Comments:
Just tired all the time. Hitting snooze button a bit more liberally.
Hopefully when it finally is time for the recovery time before the
contest I will super-compensate. Day in and day out grinding. Still got
aches in my right knee. Left inside of leg/hip has been feeling off
since Saturday off and on. Car buffer daily on the upper body and legs
and anti-inflammatories when needed. Warmed up on the AMT. 154bpm
highest reading. Wearing the knee sleeve still during workouts. Calf
work was pretty easy but right wrist a little tight. Hamstrings really
tight on wide stance box touches. Box squats felt ok but knees ached.
Regular style box touches felt ok. Little knee ache at the start but
felt okay as I did the reps. Band rows were ok. Pushups not so much.
Right pec cramped up immediately on the first rep. Stretching it out and
trying to massage it the rest of the workout. Not sure what that was
about. Hip airplanes were needed. Hips were tight as well as my
hamstrings. Lost my balance once on the left side. Finished up the prep
with biceps stretches. Found a slightly better setup to stretch this
time but still not as good as the old setup with the smith machine.
First item up was axle strict presses. Still pressing work but less
stress on the knee. Empty axle felt fine but as weight went up, the
unracking of the weight put more and more stress on the right knee. Same
plan with 20lbs jumps as most of the pressing has been. With how log
strict went, I was hoping that I would be close to that, despite not
doing much axle work. 190lbs and 210lbs felt pretty good so I was
surprised how difficult 230lbs felt. I think the knee bugged me on the
unrack and I used more shoulder to get it off the j-hooks than I’d
normally do. It looked a lot faster on video than it felt but I called
it there. Weight went too far away from me off the shoulders so it was a
lot harder. Not going to beat myself up on this since not much focus on
strict pressing. Most pressing has been log since I qualified for
Nationals in 2017 haha. Squats to box next. This was going to be
interesting using the new “old” power rack. I think a few people weren’t
sure it would hold up to much weight. It will take some getting used to
as it is deeper but not as wide. There isn’t a back to it like the old
one that I could put my feet up to so that I knew I was right under the
bar. J-hooks are a little deeper so I can’t quite get the bar at the
right spot as before on my back so walkout was a little tricky. I forgot
that I was to do controlled negatives on the warm-up with the bar until
I was about five reps in haha. I was also watching my knees and legs on
these. The options had been working up in heavy doubles, speed doubles
or skipping completely if my knee was acting up too much. I hate
deviating from the plan. I was noticing little difference between the
increased weight and discomfort so I kept pushing it to stick with the
original plan of doubles up to projected 90%. Odd weights to stick with
percentages. Everything felt heavy. Having thoughts like my left leg
would just collapse under me on some of these lifts. Obviously didn’t
happen but fatigue everywhere is definitely letting doubts seep in but
I’m pretty good at blocking them out. Heavy stuff felt slow and heavy.
Second to last double I got a little too far forward on the last rep
trying to go up fast and had to stumble it back to the j-hooks. Last
double felt pretty darn heavy. But maybe another two ugly ones in the
tank if the world depended on it. Last thing for the day being the wide
grip band pulls. Wasn’t as concerned about giving these everything I had
this time as my right hamstring wasn’t feeling as off as it did last
time. Right knee was a bit achy at the bottom getting setup but nothing
actually lifting. This was also a bit tricky setting up as I worried I
couldn’t setup like I usually do with the bands. There were band pegs
but not wide enough to stretch the bands enough. But I made it work with
using the band pegs and a dumbbell to be almost the exact same tension
as the previous setup. I wasn’t expecting that haha. These don’t get any
easier. By the time I got to my first work, set I had a little bit of
an audience so I couldn’t look bad now. Taped my right shin to keep from
bleeding. Second to last double the second rep wasn’t as confident as
the other lifts. Just happy to be done the workout. Got recovery
burritos and then home to stretch, relax, eat and sleep.
I’m a little taller than 6′6″ and I really like to lift weights. I’m a competitor in amateur strongman contests. My hope is to become a competitive professional strongman. Currently I'm training for Natural Strongman USA West Coast Championship in Poulsbo, WA on 5/17/2025. I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
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