June 23, 2024 - June 29, 2024 - Week 3

 June 24, 2024 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
87x5
117x5
147x5
170x5
170x5

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows (2 seconds)
95x5
135x5
175x5
Added Straps
215x5
215x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x1
255x5
255x5

Band Face Pulls
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: It rained hard for about an hour on Saturday in the late afternoon and that apparently was what the squirrels and rabbits were waiting on as they were out after that cooled things down like 15 degrees (then it go hot again). Keeping an eye on the right hamstring after Saturday weirdness. It can be hard to tell if soreness is just from training stuff (like stones) that are quite hamstring intensive or if there is something that did happen. No bruising and no restriction in movement or feelings of weakness. Just some paranoia about it and perhaps having me “slow my roll” as far as planning on the next competition. As mentioned, December is the earliest I’m thinking. Despite the heat and the sweating, I’m apparently up some in weight. I think this has to do with me drinking a lot more fluids during the day. Also just ate a lot this week. If anything ends up “dropped” when it comes to meals, it has been the oatmeal packets. Today was another training session and I was curious to see how things would go as this would be a repeat of the first week essentially but with some increases. See if the workload is manageable and not overly taxing me like was an issue at start of the last prep. Warming up to start things off. Sticking to it as is. I was keeping an eye on things as far as the hamstring. Unlike when it was the pull/tear earlier this year, I was not feeling the same sensations doing stuff like I was then. So that seems to be a good sign. No fans today. I think I’m kind of used to the heat at this point and I wasn’t going to really be worrying about sweat. As far as the warming up goes, shoulders perhaps a little stiff. Starting off the actual training was log strict press. Plan was to work up to 2x5 with same weight as last time but add a little accommodating resistance. Not a set amount and not really indicating exclusively using bands or chains. Like if a mixture of both felt best, then so be it. It was to add just enough that I didn’t end up decelerating the weight at lockout like can be the case with straight weight. I was debating between chains and bands here. I’ve done in the past a fair bit of overhead pressing with a lot of chain weight (116lbs at times) and not a ton with bands. I have other exercises that are also to have this same treatment and you know how I like to have a “plan” in place so trying to figure out for one meant making sure I liked the others as well. I ended up with going with bands for the log pressing. I measured out the band tension with the micro bands as it has been a few years since I last did strict pressing with them and likely the tension is less at this point (and it was). No support gear of any kind here. Same weights and reps and jumps as last time. Now I was tempted initially to try and do 177lbs because I kind of felt I should’ve done that last time with how things had felt last time on the top sets. But I’d say that sticking to the same weights as last time was the best thing here. This did feel tougher (but it should really) but I didn’t feel like I was struggling on the pressing like I had felt the second round in at the start of last cycle when I was doing all the heavy supports and benching first. Considering this was about the weight that I was doing with support gear and struggling with on the third round has me feeling better about my prospects of improving the overhead pressing. I think I accomplished the goal here with the accommodating resistance. From there, it was into the garage for chest supported barbell rows with pauses. Same as last time with it being 2x5 and the 2 second holds at contraction. No added doodads on this one. Just aim for 5-10lbs more than last time. I knew that 10lbs was going to happen no problem since I felt I undersold it last time. Just hopefully no issues after doing stones. Hard to gauge coming into things fresh vs having some accumulated fatigue from other exercises. Not much to say here other than feeling a little sweaty and noticing my right arm feeling things a little more than the left (this was the arm that kept getting the not as sticky side of the stone). The holds (especially with actively pulling in) get quite fatiguing and have to treat them like a bracing drill as well. Strain but not release all the tension so that stay in the groove and keep the upper back working. This was fine and dandy and to be expected. I was not sure how benching would go. Benching was one of those lucky ones that got to have something special added with choice of band, chains or both. I kind of felt I was maybe on point or a little heavy with how benching had felt. I wasn’t sure with what to use as bands seemed like they’d be too much added at the lower end (micros doubled) and chains could be a pain getting so that wasn’t off the ground fully at lockout or have most stay on the floor at lockout. This took a little bit of tinkering but I elected to go with chains and figured out a way eventually to have it be only 22lbs in total weight (requiring straps and boards). It has been a bit since I’ve done chains for regular benching but I’ve done some floor pressing with lighter weight and lower reps (but more sets). Takes a little bit to get used to the sound as with the benching the chains are right next to the ears. But I got used to it after the first set. I feel like the chains a bit more forgiving with the shoulders compared to bands. Weight added was definitely noticed on the unracks (and the stability issue on the reracks). Still need to work on this one but I feel things went ok. Right shoulder ache stuff felt less and I guess better. But as always, keep an eye on things that need it. Face pulls with bands to finish up. I had left stuff out for the log so I decided to go outside to do these so I didn’t need to wait on putting away stuff on the bench to start. Same as last time with 2 sets of 20-25 reps. This ended up being slightly easier this second time doing these. Of course, the second rep will continue to be tougher due to the fatigue. Put stuff away before getting dinner ready. No oatmeal as I had to get up early to do that one day a month of going into the office for a day. Stretched after dinner.

June 26, 2024 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps)
No Bands
135x5
Add Bands (+7lbs/+42lbs)
135x3
185x3
225x2
275x2
315x1
365x5
365x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx20 L
bwx20 R

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx30 seconds L
bwx30 seconds R

Crunches
bw+35x30

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bwx30

Stretching
 
Comments: Tuesday was a bit dumb of a day. This was the one day the month (for now) that I have to come into the office for a “collaboration” day. And it was dumb because there was only one meeting and my supervisor wasn’t there for most of the day. I was also supposed to have a dentist appointment in the late afternoon (so leaving early) and they called to see if I could move my appointment up to lunch time (which I couldn’t and wouldn’t). Apparently the doctor was sick and going home early. I’m not sure why didn’t just reschedule because why would I want to have someone sick putting fingers in my mouth? So that is rescheduled for August. I still went home early as I had taken the leave already and I didn’t have a supervisor to modify the leave anyways. No walking after I got home as I needed to decompress a little. Also there was some stuff strongman related. Strongman Corporation was just bought by two individuals so a change like that kind of has me taking a pause. This coupled with the hamstring scare has me putting off on actually deciding on a competition to pursue until end of July vacation week. At this point, it is between January “natural” show or March Pro/Am. I was able to find the events for the December show and I dislike them intensely and the April Pro/Am events are not my bag. So pretty much no more competing this year as it stands. But before any of that, I have to get through training and make sure things are fine and dandy. I was tempted to put on the fans today but I figured that while it was 94 degrees, it was going to be cooling off soon with a passing thunderstorm. Started off with the usual warming up. I again stuck to it as written. Keeping an eye on that right hamstring. Been hard to say if it was just tight from normal training stuff. My right knee was feeling a little funky for what appeared to be no reason but thankfully that had been earlier in the day and seemed fine come training time. My right quad decided to cramp on me slightly as well. I stuck to the garage rather than attempt venturing outside as the wind was starting to pick up. Up first was deadlifts. This was one of two things today I was nervous about with the hamstring. Similar to the log and bench Monday, I was to do these with accommodating resistance. But unlike those two exercises, I was to attempt to use a certain amount, a certain kind and increase the weights of the 2x5 from the first go around. Same warming up with it being 40-50lbs jumps with the weight to be 365lbs. The bands were to be about 50lbs at the top of the movement. Mini bands were a little under that but attempting to do micros with the mini bands was a good bit over 50lbs so went with the minis only. Besides concerns about the hamstring, I was also trying to be mindful of my positioning. I was advised by Mr. Westerling to try and push my knees further forward so that my knees were ahead f my shoulders. That didn’t seem to be coming to me no matter how I had tried but I guess being told to just do that made it finally work for me. I feel that when I do that that there is more hip and quads involved with my pull. And perhaps not as fast a pull. But again, this is 50lbs more plus band resistance so it shouldn’t feel as fast. No support gear here as intended. The pushing knees forward cue I found was having me a bit more “compact” and “stacked”. Like if I didn’t emphasize this, I feel like I can reset and engage the hamstrings for the next rep. With this, it felt like the best thing was to not attempt to do that and just keep in this particular groove. I will say that keeping this to the bumper plates and smaller plates did have things jostling around a bit on the pulls. I feel second set felt better for me. Usually is the case with “speed” pulls and such. But this was a success. Did what was asked and no hamstring issues. I was debating after that how quickly I wanted to move to the next thing and what to put away/tear down. Parts of this workout have to be done outside because of my height and the exercise selection. As I had alluded to earlier, there was a thunderstorm that rolled in. Torrential downpour for like 20 minutes and then sun out (but temp dropped by like 25 degrees). Decided I’d clean and dry up the back patio some before doing the step ups. The other thing I was worried about. For a different reason this time. Iw as worried how my knees would do last time and was pleased with the results. I had worn knee sleeves because I wasn’t sure as well. This time, I wasn’t sure how the hamstring would do. While not lifting with the hamstrings concentrically, there is a stretch and stabilization that sometimes I was noticing when doing certain positions. This time around the plan was to do still one set for each leg on the 18” box but 15-20 reps this time. Of course the expectation was 20 reps. I started with the left side this time as that seemed to be the side that was having a harder time with things. No issues. Then time for the right side. Just hoping that nothing happens on that first rep and I’m golden. No issues and proceed to get my 20 reps for the right side as well. Wall sits were next. As this had been quite easy, my options here were to add time, add some weight or try single leg. I figured I’d do single leg since I’ve done those before and I’ve also done them with weight added before (but I was about 15-20lbs lighter). Started with the left side and didn’t have a set timer. Aim was 30 seconds at least. Left side felt awkward with getting the balance right and then letting go. This was a lot tougher than with both legs (to be expected). 30 seconds was a good spot to call it. Not a max but getting close there. Right side felt easier with finding the balance but was just as difficult with the hold as the left side. 30 seconds couldn’t come soon enough. These lower body sessions have been feeling productive. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. I went up 10lbs on these with the aim 25-30 reps for the set. Using the bumper plates was a bit cumbersome. I may just do the metal 35lbs next time. I was thinking of stopping at 25 reps but I felt I got a second wind so went for the 30 reps. Left side hip flexor got a bit tense near the end of that. Definitely need to spend some time here and building before moving up. Hanging knee raises to end things. Had bit of a break from the crunches as I needed to setup things and dry some stuff off outside to get ready. I was bit sweatier this time around. Plan was to just get like 1-2 more reps more from last time (25 reps was a struggle). These were feeling easier this time around. I stopped at 30 reps although I had more in the tank hitting that number as I did when I did 25 reps last time. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Stretched out a bit later.

June 29, 2024 – Week 3, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (Casual Pace)
250x50’
350x50’
450x50’
550x50’
550x50’

Sandbag Loads (55“)
200x2
250x5

Sled Pushes (turf)
75x50’
75x50’
(60 seconds rest)
175x50’/175x50’
175x50’/175x50’
175x50’/175x50’
175x50’/175x50’
175x50’/175x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: Last week of the month and next month is likely going to be chaos. Work stuff, appointments and vacation. Change to the routine. Wrists started to bother me after Wednesday training and I can’t for the life of me really pinpoint what would be the issue. First it was the right wrist and by the end of day Thursday that was feeling fine but then the left one started. I’ve had these pop up before and I know it goes away. Plan was to go out to train by waking up to my alarm as I have been the past two weekends. The temperature was not going to be so beastly hot and there were likely not going to be a lot of people there due to competition (3 guys from the gym competing). But rather I guess get things done and out of the way rather than possibly dealing with storms in the afternoon. I felt I needed more sleep so I did end up hitting snooze for about a half hour. While it was definitely cooler, I was feeling a little stuffy and the humidity was pretty high. I had only done nasal spray as I figured that would be enough. Perhaps not as I was driving out. Traffic near the start was a bit stop and go so probably added 10 minutes to my drive time. With this delay every time, I was seriously considering driving back to do this workout at the local gym instead as I’m not directly training for anything. But that would cost me more money with it unplanned. So to Lancaster for training. Not many people there when I showed up, which was fine for me as likely could just go about doing stuff and not worry about being in the way. I stuck to the warming up with no added stuff. It has been working for me thankfully. I was feeling decent besides the suffocating humidity in the gym. Starting things off was yoke. Plan here was 550x2x50’ at casual pace and about 2 minutes or so rest between sets. No support gear of any kind as well. Not sure if that is changing after this four week block with things. I had checked about the weight progression with Mr. Westerling since it seemed like the jumps were different for farmer’s vs yoke. I tend to think of those as the same and want to know when something seems different. I got clarification that plan is to be a bit more aggressive with farmer’s walk and less so with yoke as yoke tends to be a bit more taxing on the knees and body compared to farmer’s. Pick is rougher for me with farmer’s walk. The plan for progression makes sense. The yoke that was out (I wasn’t looking forward to moving a bunch of stuff after last week with the hamstring scare) had bare spots where the tape had been stripped so I retaped it. Started 50lbs more than last time so it was just 100lbs jumps. I was pretty loosey goosey with time between sets until I got to the planned working weight. I can tell that my lower back takes a bit more of the burnt with things on that pick up (as well as mid back) when not wearing belts and such. Felt a good bit of pressure on my body with the pick that first set but I knew I could just take my time with it as I’ve done 700lbs in this style before (but with belts). It is definitely a certain frame of mind I have to take here vs if I was to be going fast. It felt better the second set but that meant I inadvertently went quicker than I was planning. But I felt comfortable. Next was sandbag loads. I was already a sweaty mess by this point with the humidity. It didn’t really matter with yoke but it would with sandbag to some extent. Last time had been 200lbs for 2x5. This time I was to do same height with 225-250lbs for just one set of 5. The yoke I had been using (I had stripped it down so that I could have active rest, drink fluids and towel off sweat) was in use by someone else training for a show in September and the similar yoke was behind several yokes so I used a different yoke. I was going to go slightly higher than last time because the yoke didn’t have the same pin settings but I got some mats to make it the right height. Since this is being paired with atlas stones (like the yoke and farmer’s), I figured 250lbs was what I should do since I went 35lbs over the initial stone weight. I was planning to wrap my wrists with athletic tape if they were bothering me but no issues so just shorts and shirt. Warming up I did a short carry with the 200lbs bag, did a double (so it was back on the near side again) and then carried it back to the wall of bags. I figured that would be a good warming up and give me an idea of how my front carry feels after not doing it for a good bit. 250lbs bag was fine. Those stupid straps that this maker decided to have on the bags does mean I have to be a little more cautious with where and how I gain purchase on the bag. Again, a little slow but this was comfortable and easy. Again, took my time with putting stuff away to recover and refuel. Last thing was sled work. I had learned my lesson from last time that it made more sense to do it as 50’/50’ rather than 100’ straight shot with the terrain and space for this particular implement. The dragging sleds are fine with stuff but the prowler sleds are temperamental. I did attempt to setup on another section of turf but it was a little short and cramped and the wind tunnel section opened up so I set things up there. I had an idea of the suck to expect here. 5 sets of 100’ with 60 seconds rest. I was to add 10-20lbs to what I did last time. Seeing as how I was feeling like I was sucking wind and sweating profusely last time, I went with the 10lbs increase. I needed to try and get the rest time closer to 60 seconds and hopefully not be just walking by the last set. Things did not bode well for me on that first set as I was expecting it to feel easier. Going to have to embrace the suck. I did feel like I was not as horribly out of shape after the second set like last time. I knew I’d finish this but be a lot slower by the last one. Someone shouted at me to go faster near the end of the fourth set. Trying to not gas myself out. As expected, I had a bit slow down on the 5th set but it wasn’t as drastic as it was last time. It was a more consistent decline across the sets. I also made sure that I was going 50’ each way (I might have been cutting short 3’). I sweating a good bit and could definitely feel that I had some stuff in my throat. But recovery time was much better I think. Put stuff away before enjoying the meal I had brought and then driving home to decompress and stretch.

June 16, 2024 - June 22, 2024 - Week 2

 June 17, 2024 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Strict Presses
46x5
76x5
106x5
136x5
166x5
166x5

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
87x10
117x5
147x3
177x2
207x5
207x5

Chin Up Holds
bwx28 seconds+9 seconds eccentric

Active Shoulder Hangs
bwx64 seconds+10 seconds relaxed

Stretching
 
Comments: Whatever heat was expected to pop up the end of the week decided to show up for this week. Hard to tell if I’m being paranoid with little aches and such but I’m not exactly pushing things full bore and needing to allow myself some lighter work for recovery. Weight up slightly from last week. I mean, makes sense in that I was walking 2 miles every day and now just every other day. And appetite/thirst is generally greater when I’m training. I got one week of training down but really I can’t be resting on my laurels here. I need to see how this training week goes and then the next two to see if I’m adapting/recovering appropriately with the workload. Also trying to correct negative thought patterns. Like where if I hesitate because I was going to put something in the wrong place and mentally berate myself (“idiot” or similar). It’s not something I’ve been called by others and seems to be something I’ve done to myself so trying to catch myself when that happens and tell myself that isn’t correct. Warming up to start things off. Very similar to how things had felt all last week with stuff. Sticking to it with no added modifications at this point. I didn’t bother with fans on in the garage since for this session I’d only be doing the warming up in there and everything else would be outside. So for that, I did have one of the big fans on to provide some airflow. It was hot (low 90’s) but fairly dry so humidity wasn’t killing me. I had realized end of training on Wednesday last week that I must have left my chalk at the competition gym. I still have some chalk but I’ll need to figure out proper storage and more liquid chalk. I really don’t care for training event work in the summer heat with how much I sweat. So off-season focus in the summer is ideal when I can hack it. Anyways, back to training. So strict pressing to start off. Alternating log and axle here so this was the axle week. I figured this would feel a bit rougher compared to log. With log, I can do it out of the rack in a way when it’s a strict press that I don’t have to bend my knees to unrack it and generally feels fine on the shoulders. The shorter ROM also doesn’t hurt. I also had the benefit of doing that fresh last time. This not so much. Plan was to do 30lbs jumps and not bother with the microplates like log (but leave option open to add them if feeling good). Axle strict pressing is definitely more shoulders than log strict press for me. But if shoulders are feeling off, both suffer. The axle was not feeling as good as log and I was little worried that maybe it was just that I can’t seem to recover in the shoulders very well between sessions. I mean, not really the log but maybe more the bench pressing being rougher. But stuck to the 30lbs jumps with no support gear and hit what I was expecting to hit here. Didn’t feel as fast as log press but could just be because of the ROM and the bar path. It will be interesting to see how things go the next run through of both. From there moved on to a common staple in the training at this time with the band assisted pull-ups. Similar to how these have been in that working up to 2x5 with a band assistance that lets me pull fast and with full ROM explosively. But same idea as far as the do something that I can do for 10 solid reps. I figured it didn’t make sense to try and screw around here with the setup I was doing for several workout sessions. I was not entirely sure how these would go. Honestly, about how they usually are with the first set working up feeling like some parts are easy but noticing fatigue and then the second set having me questioning if I should really be doing the lower band assistance for the working sets. And then having the working sets feel as they should. This exercise is definitely one that taking a brief break from it is noticeable in the fatigue factor between sets and with the explosive pulling style (the rack tends to shake with how violently I initiate the lift). I did bring out the liquid chalk I had from the competition gift bag and I can definitely see there is a quality difference in the stuff I had bought and this one. I’m curious on how I’ll progress here. I feel I can do full pull-ups without the bands but the bands seem to mentally keep me doing these in a way that feels like the muscles are working more and I’m not just using my arms. Then incline log pressing. Also 2x5. I was not entirely sure how these would go. I was little worried that my shoulders weren’t recovered enough for the session considering how things were feeling with the axle (and possibly fatigue from band pull ups). And warming up here wasn’t alleviating that feeling. But then things were starting to click and worries about my shoulders being overtrained went away as reps were moving like they should. That ended the weighted stuff. Which is usually the end of the session. But not the case for right now. Band face pulls had been the finisher last week but these were different. Essentially it was isometric work. The first was chin up hold. I’ve never done this. I know this is done in some instances for like a gym class testing if someone can’t do a pull-up. I was stressing a little here because I didn’t want to initiate a chin up to get into position but I also didn’t want to just hop right up as what if it strained the biceps? I’m quite a bit heavier than I was when I was regularly doing chin ups. But I realized I was overthinking it and just did it and it was no big deal. This was definitely challenging. Not just with the arms but also the midsection with bracing. Plan was max hold with bodyweight but to lower really slow when I felt I was going to lose it. I had thought I got to 30 seconds before I started the slow eccentric but I guess this was one of those rare times I head counted fast. This was tough and I feel this is a keeper for building things without stressing stuff too much in the upper body. Only real issue is that I can’t really elevate the pull-up stuff much at home. The next one was another hold but I knew this one would be a lot less taxing. Essentially a dead hang but with “active” shoulders. So nothing relaxed here and trying to touch my head to the bar without bending my elbows. Not possible to do. A reverse shrug motion. I wasn’t too sure on how these would go but I figured that I’d stop at a minute if I got to that point. Once I reached the point of fatigue where I couldn’t maintain the hold in the shoulders, I was to relax slowly and hold 10 more seconds in a dead hang. I think I skipped over the part to relax slowly as I pretty much went right to that after I counted to a minute. The hold after that was fine. Ate oatmeal before putting stuff away and stretching out. I have a feeling stuff will be sore from this going into my next workout.

June 19, 2024 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
225x5

Hyper Extensions
bwx15

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
20+45x46 seconds

Planks
bw+53x60 seconds

Side Planks
bwx60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: So a bit of a heat wave for this week. It had rained late in the evening Monday so it was a bit humid Tuesday. Not a ton but enough that what was tolerable the day before was becoming uncomfortable today. I ended up having to change out my shirt after walking due to the sweat and getting cold back inside after walking. Noticing soreness in areas from the last session doing the soft tissue work and have a feeling that going to be noticeable during the training to come. The “annual” Pro/Ams appear to be starting to post stuff again. The Colorado one is tempting as the events are better from me than they were this year. But kind of makes it a pick and choose between what shows to do. I got many months to think on that. Off work for Juneteenth nice to have a break in the middle of the week. There is some stress brewing up with next month having certain waived things at work becoming mandatory and tracked weekly so trying to get my workload under control and “clean” before that happens. Stayed up later than I wanted to the night before but I think because I knew I had a day off I was ok with that and work up about an hour later than I’d normally do for a work day. I’d already planned on training around lunch time rather than in the early evening. Hot but didn’t feel necessary to get the fans out as I wasn’t going to be doing a ton today with this session. It was pretty much the warming up routine and then light weight stuff and bunch of bracing core work. Kind of surprised that my joints were feeling pretty chill. I guess that happens when not constantly pounding them down with heavy weights. Still no adjustments to the warming up stuff. Stuck to being in the garage for the warming up and the session. The direct sunlight on the back of the house would’ve been unbearable doing stuff there today. Garage just felt comfortable in comparison. Hopefully my AC wouldn’t be struggling to stay tolerable like it has the past two days. Front squats to start things off. They have been the go to squat for a while now. This was one of the few exercises where I was going to use support gear and for the knees with the sleeves. Things have been feeling better but wasn’t quite keen on that yet considering knee aches unracking the axle the session before. Starting with the bar and doing 40-50lbs jumps up to two plates with that weight being the planned 2x5 for the session. I wasn’t worried about the knees on these beyond just the knee sleeves but I was suspecting these would feel kind of rough without any belts and such. This is already a tough bracing exercise for me. Also trying to be fast but not rush myself here with the breathing. I was right about the stuff on Monday being noticed here. My upper back felt sore as well as my mid-section, which the likely culprit being the chin up hold (and probably some active shoulder hang too). But just grin and bear it and know that is going to be the case. First working set with 225lbs the weight felt uneven and I hesitated for a moment (I was thinking of reracking to check weight) but I knew I had the right weights on and settled myself and went for it. Felt fine but I definitely felt that I didn’t attempt to make the last rep of that set a speed rep. The second set. I felt myself doing that on the middle reps and made sure that I had the last rep be fast. From there on to the mid-section work with bracing exercises. Back extension hold stuff with the neck harness has been quite fruitful for me with training. Warming up with just bodyweight back extensions has been the go-to. I figured that with just front squats prior rather than a deadlift that these wouldn’t feel like I had a lot of fatigue in me. And probably similar thought in that it looks like these aren’t going to be every week like they have been. The number of reps increased from 10 to 15 and that was noticed. I took my time before committing to the hold. I was told to do the weight combination (harness and holding) that I did for the last workout session of the last prep. That had been 20lbs on the neck harness and 45lbs held in the row position. Hold for max time but stop 10 seconds short of failure. I think this was similar protocol as that last session. Now I was only to do 40lbs held in hand that last session but did 45lbs as it was easier and “close enough” with the weights. I wasn’t entirely sure what I did on this last time but I had a feeling it was less than 40 seconds. I figured even with not doing this for a few weeks that I’d likely be able to beat that time considering that not doing anything heavy beforehand. Surprisingly got over 45 seconds. I was counting a little slow I think (or miscounted) at some point early on as I was closer to 42 in my head. It is funny to be beating the best time I had done with 10lbs less on the neck harness on these. With that done, it was time to finish up with the abdominal bracing. Notes indicated to just do the same weight I had been doing here. So 53lbs added to back pack for the regular planks and just bodyweight for the side planks. Range of 30-60 seconds but I was always going to do the 60 seconds. Even if abs were feeling fatigue and soreness from a new exercise, this was going to be doable stuff here. Regular planks had the me hitting the abdominals in a way that was more sore from what I did vs the side planks. Side planks I was just noticing my shoulders with supporting my body weight. I didn’t really need to put anything away as I kind of was doing that throughout my rest periods between exercises so went right into eating some food and then stretched.

June 22, 2024 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Farmer’s Walk (Casual Pace)
50x50’
100x50’
150x50’
200x50’
200x50’

Atlas Stone Loads (55“, tacky)
235x5
235x5

Sled Drags
135x50’
235x50’
60 seconds rest
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: To borrow from Rob Thomas, “man, it’s a hot one”. It has been record highs as far as heat for the area for this time of year. While out walking the past two days, I’ve seen no squirrels. A few years back was counting how many squirrels I’d see when I was out walking and I think 3 was the lowest and over 50 being the most. So that is certainly telling that I’m seeing none. Guess trying to beat the heat. It made more sense to walk while sun was directly overhead during lunch then after work as the humidity would be higher at that point and it would just feel worse. And Saturday was supposed to be the hottest day so far this year so I had to plan ahead to get out to train early so that I wasn’t at the highest point of the heat (which was potentially 100 degrees). Got my stuff prepped the afternoon before and plan was a meal high in salt content for dinner to replenish what I was likely going to be sweating out. It was hot for sure driving out that I had the AC on fairly high (not max). Some slow downs at the usual spots but I feel I made decent time. Shouldn’t be too many people at the gym with the heat. Some people competing this weekend and others the next weekend. All the fans were on at the gym so there was good airflow. My right leg had felt more sore than the left after the last training session. Warming up felt fine and good. Sometimes the heat makes this part feel ok. First thing for the day was farmer’s walk. Similar to yoke in that this was to be light stuff done at the casual pace and no support gear. But of course things couldn’t be that simple. I usually have to move equipment around to free up space in the lanes and today was no exception. Sometimes that involves picking something up and moving it or dragging it away. One of those things was a 170lbs yoke. It was catching on the ground as I was dragging it so I had to pick it up a little. I felt something twinge in the back of my right leg. The hamstring I had pulled months ago. But in a different spot. And the first thought was “are you kidding me?” This was a mild sensation as far as discomfort, like a single tentacle of a jellyfish had grazed the back of the leg. Annoying more than anything. I didn’t react to it and just monitored things. Didn’t feel like there was any cramping sensation or any restriction of ROM. But it added an element of anxiety to the workout. My hope was that this was just some scar tissue breaking up and I’d see how things went and if it felt like something more sinister, I’d have to call it and likely go home and mope. So anyways, farmer’s walk. As mentioned, casual pace 50’ carries. I got a few choices of handles but I figured I’d do the longer handles at 16”. The I-beams at 18” are higher but more than twice the weight empty and my thinking is most contests these days are doing 16” pick. And I wanted to use the lighter handles that allow for the leveraged pick up in the event I do end up going heavy for a PR run at some point and possibly to see how this mimics a possible wheelbarrow (focused on that one pro/am show as motivation). Considering how the hamstring was feeling just now, it was a good thing this was just casual pace as I’m not confident I’d been comfortable with moving normally with the circumstances. There was hesitation with the picks and walking as I was keeping an eye on the hamstring but seemed to be fine and adding weight to the movement didn’t increase the sensation. I had kind of wanted to not use any chalk but with how much I was sweating, I had to resort to using a little bit of liquid chalk for my hands. I mean if I was going normal pace then not needed but since these runs were taking over 30 seconds to complete, I wanted to make sure I didn’t rush because of the sweaty hands. Casual pace here, slow and steady. I did notice, and perhaps this is because of the shorter and shuffling strides, that I had a lot of side to side motion here. It could be because I’ve not done farmer’s walk (it has been frame and wheelbarrow) since October 2022. The fixed implement perhaps keeps that not as noticeable. But I tend to come back quite well on farmer’s walk compared to say yoke. I took my time putting stuff back where I got it before moving on to the next thing; stones. It has been a while, but not the longest break from stones. Shows do have stones in them still but either they are different and have no tacky or they are way too light. The plan here was to do 2x5 with 200lbs (like sandbag load). Easy stuff (if I wasn’t worried about the hamstring). Notes had indicated to use tacky so as not to stress out the biceps. I was prepared for two scenarios today. One was just do what Mr. Westerling had written and the other was to use the stone of steel. The stone of steel is 20” diameter and the gym does have 200ish stones but they are 18” diameter. Not exactly a stone size that will be in competition. And it feels like a waste to use tacky on a stone weight that I generally don’t even do as a warm up when doing stone loads. The gym also doesn’t have an exactly 200lbs stone nor a 250lbs stone (the proposed next stone session weight). So I was either going to do real stones with tacky or the plateloaded stone using tacky towels. Three things had me go with real stones. One was that I felt like I’d be a bit more “motivated” if I did real stones as they are my favorite event and I could think of prepping for the pro/am. Another was that there was plenty of clean up supplies (I had to do stuff after stones). Then finally the other was the amount of sweating that was happening. I remember how last year prepping for Nats at the beginning how bad the sweat was making the stone slip even with tacky towel and other stuff applied. I’d need to apply tape and waste a roll in either case. I can mitigate sweat better with real stone lifting when tacky is involved so real stones it was. Took off my shirt to do stones and some people commented on my traps and hinted that it was because of drugs. I politely told them off that I was a drug free athlete and likely my traps are from all the neck harness hold work. It’s a mixture of flattery and insulting with that kind of talk. With the temperature, I had three different tacky to work with. The one from overseas (priciest) works best and was perfect at this temp. I was worried I was low on it and that I’d need to use a good bit of it. Wrong on that front. The platform setup is slightly uneven in that there is a matching set of 3 tiered platforms but the right side is .5” - .75” shorter than what is listed. So I went with the left. The 205lbs stone was on the right side. I wasn’t going to move it around in this heat and with other stuff so I did the 235lbs as it was on the left side. This would set things up so that 265-270lbs was ok for next time (at least that is what I was telling myself. I definitely was out of practice here with getting setup for stones with tacky as I wrapped my arms a bit too tight. I was also nervous about the hamstring here as this was likely going to be the thing that would tax it the most. I went at a steady pace. The right side was getting the less sticky side of the stone so I was trying to be cautious with lifting. Dirty stone. I applied a little more tacky to get some more stick on my right arm. On the second set, the stone felt light and I don’t know what I was thinking but I didn’t bother to adjust the stone in my lap so I kind of did I guess a paused one motion and that was stupid. So the load portion was a million times harder than it needed to be. I made sure to not do that for the rest of the reps. The stone also seemed to be bouncing a good bit on the rubber so I did have to let it settle and not rush things. I was debating doing another rep to make up for that first rep but just did the last one really powerfully. Clean up thankfully wasn’t too arduous. I took my time here as I wasn’t really looking forward to the last bit of the session. Sled drags aren’t bad in some circumstances. But seeing as how this is to be kind of alternated with the prowler pushes, I knew this was going to get sucky by the end. Unlike with the prowler, I knew that I could do the 100’ outside on concrete with the sleds at a respectable weight in both directions so it wasn’t going to be like last time where I set things up in the hot sun and find out it doesn’t work and have to move stuff indoors. But outside this time around was maybe not the wisest thing. Temp was up to 94 at this point (it was 91 when I got to the gym starting at 87 when I left my house haha). The plan was to do 5 sets of 100’ with one minute rests. I had to test the hamstring with this movement and going fast and thankfully this wasn’t an issue. I walked the entire length of the turf with empty sled to warm up and then added 100lbs and did 50’ runs to get the sled 100’ away from the gym so that I’d end up at the gym on the last set. I felt fine with this and plan was to do 305lbs for the working sets. But after moving it about 20’, I realized this wasn’t going to work at this weight. I dropped it back to the 235lbs and got to work. I told myself to keep going and had a song on repeat in my head each run. Thinking about how this kind of training is needed if I plan to compete at altitude in Colorado. This was not as rough as the prowler stuff but I did hit a similar wall on the fifth set where I slowed down a good bit. I was breathing hard but it wasn’t like last weekend where I was needing to sit down to catch my breath. The massive quad pump had me distracted enough from the hamstring that I wasn’t feeling it. Put stuff away before eating and drinking most of my stuff I brought (I forgot a spoon for my yogurt) before driving home to stretch. Going to keep an eye on the hamstring obviously.

June 9, 2024 - June 15, 2024 - Week 1

 June 10, 2024 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses
87x5
117x5
147x5
170x5
170x5

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows (2 seconds)
95x5
135x5
175x5
Added Straps
205x5
205x5

Bench Presses
45x15
95x8
135x5
185x2
225x2
255x5
255x5

Band Face Pulls
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: After a week off from training after the competition, back at it. I needed that time off despite wanting to push myself from there. I didn’t even feel like lifting really until yesterday so definitely needed that time to mentally recover. The competition ended up being a lot rougher on me than expected with length of the competition. Just walking every day for 2 miles as exercise. Short of it is Nats is not on the table this year and going back to offseason. Also not going to try and force myself with the weight as hardly any benefit with the added bulk. Down to 282lbs at this point. Also not going to force the weight loss beyond that steady pace it has been since reducing by 1200 calories about 2 months ago. But ideally closer to 265lbs range so that I can compete there again. Also I think figuring out what makes sense for me going forward. Next likely competition is either December or January if I am competing. Need to spend time building up my top end limits and hit some PRs in the gym rather than focus on specific contest event conditions. I have plans on that but for now, I need to get through this first block of training which is getting stuff feeling good mentally and physically. Warming up to start things off. I did as written rather than add little things as I was doing. Most were for lower body stuff dealing with the knees/quad and it could also be exacerbating by being too aggressive with the prehab/rehab. I wasn’t sure how things would really be feeling. Hamstrings were tight. Thankfully my quads didn’t feel like I’ve never done anything (maybe the walking) as sometimes is the case when I take a week off from a competition. Despite the concerns with aches, this was fine and things moved good. Mostly. Shoulders perhaps a little stiff. Apparently taking two weeks away from the weights in the garage and patio meant it was free real estate for a myriad of spiders. So I had to do some evictions before getting to training and setup. Up first was log press. Strict pressing for now. To give the knees some more rest. And likely to get the shoulders up to snuff. Plan was to work up to 2x5 with a weight that I could do 10 reps with. Ideally no supportive gear here or anything really unless I felt it was needed for “safety”. I wasn’t too sure with log strict style. I had a hell of a time with it at the beginning of the last prep. Started off great but then I was recovering from stuff and the numbers dropped dramatically. Like 150lbs for easy 15 reps and then struggling to do 180lbs for doubles. So I wasn’t sure what to expect here. With stiff shoulders and how log tends to be, I felt it made sense this session to go sets of 5 reps all the way up to get things warm in the shoulders and hopefully get an idea where I was. I didn’t bother with the microplates on the log to get it a nice round number. Plan was 167lbs. Empty log felt fine. I set the log one higher for strict press so I can just roll it into position. Also save knees. Shoulders weren’t feeling great but it was moving really well. 30lbs jump still moving but shoulders weren’t exactly on board. But onward. Another 30lbs and stuff was moving even better and shoulders weren’t fussy. I was still leery but things were feeling good so I decided I would get the microplates out and get it to be 170lbs. This felt really good the first set. Maybe a little too excited with things the second set. I feel like I may have undershot things by like 10lbs but better to do that than overdo it considering start of the cycle and how this cycle appears to be progressing from here. So a good start to things. Into the garage for chest supported barbell rows. A twist on this here with being 2 second holds at contraction. Same idea with is being 2x5 with a 10rm. I’ve not done these with pauses/holds in a good bit and it always was something that got very tough as the set went on. Especially since I try my best to be honest with the tempo times. Sets of 5 reps working up seemed to be good for rows too. Felt a little weird using straps with this kind of weight but I wanted to make sure that I was pulling forcefully. These felt pretty strong. I could tell there was definitely fatigue on the second set. Similar to the log, this was probably also about 10lbs under weight. I knew I wouldn’t have that issue with the next thing; bench. Bench was been frequently enough and has been this 2x5 for a good bit with trying to keep bar speed fast. I don’t really feel like I’m going that fast with this kind of grip. So unlike the log and row, I had recency with this exercise to be able to gauge what 10rm would be. I elected for 255lbs. Working up was feeling ok. As expected, stuff starts to feel heavy on my wrists and shoulders at 185lbs. 225lbs was ok, not great. I decided to add wrist wraps because of comfort reasons with this grip. This was definitely slower compared to the log and row sets. Trying to keep my form consistent and the groove on this I’ve been doing slight pauses at lockout to break up the reps so as not to get so focused on the speed of the set but the speed of the concentric. I was able to do that with less “lag” on the log and row. I know I can do this weight for 10 reps so I guess this was the right range. This only felt ok to me. Got to keep a watch on the aches and such with shoulders. I started putting stuff away thinking I was done. I’d also eaten the post workout oatmeal. I only remembered that I wasn’t because I was thinking about the next workout and setup of things and realized I had one more thing to do. This training cycle has some additional exercises from what was standard last time. So this finisher was an old favorite but long absent. The humble band face pull. 2x20-25 with a light band. I’ve been guilty in the past of just rapid fire which isn’t really the way to go here. I took it literally with using a “light band” and I wasn’t entirely sure I could handle that. That first rep my shoulders and upper back lit up. I guess it has been a while. But in a good way. Did 25 reps that first set and took my usual rest break of pacing the house and came back. I knew that I’d likely be gassing out near the end but managed to get 25 reps here too. This felt good on the shoulders and balancing out the benching. Put stuff away before stretching out.

June 12, 2024 – Week 1, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
315x5
315x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx15/15

Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+25x30

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bwx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Seriously considering a “natural” (drug free) competition in middle of January in Mississippi. Going to depend on how I feel and how training goes and if I hit goals in training. I still have to see what the December show hosted by the 580 Barbell crew looks like (I imagine it will be posted relatively soon). I want to compete but I want to get some new gym lift PRs. I like tough competition but I’m maybe not so keen on doing shows with a ton of people at them. Especially if the events are fun/unique. Several of the people I compete against at these kinds of shows appear to be giving Nationals a miss this year. So just more stuff to think about. But for later. I can think on myself and how training is going and how I’m feeling. Well good first day. But I knew that I’d be experiencing soreness and tightness in my shoulders from that session. As it had been a while since I’ve done strict pressing and due to the deload and then reload. I had been concerned about joints and such with that session and thankfully my body was moving well and not feeling like being held together with bubblegum and twine. But that session had been essentially upper body only with only the strict pressing having anything really to do with my lower body for bracing. It’s safe to say that lower body joints like my hips and knees still recovering from the competition and training cycle. Keeping up with work as well. So despite the workload for training being low and light, I was not sure how things would go for the new things added. Warming up felt similar to last time with the mobility work. I again stuck to it as written. I was tempted to add the other stuff but figured I’d see how things went and gauge expectations from there. Only difference from last time was that my upper body was sore and stiff. Biceps were tight too from the band face pulls (as I said, been a while). No fan today (I didn’t use one Monday) but going to probably need them going forward. It’s supposed to get into the 90’s this week. Up first was deadlifts. Unlike Monday, there was a set weight and jumps and reps. So 315lbs for 2 sets of 5 reps. Light, should be easy and move like speed work. No support gear as recommended (besides straps). Knees were thankfully not that stiff. I was feeling like my left side the hip/glute wasn’t quite firing (I think still recovering). 40-50lbs jumps here with low reps working up. I nicked my left shin scab I got from the deadlift on the set with 185lbs so it started to bleed a little through the sock. I made sure that I didn’t do that again for the rest of the session. I was feeling comfortable with the pulling. But I was feeling like perhaps I should’ve done more than just nasal spray in the late morning for the allergies. But a bit too late for that now. Used bumper plates and my smaller 45’s so didn’t have to worry about weights dinging the floor. The first set with the 315lbs weight, I think I had my stance too narrow to really get my hips and glutes into it. It felt like my knees were also a little stiff. Moving fast but not really how I wanted them to be. Just feeling wise. But sometimes I need to shake the rust off with things like this. I adjusted my stance to be a little wider and that seemed to be the ticket as I almost lost balance with how much less effort was needed to get the weight to lockout. That set definitely felt better. Easy but it should be at this point. Just thinking on how this speed work is about what my max is in kilograms with a suit. Got to keep pushing the deadlift up this offseason. That was essentially it for stuff I was going to do in the garage. I know, this is usually all in the garage type session. Not so much for right now. This was the only exercise really using weights. Everything else was essentially bodyweight and performing it outside of the garage made the most sense. It perhaps does seem odd I have more concerns about what is essentially bodyweight exercises then weighted stuff at this point. I think because it has been a bit and I know how my knees have been when moving about at times. Like comments about going up and down steps (one from stiffness and the other because I walk backwards). But on to it. So what was up first was step ups. Just a set of 10-15 reps each side to an 18” box. It has been a good bit since I’ve done anything like these. When I’ve done them, they’ve usually been weighted in some way and lower or much higher and without weight. As far as doing them with Mr. Westerling, I’d say it has likely been since I was working with coming back from the back injury in 2016-2017. When doing these, it has been with not the most stable setups often times. But since I made that plyo box purchase so I could train the power stairs for Nationals last year, I do have a sturdy setup. Just going outside to do it so that I wasn’t hitting the ceiling of my garage. I was anxious about discomfort in the knees. Wore knee sleeves. A feeling of relief when there was no issues that first rep and it felt easy. I knew then I’d be doing 15 reps. The visual of “crushing” the box has been helpful with how I’ve done these. Slow lowering with control. That had been with the right leg. Left leg was a bit tougher. I had forgotten that just because the right knee is achier, doesn’t mean it isn’t the “stronger” leg in most cases. I got those reps done with the left side. Next was an exercise I was kind of expecting to show up for this off season with the mention of the knee aches; wall sits. Indication was to do one set for max time. I reached out to make sure on the “time” as I could probably hold this for several minutes. Indication was to do 30-60 seconds and then figure out how we should proceed with progression whether it be with time, weight or switching to single leg. I’ve done these before obviously and more recent with things has been doing them single leg (if 2 years is recent). This was a little different in that I was to focus the weight on the balls of my feet. Not sure if that increased the difficulty here. No knee sleeves here as I wanted to try and be true to the “no support” gear request. A minute came and was not much worse for wear. That was it for the lower body stuff and it was now the time of the workout where I was to do core work. Starting that off with weighted crunches. Same as it has been with the last training cycle. I didn’t see a need to increase the weight after not doing them for a few weeks. Felt fine, but hard to say if that will be the case the next time if weights and difficult increase in everything else. I can see myself adding some weight here. What is usually the next thing here is the lying leg raises. Not so this time around. I guess I needed a more challenging exercise. So hanging knee raises with holds. Advised to treat this as grip work as well so no straps. This required a little bit of setting up because of how tall I am and the two racks I have to work with at home. I needed to elevate my outside rack on my bumper plates so that the additional height would allow me to have enough clearance to do this exercise. Used some liquid chalk and had to grip things a bit wide. I was swinging a little bit at the start (I’ve not done these in a good bit). The holds certainly made this tiring as I went. Grip was feeling fine even by the end of it. I was kind of surprised that it was close to 75 seconds I was hanging there doing these. Hopefully my lower abs and hip flexors aren’t too sore tomorrow. Ate some oatmeal and put stuff away before stretching out.

June 15, 2024 – Week 1, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (Casual Pace)
200x50’
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
500x50’

Sandbag Loads (55“)
200x5
200x5

Sled Pushes (60 seconds rest, turf)
165x50’/165x50’
165x50’/165x50’
165x50’/165x50’
165x50’/165x50’
165x50’/165x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess should be somewhat thankful that he temperature didn’t end up being as hot as it was expected to be the past few days. Was supposed to be low to mid 90’s and ended up topping out mid 80’s. But it was kind of brutal when the sun was out and no clouds. I do wish that strongman stuff wasn’t so complicated outside of just training. You hear things about stuff changing that is never announced officially (like weight class changes and Arnold qualification) that seems like getting a direct answer will be a pain. Then seeing the “drug free” competition talking about adding polygraphs for testing. Make it make sense. But I’m undecided at this point and just getting in training. The difference between my post contest and younger competitors is quite drastic. They can already be doing contest weight for their next competition and I’m doing bodyweight stuff and like 50% weights. But I know I need to do this to keep on keeping on and recovering. I should be pleased with the fact I didn’t have any stress related physical illness symptoms after this last tough contest and prep. Made myself get up at my work hour for training today. A few reasons. I could very well have done my training at home but it wouldn’t be the best thing. I needed to get out there at somewhat reasonable time so that if the weather decided to be hot that I wasn’t there at the hottest time. But more so to make sure I could bring in a piece of equipment I was lending to someone for training. Traffic near the start was a bit stop and go so probably added 10 minutes to my drive time. Fair number of people at the gym. I have nothing really I’m training towards at this moment besides general ideas so this is really more off-season general training. People there right now are actually mostly training for upcoming contests. One next week, one the week after and then a bunch of people doing one beginning of September. I stuck to the warming up that I’ve done this week so far with no added stuff. I felt fine but I was definitely noticing the increased temps as I was getting sweaty just standing around. My left inner thigh is feeling a little irritated (not enough to hamper anything). It’s likely from the combination of step ups and the hanging knee raises. It be like that sometimes where I feel fine doing something and then the area worked feels irritable like 2-3 days later. Starting things off was yoke. Plan here was 500x2x50’ at casual pace and about 2 minutes or so rest between sets. No support gear of any kind as well. Really, only the initial pick was going to stress the knees anyways. Just go slow. I had to move stuff around a bit to share the lanes. Someone did keep walking/dawdling in the lanes to setup stuff but I didn’t want to really push my energy or aggression much at all at this point. I wanted calm. Lower back was still feeling a bit stiff on these with the initial pick up and set down. No issue when actually up and going. I had taken out one of the sets of pins so the yoke was little more unstable. I also didn’t want to get blisters on my hands from the other pins. Fine and good, expected. Next was sandbag loads. As listed, 200lbs for 2x5 to whatever height felt best. I elected to do 55” as that is the highest platform for the stone loading platforms at the gym right now and I kind of want the load heights to be the same (atlas stones alternating with this). I was initially planning to do a warm up set with 150lbs for 5 reps to get ready. But I said screw it, 200lbs is already darn light enough and I don’t think I really need to warm up for this. So my warming up was picking up the sandbag and carrying it a short distance to the yoke. I went about this at a casual pace. Pick up and toss it over and walk around. Considering this bag is one with the strap on it, I didn’t want to be rushing things and possibly bungle things. Definitely felt like I was little rusty here after doing nothing but sandbag to shoulder stuff. But like the yoke, this was doable at the lower gear of arousal. It is kind of funny to me that two years ago I was doing 65lbs more than this for double the reps in a minute at a contest (albeit lower height). Picked up the bag after I was done and put is back in the pile before putting the yoke away. Last thing was sled work. The plan here had been to do 5x100’ with a minute rest. Using a moderate weight. Now the problem is that the turf is 92-93’ at most and has the uphill/downhill thing happening for about 8’ of it on the one end. And I don’t like having that kind of disparity with one way being easier (at least knowingly easier) and not being the full distance. So I attempted to set things up outside so that I had the full concrete. Seemed like a good idea and I had figured it was best to start 100’ away so that with the odd number of sets, I’d end closest to the gym on the last set. With the effort setting things up outside done, I was ready to go. But the sled was not budging. I thought maybe it was too light and the weight not balanced. Nope. Even trying to push the empty sled wasn’t working very well. I’m not sure what happened to the skids on it between pushing it out there and trying to do sets but it was not going to work. So I reverted to a secondary option which was go back inside and do 50’ on the turf. But make up for that by having two sleds so once I finished 50’, I’d hop over the next sled and push that back 50’. Only thing would be having to turn the sleds around at the end so that I can push it the next set. I may have gone a little heavier than necessary. I also was counting myself and I appear to have been closer to 70 seconds vs 60 seconds (my first rest being the most egregious). This was feeling like a terrible idea in the middle of the third set and I knew that I’d be sputtering and wheezing by the end of the last set. I was able to keep those first four sets about consistent with times but definitely hit that wall with the last one and the time to finish increased a good bit. I was huffing and puffing after that and needed to sit down to collect myself. It wasn’t as bad as the 10 sets nonsense I did on my deload week. And I feel that I didn’t have the same leg fatigue and tightness issue afterwards. I feel I need to keep this kind of thing in training to make sure I’m training this system and hopefully my ability to recover will improve. Put stuff away slowly and ate food before driving home where I could stretch out.

June 1, 2024 – Battle at the Bridge: Northeast Regionals

 Third times the charm. Or some other pithy saying involving the number three. All that I need to be getting across is that this is the third year that this contest is being held (Battle At The Bridge/Northeast Regionals) and this would be the third time I’m doing it. Do I want to be succeeding in my goals this time around? Of course I do. I never go into a competition where I’m not thinking about winning but I am realistic on my own abilities/limitations and the level of competition that competes. There is high likelihood that I will match or tie PRs and also get my butt smashed in. That’s even with an almost 6 months to get ready for this competition. But training isn’t always straightforward. Had to essentially start over with my overhead pressing and then have to work around a slight hamstring tear that happened about 2 months into the prep while still going forward as one has to do in these circumstances. There is a reason I’m getting close to my 50th competition. I was also trying to see if I could fill out my frame, continuing from what I started back after Nationals last year. I’d say I had my most successful bulk cycle getting over 290lbs at one point. But pulling back to something a little more sustainable for my body and wallet. Always trying to improve on my last performance. Which the “placings” wouldn’t suggest I am with this show as I got 7th my first year and 8th my second. And I’d need to get 5th or greater for this to qualify me for Nationals this year. I’d rather not have a repeat of 2022 where I have to do a show in the summer with a quick turnaround for Nationals. So third times the charm.

With going to the western side of the state, it has become pretty simple with getting things in order. Take the day before off so that have a full day to get ready and to drive in the event of any traffic issues. There always are as it seems every time heading out that way there is some new road closure and having to take some backroads to get there once off the turnpike. Especially with how hectic things get with work, I don’t mind taking off. The drive out has been made frequently enough that is isn’t something that is beyond routine so it doesn’t stress me out like travel would normally be. We know the route and what to avoid, know where to sleep and get good food as well as what to bring. I tend to stand out regardless of where I am (even amongst other strongman athletes) and I had a guy at a rest area ask me if there was some big powerlifting meet going on and I told him that there were some meets and a strongman competition (as well as Pittsburgh pride parade) and he had said how his friend had seen Brian Shaw in PA recently (he was in York, PA the week prior). The 580 Barbell group have not disappointed with a show that they’ve run so I continue to make their shows the priority for things like local level and regionals. Check-in was fine and got to review the equipment and setup. I did weigh-in with my shoes on at 285lbs so about 20lbs more than last year. Made sure my hamstring was feeling ok (slight tear a few months back) and got my yoke height. I mean, a yoke is a yoke, but been at this so long that I’ve seen several different brands. This one had quite a thick single cross bar to I guess make up for only having one vs two and seemed sturdy but a bit of a pain to adjust. I pretty much touched everything besides the throwing bags and the frame (I’m familiar enough with that). Back to hotel for a bit before dinner reservations with good food and then trying my best to get to sleep and be rested.

I tend to feel terrible with stress and stress makes me more susceptible to things. Leading to more severe allergy responses to what is normally fine. I had started taking allergy meds the week of the competition. Because I knew the nerves were hitting me bad. I was having issues getting to sleep and not having as big an appetite the week leading up to the competition. So sleeping in not my bed was likely going to be a crapshoot and while rested, I woke up a bit earlier than planned. But was able to get breakfast down without incident. Ended up being there a bit early as I wasn’t too sure when competition was going to start but weigh-ins were to stop at 8:30AM so likely no later than 10:00AM start. Get there early so can setup bag chairs in a good spot before the place got packed. These are one of the few shows that don’t have a spectator fee (local shows be asking $15-20 a head with no seating, no concessions and a single port-a-potty) but I guess you make up for that with sponsors. And we can get some weird sponsors. As apparently Liver King’s company (Ancestral Supplements) was the title sponsor of the show. I’ve been to shows that had a BBQ sponsor and gave out a container of “Cajun Seasonings” that smelled up the rest of the stuff (contest shirt included). I warmed up and socialized a little. I was trying to not get overheated though as this place can get humid quick. The black contest t-shirt was not doing that any favors. I’m ok with black shorts. But black socks and black shirts I just can’t handle well. So I was already sweating and needing both battery powered fans to regulate. There were 14 competitors that showed up in the SHW open class and a total of 95 competitors in all.

First event of the day was kind of an odd one to start with; max deadlift. Not to say it isn’t done (I’ve done a few that have) but it does feel like a bit more taxing an event to start out a day compared to other choices (like overhead or bag toss). Max lift with three attempts. Suits and straps allowed and using a deadlift bar. Which is kind of a deviation from how this group usually does things. It is often power bars and no equipment. But I think they are just curious to see if someone will pull something crazy at this show. And I know there are people here that are gunning for like 400kgs. Not me lol.
Anything over 675lbs would be a PR for me. And there was a possibility that could be happening with there being 20lbs jump options. Number of attempts did matter but I wasn’t sure if I was really going to be playing with that gamesmanship here. With deadlifting, training has been going well. I’ve generally been doing what I need in training and then making reasonable improvements come competition. At least with raw pulls. Suited could be a different story. I decided to get a new multi-ply suit which I ordered in January and it took about 10 weeks to arrive (Inzer am I right?). So I didn’t get perhaps the most time to really work with the suit. Not that I’d be using the suit prior to that. Coupled with the hamstring injury stuff, I did have to modify things with more elevated pulls than I’d normally be doing anyway. Alternating between conventional stance (competition stance) and “wide pulls” (wider stance and snatch grip, like Shaw and Pritchett used to do). That’s not to say I didn’t hit a small PR in training with plenty in the tank but I’m not sure if I’ve got things sorted how I want them and don’t know if I figured out the new suit fully. Also some hesitation with getting that extra boost with competing as I tend to pull more on deadlift bar and if I can get my straps super tight. Last time I had a max barbell pull with suit, no one else there was using one or knew how to assist so suit was loose and definitely left weight on the platform that day. I figured I’d not have that issue this time around with several people using suits and several using the same suit I was using. But almost didn’t work out as they were worried they couldn’t do it right due to my height. Thankfully a friend who was there was able to assist me and get the straps good. I got in the expected warm ups of plate jumps as that was going to be the kind of warm ups I was going to get with the plan to open at 585lbs. This should be no problem. It was a bit tough to slide my feet in on the rubber matting but I got set and pulled. It went up smooth but not with the confidence one wants if expecting to pull a PR. Since it didn’t feel great, I decided to go with 60lbs jump as this would hopefully keep me above 13th place. I altered the belt configuration and that did seem to help with being able to shift my legs in better but it felt tough. Like I didn’t have much in me. I was starting to worry. Maybe I screwed up with getting a new deadlift suit and not doing more floor work with it. But I’m hear and likely not going to get a chance to get someone to assist with the straps like this in a long while so I asked for 685lbs. Would be a 10lbs PR for me if I got it. I felt like this would probably be stapled to the floor with how that 645lbs had felt. But I got as psyched as I could while still being able to breath in the suit. I channeled Benni Magnusson with strutting behind the bar and then putting my foot on the bar. I had to make this count and just keep pulling. Took a big breath and went. Initially it felt like nothing was happening and then the weight broke the floor. It got to the point where I’ve had the suit stall on me with legs locking out before my hips and back. This is where I missed it with 675lbs in 2022. But this time it didn’t get away from me and I kept going until it was locked out and secure. Looked side to side before putting it down and just shouted with how psyched I was. It’s not 700lbs but I’m getting closer and closer. I needed a moment to come back down after that. Despite my PR effort, going for this 40lbs more did not improve my points standing here. Hell, over half the field pulled over 800lbs today. I apparently was bleeding from my left shin and had to do some first aid on that. Don’t need any blood infections no sir. So starting things off in 12th place.

Next up was the pressing event of the show. Alternating between log and axle clean and presses with roughly the same weights (300lbs log and 298lbs axle). Pick whichever to start with and then alternate between the until time expires. Going into this, my plan was to get a lift at each. Overhead is still coming back to me and it is getting better but hoo boy is it taking the scenic route. Prior to this training cycle, October 2022 was the last time I’d touched axle clean and press. And I was not having a good time with it, missing 276lbs in training (when I’ve done 310lbs before) and almost dropping out of Nationals that year and thinking about quitting the sport in general (haven’t had those thoughts in the last 6 months). Log has been more recent but equally tumultuous. I was also missing 275lbs in training last prep but got a comfortable 280lbs at the competition. So this start of cycle kind of had me with maxes to work with. But unfortunately, I kind of had to start from square one with like 150lbs and work my way back up to having things feel comfortable. Had a bit of issues at the beginning of the prep with shoulders being overtrained and once figured that out, progress started coming back. I figured from the start that axle would likely be more my jam assuming I got the clean issue resolved as far as the press. And if I did have the strength for the log, It would be better for me to have a possible third rep be on the axle. Axle I find that less restrictive stuff, the better. Elbow sleeves throw me off and make the clean harder. Apparently having my wrist wraps too tight is also doing that. Things that benefit the log press hamper the axle clean. So trained log with same gear as axle to help build that up. I also worked in push jerks with the axle stuff to at least keep that as a possible tool. But it became apparent once I got to the 85% range that push press was going to be what I was doing on the day. As this isn’t yet weight that I’m able to comfortably hit in training (got up to low 90s percentage wise), I didn’t get to try them together. So it would be here and now. Suggested warming up from my coach was to warm up log first as more technical and then work up on the axle. Good in theory but it wasn’t feasible. I should mention at this time that this was when the contest hit a bump. I’m actually not sure exactly how to describe it but the pace that was going from the max deadlifts was how things usually and then whatever this was was just a time suck. No lie, it was almost 3hrs from when I pulled my last deadlift and when I was up to press. And there had been about 90 minutes from then since I last warmed up. My right knee was really achy and the wait after the warm ups was not good. Log was feeling terrible relative to the axle on the day but both felt terrible for my knees. I had kind of hoped that the knee aches would’ve been better off with the rest and deload. But nope, back with a vengeance. I’ve had to deal with this kind of warm up and then compete later stuff but it really affects performance. And everyone else in the same boat here. There was a slight delay when I was up as they had to switch where I was stationed because of ceiling clearance. It was time and I was going to take my time. With the wait and how things were feeling, I was aiming for just the axle. I got set and went for it. Damn did it feel heavy. Ended up being a belt clean. It wasn’t worth it to try and fight it up higher on the shirt fabric (despite all the chalk). It felt heavy but I didn’t panic like I’ve been training myself to resist that response so I didn’t think this wasn’t happening. Especially since I had done 20lbs less as my heaviest warm up (minus the 290lbs log clean and hold). But it didn’t get to the point where I could muscle through with the triceps. Went way out in front of me. Not good. So no log today. I’d have one more shot at this and hope that the initial clean to the shoulders was enough of a wake up call to get things firing. As I knew that after a miss that this next clean was going to be less efficient. And it was. But I got it and was able to stay calm and brace from the holds and front squats. I went for it again and was further away from a good rep this time around. I was able to catch this one in the rack again but after a moment I decided to end my turn. This was not happening today. I was not the only one to zero this event but I was one of the few. This definitely took some wind out of my sails with the progress on my overhead work. I feel that my ceiling on this is a bit lower comparatively to say those that were able to get reps on this. Essentially hitting your 1rm vs someone hitting their 7rm with bad warming up will have less toll on one vs the other. But that means I need to get stronger. So tied for last with two others.

Moving on to the next event, sandbag to shoulder medley. We had 60 seconds to lift five sandbags (250lbs, 265lbs, 287lbs, 300lbs, 325lbs) and then rep out that last bag with any time left. There was not going to be any split times here, just total number of bags lifted. This event prep wise did not go as planned. It started out well enough and then I tore/pulled the right hamstring at the end of an EMOM session and had to take several weeks away from it. So on top of coming back from that, also having to get over the mental barrier. Which I feel I did and then some. However, that did mean having to change up the training to be less volume. I seem to have issues when the bags are packed tight so I had a feeling this was going to be a tough one. Goal was to just get the series completed and not really worry about repping the last bag. As I was not successful with finishing in training the two times I attempted it. I was able to lift the penultimate bag for reps and get the last bag by itself. But could only get the first four successfully. I also tried to my last attempt at the vertical pick style as opposed to what I do with a long ways and crossbody shouldering. That did not go well and I know if I want to actually work on that as an option, it needs a training cycle dedicated to it. Only becomes an option with bigger bags but hard to do so. I knew this event could take a good bit out of me with a missed lift from training and there were still events to come. Be smart and be safe. And that was becoming more and more clear with it being about 2hrs between events and pretty much warming up and then having to wait a good long while. With that in mind and with how my initial warming up was feeling, I knew that I was going to have to take my time and be mindful here so as not to have costly mistakes. Apparently two competitors dropped out at this point and I know some others were thinking about it. I’ve never dropped out of show once it has started. Not saying that’s a good thing necessarily. Like, if the announced the show was done for some reason, I’d be fine with that at this point haha. With how long the day was going, I had already done my two protein shakes. I usually do one after the first or second event and then save the other one for afterwards. Not this time. I at least had a sandwich for right afterwards I guess. I was trying to keep myself from focusing on the bombage on the overhead as well as distract the knee discomfort all while trying to stay cool and not use up energy. I had read it was a good idea to move around a little bit after a small meal to help with digestion (I generally don’t eat much contest day while competing due to nerves) and that could also maybe get some blood flow into the knee joints (want to avoid meds until afterwards). But I guess me walking around is an invitation for conversation. An old woman came up to tell me story about meeting a retired NFL player at the store. She asked if I needed to be anywhere soon and I said no truthfully because the rate of pace it was going to be a while before I got to lift. It was bit meandering to just tell me I looked big. The other one was with a younger competitor in my class talking about he and I were “racing for last place”. I get the self depreciation joke considering the circumstances but I was not trying to have that. I don’t belong in last place. So if I didn’t already have motivation to keep on trucking, I had that additional thing as the Michael Jordan meme would go. That I wasn’t going to place behind him on anything the rest of the show (I hadn’t so far anyways). I took it personally. Two people went before me on the sandbag to shoulder and both had got through the first three bags. So I had to get that fourth bag. It was a matter of pride. I asked for the bags to be rotated so that the Velcro facing up and down and not sideways as well as notified the judge I was going to be shouldering to the left side only so they were aware to adjust position for better visual vantage point. The signal to go was given and went at it methodically. I was going at a casual pace. One because there were no split times here, just reps, and I’d realistically be looking at 5 reps at most and with the “ball in the air” ruling for the event, I could have time for all of the bags if needed. Second reason being I knew that due to the down time, that I was likely to have issues with shouldering and having my blood pressure spike so I’d need a moment after each bag to make sure I was ok. Got through the first three with no issues. Just keeping an eye on how my body was feeling. I was feeling the fatigue at this point of pulling a max deadlift and essentially 6hrs of being ready and I had to not miss this next bag. It definitely took an effort but I didn’t panic and kept on working it up and got the down call. I had 5 seconds left and I just called it there. I knew the 325lbs was floppier than the 300lbs bag and I didn’t want to chance anything at this point (seeing as how 325lbs is my best single). Finally moving up to single digit placing with this being ninth place.

Things got squirrely at this point. The plan was to have women doing one event and men doing another event to save time. However, one was going by quicker than the other. But we (the SHWs) weren’t aware of another plan until a good bit later. As in, already warmed up for the expected event. Come to find out, we were going to do the scheduled last event after the women were done and then come back to do the previously penultimate event now being the last event. Got it? Good. Anyways, that meant time for max bag toss. 15’ target and unlimited attempts. This has been going well for me. But that doesn’t mean things always go well. Last year bag toss as a series was part of this contest and on the second day. And I really underperformed. Couldn’t get 50lbs after getting 45lbs stuck on top. It was a combination of things with probably getting a bit overtrained and not realizing that my toss setup was actually a foot lower than I thought it was. But I seem to be better and fixed that with getting 55lbs over this height at Nationals last year. I also got that weight bag to this height in training (5lbs PR for training) so I should be good to go. But that has also been with it being the first event of the day. And often starting out training with this first anyways. But perhaps forcing myself with increased frequency and consistently tossing higher than contest height will be what lets me perform under this much contest fatigue. And this was certainly going to be high contest fatigue. Especially after warming up for the heaviest event already with expectation to do it. So I guess either way, I was going to be feeling tired and stiff. I think we were all a little impatient and didn’t really want to do that much warming up considering the rules with attempts and being able to go to 2.5lbs jumps after 35lbs. So I think a few people (myself included) decided to use attempts to warm up. And good lord did I need the attempts to figure things out. I decided I’d stick to my plan of 5lbs jumps starting at the opener and then as I got closer to my limit switch to 2.5lbs if it meant points. I was not off to a good start. Achy knees and my right hip starting to ache as well had me feeling a bit like the Tin Man. The oil part, not the heart. I actually missed 30lbs the first attempt and thankfully I got it on the my second toss in that 30 seconds I had. That was not a great start and I was worried that I’d top off at 35lbs. Which would not be great. There was apparently a drone flying above that is taking footage for later for the competition and that could be neat to see eventually. 35lbs I didn’t need to reattempt and it went over. I had essentially just tossed the bag back from the starting line to save energy and not I guess mess up my “method”. No issues with 40lbs other than the arc being too shallow. I think at this point I was keeping an eye on the guy saying we were fighting for last place and trying to make sure I didn’t drop out before him. 45lbs the arc was way too shallow the first attempt and I had to retake it much the same as 30lbs. Got it over on that reattempt thankfully. I did feel like I was gambling with taking the 5lbs jumps with how I was feeling and with how it would drop my placing if I missed. But I stuck with it for 50lbs, which on the day, was feeling like a big ask. I guess I treated this a little bit like how I do in training with setup and it ended up being perfect. Not the highest toss but the best form wise for me. I went with 2.5lbs jump after talking with my dad (as he was watching them) as I was definitely hitting my limit and I could possibly get in with some people missed here or at 55lbs. It is hard to tell on this setup how close you are but watching the video I was like a 6” shy on my best toss and that’s being generous. I gave it two attempts and bowed out. My dad was wondering how I was able to get it over like that pretty much being right under it and one of the competitors asked me if I did highland games (because of my throwing style?) and I said no, I just watch videos to improve my toss. This is technically a PR for bag toss when it isn’t the first event for me and I guess on this setup too. Another ninth place.

To finish out the day was the yoke into frame medley. 60 seconds to go 50’ with the yoke, run back to the frame and then carry that for 50’. 700lbs on the yoke and 680lbs on the frame. I’m not too fast here but I felt that this was doable for me after essentially having this at Nationals last year. Albeit the frame portion was going to be much heavier. This show always likes to use the “bridge frames” in some fashion at the show. Long implements with probably the best handles to allow for even those with not the best grip to perform well. I like the high pick on them and I’ve had experience on them. I know what I need to be hitting to be good here. Yoke is yoke and it is often temperamental come contest day. I generally do better if I hit contest weight or greater at least twice in a training cycle. That goal was met and it was going to come down to more of getting in appropriate warm ups. Which tend to be an issue with yoke with having to adjust heights. And at this point, I know I got only a few more good efforts and getting things just right is going to be key. Last time I was training for the frame, I was using the Jenkins frame at the one gym and I was using but elected to use a wider frame with slightly lower pick height to make things a bit tougher on the frame. As I noticed that fatigue with this later in the day made even the elevated pick feel challenging. So hopefully things would feel better if I made the one I trained on harder. As mentioned, I had previously warmed up for this before things were changed due to the pace of contest issue. The women’s class had their event changed to just frame down and back because of how much time it was taking to reset the two implements. So that could’ve been for us too. That would probably have been better for me haha. So once again, warming up for this while trying to not do so much that I was burnt out. As it was already getting close to 11hrs of being at the venue. My knees were achy, my right hip was achy and my hamstrings and lower back were sore. I had worked up to 540lbs on the frame both times I warmed up and to 700lbs for a pick and hold with the yoke the first time (runs with 520lbs both time). Contest weight yoke had felt heavy and I initially missed the lift 540lbs first time around as I wasn’t expecting to be so damn heavy (forgot my hard belt). I knew I could finish this but it would likely be a slog. I did manage two “helpful” catches before things were under way. The first was that the yoke was misloaded 50lbs under weight. I came here to do the heavy weights listed dang it. The other was letting the judges know that two competitors had dropped out (apparently they hadn’t told anyone that they had) so that mean there were only 6 heats rather than 7 heats. I was in tenth place at this point and I had known my chances for Nationals bid were gone after the sandbag to shoulder medley (unless I got first on the last two events and everyone else dropped out). After the first heat went, I asked what the time to beat was and it was just under 30 seconds. I should be good for that and not drop any spots. Shook the yoke a little before getting under it and waiting to go. Last event and then I can go home. Signal given and we are off. I’m not super fast on yoke and especially not when my knees are acting up or I’ve pulled a max deadlift. I kept pace with 9th place guy initially but then near the end he pulled ahead. I didn’t want to tempt fate here and possibly lose balance on the yoke and make a clean drop and transition. I was able to make it back to the frame slightly before him, somehow feeling like I was actually able to move and not have creaky joints. I hesitated slightly with the pick as I knew this would likely feel harder than I was expecting and making sure I got the balance point right on the this very long frame. I was off. I couldn’t see behind me but I felt like he must be struggling and I just kept going. I seem to be able to have a better pace with frame/farmer’s vs yoke. Probably because I can lean forward. Down and done with a time of 28.90 seconds. About a second slower than my best in training (slower on the yoke but faster on the other stuff) but good enough to keep my placing. Surprisingly, a lot of people ahead of me seemed to struggle with the frame. Last year, I was surprised with how many people did so well on this frame with 40lbs more for longer distance and this year it seemed to feel more like how I’d expect it to. This ended up my highest placing event of the day with sixth place.

A hard fought battle for sure within myself as well as against competitors. I think what I’m feeling most right now is just relief that the work is done and I get a few moments of reprieve before I have to resume with earnest. I did not stick around for awards (the rest of the open men were still going on bag toss and I think were still at 37.5lbs) as no awards for ninth place and I had already hung out with my friends a good bit. And I really need to get back home as I thought I’d actually be there by now with how previous shows have run. The 580 Barbell guys did acknowledge this time situation and it sounds like they will make sure it doesn’t happen again. Knee felt good once I put Icy Hot on it. The sandwich left in the car wasn’t enough to sustain me and a few hours later demolished some Popeye’s chicken sandwiches. Going forward, I’m not entirely sure. I have some things to think about. My placing at this show continues to go down by one (though 9/14 is better than 8/9) but this does seem to be about how I was placing about a decade ago when the Plat Plus shows were still a thing with pro cards as an option. I improved my lifetime best deadlift and made it through my 48th competition. Also underperformed on bag toss and bombed the overhead again at this competition. Again, I would’ve been very competitive in the 265lbs class. I was at least one notch below competitive in every event besides the last medley at this current weight class and really core stability on yoke has really been the only thing I’ve noticed as beneficial with the weight added (I guess for front squats too). What I have to figure out is if I want to make another attempt at qualifying for 2024 Nationals or go back into the offseason and aim for something end of the year or early next year.