May 12, 2024 - May 18, 2024 - Week 22

 May 13, 2024 – Week 22, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Overhead (1 clean)
Strict Presses + Push Presses + Jerks
50x5+5+5
80x3+3+2
Push Press + Jerks
110x1+1
140x1+1
170x1+1
200x1+1
230x1+1
260x1+1
280x1+1

Axle Push Presses + Jerks
265x1+1
265x1+1
265x1+1
265x4+1

Band Assisted Pull-ups
sbx5 at pin 16
abx5 at pin 16
lbx5 at pin 16
lbx5 at pin 16

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x10
120x5
150x3
180x2
210x1
230x5
230x5

Stretching
 
Comments: Anxiety is high with the competition getting closer and I’ve kind of indicated that I have an understanding on why but even so, that doesn’t really stop a thing from happening because you understand it. The medley work did keep me up a bit before I could peacefully fall asleep with the aches and such. Didn’t get to sleep in as long as I would’ve liked Sunday but made sure to get walking and lawnmowing done between the rain showers. Weight slightly up again (either 289ish or 286ish depending) but not over 290lbs like I was for a little. This seems to be a comfortable weight for me. Haven’t been having any weird sensations and no shin splints while walking. I’m not sure if it was my nerves but I woke up shivering at like 2:30AM this morning and then used the restroom and went back to sleep no issue. But it was definitely feeling similar to how I was when I had the log last week. I was also nervous because of how much effort I had put into the hamstrings and they were still feeling sore. I was worrying that they might pull or something. I get a bit hypochondriac with aches and such as I get closer to competing as the fatigue and stress is high and nerves are kind of raw. I was mentioning to George I’m at my strongest but most delicate. A glass cannon is how I feel. I managed to get through work with the nerves. Warming up felt fine. I was maybe a little leery about how axle would feel since last time my knees were killing me and thankfully it was a reduced workload session as I don’t think I’d been able to push things with it being almost 90 degrees and my knees feeling terrible. It was a little bit cooler and I didn’t have the fans on in the garage warming up. But I did have one going out where I was doing axle because going from outside to into the sunroom and then the house just seemed to have me pick up sweat. Plan for axle was a top double and that was indicated as 280lbs. Do what we’ve been doing with complex of push press and then jerk. Off crash pads due to the show specs. Knees were a little achy but like the normal amount of achy when I do my first set of these. Things were moving pretty damn well here. Trying to move things along but also take my time to get myself collected. Chalked my shirt up a ton and used one of the past contest shirts by this promoter. With working up, I know that I seem to not take the second to last set as serious as the top set. I think part of it is that I don’t want to blow it early and that not taking it to 11 has that set feel a little tougher at points and then I get the excitation and anxiety to kick in and make it look better. Maybe I do it intentionally but I’m really not sure. I feel like it is just another restriction lifted on myself as I work up. I ended up having to belt clean the 260lbs but it felt fine as far as recovery and the overhead. But I really don’t want to have it be a belt clean if I can help it on the heavier stuff. I’ve noticed that I seem to be able to pull higher on the top set and I didn’t want that to catch me off guard this time. I was also concerned about my hands. I have some blisters from the yoke portion of the medley and some raw skin so applying liquid chalk wasn’t pleasant. One thing I’m realizing was possibly throwing me off when I was doing axle two years ago was having the wrist wraps too tight. I’ve been doing them loose and I seem to be having an easier time of the catch and flip to shoulders. I got set and went for this weight, the heaviest I’ve attempted on axle in 18 months. Got it up higher so no belt clean and into the rack. Push press went up real good. Then the jerk. Not so good. Had to catch it forward and press it out slightly. This is still some progress on that front. But it makes it clear to me that jerk isn’t going to be what I’m going to be attempting at the show. Rack work after that. I was advised that I could do 5lbs more than last time if I didn’t think that doing 280lbs would be powerful and solid reps. Knowing how 260lbs was last time with the jerks (and just how the weight felt on my body for push pressing), I went with 265lbs. Especially since the jerk with 280lbs was ugly. I just had to tell myself that the feeling of the weight on my wrists, shoulders and legs was a lie. If I went by what they were telling me, I’d not be budging the weight. This was similar to last time with the push presses being fine and dandy and the jerks being questionable. I took a little longer rest than the usual 90 seconds I was giving myself for the last set where I could rep out. I was debating just doing a double but figured I’d try and do what I did last time. Push pressing was feeling good but I was getting a little bit out in front of myself ever other rep which was fatiguing. I racked for the jerk but felt I kind of lost the momentum with having to kind of catch the last push press. So I set it down on the rack and took a breather (less than 30 seconds) and reracked the weight and went for the jerk then. I got it and didn’t want to dance around with it and put it down just as quickly. So that was good work there. At this point I downed some oatmeal and took a slight break before continuing. Band assisted pull-ups. Same as last time and the time before that and so on. Trying to be explosive with these as I can and controlled on the eccentric. Felt strong on these again but definitely noticed fatigue hit on the second set after the first two reps. I think that is probably due to having more work beforehand compared to last session. Log incline benching to finish up the session. Last benching of the training cycle as dropping a good chunk for the deload week next week. So 2x5 and back up to the weight progression of adding 5lbs. So 20lbs added from last week to get back up there. Things were not feeling right at the start. Balance and such and my right shoulder was feeling a little stiff. So I was a little worried perhaps that I had sapped my strength for these with the heavy axle work. But I managed to remain calm and proceed to work up and get the reps and sets down. Always has to be speed with how I’ve been doing these log incline presses. Put stuff away and stretched.

May 15, 2024 – Week 22, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wide Grip Jack Pulls w/ Hip Circle (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x1
495x1
525x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx10

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
20+45x39 seconds

Planks
bw+53x60 seconds

Side Planks
bwx60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Got to get back to going to bed before midnight. Just creeps up on me I guess where I seem to get a second wind of curiosity and then realize I spent the time unwisely. Had to adjust things yesterday with walking after work and in some dampness with light rain. Nothing seemed off from training. Right hamstring feeling less tight but still leery going into this session. I’m probably going to be overly cautious and concerned with every ache until I get to the contest venue and lift some weights. I was feeling fine until just shortly before I started training where my hips and lower back just felt terrible for no reason. Whatever. Warming up didn’t seem to make things feel worse. Maybe a little better. Last deadlift session before competition. So like last time, not going for a max set of 5 reps but going back up in weight on them. So 30lbs more than last time. I remembered how things had felt a good bit tougher than last time and decided I’d keep that in mind here and not get surprised or frustrated by that. I’m winding things down and this is a supplemental building lift. Can’t build no more, actualizing now. Knees weren’t feeling terribly achy on these today. But could notice the hips and lower back feeling a bit of the stress. Plate jumps here and reduced reps working up. I kept the fans off as this wasn’t going to be pushing me to the limit and I figured working up a good sweat was fine here. Feel warm with the lower volume still. 225lbs for some reason always feels like the best weight with pulling. Joints usually aren’t aching and it just feels smooth, easy and powerful. Breaking the weight off the floor was feeling harder and the bar just felt stiffer than usual. Not like it gets any flex in it anyways. I was just glad that this wasn’t acting up with my hamstrings as this stance can be a little compromised if pulling in a noncontrolled manner. So only 40lbs off the top set of 5 reps I’ve done. The singles were certainly helpful with getting my expectations in order. 525lbs did feel heavy for me but video says that first pull was a speed pull. Again, it kind of feels tougher than I’d have liked but it does seem like 495lbs to 565lbs feel about the same difficulty for me as I can’t really move things that fast. I can only really tell how difficult it was for me with how I feel after the set is done and how quickly I recover and catch my breath. And this set I’d say it didn’t take me hardly any time at all to be ready to go on to the next thing. This was similar to how 495lbs was last time. Bracing work to follow. Warming up for the hyper hold with hyper extensions as per usual. These actually felt pretty good. I guess they don’t feel as much like a chore when not going for max effort set work beforehand. Now the plan for the hold was to add 5lbs to last week for the weight held to the chest in the row position. So 40lbs. But that would’ve meant using a small 5lbs plate with my bumper plates. I said screw it, just give me a 45lbs plate. Well the 45lbs plates with handles were on the deadlift setup and I didn’t want to slow down my pace so I just used the 45lbs bumper plate. 10lbs added is noticeable. Same with holding until about 5 seconds left. This was certainly tougher. To think that I used to struggle with this weight in hands but half the weight on the neck harness. Wanted to get over 30 seconds and called it at 36 seconds as I could feel the leg twitch tremors starting. Ended up counting a little slow so almost 40 seconds there. A little breather moving on to the planks, just with getting the weights ready. Again, no changes here. The weight I’m using is perfect training weight wise for the regular plank. Bracing and flexing and breathing. Also sweating a good bit. I was a little concerned setting up that this would feel weird on the lower back and hips but thankfully it did not. Side planks were fairly uneventful. Sometimes they can be like this and other times feel off and difficult. Ate oatmeal and put stuff away before stretching out. Just one more session this week before deload week starts.

May 18, 2024 – Week 22, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Tosses
16’
30x1
30x1
35x1
35x1
40x1
40x1
16’6”
40x0
40x1
40x0
40x1
17’
40x1
40x0
40x1
40x1

Sandbag Rows
150x5

Sandbag to Shoulders
150x1 R
150x1 L
200x1 R
200x1 L
250x1/250x1/275x1/300x0
300x1/325x0 L

Stretching
 
Comments: Trying to not have myself too stressed out as competition time is upon us. Saturday I woke up needing allergy meds. I was going to be taking them anyways with it raining off and on and because I would around people. But luckily only nasal spray. I got up about 30 minutes after the planned time I was to wake up as I was feeling a little tired and been having a bad habit of staying up too late this past week. Got to get that back on track. Right knee was aching for what appears to be no reason. It would’ve made sense for it to be doing that right after Monday training with jerks. Oh well. Weather made drive out similar to last week but not quite as bad. It was going to be all sandbags today. Raining off and on and since it was more the sandbag shouldering that really was needing that one last run through, I knew that bag toss wasn’t going to be something that was going to be terribly affected by the rain with it being the lighter week. If I’ve been able to do +40lbs sandbags over 16’ in rain and snow, I should be good here. Fair number of people at the gym but looks like again most were finishing up before I really got started. Not too quick through with warm ups as people talking and doing stuff. Fiddled around with an implement that is going to be used at contest hosted by the gym in the fall (not at the gym) and gave suggestions on how to gear things for open vs novice on it. Right knee was still feeling achy so I kind of knew that this wasn’t going to be a session of the best I had. But warming up stuff did feel good and fine. Time to toss the bag. So, as written, the plan was to try and progress on the toss for height and trying to do 10 singles EMOM and trying to toss it higher and higher if I can (last 2-3 being max effort). The plan was to do this with 40lbs. Always a back up to do 30lbs if necessary. Tosses have felt good on the knees the past few sessions so I guess I was due for one where they weren’t. The band had come undone on the toss tower so I did need to fix that first. Did a little more warming up than usual because of said knee issue. My tosses warming up were quite shallow on the arc so I needed to not be doing that with working weight as while easily getting the height, might not be the case as weight increases. With 40lbs, I didn’t feel confident that I could get 10 tosses over 17’ with how I was feeling, especially with the rain. So my plan was to go a bit more literal with the trying to go higher with starting at 16’ and go up 6” (seemed safest) and see how things go. I knew it would take too much time to have the toss height be lower than 16’ with the band setup but not nearly as time consumptive making the setup taller. So first two tosses were ok. I was hoping to do 2 tosses that were good and then go up. Because adjusting every toss by myself was not going to really let me stick to EMOM rest. The first toss was better than the second. My first attempt at 16’6” was not good. I released too early and it didn’t even get high enough to touch the band. Managed to get it the next time. Missed the next one because I guess I dipped too far down and had the bag grazed the ground and threw me off as it went straight up but not back. Got is on the next go but arc wasn’t that great. At this point I decided I’d go up another 6”. Because this wasn’t as simple as just lifting the sides and putting stuff under it, had to wait until the next minute to go (so EOMOM for that set). Just went over. So I guess a technical PR over last time with 35lbs. Second toss I got too close to the setup and smacked the back of my skull on it on the follow through. Shame as I got better height this time around. Came back and got it clean for my best toss of the day. Since I had spent a “toss” to setup for this height, I added another minute so I could truly give it 10 attempts. This ended up being the closest success of the day. I wasn’t going to let the misses get to me on this with pushing the height of the tosses. 40lbs is a never miss weight I feel now. But learned that unless I have like two helpers, adjusting height to work with EMOM timing isn’t happening. I think 18’ is the highest I can make this and have it be “safe”. I decided to weigh the bag to see if it had gained weight from the rain. Yes, 41lbs. Put stuff away and got ready for the sandbags inside. I had been stressing about this since I did this last time. This was going to be my last go at this before the show. And I hate how this event makes me feel when it is a series like this. Feels fine and then hit a wall and fatigue is bad. After I did this last time. I was sitting and sweating a good bit. It felt humid today but the fans were on. It took a lot of time for setup last time so I figured it made sense to set everything up before I even got started with messing around with reps and such. Especially since I was likely going to need to chalk up well and good. The 150lbs bag felt like something on the pick for rows so that wasn’t exactly a great sign there. The rowing itself felt easy. On the shouldering itself with warming up, pick also felt a little slow. I did no rest between sides with 150lbs but a little bit for 200lbs. Then it was time for the series. Same setup as last time. I chalked up the 300lbs and 325lbs as well as myself. After last time, I had wondered if perhaps I needed to change up tactics with the bags over 275lbs. I’ve been doing the row pick style and then cross body shouldering. After those first three bags, it was challenging to do the 300lbs (which I didn’t get to stabilize well before it went) and couldn’t get the 325lbs up. The 275lbs had felt tougher too compared to the 305lbs firm packed bag at home. So floppy bags make a big difference. So I was going to do a dry run I guess of the vertical pick and shoulder style. I’ve not attempted this as I felt that it would be more fatiguing on the lower back and stress biceps and chest more. Also with my levers and height, it didn’t seem to be worth it for bags that were shorter. But I figured I didn’t want to leave a stone unturned and keep a “what if” out of my head. So plan was to do the first three like I’ve been doing and then go for those last two bags the new style. I had someone to time and to give down commands. The down commands ended up being a little inconsistent (long or too quick) but that wasn’t really and issue. First three bags were fine. I know I can do those. Took a bit to steel myself for 300lbs this new way. At first I felt like this can work. But then I went for that stand up and pop and it was not where I wanted things. It had me stuck in that spot where I hate to be and couldn’t get any momentum. I also lost my balance and almost tripped over the previous sandbag with how far I ended up shuffling backwards. So this was a disaster. I got myself focused and attempted to repick the bag how I normally do (I could feel the right hamstring feeling a little crampy) and went for it but I was just too exhausted and couldn’t get the bag high enough and dropped it. Well that sucked. I rested for a bit as I wanted to give the heavier bags another shot. Make sure that I was not going to be using the vertical pick. I was able to get 300lbs but it was rough and it was struggle to get the 325lbs bag up into my lap to attempt shouldering. Not happening. So not thrilled with that result to end the training cycle. Refueled with food and drink before putting the sandbags away. The right hamstring I think is more just scar tissue stuff but I am keeping an eye on it. I think that if I’m to really give the vertical pick and shoulder method a try, I’m going to have to dedicate a lot of time to it like I have with relearning jerks (which may not end up being too beneficial for me). I was feeling the effort after the run similar to last time. Had me asking myself why I do this stuff and kind of dreading the fatigue I’m going to likely be feeling when I’m competing. I feel that I need to get through 3 bags quick to give myself time to attempt the two heavier bags and not mess up when I go for it. Use the time period up as I don’t see myself getting reps with the last bag with how I seem to fatigue on this. Thoughts for training this next time. Learn from it. Deload week next week (though two of the workouts aren’t exactly light weight).