive into it. Could also be going from straps to no straps and a 120lbs jump in weight. I think I felt confident in this with how well the pause pulls had went. I guess I’ll need to be mindful of this next time. Now the thing I really wanted to test out was the stone carry event. This is probably the toughest event for nationals with how it is setup and I say this as someone who is pretty darn good at stones. I’d say it is disproportionate to the other events really. I can see why the less taxing events are on Day 1 with it. Plan was RPE 6-7 working up to four doubles. One rep however was to consist of picking the stone and doing three roll ups and then walking 10’ with it. So 6 reps was two reps really. I wanted to deal with 20” diameter stone and I wasn’t sure what I’d actually be working up to so used my stone of steel. The other person training for Nats apparently is using it and didn’t treat it as nicely as they should (I advised their coach when they came in). It has markings where the hemispheres line up after I accidentally dropped it loaded from 5’ a few years back. I had to take a 25lbs plate to it and bang them apart to get it open for training today. So I was a bit annoyed with that considering how much I was sweating. I already had the grip shirt and was going to test out sticky things. Show is not allowing actual tacky but tacky-like (sprays, towels) are allowed. I’ve used tacky towel and it worked well enough I guess with stone of steel in the past but not spray. I needed to see what gave the most stick and what method was going to be the ticket. I’ve done tacky towel directly to bare skin so starting there. Empty implement I did a few runs. Low carry seemed to the best option for the moment. Trying tacky towel only, spray only, and combo. It was apparent early on that the spray was just not going to cut it. Initially it felt like it would be then it seemed for feel like a runny film and I think that had to do with my body running hot. So I just went with the tacky towel only. I could tell that I was going to have issues with appreciable amount of weight not because it was heavy but because I was sweating way too much. The “stone” would be slick with sweat once I went to repick it after the initial roll ups and scoot (hardly call it a run). Which is a same considering how easy I made it look the first set. Each set the second rep got tougher. I also made it tougher on myself by picking up from the side and then having to turn and go. I’m being cognizant of potentially grab and go to cut down on the transition time between stones. I was annoyed by this sweat defeating me and it wasn’t helpful that I had people walk in my path twice while I was doing the carry portion or that someone kept shouting any time I set the stone down because it made a loud sound (they thought it was funny to do). Last set really was trying my patience as I had to wipe myself, the stone and reapply tacky towel before I got it. Going to try some other things next time. See if tape helps with mitigating the sweat issue and if it helps regulate temperature of the sticky stuff so I’m not “melting/sweating” it off. Also see if real stones changes things either. I feel that since only the last stone is going to be repped, the sweat issue I’m having shouldn’t be as bad at the show (the A/C there was great last year). But even with that rationalization, I still wanted it to go better. Last bit was a slight change up. Initially it was to be quad fall backs into glute ham raise holds and potentially replacing the quad fall backs with leg press. The determining factor was what I felt was better. I ended up discussing with Drew as I never felt like the fall backs were “pumping” up the quads but seemed to help with mobility in my hips, ankles and knees and these were more an easier thing to recover from and for knee health. So he felt it made more sense to pair on the yoke sessions rather than leg press those days. So swapped in leg press with the timed sets of 30 seconds with these glute ham raise holds. At this point, I ended up shirtless. I had sweat through both shirts and I had the one out to try and was going to put it back on after stones but it had been blown by the wind (I hope) off the spot I had it and landed in a deposit of stagnant water in one of the tractor tires. So that was soaked with yucky water. Knees were a bit achy on the leg press but I knew I needed to warm up to use a decent weight for a training effect. The glute ham part was fine and simple really. I had my feet position slightly off that first set of leg press and I only matched the reps I had done last time in 20 seconds. I realized that and fixed for the rest of the sets and got more reps. Glute ham raise holds were good, felt these more than the carries. I know my biceps will be sore tomorrow from how much I had to crush the sweaty stones. Stretched before heading home (also ranted to George about OSG) to decompress.

August 10, 2023 – Week 7, Day 3

Seated 12” Log Pin Presses (no back support)
87x3
110x3
135x3
160x3
180x3
180x3
180x3
180x3
180x3

Banded Push Ups (24” apart)/Single Band Arm Archer Rows (3 second holds)
sbx10 – sbx12/12
sbx10 – sbx12/12
sbx10 – sbx12/12

Side Lying Shoulder Flexions (3 second holds)
10x10/10
10x10/10

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mb+µbx20
mb+µbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: The “easier” day for upper body stuff. Would be kind of test to see how things would go as far as recovery as while I did about this workout last week, that had not been with the tougher Monday session. And that was a tougher session compared to what has been the case for the first half of this training cycle. I was also feeling soreness in the upper body from the banded front squats. Log work outside in the rack. Saw a mosquito while I was setting up and said no thanks and went and sprayed myself to keep them away. I had enough bug bites from Monday. Seated pressing off of pins again for triples. Plan here being to do a slight bump up in weight. 5x3 with same rests as last time. I was advised the rack height was right for where I should be here. But I seem to not have the stability to prevent power leak as I press. I sway a bit and need to work on that and get it so that I have the brace and get the pressing consistent. Pressing does seem to be where I’d expect things to be at really after not doing log for about 18 months. Hoping that things improve each session in a reasonable fashion. Still a little fixated on the front squats with bands being harder than I was expecting them to be as far as what weights I ended up moving. Left side rib cage area was feeling a bit sore on these presses. Suggested had been 175lbs here but I went slightly heavier as I had gone a little above that on my top set last week when I was going up 2lbs a set. Slightly bigger jumps in weight until right before. I wasn’t feeling as strong at the start but I felt like I was good with 160lbs. These aren’t super consistent still. There are sets where the reps feel a little tough and others where it feels like not much weight at all. Likely this pressing will stay like this as far as the lighter session and working the upper body and not having any accommodating resistance. There wasn’t a rush to put stuff inside but I figured I’d use the time to recover and put stuff away and get things setup for the rest of the workout. Same superset of push ups and archer rows. The push ups with bands remained the same with neutral grip on dumbbells spaced out 22”-24” Also still 3x8-10 leaving a few RIR. That was fine with me as I hit a bit of a wall on the last set of these last time with the strong band. I wasn’t sure how these would really go considering the extra stress added with the Monday training session. The archer rows did get a change in that I was allowed to increase the reps and the length of the holds to try and get into the right effort range. So with 12 reps and 3 second holds, I could hopefully get these to be challenging enough. So the push ups I was not really expecting things to feel that fresh but it went well that first set. Rows were definitely tougher with more reps and more TUT. Push ups made it through all the rounds with 10 reps. I can’t really go with more tension then this but fine with sticking here to make it so that last set is truly leaving a few reps in the tank. Or like the archer rows adding reps and tempo (but these have not been as easy). The additions to the rows did make them harder and fatigue was starting to build by the end. The side lying shoulder flexions were next. Same as last time. I put down some padding so didn’t bruise my hips lying on my side on the concrete for that long. One thing I was advised was to potentially do some soft tissue work before and between sets to loosen up the lats as I should be keeping my arm straight. Also told to flex the triceps at the start. I didn’t feel I needed the rolling out or mobility stuff as last time this was new and I was having some shoulder mechanical issues initially with the track on the movement. I was going for more just relaxed. But seeing as this should’ve been a more active movement, I treated it as such and worked on resisting my arm wanting to bend. This was a bit more exhausting for obvious reasons so I did end up taking a rest after the first set rather than just going one to the other with no rest for the entire time last week. Hopefully this was better quality this time around. Band triceps to end the session. I was allowed to add a micro band to the mini band to bring the difficult to the 15-20 reps. Guideline was to hopefully make 20 reps challenging for the second set. This did the trick with all the other things of controlled movements and taking very short rests between the sets. Put stuff away and cooked dinner. Ate and then stretched.

August 9, 2023 – Week 7, Day 2

Front Squats w/ bands (+11lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
45x3
95x3
135x3
185x2
225x4
225x4
225x4
2 seconds pauses
198x4
198x4

Barbell Lunges
45x5/5
75x5/5
105x10/10
105x10/10

Band Assisted Nordic Curls (3 second eccentrics)
mmbx10
mmbx10

Power Pin Swings
119x2
140x6
159x5
159x5
159x5
159x5
159x5
159x5
159x5
159x5

Banded Lying Knee Tucks (2 second holds)
µb’sx20
µb’sx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Was feeling the Monday session still at this point. I was also still feeling stuff from Saturday session (upper back from trap bar and knees from the power stair contact bruises). Stiff on the left side and some new bruises. And bug bites. Discussion prior to session had been about adjusting some things as plan was to have deadlift be part of this session but I had a thought occur to me that since competition Day 2 has deadlift first thing before the other events, it probably made sense to keep it there and have Day 1 and Day 4 of my workout week be the harder recovery wise and keep the Day 2 and Day 3 as they’ve been. I can fully rest on Sunday compared to the work week. See how that goes. Had those slight feelings that I’m not nearly strong enough with where I’m starting (even though this is starting off better spot from last time). Just have to listen when given advice and keep pushing. First thing was front squats. Bands added this time. Seemed plan was similar to log press with regular reps and then drop some weight for paused reps. I see the bands added as more to get me utilize my lower body drive better. The bands adding tension and accelerating the eccentric. Eccentrics and isometrics to work on being able to reverse and load the concentric as the turnaround to build force is so small for overhead leg drive. Plan was work up in 2-3 rep sets to 3x4 at RPE 6 with 10% in bands. Last time I did these, I had a bit more leeway in the band tension and I was at the gym with band pegs so needed to do some testing. I had intended to test this out at lunch or the day before even but things just got a bit complicated doing that so it was just so. I had expectations here based on what I had as tentative max from last time I was working front squats in some capacity (last year around this time lol) and with how well the 40lbs jump went from tempo to pause style. Warming up it was feeling like that would be happening but once I got to 185lbs, it felt a ton harder. Enough so that I got the camera ready for this to be my working weight rather than another jump up. I was thinking 265lbs and that was not correct on the day. 225lbs felt pretty rough that first set and had me worried I had got even this right. But I felt better as I went with the last set being the best and smoothest. Then dropped the weight down some for pause style like last week. But still with bands. The pause style with the abrupt stop and holds feel rougher on my knees. Second set felt better than the first. This front squat stuff (was also having me think about not being strong enough with overhead and pulls) I was going a little too aggressive considering where I was starting at and if I had been of the mind to go with the weight I had ended up with, the warming up would’ve been more in line with that and probably not felt as rough. Lesson for next time. Time for barbell lunges. These need work and have the biggest ceiling for improvement with what it will help me with at this point. Same as last time but actually doing just two working sets this time. Attempting to stay more upright. Empty bar feels terrible compared to when I’m more warmed up with weight. I did some mobility stuff that I’ve usually done before considering that a lot of the stress is more the tension on the back leg on that knee vs the leg going forward. There is difficulty with consistency because of the increased balance component. But I got through these and I know that with time, I will get better at these. Less weight but very challenging. Nordic curls were up next. Band help this time around. Higher reps because of that. 3 second eccentrics. Starting where I left off with them really. First rep the eccentric took a bit longer to get down before I could gauge the pace to actually get a full movement. I realized after I was done the first set that I forgot to slide my knee sleeves down so as to provide more cushioning for my ankles against the anchor. Fixed that for the second set. Left knee slightly bruised from log work so that was a little off sensation wise. I may need to lower the band assistance for next time. Will see how things are feeling I guess as workload could be a bit much. But for sure less the week after that if plans holds. Time to swing. I ended up buying a swing handle that was a bit heavier and could handle more weight. I was expecting to add like 10lbs to last time and do 8x5 EMOM style but that weight felt so easy that I stopped and added the max I could load up the new handle with my 25’s and smaller plates. I can go heavier with 35’s (probably just over 200lbs). With the handle having a bit more grip to it and being lower to the ground, I was thinking that this would be hard on the back and hands compared to what I was doing. It was not. This weight did require a bit of a half swing to get things going each time and the power needed was more. But I was still able to keep going with the EMOM style. But as far as these go, probably the most challenging I’ve been able to make them. Sounds like adding bands for next time and doing more reps and less sets. So the reverse crunch things from last time were an oops. The intent had been to be more of a braced lower back thing and have it be more of hip flexor rather than entire crunch up of the body like the demo video that was shown on the app. This was more to work things as if bottom of a squat or pull and hold. With that explained, I adjusted how I did these and renamed them so that it was how I was picturing the movement. This was a lot more manageable. Still was fatiguing on the targeted stuff but I was able to get through 20 reps for both sets. Goal is to try and take less rest. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

August 7, 2023 – Week 7, Day 1

Sandbag Tosses (15’7”, stay on toes)
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
90x3
110x3
130x3
150x3
170x3
190x3
205x3
220x3
225x3
230x3
5 second holds in rack
207x3
207x3

Swiss Bar Bench Presses
45x3
95x3
135x3
185x5
225x10
225x10

Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (7 second holds last rep)
40’sx3
70’sx3
118’sx12
118’sx12
118’sx12

Incline Dumbbell Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
10’sx5
26’sx12
26’sx12
26’sx12

Stretching
 
Comments: If Saturday was the first really day of event training, this was definitely the second half of it. See where I’m at. I was curious about how this would go. Looked like a tough session. I had a productive day of rest to get stuff done around the house as well as get some moving around in while it was nice out. Got myself thinking about some ideas that I perhaps hadn’t considered before for the training plan for this prep. See if viable/fruitful. Of course with the weather being humid and storms brewing, it had to coincide with when I was done with work to be the worst. It had been just windy and mostly sunny but I could tell it would get nasty. With what was planned, moving to another day wasn’t really feasible without messing a lot of other things up. There were things that I had to do without a ceiling due to my height. Bag toss was moved from the Saturday to during the week. Had been done last prep but as a secondary day. Looking to not have the Saturday session so packed with things. It’s max toss to height so just one bag works. I can also micro load and not focus so much on 5lbs jumps. Work with what I am capable of. So using the 30lbs bag for the planned 10 singles. I was feeling Saturday. The power stairs bruised up my knees on the inside. I guess it could’ve been worse if I didn’t wear the knee sleeves. I tried to pace my time before I actually started with the severity of the rain but eventually just had to do it. I’ve thrown when it was worse. Goal here was just the start and getting up on the toes and trying to hold that. I think part of my warming up here (trying to be quicker) that was missed maybe was with the arc of the toss as the hop back seemed to have me go back as well as up. First toss was fine and then I was just tossing straight up and down the next two. Despite the rain, mosquitoes were taking the chance to get at me. I guess they are even more nimble flyers than I thought. I stopped for about 5 minutes to apply bug spray (I had a lot from last summer but it arrived late so didn’t need it when it arrived) and see if the rain calmed down a little and restarted. Got about 5-6 tosses in before I had a bag go askew on me and go up instead of back and land on the toss setup. Didn’t completely break and I wasn’t going to get up on a metal ladder while there was lightning and an active tornado watch. I spent my time between tosses trying to get parts back together. Ninth toss it fell on it again and just demolished it. I got enough sections put together to at least have some height gauge for the last toss (I got a little off balance on that one and reset). Rushed to get out of the rain for a brief respite. The rain picked up in intensity after that and I kept watch for when it would stop (about 20 minutes). I had already setup stuff for after I was completely done with the great outdoors. I could take the time still to switch out my shirt and shoes to try and dry them out before I needed them again. My forearms were feeling quite warm and I was initially thinking maybe I was having a reaction to the bug spray but I think it was just from doing the tosses and with how it was raining but still very warm. So not a super great start to sandbag toss but considering the circumstances I’ll take it. Lower back was feeling a bit tense after this and did some decompression on my dip stand. Log next. This would be something I would need to see how it felt. As I was waiting, I did some mobility stuff I’d seen someone do with lapping the log and letting it rest on the knees and legs for the deep squat. I tend to have achy knees at the start of log and this kind of thing has been helpful with stiff knees for stuff. Just surprised I didn’t think to try this. I did this about 3 times before I got things ready to lift outside. Goal is just get some points at the show and hopefully get a PR for reps with the weight. So with that in mind, lower reps and some cleans being the aim. Plan for today was to get a start and work to 3x3 with RPE 6-7. One clean on the push presses. Used the pitbull log for the first set and then swapped in the awkward log after that. It definitely made the clean different. I wasn’t too sure where I’d end up but aim was at least 200lbs. I think that would be the minimum my ego could handle. I do like this style of grip shirt better than my previous one (still have it but just in case). Trying to keep the lean back and load the legs and hips for the drive and utilize the triceps and chest with the press. I could’ve just done 220lbs for 3x3 but I felt like I should try and inch it up if I could. There was always a slight issue after that first rep. I tend to have issues with multiple presses right from the chest. I’m hoping that next touch I’ll feel even better here. A brief pause to lower the weight for the next bit of log. Same thing but holding the log on my chest in the rack position for 5 seconds before pressing. 2x3 here. I had mentioned that if I’m going to get stuck of pause on the log, my legs will be locked and if I pause in the dip, the position gets off for me. So that is what we ended up doing. These were a good bit tougher than the none holding style and I was kind of surprised by that. Considering that the first workout of doing clean and presses was just 217lbs the last log based prep (and that was after doing weeks of strict pressing and speed push pressing out of the rack) with this being like the third time touching log in 18 months, I’d say this is probably good start. Slightly over 80% of contest weight for the goal weight. Moved everything inside the sunroom before getting to work on the more gym traditional stuff to end up the session. I was a bit surprised with how much stuff was packed in the session. The benching and rowing were back but adjusted in a way that I could do more weight. Not a superset this time around. Swiss bar benching I’ve done before without my feet up but due to issues with getting the rack height right, I’ve had issues with the pressing. Not since I figured out I needed to start higher. Goal was to do triples up to a weight that I could do 2x8-10 with 4-3RIR. I’ve done 235lbs for 10 reps before with some in the tank. But that wasn’t after doing a bunch of log pressing. I was feeling pretty good I guess warming up in the quarter-plate jumps. 185lbs felt heavier than I would’ve liked and I forgot I was to be doing only a triple here. I was fully expecting 225lbs to be 2x8 situation but I seemed to be fine with it. Get a few reps fast clip like and then more controlled to finish out. Rows were a bit different. Notes were to be explosive but then hold the last rep of each set for 5-7ct. I’ve done this before with rows but I believe it was with an axle and it is really that hold that is the hard part of the set to gauge effort. 3x10-12 and about the same effort planned as the benching. First set was really easy but the fatigue builds over the sets from those holds. I can probably go a bit more here. It is always funny to me when I don’t have to be controlled on rows as I can really bully some weights around on them compared to the more deliberate stuff. I feel like I need to be doing reps with 140ish on these or similar to build up for the log cleans. Ideally the pressing and rowing stuff should be about 285lbs total and for comfortable reps I feel. It was getting late and I was already running behind with things due to the weather delay issues. I’d have been even further behind if I wanted the hour or so to start. I had already started cooking dinner so that hopefully when I finished training it would be nearly ready. Triceps to end out the day. Eccentric extensions. Lower RPE with short rests for 3x10-12. I know I’ve done heavier by a good bit on these but elbows have tended to feel achy since the bursitis issue. And triceps already feeling everything before this. This was probably the right call weight wise with how things were feeling. Each set I could feel the fatigue building. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

August 5, 2023 – Week 6, Day 4

11” Floating Kabuki Trap Bar Deadlifts (Versa Gripps, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
115x3
175x3
225x3
285x2
335x2
395x2
445x6
400x6

Power Stairs (17”, taps)
214x2
269x2
324x2
324x2
324x2
324x2
324x2

Yoke
Casual
210x50’
Normal
300x50’
390x50’
480x50’
570x50’ in 8.62 seconds
570x50’ in 8.41 seconds
570x50’ in 8.17 seconds
570x50’ in 7.77 seconds

Belt Squat Romanian Deadlifts w/ MAG
220x3
270x10
270x10

Glute Ham Raise Holds
bwx45 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: For me, Friday was pretty uneventful. Not so much for two of my family members that had to deal with what has come to be common with the healthcare system; delays, inadequate care and failure to catch things when it would be less issue in the first place. But despite that seeming fact of circumstances, they both seem to be recovering now. Which is a load off my mind. I hadn’t exactly planned to go out to train as early as I did as I was thinking I probably needed to sleep in but I ended up waking to my alarm and not feeling that tired (probably helped that during my dream I thought my alarm went off late and quiet). Traffic wasn’t great so it did take longer. I realized I had missed one thing to adjust in the car but had to wait until I got where I was going to fix that. There was a lot of commotion at the stuff surrounding the gym. Bikers were there which I thought was odd as they were there last weekend too. Not sure what all the ruckus was for. Decent amount of people training at the gym. I got sucked into that a bit with people doing competition setups for upcoming shows. The advice I gave someone about how to treat a deadlift event a few weeks back lead to a 5-6 rep increase and they thanked me for that advice so I was bit encouraged to put my keen eye on things for others that were receptive. I like seeing people get these things to click. This workout didn’t look like a lot on paper but it apparently ended up taking a lot of time. First thing was trap bar stuff. The last of the tempo based stuff. Work up to a top set of 6-8 with 2RIR with the same style I was doing and then take off 10% and do a matching rep set and report back the RIR. I was initially thinking of 400lbs just based on how things were feeling. But I think I felt like I was selling myself short as each week when I got to the set I felt like I had a lot more RIR than I was expecting considering how the sets before were feeling. I decided, screw it, doing 445lbs (following the 50-60lbs jumps). I started with triples and moved to doubles. This was tough. I was definitely starting to feel this kind of weight with this control in the lower back similar to how things felt when I was going heavy with the suit pulls with trap bar during the PA Dutch training cycle. I was contemplating going for a seventh rep but I felt like my upper abs were going to cramp as I was finishing up the sixth rep so called it there. Aim had been to hit the lower rep range to get some idea of what I can handle here. I took a bit of break to get myself feeling ok for the down set. Unlike with some exercises, down sets on pulls after a heavy set tend to not feel super great. This felt more like how the previous weeks had felt with a decent amount of reps in the tank potentially. I got that upper ab feeling of a cramp coming but it did not so that was a good thing. From there it was on to power stairs. These are at Nationals and I’ve not actually done a show with this in it since 2010. I feel I’ve maybe done a workout after that point with this as an exercise once or twice but not for anything specific. Even when this was something, I think I trained it like once in training as the weights used at the time were relatively light (most was 400lbs) and the number of steps was minimal and usually part of a medley rather than its own thing. The only issue with the gym’s setup is that the steps are 1” shorter than what they will be for Nationals. This was to be just light work of 5x2 at RPE 5-6 (suggested was 65-70% of lightest implement). Not full loads on to the step but just kind of “taps” where I got it up there close enough (and know it would go) and pull it back down and go again. A way to work quick reset. Definitely something I’ll need the knee sleeves on to minimize bruising. The suggested weight felt like a joke to me so I went up in weight. That was bit more challenging but I think more initial jitters. That breaking the weight off the floor is the slow down for me as after that it moves quick and easy. I was tossing it around with disdain after that first set and I think just got a little too loose on the last set. I left things setup after this as my plan was to come back when I was done with the session to practice some transitions with getting down the steps. That was where I felt I’d have a slow down if I didn’t get that figured out. Yoke was up next. I was a bit surprised that this was going to be allowing a belt and shorter runs so soon after the no belt long distance stuff. I again deviated from the suggested. Though I guess this was actually listed and not suggested as far as weight. I was to be doing 500lbs for these runs. Comfortable rest and keep things smooth. I felt that I had been overly cautious with the yoke stuff last time and probably should’ve had 50-100lbs more on there. So I went heavier since I was allowed a belt. By the time I was ready to go, everyone but one person had left and I managed to have them stick around for about 10 minutes to get these done. I could tell I wasn’t moving the fastest I’ve done on yoke, even with this weight. But I was feeling comfortable with how my take off was going. I was encouraged when my time decreased for the second run and I could feel I was getting better as I went. When I got even smoother run for the third set, I felt like I could get under 8 seconds for the last run. Pleased with how well that last one went. Granted, I was about a second off my best time at this weight but I was feeling smooth with it. The last thing was up to me. Exercise of choice for the hamstrings. Experiment time. Drew wanted me to play around with stuff that would work with getting hamstrings and glutes conditioned for the stone carry and load even without it being that exercise. Recalling how it felt when I did heavy stones at Nationals as well as the times I’ve done the stone carry and load in competition (twice) I felt there was a specific sensation that I needed to hit and that would be best achieved with a bent leg style of lift. The fatigue would need to be where the hamstring and glutes tie in, not the hamstring and calf. My thinking was to do a rdl on the belt squat machine while holding a close neutral grip. This took a bit more work than I thought it would with getting things right. The cable was a lot longer than I remembered so I had to stand on boxes. The attachment I found was actually better than what I was thinking. I couldn’t fully lockout the weight because I was hitting the top of the belt squat but it was actually perfectly at the spot I wanted that to be at so I could get a little isometric against that point. This felt a good bit tougher than I was expecting. After I finished the first of two sets (plan was 2 sets of RPE 6-7) I thought about supersetting with a glute ham raise hold to really get that fatigue and sensation down but I felt I had taken too much rest by that point (I get good ideas when I’m walking) that I decided if I felt like it was still necessary after the second set, I’d do it right after like when I was doing sled drags and then sandbag hold for husafell work. Second set was tougher (I was having a harder time controlling the eccentric) and got onto the GHD. That felt good and called it at 45 seconds. Took a moment to cooldown before spending about a minute practicing coming down the stairs backwards for the power stairs. Stretched and put stuff away before driving home.

August 3, 2023 – Week 6, Day 3

Seated Log Pin Presses (no back support)
87x3
108x3
128x3
148x3
168x3
170x3
172x3
174x3
176x3

Banded Push Ups (24” apart)/Single Band Arm Archer Rows (2 second holds)
sbx10 – sbx10/10
sbx10 – sbx10/10
sbx8 – sbx10/10

Side Lying Shoulder Flexions (3 second holds)
10x10/10
10x10/10

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: I had been slightly worried that my knees would be sore after the previous workout session and had wondered if I should’ve iced by knees. Felt fine in the morning after that so I guess I’m still good to go. Fairly relaxing work week considering things. Slightly later than expected start to training as I had to get assistance picking up my car from the service center (tune up and inspection). Must have been a really short person that moved the car as I had to adjust just about everything by a good bit to fit and see out of my car. It does seem that for this workout that the setup is going to be having this be the “easier” day for upper body stuff so it was workable having to start later for this session. As log is going to be the press for this show and the next, it is going to be a lot of log. Seated pressing off of pins again but with higher RPE and for triples. I had initially read it as being doubles again but corrected myself. I had asked about support gear with these no back support presses. I was advised to use wrist wraps and maybe elbow sleeves but no belt. Understandable. I was also told to raise up the rack height so that it was right on the chest and I wasn’t using any of my upper body to let it sink down or get momentum from rolling it up and standing upright with it when I got to press. As I’ve mentioned countless times at this point, I’m not really sure where my overhead pressing is and I probably won’t feel good about it until I’m moving a good bit more weight to be comfortable with how things are progressing. I guess I’ll find out as log will be a frequent guest. One of the things I wanted to do here was specifically use a tougher log. My pitbull log is nice and perfectly balanced. I had bought a log when everything shut down in 2020 and my log was stuck at a gym for months. It is heavier empty and is unbalanced. Which isn’t that good a thing but considering that usually the logs used at these bigger shows are heavier empty or tend to be unbalanced with the weight due to the cutouts and handle placement, this could be an opportunity to try and train that without having it feel so different going from the nice log to the comp logs. And maybe I’m over thinking it. I did the first set with the pitbull log and then swapped in the vevor log from there. 20lbs jumps. As far as cues with the pressing, I was trying to keep an arch in my upper back and brace. A little lean back so as to get my chest muscles involved in the log press as well. Not rushing putting my head through either. I’ve actually not used this log very much with strict pressing so I wasn’t sure with things so I did end up adding 2lbs a set for the 5x3. Just to eek a little more out each time. With the arching and slight holds at lockout, I could feel my serratus muscles along with obliques getting some work. Hopefully these were to specs for how I’m to be doing these. It will be interesting to see how I handle the full even movement of a clean and press with leg drive. It was getting dark and windy so I made sure to get everything that was outside inside before moving on with the session. There was a superset of horizontal pressing and unilateral rowing again. But different exercises this time. No weights, just bands. The first bit of it being push ups with bands. Indication was to grip dumbbells in a neutral grip fashion and have them spaced out 22”-24” so as to be similar to log and get more work in the that grip while allowing for greater ROM and more stable shoulders. Lower reps for push ups really with 8-10 reps. I was initially thinking of average band but I did realize I’ve done enough reps with the strong band in the past that this could be doable for the reps and sets and RPE. It does get tricky warming up for these, especially when paired with a rowing exercise as I feel I need little working up in those cases. The band tension worked surprisingly well the first two sets. Then I hit the wall on the third set and had to call it at 8 reps. As far as the complimentary exercise, it was those archer band rows. 10 reps with 1-2ct holds. I was thinking average band but it felt like a joke if I was going to have it be a higher RPE style thing. Reach and rotate being key besides the holds. This is definitely the toughest these have been but I’ve never really pushed these in any meaningful way. I will need to increase the tension I feel for next time if I can. The rotation from the pulling with my right side doesn’t feel quite as loose as the left side. A new one for me after with the continuing prehab/rehab stuff that comes up for the areas that need it. Shoulders and such always seem to be odd ones with this kind of thing. Usually it is very challenging and only use light weights or band tension to do them. When I first saw this, I thought it was going to be something else. Note for next time is to put some kind of padding so my hips don’t get bruises from laying on my side on the hard, unforgiving concrete flooring. 10lbs for this unilateral shoulder exercise seemed about right. This was an interesting one with how it felt. Keeping the arm off the body had some shoulder stress right there and that wasn’t even involving the movement. The initial raising of the arm was to be expected; it was when the weight got in line with the head and the hold that it got drastically different and I could see the genius of the movement toward not only shoulder health but toward log overhead work. My left side felt like the mechanical track for my shoulder had some gunk in it with the not exactly smooth movement at the start but that cleared up. Hardly any of that with the right side. No mechanical issue of note with the second go around. I was to take rests on these but this seemed to not tax the body overall much and I was able to recover enough to continue that just the rest between sides was sufficient. Last thing was triceps. Same as it was for last week. Well, not exactly. I just read it wrong and assumed it was. Mini band still on these overhead extensions. I can’t really think of any ways to get this to be tougher with the setup and parameters. This was to actually be 15-20 reps. I essentially have to take really short break between the sets to have my fatigue high enough that it gets close to the RIR suggested on the second set. Put stuff away and ate a pot roast before stretching.

August 2, 2023 – Week 6, Day 2

Paused Front Squats (2 seconds)
45x3
85x3
125x3
165x3
195x3
225x6
225x6
225x6
225x6

Barbell Lunges
45x3/3
65x10/10
80x10/10
95x10/10

Nordic Curl Negatives (7 seconds)
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

Kettlebell Power Pin Swings
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5
130x5

Banded Reverse Crunches (2 second holds)
µb’sx15
µb’sx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Quite a few changes to this workout compared to say Monday’s session. Similar but different. While work hasn’t been very stressful at all, there has been other things. My father has been not feeling the best off and on since before Regionals but hopefully they finally got it right what the issue was and he should be feeling better. This workout wasn’t so much of just get it done like Monday. This had some changes to it and would be probably more in line with what would be the case with contest prep. First thing was front squats. The order of operations here being the front squats and then unilateral stuff and the rest of things as rather than prefatiguing with the unilateral work. It was a good run. Front squats were somewhat normal in that only having to do pauses for them. It can be tricky figuring things out after doing tempo work on exercises and seeing what actually is doable when you aren’t doing weighted Tai Chi. Like, am I still about where I was the last time I did this exercise (over a year ago). My thinking initially was wanting to do 2 plates a side for the planned 4x6 with having it be RPE 6. But I figured it could be less than that considering just was doing 185lbs for the tempo work and that was pretty tough. Not doing the unilateral stuff with the warming up to that I think maybe had me feeling like I wasn’t quite warmed up just yet for the pauses on the front squats. Was looking at between 30-50lbs jumps really depending on how things were feeling. 40lbs jumps would get me to 205lbs, the minimum I was aiming for here. I was actually feeling pretty good after the first three sets and figured that if 165lbs felt good, I’d reduce the jump size so that I could do 225lbs. I was really hoping I didn’t overshoot it. I think I made the right call here. It is kind of amazing how much more comfortable the unrack feels from the first two weeks. The bar feels weightless on my shoulders and my knees feel fine. I was initially thinking the weight might be too light and add tiny bit of the sets but kept it there because pauses can be deceiving as well. Second set felt tougher, third set then was better as was the fourth set. Really it was like after 3 reps that it decided to get tougher on these. So that was the first part down. Now the unilateral work. Change here with the exercise choice. Standard barbell lunges. Thought being to remove some of the stability of the unilateral movement and increase the dynamic nature of it. Also trying to work in a range that I know has some discomfort. Plan being 2 sets of 8-10. It was my choice of bar really but I wanted to use a barbell. Been using ssb for so long and this wasn’t going to be something I’d be having low bar to do. Knees were quite stiff. Unilateral stuff is good to warm up bilateral squats but not vice versa it would seem. There was some tenderness in the knee joints in both legs at different spots and only on the back legs. For the right side, the inner part and for the left side the outer part. With how rough the bar was feeling, I went with just 20lbs more for the first set with the plan being to do that weight. I’ve gone a bit better with the pacing and rest for unilateral lower body exercises. Neither side really seemed to have an advantage as I did more reps. Kind of just telling myself that my knees won’t explode. I felt like 65lbs was too light/easy so I added 15lbs for the next set. That felt better on the knees as I was more warmed up I think and felt a bit closer to where I was to be effort wise. So even though I had done 2x10, I increased the weight to what I had hoped to be doing at the start for another set. I could tell fatigue was setting in at this point. Considering the ROM, how these felt and the disparity between the hatfield style vs no support style, it is clear to see that I can benefit from this style a bit more and let the other stuff take over for the heavier things. Nordic curls were up next. Last week of them being free standing. They have kind of just been the same for a few weeks and I’ve been fine with them not really progressing. More just knee health and keeping some hamstring work that wasn’t loading the spine. This last session before switching to a different variation was to do same setup but increase the eccentric from just controlled to 5-7ct. I was thinking this was going to be a little more intense and potentially tougher to recover from. And possibly rougher. But it actually went quite well. Really cooked the hamstrings and was probably the best these have felt since these were added for this prep. Maybe the intent like that is important. Then swings. Back to 8x5 and short rests. It was a little tricky to get 5lbs more on here. I don’t think I can really add more weight without swapping out to the 45lbs plates and even then it might be a total of 30lbs more. Probably not worth it with the even bigger diameter plates. These are quick and easy and I try to keep them moving. Like less than 40 seconds rest when I was to be doing like 60 seconds. If these are ending up being something that will be continuing or a bigger fixture for training going forward, I may need to invest in something to actually put some decent weight on these (safely). I could bring the pins from the gym home but I’d hate to take away from something that I know another person at the gym will be using to train for Nats. I guess I’ll find out more when next week of programming is discussed so I can plan accordingly. Felt easy but breathing a bit from just having to exert effort. You can’t exactly swing slowly. Last thing was probably a violation of the Geneva Convention. I think I feel that way about a lot of lower abdominal work. So this was a change from the hollow rocks. I felt I had built up some tolerance from those. This was to be some reverse crunches with holds and maybe adding bands if I felt I could rig that up. I did and I wish I hadn’t because it made what was probably going to be a very easy cool down exercise into something very challenging. Holds and tempo on lower abdominal exercises are just terrible for me. But I do it as it needs work and the off season sessions is where it can get a little more attention before event work takes over. I ended up hitting the minimum rep range here and having to rest pause the last set. Ugh. I can only improve from there. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before stretching. I was tempted to ice the knees but figured I’d stay the course for now.

July 31, 2023 – Week 6, Day 1

One Arm Half Kneeling Dumbbell Strict Presses w/ Band Rows (3 second eccentrics)
10x4/4 (µb)
40x3/3 (mb)
60x2/2 (mb+µb)
80x8/8 (mmb)
80x8/8 (mmb)
80x8/8 (mmb)

Feet Up Swiss Bar Bench Presses/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
110x3/40’sx3
150x3/70’sx3
200x12/100’sx12
200x12/100’sx12
200x12/100’sx12

Landmine Bar Twists/Dumbbell Windmills
70x6/6 – 53x6/6
70x6/6 – 53x6/6
70x6/6 – 53x6/6

Stretching
 
Comments: I was able to sit down and get a lot of thoughts about plans for Nationals put to paper so that was a good bit of a load off. Ended up being like 6 pages of comments and thoughts. Still have things to figure out as far as best options. And I’m sure that when I get those little moments when I can relax that I’ll potentially think even clearer on things. At this point with essentially all the details for Nats (as well as seeing other people start training) has me excited to start pushing the event work. To be done with the off-season stuff. It does seem to be a more gradual shift in priorities. Last day like this for this session I think. Starting things off with tempo and band row overhead pressing. Again, higher RPE and 3x8 as the plan with the 3 second eccentrics. I didn’t really want to take a small jump with the dumbbells so aim was the 80lbs dumbbell. I was going to start with 40lbs and do 20lbs jumps but elected to start with the 10lbs and make an in-between jump with the band tension. Slightly longer rests here and pushing things here. Potentially some fatigue from pressing on Thursday. Feel like I’m getting more into the mobility and rotation groove on these. I didn’t feel like any reps were like the last bit of last week where my lockout was struggling due to fatigue. I was kind of surprised the reps went as well as they did considering how things were feeling warming up. Not as oh crap heavy as the 70lbs weight had felt that first week back from vacation. I definitely forgot to row the band on the first rep of the first set with the left side rowing. I was just thinking about getting through this session as I’d be one session closer to more event focused stuff. Supersets after that as has been the case (allegedly last of these). Feet up swiss bar bench press paired with chest supported dumbbell rows with no acceleration reps again. It sounds like these will be split up and modified as slightly different exercises going forward. I wanted to go up a bit on the press since the RPE was increased and rest was also increased. I landed on 20lbs increase and living option to add a little weight each set if I felt like I could handle it. The only thing I’ve not really liked with these paired is that I like to keep things “even” and I need a lot less warming up for rows vs benching and pressing. So even with doing the 80lbs presses, shoulders weren’t feeling 100% initially on the benching. Felt fine after that first set though. A minor thing. I was feeling my core a good bit I guess from Saturday with the increase weight on the b-stance rdls as my abs were feeling somewhat sore. Trying to make sure my legs didn’t cramp on the bench as well. I could tell that 200lbs was the limit to stay in the good graces of the RPE planned. Rows were a bit of surprise for me. I only went up 5lbs but felt really tough. Mostly my grip was feeling fatigued and hands sweaty. It wasn’t even nearly as humid or hot compared to Saturday. I may need to also consider chalk for at home at this point on these exercises once I notice this. Second set I really felt the fatigue on the pressing and it was tougher than I would’ve liked. Rows seemed to be the inverse as that felt easier. Third set I got myself a bit more into it and made the last pressing set feel similar to the first set. Rows my grip had me taking a brief pause to regrip near the end and finish out. I have noticed some golfer’s elbow discomfort in the right side but it does appear that rowing is going to be adjusted any ways. Drew and I’ve been working together long enough he gets a sense of when to adjust before I start chirping about it. Last thing was the pairing of the landmine bar twists and dumbbell windmills. I liked the increased difficulty of the dumbbell vs the kettlebell and I know I’d need to go outside to safely use the handle (as well as wear a knee sleeve to protect forearms). Use the long dumbbell handle and the smaller plates to minimize the contact issues with the garage ceiling. It would be a fairly big weight jump but I felt I could handle that and increasing the weight on the bar twists to keep it moving well. This was definitely fatiguing with the 90 seconds rest on these but I got the work done and feel that things went well and did well. Put stuff away as I let the roast set for dinner. Stretched afterwards.