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

 September 30, 2024 – Week 17, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 2, 2024 – Week 17, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Hyper Extensions
bwx20

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

Planks
bw+75x60 seconds

Side Planks
bw+15x60/60 seconds

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

October 5, 2024 – Week 17, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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