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

 April 21, 2025 – Week 8, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 23, 2025 – Week 8, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct)
bwx15
bwx9
bwx6

Stretching

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

April 26, 2025 – Week 8, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

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

 April 15, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

April 19, 2025 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

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

 April 9, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 11, 2025 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

April 13, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

March 31, 2025 - April 6, 2025 - Week 5

 April 1, 2025 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
97x3
127x3
Add 5 seconds hold last rep
157x3
157x3
157x3
157x3
157x3

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

Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second)
45x6
95x5
135x4
185x3
225x2
255x6
255x6
255x6

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls/Band Triceps Pressdowns
12x20--20/lbx20/lbx30
12x20--20/lbx20/lbx30

Stretching
 
Comments: It took me about an hour after work was done for me to start training. Mostly because I was trying to figure out what I was doing. I didn’t exactly have enough time to really reflect and think on what made sense and was debating between deload workouts and making adjustments to the training cycle. Finding out that the strongman gym will be closed not just all day Saturday but until 6PM Sunday was not helpful either with figuring out plans. Shoulders are not recovering well enough with having fingal fingers happening every other week. It essentially becomes three pressing sessions and I hardly tolerate two as it is. Need to adjust some sessions so as not as intense on the lower back so things recover. Especially since I overshot effort on the last heavy pull session. I want to still do so more research but the short term solution is to drop from four to three sessions again. Going with a two week rotation for most things (assistance work on Day 2 doesn’t rotate). What makes the most sense is to have this week be the “strict press” session over overhead stuff. I didn’t really want to do that since I just did this workout with some differences on Thursday last week and it hadn’t gone well for me. So a little leery about doing it again to get things on the right cycle. The usual Day 1 session of axle and the other stuff (dips and lockouts) will be on the opposing weeks here. Strict pressing with the log is going to be with bands only since seems to feel better for me and there is less balance issue (fingal finger is also not balance issue dependent). Warming up for the session was a bit of what I’ve been doing for Day 3 sessions and Day 1 sessions. But nothing lower body dependent since not using leg drive here. I think the foam rolling finally got something to “click” in my left upper back area that has been bugging me since after I got the deep tissue massage and tweaked my neck. Knock on wood it stays that way. I think I felt a little better than I expected getting ready for training. Anyways, banded session for strict log press. Same as it has been with the band setup and the execution (lean back and then head through with a hold) with a little more weight. Dropping to 5x3. I wasn’t sure how these would go though considering how the last time with no bands didn’t feel so hot. Thankfully these felt about how they should really. Could it move better and easier? Maybe. But it was good enough for the session and considering this was a pretty much about face type thing, it was to be expected that there would be some “abrasiveness” in the change in course. Things were decently comfortable. I know this is a bit off where I was when I was pushing this weight but it is a good place for now. Took stuff down and started prepping for dinner at this point. Since I was about an hour behind schedule. Band assisted pull-ups. Same as last time with 2 sets of 8-12 with 2-3RIR. I had been successful with the strong band assistance and I didn’t want to add tempo back into the mix so I lowered the band assistance to average band and would see how things were. I did do a warm up set just to make sure I was feeling ok (the left shoulder being crunchy last time wasn’t great). There was a little bit of that but not nearly as noticeable as last time. I could feel my chest muscles working with my back as well here. This was a bit challenging but I got it done. I’m trying to keep the pull-up stuff in the mix weekly so that I can get back to comfortable reps with bodyweight and not bands potentially by the end. Moving the more horizontal row stuff to Day 2 session. So into the garage for more pressing stuff. The soft close grip board pressing with pauses. This was part of the hesitation with the changes to the prep. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to have this day be done and whether it was good to keep this in or not. And if so, should it be the primary thing or stay as supplemental. I eventually elected to keep it as it was in the workout but decided I’d push a little more since I wouldn’t be doing weighted dips and axle lockouts weekly anymore. So allowing myself to add wrist wraps on these which I didn’t do the last two sessions. Also bumped up 30lbs rather than my more conservative plan of 10lbs each session. I’ll likely be doing that going forward here. The 30lbs was definitely noticeable here but I maintained control here. I could feel my triceps getting worked. Thankfully no shoulder aches. I was considering adding weight each set if feeling good but that first set was such that sticking to 255lbs was the right weight for this session. Last bit of the workout was adjusted. This was kind of already planned to be a deload of sorts before even got to this week. The triset of laterals and face pulls and band pushdowns. This initially was going to be a transition to a different style of lateral raises so lower RPE and more reps. No pauses. I like the leaning style the best and figured that I’d keep same exercises but not do pauses with the weight/bands I did last week and hopefully these would feel better. Ideally, I’d have given these a break considering how my shoulders were feeling last time but it was necessary to get things to end up how I need them for the end of the training cycle for the competition. This did feel better than last time with the changes. I finished putting stuff away before getting to eating dinner and then stretching.
 
April 3, 2025 – Week 5, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Skater Jumps
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
bwx5/5

2.5” Thick Bar 18” Jack Pulls w/ bands (straps)
No Bands
115x3
Add Bands (+50lbs bottom/+100lbs top)
115x3
205x3
295x3
385x3
385x3
385x3
385x3
385x3

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (3 second eccentrics)
125x3/3
195x3/3
265x10/10
285x10/10

Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear)
12”
bwx3/3
15”
bwx3/3
18”
bw+15x10/10
bw+15x10/10
bw+15x10/10

Landmine Bar Twists
50x8/8
50x8/8
50x8/8

Stretching

Comments: There have been more people signing up for the competition in my weight class. It had just been me and two other competitors for a bit now and I was worried since the sign ups end Friday. So now there are 6 including myself. One more person signs up and it will be podium for the show that qualifies for the world’s invite. Definitely improves my chances. As far as Nationals for Strongman Corporation, it is Las Vegas again. I’ve not qualified at this time so I can’t take advantage of the early bird pricing ($200) so will need to pay $280 assuming I qualify and give it a shot. It is a bit discouraging seeing the cost of entry just keep going up every year. It was $180 in 2017 for the Las Vegas competition and at that time it was like a $30 increase from the previous year and people not being happy about it then. Just feels ridiculous to see the prices go up like that. Any ways, that just distraction at this point as I got to actually qualify for stuff to be worrying about this other stuff. And that means surviving this training prep and doing the training. I was a little more sure about what I’d be doing this workout vs Day 1. But still not 100% certain. Just haven’t had the time to really look at everything like I’d like to. Warming up and with soft tissue work and mobility stuff. I did a little more for my quads with foam roller than I usually do as felt tight. Skater jumps to start off the session. Felt pretty powerful on these and not really any knee issues. I had thought about switching up the variation for the rest of the training block but I’m thinking that these have kind of run their course with being prep for the spinning with bag throws (same with the landmine bar twists). So I’m likely going to drop these after this session. I have my reasons. From there, it was on to the big dumb deadlift. The lighter week. This I made a change. My plan had been to do yielding isometric pauses from lower pull height for the alternate week but I did not feel rested coming into the heavy session after doing those and then farmer’s walk. I need to have things be less intense I think and work on that 18” height as a sticking point of sorts because I can’t really get leg drive into it. I was initially going to go full deload with this being like just the first week of this program with 340ish but decided that I need to keep working here and see if switching things up fixed the problem. So that fix would be pulling from contest height but add bands. Bring bar weight back down but add band tension. A decent amount of band tension at that. Plate jumps working up too. The pressure on my body was pretty intense on that first set but I feel I got used to it after that and was able to pull things much more powerfully. 5x3 here with the band tension. Plan being to try and add 20lbs to these for the next two sessions assuming things feeling good. I didn’t feel as burnt as I did with the yielding stuff. I feel like that stuff works better if I’m alternating suit work and I don’t have a ton of farmer’s volume. So moving on to the accessory stuff. Last week of the b-stance trap bar rdls with 3 second eccentrics and no support gear. Bigger jumps so that I was doing the top weight from last week for the first working set. Plan being to do 20lbs jump on that for the last set to finish out this prep with I guess a 40lbs increase from last time I did these. This was definitely the toughest this has been. Obviously I can go quite heavier on these if I wore support stuff but would defeat what I’m aiming for with this variation. Definitely gets taxing on the grip at this weight and with the time under tension. Upper back and neck was feeling tense afterwards. Probably combination of this and the band tension on the pulls. Oh well. Took a break to start getting my dinner prepped before finishing up the session. From there moving on step downs. I’ve gotten back to doing 18” height here so now attempting to add weight to that. I was a little leery about it as there were times where my knees were aching and I wasn’t sure how this would go. These don’t exactly feel amazing at times on joints like my knees or ankles but sometimes everything is clicking. I managed to get 3x10 done with the 15lbs kettlebell weight. I’m allowed to drop the reps a little if necessary for next time. I’m going to try and keep the reps up as I feel more reps here is good for me as I get better. Landmine bar twists to end the night. These I feel have run their limit as far as intent and purpose. More so than the skater jumps. I feel I need to work more on frontal plane bracing for the breaking the 18” pull off the floor vs the rotational/anti-rotational movements. I’m feeling pretty loosey goosey there with throws. So these were just fine. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

April 6, 2025 – Week 5, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
40x30’5”
40xscratch
40x31’2”
40xscratch
40x33’1”
40x32’2”
40x28’11”
40x32’2”
40x29’4”
40x31’6”
40x29’7”
40x32’11”
40x32’0”

Fingal Fingers
EMOM
400+25x1
400+25x1
400+25x1
400+25x1
400+25x1
400+25x1
400+25x1


Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
100x30’/30’
150x30’/30’
200x30’/30’
250x30’
EOMOM
300x30’
300x30’
300x30’
300x30’
300x30’

I-Beam Farmer’s Holds (24” pick)
297x5 seconds
367x10/10/10 seconds (30 seconds rests)

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Backwards Sled Drags (turf)
sb’sx55/435x75’
sb’sx55/435x75’

Stretching

Comments: Woof is all I really got on this one after the fact. However, before I got to training, I was very nervous. I was event thinking about this training session as far out as Friday. I think because of the changes I made and worries that I didn’t fix the issues. I will kind of be finding out this coming few sessions if that is the case. I slept in Saturday and got most of what I usually do on Sunday done. Due to the powerlifting meet taking two days, I have to go at 5PM (gym opens at 6PM) to get training in. So part of that is trying to get some stuff done before going out to the gym so not there really late since I have to work tomorrow (and have my yearly physical in the morning). My dad is able to come with me to the gym to help (not sure anyone would be there) on stuff. Need help with fingal fingers. So it makes sense to get most of my warming up done and bag toss done at home. I had to time meals and such as well. I got things setup for throwing first before I started doing my warming up. Knees feeling a little odd. At times fine and others achy. I did a good bit of foam rolling for my upper back and my legs. Bag throw with lighter bag this week. Since I didn’t prepare for the gym to be closed most of Sunday, I didn’t have a throw bag with me at home so I ended up buying another one that arrived Friday and I was able to get it loaded to 40lbs Saturday. I’ve not done tosses at home. But it is probably a good thing I didn’t just do throws at the same spot as this could actually be closer to the situation at the competition. The warming up I’ve been doing here before going has been helpful. I did space that out a little as I think there were like three times that people were just walking by while I was setting up. This was not my best day but not my worst either. I had two scratches at the start which I think had more to do with me holding on too long and not really getting my form right for the release. It was damp out and I think that there were a few tosses near the end where I felt my shoes slip a little. Besides the two scratches, my worst was just under 29’ and my best just over 33’ so I’m pretty consistent here. Aim was 10 good throws but I decided I’d add one more for a baker’s dozen of attempts. Put stuff away and hopped in my dad’s car for the drive out to the gym. There was like two people there and both were fine with working out with the lights off and no music. Fingal fingers up first. This was the one that made me ask for help with training because I know I can’t setup and do solo in any meaningful way. Either I needed to go 2hrs one way to a gym that was open Saturday that had one (at minimum) or I needed to skip it. Learned a bit from setup last time with help so this wasn’t as arduous as it could’ve been. But still a big hassle. I had a plan here but I wasn’t sure if it would be something that would executable really. 400lbs fingal finger empty I know is too easy for prepping for a tough finger. I know this from last time where struggled at a “lighter” finger in contest. I was also a little worried that all this would be too taxing on me. The warming up didn’t seem to be a rough as it felt last time. But the 400lbs finger was feeling tougher than I would’ve liked warming up. My gloves weren’t feeling as grippy. I did one clean up to shoulders and press with the empty 400lbs finger. Then it was time to see if my plan would work. I had shoved a slam ball into the 300lbs one two sessions prior and that seemed to work and was a good amount of difficulty added with a light amount of weight. My hope was I could do that with the 400lbs one. What gets tricky though is the fingers get bigger so some things may be too small. Initially it seemed the one was too small and the other too big but I found one that was the goldilocks that worked. That added 25lbs felt substantial. I was initially worried I’d not get one but figured give it a shot. Set timer for 6 lifts EMOM style. First rep was rough. Though fair to say all of them were considering how 400lbs was last time. That first one I was able to clean it like I did 400lbs but it too a bit to actually get under it and then start moving. Definitely didn’t want to do that again. I didn’t have to worry though as I couldn’t get it like that on the second and reverted to a more labored bumping up the body to shoulder method. Once I realized that was the best way forward, it wasn’t so bad besides knowing I’d have scrapes and bruises on my sternum. Putting this weight overhead and walking with it were a ton tougher compared to just 400lbs. Not using leg drive to get it locked out so still have that left in the tank as an option. I felt good enough after that sixth one to say screw it, I’ll do one more. Should’ve called it there as this one I struggled to get to the shoulders but finally got it after a few attempts. Ugh. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I know I’ll like need to use this more brute style at competition. Which is probably safer on the biceps anyways. But stuff away with help from my dad and moved on to farmer’s walk. Plan was the same as last time but more weight and one less set. I didn’t think that it would be a tall order but that was before I saw how much the last session took out of me. This is the last session where I’m going to do this setup of runs. I didn’t get an ideal spot for these this week as someone was doing yoke in the other lane and there was a piece of gym equipment partially in the other lane that was put there for the powerlifting meet. Warming up with 50lbs jumps and I did a little more with the drop and turn to get a little more warmed as apparently I seem to get better as I go (minus the pick being rough). I realized at this point the reason I was feeling hot and muggy was because the fans were off. So I turned them on and it started to feel better. 250lbs didn’t feel the greatest but I didn’t have any chalk or hard belt for that one. Finally ready to go with the planned 300lbs for 5 sets of 30’ done EOMOM. The pick felt tough but on the plus side I didn’t feel like there was a ton of pressure building in my head and being lightheaded. Felt fine in my hands and didn’t really have any knee aches. I didn’t rechalk for these sets like last time as well. I could keep going on these. But needed to stop. Farmer’s walk hold stuff after that. Last time had just been one hold for 30 seconds time and that was it. This time I wanted to make things tougher and more contest like. Still elevated height and more weight than I did the previous exercise but do several picks of short holds. Warm up and do 3 pick with 10 seconds holds the first two and then for time the last one (RPE 8). Initially rest to be 15 seconds between as I was averaging about 10 seconds on my runs with 300lbs and 15 seconds was about how long it took me to add 50lbs to both handles when I timed it. I’ve done this (not this specific of time between lifts) from the floor with lighter weight (but more than the farmer’s walk) in prep for 2022 Nationals so I know this is a good one. I had my dad assist with timing because it was a bit convoluted. First one was good and then I ran into issues. With how I pick the handles and elevating them, they were adjusting position when they were set down so I was no longer centered and in optimal pulling position. I realized that after attempting to lift them again at 15 seconds. I had to adjust them and give it another go. That was rough and it was about 30 seconds so I decided to do that for the next one and just go for 10 seconds again for the last hold as this was really getting tough. Just barely holding on my the end of it. I think this was a good thing to let me know not worth trying to hit a 34lbs per hand PR at the contest trying to do 400lbs per hand. 350lbs should be enough with the circumstances and I need to make sure I have something in the tank for the deadlift. Last thing then was the pairing of band leg curls and backwards sled drags. I had liked them and decided these are good ones for joint health in the knees and such. Progression was just to do more reps on the bands as these are the thickest bands there (that are paired) and add more weight to the sled. I was definitely on fumes at this point as 35lbs more than last time on the sled felt like a bigger increase compared to adding 70lbs the time before. But slow and steady and no stops. I was feeling the everything else before these. Had to break up the reps on the leg curls to get 55 reps again (25/10/10/5/5) and then finished up with the second drag. Knees and ankles feeling it. Hands feeling it. Back sore. Calves and tibs sore. Very glad I had help as I feel this would’ve taken me at least 30 minutes longer if I was solo. Had burritos for dinner before driving home to stretch out. Not looking forward to Monday at work. This is probably a not do again situation for training lol.