April 14, 2025 - April 19, 2025 - Week 7

 April 15, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only, 5 seconds hold)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
87x3
112x3
137x3
163x3
163x3
163x3
163x3
163x3

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked, pin 20)
sbx4
abx4
lbx10
lbx10
lbx10

Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second)
45x6
95x5
135x4
185x3
225x2
265x6
265x6
265x6

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls/Band Incline Tate Extensions
32x12—12/abx15/abx23
32x12—12/abx15/abx23

Stretching
 
Comments: Feeling a little sore in the hamstrings and glutes from the past week. Understandable with the heavy pulls with the slightly wider stance and going up a lot in weight on the leg pressing (also heavier leg curls). It was to be expected. Not get the same amount of rest like I did last week with catching up as have to get back to having Saturday sessions be my “event day” sessions with the changes in the competition schedule. Left shoulder thing still present but generally doesn’t make a peep unless I try to do certain movements. I’m assuming it is improving. I’ve gotten a slight reprieve with work in that I’m not to be getting new work assigned for at least a week to get myself out of the backlog hole I’m currently in. Which isn’t to say I’m not as busy as I was. Still incredibly busy but now focusing on the most time consuming stuff that is behind. It is exhausting. Also trying to confirm that my membership for the Natural Strongman is good to go before I put in my leave for work. Weather being stupid in that mostly sunny but then periods of very intense rain and wind. I was hoping I could time it where I wasn’t training outside during one of those times. Warming up for the session a bit different when more the strict press focus session vs the push press focus session. Foam rolling and mobility stuff does not seem to make the left shoulder happy but I need to make sure it is moving and warm. Making sure forearms and elbows are good from Sunday training as well. Log strict pressing with bands this time around. Still 5x3 with same band setup. Just going up a little each time. The jumps weren’t as even so I didn’t do just 30lbs jumps as wanted to make sure I was not going into without adequately prepping. Usually I only do the holds on the last rep for the longer count for just the working sets but I guess I forgot and did that for the warming up and when I realized I just kept at it. My lower abs are still sore from the ab wheel stuff and leaning back noticeably put some tension there. Of course, the stormy weather appeared just in time for the working sets. Initially it was just really windy. A little distracting. Some branches started falling after the first set. I came back and the windy had knocked my camera over so brought it inside to film the rest of the sets. Then it started to rain. That was also distracting with how windy it was as there would be times where it was raining and then I’d be also hit by precipitation horizontally. I was feeling better as I did these. Second to last set felt really strong but I got a little off balance on the second set so it was a little tougher that rep than I’d have liked. I felt I made up for it on the last set when it was really windy and rainy. I did a little side to side look before putting it down. Brought in stuff and wiped it down while waiting for things to chill out a bit before moving on to band assisted pull-ups. Same amount of sets but rep range reduced to 8-10. I wasn’t really too concerned with the RIR (though to be 2-3RIR). Just seeing how things feel and then aim to match those reps for the 3 sets. Since I got 3x12 with the average band, I moved to light band. Did more warming up for this with the previous band tensions. Still hearing things shifting and moving in the left shoulder on these. So same deal as last week. I definitely opted for longer rests here to make sure I recovered between the sets. I do feel like I’m getting decent control with my back muscles here and not really overly straining my arms. So into the garage for more pressing stuff. The soft close grip board pressing with pauses. I was hoping my shoulders tolerated these. I had gone up 30lbs from what I had been doing so I knew I couldn’t be making big jumps like that on these going forward. These had worked out well enough so sticking with pauses and 3x5-6 reps. Always aiming for the 3x6. The soft setup for the board isn’t ideal with getting things consistent but it is what I have at the moment. I did feel like the warming up last time was good. Bracing to unrack seemed a little better this time. The pauses honestly may just be what makes these feel tougher than I hope they would. Also noticing that if I get out of place a little on these they feel a lot tougher. Last set the first few reps felt piss easy and then I had to readjust when I got a little too loose. Could also be because I started singing to Fleetwood Mac right before the set. Despite the rainy start and needing to setup things and move on, I was moving through the workout at a decent clip. I didn’t feel like I needed to stop the session to start prepping dinner. Last bit of the workout had some changes again. It had been a higher rep deloaded thing last time. The usual pair of the laterals and face pulls were essentially the same but no pauses like had been and the rep range decreased (10-15) so I could push things a bit if I wanted. The third wheel for the triceps was a change up. Essentially wrapping a band around the incline bench and doing extensions that way. I’ve done them before but it has been a few years I think. Those were a bit of an unknown. I guess the other stuff too as I wasn’t sure what I could handle with not doing higher reps and pauses. I was hoping to get 10 reps with the laterals as I’ve not pushed these in weight in some time and not in this style. I really do like these leaning in laterals for how they feel and how the shoulder muscles just pop out on them. I was happy that 10 wasn’t an absolute max here for me and I could do a bit more. These were pretty challenging. But good to see that shoulders are strong despite the impingement thing. Face pulls felt good. Band tension may need to be higher or I need to move the setup further back so these are tougher as I could’ve done more than 15 reps and had a fair more in reserve. The incline Tate extensions with bands were odd. Which lead to odd number of reps with the difficulty. I had holds each rep so that made things a bit tougher here. Went through that gauntlet twice and started getting dinner ready. Put stuff away and stretched after eating.
 
April 17, 2025 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Jack Pulls w/ bands (straps)
No Bands
135x3
Add Bands (+50lbs bottom/+100lbs top)
135x3
225x3
315x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
56’sx5
81’sx5
106’sx10
86’sx10
86’sx10

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bw+40x3/3
18”
bw+40x10/10
bw+40x10/10
bw+40x10/10

Back Extensions (5ct hold every 5 reps)/Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct)
bwx10/bwx14
bwx10/bwx8
bwx10/bwx3

Stretching

Comments: So I guess good news that I was able to confirm that I’m good to go with my membership for the competition. So I put in my leave (I was preapproved but I tend to hold off until I’m sure because stuff happens). Just wish that the windy and such calmed down a bit so I didn’t keep feeling like I have a cold when I wake up. Shoulder joints were feeling quite stiff and achy. Not the best thing when I’m not able to give as much rest for my shoulders this week with trying to get back on track. Honestly, I’m concerned about how things will be with Fingal fingers Saturday and then pressing on Monday. But that’s a future Craig problem. Warming up and with soft tissue work and mobility stuff. Been doing more for the calves and quads and it seems to be a good thing. Similar warming up to last week but I did remember to do the static stretching. I’m be honest here; I was eager to get into training just from doing the mobility and movement prep stuff. But doing some hanging did seem to take some tension out of my shoulders. The lighter week for deadlifts. I had made the executive decision to change things up and do contest height pulls against band tension. If the past two sessions are anything to go off of, it seems like the right choice. But guess wait and see. Plan here was 20lbs more than last time for the 5x3 and hopefully it doesn’t feel as rough at the start. Plate jumps working up too. I duct taped two of my wood panels together so I had a wider base to pull from. I can’t fit on a single tile if I’m doing the wider stance that seems to be the way to go here. Warming up doesn’t feel so bad until I get to 315lbs as that seems to be when it feels darn heavy. As is usually the case with these kind of things, I felt better as I went. I got a little silly towards the end with stomping around to Pantera playing. It takes a bit of time putting away the band platform (same as setting it up) so that was a bit of a breather before moving on to the accessory stuff. Paused chest supported dumbbell rows. So still tempo work and warming up with sets of 5 reps. Plan this time around was to do 10lbs more per handle than last time for a top set leaving 1-2RIR and then match reps with 20lbs taken off each dumbbell. Fatigue does seem to hit hard on these. I didn’t use any chalk this time around as I kind of wanted to work harder. I wasn’t sure what kind of reps I’ve done at this weight prior to trying but I figured it had to be at least 10 reps. I knew that could be a big ask just with how these have felt at times. I was somewhat tempted to take off my shirt due to the heat I was putting off but I felt it was best to keep it one for bench related things. I did manage a hard fought 10 reps here. Which I knew even with some decent rest that doing the down sets for matching reps was going to be tough. It was but not as bad as it could’ve been. Definitely needed longer rests like I did with these last week. Took a slight break to start getting my dinner prepped before finishing up the session. From there moving on step downs. Last time went well with how warming up went. I was thinking about trying to push the weight on these some more. I wasn’t sure how a bigger jump would be and if the glutes would be unhappy with me pushing too hard. Knees would likely be cranky but it has felt like they get over it after the first few reps of the first set. It has also been nice doing the 6” jump with warming up (no knee sleeves on that set). Seems a good enough gauge now that my knees are supporting the movement again. So for weight, I decided I’d go with the plateloaded kettlebell handle since I’d rather not use dumbbells since I only have so many solid ones and plateloaded gets tricky. The kettlebell will have a decent handle and weight will be out and away. I loaded it up to 40lbs and it was feeling a little heavy in my hands. Did I make a mistake? Apparently not as I felt these went quite well after the initial hesitation and creakiness of the first few reps. I’ve not done more weight than this on these and I may be going heavier next session. I did ditch the shirt at this point as I really start putting off some heat when doing unilateral leg work. The final piece of the puzzle for this workout was the makeshift superset of back extensions and paused ab wheel rollouts. No changes to what I did last time with bodyweight for both (5ct holds every 5 reps for back extensions and 5ct pauses for ab wheel) and keeping it as 3x10 and 25 total reps respectively. Back extensions felt easier this time. Maybe used to them or maybe because I wasn’t still reeling from a heavy event session that pushed my workouts out and having done them after the heaviest deadlifts of the training cycle. The ab wheel felt the same or even harder honestly. Still some soreness in the lower abs from these last week. But I know I will get used to these. Important for working my brace while resisting movement in this plane. Despite the toughness, I managed to improve by a rep on the first two sets so only had to worry about a triple for the last set. The back extensions felt like active rest and almost relaxing. Put stuff away and got dinner ready before stretching out. Hopefully recovery is good for Saturday and Monday training coming up.

April 19, 2025 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Fingal Fingers
500x1
500x1
500x1
500x1
500x2

Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
100x30’/30’
140x30’/30’
190x30’/30’
230x30’    
280x30’
200x30’/250x30’/300x30’ in 59.27 seconds
200x30’/250x30’/300x30’ in 59.53 seconds

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
40x30’8”
40x29’10”
40x26’10”
40x26’3”
40x27’11”
40x28’0”
40x28’10”
40x29’1”
40x19’0”
40x26’6”
40x25’10”

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Backwards Sled Drags (turf)
sb’sx60/435x90’
sb’sx60/435x90’

Stretching

Comments: I was nervous and anxious coming into this session. Speficially because of the planned fingal fingers stuff. Thinking about the left shoulder stuff and how things would feel and then worries that this training would effect over training then on Monday (have to get back to M,W,S rotation). Overhead stuff and comparing numbers and recovery is touchy for me. My intent was to get up at my work time to insure that I had people to help with training today but I could tell that work stress (the system stopped working after lunch for the rest of the day) and only having one day rest from deadlifting session that I needed to not try and force things. So I slept in about 90 minutes. Since a bit later than planned, I had to kind of change things up with my training from what I had written but honestly makes sense to do it. I was going to put bag throws at the end so that I did fingal finger stuff first which needs people to help with. Contest will have bag throw as third after fingal finger and farmer’s walk so get an idea of how things will be. Traffic to get out of Harrisburg was annoying but mostly smooth driving after that. Decent amount of people there training. The people that I’d need help from were doing stones so I was a little worried I had slept in too late and I’d be without help. One thing that kind of put a damper was that the Hercule hold was setup. That is possibly my fault in that I had messaged the gym owner about it being ok to set it up next week so that I can do my one testing session (been doing the rolling handle hangs) and maybe because they’d have to do it they set it up this week. Allegedly some people that she trains did it this morning. But it was in the way of the 400lbs fingal finger. I wasn’t too sure what I was really going to be doing here but ideally I was going to use that in some capacity today. I’d ruminate on it some more after I warmed up for the day. The doors to the gym were open so there was good air flow going as well. Still some left shoulder things but warming up seemed to be good. With what was in the way and such (the Hercules hold and people doing yoke and sandbag carries on the turf) I was going to have to setup the finger outside. My plan was to try the 500lbs finger this prep and that was kind of a bucket list item for me to do. But I was trying to look at other ways to work fingers heavy and I think part of it was knowing how much of pain to setup it was going to be and worries about going at it essentially cold. But I decided for the sake of brevity that I’d just go for the 500lbs without any warming up beyond what I was doing. This was difficult to setup and it took at times 3-4 people to get things moved. I ended up getting a scratch on the back of my middle finger getting enough weight to anchor things and had to bandage that up so that I didn’t end up bleeding all over stuff. See how this goes. I was really nervous here. I did know that I wouldn’t be able to clean this thing like I can with the 400lbs with no real issue and I’d have to do the bump it up method. Can definitely see where the zercher stuff is helping here on this. My mobility seems good to be able to catch it and rest on my sternum and then get my arms under it to press up. I had been worried about how that would feel and it was not problem. The added weight was definitely noticeable on the walking up the finger part. So yippee. With how that went, I decided that I’d do 3 more singles (3 reps is the most I’ve seen someone do on this in competition) and if that felt good, do a double to be a little more contest specific and see how I deal with going from one rep to the other. Definitely noticeable that one way was harder than the other as uneven payment. Probably a good thing as this is likely on pavement/blacktop for the competition. I was taking less than 2 minutes rest here and took about 7 minutes rest before going for the double. First rep was real easy and second rep the walking part was quite tough. I feel that I could do 2 more reps in a minute if needed. This was a bear to put away as well. I’m feeling confident with the finger for the show but I know this isn’t exactly it. While same dimensions, the finger at the show is lighter without weight by 150lbs. But 75lbs is going to be added to the end and I know how tough that make things feel from just the putting slam balls in the lighter fingers. So my last session will likely be on the 400lbs finger and see about adding more weight to that to try and get all my bases covered. Finger away (still had 800lbs of 100’s though still) and got things going for the farmer’s walk event. I’ve been doing EOMOM runs of 30’ the past few sessions with hopes that it would build up my strength endurance and repeatability of the pick. My other hope was that doing the leg presses/sled drags/leg curls has been conditioning my legs so that I only have to worry about whether I pick it up as if I can, I’m finishing it. Plan for today was not to go to absolute limit here on contest style setup. I have my last heavy deadlift session for next week and I can’t really push out days on that really (maybe I can by one day). I wasn’t too sure really how I would adequately warm up for this as I feel that going right into it was not a good idea with the large jumps in weight. Also trying to think how I should do this with plans on warming up at contest as well. My thinking was to do my usual warming up with 40-50lbs jumps for sets to 280lbs for a single run and then do the contest setup runs. I was also thinking about just doing one run but I figured that if I didn’t feel completely dead that I should do two runs so I can compare how things feel with my different hard belts. A good plan I thought. But then it came time to do this and the handles I wanted to use (50lbs) were nowhere to be found. I had been using them the past month after they had been refurbished from the one pin being broken/bent. I looked around and couldn’t find them. I asked and nobody at the gym had any idea. So I’d need to use other handles. I didn’t want to use the I-beams as I’m fairly certain they won’t be what will be used. They also have the plates up higher and make them susceptible to tipping over if I load them up with 25’s like I’ll have to do for the actual runs. So that meant my “best” option would be the Titan Fitness handles. I really don’t care for them. They aren’t solid and they have knurling in spots and the pins to lock the handles get in the way. I’ve gotten blood blisters in my pinkie fingers from them. I felt I was moving well warming up but picks were feeling tougher than I’d like them to be. When it was go time, I swapped out my shirt for a fresh one so that I wasn’t worrying about sweat as a concern. Plan was to do 200lbs and do 2 weight increases for ending weight to be 300lbs. My hope is that 350lbs is there for me. This is challenging and I feel that 350lbs will be a big difference maker. I don’t know what will be necessarily from a gamesmanship standpoint with how the events will play out with athlete order. Nerves again. 200lbs was no issue and then having to add the weight. Staying bent over here does not allow for recovery. I got first two one at a time but tried the second pair at the same time. I’m not sure how things will be setup at show. 250lbs was tougher than I’d like with the pick up. About the same with adding the weights here to bump up to 300lbs. I knew that with how 250lbs felt, this was not going to be easy. A good bit more strain than I wished was needed but I got it up and got it done. I was hesitant to do it again with how tough it ended up being with 300lbs but knew I needed to test things out. I know I can do it again as I had done multiple runs with the top weight. It took a bit for me to feel ready to go again. I think I started putting away some of the 100lbs plates as well. Got rechalked up and get. I felt like I was off to a better start here compared to the last run. I kind of knew what was coming. I got a hiccup with the 250lbs as when I dropped them, the wire that connects the pin lock to the pin flipped up and over so that it was where my grip was and I had to fight with it a good bit to get my hands a clear purchase before going. I also knew what was coming with 300lbs so that was another strain, grin and bare it. Both runs were essentially the same but run two would’ve been faster if I didn’t have to fight with the handle. Something I shouldn’t have an issue with contest equipment. I didn’t realize how close to a minute I was here so I do still have 30 seconds but not really much time as about half of that will probably be putting the next pair of weights on and then having 15 seconds to finish up the run with 350lbs. So really going to be a big risk. Blowing my effort there could mean I don’t have anything left for deadlift which could be a bigger need to get compared to other things. Again, have to see where I am and on the day. So then on to bag throws. Setup stuff and got some warming up in with the rotations and movement prep. I could tell that I was feeling the previous two events. I had brought my own 40lbs bag since the one at the gym was looking like it has seen better days and I was worried it might not be there when I showed up because of that. Hell, I’ve had to use 3 different farmer’s handles in these past 7 weeks of training. My first toss felt surprisingly good but that seems to be where that ended. I hadn’t felt like throws were the best last week and this trend seemed to continue. My first throw was my best throw. Just seemed like I couldn’t get things just right. I had one truly terrible throw that was under 20’ so I did another toss to get 11 throws above 25’ for my own sanity. I could tell my right knee was feeling a little sore/stiff and that my obliques and lower back were tense. This again was the lighter day and it was a good thing I guess that I see that there is a decrease in performance doing these after other events (kind of knew that). But I guess it is good that my first throw was my best considering I only get one shot at contest. Last thing then was the pairing of band leg curls and backwards sled drags. These had been a bit rough last time but it was a unique circumstance. Same bands and figured screw it, I’ll do 60 reps then. Same weight on the sled but figured I’ll do almost the entire length of the turf. These did feel better this time around. I took a bit longer between the sets because someone was setting up axle stuff in the turf area using the soft plyo stuff as jerk blocks. And I wanted to give it a good solid effort since this will be the last time this cycle for training. As expected, had to break up the reps on the leg curls to get 55 reps again (30/10/10/5/5) and then finished up with the second drag which felt pretty good. Downed my shake before putting stuff away. Thankfully no soreness in my ankles, knees or tibs like last time. Stretched out my calves before driving home. Thankfully I have a day of rest and off work after this one. Looking like one more touch heavy for each of the events.