March 9, 2025 - March 15, 2025 - Week 2

 March 11, 2025 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x5
60x3
90x2
120x2
145x2
170x5
196x5
222x9

Dips
ssx5
bwx3
bw+30x3
bw+60x8
bw+60x12

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
40’sx5
40’sx5
70’x10
70’x10
70’x10

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
186x2
226x2
276x4
276x4
276x11

Paused Prone Dumbbell Retractions (2 seconds)/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15
10’sx10/17+mbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: Bit of a different start to the week. I’ve probably mentioned before that I tend to take off the day after the country does a time shift related to daylight savings. Initially just when we would “lose an hour” but figured this past year and going forward that “gaining and hour” just as valid. I need more than a day to adjust. So taking personal day on Monday. This was planned. A deep tissue massage was not and that was a gift from my siblings and really this was the only day where I felt it would work as start of contest prep and never been to the place before. But had to be scheduled midday so that meant I wasn’t going to be able to train and have to move the workout to Tuesday. I know it is not a good idea to workout after that kind of massage. It has been like 6yrs since I’ve had one and it seems I needed it. . I may be scheduling another for either right before or right after competition in May. Sunday I walked and did stuff around the house. Now 1.5lbs from being in 120kgs class again. Did nothing Monday and just relaxed and drank a lot of water. Had regrets with going to work just from the start but got through it. It does feel nice having some light when going to train after work now. I made some adjustments to warming up after thinking about it and seeing what was tight from the massage. I’ve essentially done foam rolling for my hamstrings every workout minus Day 3 sessions for a bit since the hamstring pull/tear from a year ago per directions from Mr. Westerling. I’m wondering if that is really needed every time. A general warming up is ok but the more targeted things I’ve been doing have been feeling better so adapting to that. While that all was good, I seemed to have tweaked my neck moving one way during the beginning of my warming up so now I got a stiff neck after just getting all the tension out of it the day before lol. But I know it will calm down eventually and this isn’t that bad. Just have to see if this is something that will require anti-inflammatories to get to sleep or not (it did not). Then time to train. I was nervous for the axle push pressing. Like anxious during the work day and bordering on getting eye twitch. I was worried that I’d be underperforming here and that I made a mistake. This was the only thing of this session that was stressing me out really. And probably the only thing this whole week. As I mentioned, trying a modified 5/3/1 thing here. I did the deload session last week and the next three weeks are planned out and then will determine the adjustments after this first three week cycle on what to adjust the training at. This will give me a chance to test this out since no true overhead press event for the competition. For those aware with 5/3/1, training max is 90% of max for the numbers generally and this would be the 5’s week. Preset numbers with the top set being for reps with leaving something in the tank ideally on that last set. Nerves were getting to me and I wasn’t feeling that great doing these. More so it wasn’t feeling as easy as it should be. Trying to balance from being overly invested and apathetic with my intent. Top set the weight felt like I wanted it to feel for the most part. I didn’t really stick to one method of pressing. The first two work sets I had done no rebounds but I just went with whatever I was feeling like on the rep set. Started with rebound and then went to the reset style. Stopped at 9 and I’m certain I had one more there for sure. This is what I was hoping to be getting at here so this was a relief. A relief until next week. Into the garage for the next few things. Weighted dips again. I took a break with them due to how my QLs had felt and to just kind of deload appropriately for the most part for upper body before turning up the intensity this week. My plan with these is to work up to the weight for the day and do one set for certain rep range and then do another set for reps leaving something in the tank. And as long as that is at least 1 more rep than the first set, I increase the weight 5lbs for next time. I’ve done this kind of thing in the past to get up to over 140lbs on this exercise so I know I have a decent ceiling here that I need to fill out again for pressing power. I wasn’t too sure how these would feel with the tense neck situation but it was no bother. Actually felt loads better compared to two weeks ago when I did these and tried to rep out the first time in a while. Rowing up next. I had done light stuff with a superset last time. No superset this time around. Just rowing. Chest supported dumbbell rows with controlled movement and 3 second holds at contraction. I didn’t want to deal with loading and unloading the dumbbell handles so I just did my solid dumbbells to start and did a few sets with the 40’s before going for the 70’s. It has been a while since I’ve done these. My right biceps was definitely feeling fatigued by the end of the third set here. Back outside for rack work. Seated lockouts with the axle. I had thought I had things figured out with last time but upon review, it does seem that the ROM was less than I thought it was. So I did have to adjust that a little so that it was in a more applicable range to assist my overhead training and not just fatigue me with overload. So last time had been to just get a rough idea of where to start and now we start building. Plan was warm up and do 2x4 with the weight last time and then a rep set. Seems to be a common theme on this session in the week hmm. My plan of progression is if I get above a certain number of reps, I increase the weight by 5% or so for next time. If not, I stick to the same weight but reduce the volume working up. There was some anxiety with the initiating of the sets but felt good once I got the weights moving and my confidence built. This can be tricky because of how tough the breaking the inertia can be with reps but I think I called it just right. I’ll definitely be going up for next time. Before moving on to the superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands) to end the session, I started getting dinner ready. Again, thankfully nothing from this session made the neck issue feel worse. This setup was the same as last week with the reduced reps on both exercises and increase hold times for the one. I used a little more secure collars on the dumbbell for the triceps for peace of mind with me shaking it like a baby rattle behind my head. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Hopefully my neck calms down in quick order since I unfortunately have to follow this session up with heavy deadlifts tomorrow.

March 12, 2025 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps)
170x5
260x3
350x1
400x1
440x1
490x1
530x1
565x1
607x1
554x3
554x3
554x3

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
55x3/3
105x3/3
155x12/12
175x12/12

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bwx3/3
15”
bwx10/10
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
35x8/8
35x8/8
35x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Neck still tight but I guess better. I knew that it being that way wasn’t going to effect the training session from past experience. I had pretty much done the exact workout I was going to be doing today last week at a much lower intensity so I didn’t really feel there was much in the way of surprises here. I did some more foam rolling for the lower body (included calves and quads with hamstrings). And then circuit work again. Skater jumps to start off the session. Seeing as how the rotational throwing is likely what I’m doing, I’ll be keeping these in for a bit to get used to the powerful push and landing from one foot to the other. I did try to do some light bounding first to get things feeling more elastic but didn’t really seem to work. Just getting them started seems to be the issue for me with making sure I get that first push off good. I’m not trying to be doing these quick rebounding side to side as trying to get powerful jump and then absorbing that impact safely. So about the same as last time. Then the big dumb deadlift. As I mentioned, it is an 18” pull off tires with a 2.5” thick bar. I thought the setup I did last week was a good one as it did feel like how lifting something off tires does feel. But I only went up to 350lbs for easy singles. The plan for today was to work up to a top single (RPE 7) and then do 3x3 with 7.5-10% less weight. My thinking was to work up in plate jumps and then do 40-50lbs or smaller (as the plan was to make smaller jumps to the top single to make sure I wasn’t going all out). I know the setup looks extraneous with the wheels, pads and bar extenders. But it seems to work. The bar extenders are kind of crucial in that the 2.5” bar by itself it light and doesn’t have long loading pin space on it compared to my axle or barbells. So it beefs up the initial weight and allows me to put enough weight on there to get to contest weight for this if needed. I think I mentioned last time that I was surprised with the setup in that I thought I’d need to be standing on stuff to get it to be at 18” but the weight was sinking it down that it didn’t. I guess I didn’t think it would sink further with more weight added as I thought the foam was pretty dense. But with it being on just one set of wheels rather than evenly distributed, it was bound to compress more. I notice it might be low after I got above 400lbs. Speaking of which, I wasn’t feel like I was a fresh as I wanted to be here. I didn’t think that farmer’s walks with as light a weight I did would get my lower back. Maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. This unexpected need to adjust the setup with risers to correct back to 18” did eat up time. This pull height is a lot of lower back for me and this bar being as thick as it is does not help that strain. Just working up I knew that the weight I was aiming for as top weight would be outside of the comfortable single parameters so I adjusted. I also was able to wear my thick ratchet belt from Jenkins now that I’ve dropped enough weight to wear the new rehband belt with it. I’m not convinced that the less stiff multi-ply belt is better or worse here. I took smaller jumps so that I didn’t end up selling myself short here on the top single taking a 50lbs jump. I ended up having to add 2 risers under the pads to account for the compression for the top single. It might have been a bit heavier than I should’ve considering how I was feeling and hot it felt but this was not a max single I know I had another 2 reps in me if push came to shove. Just not sure I had three more is all. So dropped down to kind of in between the percents for the triples. I was shocked how tough that first rep of the downset was. I had to take a moment to collect my thoughts and be ready for some really rough reps. But then then those next two reps went up like they should. Second se the weights moved well but I could feel the bar wanting to escape the straps at this point. Granted, I had chalked them up for the top single only and anything left was gravy here but still felt like a fight to get things locked out here. I may need to do more so with liquid chalk and dry chalk and rechalk each set with this bar at these weights. Third set was about in the middle between first and second set. I hit about what I wanted to here for the most part. Just wish it wasn’t so rough on the lower back and felt easier lol. I’ll have to see if figure 8 straps are viable option here and potentially use my jack stands for training pulls to not have the setup issue inconsistency. I’ll just have to see how it pans out. But seeing as how much this takes out of me, it is a good thing I’m not really pushing the assistance work that hard on this day. Speaking of which, up next was b-stance trap bar rdls. Still keeping these light but going up 50lbs from last week. 3 second eccentrics and no support gear. These had been a test last time that I passed. This week being more of can I do anything after heavy deadlifts. And I can. I did a little more warming up than I was expecting to though. I plan to make another big jump on these for next time if feeling good. I took a little longer between sets than usual more so to just put stuff away and get some things ready for dinner and not because I was needing the rest. From there moving on step downs. This had been eye-opening for me with having the ROM be too much for me at this point from what I was able to do 2.5yrs ago. I ended up needing to reduce it to where it was tolerable and I still had strength to move. Which ended up being 6” lower. But not despairing. I knew knees weren’t in a happy place and working on that. I know this will get better. Today I’d start at 12” and if that feels better than it did last week, I’ll increase the height of the box. If not, option is to increase weight with the range I can do. Thankfully, these felt better so I went with the first option. Odds are that 18” was still going to be too much. So I did half that distance. There is discomfort but I still have strength in the movement (not having my knees just shut off). Additionally, felt better as I did more of them. So that is promising. The good news is that I can do 1” progressions from this height now if another 3” jump is too much. I’ll just have to see next week how these go. Last on the agenda for the evening was landmine bar twists. This was a maybe last week depending on if spinning around got more distance on throws and since it does, these are staying for a bit. Increased the weight. Could tell it has been a while since I’ve done some kind of rotational exercise like this. Keeping the smaller plates so that movement is not restricted around the hips. I think I’ll need to be getting over 50lbs added on this and having that move smoothly to master the weight I’ll be tossing for the sandbag with all the spinning and such. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Looking forward to a day off lifting to recover somewhat before I do another two days on to get back on schedule for this week.

March 14, 2025 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses (head through on last rep only)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
200x6
180x6
180x5 (miscounted)

Band Assisted Pull Ups (2-2-2-0 tempo, pin 15)
sbx8
sbx8
sbx8

12” Log Landmine Presses
logx3/3
log+15x3/3
log+30x12/12
log+30x12/12

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
21’sx6
34’sx12
34’sx12
34’sx12

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)
19x12--12/lbx12
19x12--12/lbx12

Stretching
 
Comments: The week has felt weird. Maybe because of the time shift. Maybe because I had to alter the training schedule around stuff. Maybe because of people calling off work. Maybe because my neck on the left side stiff tender. It had felt like it was Friday a day early. I was kind of surprised how sore/stiff I was feeling in my lower back area from the block pulls. Having me make adjustments so that I’m not burning out too early. I know I like to push hard and I have to setup limiters to keep me having something for the next time and adjust to accumulating fatigue. So that has meant keeping some things to leaving reps in the tank or dropping sets of exercises or removing them entirely to manage recovery. Only want things that will benefit. I will continue to fiddle with warming up stuff for sessions depending on need and what seems to work. I was somewhat tempted to try and get my workout in earlier in the day because usually I give myself some rest before the Saturday session and I couldn’t exactly do that this week. But I think I also realized I was likely going to be lifting later on Saturday anyways because of priority being to my sister (her last heavy week) for her competition at the end of the month. So after warming up, it was time for log pressing. The plan is alternating between triples with lighter weight with bands and free weight heavier for set reps and some down sets. Emphasizing lean back on the these and head through on the last rep only. Then adding 5 second holds at lockout on the “working sets”. I was pleased with how these had gone last week with the bands as I was expecting them to be worse than they were. I was a little nervous here as I was estimating what I could hit here for the plan but also anxiety about the rest of training cycle and if this would impact how the axle pressing sessions go. I feel like it is a delicate balance. But I need to not be stressing and just adjust when I notice and issue rather than worry about something that hasn’t happened yet or ever will. I know that pressing is down from what it was a few years ago so a little tricky to figure things out here. This particular session plan for the log strict press isn’t a 1:1 from a previous session. This was more of an extension to stretch out a session that didn’t have the opportunity to build up to this “peaking”. I was also debating what I was going to be doing here and decided to just see how it goes. So my two options here was to either do 3x6 with the RPE going from 6-8 across all three sets or to just aim for a set of 6 that is RPE 8 and then do 2x6 with 10-12.5% less weight. It kind of depended on how 180lbs felt as that was going to be the possible cut off point. I felt good enough there to give 200lbs a shot (which was a little over the projected range by 5lbs or so). I’m definitely not used to the lean back style for more than a triple at this time haha. Also not having the lifters on these is a little tricky as well. I was successful here though this was little tougher than I’d have liked it to be. I still feel it was acceptable effort range. So easy math and 20lbs off for the down sets. First set was super easy and felt great. Second set I got off balance and couldn’t just bang them out. That needing to focus and recenter did enough to distract me and I lost count and only did 5 reps here. Close enough and not going to fret about it. From there it was on to band assisted pull-ups. Same as last time with 2-2-2-0 tempo with plan for 3 sets and leave 3-4RIR. I had some expectation of how these would go after how these felt last week. Odds are that first set would feel pretty rough and the second set would feel really good and the third set in the middle. My hope here was that I adjust enough from last week that I can do 3x8. As I thought, this ended up how I expected with the sets and the reps I got. I was a little miffed that there was still tension in the left forearm near the elbow. I had just gotten deep tissue work done on Monday. It was more I think worry that my grip wouldn’t be recovered for Saturday session. These felt less awkward compared to last week. A new exercise after this. So I’m trying to get things to be sports specific and change up some things so not hammering away at the same thing every time. So board pressing one week and some kind of unilateral pressing the other. Trying to have stuff that would feel like it helps fingal fingers. I can’t be doing that one every week because of stress on body (needing to recover) and setup. So I wanted to see if doing log in my landmine press setup one arm at a time would be a good one. Plan is low RPE and decrease the reps across the cycle. I was initially going to do 3x12 but decided to drop the sets to 2 instead as I feel like unilateral exercises like this are pretty taxing on the full body. This was awkward with balance so not a lot of weight needed. I’m not sure if this will be something I keep the rest of the cycle. It does hit things a little differently since you need to have an open palm for the pressing. So forearms hit while doing these. Shoulders, triceps and pecs. But like I said, have to see if this is worth it going forward or if the effort is put to better use elsewhere. The rest of the session was essentially the same as last week. Incline triceps extensions with 3 second eccentrics. I had done 3x12 last time with a 5lbs increase from what I did 3x15 with. After how last time had felt, I knew I needed to try smaller jumps and perhaps warm up to it a little better so not so jarring. The platemath still kind of required a 3lbs increase so not sure how that would go. The increased weight for the work up set I do think was helpful. I got through the first two sets fine but needed a bit more rest after the second one to make sure I got through the third set of these. The emphasis on triceps and lockout has increased dramatically with switch from off season to contest prep so I’ll have to keep an eye on things here to make sure I’m not overdoing it. Superset to end the evening. Leaning laterals with pauses and half kneeling band face pulls with pauses as well. Same as last week but decided to still try to squeak in another 1lb to the laterals. I’ve been liking these. It is tricky with getting the face pulls the right tension to progress here in synch with them as sometimes it feels like too much tension setting up but then feels quite comfortable actually doing the set. Then having to factor in fatigue. Thankfully nothing made the neck issue worse this session. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

March 15, 2025 – Week 2, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x1
18”x1
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3
24”x3

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
35x24’7”
35x20’0”
35x26’0”
35x24’0”
35xscratch
35x23’6”
45x15’9”
45x21’9”
45x24’4”
45x24’0”
45x25’10”
45x25’5”
45x27’8”
45x23’3”

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 33” height)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3
205x3

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Paused Monster Mondo Leg Presses (2 seconds)
120x5/300x5
150x15/450x15
150x15/450x15
150x15/450x15

Rolling D-Handle Hangs (2” handles)
bw for 5 seconds
bw+21 for 5 seconds
bw+41 for 26.04 seconds
bw+61 for 20.30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: With working out Friday after work and then having to get up to go out to Lancaster Saturday, I didn’t get the most ideal situation here for myself. Training got done and then having to cook dinner. Essentially it being a later day. I wasn’t going to push myself to get up early but be within reason. I needed to be rested for the most part. Still needed to get out there earlier to make sure my sister got her last event session in before competing and be able to get my stuff done so I could be back for family activities in the evening. I did end up hitting snooze a good bit. I had made sure I packed up stuff so really I only had to worry about getting the stuff that needs to stay cool ready for training. I also got pot roast ready so that I wouldn’t have to worry about setting that up for meals later in the week. Neck not 100% but tolerable still. Haven’t needed any meds to be able to fall asleep so that is at least the bright side of things. I know it will take time. Drive out was fine but foggy. It took a bit longer than I expected for my sister to show up but that was fine. I wasn’t going to start my stuff until she was done. Last two events for the contest at contest weight and she hit what I was expecting here. I shouldn’t have to worry about prioritizing training for the foreseeable future since she will most likely go back to general training until after the summer. But have to wait and see I guess with how things go. She knows here spring to summer is not convenient to do strongman stuff regularly and she worries about not putting in the effort needed in those circumstances. But there are possible shows that don’t require as much gym specific stuff. She wasn’t the only person I ended up helping with stuff today. I brought my deadlift suit for a friend to try while awaiting their custom one. I’ll do what I can if people ask. So then on to my training. My intent was to not have this be exactly a maximal effort of a day considering I knew I’d have a later start to training and being on my feet for hours moving equipment and weights around does add up to fatigue. So this was still ramping up intensity like last week but to a greater degree. I was also keeping an eye on things as I was still kind of surprised my lower back was feeling the way it was. I had thought that doing deadlifts twice a week with the other stuff I did would’ve conditioned my lower back to handle the recovery better but I guess not. But I also guess not used to pulling this much as I didn’t go over 525lbs during those past 12 weeks. So 80lbs over that is not nothing. Still good to know I can pull heavy lifts out of my ass if needed. But rather not have that and have hell to pay recovery wise. So did mobility work and warming up. This workout I was still not sure what to do. By that I mean, I felt that the alternating weeks were unbalanced as far as events. Odd week being bag toss, fingal fingers and farmer’s. This week was pretty much going to be bag toss (heavy) and Hercules hold with gym assistance work. Not to say the gym assistance work was going to be easy. The one week kind of has to be that unbalanced to consolidate stressors (namely lower back). Also with making sure there were people there to assist with certain things (like fingers). Swapping stuff around just made something not work. So I was trying to think of what to do to have it not feel like this was the “easier” week. So what I initially was looking at was having heavy single leg exercise like a hatfield reverse lunge/split squat like I’ve done in the past and have the “lighter” exercise like this be the step downs. But seeing as how my knees need more time to recover and getting non-painful ROM there again, it seemed like this would be overkill. Especially adding more spinal loading after how taxing those block pulls ended up being. So a little at a loss. Then I remembered I was wistfully thinking about how I was probably not going to be having box jumps for this prep. Well, guess what is back on the menu? So rather than weekly, this will be every other week. Nothing fancy, just regular box jumps. 4x3 and try to keep these consistent and maybe increase a little with end goal to be trying to improve the max triple. So the bounding warming up was done here. Even though I’ve been doing 30” on other variations, I was going back to 24” for the planned working sets. Especially since form feels a bit different compared to the other two. Knees and the movement felt a little stiff but I got better and more comfortable as I went. I didn’t feel like I had the same hesitancy that I did when starting these out again. So from there it was back to the bag throws. Last week I had been testing things out more thoroughly to see what style worked best for me. Spinning around seemed to average better and got my furthest toss there. So now having decided to commit to it, this was to be the “heavy week”. Not entirely sure if this is going to be custom bag at show or what but plan is to do lighter week with smaller sized bag at 35lbs and then heavier week with normal sized bag at contest weight of 45lbs. A little bit of pain setting up the throw space as I need to due to the rules for this event and possible zero. I was going to just go right to the heavy bag but something told me to do the lighter one first. Didn’t want to pull/tear something spinning around with the weight of a hefty toddler in on hand. I was also trying to watch more throw videos to get the wind up down. I do feel I’m getting more comfortable with spinning and my body spatial awareness. But I was not thrilled with how things started out. My intent was to do 8-10 tosses with the heavy bag. But I was just not clicking with the light bag today like last week. I was not getting the same distance. So I decided I’d do 5 good tosses (I had one miss) and then I guess see how the heavy bag went. I think that tempered my expectations on the heavy bag as I got my first sub 20’ toss on that. Oof. But after that one, I had none under 21’ for this weight. This is still a work in progress. I was thinking after already doing 6 tosses with 35lbs that I’d only do 5 tosses with 45lbs. But then I got over 25’ on that fifth toss so I figured it was worth a shot to see if I was finally awake and limber. A few inches shy of that toss the next attempt and thinking of calling it there. But I had felt like I just got one thing off that time and wanted to try another just to see if things clicked. Ended up getting almost 2’ on my distance there. So that was exciting. I called it after I lost about 4’ on the next toss. I was hitting the limit here today. This is going to be probably be a more of how things feel on the day so not going to set imposed limits like I would with say tossing for height stuff. This is less taxing on my body. Wasn’t quite done with the moving things fast and getting off the ground exercises. I’m not entirely sure what to calls these as they are fairly unique. I’ve been calling them ssb zercher gms but doesn’t quite get it right as these are quite explosive. I’ve heard some refer to them as strongman power cleans. I’d say closer to a high pull lol. I was introduced to these in 2023 and I’ve liked them as something to work triple extension with object out in front but saving grip and not worrying about biceps strain. A way to keep the aspect of loading events in without doing them for offseason purposes. My thinking here is that but also to get more volume in for the start of fingal fingers. It has been close to 18 months since I last did these so starting light with not a ton of band tension. I usually hold something like a swiss ball here as I’ve often been doing them for stones but not this time. So I wasn’t too sure what to do with my hands. I also forgot how much pressure these apply to the body so felt a little lightheaded. I may hold a light medicine ball next time. Could tell that I was fatiguing by the end of these as not quite as powerful. I wasn’t wearing anything besides knee sleeves (on arms for comfort and on knees because). The violent nature and shrugging up probably not the best thing for the neck. I do like these on these straps vs off of rack pins or sawhorses. Will be adding more equipment next time. I made a change to exercise order from what I had initially. I was going to do grip stuff here but it seemed to make more sense to do the machine lower body/leg stuff while that was warm rather than cool off from doing grip. Grip is fine whenever for me. I’ve had to tinker with the lower body stuff as initially I was looking at doing stuff like ghrs and sled drags every session. But then my right hamstring the one tendon was feeling irritated and it didn’t seem wise to do ghrs and stick to something less intense but still work hamstrings. Additionally, after seeing how farmer’s walk had felt and with the 18” block pulls, I felt that it was a good idea to try and get more exercises like leg press in to help with building up that start position. Some science based lifting indicated hamstring leg curls seated before doing knee based quad work could help with the aches so I paired tempo seated leg curls with paused leg presses. Plan was leaving reps in the tank for 3x10-15 reps. This was definitely needed. Not sure if I want to stick to higher rep ranges next time or try and go up in weight and aim for the lower end. I do plan on going heavier outside of this for leg presses later in the cycle. Last thing then being grip. Hercules hold at the contest is a bit unique. It is the fingal fingers being used and the weight is going to be the same for each class but the handles are getting thicker. So 2” thick handles. No plan to use the actual Hercules hold until the last session I do stuff because of pain setting it up and it won’t be the same setup anyways. What has worked has been doing rolling handle/bar hangs. I’ve done about as well on these in training vs exclusively Hercules hold in the past few years. So I got 2” thick rolling handles to use. No clue what to expect here. Plan was to work up in sets of 5 seconds to warm up and do 2 sets of 20-30 seconds with time in the tank and rest as needed to get 45-60 seconds of work done. Bodyweight first and it felt pretty easy. These were hanging a little lower than I’d prefer so I didn’t want to do any dip belt weight added if I didn’t have to. There were some weight vests so I put one on just to see how that changed things. Not much really. I put on both of them then for that first set. I meant for that to be a 30 seconds hold but I guess I counted a little too fast in my head. That was too easy so I did end up having to use a dip belt. I called this one just about right as far as the upper limits. I counted fast here too but I made sure that even if I did that I got it to be at least 20 seconds. This was definitely tougher and closer to the limit. I may need to do lighter stuff to get used to longer hold times in the event this is too easy for me. I am getting some time under tension in with tempo rows, pull ups and trap bar b-stance rdls. Not sure if combination of the zercher stuff and this having the weight vests on but my neck was getting stiff again so not great. But other than that, felt strong here. Just have to be smart with recovery. Got 2 months to go. Cleaned up and slammed a shake before driving home. Spent time with family and then got home to stretch and clean up. Going to need to get some sleep.