December 22, 2024 - December 28, 2024 - Week 3

 December 23, 2024 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
28x8
68x5
98x3
128x1
158x1
188x1
218x1
248x3
248x3
248x3

Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds in dip, beltless)
218x3
218x3
218x3

Ring Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)
bwx14
bwx12
bwx11

Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises/Band Triceps Pressdowns
mbx10/µb’sx10/lbx25
mbx10/µb’sx10/lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Well I survived the first week of my own training. I guess technically two weeks but that first week was really light to break in. So first week of normal intensity training. Weight is up a little bit, so still above 272lbs. But only up .2lbs so not much really. Just seeing where the needle ends up. Joints were a little achy walking on Sunday. Needed a little bit of break from work and family to recuperate as it will be rough this week. Very cold in the morning Sunday but it did gradually get close to freezing by the evening. Work was rough and I’ll only have half a day to get a full day of work in tomorrow. Trying to let the workload and what is not done psyche me out. I wore my warmups for getting ready and setting things up. Right knee a bit achy but nothing else was really sore or worn out. I turned too quickly at some point during the day and my right hamstrings/calf insert felt sore. Slightly annoyance and slightly worrisome. But just keep on going. I had let my brother my car for the day and forgot to take my iPod out so no tunes today. Outside in the cold for the start of the session with axle push presses. I kept the warm ups on since it was still quite darn cold. Plan here was to warm up and do 82.5% for 3x3. No rep out set and I was honestly not going to have that be some I’m going to do with overhead right now. Save that for benching exercises when it comes to upper body stuff. Knees felt achy and crappy at the start so not a great start here. The knees were achy and maybe my shoulders were too but hard to tell. I did start feeling better as I switched to singles and added some support gear. I had my suspicions that perhaps I went too high a starting point on the overhead stuff after last time. This first triple was pretty rough. It didn’t feel like my triceps were fatigued but my shoulders certainly felt these. And unfortunately, this was not a session where things were going better for me as I went. The weight did feel somewhat lighter on the subsequent sets but I was having quite the time here. The second triple I was worried that this was it for the day with how rough locking out the third rep was. This is only 8lbs more than last time. But also last time I hadn’t done a full week of training beforehand. I was worried that I’d fail on this last triple with how the second set had felt. I managed to get that one done too. The last rep was also iffy like the second set. And while not happy with how these went, I was able to gut out the lifts and get the bar back in the line when shoved out in front and able to use my belt and back to brace to lockout the errant reps. My triceps were also not feeling cooked at this point. The first triple felt heavy but was probably my best one of the day. Usually the weight feels better as I go. Took weight off for some more axle push press stuff. Paused and without belts. Like last time, I dropped 10% off for 3x3. These had cooked me pretty good last week and my triceps were struggling by the end of these. Now what I had initially put here was to actually do less weight than last time (5% less) and slightly longer holds and more reps. This was borrowing from the routine I did in 2021 which I think was more adjusting to how things were rather than the initial plan of progression. I had done the paused push pressing that first week in 2021 with a belt and things had been tough so taking belt off and doing more reps lighter weight was the plan. My thinking (before actually doing the regular sets) was to try and progress the paused style in weight these next two workouts and then drop weight with increased time and reps for a “deload” pressing week on week 5. After how the regular push pressing felt, I was having doubts that this was a wise decision but figured I’d just do what I wrote down. And even though this was 8lbs more than last time, these felt really good. Really fast and explosive power on these. These honestly felt like nothing. It had me trying to figure out if I had 20lbs too much on the bar or something before but math was right. So this has me wondering why these felt good but the regular didn’t. I may need to adjust how I warm up going forward. My hope is that I can make it through next week’s session (more weight, less reps) and kind of be in the “safe” zone and adjust things going forward in 4 week blocks. I put stuff away to give myself a little rest for the shoulders before going into the garage for the rest of the workout. First thing in the garage being ring push ups. Same as last time with it being 3 sets of bodyweight with 3 seconds eccentrics and leaving some reps in the tank. So not to failure. These had really cooked my chest and shoulders last time and was sore for a good bit. Eccentric stuff I feel like is the slow cooker of training in how it just feels like it slowly catches up to you and it feels like the heat in the muscle is going to have to fall off the bone by the end. I ended up taking off my shirt at this point since I was feeling quite warm from the push pressing outsides. I was pleasantly surprised how much easier these felt on that first set. I definitely pushed things a little closer than maybe I should’ve on the second set but seemed to be leaving enough RIR on the other two sets. As long as reps go up and I’m not going to failure and missing reps I should be good here. From there it was on to bands to finish out the evening. So unlike last week, all three band exercises were going to be together as a triset instead of broken up. So the first two exercises only for two sets to match the third exercise. No changes to the band tensions here. This grouping actually felt pretty good. I feel like it gave a little more of a cushion for the triceps between the sets here. Put stuff away before stretching and then eating dinner.

December 25, 2024 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x5
135x5
175x4
225x3
265x2
320x5
320x5
320x5
320x5

Paused Deadlifts (3 seconds mid-shin)
135x2
185x2
225x2
265x2
Added Straps
302x3
302x3
302x3
302x3

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
40x12/12
40x12/12
40x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls (3 count eccentric)
abx15
abx15
abx15

Standing Band Abs
2(ab)x25
2(ab)x25
2(ab)x25

Paused Single Leg Hip Thrusts (2 seconds)
40x12/12
40x12/12
40x12/12

Stretching

Comments: This was not an ideal session or I guess ideal circumstances for a session. Tuesday was mercifully short as far as work but it was a lot of work packed into the 4hrs. Definitely needed to get moving and walking. My stomach was a little rumbly. Folks wanted me up an hour earlier than I was hoping for with Christmas so I did go to bed early and took some Nyquil as my allergies were feeling pretty bad (I hope allergies). I had taken the other meds when I woke up. This is the second Tuesday in a row where I’ve felt not great. I ended up waking up at 2AM due to digestive issues, went back to bed and then was up again at 2:30AM again and stayed up for about 30 minutes before getting back to sleep. I was worried I was really sick rather than just something not agreeing with me. Maybe the ricotta cheese in the pasta. Bad gas and having to go more often than I’d prefer. Also have a little cyst on my left inner thigh that I knew wasn’t going to be fun with this training session. Assuming I did it. I go through Christmas morning before making my exit to see if whatever it was worked its way through my system and I felt it was safe enough to train without risking evacuation. So I wasn’t expecting the best out of myself for today. I didn’t think I’d need the warm ups but my body said otherwise so I wore them to keep warm. No issues with upper body despite the hard training. I guess adapting to that in terms of soreness. Right knee aches to be expected with the increased workload. Starting off training was box squats. The plan was to do 2.5-5% more weight than last time on these with the csb for 4x5. I knew I was going with the smaller end weight increase because this was not as speedy as I would’ve liked things to be. Knees were feeling a bit stiff but did feel better as I did more reps working up and added more support gear. Last set before going felt pretty good. I little slow with getting set but the actual squats felt smooth. I felt I was ready for these but man did that 55lbs added sure feel heavy on my back. I guess I should’ve expected right knee to be feeling a certain way after how it was feeling on Monday. And the interrupted sleep certainly didn’t help. The added 12lbs was certainly noticed here. Thankfully, this did feel better as I went as far as the weight moving and with how the weight was feeling on my back. I’m glad the weight is going back down for next week. Just hope that I can keep recovering so that I can do solid work on this day and still push the deadlift work on Day 4. Speaking of deadlift, that was next. Paused deadlifts with pause at midshin again. I felt like I was able to get my form down much quicker compared to last week when I did these. I had been a few months away from floor pulls. Same as last time with it being 4x3 with 3 second pauses. 2.5% increase in weight from last week. Enough weight that I needed an extra set warming up. My hope here is to keep these with soft belt and no hard belt really. I started to get a little nervous with the right hamstring on these but not sure why when odds are the box squats would’ve triggered it more and added stress of leg to box for the cyst. I did notice that my lat inserts were sore on these so I guess the paused chest supported rows did something. These felt less taxing then the box squats. The big lifts were done for the session and then it was the other stuff for reps and such. Bulgarian split squats with contralateral loading again. Still 3 second eccentrics. Parameters still 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. Initially I was thinking of just going a little heavier than last time and gradually build things but that was before I realized that with the phases for this programming that these exercises (besides the squats and pulls) are also changing slightly each 4 week block. So I should probably push things as I get acclimated and do my best. So rather than doing my planned 25lbs with aim for 4x12 I went with 40lbs. That was noticed immediately but seemed to be fine at the start. Right side was having a tougher time today and it was definitely getting challenging after the second set with sets of 12 reps so I figured I should just stay there. Then lying leg curls with the bands. It would seem to make more sense to have these done on a machine but I don’t have one and I don’t really want to invest in a several hundred to thousand dollar piece of equipment that will last or a piece of crap that may break and is still like $200. What I got right now is working for me. This had felt too easy last time but I held off on going for a fourth set as sometimes the volume just gets to the hamstrings. But they seem to be handling the new workload fine for now. So I figured I’d see if I could handle the next level of band tension. To my surprise it worked out. Definitely harder than last week as I was getting near the inability to contract the muscles fully on the third set to getting all the reps. When hamstrings are feeling strong and are strong, it is a good sign and I feel good. Same with my upper back. With ab work, I modified things a little. I used bands again but switched it up to being two bands instead of one big band. This worked out nicely. I actually had to ground myself and could feel my tibialis working along with my hip flexors and abs. I still did 3x25 but it wasn’t as bland and easy as last week. I’ll probably need to stick at this tension. I also might have been a bit hesitant here with the bowels since putting stress on that area directly rather than indirectly. But did seem to get some gas moving. Last thing was the single leg hip thrusts. I knew from last time that I needed to anchor the bench to keep it from sliding. I was able to have the power rack I was weighing down for ab work take the place of the sandbags this time around. Plan was to do same weight as last week and same sets but aim for more reps with the 2 second holds. So goal being 3x12. I definitely feel like I’m getting better control on these. The unilateral bracing on these is also and unexpected bonus. This was definitely a longer workout session. This is not one I could conceivably fit in during my lunch like the upper body sessions can be for the most part. It would truly have to be broken up into two parts for sure. Put stuff away and got in some food and fluids that thankfully didn’t run amok before eventually stretching.

December 26, 2024 – Week 3, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
205x6
205x6
205x6
180x13

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx3
bw+31x8
bw+31x8
bw+31x8
bw+31x8

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions/ Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: I did seem to recover from whatever it was that made me have to crap 7 times in less than 12hrs yesterday. So that was nice. Just wish I was able to rest a little more before coming back to work. I did manage to get myself to go to bed somewhat decent time to try and get some rest. That did seem to help some. Work wasn’t horrible but I was essentially nonstop doing stuff. Still so much to do. It made more sense to work through the day then to try and do things at lunch for training. I had nothing planned after work anyways. I wore my warm ups to get ready and it was kind of 50/50 if actually needed. There was stuff sore in the lower body. Upper body kind of feels like it is fine. I was more concerned about that tightness that popped up randomly in the right calf/hamstring insert area. Right knee continues to have aches but tolerating it. It is kind of funny to me that last week my triceps, chest and shoulders were really sore and worn out going into this workout and now hardly anything. Log incline benching to start things off. Again, working up in triples. But plan here was to do 5lbs more than my top set last week and do that for 3x6. Which should be doable with a top set of 8 leaving 2RIR. I was the least concerned about how things would go for things as far as main exercises for this week considering how I was feeling. But there is always a risk with things and who knows how I’d feel as I got to the top weight. I was not feeling any shoulder aches like last time. That had been more from my shoulder tendons being irritated from the increased workload. Essentially the same warming up to the working weight as last week. I shed layers as I added weight. Things actually felt pretty good. I could feel some fatigue in the chest muscles and triceps. But managed to get through these with no issue. Last set was to drop the weight down to what I did for my sets last week (180lbs). Goal was max reps and leaving 2RIR. My hope here was at least 10 reps but I was hoping for more than that. But who knows how things go. I got set and went to work. Weight was moving well. I slowed a little bit but still had plenty of power. Managed to get 13 reps before I felt I was getting close to 2RIR range. I tend to hit a wall hard on these. This manages to tie the reps I got last time I did this session (albeit with 20lbs more) so this is a good sign that I’m recovering well enough for the two pressing sessions. The non leg drive pressing does seem a better fit for me doing rep sets and drop sets. Honestly, I think I only have my regular axle push press and my box squat weights not where they should be to feel how they should. Make it through these next two weeks and I can tinker with weights and the progression programming with the 4 week block plan. But so far, so good. Into the garage to finish up the workout. I put away some of the outside weights beforehand. Inverted ring rows again. These had gone quite well last week. Plan was to do 4x8 again with brief holds but perhaps a slightly tougher RPE. I figured that since 20lbs had felt pretty good on that first set that I could probably be adapted enough to tolerate another bump up in weight. When I had my first introduction to these 3yrs ago with the training, I had done with 11lbs in chains the first session and then 20lbs in weight the second. So I figured I could do 31lbs if 20lbs was as good as it was. Back pack really makes these a lot easier and safer to load compared to balancing on my waist/hips. Definitely feeling the shoulders and back moving with these which is good. Means I’m not trying to muscle through with my biceps like I was trying to do (because of fatigue and lack of use) the first week of light training. I was feeling some tension in the shoulders (mostly the left) but might just be from everything really. Tension in the shoulders/traps from all the deadlifts. Last thing was a triset. Same as last week. While it might feel too easy that first round, by the third round this is plenty challenging for these little muscles. Of any of the movements, maybe the face pulls I thought I could up the tension on. But I know with those I can adjust that with the same band rather than swapping out a thicker band. The thinking going into this is still if I get through the triceps part no issues, I’ll be fine. The other stuff is tough in the lactic acid part of things but the triceps can fatigue and not cooperate. These continued to be harder on the right arm. With the dumbbells, I’ve been toying around with positioning. Like not keeping my wrist stuck in one position. Similar to how one might supinate the wrist during the arc of a biceps curl. That seemed to feel better and keep my shoulders tight and stable as opposed to loose. Also seemed to keep the tension on the triceps. No issues besides the fatigue building that first set of triceps. The laterals were fine and easy. Had some snaps and cracks in my shoulders and upper back initiating the first set of face pulls. Fatigue built on the triceps each set while lactic acid became more ferocious as I went on the laterals and lesser extent the face pulls. Face pulls feel the “nicest” of these haha. But got through all sets again. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Stretched after eating.

December 28, 2024 – Week 3, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Box Jumps
18”x1
18”x1
18”x1
25”x3
25”x3
25”x3
25”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
385x1
435x5
380x5
380x5

14” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
295x1
345x1
395x1
Added Straps
445x4
445x4
445x4

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raise Eccentrics (4 showing, 5-8 seconds)
+75x10/bwx8
+80x10/bwx8
+85x10/bwx8
+90x10/bwx8

Seated Band Leg Curls/Smith Machine Planks
ab’s+mb’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’s+mb’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’s+mb’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: I guess whatever is going on with the digestion isn’t quite done with me. I felt fine Thursday but a little bit of gas similar to how I was feeling Tuesday before Christmas on Friday. Needed that walking to get my body moving and my head clear. Soft tissue work also. I didn’t quite get to bed as early as I wanted to as I got distracted and hyper focused on things that don’t need to be at this time. Woke up to having to use the restroom twice before I even ate breakfast and then another time immediately afterwards. I decided to wait a bit and have things settle and use the restroom one more time before making the drive out to train. I’d not want to have to pull over to use an unfamiliar restroom. As of this writing, no further incidents. I did make a decision based off of how this week has been with the uncertainty. If I wanted to compete end of April, I’d have a very tight window to get prep in for that and if I had to change up my routine because I had to reassess something I pushed too hard (or wasn’t recovering well enough) or if I had to take off sessions because of illness, it would kind of screw that up. I don’t have a lot of cushion if I want to get in a decent off season session. And honestly, I don’t really care for the event. So at this point, I’m looking at May or July for competing. Have to see if stuff gets posted timely for the one and that I’m still going well with the training. The end of the training week does feel like it is the final lap of the week to let me know if I made it. See if I can make another round and add a notch to the post. I had a later start than I had planned and there were a ton of people there. Most just doing offseason type stuff but some training for shows. My one friend has his girlfriend from France visiting and she is competing in the Arnold. She had gotten 4th at OSG in her weight class. I’m not sure if she is staying for the 2 months until the Arnold or what. As to be expecting, she is quite strong. My time on the UK lifting forums a few years back was helpful in my “quick maths” with metric conversions. Anyways, on to my own business. I was feeling ok I guess joint wise doing the warming up. I was a little leery about the right hamstring insert with it getting tense Monday before I started training. But it hasn’t gotten worse since and I’ve moved more weights and actually targeting the area. Starting off the session with box jumps. I was feeling pretty good with how things went last time. Same plan of 4x3 here. I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to do same height or try and squeeze in a little more. I figured that 12” was not worth attempting since it was so low. So right to 18”. Good lord were my knees stiff. Like as stiff as they were that first week. Not the confidence builder to try any higher. But I knew that I probably need to do some more jumps to get ready. I did another jump and it felt a little better but still stiff in the knees. I did another for good measure. By this point, the area I was planning to do the jumps at was getting crowded and my anxiety was starting to go up with so many people near me. I’m generally good with it but when I feel like I’m not at my best, it is harder to ignore the irrational. So I moved things to the other side of the wind tunnel so it was out of the way of everyone. I decided I’d go up 1” and hope that I meet expectations. I was a little nervous for the first rep but I got it fine enough. Still some hesitancy going for the second rep here. But after that, I think I got out of my head with things and I actually took less time between the reps after that. So I was feeling fit to be tied with that. But this was just the primer and deadlifts were next. Second week of the first wave on the pulls. So last time was doing 3x5 working up in 5% jumps to the top set. This time I was to do top set with 2.5% more than the top set and then backdown 10% less for 2x5. I was going off memory here as I forgot to make a copy on my phone like last week. Luckily my recollection was correct. My right knee was feeling stiff and achy warming up here. It was like the box jumps hadn’t happened in that feeling good after doing them. Oh well. Really hoping that my recovery here is good as this is the big thing being worked with goal to improve. Plate jumps like last time and then a single with a little more than what I’d do with the down sets. Get a feeling of what the full belt combo would be. Bar got a little bit out in front of me so it was a bit harder than I’d have liked here and more strain on hamstring/lower back. But trying to not get hyped for the pulls here. As low key as I can be but still bracing appropriately. Time for 15lbs more than last week. That first rep didn’t more super fast but it felt noticeably better than 420lbs did the first rep. After that first rep, pretty casual. So that was good. Dropped the weight down for the next two sets. First rep with 380lbs didn’t feel great. It was better than 385lbs single had been but about how 420lbs was feeling last week. But no issues for the following reps. Can’t have that happen again. Last set and I’m not sure what I did but the weight felt weightless the first rep. It surprised me how easy it felt. I’m going to have to figure out what I got to click there as that would be the ideal pull every time. Perhaps I don’t need to be so drastic to say I have to keep a floor pull in all the time as four sessions seems about what I need to get things on point. More pulling with the elevated pulls. Like the floor pulls, the working weight was increased 2.5%. But little less volume with it being 3x4. Used the big wheels again. I had forgotten that Mike’s old wheels from the fixed axle he had made were actually 14” so I could’ve used them instead of the 18” wheels. But whatever. I figured I’d just use both haha. Load up the big wheels with slightly smaller big wheels. Just like with the box jumps and the deadlifts, my right knee decided it wanted to be achy at the start. So like working back up again. Singles with 50lbs jumps no straps double overhand to prime. I knew what to expect here. What the strain would be and that I can push through it. And that I don’t need to get amped up to do these. These felt fine other than the first rep of the last set as I seemed to screw the timing up on that one royally. It was the opposite of the perfect pull I hit on the deadlifts haha. I didn’t feel like there was tension in my lower back like the disc bulge or pressure this time around so that is a good sign. It was present last week and the last three sessions of wagon wheel pulls for the aborted competition prep. I feel the increased work for my back, legs and glutes are getting things to be firing in a way that protects. Put the big wheels away (while also seeing the strongwoman from France load 325lbs keg first try at like 180lbs bodyweight). Need to stick to the plan for at least 9 weeks. So rest of the session being the supersets. First up being paused chest supported rows and glute ham raise negatives. I was thinking here that I’d probably only go up a little bit on the rows considering how challenging these can be with the pauses and see how the glute ham raises are feeling. I had done those last time with 5 holes showing and 4 holes showing would be what I should be doing for true ghr when doing those. Got set and off to the races. Rows were feeling pretty good. The ghrs negatives were a little tougher with the adjustment. I felt like the rows were a little too easy so I added 5lbs. Still okay but it was maybe going to be too much by the end as this was only halfway into this. I had committed to it and did another 5lbs for the third set. I had stuck to 5 seconds on the ghrs the first two sets but decided that was too easy and did some at 6 and 7 on the third set.  Fourth set of rows that weight was definitely the limit for me and need to make smarter choices next time haha. But I should recover from that fine I feel. Last set of the ghrs I did 6-7-8-5 in sequence twice to finish things off. I’ll probably do all 8 seconds next time around. Last pairing was the seated band leg curls and smith machine planks. I knew for the planks I wasn’t increasing anything as that was already a bit much comparatively. But the band leg curls I could do more. I found the things I had intended to use last time to anchor the bands which meant things went a little smoother. Added mini bands to the average bands and that was a good jolt to the tension. I will probably stick to this for next time as it was getting challenging by the end. Having to do the bit by bit chunk method of counting to get things done. The planks were on average I guess better. The first set sucked huevos grande in that I had only one thing to put my forearms on with foam as the other was being used and balancing on that was a bigger challenge then I was expecting of things. Securing the second one made things more tolerable. Put stuff away, downed a protein shake and loaded up my power keg to take home so that my younger sister can get familiar with it for a possible competition end of March. Stretched out before driving home.

December 15, 2024 - December 21, 2024 - Week 2

 December 16, 2024 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x8
60x5
90x3
120x1
150x1
180x1
210x1
240x3
240x3
240x3
240x3

Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds in dip)
210x3
210x3
210x3

Ring Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)
bwx12
bwx10
bwx8

Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10

Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: So time to push the work a good bit now after a week off almost completely besides walking and then a soft open of a week after that. It could all blow up in my face if my past history of trying my own thing has been an indicator. Hope or folly. Weight is up a little bit, possibly from dropping walking from 4 days to 3 days with training now 4 days. So still above 272lbs. I needed the weekend to get some reprieve from the work week slog. Not too helpful that because of the holidays that the in office day is moved up again. It snowed a little Sunday and I figured that it made sense to try and do most if not all my training during my lunch break today so that I was avoiding periods of rain and likely having some visibility while training outside. But more so because I wanted to eat an earlier dinner so I could go to bed earlier due to having to get up earlier. Warming up felt fine but there were sore spots. Legs feeling lactic acid and right side midback having that ribcage thing that seems to pop up every so often. Nothing that is of concern. Knees didn’t really ache that much today. Then it was time to train. Axle push presses. I could’ve done barbell but felt it made more sense for axle since been doing axle and less issues if weather elements get involved with the longevity of my axle vs a spinning barbell. Plan here was to warm up and do 80% for 3x3 and then rep set leaving 1-2 RIR with same weight. I’ve done this workout before in 2021 and I had been using my all-time best to base things off of. I knew that wasn’t wise with how things have been. Even though I missed 290lbs on a clean and press two weeks ago, I had felt like I could do 300lbs out of the rack two weeks prior to that on my singles. So basing things off of 300lbs. Feeling ok but things did start to feel heavy out of the rack. It is a bit different from the feeling of just cleaning the weight and having it on the shoulders vs walking it out. I was trying to not get hyped up for these. Trying out different belt combo for overhead as well. The first triple felt heavy but was probably my best one of the day. Usually the weight feels better as I go. It kind of did but it just seemed like I was making mistakes after the first rep of each set. Second set the second rep got out in front of me and I had to walk forward a little to get it and that sapped things for the third rep. Third set the second rep got a little off balance at lockout so it didn’t come back down in the groove for the third rep so that took a little more effort. Now as mentioned, the last set was to be a rep set. I was not really trying to hype myself up as I tend to get nervous. I took twice the rest I was doing between the sets to see if I recovered a little better. I guess not used to the reps after months of singles. The first two reps seemed good but I guess something was off on the third rep and lockout was a struggle. I hesitated briefly after that before deciding it was smarter to just rack the weight. I guess I’m a bit further away from where I was hoping things would be as far as competing in late April at the earliest. But I got the work done with no misses and I’m going to have to get nice and friendly with this on a weekly basis. The next part of the session was more axle push press but with being paused and without belts. Dropped down to 70%. I was not sure how these would go after I didn’t have things go as swimmingly as I’d have hoped for regular axle push pressing. Well thankfully these felt fine on the shoulders and no belt wasn’t an issue. I could tell by the second set that my shoulders and triceps and upper back were definitely feeling fatigue. Could also be from hitting myself in the throat unracking it the second set. Third set I went and forgot I was to do paused reps and caught myself and reracked the weight to do it again. This was definitely a challenging set in regards to having the lockout endurance and strength. But no missed reps. My hope is I adapt to the new demands otherwise I got to figure something else out. Or just do training and not worry about it. Inside to finish things up (I put stuff away later). As I had mentioned last week, the rest of the workout was not much changed from what I did. Ring push ups. I had done 3 sets leaving reps in the tank at bodyweight. This time same thing but adding in tempo in that lowering these to 3 seconds on the eccentric. In the past, I’d always go for more time but I figure I’m pretty honest with my counting so 3 seconds is probably someone’s 5ct. Thankfully as I was expecting, these did feel better this time around. Not quite the numbers I had back in 2021 but a start. From there it was on to bands. First thing being a shoulder (rotary focus) superset of underhanded band pull aparts coupled with band y raises. Light bands here. These kind of surprised me last time so I was ready for the sensation and fatigue this go around. I think that was good as these did seem to feel better and I felt I had better control. Last thing was triceps. Just band pressdowns. Similar to last week in how these felt. First set fine, second set tougher. The second set felt less “awkward” in how the humerus was moving around. Didn’t seem to trigger my triceps to be firing like last time after the session. Put stuff away and ate lunch. Stretched after work.

December 18, 2024 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x5
135x5
175x4
225x3
265x2
308x5
308x5
308x5
308x5

Paused Deadlifts (3 seconds mid-shin)
135x2
185x2
235x2
Added Straps
289x3
289x3
289x3
289x3

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
15x12/12
15x12/12
15x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls (3 count eccentric)
lbx15
lbx15
lbx15

Standing Band Abs
sbx25
sbx25
sbx25

Paused Single Leg Hip Thrusts (2 seconds)
40x8/8
40x8/8
40x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Well the week wasn’t off to a great start. After Monday’s training session I was starting to feel like I had really bad allergies or a cold coming on. To the point where I took nasal spray. I was also not feeling to hot mentally after feeling like the axle pressing was much harder than I was anticipating. Had me thinking that maybe I need to adjust the weights there. And of course had to go into work the next day so not ideal to be feeling that way and maybe getting a cold. So I took Dayquil and that helped me get restful sleep. Enough quality sleep that I was able to relax and realize I can just adjust things as needed with training. Took allergy meds minus Dayquil for work and it took like 4.5hrs before they helped. Another dumb day at work. Dark by the time I got home so no walking. I had kind of wanted to do that as I figure I’m going to be more sore this training. Soft tissue work was needed and my neck on the right side started to ache and feel tight at work too. I took more Dayquil for bed to hopefully let me sleep well and relax some muscle tension. Felt better today but still feeling some of the past few days. This was going to be a longer training session since last time I didn’t do the main part of the workout as feeling things out. Warming up felt fine enough. Shoulders and triceps are sore. Tendons in the shoulders are a little inflamed so it has been a while. Starting off training was box squats. It has been a few years since I’ve done a squat with any bar on my back. The suggested here was work up to 70% for 4x5 and aim to move each rep as fast as possible. Also suggested to use a specialty bar that ideally wouldn’t stress the shoulders like a regular barbell. My choices at home would be the csb and the ssb. I figured I’d mess with the csb as I’ve actually not used it for a squat since I got it at home. I’ve done maybe one set of good mornings light with it and then most of the time as an anchor for makeshift viking press (not the wood one I have available now). I’ve used the ssb for years and wanted to try something different. Also because a possible option for a strongman competition end of April has a squat event so at least something like a bar on the traps would be a good idea in case. I estimated what a max would be based and it is possible I went a little higher. It could very well be over a decade since I last did a csb squat of some sort. This bar is a bear to move around as it is quite dense weighing 85lbs empty. I was worried I might pull something getting it out of the corner in the patio sunroom to bring into the garage. While heavy moving around, not bad squatting with it. My right knee was a bit achy on these working up. I was trying to keep my stance similar to deadlift as these are to be the secondary session for deadlifts. High bar placement feels most comfortable. Low bar felt like it would slip. The bar is slick so I added athletic tape so it had some grip since no knurling. Also trying out the different belt combo as well. I was not sure how the working weight would feel but thankfully the last weight felt really good that I had the confidence to do what I was planning on doing. I also decided to use the wagon wheel weights. Only because it looked cool really. Have fun with things and use the cool stuff for training. The csb with how it shakes back and forth does make it tough to go fast but I felt like I could do more reps each set. Just out of practice is all. Third set I rushed it a little and had it low bar and walked it out and it felt unstable so reracked and did it high bar. I felt I was feeling better with the movement as the sets progressed. I was definitely feeling a bit winded as I’ve not done any squats like this for maybe 18 months. It has been lower reps and not with weight on the back either. I have a feeling I will adapt. After that was done, then it was time for deadlifts. Paused deadlifts with pause at midshin ideally. Trying to get my form tight like I was having it during the first few weeks of the last cycle. My right knee was a bit stiff at the start but loosened up as I went. The pause was feeling a bit high on the warming up sets. But things were clicking perfectly on the working sets here. One thing I’ve missed with the pause pulls is that it has me focus on my body position in the moment which helps with getting my lats, glutes, hamstrings and lower back in the picture. The rest of the workout was going to be lighter stuff with either light weights or bands but that doesn’t mean it was going to be easy. This followed closely to what I did last week in structure. First being Bulgarian split squats. Contralateral loading but adding 3 second eccentrics. I figured it was probably best practice here to do the same weight I did last week without accentuating the negatives as while not terribly difficult, it had left me winded and very sore that week. Parameters given was 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. See how it feels and go by what I feel will be something I can progress on. I had to take off some layers of clothing as while it was around freezing, I had made the garage a bit of a hot box from the squats and deadlifts and I was feeling like I might overheat. I was kind of surprised I got the first set of 12 so easy. Fatigue was building over the course of the sets but not to the point I was worrying. I did stop at 3 sets as I felt that I was getting that fatigue on the last few reps on that last set and I still had several exercises to go with adjustments from last time. Likely I will adjust the weight to see if it does get to be something that 12 reps isn’t quite easy to get. The trial and error last time with leg curl setups was not wasted in that I had a workable option to do here with the dip belt. Same thing in that using the same resistance as last week because of how the shock felt doing it and expecting the eccentrics to make it tougher. I felt quite powerful on these. Also 3-4 sets but 12-15 reps range. I did start to feel fatigue by the end of the third set. My hamstrings tend to hit a wall hard at times on band stuff but I can also push out reps when I get to that point. I was a bit surprised this felt as swell as it did but I’ll need to review what band tension I can increase things to. Ab work was a bit different from last time as that had been the Roman chair and this time I was actually doing the stand weighted abs. Which ended up being bands again. I have limited options here. I was going to see if I could get away with doing average band but that was too easy so had to use my strong band. That was also quite easy but it made due. I think I was just focusing on the movement here and feeling my knees adjust with the hip flexion. Did 3x25 with no problem. I’m not sure if I will really bother with trying to increase the band tension like I may end up doing for the leg curls. Last thing was the single leg hip thrusts. I didn’t take any short measures here as I assumed after waking things up last time that I could actually do something here. I did have to put sandbags down to keep the bench from moving on me with weight. 2 seconds holds at lockout. I rewatched videos of how I did these a few years back to see how the balance was working. Left side was feeling stronger than right which was a bit of a surprise at first. But I think that may be that I wasn’t having my stance matched and only figured that out on the last set when I paid attention. Then right side felt better. There is still a balance factor I’m noticing in the lower back and abdominals. Put stuff away and stretched before getting my dinner together. A later training session but expected and planned for.

December 19, 2024 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
200x8
180x8
180x8
180x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+20x8
bw+20x8
bw+20x8
bw+20x8

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions/ Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Like Monday, I ended up making this a lunch time training session. This is the shortest of the workouts I do ideally contrasting with the lower body sessions taking a while. Right knee was a little stiff from yesterday and that was kind of expected. But I wouldn’t be using my legs doing the actual workout beyond my warming up and mobility stuff. Training at lunch so I could be free after work for a family meal out with visiting out of state family. My allergies kind of been up and down throughout the day this week. I didn’t get to bed as early as I would’ve liked yesterday. But no Dayquil. Ended up taking some nasal spray in the late morning today. I was sort of worried with the session because of how this is the first in long while that I’ve implemented a secondary pressing session and I was still feeling my shoulders and triceps from Monday. Warming up besides my achy right knee was good. Still stuff sore and tight in the upper body from Monday. This session was similar to Monday in that this was a repeat of a workout from over 3yrs ago. This was actually closer to the thing than Monday since I didn’t drop an exercise (because I’ll be doing it Saturday). I thought it would colder than it was so had warm ups on but there was some sun so I took them off when it was time to lift some weights. Log incline can be fickle but it seems to be the least fickle of incline pressing for me. Leg drive pressing Monday and incline benching Thursday for now. At least for this current training cycle. This seemed to work well enough in the past after I got adjusted to the new workload. Work up in triples to a set of 8 reps leaving 2RIR and then drop down for 3x8 with 10% less. When I did this back then, I had not anticipated how much fatigue would be present from the previous workout and overshot what I could do but called it and dropped down to readjust. My hope this time around would be to adjust accordingly based off of that and potentially be ready for working with even lighter weight. My hope here was that I’d work up to 200lbs, which would be 20lbs under what I did 3yrs ago. I know my pressing strength is down and adjusting to reflect I’m probably 20lbs off my best on overhead. I wasn’t feeling terribly confident with how sore my triceps were feeling. Shoulders were not thrilled to be pressing again either as tendons still a little inflamed from Monday. But also trying to not get hyped up here like the rest of my training as best as I can so that I’m not burning myself out. I was ready for 180lbs to be my weight for today but it didn’t feel that bad and said fine, do 200lbs. it was in the cards for me today for it to be right in the range it should be. This made things easy for me weight wise as I could just pop off 20lbs for the other sets. Not a worry of strength but just whether I can fight through the fatigue and keep going. I was definitely slowing down near the end here but made it through the stuff that I was in doubt about. Into the garage to finish up the workout. Inverted ring rows again. Going to get good, familiar and comfortable with these again. Plan was to do 4x8 this time around. I know these can feel terrible one session and then very strong the next. Sometimes even within the same workout. With how these felt last week, I was planning on just doing bodyweight here. But I did figure I’d see how I was feeling. Somethings felt a ton better compared to the break in week. I did one rep with bodyweight and felt it was too light for what I wanted to be doing here. So backpack with 20lbs added to my chest. I used to lay weights on my waist for the longest time on these but man does the backpack make this much smoother. I was surprised how good that first set felt. I was thinking about adding weight but figured I’d see how fatigue played out on the next set as this can be one of those where the fatigue factor is high near the end. Second set told me it was best to stick to same weight this time around. As I do these, get better with moving my body in space and recruiting my back rather than having my arms do the work. So this was nice to have this feeling this strong already. I’ve got a ways to go to back to what I was doing on these but this is acceptable start. And it felt good. Last thing was a triset. Same one a last week but instead of two rounds it was going to be three rounds. I wasn’t looking forward to this because of how much this fatigues all those little muscles. My triceps feel stupid by the end and shoulders and such just feel full of lactic acid by the end. It is a lot of reps and not a lot of weight but it feels like a lot of work. I’d probably not be as leery about this if my triceps didn’t still feel sore and toasted from Monday training. If I get through the triceps part no issues, I’ll be fine. First set no issues other than just the fatigue building. Keeping an eye on my triceps as they get more fatigued each set. Lactic acid building on the laterals and face pulls. Managed to get through three runs here without issue. Put stuff away and ate lunch. Stretched when I got back from dinner.

December 21, 2024 – Week 2, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
370x5
395x5
420x5

14” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
305x1
345x1
395x1
Added Straps
435x5
435x5
435x5

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raise Eccentrics (5 showing, 5 seconds)
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8
+70x10/bwx8

Seated Band Leg Curls/Smith Machine Planks
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds
ab’sx25/bw+100x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Out of state family is visiting for the holidays which is nice in seeing family but also adds some challenges with scheduling things. But I’ve kind of gotten used to that being the case around Thanksgiving and Christmas so it isn’t as stressful on me if it is unexpected. I think my family is aware of that for me so I get some heads up on it. Because I really do want to spend time with them. Work has just been super stressful lately (I referred to being the back nine of this year sucking to my younger sister) that it is impacting stuff outside of work. Got slammed with work Thursday afternoon (and system went down again) and had to spend most of Friday resolving those issues on top of issues that popped up that day. Suffice it to say I got stuff from Friday to work on Monday, Monday is going to be busy and going to have my work cut out for me this coming week and next. Even with the workload yesterday, I made myself take my lunch break and go for a walk to clear my head and to get some steady state cardiovascular stuff in. 4 training sessions a week cuts the days down to 3 now and with having to go into the office Tuesday meant just 2 days possible. But family time and food has been good. I was a bit beat so I ended up having to get stuff ready in the morning before going out to train rather than the night before. It has been 2 weeks since I’ve gone to Lancaster to train. I took off the one week (also gym was closed) and the workout was so light and basic last week it didn’t make sense to use gas when I had to go into the office this week. This would be a moment of truth workout for me as this one is a bit different from what I was doing with the split in training. I managed to survive the 2nd upper body day but the next hurdle would be how I do with this deadlift session on the weekend. And it won’t be the last hurdle with doing my own training. Even if not training specifically for anything, I was feeling upbeat in that I’d be seeing my own friend training out there. She hasn’t been out to train since September due to offseason training (coming from Philadelphia). She would be returning some implements she had borrowed to train for Natural World’s and SC Nationals. I was a little late with getting out there but it appears we got there about the same time. Drive out was decent, just quite cold. Sun out so I was hoping I was feeling warm from that rather than maybe catching something from one of several sick people at my parent’s house right now haha. It was warm enough in the gym I didn’t need to wear my warm up to warm up. Felt mostly good. I was a little leery about the right knee as it has been a little tight/achy from the box squats. Starting off the session with box jumps. I had added these last week because I felt I needed to get an idea how I handled these since these are to be a CNS primer for deadlifting. I was quite stiff last week and I was surprised how difficult getting airborne was for me. The planned height felt intimidating. I have a better setup and selection (and inside) for box jumps at the gym. I knew not to use the small setup after my tumble in 2021. 18” looked a lot lower today so I figured I should be comfortable with going higher. I was nervous here but I managed to get 24” successfully with no misses for all sets here. This is technically a PR for reps in a set. I’ve done singles and doubles before. So this was encouraging. I’m not too sure how I want to progress here (little increase or just same height) for the next few weeks. The workout plan is to do 3 blocks with a different box jump variation each block. From there, moving on to deadlifts. This would be interesting. Last time I touched deadlifts was the wagon wheel pulls with 445lbs and they felt terrible. So bad I felt like quitting training with how much effort was needed. This would be week one of the deadlift plan with using a training max. Work on deadlift without getting super agitated and building up to a rep max ideally with 500lbs at the end of this. Starting things off would be sets of 5 reps doing floor pulls at set percents and then more sets above that from elevated pulls. I was also trying to do the same belt combo from push pressing and box squatting. 315lbs felt a little rougher than I’d have liked but 370lbs felt comfortable. 395lbs felt a little bit heavier but still felt comfortable. I was noticing that the first rep was feeling not the best but the subsequent reps were feeling pretty darn good. I do have issues with that on floor pulls with that first rep. Top weight being 420lbs for the day. There first rep was the toughest of the reps today but after that the reps were smooth and comfortable. It has been a bit since I’ve pulled from the floor. I may need to keep some kind of floor pull in the picture in the future when training elevated pulls. So that was done and on to more pulls. 3x5 with a little more than the top set from 5” elevated (so 14”). Preferably block pulls. But I felt that was boring. Similar to the box squats, I figured that I have a whole gym of goodies, I’ll do what I want. So got the massive wagon wheels. I wouldn’t have to worry about stuff rolling off platforms and it would look badass. Make things fun. Rather than jump right into it, I went with warming up in singles with no straps (like I used to do). This was probably a good idea as this was definitely feeling like more lower back than I’d have liked. Not as bad as it was with the wagon wheel pulls last time. I do feel like I’m getting my glutes involved in the pulls better from that time as well. There is still feeling of compression in the area but these moved comfortably. So this was a good start to this. Just have to hope I can keep it together going forward as it won’t get any easier (besides the built in deloads). So that was it for deadlifts. The rest of the workout was supersets. The exercises were kind of the main reason I felt it made sense to have this session be at the Lancaster gym because of ease of setup and access and not worrying about substitutions. Paused chest supported rows and glute ham raise negatives. The paused chest supported rows were usually something on the Day 1 pressing session but it made more sense to have here I feel. I was initially going to do the Hammer Strength but remembered there was this one and it required a lot less weight to get a good workout in. Barely and weight needed to warm up which was good pairing with the ghr negatives. I feel I got the weight just right for the rows here as I got to the end of the sets. I also didn’t wear straps (I rarely do on the machine rows). The ghr stuff has been a while and I was trying to remember what setting I used to have these work for me. Suggested (the rows were set as 10 reps) was 6-8 reps and 5-8ct eccentrics. I figured since I was doing a lot of new hamstring stress to just do 5ct. Things were actually quite good here and I may need to adjust the setting to one notch closer and maybe do 8ct next time. Last superset was band hamstrings (seated) and weighted planks. No tempo stuff for the band curls which honestly a little unusual considering things but not going to complain. I brought two pairs of bands as wasn’t too sure what I usually would use and especially after ghr stuff. Guess I picked right for the first session. The planks I had the opportunity to use a smith machine. That has been a good setup for these when I don’t have someone to assist. I’ve used my axle and jack stands when at home when going heavy. Little trial and error. This ended up being a lot tougher than I was anticipating difficulty wise as far as weight. I estimated my best on a similar setup being 30lbs more than it actually was so that would explain things. Also placing the weight where I did is a lot more challenging then having it like I do with the backpack. Put stuff away and downed a protein shake before stretching out to get home and clean up for more family time.

December 8, 2024 - December 14, 2024 - Week 1

 December 9, 2024 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Bottom-Up Kettlebell Presses
10’sx12
15’sx12
25’sx12
25’sx12

Ring Push-ups
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Underhand Band Pullaparts/Band Y Raises
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10
mbx10/µb’sx10

Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx25
lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: Like I said, I don’t stay down for long. I took off the week (well after Monday) and only did walking every other day. At some point near the end of last week my left heel started to bleed from I guess my feet being too dry. Came out of no where and honestly would’ve been another hassle on top of serious training. I’m taking care of it like when it became a thing either last year or the year prior. I also may be on jury duty coming up. Work is endlessly stressful and stupid with no letting up. I’ve been keeping I guess “manic” with considering the training/competition possibilities. But nothing set in stone. Essentially I’m doing 14 weeks or so of off season training with the main focus being deadlift and getting my back/glutes feeling solid and full again. Also no clean and pressing or moving events likely for the duration of that time but that may change if I feel better and something is too good to pass up. I do have a built in period about halfway to add in overhead event work changes for a competition end of April if I feel like that works. Only thing is to put in work. Going back to four days of training (two upper and two lower). So I know that going right into that wouldn’t be smart. Around 262lbs and plan is doing light stuff and some stuff like how training will be next week when I go serious. But this week no barbells, just other stuff and bodyweight. Short notice so I did have to go bit quick this first session to have dinner with parents. This was deload/light stuff and I figured I’d do what I used to do and not film the deload stuff. It was probably working in my favor having this be a light session week with it being rainy. Keeping the dynamic warming up from Mr. Westerling’s programming since it seems to do the job for me. Knees a little achier than they were last week but I’ve also not done anything besides walking and soft tissue work. And it has also fluctuated a lot with the weather. Near freezing one day and then just under 70 the next. Starting things off was some seated pressing. Doing some reps with my kettlebells making myself need to really have my wrists and forearms involved holding them bottoms up style. I was initially going to only do my little kettlebells but realized that one pair of 25lbs plates are those that have handles on them so I could do the same style with those. 10’s felt like nothing due to how small and short they are. 15’s felt like something due to the size and balance. 25’s were decently tough. I’ve not done really any seated pressing or higher reps for a good while. Making sure to keep things stable and emphasizing the serratus anterior. These went well enough. The rest of the workout is going to be about what I’ll be doing for real next week. Next was ring push ups. Been a while. I used to do these and similar. For pec and shoulder health. I always feel like these are better at having that stuff feel like it should compared to say benching. Feet on the floor and just doing 3 sets of bodyweight leaving plenty of reps in the tank. Oof, I’m out of practice here as these were much tougher than I was expecting. Definitely had to work to stabilize. I feel I got better at that I was did reps and sets but the fatigue was building steadily. I know I’m going to be sore from these tomorrow. From there it was on to bands. First thing being a shoulder (rotary focus) superset of underhanded band pull aparts coupled with band y raises. Light bands here. I’ve actually done this superset in 2021 and I used less tension on the y raises at the time due to how weak I was in that motion. I’ve definitely built things up to be able to use two micro bands vs one. I could tell that my right shoulder was a little tense from the ring push ups and these combined kind of pumped up the entire shoulder. Last thing was triceps. Just band pressdowns. I had a feeling these would start easy but get really fatiguing by the end. And I was right. First set super easy and feeling that fatigue hitting hard on the second set. I likely needed these kinds of exercises to fill in the cracks. My right triceps kept twitching afterwards, which tends to happen when I do a lot of triceps extension focused stuff tied in with the lat insert. Put stuff away and went over to have time with my parents before coming home to stretch. So one session down, three more to go this week. Hopefully this has me feeling better and at peace. Put some of this anxious/nervous energy into harder lifting shortly.

December 11, 2024 – Week 1, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Contralateral Load Bulgarian Split Squats
15x12/12
15x12/12
15x12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls
lbx15
lbx15
lbx15

Roman Chair Situps
bwx15
bwx15

Single Leg Hip Thrusts
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
10x8/8
10x8/8

Stretching

Comments: Been dreary and rainy this week. It softened up a bit Tuesday but it came back uglier for today. But it does seem like the rain is going away after today and it will be just cold after that. As expected, my chest was really sore from training Monday. I’m expecting to be having soreness in stuff from not doing certain exercises or for as many reps/volume in a good while. Which is kind of why I’m doing the break in week as this will be what I’m doing for the next few months to get body ready to compete again. I feel like the lower volume stuff works after building up a base and being able to kind of peak ferociously to do well. But keeping it to being many months without competing runs the risk of detraining and then overtraining without giving myself the ability to recover appropriately. But will see if that is just me talking nonsense I guess in theory and have to see if it works in practice. So this is Day 2 and lower body focus. The plan will be this is the “secondary” lower body day. Squats and deadlift stuff but not this week. Just the other things to keep things light and no barbells. Warming up felt decent. Right knee is kind of off and on achy warming up but tolerable. Despite soreness in chest, there was no issues warming up. Starting things off was an exercise group I’ve not done in well over a year and that is Bulgarian split squats. Those had been a bit part of training for the past 3yrs or so with them being warm up exercises as well as effort training. With how my knees and hips joints have felt, I wasn’t too sure how these would be feeling so I was initially going to just do bodyweight. No shoes as I recall doing these that way with Andrew programming them. But they actually felt pretty good so I added a kettlebell weight and was still feeling good. I could tell that I was going to be feeling these tomorrow and probably the next day since while I’ve been doing some unilateral training for my legs, it hasn’t been like this. Even with the light weight and the low effort needed, these do seem to be exhausting and getting air between sets can take a bit. I’m glad that I started treating each side for unilateral exercises as their own set. I feel this is good sign that my first foray with these didn’t feel as miserable as I was expecting or as harsh on the knees. The next thing was a bit of a headache. So the program I’m attempting to run for the lower body sessions has hamstring stuff on both days and this day has the lying hamstring curls. I don’t have access to that at home via a machine and I recall not enjoying doing these with bands because of frustration and discomfort on the Achilles tendon area. I wasn’t keen on getting a piece of junk one for at home that would be for a single purpose and may not fit me or going to a gym just to do that exercise. Switching the days (since the strongman gym has one) for the exercises wouldn’t really work as there was to be a harder hamstring exercise that day I couldn’t really do at home as well as another lighter variation. So I spent a lot more time than I was expecting/planning trying to work out how to do this. I was even trying to figure out a similar alternative after trying stuff out using bands, dumbbells, ankle weights, combination of bands and other equipment. And it wasn’t just the issue of the one thing but there being a way for progression. But I finally figured out something that worked and that was using my dip belt and attaching that to a band. It was good this was a light week so I wasn’t in a rush or time crunch and could figure things out. I know this will cooked my hamstrings. It is also probably good thing I didn’t try supersetting stuff like I was initially planning (before I realized it would be uneven with unilateral and bilateral exercises). Next was abdominal work. I just haven’t done Roman chairs in a good while and figured they’d be the closest to mimicking standing weighted ab work. I didn’t want to deal with that after already spending so much time on the leg curl debacle. I was feeling a little compression on these on the left side. I may need to do some decompression from my dip stand at some point if the feeling persists. It was feeling better as I went anyways. This more just to do something. Last thing was kind of a my choice in that the program indicates lower back/glute exercise. I feel I will get enough lower back work from squats and pulls. My thing was getting the glutes involved and waking things up. The last few times I did those wagon wheel pulls it wasn’t feeling like I had anything, like I was just relying on my ligaments, tendons and bones. I couldn’t feel my glutes engaging at all and my hamstrings I know were there but felt like not really doing much. So my hope is doing stuff that focus on that will get me feeling like I want to with muscle feeling solid and doing work. So this leads to single leg hip thrusts. This did seem to prove my point in that I struggled to do these with no weight that first set. I had expected these to feel comfortable and then add a little weight but ended up doing bodyweight at first. It does seem that first set did shake off the rust as the second set with bodyweight felt much better/easier. So rather than just stop there, I added 10lbs and did two more sets. I know that if I did these right that my glutes will be sore. Put stuff away and stretched before eating pot roast.

December 12, 2024 – Week 1, Day 3

Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
10’sx12
26’sx12
40’sx12
40’sx12

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions/ Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15
26’sx15/10’sx15/lbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Well, the rain is gone and sun is out but is really darn cold. Work continues to be frustrating. I guess I know that it is more so for my co-workers judging by how things have been going. Everyone is frustrated and there is no help in sight. But enough about that. As I said, it has been over a year since I’ve done four sessions a week for gym lifting. So this is my secondary pressing day. It is a fine line I need to be threading here as it does seem like I wasn’t recovering so well from trying to do too much. But I do recall my overhead pressing feeling pretty good doing one particular training cycle and maybe if I keep that in mind I can make things work. This might end up being the closest to what the actual working sessions are going to be like next week. This was going to be a shorter session so that might have been why I was a little slow going after work to start. Could also be that work continues to be so bad I have to take a moment at the end of the day. As expected, still some soreness in the chest but not nearly as much as the day before or before that. Quads a little sore but the biggie is the glutes being sore. So I guess success there with targeting. Abs weren’t sore thankfully from the Roman chairs so that was a plus. Wore my warm ups to do my mobility stuff. Didn’t feel too bad considering. Right knee still feeling a little achy. Wasn’t going to be using legs really today unlike the other three sessions going forward. So first thing was incline benching with dumbbells. Only because not wanting to bother with log and being a bit more free with movement. Light stuff here. Easy enough but can tell that there is still some shoulder tightness in the right side and that I’m not used to higher reps with my triceps feeling fatigue. But nothing felt off thankfully and this was light enough that I didn’t have to work about pulling anything and lower stuff with control after each set. Next thing was something I used to do a good bit for back and arms with inverted rows. I had done these to a good degree and was expecting them to feel like riding a bicycle. Plan was like the ring push ups with 3 sets of bodyweight leaving reps I the tank but aim being 10-15 reps. Well these went similar to those in that these felt a lot tougher than I was expecting. I guess just shows out of practice despite doing paused rows and such. My hope though is that these will feel easier (same with the ring push ups) next week after this inoculation session this week. Last thing was a triset. Triceps, medial and posterior delts. I’ve done this before a good bit when I first started working with Andrew in 2021 and this thing cooked me more than I’d care to like. Even if I was using more weight or band tension on stuff, all together and not fully resting makes this a slog to get through. My biggest worry was the triceps extensions since that could irritate my elbows and I’ve not really done them. The other being that maybe the weight for the side raises was going to be too light. Well the answer was that no the triceps and elbows were fine and that 10lbs was the right weight with the accumulated fatigue. Even lowering the band tension for the face pulls was also the right move here. The fatigue built throughout the set and was still there for the second set. But I made it through this. So I got some idea of how things are going to feel for real next week. Put stuff away and stretched before eating meatloaf.

December 14, 2024 – Week 1, Day 4

Box Jumps
3x19”
3x19”
3x19”

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts
55x12/12
105x1/12
155x12/12
155x12/12

Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows/Back Extensions
70’sx15/bwx20
70’sx15/bwx20

Seated Band Leg Curls/Weighted Planks
lb’sx25/bw+20x30 seconds
lb’sx25/bw+20x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Managed to survive this week. Work wise that is. Still system issues and I’m starting to get a handle on the crap from the previous month. I think dropping the contest has allowed me to have some moments to breath. Training has been fairly painless but I’m getting a little sore and winded at times from the movements and reps. But this is the easiest the training is going to be. My legs and glutes have been quite sore since Wednesday training so the walking and soft tissue work was much appreciated. It has been below freezing since the rain stopped midweek. Not fun having to put on so many layers to just go outside because of how abrupt the change has been. But then the sun is out at times that makes it so I’m sweating by the end of walking or warming up. I slept in as there was no reason to go out to train in Lancaster. One to save some gas so I don’t have to fill up (I have to go into the office for the monthly stupid collaboration day). It doesn’t make sense to go out there for not event specific stuff for what is a breaking in week. I will be going out there to train going forward though. Since this was being done at home, there were things that I was doing that won’t be like I’m doing at the gym. This day is a bit more planned out compared to my two upper body focused sessions as this like the other lower body day is stuff that is a program written out with guidelines. But obviously this particular session isn’t like that as not doing any barbell or fixed bilateral work. I got to training a little later than I intended but I did sleep in a good bit as fell asleep late. Warming up felt pretty good. I was actually surprised my right knee was feeling as it had felt pretty achy waking up this morning. From there on to training. Now initially I wasn’t going to do this first exercise as I felt that it might be too strenuous for this week but during warming up I felt it was a probably a good idea to do it since it seems like it will be a big part of the protocol and unlike the other days where I left out the big movements, I’ve not done this particular exercise in over 3yrs. I’m talking of box jumps. Last time I did them I had a tumble (unstable setup) and fractured my left elbow (avulsion). So I’ve not been keen on doing stuff that has me leaving the ground (even though I was quite good at it in high school volleyball). Plyometrics are part of this program with prepping for pulls. If I’m worried that these will be hell on my knees then I probably shouldn’t do them. But I need to work on things. It was quite obvious I was out of practice here. I’ve done doubles to 30” last time I did these so I figured that 24” or so would be manageable. But just looking at that height just felt intimidating and like I couldn’t move that way if I wanted to. And this was to be a lighter/easier week anyways. I had setup my crash pads against my house so there was a stable base. I also felt restricted with my knee sleeves and took them off as well and lowered it down pad height. So about 18”. Oof these were tough and close. Really out of practice. I can’t really adjust the heights at home like I can at the strongman gym really. These felt like quite the wakeup. Can’t really not exert a lot of power in a jump to get airborne. Walked around my house outside for rest here. Ideally I should be able to tuck a little better with my legs which I think is more the issue here than the height I’m getting as I’m catching things a lot higher above parallel than I have been able. Again, this will hopefully come with practice. But the aim is to keep these landing above parallel as trying to increase my power and jump and not my ability to tuck my knees. From there went inside. Most of the workout was just kind of substitutes for what I’ll be doing next week. Some stuff not stuff related to what I’ll be doing. I just wanted to do stuff like a deadlift but not quite. Not stress the spine as much but the supporting muscles. The b-stance or kickstand style pulls in the past for reps have felt good in that regard. My favorite that I was able to load up with weight was using my trap bar. So that was the aim. These felt as good as I remembered them feeling. I won’t be really using these for the training going forward but it was nice to get some things that could focus on the hamstrings, glutes and hips independently with balance added unlike a pure unilateral movement. Like the Bulgarians, I felt these getting me a little winded between the sets and as the fatigue accumulated. But not as bad. From there moved on to the rest of the workout which was supersets. Hamstrings paired with something else essentially. So the plan is chest supported rows coupled with a glute ham raise variation for the first coupling. Don’t exactly have that at home besides using the incline bench and either barbell or dumbbells for the row and back extension bench (I guess I could’ve setup Nordic curls but what a hassle) for back extensions. I pushed these a little harder I think since next week is the actual hard training starts. Trying to gradually build things up. I probably could’ve got away with doing 40’s on the rows but I felt it was important to do the 70’s. The back extensions after that were a bit fatiguing on my glutes and hamstrings surprisingly. I was breathing a bit harder than I was expecting after the first pairing here but I felt things moved a bit better for me on the second set. Last coupling was seated band leg curls and planks. I was initially going to do planks no weight but figured that 30 seconds no weight was too easy so put 20lbs on which still was nothing. It has been a while since I’ve done the seated band leg curls and I’ve noticed how the hamstrings have felt from the lying leg curls this week. I was able to pick the right tension here to make these fit what I wanted the effort to be. Planks were not much to say other than they felt fine. Downed a protein shake and put stuff away before taking a brief respite before stretching.

December 2, 2024 – Week 26, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press (one clean)
50x8
80x5
110x3
140x2
170x2
200x1
230x1
260x1
290x0 (missed clean)
290x0 (missed press)

Comments: Things don’t always work out how we want or plan them. I probably should’ve noticed earlier that something was up before I took this action. But I guess I was holding on to things too long and finally had to drop them. Two weeks earlier, I was feeling a bit beat but was able to make it through the workouts and indicated concerns that I was not going to be able keep up the training so I was given a deload week. Not a full deload but one that should be enough to feel fresh. I actually felt worse as the week went on and it was messing with me mentally. I was seriously considering stopping training and trying my own thing with all the stress from life and work in the last few months. It has gotten worse each month since July. I got depressed shortly after I got back from Arizona last month and it got worse week of Thanksgiving (while on deload) because likely equating with Mike Jenkins’ passing. I was getting frustrated with feeling like I had to put in a lot more effort than I usually have to for effort on things. It looked good when I did stuff on camera but my parents were concerned reading my training write-ups about the stress. So initially the plan here was to do the workouts as written but I expressed that I felt like crap and was advised to deload even more. I felt I probably had peaked way too early and not feeling good. I was also considering scrapping everything and doing just fluff stuff and try normal the next week. Warming up for the session, my right knee was feeling a good bit better than it had from Saturday so I felt like I’ll do the heavy session. It was quite cold so I wore jacket and gloves between setting up equipment and sets. Axle clean and press. The plan here was to do singles with 30lbs jumps like I’ve been doing with goal of 290lbs for the top single. I was feeling pretty good here with working up in weight. 290lbs would be the most weight I’ve successfully done from the floor to overhead since 2022. I was not expecting this to be a fail with how I was feeling. I went for it and I missed getting it above my belt. It has been like 2.5yrs since I’ve done this. I took a step back and decided to not let it shake me but I was annoyed that I had done this. This time I got it up and was able to get the clean to my shoulders. It took a bit to get settled and then I went for it but it was too far out in front and I lost my balance and bailed on it. With that instant, I just felt like the past 6 months of training had been for nothing. I knew that I could just rest and recover and still compete in some fashion for this show I’ve been prepping for half a year now but I didn’t want to anymore. I wasn’t feeling as strong as I was feeling in my lower body and I didn’t want to go and fail at something under 300lbs on an overhead press yet again. I wasn’t enjoying this and I wasn’t having fun. I’m not fixing the problem and spending 5 months at light weights and only finding out I still not there when I get over 90% is a gut punch. So rage quit the training cycle right then and there. Pulling out of the competition, cancelling reservations and stopping coaching. Need to take a break and figure out what I want to be doing.

November 24, 2024 - November 30, 2024 - Week 25

 November 25, 2024 – Week 25, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Paused Chest Supported Barbell Rows
75x5
125x5
175x5
2 seconds holds
225x5
225x5

Paused Spoto Presses w/ Chains (+22lbs)
No Chains
45x15
Add Chains
45x5
95x5
135x3
185x5
185x5

Band Face Pulls
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Last week really kicked my ass. I only went for a walk one day as weather was bad or just not able to with stuff going on. Down another pound in weight. That may be a moot thing with this week coming up but sometimes eating differently has me not gaining much of anything. Not actually trying to lose weight. I did yard work and house maintenance on Sunday instead of walking. I had taken Nyquil to make sure I slept solidly. Today didn’t start out great. I awoke to a cold house as my heat wasn’t working properly. The monoxide detector and one of my smoke detectors had dead batteries so that chirping was annoying until I could locate the culprits. I also in my rush in the morning with getting things resolved almost forgot to take my meds. So I could’ve had withdrawal issues if I didn’t realize a few hours into my day. Mr. Westerling asked me how I was feeling after last week and I told him that while my joints feel fine, my body and mind are telling me to chill out. I want to do some stuff but I’m anxious thinking about doing axle, front squats and farmer’s next week with how I’m feeling and I guess same with deadlifts this week. My neck is tense on both sides and been having slight cramps/twitches in my hamstrings, biceps and triceps. So I was instructed to drop the working weights for everything this week by 20% but keep the reps and sets the same. I don’t like having to modify from the plan as I feel like that means I failed but I know that isn’t the case. Things happen in practice that can’t be prepared for with theory alone. What is important is to not despair and continue pursuit of the goal. At least the system was working for me today with work so got work done but also got a lot of work to do. Just have to keep working at everything I guess. I kind of spaced out for a little bit after work because I knew the training would be easier than I was originally expecting and because dinner would need to cook a little longer. Warming up for training was fine. Stuff was feeling achy and stiff and not just joints. Some soreness and twitches. I guess a good thing that nothing too complex and just upper body today. Moving around does at least seem to feel good. Starting things off with log strict press style with bands. Originally the plan was to aim for 5lbs over last time. I was conflicted as I wanted to go for it but I was told to cut by 20% because I was feeling like ass. Sometimes I actually feel worse when I’m told to drop the effort. Sometimes perhaps it is needed and the cumulative effect of the training cycle has lead to the need and just anything would cause stuff to be achy. But it could also be that when told it isn’t my full effort that I don’t dig deep into that reserve and it feels bad because this would be how it feels if I wasn’t ready for it and acting casual. I’m still not sure which it is in all the years training. My right shoulder and pec were feeling tight on these from my neck on that side being sore and tight. I decided to go beltless here and not worry about anything here. This was fine and had me still thinking I could’ve gone with the original plan. From there moving on to chest supported barbell rows with pauses. Unchanged with it still being 2x5 after warming up. No sense in thinking of there needing to be a drop from the first set considering dropping down 20% was going to have the working weight be lighter than what 30lbs drop would be. I decided that I’d do the working sets without straps so that I felt like I was doing something I guess similar to beltless on the log pressing. This felt fine too. No straps didn’t have me feeling like I missed out on doing the heavier original plan with straps. So next was benching. Chains and 2x5. Again, 20% less than what was planned. I wasn’t too miffed about that for these as right shoulder was tended to ache with benching at times so having less weight was probably going to be feeling good on the shoulder. I do think the pausing and hold above the chest is requiring me to be tighter and have my shoulders be more stable on the movement. First set felt really good, second set was just ok in comparison. I went back outside for the face pulls. I just kept these the same as these are already pretty easy as it is with the band tension and reps. My hope being that these will feel good on my shoulders and that will in turn help with the neck tension/tightness. I’m finding these feel like they hit stuff a little differently with how I grip the band. Anyways, that was done and got stuff away and stretched before eating dinner. Hopefully this deloading has me feeling better soon.

November 27, 2024 – Week 25, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts (straps, touch and go)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x1
445x5

Step Ups (18”)
bwx10 L
bwx10 R
bw+20’sx10 L
bw+20’sx10 R

Wall Sits
bwx60 seconds

Crunches
bw+40x35

Paused Hanging Knee Raises (1 second)
bw+16x22

Stretching
 
Comments: Maybe it was the week or I was just not feeling good in general. Around this time of year I do get a bit bummed out despite the family time. Mike Jenkins died 9yrs ago Thanksgiving time and I guess that is still something that affects me. Tuesday going for my walk my joints were killing me. Knees didn’t even do anything on Monday with how training was setup. And work was stressful and I was kind of just hoping to get through this short week and rest up with fresh start for December. I was not feeling great Tuesday and I was kind of worried I had a cold or something just with how I was feeling. Wednesday I took both allergy meds (minus Dayquil) to get through the day. Warming up my joints and such were still feeling achy, more so than they were on Monday. Then on to the session. Wagon wheel pulls. The original plan had been to warm up to a new 5rm on these. So instead this was going to just be a top set of 5 reps at 80% of what I was expecting to do. I was expecting to do 5lbs more than what I had done to be on the conservative side of things (550lbs) so about 440lbs would be 80% of that. I did the same warming up as if I were to be doing the heavier weight. Maybe it being colder out or something but my joints were aching. Knees and lower back joints. I don’t like it when it just feels like I have joints and no muscles around them. I decided it made sense to add support gear earlier than I would normally do. While I can entertain that with the upper body stuff, the lower body stuff is what is feeling the most garbage right now so anything helps. My last single didn’t feel terrible and it was just 40lbs more. The video says otherwise but that set of 5 reps felt horrible. Like the aches and slowness in breaking the weight that first rep had me consider stopping right there and calling it a day. Just cussing myself out in my head the entire set. This weight should never feel this tough. I did it but at what cost? I was very much thinking of just shutting things down and even reconsidering doing the competition in January. But I told myself that I shouldn’t end the session on this note as it will have my already poor outlook stay that way and the rest of the workout was much lighter and easier stuff. Step ups followed. 20% reduction is weight used being 20lbs rather than 25lbs. Not exactly as much a drop on things like the day before since this was a bodyweight style exercise. I knew just from how the pulls were these would be rougher than I’d like considering the knee extension aspect of them. I really had to tell myself to take this seriously as these with no weight were feeling rough. Once I got that point through and accepted these were tough and got myself to start sweating did these start to feel somewhat like they should. Left side was definitely struggling more than the right on these. Wall sits were next. Bodyweight and deeper squat style then I was doing when single leg. Can’t really reduce this weight since it is my bodyweight and this isn’t too bad taxing wise. Muscles feeling fine on these but knees were a bit achier than I’d like. Core work after that. Weighted crunches. Similar to the step ups in that not much weight change. Though this was quite noticeable in the weight drop as these felt really easy. I just stopped at 35 reps on these but could’ve kept going. The hanging knee raises was a bit tougher. I was initially just going to keep it as the same weight but figured I’d try to do 80% of that. This required using a kettlebell and bungee cord. With how the weight was positioned, I think this was actually tougher than with things as the weight being the ankle weights. So I wasn’t too miffed with things in having it be less reps than I normally get here. Put stuff away and went to have dinner with family before coming back home to stretch out. I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing as far as training right now as I’m not enjoying how I’m feeling since I got back from Arizona.

November 30, 2024 – Week 25, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke
160x60’
260x60’
360x60’
460x60’
560x60’

Sled Pushes (60 seconds rest)
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’
235x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: I’m glad that I didn’t have to work Thursday or Friday this week. As well as not train. Just eat a lot of food in one sitting and have time with family for holidays. My sleeping and stress was off as for some reason I didn’t fall asleep until like 1:30AM and then woke up at 11:45AM Wednesday. But I wasn’t feeling like I had a cold at least but I didn’t feel like I had much appetite. Managed to get to bed before 1AM that night and work up about 11AM. Nothing that day as one of the kiddos got pneumonia so felt it best to isolate. Just walk and try to work things out in my head. Figured out if I want to still do this. Because I was serious reconsidering after how I felt Wednesday deadlifting. I felt with the reduced weight that it didn’t make sense for me to go out to train in Lancaster, especially if I wasn’t even sure I was going to finish out this week of training. 12:30AM and up at 10:00AM so getting better I guess. But it took me a good while to feel like even training. I was finding it more entertaining and calming to try and figure out training plans on my own. It was close to freezing and windy so I knew that my joints were going to be aching and I did my best to keep warm with wearing my warm ups to warm up. Before that, I did get the yoke setup in the street. While my muscles were feeling good warming up, my right knee was a different story. Felt sore and stiff. What wasn’t even the one that was super achy on Wednesday. I was considering just not training but figured I’d give it what I could here. So the original plan before forced deload had been to do 500lbs, 600lbs and 700lbs on yoke for 60’ on the turf and get my times for each. Didn’t feel it made sense to do that if I was doing 80% of that and considering how I was feeling. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be moving super fast today and I didn’t want to bother my dad to assist with timing in the cold (not even sure he was home anyways). This yoke is really wobbly and has some sharp edges. I ended up cutting my left hand a little so I put on a band-aid and wore my gloves for the remainder of the runs. The breathing and air situation felt about the same but maybe I worked through it and managed to keep going. I had gotten concerned about it tested my blood pressure when I was over on Thanksgiving at my parents and it seemed to be about what it is when I get it checked at the doctor. It was feeling like a lot on my back and knees and I was not going very fast. It was not helping that my right knee was feeling sore and I didn’t really understand why it would be acting up when it wasn’t really taxed this week. It was also not helping I was irritated and depressed and that my neighbor decided to give their kid a very loud whistle that they were playing with outside. I should be having 150lbs more on here to be having it feel like it was and that should be on a bad day. I was considering just ending the session (hell, I was thinking that after every set but here we are) but felt I should do the speed/conditioning with the sled. I had not done this last yoke session because I felt so down about how I did and just felt all motivation leave me. And this could possibly irritate the knee but maybe it would actually “unscrew” the knee in some odd way. It wasn’t just a slog where I was fatigued by the end but would be trying to go really fast like with the sled drags. Plan being 5 sets of 100’ with a minute rest. Here at home I can do as long as I want so 100’ straight shot no problem instead of 50’/50’. I was thinking about using the yoke to do these but it felt like it made more sense to use the push sled since I actually have an idea what I can do with it on this street. So about 100lbs less than what I did the last time I was home to do these. I went from initially trying to go low like with a truck pull or heavy push and elected to go more upright like I’m doing a walker assisted sprint. Which I think felt better for me then going lower. This at least seemed to go well for me. I immediately put down a protein shake before putting stuff away and stretching. I’m anxious about next week’s training. I feel angry when I see other people putting up their training right now. I feel like I’ve aged 5yrs in these past two weeks.

November 17, 2024 - November 23, 2024 - Week 24

 November 18, 2024 – Week 24, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press (one clean)
30x10
70x5
100x3
130x2
160x2
190x1
220x1
250x1
280x1

Axle Push Presses
250x1
260x1
270x1
280x1
290x1

Band Assisted Pull-ups
sbx5 at pin 18
abx5 at pin 20
lbx5 at pin 22

Paused 12” Log Incline Spoto Presses w/ Bands (+5lbs/+25lbs)
107x8
137x5
167x3
197x5
197x5

Pull Up Holds
bwx20 seconds+8 seconds eccentric

Active Shoulder Hangs
bw+70x20 seconds+10 seconds relaxed

Stretching
 
Comments: While I feel that the physical toll of the heavy yoke wasn’t as bad since I didn’t grind anything out, it did mentally affect me. Like I said, I felt energy and motivation drop a good bit and I got depressed. I didn’t leave my house all day Sunday to do anything and only had three meals as opposed to six meals. I realized on Saturday after the fact I may have been in a rush and little scatterbrained as I may have forgotten to take allergy meds. I definitely forgot to turn on the slow cooker before I left. It is possible I have to adjust my belt combination going forward as could be constricting things. I just hope that I get some break from hitting that wall that appears to be that yoke weight. I spent Sunday ruminating and trying to distract to hopefully get myself feeling like myself for an undoubtable terrible week ahead with work. Weight under 273lbs so about 7lbs away from 265lbs class. Work was terrible due to system issues (migrating server) so the ton of work the previous week was only going to get done in trickle. Not helpful when I would have to go into the office the following day and I feel backed up on things like writeups for my own reasons outside of work for training and just general thoughts. I was feeling a little fragile in the sense that if something went wrong with the training that I’d probably shutdown again. So even though I wasn’t feeling like my body was that beat, I was anxious. I think knowing that it was going to be dark outside lifting was also having me feel low energy. I had been able to avoid that despite the switch to standard since took off the first week on vacation and the second week was a day off work so could train in the afternoon. I was a little anxious about any aches and such warming up. Which seemed to be fine. Time for the axle work. Again, plan here was to work up to a top single and then move on to rack work. Suggested was 10lbs more than last time. I elected to wear my grip shirt for the session since it did seem to be cool enough to not overheat and to get used to it since I’ll likely be using it for the competition. It should be about this temperature I imagine in Mississippi in January. 30lbs jumps after warming up with the essentially empty bar. I was not feeling my hamstrings being sore and tight nor issues with my forearms like I had last time I was doing axle. No issues with my biceps or knees. So that was a good sign. I get concerned with the clean to shoulders and that was actually feeling quite good considering today. 250lbs ended up being a belt clean but it was a quick one and not hesitation like 270lbs was last time. 280lbs I didn’t want to rush things so I did get it to belt but bumped it up a little to be off it before going for the rack. Drive felt powerful but just triceps not quite firing so lockout was a bit more labored than I’d have liked. I held it overhead for a beat before setting it down just to insure stability. I had hit this weight 6 months ago during Regionals prep. At the time, I was 12lbs heavier and it was the last heavy axle of the prep. It was certainly easier than this. But I have more time here to work with. Next thing was the rack work so I had to take a moment to set that up. Strip weight down and setup and put some weight back on the bar. I was debating keeping the grip shirt on but figured I might as well even if I was getting a little toasty. This was adjusted slightly from before. So it had been 5 singles EMOM with a set weight and then the option to go up a little bit each one if feeling good. With the understanding of increasing weight needing more time and recovery from session to session as the peak continues, I was advised to start lower and take rests as needed. So 250lbs and I could take 5-10lbs jumps. So ideally I’d be hitting 10lbs jumps for a finishing lift of 290lbs, continuing the 10lbs over the full lift. Knees were feeling a bit stiff on 250lbs so I was a little worried here but know that my first lift out of the rack is usually my worst feel wise. With it being dark, I told myself it was the same weight when I went up in weight. And that seemed to work with 260lbs and that was easier. 270lbs I ended up going backwards a little on my lower body drive so while fast, the weight was a little out in front of me. 280lbs the lockout was slow and I didn’t like that. This was similar to 270lbs in the movement. Needed to lock in with 290lbs. Felt heavy but I seemed to be able to get it up and not have much in the way of triceps lockout issue. It was more a shoulders through situation. I did a little march with it overhead before racking it. Reviewing video, it would appear I got a bit more lean back in the movement on the 290lbs which allowed me to use less triceps to lockout it out but more movement. Need to keep that in mind about being tight but mobile. From there on to band assisted pull-ups after that. I was told to repeat what I did last time and it seems like that may be the case going forward. Keep things as they are so as to lessen stress elsewhere in the pruning of stressors into competition. Forearms were feeling little sore but otherwise fine. There was a little bit of break putting stuff away from axle. I wasn’t sure how these would go by how warming up was feeling. First set was just ok and the second set felt challenging and not what I would like. But managed to make the actual working set feel really strong and easy. I forget that it used to be that the working up sets were odd and not indicative of how I would do on the working sets on this particular exercise. Paused Spoto style incline log pressing with bands after that. With my benching being this style for both variations, it does seem like shoulders and chest are cool with it. Granted having my neck all tight after last Monday session was not fun. 10lbs increase on this variation vs 5lbs on the chain flat bench style. Warming up here was feeling decent but do need to be mindful of my breathing so as not to get lightheaded with holding my breath for tightness. It gets tricky since the pausing and constant tension adds to it. I wasn’t sure if the triceps would be hanging today but as long as shoulders feel good, my triceps are fine. Finishing up with holds/hangs. A change here. The chin up is now a pull up hold. Advised to keep same progression but start over here at bodyweight. So this was a bit surprising as far as difficulty. I guess that it is easier to support and hold in the chin up position as this was feeling about as tough as what I was doing with weight added. The eccentric part still is fun and feels good. So I guess I’ll go up 5lbs next time. The active shoulder hang I was advised that I could stick at whatever weight going forward. I figured I’d go up 5lbs more just so that it was easier plate math wise using 35’s rather than odd assortment of plates. This actually felt pretty strong today. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Not much time to dilly dally since have to wake up early for work in office. Just getting more behind.

November 20, 2024 – Week 24, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats w/ Chains (+28lbs)
No Chains
45x5
Add Chains
45x5
95x3
135x3
185x2
225x2
275x2
315x2
350x2

Hyper Extensions
bwx20

Hyper Extension Holds (Neck Harness & Plate)
25+105x21 seconds

Planks
bw+81x60 seconds

Side Planks
bw+15x60/60 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Tuesday was the in office day and that was again, pointless as usual. More so with the continued system issues. But in office and it being darker out meant no walking after work as I got home. Apparently there may be snow end of this work week. System issues still happening, making this one of the dumbest weeks at work in a long time. Like dumbest in like 4-5yrs. And the system issues couldn’t be happening at a worse time with holidays in November and people being out. Trying my best to not let it overwhelm me and just kind of shrug it off and do my own thing that I can do. And this is statewide so not just me lol. The breakdown in what works allows for the only respite in getting stuff I put off outside of work that I feel I’m constantly behind when I don’t follow through on stuff the day I plan to. One day being depressed seems to put me back like a week when it is a crucial day. Even though I got no real work done, I felt stressed and needed to kind of space out for like 30 minutes before getting to training. Having to be on high alert for the entire shift and be able to do nothing. Like holding a door open for someone that may never show up. I had to do a little spacing out after the in office day too. Which I think I subconsciously allowed since this was the shortest of the training sessions in the current rotation. Warming up was fine I think. Some minor knee aches in the right knee. Then it was time for front squats with chains. As continues to be the case, the options were to work up to a top double or the back up plan of lighter for 2x5 with 185-225lbs. The last two times this has popped up, I’ve considered heavily the light option because how I was feeling from training going into the session and then feeling pretty good and deciding to go heavy. This time I wasn’t feeling that beat and thinking that I didn’t really need to consider the light option. Figures that things weren’t feeling the best. I mean typical of how warming up have been on these with knees and getting used to the movement and feeling better as I go. Trying to be conscious of my breathing and bracing as well as not getting super hyped. Try and save that for the top set where it would be needed. 40-50lbs jumps on these as per usual. I did follow as indicated with quarter-plate jumps as the working up weights. While still technically 5-10lbs increase as written, the suggested was 5lbs and I figured that was probably a good idea even if last time felt really solid. On the heavier stuff with belt, I was trying to not get hyped up and be in control. I felt I was a little off balance anteriorly unracking the weights. The set with 315lbs was tough but didn’t feel like I couldn’t do the next weight. But boy was I having a hard time tapping into that anxious energy for this set. First rep felt heavy and I knew that this was going to be a really tough second rep. I ended up hitting a sticking point (which was much higher on video than it felt at the time) but I managed to push through it. Grinding out lifts on front squats is very tough to recover from with all the pressure and hard on getting air. So I rushed to get it back into the rack but just like when I did 365lbs for a double in the last training cycle, I missed the j-hook on the left side. But thankfully I was able to keep consciousness and the bar clips and such held tight. The replaced j-hooks didn’t fair much better than the cheapo old pair had when this happened last time. Had to take things apart carefully here. Got another pair of j-hooks that should hopefully arrive before I need them Monday training. If not, I can make do with what I have. This was definitely a max effort here so not sure if I can really progress more from this effort by next time. But I guess wait and see because there have been times where I’ve done a tough set (but not as tough as this) and think I can only go up 5lbs and end up feeling really good and making 10lbs increase feel easy. Usually I need a little time to calm down before moving on but didn’t need that this time as I had to kind of take my time here to get the situation safe and then get the remaining things for training done. Continuing to progress the hyperextension hold. I was advised I can adjust either the neck harness or what I hold in my hands depending on what feels like I can progress further. I was not sure how warming up would feel considering things. But the 20 reps of back extensions felt decent. Just a little tough in the last three reps. As far as the hold, I kind of like the 25lbs for the neck harness. I think I want to just bump up the weight in hand for my first time back on these since the trip and then maybe add to the harness when I’ve got to like 110lbs in my arms. So again, still working the 20 second sweet spot. Again, not too bad getting into position but definitely feeling the strain of the weight on the body in the stress position. Much closer to 20 seconds here. So still going strong there. Then time for planks. Regular style kept the same weight. I felt braced breathing was pretty good here but that my abdominals were feeling more sore and worked compared to last time. Probably because I had to grind out the second rep on the front squats. I’ve not had any issues the last few times with getting the backpack on in an efficient manner. But still, I don’t see a benefit to going heavier as this has felt challenging for the 60 seconds consistently. I do feel with side planks like I should go up in weight. I did switch up which side I started on and that did seem to show a lesser disparity between the sides as far as the hold and soreness. There is still an issue with the braced breathing that is apparent between the sides. Which is why keep working on these. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching out.

November 23, 2024 – Week 24, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Farmer’s Walk (hands off starts)
105x60’
155x60’
205x60’
255x60’
305x60’ in 13.65 seconds

Sandbag Carry/Load Runs
175x30’/49.5”/30’
250x30’/49.5”/30’
300x30’/49.5”/30’ in 18.98 seconds

Sled Drags (60 seconds rest)
175x100’
175x100’
175x100’
175x100’
175x100’

Stretching
 
Comments: This week sucked stress wise. As mentioned, the server switch caused the system to not be working for most of the week. I’d say out of the five days, maybe a day total across them where the system was working and when it was it was snail pace processing. And next week is only 3 work days and likely it will be a shitshow. I could feel that I was stressed and rather than try and stay up late to do things I decided to go to bed early and wake up at my work time to go out and train. I definitely had some stress dreams. I woke up feeling pretty lousy and needing to take nasal spray and allergy meds. I had kind of hoped I wouldn’t need to take anything so I could accurately gauge how the belt combos were feeling so as to figure out if it was just having stuff too tight causing the lightheadedness on stuff like the moving events and front squats. I had made sure that I got everything ready so that I just had to eat breakfast and then get dressed and go. Traffic was a bit slow going. I was still feeling lousy with allergy issues and feeling a little tired. At least the “vibe” at the gym felt more lively compared to last time. I guess warming up was ok. Stuff moved well enough but I could tell I was feeling a little winded on some things. My right knee was a little achy but not out of the ordinary. My right triceps was feeling a little tight. Then getting things setup for the day. People were doing bag toss again so I had to setup further down the concrete. Farmer’s walk this week. Plan to do 5lbs more than last time I guess as long as it feels good and I can handle recovery with 50lbs jumps. I did learn this week that there is apparently a rule I missed on the farmer’s walk for this competition. We will have to start with our hands off the implements. I’ve done that for yoke with a run up and I really don’t like this with having yourself not securely gripping or positioned on something when it is a straight shot movement. Already makes a difficult thing for me (the pick) even slower and trickier. I guess this isn’t so new to me transitions but generally it is doing a repick (farmer’s series) or it has been really high pick (frame) where it isn’t so bad having to brace. But I figured I’d do that so as not to be caught off guard. This “gunslinger draw” style of pick was not feeling good for me. I also wasn’t feeling like I could go fast today. I was really dreading the top set after 255lbs felt like how I was expecting 305lbs to be feeling. Lot of complaining on my part before I got myself set. I was really nervous here. Even with that, I didn’t feel like I was able to completely lock in to that fight or flight sensation (which suggests I’m a bit worn out) but thankfully I wasn’t having stomach cramps like last week. This felt slow and awful. I was feeling like I was going dark about halfway in and I was feeling like I was going to drop the weights but somehow I just kept drudging along and got it done. It was a couple seconds slower than last time with 300lbs. But I was expecting it to be a little slower anyways with the not setting my grip. But this felt like how 335lbs should be feeling for me. But this is the most I’ve attempted walking with with these handles. I do not like them. I noticed a little after that I was bleeding as I had three blood blisters on my left pinky finger. One had popped and I was probably going to have to drain one of them when I got home if it didn’t burst while training. I was feeling pretty beat. I was also thinking that I did over 15 seconds rather than 13 seconds in my head until I confirmed with my review after training. I took my time putting stuff away because I needed the yoke from bag toss (there was another but it would require moving a lot of stuff out of the way) and to also wait until people using the wind tunnel were done doing sled pushes. I also helped George with figuring out a better way to pick the sandbag husafell for OSG during that time. I’m useful in that regard with finding ways to do things. Anyways, the plan here was to do the sandbag run/load/run event again at contest. I was initially thinking of using this session to go over contest weight since I was told I could do that if I wanted to and was feeling good. Make it so I did over contest weight on every event (besides axle since for max). But considering how I felt today and doubly so after how farmer’s felt, I figured it was best to stick to contest weight today. Next time this is programmed I won’t be able to come to the gym due to a powerlifting meet so I’ll likely be over contest weight with what I have at home to mimic anyways. I brought the grip shirt for this as I will likely be wearing that at competition. So 3 of the 5 events I guess. I did raise the bar height a notch rather than deal with getting rubber mats to get the height exact. I was thinking that maybe I was going to be doing pretty well on this today with how my first set warming up went. It felt light and comfortable. I didn’t realize until I was done for the day with this event that it was 175lbs and not 200lbs. The bags for some brands have the “weight” listed on them and apparently this one was underfilled and the actual weight was really faded on (since mostly black with only white lettering). So perhaps that gave me a false confidence going into the next run. That felt a little more challenging but still fine. I got ready for the competition run and the pick up felt fine and I was moving well but I just seemed to have issues with keeping the bag up high enough so that when it came to the load I could shove it. I didn’t get much clearance the bag landed pretty close to the yoke. I rushed to pick it and it was not stable and it kind of rolled in my lap and I fumbled it. I knew I was going to have to really commit to the pick as I was definitely worn out. I got and went as fast as I could. Not my worst time here but it was a lot slower than last time with that fumble. I guess best to get that out in training than have it happen at contest. But still annoying to have it happen. But stuff away and then time for sled drag. Still the 5 sets of 100’ with a minute rest but told to drop 50lbs from last time with the focus to be on speed for the remainder of the prep on these. I was to be doing speed for the sled/yoke pushes before I decided to quit that session. I was a little worried that this would be too light and I’d fall back going fast. Not the case. I started off moving quite fast but it caught up to me by the end. I was breathing harder than I should be (showing I’m tired and my breathing compromised) and my quads pumped up big time by the end. I got it done but I was definitely feeling this week. I put stuff away and stayed to stretch. In the beginning stretching I did take points to just kind of space out a little before resuming because of how beat I was feeling. This week took a lot out of me and I’m not sure if I can keep this pace up for the last 8 weeks or so.