February 25. 2024 - March 2, 2024 - Week 11

 February 26, 2024 – Week 11, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Push Presses
90x5
120x3
150x2
175x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x5

Chest Supported Barbell Rows
135x5
185x5
225x5
Added Straps
265x5
308x5

Bench Presses
45x15
95x8
135x5
185x2
225x2
250x5
250x5

Stretching
 
Comments: Seemed to be fine after the Saturday session. Same body weight as the past two weeks at just under 285lbs. I was hoping it would increase slightly with diet back on track. I may not be able to eek out the last .5lbs before March weigh-in time. I’ll need to see if worth staying this heavy and trying to push/grow from here. I will say that I’m definitely feeling more comfortable at this weight in general. But not feeling like anything I did on Saturday irritated anything in the injured leg. But I can tell I did some work. And slightly annoyed that this coming Tuesday was going to be the day in office for the month, so a disruption to my schedule. And the left side of my neck was a little stiff (but not like pained or anything). Warming up routine I think I got it memorized at this point. I guess fine. I’m mostly seeing how the dynamic movements for the hamstrings with a stretch are feeling to probe recovery. My walking gait is unencumbered at this point. The elevated wide pulls and the yoke work last week apparently were harder on my body than I thought as I got quite a lower back pump doing the warming up for the lower body. I did want to try to move through things smoothly while also making sure I was getting fluids in. And have it be early enough to get in a bowl of oatmeal before dinner. Log to start things off. Push pressing working out of the rack this week again to a working weight for 4x2 and then final set of up to 5 reps. I hadn’t exactly felt 100% pleased with how log had gone last time and had been a big reason for me moving the stall mat off the patio so I didn’t feel limited. I didn’t want to end up pressing out in front like I was doing last time. While axle was real good for the most part (besides the last push press really), I was still thinking on that one press and how things had felt last time. I wanted to not have that and try and think on what I actually want the weight to be doing here. We weren’t off to a great start. My lower back was feeling pretty stiff so it was probably a good thing no cleans this week. My knees were feeling terribly achy at the start and had to kind of take my time with the reps. Thinking about how I want my lower body drive to be here and try to visualize so that I do put all that power into it. I think I was a little better with treating the unrack of the weight better in a way that it would be like if I did clean it and be in position to press. But still feel like the first rep goes a little forward and I can adjust and correct for the subsequent reps. Hard to gauge between axle and log with same weight as axle had felt heavy initially and was really crisp and I feel similar with log. But a little tougher. I was feeling like I was getting my stance and drive better as the sets went (reason I like low rep and lots of sets for myself). When it came time for the last set, I seemed to not have the first rep be as crisp as I wanted and I got a little worried but managed to launch up the reps comfortably so that was a good note to end on. The weight never felt “heavy” on my shoulders and I can tell they are recovering better as I was never feeling like I had trouble with them staying stable. I put away the weights mostly before going inside the garage to do the rest of the workout. Chest supported rows again. Same 5 sets of 5 reps to a top set for the day. I had surprised myself with going up 25lbs more than I had expected to so I knew I’d likely be good for just a little bump this time around. Especially after doing all those partial sandbag rows. I set things up so that I was doing the 40-50lbs jumps up to 225lbs and then from there decide if I wanted to continue or make smaller jumps. I had already decided really to just aim for 305-315lbs and that likely not doing 275lbs would be the best bet to be feeling good enough for that kind of weight. So 40lbs jumps. I was set for 305lbs but I guess I wanted to do 140kgs because of reason so I added 3lbs to it. This was definitely the limit as far as the more “bodybuilder” style or row and likely stick to around this weight if continuing to push. But maybe I’ll be back to normal training and I might feel fresher for rows. Or not. But I am getting close to 3 plates on a stricter variation of the chest supported stuff. And I know how much I can get out of these and when I go to “heave” styles. Bench last thing for the session. These are still indicated as “speed” work but I guess not really as we add weight. Like the incline log last week, the working weight for the 2x5 was increased 20lbs. It had been fine with the incline log stuff but I know that log overhead ends up being more emphasis on the upper body stuff compared to axle (especially with jerks). I did notice that feeling better with pressing and that shoulders are feeling stable and not “tucking” inadvertently mid-press. So even with that alone, I can tell recovery is improved from the sessions. I was trying to pace things a little as the weight changes were pretty quick at this point (I had stuff to put away or set up between sets for the other exercises). Weights over 135lbs for some reason just feel heavier than expected for me. Like adding that 50lbs for 185lbs feels like “a lot” but I know it isn’t. There does just seem to be that one weight jump on exercises where it goes from feeling “easy warming up” weight to “you need to pay attention to me” weight. I also know that the feeling can be a lie; feeling heavy or light. What matters is action when called upon. So got things set for those working sets. That first set wasn’t my best work but it was done reasonably enough. Second set overall felt much better where most of the reps felt in the groove. Triceps feeling pretty sore after this session and back still feeling last week’s sessions. Ate a bowl of oatmeal and stretched before cooking up dinner.

February 28, 2024 – Week 11, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x10
95x8
135x5
185x3
225x2
265x2
305x2
335x2

21” Jack Pulls w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
495x2
545x2
600x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+20x30

Lying Leg Raises
bwx30

Stretching
 
Comments: Another dumb day of having to go into the office for meetings. Never been to a meeting that couldn’t have just been an e-mail. So maybe a little annoyed with that. But as far as myself, lower back was still feeling a little stiff. I didn’t get a chance to do a walk Tuesday since in office (only did rehab stuff and soft tissue work). Things had been busy and I had finally gotten around to send something about how I’m feeling as far as my hamstring injury to Mr. Westerling to see what the plan was as far as integrating back to full ROM and other changes. Things do seem to be improving but I don’t want to just go right back with those little twinges of concern in my mind. So some of that has been adjusted for this week and next week but could potentially be adjusted further depending on how this week goes. As for the lower back, I had a feeling that I probably needed to do some decompression but waiting to see if needed or not. I’m eating a bit more food then I used to when I’d regularly do it so not often I don’t have something in my stomach so holding off until later in the evening. Mobility stuff continues. I’m not sure if this is how my hamstrings are or if there is still some discomfort sensations with some movements. I can tolerate it and it is very minimal but I do want to be careful. The hamstring thing didn’t appear to have any warning when it happened anyways. Got a bit of lower back pump but not as much as it was Monday. Front squats starting things off with the plan being to work up to a top set of 2 reps. So the plan was to do 10lbs more than last time on these. I know I had said about using the sturdier rack for these but the weather today made it so that I was an indoor lifter. If it was just light rain, I think no problem but with it being thunderstorms and high winds (parts of my toss tower got knocked down), any safety was getting cancelled out. Things were feeling fine enough. I had been a little worried the lower back stiffness would be an issue but it wasn’t. I felt a little better as far as mobility wise compared to last time. There was also probably some more hesitancy with the hamstring issue being fresh and worrying my leg would go at any time potentially. As I got up in weight, I did modify things a little. The written suggestions was to go 275lbs and then 315lbs and 335lbs for doubles after 225lbs. I felt that was spacing things a bit at the end and I recall how last time the jump from 225lbs to 275lbs had felt a bit rough and then going to the top weight. So I did 265lbs, 305lbs and then 335lbs. I got a bit more excited for the top double vs the penultimate one. So they felt about the same. Which may be a good thing in doing some weights without hyping up and the like. Make them routine. But it does throw me off sometimes when I expect a tough double and then I probably had 2-3 reps there because of how much anxiety I get about messing it up and not getting the lifts. But if I can save it for just a few times a session and not all the time, I think it is manageable. I mean, it is how I’ve done it for all these years. Anything over 315lbs so far on front squats has been the heaviest I’ve gone since 2016. So pushing closer to my actual PRs here. 30lbs off my lifetime best double. It is good to be getting these front squats. The more I get used to 300lbs and over on these, the better I think confidence wise with my overhead as well. So why I feel that building this up like with bench is important. So good like work with the front squats. Then some pulling. So initially the modification was to do rack work from just above the knee for a top set of 5 reps but changed to just below the knee after how last week had gone and my status report on progress. These “rack pulls” with the hip circle were to be done in a specific way. I was to not treat them as if I was trying to lift to the best advantaged lift but to lift it as if I was lifting through this movement. I had recalled Bill Kazmaier mentioned this as “round back” rack work to mimic where he’d actually be at that point in the lift when pulling from the floor. But this was similar but not quite. So hips back and not “quad pressing” to initiate the lift. This was to replace the rdls so this to that like the elevated wide grip pulls were for last week. Now because the rack was in the middle of storm and I don’t really want to bang up my bars, I needed to improvise a little. My jack stands max out at 18”. So I ended up using the crash pads and the jack stands to get it at about 21” which is right below my knee (very pronounced tibial tubercle). And I say about because there was some compression of the pads as I added several hundreds of pounds. Unlike the elevated wide pulls, I was instructed to take bigger jumps working up. Suggested was 545lbs but I had a feeling I’d exceed that but it really depended on how I was feeling. As mentioned, I wasn’t to be pulling from an advantaged position so it was a lot of strain to initiate the lift applied to the lower back and hamstrings. The subsequent reps were a lot easier than that first rep (also why I stuck to doubles working up). But I was prepared for 545lbs to be where I called it. After 495lbs, I took a break to see if my lower back would chill if I did some dip station compression. It seemed to do it a little bit immediately but over the course of the night it definitely did something to help. Because of how things were feeling initially, I had gone with 545lbs rather than another plate jump to 585lbs. With how good 545lbs had felt, I felt I needed to go heavier and I didn’t really want to do a 40lbs jump and then possibly have to go heavier and “miss” because of that initial rep. So I settled on 600lbs. Do 600lbs on this and did 500lbs on the other variation. 600lbs for reps had been the next step on the rdls after doing 585lbs for reps anyways. I got set and that first rep went up and I could feel the weight pulling down on me and making it hard to breath efficiently. But the movement after that felt automatic and I had to slow it down a little so that I wasn’t making it too easy. I know I can go heavier but this was probably the right call for this time. The first rep felt about right but the other reps felt pretty darn comfortable. I didn’t put away the weights as I was trying to get through the rest of the training so I could get in a bowl of oatmeal before eating a later dinner. Hyper bench stuff back but no weights. I had mentioned that I was planning on doing 90 seconds as the limit here and was advised to stop at 60 seconds. So this wasn’t really going to be a max effort anymore. Warming up with hyper extensions and then the hold. I had almost been tempted to just go right from one to the other but thought better on it. Hamstrings were definitely feeling these elevated stiff legged pulls. 60 seconds came and went. So abdominal work to follow. Tried to move on to that relatively quick. Set of crunches with some weight. I think because of the “ease” of the hyper bench stuff that I wanted to push these more so I added 10lbs. I was slightly concerned only in that these might may my abdominals sore when it would come time to do sandbag toss this weekend. But got the reps done. Leg raises felt better I think this time around. Didn’t feel like forever. One of the better ones as far as how the lower back “traction” situation felt. Got that done and ate some oatmeal and then put everything away before stretching and then making dinner.

March 2, 2024 – Week 11, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Tosses (16’)
30x1
30x1
30x1
EMOM
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1
42x1

Frame Carries (casual pace)
(18” pick)
180x50’
280x50’
380x50’
480x50’
(20” pick, turf)
568x6’
568x50’
620x50’ and 19 seconds hold
568x6’

Sandbag Rows
150x5
150x5

Stretching
 
Comments: Managed to have the weather and my workload not be such that I could get in walks both Thursday and Friday. I was worried I’d need to work through lunch breaks to not have things go overdue. For this year, I’ve elected to use personal days for both when DLS starts and ends so that I can let myself get a little more time to adjust to the change. So for this month, I have one less work day then I’d normally have for scheduling stuff. I’ve dropped some of the rehab exercises as the workouts get back to normal stuff and with greater intensity. I don’t want to take away from recovery. Likely drop a few more next week assuming things continue to progress well. As for this planned session for Saturday, I was going back and forth in my head on whether this was a stay at home session or a go out to train at the gym session. Before the midweek adjustment in training based on my feedback, this was going to be the same as last time with bag toss and then frame walk (casual pace) and end on frame holds. Just adding a little more to what I did last time. The modification change was that I could potentially do all the sets of frame as walks at casual pace if I felt good rather than stop and do holds. As well as some light sandbag work tacked on at the end to see if I can handle that as far as hamstring stress picking things up off the ground. I could do the workout at home and it would probably be less issues putting stuff away. But there was also the weather aspect. It was to rain most of the day. At my house, there were to be some gaps in it whereas the gym there wasn’t really going to be any. In either case, bag toss would be in not ideal conditions. I think the deciding factor here was that I could do frame work inside at the gym and that footing for the bag toss would be more secure at the gym (and bag wouldn’t be landing in wet grass). Also the thunderstorm with high winds Wednesday knocked down parts of my toss tower and I wasn’t keen of using a ladder in the rain to set it back up. There was a good bit of people there when I showed up but I think most were near the middle or end of their sessions. I did end up getting myself talking about tips and training stuff so I ended up taking longer than I planned to with being at the gym as well as warming up. Warming up things felt pretty good as far as joints and muscles. I think I’ve got the new warming up routine down without needing to reference anything. Besides I think wanting to talk to people with same interest was trying to see if the rain let up any before having to go and do bag toss stuff. It wasn’t that I wasn’t confident in myself. Last time with training these I felt like I had got something to click in the form where it was going up even better. And I’ve done bag toss in worse rain conditions (but I wasn’t aiming as high or with short rests). I think it was that I kind of wanted to go heavier on the bag after last time where I was cautious and with the rain, I couldn’t really chance going up that much again. Warming up felt good here. Plan was 42lbs for the 10 singles EMOM style. Technically the bag was 42.2lbs (for some reason, I can’t get my scale to be 42lbs). This was very close to the weight that I did five tosses with at the end of my Nats prep where I was just barely getting over the height. Rain has its own challenges. It isn’t as visually distracting as say snow but it definitely makes things slick quicker and adds weight. The first toss went over well enough. Usually I have some issues with the first toss. Second toss I saw the band target wobble and with the rain visibility, I couldn’t tell if that was from coming back down and clearing it or if my trajectory was off and I had missed. So I kept that as a “maybe” and figured that if I wasn’t seeing a decrease in performance as I went that I’d do an extra just to make sure I had 10 “good” tosses. The water getting into the bag definitely was noticeable as I went and kind of changed the balance a good bit so that required some adjustments during the swing. I had another band hit toss and again, I wasn’t sure if it went or not. So two to add at the end. I had not more questionable ones and actually had some tosses go even better. So added two more tosses at the end. Reviewing the video I found that all my tosses were good tosses so 12 good tosses. Just for my own curiosity, weighed the sandbag at the end of it and it gained weight so that it was 43lbs. So at the very least, some of those tosses were over 42.6lbs so this is a technical PR for this height. Bag toss is looking good and hopefully I can keep going with the 3 months left to train. After drying myself off, it was time for frame carry stuff. I was a little nervous here. The Arnold is happening this weekend and it the one strongman show at the pro level I look forward to and can watch for free (as well as having an amateur world championship). I’d add the Rouge Invitational to that but it was quite a miss last year. But with the high level of competition, injuries will happen. So seeing some people suffer the same injury I got a few weeks ago after taking months to recover or getting injured on an exercise I was about to do adds to thinking. The higher pick I-beam farmers were both broken as the pins keep breaking off. The welds are not great and rusted. The owner thinks it is because people keep pulling on the pins to move the implements. I think it’s just people not handling the implements with respect as I’ve used more weight then what the people training for this upcoming show are doing regularly. If Evan Singleton never broke them when he trained on them when he used to live up here, it is obviously something else. So that meant I’d need to use a different setup. The lower pick handles I could elevate slightly to get to 18”, not exactly the 22” I had last time. But I figured this would be safe as I was able to do 18” pulls with the wide stance and I’d be doing less than what I worked up to on those warming up to the big frame with a higher pick (20”). Things were feeling pretty comfortable. The issue was more putting the weights down to land on the mats with how these farmer’s handles are made. But no issues with the hamstrings here. Then the big frame. Now the initial plan was to work up to 500lbs or so as the casual pace stuff and then do 600lbs or so for the hold. If the plan was to be like last time, I would’ve done that and likely done about 670lbs for the hold considering I did 650lbs last time. But I could do all the weights as carries if I felt good. My hope was that the empty frame would feel good. The sliding doors can now be opened but with it raining, it didn’t make sense to go outside if I could safely do it inside as long as I had rubber mats for the drop points. I really hoped that I could do more than the empty frame for this as I’d be 50’ away from where it needed to be for putting away. I should be good for this height I told myself, I had done 600lbs for 5 reps comfortably earlier this week with bar as opposed to side handle. This went well enough so I knew that I could do my goal of 620lbs. This had been the plan for the next frame session before the hammy pull. It would be a big jump for me as far as casual pace frame/farmer’s walk stuff. I got set and took my time. I was able to keep my breathing quite relaxed after the initial pick. This felt quite good compared to 650lbs two week’s prior. I had already thought to add a hold at the end assuming that the slow pace and time under tension hadn’t already fatigued things (that was what I was most worried about beyond the initial pick). Held for about 20 seconds and set it down. I could’ve kept going. Stripped the weights down and put the empty frame away. Goals hit for the session. Last thing was very light sandbag rows. These were added to essentially get used to the sandbag pick again. Advised to do 2 sets of 5 reps with 100-150lbs. I made sure to find out if that was a hard limit. Took a little rest between these sets and just keeping an eye on where I was feeling things. These were ok. Put stuff away, ate/drank what I brought in the cooler bag before heading home. Which took a bit longer do to an accident a few miles out from the city so had to take a detour through farmlands. I had been calling it close with my gas tank so had to also refuel when I got back home before finally getting home to eat, stretch and catch up on Day 2 of the Arnold.