January 21, 2024 - January 27, 2024 - Week 6

 January 22, 2024 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
87x10
127x8
157x5
187x3
217x2
247x0

Band Assisted Pull-ups
abx5 at pin 12
abx5 at pin 15
abx5 at pin 18
abx5 at pin 21
abx6 at pin 24

Axle Clean and Strict Presses (one clean)
46x5
80x4
120x3
150x2
180x2

Axle Strict Presses
180x2
180x2
180x2
180x2

Standing Axle Lockouts
180x3 seconds
210x3 seconds
240x3 seconds
270x3 seconds
300x3 seconds
330x3 seconds
360x33 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Still cold but it is to be warming up this week to probably be enough to melt the snow all over again. But not yet. I needed to get in a walk Sunday as I was feeling the Saturday session (coupled with the snow shoveling) and with the return to the office once a month happening again the 4th Tuesday of each month, I wasn’t going to get to do any walking that day. It does seem that the adjustments to the diet have me adding weight again. Surprisingly so with over 3lbs jump. The addition of another piece of bread (I was doing one slice for sandwiches) and the big one I think being a cup of whole milk (lactose free). I just kind of forgot that lactose free milk was a thing and was getting hung up on milk substitutes to try and get digestible calories in that wouldn’t screw with my stomach. It has been so long since I’ve had milk that I wasn’t too sure if this is how it is supposed to taste haha. But it does appear to be how it is these days. With the work in office day, I was taking stuff to boost immune system as that would be where I’d catch something. It is possible that subconscious stress as well as having to shovel snow more in the month than I was expecting for the winter potentially had something to do with how some aspects of training went. Had some knee joint aches with the warming up. Not exactly more or less than I was feeling Saturday after shoveling snow three times in less than 24hrs. But I knew there was some recovery stuff (why I made sure to walk Sunday). Other stuff felt. Cold didn’t really seem to bother me. There was snow and condensation outside so it wasn’t ideal with moving stuff around. Starting off with log incline benching. This did not go well. If anything wasn’t going to be good, this was it. Seems to be a barometer for things. The canary in the mine. This can be tricky warming up at times as it usually will feel good and then just make too big a jump and then ugh. So the goal here was to do a little more than last time’s set of 5 reps (247lbs suggested) and then drop to triples and doubles as we went. Fair enough. Right away, shoulders were feeling achy with the empty log. That isn’t terribly unusual but usually these feel good and even if the first few reps suck, gets better as I go. Just wasn’t feeling it with the next weight either. Weight was feeling heavy on my shoulder joints but fine for my wrists and elbows as well as the weight in my hands. I think I was at about 190lbs when I kept double checking to make sure I didn’t have like 30-50lbs more than I had meant to on it. The double before the top set kind of told me this wasn’t happening as felt like garbage if I attempted to press near my face but seemed less and issue if I pressed out away. But of course that is away from the center of gravity and misgrooves. But I guess I needed to confirm it with the top weight. Ended up just being a controlled negative and barely getting it off my chest and immediately bailing on it. No sense trying to drop down to do a set of five reps. Accept it and move on. I knew what this meant and I just had to get through the workout and see how stuff felt and report. It is frustrating that it seems my shoulders can handle less and less volume and frequency in the last 2yrs or so. I was having no issues the first two full weeks of training. I know when my body is on point and recovered that I’m not this far off the mark. But it does seem to come suddenly. Unfortunate since I like to keep pushing. So having to walk it off and keep the session going. Band assisted pull-ups. Sets of 5 reps like last time. Well sort of. Same working up in sets of 5 reps but the top set I was to do 5-10 reps. And this is how it is to be for the next six sessions or so. The philosophy being to working a sweet spot range on this exercise and add reps when feels good. But making sure that things are feeling powerful and good with perfect form and ROM. I decided to use the setup from last time with the average band. Upper back was feeling everything really so I wasn’t really expecting to push things here. I was also trying to not freak out over the incline log stuff and let it affect things. These were feeling a little harder. But again, I’m 3.5lbs heavier from last time, did a lot of shoveling and increased the frame carry by 68lbs from last time. By the end, it was feeling similar to last time anyways. I did one extra rep just because so 6 reps here. Then a change in the program with the strict pressing. It has been rack work but need to work on the clean and might as well start light. So work up to the working weight with one clean and strict pressing and then do the remaining sets with it out of the rack. So work up to a top double (70%) and then do 4x2 with it in the rack (with the rep out option on the last set). I was curious to see how things were feeling. And I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be feeling 100% judging by how the incline stuff was. But this was a low enough percentage that I should finish stuff with no issue. The platform being wet was not ideal. The axle at the show is going to be off bumper plates rather than crash pads so get used to that (log will be crash pads). I’m glad I got 25lbs bumper plates so I can work things like this was better without having the 10lbs folding over getting enough weight to use the 45lbs. I kind of forgot what I was doing initially on the first set warming up and remember I was to be strict pressing. Not having the weight on bumper plates also had things making a satisfying “thud” when dropped as well. The added weight has definitely added to the girth of my midsection so I may now be back to where just one notch is required as opposed to two notches to allow me to brace and breath when doing clean and presses. Not terrible but could tell this wasn’t 100%. Out of the rack stuff I could tell that it wasn’t a good idea to try repping out the last set considering my thinking was I was overtraining the shoulders. I did keep it in my back pocket if that last set, best set, mentality came in. But I could tell it wasn’t good on that last set and went on to the lockout holds to end the session. Leaving right where the strict pressing left off. Log holds had been good last time once I got my head in the game. Axle I had pushed a bit too much last time. Plan was 30lbs jumps and then 20lbs and try for 370lbs. I thought better of it and elected to just do 30lbs so that I’d do 360lbs. Slightly less than last time but more than the first week (350lbs). This didn’t seem to be affected by what seemed to be fatigued and overtrained. I did have to retake the top weight as I misgrooved it and needed to rebrace. I felt much better under this weight this time around. I actually ended up getting over 30 seconds. I had done 31 seconds with 340lbs with the log and then 20 seconds with 353lbs last week. Axle had been 350lbs for 20 seconds and 366lbs for 16 seconds. So this was a big jump. So it would seem that not everything is beat to hell in my upper body. Just shoulders (and maybe chest, though doubt that). Started cooking up dinner while putting stuff away. Stretched after eating and made sure I had things ready for work as I’d need to wake up an hour early for the commute. Need to make sure I send Mr. Westerling something about the possible shoulder overtraining in case that affects future workouts (not likely for the remainder this week).

January 24, 2023 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Wide Grip Deadlifts w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x2
315x2
365x1
405x1
445x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
10+65x37 seconds

Planks
bw+53x60 seconds

Side Planks
bwx60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: No walking the day before. Because of having to be at the office all day. As far as being made to go in for dumb stuff, it was probably the least stupid time I’ve had to be there. I’d still have gotten more done at home. My neck was feeling a bit tense and my hope was that sleep would resolve that (it did). I was definitely not 100% in to things. Lower back was feeling a little stiff (understandable not getting in a long walk and bringing back axle cleans) and despite my best efforts, the shoulder recovery issue was plaguing me. It is good we are so far out that I can afford to tweak things. But of the events, only the pressing medley stuff are feeling like issues with how things stand. I’ve no doubts I’ll be ready with everything else. The pressing needs the most work I fear and it seems they can’t handle frequency and intensity they used to. So that is weighing on me. The “what ifs” and I have to recognize the negative focus and try to use reframing and flip it around with positive “what ifs”. Which can be difficult. Anyways, I felt justified in that I’ve identified the issue as my entire shoulder girdle was feeling tense and worked. Not like lactic acid soreness. Just worked. Also needing to keep track of the food intake. I’ve not missed any but I’ll sometimes forget and need to adjust the rest of the times to make sure I can stomach everything comfortably. Mobility stuff to start things off. Wore the warm ups even though it was going to be warming up. I think just to get stuff feeling warm in general as unlike a lot of what I do, the warm ups would get in the way on the wide pulls, even at light weights. Also did ankle/knee/hip stuff as I felt needed as joints a bit achy from the snow related stuff (and not getting in a walk). Needed to do it more than once. As I mentioned, wide pulls for this workout. Again, the plan here is continuing with a slightly heavier then last time top set of 5 reps wearing the hip circle. Last time, 40-50lbs jumps and dropping reps off every two sets seemed to work out well for me. I felt like I finally got these to click for me in a way that I felt like it wasn’t bothering my knees. The suggested for this time based off last time was 440-445lbs. I was thinking of 455lbs felt it was best to go with the suggested as I was feeling that blahs a bit and trying to keep my intent and focus on the here and now and make sure I can do the next workout. This was probably the best that 135lbs felt on these which is saying something I guess. Bar knurling was scraping skin off my knees this week. Really no rhyme or reason for it. I was little worried with the hard belt as one notch seemed to be what was comfortable for clean and press but two notches was doable and fine here. I could tell that 445lbs was happening unless I screwed up with how 405lbs went. Felt tough, like last time. But it is the same tough as what 405lbs felt a month ago so adding 40lbs is good. What’s the saying, it won’t get easier but you will get stronger? I definitely feel more comfortable with the eccentric and not fearing I’ll lose my brace and round. That had been why I was doing it slower at the start. Controlling a much as I need at this point. From there it was time for the hyper bench hold with the neck harness and plate. Warming up for it with hyper extensions and they felt surprisingly good. Usually I feel beat from the deadlift variation and then these just tell me to expect suck when it comes to the hold. I was advised that I could add weight to this exercise assuming it would be at least 30 seconds. Suggested was to add where the weight would feel “easiest” so since holding the plate was feeling like an afterthought, that would be where we start. So same weight on the neck harness and 20lbs added to the chest hold. Yep, that was noticed doing these. I was worried I was going to crap out before 20 seconds. But lessons from last time with appropriate bracing helped and I was able to get a good bit over 30 seconds here. So things going well here. Last thing then being abdominal work. On to the carpeted area for the planks. Regular weighted plank. I added a bit more weight compared to last time. 53lbs in the backpack. I don’t see there being really any reason to go above this weight as this should be sufficient as a training stimulus and I can really brace and flex everything as well. I’ve done heavier in the past. I’m trying to also focus on my braced breathing as I’ve been having issues with that with the added bulk and I do think that I’m getting that in check. Then side planks. Again, no weight. I switched the sides I started with here as the elbow swelling issue last time seemed to be fixed. I was also trying to go through these with not as much rest so that I could cook dinner and hopefully eat it early enough to fit in a missed meal before eating before bed. The left side did feel a little bit of stress on the posted elbow. But again, I was being hypersensitive with the shoulders and recovery. I fixate. Got finished and cooked dinner while putting stuff away. Stretched afterwards.

January 27, 2024 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke
200x50’
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x50’/50’

Sandbag to Shoulders
175x1/1
200x1/1
225x1/1
EMOM
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L

Stretching
 
Comments: I didn’t have delusions of thinking that this would be an outstanding training session. I had stressed myself out with needing to adjust the upper body sessions and fixating on that. I could also tell that I was feeling a little worn with those thoughts. I did get to walk Thursday and Friday. But I could tell that I was delaying things as I was feeling tired Friday evening and was yawning before I even got to eat dinner. So I knew that recovery wasn’t the best. Plan was then to sleep in. I was even debating staying local and do the workout here to help that but it didn’t make sense for this time. I wasn’t worrying about weather and I didn’t have to be available for anything. Considering last time I showed up for this particular set of training, it was packed and I had to wait so showing up later than usual made sense. Driving out was fine but I was finding myself more introspective and not really singing to my music like I tend to do. I think that was needed though. Dealing with envious feelings of other competitors’ progress and success and my own feelings that that I’m not able to handle the work necessary to be the best. Coming to accept myself more in that I’m not one of those people that will be able to walk up to something and lift it right away. I need time and I have to tap into reserves. I can do things but it takes a lot out of me and have to recover. My training is more to build up tolerance so that my baseline is higher and that I hopefully don’t have to dig so deep to achieve that is needed every time. If I have enough time to prep, I should be good. But enough of that. I was kind of surprised that there were people there when I showed up. I guess that other people ended up showing up later than usual too. Great. Started out with the warming up routine. These actually felt the best they’ve felt all week. So hopefully recovering in the knees and shoulders from this past week and all the dumb snow shoveling the week prior. For this workout, I was essentially doing a repeat of the last time I did it. Yoke and sandbag and doing the same weights. It makes sense in recovery purposes. I don’t need to push the yoke as hard as I was expecting to for this show as already within 100lbs of the event weight and feeling fine. But it can be hard to quantify things when repeating a workout to try and make it better or have it feel easier. And it can suck when it actually feels tougher. But to training. First thing for this session was yoke. Work up in 50’ runs and do top set of 100’ with the 50’ down and back. 100lbs jumps here. 600lbs is what I did last time so that was what the plan was here. However, both lanes were in use by someone training for the local show happening in about 2 months. He didn’t have a lot of sets but considering the group of people here and how he was looking with warming up, it was going to take a while and I’d be done my sets before he got done. I was already at the gym like a hour later than I usually would be. So I decided to just do the yoke work on the turf instead. So I already was having some adjustment here and couldn’t really compare to last time as I moving on turf is harder than the concrete. Knees were aching a bit more than I’d have liked here. I didn’t feel like I was taxed too much with doing the heavy frame carry on turf last week but I guess that was only the top set and not all the working sets. I was just feeling ok here. But I did seem to be able to get myself to convince my knees they weren’t achy for that top set. I was definitely moving a little slower but purposely as I needed to make sure I didn’t damage the turf when I set the yoke down. My repick felt really good. My legs were feeling pretty fatigued as I was getting to the end of the run. I went a good bit past the line. It does seem that my time was similar to last time but slightly slower. It took a moment to catch my breath after that. My legs were feeling it. Kind of hoping this has more to do with it being the turf then me not being recovered from Wednesday wide pulls. Next was sandbag shouldering. Put away stuff for the yoke and took a little time here to get ready. I was waiting for the guy using the lanes to finish. This had been 250lbs for 5 singles to each side, alternating for EMOM style. I hoped this would feel better this time as I felt that these were rougher than I would’ve liked considering how easy 225lbs had moved last time. But it is a bit of jump on this all things considered. I’ve done 336lbs over shoulder (probably could hold it there) and 306lbs to shoulder so this kind of close percentage wise to my top end that I’ve pushed here compared to say frame and yoke with the larger jumps. The ease with 225lbs two sessions prior of this had me feeling like I was going well here. I did the same warm ups and I could tell that the picking up wasn’t feeling so bad but that last pop to the shoulders was not feeling as strong. That feeling had me not going so quickly between the reps warming up when swapping side to side. 250lbs at the gym has two options; more compact bag for one brand and the bag I used last time that has straps on it. I elected to use the compact bag this time. Neither bag is the style being used at Regionals. The first rep each side didn’t feel that bad. But the chalk came off immediately on those first two reps. I didn’t end up reapplying. At some point, I got distracted and completely lost where I was in the universe. And when I came back, I was apparently in the middle of a rep. This was to be the third rep with the going to the left shoulder but I forgot where I was and hesitated middle of the pop from the hips and had to recatch it and just assumed I was to go to the right side. So that meant I had to even things out by doing the next two reps to the left side to get back on track and make sure I was doing the same reps each side. So not too happy with myself for letting that happen. Kind of tossed the bag on the very last rep. Left wrist I managed to “jam” on one of the reps. Just going to be sore for a day or two. Put the sandbag away and ate several things I brought with me. I did a little stretching (I was waiting to use the restroom) before driving home and eating some more and then stretching. I’m going to need to make sure I sleep in a lot to help with recovery.

January 14, 2024 - January 20, 2024 - Week 5

January 15, 2024 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Bench Presses
45x15
95x8
145x5
195x5
245x5
295x5

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
95x8
145x8
195x8
Added Straps
245x8
285x8

12” Log Strict Presses
90x2
115x2
140x2
165x2
165x2
165x2
165x2
165x6

Standing 12” Log Lockouts
165x3 seconds
195x3 seconds
225x3 seconds
255x3 seconds
285x3 seconds
305x3 seconds
325x3 seconds
353x20 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: It was probably a good thing off work this day. I kind of used Sunday to recover from Saturday and then with the expectation of Monday off stayed up later Sunday before falling asleep. I didn’t realize I guess how much Saturday had taken out of me with the those two exercises on top of pushing the wide pulls. I woke up earlier on Sunday to use the restroom and felt stiff and dehydrated. My left wrist was achy too. Fell back asleep and felt better when I did wake up. But lower back was feeling pretty stiff so I knew I needed to move around. Thankfully it was windy as a bastard out so there was a lot of dead branches and such that I had to pick up and that seemed so I got some movement in that way in before walking. Weight the same as last week. Continuing to tweak the diet and get the calorie count right. I’m going to attempt adding some more small calorie changes as the addition of just 130 calories of yogurt seemed to be a push that got me up 10lbs over 6 weeks’ time. There has also been periods of stagnation where I’ve finally bumped up but 3 weeks in a row seems to be the longest at this point. I’m giving myself until middle of March to get to 285lbs. If I can’t get there with forcing food down, it isn’t sustainable and I may just need to stick to 265lbs class. I got 2 months to get that sorted I guess. Monday woke up a little earlier but still some stiffness. Not painful, just been unexpected to have stiffness in my back for quite some time. I should note that I’ve not really had much in the way of discomfort since returning to training with Mr. Westerling and I’ve only iced my knees after the first day of Nationals before bed to help with getting tendons to calm down so I could sleep. So I think noticing when other stuff is off because joint discomfort is no longer the norm here. Being off work seemed to be a good thing for rest but also with weather. Snow was the plan apparently for later in the day but I had only thought there was to be snow tomorrow. Guess both. I wasn’t aware of this until later anyways as I had intended to train around lunch time in the first place. Cold as the day before but not windy. So tolerable. Mobility stuff per usual was fine. Wore my warmups to help with warming up faster and did everything in the garage. Starting off with bench. Plan for the session was work up in 5’s to a top set of 5 with this not being a max. There wasn’t really a suggested here like the first week with 275lbs. I figured that high end would be 20lbs increase. I was somewhat uncertain with that seeing as how incline log work went last week. There was no real aches in my shoulders here. I was kind of expecting some since this motion seemed to have that as well as the impact stress from a 250lbs sandbag on each side of my neck. I should be able to do that. I set things up so that I was doing 50lbs jumps and then decide how the last set feels and either go with 10lbs to 20lbs. 245lbs felt ok. Not amazing but it certainly felt a bit better than how 225lbs was initially feeling last time. But I was still waffling between 290lbs and 295lbs and just went with 295lbs. I’d feel real stupid if I messed this up. I feel I’m still getting used to this grip and form as I seem to need to adjust things at times. I got the set done. Not an absolute max but likely need to do 10lbs at the most for next time. I do feel it is important that if I’m to be doing 300lbs or more log and axle that I need to be doing 300lbs or more on bench and front squats for reps to facilitate that. Chest supported rows up next. 5 sets of 8 reps to a top set for the day. Compared to last time, notes said to aim for something challenging. So I figured I could get closer to what I’ve done on these before. Same as bench with doing 50lbs jumps. I had tried to do the same weight as the bench last time but found that my arms and such were not up to it at this time. It would seem that I’m still not quite used to it after doing the sandbag lifting. Probably because I jumped up 25lbs on that and not repeating the session like how I did with stone of steel stuff for the last prep. It didn’t feel like a good idea to push this so I went up 40lbs for the last set. Hopefully I get used to these in this session. But I may need to lower expectations here at this time. The lighter weight stuff is feeling easy. That was enough of in the garage unfortunately and it was now time to go outside. Log strict pressing was up next. Warm up as needed and do 5x2 at 65%. Axle had been surprisingly good last time after the screw up with log incline. It hadn’t felt the greatest as far as pressing at the start. Log had felt good last time besides the initial pressure on the chest. Things were feeling pretty good. The second reps weren’t feeling as I guess crisp as I wanted them but it didn’t seem off. Usually I get better as I go and then the rep set I kind of surprise myself with how I’m feeling. I was surprised this time but not with how well. It was feeling tough and I called it at 6 reps there. I mean, this was just bonus reps really. But it was a little concerning considering 15lbs less I got more than double this rep output quite convincingly. But I did push the benching and rowing this time around and the sandbag work required more effort compared to the time before. But it was enough that I was wondering if I misloaded by like 20lbs. Also not wearing a belt yet at this point (hard belt that is). So a little bit of a damper there. Last thing was lockout workout. Following from axle with starting with log press weight and then doing 30lbs jumps up to 285lbs and then 20lbs jumps. I could tell this might be tough today. Initially thinking when I had this planned was to match the axle weight but I concluded that was likely not smart considering how tough that had been on the axle and last time I did the log I misloaded the top set by 10lbs. It had started to snow a little at this point. I really needed to focus on this as being lackadaisical in any part of the bracing was going to be not a good time. I actually messed that up initially going for 305lbs. That was a bit embarrassing. And I’m to be pressing that in June if I hope to do well. That miss made it clear that I needed to not go for 365lbs here. Judge how 325lbs went. That I didn’t screw up so I figured I’d do 353lbs (160kgs) just because. I almost lost it right away but I fought like hell for balance in my everywhere and managed to get it. Held for what I thought was 24 seconds before putting down but was 20 seconds. Oh well, just at the limit. I then had to eat like 5 meals at once to get caught up on food intake before putting stuff away and stretching.

January 17, 2024 – Week 5, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x10
95x5
145x3
195x3
245x3
295x5

Romanian Deadlifts w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x3
405x3
495x3
551x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
10+45x45 seconds

Crunches
bw+10x25

Lying Leg Raises
bwx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Even with a day off work on Monday, still feeling like a long week where nothing is going to get done as far as work. I guess me also thinking on things. Thinking on how log press that I didn’t feel like I had many reps there on the strict pressing last set as well as the weight gain and trying to stay in the SHW class. Kind of set myself that if I’m not able to get close to 285lbs by March with the most recent diet adjustments (and feel comfortable at that weight) then I will need to stick with weight my body seems to want to be at. Even if this doesn’t necessarily work out, this increased food consumption may be something to consider for an actual “bulking” offseason plan. My lower back had been feeling pretty stiff from Saturday training as mentioned Monday and it seemed to be easing up. My upper back and shoulders were really feeling the training on Monday. Then got another snow storm Tuesday so had to do some more shoveling. So not really getting much rest to those areas. This was tougher than the first snow this year since it was staying frigid temperatures so I didn’t have the luxury of warmer weather and sun to help with melting stuff. It was cold enough that stuff heated up by the friction of the shovel against the pavement that melted stuff was then refreezing. Ended up using the rock salt stuff I had saved and needed to put that down at times rather than at the very end when I was done due to the risk of slipping. My knees were feeling pretty tender even coming to Wednesday. Partially that and maybe due to the big drop in temperature as well as moving heavier weights every session. My meal timing was off on Wednesday and I think I was also realizing there was another snow storm for the end of the week. So I started training a little later to allow for my stomach to rest and I guess get my head into it. Mobility warming up wasn’t bad. Just cold and slight joint aches. But thankfully not as bad as I was expecting doing the movements. First thing for this session was front squats. Warm up as needed and do triples up to a top set of five reps. As with last time, notes said to make sure that it was smooth and powerful. Similar to bench and rows, I set things up so that if feeling good, it was 50lbs jumps all the way up with allowing myself to do 295lbs as the top set. If not feeling great then I could do less but at least 285lbs. 275lbs had felt pretty good other than the breathing issue on the last rep. I know that that will continue to be something until I get used to heavier front squats again. But I also know that as long as my knees are feeling good, this weight will feel less compressive and restrictive. Which is good for my overhead pressing. I was not really feeling like this was going to be a good session with my knees and hips aching. The way I do these with the straps tends to work for me but today it just wasn’t. Not sure what it was with how I set them but they kept getting in my face. I swapped them around and that seemed to take care of that issue but they then felt weird in my hands. So I went back to how I had them and hoped for the best. 245lbs felt fine as far as moving the weight but it did feel hard on the breathing. Which isn’t a good confidence booster when planning to do more weight and more reps. Again, I was having those little doubts with thinking the choice I had set for myself was going to be too much. Bargaining and then finally biting the bullet and putting 295lbs on like I intended. Really tell a difference from how this kind of weight felt on my body now compared to how it felt on the deload for the last show. The breathing was an issue but the weight felt easy on my lower body. I got two reps before I had to stop and get a breath and rebrace and that ended up being what I needed to do to get through the set. I guess I’ll need to be more mindful of this as I try to put on weight but also just in general. Been noticing that I need to control my breathing more with how tight I’m bracing I guess now. The right side strap I got a little loose on the last rep but still fine. Arms looking huge in the video on these haha. Then the deadlift portion of the session. The heavier of the two variations that are making up the off season. The wide pulls to work the start and build up the hips and these rdls to work the top range. With how these feel, I’m trying to treat them as TUT floating rack pulls. I knew from last time and how the wide pulls went that I probably had a big jump in weight still before I got to the point where gradual progress would make more sense as far as increase. The warming up seemed to indicate plate jumps as opposed to 40-50lbs jumps so I went for that this time. I initially was thinking 515lbs to 545lbs for the top set of 5 reps after working up in plate jump triples to 495lbs. I was being mindful of my midsection and making sure I didn’t get a cramping sensation like I did last time with these. 495lbs felt comfortable and I kind of knew that I needed to expand the range to 545lbs as the low end to go for. I knew that 585lbs would be too much at this time (would also be the most I’ve attempted for an rdl) to safely get the set done but I wanted to do a little more than 545lbs. So I settled on 551lbs or 250kgs. Just because (I think I like swapping to a kilo goal for things). I’ve only been in this weight territory once before with the rdls and I had been using sawhorses at the time. I’m actually not sure if the dinky rack I got can really handle much more than this going forward. I guess a good but bad problem finally being strong enough for safety concerns. But man was this feeling heavy on my body. A bit different with how these are with breathing compared to regular pulls. So a lot of pressure built up. I was a little worried that I’d get lightheaded similar to the front squats. But I took what I had learned from the wide pulls and the front squats with rebracing and breathing at the top of the motion and got it done. I believe I’ve got these feeling about the same difficulty as the wide pulls now. From there it was time for the hyper bench hold with the neck harness and plate. Warming up for it with hyper extensions again. I wasn’t expecting much here as this tends to be tougher to hold compared to the wide pull days. And this had been a tough session weight wise. But I guess I had something click for me on these finally with not only getting the hold but also with getting the midsection to brace in a way that was supporting but not fatiguing. Got to my goal of 45 seconds on these. So that was a nice feeling. I’m not sure if I should stick to this again for another session (assuming these continue) to make sure I’m consistent (and this wasn’t a fluke) or to increase the weight on the neck harness and build up again (assuming I can get 30 seconds). The abdominals stuff was next. The moving vs the bracing of the alternative week session. The crunches the same with a set of 25 reps with option of weight. These had been a little tougher than I would’ve like last time with the weight but that could’ve been from the stomach cramp from earlier as well. I moved the weight placement a bit further from where I held it last time a few reps into the set and this increased difficulty as well as allow for more ROM on the bottom of the lift so I could have my thoracic spine moving as well with flexion and extension. I tried to move to the lying leg raises quickly (I had already started cooking dinner) but got an ab cramp as I was about to start and get into position. Oh bother. But it wasn’t something that would keep me from doing these (it was an upper ab cramp and these were lower ab). As I noted last time, these do tend to feel a little rough at times after doing heavy pulls that can compress the spine. My lower back tends to not like traction kind of exercises. Some reps it feels it and others it doesn’t. Doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason. Just slow down and adjust. Put stuff away while dinner was cooking. Ate and then stretched out.

January 20, 2024 – Week 5, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Tosses (16’)
30x1
30x1
30x1
EMOM
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1
38x1

Frame Carries
(16” pick)
180x50’
(18” pick)
276x50’
376x50’
476x50’
(20” pick)
568x6’
568x50’/50’ (turf)
568x6’

Stretching
 
Comments: Again, winter weather decided to play havoc with my event training. And it has been on the day that I seem to enjoy more. Last time it was an option to train before it hit and stay home and I got through it without incident. This was not going to be one of those avoidable scenarios. I had initially known of the snow but was only expecting 1” at most based off the predictions. But then it became a thing with it being up to 6” so a possibility of being snowed in. So had a backup plan. But you know I don’t like deviations from the original plan. I at least got to get in some walking Thursday which felt good. Been windy and cold so wearing thicker coat. The threat of snow caused work to close but due to teleworking, means I was still to work. Which was fine. At least it would be if my cellphone hadn’t decided to stop working as a phone. Combination of work stuff and trying to fix the phone and eventually realizing that was a lost cause and having to get a new one. Which was its own headache with having to move stuff and revalidate and login to everything. Odds are I’ll be finding things that still need to be resolved in the coming days as I they pop up. I waited until the plows came by and spent Friday shoveling snow and putting down rock salt (got from my parents as I used up all mine). I kind of knew that I’d be able to get out to train on Saturday but I’d probably have to go later. One to get some rest but also to hopefully give time for roads to clear. There was some more snow so I had to do some more shoveling before I went out to train. I guess it was light enough to leave but I didn’t want to compact it or have the walkway hazardous for mail deliveries. It should hopefully be warm enough to start melting tomorrow. So a slower start to the day and packed up three meals worth of food for the gym as well as getting gas (because I have to go into the office Tuesday all day ugh). Once on the main roads, conditions were good. The real test would be what condition the walkway and parking lot were for the gym. I knew they were open from seeing Instagram stories from people that go in earlier. The parking lot and walkway weren’t really that clean. The walkway not for a lack of trying. The snow on the roof of the buildings with the high wind kept blowing down. The toss tower was also not dug out. It had the snow from not only this snow but also Tuesday. So I had to do a bit of shoveling here as well before I got started with warming up. There were people at the gym but they were kind of doing the tail end of their stuff. I wore my warm ups for the warming up to get my body warm because I’d be outside for a good bit. Knees were feeling achier than I would’ve liked. But kind of expected having to shovel snow three times in less than 24hrs. I did the ankle and knee mobility stretching as well as my calves were tight. Starting things off was bag toss. Assuming I felt it was safe enough to do it. Light bag for 10 tosses done EMOM style. I felt that the working weight had gotten heavy enough that I should and could do warming up tosses beyond just swings, upright rows and high pulls. I put down a rubber mat and did 3 tosses with 30lbs. I was initially going to do only 1 but it felt like a good idea to do a few with the unique conditions. I was a little nervous with the EMOM because of the weather conditions. I’ve done stuff in a downpour but this was a little different in that footing wasn’t guaranteed to be sure. I had put down some rock salt but didn’t really help with the shade and the fresh snow getting blown down from the roofs. While the snow and wind weren’t helpful for the training, it was pretty badass looking/feeling haha. All the tosses cleared the height marker but it wasn’t the perfect toss session with the slippery conditions. Two that didn’t go well had been when I apparently sunk too low and scraped the bag on the ground and another I got a bunch of snow in my face from a wind gust and I essentially just used upper body to chuck it as my feet didn’t feel sturdy. But I was ok with most of those and glad that no misses in these kind of conditions. I’ve not done much in the way of above 30lbs for more than 10 tosses EMOM style as of late from the last training cycle with them so encouraging to see that I can keep up the pace for double the usual. Took a bit of time to put the stuff back in the place and clean up before moving on to the frame carry. Frame carry was going to be a little different. I could’ve stuck to what I had been doing as far as doing 50lbs jumps. But I also wanted to get to working on the big heavy frame as early as I could. So what was 18lbs more on that with a higher pick height? I had gotten permission to use that frame indoors as long as I controlled the drops on rubber. No one really uses this old frame because it isn’t really for everyone at 568lbs empty. I like to work up to it on other stuff rather than go cold. But this also meant that I had to clear a lot of things that were being stored in it. I had a plan with warming up but found that the Titan Fitness frames were apparently taken by someone who wields to fix them up so I went with the other setups to start. I was feeling the breathing was a little off but that issue seemed to clear up with 476lbs with the hard belt oddly enough. The big frame is heavy enough that I can’t really not count moving it to get into place as a set of some sort. It was probably a good thing to get a short pick and carry with it to kind of get used to what was to come. As rest before the working set (50’/50’) I weighed the yokes for my own curiosity and to confirm some things (one yoke was 15lbs lighter than thought and the other was 25lbs heavier). Then time for the frame run. I knew this wouldn’t be the “best” run I’ve done because been away from this frame for a bit and I was going to be running on turf with it for the first time. I also had to be mindful of the turf when I did the drops. I knew that if things felt like they should, this was going to be comfortable. That first pick to move it usually feels the roughest of the picks (perhaps as bad as the one putting it away haha). Things actually seemed to go well here. Moving well and the repick was pretty quick. No damage to the turf either. Took a few moments to get myself recovered before putting it back in the corner. I had some food before stretching out and then ate after that before driving home to eat some more.

January 7, 2024 - January 13, 2024 - Week 4

January 8, 2024 – Week 4, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x10
130x8
160x5
190x3
220x2
255x3
242x5

Band Assisted Pull-ups
abx5 at pin 12
abx5 at pin 15
abx5 at pin 18
abx5 at pin 21
abx5 at pin 24

Axle Strict Presses
90x2
112x2
139x2
166x2
166x2
166x2
166x2
166x10

Standing Axle Lockouts
166x3 seconds
193x3 seconds
226x3 seconds
256x3 seconds
286x3 seconds
306x3 seconds
326x3 seconds
346x3 seconds
366x16 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Over cold but still dealing with some stuff from being sick. Weight down slightly from the week before. But still over 276lbs. First decrease in about 3 months at this point. Not even half a pound so not really worried about that. Just noting. Sunday I let the weather do the work for me as far as waiting until it was the warmest part of the day to shovel snow so most of it had melted already. Still meant I had to do some stuff though with the packed snow from the heavy rain. Work continues to be dumb and I’m potentially stressing about things but not realizing it. Hard to tell if stuff from being sick or stress. Felt a little odd with training as it was dark out and I guess remembering this is the first session true upper body session where I wasn’t doing stuff during the daytime. Another holiday coming up next Monday so I’ll be back to that again but then nothing but darkness going forward. Mobility stuff per usual was fine. Was feeling surprisingly good. Wore my warm ups at the start of things. I did end up doing some of this outside rather than all inside as I didn’t need the rack inside for anything this session. Starting off with log incline benching. This is where I made mistakes this session. I knew from last time that I was perhaps going to aggressive at this. My hope I guess had been to do 15lbs jumps each session on this as that does seem to be workable for some exercises when I’m coming back to it or peaking. I need to know this is not the case with pressing. Plan had even been to do more reps at the start and pyramid up and do 10lbs more than last time. I don’t what it was here but I wasn’t feeling like that would be a bridge too far for me. I actually went up 5lbs from the plan. Which in hindsight was dumb. I was feeling decent warming up but that is a false sense of security I’m finding with incline type benching exercises. First rep was tough but then I seemed to be having things move smoother for the next rep and I thought maybe I got this. Third rep about the same. Fourth rep went out in front and nope. Had to bail and set it down. Damn it. Awkward to get it off and then having to pick it back up with 180lbs on it to rack it. That felt heavy. Because I didn’t want to end things here. I was to do a top set of 5 that wasn’t a max and that is what I was going to do. So 2lbs more than last time. I got it but obviously it was tougher than it should’ve been after all is said and done. I will likely need to aim for 245lbs next time. I don’t like failing weights at any time. Another reminder that just putting on weight isn’t going to magically fix the upper body pressing situation. This is going to take time and be a struggle it seems. In further hindsight, I probably should’ve started with 220lbs the first week and I could be progressing at a better pace. Lesson learned going forward. I tend to feel better when I’m not grinding any lifts. So this was not an ideal start to the training session for sure. The other stuff should be better for me. There has always been that “dead zone” situation on incline benching, just less apparent with log compared to other styles. Keep going, stay focused and don’t let it wear you down. You are already feeling that from getting over illness. After that mild disappointment, it was band assisted pull-ups. Sets of 5 reps like last time. This one I had listened when it came to that first workout back from the competition so I shouldn’t have an issue here with improving. What I’ve been doing has been the 3 pin jumps to the essentially the bottom of the rack for the last set. I was advised that I could even keep these the same as I did last time or make things a little tougher. With how these are, I felt what made the most sense as far as adding difficulty would be to decrease the strength of the band. Been using a strong band so using an average band would be the next level really. Left shoulder was feeling slightly achy but actually ended up feeling better on these as I went. Using the crash pad at the higher settings until not as tricky to step into the setup. These do feel a bit weird in that how the bands assist and help does seem to change as you lower the band height. I do tend to try and move through these a bit quicker due to the setup but make sure I give that top set the attention it needs. Definitely could notice on the last set the lower band assistance. But I still feel this was within the parameters. Likely lower the tension again if this pops up to light band but no further. Bands get too thin at that point and cut into the legs at my weight. Axle strict pressing was up next. The second half the pressing for the workout. Warm up as needed and do 5x2 at 65%. This was at least the plan here. I ended up using a little more than that as it was easier platemathwise with things to go like 3lbs heavier. There was a little bit of a thought in my head about the incline stuff (as well as the log feeling heavy when I racked it after I had to bail) and tried my best to blot that out but I know it was there. These had been ok like time albeit with lighter weight. My shoulders hadn’t been quite used to things and it showed in the soreness going into the rest of the week. No hard belt again at this point. Things felt a little more comfortable as far as bracing/grounding and unracking the weight. It was definitely noticeable that there was fatigue here and that this was more weight than last time. Again, on the last set, I was allowed to rep it out if I was feeling good. And again, I don’t know if I was necessarily feeling good. If I did, leave 1 rep in the tank. I was almost worried that 5 reps would feel tough and thankfully it did not. This was tougher than that first session and definitely stopped at closer to the limit than the last time. 10 reps was not a max here. Last thing was lockout workout. Leaving right where the strict pressing left off. Not quite I guess as I did have to adjust the rack for these. I had done 20lbs jumps doing 3 second holds up to the top weight. And I had ended up using a bit more than I was expecting. I did ask for some clarification on this because I had done about 350lbs for both and that is well over my current maxes for both (also more than 10% over lifetime bests). As the notes was to be aiming for a minute with a heavy weight. Should I be still pushing the weight and time or just focus on time. Answer is kind of both. This goal isn’t specific to this competition or this offseason. So as long as I can still do 20-30 seconds, I should be increasing for now and then work from there. I didn’t want to be here all night so I did 30lbs jumps until I got to 286lbs and then back to 20lbs. My lower legs were feeling a little stiff and I could tell that sometimes my balance wasn’t the best. Like I’d struggle and add 30lbs and feel solid and so on. I did remember from the last time about my breathing. I need to brace to lock it out but I need to be able to breath or I will get lightheaded. I had a goal with 366lbs as that is the weight of the Apollon’s Axle. I got set for this and it seemed to go up solidly and my breathing wasn’t off. But I guess that isn’t the only thing. This is heavy for me. I just couldn’t keep my upper back and shoulders and whatnot tight enough and the weight started to lower. So calling it about 4 seconds shy. I guess understandable considering the big increase in the weights being used for the deadlifts and the frame carry (as feeling those still in upper back). I’ll have to see how the cards lie I guess next time to see if I reduce weight to try and get back into that range. Put stuff away and stretched before eating pot roast. Need to rest.

January 10, 2023 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Wide Grip Deadlifts w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x2
315x2
365x1
405x1
430x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
10+45x39 seconds

Planks
bw+42x60 seconds

Side Planks
bwx60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: No walking the day before. It rained hard all day. There was to be a brief break in it but I never saw it haha. My time was better spent working through lunch to try and get caught up on things. I was slightly concerned after the previous workout as it seemed like my left elbow bursitis was acting up but it seems to be fine the morning after and into today. Still got some remnants from the stress on my body from the cold with fever blisters still fading away as well as some fluttering eye twitches. I did purchase a new deadlift suit but likely won’t be months until I see it knowing the manufacturer’s reputation. I still have my other suit which will be fine. Especially since likely won’t be needing to work that until March if my assumptions are correct. Mobility stuff to start things off. Similar to how it felt yesterday. Minus being outside in the cold. It was warm enough yesterday and today that almost all the snow is gone. So no warm ups needed in the garage to get warm. No tight or inflamed shoulder tendons so that is a positive. Not so say that I’m not having soreness in the upper body from Monday. Also did ankle/knee/hip stuff because that seems to help with floor pulls and especially things like these wide grip pulls. I only needed to do one drill each side to feel as good a limber as I was going to. So that was nice. As I mentioned, wide pulls for this workout. Goal was to go slightly heavier then last time as far as the top set of 5 reps. But given a little more leeway here as far as doing sets of 1-3 reps to work up to that. Last time I did these, 135lbs did not feel comfortable. It felt awkward and difficult. Essentially being the first time using the hip circle on top of not doing this movement in many years. Today was not much better haha. Knees were aching so it was not the best start to things. Didn’t help still somewhat fixated on the incline log and being shy of 20 seconds on the overhead lockout hold from Monday. But I knew last time it didn’t feel that great and then it felt pretty good after that before getting difficult again. My plan was to do 40-50lbs jumps and dropping reps off every two sets. Something seemed to finally click for me on these on that very next set. Why don’t I angle my feet out with my knees? Duh. Seemed to take the knee discomfort away and I felt like I was getting the hips loaded. Up to two plates for the triples and then up to three plates for doubles. I kind of knew what to expect getting above that weight and that this could feel uncomfortable with the position and getting setup (learned from last time put the hip circle on first, then hard belt). The top weight was to be 20-50lbs more than last time. I had a feeling that I’d be doing the lower end because of how challenging 405lbs had felt last time. Singles seemed to go pretty well for me. I elected to do a 25lbs jump for the top set. So that next time I guess I have the option to go for 455lbs and not have it seem so daunting. I got set for this and went for it. Felt tough but it was about the same as last time, maybe slightly better. The open hips seemed to help me lower these better and keep the form and not end up with it being off balance. Obviously the first rep was the fastest as the other reps are essentially time under tension with slight pauses. No feeling of my knees wanting to buckle or knee discomfort. Definitely felt the hamstrings and back on this. I was pleased with how this went as it felt like this could go up this amount next time this comes around (assuming here). From there it was time for the hyper bench hold with the neck harness and plate. Warming up for it with hyper extensions. I knew this was going to be tough for the actual hold as things were feeling a bit toasty in the posterior chain. And I had seen how tough this had been the last time I did these after the wide pulls. Not to mention the hold time went down slightly when I did these last week. Not changing the weight on this until I’ve gotten over 40 seconds on this. I got set and I could tell that this was going to be a tougher time than last week. And last week had been tough and so had the last week. I think that I got distracted by my position and just how this was already feeling that at some point I miscounted my time. And I was kind of panicking because I was struggling to keep holding and was feeling like I was going to lose the brace at 20 seconds and was worried that I was under 30 seconds when it finally went. I think I held out just to potentially keep this above 30 seconds. I must have started my count late and repeated some numbers because this ended up being almost 40 seconds. Huh. So that was good. But man these are tough and not getting any easier with the increased demand from these moving events and deadlift variations. But I like it as lot of effort but low stress. Last thing then being abdominal work. On to the carpeted area for the planks. Regular weighted plank. I didn’t make the mistake of last time by drinking anything so soon to this. Swapped the dumbbells for chains and that seemed to be more comfortable on my back. No issues here with anything. Then side planks. Again, no weight. I was a little concerned here with things as last time I had kind of rushed position for the left elbow and had put a bit more pressure on there than usual. So that was kind of in the forefront of my mind after the slightly swelling in the bursitis after Monday’s session. So I started with that side and made sure I had the support where I needed it to not have any stress on it. No issues on these either. Started cooking up dinner and put stuff away. Stretched out after dinner. This was a good training session and I really need to keep my thoughts on the fact that everything is feeling good other than a single set of two assistance exercises. I have a lot of time to work out any issues.

January 13, 2024 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke
200x50’
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x50’/50’

Sandbag to Shoulders
175x1/1
200x1/1
225x1/1
EMOM
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L
250x1 R
250x1 L

Stretching
 
Comments: I was feeling a bit better mentally after how things had gone Wednesday workout. No issues with the lower legs on either Thursday or Friday so it was nice to get in walking without feeling like shin splints were coming. Got through another dumb week of work. Maybe knowing I had a day off Monday helped. Plan was to make it out to train a bit earlier so no hitting snooze. It rained a lot in the evening. Drive out was fine, just a good bit of water on the road as I got closer to the gym. Both owners ended up being at the gym at times and I was able to ask them about using the big frame in the coming weeks. Short of it is yes and no as they don’t want to take the winter insulation down at this time. But go ahead for inside on turf as long as I don’t damage the floor. I’ll have to see if I can make that work. But that’s for next week a the earliest. I wasn’t in last week due to the threat of the snow and it had looked a like a good bit of people were there. There had been a decent amount of people two weeks ago as well. But I don’t think I was quite expecting the turnout that was there today. There was like three separate groups of people training strongman events for stuff (either specific shows or general) with then a smattering of people training solo. One of those things with popularity increasing means more people and having to share space. Maybe avoided this by coming later but I did want to see people after missing out last week and I had wanted to potentially talk to the owners about the frame and such. This just meant waiting. Started out with the warming up routine. No real issues warming up. I’m starting to notice that the shoulders are seeming to not ache as much. The left does when doing stuff (it has been a muted thing) but like even more so. As in barely registers. First thing for this session was yoke. Work up in 50’ runs and do top set of 100’ with the 50’ down and back. 100lbs jumps here. When I did this two weeks ago, I didn’t have the weights for Regionals so I was kind of surprised that the yoke portion of the medley was going to be only 700lbs. So wasn’t quite expecting to already be in striking distance of this. I thought I’d need to be getting closer to 800lbs. Maybe I will in training as overload and in general to get used to that again (as not done above 750lbs on yoke since late 2018 in training). The people doing stuff were to do farmer’s into yoke and they seemed to be warming up with the yoke first and then doing farmer’s. I took advantage of that and used the light yoke and did runs in the other lane that was to be used for the farmer’s walk. It felt like I needed a higher pick this time around. Looked like I had the clearance as long as I didn’t go too far forward with the tilt. I feel like I went a little quicker between the sets so as to get it done and clear up the other lane for use. I did offer people to work in with me but no takers. They I guess wanted to use the bigger and sturdier yoke. I wasn’t feeling the fastest today. But I know that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I’m not timing stuff like this at the moment. Just getting the work done. It might have been the number of people there but it felt warmer and harder to breath in a way. 600lbs for the top set. This seemed to be ok. I hesitated a bit longer than I would’ve liked with the repick but I had it in a better position compared to last time where it ended up a bit higher on cervical spine. So I was done with my yoke work before just about the other five people had gotten above the warm up stage. Next was sandbag shouldering. I got to this a bit quicker I guess compared to last time as I didn’t have to put away the yoke stuff. While I was feeling a bit warm in general, I didn’t really have a good reason to take my time. As with yoke, I had just rough idea of things for this for Regionals. It will be 5 bags. Same as last time with it being light to moderate bag for form work. 5 singles each side, alternating them EMOM style. I had done 150lbs and then 25lbs jumps last time and ended up doing 225lbs when I was kind of expecting 200lbs. So it made sense since the suggested for this time was 225lbs while last time was 200lbs was to do 250lbs. I started at 175lbs and did 25lbs jumps. Looking at the bags, there is likely not many duplicates beyond 175lbs. Maybe another 250lbs bag. There are my odd weight bags of 306lbs and 336lbs there as well besides the usual 25lbs jumps from 75lbs to 350lbs. I could potentially bring my 265lbs in for next time if needed. I felt like doing the same thing as last time with doing chalk and no support gear besides knee sleeves. This was certainly harder compared to last time with 225lbs. It felt warmer so I was losing chalk pretty quick. I also was not a fan of the straps on the bags. They hadn’t bother me on the other, lighter bags last time. But they seemed to be enough of a distraction to me tactilely that it was slowing me down. You could tell there were reps where things lined up right and it was nice and explosive and others where it messed up the timing. But much like yoke, I knew this was work. I mean, I’m already doing the first bag of the series comfortably and about 4.5 months out at this point. Spun and chucked the bag when I was done on the last single. I ended up sticking around a little longer than I had planned to see two of my friends do their top runs of the medley for the March show (I also drank a shake and ate some food) and then drove home. Ate some more stretched out and then ate some more.

December 31, 2023 - January 6, 2024 - Week 3

January 1, 2024 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Bench Presses
45x15
95x8
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
95x10
135x10
185x10
Added Straps
225x10
255x10

12” Log Strict Presses
90x2
120x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x15

Standing 12” Log Lockouts
150x3 seconds
170x3 seconds
190x3 seconds
210x3 seconds
230x3 seconds
250x3 seconds
270x3 seconds
290x3 seconds
310x3 seconds
320x3 seconds
340x31 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Hopefully on the healing side of things as far as this cold goes. I’m at the stage where it seems to be just in my nose/sinuses and it has been a while since I’ve had that. But at this point, pretty much means only Dayquil type stuff is going to do anything and I’m saving that for bed. Still doing the other stuff minus airborne. Going through tissues a lot these past two days. Lower legs were really sore walking yesterday. Not as bad as they had felt this time last week so that is at least a plus. Weight gain still happening despite thinking that the cold would have impacted things for me. Right shoulder feeling a little wonky from bag to shoulder. The left side is used to it I guess. Regardless of how “soft”, it is still dropping something that weighs more than the average adult male on my shoulder. Got the details for Regionals and already a lot of stiff competition has signed up for it. Everything besides the yoke (lighter than I expected) was what I was thinking. Some of the events a little different rules wise from what I had pictured but that’s fine, got plenty of time. At least I hope it is to get some things back up to where they were and build other things. As off work for New Year’s Day, this meant another training upper body session while there was daylight. Can’t say the sun was out as it was cloudy and sometimes there was precipitation. I wiped down stuff outside before getting started with training. Mobility stuff per usual was fine. Not really achy. After figuring out I can do the entire warm up inside my garage, I did just that so as I didn’t need to be outside in the cold until I would need to. Starting off with bench. Plan for the session was work up in 5’s to a top set of 5. But not a max. Same as the log incline stuff from last week. This time being the start, then more and then a true 5rm lift on the third time. At least that seems to be the plan for now. The suggested for this was starting with the bar and then alternating 40-50lbs jumps to 275lbs for the top set. I should be able to do that. I did 275lbs for a 6 reps with a somewhat close grip. I’ve just not really been doing regular benching or with a normal grip style for a good while. So there are PRs and then there are “PRs”. I was feeling ok with the bar like last time. Adding weight I was feeling the aches in the left shoulder. I think I was worried about the right side being off from the bag to shoulder but nope. 185lbs felt darn heavy in my hands so any plans to try and go heavier than 275lbs evaporated at that moment. I still need to get used to this grip. 275lbs felt ok I guess. Looks like it moved well on video. Looked better than it felt. I may be able to go up on these a bit more aggressively compared to the log incline stuff. As is usually the case after benching, some back work followed. Chest supported rows. Barbell setup I’ve used has served me well since the switch to garage gym for most trainings. I’m really not sure how I was screwing it up when I first started and it was feeling awful on my biceps. The script for the day had work up over 5 sets of 10 reps to a top set for the day, with note to start light. 40-50lbs jumps seemed to be good here and started with 95lbs. Things were feeling pretty good. Added straps at 225lbs not because of need but knowing that I generally need a set or two to get used to them on this kind of row. Probably was a good thing as this did feel tougher than I was expecting. My biceps started to feel sore. I guess the sandbag work was finally rearing its head in the form of soreness. So while I had planned to do 275lbs here for the top set, it didn’t seem like the best thing to do considering this was to be “smooth” and I couldn’t guarantee that with how that 225lbs felt. It does seem for this time that 255lbs was the right call. But I should be able to bump this up for next time. Outside for the rest of the workout. Log strict pressing was up next. As I mentioned, this is alternating with axle at this point. Warm up as needed and do 5x2 at 60%. These tend to feel a bit different compared to say axle/barbell pressing. These feel comfortable for me with getting a solid base. Was feeling quite powerful on these but I was worried that with the pressure on the chest coupled with the respiratory restrictions and medication that could increase blood pressure how things would go on the last set (as allowed to rep it out). Again, wearing just soft belts and wrist wraps not fully cranked. I was feeling pretty good. I was fully ready to call things at like 8 reps if needed but I was feeling good and the bar speed wasn’t really slowing down. I’m allowed to until 1 rep shy of failure but I’m going until the weight slows down at this point. I was quite surprised that I did more reps compared to axle from last week. Guess the ROM and just doing this more often has a way of doing that. Last thing was lockout workout. Leaving right where the strict pressing left off. As will axle, same with log. Goal was to work up to a top weight that I could do a 6” ROM lockout and hold that weight for 20-30 seconds. I was expecting similar to axle. But that kind of didn’t end up being the case. With axle, I had set the bar on top of the rack and elevated the rack 3.5” so as to shorten the ROM. I figured that standing on 3.5” or so would even out with the diameter of the log. Not exactly. Something felt off but I didn’t really adjust things until near the end. By that I mean I checked to see the ROM and it was larger than axle so I changed the height to 1.5” and that seemed to be more inline with things. Last time it was helpful with seeing how I need to brace the lower body hard before the pressing to lock out as well as making sure I don’t get too excited (especially with the meds and cold) so that I can keep control of my breathing. Log lockout is a bit different with axle as I do more lean back with log so there is something of a shoulder lift flexion. I apparently misloaded when I got over 310lbs as I meant to keep the 20lbs jumps going. But it did seem to work out for me with getting just over 30 seconds with 10lbs less compared to the axle. I feel like the log I can get the balance point better with the lower body and the lean back. Really ground myself. No neck issues I think from this. Cooked up a few things to eat as I put stuff away and then stretched.

January 3, 2024 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x5

Romanian Deadlifts w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x3
455x3
507x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
10+45x36 seconds

Crunches
bw+10x25

Lying Leg Raises
bwx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Still dealing with the cold but hopefully it is on its last legs. Walking yesterday was good as no shin splint issues at all. Some shoulder tendon soreness but not as much as last week after that first strict pressing session. Maybe due to be used to it or perhaps the ROM being less with log vs axle. More so the right side this time around (left for the axle). This could also still be from the sandbag to shoulder stuff. The new year with work has been stupid. A very important system stopped working about 90 minutes before my shift ended and it was no working all of today. So meant I couldn’t do most of my usual work, have to reschedule things and then having to help outside of my area on stuff that I isn’t going to be mine. Also we now have to have daily morning meetings. Who knows why. Seeing as it took  longer to get everyone on the meeting then the meeting itself, it just shows a good use of time. Makes sense it is scheduled around the time I need to use the restroom after eating breakfast. So that was a slog of a day and finally time to do some training. I wasn’t able to eat all the meals beforehand (missed one) due to having to talk with my supervisor at the end of the day (frustrating as they weren’t reading the important e-mails coming in and were responding to e-mails I had first sent 12/18/23). So I’d have to sneak that last meal in after training but before dinner I guess. Mobility warming up wasn’t bad. Slight joint aches but nothing that was noteworthy. Shoulders actually seemed to be balanced as far as the aches as usually it is primarily the left side. First thing for this session was front squats. Warm up as needed and do triples up to a top set of five reps. Make sure that it is smooth and powerful. I decided to do 40-50lbs jumps like has been done with front squats but cut down on the reps that I had been doing for warming up. One I think just to not fatigue too much but also because breathing with weight on the chest like that is a bit tricky with the cold. My initial plan when I saw this programmed was to do 275lbs for the top set. But I did start to reconsider seeing as how top doubles had felt fast but heavy when I did them for the deload for Puller Express. Thinking back to how that felt, 275lbs for 5 could be a tough one. So then thinking maybe smarter to do 255lbs but felt sticking to 40-50lbs jumps that 265lbs. 255lbs would make more sense if I did 30lbs jumps and triples all the way up. I was feeling ok with warming up. Hard belt on for 225lbs. Maybe just doing the metal plates had things feel better. But 225lbs felt comfortable so I said screw it, I’ll do 275lbs. Had a bit of indigestion leading up to things so need to burp to get air caught out. When I got set and unracked it for the start, I knew I had this unless something went screwy with my breathing. This was feeling like it should. Breathing did end up being a little hard for the last rep so I had to quickly rack it to make sure that I didn’t drop it. So 40lbs off my best 5rm on these that I’ve done in recent memory. I know I’ve had the strength to do more in the past but didn’t. But that doesn’t really matter. I’m getting back into a good place here with the important gym lifts for my chosen sport. Then the deadlift portion of the session. Last week had been the wide pulls as I call them. Those had been the only real compound lift that session as Mr. Westerling feels that that style of deadlift hits stuff similar to a back squat and to save the knees a little and be fresh for the front squats on this week. And then making up for it with a hamstring focused pull. So I’ve done a good bit of Romanian deadlifts. The ones I’ve liked the most have been these start from the top and go style. These were to also be with a hip circle. Not as noticeable with a more conventional stance compared to the wide pulls. But I know that there was that factor there. This was to be like the wide pulls in that I was to warm up and do sets of 3 reps to a top set of 5 reps for the day. Notes were to keep back fixed and to lower to about 2 inches below my knee caps. It can be hard for me to do that as I think I tend to go more ROM then that but it doesn’t feel like I am. I think I was also worried if I was doing these right because the suggested weight for these was the same as the wide pulls and I knew that I was going to be going heavier than that just from experience. The suggested weights have generally been spot on for stuff and this was likely going to be 100lbs over suggested. I will say that not having done these in a bit takes some getting used to with heavier weights as it is a lot of pressure on the body as far as the lift off and then slight walk out and then breathing. Breathing being compromised slightly at this time with the cold. I was also noticing my abdominals were feeling quite sore. I’m thinking this has to do with the overhead support holds with the log. I was doing the 40-50lbs jumps but once I got past 455lbs, I just went with my offweight 25’s. 507lbs did feel heavy but not the limit. It could be the breathing thing and just not being used to the pressure on the body but this was not the limit for me and didn’t feel as difficult as the wide pulls did the week before. Could also be me getting used to the routine. From there it was time for the hyper bench hold with the neck harness and plate. Warming up for it with hyper extensions again. My back wasn’t feeling as fatigued as last time (same with the glutes) but my hamstrings were definitely feeling it. Warming up I didn’t feel as worn out so I figured maybe this would be a good day on these. Nope. I could feel the difficulty in holding the position almost immediately. Not feeling like that at the neck or my upper back/arms where the weight is being held but the glutes and lower back were fighting hard. I pushed this about as much as I could to try and match/beat last week’s time. I was not successful in that attempt as about 2 seconds shy. Not concerned unless I should be concerned. I think that as long as I can consistently stay in the 30 seconds realm, I should be good and any increase from that will be good progress. This does seem to be a good way to work this aspect without stressing the lower back out from a ton of flexion/extension work. Last thing then being abdominal work. A set of crunches and a set of lying leg lifts again. It would seem this is what will be alternated with the planks at this time. So sets of 25 reps again. The crunches I was allowed to add weight if I wanted. I figured I might as well. I elected to use the big 10lbs rubber plate rather than small plates as it would be the same size plate if I need to go up in weight from there. This was fine. Slight decrease in the ROM with the plate as far as stretch reflex with the abs and upper back at the bottom. Tried to move quickly to the leg lifts so I could eat a bowl of oatmeal to get back on the meals quota. I knew with the leg lifts that I’d likely have these feeling a bit tight in the lower back. Last time had been fine but the heaviest thing I had done was 95lbs for rdls so not really taxing anything. This is the second week of several hundred pounds on my back being lifted so there was that tightness there. But the lifting itself was easy. Ate some food before putting stuff away and stretching before making some more food.

January 6, 2024 – Week 3, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Titan Frame Carries (16” pick)
140x50’
220x50’
320x50’
400x50’
500x50’/50’

Stretching
 
Comments: I was somewhat looking forward to training this weekend. But that kind of changed once I realized what weather was in store. I’m pretty much over the cold at this point but still have some remnants from it as well as dealing with fallout of it (fever blisters and such). At least walking had felt decent enough in the cold weather and a welcome distraction from work. Training plan had been just go and train as usual. But then I realized that there was going to be a snow storm this weekend. 3-8” of snow, which is not nothing. Initially thinking it would be Sunday but I should know better by now that storms tend to move faster than anticipated so it did look like I’d need to get up early to get out to the gym and train to get on the way back before it started. So planning for that until I got alerts that it would be Saturday morning. I had also forgotten that I was checking the weather for the gym and not where I was starting and ending at. It would be too risky to chance driving back in the potentially 8” of snow. So I needed to still wake up early and get things setup to train at home. Need to make sure I was finished up before 10AM to avoid the snow for certain. Lot of weird stress dreams. I knew they were dreams but didn’t want to wake up as I needed rest and obviously my mind was working some things out I guess haha. Lot of cloud cover so it felt colder than it actually was. I mean, it was already below freezing and the ground was frozen. Wore my warm ups for warming up to try and use my body heat to get warm so it would last during the actual lifting stuff for the day. Thankfully joints weren’t too creaky working out this early in the day. Starting things off was bag toss. Light bag for 10 tosses done EMOM style. Same as last time I did these. Except doing them at home. So mentioning that, I had to make some adjustments because of course I do with my focus. The setup as it has been is 15’7”. But the setup at the gym is 16’. You can see my problem (see it but not make sense of why haha). It even makes less sense when it is actually 15’ height for the show. But I want to be clearing that height by a lot so that I know that I’m keeping things the right focus to improve. As this seemed to help with Nats prep after it seemed to have gone downhill. So I spent time the day before getting wood blocks to increase it 5”. Doing that had jostled things a bit so the connections came apart at the top and needed to use a ladder to fix that. This setup is more fragile compared to the gym and it has to be considering the material. It has to be able to break at points in the event I screw up so that it can be reassembled. I also had to move the rubber mat I had on the patio so that I had something firm and flat under my feet. That was frozen to the patio so it took a little more effort to get setup. As far as progression, I was told to do 2-5lbs jumps each time with the sandbag. I was aiming for 3lbs but I was having issues with getting that to be exact and 5lbs added seemed to be pretty quick to get without much messing around. Optimism for the 35lbs had been with the impression of training at the gym and having the 30lbs bag to warm up a little. I think I kind of forgot that my training had been 5x1 with a 5-7 minute break and then another 5x1 with more weight for Nats training. So I’ve not done 35lbs for 10x1 recently. Warming up with it doing upright rows, high pulls, swings and high pull tosses. I was a little paranoid with the tight right side since sandbag shouldering thinking this would do something to it. As if all the other things that haven’t would. I took off the warm ups when I was done. I was warm enough at this point and didn’t want extra layers of clothing affecting my movement in any way. Then ready to go. Or so I thought. Position to the toss tower is a bit different from the gym. Feels taller, claustrophobic almost. My first toss was garbage in that I arced it too hard back. So it actually went under the cross bar (grazed it) and kept going upward. So it got plenty of height but not when and where I wanted it to. So I adjusted and decided I’d just treat that as a warm up and restart the clock. That seemed to fix things. Then the fourth toss I made the arc too narrow and the bag went up and down, grazing on the way down. Knocking the cross bar off the setup slightly. I didn’t know that the one I had messed up at the beginning had gotten enough height until after I reviewed the video but I knew this one had so I just went with it. I got no more issues but the dangling crossbar was bothering me so over the course of a few sets I got the ladder out of the garage and closer to the setup until I felt I had it close enough to have enough time to scurry up and fix things and get back down before the timer went. Last toss might have been the best one for the session. Put stuff away and put other stuff back where it was so that it wouldn’t get buried in the wrong spot by the coming snow. The last thing for the session was frame carry. Same as last time in that working up to a top set of 50’ down and back working up with 50’ runs. I was making good time as had about 30 minutes before the snow was expected. My options were limited at home but I knew what I had would work in a pitch, though not ideal. And would have to understand that the setup at home was likely going to feel tougher than say at the gym. One being the “frame”. I can do the Titan Fitness upright farmer’s with attachment to make a frame but it is really narrow for both the side to side and front to back. Only really works if doing frame picks/deadlifts with my body type. So I had made stuff back in 2017 until I could get a frame setup with wooden boards with holes drilled into them. This made for a wider grip situation. The other thing I don’t like is how the handles are with the grips in that part is smooth and part is knurled. Neither are great and the knurling cuts into the hands. So these were going to be factors. The other thing would be training in the street would mean uphill and downhill. Slight yes, but noticeable. Especially when I’ve compared how things go in street training vs flat floor at the gym. I setup the course and swept the debris out of the way. You see things with people training in harsh or bad weather conditions and them being “tough”. Been there, done that. Better to put in the effort to avoid that and be able to have things ideal in a way that works towards the goal. If I had waited until it snowed, I could still do this but there would be issues and I’d likely not be able to go as fast as possible due to the lack of sure footing. I did the same weight jumps as last time here. Wore my warm ups as I adjusted the weights and took them off partially when I did the runs. Save the no warm up stuff for the top set run. I think I was a little worried about just “dropping” the frame as it was wooden board setup. I could tell my hamstrings and lower back were still feeling deadlift work. 400lbs felt a little heavier than I would’ve liked. Top set 50lbs more than last time. As I was getting chalk applied, a little old lady walking her cocker spaniel stopped to inquire what I was doing and I explained. She congratulated me and I thanked her and she was on her way. Then right into the mind set. Probably feel heavy but will move ok and likely look better on video. It did feel like the picks were slow but didn’t seem like it on video. I think slight slow down on the drop as hard to gauge where the front of the frame is with how it is shorter and didn’t want to drop on myself. Turn and repick I guess kind of quick. Downhill the first 50’and then uphill the last 50’. So no slacking. I could hear the wood creaking near the end of the run. Went well past before dropping it. Good enough for today. This is further off then the yoke for contest but really this is with a much lower pick and the pick is always the issue with farmer’s/frame stuff for me anyways. As luck would have it, the snow started after I had finished the run and I put away stuff quickly before it picked up. It would’ve been close if I had gone out to train so this was the right call. Ate some food and then stretched.