October 6, 2024 - October 12, 2024 - Week 18

 October 7, 2024 – Week 18, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
No Bands
87x5
Add Bands
90x3
120x2
150x2
175x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x2

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
105x5
155x5
205x5
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
255x5
255x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
230x5
230x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: The heavy stuff of this training cycle is starting to kick my ass. My left ankle/foot was kind of cramping on me a little walking Sunday. When feet and hands get that kind of fatigued, I know that I’ve been pushing it hard. Body feeling stiff so important to move around and make sure I’m monitoring stuff loosening up with the active recovery stuff. Luckily, it does seem that there is going to be some spacing between the heavier stuff as far as moving events going forward in this prep. I mean, I’m already doing nearly 15% and 20% above contest for farmer’s and yoke respectively. Contest weight sandbag stuff, over 90% on deadlift and ideally at 80% or less on axle (assuming that is on point for 300lbs or more). At this point it’s a matter of staying injury free and recovering well enough to keep progressing. As I want to be feeling strong for whatever and not just this upcoming show that I could do right this second. Weight is about the same as last week so another week under 275lbs. Work thankfully wasn’t that stressful of a day but week has only just begun. Warming up was ok. I was a little slow going. There was stuff still achy and sore. But not as much as I was expecting if that makes sense. I may have been doing the wrong variation of push up this whole time after seeing Mr. Westerling put up an example video of some of the warming up stuff I do. Oh well, still does the job. Starting things off with log. Back to doing things strict press style with bands and weight bumped back up to 200lbs for the planned working sets of 5x2. My mind must have been elsewhere as I setup the rack height one too high and didn’t realize until it was time for the working weight sets. Perhaps I was just noticing that I was stressed/fatigued in that I was having issues with sensory stuff (my music seemed too loud today) and my forearms cramping slightly just pinching gripping plates to weigh down the racks I was using. Despite that, I was feeling mostly good with how the log pressing was feeling. I wasn’t getting lightheaded today. I was really getting good movement on the first rep of each set but seemed to not be that consistent on the second rep. First set the second rep I took it a bit more back so it was in my throat. Second set I got a bit forward on my first rep so lead to a tougher second rep. Third set I think I got surprised by the speed of the first rep and lost tightness on the eccentric and had the weight go way forward on the second rep. I feel I finally got everything on the right page for the last two sets with the last one feeling the best. In to the garage for the rest of the workout. I was trying to move things along so dinner wasn’t super late. Right shoulder was a little achy but not as bad as it was two weeks ago for this session where it was feeling like I got a needle jabbed in the medial deltoid. My left thumb was holding up and so far no bleeding from the wound. Chest supported barbell rows with pauses, up by 5lbs with 2x5 and having the option to lower to 30lbs less or so from the top set weight for that second set if needed. This had been a bit rough last time I did these so I was ready for it to be like that this time as well. Forearms were sore but thankfully not so much that I felt it hampered anything warming up without straps. I got set for the working weight and was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t feel as difficult as 250lbs did last time. So I kept it the same for the second set. That one was a little bit tougher. The pressure from those holds did lead to the cut opening a little and leaking some (but only a little) so I put a band-aid on and taped to keep things clean for the rest of the session. So next was benching. Chains and 2x5. These are lighter for now and focused on speed which is the best thing at this point. Just 5lbs more than last time. I was having issues working up in weight but not what is typical. I think it was due to the bandage and tape on the left thumb as it was visually throwing me off and I think having it wrapped also deprived me of my usual tactile sensation I use to get my grip set. So working up I had some issues with getting everything to line up with my form but seemed to get it to cooperate and fall in line for the working sets. These were fine. Just got to keep an eye on the right shoulder here. Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. 2 sets of 15-20 reps with a medium band. Did these in the garage as well to speed up things. I was tempted to go up in band tension with adding a small band but figured it was best to try and stretch the current band some more considering the sore forearms. This did seem to be the right call as I was able to manipulate the band to make things tougher. With that done, I started preparing dinner and then while it was simmering, put the weights and such away. Stretched after eating.

October 9, 2024 – Week 18, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
495x2
585x2

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

Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+50x32

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

Stretching
 
Comments: As expected, the work week got hectic Tuesday and Wednesday after the false calm of Monday. I think there was also stress worrying about family in the south in path of the hurricane as well. But they seem to know the drill and what to do. Sent in absentee ballot since won’t be in the state for election day. Cold enough in the morning to switch from A/C to heat now. I was both looking forward to training and worried. Eager because of what I was hoping to be doing on the wagon wheel deadlifts this session but worried because I was feeling noticeably more worn then I was two weeks prior. I think my hope here was to get through this heavy set of deadlifting and that the holiday coming up and having it be a light event session would allow me to recover a bit. Warming up was ok. Nothing feeling terribly achy so that was good. Then as mentioned, the anticipated wagon wheel pulls to start things off. Same as last time with soft touch and go reps but working up to a top set of 3 reps. I wanted 585lbs here. I felt like I had that in me last time and it would put me ahead of the game. Still leave something in the tank but not as much. I was concerned about my hamstrings feeling a bit sore still from Saturday but seemed to be fine with setup and working up. I was also keeping an eye on the left hand to make sure nothing was bleeding but it seems it has healed up nicely enough that I needn’t worry about it. The plate jumps were feeling pretty good and feeling about how they felt last time. So I was feeling like 585lbs was a done deal. Until it wasn’t. I got set and was amped up and that first pull did feel like it took longer to get moving than I would’ve liked. That was my first indication that my top end might be not there today. But despite the slower pull, I felt in control and that the second rep was pretty solid. But I guess not as I went for the third rep and I guess I lost my brace slightly and it got me a little out in front and loose in my lats. I got the bar back up to my knees (not quite above the top) and I started shaking and that shaking had it get too far in front and I lost it. I was quite pissed that I missed a rep. I hate missing reps and lifts. Has me doubting myself. Didn’t want to just throw the baby out with the bath water here. Need to realize I’m fatigued a good bit with essentially having Saturday be a max effort farmer’s pick and other stuff feeling fatigued like grip, upper back and lower body. I did this with prep near the end on the suited pulls and managed to salvage things to keep momentum going forward and hit PR at contest. I’m still ahead of predictions as far as this lift goes as the suggested for next time was to do this weight for a double. Just have to see if plan gets adjusted according to feedback. I think the missed lift thing sucks for me so much because it happens more often with the things that need work for me like my overhead and deadlift while rarely happens with usual events. And if it does, it is usually when I’m going a bit over the contest weights. Had to get myself focused on moving on. Since indoors last time worked so well with the step ups, I decided to do that again. Quicker setup for things and no issues with weather conditions. Knee sleeves on here. Starting things off with bodyweight and higher reps. This felt tougher than I recall last time but that could be because since then I’ve done the heaviest farmer’s walk and heaviest yoke since 2018 back to back. I noticed front squats last week had felt tough too. But more so the left side has a tougher go of things here vs the right side. Then added weights for the top set with plan of 12-15 reps here. I really must have been distracted or out of it after the deadlift miss because I accidentally grabbed my 15lbs kettlebells instead of my 10lbs. It felt odd in my hands and I was wondering if that was because of the scabbing on the one hand or something. Bodyweight had already felt tougher than I was expecting so adding weight felt about that too. Only realizing after the fact that I was doing more weight than I was doing last time. Oops. I’ll have to see if I should go back down or just stick at this point. If so, I’ll just grab the 25lbs plates with grips as I’m sure that will feel better than holding multiple things. Wall sits were next. I had already switched to the regular style a session early to help with recovery for the knees. I can also tolerate being in a deeper squat position compared to the single leg version. This felt as nice as I guess holding a wall squat can be. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. These plates had made things challenging again and I was able to go up 5 reps last time. I wasn’t sure if I could get 35 reps this time for another 5 reps. Left side my glute and hip flexor were feeling tight but I was feeling decently strong. These got a lot tougher with this setup so even trying to do the chunks method of counting doesn’t really help a ton. But it did manage to get me over 30 reps though so maybe not nothing.  Paused hanging knee raises to wrap things up. Kicking myself for not trying this setup in the garage first as it works so much better. I was imagining that this was probably going to be tougher than usual with the fatigue in the grippers and just how the hip flexion feeling after the other stuff. But apparently I was good to go here and managed to finally get an extra rep after several sessions at 25 reps. So minus the missed rep on deadlifts, this was a good session. But of course I sour it thinking about that missed rep because that was the “important” thing. Put stuff away as I got dinner ready. Stretched afterwards.

October 12, 2024 – Week 18, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (turf)
200x60’
300x60’
400x60’
500x60’
600x60’ in 9.70 seconds
600x60’ in 9.27 seconds

Yoke Pushes (turf, 60 seconds rest)
200x50’/200x50’
200x50’/200x50’
200x50’/200x50’
200x50’/200x50’
200x50’/200x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: I was definitely feeling a little deflated in my confidence after the missed deadlift rep on Wednesday. I’d like to say I wasn’t thinking about it and having it weigh on me but it was. But I think that just made me aware that I may be a little overworked at the moment with combination of training, work and life. I’m probably going to need to deload a little in stuff to get back to a good equilibrium. Think and review past trainings to get things sorted. But I knew I was feeling a bit more worn and that I may be needing a break. I knew this coming gym session wouldn’t be as taxing as most have been with event work and hopefully with the three day weekend I’ll be able to get some rest in to offset stuff. I was feeling tired so I ended up not walking Friday so as to keep focus on work so not having things to do Tuesday right away and then be able to just eat meals early and get some extra sleep. I knew that I was going to struggle with getting up early so just set my alarm for my usual work time. I ended up hitting snooze for another half hour before getting out of bed. I already had everything prepped so I just had to eat breakfast and brush my teeth really before going to train. I was seriously considering just training at home as the session was lighter and just two things. But I told myself it was important to do this at the strongman gym. There were two lane closures near my house and I was again thinking of turning around but it thankfully wasn’t much worse than when the traffic is congested anyways. I was a bit surprised there were as many people there as there were. It had not been very active two weeks ago and was essentially a ghost town last week. I wasn’t really in a rush here since I only had two things to do this session. Someone was doing tire flips and a I was slightly tempted to do that (only 425lbs tire). Warming up was fine. I did try using what I think is the correct pushup variation in the warm-ups this time around. Can definitely tell that some things in the lower body aren’t quite recovered, but it is early in that. I’ve not yet nuked myself like I’ve done in the past. First up was yoke. It has been heavy and more weight on this and farmer’s walk every session. But this is a change of pace to hopefully stretch things out as well as skill work. Plan here was to work up to 600lbs for two set. Initially as 50’ but I suggested I do contest distance of 60’ here when it comes to the lighter stuff. I want this because I’ve been doing 50’ and I’ve been noticing that I start off strong but seem to sputter out a bit near the end on my heavier stuff so I’d rather get used to the contest distance and going fast in this capacity. This was part of the reason I wanted to be at the gym. I’ve not really done this weight for speed in quite some time and certainly not during this prep. I was essentially doing just the casual pace stuff and I wanted to see what I could do on turf for this distance and get timing. I wouldn’t really be able to get that luxury at home. My knees were feeling pretty darn achy getting into position under the yoke so I know things are getting worked with training. 100lbs jumps and this was definitely me trying to go 100% speed or near it on the warming up sets. 500lbs was feeling slower/tougher than I’d have liked here. But just going by feel. I’ve not really timed the runs on turf as I didn’t do them a lot in the past. But I do know that turf tends to feel heavier on the body and I’m usually about a second slower compared to what I do on concrete floor. I really don’t know what my expectations were here but I just had an idea in my head that I had to get under 12 seconds here. I mean that wouldn’t be the speed I wanted here but I figured that was where the measure had to be. But ideally under 10 seconds to be in a good place. First set I got set and it was decent but I didn’t feel like this was my best and how I should be moving. But it was under 10 seconds so that was something there. Second set I felt my quality of stride and movement was better and that was about half a second faster there. So goal met here. The only other thing for the session then was sled work, which I’ve decided to have as yoke pushing on turf instead so only have to use one implement and make things interesting. I was told to use 200lbs for this session with the same 5 sets of 100’ (50’/50’ for this) with a minute rest. I was finding a little tricky to get the yoke right so that I wasn’t lifting it up when I was pushing. But it still seems temperamental depending on the angle so I have to be consistent. I’m not sure if the turf in the strip vs the wind tunnel are different but this felt harder than what I did last time with a little more weight. I feel like I did more last time before this session but It could be the cumulative fatigue telling me to back off some. I had kept my knee sleeves on for these but took them down after the third set to see if that helped at all with my leg fatigue. Maybe a little. The fatigue wall hit hard on the fifth set like is usually the case on these things for me (although hasn’t been as of late). It took a bit for me to feel well enough to get my breathing right and my legs to feel comfortable supporting myself without feeling sick. Like last week, I decided to stick around at the gym to stretch out before going. George showed up late and I talked with him a bit. I then had a good idea about how to train for an event coming up at OSG (wrecking ball hold) and had to try that out to see if it worked and boy that did. Like it is almost perfect. I guess I’m also a little bored about doing the same events for so many weeks on end and nothing coming up really is that exciting. Hopefully I rest up well and get some good ideas on paper to get me through another couple weeks and feeling hunky-dory.

September 29, 2024 - October 5, 2024 - Week 17

 September 30, 2024 – Week 17, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press (one clean)
50x5
80x3
110x2
140x2
170x1
200x1
220x1
240x1

Axle Push Presses (EMOM)
240x1
240x1
240x1
240x1
240x1

Band Assisted Pull-ups
sbx5 at pin 21
abx5 at pin 21
lbx5 at pin 21

12” Log Incline Bench Presses w/ Bands (+5lbs/+25lbs)
87x8
117x5
147x3
177x2
207x8

Chin Up Holds
bw+30x20 seconds+8 seconds eccentric

Active Shoulder Hangs
bw+55x20 seconds+10 seconds relaxed

Stretching
 
Comments: It has been raining for over a week straight at this point. Not generally heavy and there are periods were it has stopped for a little bit. Mostly light rain. But it has been a long period of continuous rain. It has been light enough that it hasn’t stopped me from doing my walks which I feel I need to keep up with so that everything is feeling good and not tight. My right knee was feeling stiff from the heavy yoke work. My lower legs were working hard and them being fatigued means they are tight and make the knees tight. I was kind of expecting that. Bodyweight back under 275lbs which is generally a good weight for me. So less than 10lbs to get to 265lbs if needed and making it gradual. I got to 255lbs gradually so not going to force things. Other stuff was also feeling beat and sore from Saturday. Bit ole friction burn on my left trap from the yoke and my left forearm was quite sore from the effort needed to pick up the 325lbs sandbag. I may need to implement it more this training prep after I figure out how doing “just” contest weight works out. I’ve been generally good with not having miserable weather when I have to train outside for overhead work and even when it has been, usually it is something that I can still do safely. This was not the case and there wasn’t a guarantee that the rain would let up so I was debating waiting until the next day (not able to confirm weather wouldn’t still be raining) and remembered I could go to the one local gym for a drop-in so that ended up being the case. I’ve not been there in like at least 9 months so some changes. It is a bit cramped and I was stressed with the number of people there and finding place to do my warming up. I realized that the setup here wasn’t ideal for pretty much anything after the main thing I needed to do here and figured if it stopped raining I’d go home to finish up. Warming up stuff felt mostly decent. Knees were aching more than I’d like. Shoulders still feeling achy but maybe better. Axle to start things off. Clean and press. Which was why I didn’t want to test this out in the rain. Knowing my gangly uncoordinated self that I could end up with an injury. I actually brought my own axle and collars to the gym so that I was still using my stuff. It was a good call as someone at the gym ended up using the axle there for deadlifting. I was not sure how things were going to go. My knees had felt like crap on the log push pressing last week and I wasn’t sure if things were fully recovered from how exhausted and burnt I was feeling two week’s prior. It has been like four months since I’ve done the clean motion with an axle. Left forearm sore and just hoping nothing was aching and hurting. Other than my right knee being stiff it was good. The volume has been reduced a good bit on overhead stuff to hopefully help with recovery and have me feeling good and fresh. Plan here working up to 240lbs for a single and have it feel easy. Again, besides the knee, I was feeling myself here. I felt powerful and like 300lbs would’ve gone up. That was not the end of the axle stuff. Now since not at home, I couldn’t just put the weights on the rack in front of me to do rack work. The power rack was on the other side of the gym so had to strip all the weights off and load up the axle there. So I knew that the first set would be a little off from setting up and such. But even when I do that at home it seems the case first set out of the rack feels a little off and stiff. This was to be 5 singles with the same weight out of the rack done EMOM style. I was a little nervous here with having people around as I was needing a space for a bit and I kept thinking on the triceps struggle I had the last time. As expected, the first rep went out in front a lot but I didn’t have that issue with the reps after that. Just my right knee being unhappy with things. Watching the video back, these all looked quite powerful. I’m definitely getting my hip drive and my shoulders/triceps are firing in concert with my mobility movement in the press. So this seems to bode well as a good sign for the change. It also has me appreciating the chain work I was doing as that stuff was a lot tougher and I think it would still be beneficial to have that be used in the future for offseason work again and even for blocks in building up on this movement for longer prep again. Hell, I wouldn’t mind doing the chain variation as my rack work after the clean and press stuff. At this point, I packed things up and drove home to finish up the workout. Not ideal with it being as late as it was but it’s what I was going to do. The axle had gone well so I was in a good mood I guess. Band assisted pull-ups after that. Plan was to work up to a set of 5 reps that was tougher than the last time I did them. So drop in volume and not as many reps here. It sounds like the goal is to keep lowering until no bands at all. I know I can do bodyweight pull ups but not exactly guaranteed to be pulling as explosively or getting as much above the bar so still worth my time to go up a little each session. Ideally, I’d adjust the settings with the height of the bands and the band tension so that it would be easy and build up to the working set. But I was like an hour behind schedule from having to drive out to a gym during rush hour and tear down and drive back. So I was trying to just move things along as quickly as I could and get to the eating and stretching part. So I did what I’ve been doing with just keeping the same pin height for all the sets and swapping out the bands. I was a little cautious here because of the sore forearms and trying to keep the bar dry. I think I was also keeping my legs more tucked/bent as I usually let them extend a little to keep some band assistance going throughout the movement but now at a height where I can come off the band at the top regardless of the band tension. So that is where adjusting the height probably makes more sense going forward for the warming up. But top set was fine and strong. Then incline log pressing. I was leery about this after the missed rep last time (and having to roll it off my body and all that jazz). Weight was reduced and keeping the bands but just one top set of 6-8 reps. 207lbs was the suggested which should be safe in that I’ve done 20lbs more for 5 reps with this setup. First set did feel a little like last time but got better as I went. I knew I was better rested as I was able to have some pep and excitement going into the top set here. Told myself if it felt crap and I was slowing down a lot I’d stop at 6 reps but felt powerful and strong so did 8 reps here. So that went well. Finishing up with holds/hangs. Both are for just 20 seconds (and then extra time stuff) and if I hit that, I can increase weight next time by 5lbs for each. I was successful with that last time so 5lbs more this time. The rain had picked up again. I wasn’t too concerned here as it was just 20 seconds holds here and it wouldn’t really be my grip having an issue. There was uncertainty with the chin up hold with the sore forearms. But this actually felt stronger than last time so that was good. The active hang actually did feel tougher than last time by a good bit but still managing to do the time no problem. Put stuff away before eating dinner and stretched afterwards. Hopefully this trend continues. And this rain chills out.

October 2, 2024 – Week 17, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats w/ Chains (+28lbs)
No Chains
45x5
Add Chains
45x5
95x3
135x3
185x2
225x2
275x2
325x2

Hyper Extensions
bwx20

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
25+90x20 seconds

Planks
bw+75x60 seconds

Side Planks
bw+15x60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Still raining. Again, I guess it is a good thing it has just been light rain for all this time otherwise there would be issues with flooding here. It has been over 13yrs since there was last flooding severe enough in the area to need federal assistance involved. Light enough to be able to go for a walk in at times and just has everything feeling deary with the cloud cover. Work has been thankfully not stressful this week but I know it will pick up again in due time like it always does. Keeping an eye on the right knee. Raining so much that my garage lights won’t turn on. The electrical situation there isn’t the best and it is hard to get the lights to come on after it rains. So it just meant having a little bit darker of an environment for training today. I felt ok with warming up. Joints not feeling 100% but I can tell that my right shoulder is feeling better and starting to recover from how it was feeling a few weeks prior when having to reduce workload there. Front squats with chains for the start of the session. Dropping down to just a top double working up in doubles. Still with 5-10lbs more than what I did last time and the back up plan of lighter for 2x5 as the plan it seems. Back off would only be if I was feeling terrible and needing to shut things down because I’m cooked. It wouldn’t be because I was feeling beat as I was feeling pretty good but it would be a different matter if the right knee was not feeling so hot warming up. I was very cautious with the unracking of weight to make sure knees were feeling ok. I know the right knee is feeling off slightly in the mechanical sense because of the added stress from over 800lbs yoke walks and doing push pressing three weeks in a row. I know that it will calm down once adjusted to the new normal and having some wave loading of some stressors. Just have to keep an eye on things, do what I can to get things feeling good and be patient/tough it out. I was feeling pretty good initially with warming up. After the initial warming up going with 40-50lbs jumps here. But at some point it started to feel heavier than I’d have liked it to feel. Going into this from how last time these went (I had been a bit stressed at the time) I was figuring doing 10lbs more than what I did for doubles last time would be no big deal. It does seem though that when stuff is changed on this (like the reps decreased or sets decreased) that it seems to end up a tougher session than expected. Might be I expect it to be easier because of the reduction in some capacity. I was not planning for the sets to be this challenging working up. 225lbs and above felt like they were 30lbs or more than they actually were if I had to quantify it. 275lbs that first rep felt about right but then the second rep was a bit of struggle as I think I didn’t rebrace and took my foot off the gas a little prematurely. But I knew I had this top double because of the work I did last time and that I’ve had a worse feeling penultimate set and have it go ok on the working weight. I knew I was going to need to break up the reps on this double with rebracing breath with how I was feeling/doing today on these. This felt heavy but I didn’t let that get in my head as I know that that doesn’t mean I can’t move it. That first rep went well enough. Even with taking a breath to rebrace for the second set I had issues keeping it and felt myself lose it, making for a much tougher second rep. At this weight, I may need to consider outside lifting for this going forward. Assuming it isn’t raining like it has. See how I feel for next time but may need to plan on just the 5lbs increase next time. Slight break before moving on to the core work stuff. As per usual, warming up for back extension holds with reps. 20 reps again. These were feeling a little more challenging than they had last time. Not to the point where I was feeling the burn or fatigue but more so than just the easy going feeling these were last time. I think I stretched out the break a bit here from doing front squats and then doing these before then doing the hold itself to try and give myself time to recover. For the hold, still 20 seconds being the max time before stopping (leaving a few seconds in the tank). Neck harness weight the same at 25lbs. Finally at 90lbs so can hold two 45’s on these. This actually felt easier to get started and into position compared to the last two times I’ve done these. Felt challenging to hold but once I got near the 20 seconds time I felt like I got a second wind and could’ve gone more than a handful of seconds longer. These have been a good builder for me with the back side of the body and getting used to tolerating the strain/load of heavy pulls. On to the planks. I really see no reason to go beyond 75lbs on the standard plank at this point. Maybe I’ll go heavier if I feel like it. But same weight for this session. It was a good call as these were feeling challenging today with holding the brace. Perhaps that is why the front squats were also feeling harder. My braced breathing was good. Then side planks. I decided to do 15lbs for the hell of it. Not much difference between 10lbs and 15lbs kettlebell really. Also meant I didn’t need to get stuff from the sun room and could just do the garage. These went better than last time. The balance issue was almost nonexistent with the added weight compared to the past two sessions. A lot less shoulder ache in the right side compared to last time (which is good sign stuff is recovering). Braced breathing there is still a discrepancy between this variation and the prone style as well as between the right and left side. But both sides were greatly improved from the previous two times with weight added. These side planks felt strong compared to the prone style which leads me to think that area was what was fatigued somewhat this session. I wouldn’t think just a few singles of axle cleans would do that haha. Put stuff away and prepared dinner before stretching out.

October 5, 2024 – Week 17, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Farmer’s Walk
90x50’
140x50’
190x50’
240x50’
290x48’5” (dropped short)
340x50’ in 15.13 seconds

Sandbag Carry/Load Runs
200x30’/48”/30’
200x30’/48”/30’
250x30’/48”/30’
300x30’/48”/30’

Sled Drags
35x100’
125x100’
(60 seconds rest)
200x100’
200x100’
200x100’
200x100’
200x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: It finally stopped raining here Thursday. But of course that meant that everyone in the state had to go and mow their lawns immediately so allergies were pretty bad. It was actually pleasant outside for Thursday and Friday with walking. Right knee is stiff at times. I figured it made sense to continue to wake up early for training so that I had time in the afternoon to do stuff. Especially since plan was to do a family thing earlier in the evening today. Slept in a little bit but still out the door by 9:00AM. Drive out was fine. It seems to be much smoother drive when I get out there and hour earlier. I was expecting to see people there when I got to the gym but there was just about no body there. Only one person for strongman stuff and they left before I had finished up warming up. And only had another person come in to do strongman after that (another did show up when I was finishing the session). Oh well. Warming up was ok. Usually my right knee is the only knee that is acting up on me but today the left one was feeling it a good bit. More so than the right. Wasn’t sure what to make of that. Right shoulder didn’t seem to have any issues so it seems still recovering well there. First thing for the day was farmer’s walk. Again, plan was to do a top set of 50’ with 50lbs jumps working. I was advise to try and go a little more than last time. I had said I felt like 340lbs was probably my limit on the day so I guess this was put my money where my mouth is. I had decided after that last session that I wasn’t going to do anything above contest weight on the farmer’s walk on turf for the rest of the cycle. I can’t insure that I can control the drop with the max being pushed and not damage the turf. I the drop height for say yoke is substantially a shorter distance and generally even. So on concrete for this. This wasn’t going to really do anything for the pick but there would be less resistance to push against so I should be able to go faster vs turf. Still going to do turf for contest weight and below runs for contest distance. Warming up here wasn’t going so bad I think. I felt that I was moving good and pick was feeling fine. 240lbs the pick did feel tougher than I would’ve liked but didn’t think anything of it. 290lbs I made mistakes. This entire prep so far with farmer’s walk, I’ve been doing no chalk accept for the top sets or the working sets (when doing the casual walks). And that bit me in the rear here. I was a little slow off the start as I felt my right hamstring get tight. And I just couldn’t keep a hold of things. I’ve been noticing that my forearms been feeling a little beat lately. I hadn’t even considered that I’d drop this weight without chalk. Went to my finger tips and I thought I could just eek this out. Nope, ended up losing it about 1 and half shy of 50’. I was annoyed with myself but also worried. Not exactly a confidence booster to drop 50lbs less than I was planning to do. I was all kinds of nervous. Initially told myself no pressure and not to worry about getting time or commands as I was worried I’d not get the full run or that I’d tear something just picking this up. But eventually I talked myself into getting someone to give commands and time so pressure was on. I knew this was going to suck on the pick and assuming I survived that, I would move and hopefully not be so drained from the strain to finish the course. And my lord was it a strain. This was definitely one of the slower picks I’ve done. To be fair, this is the most weight now that I’ve lifted from this height since the back injury in 2016 and only 10lbs off that weight. Nothing torn and I was off. I felt I had it after taking a few steps but you never know. It was in my finger tips by the end but I did it. I knew I had this in me from past trainings but actually doing it is another thing. I don’t feel like this needs to be pushed further without getting a little more rest/recovery between the heavier sessions. Especially after dropping 290lbs. But I’ll remember going forward to apply some kind of chalk with weights above 280lbs going forward if working up weights for full distance runs. I had to take a bit to cool off and have my hamstrings calm down. However, assisting with putting away weights for someone else unfortunately led to me bleeding. Somehow got the skin of my left thumb pinched between plates and that bleed like a stuck pig. I didn’t notice I was bleeding until I noticed that there was “wetness” on the object I was handling. So had to take some blood time and disinfect and bandage up the thumb. It will be fine. I just don’t recall ever having that much blood from getting pinched by plates. Next was sandbag work. This has been modified the most from what I was doing. Had been tow sessions with it being loads one week and max distance carry the next. Initially, this was going to be just a long carry into a load and do two sets. However, I felt that I needed to work on the transitions more vs the carry and load part. I’ve been doing that stuff for a good while now. The event for the show is pick up sandbag and carry it 30’ to load over 48” yoke and then repick the sandbag and carry another 30’ to finish. So pick, carry, load, pick, carry sequence. Half of the popular sandbag steeplechase thing. Been wanting to see if the theory works in practice as I’ve been seeing people training for this and I have my thoughts on things but have to see if I can make the body do the thing I need it to do. So rather than the long carry into load, I was told to work up to one set of the contest run. I needed to see how quick I could be with the transitions and see if I could even get under the yoke on the fly with the confined space. I wasn’t sure if my soft belt and knee sleeves would restrict me too much so I wore those for all sets. I was told to not time these for now. I was slow that first set. I started lighter than planned to make sure that my hamstrings were ok and I wasn’t going to have an issue. The repick part I had a little bit of a flub due to the stupid strap on the one side of the 200lbs bag. The second run felt better so I felt comfortable going up in weight. That felt fine. I was going to be tricky with the 300lbs bag as that wasn’t as compact as the bags I used warming up. I changed out my shirt for fresh one here with a decal and chalked up. And then went at it. Moving about as good as can do here. The picks are slow and taking a bit out of me. Especially having to start bag as is and picking where it lies the second pick. Bag is too heavy to really toss out from myself and then try and go under in quick succession and I seem to have better effort with resting the bag on the yoke briefly to then be able to shove it with force for some distance away from the yoke. There was hesitancy with the second pick having to go wider stance. The pick part of things I can see where the 325lbs bag as overload to build up that “reserve strength” would be helpful but I won’t bother with that for a bit as I get more familiar with things in other sessions. Sled drags to end the day. I took my time with putting stuff away so I could get a bit of fluids in me. Weight dropped a good bit here as the idea being to still do the 5 sets of 100’ with a minute rest but trying to go fast. So instructed to do only 200lbs. I couldn’t really go full speed working up as I was worried that I’d trip or fall over with there not really being much weight to counterbalance. This was quite easy and think the last set and first set were my fastest sets here. Put stuff away and slammed a shake and decided to stick around to stretch out before driving home to clean up.

September 22, 2024 - September 28, 2024 - Week 16

September 23, 2024 – Week 16, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Push Presses
87x5
117x2
147x2
177x2
177x2
177x2
177x2
177x2

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
100x5
150x5
200x5
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
250x5
250x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x5
225x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Feeling some level of normalcy with stress. About 275lbs at this point. Watched what I could with scores and video with Nationals. This year wouldn’t have been a good one for me to do with prep and such for sure, especially not as open HW class. Doesn’t sound like any details for next year were provided at this time. Got stuff done Sunday besides sleeping in. Glad my joints aren’t feeling like they did two week’s prior. Probably also good that didn’t have anyone I care about die starting this week off as well. It is fall now and with the tropical storms in the south still brewing, it takes longer for the deary and rainy weather to dissipate since it is cooler out now. I had gotten walking done Sunday before it started to rain. It rained most of the day Monday and looks like it will be the case for the next few days. So probably good that this session was going to be somewhat backing off on stuff due to shoulders and triceps needing more recovery. Needed to not dilly-dally since I tomorrow is the in office day and have to prep for that. I was hoping it would stop raining but no real luck there. Warming up was ok. There was stuff still achy and sore. I did increase one weight for an exercise by 5lbs just so that it was easier for weight reasons going forward. Starting things off with log. No bands this week and also push press. Dropping weight 25lbs from what I was strict pressing with bands. 5x2 with the option to rep out the last set for 5 reps. I already knew I wasn’t doing reps after figuring out some things with how I think I need to proceed with upper body training. For whatever reason, push press out of the rack with log feels awful. The only place where it ever felt good was when I was training at the YMCA on that one tiered squat rack. Anywhere else and it feels uncomfortable and just kills my knees. Plus my form feels off. Like I can do strict pressing fine and other support things with log but not push press (or really any lower body drive with log). Clean the log once or every rep is also fine for push press. So not thrilled on the menu but doing it as indicated. I could tell with just the empty log it was not going to feel great. I had to fiddle around with the rack height to get things feeling a bit better. Felt uncomfortable but did feel better as I went. Not saying much there. No support gear besides knee sleeves for the knee discomfort. Just did my doubles and got out of the rain and into the garage. My right medial deltoid decided to get sore after the last set. Feeling similar to how my shoulder has felt when I get a flu shot so not a great sensation. And obviously indicating that backing off was the right call. Chest supported barbell rows with pauses out of the rain. Continue to push the weight up by 5lbs with 2x5 and having the option to lower to 30lbs less or so from the top set weight for that second set if I felt like I couldn’t keep things going like how benching exercises had been. I’ve done rows when stuff has felt uncomfortable in other parts of my body. Sometimes it’s the only thing that goes well in those cases. I could feel that shoulder with rotation of shoulder (internal and external). But as long as it wasn’t feeling worse, I could hopefully recover with rest. Sometimes these aches and pains feel better the more I do and the heavier I get. 50lbs jumps with sets of 5 reps. I will say this was the closest I felt to needing to drop weight on the second set. I think part of it was feeling the blahs from the weather, knowing I was deloading pressing and the shoulder discomfort. I also know with the rows that usually there isn’t a decrease in performance set to set on this exercise and sometimes my second or even fifth set feels the best. So finished up here before moving onto benching. I was a little leery with the benching. The shoulders were feeling achy and the right one feeling how it was at this point was not having me feel confident. But it was a different kind of achy and maybe the movement would actually shift something into the right spot so not feeling crap. Same setup of benching with chains. But dropping back down to 225lbs for the sets. Make them speed reps again. I could feel like my lats were actually doing something this time around so that was a good sign I guess. I was leery about the shoulder and had to find that balance of being fast but tight. Unrack the first set was a little squirrelly but settled in. Second set I was almost too loose unrack and tightened up to slow down and lock in before repping out. Managed to get down no worse for wear. I know knee is feeling better as knee wasn’t bothering me like last time laying on the bench or using lower body drive to brace. Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. 2 sets of 15-20 reps with a medium band. It was raining off and on still and I decided it was quickest to just do these in the garage. I was kind of hoping here that these would start having the shoulders feeling good. They tend to do that for me. Not as miraculous a change this time but still noticeable where it seemed to have the shoulders feeling somewhat better from how they were earlier in the session. Finished with prepping dinner as I put away stuff from outside (I had used the rubber weights to anchor done the rack for log) and in the garage before eating. Stretched and cleaned up for bed as I’d have to wake up an hour earlier for making it into the office tomorrow.

September 25, 2024 – Week 16, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
495x2
565x3

Step Ups (18”)
bwx20 L
bwx20 R
bw+20’sx15 L
bw+20’sx15 R

Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+50x30

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+20x25

Stretching
 
Comments: Despite shoulder issue Monday and having to go into the office for the day Tuesday (and no walking) and it being rainy going on today, feeling pretty good. Like almost relaxed at this point. Probably helping that workload this week hasn’t been as crushing. Maybe it is because my folks are back and I’ve already been over for dinner twice since they got back and watched garbage movies. Or that the next block of training has been figured out and hopefully the changes will have the positive impact. I was kind of hoping it would stop raining today as it would potentially make things a bit tricky with setup for some exercises. But I had checked out things Monday and it seemed doable for everything to be in the garage if necessary. Warming up was ok. Some joint aches but that was kind of expected with how Monday went. Wagon wheel pulls to start things off. Same as last time with soft touch and go reps but working up to a top set of 3 reps. It seems that idea is to leave something in the tank as the next session will be for a much closer to a 3rm set. Essentially plate jumps before the top set. No body aches like last time to deal with and have me second guessing. Also trying to keep an eye on uneven touch downs with the weights as well. Doesn’t seem to be too much rhyme or reason to it but either my grip is slightly off on side or the other or the garage floor isn’t quite even in spots. Considering this is a spot where the weights tend to not roll away, it probably is something like that. The big jumps here I made sure that I took appropriate rest and didn’t rush things like if it was more like 30-50lbs jumps. But really, it was going to be those last two plate jumps that would be my indicators for how things were going. I had already expected fully to be doing 565lbs for the top set after doing 545lbs last time. 405lbs continues to not feel great but it was the best it has felt over the past few workouts. So that had me feeling like this should be a sure thing if it felt the worst last time and I did what I did. But would also need to see how the next jump with the hard belt would be. Working on getting a bit more of a hamstring hip hinge thing going on breaking the weight off the floor and priming. It felt ok. I wasn’t dealing with a max hype situation here for this so I knew I had another level to go for the top set. Made sure I got things chalked up and prepared for the braced pulls with breaths at lockout to get good, quality reps with the touch and go. Rushing it hasn’t been a good thing on these kind of lifts with the control needed. It gets exhausting. As planned, it was not a max triple. There is definitely more there. Hopefully enough that I can go 585lbs next time. This was similar reps in the tank compared to the 545lbs from last time. I could be repping the contest weight in a months time (I mean like a double but still). Settled down from there and got some stuff put away before moving on to the lighter stuff of the session. Step ups was tricky. I had to make sure I could stand up on the box in my garage. I can if I stand under the ceiling light as it is a recessed fixture. I usually go outside as less room for error but I didn’t trust doing these with it raining as it was. Too much risk of slipping on stuff and eating it big time. Starting things off with bodyweight. Knee sleeves on, no ifs, ands or buts. Making sure wearing these for recovery on the knees. These went fine I guess. I was expecting to have to take a little break here to get the dumbbells setup but then I realized I got big hands and could actually hold my 10lbs kettlebells and 10lbs dumbbells at the same time and not have it be too thick a grip that it would tax grip unnecessarily. So that allowed me to kind of move right along. So 12-15 reps here. The herky jerky movements didn’t seem to be as present. Maybe because I realized there was a ceiling above where raising my hands above my head would be unwise. Adding weight was tougher than no weight but this went pretty well for me. It does look like next time will repeat this. Wall sits were next. It was written as the single leg variation for a minute again but considering that going back to regular style next time and staying there to let my knees recover better, I figured I’d just do that this time instead. That isn’t to say it isn’t worthwhile doing. I can certainly get into a deeper squat position with both legs and not feel as much knee joint stress and quads still want to act up here. I figure that if I’ve stayed pretty much the same with other things like planks and other abdominal work, there wasn’t any shame in another isometric exercise staying at a certain spot for some time. This would also speed up the workout. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. The choice to go with the change in weights on these had been fruitful with a 5lbs jumps in weight making it really tough again. So I was ready this time. It was not as rough going this time. Maybe because not as taxed from doing regular wall sits vs single leg. But able to get 5 more reps added. Still feels a bit away from 35 reps here. Paused hanging knee raises to wrap things up. This was also tricky with setting up in the garage and making sure it fit as well as being safe. The thing is that this was a quicker setup to do and the way the flimsy rack is made actually has a little back support thing so that I can stop my swinging and be able to reset the movement from a dead stop without having to have my feet touching the ground. Also gives me a tactile notification of the reps. I did forget at the start about holding for a count the first rep so didn’t count it. 25 reps does seem to be my limit here but I did do an extra rep not paused so I guess I’m getting a little better from last time. Put stuff away before getting dinner ready. Stretched afterwards.

September 28, 2024 – Week 16, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (turf)
235x50’
335x50’
435x50’
535x50’
635x50’
735x50’
835x50’ in 19.65 seconds

Sandbag Loads
60“
225x1
275x1
325x0
325x0
58”
325x1
325x0
325x1
EMOM
306x1
306x1
306x1
306x1
306x1

Yoke Pushes (turf, 50 seconds rest)
205x50’/205x50’
205x50’/205x50’
205x50’/205x50’
205x50’/205x50’
205x50’/205x50’

Stretching
 
Comments: I’ve been a little less stressed this week. I guess noticeably so as I’ve not had eye twitches going. It has been rainy off and on all this week and looks like that will continue into the next week. But it has been mostly light rain so just making sure when going for walks that is while there is daylight out in some capacity. So lunch break. Not going to sweat working through breaks for my own health. I can only do so much. But with the rain my allergies have been acting up but not hitting until a little later in the mornings. Friday hit me hard where my throat was tightening up from irritants and thankfully went away after a few spritz from the nasal spray. Plan for the day was to get up early to train. Like hour before I’d get up for work. But I was not feeling it and ended up hitting snooze for a half hour. I had everything packed up the night before so I wouldn’t be needing a ton of time besides digesting breakfast to get out to train. As long as I got out of the house before 10:00AM, I’d likely not have the traffic congestion issues. And I did so I didn’t. Only thing of note I guess with my body was left side base of skull and jaw was feeling stiff and it could just be from sleep and strain from this week and the previous but just delayed. But it wasn’t effecting anything. The gym atmosphere felt pretty chill. It didn’t really feel like anyone there besides me was really training something at my intensity. I know one person has a show in a month (but just three events) and another in like two months (not all events released) and another in a bit over 5 months. Another is a maybe for a show in June. Which was fine by me as that likely meant I’d have access to everything I needed today without sharing. Warming up felt fine. Knees continue to feel better from how they felt three weeks ago. Still keeping an eye on the right shoulder as far as aches and such. I know that my upper body is still taking a bit to recover at this point but hopefully feeling right as rain this coming week or next at the latest. First up was yoke. Trying to ride the train of heavy stuff a little bit longer. As long as I can. I had accidentally gone over 800lbs last time when really it was to be 40lbs less that I did. Things changed when the event weights for most of the events changed (but really, we are months out so no harm, no foul). 770lbs had been meant to be testing contest weight. Well now contest weight is 700lbs. 790lbs had been the plan maybe if I felt good and I thought 800lbs was close enough and sounded better and then misloaded it by 10lbs. It was a challenging run for me with the slant of the road outside my house (so had to pick a little lower) and how unexpectedly unstable my new yoke was. But even with all that, we thought it was good enough to keep pushing that. The plan would be 830lbs for today. I decided to do a little more than that with 835lbs because the empty “monster yoke” (which Rogue Fitness no longer makes) is 235lbs (I weighed it months back) so I could just do that empty and add 100lbs. It would be close enough and I could make this yoke stable with the pins and screws. So best chance at success. It may not seem like the best thing to be aiming for 135lbs over contest weight 4 months out but bear with me. My yoke tends to feel best with moving fast when I’ve worked up heavy. My yoke in 2018 when I worked up to 1000lbs for contest (I was beat) I was able to do some of my best yoke runs in contest and in training for speed at 700lbs and 800lbs range. I however ended up with a relapse in back pain end of 2018 doing sandbag loads after 825lbs yoke run just over 10 seconds for 50’ and I’ve not been back over 770lbs in training for runs until just the last training session. And it showed as I was good for about half to 2/3rds the way and then slowed down a ton. Having like 200lbs in reserve is helpful here for me when some times warming up is not great due to contest length and my height being quite a disparity with others. Anyways, back to training. Going forward it will appear doing heavy and speed. So heavy this time. I kind of want to keep pushing what I can do on turf with how much more effort it requires of me and that this contest coming up is supposedly on turf. It has been a while since I’ve used this yoke. I plan to use this one for the heavy weeks and the lighter/wobblier yoke setup for the speed weeks and when doing around contest weight stuff as likely what will be used. Little bit of learning curve as the spacing on the pin heights isn’t exact between all the different yokes and making sure I’m moving well and not having the implement hitting the ground as I move or as the weight starts to compress me. Not sure what weight it was but I smacked the back of my head on a set working up and I didn’t want to do that again haha. Despite it being cooler this week, it was still humid and I was sweating a good bit. I wasn’t feeling terribly confident in how things would go as I got to 635lbs as it didn’t feel like last time’s weight had. It didn’t feel terribly speedy so also miffed about that. But 735lbs felt a lot better and felt smooth. So I was back to believing again. 835lbs would not be the most I’ve attempted with turf. 960lbs had been in 2018 turning that half ton prep. Got on a dry shirt and chalked up and did my best to calm my nerves. And I was off. The pick felt better compared to 810lbs and I was feeling like I was going at a decent pace. But I again seemed to get to a spot where I was fatiguing fast and started to get off balance and I felt that if I kept going at the pace that I was going to lose the yoke forward and drop it. And I was not about to have that. I know how to tough things out. So I literally came to a stop with the weight and let it settle momentarily before starting up again at a slower pace to finish it off. Not really how I wanted things to go but his actually ended up being like half a second faster than 810lbs had been last time. So that was something. I’m not sure how heavy this will get pushed but plan is 850lbs next heavy time. I wouldn’t mind getting up to about 900lbs for this prep as I feel that would have me in a good spot in the event a show for Pro/Am requires a darn heavy yoke. I’m also very happy that nothing was hurting. There was a time in beginning of 2021 that my knees were hurting to pick up about half this weight. I was looking forward to sandbag loads. This would be the last time in this prep before switching over to something more event specific and allowing for more rest. That will be its own little puzzle to figured out what makes the most sense. So the plan here was to do EMOM loads. As I mentioned last session, I was given option of doing either another single on top of the previously accumulated (so 9 sets) with same weight or to do five with a little heavier. I wanted to do 325lbs for the EMOM. I’ve been 300lbs a lot and I was itching to give this weight a go since it would be technically a PR for me to load it to any height as I’ve not attempted a sandbag load over 313lbs. I’ve put 336lbs over my shoulder in 2022 as the heaviest sandbag I’ve ever lifted. With how 300lbs has been feeling and how 305lbs last time felt, I was thinking this was no biggie. So much so that I decided I’d just do the loads to 60” as it was 5 feet. I figured I’d do 50lbs jumps. I was thinking 25lbs jumps but the 250lbs bags were a bit buried and 40-50lbs has worked out. 225lbs was nothing and 275lbs I knew would be a pain with the pick because it is a severely underfilled bag so floppy. I also am not a fan of the canvas grip on it. That was fine. The 325lbs bag was buried under other bags. Well mine was. There are two bags but the one 325lbs is a longer bag as I think it is 350lbs bag from another company brand. And that one was really in the back behind the 350lbs bag. The 325lbs used to be the 336lbs bag and had been the 313lbs bag before that. I had added lead shot to it to get it to be over 330lbs for training for 2022 Nationals but apparently weight was taken out for a contest last year. The canvas apparently got stretched from the lead shot and now that it has 10lbs taken out of it, it is also a bit floppy. It was covered in rust dust from the pipes and a smashed centipede was stuck to it. So it apparently hasn’t gotten a lot of use. I got set for what I thought would be a tough EMOM at worst. Boy was I wrong. The pick felt like it took a lot longer to get into my lap than usual. And the bag just never felt tight to my body. I went for the extension to load and it just wasn’t high enough. I couldn’t really tell where I was as I’ve never really missed these on the load at height as it just goes over for me lol. I think in that moment I realized how I can’t really see what I’m doing on this exercise and go by feel. I reset things and decided to give it another shot as maybe I’d take this a bit more seriously. Ended up with much the same result but kept going but once I saw the yoke was tipping over I stopped. Well damn. Decided I’d try and salvage but lowering the height to what it was originally when doing these at 58”. In this brief time, I’d already soaked through the fresh shirt. I was able to get a rep finally at 58”. But it was tough. Sticking with the EMOM timing I went for the second set. I quit on it too early with the load as it would’ve gone over if I didn’t stop short. But I can only see how close it was after the fact reviewing video. Having someone be my eyes on this setup would’ve been very helpful. I was able to get one last rep here and it was ugly. I was a little too far away which normally isn’t an issue with lighter weight and more compact bags but here it was and I had to really fight to shove it over. I figured at this point to call it there as I was not going to keep at this with that bag. I at least ended it on a successful load but I didn’t want to end it there. I also didn’t want to be doing more lifting with the 300lbs bag as it was packed away and I was definitely feeling the effort I put in already. And I didn’t think it was smart to do 9x1 as I’d already done 5 attempts. I then remembered there was a small 306lbs sandbag. I figured I’d do that one for 5x1 to get in some more singles and end on a good note. Other than fatigue, I had no real issues here with this bag. But this really highlighted and issue I have when a sandbag isn’t as compact. Kegs and stones are always going to be hard when applying pressure to them, they don’t get loose. Sandbags can vary greatly. My 305lbs at home is really compact and feels easy. If I had not gotten cocky and stuck to 58” and had someone be my eyes, I’m sure I’d been successful at the original EMOM plan with 325lbs. But I was still able to get two successful lifts with it so I guess the itch has been scratched. Live and learn for next time. But it is also another reminder that I wasn’t going to be ready for Nationals this year. Last thing was sled work. I decided I’d make some changes to this. I’ve been doing the sled pushing with two prowlers. But I realized that I could actually just do this with a yoke instead and not have to worry about setting up multiple prowlers to do the 50’/50’ or have to turn around two implements. I could just do town and back with none of that. I think part of it had been that I was originally not using enough weight to use even the lightest yoke and worries that setup would mess with how I pushed things. I took a long while before I did these after the sandbag stuff talking peoples’ ears off. About strongman stuff. Ended up finally increasing the weight on these after figuring out the best way to do these on turf. These felt ok. After two runs I took the knee sleeves down as I was worried that my legs would be too pumped up and have issues keeping them moving well. I think I had them on still as knee concerns (the going around the implement stuff). Started to slow down a good bit on the fourth set and last set. But not bad. Turns out I was counting too fast this time around for the rests so it less than a minute each time. Put stuff away and closed up the gym as no one else was there and drove back. Filled up the gas tank and stretched out. Hopefully the rain takes a break soon.

September 15, 2024 - September 21, 2024 - Week 15

 September 16, 2024 – Week 15, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Strict Presses + Push Presses w/ Chains (+28lbs)
26x10+5
56x5+3
86x3+2
116x2+1
146x2+1
176x2+1
206x2+1

Push Presses w/ Chains (+28lbs)
226x2
226x2
226x2
226x2
226x3+1 (2 misses)

Band Assisted Pull-ups
sbx5 at pin 20
abx5 at pin 20
lbx5 at pin 20
lbx9 at pin 15

12” Log Incline Bench Presses w/ Bands (+5lbs/+25lbs)
87x8
117x5
147x3
177x2
207x1
232x4

Chin Up Holds
bw+25x20 seconds+8 seconds eccentric

Active Shoulder Hangs
bw+50x20 seconds+10 seconds relaxed

Stretching
 
Comments: Another rough start to the week. Considering how Saturday was and the events, it was expected the “vibes” were going to be off. Kind of spend Sunday getting back on track with things in some fashion. Mowed my parent’s lawn for my off day exercise as it was getting too long again and rather not have it be unmanageable for them when they get back near the end of the week. Weight up a little bit but still talking like a pound fluctuation. But I was apparently more stressed than I thought I was. I had stuff from Friday that I needed to work on and just got yet another dumping of more work on my plate and ended up taking a mental health day at lunch. I had hoped I could just do what I did when I got the news about my niece passing and go train to distract myself but that wasn’t happening today as I got the stress eye twitch going in both eyes and cried a little out of just frustration. I figured it was best to wait until later in the day and try to calm down. Part of it was that it was later than I wanted to start anyways and didn’t want to be working out on just breakfast and some sugary oatmeal (almost back to regular brand). I was not feeling motivated today. But needed to do something I guess. Warming up stuff felt mostly decent. Still some aches in the shoulders, knees and wrists but I guess better than they had been warming up the past week. Axle to start things off. Continuing with chains still added and working up in combos of strict and push press. I figured it was a good idea to wear knee sleeves just to let the knees recover more, similar to how adding belts back in on stuff seemed to gradually make things recover better with core/lower back. Added hard belt to these as well. Only thing missing wrist wraps. The combo stuff was feeling pretty good working up. 30lbs jumps starting with empty bar this time. 176lbs didn’t feel that great because I stumbled back from the rack a bit and had to catch myself before initiating the presses. 206lbs is certainly getting closer to where I may be iffy with the reps here. Still felt solid and the push press felt easy. So then adding 20lbs to do push pressing. Same as it has been with doubles with last set allowing for a rep set. For whatever reason, the weights unracking feel heavy and slow with push press and get better as I go and remarkably so. But this time not so much. I felt like lockout was feeling a bit tougher than usual. And I seemed to have a timing issue with the unracks as the first seemed to be a little behind, the second too forward. The fourth did feel the best leading up but with how the rep started, it was essentially a paused rep to start off. I hadn’t thought that I’d be at the point already where I was hitting that wall where I couldn’t be certain I’d get 5 reps on the rep set. The last set generally feels the best for me and it was but then it went downhill quick. My left shoulder was feeling fatigue even before this set but the first reps flew up but I guess I got a little unstable on the third rep and severely misgrooved the fourth rep. I reracked the weight and rested for about 7 seconds before going again and managing another rep and failing at number five. Racked at that point. Damn it. I had hoped I would’ve gotten through this session and next hopefully at minimum before I was in danger of missing reps. It didn’t feel like the weight was heavy on my shoulders but it felt like lockout was harder and I didn’t have a base to grind out a rep. This was frustrating and essentially put any plans beyond this show on the backburner. I was contemplating calling the workout here but I figured I keep going to get more data to see if anything else was “off” today to determine what needs to be deloaded. Band assisted pull-ups after that. Was to be the same as last time with the two sets (top set of 5 reps and then reps). I was instructed to try and add another rep to the rep set. I decided because of disappointment with the push pressing that I’d adjust the pin height down one for the pull-ups (but keep same for the rep set to compare). My forearms were feeling pretty beat but not in like a fatigued sense. The sets working up didn’t really give me anything useful. Usually the first set is super easy and the second set feels kind of awful and then the working set is good. Nothing felt super easy but nothing felt terrible if that makes sense. Rep set felt about the same but man does it get tough after 5 reps on these. Then incline log pressing. I had no illusions about being able to do 5lbs more than last time for 2x5 and have it be speedy so I was looking at a top set and a down set. And that was before having the bad push press set. Stability on this felt all over the place warming up. It didn’t feel like crushing my shoulders like when it was bad with overtraining last time and I felt very explosive on these. I was finding it hard to click into a higher gear of excitation and I noticed that was the case with benching last week too. When it was time for the work set and I got that first rep, I was like “oh, I was worried for nothing” about missing the weight. Something about the fourth rep I guess I caught myself and took a moment before going for the fifth rep and that just horribly misgrooved and I couldn’t press through the sticking point. And now I have a log on my chest. Bailed on it and felt there was no reason to keep punishing my shoulders and triceps today after they’ve made their point so that was that for log. Finishing up with holds/hangs. Both are for just 20 seconds (and then extra time stuff) and if I hit that, I can increase weight next time by 5lbs for each. As luck would have it, 25lbs for chin ups and 50lbs for the active hangs so I could just use my 25’s with the grips on them for easy maneuvering. The chin up hold was definitely challenging this time around. The shoulder hang was fine and dandy. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner rather than trying to put another meal in me. Stretched out after eating. Sent information to Mr. Westerling about the workout to see if adjustments need to be made for recovery as upper body recovery seems to be the most sensitive. Hopefully I get a handle on things here.

September 18, 2024 – Week 15, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats w/ Chains (+28lbs)
No Chains
45x5
Add Chains
45x5
95x3
135x3
185x2
225x2
265x2
315x2
315x2
315x2

Hyper Extensions
bwx20

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
25+85x20 seconds

Planks
bw+75x60 seconds

Side Planks
bw+10x60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: I definitely needed that mental health break Monday. I was still feeling very anxious and stressed the following day but was able to focus on work. I was stressing about work as well as training. Bunch of “what ifs”. Did I overtrain everything pushing through this very stressful time? Will I ever get my overhead back to a comfortable place? Can I keep sane with work? I noticed I was still agitated as it was taking me longer to get nerves down before attempting interviews at work. I was holding a lot of stress/tension in my upper body. I ended up working through lunch rather than attempting walking as I felt that I’d be putting myself further behind (I still had Friday work to resolve) after taking half a day Monday. I think being stressed/distracted enough that I accidentally burned my finger on my Foreman Grill was what told me to chill out. I figured that I’d just try and rest and get sleep and try to get stuff that is tense to relax. Also shaved for a change of pace. I was intending to do so at some point but figured now was as good a time as any. Besides allergies acting up, I was mentally feeling better Wednesday. Still anxiety in response to negative interactions with clients to start off the morning but evening out by then end of the day. I was worried with training that like I had mentioned that this wasn’t just upper body being unable to handle the workload and stress. What if everything is out of whack? I was dreading training this week Monday after training and all through Tuesday. I was cautiously optimistic with how I was feeling today. See how things go. This was the shorter session for lower body so I could potentially get done quick and eat reasonable hour and also get to bed. Warming up was feeling fine mostly. Some aches in joints but again, lesser than it was the session before and so on. Not quite back to feeling 100% in that department. But I’m also not feeling the aches and such as severe in spots that were flaring up last week or so like my right side with the knee, hip and glute. It was feeling kind of humid so I got the little oscillating fan going for air flow in the garage (it had rained most of the day). Front squats with chains for the start of the session. Another week of 3x2 with 5-10lbs more than what I did last time and the back up plan of lighter for 2x5. Back off would only be if I was feeling terrible and needing to shut things down because I’m cooked. Last time, unracking the weight wasn’t feeling bad but I was having issues with the right knee and getting my stance right and balanced. Right knee was aching a bit but the stance issue wasn’t happening this time around. And I kind of knew this knee ache would lessen as I warmed up and put up more and more weight. I think my worry was that my upper body would be cooked and I’d be having issues with supporting the weight and bracing well. Which thankfully wasn’t an issue so I felt comfortable sticking to the heavier plan. 40-50lbs jumps here. The plan had been done for more of a 5lbs jump really same as the last time. I wanted to do 3 plates added. I kind of did 2 40lbs jumps and then a 50lbs jump to the top weight. Last time my last double working up had felt rough and I think I didn’t want to mess with that at the moment and just try to gauge things from how I feel with the same weight this time. It went well so I felt I could go with the plan. That’s not to say I wasn’t nervous here. But it was good indicator that I could get nervous for the weight and get myself to feel hyped up. I was not able to really get hyped up for the push pressing (kind of but it didn’t seem to be effective) or benching (log and regular) so I had been worried I was burnt out and fatigued there. So I guess not. Not that fear of failure should be the thing every time here. These felt better than last time did. With how the first one moved, I was tempted to add like 5lbs a set here but thought better of it and figured I’d just stick to the thing that has been working. But this was a big relief for me as I was stressing that I’d be underperforming on everything and start spiraling. I also need to keep in check that I don’t just go to the other end of the spectrum as well here. Slight break before moving on to the core work stuff. As per usual, warming up for back extension holds with reps. 20 reps again. Felt fine and good. 20 seconds being the max time but leaving some seconds on the clock. Sticking to 25lbs on the neck harness but continuing with adding 5lbs to weight I’m holding. I’ve noticed this time and last that the weight total is getting to be feeling substantial. Like I need to really be focused to initiate the lift. Not like I can just yank this up willy nilly for the hold. This is definitely getting challenging but I know there is more there. Plank time. I was advised I could still go up or stay where I was. Considering how rough of a time I had with getting the darn backpack on last time, I stuck to the same weight. I had not issues this time getting the thing on but there was still some balance issues with getting things settled at this weight. I felt that I was able to handle the braced breathing better. Then side planks. 10lbs again here. Hopefully this would feel better. Mixed bag. I was better able to handle the balance with the added weight. Right side my shoulder was achy supporting but braced breathing seemed to be better. No issues with left shoulder supporting but braced breathing that side wasn’t as good. I had started cooking dinner after the back extension stuff so put stuff away and finished up dinner prep. Stretched after eating.

September 21, 2024 – Week 15, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Farmer’s Walk (turf)
80x50’
130x50’
180x50’
230x50’
280x50’
335x50’ in 15.54 seconds

Sandbag Carries
turns at 20’
225x40’ (load style)
225x40’ (bear hug)
turns at 50’, on turf
300x253’1” (load style)
300x191’2” (bear hug)

Sled Drags
135x50’
225x50’
(60 seconds rest)
285x100’
285x100’
285x100’
285x100’
285x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: Week started off very stressful but I think I started to calm down by the end of it. Still had a lot of anxiety but I feel I was able to channel it in a way that it wasn’t paralyzing to me. Had to do some allergy meds the second half of the week. Part of relief I think was that my parents were back home. They had been taking a trip that was planned and then with the passing of my niece, it ended up being a longer stay away. I also think I’ve figured out what may need to change with overhead/upper body training so that also has provided me some relief. If I can get that nut cracked, it would provide me with so much relief and not constantly second guessing myself. I’m fairly certain that my only focus will be this upcoming show and nothing after. Like 98% sure of that decision. I was nervous about training but also wanted to get up early to get out to train. But it took bit longer than I had anticipated to get ready to sleep so I decided I’d go off my work wake up time and see how I felt. I ended up needing to hit snooze I think at least twice. My parents had brought back some coffee samples with them and I foolishly used that this morning. It was a bit stronger than I’m used to so I’ll need to be more careful with when and where I use it haha. I’ve also stopped taking the one turmeric blend I’ve been taking daily for almost 5yrs now to help with inflammation and disc health. It had been a miracle cure for my nerve and back pain when I took it the first time (this was when I had pain relapse near end of September 2019). Of the supplements I take beyond the anti-depressant, it is likely the biggest culprit for my elevated liver levels from reading some more literature. It is also pricy so seeing how things are without it. So far so good. I wasn’t expecting a lot with people being there for training with some people competing recently and other’s competing. My one friend was in first at Nationals going into Day 2. It is really shocking how much worse traffic is going an hour later at least through the places that get congested. There were people there talking strongman and I joined in which I think helped me calm down a bit before I started getting ready to train. Warming up I was ok. I’d say the best the knees have felt since they started acting up on me two weeks ago. Right shoulder still a bit achy. First thing for the day was farmer’s walk. Out into the wind tunnel as the other strip was being used. Again, plan was to do a top set of 50’ with 50lbs jumps working. This had been altered slightly. Initially, this was to be contest weight for when the show was 315lbs still. The session before was to be 310lbs and then this one contest but I had done contest a session early because of how close it was. But now it was less and I’d already done two sessions over that weight and got four months to go. So I was advised I could go heavier as long as it wasn’t an absolute max. So given the go ahead to do 335-350lbs. Now I knew that range would actually be close to my max because of how the pick up for these is the hardest thing for me. I mean, this is a good bit more than my raw deadlift is. My thinking here was to do a little more warming up and aim for 330lbs but give myself a little leeway to “accidentally” misload the last set to be a little heavier. It was truly an accident with the yoke last week. No ifs ands or buts here with the knee sleeves. I was nervous with things as my hamstrings and gastrocs had felt tight after the Wednesday session and I made sure to get my walks and soft tissue work in. Being mindful of the pick up and how my knees were feeling as I was trying to move fast. I think I noticed this week that there was unevenness in the turf at the one end I decided to pick up from. I’m glad that it felt like I could get my gait to be longer strides at times on the lighter weights as that has been important for me on this event as I can’t seem to get that same degree of hip mobility with yoke. I had to keep anxiety under control since the strong coffee was definitely having things feel a little high strung. Like my breathing as I was feeling lightheaded on some working up runs holding my breath at points. Eventually I got to the top set. I decided to go with 335lbs. With these particular farmer’s, anything over what I did last time was going to be a PR. 330lbs would be the most I’ve done on farmer’s walk handles since 2019 for a run from about this height (and both times in competition since). 335lbs is the most I’ve done since 2016 in training after the back injury and that was 2017 prepping for my first show back. I actually only got 47’ as my grip gave out on me. So I figured I’d go this weight to get that 3’ I missed back then. I was incredibly nervous going for this. Shaking, having trouble getting words out and keeping my breath under control. Also the added pressure with people watching now as I had asked for assistance with commands and timing so pretty much everyone in the gym stopped to watch. That pick was slow. I could feel my hamstrings straining big time. I was worried something was going to go in them after that hamstring scare beginning of the year. But kept pulling and stood up and started walking. I felt I was going at a good pace but I could tell my grip was slipping and I had to slow down to keep from losing it. The effort and strain of picking up the implements takes a lot out of me and it has been a while where I’ve felt that grip was slipping. But I finished and there was relief. This was darn near close to my max here at this point between how hard the pick was and having to slow down to keep stable and not jostle the implements out of my hands. I put stuff away and got things setup for sandbag carries. Same as last time. 300lbs for the working sets of 2 max distance carries with different hold styles and try to beat my distances from last time. Again, this was giving me anxiety worrying about failing. I think my consolation I was telling myself was that this max distance stuff is likely not going to continue with prep as I’m good at the long distance carry stuff but need to be faster with moving. The lanes were in use and a bit crowded. I was also nervous here beyond the “normal” fear of failing to beat what I did last time on this embrace the suck event because my hamstrings were really feeling that pick from the farmer’s. I was concerned that I’d strain something picking up the sandbags today. So I figured I’d just do the bare minimum to warm up and got what was convenient for warming up as far as sandbags. 225lbs and 250lbs wasn’t going to be much difference. Just needed to see if the pick up caused any strain and if walking with a load out front was manageable. It was so I guess good to go. It took a bit of time for myself to calm down enough for the first run with 300lbs. I had kept the knee sleeves on this time around just to keep the knees happy. There were no issues with the pick up and I was off. And no jelly legs. I was feeling good and I was really surprised that I was feeling good at 200’. I was very close to 250’ before I kind of had to start shuffling. But I was so damn close that I kept going. And then I made it a point to turn around to get just a little distance. I make it a point to always make a turn when it is for max distance. So quite pleased with over 250’ here. Learning from last time, I needed to take a longer rest before doing the second set with the bear hug style. I wasn’t looking forward to it considering how I had a really bad performance on this last time. I say this but it would’ve still been a 5th place at the contest in March with this event. Plan was to still beat 216’ but I also told myself it was ok to do my best on the day. I already did a big PR for the style I feel comfortable with doing. Took longer than I figured I needed to make sure I was actually ready. Pick was ok and I didn’t get the jelly legs on that first length. So I figured I was golden and would get over 200’ again. Nope, just hit with hard hamstring fatigue about halfway down the length to finish out 200’. So again not the best. However, it was almost 20’ more than last time so I’ll take that win over last time. Didn’t need too much time putting stuff away before getting ready for sled drag. It had rained last time and I had to modify things so this was back to how it normally is. I figured I’d go with 285lbs on this. No knee sleeves as I figured I’d have issues with blood flow restriction as my legs can get pretty pumped from these at times. It was a good call as knees felt good and my legs did in fact get pumped up by the end. As far as how this felt, it was like a mixture of the previous two sessions before the last one (where I did it on turf and a lot less weight). I felt I could keep mostly a decent pace but there were times fatigue was feeling high. But never seemed to hit that 5th set wall. Put stuff away and drank a shake before getting home to stretch and decompress. Need to relax and do some thinking for what comes next.

September 8, 2024 - September 14, 2024 - Week 14

 September 9, 2024 – Week 14, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ Bands (+14lbs/+22llbs)
No Bands
87x5
Add Bands
90x3
120x2
150x2
175x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x2
200x5

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
95x5
145x5
195x5
Added Straps, 2 seconds holds
245x5
245x5

Bench Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x2
255x2
280x5
250x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: The hits keep coming. Two weeks after my newborn niece passing I’m finding out more bad news. I was called up Sunday evening by my good friend and was informed that another good friend had apparently passed away Saturday morning. A coworker and friend for many years that I sent dumb memes and videos to daily. It’s just a lot. Just a bunch of frustrations mixed together. I was feeling like I was getting a handle on the stress as I indicated Saturday evening. But a fresh batch on the way. Weight down about 2lbs from last week so getting closer to 275lbs weight. Right knee is still achy but loads better than how it was feeling at times after training on Saturday. I had mowed my lawn Sunday for my exercising as well as putting together a yoke I bought. But I was stressed going into training with a lot on my mind. Warming up I guess was fine. Right knee still achy and hopefully improves as this session shouldn’t be taxing on knee joint. Other stuff felt fine. Log strict press against bands. Same as last time with it being 4x2 with up to 5 for a fifth set. 5lbs increase from last time. I was feeling pretty good here besides the knees being stiff. Weight was feeling good and so was form (mostly). Plan was to do hard belt this time (no wrist wraps). I wasn’t too sure with the wrists as I had worked them a good bit putting together the yoke with having to use two wrenches to get that stuff tightened up. Ideally I wouldn’t have done it all at once or before an upper body session but needed to be done and I wasn’t going to take time during the week after finding out my friend had passed away. I did get a little off balanced on the last set before the working weight but it was just from getting a little too cocky with how it had moved. Would be moment of truth with hard belt as far as if breathing was on point. Racking the log for the very first rep I felt just about every joint in my shoulder girdle and rib cage crack. Like cracking my knuckles or neck. It was a little startling but went up fine and no issues. I must be holding a lot of tension/stress despite my best efforts. When I got the groove right, it was feeling really strong but I was noticing that I was having a harder time with subsequent reps vs say the first rep. Last set reps did feel better but it was definitely getting tougher to get the five reps here. I am curious if at some point these will be like singles done EMOM style or something and being like 80% of my push press on log. That would be kind of neat to do at some point if things continue to progress. From there, it was into the garage for chest supported barbell rows with pauses. Continue to push the weight up by 5lbs with 2x5. I was advised like benching that if I felt the first set took too much out of me, I was to lower to 30lbs less or so from the top set weight. Unlike the benching stuff, rows always seem to be good to progress and I’m definitely not as close to my limit as those. Rowing muscles generally don’t seem to be as temperamental as my pressing muscles are with recovery. They can feel beat to hell and hit PRs every time. So 50lbs jumps with sets of 5 reps doing slight pauses working up. Straps for top set. I was expecting the weights to feel heavy in my hands because of all the wrench work Sunday afternoon and evening but no issues. I knew from the first set I was doing the same weight for the second set. Both felt good. Then benching with chains. Same as last week but adding 5lbs. It was already strongly hinted at here that I was going to be only doing one set at the heavier weight and drop down. Mr. Westerling ahd suggested that I drop it to this rather than 2x5 with how last time looked. And seeing as how I did on my own volition with the incline log stuff last week, I was prepared for that this time. I was having a hard time feeling my lats this session. I knew that I was bracing them but I feeling more so my lower body bracing. I think I forget how much lower body stress is needed with benching as my knee was aching a bit here. Trying to be optimistic working up in weight but the right shoulder was feeling achy on me. These weren’t feeling 100% today. I set things up for the top set so that it would be easy to just take off the weight for the suggested second set to stay “speedy” because I had a feeling. That feeling was justified with how that first rep felt and went. Even if Mr. Westerling hadn’t suggested I do this or if I had kept things 2x5 with incline log last week, I’d have dropped this down for a lighter second set. This was feeling more like how my benching was feeling before I brought my grip in a little with groove and tightness and such. Right shoulder was still feeling off but at least the lighter set was moving fast. So achy right shoulder and achy right knee. Hope that getting some quality sleep helps here as I plan on getting some vaccinations after work tomorrow (since I’m going to have to be on planes in the next 4 months). Last thing being face pulls with bands to finish up. 2 sets of 15-20 reps with a medium band. I With how I was feeling, I just stuck to the average band I had been using the past two sessions with aim to do 2x20 reps here. Felt ok. I kind of just wanted to be done with training so I could eat and relax at this point. Cooked up dinner and put stuff away before eating and then stretching out.

September 11, 2024 – Week 14, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x2
495x2
545x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx20 L
bwx20 R
bw+20’sx12 L
bw+20’sx12 R

Single Leg Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds L
bwx60 seconds R

Crunches
bw+50x25

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+20x25

Stretching
 
Comments: Mentally and physically I was not feeling good. Still reeling from the double whammy of niece and friend passing and trying my best to manage stress as that is a killer. And I know I’m under stress with eye twitches happening. But I’d rather stay focused and busy and feel like I’m doing something that is helping people then just being alone with my thoughts. I ended up getting some vaccinations Tuesday after work so that pretty much meant my shoulders were going to be not great for a little while. Tylenol to help with not waking up from discomfort and I was leery about doing that because of masking joint aches and such for monitoring recovery but I felt the uninterrupted sleep to combat the stress was more important. My chest needed a lot of soft tissue work that evening. I was definitely feeling a little worn down mentally as Wednesday went on. Right knee thing seemed to have moved to inner thigh stuff by the time I was ready to train. I also got notified that most of the weights for the events at the competition were lowered a good bit so that was kind of annoying. It certainly wasn’t helpful with motivation with already being over contest weight for a month with four more months to go. Warming up I was keeping eye on things to hopefully see if moving around in some fashion would get some aches to stop. Right knee still achy but less so than it was Monday warming up so I guess that is something. Shoulders garbage with injections in both so I knew no sense in gauging how things felt based off that. Wagon wheel pulls to start things off. Same as last time with soft touch and go reps working up to a top set of 5 reps. The last week of 5’s (unless the change in weights affects planning) on these. The warming up was adjusted slightly here with plate jumps and then the set of 5 reps being ideally 10-20lbs more than last time. I was hoping that my right side would not give me issues here. The discomfort part of things was minimal for this movement. The inner thigh discomfort decided to move to my outer glute on that side instead where the hip socket was. Oh well. Was stressed for this session with how I was feeling today and how I had felt after Saturday with the right knee acting up. My hope here was to do 545lbs for 5 reps as I did this weight before in 2019 for 4 reps on a deadlift bar with wagon wheels as the last heavy session before a contest that I ended up pulling out of the night before due to severe back pain. I kind of wanted to tick off more things to constantly combat the imposter syndrome. But that was feeling like a tall order today with how things were feeling. 405lbs felt terrible that I was worried that 495lbs would actually feel like a max lift for a double today. It thankfully did not. Hard belt really makes a difference for me on this movement it would seem as far as feeling good going up in weight. 495lbs didn’t necessarily have me feel like the top set was going to be a great one but I stuck to my plan with 545lbs. I needed it today. I ended up chalking up the straps and my hands as I knew that I may need to take my time and get a big breath to rebrace on reps like I had been doing with the wide jack pulls in the previous training cycle. The chalk would make things stay secure better. I got myself ready and made sure I didn’t stay down too long because of trying to synch up with the song playing. This felt like it should compared to the last two training sessions on this. I could’ve done more. Perhaps not as big an urgency to add pounds to the bar since I’m technically doing +90% of contest on stiff bar as it stands now. I wasn’t really looking forward to the rest of the workout with the knee stuff. From there, it was outside for step ups. Starting things off with bodyweight. Only 20 reps this time around. Knee sleeves were a must on these today. I was advised I could cut the reps on these in half to help with recovery. It’s one of those were doing one rep vs a bunch feels about the same and if anything, the knee tends to feel better doing longer term things than short. I knew I could do the bodyweight stuff no problem. Then adding weight with 20lbs dumbbells. Plan being to add reps it seems at this point with this weight. So 12 reps here. The herky jerky motions were noticed in my achy, sore shoulders. Added weight is certainly tougher with this box height and it is harder to adjust positions on things like when unencumbered. Single leg wall sits for more knee and quad stuff. This would also be a trying endeavor for the knees. Told to just stick to 60 seconds going forward and not more time. But also advised I could cut the time in half due to knee recovery. Thing is that this is even more so where a little feels worse than a lot. Wore knee sleeves on these as well. This was unpleasant for the first 10-15 seconds of the holds and I was worried that I’d not be able to hold the position much beyond that. And this was with my knee that I didn’t thing was acting up. But apparently both knees are feeling the added weights and trying to go faster with said weights. But I toughed it out here and got a minute again. Rested double the time as discovered last time that that seemed to be for the best with longer holds like this. Same thing as the left side where very unpleasant but then tolerable. And while this seemed to give my knees a thrashing, they “felt” better afterwords. Like not feeling mechanically impinged or irritated but still sore if that makes sense. It could also be that all the competing aches and pains of the day (shoulders, right glute) were fighting for supremacy and I can only register so much at a time and in a spot. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. I decided to try something here. The 45lbs for 35 reps was ok but not terribly challenging. I was sticking with it due to the increased workload of other stuff and this seemed to be the most I could really make behind the head be with plates since the 45lbs plates have handles on them to hold. So I can grip lower and have the leverage worse for me so more weight felt on the core. I have a pair of 25’s like this so I wondered if it would work stacking those and gripping them. This actually worked quite well and felt a ton tougher than the 45lbs plate so I ended up stopping at 25 reps. So I guess I got something I can work with here. I Paused hanging knee raises to wrap things up. Again, this was a challenging time with them. These didn’t feel as tough as starting out last time (no hands hurting) but I could tell fatigue was hitting me hard as I got closer to 25 reps. I really didn’t want to have the reps decrease here so I did my best to secure 25 reps and call it there. I had taken a bit of rest putting stuff away between the crunches and these to see if that helped at all and not really. Finished putting stuff away and ate and then stretched out. Hopefully I will feel better with some more rest.

September 14, 2024 – Week 14, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke
300x50’
400x50’
500x50’
600x50’
700x50’
810x50’ in 19.96 seconds

Sandbag Loads (59“)
175x1
225x1
265x1
EMOM
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1
305x1

Sled Pushes
55x100’
(60 seconds rest)
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’
325x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: The past two weeks have been a bit of uncharted territory for me. Death has thankfully not been a frequent visitor for me but I guess that will be more and more as I get older. Short succession of a family member and now a close friend. Work is stressful but not working and doing nothing just leaves me empty. So keeping busy seems to be the choice I’ve made as at least with work I’m potentially helping those in need. Despite the stress to the knees from Wednesday session, it feels like that work was good in I guess getting the knees to be tracking right. There is a soreness and achiness still but it doesn’t feel like mobility is impinged in the right knee like I was worried it was going to. Just have to adapt to the stress of the situation and the increasing poundage of training. I already knew before even all the events of the past two weeks this workout was going to have to be adjusted. The gym was closed for a powerlifting meet so I was going to have to train either at home or partially at the local gym. I had decided I’d rather buy a new yoke for home rather than deal with going to the other gym after the last time I tried to do things where I did stuff at home and then was going to go to the gym and I had a been in a funk. If I’m going to the gym, it all needs to be the gym. Then with events coming as they did, I wanted to make Saturday free if I could so that I’d do this workout at home Friday right after work. That felt like it would work. But then more negative things to start off the week so coupled with the unexpected stress and how that was effecting me, I knew that I’d not be able to train after work Friday in a safe/healthy manner. So plan would be to get up early Saturday to get training in at home before the service. I was running into a bit of block there as while I did go to sleep earlier, I was having some issues falling asleep quickly. I ended up sleeping in 30 minutes more than I wanted to. I think I was nervous about training as well as what the rest of the day would bring. Considering how my body was feeling after Wednesday workout, I was feeling pretty good in comparison. Knees were a bit achy and I had twitchy muscles in my lats. But I guess the knees weren’t feeling as bad as they were comparing how warm ups have felt on the knees this week. Feeling a lot of body tension in the upper body from holding in stress I guess but not as stiff as Wednesday warming up. It was deceptively hot today and I think I was slightly agitated as I had a time limit and the thing I needed to go to wasn’t a happy good time thing. It has been a long while since I’ve had to do a legit event training session at home. It does require a bit more setup than say going to a gym. I didn’t want to have to deal with transporting a lot of weights and putting them away going to the other gym. Yoke to start. Initially the plan was to work up to contest weight in 100lbs jumps doing 50’ runs. So 770lbs was the goal. However, the weights for most of the events were decreased and now yoke was going to only be 700lbs. A bit miffed on that as I was hoping to keep building yoke to get that reserve strength back up so that it isn’t taking so much out of me. I’ve been doing mid 700’s for a while now and it is a big jump up to say being ready for 1000lbs yoke in a few months notice. With the decrease in the weights, I am entertaining another drug free contest closer after the one in January in February that is a little heavier on stuff. I understand the drops to but I’m a year away from masters and I feel the weights are light, especially when considering the world’s level for the organization is closer to what the original weights were. Train for the shows but get stronger and better. Suffice it to say, those talks lead to some changes with the yoke. I was advised to stay the course of what was planned or if feeling good to actually go up 20lbs from what was proposed. So 790lbs. That would be the most weight I’ve done in training since 2020 (did 770lbs once). But also 10lbs shy of 800lbs, and I’ve not done that weight or more since 2018. It would actually be easier plate math wise for that with the new yoke so I was going to do 800lbs. It was an itch that needed to be scratched at this time. I know I can do but sometimes you have to prove yourself to yourself. I had spent last weekend putting the yoke together and I had assumed I had it ready to just put crossbar on it and be ready (storage easier that way and this will likely only be used a few times a year) but there was still some plastic parts that were keeping the things from sliding together. Maybe they are to be part of it but stuff wasn’t budging and I was short on time so took pliers to those parts to remove them. Even with the locking pins, this may be one of the shakiest yokes I’ve ever used. I also had to adjust things a bit as the street outside has a decent gradient with uphill and downhill that I need to set pick height a little lower to make sure I don’t hit the street. I felt nonchalant with working up. 300lbs felt tougher than I’d like but that was also getting used to the yoke. I wasn’t setting any land speed records today. I was feeling better with the next two jumps. 600lbs surprisingly felt really good and I had high hopes for 800lbs after that. 700lbs decided to slap that down for me. That was about how I had honestly wanted 800lbs to feel and I had to add 100lbs more. But I already had committed to this plan. Pick was good on this and I started off decent but then the wobble really started to get to me and shake me off balance. I ended up really having to slow down to keep from being shaken of balance and losing the yoke. I can still do it and having years of experience and knowing how to tough out a tough yoke run is a skill burned into me from my own stubbornness. But under 20 seconds and knee feeling no worse for wear here. Apparently I accidentally added 10lbs to what I was supposed to so it was over 800lbs. Oops. Couldn’t really take my time with rest here so used handtruck to put away weights to get on to sandbag loads. At the start of this block, I’ve been given options to either do 1 more set same weight from last time with 300lbs bag or to use a little bit more weight than last time and go back to 5 sets. This week I didn’t have the 300lbs bag as I had what was available at home. So 305lbs was closest. It is a much firmer bag so it feels easier compared to the looser ones of same size. So my plan was to just treat it like the 300lbs and do the more EMOM sets and treat hopefully next time when I got more bags to use a truly heavier bag for the EMOM. I couldn’t get the height to be 58” like I can at the gym with this yoke and I didn’t want to spend time I didn’t have trying to get it right with what I was working with so I just used 59” so that is was close enough but not lower. I wasn’t planning to do as many warming up singles as I did but with how I stack the bags at home, it made sense to just lift all of them one at a time as it would get them out of the way and warm up. Just kept the same sweaty drenched shirt and didn’t bother with any chalk added. This actually felt fine. I could tell the sweaty shirt was having it harder for me to keep the bag close to my body in the second half but not so much it made thing difficult. This was still comfortable. I did rush things a little on the fifth one and got off balance and had to catch myself before I could initiate the load. No real time to stop here as had sled work. 5 sets of 100’ with minute rest. Unlike the gym, I know that I got 100’ to work with here and not having the sled friction get caught. But there is also the uphill/downhill thing. Ideally, I would’ve moved my stuff to be in front of my parent’s house with the more level street but I didn’t have the time to move stuff there as it was. Got the course setup and put on weights that I know I’ve done before with this here. This wasn’t too bad. I probably needed a little more weight on these. Downhill was fine, definitely felt my glutes and hamstrings working harder the uphill portion. Felt fatigue but not super gassed. It’s a big effort but I can go much faster vs on turf as that stuff slows me down a lot so rest feels since its more like 2x work vs 3x work rest periods. Put away the weights and changed to attend the virtual service with my sisters. It was a necessary release and it felt good to share with my sisters that moment. Ate comfort food before going separate ways. Returned home to stretch and decompress.