December 8, 2024 - December 14, 2024 - Week 1

 December 9, 2024 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Bottom-Up Kettlebell Presses
10’sx12
15’sx12
25’sx12
25’sx12

Ring Push-ups
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10

Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Like I said, I don’t stay down for long. I took off the week (well after Monday) and only did walking every other day. At some point near the end of last week my left heel started to bleed from I guess my feet being too dry. Came out of no where and honestly would’ve been another hassle on top of serious training. I’m taking care of it like when it became a thing either last year or the year prior. I also may be on jury duty coming up. Work is endlessly stressful and stupid with no letting up. I’ve been keeping I guess “manic” with considering the training/competition possibilities. But nothing set in stone. Essentially I’m doing 14 weeks or so of off season training with the main focus being deadlift and getting my back/glutes feeling solid and full again. Also no clean and pressing or moving events likely for the duration of that time but that may change if I feel better and something is too good to pass up. I do have a built in period about halfway to add in overhead event work changes for a competition end of April if I feel like that works. Only thing is to put in work. Going back to four days of training (two upper and two lower). So I know that going right into that wouldn’t be smart. Around 262lbs and plan is doing light stuff and some stuff like how training will be next week when I go serious. But this week no barbells, just other stuff and bodyweight. Short notice so I did have to go bit quick this first session to have dinner with parents. This was deload/light stuff and I figured I’d do what I used to do and not film the deload stuff. It was probably working in my favor having this be a light session week with it being rainy. Keeping the dynamic warming up from Mr. Westerling’s programming since it seems to do the job for me. Knees a little achier than they were last week but I’ve also not done anything besides walking and soft tissue work. And it has also fluctuated a lot with the weather. Near freezing one day and then just under 70 the next. Starting things off was some seated pressing. Doing some reps with my kettlebells making myself need to really have my wrists and forearms involved holding them bottoms up style. I was initially going to only do my little kettlebells but realized that one pair of 25lbs plates are those that have handles on them so I could do the same style with those. 10’s felt like nothing due to how small and short they are. 15’s felt like something due to the size and balance. 25’s were decently tough. I’ve not done really any seated pressing or higher reps for a good while. Making sure to keep things stable and emphasizing the serratus anterior. These went well enough. The rest of the workout is going to be about what I’ll be doing for real next week. Next was ring push ups. Been a while. I used to do these and similar. For pec and shoulder health. I always feel like these are better at having that stuff feel like it should compared to say benching. Feet on the floor and just doing 3 sets of bodyweight leaving plenty of reps in the tank. Oof, I’m out of practice here as these were much tougher than I was expecting. Definitely had to work to stabilize. I feel I got better at that I was did reps and sets but the fatigue was building steadily. I know I’m going to be sore from these tomorrow. From there it was on to bands. First thing being a shoulder (rotary focus) superset of underhanded band pull aparts coupled with band y raises. Light bands here. I’ve actually done this superset in 2021 and I used less tension on the y raises at the time due to how weak I was in that motion. I’ve definitely built things up to be able to use two micro bands vs one. I could tell that my right shoulder was a little tense from the ring push ups and these combined kind of pumped up the entire shoulder. Last thing was triceps. Just band pressdowns. I had a feeling these would start easy but get really fatiguing by the end. And I was right. First set super easy and feeling that fatigue hitting hard on the second set. I likely needed these kinds of exercises to fill in the cracks. My right triceps kept twitching afterwards, which tends to happen when I do a lot of triceps extension focused stuff tied in with the lat insert. Put stuff away and went over to have time with my parents before coming home to stretch. So one session down, three more to go this week. Hopefully this has me feeling better and at peace. Put some of this anxious/nervous energy into harder lifting shortly.

December 11, 2024 – Week 1, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats
15x12/12
15x12/12
15x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls
lbx15
lbx15
lbx15

Roman Chair Situps
bwx15
bwx15

Single Leg Hip Thrusts
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
10x8/8
10x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Been dreary and rainy this week. It softened up a bit Tuesday but it came back uglier for today. But it does seem like the rain is going away after today and it will be just cold after that. As expected, my chest was really sore from training Monday. I’m expecting to be having soreness in stuff from not doing certain exercises or for as many reps/volume in a good while. Which is kind of why I’m doing the break in week as this will be what I’m doing for the next few months to get body ready to compete again. I feel like the lower volume stuff works after building up a base and being able to kind of peak ferociously to do well. But keeping it to being many months without competing runs the risk of detraining and then overtraining without giving myself the ability to recover appropriately. But will see if that is just me talking nonsense I guess in theory and have to see if it works in practice. So this is Day 2 and lower body focus. The plan will be this is the “secondary” lower body day. Squats and deadlift stuff but not this week. Just the other things to keep things light and no barbells. Warming up felt decent. Right knee is kind of off and on achy warming up but tolerable. Despite soreness in chest, there was no issues warming up. Starting things off was an exercise group I’ve not done in well over a year and that is Bulgarian split squats. Those had been a bit part of training for the past 3yrs or so with them being warm up exercises as well as effort training. With how my knees and hips joints have felt, I wasn’t too sure how these would be feeling so I was initially going to just do bodyweight. No shoes as I recall doing these that way with Andrew programming them. But they actually felt pretty good so I added a kettlebell weight and was still feeling good. I could tell that I was going to be feeling these tomorrow and probably the next day since while I’ve been doing some unilateral training for my legs, it hasn’t been like this. Even with the light weight and the low effort needed, these do seem to be exhausting and getting air between sets can take a bit. I’m glad that I started treating each side for unilateral exercises as their own set. I feel this is good sign that my first foray with these didn’t feel as miserable as I was expecting or as harsh on the knees. The next thing was a bit of a headache. So the program I’m attempting to run for the lower body sessions has hamstring stuff on both days and this day has the lying hamstring curls. I don’t have access to that at home via a machine and I recall not enjoying doing these with bands because of frustration and discomfort on the Achilles tendon area. I wasn’t keen on getting a piece of junk one for at home that would be for a single purpose and may not fit me or going to a gym just to do that exercise. Switching the days (since the strongman gym has one) for the exercises wouldn’t really work as there was to be a harder hamstring exercise that day I couldn’t really do at home as well as another lighter variation. So I spent a lot more time than I was expecting/planning trying to work out how to do this. I was even trying to figure out a similar alternative after trying stuff out using bands, dumbbells, ankle weights, combination of bands and other equipment. And it wasn’t just the issue of the one thing but there being a way for progression. But I finally figured out something that worked and that was using my dip belt and attaching that to a band. It was good this was a light week so I wasn’t in a rush or time crunch and could figure things out. I know this will cooked my hamstrings. It is also probably good thing I didn’t try supersetting stuff like I was initially planning (before I realized it would be uneven with unilateral and bilateral exercises). Next was abdominal work. I just haven’t done Roman chairs in a good while and figured they’d be the closest to mimicking standing weighted ab work. I didn’t want to deal with that after already spending so much time on the leg curl debacle. I was feeling a little compression on these on the left side. I may need to do some decompression from my dip stand at some point if the feeling persists. It was feeling better as I went anyways. This more just to do something. Last thing was kind of a my choice in that the program indicates lower back/glute exercise. I feel I will get enough lower back work from squats and pulls. My thing was getting the glutes involved and waking things up. The last few times I did those wagon wheel pulls it wasn’t feeling like I had anything, like I was just relying on my ligaments, tendons and bones. I couldn’t feel my glutes engaging at all and my hamstrings I know were there but felt like not really doing much. So my hope is doing stuff that focus on that will get me feeling like I want to with muscle feeling solid and doing work. So this leads to single leg hip thrusts. This did seem to prove my point in that I struggled to do these with no weight that first set. I had expected these to feel comfortable and then add a little weight but ended up doing bodyweight at first. It does seem that first set did shake off the rust as the second set with bodyweight felt much better/easier. So rather than just stop there, I added 10lbs and did two more sets. I know that if I did these right that my glutes will be sore. Put stuff away and stretched before eating pot roast.

December 12, 2024 – Week 1, Day 3

Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx12
26’sx12
40’sx12
40’sx12

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions/ Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Well, the rain is gone and sun is out but is really darn cold. Work continues to be frustrating. I guess I know that it is more so for my co-workers judging by how things have been going. Everyone is frustrated and there is no help in sight. But enough about that. As I said, it has been over a year since I’ve done four sessions a week for gym lifting. So this is my secondary pressing day. It is a fine line I need to be threading here as it does seem like I wasn’t recovering so well from trying to do too much. But I do recall my overhead pressing feeling pretty good doing one particular training cycle and maybe if I keep that in mind I can make things work. This might end up being the closest to what the actual working sessions are going to be like next week. This was going to be a shorter session so that might have been why I was a little slow going after work to start. Could also be that work continues to be so bad I have to take a moment at the end of the day. As expected, still some soreness in the chest but not nearly as much as the day before or before that. Quads a little sore but the biggie is the glutes being sore. So I guess success there with targeting. Abs weren’t sore thankfully from the Roman chairs so that was a plus. Wore my warm ups to do my mobility stuff. Didn’t feel too bad considering. Right knee still feeling a little achy. Wasn’t going to be using legs really today unlike the other three sessions going forward. So first thing was incline benching with dumbbells. Only because not wanting to bother with log and being a bit more free with movement. Light stuff here. Easy enough but can tell that there is still some shoulder tightness in the right side and that I’m not used to higher reps with my triceps feeling fatigue. But nothing felt off thankfully and this was light enough that I didn’t have to work about pulling anything and lower stuff with control after each set. Next thing was something I used to do a good bit for back and arms with inverted rows. I had done these to a good degree and was expecting them to feel like riding a bicycle. Plan was like the ring push ups with 3 sets of bodyweight leaving reps I the tank but aim being 10-15 reps. Well these went similar to those in that these felt a lot tougher than I was expecting. I guess just shows out of practice despite doing paused rows and such. My hope though is that these will feel easier (same with the ring push ups) next week after this inoculation session this week. Last thing was a triset. Triceps, medial and posterior delts. I’ve done this before a good bit when I first started working with Andrew in 2021 and this thing cooked me more than I’d care to like. Even if I was using more weight or band tension on stuff, all together and not fully resting makes this a slog to get through. My biggest worry was the triceps extensions since that could irritate my elbows and I’ve not really done them. The other being that maybe the weight for the side raises was going to be too light. Well the answer was that no the triceps and elbows were fine and that 10lbs was the right weight with the accumulated fatigue. Even lowering the band tension for the face pulls was also the right move here. The fatigue built throughout the set and was still there for the second set. But I made it through this. So I got some idea of how things are going to feel for real next week. Put stuff away and stretched before eating meatloaf.

December 14, 2024 – Week 1, Day 4

Box Jumps
3x19”
3x19”
3x19”

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts
55x12/12
105x1/12
155x12/12
155x12/12

Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows/Back Extensions
70’sx15/bwx20
70’sx15/bwx20

Seated Band Leg Curls/Weighted Planks
lb’sx25/bw+20x30 seconds
lb’sx25/bw+20x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Managed to survive this week. Work wise that is. Still system issues and I’m starting to get a handle on the crap from the previous month. I think dropping the contest has allowed me to have some moments to breath. Training has been fairly painless but I’m getting a little sore and winded at times from the movements and reps. But this is the easiest the training is going to be. My legs and glutes have been quite sore since Wednesday training so the walking and soft tissue work was much appreciated. It has been below freezing since the rain stopped midweek. Not fun having to put on so many layers to just go outside because of how abrupt the change has been. But then the sun is out at times that makes it so I’m sweating by the end of walking or warming up. I slept in as there was no reason to go out to train in Lancaster. One to save some gas so I don’t have to fill up (I have to go into the office for the monthly stupid collaboration day). It doesn’t make sense to go out there for not event specific stuff for what is a breaking in week. I will be going out there to train going forward though. Since this was being done at home, there were things that I was doing that won’t be like I’m doing at the gym. This day is a bit more planned out compared to my two upper body focused sessions as this like the other lower body day is stuff that is a program written out with guidelines. But obviously this particular session isn’t like that as not doing any barbell or fixed bilateral work. I got to training a little later than I intended but I did sleep in a good bit as fell asleep late. Warming up felt pretty good. I was actually surprised my right knee was feeling as it had felt pretty achy waking up this morning. From there on to training. Now initially I wasn’t going to do this first exercise as I felt that it might be too strenuous for this week but during warming up I felt it was a probably a good idea to do it since it seems like it will be a big part of the protocol and unlike the other days where I left out the big movements, I’ve not done this particular exercise in over 3yrs. I’m talking of box jumps. Last time I did them I had a tumble (unstable setup) and fractured my left elbow (avulsion). So I’ve not been keen on doing stuff that has me leaving the ground (even though I was quite good at it in high school volleyball). Plyometrics are part of this program with prepping for pulls. If I’m worried that these will be hell on my knees then I probably shouldn’t do them. But I need to work on things. It was quite obvious I was out of practice here. I’ve done doubles to 30” last time I did these so I figured that 24” or so would be manageable. But just looking at that height just felt intimidating and like I couldn’t move that way if I wanted to. And this was to be a lighter/easier week anyways. I had setup my crash pads against my house so there was a stable base. I also felt restricted with my knee sleeves and took them off as well and lowered it down pad height. So about 18”. Oof these were tough and close. Really out of practice. I can’t really adjust the heights at home like I can at the strongman gym really. These felt like quite the wakeup. Can’t really not exert a lot of power in a jump to get airborne. Walked around my house outside for rest here. Ideally I should be able to tuck a little better with my legs which I think is more the issue here than the height I’m getting as I’m catching things a lot higher above parallel than I have been able. Again, this will hopefully come with practice. But the aim is to keep these landing above parallel as trying to increase my power and jump and not my ability to tuck my knees. From there went inside. Most of the workout was just kind of substitutes for what I’ll be doing next week. Some stuff not stuff related to what I’ll be doing. I just wanted to do stuff like a deadlift but not quite. Not stress the spine as much but the supporting muscles. The b-stance or kickstand style pulls in the past for reps have felt good in that regard. My favorite that I was able to load up with weight was using my trap bar. So that was the aim. These felt as good as I remembered them feeling. I won’t be really using these for the training going forward but it was nice to get some things that could focus on the hamstrings, glutes and hips independently with balance added unlike a pure unilateral movement. Like the Bulgarians, I felt these getting me a little winded between the sets and as the fatigue accumulated. But not as bad. From there moved on to the rest of the workout which was supersets. Hamstrings paired with something else essentially. So the plan is chest supported rows coupled with a glute ham raise variation for the first coupling. Don’t exactly have that at home besides using the incline bench and either barbell or dumbbells for the row and back extension bench (I guess I could’ve setup Nordic curls but what a hassle) for back extensions. I pushed these a little harder I think since next week is the actual hard training starts. Trying to gradually build things up. I probably could’ve got away with doing 40’s on the rows but I felt it was important to do the 70’s. The back extensions after that were a bit fatiguing on my glutes and hamstrings surprisingly. I was breathing a bit harder than I was expecting after the first pairing here but I felt things moved a bit better for me on the second set. Last coupling was seated band leg curls and planks. I was initially going to do planks no weight but figured that 30 seconds no weight was too easy so put 20lbs on which still was nothing. It has been a while since I’ve done the seated band leg curls and I’ve noticed how the hamstrings have felt from the lying leg curls this week. I was able to pick the right tension here to make these fit what I wanted the effort to be. Planks were not much to say other than they felt fine. Downed a protein shake and put stuff away before taking a brief respite before stretching.