May 4, 2025 - May 10, 2025 - Week 10

 May 6, 2025 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
2 Second Pauses
46x2
76x2
106x2
136x2
136x2
136x2
No Pauses
166x2
166x2
166x2
166x2

Sling Shot Dips/Pull Ups
bwx20/bwx10
bwx20/bwx10

Overhand Band Pullaparts
µbx15

Band Shoulder Dislocations
µbx10

Underthand Band Pullaparts
µbx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Extensions
µbx30/30

Stretching
 
Comments: This week did not start off on the right foot. While a bit worn from Saturday session mentally, I was feeling ok. But woke up Sunday morning with painful tightness in the left side of my neck. So much so that I ended up taking anti-inflammatories and analgesic gel to try and get things to calm down. Did soft tissue work as well as research on what the issue was. The discomfort and swirling emotions about what to do essentially had me paralyzed with indecision. I did weight myself (260.8lbs so getting very close to 255lbs range again) but that was about it besides watching videos and reading articles about the pain (and watching anime). So it was a bit of a lazy day and a pity party for one. I had felt that it was probably wise to get it checked out so I know what I’m dealing with but by the time I figured I should do that on Sunday, it was too late to go to the orthopedic injury clinic. So plan would be to do Monday and see what was up. Another day of nothing besides work then as after work to get checked. X-rays done and I got assessed. Nothing wrong with the shoulder despite it feeling like ac joint or possibly shoulder impingement. Apparently I have the neck of someone in a traumatic car accident and walked away. I kind of knew that from the last time I got x-rays for my neck in I want to say 2011-2013 and thought nothing of it as not a big deal made of it other than saying my neck curvature was the wrong way. But apparently I have like no cartilage in the bottom 3 vertebrae of my cervical spine. So prescribed meds to get inflammation down (I made sure to have the medical provider check that not on the list of banned substances for this upcoming competition) and given script for 30 days for physical therapy. The PT stuff not a great time for it and not keen on going through the whole bullshit I had last time with my spine and billing/coverage issues. Now that I know what the problem is (advised I shouldn’t have any exercise restrictions) that it is my neck and not my shoulder, I’ll be doing rehab exercises during my warm ups for training. I also don’t need to drastically change my upper body sessions. As initially I was going to do nothing but rehab exercises for my shoulders if it was that. But since not the case, just going to do what I was going to do and hopefully meds and the new habits/exercises take care of the rest. It has been raining off and on as of late and it just so happened to not be raining for training today. As mentioned above, neck rehab stuff was part of my warming up besides what I’ve been doing. Since the neck rehab stuff seems to get stuff warmed up pretty good, I didn’t feel the need to do some of the shoulder stuff to get ready. I did alter the plan with axle push pressing here. I was initially going to be doing the 5/3/1+ day to finish out but felt it was best to rest/recover and treat the fingal finger session as the last heavy press day. This would be more just keeping some movement in plan. So then I was looking at doing a deload session with 3x5 working up to “60%” in 10% jumps. But I felt like a new lease on life so said screw it, I’ll do something more intent focus than going through the motions. So I did pause push presses for some sets and then increased the weight to do some rebound style with no pauses for some more doubles. No support gear of any kind. Not bad. From there moving on to a superset. Dips pulling back but wanting to do higher reps so slingshot added here. Elbows were a little uncertain here as I guess used to me doing a bit more weight before coming in to do these. The pairing was with pull-ups. No band assistance. This was what I was curious to see as I’ve not done regular pull-ups in quite some time. I’m sure I could do them before today but this would see how they feel. Plan was to leave 2-3RIR. It did feel a little weird not having something to rest my legs on for sure. With how they were feeling initially, I wasn’t expecting to get a solid 10 reps both sets here but I did. So that’s good to know. Last bit of the session was just doing some band stuff with the micro band. Really light and more just for movement/mobility and blood flow. The left shoulder did feel the pull aparts as there is tension still in the neck and upper back. I was actually worried with the dislocations as I thought for sure that would really irritate things like how the overhead toss did but it actually didn’t and felt decent. Single arm band stuff to finish up and right arm definitely felt a lot more fatigue compared to the left arm. So done pretty quick here all things considered. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Stretched out before bed.

May 8, 2025 – Week 10, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused 2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps, 2 seconds off blocks)
170x1
220x1
270x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1

Inverted Rows
bwx15
bwx15

Bulgarian Split Squats/Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls
bwx15--15/abx15--15
bwx15--15/abx15--15

Standing Glute Med Isometric with Swiss Ball/Copenhagen Planks
bwx20 seconds/bwx20 seconds
bwx20 seconds/bwx20 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Well the meds are certainly helping. Not 100% obviously but there is not much remaining of what I was feeling on Sunday. I think sometimes we get used to a discomfort and not realize how much it was dragging you down when you get some relief from it. I do know I got to be careful with the combo of meds here in that making sure I got food in my stomach so I don’t get a panic attack with the prednisone and be ready for bed time with the muscle relaxers. Getting to sleep as been a little tricky but I’ve been feeling like when I do it has been restful and restorative. I need that with the stress and also to make sure I’m recovered for competing. I feel mood wise I’m on the right track. I got bruises on my chest, neck and back of my right hand that still need to clear out. This won’t be something I’ll miss from this prep from doing fingal fingers haha. The session for today wasn’t much changed from what I had planned to end on from the start. But always a little apprehensive as I get close to competing and wondering if I got things right. I did change up my warming up order as it seemed to make more sense to start with the neck rehab stuff first and then full body/lower body stuff. Just habit of working from toes up from past stuff. Streamlined things a bit with the warming up for the neck rehab. I’m already thinking of ideas to have the neck stuff be part of regular training be it competition prep or offseason. I mean, I got that fancy neck harness and I’ve only really used it for just one thing when it has other stuff. But that’s for another time. I really do with that the Natural Strongman would put up something about potential events for Worlds in the event I qualify for it next weekend. I like to be able to plan things out. I got a rough idea of what I’m going to do if I don’t or decided not to if I want to try and qualify for Strongman Corporation Nationals this year as well as if I decide I’m going back to offseason (and trying something new with that). But not really anything for if I qualify. I know they don’t release all the events upfront as I think last year the final event wasn’t announced until 6 weeks prior. Oh well. It just things I want to think about to distract from other things. So got warmed up and moving around. Upper body stuff with neck good. Triceps (especially the right) had been acting tight in the morning and early afternoon but stopped being dumb by this point in the day. Calves were feeling a bit tighter than expected so spent some time there. Soft tissue work doing more with foam rolling to help with stuff. Knees felt a little achy at the end of things. But plan was naked joints for deload. Workout today did require some setup compared to the previous session in that some items needing to be the special setup. I could’ve just done the thick bar on jack stands but I wanted it to be like the block setup so that I could have the bar/weight feel a certain way. Plan here was to work up in smaller jumps compared to the plate jumps to 50% of contest weight (which also is hopefully my 50% at least) for 6-8 singles with normal rest between them. I’ve done this before for a contest but that time I had some band tension added. I didn’t feel that was conducive to things since I had just done band tension pulls the week prior and this had been done after my last heavy deadlift session instead (and I had been feeling really beat). But I did feel that just ripping up the weight was probably not the best thing as I know it won’t be that easy at show. So I felt like I should do 2 second pauses just breaking the weight off the foam blocks and then pulling violently. Maybe a little worried that the hold and bracing would be stressful to the lower back here but had to fight that feeling of being so fragile. I feel that as I went, that I got better with the intent and the different aspects more concise, precise and direct. So mission accomplished for what I wanted to be feeling here at the end of the pulls. I also pulled what I did on Saturday where I thought I was moving on to the end. Now not entirely my fault in that I added this to the session recently. Initially I was going to just do some lat pulls where in deadlift stance and getting lat contractions. But then figured I’d do the inverted rows again. Then took them out and put banded rows. Well after having something similar in my neck rehab stuff, I decided to put the inverted rows back in. So that meant needing to teardown the deadlift stuff to setup the inverted row stuff (I could’ve worked around the setup if I was doing the supersets to finish up). I think I was thinking these might be too much energy or effort but that is comparing to how these were when I did them like 22 weeks ago after not doing them for a long while. Last week these had been pretty easy. Even better this time around. Not sure why I was worried. From there supersets to end things. The level of difficulty to be very easy. I’ve not really done these since the previous “offseason” block before this so a little rusty. Bulgarian split squats with just bodyweight and single leg seated band leg curls. The split squats were obviously going to feel less good compared to leg curls since bands and I’ve been keeping up with them in some capacity. Split squats weren’t so bad honestly. Little bit of knee creaks. Leg curls were easy. Last thing was another superset. Isometric based stuff for the hips and legs. The one being to push a medicine ball to the wall with hip abduction. I had to do these as part of my lower back rehab stuff years ago and they struck me as quite challenging and intense but safe to do. I had these in mind to use earlier in the prep based off recent training plans but found that I was needing more benefit from other stuff and it hadn’t taken that long to get my hips and glutes involved in pulls again. Not as difficult as I remember these but I’ve gotten better and I’m not dealing with the back and nerve issues. The other side of it was more working adduction with the Copenhagen planks. I’ve liked these but just couldn’t really see a way to shoehorn them in. I was trying to work these area more dynamically with the events but I felt this was probably the best place to put them to work muscles but not stress joints. Feel easier than they had in the past after not doing them. Maybe I’ll do them more often as well. Put stuff away and stretched out before eating dinner. One more training session to go.

May 10, 2025 – Week 10, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
24.5”x2
24.5”x2
24.5”x2
24.5”x2

GHD Back Extensions w/Bands
abx5
abx5
abx5
Kettlebell Bulgarian Split Romanian Deadlifts (contra-loaded)
65x12/12
65x12/12

12” Step Ups with Band TKEs
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Backwards Treadmill Pushes (10-degree incline)
nullx5 minutes
nullx5 minutes

Stretching

Comments:  Welp, the last one for this prep. Friday was a bit stressful with work and my schedule is really going to be packed for work stuff to make up for being out of office for 3 days. I’m also not really going to have much in the way of breaks coming back either. Stayed up a bit late Friday I think since I knew I could sleep in. I was somewhat thinking about going out to train in Lancaster but thought it was better to just do stuff at home as I could and then I wouldn’t need to spend money for gas and travel. Could sleep in more and still have plenty of day. I will need to spend time this weekend getting travel stuff ready and collect thoughts as I imagine I won’t really have time for that this coming week. Stomach was acting up a bit after breakfast with a lot of indigestion but thankfully that went away. But I did wait a bit to start training. Soft tissue and foam rolling stuff and then neck rehab before moving on to lower body base mobility stuff and then stretching. Feeling ok. Calves were feeling a little tight. Bounding stuff to start as box jumps. I don’t have access to as much stuff that is really “safe” for box jumping and plan wasn’t to push things here. Just to keep something in. About 75% of what I’ve done for my best triple. I was initially going to do 3x2. I’m not sure why I get hesitancy with doing the jumps at home more so than the gym as it feels like it is higher than it is. I think now that I’ve realized that I stagger step before my jump that I’m leaning into that more so that I feel like I’m comfortable. Squaring up doesn’t feel natural I guess for me. As it usually the case I feel better with these as I go, so I did an extra set. Still a deload in the height and the volume/reps. No throwing this time. If I was, it would’ve been with something light or a medicine/slam ball. Didn’t want to deal with emptying sand out of my throw bag so didn’t bother entertaining it and hopefully the warming up movements and box jumps keep me feeling “springy”. To kind of deload my zercher stuff against bands, did back extensions against bands. I didn’t get things to be the right intensity for this with the setup I had. This would’ve been better setup at the gym. I didn’t want things to be too tough setting up the bands and getting into position. Didn’t realize the first set I should probably anchor the back of the setup with moving fast against bands. I added sandbags and weights after that. But doing that wasn’t really enough to keep things stable as not weighing down the front part was causing me to still move back even with some 180lbs of weight and getting further away from the dumbbells I anchored the band too. So chalk that up as a misfire for next time. Moving on from there to some unliteral stuff. The exercise was indicated to be one leg rdl with weight in offset side only. The balance factor with the one leg is always a hassle and I’ve found that I get a good bit more with taking some of that out of the equation such as doing b-stance. But I didn’t want to do that this time. I figured I’d try out a different verification where I was using the little rolling support I do for my Bulgarian split squats to do that for the non-lifting leg for the rdls. I also didn’t want to make things difficult to get setup into position here since this was a rdl so I put weight on my kettlebell handle which would have the pick height elevated a good bit. These were interesting with how they felt. Left side felt much better balance wise whereas the right side it definitely was trickier. Would be interesting do these in some capacity like doing the split squats. From there doing some more unilateral work. Been doing a lot of step downs this training so this was step ups. The main thing though was the band distraction that would make it so I had to do a TKE at lockout to hopefully get knee function in a good spot. A little tricky with setup with the band tension but I made it work and it felt right. Left side better side on these as far as how the knee felt as I knew right side there would be the creaking/crackling happening. I definitely could’ve done both unilateral exercise with no rest between sides (like I did on Day 2 with the split squats and band curls) but I felt I should do appropriate break between sides since not supersetted and I may try doing these as their own thing in the future. That covered the lifting part of the day. Inside to do backwards treadmill stuff. Plan was same as last week with 2 sets of 5 minutes. The treadmill I have can’t go as high on incline which is fine. I think I was better ready for what to expect this time and also not supremely drained by the training at this point. 5 minutes does feel like a long time here on this but it wasn’t like I was wondering why I was doing it at 30 seconds like last week at least. I felt fine enough after the first set. I had purposely not put anything away that I had setup for the session (beyond the mobility prep) so that I had something to do as an active rest before doing the second set. Second set I feel was better (similar to last week) and I just counted in my head to break up the chunks and pass time. I did end up counting fast by like 90 seconds somehow. Oh well. Ate a sandwich and cooled off before eventually stretching out after my stomach settled some more. I managed to mostly survive my own training and just go to live through another week and see where the cards fall.

April 27, 2025 - May 3, 2025 - Week 9

 April 28, 2025 – Week 9, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only, 5 seconds hold)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
90x3
120x3
145x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked)
Pin 14
lbx4
Pin 19
lbx4
Pin 24
lbx10
lbx10
lbx10

Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second)
45x6
95x5
135x4
185x3
225x2
275x6
275x6 (had to rerack it)
275x6

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls/Band Incline Tate Extensions
35x15—15/sbx15/ab+mbx20
35x15—15/sbx15/ab+mbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Really only four more workouts where I’ll be pushing the weights this prep. Not sure if it has sunk in yet that I’m competing very soon. Deload next week and then the following week is taking two airplanes to go about 3,000 miles to compete. Bodyweight down more as just under 262lbs somehow. This is about what I had weighed in at in 2023 Nationals the day of. Not trying to really drop off weight but keeping an eye on things. Saturday training is the only thing that should be stressful for me this week. Right knee a little stiff from Saturday. Forearms feeling Saturday too. Just not sure if Hercules hold or the axle picks after the workout the main culprit. And still got the left shoulder thing still present but generally doesn’t make a peep unless I try to do certain movements. It does seem to be more tied with neck I think at this point. I tend to mess around with things on this session with the no leg drive pressing day to see if anything triggers it and try to warm up. I’m likely going to need to avoid certain exercises in my warming up prep going forward while others are keepers. At least weather was nice today. Log strict pressing with bands this time around. More weight for this last week and dropping a set off so 4x3 with same band setup. I didn’t feel like my abs were sore this time around so like I said, used to the ab wheel stuff by this point. Left shoulder was feeling a little grumpy on the extension to full lockout at the start. That is on me doing stuff warming up that seemed to piss it off a bit. But it got better as I went. I did the holds on the last rep of each set working up as well like last time. These seemed to go well enough. No hard belt or wrist wraps like I’ve been doing. I did increased the weight 1lbs from what I had so that it was a nice 170lbs. I got the work done but I wasn’t quite feeling like I was hyped up with training. I didn’t need it but I was feeling a little “dull” mentally. A similar feeling to how I was at the end of the Saturday session doing the leg curls and leg presses. Put that stuff away and moved on to band assisted pull-ups. Same goal as last time with the reps and sets. This is going to be the last week of these as next week I’ll do some unassisted to end the training cycle with deload week. Not sure what is in store for after this. I liked how the progression last week had felt with the adjusting in height of same band. The lowest setting for the sets this time. Barely any help and can actually leave the band fully at the top at times. I did have a little bit of the crunchy shoulder on the left at the start but not present after the first three reps or so. These felt good and I managed to do 3x10 on here again. Tear down the outside stuff before going into the garage for the rest of it. The soft close grip board pressing with pauses. I was hoping my shoulders tolerated these. And thankfully they did. This would also be the last week with them this prep. Not sure about going forward as well. Depends on what is needed and recovery. I feel like some things feel better and I recover better for them. In either case, same warming up as I had done the past few times. Aim being to add 10lbs. Warming up was feeling pretty good. I was still feeling like not able to tap into the hype train if needed here. The first set actually felt pretty good. Which really surprised me when I struggled on the second set. Just seemed like my triceps weren’t firing right. Just something felt off. No pain or anything like that. Just felt like it got darn heavy and I was struggling to push it. It is possible that my forearms being sore and fatigued had something to do with it. I ended up having to rack the weight after 3 reps and take a moment to rebrace and commit and get those 3 other reps. I didn’t like that. I took a bit longer break then before going for the last set. That also was a tough one but I didn’t need to rerack the weight so I guess that is good. But it was tough getting the last few reps. Felt like quite a difference. Well good thing deloading next week as seems like I need it at this point. Finishing things off with a triset. This didn’t go as smooth as last time I did it. Mainly because the band tension needed to be more for two of the exercises due to ease for the one and decrease in reps for the other. I adjust the dumbbell so that it was spread out more so that I could clear my thigh doing the leaning side laterals. It actually felt easier with more weight. At least for my right side. This had been challenging and the left side struggled going right to the next side. I made a note of that to see if on the next set if taking a brief rest helped. I then had a heck of a time with the other two exercises with trying to get different band setups that took a bit longer than I’d like to finally figure out. Left shoulder not a fan of the first set of face pulls with the strong band. Using more than one band for the incline band Tate’s was bringing back memories of why I didn’t really do these earlier. Second go through I did take a brief break between sides on the laterals and that went much better. I guess I’ve gotten to a point where using enough weight I can kind of rest between sides like with my unilateral leg work. Band face pull felt much better the second set. Second set of the Tate’s was frustrating and just reminded me not worth it next time I need a triceps exercise. Put stuff away and finished cooking up dinner. Stretched after eating.
 
April 30, 2025 – Week 9, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Jack Pulls w/ bands (straps)
No Bands
161x2
Add Bands (+50lbs bottom/+100lbs top)
161x2
251x2
341x2
431x2
431x2
431x2
431x2
431x2
431x2

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear, 21”)
bwx3/3
bw+25x10/10
bw+25x10/10

Paused Single Leg Hamstring Bridges (5ct)
bwx10/10
bwx10/10

Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct)
bwx18
bwx9
bwx3

Stretching

Comments: My shoulders and upper back were really tense on Tuesday and seemed to be the case Wednesday as well. But seemed to be more the middle of my back on Wednesday. I didn’t think the stuff I had done Monday would’ve stressed the upper back so much (face pulls and pull ups) so I’m thinking the culprit here is the zercher stuff with the band tension having been essentially doubled. I had to wake up early today for fasted blood work to finish up my annual physical. So that meant not eating as much the day before as well. I wasn’t sure if I had wanted to move the session a day but I figured I needed to stick to the plan I have so that I got as much rest as possible before doing my last go at the events this weekend. I thankfully didn’t have any bruising in the arm from the blood draw like last year. Hopefully numbers are better after the 20lbs weight change and stopping the turmeric powder. I did a bit more soft tissue work for my calves because just felt tight before starting the session. I seemed ok but I was a little uneasy with how the midback was tense as what I was going to be doing wasn’t exactly going to be nice to it. The lighter week for deadlifts but by no means the easier. It is still hitting mid 80% of training max on these with the band tension at the top. Change here with it being a bit more of a jump in weight (26lbs) but dropping from 5x3 to 6x2. So more sets and less reps per set. Plate jumps working up too as just easier to build up against the bands and save energy. Duct taping the wood panels worked like a charm last time. I was getting a little silly with the plate placement but probably not the wisest thing as the collars don’t really fit secure on this bar. I had bumper plates initially and then swapped in the wagon wheels just for looks. This definitely felt tougher than the last two times. Farmer’s will be the last heavy pulls this Saturday as next time will be deload with like 50%. Plan was to also have most of this session be of lesser intensity to pull back the other stuff. I felt like that made sense after seeing how I was a little off energy wise on Monday. For back work, the paused chest supported dumbbell rows were replaced. I wasn’t going to be doing this week anyways. Set up the inverted ring rows as those tend to feel good on my back and shoulders. It did take up some time putting away the deadlift platform and then setting this up to then be put away afterwards as well. But I was moving through things fast enough and the breaks with teardown gave me opportunities to rehydrate. Plan here was just bodyweight and doing 3x10-15 with a few RIR. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. When I first started doing my own training in December, I was not conditioned for these and 10 reps was challenging enough. So good to see that 15 reps is the new 10 reps for those. These did feel surprisingly good. From there moving on step downs. I was initially going to stick to the same weight as last week or slightly heavier. But that was before I decided it probably made sense to go lighter so as to pull back and recover a little more as I’ll probably need it. So looking at 25lbs instead of 50lbs. And then I had another thought. Since I’m going lighter, let’s see if I can do 21” height as that is the most I’d done for ROM on these back in 2022. Surprisingly, I was able to do these in the garage under the ceiling light recess. My knees were quite cranky with bodyweight but usually that is the getting used to it phase. This wasn’t something like the first week where I couldn’t support myself all the way down and losing it due to pain. The weighted sets actually went better here. So back to the full ROM I was doing on these from about 2.5yrs ago. Not sure what the future will bring but these do seem to be the safest for my knees. Will depend on what is the next thing after this as maybe I need to work on other stuff. Then on to the hamstring bridges. A little different this week. Plan here was just 2x10. Pulling way back on the volume but increasing the hold time. My intent last time was get in more reps with the movement and this time to really focus on the holds with lower reps. I started with my right side this time as that seemed to be the side that was lagging. Similar to how the paused single leg hip thrusts were in December, it just needed a session to get used to them again. These seemed to go much smoother this time around. Ab wheel to finish out the night. Same as last time with 30 reps total over however many sets with the 5ct holds. It was ambitious goal to try to get it in 2 sets but I was quite close here. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before eating and then stretching. Figured it was better to try to get to sleep earlier to make up for the earlier rising and recover. Just four more workouts to go.

May 3, 2025 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Fingal Fingers
400x1
400+25x1
400+60x1
400+60x1
400x4

I-Beam Farmer’s Walks (18” pick)
117x30’
167x30’
207x30’
257x30’    
297xpick (5 second hold)
202x30’/252x30’/302x30’/352x0’ in ??.?? seconds

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
40x26’8”
40x27’3”
40x27’4”
40x26’9”
40x23’10”

Backwards Treadmill Pushes (15-degree incline)
nullx5 minutes
nullx5 minutes

Stretching

Comments: I was nervous and anxious coming into this session. Common refrain. I think part of it was related to what was I do be doing as far as the finishing stuff as far as overhead with deload. Fingal fingers is not light and originally I was looking at doing my last heavy session on Monday to end the 5/3/1 but that was prior to having my shoulders feeling a bit more beat than I would’ve liked this week. So probably makes sense to treat this session as the last heavy overhead day to allow more recovery and truly deload just about everything next week. Especially considering I have a lot of interviews scheduled for the week I leave so rather just be on autopilot mode. So that partially resolved things in my head. The other was in regards to the last heavy farmer’s. I had not expected things to be feeling this tough for this event in theory and I was wondering if it was wise to try for the top end stuff. Trying to review past trainings to see what made the most sense recovery wise for me. Generally it has seemed to be that I’ve had farmer’s when heavy be tested either further out or not quite contest weight at this point. Just with how the training has turned out. Last time I did these workouts for the farmer’s event I had ended up being too beat that I had skipped the last heavy day (which would be this session) and I managed to do it at the show. So that part of if it was worth trying and risks associated. But I guess get to it when I get to it. I’m going to have mistakes with doing my own thing. So I did get up at work time to get out to train. But couldn’t leave right away as there had been a storm the night before and tree branch had landed in my driveway so had to move that. Traffic really is so much better when I do this. Another humid day with alternating between sunny and cloudy. People were there training but not the stuff I was expecting considering last time. I guess not everyone does an alternating schedule like me. I’m not sure if it was the humidity or being up early and taking all the allergy meds but I was feeling a little winded and sweaty doing my warming up. I realized after the fact that I didn’t quite do the same warming up I had done last time for these events but oh well. So finger to start like contest. I wasn’t too sure what I’d be doing here. I’d done the 500lbs finger last time and that was a plan to setup and put away. I didn’t quite have the help I did that time to setup. My initial thoughts here was to use the 400lbs finger and see about adding weight to it to get a better idea of the contest finger with loading in the end vs over the entire implement. The pick up with 500lbs hadn’t been bad but the walking was where the added weight was noticed. Likely the added weight would make the clean/pick harder and then walking it up would feel similar to whatever weight. I wasn’t feeling the best here today with these at the start. I was feeling slow and timid. Perhaps because I knew that I couldn’t just one motion it with heavier stuff beyond the 400lbs and that I’d need to use the other bump it up style for the contest with size. I setup things outside just to get that feel for it being on pavement (apparently not good as got a message Sunday from gym owners not wanting me to use the plyo pads on concrete oops). I knew that I could do 25lbs added to the finger with the slam ball since it fit. But beyond that was uncertain. I had tested with using that same slam ball and then attaching one of those hanging straps for hanging leg raises and then hooking chains to that. It seemed like it would work but really convoluted and with how the chains would be, the weight would be further down the finger so not all condensed near the top like contest. I had initially thought the 60lbs slam ball wouldn’t work as I tried it a few weeks prior to see if it fit. But I apparently hadn’t shoved hard enough as I was able to get it to fit. 25lbs added was a bit difference so I could only imagine 60lbs. Yep, that was tough. I had to push press it the first time after it taking a bit to get to my shoulder. Felt tougher than the 500lbs finger for sure. So this was a good thing to try this out. I rested a bit and then flipped it the other way and that went much smoother. Since the ball wasn’t staying in the finger, I took it out just to do an easy set with the empty finger for the reps I figure I could get at the heavy weight. The weight gone was a big difference as I was able to essentially catch it at shoulders and press up right away. So that was good. I feel like there are aspects where this finger is going to be easier and others where it is harder than contest. Took a bit of time with putting things away as it was a lot of weight but also so that I could hopefully recover well enough for farmer’s walk setup which was that I was really nervous about. Plan was to try and do contest run here as well as see about warming up in a way that will be conducive to getting ready at competition. The handles I had been using still not available and likely being hidden for the show next week in Pittsburgh. I was not going to use those Titan Fitness handles again as still have blood blisters from them two weeks prior. Honestly, only going to use them if specifically mentioned as being used at a show as I really don’t like them with how they feel in my hands. So I was going to use the I-beam handles that were 18” pick. I don’t know exactly what handles will be at show but I have a feeling they will be 75lbs empty or so. Likely a Bartos knock-off I’d wager. As far as warming up, I was going to do straight runs of 30’ with going up 40-50lbs jumps. I figured that it was not good to try and do a run with 297lbs and that a pick and hold would be the best thing. I could definitely tell there was some fatigue but stuff was feeling good in my grip and I was moving well with it. Just heavy picking up and feeling pressure on body. Stripped things down for the contest run plan. I set it up for 3 weight increases as I knew timewise that 4 wasn’t happening and definitely not having the strength at this time for 400lbs pick either. Really fighting nerves here. I feel like things were moving well. 302lbs felt better than 300lbs last time and it didn’t feel so heavy that it was my limit. I felt like 352lbs had a real shot. I didn’t quite land the handles even on the drop and I did fumble the one plate so I felt I was short on time. I grunted and shouted and went for it but couldn’t quite get the full weight up and break the sticking point. My grip felt fine at least. I was a bit disappointed with myself in that I wasn’t able to do it. Despite telling myself that this was actually the most I’ve attempted on farmer’s walk from this height since my 2016 back injury. I’ve not done more than 325lbs on these handles at this height either. And this was after doing three runs no rest and loading my own weights which is apparently much tougher than just going lol. 340lbs is the most weight I’ve done on farmer’s walk from a standard height since the back injury in 2016 and that had been a maximum effort with full rest. But even with knowing all that, I feel like I should still be able to do that thing. But it doesn’t feel impossible compared to last time. Just have to again, see where I am and on the day and what is needed. So then on to bag throws. Well, I was supposed to but I was feeling so beat/dejected with farmer’s walk I thought I was done and got to doing my conditioning work of backwards treadmill pushes on incline. Plan there was to do 2 sets of 5 minutes. But fatigue makes cowards of us all and I was really not sure how I was going to do this when I was already regretting my decision 30 seconds into it. So I was going to stop at just the one set but then I realized afterwards that I was to do some throws and figured I can’t just completely skip that. So I setup in the same spot as last week. Good thing I did bring my own 40lbs bag as the 45lbs and 40lbs bag had both burst today while someone was using them. Ugh. Setup stuff and kind of went right into it rather than try to do some movement prep. I was kind of on fumes mentally and physically at this point and this was just get some fatigued touches. This was definitely not my best throwing session. Obviously better throws when fresh. Plan was 5-8 throws and I kind of knew I was going to be doing just 5. Good call as my last throw was my worst distance wise. I was dealing with the fatigue/apathy and then there was a little girl kept riding her tricycle near me that I had to keep an eye on. Just to make sure I was picking the right throw style for me, I did two overhead throws and those were terrible. Besides irritating my left shoulder I was not getting close to the distance I was getting with my bad spin throws today. Guess I stick with what works even if I have some self-doubts. Seeing as how this was enough time for me to recover, I then did the second set of backwards treadmill stuff. It didn’t feel as bad at the first had. Go figure. Put stuff away and downed my shake. Stretched out at the gym before driving home as it was a little earlier than it has been the past few times. I think I wanted to stretch out with the good stuff at my disposal to try and get things to feel good.

April 20, 2025 - April 26, 2025 - Week 8

 April 21, 2025 – Week 8, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
39x5
69x3
99x2
129x2
159x2
189x3
216x3
243x6

Dips
bwx5
bw+45x3
bw+90x8
bw+90x11

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked)
Pin 12
lbx4
Pin 17
lbx4
Pin 22
lbx10
lbx10
lbx10

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
231x3
281x3
331x3
331x9

Paused Single Arm Dumbbell Y Raises on Incline Bench (2ct)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (2ct stretch)
12x12—12/mmb+µbx15—15
12x12—12/mmb+µbx15—15

Stretching
 
Comments: Back to the regular training days now for 3 days a week. It doesn’t appear that I got as wiped out by my training over the weekend as I was the last time had to do fingers and farmer’s walk. Weight up a bit so no longer at 265lbs but likely will go down and more to do with essentially ordering out food rather than cooking dinner myself the night before. So while not feeling that beat up from Saturday, I did feel some aches in my joints as far as knees and shoulders. Also a little for lower back and hips. The different style of clean for the fingal fingers leaves bruises on the tops of my hands. Also a bruise on my inside of my left knee. Not sure if that is just from doing things or I hit it with something. But none of it is painful. I didn’t try to force ROM with the left shoulder as far as foam rolling stuff. But did make sure that I got stuff warmed up and moving. Not so bad. I do wish that I could get the impingement thing with the left to go away but it isn’t effecting anything for the events and most training thankfully. I was nervous for the axle push pressing. Just from how beat up things have felt in the shoulders after fingal fingers. I didn’t have the luxury of being able to really move days as I had to go into the office on Tuesday for the collaboration day so didn’t want to have to train after that nonsense. I was also have my HVAC system replaced same day so possibility of that still going on while training also not ideal. I also couldn’t really push out the days as I plan to do Hercules hold Saturday for first and last touch this prep and I need to make sure I have help for that. So I had to do this workout today to fit things in. Still following 5/3/1 protocol. So far, so good I guess there. Not sure if weather recently but fair number of ants on the lifting area today. Stuff was feeling a bit achy in the everywhere as far as joints go. I was getting nervous with the working sets coming up. I told myself it was just the 3’s this week so just need to get a few reps. But of course panicking and thinking this needs to be easier and such. First set wasn’t that bad. Just a little bit out in front so feeling some pressure holding my breath. Second set had me really nervous about how the last set would go as I just was unstable the entire time. Just stumbling backwards and forwards. Like stuff needed to not be that way real quick if I wanted to do anything that last top set. Perhaps that being the case where I’m really anxious helps with making things go. First rep a little bit of catch as out in front at lockout (went up fast) so I had to kind of catch my balance as I lowered it and that meant I couldn’t rebound into the next rep. Second rep went up about the same but I attempted to go into a rebound rep right after that. I was able to do it but it wasn’t quite that stable so little slow with lockout so I took a breath of air at lockout to catch balance. I just then committed to doing rebound after that despite my base not feeling the most stable and it seemed to work out to get to 5 reps. I took another big long breath and decided I’d do no rebound for that last rep. Which could be a risk. But I was able to get it. Decided to just rack the weight at that point as I hit the minimum for what would allow me to make a 10lbs increase for next time (assuming I get 3 over next time). I do feel there was another rep there. But best to get what I can with the anxiety I get and move on. Moved on to dips from there. Would be the last time this prep I do them weighted as next time will be the deload session. Shoulders as I mentioned had felt a little bit achier than I’d like. But things haven’t been bad with dips so far. 10lbs increase again here so now working back up to 90lbs. I know there is room for a lot more growth in strength so I may be keeping these as something beyond this training prep. This felt similar to how it did last time and I managed to match the reps. Definitely getting my chest involved on these and my triceps are definitely starting to get stronger and feel powerful like they have in the past. Back outside for the rest of the workout. Band assisted pull-ups up next. Plan being 3x8-10 with potentially less band assistance. I figured based off how last time went that I could use less assistance. Rather than use different bands to warm up, I’d use the same band but change the height for the assistance. I don’t like using less than the light band because the thinner bands tend to cut/dig into my shins with my weight. No issues with biceps and my left shoulder this time didn’t feel like something was shifting and moving around. So I’ll take those as positives here. Moving on to seated lockouts with the axle. Started to get a little cloudy and some drops. But nothing consistent. Like the dips, this would be the last time this cycle. I think these will also be a thing I use but likely going to have these be with log as that moves a little easier as far as finding that balance point. Really tricky with axle but worth trying out. Anyways, I had the plan was to do 2x4 or 2x3 if not able to meet reps. But I saw how last time I was having a hell of a time with the working weight and getting the sweet spot so I had done just 1x3 to warm up (which really ended up being rest paused singles). I didn’t do a big an increase despite getting as many reps as I did as I knew that these is tough movement (I had indicated to do 2.5% or so after last time). I knew from last time that I got to get things lined up just right and then I should be good to go. I took me a few tries to get it right for the 3 reps before. I want to say I had 2 attempts on this rep set before I finally got things to fire right and start doing reps. Ended up with 9 reps after going for 10th but not quite having it lined up right so couldn’t lock it out. Wasn’t going to fight it at this point. I’ve put in the work here. Again, since the bench was already outside, I just did the final superset outside as well. Same as last time with the unilateral stuff. Left side still has issues with the external rotation aspect but tolerable on the Y raises. I stuck to same weight and reps there. The band triceps stuff I made sure I had the band tension right for both sets this time around. I felt tempted to increase but figured it was best to just do what I had and let my triceps start to recover some as the peak starts to ramp up. Had after putting weights and stuff away, I had to move my power rack off the patio area so that easy access to the AC outdoor unit for the HVAC people. Ate dinner and stretched out. Need to get to bed early so that I can be ready for the HVAC people and to do the collab day in office.

April 23, 2025 – Week 8, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps)
187x5
277x3
367x2
457x1
547x1
637x1
Cluster Sets (15 seconds rest)
557x1+1
557x1+1
557x1+1

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
56’sx5
81’sx5
106’sx8
106’sx8
86’sx13

Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bwx3/3
bw+50x10/10
bw+50x10/10

Paused Single Leg Hamstring Bridges (3 seconds)
bwx20/20
bwx20/20

Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct)
bwx15
bwx9
bwx6

Stretching

Comments: I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the session today or not. Not because I didn’t want to train, but I think because I wanted to make sure that I was rested and ready for my last big deadlift. Ankles felt a little stiff and the in office day can be a little draining. I had been anxious with overhead press and at some point I pinched my thumb on something so have a blood blister there. And now my right shoulder is feeling achy (in a completely different way from my left mind you). It wasn’t like a heavy deadlift session and then just one day of rest really seemed to affect anything last time I did that (two weeks ago) but I felt it was best to not move the deadlift session by one day so that I gave the bag toss and Hercules hold the respect needed for as recovered as I can. And If I can’t hit the numbers planned while feeling a little achy, then I have no shot of pulling contest weight at the show. I had to pull out the little oscillating fan as it got up to 80 (my new AC is doing a good job though). I’ve been making adjustments as needed with my warming up for session. I made sure I did the static stretch stuff this time around haha. Last heavy deadlift session. I’d probably have it not be so far out but I also have to do another heavy farmer’s walk session and with the picks being rough there, it isn’t like I’m resting on my laurels on that front. Need to let things recover and more time needed as I get older. Plan was big jumps in weight and aiming for a top single. As in leaving 1RIR ideally. My hope here would be to do 20lbs more than my triple from last time. This should be doable for me assuming no issues and if it truly felt like I could double it, I have a real shot of doing 660lbs at contest. Same setup as last time I went heavy but I did add in bumper plates for the weights like I was doing the very first week I went heavy on these. I’m not sure if just lower back feeling a little bit achy from Saturday or if my stance wasn’t quite right but some reps didn’t feel as good as others. It felt easy initially warming up but then getting above the first two weeks started to feel somethings not as keen. Adding a hard belt did seem to alleviate some of that. I wasn’t 100% sure the top single would go with how the preceding one had gone. But I put in my best effort and got to it after chalking things up. There was the briefest moment at the start where I thought it wasn’t happening but then it moved and it went up. Please with that pull. Goal of the minimum needed achieved again. The down sets were a little different this time around. I had noticed that I tended to need to rest or take a breather on the heavier weights because can’t really rest with this bar at lockout so unless I got a good brace I can’t really pull again right away. So I figured it made sense to incorporate that aspect with breaking up the reps with 15 seconds rest between reps. So I’d get used to having to rebrace and not have that stretch reflex. Noticing that there was some strap slippage but I think it was more that the bar wasn’t free revolving at this point so straps weren’t getting even tightness. However, I survived the deadlifts. Just lighter stuff going forward until show time (minus heavy farmer’s next week). Rest of the workout from there. Moving on to the chest supported dumbbell rows. Last week of these. Switching to less intense row variation as winding things down. These holds on rows are quite taxing. Plan this time around being to do the top set I did last week but for 2x8 and then drop down 20lbs for a rep set with the 3ct holds. Warming up was fine and all. Took a bit of time between the sets to make sure I recovered enough and put away stuff from the deadlifting. Got through those first two heavier sets well enough. Wasn’t sure with the rep set as I know how things can be with these on the holds. But it did feel light enough. I figured that I probably needed to do at least 12 reps here to be in the range I should be to match what I was doing with these last time around. Ended up with a baker’s dozen. From there moving on step downs. I had a little bit of issue here with logistics. There were some exercise adjustments from last week to this week and initially looking at trying to superset with these but felt it was best to keep as separate. I also felt that I could probably suck it up here and just go right to 18” height with bodyweight as I’ve worked on these hard rather than having to build up to it. And I was right, I could. So that made things a little easier with working sets as I knew I could already reach depth without weight so it wasn’t feeling for it like before. Used the kettlebell handle and added 10lbs. Only two sets right now and feeling decently strong. I’m pleased I’ve gotten these back to about how they were from a few years ago. Unilateral leg stuff wasn’t done though. Bringing in something from a few years back with hamstring bridges. I remember doing these only a little bit as these ended up being more intense than anticipated. Plan was 2 sets of these with 3-5ct holds for 12-20 reps. I was aimed for longer holds before but I figured it made more sense to get in reps this time around and aim for longer holds next time around. I think that these would be helpful with hamstrings and getting even hip extension. Core balance with the unilateral work. I was not expecting these to be as tough as they were for my right side vs left side. I guess I know better for next time. I did go for 20 reps on both sets here. Hopefully these aren’t too taxing on the hamstrings when it comes time for Saturday training. Ab wheel to finish out the night. All alone this time around. I’ve hopefully done enough of these in enough weeks in a row that I’ve become inoculated to the DOMS in the lower abs. Same plan of 5ct holds on the reps and aim being total reps in however many sets needed leaving 2RIR (but likely closer to 1RIR because I know how I am). 30 reps for the volume goal this week. I managed to improve by 1 rep on the first two sets so I only had a few for to finish things up here. Put stuff away while letting my dinner cool off. Stretched after eating.

April 26, 2025 – Week 8, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
24”x3
27”x3
28.5”x3
30”x3
33”x3

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
22.5x45’
22.5x45’
50x23’5”
50x25’10”
50x27’7”
50x27’7”
50x29’8”
50x26’11”
50x26’11”
50x26’6”
50x26’6”
50x24’5”

Hercules Holds (2” handles)
200x5 seconds
250x5 seconds
300xoops
300x32.50 seconds
260x36.00 seconds
260x41.70 seconds

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+28lbs/+93lbs, 32” height)
65x2
115x2
155x2
205x2
245x2
245x2
245x2
245x2
245x2

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
100x5/390x6
150x5/570x6
200x10/750x6
225x10/840x6
250x12/930x12

Stretching

Comments: Almost stuck to my schedule with getting up at a reasonable hour to train. Just slept in 30 minutes. I couldn’t afford to oversleep that much as I needed assistance with training today. Getting very close with competition time. Besides this workout, there is really just one more session where I’m going to be doing events and that one is one of those important sessions to determine things. This session would be a bit more relaxed since the really stressful stuff was going to be more the assistance work than the actual event work. Allergies acting up so took pill and nasal spray. It is possible exacerbated by the forest fire a little bit southwest of where I live too. I wasn’t too thrilled to hear rain drops in the morning before leaving. I didn’t think it was going to rain today but appears it would be off and on. Oh well. Drive out wasn’t bad. Fair number of people training today for strongman and doing similar events. So that did slow me down a little with pacing as talking with people and knowing that I’d need to be mindful of space and timing for stuff. It was also very humid today but thankfully not that hot. I did foam rolling and mobility stuff. I made sure that I did some static stretches for the hips/ankles/knees. As it was raining, I didn’t get throwing setup beforehand as wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing with that. Box jumps to start off. For some reason, I felt tempted to just go right into 24” jump height without doing my bounding warming up. But I made sure I did those first but still went with 24”. The plan for today was to work up to a new triple for the box jumps. I felt that doing triples and not trying to do singles to work up felt best to me. Not fatiguing but encouraging if that makes sense. As sometimes my first jump to a height isn’t my best. I’ve not been filming these but was going to today since hopefully hitting a new PR here. It was pointed out that I do a little foot hop before I jump with my left foot. I was kind of aware that I had that foot move before I jump but I was not aware how much until I saw video. Not sure if that is really something for me to fix but definitely shows that my left side is the one I lead with. Doing the matts on the ground stuff definitely seemed like the way to go here with progression. Things went well here and no misses of psyching myself out before jumps. My triple for a new best I feel the jumps got better as I went. I don’t think I’m quite at 36” yet but I’m getting close to it. These have been fun but not sure how/if programming for the next thing as depends on what comes up. Next two possible big shows are more than the usual events. SC Nats events posted and I’m definitely interested (but would need to qualify). Natural Worlds not yet but also have to qualify. I likely can’t do both due to time and costs really. But a comfortable PR here and on to the actually contested things. So outside for throws. I changed things up here. I did my throws in the alleyway instead of the loading dock. Main reason was that the loading dock has divots and water pools in them so where I would throw had standing water and didn’t really want the sandbags to land in it either. Hey, I should deal with the conditions since I’ll be in the PNW anyways for this so it could happen. But I think the other reason besides that with the alleyway not having water (due to incline) was that it was narrow by nature and the surface was likely closer to what will be the case at the competition. I need to make sure if doing the spinning that I keep it in the lane. I’ve not been feeling like I’ve got my best throwing in the past two sessions. But I felt like maybe it would be better today as I launched the 22.5lbs bag past the end point both times when it was falling short the previous time I did these to warm up. I’m not sure why but the space to throw from felt smaller this time around. I just started off as ok with throws but managed to hit a PR on my fifth throw with the 50lbs bag. But couldn’t replicate it after that point and distance went down. I had 3 pairs of throws back to back that matched distances so there was some consistency there. I was feeling a little crampy in the stomach during these which could be from the humidity but also some digestion issues the previous two days. I called if after the tenth throw as my distance decreased substantially. I’d have liked to get 30’ on this during prep but oh well. I just hope that my choice to pursue this style of throw works out. I took my time putting things away to one rehydrate but also eat up time so that the people doing yoke on the turf lane were done as I needed some space and help for the next thing; Hercules hold. Setting that up is a pain and requires at minimum two people to run it. Sometimes more depending on the weight. Because of that, I’ve done most of my training with other stuff and primarily doing the 2” thick rolling handles hangs. But I feel it is important that I do the setup at least once during the prep to see. My plan here was to see how things felt but ideally work up in 5 second holds to warm up and then do a max hold with something that I cand do 30-45 seconds with and then drop that weight down by 10-15% and repeat the times. I tend to have just one good, long hold in me and if I want to match it, I have to drop weight a good bit. I adjusted the straps that connect to the setup so that it wasn’t as “loose” as I believe the contest setup will be more “upright”. I was trying to figure out jumps and such as I needed to warm up and get an idea of what I was doing but I also didn’t want to do too many because of requiring a good bit of effort from those helping. Had to add 125lbs dumbbells to the platform so that it didn’t rocket up when the weights were dropped. The weight wasn’t feeling so bad so I decided I’d do 300lbs and if that was too easy, I’d go up. But it felt like a safe weight. This ended up being too much for one of the spotters to be able to lift and pull the pin out so had to get someone else to help with part of it. I was going to have to count off in my head and hopefully it isn’t too fast. 300lbs was no joke as it pulled me off center with when not controlled so had to reset everything and go again. Much better. Didn’t feel too taxing on the body but with having the hands in more open position due to size of handle, there was a lot more forearm fatigue. I also had to really retract my upper back and shoulders to keep tension. I did apparently count a little too fast as I thought I was close to 40 seconds when I released but it was just over 32 seconds. Close enough. I took 40lbs off for the down sets. First set was closer to 40 seconds (but really anything close 32 was fine). The second set I got distracted as another friend had shown up and I lost count at the beginning. So that ended up being over a minute. I feel this was good enough here and just have to see what the show is like.  Thankfully got some help with putting some of this away. I didn’t realize how long I’d already been at the gym but it was just the weight based gym stuff I had left. The ssb thing I do against bands making an appearance again. Adjusted a bit for this last session of them. Dropping the weight back down 20lbs but increasing the band tension by a good bit at the top. Plan being 5x2. I ended up being a lot sweatier in the main gym area with the fans vs being in the wind tunnel without. Imagine that. Holy buckets was this added band tension making these way tougher. These felt like I was really being grounded and couldn’t leave the ground with my feet despite my best efforts. I guess I should be thankful that I didn’t feel lightheaded on these. I was a little leery at the start as my knees were feeling achy getting into position. Haven’t had that in a good bit. Didn’t bode well for the leg presses later lol. First rep with the working weight my hips and back cracked. Oof, this was going to be a tough one. Really worked on bracing here with that. These have been serving me well. Feeling a little tense in the neck from triple extension. So after clearing that stuff up, on the last thing of the day with the machine superset for the legs. As previously mentioned, I only really had plan with the leg presses initially when I did my programming but supersetting with the tempo leg curls seems to have been a wise decision with my legs and knees. The leg curls I’m already maxing out the machine besides adding additional weights to it illegally. I’ll likely need to go to single leg in the future unless I just aim for higher reps with both legs. So that was still going to be my 3x10-15 stuff. The leg pressing I was trying to peak with this last session being RPE stuff for2x6 and then add 10% to the last set for max reps (1RIR). Now I wasn’t too sure how this would play out honestly. I wasn’t sure about the hamstrings from doing those single leg bridges earlier in the week (lot of stress on the tendons) and then the knees on leg presses after how things felt just setting up for the zercher stuff. I also had to contend with needing to go heavier considering I apparently undersold myself last time. I figured that it probably made sense to have the leg curls follow the leg presses in that I increase the weight each set for both. I’d see how things felt with the leg curls but likely stick to 10 reps for the first 2 sets and then maybe do more on the last set. 25lbs jumps here since I don’t think I can really safely go above 250lbs (50lbs added) on the setup. Leg presses I had to go up by 90lbs to start from last time to get into the ballpark of where I needed to be. There was such pressure getting the weight to lockout to start things off. I was feeling a little low energy wise. Maybe not exactly the case but I didn’t feel aggressive and hyped up. Just that I was going to have to push and do my best. I managed to get more reps than I was expecting for both on the last set. Feels good to be doing double digits on the leg press setup. Very close to 660lbs actual weight (considering angle) being moved which hopefully helps with deadlift and farmer’s picks. I was feeling those last three exercises immensely afterwards. Didn’t stop me from giving a solid attempt at picking up 400lbs DOH on axle from about knee height (didn’t hold lockout). Put stuff away and downed a shake before driving home to stretch there.

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

 April 15, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

April 19, 2025 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

April 7, 2025 - April 13, 2025 - Week 6

 April 9, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
26x5
56x3
86x2
116x2
146x2
176x5
203x5
230x8

Dips
bwx5
bw+45x3
bw+80x8
bw+80x11

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked, pin 20)
sbx4
abx12
abx12
abx12

Axle Seated Overhead Lockouts (6” ROM)
226x2
276x2
321x3
321x11

Paused Single Arm Dumbbell Y Raises on Incline Bench (2ct)/Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions (2ct stretch)
12x12—12/mmbx15—15
12x12—12/mmb+µbx15—15

Stretching
 
Comments: Sunday night training was brutal. I already had mentioned that but it was more so than I was expecting. And coupled with not having a day off to rest really with getting up early for work didn’t help. My tibs were still sore Monday and I was feeling quite stiff. I was mentally not running at 100% either as there were times I’d make a call and then wonder why I was getting a return call and not recognizing the number. Oddly enough my numbers at my physical were really good (though blood work gets done later this month). One day of rest was obviously not enough as I was still feeling sore in my lower legs. Also got a little bit of an impingement with the left shoulder which also annoying. I was also thinking about the recovery for this week with the planned heavy double for deadlift. I decided I’d just not do anything Tuesday and since doing now 3 days a week, I have the flexibility to do that. I did no walking and went to bed like 2hrs earlier than usual so got about 10hrs or sleep. Body feeling a bit better as far as lower body (hoping some of that would go away with warming up and session). Left shoulder still present but I guess a little better. Have to make do with what I got I guess haha. Warming up was ok. Lower body was feeling fine. Left shoulder was cranky. Not sure how it would react to the different things planned for the day. Axle push pressing to start things off. Alternating between strict log for triples with bands and axle push press following 5/3/1 protocol. So back to 5’s after going through a cycle (minus deload). My plan for progression here was to add 10lbs to the max if I did 3 reps or better averaging on the reps sets of the designated 5, 3, and 1 top sets. Which I did. Still, I wasn’t feeling confident here. I could tell the left shoulder issue was having things feel a little tight with lockout. But thankfully nothing painful here.  Weights were feeling a little heavy in my hands. Actually not so much my hands but definitely in the shoulders. I was feeling not so powerful and with how the second set of 5 reps went, I was worried that I’d be getting a single with 230lbs for the top set. Nerves been really bad when it comes to doing these as of late. Perhaps the fingal finger stuff is just too much for my shoulders to recover from with training. But perhaps being so nervous and anxious had me feel like I should be feeling with getting reps on the last set. I know I had indicated trying to just do them with no rebound reps but I’m just going to do what feels right in the moment. I got 5 reps with the rebound and then more controlled and taking a solid breath to get 3 more reps for 8 total. Last one was a little rough to lockout but still solid. Happy that this went as well as it did considering the circumstances. I stated setting things up for stuff later in the workout to get some rest before moving on to doing dips. I was leery about how these would go with how my left shoulder was feeling. It actually wasn’t that bad. My left elbow was achy however so that was a little weird. I’d been doing these every week but now it will be every other week. I was going to do just adding 5lbs each time but figured that since it is two weeks between sessions, I could probably push a little more here. So I went with 10lbs increase. Initially, I was thinking this may be where I have to pull back on the reps to keep progressing with how the weight felt that first set where I do just 8 reps. But maybe I took things more seriously or knew what to expect as I was able to put in the performance I expected on the second set for reps with something left in the tank. I feel 100lbs added for decent reps with no support gear is happening by the end of this. I had started getting dinner ready by this point. Back outside for the rest of the workout. Band assisted pull-ups. Same band assistance as last time but adding another set (3x8-12). I wasn’t really too concerned with the RIR as aim was to try and get 3x12 with something in the tank by the end hopefully. This could potentially be something my left shoulder didn’t like. Could hear things shifting and moving but no pain unless I tried to pull myself down to stretch the shoulder forward at an angle. These felt pretty good. No biceps tightness today (I remember that last time I did the 400lbs fingal finger) and I was able to get a decent clip before kind of dead hand rest pausing the rest of the reps to get 3x12 with 2-3RIR. I’ll likely be lowering the band tension assistance for next time and go lower rep range. See how things are feeling since this is being tested weekly. Moving on to seated lockouts with the axle. Plan was to do 2x4 and then rep set like I’d been doing. And since I got over 8 reps, I was to increase the weight 5% or so. The weight is adding up at this point. Getting to the point where if not in the sweet spot, it ain’t budging. Warming up felt awful. Again, nothing here bothering the shoulder thankfully. I felt tired and maybe the push pressing and dips had been too much today. My first set with top weight I didn’t budge it and had to refocus and do it again. I essentially had to rest pause the reps to get a triple. I decided that I’d go the lower range on these as my back up in the event I don’t get more than 8 reps is to drop down to 1-2x3 and then rep set. And once in that range, the weight increase changes to 2.5% but the threshold for reps is lowered to greater than 5 reps. I was thinking I’d get another 3 reps, maybe 5. But I guess I got things figured out by this point and got double digits again. My body just being a bit ole faker today. Since the bench was already outside, I just did the final superset outside as well. This was unliteral upper body stuff. Single arm y dumbbell raises with holds and single arm band triceps with holds in stretch position. I felt doing these together as unilateral stuff would help with getting things to be similar to the walking with the finger for the one aspect and the other just getting nice full ROM since doing a lot of partial stuff heavy. The left side definitely took some issue with the y raises but it is what it is. It didn’t really make things worse. Forcing and movement has seemed to help with it not feeling so bad at times. Balance was a little wonky (felt easier to balance left vs right but right easier to handle in the hold and movement). Band tension was a little too light the first set and adding a micro was apparently just what I needed to get into the right range. Put stuff away and got to eating dinner before stretching out. Hopefully I’m recovered well enough for the rest of this week of training.

April 11, 2025 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps)
167x5
257x3
347x2
437x1
527x1
617x3
540x3
540x3

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
40’sx5
56’sx5
76’sx5
96’sx10
96’sx10
96’sx10+10 Kelso shrugs

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bw+25x3/3
18”
bw+25x10/10
bw+25x10/10
bw+25x10/10

Back Extensions (5ct hold every 5 reps)/Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct)
bwx10/bwx13
bwx10/bwx7
bwx10/bwx5

Stretching

Comments: It was a good decision in hindsight to move the training for this week out one extra day. It allowed me to recover and then kind of gave me a little more freedom for this particular training session with the plan being heavy deadlifts. By having it be Friday, I didn’t have to worry about potentially having a bad session and then having to go through a day of work thinking about it before I got a reprieve with the weekend. Not to mention that this week with work was tiring and exhausting on top of feeling drained at the start of the week from the heavy training session Sunday evening. This also meant that I could take time with things since I didn’t have to get up early for Saturday. This day would be another test of proof of concept to see if the adjustments made are allowing me to recover enough to keep pushing training. Not sure the usual things either. I have some bruises on the back of my hands and on my upper stomach and lower pecs from fingal finger (at least I hope just that with the pipe resting). Still some stuff going on with the left shoulder but seems to be somewhat recovering at this point. I should also mention that the other strongman competition that was scheduled at the gym this spring has also been pushed back three months. Literally the week before the competition. Irritating stuff here if I was a competitor in those shows with the planned routine (different feds but both doing so due to lower than expected turnout) as I had to plan out my training to coincide with availability. So I have to get my training back to a Saturday Day 3 after this coming week to be sure to have assistance with events (fingal finger and Hercules hold). It is what it is but it makes me leery to do any really local shows or recommend them to people. Anyways, on to training. I did some modifications to my warm ups. I’ve been finding that the assisted Cossack squats aren’t really feeling great on my knees and do little to get them feeling good as much as doing foam rolling and other exercises. I did a bit more foam rolling of my calves for this session. In my eagerness to train I forgot to do my usual static stretching for my hips, ankles and knees and didn’t realize that was the case until hours later as I was getting ready for bed. Oops. But I guess that also indicates not always needed. I kind of needed to be “stiff” today. As I mentioned last time, no skater jumps and going right into the deadlift stuff. Plan was big jumps in weight and aiming for a top set of 2 reps leaving 1-2RIR. The last time I did these heavy, they hadn’t felt great. I felt I needed a deload and my lower back was just whooped. I was seriously worried I’d bomb this event at the competition. My hope here was that I recovered a bit with some of the changes to the programming for lower body with changing the “light” week session and taking more rest from the last session. I was initially going to go with the jack stands like I’ve done the past three sessions here but I figured that I had nowhere to go tomorrow so taking the extra time to setup like I did the first two weeks with the wheels and foam blocks would be fine. So one of the things that had me a little more optimistic for this session was that I had seen someone post a video of pulling from this height on an axle and they were a stouter individual and they were using a wider stance and grip. Perhaps counterintuitive as you’d think narrower would be better starting position. But for me, that is a lot of lower back, especially with how thick this bar is. Also gets my hips further away. So I figured I’d try to widen my stance to see if that let me get more hips and leg drive into it. It would be easier/more natural to do this with the block setup vs the jack stands since I’d need to stand on 1” wood to get to the right height. Felt ok working up with plate jumps. I realized after the 437lbs lift that my stance was too wide to get the best power here and I needed to find a happy medium. This next lift kind of mattered on whether I had found a better position to pull and if I’d actually be doing well here for the planned double. I could tell immediately that this was moving a ton better than 520lbs felt last time. So I’d be going on with another plate jump. My initial plan for this session before making the changes had been to hopefully do 610lbs for the top double. This was the minimum I felt I had to do to be on track with the 660lbs pull at the competition as it would be 92.5% of that. The triple had been 90% and that would hopefully have me at 95% for an even jump then for my last heavy session for a single. The plate changes and the different setup from jack stands made that a little trickier. So 617lbs it was to be this time around. I took my time here with getting myself setup. Chalking up straps and hands. Had to believe this was going to happen. Know that when this is heavy that I have to take breathers between the reps because with how far out the bar is, there is no rest at lockout. It is just taxing your back and hamstrings just standing there. The bar did not move very fast that first pull (I was also really nervous and overthinking things) but it felt decent and I took a bit to prep myself for another pull. It felt much the same and I let out a little shout of excitement that I got it and it wasn’t a maximum effort. I was to just do a double but I felt I could do another and still have 1-2RIR in the tank. A bit more hesitancy as I recalled how last time the second rep had moved better and then I had a tough time with the third rep before deciding to commit to the idiocy. So I grunted a good bit and then went for a triple here and I got it. I was quite pleased. The weight also told me I was done with my set as the left side rolled off the platform. For the first time this prep, I believed that I could do the contest weight next month. I dropped down 12.5% from that weight for 2x3. I was still feeling the high from the top set so I was singing out loud to myself to the music before going for the pulls. These move well but never feel “easy”. Just kind of have to grunt and go. I was thankful that I wasn’t having any slippage with straps at any point. Moving on to the chest supported dumbbell rows. I moved these to this day as it seemed to make sense and have more back stuff while reducing the number of training days. Made more sense to have this one on this session. Pull ups on Day 1 act as some spinal deload as well. So still tempo work and warming up with sets of 5 reps. Honestly, kind of need to be tempo work of some kind with doing dumbbell chest supported rows using two dumbbells as I only have so much weights and space on the dumbbell handles. Last time (besides the skipped week) I had worked up to a top set and then did a reduction in weight for matching rep sets. This time I was going to do a little more weight than I did for the top set and aim for 3 sets of max reps (leaving 2RIR). I mean that was the plan but odds are that I was going to probably follow that for the first set and then try and match those reps after that. That is pretty much what I did lol. I followed it right the first set. The issue here is that the holds are really taxing and recovery between sets is difficult. I felt things were feeling pretty good with the normal rest going into the second set but I hit a bit of a wall after the 5th rep here and had to rest pause the rest of the reps to get another set of 10 reps. I took double the rest before going for the last set and that went a bit better but not perfect. On that last set, I was to also do Kelso shrugs (5-10 or near failure, whatever). I was pretty beat by this point. Could tell my scapula on the left side wasn’t moving as the right side was. Kind of knew/expected that with the tightness and such on that side. It is a work in progress. Took a break to start getting my dinner prepped before finishing up the session. From there moving on step downs. These have been progressing nicely from initially starting at lower height box and now back to where I was and able to start adding weight. My best with weight on these (albeit a little higher box) is 40lbs for sets of 10 reps. Not going to jump right to that as this is something that is small progress each time. Even though it does appear that a few years back I could just jump right into doing things without any warming up. I figured maybe I don’t need as much warming up to get up to snuff here. I also felt that I should probably do these weighted warming up too as going from bodyweight to weight after jumping up 3” in height is probably kind of rough. I wasn’t too sure with doing a 6” increase from one to the other but when I realized I had done the warming up set without knee sleeves, I figured I’d be fine. Glutes on the left side were feeling pretty tense that first set. Honestly, the ease and the discomfort seemed to fluctuate set to set and rep to rep. I’m not too sure how I want to proceed with loading for next time as I could do dumbbell but I can make more minute adjustments with my plateloaded kettlebell handle. Last thing wasn’t initially meant to be a superset but I figured it would speed things up and one shouldn’t really affect the other. Back raises have been absent of a bit and my thinking was to have them for a little bit as blood flow and restorative with the other stuff I’m doing. No sense pushing these with elevated deadlift stuff and then zercher rack work as well on top of heavy farmer’s walk. Just bodyweight and 5ct holds every 5 reps. These were then paired with ab wheel. 5ct holds at extension with bodyweight as well. 25 reps total for those and to do them over however many sets it took leaving 2RIR. I’ve not done them for about as long as the back extensions but I felt that I should be able to do 25 in 3 sets if I set my mind to it. The back extensions were fine. The holds were a little intense on the hamstring surprisingly. The ab wheel was much tougher than I was expecting. Well kind of how it is with the first few reps being really rough and then being able to push through. Then dramatically dropping off in reps on sets after that if I don’t take a really long break. But I got it done how I wanted it. Hopefully I don’t get bad DOMS in my abs since I only get one day rest before Day 3 session. Put stuff away and ate dinner and then stretched.

April 13, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x3
24”x1
27”x3
28”x3
29”x3
30”x3

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
50x26’11”
50x25’9”
50x27’1”
50x26’5”
50x27’3”
50x27’6”
50x26’8”
50x24’2”
50x27’6”
50x26’7”

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings w/ bands (+24lbs/+58lbs, 32” height)
65x2
115x2
165x2
215x2
265x2
265x2
265x2
265x2
265x2

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
110x5/300x8
155x5/480x8
220x12/660x8
220x12/750x8
220x12/825x15

Rolling D-Handle Hangs (2” handles)
bw for 5 seconds
bw+35 for 45.80 seconds
bw+35 for 35.67 seconds

Stretching

Comments: So this should be the last planned Sunday event training day going forward for this prep. As mentioned, the show that was to be last week has been pushed out 3 months and that was why I was planning on doing all April on Sundays. But now no reason and if anything, I need to get back on Saturday so as I can have help for these last three event days. It was a good call with having the heavy deadlift day Friday as I had a hard time getting myself to sleep so sleeping in and not doing much of anything besides chores, soft tissue work and walking was ideal. But would need to get up somewhat decent time for training today as don’t want to have another zonked out Monday. 265lbs as far as my bodyweight. Drive out wasn’t bad despite some construction (that wasn’t happening). There were a few people at the gym but none of them doing strongman stuff. I did foam rolling and mobility stuff. I made sure that I did some static stretches for the hips/ankles/knees. Warmed up for the session and got the throwing space setup. Load of good that did as it was windy outside and I had to setup the cones again and weigh them down. Lower back wasn’t too sore/stiff but abdominals certainly were. Box jumps to start off. I had an idea after last time where I should have the higher jump setup but place down the hard rubber mats to make the height shorter rather than be on the ground and add them to the box setup. Adding them was having the setup not be so stable whereas doing this would have the jump setup stable and the jump on firm ground. I wasn’t sure how the jumps would be going and I was thinking about going up in 2” increments this time around. I was initially not feeling great but as I did more of the bounding drills, I felt better. I did a triple with 18” height as I felt it was needed and then was fully prepared to do 24” for my first “working” set. But it seemed too easy so I just did a single and went with the mat idea. It felt a little daunting but once I got it out of my head, things seemed to be great. I went with just 1” as it appears the mats were not quite 1” each so what I was thinking was 26” was actually 27”. Which got me to 30” if I took all the mats away. This actually went well. Less hesitancy and felt easier. This had been my “max” triple so I’m thinking I can better than now. So outside for throws. As I said, I had to readjust the setup due to the wind moving things around. I had done some Cariaoca at the start of the session so I did some rotations with the 50lbs bags. I did chuck the 20ish bag three to four times as well and god those were awful throws. Some of my worst. Hoping to get the horribles out before competition. My plan for this was the heavy throw session and trying to get more tosses at 50lbs vs last time. While I did get more tosses at the 50lbs bag, this was not as good as I was feeling last time. Form just seemed to be a little off on the day. Maybe because I had to move everything over a few feet due to pallets lined up on the one side. But it had kind of felt like that last week too. Just couldn’t get the little extra as my furthest tosses were in the 27’ range. This weight is a bear to balance though. Put stuff away and moved on to more gym based stuff. The ssb thing I do against bands making an appearance again. I got the reps right this time with the planned 5x2 and not 5x3. Took 50lbs jumps here so working weight was 20lbs more than last time. I usually don’t wear a hard belt on these but I figured I probably should because I’m using one for the fingal finger (doing this to help that pop) my abs are really sore from the paused ab wheel stuff and I have to shorten the rest between sessions to get back to M/W/S schedule again earlier than expected. Been getting bruises on my forearms from these despite wearing elbow sleeves. These get fatiguing in that power output fashion quite quick and so have to really focus and put max effort in little bursts to finish strong. On to the machine superset for the legs. I never intended this to continue or to even be a thing but it seems to be working out for me so I’m going to keep riding it out. So no changes really to the leg curls with the tempo being key. I did figure out a way to add weight to the stack so not limited to 200lbs anymore (though probably can’t get 300lbs). So I did increase the weight here by 10% from last time. The bigger change was the leg press stuff. That was the actually planned thing and aim was to work up with RPE stuff for2x8 and then add 10% to the last set for max reps (1RIR). I wasn’t sure how close I’d follow the RIR thing as I’d go by feel really. No pauses and I was also not going full ROM. The bottom where the safeties catch on the leg press are pretty low for me anyways so it is like a doing 3/4ths a rep to start so I use my upper body to assist with getting leg locked out. So rather than move the safeties out, just keeping them on. So I can push a bit harder and not worry about failing. I wasn’t expecting 220lbs on the leg curls to go as well as they did. I did have to rest pause a little on the other two sets to get those reps (I hit 12 and I wanted to get that on all 3 sets) but more just because the tempo reps really take it out of me and I just need a breath to resume. The leg press stuff was a little odd. I’ve not gone over 600lbs on this leg press I think and it has been like maybe 7yrs or more since I’ve tried to go heavier on any leg press. So aim was 10% more than what I did last time and hopefully have that be RPE 7 and then another plate jump be RPE 8. Just getting the weight locked out for the start felt hellacious and straining. But then the repping out wasn’t so bad. Just a lot of pressure on the first rep and straining. Second set felt much the same. I was little worried with how the last set would go doing 10% increase on the last set. I was to leave little in the tank. But just guidelines for me. I’d do what felt right. I actually started pushing things here. Sometimes though the sled would hit the safeties and inadvertently rebound a little and make the rep really easy. So tried to pause for the briefest moment so that the reps were tough. I was initially thinking of stopping at like 12 but kept going. Left quad wanted to cramp up on me around 13-14 but I wanted 15 reps at this point. I probably could’ve kept going but didn’t want to risk it if my one leg already wanted to cramp on me. Next time is to be similar but less reps working up. I may end up doing 900lbs or something. Last thing then being grip. 2” thick rolling handles coming into play again. I downed my protein shake at this point so that I could maybe eat an earlier dinner (I didn’t really) and this wouldn’t really be an issue with my stomach for the grip work. Last time had been doing one longer set of 45 seconds or more and this was back to the session before that with doing more time over 2 sets again. 75-90 seconds between 2 sets this time with 2-3 minutes rest. I wasn’t sure how grip would be with doing the tempo dumbbell rows. I could’ve played it safe and done the same weight I did last time as that should for sure be one I could do for this. But I guess I wanted to live dangerously so I increased the weight of the kettlebell by 4kgs. I knew this would probably be a bit much and that I’d likely have to settle for a lower timed hold from the fatigue on the second set. So aim was to get 45 seconds the first set and then rest 3 minutes and hopefully get 30 seconds the second set with the same weight because I know how much my grip strength endurance drops off after a solid effort. 45 seconds was a tough get but I got it. Second set it was fight but I got past 30 seconds so I kept going. I knew I couldn’t get to 45 seconds again and called it before I failed. A little over 80 seconds total works for me. I put stuff away and stretched out my calves before leaving. Stretched out the rest of the way at home.