September 8, 2024 - September 14, 2024 - Week 14

 September 9, 2024 – Week 14, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
No Bands
87x5
Add Bands
90x3
120x2
150x2
175x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x5

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
95x5
145x5
195x5
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
245x5
245x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x2
255x2
280x5
250x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: The hits keep coming. Two weeks after my newborn niece passing I’m finding out more bad news. I was called up Sunday evening by my good friend and was informed that another good friend had apparently passed away Saturday morning. A coworker and friend for many years that I sent dumb memes and videos to daily. It’s just a lot. Just a bunch of frustrations mixed together. I was feeling like I was getting a handle on the stress as I indicated Saturday evening. But a fresh batch on the way. Weight down about 2lbs from last week so getting closer to 275lbs weight. Right knee is still achy but loads better than how it was feeling at times after training on Saturday. I had mowed my lawn Sunday for my exercising as well as putting together a yoke I bought. But I was stressed going into training with a lot on my mind. Warming up I guess was fine. Right knee still achy and hopefully improves as this session shouldn’t be taxing on knee joint. Other stuff felt fine. Log strict press against bands. Same as last time with it being 4x2 with up to 5 for a fifth set. 5lbs increase from last time. I was feeling pretty good here besides the knees being stiff. Weight was feeling good and so was form (mostly). Plan was to do hard belt this time (no wrist wraps). I wasn’t too sure with the wrists as I had worked them a good bit putting together the yoke with having to use two wrenches to get that stuff tightened up. Ideally I wouldn’t have done it all at once or before an upper body session but needed to be done and I wasn’t going to take time during the week after finding out my friend had passed away. I did get a little off balanced on the last set before the working weight but it was just from getting a little too cocky with how it had moved. Would be moment of truth with hard belt as far as if breathing was on point. Racking the log for the very first rep I felt just about every joint in my shoulder girdle and rib cage crack. Like cracking my knuckles or neck. It was a little startling but went up fine and no issues. I must be holding a lot of tension/stress despite my best efforts. When I got the groove right, it was feeling really strong but I was noticing that I was having a harder time with subsequent reps vs say the first rep. Last set reps did feel better but it was definitely getting tougher to get the five reps here. I am curious if at some point these will be like singles done EMOM style or something and being like 80% of my push press on log. That would be kind of neat to do at some point if things continue to progress. From there, it was into the garage for chest supported barbell rows with pauses. Continue to push the weight up by 5lbs with 2x5. I was advised like benching that if I felt the first set took too much out of me, I was to lower to 30lbs less or so from the top set weight. Unlike the benching stuff, rows always seem to be good to progress and I’m definitely not as close to my limit as those. Rowing muscles generally don’t seem to be as temperamental as my pressing muscles are with recovery. They can feel beat to hell and hit PRs every time. So 50lbs jumps with sets of 5 reps doing slight pauses working up. Straps for top set. I was expecting the weights to feel heavy in my hands because of all the wrench work Sunday afternoon and evening but no issues. I knew from the first set I was doing the same weight for the second set. Both felt good. Then benching with chains. Same as last week but adding 5lbs. It was already strongly hinted at here that I was going to be only doing one set at the heavier weight and drop down. Mr. Westerling ahd suggested that I drop it to this rather than 2x5 with how last time looked. And seeing as how I did on my own volition with the incline log stuff last week, I was prepared for that this time. I was having a hard time feeling my lats this session. I knew that I was bracing them but I feeling more so my lower body bracing. I think I forget how much lower body stress is needed with benching as my knee was aching a bit here. Trying to be optimistic working up in weight but the right shoulder was feeling achy on me. These weren’t feeling 100% today. I set things up for the top set so that it would be easy to just take off the weight for the suggested second set to stay “speedy” because I had a feeling. That feeling was justified with how that first rep felt and went. Even if Mr. Westerling hadn’t suggested I do this or if I had kept things 2x5 with incline log last week, I’d have dropped this down for a lighter second set. This was feeling more like how my benching was feeling before I brought my grip in a little with groove and tightness and such. Right shoulder was still feeling off but at least the lighter set was moving fast. So achy right shoulder and achy right knee. Hope that getting some quality sleep helps here as I plan on getting some vaccinations after work tomorrow (since I’m going to have to be on planes in the next 4 months). Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. 2 sets of 15-20 reps with a medium band. I With how I was feeling, I just stuck to the average band I had been using the past two sessions with aim to do 2x20 reps here. Felt ok. I kind of just wanted to be done with training so I could eat and relax at this point. Cooked up dinner and put stuff away before eating and then stretching out.

September 11, 2024 – Week 14, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
495x2
545x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx20 L
bwx20 R
bw+20’sx12 L
bw+20’sx12 R

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds L
bwx60 seconds R

Crunches
bw+50x25

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+20x25

Stretching
 
Comments: Mentally and physically I was not feeling good. Still reeling from the double whammy of niece and friend passing and trying my best to manage stress as that is a killer. And I know I’m under stress with eye twitches happening. But I’d rather stay focused and busy and feel like I’m doing something that is helping people then just being alone with my thoughts. I ended up getting some vaccinations Tuesday after work so that pretty much meant my shoulders were going to be not great for a little while. Tylenol to help with not waking up from discomfort and I was leery about doing that because of masking joint aches and such for monitoring recovery but I felt the uninterrupted sleep to combat the stress was more important. My chest needed a lot of soft tissue work that evening. I was definitely feeling a little worn down mentally as Wednesday went on. Right knee thing seemed to have moved to inner thigh stuff by the time I was ready to train. I also got notified that most of the weights for the events at the competition were lowered a good bit so that was kind of annoying. It certainly wasn’t helpful with motivation with already being over contest weight for a month with four more months to go. Warming up I was keeping eye on things to hopefully see if moving around in some fashion would get some aches to stop. Right knee still achy but less so than it was Monday warming up so I guess that is something. Shoulders garbage with injections in both so I knew no sense in gauging how things felt based off that. Wagon wheel pulls to start things off. Same as last time with soft touch and go reps working up to a top set of 5 reps. The last week of 5’s (unless the change in weights affects planning) on these. The warming up was adjusted slightly here with plate jumps and then the set of 5 reps being ideally 10-20lbs more than last time. I was hoping that my right side would not give me issues here. The discomfort part of things was minimal for this movement. The inner thigh discomfort decided to move to my outer glute on that side instead where the hip socket was. Oh well. Was stressed for this session with how I was feeling today and how I had felt after Saturday with the right knee acting up. My hope here was to do 545lbs for 5 reps as I did this weight before in 2019 for 4 reps on a deadlift bar with wagon wheels as the last heavy session before a contest that I ended up pulling out of the night before due to severe back pain. I kind of wanted to tick off more things to constantly combat the imposter syndrome. But that was feeling like a tall order today with how things were feeling. 405lbs felt terrible that I was worried that 495lbs would actually feel like a max lift for a double today. It thankfully did not. Hard belt really makes a difference for me on this movement it would seem as far as feeling good going up in weight. 495lbs didn’t necessarily have me feel like the top set was going to be a great one but I stuck to my plan with 545lbs. I needed it today. I ended up chalking up the straps and my hands as I knew that I may need to take my time and get a big breath to rebrace on reps like I had been doing with the wide jack pulls in the previous training cycle. The chalk would make things stay secure better. I got myself ready and made sure I didn’t stay down too long because of trying to synch up with the song playing. This felt like it should compared to the last two training sessions on this. I could’ve done more. Perhaps not as big an urgency to add pounds to the bar since I’m technically doing +90% of contest on stiff bar as it stands now. I wasn’t really looking forward to the rest of the workout with the knee stuff. From there, it was outside for step ups. Starting things off with bodyweight. Only 20 reps this time around. Knee sleeves were a must on these today. I was advised I could cut the reps on these in half to help with recovery. It’s one of those were doing one rep vs a bunch feels about the same and if anything, the knee tends to feel better doing longer term things than short. I knew I could do the bodyweight stuff no problem. Then adding weight with 20lbs dumbbells. Plan being to add reps it seems at this point with this weight. So 12 reps here. The herky jerky motions were noticed in my achy, sore shoulders. Added weight is certainly tougher with this box height and it is harder to adjust positions on things like when unencumbered. Single leg wall sits for more knee and quad stuff. This would also be a trying endeavor for the knees. Told to just stick to 60 seconds going forward and not more time. But also advised I could cut the time in half due to knee recovery. Thing is that this is even more so where a little feels worse than a lot. Wore knee sleeves on these as well. This was unpleasant for the first 10-15 seconds of the holds and I was worried that I’d not be able to hold the position much beyond that. And this was with my knee that I didn’t thing was acting up. But apparently both knees are feeling the added weights and trying to go faster with said weights. But I toughed it out here and got a minute again. Rested double the time as discovered last time that that seemed to be for the best with longer holds like this. Same thing as the left side where very unpleasant but then tolerable. And while this seemed to give my knees a thrashing, they “felt” better afterwords. Like not feeling mechanically impinged or irritated but still sore if that makes sense. It could also be that all the competing aches and pains of the day (shoulders, right glute) were fighting for supremacy and I can only register so much at a time and in a spot. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. I decided to try something here. The 45lbs for 35 reps was ok but not terribly challenging. I was sticking with it due to the increased workload of other stuff and this seemed to be the most I could really make behind the head be with plates since the 45lbs plates have handles on them to hold. So I can grip lower and have the leverage worse for me so more weight felt on the core. I have a pair of 25’s like this so I wondered if it would work stacking those and gripping them. This actually worked quite well and felt a ton tougher than the 45lbs plate so I ended up stopping at 25 reps. So I guess I got something I can work with here. I Paused hanging knee raises to wrap things up. Again, this was a challenging time with them. These didn’t feel as tough as starting out last time (no hands hurting) but I could tell fatigue was hitting me hard as I got closer to 25 reps. I really didn’t want to have the reps decrease here so I did my best to secure 25 reps and call it there. I had taken a bit of rest putting stuff away between the crunches and these to see if that helped at all and not really. Finished putting stuff away and ate and then stretched out. Hopefully I will feel better with some more rest.

September 14, 2024 – Week 14, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x50’
700x50’
810x50’ in 19.96 seconds

Sandbag Loads (59“)
175x1
225x1
265x1
EMOM
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1

Sled Pushes
55x100’
(60 seconds rest)
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: The past two weeks have been a bit of uncharted territory for me. Death has thankfully not been a frequent visitor for me but I guess that will be more and more as I get older. Short succession of a family member and now a close friend. Work is stressful but not working and doing nothing just leaves me empty. So keeping busy seems to be the choice I’ve made as at least with work I’m potentially helping those in need. Despite the stress to the knees from Wednesday session, it feels like that work was good in I guess getting the knees to be tracking right. There is a soreness and achiness still but it doesn’t feel like mobility is impinged in the right knee like I was worried it was going to. Just have to adapt to the stress of the situation and the increasing poundage of training. I already knew before even all the events of the past two weeks this workout was going to have to be adjusted. The gym was closed for a powerlifting meet so I was going to have to train either at home or partially at the local gym. I had decided I’d rather buy a new yoke for home rather than deal with going to the other gym after the last time I tried to do things where I did stuff at home and then was going to go to the gym and I had a been in a funk. If I’m going to the gym, it all needs to be the gym. Then with events coming as they did, I wanted to make Saturday free if I could so that I’d do this workout at home Friday right after work. That felt like it would work. But then more negative things to start off the week so coupled with the unexpected stress and how that was effecting me, I knew that I’d not be able to train after work Friday in a safe/healthy manner. So plan would be to get up early Saturday to get training in at home before the service. I was running into a bit of block there as while I did go to sleep earlier, I was having some issues falling asleep quickly. I ended up sleeping in 30 minutes more than I wanted to. I think I was nervous about training as well as what the rest of the day would bring. Considering how my body was feeling after Wednesday workout, I was feeling pretty good in comparison. Knees were a bit achy and I had twitchy muscles in my lats. But I guess the knees weren’t feeling as bad as they were comparing how warm ups have felt on the knees this week. Feeling a lot of body tension in the upper body from holding in stress I guess but not as stiff as Wednesday warming up. It was deceptively hot today and I think I was slightly agitated as I had a time limit and the thing I needed to go to wasn’t a happy good time thing. It has been a long while since I’ve had to do a legit event training session at home. It does require a bit more setup than say going to a gym. I didn’t want to have to deal with transporting a lot of weights and putting them away going to the other gym. Yoke to start. Initially the plan was to work up to contest weight in 100lbs jumps doing 50’ runs. So 770lbs was the goal. However, the weights for most of the events were decreased and now yoke was going to only be 700lbs. A bit miffed on that as I was hoping to keep building yoke to get that reserve strength back up so that it isn’t taking so much out of me. I’ve been doing mid 700’s for a while now and it is a big jump up to say being ready for 1000lbs yoke in a few months notice. With the decrease in the weights, I am entertaining another drug free contest closer after the one in January in February that is a little heavier on stuff. I understand the drops to but I’m a year away from masters and I feel the weights are light, especially when considering the world’s level for the organization is closer to what the original weights were. Train for the shows but get stronger and better. Suffice it to say, those talks lead to some changes with the yoke. I was advised to stay the course of what was planned or if feeling good to actually go up 20lbs from what was proposed. So 790lbs. That would be the most weight I’ve done in training since 2020 (did 770lbs once). But also 10lbs shy of 800lbs, and I’ve not done that weight or more since 2018. It would actually be easier plate math wise for that with the new yoke so I was going to do 800lbs. It was an itch that needed to be scratched at this time. I know I can do but sometimes you have to prove yourself to yourself. I had spent last weekend putting the yoke together and I had assumed I had it ready to just put crossbar on it and be ready (storage easier that way and this will likely only be used a few times a year) but there was still some plastic parts that were keeping the things from sliding together. Maybe they are to be part of it but stuff wasn’t budging and I was short on time so took pliers to those parts to remove them. Even with the locking pins, this may be one of the shakiest yokes I’ve ever used. I also had to adjust things a bit as the street outside has a decent gradient with uphill and downhill that I need to set pick height a little lower to make sure I don’t hit the street. I felt nonchalant with working up. 300lbs felt tougher than I’d like but that was also getting used to the yoke. I wasn’t setting any land speed records today. I was feeling better with the next two jumps. 600lbs surprisingly felt really good and I had high hopes for 800lbs after that. 700lbs decided to slap that down for me. That was about how I had honestly wanted 800lbs to feel and I had to add 100lbs more. But I already had committed to this plan. Pick was good on this and I started off decent but then the wobble really started to get to me and shake me off balance. I ended up really having to slow down to keep from being shaken of balance and losing the yoke. I can still do it and having years of experience and knowing how to tough out a tough yoke run is a skill burned into me from my own stubbornness. But under 20 seconds and knee feeling no worse for wear here. Apparently I accidentally added 10lbs to what I was supposed to so it was over 800lbs. Oops. Couldn’t really take my time with rest here so used handtruck to put away weights to get on to sandbag loads. At the start of this block, I’ve been given options to either do 1 more set same weight from last time with 300lbs bag or to use a little bit more weight than last time and go back to 5 sets. This week I didn’t have the 300lbs bag as I had what was available at home. So 305lbs was closest. It is a much firmer bag so it feels easier compared to the looser ones of same size. So my plan was to just treat it like the 300lbs and do the more EMOM sets and treat hopefully next time when I got more bags to use a truly heavier bag for the EMOM. I couldn’t get the height to be 58” like I can at the gym with this yoke and I didn’t want to spend time I didn’t have trying to get it right with what I was working with so I just used 59” so that is was close enough but not lower. I wasn’t planning to do as many warming up singles as I did but with how I stack the bags at home, it made sense to just lift all of them one at a time as it would get them out of the way and warm up. Just kept the same sweaty drenched shirt and didn’t bother with any chalk added. This actually felt fine. I could tell the sweaty shirt was having it harder for me to keep the bag close to my body in the second half but not so much it made thing difficult. This was still comfortable. I did rush things a little on the fifth one and got off balance and had to catch myself before I could initiate the load. No real time to stop here as had sled work. 5 sets of 100’ with minute rest. Unlike the gym, I know that I got 100’ to work with here and not having the sled friction get caught. But there is also the uphill/downhill thing. Ideally, I would’ve moved my stuff to be in front of my parent’s house with the more level street but I didn’t have the time to move stuff there as it was. Got the course setup and put on weights that I know I’ve done before with this here. This wasn’t too bad. I probably needed a little more weight on these. Downhill was fine, definitely felt my glutes and hamstrings working harder the uphill portion. Felt fatigue but not super gassed. It’s a big effort but I can go much faster vs on turf as that stuff slows me down a lot so rest feels since its more like 2x work vs 3x work rest periods. Put away the weights and changed to attend the virtual service with my sisters. It was a necessary release and it felt good to share with my sisters that moment. Ate comfort food before going separate ways. Returned home to stretch and decompress.