Saturday, January 25, 2025

January 19, 2025 - January 25, 2025 - Week 7

 January 20, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (5 second eccentric, 3 second pause in rack)/Dumbbell Push Presses/PVC Thoracic Extensions
46x2
76x2
106x2
136x2
166x2/10’sx3/5
200x3/40’sx3/5
205x3/40’sx3/5
210x3/40’sx3/5
210x3/40’sx3/5
210x3/40’sx3/5

Axle Jerk Dip Squats (3 second eccentric)
46x3
136x3
226x3
316x3
366x3
381x3
396x3

Chaos Band Push-ups (5 seconds negatives, feet elevated 6”,pin 24)
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
10’sx10/lbx20
10’sx10/lbx20
10’sx10/lbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: The week fatigue caught up to me as I ended up sleeping for almost 12hrs Saturday night. Sunday was going to be interesting in that it looked like my area was going to be hit with about half a foot of snow. When I had gotten up, it didn’t look like it was sticking to the road or blacktop. I was likely going to have to shovel snow more than once. And I was low on rock salt as I kind of used my stockpile up on the last snow that happened about two weeks ago. I decided I’d warm up going for a walk before it got bad. I didn’t anticipate how quickly it did get bad as it was a snow storm about halfway into my walk. Had to dodge a snow plow (don’t worry, they didn’t bother with my street until closer to midnight lol). Close to my house I slipped on a patch of hidden ice. I caught myself but it didn’t feel good on my right knee with the sudden jerk motion. Not ideal to have that be sore with planned training tomorrow (really not ideal any day) and still having to shovel snow. Knee seemed to tolerate stuff and I ended up having to shovel snow twice to clear it all. I was luckily able to get another thing of rock salt from my folks to keep things from being slick later. The amount of snow that came down was probably another sign that it was for the best I didn’t do the show. There had been no snow stuff in the forecast that far out and it would’ve been treacherous to come up from the south from the airport in Maryland. Just have to consider winter weather and competitions December to March. Very thankful that I wasn’t working today so I could get some more sleep and not be dictated by pace of things with the experiment I was going to be doing with my overhead training. It has been frustrating me a lot as of late and now doing my own thing it has felt incredibly vexing seeing as everything else is responding how I feel it should. Been agonizing over form and reading training theory and programs. Ideally, I’d do the plan here for all aspects of the axle press but for now, doing just the press part. 6 weeks of triphasic stuff with two weeks to each phase. I’ve done stuff along these lines but didn’t understand the intent. My thinking being this was just to make it harder. I had some idea with pauses for isometric reasons and the accentuated eccentrics. More time under tension and muscle growth. But that isn’t quite it. I was truly going to start from the ground up here. Warming up I did some thoracic foam rolling and things that I did from some sessions last week. These warming up things seem to be doing better by me than the general warming up protocol. And I meant it when I said ground up. For most of my strongman career, I’ve used lifters for overhead stuff. Because that’s what I was told to do and everyone did at the time. I’ve been reluctant to evaluate that assumption until recently. I’ve seen wearing my regular shoes when doing a log clean feels off with balance in the lap so I didn’t pursue farther. But I’m in offseason and the next contest doesn’t really have a press in it I’m considering. I had noticed in videos about loading the hips and I’ve been having issues doing that. While in the shower, I got into my stance for overhead and noticed I could load the hips without my shoes on it. I could feel the feet and ankle adjustment. Perhaps the hard sole is too much for me to be able manipulate with my feet and feel like my hips. And I’ll be damned if switching out my shoes didn’t have things feeling a load better for my axle. So training for this was going to be different. I had a program I found but had trimmed stuff that I felt weren’t needed as I was doing them on different days and didn’t want to affect recovery. But the first block here was push press with eccentric emphasis and holds in the rack position between reps. This is actually more for the eccentric for strict pressing vs push pressing (I’ll get to that later). Plan was to work up to 5x3 with something that felt like RPE 8. I had an idea what I could do. But not only that but this was to be paired with an explosive movement (dumbbell push press with light weight) and a mobility movement (PVC thoracic extensions). I was excited to see how things would go here. Even though it was below 20 degrees out, I wasn’t feeling very cold. I was initially doing 30lbs jumps but I think I wanted to do at least 200lbs here. This felt pretty good and I was so glad my pressing wasn’t feeling so labored. The other two exercises kind of felt like they were along for the ride. But I could tell as I did these that the dumbbell felt easier and smoother and I was getting greater ROM on the extension. I decided to go up 5lbs a set initially as I felt like the RPE was a little low. 210lbs felt like it was the right call and stuck with it for the remaining 3 sets. This felt like a resounding success to me. But I will temper my joy/expectation until I do some more workouts and getting back above 230lbs. I will say these reps on the push press felt crisper than when I did them two weeks ago with the same weight. The next thing was a bit new for me. As I mentioned, the previous exercise while a push press in the series was not so much the eccentric for the push press. The press is concentric really and the dip is the eccentric to initiate the press. Like the wind up for a box jump. So the thinking was to train that aspect. So I was going to do squats to bottom f my dip to press with slow eccentric. I wasn’t sure how much weight I was going to need here to hit 3x3 at RPE 8-8.5. The unrack was probably going to feel rough on my right knee. I will say unrack felt less stressful on my knees compared to lifters. This was feeling pretty heavy on my body and I thought I found my weight at 315lbs but apparently not as it was moving quite well. So added 50lbs. I’ve done holds and supports on axle above 400lbs (500lbs one time for like 7 seconds) and it is more just getting used to the pressure. I kept pushing these and while heavy feeling, I was still moving the weight well and probably can go heavier to stay in the parameters. Controlled eccentric and then trying to explode up with it and reverse quickly. This felt good to see these concepts in action and feeling like I’ve maybe found a solution. The rest of the workout was pretty much to standard as those things haven’t been messing with me. Chaos band push ups again. Feet elevated 6” and 5 seconds eccentrics. Plan was to do 3x15 regardless of RIR. Which probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I had remembered what setting I had the bands at last time. I had used the j-hooks for the axle jerk dip squats so moved them from where I had them last week. Things were feeling tougher and definitely a challenge to get 15 reps that first set. I measured and it appears that I lowered the setting 2 notches. So I guess this will be tougher than I expected. I stuck to what I had for the other two sets. There were moments where I’d relax my shoulders in kind of a downward dog pose to catch a brief respite before continuing the set to get my 3x15. With that I knew it was not wise to try and increase the weights on the superset. I at most of my lunch at this point since no real risk of puking from the last exercises. Dumbbell y raises and band triceps extensions. Stuck to the same weights and band tension here. It’s not like I’d be making big progress here anyways as I’m already using more than I did when I did this in 2021 and hard to progress on them with how much a little weight added affects things. There were moments I feel that my mobility was better on the y raises. Triceps were feeling the fatigue by this point on the band stuff. Put stuff away before getting out the snow shovel to clean up the last bit of snow compacted by the plow last night. Finished up lunch and stretched.

January 22, 2025 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x5
115x3
155x2
195x1
235x1
265x5
265x5
265x5

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

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
25’sx12/12
25’sx12/12
25’sx12/12
25’sx12/12

Paused Band Lying Leg Curls (2 seconds)
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)x15

Romain Chair SItups
bwx24
bwx16
bwx20

Paused Snatch Grip Back Extensions (2 seconds)
65x12
65x12
65x12

Stretching

Comments: The workload was terrible Tuesday but I guess evened out today as I was able to do other things besides just intake reviews. Really damn cold out right now. Like schools getting delays because buses couldn’t start up cold. Honestly, I don’t mind it until there is wind involved. I was able to get my right knee to feel better by lying in bed and flexing my quad until my knee cap cracked. No issues with slipping on anything walking Tuesday. More details released about the competition in Washington state for the Natural World’s qualifier. Some assumptions I had about how events would be setup a little different for two of them from what I was expecting. Means I’ll have to reconsider how I was going to program things. It’s exciting thinking of the ideas ways to execute things but it is taking a while to figure things out. If I didn’t have a buffer of these next 6 weeks I’d not be feeling comfortable with week to week stuff. Or if I didn’t have notice of what was coming up (in just about anything really). I like to have the plan written out and adjust accordingly. I think in the past I’d rotate 4-12 week protocols that weren’t very different in some aspects. I did the various things to get warmed up for training. I dropped some stuff I did last time and added some things. Warm ups in the garage were a must with the temps being single digit by the end of the session. Starting off the day with the paused ssb squats. Same as last week with 3x5 doing 2-3ct pauses. But more weight going up 2.5%. So 10lbs more. I decided to alter things slightly working up. I had kind of done 40-50lbs jumps last time and I didn’t really get a set in before the working weight with the belt to feel things out. So adjusted the jumps a little to get that to work out. I also figured I’d see if I using my shoes like I did on the overhead session seemed to work here compared to the lifters. Obviously sitting in the deep squat position is easier with the lifters but more knee stress. The lifters felt better compared to wearing the flat sole shoes I wear for deadlift but I think these other shoes are the best bet here. I think lifters still for front squats. I wasn’t sure how things would actually go for the squats and pulls today since I went heavier than I was expecting by 80lbs on the eccentric emphasis jerk dip drives. But seemed to not be a of consequence here. There were aches at the start but felt less so as I warmed up. I kept my warm up pants on for squats. As was the case last week, I feel like these felt better as I went. Or at least felt better. I’m sure the movement was getting a little slower from the fatigue. These are feeling like they move smoother than the csb box squats but this is with lighter percentages comparatively. From there it was the platform pulls. These had felt tougher than I was expecting with the increased ROM and the starting position. Form has to adjust slightly here as I feel like I have to have my grip wider to not have my upper body feel tight and compressed with fitting my legs between. Same as last time but more weight. As seems to be the trend here (baseline, more weight, change weight but less reps, heaviest or nothing). Knees didn’t seem to bother me on these pulls. I was keeping an eye on the right biceps as that was feeling a little tense. Not in a sore way. I’d sometimes getting this sensation when strapping to the bar for a deadlift or rack pull when my suit was too tight. Last set felt the best. I’m hopeful that this block of training will be like the previous where I feel good when the time comes to test. This took care of the meat and potatoes of the session and the rest was the I guess fiber tablet and various greens. Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats 3 second eccentrics to start things off here for the accessory work. As I had mentioned, my plan here was to start light and try and get myself to doing 4x12 with increasing weight the first two weeks. 3 sets had been having me gassed last block so I feel it is important that I build up the strength endurance on these considering what is in store for me when I compete again. If I can handle more volume in these, I can recover quicker. I had done 15lbs per hand last time and it was definitely noticeable with the added set, even with the light weight. This time doing 25lbs per hand. There is greater need for balance on this variation compared to the contralateral load variation. I think I like that one more than this one because of that. But following the guide here to work different versions. I managed to get through these but definitely feeling that last set. Next week is reduction in volume for the “deload” but I’ll probably see if I can push the weight aspect on the last set. Moving on to banded lying leg curls. I was surprised how much tougher the paused variation of these was compared to the eccentric emphasis. There is a good bit of literature that suggests hamstrings respond well to eccentric loading. Considering how tough this was last time, my aim was to try and do an additional set. The hope being 4x15. Those holds in the contraction are quite fatiguing. I was also feeling the stuff before this. The little things to get the hamstrings feeling good. I remember when I was doing 200 reps of these a day with ankle weights for rehabbing my hamstring when I tore it in 2011. So I know they can handle a lot of pain. I was successful in getting through all four sets. I took a bit of break at this point to start getting dinner ready. I had to adjust my meal rotation due to the weather as I didn’t want some poor bastard out in single digits to bring my groceries because I want to have a particular meal in order and my social anxiety stuff acting up. So what I had required a little more prep. This did give me a moment to get some fluids in as the rest of the workout was core focused. Roman chair situps. These wrecked me last week. Not doing exercises like this for a while has the effect. I get a sore tummy for a couple of days but I seem to be much better at it the next time it comes around. I had gotten 3x15 last time where the first set was pretty comfortable and each set after that not so much. These felt real easy the first set but I knew I’d have harder go of things on the subsequent sets. Second set I didn’t rest long enough to recover well as these felt tougher and I got a little cramp on the last rep which is why I stopped. Rested a little bit longer before the last set and it felt similar to the first set. So 15 reps total more to the volume from last time. Then the last thing being the exercise I had chosen for lower back and glutes. The paused snatch grip hyper extensions. I decided I’d attempt to increase the volume using same weight. So 3x12 was the goal. Those extra two reps were noticed on that first set and each set afterwards it was tougher to get them done. Last set getting the lockout was a challenge to hold for the very last rep. I wasn’t expecting the 6 extra reps to be that much harder to get here. Not a ton of weight needed and these are really hitting an area that needs it. Especially if I plan on doing that show in May. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out.

January 23, 2025 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
210x8
210x8

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
180x8
180x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+22x12
bw+22x12
bw+22x12
bw+22x12

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
22’sx15/sbx15--15
22’sx15/sbx15--15
22’sx15/sbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: It was supposed to warm up a little today. I guess it technically did but it was still colder than I was expecting it to be. It had seemed like it would get closer to freezing temp then being single digit in the morning. I wouldn’t intentionally have someone deliver groceries in this cold. I had to order twice as the first one replaced my cottage cheese with raisins and it was the one thing that I needed for tonight’s meal haha. I was feeling a little beat from the workout yesterday. My right inside of hip was feeling a little irritated. My hope was moving around would maybe get something to “click” like with my knee and get relief. Not sure if that would happen today though since this was pretty much an upper body session. Besides getting dumped with work Tuesday, things have kind of been pretty quiet and even with the workload. So I’ve been able to do other things and actually take breaks. It does feel weird warming up and not doing lower body stuff for this session. I didn’t feel like my left shoulder blade/scapulae was caught like last week so I think some of the stuff I’ve been doing helped there. It was warmer than yesterday but I was having a hard time staying warm. I guess I didn’t go outside like I did today for training on Wednesday and the sun was out on Monday since I lifted in the early afternoon. Log incline pressing again. Kind of the go to offseason pressing. Last week I had worked up to a comfortable 10rm so this time I was to do that same weight for 2x8 after warming up. I was initially thinking maybe I go a little heavier and close the gap between now and then with my 2021 self. But warming up had me think maybe I stick to the plan here. I’d have preferred to have kept my warm up and gloves on but I was feeling like I wasn’t able to put the best effort forward so stripped those down. I am glad that my abdominals weren’t sore like last time from the sit ups. As I thought, I adapted quickly. The first set felt pretty decent but could tell the second set felt a little bit tougher. Dropped off 30lbs to do two more sets with pauses. These paused presses can be tricky. Sometimes they feel really easy and other times I get fatigue hit hard on some reps and it feels like a struggle to lockout the weight. That first set the weight felt light at the start but then got tough near the end. The second set it felt pretty even the whole way through. I felt it made sense to put all the stuff outside away rather than do something and use my rest to put a little away. I felt I’d probably stay cold doing that. So get it over with and hopefully warm up in the garage. Inverted ring rows were up next. Last two sessions have been higher reps and just bodyweight. I was to stick to 4x12 but add weight to where I felt like it would be like 2RIR each set as I went. 20lbs was what I did in 2021 and I figured I could do that. But why settle there and added 2lbs to that just because. Even doing these with the warm ups on it didn’t feel like I was getting toasty like I did last time. I end up hitting most of the reps in a fast clip and then do slower reps for the last few getting a good ROM and stretch. Seems to work and feel good. I wasn’t too sure how these would go so pleased these went as planned. The weight on the hips from the backpack actually seemed to be what I needed for the hip irritation to go away. I figured it would work itself out. Triceps extensions up again. Same as last week. I didn’t increase the weight on these from last time because these were quite challenging by the end of the four sets. Hoping I guess that I’m better than the last time so these feel easier. And that means having less issues and trying to have a little shorter rest. Thes continue to be challenging. Honestly, the toughest thing I’ve done this week and the last week. I didn’t have any balance issues like last week since core not sore as hell. Superset to end things. Dumbbell lateral raises and half kneeling single arm band rows. I knew I was going to use more weight on the laterals and use my heaviest band tension for the rows. I don’t really have a good way to really progress the rows and I’ll have to see how things feel. Just doing work may be enough really. With the laterals, I was initially thinking just 2lbs more from the top set last week. I had been increasing the difficulty a little each set last time. But I figured I’d just go a little more. This way with the mircoplates let me space out the handles so I could fit my thigh between them when resting at my sides. These felt pretty strong but could tell there was fatigue by the end of the three sets. The rows initially felt like the band tension was too much at the start but once I got used to it, it was quite easy. So either need to add some bands or try and move back further so more tension in that band. It gets tricky getting the tension right on these. But I’ve had good results with band back work like this for reps with pauses and such. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

January 25, 2025 – Week 7, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Box Jumps (22”)
18”x1
24”x1
28”x3
28”x3
30”x3
30”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
365x1
405x1
460x3
407x3
407x3
407x3

12” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
275x1
325x1
375x1
425x1
Added Straps
472x3
472x3
472x3

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raises (4 showing)
+90x8/bwx15
+90x8/bwx15
+90x8/bwx15
+90x8/bwx15

Seated Single Band Leg Curls/Hollow Body Holds w/ Med Ball Between Ankles
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: It really didn’t want to warm up this week. I should be thankful that work was the usual stress ball it is besides Tuesday. Only thing at this time I am slightly concerned about is my right hip on the inside feels a little irritated. Not debilitating or affecting anything I do but could be sign of overuse or possible disc compression stuff. I didn’t really have a rush to get out to train today again as the friend going to the Arnold taking off to recover from competing last week. Still plenty of people there training. I’m not too sure if anyone is specifically gearing toward anything at this point. But they were doing max stone today and that is something I’d like to do. But not right now. Warming up to get things feeling good. I do a good bit of warming up on this day because of having to sit in a car for over 40 minutes and because the jumping exercises require I do something a little different with the warm ups. I also wanted to make sure that my hips weren’t being affected by anything and vice versa. I’m getting better I think at warming up for box jumps. I was kind of surprised how good things had felt last week that I was entertaining doing 30” box for the jumps this week. See how warming up felt I guess. 24” didn’t feel terribly convincing so I went with 28”, leaving possibility to increase from there. I was definitely not catching these as high as I was the week before that first set. First rep was the lowest and the second rep a little better. I was back to some semblance of landing a good bit above parallel the last rep. Got those jitters out on the first set as usually I feel better as these go. Second set felt like it should and I figured I’ll do 30” for the last two sets. Those went well for me too. I’m not sure if I want to do 30” all sets next week or try to go a little higher before the testing after that. Feeling pretty good about these. Then deadlifts. As I mentioned last time, fatigue felt noticeable with the changes in the exercise selection for the secondary day this block compared to last one in fatigue in lower back and breaking weights off the floor. I mean, that is what is being targeted hard. I was kind of hoping that this week would feel better than that. This was not a “get amped” session either. I think I may be getting better at not letting myself get hyped up on things but I’ll have to see if that is true or just tired when it comes to next weekend I guess. Warming up initially felt like things were good. But stuff started to feel slow and heavy. Plan was to work up to a top triple with the weight I was doing the working sets of block pulls with last week and then drop down a good bit for 3x3. I was not expecting this to feel so heavy and dead. I had to catch my breath a little at lockout on the second rep before going for the last rep. Dropping down in weight did feel better. Video says things were moving fine. I just have to realize this block is working the weaknesses harder than the first block did and likely more than the last block will. But at least watching the video did keep me from stressing out too much and move on to block pulls. Put in the graft as it were. Same pull height and like last cycle, a little more weight and dropping a rep on each of the three sets. So 3x3. This will be the weight I’m to be doing from the floor next time for the test set. These actually felt comfortable compared to floor pulls this time around. Did 50lbs jumps up to the working weight and then did weird kilo combo to get to what I wanted the weight to be. These are also odd in that the sets that feel good don’t look to the fastest or best looking sets. These all felt faster than the top set of deadlifts had felt. Again, working on getting a good solid brace on these and wedging off the floor using my glutes, hamstrings and lower back in synchroneity with my quads and hips. Also not getting hyped up. This should be ho-hum mentally. That was it for deadlifts and moved on to the supersets. The first pairing of paused chest supported rows and glute ham raises. 4x8 and then 4 sets of reps. Doing some kind of warm up set did seem to be good as far as the rows went. Maybe not the best warming up thing for the ghr last time so plan was to try something a little closer without being the actual movement. Doing half the weight added for a set of half the reps does seem to be enough for the rows to start feeling good. I went up 10lbs from last week and I was tempted to add weight but felt it was best to just have things feel good and not try to push just yet. The warming up for the ghrs was a little better I think. I was fully prepared to push the reps here and see where things ended up with the other sets. But this ended up being like last week where I hit double digits on the first set and then just decided to match those reps each set. So sets of 15 reps this time around for 12 additional total reps in volume. These were feeling good. Last item of the day being the pairing of single leg band leg curls with the hollow hold variation. Sticking with this medicine ball one. I remembered to start with the right side first with the leg curls as the lagging side. There is a noticeable difference but I’ve kind of known that in the sense of fatigue on that side vs my left. Even when feeling stronger on some unilateral stuff, the fatigue hits harder. Probably didn’t help with the hamstring strain last year. But my left side is the one I tore over a decade ago so who knows. I think I got a little better with getting myself setup for the hollow hold so not so jarring getting into position. The hold is quite challenging with what I’ve setup here. Cleaned up and put away stuff before downing a protein shake and then stretching out my calves before driving home (getting a little late and had to do some home stuff). I did some decompression for my back to see if that did anything for the hip and it didn’t so that at least indicates not back issue at this point. Finished up stretching.



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