October 20, 2024 - October 26, 2024 - Week 20

 October 21, 2024 – Week 20, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
No Bands
87x5
Add Bands
90x3
120x2
150x2
180x2
205x2
205x2
205x2
205x2
205x2

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
110x5
160x5
210x5
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
260x5
260x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
235x5
235x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Allergies been pretty bad since Saturday afternoon. Mostly just feeling tired sensation from sinus pressure and other stuff. I was able to sleep in Sunday. Under 274lbs for this weigh-in. Not sure if that will be the case next time as I did a bit of meal deviation Sunday as I had been craving some Primanti Brothers and got three sandwiches (715 calories each) for dinner. Walking was fine Sunday. Not feeling as sore and beat as I did two weeks ago after my heaviest farmer’s walk so far since 2016 back injury. Ideally want to get allergies under control as have to go into work for office day Tuesday and then going to Arizona end of next week to visit family. Monday came along and hoped nasal spray was going to be enough but ended up taking a Claritin late in the morning. Didn’t really feel like it kicked in until after work. It could just be that the variance in temperature from the morning (close to freezing) and then late afternoon (80ish) also not helping. Trying to cut down on the stress that I can with work and the trip. A potential competition on the west coast has my interest but I’m just entertaining possibilities until middle of December when I have more details and better idea of how I am. If I do what I need to in January, I won’t have to worry about things much. Warming up for training was fine. I’m kind of surprised that my joints have been not feeling as achy as they were 2-3 weeks ago. I’ll take it. Starting things off with log strict press style with bands. 5lbs more added to last time for the planned working sets of 5x2. Feeling decent warming up on this today. I wasn’t getting lightheaded today here either. I was a little concerned that I might because I had to take the allergy meds. I was tempted to just do 10lbs added so 30lbs jumps all the way up but I know I need to do small jumps here as this can be tricky and need to monitor for recovery. First working set felt decent. Not great but not ugly. I felt it was better feeling than the first set last time. Second set I had a little issue here as I hit my chin on the first rep so I misgrooved the second rep a little bit. Third set I think was the best set of the session. Fourth set I got a little off balance and had to take a step forward on the second rep to insure I was stable and locked out. Fifth set was good, possibly tied with the third set. Still getting in decent reps and volume here considering things. It is nice being able to do these rather than say push pressing out of the rack with the log. Alternating strict style with leg drive style seems to be key for my knees to tolerate moving events every week and keep recovering. In to the garage for rows. Chest supported barbell rows with pauses, up by 5lbs with 2x5 and having the option to lower to 30lbs less or so from the top set weight for that second set if needed. I didn’t think it would be needed as last time I had felt more beat and it went swimmingly. Still keeping an eye on the right shoulder after it was weird two sessions prior (when it was “deload” for the overhead). Barely noticed it compared to last time and that was a ton less than the session before that. Trying to make sure I was taking appropriate rest between sets here. This was fine but definitely not as easy feeling as last time did. But still felt fine with keeping things as they were for the two sets. I feel the ceiling on this is still a ways away since I never really pushed this one in the past with pauses. So next was benching. Chains and 2x5. Not really feeling these as of late but still following the program. Just 5lbs more than last time. Just got to keep an eye on the right shoulder here as this is where the ache pops up if it is going to at all in this session. I didn’t have issues with my hands due to no bandaging to mess with things. But I was having issues with grip, bracing and tightness warming up. I had to be a little more loosey goosey with things to get stuff feeling safe and good. Maybe I should’ve used the wrist wraps on these as felt a little heavy weight in hand wise but still moving the weight fast. Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. 2 sets of 15-20 reps with a medium band. I went outside for these as it felt like I’d have less issues with the setup moving due to tension. I also wanted to give myself an excuse to take a little longer with clean up when done so that my dinner could finish heating up. Still using the same band as can get a decent amount of tension out of it still with stretching it. I might be able to go a little further but definitely getting things to feel a little more challenging here compared to when I first started using this band tension. I like these because of how these seem to make the shoulders and such feel good. But I may need to go up in band tension shortly. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out. Taking some Dayquil to hopefully help me get to sleep reasonable time since I have to wake up an hour earlier for work crap.

October 23, 2024 – Week 20, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
500x2
595x2

Step Ups (18”)
bwx20 L
bwx20 R
bw+25’sx15 L
bw+25’sx15 R

Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+50x35

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+20x26

Stretching
 
Comments: As I mentioned Monday, allergies were kicking my but since Saturday afternoon. I felt drained most of the time Monday until after work and felt that way for most of Tuesday. Again, another pointless in office day which ends up being the least productive day for me of the month (with the day after being the second most and the day before the third most). I had to help with preparing a charcuterie board to give you an idea of how unproductive a day it was for actual work. Then 30 minutes commute home for no apparent reason. I did start feeling a little better once the sun started going down. Thankfully I wasn’t feeling that way waking up on Wednesday. But I wasn’t too sure how this training session would go. Warming up was ok. Nothing feeling terribly achy so that was good. Then for the wagon wheel. I was a little anxious here as last time was the first time I didn’t pick my weight right and missed a rep. But it also let me know that I needed to have some things adjusted as far as recovery purposes with lower body stuff. As has been the case, these are soft touch and go reps with big weight jumps up to a top set. This time being a top double with something in the tank. I had kind of screwed things up with going for 585lbs and then missing the third rep. As that would’ve been a good weight for the double really for this first time around. Unlike last time, I wasn’t feeling paranoid about my hamstrings so that was at least something. 585lbs had actually been the suggested for this session from when first programmed but I had jumped the gun. I had asked Mr. Westerling what he thought I should be doing for this session considering the miss last time and possible fatigue issues. He said to work up to 500lbs and see how that felt. If felt like crap, then shut it down. If not bad, go for 590lbs for the top set. So I had a plan. But I knew I’d have to try my best to keep my ego at bay here as I could already tell I was making little side bets and promises with myself in case things felt really good. Like the opposite of the front squats where if things felt bad I could pump the breaks. The indication though to determine may not be terribly helpful as last time the warming up sets with the 405lbs and 495lbs actually felt really strong so I was surprised with how things ended up. I made sure that I got a decent rest between the sets here so I wasn’t just doing 90lbs jumps with the low volume and going quick. Trying to be cognizant of the hip hinge and not have what happened where I lost my brace and got out of position. Things were actually feeling pretty solid. I’d say this was probably the best that 405lbs has felt on this setup this prep. That always seems to be where things start to feel hard. I got set as if 500lbs may be the top set but I knew it wasn’t with how things were feeling. It was time then for the top set. I had been told to do 590lbs for the double. But I was telling myself that if it felt good to do a triple to make up for last time. Also feeling the compulsion to go for 600lbs now. Do contest weight now, you’re so close already. I decided on a compromise and elected to do 595lbs. It wasn’t contest weight but is was spitting distance and I knew I wouldn’t feel tempted to make it a triple with this weight. Also it is 270kgs so it seemed to satisfy the neurotic side of things for me. Now to do it and not eat it. I have to remind myself that this setup doesn’t seem to have much give in it like jack stands and that it is slow going and feel in the lower back and hamstrings a lot. Got that first rep up well enough and took a deep breath to brace and go for the double. Not quite even grip/balance with the light touch but I knew I had it. Didn’t quite do as much of a breath to brace to lower that rep as I was done. About 3 months out here and pretty much at contest weight on a less forgiving setup (stiff bar). A little bit of a break here to put away the weights and get some fluids in. At this point I put on the small oscillating fan in the garage to get some air flow going since I was staying inside for the workout. Setups again. Knee sleeves on here as a must to help the knees be able to recover between sessions. I know these are important with getting volume in for moving events. Bodyweight certainly felt better compared to last time. As I had accidentally used more weight than I was supposed to last time when I grabbed the wrong weights, I stuck with that decision. But used my iron grip 25lbs plates instead of the mixture of dumbbell and kettlebell. Left side definitely has a tougher time of things compared to the right side. I had started getting dinner ready at this point. Wall sits were next. Bodyweight and deeper squat style then I was doing when single leg. Just a minute and that seems fine. Legs get all twitch holding and I try my best to keep my breathing similar to when I do the planks. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. I’ve been thinking about what the next progression here would be with the plates. But not quite at that point where I need to worry as still not gotten 35 reps with this setup. From the start I did the bite size set breaks mentally. That potentially felt like it wasn’t going to cut it this time but I was able to get to 30 reps and then managed to eek out the remaining 5. It was tough. So I got at least another workout with this before I start having to worry about adjusting the weights.  Paused hanging knee raises to wrap things up. Gave myself another slight break here. Trying to time things so that dinner would be ready to eat once I finished training and put away everything. I had finally gotten over 25 reps on these and I was hoping to keep that going. These felt tough today right off the bat and I managed to match my reps from last time here. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

October 26, 2024 – Week 20, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (turf)
255x50’
355x50’
455x50’
555x50’
655x25’
755x25’
855x25’8”

Yoke Pushes
175x50’
175x50’
(60 seconds rest)
195x50’/195x50’
205x50’/205x50’
215x50’/215x50’
220x50’/220x50’
225x50’/225x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: The start of the work had me feeling a bit low energy with allergies and I seemed to perk up at the midpoint of the week. Having to figure out what exactly I need to have taken care of for this coming week before leaving. I wanted this to be a good training session. I ended up hitting snooze for another half hour before getting out of bed. Had to prep some things before leaving but I was feeling decent. I knew there was going to be some traffic issues when I got out to the gym but thankfully I was early enough that it wasn’t a mess (but boy was it one by the time I left). There were some people there today for the gym. A good chunk of the time there was them getting new sandbag stuff filled up. I spoke with the one owner about turf and implements as I was told to not do farmer’s walk on the turf going forward. Apparently there are also some renovations being done (painting has been happening the past few weeks it seems). I guess will be finished when I come back from Arizona. Speaking of that, not going to be training out there. Don’t want to worry about it and just focus on family stuff and hopefully recover enough for the last 12 weeks of prep for the contest. I did get approval for yoke on the turf as that was really the only thing I was kind of hoping was an option. I started warming up and I feel like I was ok at the start but then near the end of it it was like the allergy meds stopped working. Granted, I had only done some nasal spray. But I had done my other sessions kind of feeling that way. Yoke was really the only thing for today besides conditioning. This was the heavy session and the plan was to work up to 855lbs for a 50’ run. Some changes in that I didn’t have to do 50’ runs all the way up so I could hopefully not be as fatigued. I wasn’t feeling like my joints were bothering me. Using the big yoke again. It wasn’t feeling bad but I was feeling like I wasn’t able to go as fast as I could. Not that big a deal when working up. 555lbs felt slower than I’d have liked. That was the last of the 50’ runs and then going to 25’ runs for the next two jumps (100lbs). 655lbs felt comfortable and maybe I was just needing to treat things a little more serious and use the hard belt (this was the first set with it). However, the 755lbs felt really heavy. Similar to how when I accidentally did 810lbs and my 700lbs run felt heavy. Heavy as in I didn’t want my top set to really feel like that. I knew I was in trouble with getting 855lbs for 50’. I had not thought that was a big ask of myself as this is about 90% of my best no drop yoke run for this distance (grant turf vs concrete). I got set but I knew there was a high chance I wasn’t finishing the run. But figured I’d get under the weight and see. Be stubborn like that. I told Gavin that I wasn’t going to attempt to repick if I dropped it. The pick and start wasn’t so terrible and I thought for the moment maybe. But then I slowed down and every step was just moving me around a lot. My vision was also kind of tunneling on me. I ended up just a little over half way on this. This may be the second time where I’ve been unsuccessful with a planned yoke run since the 2016 restart from injury. Not including heavy stuff in competition. This is the most weight I’ve put on my back for yoke since 2018. But I was irked by it. It’s 155lbs over my next show’s event weight but I keep thinking about the next show and the big picture. I know that yoke is a crapshoot for me warming up at shows and I feel better when it comes time for show if I’ve done at least two sessions at or above contest weight. And the less taxing the event weight is for me, the less it should hopefully take out of me contest day. Especially since yoke is the first event at this next show. It does make me wonder about my ability to recover from training sessions like I used to when I was younger. The weights felt like 100lbs heavier than I thought they were and I was checking to make sure my math was right after I did 755lbs and 855lbs. Even lighter stuff (600lbs) if I think about it is running with close to my deadlift max without a suit. Not sure if the solution is to pull back, consolidate so loaded carries are same week (farmer’s and yoke) with differing intensities. I had hoped I could do a few more of the heavier than contest sessions but may not be in the cards if attempting to bring up my deadlift as well. I’ll worry about that after I get back. I was seriously thinking of just leaving after putting away the weights for the yoke and going home to maybe finish the workout. But I made myself finish up the conditioning. Yoke pushing because the prowler setup is annoying. I had been doing the pushes on turf but even with the empty yoke, the friction was making that too tough to actually be moving fast like how the sled drags have been going. I had mentioned this to Mr. Westerling and he indicated I could adjust the weight so that it was feeling like a speed work thing rather than a conditioning slow burn thing. So I decided I’d move to concrete so that way I could start fresh and get an idea of weight going forward. If the turf had been banned for me doing yoke on, I’d have stuck to turf for these for something. I did the empty yoke for a few sets here to see how it felt. Unlike on turf, it wasn’t as temperamental with height of the crossbar and how I was pushing into it. Which was good. Same as it has been with 5 sets of 100’ (50’/50’ for this) with a minute rest. The concrete is a lot better for pushing vs the outside I do the sled drags on. But that lack of friction can be an issue if say going for 500-600lbs range with getting traction for the feet. I thought I picked a good weight but it turned out to be too light so I decided I’d add weight each set and hopefully I’d get close to something by the end. 10lbs jumps at the start and then after the first 3 runs went to 5lbs jumps. The pushing one way was much smoother and then the way back the friction felt greater. Like there was a going with and against the grain situation. But even on the heaviest pushing set, I was still going faster than fastest run with the sled. So I will likely need to do 235lbs or more next time around. I was also planning to just go home at this point and maybe stretch. But I decided to stick around and really make sure I took advantage of the facility to stretch things out. Drive home wasn’t bad. But I know I’ll be stressing on not being able to meet my expectations on yoke and try and figure out what I need to have changed to get everything feeling good. Because when things feel good, stuff is fast and smooth. I know I’m going to need a day to just decompress.